Latest / Crossroad Conversations with the Lewis Brothers / Ep.58 - Leadership Confessions: Our Hardest Lessons Learned

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Ep.58 - Leadership Confessions: Our Hardest Lessons Learned · Crossroad Conversations with the Lewis Brothers

0:00
SPEAKER_05: So it's how you talk to people, you know.
0:01
SPEAKER_05: And if you were in any of our meetings, we do not manage by fear.
0:05
SPEAKER_05: You know, we we don't put ultimatums out there, especially in a group atmosphere.
0:10
SPEAKER_05: Now, if we have a write-up with somebody, it's totally different.
0:12
SPEAKER_05: But in a group atmosphere, we don't cuss, we don't holler, we don't threaten, we don't diminish people.
0:19
SPEAKER_05: You know, we lead as true, high-level leaders do, lifting people up, showing them opportunities, looking in the mirror first.
0:28
SPEAKER_04: Hey everyone, welcome to Crossroad Conversations with the Lewis Brothers, where we aim to share real stories about running a successful family business while working through adversity and pouring back into our community that keeps our doors open every single day.
0:42
SPEAKER_04: We're your hosts, Shelby, Matt, and Taylor, and we'll be bringing you real relevant local business advice, maybe some automotive insights that are sure to change the way you look at running a business or buying a car.
0:54
SPEAKER_04: And maybe even throw on a plug for you to do business with us here locally.
0:58
SPEAKER_04: Welcome back to the podcast episode 58, Crossroad Conversations with the Lewis brothers, bringing you hopefully something that's relevant, something that makes sense.
1:07
SPEAKER_04: Today we're talking about leadership confessions, our hardest lessons learned.
1:12
SPEAKER_04: And we're going to do our best to give you stories of things that we've experienced, things that we worked on, and just realizing that every single leader makes mistakes.
1:20
SPEAKER_04: Today we're opening up about some of our own, and we have an idea, and hopefully some more come out as we've talked about it.
1:27
SPEAKER_04: Stories of tough lessons that we made or didn't make, what they cost us, and how they shaped who we are as leaders today.
1:34
SPEAKER_04: And so we want to fully run that back, break that down, and realize that mistakes sometimes feel isolating, right?
1:42
SPEAKER_04: Like it's just you, it's just one-off, just this one time.
1:45
SPEAKER_04: Why has it happened to me?
1:46
SPEAKER_04: But they're super universal, like that they happen to multiple people and they break down kind of across everyone there.
1:52
SPEAKER_04: Listeners, totally, this is a way to relate of what we're talking about, but breaking it down into your business or into your life, and then realizing you don't have to avoid failure.
2:04
SPEAKER_04: Like, failure is going to happen, especially in a growth pattern.
2:08
SPEAKER_04: Failure is gonna happen.
2:10
SPEAKER_04: You don't have to avoid it, but learning how to learn from it and to pivot a little bit from that.
2:14
SPEAKER_04: So we'll we'll fully break that down.
2:16
SPEAKER_05: Well, we really will.
2:17
SPEAKER_05: And I'll just say, you know, to tip into that, if you're not failing every once in a while, you're not pushing yourself hard enough.
2:25
SPEAKER_05: You're not looking for growth, like you said.
2:27
SPEAKER_05: But before we dive into all that, let me recap last week, episode 57.
2:31
SPEAKER_05: If you missed that, hey, go back and give it a listen.
2:33
SPEAKER_05: It was a good one.
2:34
SPEAKER_05: Breaking the rules when leaders shouldn't follow the playbook.
2:37
SPEAKER_05: So we talked about different scenarios there where we had to pivot, we had to make on-the-fly decisions, or we had to challenge the way of thinking or the way we did business in the past, or the rules maybe that the industry had set, but maybe didn't equal the best business practices or the best customer experience.
2:54
SPEAKER_05: So go back and take that, take a listen there to learn, hey, when breaking the rules, maybe okay.
2:59
SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
3:00
SPEAKER_00: Hey, and always check us out for the freshest specials, everything we've got going on dealership wise at lewissuperstore.com and online at crossroads conversations with the Lewis Brothers Podcast.com.
3:10
SPEAKER_00: I just added all of that in there, but you go ahead and cut it out.
3:13
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, if you if you type all that in, H T T T P.
3:16
SPEAKER_04: Just put the PL.
3:18
SPEAKER_00: Just Google it.
3:19
SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
3:19
SPEAKER_00: Hey, always check us out online at Lewis Superstore.com and at Crossroads Conversation Podcast.com to see what's going on that we've gone over in the previous week.
3:29
SPEAKER_00: In the garage.
3:30
SPEAKER_00: In the garage.
3:31
SPEAKER_00: I love this because it's been the OG since long, long ago.
3:36
SPEAKER_00: Wartime coming through, talking about the Jeep Wrangler.
3:40
SPEAKER_00: The Willy's that started it all, and they have evolutionized this thing from that.
3:45
SPEAKER_05: They really have.
3:45
SPEAKER_05: And what we're going to talk about here with the Jeep Wrangler, I mean, that's a household name.
3:49
SPEAKER_05: Everybody knows what a Wrangler is, even if it's a CJ5 or CJ7, or you know, you get the the old XJ's and the scrambler, you know, and then James.
3:58
SPEAKER_04: TJ's.
3:59
SPEAKER_04: Just take a J and just add a letter before after.
4:02
SPEAKER_05: It's got to equal one of the decks.
4:05
SPEAKER_04: And they're just indestructible.
4:06
SPEAKER_05: But but you know that the Jeep has kind of been on an island by itself for a long time.
4:12
SPEAKER_04: Like what do you mean?
4:13
SPEAKER_05: Like it didn't have any competition.
4:14
SPEAKER_05: Okay.
4:15
SPEAKER_05: And I don't mean that it just outsold others, it just didn't have any competition until the Bronco came back along.
4:21
SPEAKER_05: And you know, back in the 60s, 70s, the the Bronco and the Jeep really battled out.
4:27
SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
4:27
SPEAKER_05: When you got into the 90s and the Bronco got bigger and the Jeep stayed the same side, it was kind of two different segments.
4:32
SPEAKER_05: Bronco comes back in.
4:34
SPEAKER_05: Okay, it's been wildly successful.
4:37
SPEAKER_05: But what it did is it challenged Jeep.
4:40
SPEAKER_05: Jeep had become a little complacent on about like features, creature comforts, that type stuff.
4:46
SPEAKER_05: And that's what we're talking about today.
4:48
SPEAKER_05: So the Jeep Wrangler, a couple years back in the Rubicon edition, you could get what was called an XR.
4:54
SPEAKER_05: And that's an Extreme Recon.
4:55
SPEAKER_05: Now, the Extreme Recon gave you the 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.
5:09
SPEAKER_05: So it gave you off-road capability, the look everybody likes on a Bronco or on a Wrangler, uh, and then they gear it correctly.
5:16
SPEAKER_05: So the drive's still good, all backed with a factory warranty.
5:19
SPEAKER_05: Oh yeah.
5:20
SPEAKER_05: But now they've put that in the willies.
5:22
SPEAKER_04: Because the problem was they offered that, but it was on their top tier package.
5:26
SPEAKER_04: It was only if you clicked every box and if you were top tier, which made it unobtainable for some beas.
5:32
SPEAKER_05: 65 to 70 grand.
5:33
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
5:34
SPEAKER_05: You know, so then it was like, oh yeah, that looks cool, but guess what?
5:36
SPEAKER_05: It doesn't fit in my budget.
5:37
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
5:37
SPEAKER_04: Or I don't want to off-road it because I just spent 70 grand on it.
5:41
SPEAKER_04: Right.
5:41
SPEAKER_04: That's the other side of it.
5:42
SPEAKER_04: Yes.
5:43
SPEAKER_05: So then when you start looking at the willies, the willies comes out and it's it's like the sport, but with the off-road capabilities without all the extra stuff.
5:52
SPEAKER_05: But now on the willies, you can get the extreme recon.
5:55
SPEAKER_05: So you get the Rubicon axles, all right?
5:58
SPEAKER_05: You get 456 gears, you get 35-inch tires, you get the factory Rubicon lift to fit all that.
6:04
SPEAKER_05: You still get a locker in the rear, and it all hits a price point in the mid-50s.
6:10
SPEAKER_05: So now we're talking about highly capable.
6:12
SPEAKER_05: We just got two transports in, and we now have over five of these in stock, ready to go in that package.
6:19
SPEAKER_00: That's good, good package.
6:20
SPEAKER_00: I love that they've evolutionized.
6:22
SPEAKER_00: I love that they're actually listening to the customer to see hey, this makes sense.
6:26
SPEAKER_00: We want this, but it wasn't obtainable.
6:28
SPEAKER_05: Oh, we forgot to tell them though, with the Wrangler, what was one of the things that Bronco pushed them to do?
6:33
SPEAKER_05: And we finally got a bigger screen.
6:36
SPEAKER_04: Which includes a backup camera.
6:38
SPEAKER_04: Backup camera.
6:39
SPEAKER_05: And now a trail camera in the front.
6:40
SPEAKER_05: Okay.
6:41
SPEAKER_05: You can also split since the the screen is not portrait, it's landscape.
6:45
SPEAKER_05: Kind of like how you can do in the F-150 or some of the other Ford models, you can split it.
6:49
unknown: Yeah.
6:49
SPEAKER_05: You know, you can integrate in, you know, on X Hunt as far as their maps, some other trail maps, and a lot of user stuff that you would see people mount iPads and stuff in the Wrangler is now integrated into the system.
7:01
SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
7:02
SPEAKER_05: And the big game changer, you brought it up before the show, we finally have power seats.
7:06
SPEAKER_00: Power seats.
7:07
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes it's the simplest thing that you're completely missing in your business, in your product, whatever it is.
7:14
SPEAKER_00: They added power seats, which is a huge game changer.
7:17
SPEAKER_00: Because believe it or not, I think I know you know the truth is majority of Broncos and Wranglers never get put in four-wheel drive and they're drove on the street every single day.
7:27
SPEAKER_00: They want to look the part, but they got to have creature comfort.
7:29
SPEAKER_00: I know.
7:31
SPEAKER_04: Competition pushed them to do that.
7:32
SPEAKER_04: That's right.
7:32
SPEAKER_04: That's super solid.
7:33
SPEAKER_04: It's healthy.
7:34
SPEAKER_04: All right, breaking it down today.
7:36
SPEAKER_04: So decision making stories.
7:38
SPEAKER_04: So we kind of racked our brain, went over this of like, okay, what's a story that's been really good or we failed at, right?
7:45
SPEAKER_04: Everyone wants to know the failure.
7:47
SPEAKER_04: So I wanted to talk about when we came out with our Lewis guarantee.
7:50
SPEAKER_04: So our Lewis guarantee was our own warranty that we built and branded for a plus item for a consumer.
8:00
SPEAKER_04: We don't sell it.
8:01
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
8:01
SPEAKER_04: It's a why buy from us versus someone else?
8:06
SPEAKER_05: Because the price could be the same up and down the road.
8:08
SPEAKER_05: And we've talked about that with vehicles.
8:09
SPEAKER_05: We all pay the same.
8:10
SPEAKER_05: So why should they buy from you?
8:12
SPEAKER_05: Right.
8:12
SPEAKER_05: And then the people really saw, they're like, okay, yeah, you've been in business for a long time, but what it sent it for me.
8:17
SPEAKER_04: So that allowed us to have something on paper and that actually had some depth to it that was more than say, hey, we care about you.
8:26
SPEAKER_04: We're going to take care of you.
8:27
SPEAKER_04: Those were words, and where words became less and less and less and less and less and less relevant.
8:33
SPEAKER_04: You know, like the good old handshake.
8:34
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
8:35
SPEAKER_04: It was like, there needs to be something more.
8:37
SPEAKER_04: So we've researched this for a long time.
8:39
SPEAKER_04: And it it starts with a a six-month, six thousand mile warranty on a pre-owned vehicle uh that's over a certain amount of mileage and goes up to a five-year, 60,000 mile powertrain warranty on a used car.
8:51
SPEAKER_04: Generally, that's out of manufacturer warranty.
8:53
SPEAKER_02: Correct.
8:53
SPEAKER_04: And then on a new car, any new car that's bought from us non-commercial, you get a 10-year, 120,000 mile powertrain warranty, which, if you don't know, that's double what any manufacturer does, or majority of domestic manufacturers are.
9:07
SPEAKER_04: So our our Fords and our CDJRs are gonna get a five-year, 60,000 mile powertrain and a three-year 36,000 mile.
9:15
SPEAKER_04: That's when they say, hey, we're done with this car, you're on your own.
9:18
SPEAKER_04: Right.
9:18
SPEAKER_04: And we know cars last long, but it's just kind of crazy to think that they say, hey, yeah, at that time, you're on your own.
9:24
SPEAKER_04: Yep.
9:25
SPEAKER_04: Right.
9:25
SPEAKER_04: And so we, man, we researched this for a long time.
9:30
SPEAKER_05: And what you mean by research is we looked on other dealers' website, we talked to people in our 20 group, we so we saw what everybody else was doing, and then we flipped the hat and we said, from a consumer's point of view, take dealer out of it, whatever we know, what would we see that was of value to the world?
9:47
SPEAKER_04: What's relevant, what feels good.
9:50
SPEAKER_04: And the biggest point is when it comes time for them to use that warranty and claim it, what's that process look like?
9:58
SPEAKER_04: Does it actually work?
10:00
SPEAKER_04: But the last thing that we wanted to do is really just have a why-buy, then it didn't work.
10:07
SPEAKER_04: Because news flash for you, majority of them out there have so many pages to flip through.
10:14
SPEAKER_04: If you get that lifetime, which we found out you have to have a term on lifetime.
10:19
SPEAKER_05: Okay, well, let's pause right there because the audience needs to know this.
10:23
SPEAKER_05: So if somebody says lifetime, like engines or transmissions or or just on your appliance or whatever.
10:29
SPEAKER_05: Whatever it is, it's regulated by insurance.
10:31
SPEAKER_05: All this is insurance.
10:32
SPEAKER_05: So tell them what we found out when we look deep into it in the insurance.
10:36
SPEAKER_04: So it had to have a term, you know, because they had to figure it somewhere in a term, and the average that we saw was a seven-year term.
10:43
SPEAKER_05: So even though it said lifetime, regulated by the insurance contract, you had to put down there an actual term.
10:49
SPEAKER_04: Yep.
10:49
SPEAKER_04: And that term was seven years.
10:50
SPEAKER_04: And so then we're like, we don't want to say that.
10:53
SPEAKER_04: The last thing we want to do is us sell you something, we tell you it's lifetime, and then you show up eight years from now, still have the car, and we say, actually, no, it's not covered.
11:03
SPEAKER_04: That did not carry what Lewis Automotive does.
11:06
SPEAKER_03: No.
11:06
SPEAKER_04: That does not cover carry what we say.
11:09
SPEAKER_04: So we're like, scratch that idea, right?
11:11
SPEAKER_04: And because we were building it from ground up, we could build it however.
11:14
SPEAKER_04: Now, we got with the insurance companies and said, Hey, have you done this before?
11:18
SPEAKER_04: And they said, Yes, we've done that.
11:20
SPEAKER_04: No, we've never been there.
11:21
SPEAKER_04: Yes, we've done that.
11:22
SPEAKER_04: And so there was a lot of back and forth.
11:24
SPEAKER_04: I was like, okay, what's the claim ratio on that?
11:26
SPEAKER_04: Most importantly, how close is that coverage to a factory warranty?
11:31
SPEAKER_04: That's right.
11:31
SPEAKER_04: You know, I'm not talking about just covering one piston, yeah, or maybe in one scenario, like, I want this act.
11:38
SPEAKER_04: This is not, hey, let's find another profit opportunity.
11:41
SPEAKER_04: Let's find a good coverage that we can offer our consumers because it's a free thing.
11:45
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
11:46
SPEAKER_04: But we wanted it to be good enough.
11:48
SPEAKER_05: Um we wanted it to be a great experience.
11:51
SPEAKER_05: And you guys have heard us talk about on the podcast before.
11:54
SPEAKER_05: We have two lenses we look out of.
11:56
SPEAKER_05: You know, and if you want to get like an eye terminology, we got a near side and a far side of going on at the same time.
12:02
SPEAKER_05: Is it what helps sell the car right now?
12:04
SPEAKER_04: So the near side of like what's sticky now.
12:06
SPEAKER_05: Absolutely.
12:07
SPEAKER_05: And then far when they actually have to use it, how was the experience?
12:11
SPEAKER_05: Because if the experience was great, they're more than likely going to buy their next car from us too.
12:16
SPEAKER_04: In today's world where not as many people are loyal, brand loyal, dealership loyal, place loyal, it just takes one slip up or one mistake to say a Google review.
12:27
SPEAKER_04: I mean, it's like the world ended, right?
12:29
SPEAKER_04: And it was just happened to be like a lapse of coverage or something.
12:32
SPEAKER_04: So we knew that.
12:33
SPEAKER_04: And so it was like, hey, let's not open this can of worms if we're not really willing to see the near side, the far side, and everything in between.
12:40
SPEAKER_04: So we waited a long time before we fully put that together and then we released it to the team.
12:46
SPEAKER_04: We were generally planners in that scenario.
12:49
SPEAKER_04: We're not very quick.
12:50
SPEAKER_04: So that that was a delayed thing to make sure that we had it fully vetted.
12:55
SPEAKER_04: Um, and one other thing before I tell you the nugget, but most of those warranties we saw that you had to hit every single metric with a dealership.
13:05
SPEAKER_04: So if you bought it from X dealership, that's where you had to get your service work at, and you had to perform every single recommended service metric with them, which was just a game show with them.
13:16
SPEAKER_04: So if you're traveling or you spend half your time here, half your time there, and you get your oil changed at a reputable place, nope, coverage expired.
13:24
SPEAKER_04: Nope, coverage did not.
13:26
SPEAKER_04: And we're like, once again, pain point, that's stupid.
13:29
SPEAKER_04: Don't do that.
13:30
SPEAKER_04: We want it, the far side is be good and be usable.
13:33
SPEAKER_04: And we see that now that we pitch that, because people are like, are you sure I can claim this?
13:38
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
13:39
SPEAKER_04: They're like, hey, if I move somewhere, like, yep, you're good.
13:41
SPEAKER_04: It's registered to this Venomer.
13:42
SPEAKER_05: So when we let me let me tell you before you go, because I'm gonna play the other side of it for the business people out there.
13:48
SPEAKER_05: And I could tell you why the businesses were thinking about that.
13:50
SPEAKER_05: They were thinking right now, and they're thinking, hey, is there any way that we can write in there where the contract will get canceled or not valid anymore so we can reduce our expense and it doesn't cost us as much.
14:04
SPEAKER_05: So that's what they were thinking.
14:05
SPEAKER_04: And that's the nearsightedness of making that a profit thing.
14:09
SPEAKER_04: Yes.
14:09
SPEAKER_04: Of hey, we want to reduce our claims.
14:12
SPEAKER_04: We want to write all these rules and it says no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
14:17
SPEAKER_04: Yep.
14:18
SPEAKER_04: And so then your claim ratio is super low.
14:20
SPEAKER_04: It's no different than, you know, claim on your house or claim on your car of some damage.
14:26
SPEAKER_04: They make you run through the hoops and then guess what?
14:28
SPEAKER_04: They jack your rates through the roof.
14:30
SPEAKER_04: You'll never get this rate jacked because you didn't pay for it.
14:33
SPEAKER_05: That's right.
14:34
SPEAKER_05: And so, so their plan looks like if we were running two of them down the tracks at the same time, theirs looks more profitable.
14:41
SPEAKER_05: Theirs looks more successful for the short term.
14:44
SPEAKER_05: However, in the long term, when ours actually works, even if you move to Georgia, yeah, they're more likely to buy their next car from us.
14:53
SPEAKER_05: Over here, they're not gonna buy a car and they're gonna tell everybody about how big a scam it was.
14:58
SPEAKER_04: Right.
14:58
SPEAKER_04: Right?
14:59
SPEAKER_04: So that was us trying to really far-sight this thing.
15:02
SPEAKER_04: You know, seven, nine years in the business.
15:04
SPEAKER_04: Hey, before we just launch this thing.
15:07
SPEAKER_04: And so when we launched it, we got the 10-year 120, uh, cars that were uh 50, uh see zero to 50.
15:15
SPEAKER_04: Zero to 50, thank you.
15:16
SPEAKER_04: Zero to 50 got a five year 60.
15:18
SPEAKER_04: So a used vehicle got five year 60, 50,000 miles to 100,000 miles got a 336.
15:26
SPEAKER_04: So warranties expired from Ford, from Kia, from Hyundai, from CDGR.
15:30
SPEAKER_04: We got you.
15:31
SPEAKER_04: We covered five years 60.
15:33
SPEAKER_04: And it starts, yours is your favorite, two-term true mileage.
15:36
SPEAKER_04: All those other programs, even a factory CPO, because people all the time are like, hey, why don't you do a Ford CPO?
15:42
SPEAKER_04: It's because they start that mileage from its original in-service.
15:45
SPEAKER_04: Who knows when that was?
15:46
SPEAKER_04: Nobody does.
15:47
SPEAKER_04: We don't most of the time and pull an Oasis and all.
15:50
SPEAKER_04: So when you sign up for that car, this is a really big deal because everyone else starts it when the so they're like, hey, you get 60,000 mile warranty.
15:59
SPEAKER_04: Well, newsflash, if it's got 50,000 miles, you only have 10,000 more miles of cover.
16:04
SPEAKER_04: Do you feel who dated if you bought something like that and you're like, yeah, I got 60,000 miles?
16:08
SPEAKER_04: You would.
16:09
SPEAKER_04: Like my wife got Cole's cash, and it's like, well, what in the world?
16:13
SPEAKER_05: So again, we were looking from customers on eye.
16:14
SPEAKER_05: Yep.
16:15
SPEAKER_04: So that was another near side, far side thing.
16:17
SPEAKER_04: Uh so it starts at that time.
16:19
SPEAKER_04: But then our biggest one was our 6'6, and we carried that from 100,000 miles to 200,000 miles.
16:25
SPEAKER_04: We got indeed.
16:26
SPEAKER_04: We were like, because we were keeping those cars because every we knew that everyone needed a car at every price point.
16:32
SPEAKER_04: We generally always kept those, and which we've learned from that, uh, that we're just creating our own black eyes, trying to serve everyone.
16:40
SPEAKER_04: Uh, because although that's a different client, or that client has a kid that needs that$10,000 car or whatever it is, and we want to say, hey, it's got that.
16:48
SPEAKER_04: There's two things that we learned that$200,000 miles was too far.
16:52
SPEAKER_04: Because remember, the manufacturer said at$36,000 miles, we're done covering this.
16:58
SPEAKER_04: It's no different than life insurance saying, hey, at 60 years old, we're done.
17:02
SPEAKER_04: And we said, hey, let's go ahead and insure them for 240 years.
17:06
SPEAKER_04: We were just shooting for the moon, right?
17:08
SPEAKER_05: Well, but when we sat in a room and and you guys that are listening, you now hopefully know us well enough to know that we're not just like throw it out there, throw it out there.
17:15
SPEAKER_05: We're deep research people.
17:16
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, five or six years.
17:18
SPEAKER_05: So what we looked at, and I'll just tell you the data, but we didn't know the unknowns and the variables, is we looked at, we said, hey, we're selling 180,000 miles, 170,000 miles, 160,000 miles.
17:27
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
17:28
SPEAKER_05: And generally, if they come back within X amount of days and it's a mechanical issue, we're taking care of it.
17:34
SPEAKER_05: And we said, hey, if we're doing that, why don't we at least tell the world about it and then just cover it?
17:40
SPEAKER_04: Right?
17:41
SPEAKER_04: That was a thing like, hey, could this be marketing?
17:43
SPEAKER_04: So for a near sight opportunity of when they're looking from us or Bill's used cars, we have huge, like that makes sense, right?
17:52
SPEAKER_04: Why wouldn't you buy from this place that's reputable?
17:54
SPEAKER_04: So far down the tracks, maybe a year, maybe not quite a year, we realized there were two things why it didn't work to 200,000 miles.
18:03
SPEAKER_04: The mistakes that were made.
18:04
SPEAKER_04: One, so that because it opened the floodgates.
18:08
SPEAKER_04: And they were like, oh, my, you know, my window won't roll up anymore.
18:11
SPEAKER_04: This one has a sunroof, and the it's not there, or it doesn't work.
18:15
SPEAKER_04: Hey, this door isn't the same color.
18:17
SPEAKER_04: Hey, my tires aren't, you know, this one's a little wonky, or the none of the stuff really was powertrain components.
18:23
SPEAKER_04: There were.
18:24
SPEAKER_04: We're like, man, we just opened up like the billies, you know, and what are we doing?
18:29
SPEAKER_04: And so then you have two options.
18:31
SPEAKER_04: Don't do it or make sure it's 1,000% ready to go.
18:36
SPEAKER_04: Well, it's like taking a 95-year-old person and saying, hey, let's run them through a full check.
18:42
SPEAKER_04: They get new knees, new shoulders, new hips, new heart, new lungs, yeah, put them on some stem cell.
18:48
SPEAKER_05: And then it's more expensive than the car that has 80,000 miles.
18:50
SPEAKER_04: Right, that's the exact same thing.
18:51
SPEAKER_04: So then you've well, the problem is it was still a 95-year-old person.
18:56
SPEAKER_04: It was still a car that had 180,000 miles.
18:59
SPEAKER_04: It was 15 years old, and we just spent$3,800 in the shop, and it still has a green door, and the rest of it's blue.
19:05
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
19:06
SPEAKER_04: It's got Michelins on it, but it still has rust in the quarter panel.
19:10
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
19:10
SPEAKER_04: We were like, what are we doing?
19:11
SPEAKER_04: We're like, no, we don't want a bad name that we're selling a car that we say gets the Lewis guarantee.
19:18
SPEAKER_04: So then we sat in the room, like, hey, we need to sit in the room sooner than later and talk about this.
19:23
SPEAKER_04: Are we gonna get it ready to sell or are we gonna change the way that we sell that?
19:28
SPEAKER_05: I'll interject one other thing that uh, you know, you you hit on that side of it and how much money to spend.
19:34
SPEAKER_05: The other unknown we didn't realize because we had all the data on how much money we had spent on vehicles over that came back that we had to fix of broken pieces.
19:44
SPEAKER_05: Um what we didn't realize is that there are a good majority amount of people out there that understand when you buy a car with 140 or 170,000 miles, it's as is, and you're buying a 170,000 mile vehicle.
20:01
SPEAKER_05: Clearly, generally went over that.
20:02
SPEAKER_05: You know, what we didn't realize is once you give them a guarantee, it switches their mindset.
20:09
SPEAKER_05: So then all of a sudden, the people that would not have asked for something to be covered that they understand they bought a 170,000 mile vehicle, are now asking because you changed their mindset.
20:19
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, that's that's the crucial part.
20:21
SPEAKER_04: We created that mindset of saying you're covered, and then the line of what coverage was was blurred so much that it was gone, right?
20:29
SPEAKER_04: And it just opened up, it was heavy stress on everyone, salespeople, sales managers, and on us, and we're like, and then the shop is like, what are these cars coming at?
20:39
SPEAKER_05: What we ended up spending the amount of the money we spent on those cars sometimes equaled what the car was.
20:48
SPEAKER_04: Oh yeah, and that was after the fact, and after we put the warranty on it.
20:52
SPEAKER_04: So if you got it ready to sell or 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 the road.
21:03
SPEAKER_04: That's not an open checkbook segment, but that's generally how it goes.
21:07
SPEAKER_04: And then we were like, okay, so we sold that car for six grand.
21:11
SPEAKER_04: We spent$3,200 initially in the shop.
21:13
SPEAKER_04: They just brought it back to us and we spent$1,500 more dollars off for us to make$700 when we sold the car.
21:21
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
21:21
SPEAKER_04: So now we spent$4,200.
21:24
SPEAKER_05: We're in the hole.
21:25
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, it was not good.
21:26
SPEAKER_04: And then guess how much the warranty paid?
21:29
SPEAKER_04: None of it, because it was not components that were covered of powertrain.
21:34
SPEAKER_04: And so we just we we created unrealistic expectations.
21:37
SPEAKER_04: Yep.
21:38
SPEAKER_04: And so instead of so here's what we did.
21:40
SPEAKER_04: We changed that after looking at, okay, where's the line at?
21:45
SPEAKER_04: Sure.
21:45
SPEAKER_04: Like, let's not throw this.
21:46
SPEAKER_04: The whole idea is don't throw this out the window.
21:48
SPEAKER_04: Yep.
21:48
SPEAKER_04: You know, don't throw the baby out because there was a bunch of babies in the bathtub.
21:51
SPEAKER_04: That's right.
21:52
SPEAKER_04: That's right.
21:52
SPEAKER_04: Like let's just drain it.
21:53
SPEAKER_04: Drain the swamp.
21:54
SPEAKER_04: Put a new couple, seven filters on it, and then fill it back up.
21:58
SPEAKER_04: So we we ended up moving that back to 150,000 miles.
22:02
SPEAKER_04: That is still a hundred plus thousand miles past where the manufacturer said they're cover that.
22:07
SPEAKER_04: You know, so that that's on 10 years, 10 years, right?
22:11
SPEAKER_04: 10 years and newer, 150,000 miles or less.
22:14
SPEAKER_04: We you still get that six months, six thousand mile.
22:17
SPEAKER_04: Uh, it's just a saying, hey, you're you have some coverage.
22:21
SPEAKER_04: You're not just on your own.
22:23
SPEAKER_04: Like, you know, you spent 4K, 8K, 10k, 12k.
22:27
SPEAKER_04: Good luck to you.
22:28
SPEAKER_04: You know?
22:29
SPEAKER_04: And so that was a big thing.
22:30
SPEAKER_04: And and just so you know this, we just went over a full portfolio of, okay, how is this working?
22:36
SPEAKER_04: We want to know what's the take rate, uh, you know, where are we at there?
22:40
SPEAKER_04: Almost all of our coverage was over a hundred percent paid out of what we we have to pay for it, right?
22:47
SPEAKER_04: We don't charge a customer, it's free ninety-nine.
22:50
SPEAKER_04: We have to pay for that insurance.
22:52
SPEAKER_04: Think of life insurance.
22:53
SPEAKER_04: We pay for that insurance, and so what we'd paid versus what claims paid out were was the average of 150%.
23:01
SPEAKER_04: So wondering, is it working?
23:03
SPEAKER_04: Is it real?
23:05
SPEAKER_04: Oh yeah, what was the average claim amount?
23:07
SPEAKER_05: $3,200.
23:09
SPEAKER_05: So when we looked at the average claim rate from, and for all you insurance people out there, you'll understand what we're talking about.
23:14
SPEAKER_05: Well, we looked at our different, we looked at it three different segments.
23:17
SPEAKER_05: What's the 560, what's the three year 36, and then what's the 6'6?
23:21
SPEAKER_05: We're talking exclusively about the 6'6 right now.
23:23
SPEAKER_05: It's it's over 3,200.
23:25
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
23:25
SPEAKER_05: So when you look at the average claim, it's over$3,200, and like this is not sustainable, but we didn't scrap the whole idea.
23:33
SPEAKER_05: So we made a bad decision.
23:36
SPEAKER_05: That's what this episode's about.
23:37
SPEAKER_05: I I don't like admitting that, but we we we made a bad decision.
23:41
SPEAKER_04: But then it came down to data.
23:42
SPEAKER_04: Hey, let's look at the data, let's look at the realistic expectations.
23:46
SPEAKER_04: What's the curb of feel?
23:47
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
23:47
SPEAKER_04: The curb appeal and the feel, right?
23:49
SPEAKER_04: You put those two together, the curb of feel.
23:51
SPEAKER_04: And uh, so how is the consumer portraying that?
23:55
SPEAKER_04: How's the salespeople?
23:55
SPEAKER_04: How's the service team?
23:56
SPEAKER_04: How's the sales manager?
23:57
SPEAKER_04: And they're like, hey, I know you said go, go, go, go, go, but maybe we should whoa.
24:02
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, like let's and so we did.
24:04
SPEAKER_04: We said, let's let's reel it back to 150.
24:06
SPEAKER_04: That makes the car easier to get ready to sell.
24:09
SPEAKER_04: And then also says, hey, I'm not putting life insurance on your 106-year-old dog, you know?
24:14
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you know, the important thing that a lot of people don't do, just because you make a decision, now don't do this quickly, but you don't have to ride it to the ground.
24:23
SPEAKER_00: A lot of people make that mistake that they absolutely like, I'm not giving up, I've got to make this work.
24:29
SPEAKER_00: No, we're gonna, we love the idea, we're gonna adapt and change it, and it's turned into a great thing.
24:35
SPEAKER_00: But but but I do want to say something there.
24:37
SPEAKER_05: You bring up a good point because naturally, I know myself and and y'all are as well, we're all at different levels, but naturally we will ride something really far.
24:49
SPEAKER_05: Here's why, because this is a whole different subject, but it's a slippery slope.
24:53
SPEAKER_05: There's some people that won't ride it long enough because there is some growing pains you go through to get something to work.
25:01
SPEAKER_05: But then there's the we we start coming down the other side.
25:04
SPEAKER_04: So so let me explain that to you in something that really resonates and makes sense to me.
25:08
SPEAKER_04: In endurance sports, biking or running.
25:12
SPEAKER_04: We've experienced that a hundred different ways, a thousand different times.
25:16
SPEAKER_05: Yep.
25:17
SPEAKER_04: Majority, I don't care if you're Usain Bolt, Elliot Kipchobi, or who Lance Armstrong.
25:24
SPEAKER_04: When you start out that day in an exercise on a bike or a run, generally no one in the first mile is gonna say, I feel good.
25:32
SPEAKER_04: It's amazing.
25:33
SPEAKER_04: Right?
25:34
SPEAKER_04: All your levels gotta get to the same, right?
25:37
SPEAKER_04: And so realizing that that you're you're gonna have to work through some stuff.
25:42
SPEAKER_04: Yeah and some stuff's gonna go wrong.
25:44
SPEAKER_04: But you generally in a prime race or a stage or whatever it's you have a goal.
25:51
SPEAKER_04: It's your a goal.
25:52
SPEAKER_04: Hey, I want to, it might be complete the whole thing.
25:55
SPEAKER_04: Sure.
25:56
SPEAKER_04: Right?
25:56
SPEAKER_04: No time, or it might be, hey, I've been 230 in a marathon, want to go 225, I've been four hours, I want to go sub-four, whatever it is.
26:05
SPEAKER_04: That's your a goal.
26:07
SPEAKER_04: You need to have B, C, and D, and everyone has a different opinion of that.
26:10
SPEAKER_04: Some say it's A or bust.
26:12
SPEAKER_04: What I don't love about that following pro people is if it's not their day, they just withdraw and they don't really feel what could have been, right?
26:25
SPEAKER_04: What type of real grid or endurance do I have?
26:27
SPEAKER_04: And so it's not riding this thing to the ground.
26:30
SPEAKER_04: And it's funny, I I heard like him, love him, hate him, whatever it is, Lance Armstrong.
26:34
SPEAKER_04: He said every single day he had a training ride, no matter how he felt, sick, tired, worn out, he would never make a decision whether it was a good day or bad day, or if we should call it quits, until after 30 minutes of movement.
26:49
SPEAKER_04: Yep.
26:49
SPEAKER_04: And then at 30 minutes, he would then do a systems check and say, hey, but think about that.
26:54
SPEAKER_04: Like sometimes I've been in a race of A, and it's like that's out the window.
27:01
SPEAKER_04: Then like B, okay, if I could just get this out the window.
27:05
SPEAKER_04: I've probably gone down most of the alphabet in some of my races and like finish this thing.
27:10
SPEAKER_04: Yep.
27:11
SPEAKER_04: Yep.
27:12
SPEAKER_04: And you'll learn something, right?
27:13
SPEAKER_05: And I think like what, and I've heard other runners talk about that, but you talk about Lance on that.
27:17
SPEAKER_05: What when you, this is a whole different lesson, but what when you allow your mind and you tell it like, hey, just give me 30 minutes and then we'll revisit this, it shuts your brain down.
27:26
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, chances are you get to 30 minutes and don't remember you're supposed to check it.
27:29
SPEAKER_05: So same thing in business is it's like, okay, let's make it through.
27:33
SPEAKER_05: It looks like this is exploding.
27:34
SPEAKER_05: Let's make it through six months' worth of data or 90 days worth of data, and then let's reevaluate.
27:38
SPEAKER_05: So we have the data.
27:40
SPEAKER_05: So it's not just emotion.
27:41
SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
27:41
SPEAKER_05: Because that's no different than like when we get a customer complaint.
27:44
SPEAKER_05: They usually come in twos or threes.
27:46
SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
27:46
SPEAKER_05: So then when it hits you three at a time, you're like, holy cow, what's going on?
27:50
SPEAKER_04: But then you might go two weeks without you don't fire everybody, you don't change the entire policy.
27:55
SPEAKER_04: So that's such a good point too, of realizing.
27:57
SPEAKER_04: So that was one of the large decision factors that we had that initially sounded great, and then we had to pivot on this.
28:04
SPEAKER_04: But we didn't throw the whole thing out, we just adjusted that, looked at the metrics, uh, and it makes sense.
28:10
SPEAKER_05: Yeah, that's really good.
28:11
SPEAKER_05: I th I think you know the big takeaways there are make sure you do your research, that it's a value, that it lines up with what your business plan is today, tomorrow, and in the future.
28:21
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
28:22
SPEAKER_05: And then be willing to look at the facts, sit back down and revisit it to adjust.
28:27
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
28:27
SPEAKER_05: And I don't know how many business plans out there, I'd say almost 0%, go exactly the way the business plan said, and they never adjust anything.
28:36
SPEAKER_04: If if they do, it wasn't a good business plan.
28:39
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, it was.
28:39
SPEAKER_04: It was the first one you clicked on on Goo or Yahoo, right?
28:43
SPEAKER_04: Maybe on AOL.
28:44
SPEAKER_04: It was the first one that came up, and it was the most basic high-level, and there was no room for growth, then like air wasn't gonna happen.
28:52
SPEAKER_05: Yeah, that's good.
28:53
SPEAKER_05: That that that's a great example right there.
28:55
SPEAKER_05: All right, here we go.
28:55
SPEAKER_05: Let's get a fun fact here.
28:56
SPEAKER_05: What percentage of leaders say they've made a costly decision due to a lack of information?
29:04
SPEAKER_05: Man, do I like this one?
29:05
SPEAKER_05: Nah.
29:06
SPEAKER_05: They just did it off of gut and emotion.
29:08
SPEAKER_05: Oh, yeah.
29:09
SPEAKER_05: I'm just saying on that, I know it's got to be high, but uh A is 25%, B's 40%, C is 60%, D's 80%.
29:16
SPEAKER_05: What do y'all think it is?
29:17
SPEAKER_00: I'm throwing out the bottom.
29:19
SPEAKER_00: I mean, at least 25%, so it's way too well.
29:25
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
29:26
SPEAKER_04: From the gut.
29:27
SPEAKER_04: From the gut.
29:27
SPEAKER_04: They went from the gut and it didn't work.
29:29
SPEAKER_04: And it was costly.
29:30
SPEAKER_04: It did not work.
29:31
SPEAKER_05: Yep.
29:31
SPEAKER_04: What do you think?
29:33
SPEAKER_04: I mean, it's I'd say it's over 50%.
29:36
SPEAKER_05: So the both both of y'all are heading the right direction.
29:38
SPEAKER_05: It's C 60%.
29:40
SPEAKER_04: 60% of the time.
29:41
SPEAKER_05: So if it says this, like let's let's look at let's look at the data here.
29:45
SPEAKER_05: If it says 60% of the time when you make a decision based upon emotion, it will be a costly decision.
29:52
SPEAKER_05: I'd slow down and gather some information.
29:54
SPEAKER_04: Slow down and get some information based on facts.
29:56
SPEAKER_05: Yes.
29:57
SPEAKER_05: I think for sure.
29:58
SPEAKER_05: All right, let's continue on with the stories because.
30:00
SPEAKER_05: I think, guys, that the audience can relate when we're talking about stories and we walk them through real world here at Lewis Automotive with the Lewis brothers, how we've made mistakes.
30:09
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
30:10
SPEAKER_05: And they always up front looked like they were the right decision.
30:12
SPEAKER_05: So here's here's mine for you.
30:14
SPEAKER_05: I I've been back in the business over 20 years now, and one of my things, and then we all start talking about it as a vision of the company, was we wanted to grow people from within.
30:27
SPEAKER_05: We wanted to grow people from within.
30:29
SPEAKER_05: That's technicians, that's salespeople, that's people admin, that's advertising, that's managers, finance, every position.
30:37
SPEAKER_05: Because we said if we grow them from within, they understand our ethics, they understand our culture, they understand the way we do business, and we're not hiring somebody else's bad habits.
30:49
SPEAKER_05: Not only that, I'll tell you this from a retention side, everybody else doesn't know about them.
30:56
SPEAKER_05: You hire a technician or a salesperson or a sales manager that has been at six other Ford or CDJR dealers in the area, they still have all those contacts in their phone.
31:06
SPEAKER_05: They're still texting all those guys.
31:08
SPEAKER_05: And one bad day, which we all have them, it's just a phone call away and the wheels are on the toolbox, and then there they go.
31:15
SPEAKER_05: Right.
31:15
SPEAKER_05: So like we made it a goal of let's always promote from within.
31:21
SPEAKER_05: Let's give them the time, the tools, and training necessary so we elevate people within.
31:27
SPEAKER_05: We created that culture, and I'll prove that here in a minute.
31:30
SPEAKER_05: Um, that we moved everybody up.
31:33
SPEAKER_05: We we elevated them up.
31:35
SPEAKER_05: We we would only put job postings within, it'd go out to email everybody, and then we would interview them and then start moving them up.
31:44
SPEAKER_05: And there were multiple times, whether it's a sales manager, a finance manager, service manager, uh whoever, that we moved up and it was past their capacity.
31:55
SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
31:55
SPEAKER_05: Now, what did happen is our culture stayed in place.
31:59
SPEAKER_05: The way we do business stays in place.
32:01
SPEAKER_05: We didn't have to worry about any any moral, any ethical issues out there, because they had been in our system.
32:08
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, and you already knew what they were, right?
32:10
SPEAKER_04: You did.
32:10
SPEAKER_04: Just because you moved positions didn't change who they were, their habits, their when they show up, how they handle things.
32:17
SPEAKER_05: So we that was protected, and we continued to do business how we wanted to do business.
32:24
SPEAKER_05: So for guys, for over 15 years, we didn't hire anybody streamlined outside to come in at management.
32:36
SPEAKER_05: So I'm talking sales manager, GSM, finance manager, service manager, parts manager, any of those.
32:44
SPEAKER_05: 15 years.
32:47
SPEAKER_05: That's big.
32:48
SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
32:48
SPEAKER_05: There's some people out there right now, maybe somebody next to us, that their management team has changed how many times in a year did they say?
32:59
SPEAKER_05: Fourteen times in a year.
33:03
SPEAKER_05: 14 times in a year, they brought outside people in.
33:06
SPEAKER_05: We brought zero in in 15 years, and that was just one store.
33:10
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
33:12
SPEAKER_05: That's got to be good.
33:14
SPEAKER_05: It is, but it isn't.
33:16
SPEAKER_05: Okay.
33:17
SPEAKER_05: So it created where everybody knew that you had to get in at ground level with Lewis Automotive to be able to grow up.
33:23
SPEAKER_02: No.
33:24
SPEAKER_05: What it kept us from is hiring good outside talent that had learned and that could elevate us up.
33:31
SPEAKER_04: So there's a couple things there that I want to stop and park on.
33:35
SPEAKER_04: The people that are within only know what you've taught them, or only know what they know, right?
33:41
SPEAKER_04: Which is generally you're an average of the people that you hang out with.
33:44
SPEAKER_04: We hang out with people all day long in our industry.
33:47
SPEAKER_04: So it was only the same ideas circulating around.
33:50
SPEAKER_04: And we would listen to other people and bring things in, but then to create a habit's 90 days minimum.
33:56
SPEAKER_04: And so then it just stayed in that same habit cycle.
33:59
SPEAKER_04: And so the the ceiling was only so high.
34:02
SPEAKER_05: And we didn't have high turnover.
34:03
SPEAKER_05: So I do want to point that out.
34:05
SPEAKER_04: No, it was very consistent.
34:06
SPEAKER_05: Very consistent, very low turnover.
34:08
SPEAKER_04: Performance was consistent, yeah.
34:10
SPEAKER_05: Just growth wasn't there.
34:13
SPEAKER_04: Right.
34:13
SPEAKER_05: New ideas weren't there because it was us gathering the ideas from outside, not necessarily hiring somebody that had that.
34:20
SPEAKER_01: Yep.
34:20
SPEAKER_05: Um, and and then plus, I'll tell you one of the things that we we still do everything we can when we talk to management level wise.
34:29
SPEAKER_05: We didn't want anybody coming in that treated our employees wrong, yeah, that did anything jicky to get us in a financial issue.
34:38
SPEAKER_05: Um, so we were always concerned about that because there's other businesses up and down the road that have those and and they embrace that.
34:45
SPEAKER_05: We don't.
34:46
SPEAKER_05: We don't.
34:47
SPEAKER_05: So it's how you talk to people, you know.
34:49
SPEAKER_05: And if you were in any of our meetings, we do not manage by fear.
34:53
SPEAKER_05: You know, we we don't put ultimatums out there, especially in a group atmosphere.
34:57
SPEAKER_05: Now, if we have a write-up with somebody, it's totally different.
35:00
SPEAKER_05: But in a group atmosphere, we don't cuss, we don't holler, we don't threaten, we don't diminish people.
35:06
SPEAKER_05: You know, we lead as true high-level leaders do, lifting people up, showing them opportunities, looking in the mirror first.
35:14
SPEAKER_05: So we didn't want to mess any of that up.
35:16
SPEAKER_05: You know, we didn't want to walk in and we hired a manager and all of a sudden they're cussing like a sailor because then what's their team start doing?
35:22
SPEAKER_05: Cussing like a sailor.
35:23
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
35:24
SPEAKER_05: Uh we wanted to protect all that.
35:26
SPEAKER_05: It kept us from growing, though.
35:28
SPEAKER_05: So what I talked about all the time on being so proud that we hadn't hired from anybody from outside was keeping us from some growth areas where there was talent out there that we needed to embrace.
35:42
SPEAKER_05: We needed to make sure they still fit for our culture and our ethics, but we didn't embrace to be able to move up.
35:49
SPEAKER_05: What happened uh naturally?
35:52
SPEAKER_05: Uh I can't say that we made this decision, but when we got ready to move, we had to hire over a hundred people.
35:59
SPEAKER_05: We only had 150 people at the time.
36:02
SPEAKER_05: So we we we couldn't elevate that many people up.
36:04
SPEAKER_05: We needed sales managers, we needed finance managers, we needed office managers, controllers, marketing people, HR people, all of this.
36:13
SPEAKER_05: We had to start hiring from outside.
36:15
SPEAKER_05: It forced us to do it.
36:16
SPEAKER_05: So eat the humble pie, yeah, go, okay, we gotta move forward.
36:21
SPEAKER_05: Uh-huh.
36:22
SPEAKER_05: What we found by that was we brought in some incredible talent to our team.
36:27
SPEAKER_05: Oh, yeah.
36:28
SPEAKER_05: Some incredible talent.
36:30
SPEAKER_05: Now we still had to teach them the culture and the way we do business, but the incredibly talented team that has catapulted our business.
36:39
SPEAKER_05: And I'm talking about like our HR department.
36:41
SPEAKER_05: Oh, yeah.
36:41
SPEAKER_05: You know, I'm talking like our HR person that had been with Walmart, all right, opening up super centers in Walmarts across the entire US that that understood how to protect Legal and this and that from a large corporation.
36:57
SPEAKER_05: Shall we like you talked about?
36:59
SPEAKER_05: We didn't have that.
36:59
SPEAKER_05: We only knew HR at 150 employees, X amount of sales every day.
37:04
SPEAKER_04: It was the second line on Google that we had picked, all right.
37:09
SPEAKER_05: You know, well, it really was an admin person that had elevated.
37:13
SPEAKER_04: It was family-owned mom and pop that we had just like kept like bumping up.
37:20
SPEAKER_04: Hey, you might you should have to be able to do that.
37:21
SPEAKER_04: We were in F1 still racing our box car.
37:23
SPEAKER_04: We had just a bigger engine.
37:27
SPEAKER_05: That was probably the first position we saw like, hey, there's there's something here.
37:30
SPEAKER_05: Like I'm saying this a little bit quiet before I just announced to the world we're opening up flood games.
37:35
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, no, we're gonna we're gonna try it, right?
37:36
SPEAKER_00: We're we're gonna try it.
37:39
SPEAKER_00: I think it's important for you to know.
37:41
SPEAKER_00: We tried to try it, but without really trying it.
37:45
SPEAKER_00: Like we went into the HR and we were like, Oh, yeah, we want to do more, but we don't really like I want to pay the same whatever amount of time.
37:51
SPEAKER_04: Well, and that's the biggest thing.
37:53
SPEAKER_04: We had to pay more.
37:54
SPEAKER_00: We did have to pay more.
37:55
SPEAKER_05: We did have to pay more.
37:56
SPEAKER_04: Because we were expecting bigger results at the same money.
37:58
SPEAKER_04: And we're like, you fools, what are you doing?
38:00
SPEAKER_04: Like, Nike is$35.
38:03
SPEAKER_04: If you want nicer than Nike, you're gonna have to pay more, yeah.
38:06
SPEAKER_04: Right?
38:06
SPEAKER_05: So we found that out.
38:08
SPEAKER_05: So next, you know, we go to we we hadn't got into like our core of sales and service yet.
38:13
SPEAKER_05: Uh so next we get into our office.
38:15
SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
38:16
SPEAKER_05: And we start looking for an office manager or controller.
38:20
SPEAKER_05: What does that really look like?
38:21
SPEAKER_05: Some places have CFO controller office manager, some people just have CFO, some people have CFO office manager.
38:29
SPEAKER_05: Like, what do we need?
38:30
SPEAKER_05: What layers?
38:31
SPEAKER_05: And we hire a controller from the outside.
38:35
SPEAKER_04: Can I just tell you the initially the change of hiring from inside to then looking?
38:41
SPEAKER_04: We sat in, we were so many interviews.
38:45
SPEAKER_04: I remember at the old building, you'd bring me like six resumes, like, hey, we've got six people that we think have made it to the gauntlet that we're doing interviews, and we're hiring for an office manager, maybe controller, maybe that we can grow into CFO.
38:58
SPEAKER_04: It's like, who, we, which one are we hiring for?
39:02
SPEAKER_04: And so then we talk down to all these different people, some of them high level, some of them just 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't make any decisions because we've got eight more tomorrow.
39:18
SPEAKER_04: I was just like, oh my plan.
39:22
SPEAKER_04: And then, you know, you get just an interview, and like, do you really know about the person?
39:26
SPEAKER_05: You know, we had personality tests.
39:28
SPEAKER_05: We had, I mean, we and a lot of them said by the end of it, they're like, I've never sitting in interview like that.
39:33
SPEAKER_04: Well, yeah, because it was some two or sometimes three of us sitting across from the table, like the other side of Step Brothers are like huffing dough, but we were interviewing them, and like, what are you gonna do for us?
39:46
SPEAKER_00: Our one manager said he thought he was running to be a politician whenever he came in and we hit it.
39:51
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, because then the sales managers, we were there was five of us just like rapid fire, you go, you go, you go.
39:59
SPEAKER_04: And it's like, okay, we're gonna hire from the outside, but we're gonna grill.
40:03
SPEAKER_05: And I think that was the hesitation on the other side.
40:06
SPEAKER_05: I was like, we've never done this.
40:07
SPEAKER_05: We better make dang sure it's the right decision.
40:10
SPEAKER_02: Uh-huh.
40:11
SPEAKER_05: So on our on our controller, let me get back to that.
40:14
SPEAKER_05: When we stepped out and we interviewed all those people, we ended up hiring a controller that used to be over 16 plus stores.
40:23
SPEAKER_05: So then we're three stores plus a body shape.
40:25
SPEAKER_05: Just like, okay, there's gotta be some talent there to bring in to help us elevate up when we're talking about systems and processes, because we're we're we're not content with staying where we are or selling two more vehicles or five more ROs.
40:40
SPEAKER_05: We want to scale this sucker.
40:42
SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
40:42
SPEAKER_05: Um, and obviously we need to with what we build.
40:44
SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
40:45
SPEAKER_05: So we brought that person in.
40:47
SPEAKER_05: It took a while to adapt to our culture and the way we do business.
40:51
SPEAKER_05: But then once they adapted with their talent, an explosion has happened.
40:56
SPEAKER_02: Oh, yeah.
40:56
SPEAKER_05: You know, so so we couldn't lose that because in their role before, very structured, very great, culture and sense of belonging, not so much because it had gotten too far the other way.
41:08
SPEAKER_04: And with the controller, I guess it's good to point out that as cousin Chris would have said, were they plug-in plays?
41:17
SPEAKER_04: Like he liked to say, hey, give me a plug-in play, right?
41:19
SPEAKER_04: Uh, were they plug-in plays?
41:21
SPEAKER_04: They were talented.
41:22
SPEAKER_04: Absolutely.
41:23
SPEAKER_04: Uh they knew what they were doing.
41:25
SPEAKER_04: They did not know Lewis Automotive.
41:28
SPEAKER_04: In fact, our HR director didn't know automotive at all, just knew people and systems of process.
41:33
SPEAKER_04: So it still took some time.
41:34
SPEAKER_04: But our office, we had to do a complete reset kind of.
41:38
SPEAKER_04: And some of those things took 12 months plus, 18 months that we still had to agree that this was the right decision.
41:48
SPEAKER_04: Yes.
41:48
SPEAKER_04: This is a delayed result, a delayed, you know, long, long side that we were looking at.
41:54
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
41:54
SPEAKER_04: Uh, for it to really like, okay, and now, you know, they're closing the month in three days and just close our entire physical year and month at the same time in less than seven days.
42:06
SPEAKER_04: Turnover's less there now.
42:08
SPEAKER_05: There were rouse up.
42:09
SPEAKER_05: But so I don't want anybody to think about you just go out and hire talent.
42:13
SPEAKER_05: It's not just a plug and play and forget it.
42:15
SPEAKER_05: No, there are, you're talking about endurance, there are ups and downs until it finally gets its rhythm.
42:21
SPEAKER_05: And you're gonna have goods and you're gonna have bads, and you gotta be there helping them through that.
42:26
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, because you got to put on your shoulder pads and helmet.
42:30
SPEAKER_00: Because as we've learned over the last year and a half, yeah, we've had to be extra strong and involved because it's just you're getting hammered over here, and you're like, okay, that area's good.
42:40
SPEAKER_00: Okay, I'm gonna come over here, and this area blows a tire again.
42:43
SPEAKER_00: You're like, whoa, hold on.
42:45
SPEAKER_00: So you have to be involved.
42:46
SPEAKER_05: You do, you do.
42:47
SPEAKER_05: And I think it's no different than Shelby talked about endurance.
42:50
SPEAKER_05: It's football season, so I'll talk 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.
42:59
SPEAKER_05: It was supposed to go this way.
43:00
SPEAKER_05: We're not gonna give up on the play.
43:02
SPEAKER_05: We're not gonna give up on the downs or have a delay game or call a timeout.
43:06
SPEAKER_05: We're just gonna call an audible, and then they keep moving.
43:08
SPEAKER_04: And in the same way, if they get a transfer, they get a top running back from another team.
43:15
SPEAKER_04: They cannot just plug them in and say, hey, you're good, you're golden, let's go.
43:19
SPEAKER_04: Nope.
43:19
SPEAKER_04: They still have to learn their set of plays, how they operate, their expectations.
43:25
SPEAKER_04: And so that was the difference that we learned.
43:28
SPEAKER_04: And if we brought a person up through, yes, they understood Lewis ethics, Lewis model, how we take care of customers.
43:35
SPEAKER_04: So we didn't have to train them that because we've been training them for years.
43:39
SPEAKER_04: Sure.
43:39
SPEAKER_04: But we were restricted there.
43:41
SPEAKER_04: Bring new person in, they know how things operate, but you got to teach them how our culture and how we operate.
43:47
SPEAKER_05: So I'm gonna give a couple more examples and then we'll keep moving.
43:50
SPEAKER_05: Um, so so next I want to talk about, you know, in our in our marketing department, you know, what we had done marketing-wise, you know, in the past was at that level.
44:01
SPEAKER_05: So then when we started looking like, how do we develop this?
44:04
SPEAKER_05: How do we bring more value in marketing?
44:06
SPEAKER_05: It's a whole lot more complex marketing than it was when we first started.
44:10
SPEAKER_05: Where when we first started, you own radio, TV, and have a little bit of newspaper, you've grilled a market at all.
44:15
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
44:15
SPEAKER_05: It's not that way anymore.
44:17
SPEAKER_05: So when we went, we hired marketing, a marketing director to run it.
44:22
SPEAKER_05: They came from an experience of not only being over a store, but working with somebody where they had over a hundred different platforms that they were looking at, looking at the data, figuring out how that was successful.
44:33
SPEAKER_02: Yep.
44:33
SPEAKER_05: You know, so then when we brought that talent in, that helped us to elevate too.
44:37
SPEAKER_05: It takes all these pieces to work.
44:39
SPEAKER_05: You know, again, understanding the culture and how we do business and adding that to it, because you get both of those together, it makes a winning combination.
44:48
SPEAKER_05: Next, I want to go to sales manager and F and I manager for just a second.
44:53
SPEAKER_05: When we launched an ad for sales manager or finance manager, especially the first time we did it.
45:00
SPEAKER_05: We've had we've done it multiple times now because we're growing.
45:03
SPEAKER_05: We had the largest influx of resumes ever.
45:10
SPEAKER_05: And quality, right?
45:11
SPEAKER_05: Ever.
45:12
SPEAKER_05: We're talking over 50 resumes for a sales manager position.
45:16
SPEAKER_05: Over 50 resumes for a finance manager position.
45:20
SPEAKER_05: And you're like, whoa, why was that?
45:22
SPEAKER_05: Because they knew this industry is only so big, you know.
45:26
SPEAKER_05: They knew out on the street, Lewis never has a sales manager position open.
45:32
SPEAKER_05: They hire from within.
45:33
SPEAKER_05: They never have a finance manager position, they promote from within.
45:38
SPEAKER_05: So it was a flood, it was it was pretty humbling of like, dang, that amount of people want to come work for us.
45:45
SPEAKER_05: And they knew that this position doesn't open very often.
45:48
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
45:48
SPEAKER_05: What we found by that when we brought the sales managers in, they had some great experience from other stores.
45:54
SPEAKER_05: You know, on high volume, on marketing ideas, spiff ideas, this and that.
45:59
SPEAKER_05: What we did have to make sure we did was be very close, like what you talked about, Taylor.
46:04
SPEAKER_05: And as soon as they started to stray along from what we did, boom.
46:08
SPEAKER_05: A deal didn't look right, boom.
46:10
SPEAKER_05: They changed figures, boom.
46:11
SPEAKER_05: Right.
46:12
SPEAKER_05: And when I'm saying boom, there, you can't see me if you're just listening to this.
46:15
SPEAKER_05: We had to knock them back in line, say, we don't do business that way.
46:18
SPEAKER_05: We're proud you're on the team.
46:20
SPEAKER_05: We want you to stay on the team, but I just want to let you know that's a hard line.
46:23
SPEAKER_05: We don't do that.
46:24
SPEAKER_04: Which uh there was two corrections there.
46:27
SPEAKER_04: One correction was, you know, in person talking about that, hey, we don't do that.
46:31
SPEAKER_04: Here's how we do it.
46:32
SPEAKER_04: I apologize if I've never shared that with you.
46:34
SPEAKER_04: Here's how we do it.
46:35
SPEAKER_04: Second was in every one of those opportunities, you better make sure why did that mistake happen?
46:42
SPEAKER_04: One, had you not gone over it with onboarding, you can't go over everything, right?
46:46
SPEAKER_05: Even if you do, they don't retain it all.
46:48
SPEAKER_04: Right?
46:48
SPEAKER_04: They're not gonna retain it all in, anyways.
46:49
SPEAKER_04: Learning impairment, 3% is all they're gonna learn.
46:51
SPEAKER_04: Um but do you have a very clear written and drawn policy procedure or how to do that?
47:01
SPEAKER_04: Um so every one of those corners that we turn at a higher level management now is like, hey, keep them in balance, make sure that they're delivering the customer service that our grandfather did, our great grandfather, our dad, and treating people how they want to be treated, and then make sure if there's a mistake, we correct that, and then we say, Well, here's our policy to show you here's how we do it.
47:23
SPEAKER_04: So for then the next person, we have a little more in depth.
47:26
SPEAKER_04: 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 ideas or our structures generally were in somebody's head.
47:34
SPEAKER_04: That's right.
47:35
SPEAKER_04: That's right.
47:36
SPEAKER_04: We we learned that that was a big part of our scaling.
47:38
SPEAKER_05: It really was.
47:39
SPEAKER_05: All right, so that's so those are just a few examples of the different areas where, you know, the part that we had so much pride about, and I mean, I repeated that story so many times to people about we hired from within, we hired from within, we don't hire from outside, we're so proud of that.
47:55
SPEAKER_05: Like so much that it set up for now, you're gonna say something different, but that's the point in time that you check your ego at the door and you look for the opportunity.
48:06
SPEAKER_05: If there's a better way to do it, say, hey, my bad.
48:09
SPEAKER_05: I don't want to lose this over here.
48:11
SPEAKER_05: We'll always still look, even to this day, when we have, and we've got a couple positions open right now.
48:16
SPEAKER_05: About 19.
48:18
SPEAKER_05: If you're interested.
48:19
SPEAKER_05: We'll always look internally first.
48:21
SPEAKER_05: We always look internally.
48:22
SPEAKER_05: We have that conversation before the ad even goes out.
48:25
SPEAKER_04: And so there's there's a couple of reasons why we do that.
48:28
SPEAKER_04: Okay.
48:28
SPEAKER_04: Because we value our employees so much.
48:30
SPEAKER_04: If there was ever, and majority of the time, they really don't want the position, right?
48:36
SPEAKER_04: And it's not the position for them, but we value our employees enough as human beings that we would want that job offer opportunity as well.
48:44
SPEAKER_04: So we have a salesperson that's been here five, 10, 8, 10, 12, 15 years, and a sales manager positions opens up.
48:50
SPEAKER_04: We want to know internally first, it goes out.
48:52
SPEAKER_04: If you're interested, put your name in the hat, submit a resume, and we want to talk to you.
48:56
SPEAKER_04: And then we can say, hey, let's go through this and this.
48:59
SPEAKER_04: Do you want to manage people?
49:00
SPEAKER_04: Do you want to be on a fixed schedule?
49:01
SPEAKER_04: This, this, and they're like, I'm pretty good with where I'm at.
49:05
SPEAKER_04: It's like, hey, totally get it.
49:07
SPEAKER_04: I just wanted to know if not if you wanted the job, but if you want to be in the running.
49:11
SPEAKER_04: And they're like, nope.
49:12
SPEAKER_04: It's like, okay, I just wanted to offer that first.
49:14
SPEAKER_04: That says I care about you, and I'm not just bringing in the next wing ding just to tell you what to do.
49:19
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
49:20
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, yeah.
49:20
SPEAKER_04: You had buy.
49:21
SPEAKER_04: That's the biggest thing of getting by in there of us offering it to them first.
49:26
SPEAKER_05: I think that's good.
49:26
SPEAKER_05: So I think, you know, to kind of wrap this story up here, I think there's a couple things, no different than the Lewis guarantee we talked about.
49:32
SPEAKER_05: We're we're we're gonna stay to our core and look internally first.
49:36
SPEAKER_05: But number two, we're not gonna just promote somebody if they don't have the talent, they're not ready to do it.
49:42
SPEAKER_05: We're gonna see if there's an outside person that has the talent.
49:45
SPEAKER_05: Maybe they don't want to travel anymore, maybe they don't want the big corporate anymore that wants to be a part of our team.
49:51
SPEAKER_05: So we can run simultaneously both of those down the track at the same time.
49:55
SPEAKER_04: Solid.
49:55
SPEAKER_04: All right, mythbusters time.
49:57
SPEAKER_04: Here's the myth Great leaders always trust their gut.
50:02
SPEAKER_04: You know, we talked about guts a couple uh episodes ago.
50:05
SPEAKER_04: We're kind of talking about decisions or mistakes that are made from guts, but great leaders always trust their gut.
50:15
SPEAKER_05: Uh you know, i i if you say gut alone, I'm gonna say that's busted.
50:19
SPEAKER_05: Um I'll just tell you personally myself.
50:21
SPEAKER_05: My gut usually gives me direction on what I need to dive into more.
50:26
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
50:27
SPEAKER_05: You know, like, hey, something's going wrong here.
50:29
SPEAKER_05: And then I look at like what the details and the facts are, and then my gut tells me, I hey, I looked at the facts, here's where you should go.
50:37
SPEAKER_05: So I think gut alone, no.
50:38
SPEAKER_05: They don't.
50:39
SPEAKER_04: Well, I mean, if you look at the fun fact quiz, it says that 60% of costly decisions uh were due to lack of information.
50:48
SPEAKER_04: So uh that is busted.
50:50
SPEAKER_04: Instinct has value.
50:51
SPEAKER_04: Like there's value in your instinct to tell you what I should look at, what I should really prioritize.
50:56
SPEAKER_04: But gut alone creates blind spots.
50:58
SPEAKER_04: True strength is checking instincts against trusted input.
51:02
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
51:03
SPEAKER_04: So fact checking it, should I dive into it?
51:05
SPEAKER_04: What other info should I look at, and who should I bounce it off of?
51:09
SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
51:10
SPEAKER_00: I love my story.
51:11
SPEAKER_00: It's not near, don't worry, I'm not gonna go near as in depth as we did on our first two.
51:14
SPEAKER_00: We did too much?
51:15
SPEAKER_00: No, no, no, it was good, it's the right amount.
51:17
SPEAKER_00: It's perfect because it uh me up for this.
51:21
SPEAKER_00: And this is all of us have transformed from this, but I'm probably more guilty of this than either of y'all.
51:31
SPEAKER_00: But I'm gonna say if managing employees and going into what we've learned of, and we talked about this, but niceness, our culture, being overly too nice, letting people really mistake my kindness that I don't care.
51:49
SPEAKER_00: And we're really walking through this with our team right now of being not being that country club mentality with no accountability.
52:00
SPEAKER_00: We're trying to transform over to being highly accountable with a great culture and not losing.
52:06
SPEAKER_04: So I know exactly what you're gonna say, but I'll help them.
52:10
SPEAKER_04: Um what are the some of the things of, you know, people mistake your kindness as a weakness, uh, or lack of call-outs or lack of accountability in those certain things.
52:21
SPEAKER_04: What are some of the things that you've seen that that's allowed the team to do or not to be able to do?
52:26
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so the biggest deal there, we'll we'll put in management side of whether it's in finance or sales or or wherever it would be, our willingness to always help and be there and be involved is a crutch, is a really big deal crutch whenever you pull yourself out of it trying to let your team elevate.
52:46
SPEAKER_00: So I've seen a whole lot of times that of um specific manager that I'll have them in there and doing what they're doing.
52:56
SPEAKER_00: I know they're not good at that.
52:58
SPEAKER_00: I'm okay with that because I'm sitting there and they're a void that I need help with here, but it's not allowing them to grow.
53:08
SPEAKER_00: And I am really basically crippling them, not letting them be able to know, hey, I need to grow in this and I need to be held more accountable there.
53:19
SPEAKER_00: So that's really where I've seen of growing that we've had to step in there and be able to help them.
53:25
SPEAKER_05: Yeah, Terry, you bring up a subject that everybody out there struggles with.
53:31
SPEAKER_05: And and and here's and we just recently listened to a podcast that I sent to you guys and you listened to as well, of a really successful dealer down in Houston.
53:39
SPEAKER_05: And he said, Here's here's kind of the two different scenarios I'll see.
53:43
SPEAKER_05: He said, I'll either find people that that really care, okay, and they're kind and their culture's fantastic, but they have more of a country club setting.
53:54
SPEAKER_05: Or I find people that that really have great accountability, okay, but don't care and have more of a dictatorship and they're managing by fear.
54:04
SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
54:05
SPEAKER_05: And so what we've really worked to do is how can we combine both of those?
54:10
SPEAKER_05: How can we combine culture and accountability?
54:13
SPEAKER_05: Yes.
54:14
SPEAKER_05: You know, because what you're saying, there there's a couple of quotes I'm gonna put together here, but what you're saying is I'm kind to our employees because I care about them.
54:24
SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
54:25
SPEAKER_05: And there's a quote out there that says, People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care.
54:31
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
54:32
SPEAKER_05: So you'll never get access to them to pour into them if you're not kind.
54:36
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
54:37
SPEAKER_05: However, on the flip side, and Shelby brought this quote up just a minute ago, it says, Don't mistake my kindness for weakness.
54:43
SPEAKER_05: So, like, you gotta be able to make that transition you're talking about.
54:47
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
54:47
SPEAKER_00: And what's been going back to your managers of hiring from outside, I love this because it gives us a breath of fresh air.
54:54
SPEAKER_00: But remember, we talked about doing something we had never done.
54:57
SPEAKER_00: Hiring managers allowed us to be able to see new ideas, new processes, new things that we didn't know about.
55:03
SPEAKER_00: But the number one thing that I love, they come from a corporate store that they could care less about them.
55:09
SPEAKER_00: It's a policy procedure, and they're going here.
55:12
SPEAKER_00: So you think whenever we bring that manager in and they see how we're working hard, oh, they want to go to war for our team and be involved, never want to do anything else because it's a culture like none other.
55:26
SPEAKER_00: But that's really helped me grow and see okay, there's some stuff we're missing out on.
55:32
SPEAKER_00: Okay, there's a level of accountability that's okay here to hold our team to.
55:37
SPEAKER_05: So, what do you think like for the audience out there, uh, you now versus three to five years ago?
55:44
SPEAKER_05: What change have you made through that story to keep your kindness but have your accountability?
55:51
SPEAKER_00: Your biggest deal in which you grow and do this, uh, this this changes as you grow through your business ranks of realizing, and we've all been through it, but of your coworkers that you're working with all the time, they can't be your best friends that you hang out with outside of the group.
56:12
SPEAKER_00: So it's really been splitting and separating.
56:16
SPEAKER_00: I'm not saying you can't go out with a team every now and then, sure, but it's not the person you hang out with at work and at home because it we're we as brothers have something obviously that we know, hey, when to expect something more or less, or it's time to kick it in gear and go.
56:35
SPEAKER_00: If I'm hanging out with them buddy buddy all the time and I ask him for more, uh, it's my buddy.
56:39
SPEAKER_00: I don't have to, he doesn't really mean it.
56:41
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
56:42
SPEAKER_05: I think that's a great point.
56:44
SPEAKER_05: And and and so many people mess that up as they they cross that line.
56:50
SPEAKER_05: This is a business.
56:51
SPEAKER_05: It is, this isn't a hobby.
56:53
SPEAKER_05: And and and our role, like you got to remember this, this has to be your North Star.
56:58
SPEAKER_05: Is our role is to provide a great place for people to work, to thrive, and to earn a great living to support their family or whatever else it may be.
57:09
SPEAKER_05: And if you allow that align to cross over into more of a hobby in your relationships, you can't do what you're supposed to do because your emotions get involved.
57:20
SPEAKER_05: Um, and again, some people take that the wrong way, and they're like, oh, that means you don't care.
57:24
SPEAKER_05: Has nothing to do with it.
57:25
SPEAKER_05: You actually care more because you're trying to help them be successful, but a great place for them to work.
57:30
SPEAKER_05: Absolutely.
57:31
SPEAKER_04: That that that's so, and there's different managing styles.
57:35
SPEAKER_04: So I don't know the coach's name, maybe you guys will tell me.
57:37
SPEAKER_04: Um, but I just watched the the Jerry Jones documentary and his two different coaches after he brought in his coach that was from Arkansas with Jimmy Johnson.
57:47
SPEAKER_04: Jimmy Johnson.
57:48
SPEAKER_04: Barry Switzer was the second one.
57:49
SPEAKER_04: And then Barry Switzer was the second one.
57:51
SPEAKER_04: Two complete, you know, Jimmy Johnson was all about accountability, right?
57:55
SPEAKER_04: Performance at a high level.
57:57
SPEAKER_04: Whoever you were, we're gonna get out there.
58:00
SPEAKER_04: You know, he was doing the he did the 10 hundreds or whatever, and he was just running through it.
58:04
SPEAKER_04: And I was like, yes, I love that.
58:05
SPEAKER_04: He wasn't nice to anybody.
58:06
SPEAKER_04: No, no, no.
58:07
SPEAKER_04: And it was it was not because he was mad at you, and it was not because you weren't performing, it was just because he was pushing you to the next level.
58:14
SPEAKER_04: I was like, yes, yes, yes, yes.
58:15
SPEAKER_04: And then Barry Switzer came in, and that's where uh him and Troy Eggman.
58:20
SPEAKER_04: Troy Eggman, thank you.
58:21
SPEAKER_04: Where Troy Eggman, um, I I love the competitiveness.
58:24
SPEAKER_04: I'm not overly, you know, in the weeds about the who the person is, but Troy Eggman didn't get along because he was so used to Jimmy Johnson's accountability on the whole team.
58:34
SPEAKER_04: Now he was mad at people missing blocks or people not showing up on time or people not putting in their full effort.
58:39
SPEAKER_04: And it went to a country club mentality, and it was like, oh my gosh.
58:43
SPEAKER_04: And so I was so resonated.
58:45
SPEAKER_04: One of the things when you ask him, hey, what's the biggest changes in three to five years?
58:49
SPEAKER_04: I was sitting here thinking, and one of the things it's funny because this we didn't talk about these topics before.
58:54
SPEAKER_04: And if I wasn't gonna do the Lowest Guarantee, I was gonna talk about kind of that exact same thing and taking what's in your mind that needs to be handled, what needs to be done, and getting the team to understand that.
59:04
SPEAKER_04: One of the biggest things of you being able to perform, by you, I mean a high-level leader, is you are now managing the people and the activity versus actually doing the activity.
59:19
SPEAKER_04: So, which is tough because we were all raised.
59:22
SPEAKER_04: If the trash needs to be picked up, you go pick it up.
59:25
SPEAKER_04: Yes.
59:26
SPEAKER_04: But more often than not, last night I left here, it was 7:30, and we'd closed at 7, but I was still wrapping some stuff up and this and that, as we always do.
59:35
SPEAKER_04: And I noticed there were still a couple convertible tops down right next to the sales manager's office at the pre owned building.
59:44
SPEAKER_04: So I was like, what did I do?
59:46
SPEAKER_04: I got my keys, I unlocked the building, and I put the tops up.
59:49
SPEAKER_04: Because that's just our mentality, and that's what you do as a leader, right?
59:52
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
59:53
SPEAKER_04: But then I was like, opportunity, right?
59:55
SPEAKER_04: I have to coach through this.
59:57
SPEAKER_04: Was like, hey, these cars right here, top.
1:00:00
SPEAKER_04: Are down, please get with your team.
1:00:02
SPEAKER_04: And at the end of the day, it's your responsibility.
1:00:04
SPEAKER_04: The same way it's my responsibility, right?
1:00:06
SPEAKER_04: I'm not gonna say, hey, get your ass back down here and do this.
1:00:10
SPEAKER_04: That's just, but I want you to know that I had to do that.
1:00:13
SPEAKER_04: So hopefully it doesn't happen again.
1:00:15
SPEAKER_04: So you're no longer the one that is doing all the tasks.
1:00:19
SPEAKER_04: Doesn't mean you don't have to do it every once in a while, but you're gonna help the people understand how to get to do the task.
1:00:25
SPEAKER_05: The coach is not running the football anymore.
1:00:27
SPEAKER_05: No, they will not.
1:00:28
SPEAKER_05: The coach is not throwing the football anymore.
1:00:30
SPEAKER_05: And even if they were talented enough, they were young enough to still be the running back, if they were if they were out on the field running the ball, they wouldn't be able to see what's going on on the field.
1:00:39
SPEAKER_05: They would only see what's right in front of them.
1:00:41
SPEAKER_04: And that's one of the biggest things from an outside perspective watching Taylor, because I'll go in the sales manager's office, bring my iPad and work on stuff or work on, and people have learned now they're not going to ask me to desk a deal.
1:00:52
SPEAKER_04: Now, if I see a swamp and it needs help, I'll get in and desk a deal.
1:00:57
SPEAKER_04: Right?
1:00:57
SPEAKER_04: I'm just observing.
1:00:58
SPEAKER_04: And so where Taylor has grown and learned was that people were coming to him because he was the warm and fuzzy.
1:01:05
SPEAKER_04: And they had two sales managers he was paying great money for, and they wouldn't go to him because he was the easier, nicer, more fun option.
1:01:11
SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
1:01:12
SPEAKER_04: And so then he's learned to grow to say, see Mason, see Paul.
1:01:16
SPEAKER_04: Right?
1:01:16
SPEAKER_04: They're sitting right there.
1:01:18
SPEAKER_04: And the salesperson's like, you know, especially if they were buddy buddy, they're like, No, they want to talk to you, Taylor.
1:01:24
SPEAKER_04: They want to talk to Mr.
1:01:25
SPEAKER_04: Lewis.
1:01:26
SPEAKER_04: And it's like, mm-mm.
1:01:27
SPEAKER_04: Like, I can't do my job if I'm doing other people's jobs.
1:01:31
SPEAKER_05: I'm I'm gonna I'm gonna say this and I guarantee you y'all resonate with us.
1:01:34
SPEAKER_05: We've never talked about it, but I bet you'll resonate with us.
1:01:38
SPEAKER_05: So, so we have top gun sheets that come out.
1:01:42
SPEAKER_05: Now it's digital, you know, it shows top finance manager, top sales manager, uh top salesperson, average PVR, amount of deals done, and this and that.
1:01:53
SPEAKER_05: And I'll tell you one of the most difficult things to do is to go from a position in a finance manager or sales manager, and let's say you go up the next level of finance director, GSM, GM, whatever it may be, and and that sheet comes out.
1:02:07
SPEAKER_05: Well, more than likely your name's still gonna be on that sheet because you're still helping and you're involved.
1:02:12
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
1:02:12
SPEAKER_05: Well, there's the competitiveness of you that that still wants to be the one that desked the most deals.
1:02:19
SPEAKER_05: Or even if you didn't desk the most deals, you want to have the highest PVR because you want to set the example for the whole team.
1:02:25
SPEAKER_02: Oh, yeah.
1:02:26
SPEAKER_05: Or in finance, you want to have the highest PVR or the most deals done.
1:02:30
SPEAKER_05: Even though you're managing the producers now, but instinctly, you're like, I still want to make sure that I'm proving and I'm showing that I've got this and you should listen to me because the proof's in the pudding.
1:02:41
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
1:02:42
SPEAKER_05: And I can remember going from each of those positions, and it took me a while to go, let go of that, let the spotlight be on the others.
1:02:51
SPEAKER_05: And even if your PVR shows negative$632, quit saying that's a reflection on you.
1:02:58
SPEAKER_05: Your reflection is how many people did you have that you elevated up?
1:03:01
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, because now winning was getting your team to be better than the other team.
1:03:06
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
1:03:06
SPEAKER_04: But I mean, I mean, I've just gotta think that y'all had felt the same way at points of times you look at your name on there, fresh out of it, going, especially if you work on a good deal or something that, you know, is much more than the average or whatever it is in any department, and it comes across and they put it in another manager's name.
1:03:25
SPEAKER_04: You're like, no, no, sir, no math.
1:03:28
SPEAKER_04: Uh uh uh like I close that down.
1:03:31
SPEAKER_04: It's like, yeah.
1:03:32
SPEAKER_04: But uh it's it's learning to win of never wanting any recognition, of allowing other people to win, because that's now what we're doing.
1:03:41
SPEAKER_04: It's helping other people.
1:03:43
SPEAKER_05: Yeah, I might just take my name off that list so I don't have to look at it.
1:03:45
SPEAKER_05: But but it's but it's more than that.
1:03:47
SPEAKER_05: It's the zigziggler quote of help enough others to do what they want, and you'll get what you want.
1:03:51
SPEAKER_05: But that it's it's hard.
1:03:53
SPEAKER_04: But as soon as you can get better at that, you open a whole new door that you never even knew.
1:03:58
SPEAKER_04: It's like, oh my gosh, we've got all this over here.
1:04:00
SPEAKER_04: It's like, uh-huh.
1:04:01
SPEAKER_04: You can never see it because you never stop desking deals.
1:04:04
SPEAKER_04: It's buried.
1:04:04
SPEAKER_04: You've just been desking deals, you know, and and we see it because we're all phases differently, right?
1:04:10
SPEAKER_04: Five years apart.
1:04:11
SPEAKER_04: And I'm like, yeah, I've walked past that thing four times and text this and this, like, yeah, that thing's been right there.
1:04:16
SPEAKER_04: And it's like, oh, I never saw that because I was just buried in this.
1:04:20
SPEAKER_04: I know, but I was winning.
1:04:21
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, good job.
1:04:22
SPEAKER_04: I'm at the top of it.
1:04:23
SPEAKER_04: Well, that thing's 184 days old and uh still waiting on the city.
1:04:27
SPEAKER_05: So the difference is there is if you take a leader there that okay, they might be they might have held on wanting their number one position, but they've pushed and buried at the cost of the rest of their team.
1:04:37
SPEAKER_05: Right.
1:04:37
SPEAKER_05: Versus elevating the whole team and then actually the production's larger.
1:04:41
SPEAKER_05: Yep.
1:04:42
SPEAKER_05: Yep.
1:04:42
SPEAKER_05: You know, that that's a big deal there.
1:04:44
SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
1:04:45
SPEAKER_05: All right, that's a good, good, good subject there.
1:04:47
SPEAKER_05: Absolutely.
1:04:48
SPEAKER_05: Okay, so a couple of questions for y'all on uh, you know, our quiz of the day or question of the day.
1:04:54
SPEAKER_05: What's the hardest leadership lesson you've learned about people?
1:05:00
SPEAKER_05: So, what is the hardest leadership lesson that you've learned about people and how has it changed the way you lead today?
1:05:08
SPEAKER_05: So, what's something that just really kicked you in the teeth hard enough that you thought about it, thought about it, and then ended up changing the way that you lead today?
1:05:16
SPEAKER_04: I'll start.
1:05:17
SPEAKER_04: Uh, I thought I'd given you all my intel that I knew so far today, but I found another one.
1:05:22
SPEAKER_04: Um just because it's easy for you does not mean it will be easier for someone else.
1:05:29
SPEAKER_04: And I see that with my kids, I see that for my wife, I see that for everyone.
1:05:34
SPEAKER_04: You're an expert in your area and you're generally in your mind gonna deliver the absolute best in that.
1:05:40
SPEAKER_04: So, what I've struggled with is like a manager that I've given tasks to, like, why don't we get that?
1:05:47
SPEAKER_04: Like, and why do we need to come back to that?
1:05:49
SPEAKER_04: Because here's the task, here's how to do it, here's a little opportunity for you to use your own thinking and grow in that.
1:05:57
SPEAKER_04: But why is why are we not performing that?
1:06:00
SPEAKER_04: You know, and so then that's a layer deep, like the people below are they doing that?
1:06:03
SPEAKER_04: Uh but just understanding, and so that was the problem that people will not learn and adapt at the same level, and they won't get it the same that you will.
1:06:13
SPEAKER_04: And and it's one thing because it's in your mind and it's always been there, or it's ingrained in there, and then getting it to paper is the first time you've ever shared it.
1:06:20
SPEAKER_04: And so you've you've had the advance of knowing about it for a long time.
1:06:25
SPEAKER_04: So I've had to change that of expectations.
1:06:27
SPEAKER_04: You've heard us talk about our 70% rule.
1:06:29
SPEAKER_04: If you can get someone else to perform at 70%, and you get to another task, then you're gonna win, right?
1:06:35
SPEAKER_04: Especially if you get to keep multiplying that.
1:06:36
SPEAKER_04: But then just really doing my very best to take everything from my brain of what it thinks, scramble it down on paper, clean it up, and deliver very clear expectations before the task has ever started rolling down the line, you know?
1:06:51
SPEAKER_04: So, like, hey, in my mind, here's what I'm thinking.
1:06:53
SPEAKER_04: What's your guys' thoughts?
1:06:54
SPEAKER_04: What works, what doesn't work, and then going through that.
1:06:57
SPEAKER_04: So that's a big thing of people not being able to deliver at the level you think.
1:07:02
SPEAKER_05: And I think that's that's a great point.
1:07:04
SPEAKER_05: And I think we we we have to remember that everybody has different talents, and there are areas that they'll boom, pick up, and go.
1:07:12
SPEAKER_05: And then other no different school.
1:07:14
SPEAKER_05: You know, I didn't do well in English, I did well in math.
1:07:17
SPEAKER_05: And then there were other people that did really well in English, like, why don't you get this?
1:07:20
SPEAKER_04: And let me give you real world because that's so real.
1:07:22
SPEAKER_04: In like three weeks ago, or maybe more, uh, in our Monday morning meeting, I was talking about trying to invite everybody to an event here at the dealership.
1:07:30
SPEAKER_04: And so I was like, I have to like get really granular.
1:07:32
SPEAKER_04: I'm like, so on my iPad, I pull up Facebook, and I'm like, hey, you need to go invite everyone to this event.
1:07:38
SPEAKER_04: I said, and if you do it from your desktop, it's gonna allow you to scroll through and you can hit invite and it'll allow you 500 people's time of all your friends.
1:07:47
SPEAKER_04: And then one of the guys, one of the salespeople, you know, because I'm like, majority of the people don't figure this out or won't do it.
1:07:52
SPEAKER_04: So I'm gonna help them completely walk through.
1:07:54
SPEAKER_04: Everybody, get on your phone, let's do it now, but get on your desktop because you can do invite 500.
1:07:59
SPEAKER_04: And he was like, uh, Shelby?
1:08:00
SPEAKER_04: And I was like, Yeah, bud, what do you got?
1:08:02
SPEAKER_04: He's like, hey, if you do at everyone from your phone, it tags everyone.
1:08:07
SPEAKER_04: I was like, You got it, right?
1:08:09
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
1:08:10
SPEAKER_04: I was like, thank you so much for saying something just because I'm, you know, this guy up here on the stage, yeah, thank you so much.
1:08:16
SPEAKER_04: I was like, all right, hit everybody hit add everyone.
1:08:19
SPEAKER_04: I was like, so do we just hit the blue button and it's in?
1:08:21
SPEAKER_04: He's like, yep.
1:08:22
SPEAKER_04: I was like, all right, here we go.
1:08:24
SPEAKER_04: So there was someone that I think this, this, and this, and I got it handled.
1:08:28
SPEAKER_04: Nope, there's someone out there doing better and more knows more about something than you do.
1:08:32
SPEAKER_05: But that's because you created an atmosphere where you could be vulnerable and people could could be able to say everything.
1:08:38
SPEAKER_05: Absolutely.
1:08:38
SPEAKER_05: No different when we get up there and we'd say people, hey, if you see an error in the numbers, let us know.
1:08:41
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, just please tell me so I don't just keep looking like a fool saying that.
1:08:44
SPEAKER_05: And you're just talking about the meeting after the meeting, how bad that's it.
1:08:47
SPEAKER_05: Let's just have it now.
1:08:48
SPEAKER_05: Exactly.
1:08:49
SPEAKER_00: Keller, what do you think?
1:08:50
SPEAKER_00: We've talked about this time and time and time over several times today, but clear expectations.
1:08:56
SPEAKER_00: It I got so aggravated is this communicating those.
1:09:01
SPEAKER_00: It it's hard enough on um being a guy, we don't communicate well at all.
1:09:07
SPEAKER_00: But getting aggravated when it really is just yourself that you should be aggravated at because you're not clear.
1:09:13
SPEAKER_00: Like yesterday, had been working on uh pricing reports all day long and been going around, and I get to the simplest thing that I have told them umpteenth times, clean the back windows, clean the back windows.
1:09:28
SPEAKER_00: And I wanted to kick yell screen flip the desk over.
1:09:31
SPEAKER_00: And I said, Hey, you know what, team, let's all get together.
1:09:34
SPEAKER_00: I walked out and it was kindly stern.
1:09:38
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
1:09:39
SPEAKER_00: Walked outside and I said, Hey, this is a back window.
1:09:42
SPEAKER_00: When I say clean this back window, I mean this is how you scrape it off.
1:09:46
SPEAKER_00: These are stickers that we pull off.
1:09:48
SPEAKER_00: Are we clear?
1:09:49
SPEAKER_00: And then all of them are like, oh my gosh, like dad's mad now.
1:09:53
SPEAKER_00: I understand I've done bad.
1:09:55
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes you have to get so simple with your team and have your clear expectations, have your game plan laid out, but you get too busy to do that, and then you get mad when you should really only get mad at yourself.
1:10:07
SPEAKER_05: Yeah, and you're real, your your big nugget there is clear expectations, but then show them.
1:10:12
SPEAKER_05: Yes.
1:10:13
SPEAKER_05: But then show them.
1:10:13
SPEAKER_05: You took the time, you said, okay, I get it.
1:10:16
SPEAKER_05: They're not grasping a hold of me just coming out with a memo, and here's how you do it.
1:10:19
SPEAKER_05: Come on, everybody come on.
1:10:21
SPEAKER_04: Well, that's no different than the learning pyramid of the three or five percent from the email or from me saying it.
1:10:26
SPEAKER_04: You know, if it's written, it's a little bit more hands-on task.
1:10:30
SPEAKER_04: All right, we're gonna do a field trip because everyone is really struggling with the car wash, and we're all gonna walk through the car wash together.
1:10:36
SPEAKER_04: Here's how you put it in, here's how you bring it through, here's how you put the sticker, here's where it goes.
1:10:41
SPEAKER_04: Any questions?
1:10:42
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, you two, what's your question?
1:10:45
SPEAKER_04: Let's go through it.
1:10:46
SPEAKER_04: Okay, is there any reason we can't do this every single day without fail?
1:10:49
SPEAKER_04: Okay, and what do I need to do to hold you accountable every single day without me having to wash every single car myself?
1:10:57
SPEAKER_05: That that's a great one.
1:10:59
SPEAKER_05: Hey, it's been some great stories today, and hopefully you guys have gotten some out of this as well when we've walked through when we've made mistakes or adjustments, how it didn't bury us, but it just challenged us and helped us to be able to find opportunities and adjustments to be able to pilot this monster going forward.
1:11:16
SPEAKER_05: Make sure as always check us out at Lewis Superstore.com and then Crossroads Conversation Podcast.com to get this episode and many more.
1:11:24
SPEAKER_05: Hey, thanks for joining us today, and we hope you enjoyed this episode.
1:11:27
SPEAKER_05: Make sure to give it a like, share it with your friends and family, visit our website, and send us some questions.
1:11:33
SPEAKER_05: We want to know what you'd like to 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 the automotive industry or just business in general.