Latest / Crossroad Conversations with the Lewis Brothers / Ep.59 - The Silent Killer of Business: Assumptions

Transcript

Ep.59 - The Silent Killer of Business: Assumptions · Crossroad Conversations with the Lewis Brothers

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Is even if you have one person's motivation figured out, the season of their life could change and the motivation changes.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_00: And here's what I mean here.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_00: People are not motivated by money.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_00: I'm just like, here's an I don't care what you think on the other side.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_00: If you're like, no, no, I am.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_00: I'm motivated by money.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_00: You're not motivated by money.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_00: You're motivated by what money gives you access to.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_00: Hey everyone, welcome to Crossroad Conversations with the Lewis Brothers, where we aim to share real stories about running a successful family business, working through adversity, and pouring back into the community that keeps our door open.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_00: We're your host, Matt, Shelby, and Taylor, and we bring you relevant local business advice and automotive insights that are sure to change the way you look at running a business.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_00: And maybe even throw in a plug for you to do business with us.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, welcome to Crossroad Conversations.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_00: It's episode 59 today.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_00: The subject, the silent killer of business.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_00: It's the word assumptions.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_00: Oh kids.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_00: Assumptions.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_00: And man, are we going to dive into that topic today?
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: You know what?
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_00: Every business has blind spots.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_00: And most of the time, it's not because leaders don't care.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it's because they make assumptions about customers, employees, the market, and even each other.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_00: Today we're talking about how assumptions quietly, that's the key word, kill progress.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_00: Most leaders don't know what they don't know.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_00: And guess what fills the gaps?
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_00: Assumptions.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_00: Assumptions feel safe but are dangerous.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_00: They lead to poor decisions, missed opportunities, and communication breakdowns.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_00: Every business owner listening has made at least one assumption, including myself.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_00: I think that's kind saying one.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_00: I know.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_00: I was gonna say more than that, but you know, I didn't want to lose our listeners right off the bat.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_00: Blanket coverage.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe have made one.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_01: Or a hundred.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, I love diving into last week's episode because a lot of times, like, oh, yeah, I've got everything figured out of going through there.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_01: No, we went through instances that each of us and then deep dove into each of them, have hard lessons that we've learned, processes that we've changed, policies that we've changed, and we've had to swallow pride a little bit and say, hey, help me with this.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_01: Let's look at this, and we need to redirect.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_01: So it was a great episode of diving into there.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_00: You know, one of the things I loved about that is, and we talk about this, but you know, never miss an opportunity when you failed or made a wrong decision to learn from it.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_00: And that's what we did by examples last week.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, if you miss that one, go back and check it out.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, you're always winning or learning.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_03: That's right.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_03: It's not winning and losing, it's winning and learning.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_03: Hey, always check it out, LewisSupershore.com.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_03: You can see over a thousand vehicles in stock for your shopping convenience, whether it's cars under$10,000 or 0% interest across 72 months on a lot of or up to$15,000 off.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_03: LewisSupershar.com is where you can see the freshest inventory.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_03: And as always, to see our past episodes, you can go to Crossroad Conversations Podcast.com.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_03: If you'll hit like or follow, it's gonna hit you the latest of every Thursday when that drops, and it'll bring you the most relevant, up to date.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_00: And one of our favorite subjects of the podcast about what's in the garage.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_00: And today we're talking about a vehicle as we start to creep into fall in the holiday season of you're gonna be taking people around.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_03: Let's go to the pumpkin patch.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_00: You know what I mean?
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_00: Whether you're going to the pumpkin patch or we're going trick-or-treating, popping everybody, Thanksgiving, and you're going to grandmother's, then maybe it's Christmas.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_00: And the weather could be different too.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_00: So you got to have a vehicle that packs everybody in there and that can get through the woods or in inclement weather up the mountain.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_00: And that vehicle today, it's the expedition.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, yeah.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_00: And not only the expedition, but the redesigned expedition.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_00: And then I've seen, you know, you guys have been doing a little bit behind the scenes, and you got a couple that are upfitted.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah, because we the Ford does a great job.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_03: We just like to be a little different.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_03: Just a little bit better.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_03: 2,800 Ford dealers in the United States, and we just want to be able to offer.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_03: So we just finished one up building a uh Expedition Max.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_03: That means same three rows of seating plus storage behind it.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_03: For all your stuff.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_03: Oh my gosh.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_03: If you bring it up and they're in sports, all of it.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_03: Buddy, you got a Matt's got more tackling dummies than you can imagine.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_03: Cones.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_03: You can't put anything else in the back of my truck at all.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_03: I can.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_03: I can't.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_01: I didn't put my luggage in the other day and he said, uh-uh, bring it up.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_03: Put it in your lap.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_03: So had you been driving an expedition, you could put it in the back of the back of your sports gear.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_03: So it's a max.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_03: The 25 model is completely redesigned.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_03: It is.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_03: I I haven't driven one yet, but this one that we finished yesterday, it's got a different yoke style steering wheel.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_03: And it doesn't have a bunch of buttons on the steering wheels.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_03: It just has a couple touch pads.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_03: And so you're able to change, and you have dual maps.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_03: It's powered by Google Connect and Google Play.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_03: So you can say, hey, Google, and it starts doing stuff.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_03: Then it's dope.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_03: It has a connectivity package.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_03: So your car's connected, your phone can be connected.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_03: And I'm talking about uh signal of Wi-Fi that it does.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_03: Uh they've rolled it all together as a bundle root ski.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_03: Uh so you're not having to pay a bunch of subscriptions there.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_03: Uh it's got blue crews.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_01: You know what I love they did on that, and that Ford really figured it out.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_01: There's a family vehicle and the blue crews this last year, they simplified.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_01: But it's all the way from the used to be XLT active all the way up to the Platinum Plus, all have Blue Cruise.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_01: Self-driving on the Interstate, lane change.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_03: And and you're like, man, I don't know.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_03: And I'm gonna tell you, like, I've got a Bronco that has adaptive cruise.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_03: I don't use it.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_03: Um, I have an F-150 that has Blue Cruise.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_03: And let me tell you this on roads in Mexico, uh on closed tracks, I like to drive faster than normal.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_03: Right?
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_03: Blue Cruise, that was my disclaimer.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_03: Uh blue cruise uh only goes up to 81 miles an hour.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_03: What do you like that?
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_03: Uh I don't like it.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_03: But I'll tell you, I've been driving all over the place lately, chasing kids and going to Little Rock and all these things.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_03: I would rather drive 81 in 75 miles an hour uh than drive faster and have to keep my hands on the wheel because it's hands-free.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_03: Right and uh it's like you hop on the interstate, set the cruise, and go.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_00: You know what some people talk about, like they throw around this term, but until you've experienced it, you're like, yeah, yeah, yeah, whatever.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_00: That's not real.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_00: But driver fatigue.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_00: Oh.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_00: You know, when you're actually getting to an event where you feel more rested because you you don't realize the amount of energy and focus, you know, that your brain uses and your arms and your, you know, directing that vehicle down the road.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_00: The blue cruise is fantastic.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_00: It is.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_00: But I also got to ask you about, and I think it's a platinum, it might be a it might be a limited, the one that you wrap the top on because it caught my eye the other day.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, yeah.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_01: So that one is, you know, that's our off-road package.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_01: It's level kit, wheels, tires, 36.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_03: It's got 22s, 35s, a three-inch level kit, blackout package.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_03: And it's built on an active, you would never know that.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_03: It still gets heated leather seats, second row buckets, twin-panel moonroof, and it's uh it's sub sub$90,000.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_03: Gotcha.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_03: But then the one you're talking about is a platinum.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, this is like our street pad.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it looks good.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_01: I love the tall hat package, that's what we call.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_01: But it is from basically where your windows roll down up is gloss black, bottom is pearl white, so looks star white, which looks really good, but it is on the showroom and gives that sleek street look.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_01: The 22-inch wheel.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_01: Yep.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_01: It's got the high output motor.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_01: So it's a Raptor motor, power boards, and you're like, good night, that thing is probably so high.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_01: It's in the mid-80s.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_01: It's in the mid-80s, so a lot of value there.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so the expedition is perfect to get your family prepared to make it to all the family events and all the family fun in this holiday season.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_03: No doubt about that.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_03: All right, so let's unpack this thing.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_03: The second killer of business, the assumptions.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_03: The assumptions leader make about people.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_03: We're gonna start with most importantly, uh this could go off the rails.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_03: I'm taking some time.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_03: Assuming employees, the uh this is uh Craig wrote this for me, I think.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_03: I don't know if he knows this, but I have struggled with this for the past uh three, four, five years, whatever.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_03: I struggled before that.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_03: I recognized it.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_03: But assuming employees understand priorities without you ever saying them out loud.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_03: What's your thoughts about that?
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I'm just as guilty there, and I'm just gonna throw Taylor on the bus.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_00: He is too.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, yeah.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, because we're brothers and we get to call each other out.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_00: Your fault.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_00: And one of the things I think that even drives this nail farther home that we've talked about in a past episode is because we've all grown up together, working on projects, working on business.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_00: And honestly, we've gotten to where we can't read each other's minds, but we have a pretty good idea like what needs to be next.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_00: So for umpteen years, we've spent working together doing that.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_00: And then we assume all of a sudden, if the three of us can do that, that our employees could do the same thing, right?
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_00: And man, was that wrong?
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_03: It was so wrong.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_03: And the problem was it drove a wedge between you, productivity, and your team because you had crazy high assumptions of when they would show up, how long they would work, how hard they would work, how the process would go, pretty much everything in your daily operations.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_03: And if you didn't clearly take it from your brain and translate it to paper and then deliver it to them, and here's what we want to do, and manage those expectations, you could come up with anything.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_03: Yep.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_03: Right?
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_03: There's a a billion different variations of how someone would get there, and the chances of it being how you want it to be done because it's proven and it works, are little to none.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_03: It really is.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_03: And it would drive you nuts.
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_03: You want to talk about brain fatigue.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_01: What do you mean though?
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_01: It because in business, let's say you're taught of, hey, you work hard, you show your team how to work hard, and they'll follow.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_01: That that's what everybody thinks of going through there, but that's not necessarily true if you don't communicate that.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_00: You got to communicate it.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I I want to say something here because there's this fine line, and there's these words that get thrown around all the time about manage, about micromanaging people.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_00: And so some people will put something out of the send a memo of we need to do X, Y, and Z.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_00: But then they don't take the time to explain it and to what some people would call micromanage it at first, not the end all be all.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_00: All right.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_00: But it but it takes introducing a subject, but putting in the time and the tools and the training necessary for your team to then go with it.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_03: You gotta you gotta manage the process.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_03: You have to manage creating a new habit.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_03: Yep.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_03: We're just gonna say in the long term, it's gonna at least take 90 days.
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_03: You're gonna have to change their habit.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_03: You can't just say, hey, go fix this car and then just stop there.
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_03: You're you're gonna need to tell them the entire process.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_03: If you really want to streamline and build so that you don't come back to service after you've been in parts and service or sales, or you've been in whatever you're doing, whatever business we're talking about, and you say, Hey, go and sell this hot tub, or hey, uh, go mow this yard.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_03: Like you have to know Mrs.
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_03: Smith wants it at three inches and she wants you to trim the hedges.
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_03: This guy, if you touch his hedges, he's gonna flip crap.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_03: You know what I mean?
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_03: Like all those things and some courtesy and some checks along the way, but you cannot, it can't just be a memo.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_03: It can't not be a memo, and you just go around and show them how to do it because they don't care that much.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_03: And you can't not follow up with the memo and show them how to do it.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_00: Were you talking about my yard?
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_00: No.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_00: No.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_00: I figured because you ought to scalp your yard, mine's gotta be a three inch.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_03: We have different grasses.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_03: Mine's mine's a natural mix.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_00: Because it's low for low time.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_00: I gotta get a little bit of a plush there.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_03: But anyway, just because my neighbor mow says with the dad gum straight from the golf.
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_03: I know.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_03: Oh my gosh.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_03: So if I mow mine really short, it looks like mine's three weeks long.
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_00: But I think that's a great subject that you gotta take the time, and it's frustrating as a leader, especially when you're a go, go, go.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_00: How can I pack more into it?
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_00: But it goes back to the old proverb about you know, you can give somebody a fish or you can teach them a fish, teach them how to fish.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_00: You know what I mean?
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_00: But in order to teach them how to fish, it takes longer, doesn't it?
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_00: But it pays off.
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_03: It's no different than the story of stopping to sharpen your axe.
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_03: Yep.
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_03: And it is so basic, right?
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_00: But naturally it doesn't happen.
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_00: No, like even though we're talking about it, you we have these filters like, whoops, slow down.
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_00: You gotta take the time, no matter what's on your schedule, to teach them how to do this if you want it done, how you're talking about doing it.
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_03: And now that now that now that I full, uh not fully, now that I somewhat understand it, it's like, oh yeah, it's basic and simple.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_03: Create a policy, create a standard operating procedure, and steal it, introduce it, show them how, follow up with it, manage it, have KPIs.
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_03: This is like, oh yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, it's still not easy, but and someone else is like, I can't figure this out.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_03: It's like, when did you introduce it?
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_03: Did you tell them how?
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_03: Did you show them what's important?
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_03: Did you, you know, it's no different than the car wash thing.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_03: And that we I day later.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I find one sitting behind the car wash, someone's dropped, and I'm like, hey guys, what are we doing?
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_03: So I get in it, I drive it through, and then I park it right in the middle of service, and I walk around with the keys, knowing who it belongs to.
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_03: I'm like, hey, whose was this?
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_03: Who's was this?
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_03: And they're like, oh my gosh.
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_03: And that's my way of saying, hey, we fell short a little bit.
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_03: What can I do to make sure that that doesn't happen again?
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_03: That that's so tricky.
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_03: Here's the another point believing everyone is motivated by the same things that you are.
• 14:17
  SPEAKER_04: False.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_03: That wasn't a question, but uh the the statement like that everyone's gonna the age old, everyone's gonna pick up the trash.
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_04: Sure.
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_03: Everyone's gonna get the leaf blower down that I've been asking them for two weeks to do and blow the parking lot.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_03: Everyone's gonna park all the cars before they go home so it's fresh and ready to go in the morning.
• 14:38
  SPEAKER_03: Sure.
• 14:38
  SPEAKER_03: Everyone's gonna do the laundry Friday, Saturday, this morning.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_03: There was no towels.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_03: Somehow we have 150 towels and there was no clean towels this morning.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_03: I was using the the washcloth to dry off with.
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_03: So then I was doing the laundry, just assuming like somebody would see like the towels are piled up this high.
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_03: Hey, I should probably start some laundry.
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_03: If you believe or assume that everyone is by motivated the same level or the same things as you are, you're setting yourself up for huge failure.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_00: And then let's go on the other side of it of believing that everybody's motivated by the same things.
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_00: You know, that's far from the truth.
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_00: Not only that, but I'm gonna go one layer deeper here is even if you have one person's motivation figured out, the season of their life could change and the motivation changes.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_00: And here's what I mean here: people are not motivated by money.
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_00: I'm just like, here's an I don't care what you think on the other side.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_00: If you're like, no, no, no, I am.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_00: I'm motivated by money.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_00: You're not motivated by money, you're motivated by what money gives you access to.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_00: And that's when we talk about peeling the layers of the onion back, you're like, no, no, I'm really after X, Y, and Z with money.
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_00: Well, why is that?
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_00: Because you want to be able to retire, because you want to build your 401k, because you're saving up to put more investments, because that you're saving up for your kids to go to Disneyland, to pay to college, to pay off your house, to buy your first car, to move out of your parents' basement.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_00: All of these things, currency, money, is the engine towards it, but it's not the motivator.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_00: So once you peel back the layers and what was one time a motivator for somebody to move into their first house, then they have kids and they have a totally different motivator.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_00: They still have to make the money to do it.
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_00: But there it is, you won't talk about secret sauce.
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_00: You figure out what motivates somebody in the real deal, you can get them to a different gear.
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_03: And that's a powerful one-on-one of really just like, hey, Matt, what's going on in your life right now?
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_03: Hey, tell me, like, what's the thing that you're chasing right now?
• 16:39
  SPEAKER_03: It's no different than uh at Running Man, uh, Ben Neptum was talking about this was this question, he'd start when they were like 14, 15, 16 years old.
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_03: Him and three other guys came up with, hey, if I died today, what's on my bucket list of something I want to do?
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_03: And he came up with a hundred of them.
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, and it kind of puts it in a different perspective.
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_03: And so then you ask, like, hey, what's on your radar now?
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_03: And sometimes I just hit you in the gut and you're like, I don't know, I'm just in the trenches, just like just swamping through it.
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_03: But if you slow down, uh, because it's funny, I I got uh an opportunity to push a guy in a wheelchair around the loop.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_03: And so I was asking him, I was like, Hey, what's your thing you want to do?
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_03: Sure.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_03: Right?
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_03: And he was like, That's a really good question.
• 17:19
  SPEAKER_03: And then he asked me, and I was like, huh.
• 17:21
  SPEAKER_03: And I'm the idiot that asked him the question.
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_03: Uh so I was like, okay, but if you can peel it back and you you find, here's what I want to do.
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_03: My kids really want to go snow ski.
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_03: Sure.
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_03: Or my kids really want to be able to go to Disney.
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_03: Or me and my wife has always wanted to go to California to wine country.
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_03: Well, if you can find that, then you help them set their lock screen on their phone.
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_03: And you're like, hey, Steve, today we need 38 phone calls and four appointments and two deliveries from you, and that's gonna get you another wine tour.
• 17:55
  SPEAKER_00: That's right.
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_03: You know what I mean?
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_03: And they're like, these people get it.
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_00: Yep.
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_00: Such a big deal.
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_00: Now you only figure that out by not making assumptions.
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_00: That's where the assumptions part, let's bring this back around for the audience.
• 18:07
  SPEAKER_00: You know, people assume that they're motivated the same that I am, that you are, Taylor, that you are.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_00: Even the three of us have different stages of motivation.
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_00: We all want the business to be successful, but why and what does it lead to?
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_00: So when you when you take the time to do that, instead of assuming, you don't make the mistake.
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_00: You don't make the mistake.
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_03: So think about this.
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_03: This is the same subject, but thinking that silence and meetings, you know, we've all been in meetings, right?
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_03: You don't want chaos.
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_03: So silence is what you're going for, right?
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_03: A little bit.
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_03: But silence in meetings means agreement.
• 18:43
  SPEAKER_03: When it often means hesitation, right?
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_03: So that's sometimes in meetings you'll ask for feedback because you you want to know, am I speaking the right language, language?
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_03: Is anyone actually connecting to this?
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_01: Are they wait?
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_01: You know, what are we doing?
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_03: What's going on?
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_03: Is this real?
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_03: Is this transacting?
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_03: Does this make sense?
• 19:01
  SPEAKER_03: If not, we're all pretty well trained enough that you can completely change the trajectory and say, scrap the rest of the slides.
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, let's focus on this and let's peel it back.
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_03: But silence in meetings means agreement.
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_00: That's that's not true.
• 19:15
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so there's two things when I'm up in front of a meeting that I'm doing.
• 19:20
  SPEAKER_00: One, feedback, and that's verbally, but then two, nonverbal communication.
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm looking to see if somebody leaning in, are their eyes open, or they back, or do I see their eyes down on their phone, or this or that.
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_00: I'm looking for that nonverbal.
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_00: They don't necessarily have to say something, but they at least have to be interacting.
• 19:37
  SPEAKER_00: And that might be interacting, taking notes.
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_00: That might be interacting leaning forward.
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_00: Like you can tell when somebody's listening or they're not listening, or if they've kind of got that look on their face where they're they're kind of looking a little confused or they're questioning you.
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't mean they agree.
• 19:52
  SPEAKER_00: They're listening, but you better pause and go deeper into it because they don't completely understand.
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_03: Because uh, let me just be honest with you, they're not gonna say, Hey, can I have the meeting after the meeting with you?
• 20:03
  SPEAKER_03: Never.
• 20:04
  SPEAKER_03: It is so rare.
• 20:05
  SPEAKER_03: There'll be a couple people that are they're trying to get over on your good side.
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_03: It's like, hey, boss, that was really good.
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_03: Let's talk about this.
• 20:10
  SPEAKER_03: But all the other people that you really needed to get the point across to, they're not going to stop and say, Hey, when you said do X, Y, Z, what did you mean there?
• 20:21
  SPEAKER_03: So if you can read the audience and say, hey, are any of you questioning this?
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_03: Like, and then you can help fully.
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_03: Sometimes you gotta scrap the whole presentation.
• 20:29
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you do.
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_01: They're the ones that didn't even bring a pen to the meeting.
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_01: And whenever you ask and say, hey, take notes, they're just hoping you won't call them out again because they're definitely not taking notes at the end of the day.
• 20:41
  SPEAKER_01: They're just going through it to get through it.
• 20:43
  SPEAKER_01: That's it.
• 20:43
  SPEAKER_01: Right?
• 20:43
  SPEAKER_01: That's it.
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, I'll tell you this last week I was listening to a podcast uh from Stephen Furtick with Elevation Church.
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_00: And he's going through, he was talking about people in their mind and thinking and assumptions.
• 20:55
  SPEAKER_00: No different than this here.
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_00: One of the things he was talking about was anxiety, and he was talking about him and his wife.
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_00: And he said, everybody has all these files in their mind.
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_00: And as soon as something happens, it's a trigger point that they go pull that file out.
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_00: Yep.
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_00: And some people have it dialed in that when something comes their way, an issue, they're calm, cool, collected, and they just figure it out and they're solution based.
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_00: And then he was talking about, then other people, when something happens, they go pull the worst file out of that situation that was a one-off time, and that's where their mind goes.
• 21:31
  SPEAKER_00: He was talking about when his wife Holly was flying, she had called to tell him that, hey, the flight's delayed.
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_00: And he started completely freaking out about it.
• 21:43
  SPEAKER_00: Like, oh my gosh, it's delayed.
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_00: Why would they do that?
• 21:47
  SPEAKER_00: You're gonna miss this.
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_00: This is gonna happen.
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_00: You paid for the ticket, you deserve to be on time.
• 21:53
  SPEAKER_00: He's not even the one flying.
• 21:55
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, okay.
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_00: She is, and she's like, it's not a big deal, Steven.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: I've got this figured out, I layered in this time.
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's okay.
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_00: And the reason I bring that story up is because if you assume that somebody's gonna react the same way as you are, that's not correct.
• 22:12
  SPEAKER_00: We all have different reactions, and that really helped me.
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_00: And Shelby, you started talking about it at first, is understanding that people think differently.
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_00: And if they think differently, as leaders, we need to be able to coach and lead them differently, too.
• 22:27
  SPEAKER_03: Most most certainly, and you you can't assume any of that stuff, right?
• 22:31
  SPEAKER_03: That they're thinking the same way you're thinking.
• 22:33
  SPEAKER_03: And so you we have to learn to think out loud.
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_03: Not all things, but majority of the time.
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_03: And you're gonna say, Hey, I bet you're sitting there thinking this, and they go, boom, and then say, Hey, let me tell you a story.
• 22:44
  SPEAKER_03: Right?
• 22:45
  SPEAKER_03: And then you can help them through that.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_03: So the last thing that'll hit on this is trusting that they will figure it out.
• 22:52
  SPEAKER_03: That they're gonna figure out instead of clarifying exceptions.
• 22:56
  SPEAKER_03: You walk by something in the shop and you're like, Oh, that doesn't look right, or that needs some attention, and you're like, ah, they'll figure it out.
• 23:03
  SPEAKER_03: You know what they'll figure out?
• 23:05
  SPEAKER_00: Something else to occupy their time.
• 23:07
  SPEAKER_03: That's exact that's exactly right.
• 23:10
  SPEAKER_03: They will figure out that it wasn't important enough to you for you to point it out to them.
• 23:15
  SPEAKER_03: And so it's just like forgetting to shut the gate in the field, ah, the horses didn't get out.
• 23:20
  SPEAKER_03: Ah, the horses didn't get out.
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_03: I had dad didn't get on to me.
• 23:24
  SPEAKER_03: And then when the horses get out, like, how long's this gate been open?
• 23:27
  SPEAKER_03: It's like, oh it's been a week or two.
• 23:28
  SPEAKER_03: It's like, why would you leave the gate?
• 23:31
  SPEAKER_03: Why did you not lock all the cars behind service?
• 23:34
  SPEAKER_03: Well, no one broke in for the first two weeks.
• 23:36
  SPEAKER_03: Like, what made that okay?
• 23:38
  SPEAKER_03: Right?
• 23:39
  SPEAKER_01: So I had something.
• 23:42
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, I had something with rent, and this is great, it'll resonate with y'all.
• 23:46
  SPEAKER_01: But uh our biggest deal is probably like where is inventory at?
• 23:49
  SPEAKER_01: Where's the placement of things?
• 23:50
  SPEAKER_01: So, you know, always circling through, always checking and walking through no different than we talk of walking through departments.
• 23:56
  SPEAKER_01: I saw a car that was backed by Chrysler Car Wash, and it was parked there on the side.
• 24:01
  SPEAKER_01: And I said, Hmm, that's out of place.
• 24:03
  SPEAKER_01: Well, it was locked.
• 24:04
  SPEAKER_01: I was leaving that night.
• 24:05
  SPEAKER_01: I said, Okay.
• 24:06
  SPEAKER_01: So I went by a couple of days and happened to be a day that we were doing hands-on inventory.
• 24:12
  SPEAKER_01: And I just knew that I was like, you know what, I bet that's not.
• 24:15
  SPEAKER_01: So he said, Hey, got everything checked.
• 24:17
  SPEAKER_01: I said, Great.
• 24:18
  SPEAKER_01: Checked everything, all of these that are in green, because I quickly scanned down, saw that car that it was checked in green.
• 24:24
  SPEAKER_01: I said, All these green ones are out front.
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_01: We touch place, everything ready to go.
• 24:28
  SPEAKER_01: Yep, yep, yep.
• 24:29
  SPEAKER_01: We got everything ready to go.
• 24:30
  SPEAKER_01: I said, Okay, great, let's go walk and look at this.
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_01: And I'd already walked past the other.
• 24:35
  SPEAKER_01: And so nicely walking them through, I said, What about this one?
• 24:40
  SPEAKER_01: I thought you said these were out front.
• 24:41
  SPEAKER_01: We just checked all this morning.
• 24:42
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it just must have gotten moved.
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, great.
• 24:45
  SPEAKER_01: Can we go ahead and open it?
• 24:46
  SPEAKER_01: It was locked because I knew it was locked from a couple of days before.
• 24:49
  SPEAKER_01: So going through, they won't figure it out.
• 24:53
  SPEAKER_01: It sat there for two days, yeah.
• 24:55
  SPEAKER_01: And there's so much going on in your business that they're not gonna intentionally lie to you or not tell you the truth.
• 25:03
  SPEAKER_01: They're just trying to make it through.
• 25:04
  SPEAKER_01: So you're not teaching them how to properly do it.
• 25:07
  SPEAKER_01: And this one individual going through, we've taught them, so there's other things going through there, but you have to teach them.
• 25:14
  SPEAKER_01: You have to teach them.
• 25:15
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, and that's no different than having your KPIs of your checks.
• 25:18
  SPEAKER_03: Yes.
• 25:18
  SPEAKER_03: Okay, here's what I expect.
• 25:21
  SPEAKER_03: Now I'm going to inspect, and I'm gonna have your proper time tools and training.
• 25:25
  SPEAKER_03: Yep.
• 25:25
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, and then if you continue to have the same issue with the same person, you need to say, hey, let's flip this Rubik's Cube over and look at it.
• 25:33
  SPEAKER_03: Is there a different way to approach this?
• 25:36
  SPEAKER_03: Is there a better time to do this when you have less distractions?
• 25:39
  SPEAKER_03: You know, any of those things.
• 25:41
  SPEAKER_03: And you're always gonna assume the best.
• 25:43
  SPEAKER_03: People won't always do that, but you assume the be the worst, the best.
• 25:46
  SPEAKER_03: I'm sorry, you assume the best, and then help them through if it actually is not the best.
• 25:50
  SPEAKER_03: And you're like, mm-hmm.
• 25:52
  SPEAKER_03: How can I help you?
• 25:53
  SPEAKER_01: That so that's that's because I could have yelled and said, Hey, you thought, but that's just not how any of us No, it's just it like you wouldn't like it, and it's not received well.
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_01: And then I still like that, it's so much harder, like walking over there.
• 26:05
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, it does.
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, for sure it does.
• 26:07
  SPEAKER_00: Oh my god.
• 26:08
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, I will tell you this too, and and and y'all brought this up after we had a a meeting the other day last Friday with our managers and we had been meeting talking about how to improve.
• 26:18
  SPEAKER_00: You can't always do this, but when possible, quantify your expectations.
• 26:23
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, that was I saw that one's like light bulbs.
• 26:26
  SPEAKER_00: So anytime we can and you set an objective or you set a KPI goal, when you can do that, it's easier to track, it's more transparent, and you don't have emotions involved of like, hey, I think I'm killing it, and you're going, no, you're not killing it.
• 26:41
  SPEAKER_03: So the to break that down, it's not to say, hey, what's your goal?
• 26:44
  SPEAKER_03: I want to be bigger, faster, stronger.
• 26:46
  SPEAKER_03: And you say, okay, that's a great goal.
• 26:48
  SPEAKER_03: Peel layer back, uh, bigger than what, stronger than what, and faster than what.
• 26:54
  SPEAKER_03: And no different than that was our, I think that was our high school program, bigger, faster, stronger, right?
• 26:58
  SPEAKER_03: And they're like, okay, well, let's check your metrics.
• 27:01
  SPEAKER_03: Yep.
• 27:01
  SPEAKER_03: Let's get that all the way down.
• 27:03
  SPEAKER_03: Okay, you can run this fast, you can lift this much, you can sustain energy this long, this, this, this.
• 27:08
  SPEAKER_03: Okay, now here's the game plan.
• 27:10
  SPEAKER_03: So some of our objectives we were going over with managers is like, hey, I want to do more one-on-ones.
• 27:15
  SPEAKER_03: It's like, that's great.
• 27:16
  SPEAKER_03: How many are you doing now?
• 27:18
  SPEAKER_03: Exactly.
• 27:19
  SPEAKER_03: Right?
• 27:19
  SPEAKER_03: And how long are they?
• 27:21
  SPEAKER_03: And how often do you do those?
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_03: So you can really break it down.
• 27:24
  SPEAKER_03: Because then I was looking at that, I was like, hey, we need to make those all quantifiable.
• 27:28
  SPEAKER_03: So then we can just chart them.
• 27:29
  SPEAKER_03: And so they can be like, we'll ask them, how's it going?
• 27:32
  SPEAKER_03: They're like, oh, it's going pretty good.
• 27:33
  SPEAKER_03: It's going pretty good, going pretty good.
• 27:35
  SPEAKER_03: But then you put it as a trackable, and you're like, that one's supposed to be in green and it's trending red, just keeps trending red.
• 27:42
  SPEAKER_03: So that's so good.
• 27:43
  SPEAKER_00: I'll I'll tell you, and you'll you all laugh about this, and probably the audience will too, but I don't care.
• 27:48
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and and your kids are never too young to talk about this stuff.
• 27:52
  SPEAKER_00: And and I'll give you a quick story.
• 27:55
  SPEAKER_00: Um I'm coaching my son's fifth grade football team.
• 27:59
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 28:00
  SPEAKER_00: And and we're trying to get some progress, and I won't get into all that.
• 28:04
  SPEAKER_00: And and and we've had some progress, but I started tracking the data and sharing with them the details that matter so that we had clear expectations.
• 28:14
  SPEAKER_00: And one of the big deals was we got to get a first down.
• 28:17
  SPEAKER_00: So we tracked how many plays did we have versus the other team, you know, how many first downs did we have?
• 28:23
  SPEAKER_00: Because I knew that if we put a KPI out there that they knew, and if we did that enough times, then obviously what would happen?
• 28:31
  SPEAKER_00: We'd end up in the end zone and we'd win a game.
• 28:33
  SPEAKER_00: So now after every game, I've got fifth grade kids asking me if I, and they're simple stats.
• 28:39
  SPEAKER_00: If I have the stats, hey, coach, what were the stats from the game?
• 28:42
  SPEAKER_00: They want to know, hey, did we run more plays than the other team?
• 28:45
  SPEAKER_00: Did we, how many first downs did we get?
• 28:47
  SPEAKER_00: And we started off with zero first downs.
• 28:49
  SPEAKER_00: You know, last game we had six first downs.
• 28:51
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 28:51
  SPEAKER_00: So nobody's ever too young to start instilling that in their mind and tracking.
• 28:56
  SPEAKER_00: So you're not just assuming that they know that we got to do that.
• 28:58
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 28:59
  SPEAKER_03: No, that's that's they're never too young because on the other side, everyone is always assuming, hey, you're doing good or you're giving it your best, but without tracking, you have no clue and you're not at all.
• 29:08
  SPEAKER_03: It's like, hey, everybody, raise your hand.
• 29:10
  SPEAKER_03: Okay, now everyone raise it a little higher.
• 29:12
  SPEAKER_03: Okay, raise it higher.
• 29:13
  SPEAKER_03: It's like, why didn't you raise it all the way to the top the first time?
• 29:17
  SPEAKER_03: Like it's it's so basic and simple that even fifth grader, third grader, first grader, whatever, you know, that you could because many people assume that everyone understands, hey, let's do the best we can today.
• 29:29
  SPEAKER_03: Yep.
• 29:30
  SPEAKER_01: There's a whole lot there that's really good.
• 29:32
  SPEAKER_01: Hey, fun fact quiz for you here.
• 29:34
  SPEAKER_01: What percentage of workplace mistakes stem from unclear communication?
• 29:40
  SPEAKER_01: All of them.
• 29:40
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I was gonna say it's big.
• 29:44
  SPEAKER_01: Give me a multiple choice.
• 29:45
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, so A is 25, B is 50, C is 70, and D is 90.
• 29:50
  SPEAKER_03: What percentage of workplace mistakes stem from unclear communication?
• 29:54
  SPEAKER_03: I'm saying 90.
• 29:57
  SPEAKER_01: It's not A or B, it's actually C 70%.
• 30:00
  SPEAKER_01: You're really close there.
• 30:01
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 30:01
  SPEAKER_01: Seventy percent.
• 30:02
  SPEAKER_01: Seventy percent of mistakes happen from unclear communication.
• 30:07
  SPEAKER_00: You know what I like about that?
• 30:08
  SPEAKER_00: And y'all have heard me talk about this, but I love being able to see opportunities.
• 30:12
  SPEAKER_00: And you go, okay, I can beat 70% of all the other workforces out there by just clear communication.
• 30:19
  SPEAKER_03: So that that was your choice of positive mindset.
• 30:22
  SPEAKER_03: You were just talking about it four minutes ago.
• 30:25
  SPEAKER_03: I love that, right?
• 30:27
  SPEAKER_03: Everyone's like, man, this stat is awful.
• 30:29
  SPEAKER_03: 70% of my mistakes are come from unclear communications.
• 30:33
  SPEAKER_03: But class half full is like, hey, there's most people are only getting it right 30% of the time.
• 30:39
  SPEAKER_03: It's like, oh my gosh, we can beat so many people by just doing this.
• 30:43
  SPEAKER_03: Just by giving very clear communication.
• 30:45
  SPEAKER_00: So it's not doing anything more.
• 30:47
  SPEAKER_00: But that one's a hard one for me because I'm not the best at giving clear communication.
• 30:52
  SPEAKER_00: And that starts with a leader.
• 30:53
  SPEAKER_03: It'd rather do than show and tell and create, right?
• 30:56
  SPEAKER_03: But that's definitely getting a whole lot better.
• 30:59
  SPEAKER_00: You bet.
• 30:59
  SPEAKER_00: All right.
• 31:00
  SPEAKER_00: Now, assumptions that we we've really talked about our employees and leadership, but assumptions about customers.
• 31:06
  SPEAKER_00: You know, assumptions about customers.
• 31:08
  SPEAKER_00: We talk about it in this business, and let's just talk about a vehicle at first.
• 31:13
  SPEAKER_00: Is we assume that the customer understands what Blue Cruise is.
• 31:17
  SPEAKER_00: We assume that they understand what, you know, automatic emergency braking is or lane keeping or Bluetooth or whatever it may be.
• 31:27
  SPEAKER_00: We assume those things.
• 31:29
  SPEAKER_00: We assume that they know that vehicles have gone up quite a bit and your payment's going to be more than when you bought 10 years ago or five years ago.
• 31:36
  SPEAKER_00: You know, what are some of y'all's thoughts on what you see about your customers assuming that they value the same things that they wanted five or 10 years ago?
• 31:46
  SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, I really see it that we customers do come in and do that, and then aggravates me whenever we don't go through the process because in I'll park on vehicle prices.
• 31:58
  SPEAKER_01: A lot of people that come in of vehicles that haven't bought one in 10 years, haven't bought one in five years, even five years, we'll go five year stretch.
• 32:06
  SPEAKER_01: It's gone up quite a bit.
• 32:07
  SPEAKER_01: I may have some that are even a year old that have gone up from base price.
• 32:12
  SPEAKER_01: But assuming that they've already read the window sticker and they know and they know what, like in your head, you may get a little aggravated, but that they should know from a year ago that they went up$3,000 for the base package, and then each individual option's this much more.
• 32:30
  SPEAKER_01: We've really noticed, hey, don't assume that.
• 32:32
  SPEAKER_01: Go and walk your customer through it.
• 32:34
  SPEAKER_01: Now, they do a lot of research online, so they know what stuff is priced at.
• 32:38
  SPEAKER_01: Sure.
• 32:38
  SPEAKER_01: But you've got to be able to share the differences of those two with them.
• 32:42
  SPEAKER_03: You know, one of the things that I love that we've built into our process and we constantly have to go back to it is our customer needs assessment.
• 32:51
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, and it allows you to beat majority of the people out there in the car sales industry and any industry.
• 32:59
  SPEAKER_03: If I can just learn, there's some a few basic questions that I'll ask because everyone has a different one of these.
• 33:06
  SPEAKER_03: And so when I'm talking to a customer, or assuming my salespeople talk to the customer, I say, hey, Mr.
• 33:13
  SPEAKER_03: Steve, got a couple questions I want to ask here.
• 33:15
  SPEAKER_03: One of the most important is I want to learn what is most important to you in buying this vehicle.
• 33:20
  SPEAKER_03: And by that I mean do you need four-wheel drive?
• 33:23
  SPEAKER_03: Do you want leather seats?
• 33:25
  SPEAKER_03: Do you need good audio?
• 33:26
  SPEAKER_03: Do you want an 18-inch wheel or a 22-inch wheel?
• 33:29
  SPEAKER_03: If you were to pick three of your highest rated, most important features, what would that be?
• 33:36
  SPEAKER_03: They will tell you how to make it what they say a lay down or an easy sale.
• 33:40
  SPEAKER_03: It means you saw what was important to them and forgot the rest.
• 33:44
  SPEAKER_03: That's right.
• 33:44
  SPEAKER_03: People, there's over 20,000 moving parts in a car, and so many people make the mistake of trying to sell all 20,000 parts.
• 33:51
  SPEAKER_03: And then they were like, man, that last customer loved it as a four-drive and it was 10 grand off.
• 33:54
  SPEAKER_03: Love this four-drive and 10 grand off.
• 33:56
  SPEAKER_03: Love those four drive and 10 grand.
• 33:57
  SPEAKER_03: The next guy could care less.
• 33:59
  SPEAKER_03: Yep.
• 33:59
  SPEAKER_03: Right?
• 34:00
  SPEAKER_03: You could be one that's three grand off, but it's initially 18 grand less money, less of a package.
• 34:05
  SPEAKER_03: He didn't need a power seat, he did see cold seats, massaging seats.
• 34:08
  SPEAKER_03: And so if you can ask those questions up front, you can save the time of browsing a thousand vehicles and walking the lot because you're on the wrong price, and you can help a customer say, this guy just like, I don't know how.
• 34:22
  SPEAKER_03: He knew exactly what we wanted.
• 34:24
  SPEAKER_03: And like, well, I know how.
• 34:25
  SPEAKER_03: I asked him questions.
• 34:26
  SPEAKER_03: So the whole time in my presentation, I'm talking about, hey, you know, you said you like to go camping.
• 34:31
  SPEAKER_03: Let me show you this feature, this feature, this feature, instead of just cookie cut or sell.
• 34:35
  SPEAKER_01: That's right.
• 34:36
  SPEAKER_01: That's good.
• 34:37
  SPEAKER_01: I have an uh example of hearing that, and I just I've shared this with a couple of majors.
• 34:41
  SPEAKER_01: I loved it, loved it.
• 34:42
  SPEAKER_01: This past weekend of Friday to Saturday, I had three sets of customers, three different customers, not connected with the same salesperson.
• 34:49
  SPEAKER_01: So I love that even more.
• 34:51
  SPEAKER_01: And they came.
• 34:52
  SPEAKER_01: Customers now, more than anything, in any of your business you're doing, they just want to be heard and they want to walk through the process.
• 35:01
  SPEAKER_01: They walked in and said, Hey, I just want to let you know, you weren't the lowest price in the market.
• 35:06
  SPEAKER_01: But what you did do is you listened to me and you provided better service than anyone.
• 35:11
  SPEAKER_01: And for that, I thank you and I will be back.
• 35:14
  SPEAKER_01: And guess what?
• 35:14
  SPEAKER_01: They already sent another person to us and they came back to look at a different vehicle for their spouse.
• 35:20
  SPEAKER_03: It's it's funny you say that because when when there's a wave of it, or maybe you're just paying attention to it, there was another customer I talked to Saturday that everyone was busy and I was like, Yeah, you got how can I help?
• 35:30
  SPEAKER_03: And they were like, This guy over here, I'm almost there, I just need some help.
• 35:33
  SPEAKER_03: So I went and talked to him.
• 35:34
  SPEAKER_03: What we kept hearing, this is crazy, but what we kept hearing from customers about other dealers, was like, thank you for honoring what your price was online.
• 35:45
  SPEAKER_03: What you said it is is what it actually is, because there was one that was like, they wouldn't let us put any cash down.
• 35:51
  SPEAKER_03: They wanted us to finance the full term.
• 35:53
  SPEAKER_03: They said we didn't qualify for this price because we didn't have this trade.
• 35:56
  SPEAKER_03: And there were so many hoops and yo-yos.
• 35:58
  SPEAKER_03: And so we said, nope, this is our price.
• 36:00
  SPEAKER_03: It is 1,000% transparent.
• 36:02
  SPEAKER_03: Everyone qualifies for it, and they all kept saying, Thank you.
• 36:06
  SPEAKER_03: Like they had gone to another place and they were like, they're marking my rate up two and a half points.
• 36:09
  SPEAKER_03: Yep.
• 36:10
  SPEAKER_03: It's like, well, we told you that.
• 36:12
  SPEAKER_03: And they're like, hey, and one of them came back because we put on the worksheet, hey, two and a half points less because we're selling at buy rate, tenure 120, uh, Lewis Guarantee free of charge was like, here's your numbers and here's the details.
• 36:25
  SPEAKER_03: They came back two hours later because they went to the other place and they wouldn't do that.
• 36:30
  SPEAKER_03: Well, they wouldn't honor their price.
• 36:31
  SPEAKER_03: Guess what?
• 36:32
  SPEAKER_03: The card sold.
• 36:33
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 36:33
  SPEAKER_03: And they were like, oh, no way.
• 36:35
  SPEAKER_03: Like, they wouldn't do it.
• 36:36
  SPEAKER_03: It was like, we tried to tell you, and I don't blame them, right?
• 36:39
  SPEAKER_03: The this industry has a shlack eye for those things, but I'm telling you here, Lewis Automotive, we're in the long-term game.
• 36:45
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 36:45
  SPEAKER_03: And that, but you can't just assume that customers know.
• 36:48
  SPEAKER_00: No.
• 36:49
  SPEAKER_00: No, that's good.
• 36:50
  SPEAKER_00: Well, here's another one that people assume, and we talked about this in a previous episode, but let's let's get y'all's thoughts.
• 36:56
  SPEAKER_00: Believing loyalty will last forever just because you've earned it once.
• 37:02
  SPEAKER_03: That's like believing that you can always run a sub four hour marathon just because you did once.
• 37:06
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and that's so true.
• 37:08
  SPEAKER_00: But it's easy to slip into that because you're like, how many salespeople do we get come up to us and they thought the customer was loyal to them, but they had never followed up with them?
• 37:18
  SPEAKER_00: They're like, no, that's my customer.
• 37:20
  SPEAKER_03: People are so much less brand loyal or company loyal than they have ever been.
• 37:27
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 37:27
  SPEAKER_00: I'll rephrase that and I'll say loyalty gives you the next opportunity.
• 37:34
  SPEAKER_00: That's it.
• 37:35
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 37:35
  SPEAKER_00: And I do believe that.
• 37:36
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 37:37
  SPEAKER_00: I do believe that a company that's done a lot of business with us and an individual will give you the next opportunity, but you have to prove yourself again.
• 37:46
  SPEAKER_00: It's no different than if you go to your favorite restaurant and it's been great, it's been great, it's been great.
• 37:51
  SPEAKER_00: And then all of a sudden something happens five years down the road, and you go and you're like, man, that's not what I'm used to.
• 37:57
  SPEAKER_00: Now you chalk it up, and you're like, you know, maybe they had a bad day or this or that.
• 38:00
  SPEAKER_00: You go back again, and it's it's like, man, this place has changed.
• 38:05
  SPEAKER_03: You're done.
• 38:05
  SPEAKER_03: You're not, you're moving on.
• 38:06
  SPEAKER_03: If you try a second time, that'll be the as much as you give it, right?
• 38:10
  SPEAKER_00: So that that proves the point on loyalty gives the opportunity, but does not set the track that they will always do business with you.
• 38:18
  SPEAKER_01: And a lot of people definitely in that area just put it on cruise control.
• 38:23
  SPEAKER_01: Let it, yeah, yeah, I got you.
• 38:24
  SPEAKER_01: I got you.
• 38:24
  SPEAKER_01: I got it.
• 38:25
  SPEAKER_01: That's my customer.
• 38:26
  SPEAKER_01: Always get you, we'll always get you taken care of until it falls through the cracks.
• 38:31
  SPEAKER_01: And you never know when you're being tested.
• 38:34
  SPEAKER_01: I had a friend the other day that didn't intentionally tell me, and luckily, you just swing every single time and make sure.
• 38:42
  SPEAKER_01: But he was getting a truck from us and going through, and he happened to go to someone else and get his vehicle appraised.
• 38:48
  SPEAKER_01: And they said, They're doing what for you?
• 38:50
  SPEAKER_01: He said, Never go anywhere else.
• 38:53
  SPEAKER_01: So luckily, we had done what we needed to do through the process because you never know, even whenever it's a friend or you think it's anyone going through, that they're gonna check you.
• 39:02
  SPEAKER_03: And that's one of those things of long-term business of our new term people to make sure they're still delivering that.
• 39:10
  SPEAKER_03: Like, hey, this person comes here because we treat them right.
• 39:14
  SPEAKER_03: And by this person, I mean everybody, but this person has before because they love how we make them feel.
• 39:19
  SPEAKER_03: We love how it's an easy experience, but life changes for people.
• 39:22
  SPEAKER_03: Maybe it passed from one generation to the next, sure, or maybe their buying mode have changed, or maybe they bought platinums for the last 10 years, but they restructured a little bit, and now everyone's getting XLTs or Lariates.
• 39:33
  SPEAKER_03: You need to be adaptable in that to realize you need to earn that, re-earn that business every single time and prove to them.
• 39:41
  SPEAKER_00: That's so good.
• 39:42
  SPEAKER_00: Now, this next one here, it'll go down a little bit of a rabbit hole, but it's but it's so important.
• 39:47
  SPEAKER_00: Letting your own preferences replace the actual data.
• 39:52
  SPEAKER_00: And man, does that happen?
• 39:53
  SPEAKER_00: And initially, and the untrained professional, that's where they go.
• 39:58
  SPEAKER_00: Shelby, you brought it up earlier our salesperson will sell a vehicle, and then they think that they sell the next one the same way on the same features and the same benefit.
• 40:07
  SPEAKER_00: Or you get your personal preferences in there and you start talking about I would buy this vehicle because of X, Y, and Z, or I would structure the deal because of X, Y, and Z.
• 40:17
  SPEAKER_00: And that's not the customer.
• 40:19
  SPEAKER_00: And the customer is the one paying for the vehicle, not you.
• 40:22
  SPEAKER_01: No, and the crazy thing you'll go down on that is people go down that because they're comfortable with it.
• 40:29
  SPEAKER_01: Yep.
• 40:30
  SPEAKER_01: They can talk about it.
• 40:31
  SPEAKER_01: They're vo they will verbal vomit.
• 40:33
  SPEAKER_01: And then whenever you review with your salesperson of, hey, how'd that process go?
• 40:36
  SPEAKER_01: Man, it was great.
• 40:37
  SPEAKER_01: I told him about$10,000 off that it was red, that it was the best color, that it was XLT, and they didn't listen to anything.
• 40:44
  SPEAKER_01: So in their mind, your sales professional, whoever it is, thinks they're doing great because they're doing something they're comfortable with when they didn't really follow your process or procedure.
• 40:53
  SPEAKER_03: That's a tricky thing if you think about it, because it is important.
• 40:56
  SPEAKER_03: We don't order the cars that we like.
• 40:58
  SPEAKER_03: We order the cars that sell.
• 40:59
  SPEAKER_03: Sure.
• 41:00
  SPEAKER_03: That and that's a thing there.
• 41:01
  SPEAKER_03: But in today's industry, people have never been this much influenced by others.
• 41:08
  SPEAKER_03: You know, the age old keeping up with the Jonges.
• 41:11
  SPEAKER_03: Now in social media.
• 41:12
  SPEAKER_03: It's at a whole different level.
• 41:14
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, the click to buy, we laughed.
• 41:16
  SPEAKER_03: Uh one of the managers had some stuff sew up the other day, and I was laughing, and I gave him a hard time, and I was like, you know what this is?
• 41:23
  SPEAKER_03: This is a subscription, a subscription that he didn't cancel because I'd already seen it once.
• 41:29
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 41:29
  SPEAKER_03: And so I called him, he's like, hey, you got a package over here.
• 41:31
  SPEAKER_03: And so I tossed it at him.
• 41:33
  SPEAKER_03: He's like, Dad, gummit, I tried to cancel that because they saw someone that they saw of high value and they were touting this product.
• 41:41
  SPEAKER_03: The shoe didn't fit.
• 41:42
  SPEAKER_03: Uh-uh.
• 41:42
  SPEAKER_03: Like there was no reason for them to have that product.
• 41:45
  SPEAKER_03: Well, now they've got them in this fair soil of hard to cancel the product.
• 41:48
  SPEAKER_03: So you need to understand that that you it can't just be all right, everyone's buying these EVs because it's a low lease.
• 41:56
  SPEAKER_03: Like you need to, in the needs assessment, learn about the customer.
• 42:00
  SPEAKER_03: They might not need a carbon-plated running shoe.
• 42:03
  SPEAKER_03: They might just need something they can stand on all day.
• 42:05
  SPEAKER_03: That's right.
• 42:06
  SPEAKER_00: So that's that's tricky.
• 42:08
  SPEAKER_00: You know, what what do you guys think about this one?
• 42:10
  SPEAKER_00: You know, what's an outdated customer assumption you've seen hurt a business?
• 42:16
  SPEAKER_00: And I'll tell you one to get us started in our business.
• 42:20
  SPEAKER_00: Uh a customer assumption was is we needed to take when they're buying a car, we needed to take somebody through the entire process.
• 42:27
  SPEAKER_00: And that's outdated.
• 42:29
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 42:29
  SPEAKER_00: Because people now spend a minimum of 20 hours on the internet before they come to the lot.
• 42:34
  SPEAKER_00: So we need to meet them wherever they're at in the buying process and not necessarily drag them through step one.
• 42:41
  SPEAKER_00: They might already be at step five or step six.
• 42:45
  SPEAKER_00: So if we try to start everybody the same way, it's just gonna frustrate them and they're gonna feel like that we didn't value their time.
• 42:52
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, I've seen a big deal in service that we've really pushed over because service advisors, now there's younger people, but are dinosaurs in their communication era.
• 43:02
  SPEAKER_01: And y'all really, we've really pushed to hey, text your customer, you know, meet them in their form of communication.
• 43:09
  SPEAKER_01: So in servicing going through, it doesn't have to be a phone call that you're locked in going through every single detail.
• 43:16
  SPEAKER_01: It's a quick update.
• 43:18
  SPEAKER_01: Hey, I checked on X, Y, and Z.
• 43:19
  SPEAKER_01: This is what we're waiting on, this is what we still have going.
• 43:22
  SPEAKER_01: Quick text.
• 43:23
  SPEAKER_01: Takes you five to 10 seconds, and then you move on.
• 43:25
  SPEAKER_01: So it's learning that form of communication to help with our customers.
• 43:30
  SPEAKER_03: You know, something that we've adapted to and are we are working on adapting to is the age-old belief is the customer must be here for them to be able to get proper numbers.
• 43:40
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 43:41
  SPEAKER_03: When you're seeing industry standards saying be transparent, be up front, give the best you can on this, give the best sight on scene saying we still need to inspect, give them the best rate, the best term, even when they're not sitting in front of you.
• 43:56
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 43:56
  SPEAKER_03: Because, like, you know, the age-old is you miss a thousand percent of the shots you don't take.
• 44:02
  SPEAKER_03: Well, like, you know, the age-old industry of like, when can you be a hero?
• 44:05
  SPEAKER_03: And we still say that, right?
• 44:07
  SPEAKER_03: It there's something about being here to physically touch and feel to make sure that's exactly what they want.
• 44:11
  SPEAKER_03: So we got to find a hybrid version.
• 44:14
  SPEAKER_03: But then I know sometimes when I've done my research, when I'm looking to buy something new, you say, where are they in the process?
• 44:20
  SPEAKER_03: Like when you were buying a bike for your son, sure.
• 44:23
  SPEAKER_03: You've probably gone really far down a rabbit hole.
• 44:26
  SPEAKER_03: You know how much one weighed, how much group set was on this one versus this one.
• 44:30
  SPEAKER_03: So then when you went to the store, or maybe you were just like, Let me call these four stores, who's got this bike in stock, what trim is it, uh, and what tire set does it have?
• 44:40
  SPEAKER_03: You're 10 out of 12 steps in the process.
• 44:44
  SPEAKER_03: And so you have to be careful there.
• 44:46
  SPEAKER_03: That's like you do an availability check, a stock check, you do a price check and make sure it falls in the variances.
• 44:53
  SPEAKER_03: And then if they'll treat you with that speed, yep, I've got it in stock, I can have it ready to ride today.
• 44:59
  SPEAKER_03: It's gonna be X amount of dollars, and you're like, I'll take it.
• 45:02
  SPEAKER_03: Yep.
• 45:02
  SPEAKER_03: You know, have it ready for me.
• 45:04
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, do you want me to pay you over the phone?
• 45:05
  SPEAKER_04: Yep.
• 45:06
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 45:06
  SPEAKER_03: And majority of those things, because if we're dinosaur age, like, no, I need you here, we're gonna start the process, and it's gonna be six hours, it's gonna put a lot of people off.
• 45:14
  SPEAKER_00: It really is.
• 45:15
  SPEAKER_00: It really is.
• 45:16
  SPEAKER_00: I think so.
• 45:17
  SPEAKER_00: That those are just some great discussion points that we've talked about, assumptions when it has to do with the customer.
• 45:23
  SPEAKER_00: And there's many more out there, but that gives us a brief overview of that.
• 45:26
  SPEAKER_00: There is.
• 45:26
  SPEAKER_03: No doubt about that.
• 45:28
  SPEAKER_03: All right, Mythbuster time.
• 45:29
  SPEAKER_03: This week we're talking Mythbusters.
• 45:32
  SPEAKER_03: We know our customers better than anyone.
• 45:35
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 45:38
  SPEAKER_03: So saying we hey, I know uh Mr.
• 45:41
  SPEAKER_03: Smith better than anyone.
• 45:42
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, generally everyone's thinking that.
• 45:45
  SPEAKER_00: I think when you take, and I know this is a little cliche because everybody talks about the internet, but it's really the truth.
• 45:51
  SPEAKER_00: When we opened up and we went from having to go dealer, dealership to dealership, or let's talk about learning, the the whole library of the encyclopedias, you know, to now you go onto the internet, now you have AI involved and you and you have all these resources that changes at the speed of light.
• 46:10
  SPEAKER_00: I think our customers, there's no way that we know them better.
• 46:16
  SPEAKER_00: You know what I mean?
• 46:17
  SPEAKER_00: Because it's just changing at a faster pace.
• 46:20
  SPEAKER_00: It is.
• 46:21
  SPEAKER_00: We want to.
• 46:22
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's it's not a lack of want, but it's just they're moving so much faster because of the resources and access that they have.
• 46:30
  SPEAKER_03: Well, think about that.
• 46:32
  SPEAKER_03: The best companies, uh, they relearn their customers daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly.
• 46:40
  SPEAKER_03: Like they know, like, think about how an internet provider, uh, you see, like, you're shopping for shoes, and it starts then after you've clicked on one ad.
• 46:51
  SPEAKER_03: Now it's on Instagram, now it's on Facebook, now it's a carousel, now it's a scroller on the side, and you're like, golly, I didn't even type this in the search.
• 46:59
  SPEAKER_03: They know everything, but just in a flip of a switch, once you've bought those and you say turn this ad off, or you stop talking about it, then that's not their dominant buying motive anymore.
• 47:11
  SPEAKER_03: Now they've switched over to something else because they've got Shoppophobia, and now they're over here.
• 47:16
  SPEAKER_03: If you thought you knew it last week or three years ago, I sold them this, they've completely changed their pace or what they're tracking, right?
• 47:23
  SPEAKER_03: That's good.
• 47:23
  SPEAKER_03: So that's uh, I would say we don't know our customers better than anyone.
• 47:27
  SPEAKER_03: We have to constantly relearn.
• 47:29
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's a busted there.
• 47:31
  SPEAKER_01: Hey, rolling through the assumptions, going into I like this one a lot, but about yourself and the market.
• 47:37
  SPEAKER_01: So assuming we're too big or small to experience fail.
• 47:46
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 47:47
  SPEAKER_00: That that's an easy one to get trapped in.
• 47:49
  SPEAKER_00: Or you've been, in our case, in business for a long time.
• 47:52
  SPEAKER_00: You know, and what we realize there is again, that's no different than the customers part.
• 47:58
  SPEAKER_00: You may have been in business a long time, you may be big enough, but that just gets you the opportunity.
• 48:03
  SPEAKER_00: You still have to perform.
• 48:05
  SPEAKER_00: You know, we're in the sports season, and it'd be really easy for a football team that had won the Super Bowl last year to say, hey, we're too good to fail now.
• 48:14
  SPEAKER_00: But let me just tell you this: when you're at the top, guess what?
• 48:17
  SPEAKER_00: Everybody's coming for you.
• 48:19
  SPEAKER_00: And you got to keep improving.
• 48:21
  SPEAKER_00: So if you start assuming that, like, hey, just because we built these huge complexes out here on 49, there's no way we'll fail, you're kidding yourself because the expense monster's falling you.
• 48:32
  SPEAKER_00: You know, and if you don't keep increasing and keep refining your processes and in what you're offering the customer, you will fail.
• 48:40
  SPEAKER_01: And they probably expect that from you.
• 48:42
  SPEAKER_01: You know, you go on a sports analysis that you go, take the Chiefs that have been on a run the last several years.
• 48:49
  SPEAKER_01: They talked about this with a different coach.
• 48:51
  SPEAKER_01: Every team that plays them every week treats it like they're playing the Super Bowl because they've been in there.
• 48:57
  SPEAKER_01: So they bring the thunder.
• 48:59
  SPEAKER_01: And if they don't have their chin strap on, which happened at the beginning of this year, they were like, whoa, we got to wake up and they've made some adjustments and start going.
• 49:09
  SPEAKER_01: No different than people show up here.
• 49:11
  SPEAKER_01: They see an awesome complex.
• 49:12
  SPEAKER_01: They say this is better than anything we've seen in the area.
• 49:16
  SPEAKER_01: They want to experience the difference, and you have to deliver.
• 49:20
  SPEAKER_01: If not, you'll have a losing record and you'll fail.
• 49:24
  SPEAKER_01: That's right.
• 49:25
  SPEAKER_03: Every single time.
• 49:26
  SPEAKER_03: The bigger it is, the more you have to fail.
• 49:28
  SPEAKER_03: The smaller it is, the more it's on your shoulders.
• 49:30
  SPEAKER_03: The more experienced it is, it means the less you might not know about what's currently happening.
• 49:35
  SPEAKER_03: So I'd say all of those are not good.
• 49:38
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 49:38
  SPEAKER_01: This one kind of hits you in the mouth, but believing you've already learned what you need to know.
• 49:43
  SPEAKER_00: I think that that is there, there is truth, and then there's false expectations to that.
• 49:48
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 49:49
  SPEAKER_00: The truth is, is you did a really good job learning to get you to where your stage are now.
• 49:55
  SPEAKER_00: And when you do that, it then unlocks other doors, other opportunities, other people for you to be around.
• 50:01
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 50:02
  SPEAKER_00: You know, climbing to this peak got you the view of the next peak.
• 50:06
  SPEAKER_00: So it was important, but it won't get you to where you ultimately need to go.
• 50:12
  SPEAKER_00: That's always moving.
• 50:13
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 50:14
  SPEAKER_01: That's good.
• 50:15
  SPEAKER_01: Uh letting your confidence turn into blind spots.
• 50:20
  SPEAKER_03: That's like the age old.
• 50:21
  SPEAKER_03: We were talking to a guy the other day, interviewing him, and it was like, what's one of your downfalls?
• 50:25
  SPEAKER_03: He was like, It's not current, but previously I was way too cocky that I never like he didn't say this, but uh, or these words, but it was like he had his blinders on it.
• 50:36
  SPEAKER_03: He was the best.
• 50:37
  SPEAKER_03: You know, no one else could compete with him.
• 50:40
  SPEAKER_03: You know, if anyone was gonna do it or get to that level, it was him, right?
• 50:44
  SPEAKER_03: And then he got quickly humbled.
• 50:46
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, and the confidence just was overshadowing all these things he was missing.
• 50:53
  SPEAKER_00: I I'll tell you one that I had that we talked about is the confidence on growing leaders from within.
• 50:59
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm still confident about that, but it became a blind spot in hiring other great talent that's out there that needed to join our team.
• 51:08
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 51:09
  SPEAKER_01: Those are a lot of good things there that um, you know, just making sure about assumptions, yourself in the market that you are keeping a clear mind, moving forward and not letting that overshadow that X, Y, and Z can happen to your business no matter what stage you're at, to always be moving forward and feel okay that, hey, I'm I'm towards the top, I'm really a um leading this area, but you always have to be improving and excelling to stay that way.
• 51:39
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I think I think one of the things we talked about in here too, and and I saw it listed, so I'm gonna go and talk about it, is you know, how do you make sure that you're not overestimating your clarity?
• 51:48
  SPEAKER_00: I have some key people that I know I can go ask and they'll be honest with me about when we come out with something.
• 51:56
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 51:56
  SPEAKER_00: Not somebody that'll yes, yes, yes, me, you know, just a brown nose, but they'll actually give me feedback on clarity.
• 52:02
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, what we went over in the meeting today, tell me your thoughts about that.
• 52:06
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 52:07
  SPEAKER_00: But I have to ask them the specific questions.
• 52:09
  SPEAKER_00: I can't be like, hey, do you think that was a good idea?
• 52:11
  SPEAKER_00: I have to ask them, hey, can you can you summarize that for me?
• 52:14
  SPEAKER_00: Like what we know, how do you see that working in your department?
• 52:17
  SPEAKER_00: And then it helps give me feedback on was I clear?
• 52:22
  SPEAKER_00: Do we need to revisit that?
• 52:24
  SPEAKER_00: Do we need to approach it differently?
• 52:25
  SPEAKER_00: So I don't just assume, because we talk about the learning pyramid, if you're the one up there teaching, it's a 90, 95%, you know, success rate.
• 52:34
  SPEAKER_00: So uh, but but you gotta be able to stick that thermometer in.
• 52:37
  SPEAKER_03: It's no different than asking a kid, hey, how was school?
• 52:41
  SPEAKER_03: You know, if they're half positive, they're gonna say it was good, right?
• 52:44
  SPEAKER_03: But then if you super dissect it, like, hey, today in your learning lab, what was one thing that you didn't know that you learned today?
• 52:53
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 52:54
  SPEAKER_03: And then you're those people are helping you give specific stuff to help you coach that.
• 53:00
  SPEAKER_03: Um something that that I noticed and saw was what's something that you learned the hard way about staying humble and adaptable?
• 53:08
  SPEAKER_03: You know, something learning the hard way about b staying humble and adaptable.
• 53:11
  SPEAKER_03: I think the biggest thing is in the right room with the right people, putting the walls down and learning together.
• 53:20
  SPEAKER_03: Right?
• 53:20
  SPEAKER_03: And we've talked about that before, but of just in micro meetings or in meetings where it's okay to be, just say, hey, here was our game plan and our six-month forecast, here's what we did, you know, here's what the KPIs we tracked.
• 53:33
  SPEAKER_03: Throw some darts at this.
• 53:35
  SPEAKER_03: Where did we miss at?
• 53:36
  SPEAKER_03: You know, where did I miss of giving clarity?
• 53:38
  SPEAKER_03: Where did I miss of giving training?
• 53:40
  SPEAKER_03: And you start with yourself of staying super humble of not saying, hey, we're the best, we only do the best, here's where we're at.
• 53:47
  SPEAKER_03: Sure.
• 53:47
  SPEAKER_03: What do you think?
• 53:48
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 53:48
  SPEAKER_03: And I think that's something that not that we struggled at, but we struggled at being able to be open to say we don't have it all figured out.
• 53:56
  SPEAKER_00: I think another thing there too, and I'm gonna come up from a different angle on those micro meetings, was if you're the leader, just because you're in the meeting, you don't have to run the meeting.
• 54:09
  SPEAKER_00: And and we noticed that, like in our in our service meetings, for example, our controller runs that meeting, you know, and like we saw that, and I was like, I don't have to run this meeting.
• 54:19
  SPEAKER_00: I'm here, I'm support, I'm present, I don't tune out, but let me let her run the reports part of the meeting and this and that, help her recap and finish anything else out.
• 54:30
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's good.
• 54:31
  SPEAKER_00: That's really good.
• 54:32
  SPEAKER_03: That brought different eyeballs and different uh strengths from different departments.
• 54:36
  SPEAKER_03: It allowed other people to feel empowered uh and just kind of it gave us a different angle.
• 54:41
  SPEAKER_03: It really super good there.
• 54:42
  SPEAKER_03: All right, frequently asked question.
• 54:45
  SPEAKER_03: How do you guys generally personally check yourself for assumptions before making big decisions?
• 54:51
  SPEAKER_00: This one's an easy one for me.
• 54:53
  SPEAKER_00: And it's because the way we grew up, you know, we weren't able to make any decisions fast.
• 54:58
  SPEAKER_00: It was we always thought about it.
• 55:01
  SPEAKER_00: The word stew came in that my dad, meaning like if you were cooking stew, you know, you put it on low heat.
• 55:07
  SPEAKER_03: Probably why I don't like stew.
• 55:10
  SPEAKER_00: But so we've always had a great understanding because we were trained, not we we weren't burned with it.
• 55:16
  SPEAKER_00: We were trained of kind of slow playing it and just checking the facts, the data, you sleep on it before just making assumptions on big decisions, you know.
• 55:28
  SPEAKER_00: And then I'll always go around and I'll either ask, I'll do some more research.
• 55:32
  SPEAKER_00: We always ask for references, we talk to people, you know, it's no different than all these buildings.
• 55:36
  SPEAKER_00: You'll y'all have heard us talk about this, but we went to a hundred different dealerships and we always found somebody that was in charge and we said, Hey, what would you do different?
• 55:45
  SPEAKER_00: So we were checking those boxes before we made the big decision.
• 55:48
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's good.
• 55:49
  SPEAKER_01: I think just carrying off of what you said there, it's just always into I'll always acknowledge whenever a decision or a question or something comes in of absolutely let me uh give me a little bit of time and I'm gonna think about that and go through X, Y, and Z here.
• 56:05
  SPEAKER_01: So it lets the person know that is either waiting for the decision, a different than if you don't take the big scale of a business and it's a big service ticket or big something else that you're looking at.
• 56:16
  SPEAKER_01: Hey, yeah, let me get the facts right here.
• 56:17
  SPEAKER_01: And whenever I get the facts, I heard your story, I need to hear this one.
• 56:21
  SPEAKER_01: And whenever we put them together, I think that's a big part of it.
• 56:24
  SPEAKER_01: Get all of your facts surrounding.
• 56:26
  SPEAKER_01: So if you need to talk to multiple people, and then make the decision.
• 56:30
  SPEAKER_01: If nobody's life or death has to happen right now, just step back and you'll make a much more sound decision if you do that.
• 56:38
  SPEAKER_01: That's good.
• 56:39
  SPEAKER_03: You know, I'm sitting here thinking about this.
• 56:41
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and so one of the downsides, I would say, uh, in just our personality is generally we all have the same personality in this perspective, what I'm talking about.
• 56:50
  SPEAKER_03: Sure.
• 56:50
  SPEAKER_03: But with the STU mentality or let me get the idea, and then we're gonna collect the data, what will happen then if there, whatever the issue is, whether it's a personnel issue or whether that's a client asking for something, or if it's somebody asking for a donation, generally, if it doesn't equal like exchange of currency for a service, sometimes what'll happen is because our natural stew mentality will say, let's put that at bay for a minute and let's see how really bad do they want it and how really will they deliver the goods that we've asked for.
• 57:25
  SPEAKER_03: Like, hey, why don't you send me references, break it down?
• 57:28
  SPEAKER_03: If it's something really worth it, sometimes that stuff will get put on the back burner.
• 57:32
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, that's true.
• 57:32
  SPEAKER_03: That that happened, I that happens to all three of us.
• 57:35
  SPEAKER_03: I see it all the time.
• 57:36
  SPEAKER_03: Luckily, because three of us are in a lot of the conversations.
• 57:40
  SPEAKER_03: Hopefully, one of us remembers and is like, hey, let's get this back to the top and let's solve this.
• 57:45
  SPEAKER_03: Either let's tell them no, or let's tell them yes, but it needs to look like this or this, this.
• 57:49
  SPEAKER_03: And so that helps us of our stew mentality.
• 57:52
  SPEAKER_03: Because what happens is we put it on the back burner, but then we get 13 more burners going in the front.
• 57:58
  SPEAKER_03: It just keeps going.
• 57:58
  SPEAKER_03: And there's like, hey, uh, that's about out of water back there.
• 58:02
  SPEAKER_03: Did you want to do something with it?
• 58:05
  SPEAKER_03: Um, so that happens.
• 58:06
  SPEAKER_03: Like, got an email from marketing yesterday.
• 58:08
  SPEAKER_03: It was like, hey, just fall.
• 58:10
  SPEAKER_03: And if your team understands that, yeah, then they can help you say, hey, bringing this back to the top.
• 58:16
  SPEAKER_03: Sure.
• 58:16
  SPEAKER_03: And uh Craig and I were talking this morning and he was like, Hey, did you get with Natalie?
• 58:20
  SPEAKER_03: I was like, No.
• 58:21
  SPEAKER_03: I was like, hey, I'll explain this to her.
• 58:22
  SPEAKER_03: But if you cross paths with her teller, we don't give her the cold shoulder because she's newer to the team because we don't like what she said.
• 58:31
  SPEAKER_03: It's just we get a lot of things in our natural mentality as to, okay, let's collect the data and then we'll answer it.
• 58:36
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 58:36
  SPEAKER_03: So then they're like, hey, we have this thing coming up.
• 58:38
  SPEAKER_03: Can you guys make it?
• 58:39
  SPEAKER_03: And I was like, yes, I can make it, and they probably can too.
• 58:43
  SPEAKER_03: And then they're like, yeah, I can make it.
• 58:44
  SPEAKER_03: And it's like, yeah, I can make it.
• 58:46
  SPEAKER_03: But it's one of those things that that's a slippery slope that sometimes you fall into if you put everything back there and handle the stuff in front of you.
• 58:53
  SPEAKER_03: That's true.
• 58:53
  SPEAKER_03: Sometimes you miss out on those opportunities.
• 58:55
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I think that's a good point.
• 58:56
  SPEAKER_00: It's a it's a balance of both, of not just knee-jerk reaction to everything.
• 59:00
  SPEAKER_00: So you check, check, check, check all the boxes, but at the same time, don't let it stew.
• 59:04
  SPEAKER_00: And and really the way to do that, you know, we have each other, and then now our employees know too, whether it's our controller or marketing or whoever else, it's okay to ask them.
• 59:12
  SPEAKER_03: No doubt, like to bump it back to the top.
• 59:14
  SPEAKER_03: You know, it's like, hey, what'd you come up with?
• 59:16
  SPEAKER_00: But naturally they think it it isn't.
• 59:18
  SPEAKER_00: So if you're in business out there, just know if you've got a CFO or if you've got an office manager or you got a project leader or a superintendent or whatever it is, you got to tell them, hey, if I hadn't gotten back with you by Tuesday, will you please ask me again?
• 59:33
  SPEAKER_03: No doubt about that.
• 59:34
  SPEAKER_03: Like, and you have to, because sometimes they're just like scared to death.
• 59:38
  SPEAKER_03: They're like, nope, I don't need to ask them again.
• 59:39
  SPEAKER_03: It's like, no, I've forgotten.
• 59:41
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 59:41
  SPEAKER_04: Right.
• 59:41
  SPEAKER_03: And that's one of those things that I've like on Google Task, if I get an email and something like, I don't need to make a decision right now, I just throw it over in the task.
• 59:49
  SPEAKER_03: So then when I'm running through and there's 13 other things in the front bars, I'm like, I need to do something with that.
• 59:54
  SPEAKER_03: I need to tell them no, or I need to say I need more info.
• 59:57
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 59:57
  SPEAKER_03: So you don't just Hey, I'll tell you this.
• 1:00:00
  SPEAKER_00: You know, just and I know we're getting close to the end here, but you just I I remember the story, so I gotta tell you.
• 1:00:05
  SPEAKER_00: Uh this weekend I had driven one of our used cars home.
• 1:00:08
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 1:00:09
  SPEAKER_00: Nice Mustang we had traded for.
• 1:00:10
  SPEAKER_00: I'd driven it home.
• 1:00:12
  SPEAKER_00: Um well there was a customer yesterday that wanted to come look at it.
• 1:00:15
  SPEAKER_00: And and this salesperson that was showing it has my cell phone number because he's texting me about other stuff.
• 1:00:21
  SPEAKER_00: He was afraid to text me to see if the car was available to sell.
• 1:00:26
  SPEAKER_00: And had a manager actually call me.
• 1:00:29
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm thinking, I'm like, well, absolutely, it's for sale.
• 1:00:31
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, that that's what it is.
• 1:00:32
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, let me grab my stuff out of it.
• 1:00:34
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna pull it through the car wash, it's clean, I'll get it right over to you.
• 1:00:37
  SPEAKER_00: And immediately.
• 1:00:38
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I was thinking in my mind later, I'm like, what have I done to make him feel like he couldn't ask me if a vehicle was available to sell that earns him income and me income?
• 1:00:50
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 1:00:51
  SPEAKER_03: It's because we gotta work in your jokes.
• 1:00:53
  SPEAKER_03: I guess so.
• 1:00:55
  SPEAKER_03: Taylor's the approachable one.
• 1:00:56
  SPEAKER_03: Uh-huh.
• 1:00:57
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, and then Matt, they're just gonna be like, oh god, I'm not asking.
• 1:01:01
  SPEAKER_03: That's not for sale.
• 1:01:01
  SPEAKER_03: Nope, it's his.
• 1:01:02
  SPEAKER_03: He's taking it.
• 1:01:02
  SPEAKER_03: It's like, no, I was just driving.
• 1:01:05
  SPEAKER_00: Because then later he's like, give me a bring it back.
• 1:01:06
  SPEAKER_00: Can you put your stuff in?
• 1:01:07
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, no.
• 1:01:08
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, no, I want you to sell it.
• 1:01:10
  SPEAKER_03: Right?
• 1:01:11
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 1:01:11
  SPEAKER_03: All right, super solid episode 59, where we talked about the silent killer of business is the assumption.
• 1:01:17
  SPEAKER_03: Assumption.
• 1:01:17
  SPEAKER_03: Don't assume.
• 1:01:18
  SPEAKER_03: Hey, as always, check us out at lewissuperstar.com and crossroadconversations podcast.com for the latest and greatest.
• 1:01:24
  SPEAKER_03: Like, subscribe, send to your friends.
• 1:01:26
  SPEAKER_03: Have a great day.
• 1:01:28
  SPEAKER_02: Hey, if you enjoyed this episode, be sure to give it a like, share it with your friends and family.
• 1:01:32
  SPEAKER_02: You can visit our website, send us the questions about what you want to know, what you want to hear, tell us about the automotive industry, family business in general.
• 1:01:40
  SPEAKER_02: Who do you want to hear from?
• 1:01:41
  SPEAKER_02: Send them our way, and we'll do our best to answer any questions you have.
• 1:01:44
  SPEAKER_02: But make sure you tune in next time where we bring in another guest and we talk more about the automotive industry and all the great things going on within our business.