Latest / The Inspired Stories Podcast / Family, Faith & Fleet Vehicles: Greg Althardt's Vision for Peach State Truck Centers | Auto Industry Series

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Family, Faith & Fleet Vehicles: Greg Althardt's Vision for Peach State Truck Centers | Auto Industry Series · The Inspired Stories Podcast

0:04
Welcome to another edition of the Inspired Stories podcast,
0:08
where leaders share their experiences so we can learn from
0:11
their successes and be inspired by how they've overcome
0:14
adversity. My name is Anthony Cotespotti,
0:17
and today's guest is Greg Allhart, CPA and chief
0:21
operations officer at Peach State Truck Centers.
0:24
This prominent truck dealership has been serving customers for
0:27
over 50 years, selling and servicing Freightliner, Ford and
0:32
Western Star trucks as well as Thomas built buses.
0:36
Their mission is to provide excellent customer service and
0:39
reliable solutions across sales, parts, financing and more.
0:43
Under Greg's leadership, Peach State has achieved best in class
0:47
operational. KP is earning recognition as a
0:50
Successful Dealer Award Finalist in 2017 and 2022, winning the
0:56
ATD Dealer of the Year in 2021. More exciting is the cultural
1:02
transformation, focusing on creating exceptional experiences
1:06
for customers and employees through the Peach State Keys
1:09
behavioral standards. Greg has over 26 years of
1:13
experience in the automotive industry with a background as
1:17
CFO at the same company and 13 years in public accounting
1:22
serving the automotive commercial dealership space.
1:25
He holds Absa in Accounting from the University of Missouri,
1:28
Saint Louis and he is a graduate of the 26th class of the NATA
1:33
University ATD. He remains active in community
1:36
initiatives such as sponsoring the Windship Cancer Institute's
1:40
Win the Fight 5K for 12 years. Now before we get into all that
1:44
good stuff, today's episode is brought to you by my company,
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Add Back benefits.com. All right, back to our guest
2:14
today, the COO of Peach State Truck Centers.
2:18
Greg, I appreciate you making the time to Share your story
2:20
today. Yeah.
2:21
Thanks for having me, Anthony. Really looking forward to it.
2:24
Thanks. So, Greg, back to the beginning.
2:27
How'd you get started in the truck?
2:28
Business, yeah. So after graduating from
2:32
University of Missouri in Saint Louis and getting my CPA, I had
2:35
my humble beginnings as an intern at Larson Allen ACPA firm
2:39
in St. Louis, MO Fortunately, the firm
2:42
there believed in the industry specialization.
2:45
And unlike the Big Four or Big 5 at the time where you're either,
2:48
you know, put into tax or audit an arena, I got to begin serving
2:53
dealerships from the very first year out of school.
2:55
So that was really my introduction into this industry.
2:59
So 12 years into that. They put you into it and they
3:01
said here's the industry that you're going to start working
3:03
in. 100% Yep. So I was in different
3:06
dealerships 2 per week all over the country for starting as an
3:11
intern and then ultimately leaving as the national partner
3:14
in charge of commercial truck and trailer dealerships.
3:16
Did that for 13 years, so there. Was something about serving the
3:20
automotive and truck industry that really appealed to you?
3:23
It was really interesting, Interesting, especially as a kid
3:26
out of school walking around. One of the very first
3:29
assignments is going out and touching inventory.
3:32
So going into new car dealerships and everybody loves
3:35
a new car smell, right? And you would walk through and,
3:39
and look at all these vehicles that I had no, no chance of
3:42
affording, right? But opening them up and
3:45
smelling. And anyway, it was just, it's a
3:47
really, really, really interesting industry because you
3:50
really have multiple businesses running, you know, running under
3:52
one roof, selling new vehicles, used vehicles, doing parts,
3:55
doing service, financing operations, you know, all under
3:58
one roof. So that was very intriguing,
4:01
yeah. So my friends that are in the
4:03
tax and accounting space, you know, there are times of the
4:06
year where it gets to be pretty intense.
4:09
It was this your experience as well?
4:12
Yes, intense is probably not the right word to explain it, but
4:16
yes, all in consuming. It was basically September
4:19
through April every year. It was 70 to 80 hours a week.
4:23
My clients were all over the country so I traveled for over
4:27
half the year, Probably had about 2 1/2 months in order to
4:29
be a husband and a dad at the time.
4:31
OK, so you were married and one or more kids and and you're
4:36
trying to juggle all that. Yeah, it wasn't.
4:39
It was, it was really difficult. So yes, married, married my high
4:43
school sweetheart so she knew what she was getting into.
4:47
Got my CPA and started working for the firm and it's like, OK,
4:50
here we go. We are going to be partner as
4:53
fast as we possibly can. So yes, it was.
4:55
It was difficult, to say the least.
4:58
So at some point you decide to make a transition from that,
5:02
like directly into working for a trucking company.
5:06
Yeah. So the owner of our
5:09
organization, Rick Reynolds, shared a similar background to
5:13
me. He started it right out of
5:15
school, was in public accounting for Price Waterhouse, Coopers,
5:18
Coopers and Lybrand at that time.
5:21
He ended up having a situation where, again, almost sharing the
5:25
same type of story where he was trying to become partner, He was
5:31
doing whatever it took in order to make that happen.
5:33
And his wife at the time had a very catastrophic accident
5:37
causing him to re evaluate his life choices.
5:41
And he was seeing me struggle for sure because we knew each
5:46
other quite well. I went through the ATD dealer
5:48
Academy and they were the sponsoring dealer.
5:49
So I got to spend weeks doing work at the particular
5:52
dealership and I would just kind of bounce different things off
5:55
of them. And he said, hey, man, whenever
5:57
you're ready to leave, I've lived your life, there is
6:00
something much better for you, give me a call.
6:03
Wow. Yep.
6:04
So then it was February, about the third week of February every
6:08
year, I would want to just go cry in a dark corner and going,
6:12
what am I doing? What am I doing?
6:15
And we had dinner that evening and he said, hey, I have a job
6:18
for you. Whenever you're ready, come
6:20
down. I would love for you to be my
6:22
CFO and which was great because they were also a client of mine.
6:26
So I had I was very familiar, familiar with the founder, the
6:30
second generation owner and eight years of everything that
6:34
the organization had done. So that is how I entered Peach
6:37
State Truck Centers. Was it a hard decision to make?
6:40
I mean, you were, you were killing yourself over here in
6:44
tax and accounting, but I assume you have some semblance of a
6:48
life there, friends, family, etcetera.
6:50
And then you're going to pick up and move to another state.
6:53
It was one of the most difficult decisions to ever make.
6:56
I know you're a fellow Midwesterner, and being from
6:58
Saint Louis. Trying to get a Midwesterner out
7:01
of Saint Louis is almost impossible.
7:03
My wife, her whole family, my whole family, my sister, her
7:07
brother, all aunts, uncles, everybody is there.
7:10
But you know, I'll, I'll, it's even a more crazy story as I'm,
7:15
we finally made the decision that it's the right thing for
7:17
our family. I had a 5 year old and a 2 year
7:19
old at the time and my wife would even tell me, you know,
7:22
throughout this journey of trying to become partner and
7:28
making excuses that my priorities were not there.
7:30
They just weren't set right. And I can even remember one time
7:34
of just self reflection of saying she's right.
7:36
I'm making excuses why I cannot make it to my 2 year old's
7:39
birthday party because he's 2 year old, he's 2 years old and
7:42
he'll never remember the fact that I wasn't there because I
7:46
needed to be at work. I needed to be seen.
7:48
I needed to do, you know, extra work, etcetera, etcetera.
7:52
That, you know, the morning I was going to go in and tell my
7:55
partners that I was leaving the firm, she woke up and shook me
8:00
and said, you're not going to believe this, but I'm pregnant.
8:04
And I said you are killing. You're kidding me.
8:06
And these are not the tier. We'll put it this way.
8:09
Our first one was planned. We had him on April 16th, right?
8:13
So I'm an accountant, she is very much OCD.
8:17
So it was like, how do we maximize And for anybody that's
8:20
listening that doesn't know the whole accounting world, April
8:22
15th is tax due date. April 16th, usually all the
8:24
firms are closed and you're playing golf or doing something.
8:27
So we tried maximizing the total amount of time that would be
8:29
available to home to help right. So it's so crazy.
8:33
But anyway, this was this was not planned.
8:35
And anyway, I was just, it was so gut wrenching because while I
8:39
traveled all the time, she was at her parents house with, you
8:43
know, the kids and over there four or five very close to her
8:46
family, very, very close to her family.
8:48
And I could just not fathom going to tell my mother-in-law
8:51
that not only am I taking your two grandkids away, but the
8:54
third that we didn't even know we were going to have them also
8:56
taking away from you. And so I remember calling the
8:59
owner of our organization and telling him, because I already
9:02
said that, you know, Yep, I'm going to tell my partners the
9:04
week before that said, I'm, I'm coming.
9:06
We're doing this and we're going to make the leap of faith.
9:10
I believe in you. I fortunately got to see many
9:13
dealership families across the Oregon, across the country.
9:17
Those that were awesome, those that I'd struggle to even walk
9:23
in and have lunch with them, to be around them.
9:25
And the Reynolds family that runs this organization or just
9:28
one of those people that you had to walk over hot coals for.
9:31
Just an amazing and amazing family.
9:33
So was a fantastic opportunity. I ultimately call him and say,
9:38
Rick, I can't, I can't do this. I can't do it.
9:40
I can't take my I can't take my family away.
9:43
So only having again, an absolute breakdown with my wife
9:46
as we're just, you know, we're crying together over a weekend
9:49
and, and at the end of the day said this is going to be the
9:51
best thing for our family. We need to do it.
9:53
So we made the jump in 2013 and came to the organization.
9:57
It has been one of the best decisions that I've ever made,
9:59
not just for our family, but it's, it's been for the company.
10:03
I'm having more fun than I've ever had here in these last
10:06
three years, actually getting out of the CFO role and getting
10:08
into the COO role. So it's it's just been fantastic
10:12
for everybody. I, I see that you've been with
10:14
Pete State for almost 12 years, little, almost 8 1/2 years as
10:19
the CFO, now a little over three years as the CEO.
10:24
What, why are you having so much fun?
10:26
What is it just the, is it just the removal of the pressure of
10:30
sort of, you know, the annual like tax season that you, you
10:33
know, had to deal with before or is there more to it?
10:36
No, there's a lot more to it. So fortunately getting out of
10:39
public accounting, I didn't have to in moving here, I no longer
10:42
had to keep track of what I did every 15 minutes.
10:44
I no longer had those 75 hour work weeks, you know, during
10:47
September all the way through April, it was coming here.
10:51
And I'm an individual that likes doing different things.
10:55
I like being challenged. I like taking on new challenges.
10:59
And so one thing was being from outside the organization, seeing
11:03
things from a 30,000 foot level and and serving every dealership
11:07
clients across the country. I saw those that did things
11:10
really well, really well. And Peach State was an amazing
11:13
organization that takes care of their customers and has deep
11:16
relationships with them. But there was a lot of
11:19
opportunity when it comes to operational efficiency,
11:21
operational excellence in what could or should be done.
11:25
So I came here and it was the mundane task, I'll say just a
11:28
little bit, it's in finance, and that's great.
11:30
We did some great things. We made accounting and the
11:34
financial operations very efficient, but there were so
11:36
much more that could be done with the organization.
11:39
So I say I've been having more fun in the last three years
11:43
because I've kind of, we, we've pushed the owner, not just
11:46
myself, but the, the team, the leadership team.
11:48
We've we've just kind of pushed the boundaries and and really
11:51
five years ago we said, you know what the status quo is no longer
11:54
what's going to take us into the next 50 years as we were
11:56
approaching our 50 year anniversary, which means we need
11:59
to re evaluate the way we do everything.
12:02
So we need to be not be so prideful of yeah, we've been in
12:05
business for 45 years and we're pretty successful.
12:07
Pat ourselves in the back looking at the financial
12:09
statement go man, look how good we did instead of actually
12:13
looking at the financial statement saying what should we
12:15
have done? What can we do?
12:18
We have so many talented people here in this organization.
12:20
How do we harness how do we harness their collective
12:23
abilities to really take the organization to the next level.
12:27
And then as technology is now coming out with autonomous
12:29
vehicles and and electric and things are changing clearly now
12:33
politically by the day with tariffs and everything else.
12:36
If we continue to operate the organization the way that we
12:38
did, you know, in 1974 when it was founded, we will quickly
12:42
find the fact that we're no longer relevant.
12:44
And we're a family run organization, which makes us
12:46
different than almost everybody else here in the Atlanta metro
12:50
area, let alone, you know, North and South Georgia as well.
12:53
So. So let's talk.
12:55
I want to hear more about some of those operational changes
12:58
that you're bringing about. But let's take a step back and
13:01
sort of explain to everybody a little bit more about what you
13:04
guys do, the area that you serve, what kind of sets you
13:06
apart from who else is in your competitive?
13:09
Landscape, sure. So everybody hears Peach State
13:11
Truck Centers and immediately thinks that we're a trucking
13:13
company, that the 53 foot box trucks and the tractors that you
13:17
see, you know, cutting too close to you on the roads, you know
13:21
that that's what we do and and that's exact, that's not what we
13:23
do. So I want you to picture your
13:25
local Nissan, Ford, Chevy, Mercedes dealer.
13:30
We're a truck dealership in that same fashion.
13:32
We just serve the commercial truck space.
13:35
So picture any commercial applications you can possibly
13:38
think of from the over the road tractor to a local dump truck to
13:42
a FedEx or UPS delivery vehicle, to a Ford F-150, a plumber, you
13:47
name it. We service the entire commercial
13:50
truck space. We also sell Thomas built school
13:52
buses. We have an emergency vehicle
13:54
line. So again, virtually anything
13:57
that you can think of from a commercial application of
13:59
transportation outside of air transportation, that is what we
14:04
sell that We also do sell parts. We do service just like you
14:07
would have at a normal dealership.
14:09
We have a finance, a finance arm to our organization and used
14:13
trucks as well. So your customers are
14:16
businesses, freight businesses? We 100% and you know, I, I, I
14:22
absolutely know that you would know names like Home Depot and
14:26
Chick-fil-A and Delta and Old Dominion freight lines just to
14:30
name a few UPS, just to name a few of our, our customers.
14:34
So yes, it is primarily we are AB to B, not B to C We do have
14:39
some owner operators that do come in and and purchase, but
14:42
it's primarily AB to B business. Are you primarily serving like
14:46
the greater Atlanta area? Yeah, great question.
14:50
So our area of responsibilities actually takes us all the way to
14:54
Tuscaloosa, AL. And just picture a giant
14:58
triangle if you go from Tuscaloosa, AL, almost all the
15:02
way to the South Carolina border up near Greensboro.
15:05
And we're not in South Carolina, but then straight down to the
15:07
middle of the state in Macon, GA and all the way back over to
15:11
Harpersville or just South of Birmingham.
15:13
So that entire area, which does encompass, encompass the Atlanta
15:17
metro area as well. We have 14 locations here today.
15:21
What sets you apart from your competitors?
15:25
I'm going to say #1 is the purpose of why we're in
15:29
business, which is to make a positive difference in the lives
15:31
of others. That is truly what sets sets
15:35
ourselves apart. I know so many other
15:38
organizations. There's public organizations and
15:40
private equity groups. There's large multinational
15:44
groups that are in our area. They're all corporately ran.
15:47
We're family run. We're a family run business, but
15:50
we're a, a business that cares about families.
15:53
We create deeper relationships with our employees and our
15:56
customers. We take care of them.
15:58
So here in the Atlanta metro area, we actually are the only
16:01
family run dealership. We are moving into our third
16:04
generation here shortly and that is truly what sets ourselves
16:10
apart from our competitors. And then I don't want to get
16:14
into too many exciting things here now, Anthony, but even the
16:18
new facility that we're building right now, we're building
16:20
150,000 square foot new facility that is completely being
16:25
designed around the experience, the employee experience and
16:30
customer experience. And for every dealership that
16:32
I've been to across the country and all of my years of service,
16:35
this will be something nobody, nobody has anything like what
16:39
we're building. So it just isn't 4 walls and A
16:42
and a dealership. We're building a destination.
16:45
So a place where when you don't have to buy a part or your truck
16:47
isn't broken or you don't have to buy a new truck, we still
16:50
want you to come and be a part. We want to welcome you home as
16:52
you travel that I-20 corridor with a sovereign lounge.
16:56
We want to help solve some of the industry issues of a lack of
16:59
parking as you see these big rigs parked on the side of the
17:01
roads or on on ramps or off ramps.
17:05
We want to bring that service that dealerships don't normally
17:07
have. We want to bring a a
17:09
subscription model basically to being able to service the
17:15
individuals that that are the backbone of our industry, which
17:18
are the drivers that move goods from one side of the country to
17:21
the other side. We're going to bring dignity and
17:24
gratitude back to what they do and welcome them in a place
17:27
where they can be even if they don't have to, if their truck
17:32
isn't broken down or if they don't have to find an extra part
17:35
or filter or whatever it might be.
17:37
So this is kind. Of like a truck stop on
17:39
steroids. You can kind of call it that.
17:43
It won't quite be where we have Barber shops and different
17:47
things like that. Just picture, if you're here in
17:50
the Southeast, there's an organization that's called
17:52
Bucky's. And Bucky's is a gas station.
17:55
Although if you normally think of a gas station when you're
17:58
going on a road trip, you're thinking of a place that you
18:00
have to stop #1 because you don't, you need fuel #2 is
18:03
because usually your kids have to go to the bathroom.
18:05
Your wife has had way too many iced teas or what have you, and,
18:09
and he has to stop, right? So what do you expect?
18:11
You walk in, it's a dirty restroom, you know it's a tile,
18:14
nasty floor and doesn't look like anybody that's worked there
18:17
has maybe showered in the last three years.
18:20
Anyway, it's not a very pleasant experience.
18:22
Whereas A Bucky's, it's 100, well lit, very easy in and very
18:27
easy out. It is like a combination of
18:30
Cracker Barrel, your local BBQ shop and a convenience store in
18:36
a nice setting. Bathrooms that are so clean that
18:39
you could eat off of again, I somewhat these are not shameless
18:43
plugs, but it's the difference of going to the local carnival
18:47
that's at your that comes to town and going to the Walt
18:50
Disney World Resort, right. It's it's that difference that
18:54
is what we were bringing to the industry.
18:56
It's just a completely different experience.
18:59
Yes, we're still a dealership. Yes, you need us for these
19:02
things. But we are going to, when you,
19:04
when you do have to come to us, we are going to bring you a
19:06
level of service that is completely not not usual in our
19:10
industry. We're going to bring you the
19:11
types of touches that you will see at a Ritz Carlton, a
19:14
Nordstrom, a Disney, a Chick-fil-A type of an
19:18
experience. So.
19:19
Somebody's driving along the I-20 corridor.
19:22
Maybe they need service, maybe they don't.
19:24
Maybe they just want to stop. And what, what, what will they
19:26
see? They can they gas up?
19:28
Can they? They get something to eat.
19:30
They they kind of hang out for a little while.
19:32
Yep. So we'll have the first ever
19:33
Sovereign lounge, which most dealerships have a little
19:36
drivers lounge that might have ATV and you know, maybe a nice
19:39
chair where they can sit in there and and relax.
19:43
We'll have a dog park. We'll have an all inclusive
19:47
experience. Picture it going through a Delta
19:50
lounge, if you will, sleeping pods if they need it, if they're
19:54
a day driver or they're coming into Atlanta, you know, because
19:58
Atlanta traffic can be so bad and these drivers might have a
20:01
10 minute window before or after and if they're 10 minutes late.
20:06
They are. They've just lost the contract
20:08
or 50% of the contract. If they're early, then they have
20:10
to sit there and wait as well. So many individuals will drive
20:13
hours to get just outside of the city to be able to time it to
20:18
make sure that they're not going to hit traffic.
20:20
So sleeping pods, all inclusive dining, drinks, exclusive gear,
20:29
dog park, the ability to park their vehicle if they're quick.
20:34
Not at this particular location, but we've even gone as crazy as
20:37
to solve the issue of these poor individuals having to park their
20:41
vehicles at a Walmart parking lot, walking a half a mile to
20:43
the local whatever it is McDonald's or fast food
20:48
restaurant to how do we get a truck drive through where you
20:51
don't even have to get out of your vehicle.
20:53
We can hand you your part. We can hand you something warm
20:55
to eat or you know what park come on in and and enjoy
20:59
yourself. Welcome home.
21:01
So those are just a few little touches and highlights of
21:05
something that a dealership experience where you just won't
21:08
have. And we've taken somewhat from a
21:10
queue from Disney, and that is how do we touch every experience
21:14
or every sense to what you'll see, what you'll experience,
21:18
what you'll be able to touch, what you'll be able to smell.
21:23
It will just be an experience that will be second to none.
21:25
And this will be a subscription experience so people can become
21:28
members and this will give them access to the the whole setup.
21:33
Yeah. So if you're in for service, you
21:34
have free access to it. If you are normally drive this
21:38
route then yes, it'll be it'll be a monthly fee where you'll
21:40
have access to all of these amenities like again is not
21:44
quite like going to your normal truck stop.
21:46
So picture, as I mentioned, the 1970s gas station experience,
21:51
that's what many of the truck stop experiences are.
21:55
So we will not have fuel. We're not going there, not
21:58
taking on that liability. There actually is a truck stop
22:01
right across the street from our location that they'll be able
22:05
to, they'll be able to take care of those things.
22:07
But yeah, we'll give them a different.
22:09
Idea for this come from Craig. Yeah.
22:12
So remember when I talked about how much fun that we're having
22:15
and it was the entire leadership team just kind of sitting around
22:18
and saying, you know what, What if we thought about the way that
22:22
we service our employees, how we take care of them and how we
22:25
service our customers? What if we just break the mold
22:29
and we get completely outside of our industry?
22:32
What can we look at? What other industries, what
22:34
other what other organizations are known for exceptional
22:38
service? What are other organizations
22:40
that are known that that just take care of their employees
22:42
that no matter what they would never leave them?
22:45
Let's start running towards that.
22:47
And so it was, we actually did take our entire leader team down
22:50
to the Walt Disney World Resort, going through the Disney
22:52
Institute programs and taking through VIP experiences, a lot
22:59
of research and reading in, in books on, on various companies
23:02
that are just known for exceptional service and saying,
23:04
how do we, how do we replicate some of these things?
23:06
How do we take them and make them applicable to our industry?
23:10
So again, when you look at a Bucky's, what is it?
23:12
It's a gas station. But my kids when I'm driving
23:15
back to Saint Louis from Atlanta, by God, 40 miles out,
23:18
it's, we are going to stop at Bucky's.
23:20
We're going to stop at Bucky's. We're going to, we have to stop
23:22
at Bucky's. And I usually try to say we
23:24
don't have time and then I lose and we end up stopping at
23:28
Bucky's and then we're walking out with $70.00 worth of crap
23:31
that we never needed of walking in, taking our dog for a walk.
23:34
And that. So anyway, it's, it's really
23:37
just a challenge to think differently, which has been one
23:39
of my MO's, you know, ever since the time of being back at the
23:42
firm to coming here to Peach State.
23:45
And, and, and just seeing how our leadership team, us
23:48
involving our managers, everybody who leads individuals,
23:52
we did the same experience with them all the way down to last
23:55
year. I know you mentioned in the
23:56
intro, we're really good at what we do.
24:00
We have really locked down our foundations as far as best in
24:04
class industry standards. So we've gotten very efficient
24:07
at what we do and we've taken that from our front line
24:09
individuals to say, what are the pain points.
24:12
I know where we I know where we should be, how can you help get
24:15
us there? And so involving everybody from
24:18
the front line to again operating at best in class when
24:23
you look at each one of our departments, again, just one of
24:26
a quick shameless plug here, inventory accuracy.
24:30
We have $25 million worth of parts inventory in our
24:33
locations, 67% three years ago, we're at 98.9% inventory
24:38
accuracy as it stands today. I have individuals that answer
24:41
phones, individuals that are fulfilling orders that don't
24:44
work in our locations. They work out of their house.
24:47
How can they adequately serve our customers if they cannot
24:51
know for 100% certainty or in this case 99% certainty that
24:55
when it says we have one, we have one.
24:58
You know when there is a truck down and it is a vital job and
25:00
we tell them it's going to be at their shop and we deliver it
25:03
before 10:00 in the morning, It's there 100% of the time so
25:07
they can take care of their business.
25:09
So I want to go back to this. What do you call this new
25:11
facility that you're opening up? The 150,000 square?
25:14
It's got to have a name, right? Well, it does.
25:16
I mean, unfortunately it's not like the mega center.
25:19
It's a, you know, it's just it's our new facility that we will be
25:22
opening in Villa Rica, GA. So it's it's Peach State.
25:27
It technically won't, isn't our flagship, but it's actually the
25:30
first facility that we've gotten to build since our original
25:32
location was built in 1974. Otherwise, as we've grown, we've
25:36
acquired buildings and we've done some remodels to it, but
25:39
it's the first time that we've been able to build, to design a
25:41
building. Thinking about efficiency, how
25:44
do we take care of our employees and what type of experience can
25:47
we give our customers? When will this open up, Greg?
25:49
October of this year. So I mean, it sounds amazing,
25:54
cutting edge, Nobody else is doing anything like this.
25:57
But I also know you're a finance guy.
25:59
Like is this going to pencil out?
26:02
Sir, yes, I am a finance guy. So yes that I will say some of
26:08
it is a build it and they will come.
26:09
But fortunately, Freightliner is one of the market share leaders,
26:13
over 40% market share in the commercial truck space, one of a
26:17
big issue in the industry. I just think of it as an
26:20
airplane. If an airplane isn't flying, the
26:23
airline isn't making money. If a truck isn't moving, the
26:26
transportation companies are not making money.
26:29
So our big answer to the industry is we need to give you
26:32
more capacity. We need to be efficient at what
26:34
we do and we need to reduce your downtime.
26:38
So if we communicate with you, we have the parts that are in
26:41
stock, we have the capacity to make it happen.
26:43
We're tripling our capacity from our current location to 60
26:46
internal bays in order to make sure that that's the case so I
26:49
can get you the up time that you need.
26:52
So I hear you talk a lot about taking care of the team.
26:55
How can we service our customers?
26:57
How can we service our employees, you know, how can we
27:00
make this a place that they never want to leave?
27:02
I I'd like to hear more about that, both from a, a recruiting
27:06
standpoint as well as a retention standpoint.
27:09
What are you guys doing that that's so effective?
27:12
Yeah, it was again. We five years ago, we did a hard
27:16
look at the organization and said, hey, we're good and I'm
27:20
just going to steal again, another plug here for Jim
27:22
Collins. Good to great.
27:24
We're a good company. What do we need to do to be a
27:27
great company? What are the things that we
27:28
lack? And that was consistency across
27:31
our locations. It was a lack of definition of
27:34
what excellence is like. Again, in our mission and
27:37
vision, it says we want to be the dealer and employer of
27:38
choice, therefore the best. Yet we lacked the discipline and
27:42
accountability and the definitions of what those things
27:44
were. We didn't have a training and
27:47
development team at that point. So in our industry, a lot of
27:51
times the CFO or the CEO, they're the IT individuals,
27:55
they're the HR individuals, they're the marketing people,
27:57
you name it. And I'm just going to tell you,
27:59
none of those are my strong suits.
28:00
So yes, that dealership location will pencil out from from these
28:04
things that we're doing. And the last thing was
28:07
innovation. That's one thing that our
28:08
industry, the automotive industry is about 20 years ahead
28:11
of us almost always. And what we're doing and we said
28:14
how can we leapfrog them. So was those four areas that we
28:17
really began to focus in on. And one of those things were,
28:21
you know, let's get some individuals that that have
28:24
helped build employee retention programs, training programs.
28:29
How do we get how do we get better career pathing for the
28:32
individuals that we're going to bring in?
28:34
And then it was just again, focusing on these other
28:37
organizations that have done an amazing job at creating an
28:40
unbelievable workplace. So one of the very first things
28:43
that we did was, you know, we used to hire individuals just
28:46
Willy nilly as we needed them. We first we kind of started with
28:51
the mantra then of hire slow, fire fast, anybody that was
28:55
going to lead people. We ended up having large panel
28:58
interviews and it was beginning to look more cultural fit than
29:01
what did they know because we can teach them the industry.
29:05
So that was a big change to the organization.
29:07
We began to have centralized orientations.
29:10
So instead of hiring everybody on a well, I mean, again, Willy
29:14
nilly, we said we're going to hire everybody and they're all
29:15
going to start every other week. And the very first thing that
29:18
they're going to do, we're going to have a absolute designated
29:21
program for when they come in. We're going to make sure that
29:23
they feel like AVIP at every location consistently 1/2 a day
29:28
walked around, introduced, taken to lunch, all of their stuff is
29:32
ready, name tags are ready. And day 2, they're going to come
29:36
to a central orientation. And that orientation will be led
29:38
by one of our leaders, myself, the owner of the company, the
29:41
the current CFO, one of the members of our leader team will
29:44
be telling them what is so different about Peach State
29:47
Truck Centers, What are your roles and responsibilities and
29:50
what did you get yourself into? We're not just caring about and
29:54
we tell them this and it's absolutely true.
29:56
We don't care about making the next dollar because I promise, I
29:59
promise that when we all work together and we work to serve
30:02
the customer and obviously we focus on these leading
30:05
indicators, leading operational indicators and stop looking at
30:07
the financial statement, we will succeed and we have.
30:13
So that was the beginning. And then it was just how much
30:15
more could we pour into them? How much more could we empower
30:19
and engage them? So it wasn't necessarily by
30:21
adding additional benefits, although we did, We looked at
30:24
our PTO programs and we actually have paid maternal and paternal
30:28
leave, which our industry that's almost unheard of in the truck
30:31
side. So we challenged ourselves to
30:33
say, you know what, if we're going to be the best by God,
30:35
let's put our money where our mouth is and let's lead the
30:38
industry, not just in benefits, but now how can we give these
30:42
individuals that we want to come to us?
30:45
How do we give them the opportunity?
30:47
So let's train them. Let's give them a career path.
30:49
Let's start an emerging leaders program for all those that think
30:52
that they might want to be in management.
30:54
Because I think we all know going from doer to manager,
30:57
completely different set of skills.
31:00
And as an organization, we had never really thought about that.
31:02
We just, we had almost the Peter principal in the past, which was
31:06
let's just go ahead. And this guy's a really great
31:08
service writer. I bet he would make a good
31:10
manager. And then lo and behold, people
31:12
are scratching their heads and going, why aren't we getting
31:14
results? Why is everybody leaving?
31:18
So we began to train our managers with Managers Basics
31:21
training specifically. We began to roll in some more
31:25
programs. We even pushed our leadership
31:28
team to go above and beyond to say, OK, guys, we are going to
31:32
do something on an annual basis that will become a contest to
31:35
say, how do we come up with innovative ideas to challenge
31:38
the industry to say what's an excellence in innovation as far
31:41
as customer experience goes and employee experience.
31:44
This is one of the times that we had our leadership team down at
31:46
Disney and said, OK, here's the job.
31:49
We're going to send you all off on a field trip.
31:51
You're going to go through the parks, you're going to take AVIP
31:53
experience, You're going to talk to their supervisors, You're
31:55
going to talk to their leads, You're going to talk to
31:57
individuals. Why do they have such a high
31:59
return rate, which I know those things are starting to slip, but
32:03
and now you're going to come back and you're going to have
32:05
something that is either something that you have been
32:07
inspired by, something that has had the light bulb go off.
32:10
But how do we bring something like that back to our
32:12
organization? And so they ended up coming up
32:15
with an idea that we all ended up voting on called the Peach
32:18
State Employee Empowerment Program, where we basically
32:20
said, you know what, $250 per head on an annual basis that
32:24
we're going to turn over to a group of employees at every
32:27
location and allow them to improve their workplace any way
32:31
they want. So if that's adding soda
32:33
machines, gaming systems, whatever it is, as we wish for
32:38
them to always put on that :) in front of, you know, on stage
32:41
situations, How do we give them a reprieve?
32:44
And how can we ensure that that they're taken care of on their
32:49
break time or when they need to step behind the wall, take a
32:51
breath. How do we empower them to create
32:54
this space? Because I think we all know too,
32:57
we end up spending more time at work and with the folks that we
33:00
work with then at home when we're not in bed.
33:04
So how do we give them the empowerment to, to take this to
33:08
the next level? And then another idea popped out
33:10
of it. And it's like, what?
33:11
And it's what we call what matters to you, $250 on an
33:14
annual basis to every single employee to donate to whatever
33:19
program that they want if they have a kid that plays baseball.
33:22
Because we all know that the, you know, the sponsorship items
33:26
come flying in. Hey, can we sponsor this?
33:28
Yes. You know what I really, I don't
33:29
have a kid who plays baseball, but I'm really involved in the
33:32
local youth group. Can we sponsor that?
33:33
Yes, we are, we are I, I don't mind saying it.
33:38
We're, we're, we're, we're, we're Christian based and we
33:40
want to ensure that we want to invest in you in what you want
33:45
to invest in outside of the organization and.
33:49
How else does that faith, does your faith show up in in in
33:53
Peach Day? The way that we approach every
33:56
day, so I won't say it's not like we have a morning prayer
33:59
service, you know, where everybody is together, but it is
34:02
truly if you want to talk about the golden rule or how we make
34:05
decisions, we make decisions that are based on set of
34:10
morality and standards, not just rolling over our employees or
34:12
rolling over a customer in order to make the next dollar.
34:16
So it really is looking out for the benefit of our families.
34:19
And that's how we really look at my role and how the owner looks
34:23
at his, you know, his calling. I'm taking care of 750 families
34:28
now. Obviously there's a, there's a
34:29
whole work and productive side of this, but how can I make a
34:32
positive difference in their lives?
34:34
Which again, that we had a mission and we had a vision, but
34:37
we didn't necessarily have a central why our owner did.
34:40
And this is, again, he's, he's so humble, but this is how he
34:43
leads and he was able to verbalize it.
34:46
And when you finally verbalize this, let's make a positive
34:49
difference that makes no difference.
34:51
If it is just smiling, it's somebody that's off the somebody
34:53
that's walking off the street. It's helping to take care of an
34:56
issue that they have so they don't have to, so they don't
34:58
have to take care of it. It is how do we, how do we
35:02
continue to look at we have chaplains that do walk through
35:04
the organization that you know what, some of us don't have
35:07
people to talk to. So let's give them an outlet.
35:10
And it doesn't have to, it's not biblically based.
35:13
It's just, hey, what? Is there something going on?
35:16
It's. 2 human beings talking, supporting.
35:18
It's 2 human beings talking and, and, and now again, being in the
35:21
position that I'm in, I don't know that Sally has a particular
35:24
issue, but the organization comes back and says, yes, you
35:27
have no idea that Sally's son is struggling, which we didn't know
35:29
that, but not Sally. But you have individuals inside
35:32
your organization that have kids that are struggling with
35:34
addiction, or kids that are struggling with bullying, or
35:38
kids that are, you know, thinking about suicide, or
35:41
people that have spouses that have health issues, and just all
35:44
the different human touches that we all have.
35:49
Everybody, every organization has it.
35:51
But we try to be a bit more hypersensitive to #1 giving an
35:55
outlet to it. And we have an EAP program where
35:57
individuals can go to it, but that's somebody having to pick
35:59
up the phone. This is an individual walking
36:01
through on a weekly basis saying, hey, how are you doing?
36:03
And you know what, 90% of the people never take them up.
36:06
It's small talk, what have you. But the 10% of the people, it's
36:08
made it profound. Difference it's like you guys
36:11
have sort of flipped the, the pyramid almost rather than sort
36:14
of a traditional, you know, top down management, like, you know,
36:18
the employees are there to sort of, you know, do your bidding.
36:21
It's kind of turned around and like, how can I help you?
36:23
How can I do something for you that's going to help you and
36:26
your life, help you and your job and and that's just going to
36:31
make the entire organization stronger and better?
36:33
And Anthony, it has, I mean it has from five years ago to where
36:37
we are today. And again, not to say that not
36:38
to diminish anything that happened, you know, prior to
36:41
five years ago or three years ago or two years ago, nothing
36:44
like that because it was a great, it's, it's a great
36:46
organization. But we found that when we've
36:48
taken care of our people, when we've empowered our individuals,
36:51
when we've given them a voice and not just how we operate, we
36:54
explained why we're doing what we're doing and we take care of
36:58
them. We provide some, some, I'll call
37:00
it guide rails. So like I mentioned earlier, the
37:02
operational KPIs that we've that we've hit, it's having daily
37:06
huddles, it's having communication with them on a
37:09
daily basis. And guys, this is what we need
37:10
to accomplish it. And This is why we're going to
37:12
do it. This is what your job is and
37:14
this is how you can impact it. If there's something that is
37:17
impeding you, tell us, we'll change it.
37:20
If there's something that's broken, we'll fix it.
37:22
If there's a, a tool or equipment that you need, we'll
37:25
get it for you. But we're going to solve this
37:27
problem together and then showing them the metrics every
37:30
day has just taken our operational excellence through
37:33
the roof. Again, going back to Jim
37:34
Collins, it's easy to sit back and always do what you wanted to
37:38
do. And then eventually the good
37:39
companies are the, the, what were the great companies?
37:42
Sears, Roebuck, you end up finding her now out of business.
37:45
So tapping it into that power and encouraging them, then
37:49
taking care of them shows through and our keys that you
37:53
mentioned earlier. So it's great.
37:55
Our operational foundation is set now.
37:57
We will continue, We will have continuous improvement as we
37:59
continue to go on. And I stood in front of a our
38:02
management group and said complacency is dead in this
38:04
company. So if that makes you
38:06
uncomfortable, well, we'll work with you.
38:10
But if that makes you uncomfortable, maybe this is no
38:13
longer a place for you. But complacency is dead in this
38:15
organization. If we're not your own, we're
38:17
dying. If we're not evolving, we're
38:19
dying. So then now later on, how we
38:23
deliver that exceptional service with our keys, our behavioral
38:27
standards to put into place. And that's just giving a
38:30
framework and it again, going back to what am I so excited
38:33
about seeing these naturally God gifted individuals show their
38:39
unique talents, showing their smiles, guiding individuals to
38:43
where they need to go, no longer pointing, listening with
38:46
empathy, showing gratitude. I mean, Anthony, when's the last
38:51
time that you've actually gone to a place and it doesn't look
38:53
like you've actually put them out, even though that's their
38:56
job, right? You've walked into a place and
38:59
they've kind of looked at you like, what are you doing here?
39:01
Another one. Another.
39:03
Yeah, another one. My goodness.
39:06
And so that just again, it was our owner crystallizing and it
39:09
it is him. It is him to a tee.
39:12
Our owner stood in front of our leadership group and has told
39:14
the entire organization to guess what?
39:15
We sell trucks. I don't care about trucks.
39:18
I know nothing about them. OK, So I think most business
39:22
leaders would sit back and go, holy, you know what?
39:25
This is the guy who's leading the whole Dang thing.
39:27
And I'll give you the same admission when he said that, it
39:30
was such a relief to me. I'm not a mechanical person.
39:33
You don't want me in the shop trying to fix anything.
39:35
And I'm not an expert at selling these things, right?
39:38
But I can't help build a business.
39:39
I can't help execute a plan. I'm I'm good at strategic
39:42
thinking. Same thing for him.
39:44
He would rather take his time, his energy, and the blessings
39:47
that God has bestowed on all of us to include where we're at
39:50
from a financial perspective and say, how do I provide an
39:53
opportunity for others to succeed?
39:56
And that again, for everything that we're doing inside the
39:59
organization here today, we just came off of having our first
40:02
night of excellence, which was, again, I think I had mentioned
40:06
it the other night, it's not an employee gala.
40:08
It's not an employee party. It was specifically a night that
40:11
we could all come together, all 725 of our employees and
40:14
spouses. Huge ballroom A list.
40:18
Individual and celebrate what we have all done together over the
40:22
past several years giving out our first leader and employee of
40:25
the year milestones. We've started a Business School
40:29
to ensure that our our managers who are leading people aren't
40:31
just again, we look at our managers, you have two jobs, get
40:34
results, lead and retain people. We focus on both of those
40:40
things. Now.
40:41
In the past, we focused on getting results right and then
40:44
looking backwards. And so we've again, it's, it's
40:47
it's so exciting what's happening right now.
40:49
And then we're going to have a new facility.
40:52
Yeah, I am. I mean, I could sit here and
40:53
bore you and your listeners for hours and hours upon end, but
40:57
that just gives you a little glimpse into saying I've had
40:59
more fun in my professional career in the last few years.
41:02
And it's because we have challenged, we have everybody
41:05
has challenged each other. The owners challenged us.
41:07
We've challenged him. We've challenged the leadership,
41:10
we've challenged managers, we've challenged everybody at the
41:12
front lines and to see everybody all swell up to, to basically, I
41:22
think in a lot of ways make what many people thought were
41:25
impossible in our industry a reality.
41:28
And then to actually see it come to fruition.
41:30
For us to get all of the positive feedback that we've
41:32
received from customers and employees to all share in an
41:36
evening of people walking the red carpet and in in all
41:40
celebrating together. Just the feedback that we've
41:42
received this week is just it's kind of a bow to the package of
41:47
just summarizing what these last few years have been about in our
41:50
organization. Sense of accomplishment, you
41:52
know, and, and Speaking of challenges, Greg, what's a
41:55
serious challenge that maybe you've overcome in your life,
41:59
lessons learned and kind of how you got through it?
42:02
Yeah, so I'll go back a couple. Number one, I played college
42:08
baseball and I thought I was pretty damn good.
42:11
I go into my freshman year and at the end of the day, I didn't
42:13
play a whole lot. And I ended up getting mad at
42:16
the coach that I wasn't getting playing time.
42:19
And lo and behold, he taught me one of the most, one of the best
42:22
lessons that I've ever learned. And that is, you know what, just
42:25
because you think you're good, you need to work a little bit
42:27
harder. You need to work a little bit
42:29
harder than everybody else. And you know what you need to
42:31
take responsibility for? If you don't like it and do
42:34
something about it, don't let other people dictate to you.
42:38
So that is how I approached moving into public accounting.
42:41
OK, I'm going to not rely on anybody else.
42:44
We're going to find out what needs to what, what
42:47
differentiates our firm and our service that we that we provide
42:51
from anyone else. Let's run towards that.
42:54
Only to be smacked in the face, which I hate when my wife is
42:57
right. I hate when she's right.
42:58
And unfortunately, she's right most of the time.
43:00
Even when she's not, she is. But in this case, my priorities
43:04
were totally screwed. Totally screwed.
43:06
I was chasing, I was an intern and wanted to become the a
43:10
partner as fast as possible and I was chasing money and I was
43:14
chasing pride and power. It took me 13 years to finally
43:19
before I when I came to Peach State, to really realize that my
43:23
priorities were not in my family.
43:24
My priorities were not in my faith.
43:26
My priorities were running after something that at the end of the
43:28
day will never, will never be enough and will never make you
43:31
happy. So when you reach the top, if
43:33
that's all that you were shooting for or you've reached a
43:35
certain income level and that's all you're shooting for, you
43:38
won't be happy. What, what was the final trigger
43:42
you think that finally made you realize?
43:44
That was 13 years of being in public accounting, driving to
43:47
become partner faster than anybody you know, just go, go,
43:50
go, go, go. Missing your son's second
43:52
birthday. What?
43:53
What was the What finally tipped it for you?
43:56
The crystallization was six weeks after my daughter was
43:59
born. I was again left because I felt
44:03
like I needed to. I needed to go sell.
44:05
I needed to go speak, I needed to go train, I needed to go surf
44:10
the customers. And nobody can do it better than
44:12
me, which again, to everybody out there, yes, they can and
44:17
I've learned that, but nobody can do it better than me.
44:19
I am in Maine. I have just come out of an
44:22
industry conference. I ran upstairs to go do a
44:26
webinar for the National Trailer Dealer Association on how to
44:29
mitigate fraud in dealerships. 5 minutes after it's done I pick
44:33
up my BlackBerry. At the time to tell you how long
44:35
ago this was and this is kind of where it gets fuzzy, but I call
44:39
my wife and tell her. I said it took me forever to
44:41
finally dial your number. All I was dialing was letters
44:44
and Long story short is paramedics ended up showing some
44:48
sometime later. I had no idea who I was where I
44:51
was. I had an episode of transient
44:53
global amnesia caused by stress and anxiety.
44:56
You had an episode of what? Transient global amnesia.
45:00
So for 18 hours, my short term memory is completely wiped away.
45:03
I didn't know who I was. I didn't know I knew who I was
45:06
at that time. I didn't know where I was.
45:07
I didn't know why I was there. I knew my wife and I knew that I
45:10
had kids. But even the past 12 years of
45:13
public accounting, I didn't even know anybody that I worked with,
45:16
which for me, I had no idea what was happening at the time for my
45:19
wife and my family. Scared the crap out of them,
45:22
right? My wife's at home, we have a six
45:24
week old baby and here are husbands in Maine again,
45:27
overextending himself and, and, and not being home taking care
45:30
of what's truly important. And that was the moment where it
45:34
was really like, what am I doing working 80 hours a year or I'm
45:38
sorry, 80 hours a week. I wish was 80 hours a year now
45:41
I'd be bored. 3000 hours. Seriously 3000 hours a year
45:44
traveling. I lived in Saint Louis, but I
45:46
was in every corner of the country on a weekly basis.
45:49
I had kids that were growing up. Fortunately, I came to this
45:52
realization when my oldest son was 5, my daughter was 2, and it
45:58
it was time again. I hate to say that my wife was
46:01
right. I had my priorities in the wrong
46:03
place. All that means is you married
46:05
the right woman. It's 100% baby love her, she is
46:09
the best. But then it was really it was
46:13
going through ATD dealer Academy at the same time.
46:16
So I was going through, I'll call it, I knew dealerships from
46:20
a 30,000 foot level down South from looking at financial
46:23
statements into the transactions.
46:24
But I really don't understand the trash, the daily
46:26
transactions up. And so it was going through that
46:31
that process that I would happen to be at Peach State one day and
46:34
talking to the owner of the organization, Rick Reynolds, who
46:37
shared a similar background to me in public accounting and just
46:40
saw it on my face and said, are you happy?
46:43
And I said, no. I hate my life when it comes to
46:45
be every February. I absolutely hate my life.
46:48
I don't know why I'm doing it. I have spent nights, I mean,
46:50
literally 9:00 leaving a dealership to going to get
46:54
Chili's again, drinking too much beer and then coming back to the
46:58
hotel room and crying and just saying, what am I doing?
47:02
He said, I've lived your life. He says there's something
47:05
better. If and when you're ready to
47:09
leave public accounting, I have an opportunity for you, which is
47:13
ultimately how we ended up getting into Peach State.
47:15
And then it took me getting out of it.
47:17
I was so deep into it that it took me getting out of it to
47:20
really realize just how screwed up my priorities were.
47:23
Now, I will still tell you when I even when I came here the very
47:27
first time of coming in, I'd never been ACFO before.
47:29
I had an accounting degree. I worked in public accounting.
47:31
I was a CPAI, knew a lot about the industry, but creating
47:35
relationships and getting individuals to help do what you
47:37
needed to get done. Yeah.
47:39
I came in like a bull with, you know, a bull in a China shop.
47:42
I was a young kid, 34. I'm 46 now, so 34 bull in a
47:48
China shop, just kind of running around, running a rough shot.
47:50
I did not make very many friends when I first came in.
47:53
I was slow to trust individuals. I still thought that I could do
47:56
it all. And at the end of the day, it
47:58
was a couple years later going, I can't, I can't.
48:01
You know what? We have a lot of great
48:02
individuals here. We need to start working
48:04
together as a team. A lot of great individuals in
48:07
the entire company. There was some gut checks at
48:10
that time, even reading many books, but some gut checks
48:13
around, you know, if we're to ever to scale, let me learn
48:16
those lessons that I had back in public accounting.
48:19
We have to do this as a team. So let's, let's form a great
48:21
team around let's for the weaknesses that I have.
48:24
One of our other team members has a strength in this area.
48:27
So let's get together and, and, and how do we, how do we move
48:30
forward as a, as a combined group to achieve some amazing
48:33
things? And that's really where we've
48:35
got in the past few years. My colleagues here actually
48:37
referred to me if they were here when I first got here is OG,
48:40
which is original Greg and everybody likes new Greg.
48:45
There's a transition in the Greg personality even during the time
48:50
they're at Peach steak. 100%, 100% so.
48:56
So I'm sorry, I, I just want to make sure I follow this.
48:59
Obviously there's a, there's a big realization of
49:00
crystallization when you had that health episode and it's
49:03
like my priorities are totally out of whack.
49:06
I, I have to get out of this. I, I hate my life.
49:08
Every February I'm crying in the hotel rooms drinking too much
49:12
beer. Great.
49:13
I found something else. You get there and there's still
49:17
sort of a, is it a gradual process of new Greg coming out
49:21
or was there like another sort of, I don't know, crystallizing
49:24
moment that that really shook you up?
49:28
I, I would say it was really a moment of walking in here and
49:32
trying to prove myself. So I felt very, you know, the,
49:34
the owner of the organization just brought me and my family to
49:37
Atlanta. I play college athletics.
49:39
I'm a results oriented individual.
49:42
I need to prove myself. And then the way that I went
49:44
about trying to prove myself, we just created bigger risks then,
49:48
you know, number one, we still didn't answer the issue and #2 I
49:51
pissed everybody off. So there was never really a blow
49:55
up. But it really was just seeing in
49:58
my role as CFO, I could, I could only affect so many.
50:01
I can only affect certain areas of the organization.
50:06
It was really the owner was talking to me about a
50:09
transition, you know, before me becoming the CEO.
50:12
And it was really kind of at that time a realization of, you
50:15
know what, the way that I approach things in my first few
50:18
years here won't work if I'm to, if I'm to, if I'm to be the CEO
50:24
of the organization, really my biggest power is to influence,
50:27
motivate and excite. And unfortunately, my natural
50:31
tendency for results are if 95% is excellent, I tend to focus on
50:38
the 5% of the things that can be improved.
50:41
I still, I still struggle with that of let's celebrate the
50:45
good. Let's celebrate what we've done.
50:47
Let's put everything in a positive light.
50:49
Let's, let's, let's acknowledge the effort that's being put into
50:52
it and then let's think of new ways to supercharge.
50:56
You know, that 95% that, that 5% will, you know, behind the
51:00
scenes, we'll, we'll try to wipe that stuff away.
51:02
But publicly and, and professionally with all of our
51:05
colleagues, how do we really motivate the individuals?
51:08
And it wasn't come to them and say, you know what, we still
51:10
need to do this, this, this and this.
51:12
That was original, Greg. It was having that
51:14
crystallization of, of, you know what, if I'm to be successful as
51:18
a COO, I can't control every transaction.
51:22
I can't be at all 14 locations. I can't be a part of, you know,
51:25
the $3 billion that we do on an annual basis.
51:28
I can't be a part of every bit of that.
51:29
The only thing that I can do is help influence people.
51:32
And how can I do that the way that I used to do?
51:34
It didn't work. So it's like that.
51:36
It's like using this word and I think can be really helpful in
51:39
situations like this. Wow, we did a really great job
51:42
at this thing. Let's celebrate that win like
51:44
this is legitimate. Let's be authentic about, you
51:47
know, being happy about this. And there's still opportunities
51:52
for us to improve. Right, Yep.
51:55
So anyway that that is in that is in G or new G new Greg and
52:00
everybody is much more palatable and and excited to work with new
52:05
Greg and I am too. And that's again for the last
52:09
say last three years, great five years.
52:11
It was really coming to that realization.
52:13
He said. You know what for really to make
52:14
a difference, you know what we need to do as a dealership.
52:17
Here's some things everybody got.
52:18
Everybody grabbed onto it, and then it was really just working
52:22
with and working through individuals in order to make
52:25
that happen instead of trying to do it all oneself.
52:27
And that was my again, can't do it all.
52:30
If you ever want to grow, you'll never be able to scale without
52:33
it. Tell me about the work that you
52:35
do with Windship Cancer Institute, Why that's so
52:38
important to you? Yeah.
52:39
So I mean at at the end of the day, it's really it's it was
52:42
sponsored by the Reynolds family.
52:44
So the individuals that own the organization here, the founder
52:47
of the organization, Tom Reynolds wife Pat passed away
52:51
from a rare form of cancer. And Emory is an organization or
52:55
or large Healthcare Group here in Atlanta.
52:57
As she went through her cancer treatments, they were so they
53:02
were so helpful to the to the family to get them through that
53:06
some cutting edge research that ever since that point, it has
53:10
been what can we do in order to help build that cancer facility?
53:14
What can we do in order to help Cancer Research to help other
53:17
individuals that will eventually end up struggling with this
53:21
particular disease? How can we help eradicate that?
53:24
And one of the ways that the organization does it or that the
53:27
that Rick Reynolds, a family member said, you know what,
53:29
we're going to be the premier sponsor for the Emory 5K Winship
53:33
run on an annual basis. And we have continued to be for
53:36
20 plus years. And so I know that our owner
53:39
sits on one of the boards down there at their organization, but
53:43
it's it's very near and dear to him.
53:45
And therefore it makes it very near and dear to the rest of the
53:48
organization as we all participate in and such a great
53:51
organization. And hopefully again, one day,
53:55
that particular type of cancer will be much more treatable,
53:58
like many forms of cancer that there are out there.
54:02
Greg, you've already mentioned Jim Collins in the book Good to
54:05
Great. Any others that you might
54:07
recommend to our listeners that have been particularly helpful
54:10
for you? Yes.
54:11
So a book called The Traveler's Gift.
54:16
I don't know if you've ever heard of it.
54:18
OK, so there's lots of, I'll call it self help books out
54:21
there. This isn't necessarily, hey, you
54:22
need to do this, but it's almost a narrative and it it teaches 7
54:26
wonderful lessons and it follows the story of a gentleman who was
54:30
in a Fortune 500 company that ultimately gets laid off, loses
54:34
everything, and it's actually contemplating suicide.
54:39
Again, it's a fiction story. But he goes back and and meets
54:41
all of these individuals. You know, technically I don't
54:44
want to ruin the book, but as, as, as he is out and dreaming,
54:48
he is meeting these individuals from history.
54:50
And there's seven wonderful lessons that I think that
54:52
individuals can, can really take a hold of.
54:56
And that is personal responsibility.
54:59
Seeking wisdom. So no matter what has happened,
55:01
the buck stops with you. If you don't like it, do
55:04
something about it #2 always seek out wisdom.
55:07
What you think you know you don't.
55:09
There's so many people that have come before you and there's so
55:11
many other individuals out there.
55:13
Seek wisdom, take action, don't just complain about things,
55:17
actually do something about it. And then forgiveness, gratitude,
55:24
and then going above and beyond, never quitting, persevering
55:28
beyond things. And so meeting different people
55:30
from history that actually personified these particular
55:32
lessons, I think is a great way that when individuals that
55:36
they're driving up and down the road and they were trying to
55:38
keep up with the Joneses. Again, they're trying to find,
55:41
they're trying to find happiness in something they're never going
55:43
to find happiness in. If you're, if, if all you're
55:46
looking for is the next boat or next good or next item.
55:51
The real true realization is, and I've, and now that I'm in my
55:55
mid 40s, I'm realizing this is what can you do for other
55:58
people? How can you help bring other
56:00
people up? One of the things I do every
56:02
morning on my way into work is pray and just tell God what I'm
56:06
thankful for. And it makes no difference of
56:09
what it is, but finding gratitude in no matter what the
56:12
situation is, if, if it's just your health, if it's the fact
56:16
that you have a roof over your head.
56:19
We have a group of individuals that I'll text during the month
56:21
of of thanks or Thanksgiving, the month of November to each
56:25
other and say, you know what, I'm really grateful for my wife,
56:27
even though she might have just dog chewed me for something I
56:29
didn't do that morning. The past 27 years have been
56:33
amazing, right? And all of us can get sucked
56:35
into whatever that stressful situation is or short term, or
56:41
even if it looks like something major.
56:42
That is a major change in life of hey, I just got I just got
56:46
let go from an organization. You can look at it one way and
56:49
say I'm a victim, or you can look at another way and say I
56:52
have an opportunity to do something different.
56:54
So that one has been fantastic inside the business.
56:57
The Power of Moments by Chip and Dan Heath have been it was a
57:01
great book. And then Unreasonable
57:03
Hospitality was also a fantastic book.
57:07
Again, let's be outside several. Times on this show.
57:09
Yes. So just looking outside the
57:11
industry and saying, you know what, restaurants can do it, why
57:14
can't we do it? It's only because we haven't
57:16
thought of it being possible. And not only that, going back to
57:20
we can create moments in people's lives to bring them joy
57:23
again, even if it's just a smile to recognition to creating a
57:27
moment out of nothing. And I'm not trying to be
57:29
Hallmark here, not trying to create a new card, but example,
57:33
our night of excellence the other night will be a moment
57:36
that we can capture once a year that will bring back the
57:39
heartbeat and to celebrate our people all bringing them
57:42
together, getting to dress up and having a wonderful evening
57:45
together. That's creating a moment that
57:47
when people walk away from there saying, man, Peach State's
57:50
great. I'm so happy to be a part of
57:52
this. I make a difference.
57:53
What I do every day makes a difference.
57:56
And a lot of people don't think that.
57:57
They look at our big, They look at the trucks that we sell and
57:59
go, wow, that's dirty. Or they diesel technicians, they
58:02
walk out of here and they're dirty and they're greasy.
58:06
But we honestly, during COVID in the state of Georgia where an
58:10
essential business, if you were ordering things on Amazon or any
58:14
goods that were still flowing, we had a hand in that.
58:17
And that's what we have to remind individuals we are
58:19
actually, we were the, I was on one of the commercials, one of
58:23
our, one of our units that we sold was the first group to
58:27
bring the COVID vaccine into the state of Georgia.
58:31
So again, it kind of brings perspective to you might think
58:35
that all you do is show up and punch a clock and talk to a
58:38
customer who's mad because his truck's broken down.
58:41
But you know, you have an opportunity to turn this
58:44
negative situation around. Listen, that's what he needs to
58:46
know #2 reassure him that we've got him, we have the expertise
58:51
and give him the information that he needs to know in order
58:54
to address the rest of his business.
58:57
And then while he's here, let's show him what Southern
59:00
hospitality, what Peach State hospitality is like.
59:02
And then when he leaves, let's thank him for his business.
59:05
Let's send him away from something a little goody that he
59:07
didn't even know that he needed or wanted.
59:10
People don't do. Let's just do it because, right,
59:13
you have that ability on a daily basis, you truly do make a
59:16
difference. And when people start to look at
59:18
what they do on a daily basis through that lens, instead of
59:21
chasing the next, whatever it is, Anthony, you have a much
59:26
more happy life. I love it.
59:29
Greg, last question for you. Before I do it, I'm going to
59:32
point people to your website, whichispeachstatetrucks.com.
59:37
Last question for you as we wrap up here, Craig, as you look to
59:40
the future, what are the changes coming to your industry that
59:43
you're most excited about? Yeah.
59:45
Well, there's a lot of exciting things.
59:47
Some of it is US kind of charting.
59:49
I hope that we're leading the industry in some of these new
59:52
experiences. As you, as you look across the
59:55
commercial truck dealership landscape, obviously there's new
59:58
technology that's coming with autonomous vehicles, electrified
1:00:04
vehicles, and even beyond that hydrogen cell vehicles.
1:00:07
There's many different regulations that are changing
1:00:10
the way the transportation is going to work.
1:00:12
And, and, and really being a part of that is, is really
1:00:16
exciting. So being on the front edge of
1:00:18
that and trying to help Washington decide what we're
1:00:21
going to eventually do. Being involved, those types of
1:00:24
things are are really exciting to us.
1:00:27
That's terrific, Greg. I want to be the first one to
1:00:29
thank you for sharing both your time and your story with us
1:00:32
today. I really appreciate it.
1:00:33
Sure. Appreciate it, Anthony.
1:00:35
Thanks so much for having me. Folks, that's a wrap on another
1:00:37
episode of the Inspired Stories podcast.
1:00:40
Thanks for learning with us today.