Latest / Crossroad Conversations with the Lewis Brothers / Ep. 63 - They Asked Us EVERYTHING — Unfiltered Leadership Q&A w/ The Lewis Bros

Transcript

Ep. 63 - They Asked Us EVERYTHING — Unfiltered Leadership Q&A w/ The Lewis Bros · Crossroad Conversations with the Lewis Brothers

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: And then you need to make sure that the people you're getting advice from are at the levels that you're trying to go to.
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: I love being in a room where I know I don't need to talk because I'm not the smartest person in the room.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_00: Because that means I'm in the right room and I'm shutting up and I'm listening.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_00: Hey everyone.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_00: 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.
• 0:31
  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.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_00: And maybe even throw in a plug for you to do business with us.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_00: All right, welcome to Crossroad Conversations with the Lewis brothers today.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_00: Hey guys, we got a little different one.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_00: This is Unfiltered Leadership Questions.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_00: Unfiltered Leadership Questions.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_00: We put it out there, and today's episode will be a little bit different because of that.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_00: We're going to turn the tables and you get to ask the questions, the audience.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_00: We've collected these up.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_00: We're in the hot seat today.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: We've asked several of our staff and we posted on social media to get questions.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm not sure what all these are, but let's dive into it.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_01: Go deep in some, and some you might just hit the edge.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_01: All right, question number one.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_01: What is your favorite hobbies outside of the dealership?
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_01: Contestant number one.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_01: Huh.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_01: And it looks like that one of the employees asked.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_01: One of the employees asked that.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_03: I love cooking, obviously, going into putting different things together.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_01: What do you like about cooking?
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_03: Just a different aspect.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, are you baking things?
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_03: No, it's it's gotta be more I'm not inside baking, do anything else.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_03: It's gotta be outside of grill smoker.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_03: And the part I love most about it, probably would shock, and a lot of people are this way, is cooking for others and just taking it to them or doing anything.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_00: And it's like Okay, but if you're cooking for yourself this weekend, we gotta get granular here.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_00: Where are you where are you going?
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_00: 30 minutes or less.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_00: I know.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_00: Where are you going to buy it?
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_00: How thick is it gonna be, and how are you cooking it?
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_03: How do you order your steaks?
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_03: Walk them through this.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, yeah.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_03: This is a secret tip if you're wanting to get a good value of the city.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_03: Where we're going, we're gonna go to Sam's Club.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_03: Okay, and you're gonna go in there, and there's three different choices.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_03: You knock on the window.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, knock on the window or hit the buzzer back by the meat counter.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_03: They'll come out, and you can hit them with three different things.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_03: These are your only options: either strip, ribeye, or tender loin.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_03: Loin.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_03: Keyword loin.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_03: I've been ribeye loin, strip loin, or tender loin.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_03: So what are you getting?
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_03: Choice.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_03: Do not be tricked by the prime.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_03: It's not any better.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_03: Trust me, I've tried both of them.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_03: You're gonna get the whole thing.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_03: It's gonna range from 14 to 17 to maybe 20 pounds if you get the bigger one.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_03: 20 pounds.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_03: 20 pounds of meat.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_03: All right.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_03: You can cut.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_03: It's a large chunk here.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_03: It's a large chunk.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_03: We're talking about an 18-pound ribite, and you're gonna cut it.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_03: And the great part about it is you get to cut all the uh two inch, one and a half, one, twenty.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_03: It's about a blade length of whatever your fillet knife is.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_03: It's real quick and look at it.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_03: It's not a inch and a half.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_03: That point there.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_03: Inch and a half.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_03: Cut up, you seal it, you can put them in the freezer if you want to learn.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_03: You're not sealing them.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_03: What are you doing?
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_03: I put them in the fridge so you can cook them every single day or go through.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_03: But the biggest thing about cooking is it's just me being able to provide stuff for others and go through there.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_03: So that's a sense of enjoyment that I get.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_03: Whether it's cooking out here, it's cooking on the trails and bringing light to people's lives, that's the enjoyment I get out of it.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_03: That's solid.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I would say uh mine on the favorite hobbies.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_00: Um if I I love hanging out with my family, my boys, you know, just being outside and doing things.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, but if I got to narrow it down to if it's just me going to do something uh or with a group of friends, it is getting on the trail and and running somewhere.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I love the trails because it makes you feel a little disconnected from the road and the cars and everything else.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_00: Um and then you get your your mind has to focus on all the technical around there, which then breaks up whatever junk's going on in your mind and gives you some clarity plus stresses your body.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_01: Love that.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_01: I like uh eating Taylor's food.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_01: Uh I definitely love nature.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_01: Um so it it we're so plugged in, it's a good opportunity to unplug, you know.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_01: So whether that's uh running the trails or my kids dictate a lot of my things.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I think that's important, important, and I know this is a quick episode, but that your hobbies change based upon what's going on in your life.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_00: And ours has always kind of been outdoors.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_00: But it went from like multiple days used to be competing off-road, doing off-road challenges, traveling, doing this and that.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_00: Um sand dunes.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_00: All of it.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_00: Birds, campground, little sky.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_00: All of that.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_00: But then you gotta look and see what pockets of time you have.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_00: And as we had kids, it's like, okay, I'll still be outside, but you can go on an hour or two-hour run, still be in nature.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_01: So that that's a good feeling there.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_01: Uh so uh some of my kids like to fish, so I don't love to fish, but I love hanging out with my kids and it's in nature.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_01: So I'll do that.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_01: I just catch perch because it's easy.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_01: Um doing a little hunting, uh how trying to figure out how to sit still for that long, you know, but having fun with that.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so just pretty much anything in nature.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, that's what we do outside dealership.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_00: Uh call out to the employee, you know.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_00: Um hopefully we answered your question.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_01: All right, question number two.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_01: What's the biggest leadership lesson you've learned running a dealership business?
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_01: That one came in from Miguel.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_01: Miguel, that is a large question.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_01: What's the biggest leadership lesson you've learned running a dealership business?
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_00: All right, so here it is.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_00: Right in your focus.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_00: I gotta try to narrow this down is not to react until I gather all the information from both the customer and the employee.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_03: That's big, especially since we've grown so much that there's so many different hands and different people that could have touched it because our reaction is like I told them they know how to do this.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_03: We went over this, but you have to sit.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_00: And my bigger, and I'll tell you what I've learned from that, Miguel.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_00: So hopefully this helps you, is early on in my career, when I heard when a customer would call in and complain about something, I would take it 100% for face value.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_00: I my hair would get on fire and I would go address that person immediately, not even allowing them to set their their side of the story.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_00: And more times than not, the customer had some truth in there, but they had stretched it a whole lot.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_00: I took it 100% for face value, reacted on that, and you know where that went.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_01: I would definitely say uh you don't really realize, you know it's important, but you don't realize how much people have to do with your business.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_01: Like of all the systems and all the AIs and all the processes, people, and I mean people in your business and people that you're selling to or servicing, people, you have to figure out how to properly operate in and through with people.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_01: You know, if you can't do that, you're gonna drop the ball in one fashion or another, and it will make or break you in every different fashion of the way.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_01: So figure out how to properly navigate through people, give kudos when necessary, uh coach, teach, and preach at different levels, and um sit down and listen to people, whether it be customers or employees, more often than you think.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I love this from a a a quote I'd saw in a notebook the other day.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_03: But that the customer, especially in the retail side of business, the customer doesn't owe you anything.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_03: And we owe everything to the customer because they're the ones provide obviously the opportunity for us to do business and that provide the income for us to be able to start everything.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_03: So make sure you always take care of the customer.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_03: That's good.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_01: Question number three, what do you got?
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_00: All right, what is one growing area or industry that you guys are looking to expand to, if any?
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_01: I got this.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_00: And this comes from Colton first.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_00: So, Colton, thanks for putting that question out there.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_00: What is the one growing area that you're gonna get into?
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I need things that have less people.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_01: Because that means less things to manage.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_01: Storage facilities.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, quarter car washes.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_01: Still need a couple people.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_01: Um unmanned operations.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_01: Um this is fully involved what we're currently doing.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, a triple net commercial real estate.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_01: Right?
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_01: Just a few things.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_00: So a couple things, Shelby went over there.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_00: Let me hit another one.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_00: Um we want to get deeper into aftermarket and accessories on vehicles.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_00: We know that the average truck owner spends over$2,000 in accessories like within 30 days of purchasing their vehicle.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_00: So why not us do it, perform it?
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, we've dabbled in it in the past, but honestly, not done an awesome job at it.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_00: Uh so look for that maybe to come in 2026.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, somewhere in there.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_03: I've grown in there.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_03: Anything you'd add?
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_03: No, you'll hit on both of them.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, not going through there.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_01: If you get that business, reach out to us.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, jumping on this next one here.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_03: What is the key to being at work on time?
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_03: Ah.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_01: Tell them who it came from first.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_01: Lingling?
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_01: Winston Churchill.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_01: This is from Lingling.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_01: From Ling Lang.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_01: Anonymously.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_01: What's the key to being at work on time?
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_01: Wake up early whether you feel like it or not.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_01: Yep.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, but tell them the other key.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_00: Like, what'd you do with your phone?
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_01: So my phone is in my kitchen.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_01: Yep.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_01: Uh one, going to bed, I'm not goofing off on my phone, right?
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_01: It goes on, do not disturb at 9 30, whether I like it or not.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_01: It just does it on its own, so then I don't have distractions.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_01: It's in my uh kitchen.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_01: And so then it goes off at 4 15 or whatever time you think it should be before it's time to get to work, and you need more time than you think.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_01: Traffic's gonna be bad, you're gonna have a kid sick, you're gonna have a flat tire, you're gonna forget your phone.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_01: Plan for all that.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_01: You have to plan for that, and um that'll get you to work on time.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_01: And to be on time is to be early.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_01: That's right.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, a couple things to add into there, you know, plan for whatever you need in the morning if you're gonna go work out, if you're gonna do this, if you're gonna do that, if I need to take my computer to work, whatever it is, I do the night before.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_00: Always.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_00: The night before.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_00: So if I've got a whatever it, whatever I need, it's going in my truck.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_00: So really all I gotta do is grab my cup of coffee and get in my vehicle.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_01: And here's the thing procrastination is the killer of all things, right?
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_01: But if you don't feel like it when you still have some energy, tomorrow morning when the alarm goes off at any time, you will not feel like it.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_01: Your head's gonna be cloudy, the lights are gonna be off, kids are running around, streaming.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_01: It's not gonna be gonna remember.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_01: Pack your stuff.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_01: And I like on some days when we have events and then you're flying out, yeah, like I'll have to pack like six bags.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_01: Like no joke.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_01: I'm like, okay, all right, I'm gonna wear my gym clothes, and then here's my work clothes, and then we gotta wear a suit that day, like a pink suit or something.
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_01: And then, hey, we've got a biking event here, gotta have this here.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_01: Oh yeah.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_01: And then, hey, we're leaving to go to dealer meetings.
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_01: But do it the night before.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_00: It's all in there.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, you know, in my truck right now is the is the different change stuff.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_00: I got workout stuff in there.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_00: Then I've got stuff for the gala for the shop of the cop tonight.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_00: You know, that's got all the westernware stuff in the sport coat, my boots, all that's in the pack it this morning.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_00: No, I didn't pack it this morning.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_00: I would have picked two different boots.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_00: Ling ling.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, so make sure you do that.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_00: Shelby brought up a great deal on, you know, putting your phone on do not disturb.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, here, here's the deal.
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_00: Like, if somebody calls at 11 o'clock at night, what are you gonna do?
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_00: You know what I mean?
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_00: And so you're like, well, yeah, but what if a family member gets a hold of me?
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, here's a news flash for you.
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_00: When you put you set up your phone on Do Not Disturb Times, you can allow your top your favorite contacts.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_00: So my favorite contacts I still have in there if they need to get a hold of me because something's really going on.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_00: Because I know that they're not gonna call me at 1115 to tell me some BS.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_01: That's for the overrun of the Dodgers?
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_03: You're just not gonna do something.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_03: Like when I called you the other night at 3:40 in the morning, whenever I was running through the woods, you probably thought for a second maybe I'd had a stroke and fell down a thing.
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_03: But then I was like, hey, how do you start this?
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_03: Or what's your passcode?
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_03: It's like son of a guy.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_03: I'm sorry.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_00: I'm delirious.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_03: Nine.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_00: It's all good.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_00: That's a good question.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, all good for sure.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_00: These are good.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so let's just keep rocking and rolling on these.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_03: Okay, I got one here that this has come to you from From Garfield?
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, Garfield himself.
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_03: Shelby, if you and Matt ran a race, who quits first if there's no time limit, and both you promised your family you would win.
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_01: So he asked that question because he knows, like, he knows the story.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_01: So that that's an unanswered question, right?
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_01: But I'll tell you, it's gonna be on that day whoever's body has the ability to last the longest, right?
• 13:17
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I've seen that many times.
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_00: We have, and I read this question.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_00: I happened to read this question a couple days ago.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so I've thought about this one.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_00: All right, so I've got to give you my answer.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_00: All right, so Anthony, here you go.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_00: You ready for this one?
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_00: All right, so here's the deal.
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_00: There are races that Shelby has beat me in.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_00: There are races that I've beat him in.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_00: We're both highly competitive people.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_00: Highly competitive.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_00: But the most successful races we've had, and this isn't a political answer, the most successful races we've had, is when we take our competitiveness and join forces and bury the rest of the field.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_00: No doubt.
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_00: And that's the same.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_00: I I I just relate that over into business when you can take the three of us being highly competitive.
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_00: And even if we're all desking deals and we look in in our software to see who has the highest PDR and this and that, like you use that as a competitiveness, but not to cross the line, yeah.
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_00: Where then it creates these boundaries and walls.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_00: Like you use it, but then you use it together.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_01: It's one of those things if you think about in a race in an all-out mile or 5K and you just bury somebody, then like where did your accountability partner?
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_01: Buried the random dude.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I buried the people that was that's so good of like because there there has been times in races that Shelby has pulled me through to a better finish.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_00: And then there's been times that I've pulled him through when he has has been in a low.
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_00: Pro bar.
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_00: You know what I mean?
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, like that, there's highs and lows, and that's life, and that's in business.
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, because there are you go through them at different times.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_01: And so it's been one of those things like, hey, here's some headphones, turn some music on, follow me.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_01: Like, yeah, don't ask questions, or like, hey, you haven't eaten, eat this.
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_01: Sure.
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_01: Right?
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_01: And so it's the same thing in business, but so, right?
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_01: The I've won races, he's won races.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_00: So, what we'd like to do is, Anthony, uh-huh.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_00: We'd like to challenge you and whoever else you want to be on your team.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_00: Bingo.
• 15:23
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, it's a team race, and you and your partner can race Shelby and I, and we'll see who lasts the longest.
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_03: I love it.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, coming in there.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_03: It's a good question.
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_03: All right, you got the next one?
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_03: What made you guys realize you needed to move locations?
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_01: Cars parked on top of cars.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_01: That's the easy part.
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_01: Our building was from 1969.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_01: Um, we kept it so fresh with the freshest paint and many renovations, uh, but it was time to modernize.
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, and it was probably really a which you know of go and listen to our podcast, it was definitely a long-term move.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_03: It wasn't that we have done a spur of the moment, oh no, anything else.
• 16:07
  SPEAKER_03: It was a well thought out.
• 16:08
  SPEAKER_01: We didn't put lipstick on a pig.
• 16:10
  SPEAKER_01: It wasn't the first place available.
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_01: So there's a lot of real like we needed uh interstate.
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, we needed more space, uh, parking lot, and in our buildings.
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_01: You know, we quadrupled in size, maybe more, and inside parking spaces grew from nine acres to twenty six acres.
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_01: It was time to do it, right?
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_01: And it wasn't on a snap, it was 10 years worth of research.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_00: So you guys have heard the stories about the 10 years.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_00: I won't walk you down through that again.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, we hired outside companies like CBRE and then companies that both the manufacturers had to do all the data to see if we should move or not.
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_00: We knew it was guaranteed that we needed to modernize, we needed new facilities.
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_00: Did we do it at the old location or the new location?
• 16:51
  SPEAKER_00: But let me tell you, and this stands out in my brain over everything else.
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_00: Everything else.
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_00: Let me tell you what really put the nail in.
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_00: When we were out and about, and especially as we would go up north and and we'd run a half marathon or a marathon, you talk to people during the first 90% of it, okay?
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_00: And same story.
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, who are you?
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_00: Where do you work?
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_00: Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_00: And time after time we had people say, Lewis, where's that located?
• 17:19
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 17:19
  SPEAKER_00: And this is a perfect example of if you're in the middle of the forest, you can't see what's going on.
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_00: Because we are advertising everywhere, we were at every kid's event, we had been there for 70 plus years.
• 17:35
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 17:35
  SPEAKER_00: And we said, okay, the visibility, the old real estate business saying of location, location, location, became evident that the new people that were moving into northwest Arkansas were not driving up and down college anymore to see us.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_00: We needed to move.
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_01: That's so funny because we thought we had it handled, and from someone else's perspective, it's like, uh, you know what?
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_01: We don't.
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_00: Well, and even our customers, if you took somebody that grew up from here and you ask them, they're like, you guys are everywhere.
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_00: You're on billboards, you're on my kids' t-shirt, you're not going to be able to do that.
• 18:04
  SPEAKER_01: They were in the trees with us.
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_01: They were.
• 18:07
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, all right.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_01: That's so good.
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_01: All right, next question.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_01: If I told you I want to be sitting in your chair one day, what's the roadmap you suggest I follow to earn that opportunity the right way?
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, I'll jump in there.
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_00: Um depending upon uh which seat you're in right now, that is you need to be willing to work in different positions within the dealership, even if some of them are just lateral moves to gain the experience, not only the experience, but two to figure out where are your strengths actually at.
• 18:45
  SPEAKER_00: You might think you're doing great, and you may be doing great exactly where you are right now.
• 18:49
  SPEAKER_00: But what if that's not really your strength and in services and you're in sales or finances and you're in sales?
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_00: So, so number two, do that.
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_00: Or number one, whatever number I was on.
• 19:01
  SPEAKER_00: Uh the next part, no, is it it's a long-term game.
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_00: It's not an overnight.
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_00: And that's why we have people in manager positions that have been with us 20 plus years.
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, it's because we make sure they're in the right fit.
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_00: And then you need to make sure that the people you're getting advice from are at the levels that you're trying to go to.
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_00: I love being in a room where I know I don't need to talk because I'm not the smartest person in the room.
• 19:25
  SPEAKER_00: Because that means I'm in the right room and I'm shutting up and I'm listening.
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_01: Yep.
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I think it's really good to realize, and we hear it sometimes and get re-reminded of it from podcasts and whatever else, but you don't have to be in this seat, you don't have to like not today, but tomorrow buy in to your seat.
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_01: Sure.
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_01: Right?
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_01: So you don't have to go buy a store to sit in a seat you want.
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_01: You also don't have to be an heir, like a family member to get there.
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_01: More often than not, that what we see, like the last time we talked about a dealer group and we were listening to a podcast as sales managers.
• 20:04
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, this was a guy that had been raised in the car business in not his later days, but he wasn't like through it completely like we were, and had just come on as an employee and then had done really good, listened correctly, operated very efficiently, and had been wildly successful.
• 20:22
  SPEAKER_01: Then he saw opportunity, he went and worked here.
• 20:25
  SPEAKER_01: He saw opportunity, he went and worked here within his group, and he kept growing, and now he's the CEO over a very, very large group.
• 20:33
  SPEAKER_01: So don't ever handicap yourself and say, Well, I don't have that opportunity.
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_01: Everybody's got that opportunity somewhere, someplace, but you're gonna have to put some skin into the game of some sweat equity.
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's good.
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely going there.
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_00: All right, next up here it says, This is automotive, would you rather?
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_00: How many cars do each of y'all own?
• 20:59
  SPEAKER_00: And which one is y'all's favorite?
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_03: This guy's a thousand plus for sale out front.
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_03: And my favorite one, and I love this because it's always our they're like, What's your favorite?
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_03: The one that's in your driveway.
• 21:11
  SPEAKER_03: And they're like, no, Taylor, really, what you know.
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_00: This kind of goes back to the seasons of life.
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, no, it it does.
• 21:17
  SPEAKER_00: It does, you know, and it it it all goes back when we talked about our first car, we can talk about you know the car, whatever car we're we're at.
• 21:25
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but it does go back to seasons of life for sure.
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, and it's so funny because it's wherever you because if it's your first car, if it's your car that you got that uh when you were growing up, what was fun and you remember, and um of course we love fox body my stains, and that was that era of growing up, and then you know, Broncos and all right, so we gotta say something here.
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_00: So here we go.
• 21:51
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 21:51
  SPEAKER_00: All right, so if I gotta say one of my favorite ones, I'll say a favorite.
• 21:55
  SPEAKER_00: Uh unfortunately I don't have to ever drive it.
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I have a 93 Till Cobra.
• 22:01
  unknown: Okay.
• 22:03
  SPEAKER_00: My wife's never ridden in it.
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_00: But uh now Till Cobra that I've had for a while.
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_00: Um, yeah, I really like that car because it's the first year they came out with a Cobra.
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_00: Uh-huh.
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_00: Uh they only year they produced it in that color.
• 22:21
  SPEAKER_00: Um yeah, it was really cool.
• 22:23
  SPEAKER_00: It kind of came to me too because the SVT team started from the SVO team, and my first car was at 85 and a half Mustang SVO.
• 22:33
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_00: And then SVO changed to SVT in '93.
• 22:37
  SPEAKER_00: Yep.
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_00: It's a cool car.
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 22:42
  SPEAKER_03: I'd probably say my uh my You gotta tell them about it.
• 22:45
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, absolutely.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_03: My Mustang that I'd bought whenever I was 14.
• 22:48
  SPEAKER_03: And uh funniest story about, and everyone's always like, hey, how'd you and I love telling this, but uh, hey, what'd your dad buy you or anything else?
• 22:56
  SPEAKER_03: Whenever it started, it said, he said, hey, I'll split with whatever cost of you for whatever your car, and your mind goes way up, like, oh yeah, I'm going all out.
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_03: And then you're like, wait, I gotta come up with half of this one.
• 23:07
  SPEAKER_03: I gotta find I gotta go clean some more stalls.
• 23:10
  SPEAKER_03: Absolutely.
• 23:11
  SPEAKER_03: So bought it whenever I was 14, still have it.
• 23:13
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, don't have for drive.
• 23:15
  SPEAKER_00: White fox body, what color the interior?
• 23:18
  SPEAKER_00: Red, it's the white and red interior.
• 23:20
  SPEAKER_03: It is uh straight old school.
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_03: It's an 88 model.
• 23:24
  SPEAKER_03: So I bought it out of Texas, and I remember the only thing I bought it off eBay, and I messaged the guy and I said, Hey, will it make the drive?
• 23:30
  SPEAKER_03: It was like that was part of messaging through eBay.
• 23:33
  SPEAKER_03: Will it make the drive from Texas to up here?
• 23:35
  SPEAKER_03: It had under 100,000 miles at the time.
• 23:37
  SPEAKER_03: And he's like, Oh, yeah.
• 23:39
  SPEAKER_03: So we got it, and the first time I drove it, I had got my permit and I made mom ride with me.
• 23:44
  SPEAKER_03: We went to a baseball game over in Oklahoma and drove it for the first time.
• 23:48
  SPEAKER_03: I was like, Yeah.
• 23:50
  SPEAKER_01: She was too pretty used to it by then.
• 23:52
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, absolutely.
• 23:53
  SPEAKER_03: She was like, Okay, all right, sounds good.
• 23:56
  SPEAKER_03: She asked Dad, okay, are we okay to drive this?
• 24:00
  SPEAKER_03: And he's like, Yeah, whatever.
• 24:01
  SPEAKER_03: I'm going to work.
• 24:04
  SPEAKER_01: Don't call me if it breaks that.
• 24:08
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so um I've got uh my original Fox body that bought as well.
• 24:13
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I'll tell you this, because I was trying to think, okay, what's I have a 09 Shelby GT500 KR.
• 24:20
  SPEAKER_01: Now it's not my color scheme because everything that I own is red.
• 24:24
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 24:24
  SPEAKER_01: Right?
• 24:25
  SPEAKER_01: Um, it's become my favorite color.
• 24:27
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 24:28
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but this one's not.
• 24:30
  SPEAKER_01: It's silver with blue stripes.
• 24:31
  SPEAKER_01: Um, it's got uh less than a thousand miles.
• 24:34
  SPEAKER_01: But the funny thing about it, so yes, I bought it.
• 24:38
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, I went and registered it, and the lady at DMV gave me a hard time that I paid too much for it.
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_01: Uh and I was like, well, yeah, well, I sold it to myself.
• 24:48
  SPEAKER_01: Uh but I was getting plates for it, and the lady, they were like, hey, do you want standard plates?
• 24:52
  SPEAKER_01: And I was like, you know what?
• 24:53
  SPEAKER_01: I was laughing thinking about Marino 911, right?
• 24:57
  SPEAKER_01: I was like, I would die for you.
• 24:58
  SPEAKER_01: So I got a vanity plate and I was like, hey, let me look this up.
• 25:01
  SPEAKER_01: It's like uh I'm not gonna drive this car, right?
• 25:03
  SPEAKER_01: It sits under a cover on a lift.
• 25:05
  SPEAKER_01: But uh, so I remember when the vanity plate came in and my wife saw it, and so it says Shelby, S H B Y or something, and it says KR, because it's a GT500 KR, very limited production.
• 25:17
  SPEAKER_01: It was a car built by Ford and then sent to Shelby America.
• 25:20
  SPEAKER_01: Uh and my wife saw it, she's like, Oh, that's so cool.
• 25:23
  SPEAKER_01: It's Shelby Kara.
• 25:28
  SPEAKER_01: It's like Shelby Kara.
• 25:29
  SPEAKER_01: I was like, uh huh, we can take that to launch as long as it's close.
• 25:32
  SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna keep it under a thousand miles.
• 25:35
  SPEAKER_01: Like, no, it's Shelby KR.
• 25:38
  SPEAKER_01: Because I had a Shelby before that, and then we started having kids, and I sold it, and this one came and I was like, I gotta buy one back, right?
• 25:45
  SPEAKER_01: I can do this now.
• 25:46
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, so now you know about some of our cars.
• 25:50
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Eric.
• 25:51
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks, Eric.
• 25:52
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't look up to see who asked this next question, but if when y'all see it, you can call them out.
• 25:57
  SPEAKER_00: All right, next question here.
• 25:58
  SPEAKER_00: Whew, y'all are really getting into it.
• 26:01
  SPEAKER_00: What's the most difficult part about running a family business together as brothers?
• 26:07
  SPEAKER_00: That came from a one writer.
• 26:10
  SPEAKER_00: Rider.
• 26:12
  SPEAKER_00: Ryder.
• 26:12
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, let me break this down for you, writer.
• 26:15
  SPEAKER_00: Um That's very difficult.
• 26:17
  SPEAKER_00: Especially if you have not established that you need give and take, and you've not established the difference between personal or family, you can put that in its own category, and then business.
• 26:31
  SPEAKER_00: And if everybody's established that and they know that you need to have conversations that are business and you need to have conversations that are family, then you're gonna make it through it.
• 26:43
  SPEAKER_00: And if everybody understands that, hey, we gotta make some business decisions, and we might not all agree on this, and we're gonna have to take one of our ideas and then support each other on it, you're gonna be okay.
• 26:56
  SPEAKER_00: If you don't ever say that and you don't ever go through it, then it gets really messy.
• 27:02
  SPEAKER_00: And the farther you let it go of not saying, hey, this is business, we gotta have a business conversation, that's why so many family businesses fail.
• 27:13
  SPEAKER_00: And and that's why only three percent of businesses have made it to the fourth generation.
• 27:18
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I we make it work very well uh because we've seen my dad and uncle and his cousin work together on this.
• 27:26
  SPEAKER_00: And we've seen I I think the biggest takeaway, and then I want to get y'all's takeaway here, but the biggest takeaway I've seen from them is no matter their position in the company, who's over who, that they have give and take.
• 27:39
  SPEAKER_00: And if somebody's really passionate about something, as long as it lines up, they jump in there and then they help them.
• 27:47
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, but they have the conversation, hey, this is business and we're gonna have to have a tough conversation here.
• 27:52
  SPEAKER_00: It's not personal.
• 27:53
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you know, I uh uh to go and build on that, it's one of those things if it's like an understood respect and authority.
• 28:03
  SPEAKER_01: And it's not by age, it's not by seniority, and it's not by title.
• 28:07
  SPEAKER_01: Right?
• 28:07
  SPEAKER_01: It's out of respect because you would want the same thing, right?
• 28:11
  SPEAKER_01: So I don't think there's ever been a conversation in the the 20 years that we've all worked together, even before that when we worked with dad and we worked with dad too, that it was ever because I'm in charge of you.
• 28:28
  SPEAKER_01: Like because I I'm a manager of you, you know, and like it might be like, hey, here's what I think we should do, but it was never, no, I'm in charge of you, I'm superior to you, and you do this because I tell you to there was always a respect of like you you have to give direction.
• 28:45
  SPEAKER_01: Sure.
• 28:45
  SPEAKER_01: Hey, I'm seeing this because I'm at a different level, and I mean like you're in the trees, I'm out here, and I hey Taylor, we need to adjust this, or hey Shelby, you need to do this, or hey Matt, you need to do that.
• 28:56
  SPEAKER_01: Or, man, generally it's how you approach it.
• 28:59
  SPEAKER_01: And because we teach and preach this stuff constantly, and most of most of it's based off of failure, things we've learned, then you just figured out to how to have that respect with each other and say, hey, have we looked at this lately of how we should do this?
• 29:14
  SPEAKER_01: And then one of us would be like, Yeah, I was realizing like I fell short there.
• 29:18
  SPEAKER_01: Like, you know, that's an area that I kind of had taken over, and I like give me some feedback, you know, what's going on there.
• 29:26
  SPEAKER_01: But you know, we wouldn't make a good TV show in this aspect.
• 29:29
  SPEAKER_01: We don't have crazy drama.
• 29:31
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 29:32
  SPEAKER_01: We're just none of us are that high strong.
• 29:34
  SPEAKER_01: We're not MFing each other and slamming the door and peeling out of the parking lot, you know.
• 29:39
  SPEAKER_00: And I think it's it it's it's too, it's not because we're not competitive, it's not because we're not passionate.
• 29:45
  SPEAKER_00: But I think you hit on a great part there of just of respecting that and understanding the long game.
• 29:50
  SPEAKER_00: Now, have we ever come out of a meeting or a discussion frustrated?
• 29:54
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 29:55
  SPEAKER_00: But it never got to the point where we close the door and we're just yelling and cutting.
• 30:00
  SPEAKER_00: Cussing at each other because, like, what was that gonna accomplish?
• 30:04
  SPEAKER_00: And we we've all had discussions in here with each other.
• 30:07
  SPEAKER_00: And we come around, we're like, son of a gun, that that they're not seeing that, or that's just not right.
• 30:12
  SPEAKER_00: We let those emotions calm down, and sometimes we'll circle back around and talk about it.
• 30:16
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you know, because we we can sense, you know, like, okay, we weren't all on board there.
• 30:21
  SPEAKER_00: I was really passionate here.
• 30:22
  SPEAKER_00: We better like let that simmer for a second, and then we'll come back around.
• 30:26
  SPEAKER_00: Don't just like hope it fixes itself.
• 30:28
  SPEAKER_00: No, you know, but uh again, yeah, what what's the long game here?
• 30:32
  SPEAKER_00: And it's for us to continue a family business, support each other, help it be wildly successful, and then we're here for our employees because they're the ones that are generating it all.
• 30:43
  SPEAKER_00: You know what I mean?
• 30:44
  SPEAKER_00: So I think that's and a great example of this, and then Taylor, we got to get your thoughts here.
• 30:48
  SPEAKER_00: But I was thinking about this the other day.
• 30:50
  SPEAKER_00: A great example of this is if you look at the the name of our business, it's Lewis Automotive or Lewis Ford or or Lewis CDJR or Lewis Farmington.
• 31:01
  SPEAKER_00: It's our family name.
• 31:03
  SPEAKER_00: We haven't split up in it's Shelby Lewis this, Taylor Lewis this, Matt Lewis this.
• 31:10
  SPEAKER_00: You know, that that that's checked to the side.
• 31:12
  SPEAKER_01: It's funny you say that.
• 31:14
  SPEAKER_01: Uh there was a time that it was like that.
• 31:16
  SPEAKER_00: It it was even within our organization.
• 31:18
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that it was Andy Lewis Springdale Ford.
• 31:21
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it was Tim Lewis Ford.
• 31:23
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 31:24
  SPEAKER_01: Uh I don't know if they ever renamed the CDGR for Tom.
• 31:29
  SPEAKER_01: But when I was doing research on old documents and I was going through old newspapers, I found that.
• 31:33
  SPEAKER_01: And so I was like, Dad, what's what was the theory here, right?
• 31:36
  SPEAKER_01: Andy Lewis Springdale Ford stuck around the longest.
• 31:38
  SPEAKER_01: And dad was like, I don't want my name up on the building.
• 31:42
  SPEAKER_01: This is a team.
• 31:42
  SPEAKER_01: Like we're doing this a team, and it's Lewis Automotive.
• 31:45
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not talking speaking of family, Lewis.
• 31:47
  SPEAKER_01: I'm speaking of family of everyone who works here.
• 31:50
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 31:50
  SPEAKER_01: And that I think that's just has been our we don't want the spotlight.
• 31:54
  SPEAKER_01: We want it on all the people here.
• 31:56
  SPEAKER_00: We're proud of our family and what our family is, no doubt.
• 31:59
  SPEAKER_00: But like together we're gonna work on that.
• 32:00
  SPEAKER_00: And you see that some, and I'm not calling anybody out, but you see that some in some other businesses, and then they got to w add the word in there and sons.
• 32:08
  SPEAKER_00: But if you say, you know, if it was Tim Lewis Automotive and sons, like we would still be living like under that umbrella, you know?
• 32:16
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 32:16
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and and I know they got deeper on this one, but this is one that, you know, is is very difficult to do.
• 32:22
  SPEAKER_00: And if you do it the right way, it's not that difficult, and it's wildly successful because just think about it.
• 32:27
  SPEAKER_00: Oh yeah, we have three people in here that have the same goal, some some different paths to get there, and different strengths.
• 32:35
  SPEAKER_00: We're all highly competitive.
• 32:36
  SPEAKER_00: This goes back just to Anthony's conversation, too, about running the race.
• 32:40
  SPEAKER_00: And if we can collectively work together, holy moly.
• 32:44
  SPEAKER_03: Yep.
• 32:44
  SPEAKER_03: Absolutely.
• 32:45
  SPEAKER_03: Y'all hit all the the nails on the head there, but what I love about it, it's not hard at all because we've done what you've talked about from the get-go.
• 32:56
  SPEAKER_03: I talked to multiple buddies that are outside of our market area that are different in different professions, and they have that knockdown, drag out fights.
• 33:04
  SPEAKER_03: And like, Taylor, what would you do in this?
• 33:06
  SPEAKER_03: I said, Y'all've got to sit down and have the real deal conversation, and it's just been ingrained in us, not to lay down and not be competitive, but to see strength, see weaknesses, and work together.
• 33:18
  SPEAKER_03: It's really pretty easy for us to work as brothers.
• 33:21
  SPEAKER_03: There's no one else I would rather work with because you have trust built into them that you never have to question anything.
• 33:29
  SPEAKER_03: You know they're always gonna be there.
• 33:31
  SPEAKER_03: And then it's a strength that can be able to help you all go to new heights, but you have to have the conversation or you cannot run a family.
• 33:40
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna this just hit me as you're talking, and and I know we need to move on, but we don't.
• 33:45
  SPEAKER_00: Um I think one of the things that's naturally, and and and I gotta thank dad for this.
• 33:50
  SPEAKER_00: One of the things that naturally develops that is all of our positions were earned, they weren't given.
• 33:58
  SPEAKER_00: Correct.
• 33:59
  SPEAKER_00: And I I can tell you time and time again when I was very frustrated that I hadn't moved up quicker in positions.
• 34:07
  SPEAKER_00: You know, because I'm like, what other accolades do you want?
• 34:10
  SPEAKER_00: What other records do you want broken?
• 34:12
  SPEAKER_00: And at the time I couldn't see it.
• 34:15
  unknown: No.
• 34:15
  SPEAKER_00: But if you look at now the positions we're in, it didn't come overnight.
• 34:20
  SPEAKER_00: We didn't come out of college or out of, you know, this certification and automatically get a manager job.
• 34:27
  SPEAKER_00: They were all earned.
• 34:28
  SPEAKER_00: So we know people are in the position, and it's not just like, well, son of a gun, Matt's in this position because of who he is, and and Taylor and Shelby, and we just gotta figure out how to deal with that.
• 34:38
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 34:39
  SPEAKER_01: You just take that and throw it in the trash and and just you know, you get what you uh deserve and what you aren't.
• 34:45
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, right?
• 34:46
  SPEAKER_01: That's all.
• 34:47
  SPEAKER_01: All right, next question.
• 34:49
  SPEAKER_01: What's the biggest hurdle in transitioning from traditional advertising to social media that comes in from Chris?
• 34:56
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 34:57
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I'll jump here.
• 34:58
  SPEAKER_00: I think the biggest hurdle is is there's a whole lot more streams.
• 35:04
  SPEAKER_00: I think the the concept and and here's what I try to tell people that ask me about this, because I'm in a unique position.
• 35:10
  SPEAKER_00: You gotta remember when I started, we were newspaper.
• 35:14
  SPEAKER_00: We we we were, you know, inserts in the newspaper and just radio and TV.
• 35:19
  SPEAKER_00: And now I'm in social media as well.
• 35:22
  SPEAKER_00: You know, you guys are even more versed in social media, but all of them are just ways to connect with customers and getting them to either make a phone call, send a message in, or show up at the dealership.
• 35:34
  SPEAKER_00: That that's all they are.
• 35:36
  SPEAKER_00: Now, the the biggest hurdle is in with traditional media, you just had to cover radio, TV, okay, and newspaper.
• 35:46
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe throw a billboard in there if you want to be complex.
• 35:48
  SPEAKER_00: There's four.
• 35:49
  SPEAKER_00: When I first started, you could pretty easy guerrilla market all of that.
• 35:53
  SPEAKER_00: Now with social media, you have to be very strategic because you have it coming from all these different sources and you could way outspin your ad budget.
• 36:01
  SPEAKER_01: And the how and the when changes so often.
• 36:04
  SPEAKER_01: Like, how do you, you know, in a newspaper, on radio, on TV, it was generally the same style format.
• 36:12
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 36:12
  SPEAKER_01: Right?
• 36:12
  SPEAKER_01: It was just insert new copy.
• 36:14
  SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
• 36:14
  SPEAKER_01: Insert new copy, insert new copy.
• 36:16
  SPEAKER_01: It's pretty easy.
• 36:17
  SPEAKER_01: Put the money behind it, knew the area, knew the times, knew how to buy the best uh time.
• 36:23
  SPEAKER_01: With social, it's like head spinning of like, okay, how do we not blow the budget?
• 36:28
  SPEAKER_01: How do we make sure it's relevant?
• 36:29
  SPEAKER_01: How to make sure it has some type of ROI with a call to action.
• 36:33
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 36:33
  SPEAKER_00: So I think, you know, sometimes it gets out there, well, it's so much more trackable, and it's this and it's that.
• 36:38
  SPEAKER_00: There's some great things about it, but it's way more complex.
• 36:41
  SPEAKER_00: Way more complex.
• 36:43
  SPEAKER_00: So that that that was a good one there.
• 36:46
  SPEAKER_00: Um, what is one decision that changed the entire trajectory of your business?
• 36:52
  SPEAKER_00: That's from Dom.
• 36:54
  SPEAKER_00: Wow.
• 36:56
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I'll I'll take this.
• 36:58
  SPEAKER_01: Uh changed one trajectory of our business, right?
• 37:01
  SPEAKER_01: There's many fashions and it moves constantly.
• 37:04
  SPEAKER_01: But I'll say when we s started this transition to construction, because it happened before we moved here to our new location.
• 37:13
  SPEAKER_01: Oh yeah.
• 37:13
  SPEAKER_01: You know, a year and a half ago, um, was we were now on a growth pattern.
• 37:18
  SPEAKER_01: We could see farther down the tracks that if we move from nine acres to twenty six acres, from 45,000 square foot to 150,000 square foot, I don't know what our total parking spaces were, about 500 parking spaces to 1700 parking spaces.
• 37:33
  SPEAKER_01: We knew we would have to hire more to produce more.
• 37:39
  SPEAKER_01: And when we produced more, we would have to sell more to be able to keep this wheel spinning.
• 37:47
  SPEAKER_01: And so we knew it was a go from a business model of take care of the customers we know, the local hometown, the doors open, come on in, everybody knows your name.
• 38:00
  SPEAKER_01: To we have to now go guns blazing, blazing new paths, finding new areas of people we have not met.
• 38:06
  SPEAKER_01: And it was about vehicles and operation.
• 38:09
  SPEAKER_01: Yep.
• 38:10
  SPEAKER_01: Vehicles and operation, and the more vehicles we could get in operation.
• 38:13
  SPEAKER_01: So that like was a machine gun, very precise, sniper-like, but machine gun of okay, how do we do that?
• 38:20
  SPEAKER_01: Insert Lewis guarantee.
• 38:22
  SPEAKER_01: Why buy?
• 38:23
  SPEAKER_01: Move to the interstate, vehicle storage tower out front, the big car tower.
• 38:28
  SPEAKER_01: That was another thing to say, hey, the car display, the whole way the whole thing lays out, the pickleball courts, the basketball court, the gym.
• 38:37
  SPEAKER_01: So that was for employees and that was for customers.
• 38:39
  SPEAKER_01: That was a trajectory of changing our entire business was growth mode.
• 38:44
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 38:44
  SPEAKER_01: Like, okay, now we're gonna transition over and it needs to look completely different.
• 38:49
  SPEAKER_01: It needs to have the same feel, but completely different.
• 38:53
  SPEAKER_01: So this was not an okay.
• 38:55
  SPEAKER_01: We got to really accelerate.
• 38:57
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that the you hit on it's such great, like we're always gonna be able to go back to that if when we went construction and we actually move, because we always wanted to grow across town, but we put ourselves in a position where we had to.
• 39:11
  SPEAKER_00: And we had these big aspirations and growth that we wanted to do into all these buildings, and then we built them.
• 39:17
  SPEAKER_00: Like, no, we we gotta make it happen.
• 39:20
  SPEAKER_00: You have to make it happen.
• 39:21
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and and for sure, I'll say that that decision of like when that construction came up, you know, you guys were were helping in all the areas.
• 39:31
  SPEAKER_00: I took it on, and it forced me to give up the reins on some of the other areas where I micromanaged for too long because I found success in it and it had some self-feeling there.
• 39:48
  SPEAKER_00: But and the construction took longer than we thought.
• 39:50
  SPEAKER_00: So it created new habits on my part that then really set up for all these new systems and processes to actually be able to grow the business.
• 40:00
  SPEAKER_03: Yes.
• 40:01
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that was really bad.
• 40:03
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, for sure.
• 40:04
  SPEAKER_00: Man, that that's some good ones.
• 40:05
  SPEAKER_00: Do y'all see any other ones listed out there we need to talk about question-wise?
• 40:08
  SPEAKER_00: And if you're listening to this, we'll do it again because we we love going over information that you guys want.
• 40:14
  SPEAKER_00: You know, we we really like answering questions that, and it can be about us or it can be about the business or what you're struggling with or ideas you have.
• 40:24
  SPEAKER_00: Shoot it over to us on social.
• 40:26
  SPEAKER_00: We're looking forward to doing more episodes like this that are a shorter format, and we're getting into exactly what you guys are looking at.
• 40:33
  SPEAKER_01: All right, last question I found from Frankie.
• 40:36
  SPEAKER_01: How involved are you guys in the running community?
• 40:38
  SPEAKER_01: I think that was the only one I have.
• 40:40
  SPEAKER_00: Well, we spent 25 plus hours on Mount Kessler.
• 40:44
  SPEAKER_01: Hey, let me tell you, let me give you the best.
• 40:46
  SPEAKER_01: Sorry, I didn't mean to cut you off, but I'm gonna cut you off.
• 40:48
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 40:49
  SPEAKER_01: You do run.
• 40:50
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 40:50
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, people don't think I do.
• 40:52
  SPEAKER_01: So we've always talked about this.
• 40:54
  SPEAKER_01: Our style of advertising is not just riding chase.
• 40:59
  SPEAKER_01: It's local community hands-on.
• 41:01
  SPEAKER_01: We just did the hero half marathon.
• 41:03
  SPEAKER_01: We love doing that because it's an aid station that we get to see the runners twice.
• 41:07
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 41:08
  SPEAKER_01: And so we just bring the commotion.
• 41:10
  SPEAKER_01: I I would argue, and I feel bad because I've been part of the board, that our aid station has more rally than the Start Finite.
• 41:17
  SPEAKER_00: I think our aid station has more rally than any other athletic event you'd go to.
• 41:22
  SPEAKER_01: It's just because we've been to a lot, we've seen a lot, and we've learned from big athletic events.
• 41:26
  SPEAKER_01: But we recently had, I laughed about this.
• 41:30
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 41:30
  SPEAKER_01: We recently had, because we are involved in the running and biking community, someone reach out to us from Beast of Bird and from ORC and was like, hey, um, we want to have our year-end event, but our normal place is booked up and we've checked a couple more.
• 41:45
  SPEAKER_01: And because anyone that comes here, we say, Hey, have you been here before?
• 41:48
  SPEAKER_01: Let's go on a tour.
• 41:49
  SPEAKER_01: We show all the they said that conference room, is there any possibility we could use it?
• 41:53
  SPEAKER_01: Say, yeah, absolutely.
• 41:54
  SPEAKER_01: Let's go.
• 41:54
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 41:55
  SPEAKER_01: And so we said, We'll put you on the schedule, tell us what you need.
• 41:57
  SPEAKER_01: We've got audio, video, smoke, 30,000 watts.
• 42:00
  SPEAKER_01: And they were just like, oh gosh, we just need room for kids.
• 42:03
  SPEAKER_01: And I was like, Yeah, send me some stuff, I'll make a slideshow.
• 42:05
  SPEAKER_01: And they were just like, uh the funny thing is, in their presentation, they had a sponsor, a pretty big sponsor from another automotive dealer.
• 42:14
  SPEAKER_01: And so he was going through, hey, this year we've been able to do this and this.
• 42:17
  SPEAKER_01: And one of the parcels, like there was multiple different divisions here, we had helped out, and we're building a new one.
• 42:25
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 42:26
  SPEAKER_01: But the main one, we'd just been there for support.
• 42:29
  SPEAKER_01: Sure.
• 42:29
  SPEAKER_01: It's not even a team that we're a part of, but they were the one that reached out to us through the grapevine.
• 42:34
  SPEAKER_01: And so they were like, hey, we want to say thank you to Raising King's Chicken.
• 42:37
  SPEAKER_01: We want to say thank you to this, uh, it wasn't McClung, but some type of civil engineering.
• 42:42
  SPEAKER_01: We want to say thank you to Superior Automotive Group.
• 42:44
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 42:45
  SPEAKER_01: And everyone in there started dying laughing.
• 42:47
  SPEAKER_00: And he knew, like I knew he had to go over it.
• 42:50
  SPEAKER_00: And they're a good supporter of theirs.
• 42:51
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 42:51
  SPEAKER_01: But and no shade on superior by any means.
• 42:54
  SPEAKER_01: Like we all have our own pockets, right?
• 42:56
  SPEAKER_01: And but he said that and everyone started laughing.
• 42:59
  SPEAKER_01: So the difference of what we always want to do is to be hands-on.
• 43:04
  SPEAKER_01: Because we know people are writing checks everywhere, right?
• 43:07
  SPEAKER_00: And it's, you know, there's that old saying of how do you make somebody feel?
• 43:11
  SPEAKER_00: You know, and it's not just the check, but what was the experience and how'd they feel?
• 43:15
  SPEAKER_00: And we, I don't know if we had 150 or 160.
• 43:17
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know how many people were down there last night, but it was the biggest capacity ever.
• 43:21
  SPEAKER_01: We're gonna need the carpet machine put on.
• 43:22
  SPEAKER_00: I know.
• 43:24
  SPEAKER_00: But but they all, and then so then he circled back around and he thanked us for doing that.
• 43:27
  SPEAKER_00: And it was a rowdy round of applause because it was how we made them feel.
• 43:31
  SPEAKER_00: We made their kids feel special, the event, we were there, we were helping them out.
• 43:36
  SPEAKER_00: You know.
• 43:37
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and so that's that that's something we get to be involved in.
• 43:40
  SPEAKER_03: Well, and that's something you can't buy.
• 43:42
  SPEAKER_03: You can't buy.
• 43:43
  SPEAKER_03: Doesn't matter how big the check is you write or anything else.
• 43:45
  SPEAKER_03: And we've seen it throughout the years of us being frugal and realizing this is what we can do, where we won't write as big of a check because it doesn't make sense.
• 43:55
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, we will make up tenfold in the energy and the atmosphere that we bring to an event.
• 44:01
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, at the Beast of Burden you were starting to talk about, it was it was the whole thing.
• 44:05
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, we had like three transits full of speakers and stuff and tents.
• 44:09
  SPEAKER_01: And so as many as we can be effective at.
• 44:12
  SPEAKER_01: That's the key word there.
• 44:13
  SPEAKER_01: Effective at, we will be a part of locally because we love how it builds locally.
• 44:18
  SPEAKER_01: Because teaming up with a lot of those places helped build the running community, the trails, the divisions that you get to be a part of, that we get to be part of I think so.
• 44:27
  SPEAKER_00: You know, and I had a lot of people ask me last weekend, well, why didn't you run the hero half?
• 44:31
  SPEAKER_00: Why didn't you do that?
• 44:31
  SPEAKER_00: And I would have loved to run the hero half.
• 44:33
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, but that's not what it was about.
• 44:35
  SPEAKER_00: It was about being there.
• 44:37
  SPEAKER_00: So you'll see a mix if it's a beast of burden or if it's at hero half or if it's at hog hour, any of that stuff that we're there supporting.
• 44:43
  SPEAKER_00: And then we'll pick our other stuff that we go run.
• 44:46
  SPEAKER_00: But I'll say too, you know, it's no different than this is a season for we help a lot of fundraisers in in most of the cities uh with a shop with a cop.
• 44:55
  SPEAKER_00: And and how do we make them feel?
• 44:56
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, tonight we'll have the big gala with with Fayetteville, and we'll get to talk about that.
• 45:02
  SPEAKER_00: And one of the things, I'm fortunate enough, they allow me to get up there and and talk, but that I'll talk about, we love being a part of this because not only does it make sure that kids have presence under the tree every year, it also forms a bond between local law enforcement and those kids.
• 45:19
  SPEAKER_00: You know, so we we love those different events.
• 45:21
  SPEAKER_00: And I know they were talking about running, but all those events that to your point of showing up and being a part and feeling in there going, man, those guys are a part of the community.
• 45:30
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and the cool thing, it allows those other groups or other, like think of a run club that's just getting going.
• 45:38
  SPEAKER_01: It allows them to have access to stuff that normally they wouldn't have access to because we use it on the regular.
• 45:43
  SPEAKER_01: Sure.
• 45:44
  SPEAKER_01: Right?
• 45:44
  SPEAKER_01: We have all these tents and all these speakers and all these lights and all these generators and a uh a driving digital billboard truck and vehicles and all these things that they wouldn't have access to.
• 45:55
  SPEAKER_01: And we always offer for free 99 and sometimes give money with that, right?
• 46:01
  SPEAKER_01: And so then it allows them to have that big event feel, that big community feel.
• 46:06
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 46:06
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, and it makes us feel good because we're able to help somebody local.
• 46:12
  SPEAKER_03: That's really good.
• 46:13
  SPEAKER_03: A lot of good questions today that we went over there.
• 46:15
  SPEAKER_03: Hey, always check us out, Lewis Superstore.com for the freshest specials and all the content that we go over at Crossroads Conversation Podcast dot com.
• 46:25
  SPEAKER_03: If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to give it a like, share it with your friends and family, and visit our website to send us questions about what you would like to know about the automotive industry or family business in general.
• 46:36
  SPEAKER_03: Who do you want to hear from?
• 46:38
  SPEAKER_03: Send them our way, and we'll do our best to answer any questions that you have.
• 46:41
  SPEAKER_03: Thank you again, and we'll see you in future shows.