Latest / Crossroad Conversations with the Lewis Brothers / Ep.62 - The Copycat Trap: Why Being Different Is Harder (and Smarter)

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Ep.62 - The Copycat Trap: Why Being Different Is Harder (and Smarter) · Crossroad Conversations with the Lewis Brothers

0:00
SPEAKER_03: But like if you're constantly imitating these trends of like they're just saying stuff they don't even know what it is.
0:07
SPEAKER_01: No clue.
0:08
SPEAKER_03: Right.
0:08
SPEAKER_03: And so then then in business, like, hey, this is what we're doing and this is the process we're doing.
0:13
SPEAKER_03: It's like, do you know why?
0:14
SPEAKER_03: And they're like, no, but one of my mentors, that's what they say, one of my mentors, I follow they're doing it.
0:20
SPEAKER_03: Well, they don't know their why and why they're doing it, right?
0:23
SPEAKER_03: And they don't know their game plan and their their whole business model.
0:27
SPEAKER_03: And so they're just copying it.
0:28
SPEAKER_03: What will happen though is the mentor, who is a proper businessman, was doing something secretly behind the scenes to create something, and then he moves on to something else silently in the background.
0:41
SPEAKER_03: And the imitating person is still trying to imitate that.
0:44
SPEAKER_03: Well, that trend has already set sail.
0:48
SPEAKER_03: Hey everyone, welcome to Crossroad Conversations with the Lewis Brothers, where we aim to share real stories about running a successful family business while working through adversity and pouring back into our community that keeps our doors open every single day.
1:02
SPEAKER_03: We're your hosts, Shelby, Matt, and Taylor, and we'll be bringing you real relevant local business advice, maybe some automotive insights that are sure to change the way you look at running a business or buying a car.
1:14
SPEAKER_03: And maybe even throw on a plug for you to do business with us here locally.
1:18
SPEAKER_03: Welcome back, everybody, to the Crossroad Conversation Podcast with the Lewis brothers.
1:24
SPEAKER_03: We're your host, Matt Shelby, and Taylor.
1:26
SPEAKER_03: Today it's me and Taylor.
1:28
SPEAKER_03: Mono Imano.
1:29
SPEAKER_03: Mono Imano, bringing you this week, episode 62, The Copycat Trap.
1:37
SPEAKER_03: Our team keeps bringing us the most relevant content and information.
1:40
SPEAKER_03: The copycat trap, why being different is harder, but also smarter, right?
1:47
SPEAKER_03: Every industry has this problem.
1:48
SPEAKER_03: Someone does something new, it works, and then suddenly everyone wants to copy.
1:54
SPEAKER_03: You see it on social trends, you see it on what people wear, what people drive, what people do, the songs you listen to.
2:03
SPEAKER_03: But here's the thing: when you start chasing what everyone else is doing, you stop leading because you're chasing, right?
2:10
SPEAKER_03: You go from leading to chasing.
2:12
SPEAKER_03: Today we're going to talk about the Cobcat trap, why being different is hard, and why it matters, and how great leaders build originality instead of imitating other people.
2:23
SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
2:24
SPEAKER_00: Diving into there.
2:25
SPEAKER_00: Going back to our previous episode, ego versus instinct, what really drives your decisions?
2:29
SPEAKER_00: So what helps you dive into, what helps you differentiate, and what helps you go through the ultimately making a rational decision or an unrational decision, making sure you're really going off a visit, either ego or instinct.
2:43
SPEAKER_00: That was a really fun one.
2:44
SPEAKER_00: So make sure you dive back into there.
2:46
SPEAKER_03: Absolutely.
2:47
SPEAKER_03: Hey, and always remember you can visit us online at Lewis Superstore.com to see all of our available vehicles.
2:53
SPEAKER_03: This morning it was a little over 980 vehicles on the ground, new and used vehicles, and anything podcast, Crossroad Conversation Podcast.com to see the latest and greatest.
3:05
SPEAKER_03: If you're listening to us, there is a video version.
3:07
SPEAKER_03: You can find it on YouTube and probably on Spotify video version, but across all there.
3:13
SPEAKER_03: So make sure you like, subscribe, and follow that, and uh we'll go from there.
3:17
SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
3:18
SPEAKER_00: Hey, what's in the garage, and we're going to go over to the CDJR side today and talk about the RAM 2500.
3:24
SPEAKER_00: What I love about this is they put the standard HO motor in the three-quarter ton when you could only get it in the one ton before.
3:32
SPEAKER_00: They put what I call the power dome hood.
3:34
SPEAKER_00: That's the hood with the RAM air inlet in the front.
3:36
SPEAKER_00: So the truck looks phenomenal, but then also gets the upgraded eight-speed transmission now this year.
3:42
SPEAKER_00: Being with the HO motor, it is fully revamped, new truck, and we always talk about this.
3:49
SPEAKER_00: It's the best truck to drive because it has coil springs that it drives smoother than any other three-quarter ton truck on the market.
3:57
SPEAKER_00: So fully revamped.
3:59
SPEAKER_00: We have the best selection.
4:00
SPEAKER_00: And to shout out, we have the best selection of mega cabs.
4:03
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah.
4:04
SPEAKER_03: So mega cab, that means behind the back seat, you have an additional, I think it's 18 inches total cab length that you have.
4:11
SPEAKER_03: Uh, if I'm wrong, call it out and put it in the comments.
4:14
SPEAKER_03: But that the back seat can recline.
4:17
SPEAKER_03: That's all you need to know.
4:18
SPEAKER_03: That your rear seat can recline in a truck.
4:21
SPEAKER_03: The back seat, we're not talking front seat, the backseat can recline, and you still have all the leg space, and there's so much storage behind the seat.
4:28
SPEAKER_03: And so our inventory, you talked about how great it was.
4:31
SPEAKER_03: It kind of goes in waves of when can we get production?
4:34
SPEAKER_03: When do they have product availability and supplier availability?
4:38
SPEAKER_03: And so we just keep putting orders in.
4:40
SPEAKER_03: And so now they've finally all started showing up.
4:43
SPEAKER_03: They let the trap out and they all came.
4:45
SPEAKER_03: And we have like the grandest selection of mega cabs with anyone in Arkansas, maybe tri-state area.
4:52
SPEAKER_03: Uh, but also awesome colors.
4:55
SPEAKER_03: We've have cool grays that everybody loves, the blacks.
4:59
SPEAKER_03: We even have some greens that are like dark military-style green in mega cabs or in crew cabs with that high output, with that new transmission, uh, have the look, have the big hood.
5:10
SPEAKER_03: Uh, and there's some at some pretty dang good price points.
5:13
SPEAKER_00: Oh, yeah.
5:13
SPEAKER_00: Huge money off there, ultimate selection, and a fully revamped truck that you got to come check out.
5:18
SPEAKER_00: No doubt.
5:19
SPEAKER_03: All right, so let's dive into this thing, the copycat trap.
5:22
SPEAKER_03: So it feels safe to do what's already proven, right?
5:26
SPEAKER_03: Like someone's already been there.
5:28
SPEAKER_03: They've blazed the trail.
5:30
SPEAKER_03: You're walking through the woods.
5:31
SPEAKER_03: This is cleared.
5:32
SPEAKER_03: I should probably follow this, right?
5:35
SPEAKER_03: But safe doesn't always lead to something undiscovered, right?
5:40
SPEAKER_03: Or something that maybe you need to see but you haven't seen, or something that no one has seen, or for your industry, or for your business.
5:48
SPEAKER_03: So copying can get quick attention.
5:51
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
5:52
SPEAKER_03: Right?
5:52
SPEAKER_03: Like of a trending thing in social, that's the quickest that we see because everyone is there and they spend X amount of time on their phone, and you see this trend, and then you start seeing all the people you know doing that trend.
6:05
SPEAKER_03: So it gets quick attention, but it doesn't build a brand.
6:09
SPEAKER_00: No, and a lot of times think of it as I love the analogy of a trail.
6:13
SPEAKER_00: You know exactly where that's gonna end if you go on a path that is already developed, which is good and bad because it's gonna give you uh stability that you're able to get in there and you know, hey, this is where I'm gonna end up, this is where I'm going, this is proven.
6:29
SPEAKER_00: And that's probably a great stepping stone to start off of.
6:32
SPEAKER_00: So I'm gonna build foundation off of this.
6:35
SPEAKER_00: But absolutely, you don't want to stay on that trail all the time because one, you're not gonna learn anything different, and two, you already know what your outcome's gonna be.
6:43
SPEAKER_03: You know what the outcome is, and everyone else is on that trail.
6:47
SPEAKER_03: Yes, right?
6:48
SPEAKER_03: So uh the chances of finding that hidden nugget or that differentiator that makes you different, that when they have options to choose you versus someone else or your competitor, if you're going down the same book of here's how to do business and not separating yourself, you're on that same trail that you've already been on, you know, with the income and it's safe.
7:10
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
7:11
SPEAKER_03: And it's reliable, but it is not what you got in business for.
7:16
SPEAKER_00: No, and it more so it's probably something you need to really focus and have the team plan it on.
7:23
SPEAKER_00: But you, as the entrepreneur, you as the go-getter, you as the guy that leads the whole team, need to be the one that is constantly looking at saying, Hey, how can I change, adapt, stay true to this, but enhance it a little bit.
7:37
SPEAKER_03: You know, and that's a really good point.
7:39
SPEAKER_03: And we've talked about that many a times before, but of working in the business and working on the business.
7:44
SPEAKER_03: And so you, as a leader, as the chief idea operator, you get to be away from normal business interactions.
7:54
SPEAKER_03: You're not the one changing the oil or checking every person in or out there cleaning the hot tubs yourself, or out there actually installing the wire in the house.
8:02
SPEAKER_03: But you're looking what's next, right?
8:04
SPEAKER_03: What are we currently doing?
8:06
SPEAKER_03: What are we currently good at?
8:07
SPEAKER_03: But then you're like, hey, I see this trend out here.
8:10
SPEAKER_03: I don't want to chase that, but that should spark in your brain, there could be more, right?
8:15
SPEAKER_03: A consumer might want to be reached to the different channel.
8:18
SPEAKER_03: A consumer might want a different style service.
8:21
SPEAKER_03: And so, as that leader, that chief idea operator, you get to bring that.
8:26
SPEAKER_03: And then your guys that have been in the traps and the weeds, they're like, I never would have thought about that, right?
8:31
SPEAKER_03: And you're like, you've been going this same shelf across this path right here.
8:36
SPEAKER_03: Little did you know that half a mile up, there's a whole different vantage point and a whole different trail that you would take that leads to all different results.
8:46
SPEAKER_03: So as a leader, you get to do that.
8:47
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and that that's I love that continue going on, knowing, hey, without the correct vision, there may be continuation of that trail that would take you X amount of years to get to the next spot.
9:00
SPEAKER_00: If you don't have that correct vision to be able to step and go and hit this next groove to be able to move up, you would never make it to that next level, that next area that would really help you excel and exceed to your customers.
9:13
SPEAKER_03: You would never even know.
9:14
SPEAKER_03: Like, think if we were still in our old facility, you know, we wouldn't be out of business.
9:20
SPEAKER_03: You know, uh, we'd still be doing just fine and selling what we needed to sell and servicing what we needed to service, and you know, maybe like, hey, parking's a little tight.
9:30
SPEAKER_03: We say parking's tight now at this place, right?
9:33
SPEAKER_03: Um, but if you don't venture out, like if when leaders chase what competitors do, they lose focus on what makes you really unique.
9:43
SPEAKER_03: You know, so if you don't push yourself to like, hey, let me stop chasing that copycat and let's find something that makes us unique.
9:51
SPEAKER_03: And let's keep pushing that so we're always finding something that makes us a differentiator.
9:58
SPEAKER_03: Uh, but to stay, and let me tell you this, and we've talked about this in our culture for a long time.
10:03
SPEAKER_03: But this morning I was going over the manager's meeting, we were looking at our employee count, 255, it was uh of this morning, and from zero, so like they started yesterday to three years, it was over 174 employees.
10:24
SPEAKER_03: So of our 255, and we have employees of that, we had four employees that have been with us for over 25 years.
10:32
SPEAKER_03: There was like nine employees that have been there over 20 years.
10:36
SPEAKER_03: There was a lot of long-term employees, but 70% of our employees were less than three years in the business.
10:43
SPEAKER_03: And so you have to be super intentional and diligent, making sure that you're completely fulfilling their idea of am I at the right place?
10:54
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, am I getting the proper training?
10:56
SPEAKER_03: And so those things, if you're just chasing copycat of this, this, and this, they might be like, I don't even know the vision of this place.
11:03
SPEAKER_03: Like, what are they doing?
11:05
SPEAKER_03: This day they're saying this, then this day they're saying that.
11:08
SPEAKER_03: What trend are they chasing?
11:09
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
11:09
SPEAKER_03: You know, if you can have your North Star and continue to tweak that, then they can have a clear vision.
11:16
SPEAKER_03: Otherwise, those majority of your employees, they'd be like, I need to go somewhere that I understand what's going on.
11:22
SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
11:23
SPEAKER_00: It has to be so clear, and we see that a lot in our sales training meetings that we go back and whether it's Chelby gone over or he's has me gone over it, that we look back and we say, Hey, we've got to go back to our basics a little bit.
11:36
SPEAKER_00: We it's okay to go back to it because in our head that have he's been doing it for almost 20 years, and then me coming behind and doing behind him, we've done it so many times we can do it in our sleep because we've repetitive done it over and over and over.
11:52
SPEAKER_00: And we think in our head, hey, some of those basics that we're trying to get new things up here, which are great, still need to be implemented every single day.
12:00
SPEAKER_00: And that's what really helps drive a younger team around you that, hey, I've got new stuff, but I've got the just OG stuff that is our clear path vision, what we have to stick to every single day that we continue to go over.
12:16
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, most certain.
12:17
SPEAKER_03: And and helping them understand, you know, a different level, because we're talking about at a business level of not copying other things that are going on in our staff.
12:27
SPEAKER_03: We need them to copy format of what's going on to at least understand how business works, how they create a business for themselves, how they properly do a process, how they follow up with a consumer, how they do what they said they're gonna do in a timely manner, communicate properly and make sure you have the right documentation.
12:46
SPEAKER_03: They have to copy that to get their feet underneath them.
12:51
SPEAKER_03: From there, then they get to build on, you know, if they're here long enough and they comprehend and they're willing to learn, then they get to start to innovate to be different.
13:03
SPEAKER_03: And so then that's where we get to help the business as a whole and individual people.
13:08
SPEAKER_03: It's like one of our top sales professionals he he does the process very good.
13:14
SPEAKER_03: That's why he sells 300 cars a year.
13:16
SPEAKER_03: And we challenge him to say, hey, you need to innovate and you need an assistant.
13:22
SPEAKER_03: You know, uh and so we keep pushing and challenging him to say, hey, this helps get you to the next level.
13:28
SPEAKER_03: You you can't no longer, if you want to continue to grow and sell more cars, can't keep doing the same thing, right?
13:34
SPEAKER_03: Because that's what everyone else is doing.
13:35
SPEAKER_03: So looking for innovation there.
13:37
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, absolutely.
13:38
SPEAKER_03: Why do you think businesses tend to copy before they innovate?
13:42
SPEAKER_03: Because it's easy.
13:43
SPEAKER_03: Because it's easy, because it's easy.
13:44
SPEAKER_03: Because it's proven.
13:46
SPEAKER_03: How do you think leaders balance inspiration versus imitation?
13:52
SPEAKER_00: You know inspiration they get just because it obviously inspires them.
13:59
SPEAKER_00: The imitation I think is the fake side of it that somebody that's tried and true, that's gone through all of it, he doesn't like to go and imitate somebody because he feels like that's tarnishing his name of he if if he was ever called out or caught on that.
14:14
SPEAKER_00: He wants to obviously be inspired about something, but it's very slow sometimes to change and adapt to trends that are going on for the fear of what I exactly just said.
14:24
SPEAKER_00: Hey, they're gonna look at me and say, I just copied this and it's not really who I am, and I don't know what my clear path and vision are.
14:32
SPEAKER_00: So I think the inspiration is is so important because that's what I know, that's what drives each of us.
14:38
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
14:39
SPEAKER_00: And we're very slow to imitate anybody because we want to be real and true to our brand.
14:43
SPEAKER_03: So, what about on the flip side?
14:45
SPEAKER_03: What about the person that is very quickly uh inspired and imitates just like right from the get-go?
14:52
SPEAKER_00: That's disastrous.
14:54
SPEAKER_00: And you see, you see it a lot, and I say it's disastrous a lot of times, especially in the current trends we're in and everything else, you will see quick results from that.
15:05
SPEAKER_00: But that fire, that flame burns out fast because it's a quick rise, and then let's say success comes from that.
15:16
SPEAKER_00: There's no firm firm foundation that's necessarily built off of that.
15:19
SPEAKER_00: So whenever it ramps up, there's nothing to support it around.
15:23
SPEAKER_00: So you'll see plenty of those do that, but that's obviously something that I would uh hesitate to definitely go towards.
15:32
SPEAKER_03: You know, that's that's the classic old school that's been around for ages of keeping up with the Joneses.
15:37
SPEAKER_03: Yes, and you don't even know what for.
15:39
SPEAKER_03: And I laugh about that because the trends are so in and out so quickly, right?
15:46
SPEAKER_03: Um, with whatever.
15:48
SPEAKER_03: And I laugh because the kids right now, my boys, and then everyone else I see, they're currently infatuated.
15:54
SPEAKER_03: And Oliver, my oldest, he told me it's already over with, but uh, of six seven, of everyone says six seven, and no one knows what it means.
16:03
SPEAKER_03: Uh, and so I asked Elliot, who's not just the dweeb of when I ask, hey, what's six seven?
16:09
SPEAKER_03: And they're like, Oh, six seven.
16:10
SPEAKER_03: I'm like, no, no, no.
16:12
SPEAKER_03: And he said, Well, dad, I think it was two basketball players that were talking and they were asking about how tall somebody was, and they were like, Well, it's six or seven, and then it just caught and trended from there.
16:26
SPEAKER_03: But like, if you're constantly imitating these trends, is like they're just saying stuff they don't even know what it is.
16:33
SPEAKER_01: No clue.
16:34
SPEAKER_03: Right.
16:34
SPEAKER_03: And so then then in business, like, hey, this is what we're doing, and this is the process we're doing.
16:39
SPEAKER_03: It's like, do you know why?
16:40
SPEAKER_03: And they're like, No, but one of my mentors, that's what they say, one of my mentors, I follow their doing it.
16:46
SPEAKER_03: Well, they don't know their why and why they're doing it, right?
16:49
SPEAKER_03: And they don't know their game plan and their their whole business model.
16:53
SPEAKER_03: And so they're just copying it.
16:54
SPEAKER_03: What will happen though is the mentor, who is a proper businessman, was doing something secretly behind the scenes to create something, and then he moves on to something else silently in the background.
17:08
SPEAKER_03: And the imitating person is still trying to imitate that.
17:11
SPEAKER_03: Well, that trend has already set sail, right?
17:13
SPEAKER_03: It's already sunset, and you're still riding that train and you've got your team all going that direction, whether it's a way that you pick up and deliver things or the way that you transact online, like COVID, when everyone said, hey, you need to be able to do 100% of your online purchases online, and they kept pushing that and pushing that and pushing that.
17:33
SPEAKER_03: And so if you just had your head in the mud trying to do that, you would completely miss where it kind of had adapted and moved to be dual.
17:42
SPEAKER_00: Yes, I think it's so, so important.
17:46
SPEAKER_00: And you can have this conversation with your team.
17:49
SPEAKER_00: Don't hear us saying that it's bad to do trend or anything else.
17:53
SPEAKER_00: Be trendy, but be transparent with your team and say, hey, with doing this trendy things, we're gonna stay to our core thing, but we're gonna go here and then go here and then go here and then go here.
18:04
SPEAKER_00: And it's okay to do that if that's what you're following and going over.
18:08
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's not fully emerging into it and not paying any attention to anything else, but being able to be um mobile and moving throughout those.
18:18
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, you got to be adaptable and and to realize, hey, here's what we're gonna do.
18:21
SPEAKER_03: We're gonna we're gonna work on being trendy to stay relevant, but we're gonna make it our own.
18:25
SPEAKER_03: Sure.
18:26
SPEAKER_00: You know, so all right, fun fact, what do you got?
18:28
SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
18:29
SPEAKER_00: Roughly what percent of consumers say they can't tell brands apart anymore.
18:34
SPEAKER_00: Wow.
18:34
SPEAKER_00: This is probably pretty high.
18:36
SPEAKER_00: So I got easy of A of 25%, B 40%, C75 or D90.
18:43
SPEAKER_03: You know, if you think about that, of like what um brands have done, whether it's a jingle that they've created or it's the color of the clothing they wear, the background.
18:54
SPEAKER_03: People work super hard to have that.
18:57
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
18:58
SPEAKER_03: If you're not careful, and it yeah, if there's a copycat, they'll remember it, but they won't exactly remember who it was.
19:07
SPEAKER_04: Yes.
19:08
SPEAKER_03: Right?
19:08
SPEAKER_03: You might remember the JG Wentworth 877 Cash Now, but you might not remember it was JG Wentworth, right?
19:15
SPEAKER_03: Or you might, whatever it was, so you have to be careful.
19:18
SPEAKER_03: So 2540, 75, or 90 percent are percentage of consumers they say they can't tell brands apart anymore.
19:26
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
19:26
SPEAKER_00: 75% is the answer.
19:29
SPEAKER_00: Wow.
19:30
SPEAKER_00: 75%.
19:31
SPEAKER_03: So you do need to be unique in your branding.
19:34
SPEAKER_03: Yes, you have to be so unique.
19:37
SPEAKER_03: Yes, that that's crazy.
19:38
SPEAKER_03: That's right.
19:39
SPEAKER_03: 75%.
19:40
SPEAKER_00: It's somebody came in the other day, and I love this.
19:42
SPEAKER_00: And uh, she was ordering a car and was going over it.
19:44
SPEAKER_00: It was a um lady, and she was talking about going through, and none of us as brothers were ever like, hey, I'm Taylor Lewis, or I'm Shelby Lewis, or whoever it is.
19:56
SPEAKER_00: We just we're Taylor, Shelby, whoever, and we walked through it.
19:59
SPEAKER_00: And I'd said, Yes, ma'am, uh, thank you so much for coming in and doing this.
20:03
SPEAKER_00: I'll finish your paperwork up.
20:05
SPEAKER_00: And uh I'd said, My name's Taylor, and she she said, Oh, I know who you are.
20:10
SPEAKER_00: You're one of the Lewis brothers.
20:12
SPEAKER_00: It's like, ah, yes, I've been loving that.
20:14
SPEAKER_00: We're branding that and going through so it's so fun whenever you get a fun brand, you get a fun image, and then you can really dial down on that because you never want to be like, oh, I'm one of those guys.
20:24
SPEAKER_00: You want your brain to do that to me.
20:26
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
20:27
SPEAKER_03: It sets the lure for you.
20:29
SPEAKER_03: It's funny because Matt told me the same same outcome, different scenario.
20:34
SPEAKER_03: He was walking across the parking lot coming to a meeting.
20:36
SPEAKER_03: And when Matt's on a terrent of this and that, like, right?
20:39
SPEAKER_03: He's left 30 seconds between this and that.
20:42
SPEAKER_03: Uh and the guy was rolled down his window, was in a truck on a Friday morning, which are so busy.
20:48
SPEAKER_03: And he was like, Hey, sorry to bother you.
20:50
SPEAKER_03: Uh, you're one of the Lewis brothers, right?
20:52
SPEAKER_03: And he's like, Yeah, and you never know what's coming from that, right?
20:54
SPEAKER_03: And he was like, Yeah.
20:56
SPEAKER_03: He said, Hey, I just got to let you know I moved from Texas, um, and I had a lot of options and dealers down there, and I had a lot of dealers, and then I had a few good people that took care of me.
21:07
SPEAKER_03: He said, When I moved here, I didn't have as many options.
21:09
SPEAKER_03: Like, thank the Lord there's not as many four dealers up here, but there's plenty.
21:13
SPEAKER_03: He said, and I've tried them all up here.
21:15
SPEAKER_03: He said, and whatever you guys are doing, whatever your secret sauce is, don't stop because it makes you different.
21:22
SPEAKER_03: It's good.
21:23
SPEAKER_03: I was upset that I had to move away from my good dealer, but you guys are doing something amazing.
21:28
SPEAKER_03: So the brand right there, it was just like he'd seen it enough, and we tried to plaster it in every area to say, hey, something's different here.
21:35
SPEAKER_03: We take care of people different.
21:37
SPEAKER_03: Uh, come see us, right?
21:38
SPEAKER_03: So that that's a big thing.
21:40
SPEAKER_00: Those are so good to hear after you think it's so bad.
21:42
SPEAKER_00: You your head's buried in reviews or anything else.
21:45
SPEAKER_00: So you get those good words of wisdom that come from anybody.
21:48
SPEAKER_00: So keep digging in, growing your brand there.
21:51
SPEAKER_00: Hey, the danger of chasing trends instead of strategy.
21:55
SPEAKER_00: So diving through that, that's big of like we know that it can be detrimental.
22:01
SPEAKER_03: So I think the big difference there of my thought of chasing trends of versus strategy.
22:07
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
22:08
SPEAKER_03: Strategy is very strategic, right?
22:11
SPEAKER_03: Not to be too cliche, but it has a plan, right?
22:15
SPEAKER_03: And before you said go, you sat down and said, What's the game plan?
22:19
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, what are we trying to accomplish?
22:20
SPEAKER_03: Like you have to begin with the end in mind.
22:23
SPEAKER_03: Like, what's the game plan?
22:24
SPEAKER_03: And then you backwards fill how you fill that in, right?
22:28
SPEAKER_03: So that's strategy.
22:30
SPEAKER_03: And that's the game plan you tell as many people as you think you need to, and then say, here, let's go.
22:34
SPEAKER_03: Chasing trends, you are just, I mean, it's like you're snipe hunting, right?
22:41
SPEAKER_03: You're just over here, over there, over here, and you have no clue.
22:45
SPEAKER_03: And so that there's you'll lose your north star of what your game plan is.
22:49
SPEAKER_00: Very fast, very fast.
22:51
SPEAKER_00: So going into how copying creates internal confusion, then I think that's what we just talked about.
22:57
SPEAKER_00: If you're bouncing around from left to right, all around blindfolded, it creates confusion not only in you, but worse, your team.
23:05
SPEAKER_03: Can I uh tell you this that one of our people in our uh fix ops department and our service department, and we work hard on this, not hard enough apparently, uh, which is a-okay, right?
23:18
SPEAKER_03: We always need to check up from the neck up even us, right?
23:21
SPEAKER_03: Mostly us.
23:22
SPEAKER_03: Um said, Hey, I need some help.
23:26
SPEAKER_03: I don't understand where we're going.
23:30
SPEAKER_03: I don't I don't know our game plan and our vision, and it slapped my face like what what do you mean?
23:38
SPEAKER_03: And they didn't tell me directly.
23:39
SPEAKER_03: I wish they would have told me, but I heard it through a supervisor.
23:42
SPEAKER_03: I was like, what do you mean?
23:43
SPEAKER_03: Like, here's our game plan.
23:45
SPEAKER_03: We built this to be able to serve more people, right?
23:48
SPEAKER_03: To offer a better experience in two ways.
23:52
SPEAKER_03: One for the customer that comes through here.
23:54
SPEAKER_03: So hopefully we can make them a customer for life and they keep coming back.
23:57
SPEAKER_03: But most importantly is for our employees that they have a place that they can enjoy, coming to work to every day, that we care about their health and wellness of all the things we provided, that we care about their state of mind while they're working.
24:10
SPEAKER_03: And so that's our vision and our goals to continue to grow because the more people we can serve, the more people we get to hire, and the more people we get to continue that routine.
24:20
SPEAKER_03: And I was like, man, how is that not like crystal clear?
24:25
SPEAKER_03: But then I was like, you know what?
24:26
SPEAKER_03: Like, I need to plaster that on some walls some more.
24:29
SPEAKER_03: Yep, you know, and so at first I was like in my mind, I was like, what in the world?
24:34
SPEAKER_03: They don't know our vision and what we're doing.
24:36
SPEAKER_03: But then I was like, no, this is opportunity, like to give to be very crystal clear what our gameplay is, so what's the strategy?
24:44
SPEAKER_03: And some people need it broke down way more, yeah.
24:47
SPEAKER_03: Right?
24:47
SPEAKER_00: But no, that's so that's so good and to know, and on the other side of it, to not get aggravated whenever that pops up in front of hey, it's a quick gut check to you to say, Oh man, okay, I gotta do better at that.
25:02
SPEAKER_00: Circle back around and really double down on that and hyper focus, and then you can move on while that is retaught to the team of hey, this is what we're doing.
25:12
SPEAKER_00: Why being different isn't about being louder, it's about being real.
25:16
SPEAKER_00: So not necessarily hollering yell and say, hey, look at me, but real deal, I'm involved with this and I'm moving forward.
25:24
SPEAKER_03: You know, it's no different.
25:25
SPEAKER_03: I I saw this reel last night on Instagram and I saved it because it was relevant.
25:30
SPEAKER_03: I think we can apply, but this lady was essentially selling social skills, right?
25:36
SPEAKER_03: And I'm not talking about social about talking, I'm talking about social media.
25:39
SPEAKER_03: Uh, and that's something we have to keep our eye on constantly, but um, because that's that's our form of advertising or a big form of it.
25:46
SPEAKER_03: So she was talking about trends versus strategy, kind of this exact same thing, but she was like hashtags, not relevant, right?
25:56
SPEAKER_03: And so she just brought up she was like carousels, super relevant, and so then she said uh trendy auto audio, not relevant, and so she debunked a bunch of stuff, she was putting them in two categories, and I was like, Whoo, didn't think that one.
26:10
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, worked really hard on that one, I guess not relevant.
26:13
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, and she might just be selling something, right?
26:16
SPEAKER_03: A course or something.
26:18
SPEAKER_03: But then she said, now storytelling is that important, and it was so important.
26:25
SPEAKER_03: She said, Hey, one of the most important is that people, as they continue to see the same people, the same faces on your social, they start relating to that.
26:34
SPEAKER_03: They'll slow down and won't scroll as fast.
26:36
SPEAKER_03: And then they start seeing that you are intentional and you're real, and then you can start telling more stories.
26:42
SPEAKER_03: Like people love social for education, yep.
26:45
SPEAKER_03: Or they want emotions like make me cry, make me laugh.
26:49
SPEAKER_03: Yep, you know, one of those things.
26:50
SPEAKER_03: Those are the most shared or emotions or how to.
26:54
SPEAKER_03: That's why YouTube has so many videos of when we can't figure something out, we're gonna go to Google, it populates YouTube and it says, here's how, right?
27:01
SPEAKER_03: Or at least someone's gonna try to tell you how.
27:03
SPEAKER_03: So she said if you continue to do that, and in her click funnel, she said, then in the end, then you can start selling products to those people because you have created well enough awareness that you can trust this person.
27:17
SPEAKER_03: They're telling a story that is real, it's not something that's trendy, and you're not chasing this and chasing this viral hack and doing this dance.
27:24
SPEAKER_03: Like it's okay to be funny, but it's not gaining any traction.
27:27
SPEAKER_03: And then in the end, you you've earned the trust to start selling something online to those people.
27:33
SPEAKER_03: I was like, that is so good, right?
27:34
SPEAKER_00: That is so good.
27:35
SPEAKER_00: That relates back to the basics of sales.
27:38
SPEAKER_00: Whenever you get in sales, people think about, hey, I gotta dive down in the vehicle, I gotta do anything else.
27:43
SPEAKER_00: Whenever you first meet somebody, whenever you first start influencing someone online, it's about building rapport.
27:48
SPEAKER_00: I'm not selling anything to start off.
27:51
SPEAKER_00: I'm asking you how you are, how the day's been going, what you had going on, what you did over the weekend.
27:59
SPEAKER_00: So relating to what things are going on right now before you go forward asking for business, before you start pitching your idea.
28:07
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
28:07
SPEAKER_00: So that's so good to remember.
28:09
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, absolutely.
28:10
SPEAKER_00: What happens inside a company when originality disappears?
28:16
SPEAKER_00: Anything, right?
28:17
SPEAKER_03: Anything except you want to specifically happen.
28:20
SPEAKER_03: So when originality disappears, then everyone has their own voice and their own direction.
28:25
SPEAKER_03: When someone says, I don't know where we're going.
28:28
SPEAKER_03: And so they're like, hey, what's your core?
28:30
SPEAKER_03: Like, what do you stand for?
28:33
SPEAKER_03: If you've lost your originality, who knows?
28:35
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, right.
28:36
SPEAKER_03: And so then what you do is you leave that up to interpretation.
28:39
SPEAKER_03: If 70% of your employees are three years or newer, if you haven't gone back around and gone over core values, how we handle customer, what our expects expectation is, why you're important as an employee, and those core things, if you haven't done that, and there was a good there was uh these might be backwards, 87 employees that are a year or less.
29:02
SPEAKER_03: Yep.
29:03
SPEAKER_03: 87 people.
29:04
SPEAKER_03: So if you think we do that all the time, are you sure that you've done it in the last year?
29:09
SPEAKER_03: Because your originality, your reason, or your why, or your company vision, it it they might not ever get to experience it.
29:17
SPEAKER_00: No, what we figured out there is what we've had done because there is too many people for us to one-on-one sit down with every single day.
29:27
SPEAKER_00: Now, we still walk through every single department.
29:29
SPEAKER_00: I'll say hello, how are you doing?
29:31
SPEAKER_00: Talk to everybody that I can, but I can't physically do that and do my job every single day.
29:36
SPEAKER_00: It it's not constructive.
29:39
SPEAKER_00: It's it starts being, it goes backwards.
29:42
SPEAKER_00: So what we've really figured out is diving in with managers and the hyper focusing of hey, I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna stay on you.
29:50
SPEAKER_00: You need to really focus on this and still continue to go around and do the other.
29:55
SPEAKER_00: So I that's good.
29:56
SPEAKER_00: Whenever your originality disappears, it becomes everyone else.
30:00
SPEAKER_00: Else's own vision of how they think their best is or what they could do best.
30:07
SPEAKER_00: So you don't want that to happen.
30:08
SPEAKER_03: So much so.
30:10
SPEAKER_03: All right, Mythbusters time.
30:12
SPEAKER_03: If it works for them, it works for us.
30:15
SPEAKER_03: Mythbuster, here's the myth.
30:17
SPEAKER_03: If it works for them, it works for us.
30:21
SPEAKER_03: Like what?
30:22
SPEAKER_00: Well, it's funny enough, we see it a lot because we pour a lot of heart and soul into everything that we go and do.
30:31
SPEAKER_00: And people in the automotive industry, especially in Northwest Arkansas, know that.
30:34
SPEAKER_00: They know that.
30:35
SPEAKER_00: So we'll laugh whenever we see anything that we've done and really double down on, it gets copied up and down the road.
30:42
SPEAKER_00: And it's always like, huh, I guess they are watching.
30:45
SPEAKER_03: So that is that that is true, right?
30:48
SPEAKER_03: If it works for them, it works for us.
30:50
SPEAKER_03: But but not without intentionality.
30:55
SPEAKER_03: Right.
30:55
SPEAKER_03: If you don't have all the layers, if you just know it of surface value, if someone in your organization has not properly dissected what it is that you're copying, it will be short-lived.
31:08
SPEAKER_03: Uh-huh.
31:09
SPEAKER_03: Right?
31:09
SPEAKER_03: The reason of a trend, or reason why they do that, or reason why someone does this and they copy it.
31:14
SPEAKER_03: What work for them will work for their customers, their culture and their timing.
31:19
SPEAKER_03: But copying just puts you a step behind.
31:22
SPEAKER_04: Yep.
31:22
SPEAKER_03: Right.
31:23
SPEAKER_03: So you're you're emulating, you're copying something that they've been doing.
31:26
SPEAKER_03: Well, chances are someone who's a leader is already working on phase two, phase three, phase four.
31:33
SPEAKER_03: And so if you're copying them, all you're doing is trying to keep up with bare minimum for what they were doing, which was generally in the past, right?
31:41
SPEAKER_03: And where they really miss out, even if they just had a really good copy strategy and they had one person just hyper focused.
31:48
SPEAKER_03: If you think of Google and Apple or Apple and Android, if you just copied them and never worked on innovation, you would always be a step behind and you wouldn't know how they did this or how they did that.
32:02
SPEAKER_03: Like you would have no originality.
32:04
SPEAKER_03: And generally you wouldn't have the horsepower because it wasn't your idea, right?
32:10
SPEAKER_03: And you wouldn't have the passion because it wasn't your idea.
32:13
SPEAKER_03: You're just copying it to try to stay relevant.
32:16
SPEAKER_01: Yep.
32:17
SPEAKER_03: Right.
32:17
SPEAKER_03: While leaders are innovative and they're saying, hey, here's what we're doing, here's where we're going, here's the next disruptor in our industry.
32:25
SPEAKER_03: And everyone's saying, wow, and you've got two years of worth of research on this thing, like our Lewis guarantee.
32:31
SPEAKER_03: Hey, let's bring this.
32:32
SPEAKER_03: I was talking to a customer on the phone right before this, and they were like, We came here because you offered this, this, this, this.
32:40
SPEAKER_03: Yep.
32:41
SPEAKER_03: And I was like, that's a differentiator, right?
32:43
SPEAKER_03: And then we have the the horsepower behind that.
32:46
SPEAKER_03: And not always not always executed perfectly, right?
32:49
SPEAKER_03: Uh, but you generally have that upper hand there.
32:52
SPEAKER_00: No, that's really good.
32:53
SPEAKER_03: All right.
32:54
SPEAKER_03: So, third topic we want to just keep breaking this thing down about the copycat, what's right, what's wrong, is originality isn't just creative, it's culture.
33:03
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
33:04
SPEAKER_03: So think about that.
33:05
SPEAKER_03: That originality is isn't just creative.
33:08
SPEAKER_03: Like that doesn't mean, hey, I just kind of came up with this idea and it's uh originality.
33:13
SPEAKER_03: It's cultural.
33:15
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and that's so important to know.
33:16
SPEAKER_00: And you really start to see that whenever let's talk about whenever a stressful situation pops up, and then we can see, hey, how dialed in is that team member?
33:26
SPEAKER_00: How dialed in is that manager?
33:28
SPEAKER_00: Because whenever an angry customer comes in, something doesn't go right, another thing doesn't go right, and it continues to domino down.
33:35
SPEAKER_00: How do they how do they control that?
33:38
SPEAKER_00: Where does their culture really come out?
33:40
SPEAKER_00: So our culture obviously is deep.
33:43
SPEAKER_00: We're the ones that have taught it and brought it and learned it and everything else.
33:48
SPEAKER_00: So talking about culture, whenever you're going through, it's just so important that your team knows, hey, this is real deal.
33:55
SPEAKER_00: Because whenever instances come up that it's difficult or anything else, that's whenever it shows.
34:03
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, and that's important of understanding that it's not, it's not your vision or your culture, right?
34:09
SPEAKER_03: It becomes everyone's.
34:10
SPEAKER_03: And so that culture, like you said, in a tough scenario, you know, everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.
34:17
SPEAKER_03: Oh, yeah, is what they say.
34:18
SPEAKER_03: Absolutely.
34:19
SPEAKER_03: True colors come out not when people are winning, but it's when things get difficult.
34:23
SPEAKER_03: And so if you can see, and that's one of the most important things that we go over constantly and say, hey, if there's an issue, please 100% take responsibility for it yourself.
34:33
SPEAKER_03: The first person to contact, I don't care who it is throughout the entire company, say, you know what?
34:39
SPEAKER_03: I apologize.
34:40
SPEAKER_03: I take full responsibility.
34:42
SPEAKER_03: Let me get all the details and we're gonna get to the bottom of this and find a solution.
34:48
SPEAKER_03: And like if I said no more words, that would at least allow them to understand that you need to relieve pressure from a situation.
34:57
SPEAKER_03: Yes.
34:57
SPEAKER_03: And so if I can help them understand that that's our culture, and by our I mean everybody, that the customer will be like, hey, that's different.
35:06
SPEAKER_03: That it's not just creative, it's your culture.
35:08
SPEAKER_03: Yes, you know, we're not just doing this for eyeballs, it's because it's real, it's genuine, and it cares.
35:14
SPEAKER_03: We care, and we care about on both sides how an employee.
35:17
SPEAKER_03: And so some employees struggle so hard with that, like, so hard of saying, like, no, it wasn't my fault.
35:23
SPEAKER_03: Well, somewhere along the line, it was because you didn't train the time tools training, you didn't equip, you didn't have the person in the right scenario to handle that.
35:33
SPEAKER_03: So it was your fault, and it's my fault because I employed the person to be able to handle that, and I didn't train specifically and follow up with that and show KPIs for it.
35:42
SPEAKER_03: But if you can help them, then that's your culture, right?
35:46
SPEAKER_03: It's not just being, hey, I want to be creative and I want to make it my own.
35:51
SPEAKER_03: So originality is not just creative, it's culture, and that's what makes the difference there.
35:56
SPEAKER_00: You know what I love the other day, and you forget about this, other industries outside of the automotive industry.
36:02
SPEAKER_00: People that are in the automotive industry of a real deal good, good run business don't realize how much we do for the customers.
36:11
SPEAKER_00: And customers sometimes don't understand that.
36:14
SPEAKER_00: But I was recently have uh some work done at my house, and they were putting a uh moving a propane tank and putting it in the ground.
36:21
SPEAKER_00: And we mapped it out.
36:23
SPEAKER_00: He'd called uh Arkansas, whatever underground utilities said, Hey, he'll mark this.
36:27
SPEAKER_00: Said, okay, great.
36:28
SPEAKER_00: I was at work.
36:29
SPEAKER_00: He called me, he's like, uh he first starts it out, calls me and says, You've got a problem.
36:35
SPEAKER_00: He said, Okay, you've got a problem.
36:38
SPEAKER_00: That starts it out great.
36:39
SPEAKER_00: So of knowing he's like, You got a problem.
36:41
SPEAKER_00: And then he said, uh, I hit your power wire going to your shop.
36:46
SPEAKER_00: I said, Okay, great.
36:47
SPEAKER_00: And he said, Well, I'm gonna finish out this line and then uh I guess you can get a hold of uh uh electrician or somebody to come and work on it.
36:56
SPEAKER_00: So I got off the phone, I was like, Yeah, absolutely, man.
36:58
SPEAKER_00: I said, I'll have my wife turn off the breaker so you can continue going on, like not overreacting because I can handle the situation.
37:05
SPEAKER_00: But I got off the phone, I was like, this guy just dug up my yard, tore up my power wire, and then told me to fix it.
37:14
SPEAKER_00: I would love someone to come in our business and I could say, Hey, I messed this up, but you fix it.
37:21
SPEAKER_00: And then I started laughing.
37:22
SPEAKER_00: I was like, no, no, I'll call somebody went through the day.
37:25
SPEAKER_00: And so a couple days later, I get a call from a manager thing, and he said, Hey, I'm so sorry I heard about this.
37:33
SPEAKER_00: We're sending an electrician out there right now to get this taken care of.
37:38
SPEAKER_00: So it's not industry standard, but I love seeing whenever our team can win, take ownership, take responsibility.
37:45
SPEAKER_00: We know you aren't directly the one that made the car fail or a part fail, but you're there to help facilitate the whole process.
37:53
SPEAKER_03: Right.
37:54
SPEAKER_03: It's one of those things like we know that you didn't build the car.
37:57
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, we know that you weren't through the entire process, but you are their point of contact.
38:04
SPEAKER_03: Oh, yeah.
38:05
SPEAKER_03: Like that person who was moving that was your point of contact.
38:09
SPEAKER_03: And so you have to be very, very, very intentional to make sure that person realizes what is your game plan and what's your vision and how do you handle a situation.
38:20
SPEAKER_03: And it's more important to go over how you handle bad situations than good situations.
38:24
SPEAKER_00: Because there's gonna be way more.
38:25
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, good and good comes natural, right?
38:28
SPEAKER_03: That that's so funny because it it's just kind of I'll tell you uh story, because stories people listen, right?
38:35
SPEAKER_03: And just like yours, I love that.
38:37
SPEAKER_03: So we have this house that's uh just it's a hunting cabin out in the middle of nowhere, and so we've paired this thing together, you know.
38:47
SPEAKER_03: We've general contracted this thing and had a guy do this and a guy do that, right?
38:51
SPEAKER_03: And it's great.
38:52
SPEAKER_03: Like all the things have worked.
38:53
SPEAKER_03: Well, we're not out there all the time, and uh, we realized one time uh in the spring after rain that uh the back part of the house is kind of up against a hill, and those are bedrooms and they have carpet.
39:08
SPEAKER_03: Well, the front part of the house, the living room, is tile.
39:11
SPEAKER_03: We went out there and the tile was wet.
39:13
SPEAKER_03: It was like, huh.
39:15
SPEAKER_03: So then we got to look in, and I think I'd taken shoes off and we're walking in the bedrooms and socks were soaking wet.
39:21
SPEAKER_03: Like, what the heck?
39:22
SPEAKER_03: And so we went in, there's three bedrooms, and so we were in those three bedrooms.
39:25
SPEAKER_03: It's like, well, this one's good, and well, this one's wet here, and then this one's like, ah, this one's flooded.
39:30
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
39:30
SPEAKER_03: So I'll spare you the long story of figuring out, like, okay, what's going on the back of the wall?
39:36
SPEAKER_03: What's going on?
39:36
SPEAKER_03: Well, when we had uh the mini-split air conditioners installed, we said, hey, we don't want all the lines on the outside of the house.
39:44
SPEAKER_03: So while we're building it, we were able to duct all of the HVAC and stuff inside the house.
39:50
SPEAKER_03: And so it's in the wall, in between the outside and the inside of the drywall.
39:54
SPEAKER_03: So there's a good amount, probably six holes, maybe eight holes, three inch holes in the siding that they ran all this stuff through.
40:02
SPEAKER_03: And so I was out there and I dug up the concrete pad for the ACs.
40:06
SPEAKER_03: I was out there, you know, I can go wild on my day off, right?
40:10
SPEAKER_03: And I was like, think I got it fixed.
40:11
SPEAKER_03: I disconnected this concrete from there.
40:13
SPEAKER_03: And then I got to looking at the holes and I was like, there's six or eight three-inch holes.
40:20
SPEAKER_03: Pretty large, pretty large, that have no caulking, no filling, no foam.
40:28
SPEAKER_03: And so I text the HVAC guy who's a good friend, and I was like, hey, when you guys do this, do you normally fill these in?
40:36
SPEAKER_03: And he was like, um, yes.
40:40
SPEAKER_03: And then he texts me back, he's like, actually, generally we leave those open so the general contractor can finish them out when they're doing the siding stuff.
40:47
SPEAKER_03: Well, the siding was all done, right?
40:49
SPEAKER_03: They had rained those long before, and so they came and set the units.
40:54
SPEAKER_03: And so I was like, Oh, can you send somebody out to Silicon or do I need to get some?
40:58
SPEAKER_03: Like, it's gonna rain again in two days.
41:00
SPEAKER_03: Because it this had happened months and months and months to finally figure it out.
41:03
SPEAKER_03: He's like, he took responsibility.
41:05
SPEAKER_03: He's like, hey, let me get somebody out there.
41:07
SPEAKER_03: And so then I called the carpet place.
41:09
SPEAKER_03: I was like, hey, I need some more carpet because I had tore all the carpet out, threw it out the window, and was like, hey, this is moldy.
41:15
SPEAKER_03: And uh, so then I just paid for it and was like, oh, figure this out because I needed the end to be fixed.
41:21
SPEAKER_03: And he then was like, hey, you know, I feel like the contractor, right, should have, or the signing people should have finished it, but he was like, Hey, if you need me to take care of it, just let me know.
41:32
SPEAKER_03: So in the end, he he said he would make it, right?
41:35
SPEAKER_03: But it's so difficult that sometimes outside of my industry, someone just points to someone else.
41:40
SPEAKER_03: Hey, it was this person, hey, it was that person instead of saying, I know, and like somehow an automotive, and maybe it's just us because we take responsibility for everything.
41:50
SPEAKER_03: Yes, that we just get kicked in the teeth, but it makes us better.
41:54
SPEAKER_00: It does because whenever I was sitting talking to managers telling them that story, they were like, No, uh, no, sir, we we go through and take responsibility.
42:02
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, ah, yes, I love that.
42:04
SPEAKER_00: I love that.
42:04
SPEAKER_00: I wish more people could really see how much we care, help, offer everything else.
42:10
SPEAKER_00: But it's so good.
42:11
SPEAKER_00: We get to win in so many other areas because whenever we're outside of this industry, it's so easy.
42:16
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, it's most definitely.
42:18
SPEAKER_03: All right, think about this the courage to look weird before you look right.
42:25
SPEAKER_03: Think about that.
42:26
SPEAKER_03: Like, you know, sometimes, you know, if you're setting a new trend trying to bring bell bottoms or corduroy back, yeah, you're probably gonna look weird before everyone starts copying it.
42:36
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
42:36
SPEAKER_03: Right.
42:36
SPEAKER_03: So, how do you go through that of you, but most importantly, because it's gonna be your team.
42:42
SPEAKER_03: Yes.
42:43
SPEAKER_03: How do you encourage them to have the courage to look weird before you look right?
42:47
SPEAKER_00: Oh, you definitely have to dive in and you have to be bought in because you gotta know no different than if you shave your beard off or go into change clothes or anything else, like you're just as proud as if you had the most trendy thing on because that's the way you got to sell it.
43:02
SPEAKER_00: And if you're not selling it, your team sure as heck is not gonna follow behind you on that.
43:07
SPEAKER_00: So you got to realize there's gonna get some backlash and you're gonna get funny comments and um reactions from everyone else.
43:18
SPEAKER_00: That's okay because it's different.
43:20
SPEAKER_00: It's different, it's different than what you've been doing, and it's different to the consumers looking at it.
43:25
SPEAKER_00: So you need to be okay with being uncomfortable in that moment.
43:29
SPEAKER_03: Change is going to come when you become uncomfortable.
43:35
SPEAKER_03: Yep.
43:35
SPEAKER_03: Right.
43:36
SPEAKER_03: And if change is what you're after, of good change, you're gonna have to be willing to be uncomfortable.
43:42
SPEAKER_03: And just realize that.
43:43
SPEAKER_03: And once you do understand that, no longer is anything really gonna throw you off.
43:48
SPEAKER_03: If you've never made a social media video, if you've never recorded yourself the most awkward time, and the worst time and the worst results will be your first time.
43:58
SPEAKER_03: Yep.
43:58
SPEAKER_03: Right?
43:58
SPEAKER_03: But then realize it's not a big deal.
44:01
SPEAKER_03: It's not a big deal.
44:02
SPEAKER_03: Hey, good results came from this.
44:04
SPEAKER_03: My team is watching because what you cannot do for long term is say, hey, I want everyone to do this, and they never see you do it.
44:13
SPEAKER_03: Yep.
44:13
SPEAKER_03: They've never seen you go through this thing.
44:16
SPEAKER_03: So you have to lead from the top and say, hey, here's what we're gonna try to do.
44:19
SPEAKER_03: And I know this is gonna be a little bit weird.
44:22
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, but I want to get out there and get weird with you.
44:24
SPEAKER_04: Sure.
44:25
SPEAKER_03: And then we'll figure it out.
44:27
SPEAKER_03: Right.
44:27
SPEAKER_03: And then they'll be like, hey, you know what?
44:28
SPEAKER_03: Okay, I get that.
44:29
SPEAKER_03: And we see that all the time in the way that we order parts, or the way you handle customer and service, or the way that we meet and greet a customer, whatever it is, like the automatic car wash, that was so hard for our team for the longest time to just say, hey, and it was probably because I came up with an agreement, you know, that they had to have the customer sign to say, hey, if if your sunroof falls in while we're washing your car, that's not our fault.
44:52
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
44:52
SPEAKER_03: I was trying to remove some liability because we already have enough out there.
44:55
SPEAKER_03: Sure.
44:56
SPEAKER_03: And so they were they were just like, I'm just not gonna offer the car wash.
44:58
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
44:59
SPEAKER_03: And then they realized I was gonna keep asking them if they offered it, and they were like, Well, no, they didn't want to sign the waiver.
45:03
SPEAKER_03: Like, all right, we'll run it through.
45:05
SPEAKER_03: And we've ripped a couple mirrors off.
45:06
SPEAKER_03: Just replace them.
45:07
SPEAKER_03: And we just glue them back on correctly, you know.
45:10
SPEAKER_03: Uh, but it's gonna get weird before it's right.
45:14
SPEAKER_00: Absolutely, and you have to be okay with that.
45:16
SPEAKER_00: For it to be successful, you have to be okay with that.
45:19
SPEAKER_00: Right?
45:19
SPEAKER_00: Don't go in thinking I'm gonna get my feelings hurt and I can't do that because it will not be success.
45:24
SPEAKER_03: And understanding that standing out comes from clarity.
45:27
SPEAKER_03: Clarity of your purpose, your game plan, where you're going, how you want to get there.
45:32
SPEAKER_03: Knowing who you are and what you stand for is so important.
45:36
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, and that's just in your clarity of understanding that.
45:38
SPEAKER_03: Absolutely.
45:39
SPEAKER_03: So, how do you encourage creativity on your team without losing focus?
45:43
SPEAKER_00: I think you definitely have that open door policy that we've talked about that you are always accepting, but you have your key trigger words, sentences, phrase, whatever you go over and how you analyze people that come to you of, hey, why and how are we putting that in place?
46:00
SPEAKER_00: And you're always receptive of that, but you don't ever jump on every single trend.
46:05
SPEAKER_00: So you encourage that.
46:07
SPEAKER_00: When somebody finds a reel or a TikTok or some sort of um thing they've seen off of social and brings it to you, it's not like, hey, get back to it, go to phone calls.
46:18
SPEAKER_00: It's oh yeah, man, let's look at that.
46:20
SPEAKER_00: Or you ask a couple of questions whenever it's the right time to go over that and you're receptive.
46:25
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, it's one of those things like if you look around, we have so many services that are gonna make something so much easier.
46:32
SPEAKER_03: And by that I mean a dashboard or data help this, or I mean, we have so many third-party companies that we pay to help us organize and create and all these things.
46:44
SPEAKER_03: Sure.
46:45
SPEAKER_03: So that you gotta be careful that you're not, you know, in trends.
46:49
SPEAKER_03: You might totally be thinking social, but a tr excuse me, the trend like NADA every year has a convention.
46:57
SPEAKER_03: And you gotta go there to see what's changing, what's different, but be careful not to sign up for the latest grace of everything because put your hand in your pocket.
47:06
SPEAKER_03: Right?
47:06
SPEAKER_03: Yes.
47:07
SPEAKER_03: It's expensive.
47:08
SPEAKER_03: And the even more expensive part is if you hire the wrong person or the right the wrong third-party vendor, they won't do what you asked them to do.
47:17
SPEAKER_03: Or they might completely fumble and you think, okay, I paid them, they should do it, handle it properly, and it completely gets cut off.
47:24
SPEAKER_03: And so you've you've shut down connection or proper communication with your consumer.
47:29
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
47:29
SPEAKER_03: Right?
47:29
SPEAKER_03: While you tried to be better, tried to be trendy, completely miss it.
47:33
SPEAKER_03: So how one last question.
47:35
SPEAKER_03: How do you know when an idea is too far out there?
47:39
SPEAKER_00: It it goes past, you know, your foundation of your and and I'm speaking on the side of like it's outside of either would be your beliefs, your morals, your your practices.
47:50
SPEAKER_00: Like we're not gonna bring somebody in that's just dog cussing somebody going through that's against everything that we believe.
47:58
SPEAKER_00: Not that they're not high energy and bring all the thunder and everything else, but if it's something so far outside of that, it'll be more detrimental to your your company than it would be beneficial.
48:08
SPEAKER_03: The the reward is not worth the risk.
48:11
SPEAKER_03: No, right?
48:11
SPEAKER_03: And so that's one of those things that you look at like, hey, that this person could bring good value to us, but the the the wake that they leave behind them is not worthwhile.
48:21
SPEAKER_03: You know, it's it's no different than you know, automotive dealers for a long time when they need an uptick in sales, they can bring in a third party or a uh a sales weekend that they have.
48:34
SPEAKER_03: I don't even know the proper term because we don't do it all the time, but uh where they have an off-site sale and they bring in all these salespeople who don't work for you.
48:43
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
48:43
SPEAKER_03: And all these sales managers, and you know, if you think of any icky used car movie that you've watched, it's those people.
48:51
SPEAKER_03: And so what they do is they promise all these things, and the end of the weekend they sold a lot of cars, and you were a part of it at some fashion.
48:58
SPEAKER_03: They sold your cars, and there was a couple salespeople that drifted along, but they went hard and they promise all these things, and then you're left with a customer with all the questions and all the what ifs, and the reward was not worth the risk.
49:13
SPEAKER_03: So you have to be careful there.
49:14
SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
49:15
SPEAKER_00: That's good.
49:17
SPEAKER_00: So think about this.
49:18
SPEAKER_00: I mean, how do you personally keep the business from falling into the copycat trap?
49:24
SPEAKER_03: You know, uh and I'll ask you that as well if you have a different version of that, but um I think that's really easy for me because I'm super reserved.
49:36
SPEAKER_03: Yes.
49:36
SPEAKER_03: We are generally super reserved in not going forward.
49:40
SPEAKER_03: Now, on the you know, not like chasing this and this and this.
49:44
SPEAKER_03: At the same time, we've had to push ourselves to progressively not miss out on, you know, the classic we talk about stewing, you know, where dad said, Hey, let's let's let them stew and think about this.
49:54
SPEAKER_03: And if there was a 24-hour rule, it was probably like a seven-day rule.
49:59
SPEAKER_03: Yes.
49:59
SPEAKER_03: You know, so I generally we're we don't fall into the get rich overnight scheme.
50:06
SPEAKER_03: You know, so I think we have to be more careful that we're not too conservative to miss on opportunity.
50:14
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
50:14
SPEAKER_03: Right.
50:14
SPEAKER_03: And that that's in the last couple of years we've worked on that of forward thinking of hiring some other people and let letting them with their ambition chase that where that's not our natural knack.
50:27
SPEAKER_03: What's your thoughts on that?
50:28
SPEAKER_00: Of how do you personally keep the business from falling into copycat trap or you know, I I love that a lot of our business decisions are made within being brothers and um being business partners are going through there, but we always bring it to each other's attention.
50:43
SPEAKER_00: So if one of us is really excited, we can bring the the whole thunder and flare with it and everything else.
50:50
SPEAKER_00: We have two other sounding boards that are non-biased.
50:53
SPEAKER_00: Obviously, want to support being a brother, but in business sense, say, hey, that's whenever I joke and talk about it.
51:01
SPEAKER_00: It's like, uh yeah, let's uh look at it this way.
51:04
SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, all right, that one's stupid, throw it out, and we keep moving on.
51:07
SPEAKER_00: But we all get excited about different things.
51:09
SPEAKER_00: So having our sounding board that we can bring it to normally keeps us from diving straight into something.
51:17
SPEAKER_00: Never ever will you see one of us come with a now small decisions going and buying this or buying that, whatever it is, small, okay.
51:27
SPEAKER_00: But changing a whole system, being able to go through, say, hey, we're gonna buy all, switch all of our keys over to this.
51:34
SPEAKER_00: Never have I been able to walk in and say, Hey, Matt Shelby, we're gonna do this.
51:37
SPEAKER_00: And they're like, Okay, great.
51:38
SPEAKER_00: Did you already write the check for it?
51:40
SPEAKER_00: No, we have to go through the process, and that's what really helps keep us grounded on it.
51:46
SPEAKER_03: That that's so important.
51:47
SPEAKER_03: And those are the filters that we've talked about, and that's one of those things.
51:51
SPEAKER_03: And realizing that we've left our feelings in the car.
51:54
SPEAKER_03: Yep.
51:55
SPEAKER_03: We don't even know which car it's in.
51:57
SPEAKER_03: Um, but just uh when you bring that idea that like you bring that, and it might be that we don't say a word and you're like, I'm an idiot.
52:06
SPEAKER_03: I don't know why I thought that was a good idea.
52:07
SPEAKER_03: It's like, nah, it's okay.
52:09
SPEAKER_03: You know, sometimes you just gotta say it out loud, then you're like, oh, that was dumb.
52:13
SPEAKER_03: Or or like, hey, we're not there yet.
52:15
SPEAKER_03: Yep.
52:16
SPEAKER_03: Right?
52:16
SPEAKER_03: We're not there yet.
52:17
SPEAKER_03: And so I say that jokingly, more often than not, it's like, hey, have you looked at this, this, and this company?
52:24
SPEAKER_01: Yep.
52:24
SPEAKER_03: It's like, no, I had a guy that told me about this one, it's like, okay, why don't you go look at these four other companies, see where they're at in value and options and features and and price, and then let's get back together.
52:36
SPEAKER_03: And so by not just saying, hey, this is a trend, the flight's leaving, I gotta get on it, write the check.
52:42
SPEAKER_03: You're like, if it's meant to be there'll be another flight tomorrow, yeah.
52:47
SPEAKER_03: I just need to do a little research.
52:48
SPEAKER_03: Do I really want to go to Australia without having a game plan of where I'm gonna stay, what I'm gonna do, how long I'm gonna be there.
52:55
SPEAKER_03: Right.
52:55
SPEAKER_03: And so that's so good that that's just something that you do.
52:58
SPEAKER_03: And any business out there can have that.
53:00
SPEAKER_03: They can't, right?
53:02
SPEAKER_03: You got to be careful who you share that information with, but you have a level person you can share that with to say, hey, what's your thoughts and feelings about this before I move forward?
53:11
SPEAKER_03: No, it's always easier to say, hey, let's put this on ice rather than say, hey, can you tear up that contract?
53:16
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
53:17
SPEAKER_03: Right?
53:18
SPEAKER_03: Like just just you just think about it, right?
53:21
SPEAKER_03: So absolutely.
53:23
SPEAKER_03: All right.
53:23
SPEAKER_03: Well, as always, that's episode 62 of why being different is harder, but also smarter.
53:29
SPEAKER_03: Hey, remember always to check us out at LewisSuperstore.com for all of our latest, greatest, and specials.
53:34
SPEAKER_03: Hey, and remember, you can come get an oil change with no appointment necessary.
53:40
SPEAKER_03: We can even come to you with our mobile service van for no extra charge.
53:44
SPEAKER_03: I mean, how much extra do you pay for Uber Eats?
53:47
SPEAKER_03: And I do it often because my time is important.
53:50
SPEAKER_03: We will come to you as long as you're not an old mobile, uh, and change your oil to do light maintenance.
53:57
SPEAKER_03: But we also offer free pickup and delivery.
54:00
SPEAKER_03: So from your business, if you're local to our area, we'll come pick you up.
54:04
SPEAKER_03: And you can schedule that from your FordPass app or at Lewis Superstore.com with the tab service, and always check out everything on Crosstog Conversations Podcast.com.
54:12
SPEAKER_03: We'll see you later.
54:15
SPEAKER_03: Hey, if you enjoyed this episode, be sure to give it a like, share it with your friends and family, even visit our website, send us the questions about what you want to know, what you want to hear, tell us about the automotive industry, family business in general.
54:27
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54:28
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54:32
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