Latest / MIDDLE GROUND - Real Conversations on Faith, Identity & Becoming — Through Brynne's LDS Lens of Curiosity, Love and Doubt / Employee Retention Lessons: From One Failing Tire Shop to 14 Successful Franchise Locations + Multimillion Dollar Franchise with Kent Coleman
Transcript
- Brynne Erickson (00:28) everyone. Thanks for being here. So excited for another episode. Today I am with Kent Coleman and he is not only my uncle but an amazing man who's done lots of cool things and he has written this awesome book that we're going to talk about today. It's called It's Not About the Mangoes and this book was a surprising good book. I loved it even though it's about business. took so many personal notes on how to improve my relationships with people and raising my kids and with friends and at church. I was pleasantly surprised and I highly recommend this book. So Kent's been an entrepreneur for a very long time. When his friends were out playing baseball, Kent was trying to make as much money as he could. doing all sorts of things from selling chocolate to parking cars, anything he could do to make a buck. And that expanded throughout his life. He started over a dozen successful companies and today owns a chain of auto repair franchises and various commercial properties. Even though he's no car guy himself, Kent (01:20) you Brynne Erickson (01:40) His auto repair shops are consistently some of the highest producing stores in the nation. Along with his love of building organizations with a strong people-oriented culture, he enjoys his business experience as a speaker, writer, and diehard entrepreneur. So I'm excited to chat with Kent today. Kent (01:59) Yeah. You're very kind. Thanks for having me. Brynne Erickson (02:01) Yeah, no problem. So before we dive into your book, can you tell us how you ended up in the tire business? Kent (02:09) Yeah, you bet. It's fairly random actually because as you said, I'm not a car guy. I'm not a mechanic of any kind. I'm actually really horrible at anything mechanical. But I have an older brother who met a gentleman on a cruise who happened to have a Big O Tires franchise for sale. Big O Tires is a tire store. We do all repairs, service repairs and maintenance and tires and that kind of thing. He had a franchise for sale. happened to look at it. I was kind of between projects. I'd had other small businesses that I had started and was selling. So, I was looking for something and we decided to buy it. So, we got an SBA loan and leveraged our home equity and went into business. That was 19 years ago. Brynne Erickson (02:51) Wow. And where are you at today then, 19 years later with the business? Kent (02:55) Yeah. Yeah, so fortunately it has gone well. There's been ups and downs along the way. There's a lot of lessons learned, but it's gone well. We're the number one bigotires franchise group in the nation in sales. We have 14 locations and our locations are some of the highest revenue producing stores in the nation. Our stores do over triple the national average in sales per year. So yeah, it's going good. Brynne Erickson (03:19) Wow, that is amazing. Kent (03:21) playing. Brynne Erickson (03:21) I'm sure you didn't foresee that happening. Kent (03:24) No, not at all. Not even remotely. Especially the first few years we were just trying to not go bankrupt. yeah, it's been a wild ride for sure. It's been a lot of fun. Brynne Erickson (03:30) What was your aspired outcome? Like, did you even have one or were you just like, let's just see what happens. Kent (03:35) it was step one was pay off the debt. Like the bar was fairly low. Pay off the debt, try to make a little money, try to make more, you know, income for myself per year than I could at a regular job where I wasn't the owner. Like my bar was was fairly low. I wasn't trying to take over the world. And I didn't know anything about automotive. And so I think that affected my optimism a little bit of what I didn't really even understand what the ceiling might be at that time. And so it just kind of progressed over time. But I did know that I wanted multiple locations. I knew I would not want to be in a store selling tires for the rest of my life. I did start doing that for 5 years. I worked at that counter as customers walked in and I learned how to help customers and how to get cars fixed. And so, I really value that time that I did that. But for me, I did want more than just that. And so, I knew I would at some point need multiple locations so that I could manage a larger group. Brynne Erickson (04:32) Yeah, it makes me think of like people that are just working the grind at their job, right? And not really anticipating making anything more of it. So at what point does that shift? any insight on that? Kent (04:37) Yeah. Right. Yeah, I yeah for sure. I early on I probably pictured two or three or four locations Maybe my wildest dreams five locations that kind of thing But I was not projecting out, you know eight ten twelve fifteen locations And so yeah, it just that I have always wanted to do more. And so as we were able to take those steps one step at a time, then I was able to kind of check that box and say, okay, what's the next step? So for me, it wasn't like, okay, I'm going to become the biggest, you know, tire guy in America. It was just what's the next step? What's the next step? What's the next step in building as I went personally? Brynne Erickson (05:19) That's a great strategy. And it seems to have paid off. Awesome. So what struggles did you encounter in running your franchises? Kent (05:22) Yeah, yeah, so far so good. Yeah. Yeah, so early on, So as I mentioned, we got an SBA loan. got a big loan that I probably shouldn't have been able to get. And the economy wasn't great. It was 2007, 2008. That was a recessionary time that was fairly ugly for a lot of people. So our timing was not great because we bought our store in late 06, so right before that. But in addition to that, I made it way worse by decisions that I made as a young entrepreneur. You know, I was in my 20s. I had limited experience. I was okay. But made some big mistakes. Brynne Erickson (05:46) no. Kent (05:57) things were going down because of the economy, my solution... You know, they teach you in business school that there's two ways to increase profits basically. To either increase sales or you cut costs. and our sales were going down. So I thought, okay, I guess I gotta cut costs. And so my solution for cutting costs, you know, for most companies, one of the largest costs is payroll, labor. So I thought, okay, I'm gonna cut labor. And my method for cutting labor is I went through and figured out who was the highest paid people in my company. And because they were the highest paid and the most costly, I only looked at them as an expense. and I got rid of them. A few of them. And after that, we now had a team of people who were really not the highest paid. But you know, you get what you pay for. So, I learned that lesson the hard way. The people who were remaining didn't care about the company. They didn't care about our success. They didn't care about our customers. People would walk in and they would scurry to the back room and not help the people. They would let the phone... without answering it. Like it was really bad. There I just my team I got rid of like my best most invested most experienced most knowledgeable people. It was crazy. So super stupid and obvious looking back. But at the time, I was just seeing that cost. Brynne Erickson (07:09) Mm. Kent (07:14) I wasn't seeing the value that these people brought to the table. And in so doing, our sales plummeted at an even faster rate. And it got pretty ugly, Brynne Erickson (07:22) Okay, so this leads in perfectly to your book. It's not about the mangoes, because it's about how you overcame these struggles. so what does it's not about the mangoes mean and where did that come from? Kent (07:30) Right? So in this time, it got pretty dark for me. I was using a line of credit to make payroll. Brynne Erickson (07:35) Yeah. Kent (07:40) And then like trying to get enough cash to pay off enough line of credit 2 weeks later to make the next payroll. And it was... I was calling vendors and saying, need a little more time to pay. And it was a dark time. I was anxious, I was stressed, I was not sleeping. I had a young family with 4 little kids. And it was just... It was brutal. I'm like, okay, I'm going to lose my own investment and I'm going to lose my older brother's investment. who he was a hands-off owner and investor. And I'm like, it was a hard time for sure. Like I was, it was really not pretty. And in that time, I thought, okay, if by getting rid of my best people got me into this huge hole, then maybe if I can find some really amazing people, maybe I have a chance at digging out of the hole that I had dug. So I started. looking for really great people. And I came across a person who I heard about who was supposedly the best tire salesman in the state of Utah. And he was at a competitor and he wasn't happy where he was. So I got in touch with him. And I... We were able to work out a deal. It was a stressful idea because he was highly paid. He was really good even though he was only 27 years old. He'd been working at this place. A really great company for 10 years. He started there in high school. He was a top producer. He was good and he knew it. And he wanted to get paid. And I decided to do it even though I had no money. And so it was this leap of faith. We brought him on and his name was Jose. And right out of the gate on the very first day, within one day, he was already completely changing the culture of our store. The store that he came to work at, when I bought it, it was the number one bigotire store in the nation. Out of 400 or 500 locations. It was number one when I bought it. By the time 2 and a half years later at this moment when I hired Jose, our sales had plummeted about 40 to 50 percent and we were no longer anywhere close to a top store. So, I was ruining it single-handedly. So, we brought Jose in and all of a sudden things started to perk up. He was positive, he was optimistic. My team who was there was gloomy. They were down all the time. like him. They hated him because he's like this optimistic positive energy guy. And... those people starting to kind of weed themselves out and they were as mad at him. But he was so powerful in his positivity and his energy and his light that the company started to sell more stuff and fix more cars. And people were just attracted to him. And... I noticed after a little while that people would... We'd have maybe 4 service advisors standing at that counter as people came in. And no one would be doing anything but there'd be a line of people waiting to talk to Jose. And so finally, I'm like, Jose, what is going on? Like, what... How are you so good? Why will people stand and wait for you when someone else could help them? And he said, well, maybe it has something to do with my upbringing. So okay, tell me about it. So he said, well, when I was a kid, he was born in the United States and his family moved to Mexico to help with his uncle's produce business. And Jose was a young kid, 10 years old at the time. And he was tasked with helping the family sell mangoes. They had to sell one ton of mangoes every weekend. And he was the main driver of that. He would mostly sell them at a market, like a farmer's market type situation. So he said, what would happen? And he said, it was a problem. Like I had to sell a ton of mangoes because anything I didn't sell would spoil and we would lose money and go out of business. And so the pressure was on from the family to get this fruit sold. So he said, I noticed early on that if I could make a connection with people, you notice this as a 10 year old, that if I could make a connection with people, that they would buy mangoes for me. And he's a naturally charismatic and social person who is able to make these connections fairly readily. It's in his wheelhouse to do this. And so as people would walk by, he would make a comment about their shirt or make a funny joke about their hat. And then they'd stop and then he'd ask them about where they live and where they work and about their kids and their grandkids. And he started to build a collection of relationships with people. And before long, there were other mango vendors at the exact same market where he was. And a similar thing happened that I saw in my store, which is that people would walk past all the other mango vendors and they would line up to buy from Jose. And I said, okay, so why? Beside the connection, what was it that... They really were buying your mangoes. you have fresher mangoes? He goes, no, we all got the mangoes from the same farms. They're all identical mangoes. Okay, well then did you have a lower price? No, I didn't have a lower price. I said, well, what is going on? He goes, Kent, it's not about the mangoes, which is the namesake for the book. And I said, what is it about then? And he said, it's about people. It's about relationships. It's about connections. And when I figured that out as a 10-year-old, then I knew that I could sell things. because, I, he said, I knew I had to be genuine and I had to build these relationships in a genuine way. And that comes very naturally to him. And it just happens to lead to more sales. It's really hard to fake it. Most people can see through that. But if you can genuinely have interest in people like he does, then you can be very successful. So that's what happened. Brynne Erickson (13:13) awesome. So then you talk about finding these people of light. Who are people of light and how do you find them then? Kent (13:21) Yeah, people of light. I know that that to some people that might sound has kind of a mystical feeling to it. I totally understand that. What I mean by that is that I believe that every single human on the planet is born with light. That every single person of every background, every race, every creed, every single person, even those who we consider to be bad or who we don't like, everybody has a measure of light. Brynne Erickson (13:24) Yeah. Kent (13:47) And that's just something we've all been born with. And I believe that that was been given to us by our creator. So during our lives, as we do certain things, we can enhance that light or we can diminish it. The light will always be there, but we can kind of, it ebbs and flows, at least for me, all the time. So, you know, if I'm feeling positive and energetic and... selfless, then I can kind of sense in myself light growing stronger. If I mean and angry and impatient and yelling at my kids or you know something I'm mad, then I can feel in myself darkness coming on and that light diminishing. As we try to pay attention to it, we can kind of feel these ebbs and flows in our life. And you know when I think of someone who has light, they smile. They are interested in others. They're confident and they also have humility at the same time. They don't blame. They have strength to move past their failures is a big one. For example, when I interview people, so you ask, how do I find these people with light? Like it's way easier said than done. It's like, yeah, just find these amazing positive people who just have light and make everyone around them feel the light. okay, yeah, it sounds like that's a very easy little formula and then you'll have a great business. Yeah, it's... I make it sound easy but it is hard to find people who have this kind of energy. So but one way you can do it is for example, you know, when I'm interviewing people, I will ask them how... And this is a fairly common question but I'll ask them what failures they've had and how did they handle it. If a person can't think of a failure or don't want to admit they had a failure, then that's concerning to me. because we all have them. Like we all have failures all the time. And so someone who I believe in my opinion has light is someone says, okay, here's an experience where I totally failed. And then here's what I did to fix it. And here's what I'm doing to do everything I can to not make that same mistake again in the future. It's like, wow, that is a powerful position for someone to have compared to someone who says, I don't really have any failures. It's like okay, then either you're lying or you're not aware. You're not self-aware, right? It just kind of diminishes that person. there's a few other things that I look for but those are the main ones. Brynne Erickson (16:11) Do you've had people say, I don't have any failures or I can't think of any? Really? that's crazy. Kent (16:17) yeah. ⁓ for sure. 100%. yeah. Yeah. My suspicion is that a lot of people don't want to talk about it, don't want to admit it. And so they think that they'll appear strong. Brynne Erickson (16:22) Okay. Mmm. Kent (16:28) By saying, I don't have failure. I can't think of a failure. Or they'll think of a failure that's not actually a failure and they'll kind of twist it. One time I was just, sometimes I rub people the wrong way because I'm just so happy. It's like, okay. Like they're trying to turn something that's actually positive into a failure and you can see through that. But yeah, so yeah, for sure, it happens all the time. Brynne Erickson (16:40) Yeah. Hmm. That's so interesting. I love that. So you talk about the L word in your book as well, which is love. So how on earth is love applicable in the workplace, in your business? Kent (17:00) Yeah. Yeah, for sure. I think I've read quite a number of business books and the L word love, it does not come up that often. It's fairly rare in this genre. But for me, it's a huge part of it. It's a huge part of it. And so I think one reason why the book resonates with people outside of my industry. Brynne Erickson (17:09) Mm-mm. Kent (17:25) is because I try to teach principles or share ideas that are universal. That I believe make a person successful. In their life, whether they sell tires or whether they sell something else or whether they are a mom or a dad or sell nothing. Like there's just certain principles of life that work really well in any aspect of life including work and including selling tires. So, you know, in our company, we shoot for impeccable efficiency and great inventory management and proper sales technique. and correct diagnosis of repairing cars. Like we do, we try our best at all those things. But in addition to that stuff, we try to add the existence of love. We add that to the mix. We add it to the recipe and we talk about it. Love means that I don't want to let my team down. Love means that they don't want to let me down. It means that I communicate how much I need them. Meaning I as the owner how much I need my people on the team. It means that they understand their value as a person and in the organization. So it's not just about the organization. It's... No, you... Whether you work here or not, you have value. You you have light, you have value, just because of the fact that you were born. So those are the overarching principles. Then what does that mean in day-to-day operations? It means that we speak to each other with respect, even when mistakes are made. So if someone makes a mistake, You know, they forget to tighten bolts on someone's brake pads, which can be really, you know, scary. But I know that my people are not doing that intentionally. It happens. We work on 200,000 cars a year. And so occasionally, you know, some things fall through the cracks and mistakes are made. When mistakes are made, I have set a precedence with my leadership team that we don't berate people, we don't diminish them as humans, we don't yell in their face, we don't cuss at them, we treat them with respect even when they make a mistake. We still hold, there's still accountability. We still say, hey, this is not acceptable. You can't make that mistake. And if it happens again, then there's gonna be some other consequences that we're gonna have to talk about. But so we'll talk about mistakes and we'll address them and we'll have consequences if someone can't resolve their mistakes. But we do it in a respectful and tactful and professional way that doesn't diminish them as a person. It also means that we respect our customers. Even the ones who are mad at us or we think are unreasonable and they don't... You know, we don't deserve for them to be mad at us. We still try to treat them with respect. It means that we don't judge people based on their appearance. You know, not everyone was like me. They were born in various circumstances and they grew up in different types of households than I grew up in or my team grew up in. And so, we talk about not judging people based on how they look. And you the reality is you just you can't tear people down and have a good culture. It's just not going to work. It can work a little bit like temporarily. But over time, there will be disdain for the leadership team and people check out. So the opposite of that is love. Which is treating people in this respectful, uplifting manner even when there's mistakes made. And it spreads through the company. And if I'm loving my employees and if they generally love me back which I'm sure doesn't happen a lot of times, they get mad at me for various whatever reasons. But if they generally if there's love, the customers will feel that. Their families when they go home from work will feel that. I get that comment all the time from spouses, from kids that their husband or their wife loves working with our group. and that they take that positivity home. So it just spreads throughout the community. So it's super cool. It's just something I believe in. Brynne Erickson (21:21) Yeah, that is cool. mean, I think everyone listening has had an experience where they go to a place and they feel valued as a customer. And then you're bought in. even if it's a long drive to get there, you're going to go to talk to the Jose's at that place, right? Because you know, they're going to take care of you. They have your best interest at heart and you're going to give them whatever they ask because you would just want to be in their presence. Kent (21:33) Sure. Right. Yeah. Brynne Erickson (21:48) And it's funny because as a mom, I don't think of myself as a salesperson, but I just did in this moment where I'm trying to sell my children on eating dinner like every night, you know, or going to school on time or getting in the tub. And it's true. Like when I'm falling into my light, it goes so much more smoothly and we're happy and Kent (21:48) go ahead. Thank yeah. Brynne Erickson (22:10) I'm not snapping at people, but when I am on my lower end, my, you could say my darker side, it's not fun for anyone. Right? So it's, very empowering when you start to recognize your higher self and your lower self or your light and your dark sides and what triggers them and how you can stay in the light more than in the darkness. Kent (22:31) Yeah, for sure. It spills over for everyone. know, in your case as a mom, shopping, you know, and something isn't how you wish it were and you're kind of mad and how you treat the people who are around you in public or when you're driving. All these scenarios, your family, your kids, like yeah, for sure, everything's a negotiation. Everything all the time. And we have to decide as we negotiate with our kids and with the public and our spouse or whatever. how are we going to treat them even if they're not treating us great because our kids often don't treat us great, right? Because they're kids and they're not reasonable. so these principles definitely spill out. Brynne Erickson (22:57) Yeah. Yeah. Awesome. Was there something So I really appreciated the encouragement to ask questions and foster an environment that promotes question asking. Can you explain why that is so important? Kent (23:08) Um, no. I don't think so. We got that. Yeah, one thing I noticed as we brought new people onto our team was they didn't know things and they would ask their teammate a question and the people, their teammate would lose patience fairly quick. They're trying to do their job and they don't want to be bothered with questions. So they would make it very apparent to the new person, hey, you're bothering me by asking me questions. And so then the person would stop asking questions. And so now all of sudden, their rate at which they learn their job slows down dramatically. And I saw this in various situations. So we tried to change that culture to being a culture where we encourage question asking. It's a simple thing, but I've seen it quite a bit where it doesn't happen. And so we would teach our teams, okay, hey, we have a new person. They're going... I'm going to tell them to ask tons of questions. I'm to tell them to drive you absolutely insane with questions. And my request to you is that you have some patience with that even though it's annoying. And do your best to answer their questions and to be cool about it. And... Brynne Erickson (24:09) Hmm. Kent (24:23) Then I tell the new person, hey, I've told them that you're going to be asking lots of questions, endless questions. So bug them with questions. Once everyone was on the same page with that idea and they would ask, they pepper them with questions, they would just answer the questions. And they'd figure out how to do their own work. And that person's... rate at which they could learn their job, it just accelerated exponentially. And because of that active communication going on, generally our new people then don't have to be asking those questions forever. That the curve or the time, the duration for how long they're peppering people with questions ends up being super short. because they ask the questions enough that they get it and then they're moving forward. And so, rather than dragging out that training just really painfully long, they learn super fast. So we've found it to be effective. Brynne Erickson (25:13) And I think it's interesting that a lot what inspires you to write a book then as a car guy? Kent (25:17) Yeah, I've always liked writing Ever since I was a little kid. I've been a journaler. I write stories I write how I feel ever since I was like barely able to write I still have a journal from when I was like five or six years old and Yeah, for sure. You know barely putting letters together and I had a journal Brynne Erickson (25:28) Didn't know that. OK. Kent (25:36) And over the years, I've kept stories and thoughts and ideas about work and about my personal life, my family, my church. I've just always written, not every day or anything, but I just, as something somewhat meaningful happens, I write it down. I don't remember stuff. So if I don't write it, it's long gone. So, I... as I was going through a lot of my stuff, I had like a crazy amount of content in written down. And I'm like, I have some really interesting stories and I think people might enjoy. I wonder if this could be a book. But then, you know, I'm nobody... I'm not famous. I'm not a celebrity. In my industry, I'm somewhat well known but... you know, I'm not a famous person. So I can't just pull off a biography like no one would care about Kent Collins' biography. And so I knew that. And so I thought, okay, what principles can I teach? And I also, in addition to writing, I really enjoy teaching. And I actually consider that as one of my principal roles as a business owner is teacher. And I like it. And so, both of my parents were teachers. I think it might be in the blood somewhere. And so, I think, okay, what principles can I teach? And how can I teach this principle in a way that's not just for tired people but can be universal and have application to lots of people in their situations. And I was able to, you know, kind of hone in on some principles that I believe are true eternal principles that apply across the board to everyone. So that was enough to kind of get me going. Brynne Erickson (27:12) Yeah. And I think you did such an awesome job. Like it's exactly that. It's just great principles for everyday people, which we all are, whether in the tire business or an educator or a parent, we're still everyday people functioning out of the same, you know, light, darkness, human bodies. So. Kent (27:26) For Yeah. Yeah. 100%. And the storytelling aspect, I've always enjoyed. So, I've recorded hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of stories from my life that I have and I cherish. So, I intertwined stories from work but also from outside of work. Growing up, my personal life, my family life, whatever. It's this... All these stories are intertwined. So, there's lots of stories throughout the book that kind of helps teach the principles. Brynne Erickson (27:56) Yeah, I love that you brought in your people, like your real people that have experienced working and utilizing the principles and what you've learned from them. And it's just, really thought out and heartfelt book. So thank you for sharing it with the world. I love that. Kent (28:08) Yeah. Thanks. You bet. Thanks. When I wrote it, I didn't think anyone would read it besides maybe my mom. And I don't know if she's actually read it, but I. I put it out there and I'm like, okay, if I'm gonna do it, I'm really gonna, I'm gonna try to do it really well, as well as I can. And I had an editor help me and gave me ideas and she would say, hey, this chapter is weak and you need to add another, some more content or you need to add a story here. And so I got a little bit of help to get some ideas on how to strengthen it. And anyway, it ended up being a much... longer and more difficult process than I had originally anticipated. I don't think it has to be. It was my first book. I'm not a professional writer. But it turned out okay and a lot of people have liked it. And it has done... wildly more success than I ever anticipated. And it's cool to see people from all over that are enjoying the book and who like it and who reach out to me and ask questions and share feedback. And it's really rewarding. Brynne Erickson (29:10) Awesome. So before we go, where do you hope to go from here? Kent (29:15) I get that question a lot, know, like what's next? How big do want your company to be? And I actually don't have like a very specific answer of what I want it to be. What I want is to grow our influence. So I want to be able to, I just want more. And... I want a greater ability to affect more people because I feel like we have a pretty cool company with a positive culture. We're far from perfect. It's not all kumbaya all the time. We have plenty of issues, but generally... Brynne Erickson (29:44) Enjoy your day. Kent (29:49) If we're bigger, like we have over 300 employees now. If we had 500 employees, well that's 200 more people who I could try to have some positive impact on in some way. And they have families who if they're having a positive experience, then their families have a certain more positivity in their world. And if that means we have twice as many customers, then we have twice as many opportunities to make their day and make them happy that day. And then if we're as successful as a company, more successful then we can have more money to donate to local charities and things that we believe in and sponsorships and things like that. So, I don't have like a thing like, okay, I need this many stores. We just want to continue to grow to improve the lives or make some attempt at improving the lives of as many people as we can. Brynne Erickson (30:34) Awesome. Well, you're definitely doing it and I can see that happening as it continually is for the 19 years you've been doing it and forever long it continues. So thanks for your influence, Kenton, for your time tonight. Kent (30:48) you bet it was fun.