Latest / Crossroad Conversations with the Lewis Brothers / Ep.61 - Ego or Instinct: What Really Drives Your Decisions

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Ep.61 - Ego or Instinct: What Really Drives Your Decisions · Crossroad Conversations with the Lewis Brothers

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_04: Ego will pop up the awareness of a situation.
• 0:04
  SPEAKER_04: And it should be the alert, like a light going off of, hey, I need to dig into this.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_04: Let me see if there's something here I should handle or something here that I should praise or whatever it may be.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_04: And if you'll pause and not react based upon your ego, let your ego identify the issue, calm, pause, and then let your instinct come in so you can handle it correctly.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_04: Hey everyone, welcome to Crossroad Conversations with the Lewis Brothers, where we aim to share real stories about running a successful family business, working through adversity, and pouring back into the community that keeps our door open.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_04: We're your host, Matt, Shelby, and Taylor, and we bring you relevant local business advice and automotive insights that are sure to change the way you look at running a business.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_04: And maybe even throw in a plug for you to do business with us.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_04: Welcome to Crossroad Conversations with the Lewis Brothers, episode 61 today.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_04: And what are we talking about?
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_04: Ego or instinct?
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_04: What really drives your decisions?
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_04: This was going to be a fun one to unpack today.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_04: You know, every leader has to make big calls.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_04: Now, sometimes they're spot on, but sometimes they're way off.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_04: But what really drives those decisions?
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_04: Ego or instinct.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_04: You know, ego says, I know what's best.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_04: Instinct says I feel what's right.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_04: The problem is, you know what, they sound a lot alike in the moment.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_04: They really do.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_04: Today we're going to unpack how leaders can tell the difference and why that difference can make or break your business.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_01: Recapping last week, we talked about noise versus signal, how to tune out leadership advice that doesn't apply to you.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_01: And we really dove down off of, you know, listening to podcasts, letting it pour into you.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_01: So it's one to really go back and listen to, not being overwhelmed from the get-go, really taking time, making sure you're diving into it.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_01: So great episode, episode 60 of going over that.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_01: Always check us out for the freshest specials at Lewis Superstore.com and all the content we talk about online at every platform I think it can be on, but at Crossroads Conversation Podcast.com.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_02: I love it.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_02: All right.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_02: What's in the garage today?
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_02: Today I want to mix it up a little bit.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_02: I'm not talking about one car.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_02: I'm talking about 26 acres worth of cars.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, this is going to take a while.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_02: No, no, no.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_02: I'll I promise.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_02: I know I say here real quick and then I go long, but I'm talking about our pre-owned inventory.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_02: And so currently we're close to 400 pre-owned vehicles in stock.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_02: Uh what you might not know about our pre-owned inventory is we don't go buy it from a manufacturer sale.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_02: We're not just going to the auction and raise our hand.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_02: But another key part that you might not know is majority of our inventory.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_02: In fact, yesterday the stat was 54% is non-core.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, what the heck is that?
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, excuse me.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_02: Not Ford, not a Chrysler, not a Dodge, not a Jeep, not a RAM.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_02: 54% is non-core.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_02: So let me tell you, makes as of this morning, we have 34 different makes.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_02: So BMW, Buick, Chevrolet, uh, Genesis, Honda, Jaguar, Kia, Lincoln, Mercury, Nissan, Ram, Subaru, Tesla, Toilet, Evolvo, Porsche, and models.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_02: I won't go over those, but there's over 78 different models.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_02: Why is that important?
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_02: Well, I'll tell you why, because we treat people differently here.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_02: It's not about a transaction, it's about an experience.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_02: And we said, hey, if someone's gonna buy a car, let's not just be limited to what the manufacturer that we have new is across the elements.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_02: And we do research every single day of what the current highest registration in our area is, what the most hand raiser I want this vehicle is, and we seek that out and buy it from individuals, people like you guys that have for sale in the marketplace, or we trade for that vehicle and we'll give a little bit more so you get some more value, but then we'll put it on the money, and so you get a Lewis guarantee on that car.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_02: So it might be a little bit out of warranty or might be at the end of its warranty.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_02: We stack up to a five-year, 60,000 mile powertrain warranty on that car.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_02: And so you can buy from Inconfidence, you can buy with a car that's been inspected, you can buy from a place that's been in business for almost 80 years, and we have so many of those to pick from.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_04: I just I I got a couple questions I want to make sure that the audience heard here.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_04: So even if it's not our brand, which we call core, so even if it's not a Ford, a Jeep, a RAM, something like that, and you trade for a Subaru or you trade for a Volvo, you're telling me you still put a guarantee on it?
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so I keep that car, but before I say, hey, I want to put my guarantee, stamp it out in the box and send it down the road, I ran it through a 132-point inspection, make sure that it's ready to go.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_02: It's road-worthy, it's passed all the safety inspections, the emissions, all those things.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_02: And then I put the Lewis guarantee, no matter what brand it is, and put it on that car.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_02: There are a few exclusions there, but uh majority, like 95% of the cars get that Lewis guarantee from here, and it starts the day you buy it.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_04: Okay, true term, true mileage.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_02: True term, true mileage.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_02: It's not like an ex like, hey, we started back at in-service day.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_02: And so, yes, all those models, so that's a big deal there.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_02: Over 54% of our inventory is non-core.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_04: Hey, and and and I want to pause one more time here because I think it's important for everybody to hear, including myself, and we're in the business, and I've got to be reminded about it, how big a deal it is that all those pre-owned over 400 you're talking about, we either traded for or we bought from an owner.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_04: Now, the difference is, and and some of y'all may be in the same boat here, and I'm not calling you out, I'm trying to educate you, is hey, I got a buddy and we'll go to the auction to buy a vehicle, or let's go to the auction and do this.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_04: And I'm just gonna peel back the layer.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_04: And I've been to the auction many times, just like all of us in here.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_04: In fact, I I worked for the auction for a while.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_04: The auction, you you are the last person that has your hand raised.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_04: In order to win it, yeah.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_04: In order to win it, which means you've got to give more than everybody else.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_04: Yes.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_04: Okay.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_04: And then on top of that, there's auction fees.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_04: I was just talking um to our used inventory manager right before we came up here, and he had bought a vehicle for a customer.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_04: And he said, Matt, you won't believe what the auction fees went up to.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_04: He said, On this vehicle I just bought, he bought it from Dallas, so not crazy far away.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_04: The the auction fees and the inspection came up to almost$2,000.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_04: Plus, we still have to ship it for another five or six hundred.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_04: So that means you were the last person with your hand raised and you were$2,500 on top of that.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_02: That's why that's a small percentage.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_02: And I I I bought about an F-250 for a customer this morning.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and it was an additional$1,750.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_02: And when you need that one off and a customer needs it, come to us, we'll get it.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, exactly.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_02: And then we're gonna sell it as least expensive as possible.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_02: But our philosophy, and so far this month, we talked about it yesterday morning, over 180 vehicles we've either traded for or purchased off the road to be available for everyone.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_02: So if you showed up here on October 1st, we have 180 new used vehicles that you didn't get to see.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_02: 180.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_02: So of that 400, over half of it, or close to half of it, is brand new.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_02: It's pressed.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_02: That's new.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_02: You know, it's less than 28 days old.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_02: So uh that's why we buy the stuff locally around here, because if we're gonna give more, might as well be able to test drive it, know the story, know the history, sure, and be able to get it here for less money.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_04: And I know we were just talking about like what's in the garage, but this is really a business practice, too.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_04: That's some people out there, this little bonus content.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_04: And when we peeled back those layers of, hey, pay the auction$1,700, two grand, we said, let's just offer check writing on the spot for somebody that has a car for sale locally.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_04: Let's pay our salespeople to help us collect those so they can make a better living, we can gather better inventory, pay the customer more, and still be in it below market value.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_04: Everybody wins within our organization, our database, not a company that's out of state.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_02: So with some of our money savings by not going to auction, we were able to give you a check in hand for a local seller and our buyers, our team, we were able to incentivize them, pay them a luxury to help them out.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_04: And then one of the things, and and you guys will know this because we went over this yesterday morning, but weekly we look at how many trades do we have, how many do we purchase off the road?
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_04: And that number is great, but by itself, it doesn't really mean anything.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_04: What we then compare that to is how many used have we sold so far this month?
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_04: So, how are you replenishing your inventory to keep that momentum going?
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_04: Like you said, we had 180 so far of this month.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_04: We had sold 165 Us.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_04: So we were surplus to replenish our inventory.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_04: Yep.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_04: So hopefully you guys enjoyed that little bonus content there.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_01: Deep dive into the garage.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_01: That wasn't just surface level, pop the garage door open, and that's in there.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_01: So great content there.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_01: Hey, diving into and understanding the difference between ego and instinct.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_01: So let's kick it off with ego says I can't be wrong.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_01: Instinct says something feels off.
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_01: You know, of going into and of saying just ego definitely seeks validation or instinct seeks truth.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_01: So really dive into of splitting those two because sometimes, as we talked about, it can sound a lot of the same, but they'll cross paths very easily.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and I just want to say that ego is not necessarily a bad word.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_04: No, it just has to be harnessed.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_04: Because ego is a lot of times what drives, including each of us in this room, to be competitive, to be successful, but you gotta be, you gotta keep it in between the grades so it doesn't get you out of being humble and you start becoming arrogant.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_02: You know, in my simple mindset, if you said ego or instinct, when it says I can't be wrong or something fills off, I think the difference to me is that one has much more feelings and your own opinion in it.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_02: You know, the ego is like, I can't be wrong.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_02: Instead of the situation is, hey, there was a problem here, ego says, I can't be wrong.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_02: The first thing they did was looked at themselves to say, I couldn't make a mistake.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_02: Or the instinct person says something feels off.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_02: They didn't take blame or make blame, they just said something's wrong and we need to figure it out.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_02: So the ego has feelings and their personal opinion about was it me or not, right?
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_02: So that's my initial thought.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_04: No, I no, and I agree with you.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_04: Um, you know, the one thing I did want to make sure everybody knew is like you can't just like downplay say, hey, no egos, no egos, no egos, because that is again what pushes you.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_02: It's a little bit, and we have competitive, we have a sales leader board.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_02: Sure.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_02: We need kind of need that ego.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_02: Now you got to find that fine line.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_02: Uh we have a technician performance board who's turning the most hours because generally producers are competitive and the ego is their driver of their competitiveness.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_02: So you gotta have that, but then it's like, hey, be humble, like have an ego, but be humble, right?
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_02: You're not like I beat you again, I beat you again.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_02: Like no one likes you, no one will help you.
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it's like, all right, your ego is pretty lonely.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_04: I think um, and we like talking about sports because I think a lot of people can relate to sports.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_02: I like that we talk about it because I don't know jack about it.
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_02: It makes us sound like we did.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_04: All right, let's go.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_04: We're here with 94-9 Sportscast Radio with my headset.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_04: I think when you look at a team and you start, because there's a lot of ego in sports.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_04: I understand that part.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_04: Okay, there's a lot of ego sports.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_04: I can't tell you names or their stats, but if if the running back or the quarterback had this humongous ego and didn't care about the rest of the team, they'd never win.
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_02: You've seen it in movies after movies with a running back with an ego that won't show up and practice hard or won't do the same workouts.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_02: Sometimes they'll have enough and they'll say, Hey, let that guy through.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, exactly.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_02: Right?
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_02: They'll let him through and he will demolish.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_02: And then they check on him in the huddle, like, how you doing?
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_02: And he's like, block your guy.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_02: He's like, you do your job.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_02: And so see, like, hey, did he get it?
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_02: Or let's let him through again, right?
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_04: So then what you need the ego for him to be competitive, but you still gotta remember which team you're on.
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_04: Gotta have some humble, gotta have some respect, right?
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_04: You really do.
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_04: So, how do you balance that?
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_04: And I'll tell you, you've heard it before.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_04: You've heard it before, and this this will not be a surprise to you guys.
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_04: How do you switch from ego, but then make a decision, you know, with kind of instinct?
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_04: Ego will pop up the awareness of a situation, and it should be the alert, like a light going off of, hey, I need to dig into this.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_04: Let me see if there's something here I should handle or something here that I should praise, or whatever it may be.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_04: And if you'll pause and not react based upon your ego, let your ego identify the issue, calm, pause, and then let your instinct come in so you can handle it correctly.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_01: So why leaders often choose confidence with instinct, especially after success?
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_01: Why does that happen?
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_04: Why do leaders often confuse confidence with instinct?
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_02: You know, confidence instinct or confidence arrogance.
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_02: Like confidence is very important, right?
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_02: But then you look at the instinct or the arrogance, like you you've gone too far.
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_02: And why why leaders confuse that is I don't know.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_02: They don't see the real driver of what actually got them complete through the task or what allowed that to be successful.
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_02: I think their head gets tied up in some of the wrong details or how it happened.
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_02: The running back says, hey, Travis Kelsey uh tied for the most touchdowns ever at 83 touchdowns last night.
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_02: Uh he has to understand he can't do that without a good quarterback, without a good line, without a good coach, without a good offensive coordinator.
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_02: You have to understand that.
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_02: But if you stand on an island, I'm by myself, then you get super tied up in your confidence, but you lose the instinct of I needed the whole team to be able to do that.
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and it's let's go back and talk.
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_01: It's it's by no mistake.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_01: Take football, take business, take anything else.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_01: The reason he was able to attain that, he never is one that you see.
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_01: He's out there saying it's my team, I do it all by myself.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_01: He's pretty much in the middle of it.
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_01: Now it gets wound up and is excited and doesn't ego, but a perfect example of showing that if you balance both of them, you'll achieve success.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_04: And I think so.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_04: And I think especially, you know, if you talk about, we we can talk about males, yeah, you know, and in men, we we are wired to be solution-based to to figure it out and to move on.
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_00: Yep.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_04: Okay.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_04: Now we know as leaders that we we must instill confidence when we're telling somebody about something.
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_04: If not, they're not gonna follow that.
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_04: So in our mind, our instinct is telling us here's the solution.
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_04: We're wired to be solution-based.
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_04: Hey, go ahead and tell them that.
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_04: That's gotta be the solution, so then you guys can move on.
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_04: So a lot of time our instinct will kick in and we're confident about that, so then we will release it.
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_02: That's that's so right.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_02: And I guess that's not every person, but generally in the mass of a male, is if you're a doer or type A mentality, you're gonna say, yes, absolutely, we can handle that.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_02: And then if you don't know it, then you're gonna go find somebody or gonna research that and then figure it out.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_02: So, rule number one, confidence is so important.
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_02: Now, sometimes you need to say, mm-hmm, we're not specialized in that because you might get in an area that you have no business to be in.
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_02: If there's special license or special um specifications or training that had to get you there.
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_02: But more often than not, the ego and the instinct is gonna say, I'm confident that we can figure that out.
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_02: Right?
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_02: We've done that 10 times now of 10 new areas that we've never been in, and we've won most of them.
• 16:11
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_04: I think the the point you just hit on there, that helps to be one of the filters which we talk about in here of like, okay, when do I know when I can just press forward and I'm my instincts are correct and I'm confident, or when do I need to pause and do more research?
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_04: Well, if you've been in the situation 10 times, like you just said, and the outcome was positive, you can be confident based upon stats and track record there.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_04: Make the decision, confidently say it, and go forward.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_04: If it's a new area, you you need to pause for just a second and do a little bit of research.
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and and it's important to be transparent in those situations.
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_02: But one of the things I'll tell you, real deal business, so we're not just topping hypothetically, is that we learned this is perfect with what's in the garage, of if 54% of our vehicles that we sell are non-core, and a customer generally trades every three years and they change their oil three times a year, we're gonna see them nine times to the one time that they purchase it.
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_02: We need to be able to work on those things.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_02: And a lot of times our technicians are like, no, I'm Ford certified or I'm Solanta certified.
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_02: And we're like, let's hire some employees that are GMAC or GM certified or import certified.
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_02: But then we got to the point that we had to train the team to say, if we have trained and worked hard and created that community that you can bring anything here, then let's get a good relationship with the Honda shop.
• 17:35
  SPEAKER_02: Let's get a good relationship with the Chevy shop.
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_02: You don't have to hire and own all things.
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_02: You can just be the liaison.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_02: It's no different than if you go to a nice hotel and they offer laundry service, they're probably farming out your dry cleaning.
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_02: They're just offering a service.
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_02: Do you realize that they are probably don't have a complete in that building?
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_02: Now they have laundry, but to be able to press your clothes, to be able to dry clean it, they don't have that.
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_02: They just teamed up with a company.
• 18:07
  SPEAKER_02: So we've had to train that to say if someone shows up here, say yes.
• 18:11
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 18:11
  SPEAKER_02: And then let's figure out the details so that we can get it.
• 18:14
  SPEAKER_02: We can be a concierge, we can get it back here and say, here's what we got done.
• 18:17
  SPEAKER_02: We take good notes, and then here we go, ma'am, sir.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_01: No, that's picked there.
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_01: And then we started to talk about this and go down, but the role of pride coming in, and you run into the sometimes of saying, Hey, I'm gonna double down on this, even whenever signs point otherwise.
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_01: And it's so easy to sometimes go on there, like, hey, I'm gonna put more gas on the fire.
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_01: It's gonna be okay.
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna power through this.
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_01: It'll be all right whenever you see your signs, your gut's telling you, whoop, whoop, hold on on the trail, or oh hit the brakes.
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_04: You know, and and this is like the the old saying out there, kind of relates here of, you know, the the captain goes down with a ship.
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_04: And and too many times, and a lot of times we just ride it to the ground.
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_04: And then we look up, and when we start, once we get out of the forest so we can work on the business, we are just stuck in the business, which you gotta do both.
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_04: You gotta do both.
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_04: Um once we step back and we looked at businesses that were wildly successful, like take a Walmart, yeah, you know, take an Rvest, take a Walgreens, and you look and you see you're like, well, just the other day, weren't they delivering with drones?
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_04: And now they're not.
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_04: They didn't ride it to the ground.
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_04: They they they tried something new.
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_04: If it didn't work, then boom, they scrapped the idea and they moved on.
• 19:37
  SPEAKER_04: I know, uh, and I'm guilty of this, is I'll just keep riding it, going, hey, and and you do need some persistence in that.
• 19:45
  SPEAKER_04: Like you can't give up when the first you know, stumbling block comes along your way.
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_04: You got to keep pushing forward because a lot of times you're just a couple other hammering away from breaking that rock loose.
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_02: A few tweaks, a few adjustments to get it there.
• 19:59
  SPEAKER_02: On the other side of that, because yes, you need that resilience and that grip.
• 20:03
  SPEAKER_02: I laugh anytime that someone says they went to the casino or they bought a scratch off, or like, hey, how are you doing?
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_02: And they're like, um, I'm up a little, I'm about even.
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_02: Like they just keep doing the same thing and the same thing, hoping for a different outcome.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 20:17
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 20:17
  SPEAKER_02: So if you're not changing the algorithm or how you're approaching it, even if you're in business, stuck on it, like, no, let's try it from this other side, let's change this process.
• 20:27
  SPEAKER_02: You're just sitting at the table putting more things down on more money and hoping that the outcome changes.
• 20:33
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_04: You know, our marketing team was uh was bringing this idea, you know, we're coming up on Thanksgiving.
• 20:39
  SPEAKER_04: So they were talking about, you know, test drives and giving out turkeys, you know, this type of stuff.
• 20:43
  SPEAKER_04: And my mind instantly went to, hey, last couple times we tried to do that, it just it just didn't work.
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_04: You know what I mean?
• 20:51
  SPEAKER_04: It just wasn't successful.
• 20:53
  SPEAKER_04: And as I'm sitting there, I'm like, okay, why was it not successful?
• 20:58
  SPEAKER_04: Do I just need to scrap this idea again?
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_04: Or how long ago was that?
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_04: And then I'm like, that was just a few years ago.
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_04: No, it wasn't a few years ago, it was 10 or 15 years ago.
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_04: Maybe the structure wasn't right.
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_04: Maybe we didn't have the right marketing and media that we do today.
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_04: Maybe it could be successful.
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_04: So I think it's important there that just because something happened in the past, I think you should pause and be cautious, but you shouldn't just shut the door.
• 21:23
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, because that would be a complete different team that would execute it.
• 21:27
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, and so you could get completely different outcome.
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm I'm guilty of that often.
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_02: They're like, hey, this, this, and like, not good, not good, don't do that.
• 21:35
  SPEAKER_02: But it's like, why, you know, like Taylor said last week, why?
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_02: Sure.
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_02: And how?
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_02: Like, why would you do that and how would you do that, and how would that benefit?
• 21:44
  SPEAKER_02: And they like, oh, this, this, and this.
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_02: Here's how we're like, ooh, you know, we tried to give away turkeys, but I never thought about it at that angle.
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_02: Let's go, you know, or whatever it is.
• 21:52
  SPEAKER_04: So and I think we're gonna keep talking about football here.
• 21:54
  SPEAKER_04: It's football season.
• 21:55
  SPEAKER_04: So you may have ran a play multiple times and it just didn't work and didn't work and didn't work, but then all of a sudden, you got a different receiver.
• 22:03
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, you got a a different lineman, different defense, a different whatever it may be, so it could change the outcome.
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_04: Maybe it wasn't a wrong play.
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_04: We just had the wrong players.
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_01: Wrong execution there.
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_01: That's that is great to know that you can have great ideas and remember those great ideas, table them, keep them over to the side.
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_01: And yes, different personnel, no different than a top performer sales professional, manager, office clerk, whatever it would be, they can handle different situations.
• 22:35
  SPEAKER_01: So when you don't have them, you got to pivot and be able to do, I'm gonna do A and B.
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_01: But then whenever you get that other person, you can add it to it.
• 22:42
  SPEAKER_01: That's a great thing to remember there, that don't scrap an idea completely.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_01: Always keep it in the bank and the toolbox to be able to pull out whenever you do have people around that can help.
• 22:52
  SPEAKER_04: And you say, well, how does that relate to ego?
• 22:54
  SPEAKER_04: Well, that is your ego.
• 22:55
  SPEAKER_04: Yes.
• 22:55
  SPEAKER_04: You know, because your ego is going in the past of like, hey, I gave it all I had, I'm the best at it, and it didn't work.
• 23:01
  SPEAKER_04: We're not trying it again.
• 23:03
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 23:03
  SPEAKER_04: And then that's that's not correct.
• 23:05
  SPEAKER_04: You gotta hang on, push that down, listen.
• 23:07
  SPEAKER_04: It may still not be a good idea, but at least let them talk about it.
• 23:11
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, that's what makes you great building in business as an entrepreneur, as a business owner, that you continue to build this monster toolbox that you can grab parts and pieces from and just add it all together.
• 23:24
  SPEAKER_04: You know, I was I was reading an article uh the other day on LinkedIn, and they were talking about it happened to pop up that they were talking about working on your business or in your business.
• 23:34
  SPEAKER_04: You know, which is we've talked about that a bunch.
• 23:36
  SPEAKER_04: And there there were some misconceptions out there, and there was a lot of opinions on business people.
• 23:43
  SPEAKER_04: But what I think that a lot of these people that got their ego involved and opinionated, they were one side or the other.
• 23:50
  SPEAKER_04: I I think that is a balance to me.
• 23:53
  SPEAKER_04: You can't unless you're just a silent investor or a board member, you you gotta be able to do both.
• 23:59
  SPEAKER_04: You gotta be in your business to know to identify what needs to be worked on, but you gotta remove yourself from the business outside to actually see that and those solutions.
• 24:09
  SPEAKER_04: So I think, you know, no different than we're talking about here, like you still need your ego.
• 24:14
  SPEAKER_04: You need both sides.
• 24:15
  SPEAKER_04: You've just got to funnel it correctly, have the right filters in place to be able to use it as a horsepower and a driver to move your business forward.
• 24:24
  SPEAKER_01: That's really good.
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_04: All right, time for our fun fact quiz.
• 24:29
  SPEAKER_04: Hey, this is a good one right here.
• 24:32
  SPEAKER_04: Question.
• 24:32
  SPEAKER_04: Okay.
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_04: Studies show leaders make how many decisions on average per day?
• 24:40
  SPEAKER_04: Per day.
• 24:41
  SPEAKER_04: Now, since we all have an ego involved, you want to say the biggest number.
• 24:45
  SPEAKER_04: I know you do.
• 24:46
  SPEAKER_04: A is 50.
• 24:47
  SPEAKER_04: Ain't no way, it's more than that, okay?
• 24:49
  SPEAKER_04: So there's the ego.
• 24:50
  SPEAKER_04: B is 200, we're getting better.
• 24:53
  SPEAKER_04: C is 400, all right, and D is 700.
• 24:58
  SPEAKER_01: It's a lot, and I could tell you it happens early.
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_01: It's kind of like this meme that I saw last night that showed basically you uh launching one of your kids on a tube, and they're set back on it, and they said, When you just have your coffee in the morning ready to go, and the first wave just catapults them into the air, and it says, Buckle in and welcome to the day.
• 25:20
  SPEAKER_02: This is probably an average.
• 25:21
  SPEAKER_02: It probably doesn't have a whole lot figured in there for kids.
• 25:24
  SPEAKER_02: Because it would be I I know with my kids, probably with your guys, I mean, they'll they'll ask some questions.
• 25:32
  SPEAKER_02: I I'm the king of silent treatment, generally to everybody.
• 25:35
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, but now my kids are like, So you're not gonna answer that?
• 25:39
  SPEAKER_02: Like, you've used all your questions for the day.
• 25:42
  SPEAKER_04: You know, I'm I have the same feeling that you have, but then I'm thinking about it later.
• 25:48
  SPEAKER_04: I'm like, at what point in time did kids go into adults and they lost some of that?
• 25:52
  SPEAKER_04: Because I need our salespeople to ask some more questions.
• 25:54
  SPEAKER_04: I need our service advisors to ask some more questions.
• 25:57
  SPEAKER_02: So there, you know, at Taylor's got a youngster, ours are growing a little bit more, but there is a time when they ask all the questions of why, why, why, why, why, why.
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_02: And like you got to feed them a little bit, right?
• 26:09
  SPEAKER_02: And then now kids start asking a little more purpose-driven questions, like you're talking about.
• 26:15
  SPEAKER_02: And so I have to be careful that my ego of gummit, these kids are, you know.
• 26:19
  SPEAKER_02: But I'm like, hey, one, they want to talk to me.
• 26:21
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, two, they want to be around me.
• 26:23
  SPEAKER_02: And three, if I don't answer their question, the internet will.
• 26:27
  SPEAKER_02: So I'm like, all right, Shelby, time to put your dad hat on.
• 26:31
  SPEAKER_02: Just, you know, because sometimes it's after all and all.
• 26:34
  SPEAKER_02: But so yeah, that would be at least a thousand.
• 26:36
  SPEAKER_04: If at least a thousand, but well, the answer is C 400.
• 26:40
  SPEAKER_02: And we've, you know, it's higher than that's 400 questions.
• 26:46
  SPEAKER_02: That's a lot.
• 26:46
  SPEAKER_02: Or decisions.
• 26:47
  SPEAKER_01: And a lot of environment autopilot like that you're just used to of going, because you're callous.
• 26:53
  SPEAKER_01: You just have some that are like, whoa, hold on just a second.
• 26:56
  SPEAKER_02: But well, and that's good.
• 26:58
  SPEAKER_02: Sometimes when you take yourself out of your current ecosystem or atmosphere, like going to a 20 group or going to a meeting or working out of a different office, it changes up your rhythm of like, no, I do this and this and this.
• 27:10
  SPEAKER_02: And then you're like, why do I do that?
• 27:12
  SPEAKER_02: That's not productive, or why do I do that?
• 27:14
  SPEAKER_02: That's a waste, or I pay somebody to do that.
• 27:16
  SPEAKER_02: Why am I doing this?
• 27:18
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 27:18
  SPEAKER_02: And so you can mix up those normal, non-thoughtful decisions that you're making.
• 27:23
  SPEAKER_04: I I think that what you hit on there, and as we all sat here, we're like, no, I make way more decisions than that, including myself.
• 27:29
  SPEAKER_04: I bet I'm a thousand or two thousand.
• 27:31
  SPEAKER_04: Then I'm sitting here thinking about like what I'm saying in my brain, and my ego has taken over, because what you just said is if I'll push down the decisions that don't require me, whether it feels good or not that I'm making those decisions, that then opens me up to make less decisions, the harder ones, which then allows me to do a deeper dive and not just make decisions based upon ego and make better ones.
• 28:01
  SPEAKER_04: You know, so and we're going through that right now as an organization.
• 28:04
  SPEAKER_04: I know we've talked about that, and it's gonna take us a while, but every day we're trying to go, okay, I don't have to make that decision.
• 28:10
  SPEAKER_04: That the person underneath me, they can make that, they're highly capable.
• 28:16
  SPEAKER_02: You know, and sometimes it's because we hadn't told them it would be.
• 28:20
  SPEAKER_02: All right, next phase of this when ego drives the decision.
• 28:23
  SPEAKER_02: So think about that.
• 28:24
  SPEAKER_02: When your ego drives the decision, your thoughts and your feelings, or your past, or your history.
• 28:29
  SPEAKER_02: So think about this ego creates blind spots.
• 28:32
  SPEAKER_04: Oh, for sure.
• 28:34
  SPEAKER_02: Especially after success.
• 28:37
  SPEAKER_02: So, what blind spots do you guys think you've been a part of, have seen, or have experienced in business or in your life after success or after a failure where ego created a complete blind spot?
• 28:49
  SPEAKER_01: I'll go into because you're winding up, I can tell.
• 28:52
  SPEAKER_01: I can see it was starting to come out there.
• 28:54
  SPEAKER_01: But let's drink my coffee.
• 28:56
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, get your coffee.
• 28:57
  SPEAKER_01: I'm down.
• 28:58
  SPEAKER_01: I'll tell you, even since moving over here, of an uptick in business of new car sales, that we see, hey, it's ramped way up.
• 29:07
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, whoa, okay, this is starting to go.
• 29:09
  SPEAKER_01: All right, this is coming together.
• 29:11
  SPEAKER_01: And it creates a blind spot of managing your daily task of the underperformers because the overperformers, your top guys, your middle guys are taking that new traffic that's coming in, and they're just down here idle.
• 29:29
  SPEAKER_01: And you're so busy of going through.
• 29:31
  SPEAKER_01: So it took six, eight months before we started to see, okay, it dipped down a little bit.
• 29:36
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, adjust there and start to move back up.
• 29:39
  SPEAKER_01: But it definitely put blinders on of I don't need to watch and pay attention to my team that's underperforming because my numbers were doing so good up here.
• 29:48
  SPEAKER_01: But really, they could have been that much better if I would have had my whole team helping and moving forward.
• 29:54
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I think I think that's good.
• 29:56
  SPEAKER_04: All right, I gotta go to football first and then I'll come back to business.
• 29:58
  SPEAKER_04: Okay.
• 29:59
  SPEAKER_04: It just it just makes sense.
• 30:00
  SPEAKER_04: Okay.
• 30:00
  SPEAKER_04: Gotcha.
• 30:01
  SPEAKER_04: So let's talk about blind spots.
• 30:03
  SPEAKER_04: So uh I think it was blind side was the name of the movie.
• 30:06
  SPEAKER_04: That's the name of the movie.
• 30:07
  SPEAKER_04: Okay.
• 30:07
  SPEAKER_04: But I gotta tell you how this this hit me with a blind spot.
• 30:10
  SPEAKER_04: So so I'm out there coaching my my fifth grade son's team, okay, and calling the plays.
• 30:15
  SPEAKER_04: And we're out there and we've got this this widescreen with a formation of three receivers on the left side.
• 30:22
  SPEAKER_04: And so we run it once, successful.
• 30:25
  SPEAKER_04: Run it twice, successful.
• 30:27
  SPEAKER_04: All right.
• 30:27
  SPEAKER_04: So my ego's getting pretty good on this.
• 30:29
  SPEAKER_04: You know what I mean?
• 30:29
  SPEAKER_04: I'm like, yeah, I designed this play, here we go.
• 30:33
  SPEAKER_04: Run it a third time, defense jumps it, pick six.
• 30:38
  SPEAKER_04: Ego was in the way and became blinders for me watching what the defense was doing.
• 30:46
  SPEAKER_04: Now I know that's in sports and that's easy to relate.
• 30:48
  SPEAKER_04: So let's talk about business.
• 30:51
  SPEAKER_04: So when we first moved over here, we really there were a lot of unknowns, and I'm not blaming it on that, but I'm just saying there were some unknowns.
• 30:58
  SPEAKER_04: We didn't know are we going to have a different clientele?
• 31:00
  SPEAKER_04: Are the newer, bigger, fancier buildings gonna attract different customers?
• 31:06
  SPEAKER_04: And at first we we saw that coming out.
• 31:09
  SPEAKER_04: So uh on the Jeep side, I didn't double.
• 31:12
  SPEAKER_04: I 10xed down on grand wagoneers and wagoneers, going, hey, that client's coming in, they need this selection.
• 31:20
  SPEAKER_04: And we usually would keep eight to 12 of those in stock between the two.
• 31:25
  SPEAKER_04: I looked up and I had over 50 of those in stock at an average cost to us of over$90,000.
• 31:32
  SPEAKER_04: That was$4.5 million sitting out there that that my blinders were on there.
• 31:39
  SPEAKER_04: And I said, Oh, if if a little bit's good based upon success, 10x that sucker.
• 31:44
  SPEAKER_04: Oh yeah.
• 31:45
  SPEAKER_04: And they built them for me and built them.
• 31:46
  SPEAKER_01: I guarantee you.
• 31:49
  SPEAKER_02: Right, that's so funny.
• 31:50
  SPEAKER_02: So both you said on moving over here of where success and the expectation.
• 31:55
  SPEAKER_02: It's funny when Taylor said that, I was thinking, so naturally, without really micromanaging or really looking at the details, we saw an uplift in everything, right?
• 32:06
  SPEAKER_02: As we said we should, we better, right?
• 32:08
  SPEAKER_02: Sure, yeah.
• 32:09
  SPEAKER_02: So we saw an uptick in new and an uptick in use, and majority of the management team had been a part of the old team, right?
• 32:16
  SPEAKER_02: So then they saw an uptick.
• 32:19
  SPEAKER_02: The thing that not many took into account was we also had an uptick in one other area, and that was expenses.
• 32:26
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 32:27
  SPEAKER_02: And that's purely by design, right?
• 32:29
  SPEAKER_02: You can't get a new car without paying for it, right?
• 32:31
  SPEAKER_02: Can't get a new place without paying for it.
• 32:33
  SPEAKER_02: So it's tricky to have a team that is performing well, but you know we're not one at where we need to be, or at their potential of they're performing better than they were, but saying it's not because you're putting much more effort in, it's because we have spent umpteen money to drag people in, whether it be in marketing or facility or location.
• 32:59
  SPEAKER_02: So being able to not let your ego get in and say, yeah, you know, we're averaging 500 units a month.
• 33:06
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 33:07
  SPEAKER_02: Hold on, you didn't break even.
• 33:09
  SPEAKER_02: Or hold on, you didn't cover expenses and service, or hold on, you didn't cover parts cost because you had to hire more and you had to put a bunch more or your wagone ears.
• 33:18
  SPEAKER_02: Like, hold on, your boarding cost was astronomical.
• 33:22
  SPEAKER_02: And so it's tough to be able to check your ego and say, look at this, our numbers are great, especially if you compare them to year over year.
• 33:29
  SPEAKER_02: It's like, this is so much better, this is so much better.
• 33:32
  SPEAKER_02: Well, that was on the the income side.
• 33:34
  SPEAKER_02: If you look at the expense side, it's like, whoa, whoa, hang on.
• 33:38
  SPEAKER_02: So set your ego aside and look at your instincts of like, hey, if that's good, we need to look at the other side because something else is probably coming.
• 33:45
  SPEAKER_02: And so when you're saying that, I was laughing, thinking, like, you got to high five of them and say, hey, you're leading the board and you're looking good.
• 33:51
  SPEAKER_02: Can I get a little more from you because of this, this, and this?
• 33:54
  SPEAKER_02: Isn't that nice?
• 33:55
  SPEAKER_02: You got a delivery specialist, isn't that nice?
• 33:56
  SPEAKER_02: You've got a finance department and you've got a built-in delivery bay, and you've got the concierge and you got a greeter at the front door, and you've got more sales managers.
• 34:04
  SPEAKER_02: Like, yeah, like, shouldn't that mean that we should get some more production out of you?
• 34:08
  SPEAKER_02: You have to kindly be able to correctly manipulate that to see that because otherwise it'd be like, I got my 12, I'm good.
• 34:14
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I clocked 300 hours this month, I'm good.
• 34:17
  SPEAKER_02: It's like, well, not necessarily.
• 34:20
  SPEAKER_02: Either I'm gonna need to take one of your bays back out of the shop or I'm gonna need at least 400 hours from you, right?
• 34:26
  SPEAKER_01: You know, you go add if you're bond up there, I'll come back.
• 34:29
  unknown: I'll come back.
• 34:30
  SPEAKER_04: You know, as as you're talking about that, I I can visualize myself, and probably you guys can as well, standing in in in front of a meeting, whether it's a cake day or an employee appreciation, or we're having a manager meeting, and talking about the the metrics on the sales side, on the revenue side, and talking about the increases from since we moved, you know, and how all that stuff, but knowing deep inside of me that either the business we're talking about is not profitable in the red right now, or is making less money than it did across town, you know, when we did less business.
• 35:07
  SPEAKER_04: And you're sitting there thinking, I mean, I could just I I could visualize myself going over these numbers and everybody clapping and going through it.
• 35:14
  SPEAKER_02: Well, hey, what are they thinking when you go over that?
• 35:17
  SPEAKER_04: They pop the hood and they they are thinking that you have doubled and tripled the amount of money you've made.
• 35:23
  SPEAKER_02: That you're making.
• 35:24
  SPEAKER_04: That we're making the business.
• 35:27
  SPEAKER_04: And then they're thinking, hey, why aren't you paying me more?
• 35:30
  SPEAKER_04: On the other end, I just looked at the financial and the bottom was written in red ink.
• 35:36
  SPEAKER_02: It's not good.
• 35:37
  SPEAKER_04: It's not good.
• 35:38
  SPEAKER_02: So that that's so tricky.
• 35:41
  SPEAKER_04: Like, so then But but so so then you're like, well, Matt, why didn't you just tell them that?
• 35:47
  SPEAKER_04: Tell them that.
• 35:47
  SPEAKER_04: Well, one, that's that's some uncharted territory force.
• 35:51
  SPEAKER_04: Okay.
• 35:52
  SPEAKER_02: One, they're not gonna believe you.
• 35:53
  SPEAKER_02: They're not gonna believe it's a lot of people.
• 35:53
  SPEAKER_02: They're not gonna believe you.
• 35:56
  SPEAKER_04: Because we had to re- and then I had to start looking at examples out there of startup businesses that had to weather the storm of why you're building your clientele and your people and your inventory to ride through that storm.
• 36:09
  SPEAKER_04: Okay, we're not trying to ride the ship to the ground, but you got to ride through that storm.
• 36:12
  SPEAKER_04: So then that red turns into blackie.
• 36:15
  SPEAKER_02: Yep.
• 36:15
  SPEAKER_02: And also in those meetings, that's a meeting of positivity, encouragement.
• 36:20
  SPEAKER_02: So I'll tell you on the other side, because I felt that exact pressure.
• 36:23
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, what do I talk about in this meeting that's different?
• 36:26
  SPEAKER_02: It's not on repeat.
• 36:27
  SPEAKER_02: So last month or the month before, I instead of talking, I talked like the winners and the hey, here who grew the most in this area and grew in this.
• 36:36
  SPEAKER_02: But then I was like, you know what?
• 36:38
  SPEAKER_02: To give them a little bit under the hood, I shared with them our expense growth, yeah, which is not something you have on your board, right?
• 36:46
  SPEAKER_02: You're not saying, hey, we grew in expenses.
• 36:48
  SPEAKER_02: So in that particular month, our expenses for the Ford store was up$178,000.
• 36:54
  SPEAKER_02: So I said, hey, we this, this, this, this.
• 36:56
  SPEAKER_02: So year over year versus this year and last year, which was new store and new store, right?
• 37:01
  SPEAKER_02: So think about that.
• 37:02
  SPEAKER_02: That's new store and new store.
• 37:04
  SPEAKER_02: Sure.
• 37:04
  SPEAKER_02: We were up$178,000, but my spin to it was, I don't know if it's right, wrong, or indifferent, but it's the best I could come up with, was of$178,000.
• 37:13
  SPEAKER_02: I don't quote me exactly, but it was at least 160,000 was vacation pay, was employee pay, was bonuses, or was spiffs, it all went to employees of the dealership.
• 37:25
  SPEAKER_02: So of expenses that were up, we either hired more people, we paid more on vacation, we paid more in spiffs or paid in bonuses.
• 37:33
  SPEAKER_02: So to tell them we did pay you more, yeah, and we were able to hire more people, uh, so good job of producing more.
• 37:42
  SPEAKER_02: And can we get a little more?
• 37:43
  SPEAKER_04: I think that actually ties in because I'm thinking about like, hey, all this is great content, but how does that tie into ego?
• 37:49
  SPEAKER_04: Well, what here's where it ties into ego.
• 37:52
  SPEAKER_04: If somebody that has blinders on and just has a really big ego, they're gonna bring all their employees together and be like, listen, we're losing money or our profit is down and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
• 38:04
  SPEAKER_04: And what they're doing is they're talking to people that have no control over it.
• 38:08
  SPEAKER_04: Right.
• 38:08
  SPEAKER_04: The only expense part that you shared with the non-managers, okay, just the whole team.
• 38:14
  SPEAKER_04: Just the whole team, was the expense on where we had invested in our employees.
• 38:19
  SPEAKER_04: Then a different meeting happens with your department heads going, hey, we got to get a profit up in your department.
• 38:26
  SPEAKER_04: They're in control of expenses.
• 38:28
  SPEAKER_02: They can control it.
• 38:28
  SPEAKER_02: They have the ability to filter that and use it correctly.
• 38:32
  SPEAKER_02: Because if you come off with the egos, like, listen, whole team Jim and Jack Wagons, we're in the red.
• 38:38
  SPEAKER_02: This ain't working.
• 38:38
  SPEAKER_02: We got to turn the ship around.
• 38:40
  SPEAKER_02: And then three minutes later, a customer walks in and you expect them to be able to greet them and serve them at the highest level.
• 38:46
  SPEAKER_02: There's no way that everyone can properly do that.
• 38:49
  SPEAKER_02: You just have to so your ego, our egos, we check each other and say, like, hey, whoa, that was pretty harsh to the wrong people.
• 38:55
  SPEAKER_02: They can't do jack about it.
• 38:57
  SPEAKER_02: And so then you learn that to say, okay, spin it properly and sell the sizzle.
• 39:02
  SPEAKER_02: Like when you run out of chicken and all you've got's bolognays, like, hey, here's our bologna special today.
• 39:07
  SPEAKER_04: And I think too, you know, you think about if if you come out and if I if we told all of our employees, like, hey, we got to tighten up on some things, the, you know, the PL is not looking like it should.
• 39:18
  SPEAKER_04: How many people do you think we would have during their lunch hour updating their resume and looking on, you know, indeed and all the rest of that stuff, because they're not in a position to handle any of that.
• 39:29
  SPEAKER_04: So I think your ego can't get involved, and your instincts got to tell you who to share what information with.
• 39:36
  SPEAKER_03: Yep.
• 39:37
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 39:38
  SPEAKER_01: And you got to remember, too, of humility of that's obviously what keeps your ego in check there.
• 39:42
  SPEAKER_01: I love this when we were listening to this yesterday.
• 39:46
  SPEAKER_01: And I love whenever people are accepting in your workplace that you bring in outside trainers, vendors, whatever else that you've vetted, they they meet your same core values, they teach everything the same.
• 39:57
  SPEAKER_01: We were sitting and listening.
• 39:59
  SPEAKER_01: Um, we had a trainer in yesterday, and he was going over phone skills of anything else.
• 40:03
  SPEAKER_01: And he's going over.
• 40:05
  SPEAKER_01: I love that he had sat in our manager meeting.
• 40:07
  SPEAKER_01: You probably didn't intend for this to happen.
• 40:09
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 40:09
  SPEAKER_01: But I had forgot to tell you about.
• 40:11
  SPEAKER_01: He pulled up and he said, guys, I'm a little concerned.
• 40:15
  SPEAKER_01: There's only six or seven of y'all in the whole group of them that are at your goal and you set your goal.
• 40:21
  SPEAKER_01: And this wasn't one of us's managers saying that.
• 40:24
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm like, oh man, this is driving home.
• 40:27
  SPEAKER_01: And he said, if you're at six or eight cars, you're choosing to do so.
• 40:34
  SPEAKER_01: You know, we talked about the business elevating here and everything else.
• 40:38
  SPEAKER_01: 20 is easier to do than ever at this new location.
• 40:42
  SPEAKER_01: It's not hard to do.
• 40:43
  SPEAKER_01: You just got to come to work to work and be diligent in your process.
• 40:47
  SPEAKER_01: And that's what he was going over.
• 40:48
  SPEAKER_01: But he'd hit home of, and we only let this happen because we had humility.
• 40:53
  SPEAKER_01: We said, Hey, we need help of somebody coming in and going over this.
• 40:57
  SPEAKER_01: We don't have to teach all.
• 40:59
  SPEAKER_01: Our ego doesn't have to be the one to say, you're doing this, you got to do it this way.
• 41:04
  SPEAKER_01: And he was like, What are you doing with your time?
• 41:07
  SPEAKER_01: And I was like, aha, yes.
• 41:09
  SPEAKER_01: So it was a great thing of having somebody, we've already seen success from that.
• 41:13
  SPEAKER_01: So have humility.
• 41:14
  SPEAKER_01: You don't have to do it all.
• 41:17
  SPEAKER_01: Have people help you, whether it's your other trusted board of advisors that you bounce things off of, or a great trainer that you bring in.
• 41:25
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, most certainly.
• 41:26
  SPEAKER_01: That's good.
• 41:26
  SPEAKER_02: All right.
• 41:27
  SPEAKER_02: Overconfidence.
• 41:28
  SPEAKER_02: So the overconfidence in things, whether it's your ego or whatever, leads to ignoring feedback or red flags in your business or your daily operations.
• 41:37
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 41:38
  SPEAKER_02: You know, so thinking about that, are there any certain red flags or ignoring feedback when you're overly confident that you guys, it just comes to mind?
• 41:46
  SPEAKER_04: Well, what happens if you're overconfident and you don't ever show any vulnerability and you don't ever encourage feedback, and you gotta do it in the in the right atmosphere.
• 41:57
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 41:58
  SPEAKER_04: Um, what happens is your team will never bring red flags to you because they're like, What's the point?
• 42:06
  SPEAKER_04: He's not gonna listen.
• 42:07
  SPEAKER_04: He's never open to that.
• 42:09
  SPEAKER_04: And you know, we learned this uh a while back where just because we're in the meeting, we don't have to lead the meeting.
• 42:17
  SPEAKER_04: And we learned this from another podcast we'd listened to, but if you're asking for opinions on a subject, you need to be the last one to give the opinion.
• 42:26
  SPEAKER_04: Um, if not, that's a red flag.
• 42:28
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 42:28
  SPEAKER_04: Because then everybody else is scared to give what they're and they could have some really good opinions where they're closer to the issue than we are.
• 42:37
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 42:38
  SPEAKER_02: Most certainly.
• 42:39
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so thinking of the, you know, conf overconfidence leads to red flags or completely blazing past someone who could have helped you.
• 42:47
  SPEAKER_02: Uh also the illusion of control, believing you always are the smartest person in the room.
• 42:52
  SPEAKER_02: You know, and that's god, that's one of those things that and I said it last Monday in the meeting, and there was a guy that was just talking so much, and it was just like perfect.
• 43:02
  SPEAKER_02: Like, listen, you only know what you know, right?
• 43:06
  SPEAKER_02: And if you're around someone else that could possibly elevate what you know were a way to do something, you should probably be quiet and listen.
• 43:13
  SPEAKER_02: So the ego will generally say, and that's totally a personality thing.
• 43:18
  SPEAKER_02: You're either, hey, let me show you my PL, or let me show you my growth, or let me show you my Rolex, or let me show you how I got here.
• 43:26
  SPEAKER_02: Or you're the humble guy that's like, hey, you're that business guy, right?
• 43:33
  SPEAKER_02: Hey, how did you do this, this, and this?
• 43:35
  SPEAKER_02: And they're like, Who am I talking to?
• 43:36
  SPEAKER_02: It's like, oh, my name's Shelby.
• 43:38
  SPEAKER_02: We we have a car dealership.
• 43:40
  SPEAKER_02: Uh it's like, oh, okay.
• 43:41
  SPEAKER_02: And then you go through it.
• 43:42
  SPEAKER_02: The two complete different people and how you react, and probably very much so two different reactions.
• 43:49
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 43:50
  SPEAKER_02: You know, outcomes of how of information you get.
• 43:53
  SPEAKER_04: That's so good.
• 43:54
  SPEAKER_04: And I'll just tell you that, like, with some age, as long as you're around the right people, that becomes easier of putting your ego aside, you know, knee-jerk reactions aside, those red flags.
• 44:09
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 44:09
  SPEAKER_04: As long as you've been around the right people.
• 44:12
  SPEAKER_04: You know, you you need to be smart enough and successful enough to get in the right room.
• 44:16
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 44:17
  SPEAKER_04: But when you get in that room, you need to hush and you need to learn from others.
• 44:20
  SPEAKER_04: Um, and then it because then that's what grows you.
• 44:23
  SPEAKER_04: It is really what grows you.
• 44:25
  SPEAKER_04: Because it can, it can really be bad for a team dynamic for sure.
• 44:29
  SPEAKER_02: You know.
• 44:30
  SPEAKER_02: It's one of those things, and you said with age, and it's probably was we were talking about kids.
• 44:34
  SPEAKER_02: They start off, as soon as they can talk, they're talking a lot, and they're asking all the questions.
• 44:38
  SPEAKER_02: Maybe as you get older, that tames down.
• 44:41
  SPEAKER_02: I know it does, right?
• 44:42
  SPEAKER_02: But you have to be careful that you're not completely diluting your your ability to speak and to navigate and talk through and network, you know, that you're still asking those questions, but you tend to learn to listen more.
• 44:55
  SPEAKER_02: Now, some people just like to be the ones talking, uh, and their ego just completely runs over that.
• 45:00
  SPEAKER_02: You talked about humility and understanding like when to say when, that you don't have to be the one holding the trophy, or don't have to be the one leading the charge.
• 45:10
  SPEAKER_02: Humility is what keeps ego in check without killing confidence.
• 45:13
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 45:13
  SPEAKER_02: That's that's such a good definition of saying like humility is so important.
• 45:20
  SPEAKER_02: Like we gotta keep people in check.
• 45:22
  SPEAKER_02: Yep.
• 45:22
  SPEAKER_02: Right?
• 45:22
  SPEAKER_02: And you gotta make sure that their ego is not their driver, but you gotta have humility.
• 45:27
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I think the balance of those two, that's where you find people that are wildly successful.
• 45:33
  SPEAKER_04: And I think the proof's in the pudding there is when then you go ask the employees or you ask the people that they've influenced, and they say, Yeah, they're very confident, have a great track record, but they're there to help me.
• 45:46
  SPEAKER_04: They're humble enough to, you know, to pour into me and to listen to me.
• 45:51
  SPEAKER_04: Um, where you just get other people to just run over the top of them.
• 45:54
  SPEAKER_02: What do you think keeps leaders staying confident but humble?
• 46:02
  SPEAKER_04: Here's uh the easiest way for me to put this the leaders that are able to stay confident but humble, they continue to elevate themselves to be around people that are more successful than them.
• 46:13
  SPEAKER_04: Absolutely.
• 46:14
  SPEAKER_04: Nothing will humble you more than, hey, you think you've killed it.
• 46:17
  SPEAKER_04: We go to a 20 group and they're like, okay, look on page three, call them 11, line B.
• 46:22
  SPEAKER_04: It's like, okay, dang it.
• 46:24
  SPEAKER_04: I wanted to be on top there, but yes, I'm in the right room.
• 46:28
  SPEAKER_02: You have to be confident to push and be a leader.
• 46:31
  SPEAKER_02: But then when it's time, you can switch and be super spongy of a humble to say, I should probably be quiet in this room.
• 46:38
  SPEAKER_02: I should take a lot of notes.
• 46:40
  SPEAKER_02: I should start writing down names and who's good at what.
• 46:43
  SPEAKER_02: But that's that's where you set your confidence aside.
• 46:45
  SPEAKER_02: You're still confident in what you do.
• 46:47
  SPEAKER_02: And so when someone calls on you, then you can say, here, I don't know that this is perfect, but here's what works for us.
• 46:54
  SPEAKER_02: And if you guys have advice, please let me know because I'm here to listen and learn.
• 46:58
  SPEAKER_04: You know, there there's a I'm gonna flip ego a little bit here.
• 47:02
  SPEAKER_04: There, there's a way you can use an ego to your advantage.
• 47:06
  SPEAKER_04: And if you'll a lot of people use ego without thought, which then humble doesn't come in, and then they look like a buffoon.
• 47:14
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 47:14
  SPEAKER_04: Okay.
• 47:15
  SPEAKER_04: If you'll use an ego to go, okay, I I'm I'm very confident, I want to be the best in this area, but I need to make sure that I know what I'm talking about, and the people I'm around don't know even more before I speak.
• 47:32
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 47:33
  SPEAKER_04: You know, I always like to stick a thermometer in things.
• 47:35
  SPEAKER_04: I don't just walk into a room and be like, let me tell you what I know, and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
• 47:39
  SPEAKER_04: You know, you guys are the same way.
• 47:41
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 47:41
  SPEAKER_04: It's like we're taking it all in.
• 47:43
  SPEAKER_04: It's like we're asking the questions, we're surveying who we're around, who can we can extract from, who can we can pour into too.
• 47:50
  SPEAKER_04: It's got to be a two-way street.
• 47:51
  SPEAKER_03: Yes.
• 47:52
  SPEAKER_04: You know.
• 47:52
  SPEAKER_04: Um, but I think it's just and that's something that you're not born with.
• 47:57
  SPEAKER_04: You got to be around the right successful people to learn how to balance that, how to stay humble, how to have an ego to drive with your confidence, you know, to be competitive, yet not miss areas where you need to be humble and you need to be quiet.
• 48:14
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 48:15
  SPEAKER_01: Being able to check the temperature and being able to gauge of learning to start, stop, listen, and then that's good.
• 48:22
  SPEAKER_01: There's a lot to be said about that.
• 48:25
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 48:25
  SPEAKER_01: Hey, diving into Mythbuster time, ego is bad.
• 48:28
  SPEAKER_01: You should get rid of it completely.
• 48:30
  SPEAKER_01: I think we just answered that of going through absolutely beat it over the head.
• 48:34
  SPEAKER_01: That's busted.
• 48:35
  SPEAKER_01: Ego isn't the enemy, it's a tool.
• 48:37
  SPEAKER_01: It's a tool that drives you, moves you forward.
• 48:40
  SPEAKER_01: The trick is keeping it in balance with instinct and self-awareness.
• 48:43
  SPEAKER_01: So it's channeling that.
• 48:45
  SPEAKER_01: And that's that's what makes it fun, and that's what makes it where everyone isn't successful at that.
• 48:51
  SPEAKER_01: They either completely diminish it and then there's no self-drive left, or they let it go way off the top and no one wants to work with them.
• 48:59
  SPEAKER_01: So the guys that balance it are are the ones that you want to be around because they help elevate you.
• 49:05
  SPEAKER_04: You know, I see ego as this, like if we were looking in in engines or or tools, like ego is is high horsepower.
• 49:14
  SPEAKER_04: Engine is, I mean, ego is an explosive.
• 49:17
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 49:18
  SPEAKER_04: And you need those.
• 49:18
  SPEAKER_04: Yep.
• 49:19
  SPEAKER_04: Like, like if we're doing that, we got to bust up some rock.
• 49:21
  SPEAKER_04: You want an explosive.
• 49:23
  SPEAKER_04: You know, if you're driving a car, you want something with high horsepower.
• 49:28
  SPEAKER_04: But our track is not straight.
• 49:29
  SPEAKER_04: This isn't the drag strip.
• 49:31
  SPEAKER_04: And you got curves to make.
• 49:32
  SPEAKER_04: And and the old saying of, you know, slow down to speed up, if you just stayed hammered down on the gas, you're gonna overshoot the corner.
• 49:40
  SPEAKER_04: You know what I mean?
• 49:40
  SPEAKER_02: Yep.
• 49:41
  SPEAKER_02: You're gonna miss opportunities.
• 49:43
  SPEAKER_02: You're gonna miss, what was that?
• 49:45
  SPEAKER_02: Was that a shortcut?
• 49:47
  SPEAKER_02: Hey, was that an opportunity for growth?
• 49:49
  SPEAKER_02: So that's so good.
• 49:50
  SPEAKER_02: Like, you know, and they say, hey, this engine lasts forever.
• 49:53
  SPEAKER_02: Well, it makes no horsepower, right?
• 49:56
  SPEAKER_02: Like it's like, hey, man, you can count on this employee.
• 49:59
  SPEAKER_02: He's outstanding.
• 50:00
  SPEAKER_02: It's like, yeah, but he's not productive at all.
• 50:03
  SPEAKER_02: Like, yeah, he's always here and doesn't create any friction, but he does not bring value to you or your team or your customers.
• 50:11
  SPEAKER_02: So, yeah, I mean, this engine is outstanding, but it you can't hook it up to totally anything.
• 50:16
  SPEAKER_02: You can't really trust it to be able to, hey, let's hook the camper, let's go split some wood.
• 50:20
  SPEAKER_02: It's not gonna outrun anything or anyone.
• 50:22
  SPEAKER_02: So you have to have something with some horsepower.
• 50:25
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, you just have to be able to balance that.
• 50:27
  SPEAKER_04: That's really good.
• 50:28
  SPEAKER_04: Okay, our last subject here is about, you know, leading with instinct.
• 50:31
  SPEAKER_04: We've talked a bunch about the ego, leading with instinct and not losing any of our confidence.
• 50:37
  SPEAKER_04: Inner of our confidence.
• 50:38
  SPEAKER_04: So instinct grows from experience, which I think we talked about, that age experience, you can put those in the same category.
• 50:45
  SPEAKER_04: You know, it's your pattern recognition, not your emotion.
• 50:50
  SPEAKER_04: You know, so Shelby, what you talked about earlier of we've been in this situation 10 times.
• 50:55
  SPEAKER_04: That's a pattern.
• 50:56
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 50:56
  SPEAKER_04: We know the outcome.
• 50:58
  SPEAKER_04: My emotion's really not involved here.
• 51:00
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 51:00
  SPEAKER_04: You know, my instinct is based upon experience.
• 51:03
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so you you definitely have to have that of leading with instinct of knowing, hey, I've had this experience, or I found online where someone else has had that experience and this has worked for them, or hey, I've talked to these people, and the data says this, right?
• 51:19
  SPEAKER_02: So understanding the instinct, you you need to make sure that they understand that it is an instinct-driven decision, that it's not a whim decision.
• 51:29
  SPEAKER_02: Because they'll know if it's not ego decision.
• 51:32
  SPEAKER_02: Sometimes you can deliver an instinct decision with some ego and confidence.
• 51:37
  SPEAKER_02: But if it's just like, hey guys, I've researched and there's a lot of people doing it like this, I don't know much about it, but the data says it works, they might not fully buy in or believe it because it's not delivered with your general ego of confidence, right?
• 51:51
  SPEAKER_02: So you have to make sure to mix that in, that it's good to make decisions based on facts, but then deliver it properly.
• 51:59
  SPEAKER_04: No, I think that's good.
• 52:00
  SPEAKER_04: And I think that that leads into you started to answer this question, but you know, what was a time when your gut was right, even when the data disagreed.
• 52:10
  SPEAKER_04: So when you think about that, of like the data says one thing, but you your instinct or your gut says, I've been here before.
• 52:17
  SPEAKER_04: And I'll I'll start this one off while y'all are thinking about it.
• 52:20
  SPEAKER_04: Uh, I had the the our Jeep rep call me the other day, and he said, Hey, we got a big push on Wranglers for the end of the year.
• 52:28
  SPEAKER_04: I need you to order about 20 to 30 more of them.
• 52:32
  SPEAKER_04: And I was like, okay, tell me more.
• 52:33
  SPEAKER_04: I wanted to just say no, you're not writing a check, but tell me more.
• 52:37
  SPEAKER_04: And he's like, I don't know exactly what HQ is gonna do, but they got a big push to try to take some more of Bronco's market share back.
• 52:45
  SPEAKER_04: And I said, I I love, I love the game plan, but you're gonna have to tell me more before I buy 30 more Jeeps.
• 52:53
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 52:54
  SPEAKER_04: He said, I don't know.
• 52:55
  SPEAKER_04: I said, okay, well, do this for me because right now, and I'm looking at the data, right now it shows that I have enough in stock.
• 53:03
  SPEAKER_04: I said, I need you to pull what sales history was last November, December, January, February for Wranglers and compare them to September, October, March, April.
• 53:15
  SPEAKER_04: And he calls me back and he sends it to me.
• 53:17
  SPEAKER_04: He's like, you're right.
• 53:18
  SPEAKER_04: He's like, during those four months, when it's colder or when the weather's more in inclinat, that the sales go down.
• 53:26
  SPEAKER_04: Yep.
• 53:26
  SPEAKER_04: And I said, okay, your data is saying this.
• 53:30
  SPEAKER_04: My gut is telling me this based upon in the past.
• 53:33
  SPEAKER_04: So that was a time where the gut was right, even when Detroit's data said something different.
• 53:40
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 53:40
  SPEAKER_02: And so I'll tell you, based on that or any other decisions that have come off, that if someone is asking you for something and you kind of like check who is it, what what's the ask?
• 53:52
  SPEAKER_02: Your ego of if you're in it for the wrong thing, for the wrong time or the wrong outcome, your ego will say, Yep, do it.
• 54:02
  SPEAKER_02: Buy those Wranglers.
• 54:03
  SPEAKER_02: You need to appease the manufacturer.
• 54:05
  SPEAKER_02: When the uh electric charger came out, said, Hey, we need to buy that.
• 54:10
  SPEAKER_02: That's it.
• 54:11
  SPEAKER_02: And but if you can see a little bit further down the tracks, the instinct says, Hold on.
• 54:16
  SPEAKER_02: You looked at the data of what the time of the year said, hold on.
• 54:20
  SPEAKER_02: Your ego will generally say, Yeah, I'll go to that, yeah, I'll do this, yeah, we need to do that, yeah, sign up for this.
• 54:27
  SPEAKER_02: And then you look up, it's like, well, did that replace something else?
• 54:31
  SPEAKER_02: Why did you add that?
• 54:32
  SPEAKER_02: Like you already have a system that's doing that.
• 54:35
  SPEAKER_02: You know, so ego will generally, if you don't check that with your instinct to say, you know, or your gut, your gut says, hang on, don't let your ego make this decision or your emotions make this decision.
• 54:46
  SPEAKER_02: Go with what you think works.
• 54:47
  SPEAKER_02: Like you've been managing your inventory for how many years and you know when it's up and when it's down, don't let someone else, because chances are they're getting spiffed or they're getting an attaboy for selling us.
• 54:59
  SPEAKER_04: Then you know what comes to my mind says you're saying that because we talked about it a couple episodes ago, is our, you know, our uh our other mutual colleague that we know that's a Ford dealer that was at the show, they came up to you and he was like, Hey, I just signed up for this.
• 55:14
  SPEAKER_04: Have y'all signed up for this?
• 55:16
  SPEAKER_04: Like, what does it do?
• 55:18
  SPEAKER_04: I don't know, but it's free.
• 55:19
  SPEAKER_04: Like, nothing's free, dude.
• 55:21
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 55:22
  SPEAKER_04: His ego was involved.
• 55:23
  SPEAKER_04: He was just like you know, just like sign up, sign up, sign up.
• 55:26
  SPEAKER_04: Like, what are you signing up for?
• 55:28
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 55:29
  SPEAKER_04: You know?
• 55:30
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so your gut and your instinct will generally tell you those things.
• 55:33
  SPEAKER_04: It really will.
• 55:34
  SPEAKER_04: What about, you know, confident leaders listen inwardly and outwardly.
• 55:41
  SPEAKER_04: So y'all think about that for a second.
• 55:43
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, listening inwardly and outwardly.
• 55:46
  SPEAKER_02: I think you're listening to yourself, what you know, what you've experienced, what you've been a part of.
• 55:51
  SPEAKER_02: And then the outwardly is saying, hey, what is someone else saying that they've been a part of or they've seen, or what's their pitch on it?
• 55:57
  SPEAKER_04: Okay.
• 55:58
  SPEAKER_04: You know, we we've talked about this a bunch, and none of us are where we wear our elocio, our uh emotions and thoughts on our sleeves.
• 56:06
  SPEAKER_04: All right.
• 56:07
  SPEAKER_04: Like some people that are just unfiltered just keep talking.
• 56:10
  SPEAKER_04: And and we've joked about this before.
• 56:12
  SPEAKER_04: Like if everybody could hear what goes on in our mind and ideas and this and that, they'd be like, oh my gosh, that dude's crazy.
• 56:20
  SPEAKER_02: Well, let me tell you that before you uh unpack the rest of that.
• 56:24
  SPEAKER_02: So I've said this before on the podcast that every night when I leave, I call my wife and she's like, Hey, do you have a good day?
• 56:30
  SPEAKER_02: And the answer is always yes, it was a good day, right?
• 56:32
  SPEAKER_02: Because whether it was or wasn't, I get to choose what I'm gonna do with that.
• 56:35
  SPEAKER_02: So my oldest son that started hunting, and so I've taken him hunting, and so every time we come back from hunting, which is watching a bunch of squirrels and rabbits run around, right?
• 56:45
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, there's much more of a trick to figure out to get him to hold still well enough uh in his ADD of so, anyways, every time we get home, she's like, Hey, how'd you guys do?
• 56:55
  SPEAKER_02: And so my power of positivity is generally good.
• 56:59
  SPEAKER_02: Or Oliver will say, Hey, it was great.
• 57:01
  SPEAKER_02: She's like, Okay, so did you kill something?
• 57:05
  SPEAKER_02: Uh-uh.
• 57:06
  SPEAKER_02: She's like, We're gonna have to work on our signals here because when I ask how it went, and you say great, I assume great, you guys were able to find something and shoot it.
• 57:16
  SPEAKER_02: And so that's funny you say that.
• 57:18
  SPEAKER_02: If I'm we're not aware in our emotions, like we're not dragging the now.
• 57:22
  SPEAKER_02: He did shoot a squirrel the other day and he brought it home and wanted to bring it in the house.
• 57:25
  SPEAKER_02: I was like, no.
• 57:26
  SPEAKER_02: So, you know, generally the emotions are not on the sleeve of exactly what's going on, is what you see.
• 57:31
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I think so.
• 57:32
  SPEAKER_04: So there's a lot of times when you need, and I think the the reason we bring up that question is you need both.
• 57:37
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 57:37
  SPEAKER_04: Like, like there's tons of stuff that needs to, you need to listen inwardly, yeah, and just process it.
• 57:43
  SPEAKER_04: And you may not need to bring it to the table.
• 57:46
  SPEAKER_04: And then outwardly listening, a lot of that has to do with you make sure when you you speak outwardly to other people, you're asking questions so you can listen.
• 57:57
  SPEAKER_04: You know, and it it it's them talking for sure.
• 58:01
  SPEAKER_04: How do you guys think about building trust in your gut while staying open to input?
• 58:08
  SPEAKER_04: So so that's that's a two-way channel, right?
• 58:11
  SPEAKER_04: Is like, okay, we've got instantly what our gut says to do, but you're still leaving it an open door to hear from outside input.
• 58:19
  SPEAKER_01: That's that's never closing yourself down.
• 58:22
  SPEAKER_01: Now, I I'm not gonna put myself in a situation voluntarily that is something that doesn't align with whatever I want to be involved with, but it's always leaving yourself open, no matter the circumstance of anything that is around.
• 58:41
  SPEAKER_01: So don't instantly excuse yourself or take yourself away from a situation whenever someone's talking about, because there might be a good piece we know different than we talk about managers, that I can sit down normally and sometimes in 30 seconds if the guy's just staring straight down or nothing else, and I can't get him to engage and we start extracting other useful bits of information from them.
• 59:06
  SPEAKER_01: So always know that there's different angles to be able to get information and don't close that door right off the bat.
• 59:12
  SPEAKER_02: You know, you talked about it a little bit of as you grow older, we're gonna call that wisdom.
• 59:18
  SPEAKER_02: The wisdom is understanding okay, my gut says this, but always saying yep, both.
• 59:26
  SPEAKER_02: Let me at least listen and learn.
• 59:27
  SPEAKER_02: Like Taylor was talking about.
• 59:29
  SPEAKER_02: You just with wisdom, which comes with time and with reps, you learn that like there could be some type of growth opportunity.
• 59:37
  SPEAKER_02: You talked about a sales trainer being here, and so I said in the meeting because I wanted to know what was being taught to the team.
• 59:43
  SPEAKER_02: I was not there to say a word.
• 59:44
  SPEAKER_02: As a matter of fact, there was times I wanted to say a word and say that's not exactly how we do it.
• 59:48
  SPEAKER_02: And we've learned that with training, and we talked about a couple weeks ago how our training manual has so many, but they're bringing their personal opinion, right?
• 59:56
  SPEAKER_02: They're bringing the outside advice and they're going over all this stuff, and he's super.
• 1:00:00
  SPEAKER_02: Sharp to say, hey, this might not be exactly how you do it, Lewis Automotive.
• 1:00:03
  SPEAKER_02: So he's not saying my way or the highway.
• 1:00:05
  SPEAKER_02: There's some ego people that do do that.
• 1:00:07
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, yeah.
• 1:00:07
  SPEAKER_02: Right?
• 1:00:07
  SPEAKER_02: That this is the only way that it could be done.
• 1:00:09
  SPEAKER_02: Well, news flash.
• 1:00:11
  SPEAKER_02: There's a lot of different ways to skin a cat.
• 1:00:13
  SPEAKER_02: So, but then understanding that that, okay, there was something good to be extracted there.
• 1:00:17
  SPEAKER_02: So ego is important, but also instinct of hearing someone else's opinion because you might be like, green light.
• 1:00:23
  SPEAKER_02: Yep.
• 1:00:24
  SPEAKER_02: Right?
• 1:00:24
  SPEAKER_02: Like, networking is not my natural talking to people I don't know is not my natural instinct.
• 1:00:33
  SPEAKER_02: In business, I can do it, right?
• 1:00:35
  SPEAKER_02: And but I love when I create a good connection with someone.
• 1:00:38
  SPEAKER_02: We have uh a guy here with uh a finance company.
• 1:00:41
  SPEAKER_02: I was talking to him this morning and I was telling him, let me give you a tour.
• 1:00:45
  SPEAKER_02: So 10 years, 100 different dealerships, let me make this short, but it's an hour.
• 1:00:51
  SPEAKER_02: And so I hit him with the whole thing and I said, hey, when we did this, we toured a bunch of different places.
• 1:00:55
  SPEAKER_02: He's from Dallas, so I was creating common ground.
• 1:00:58
  SPEAKER_02: And once I can find something where we can connect, then I'm all about it.
• 1:01:02
  SPEAKER_02: And so I've learned with my wisdom, instead of just listening and being part of it, that now I can earn some opportunity to ask some.
• 1:01:10
  SPEAKER_02: And I was like, well, like we went to some of Sam Pax's source.
• 1:01:13
  SPEAKER_02: He's like, Oh, Sam Pack, he's like, he's a mentor of mine.
• 1:01:15
  SPEAKER_02: He said, we talk every single week.
• 1:01:16
  SPEAKER_02: I said, I've got a favor to ask of you.
• 1:01:19
  SPEAKER_02: He said, Oh, yeah, because then he wanted, he wanted to get buy-in from me.
• 1:01:23
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, he wants to bring it up.
• 1:01:24
  SPEAKER_02: I want something, he wants to bring value.
• 1:01:26
  SPEAKER_02: I was like, hey, we had uh a really good worker of ours.
• 1:01:29
  SPEAKER_02: It was a friend of Sam Pax who's past.
• 1:01:31
  SPEAKER_02: I said, but we he was always gonna take us and show Sam Pac's collection.
• 1:01:35
  SPEAKER_02: He's like, I'll get you in whenever you want.
• 1:01:37
  SPEAKER_02: And I was like, absolutely.
• 1:01:38
  SPEAKER_02: I said, Well, have to schedule a time.
• 1:01:40
  SPEAKER_02: I said, I've talked to Sam Pack a couple different times, but he's talked to a million people.
• 1:01:44
  SPEAKER_02: Sure.
• 1:01:44
  SPEAKER_02: He's like, oh no, he's a good friend of mine.
• 1:01:46
  SPEAKER_02: So then he started telling stories.
• 1:01:47
  SPEAKER_02: So I'm okay to get outward advice, and especially if Taylor said in 30 seconds you can realize this is worth a lot.
• 1:01:54
  SPEAKER_03: Yes.
• 1:01:55
  SPEAKER_02: And then you start taking notes and creating common ground, bringing value to that person, then they'll start giving you value back of outward outward advice that your gut would never have.
• 1:02:04
  SPEAKER_04: Uh-huh.
• 1:02:05
  SPEAKER_04: I got I gotta tell you too, is because sometimes you'll slip up.
• 1:02:08
  SPEAKER_04: I I slipped up the other day and I I talked about the start of this, but I want to tell you then what I did when I realized that.
• 1:02:14
  SPEAKER_04: And this is a real ego check, is your gut and your instinct, you may fire off on something based upon past experiences.
• 1:02:22
  SPEAKER_04: But then all of a sudden the wisdom might come over and say, hang on, maybe I should slow down here.
• 1:02:28
  SPEAKER_04: But you've already said it.
• 1:02:29
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 1:02:29
  SPEAKER_04: So with our marketing team the other day, and I think they would agree that this is how I handled it, was I came out of my mouth and I said, No, the turkey test drive won't work.
• 1:02:39
  SPEAKER_04: That wasn't successful before.
• 1:02:41
  SPEAKER_04: I'm saying this outwardly.
• 1:02:42
  SPEAKER_04: And then, like, I'm sitting there and I'm like, but hang on, what if there's a better deal?
• 1:02:48
  SPEAKER_04: So then I paused right in the middle of that and I said, But you know what?
• 1:02:51
  SPEAKER_04: I'm open to listening to you guys because there may be a better way to do it, and we may have not just executed it correctly.
• 1:02:58
  SPEAKER_03: Sure.
• 1:02:58
  SPEAKER_04: So you guys please give me your input, and I want to be open to at least listening on how this may work.
• 1:03:05
  SPEAKER_02: It's funny you say that about you paused.
• 1:03:07
  SPEAKER_02: I saw an interview one time when someone asked Steve Jobs a question, and it was like him and another guy up on a stage, and there was a live audience of people, and they asked him a question, and instead of just verbally vomiting what might not be the whole hundred percent proper answer, correct answer, he said, that's a really good question.
• 1:03:28
  SPEAKER_02: And it was an awkwardly long pause, like over a minute, maybe two minutes.
• 1:03:34
  SPEAKER_02: Oh wow.
• 1:03:35
  SPEAKER_02: So the person, the moderator, was like, Oh gosh, what do we do?
• 1:03:38
  SPEAKER_02: Didn't say a word because he still had to ask a question.
• 1:03:41
  SPEAKER_02: Audience is like, Did Steve just fall asleep?
• 1:03:44
  SPEAKER_02: And then he said one other thing that was like, that is a really good question.
• 1:03:51
  SPEAKER_02: And then he finally, because what he had done was to slow down and actually process to bring value back in his thoughts and feelings.
• 1:03:58
  SPEAKER_02: So it's like he went back into his filing cabinet and is like, back in 98, we did that.
• 1:04:04
  SPEAKER_02: That's a person that you can learn from and understand.
• 1:04:07
  SPEAKER_02: You're not just you didn't even slow down the list.
• 1:04:11
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, yeah, yeah, I got that.
• 1:04:12
  SPEAKER_02: Is that that's annexation?
• 1:04:13
  SPEAKER_02: Puerto Rico's like, no, I asked what player played in '96.
• 1:04:18
  SPEAKER_02: And I was like, well, that's wisdom right there.
• 1:04:21
  SPEAKER_02: Like that guy, you'd be quiet when he talks, you know?
• 1:04:26
  SPEAKER_01: That's good.
• 1:04:26
  SPEAKER_01: That is good.
• 1:04:27
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's really good.
• 1:04:28
  SPEAKER_01: Hey, diving into this question, I want both of y'all to think about this.
• 1:04:34
  SPEAKER_01: It's not, don't worry, Craig hadn't put really good quite like you love his questions that he puts in there.
• 1:04:39
  SPEAKER_01: But how do you personally tell the difference between when it's your gut leading you and when it's your ego trying to take over?
• 1:04:49
  SPEAKER_02: There's a mixture because gut and ego share the same, right?
• 1:04:52
  SPEAKER_02: I feel like gut and ego have some similarities.
• 1:04:56
  SPEAKER_02: How do you tell the difference between gut and ego?
• 1:04:59
  SPEAKER_02: Like, have you been there before?
• 1:05:00
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 1:05:01
  SPEAKER_02: Have you made that decision before?
• 1:05:03
  SPEAKER_02: How did it go?
• 1:05:04
  SPEAKER_02: My gut's gonna tell me that, right?
• 1:05:06
  SPEAKER_02: Have I been there before?
• 1:05:07
  SPEAKER_02: Have I made that decision before?
• 1:05:09
  SPEAKER_02: How did it go?
• 1:05:11
  SPEAKER_02: But then whenever I'm starting to take over has my ego just quickly said, no, this is how we do it, this is how we get there and go.
• 1:05:21
  SPEAKER_02: You know, it's quickly saying, Hey, I got this bad CSI from this customer.
• 1:05:26
  SPEAKER_02: Why didn't we deliver this?
• 1:05:27
  SPEAKER_02: Why didn't we pick it up when I only got one side?
• 1:05:30
  SPEAKER_02: My ego quickly says, run over the top.
• 1:05:33
  SPEAKER_02: And so you have to ask a question first.
• 1:05:36
  SPEAKER_02: Hey, have you guys seen the Mr.
• 1:05:38
  SPEAKER_02: Smith's survey that came through?
• 1:05:40
  SPEAKER_02: Or I might not even mention the survey.
• 1:05:42
  SPEAKER_02: Hey, Mr.
• 1:05:42
  SPEAKER_02: Smith came in to get his vehicle service.
• 1:05:44
  SPEAKER_02: How did that go?
• 1:05:46
  SPEAKER_02: And they generally be like, Oh, are you talking about the surveys?
• 1:05:49
  SPEAKER_02: Like, oh, I hadn't seen the survey.
• 1:05:51
  SPEAKER_02: Did he submit a survey?
• 1:05:52
  SPEAKER_02: And they're like, Yeah, the survey came in.
• 1:05:53
  SPEAKER_02: It's like, oh, okay, how did that go?
• 1:05:54
  SPEAKER_02: Like, did we do everything correctly, or was there something we dropped the ball?
• 1:05:58
  SPEAKER_02: So my gut says, slow down, get, you know, those three three things I asked.
• 1:06:03
  SPEAKER_02: Ego says, stop getting bad surveys.
• 1:06:06
  SPEAKER_02: If we tell somebody we're gonna do it, do it, do it right, and do it on time.
• 1:06:10
  SPEAKER_02: The ego says that to do that.
• 1:06:12
  SPEAKER_02: Gut says, slow down, get the facts.
• 1:06:15
  SPEAKER_02: So that that's one of those things that say, slow down.
• 1:06:18
  SPEAKER_02: And then you might end up in that same conversation if ego is like, I told you, but you have to stop.
• 1:06:24
  SPEAKER_02: And because they might be like, dude, won't answer his phone.
• 1:06:27
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 1:06:28
  SPEAKER_02: We've, you know, here's where we've texted him 18 times, here's where we've called the guy.
• 1:06:31
  SPEAKER_02: We offered a mobile service we've offered, pick up and delivery.
• 1:06:34
  SPEAKER_02: No, we've gone and got it four times.
• 1:06:36
  SPEAKER_02: Like, okay, that guy's crazy.
• 1:06:38
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, right.
• 1:06:38
  SPEAKER_02: But oftentimes my ego or just ego in general will say, your team's still screwing up.
• 1:06:44
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 1:06:44
  SPEAKER_04: When they're not.
• 1:06:45
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, no, that's that that's great advice.
• 1:06:47
  SPEAKER_04: I got two things, kind of checks and balances to make sure that it's that your ego's not getting involved there.
• 1:06:53
  SPEAKER_04: And and one is is what you're getting ready to say or what you're getting ready to lead your team to do, does it line up with what the overall goal is?
• 1:07:04
  SPEAKER_04: You know, where you're heading towards, if it's growth, if it's this, if it's that, does it line up with that?
• 1:07:11
  SPEAKER_04: And then number two, if this is accomplished, who does it directly put the spotlight on?
• 1:07:18
  SPEAKER_04: And if if the spotlight is directly on myself, my ego's too much involved.
• 1:07:24
  SPEAKER_04: If it's on the team accomplishing it, or an individual within our company, then it's more of gut and confidence because we know that the producers on our team, the more successful they are, then we'll be successful.
• 1:07:42
  SPEAKER_04: You know, instead of, hey, look at me, look at what all I did, so on and so forth.
• 1:07:46
  SPEAKER_04: So I think those two checks and balances are is it is it I don't worry about a goal from last year or last decade that we were trying to accomplish, but where we're going, is it taking us there?
• 1:07:58
  SPEAKER_04: And then who would initially get the credit for it?
• 1:08:01
  SPEAKER_01: Those are both really good.
• 1:08:02
  SPEAKER_01: Hey, great wrap up of Ego or Insteak.
• 1:08:06
  SPEAKER_01: What really drives your decisions?
• 1:08:08
  SPEAKER_01: Make sure check out that, all of that previous episodes on Crossroads Conversation Podcast.com and always our specials we have going on.
• 1:08:17
  SPEAKER_01: What's going on at the dealership at Lewis Superstore.com.
• 1:08:22
  SPEAKER_01: If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to give it a like, share it with your friends and family, and visit our website to send us questions about what you would like to know about the automotive industry or family business in general.
• 1:08:33
  SPEAKER_01: Who do you want to hear from?
• 1:08:34
  SPEAKER_01: Send it them our way, and we'll do our best to answer any questions that you have.
• 1:08:38
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you again, and we'll see you in future shows.