Growth Requires Pain with Michael Stevens

In this insightful and inspiring episode of TimTalks, Automotive Leadership and Beyond Tim Cox sits down with Michael Stevens, an automotive leader who has turned challenges into opportunities for growth and success. Michael takes us on a journey through his decade-long career, sharing the highs and lows of working in a dealership, from starting out fresh in the industry to transforming the culture and productivity at Bob Ruth Ford. Michael reveals how adopting a mindset of gratitude, building meaningful relationships, and committing to daily growth not only changed his life but also the lives of those he leads. From improving team morale to breaking sales records, Michael discusses the real-world impact of positive leadership and culture change in the auto industry.

Guest & Contact:

Connect with Michael Stevens, variable operations director at Bob Ruth Ford on Linkedin 

Show Notes:

[00:00] Introduction
Tim introduces the episode, sharing his experience of visiting dealerships across the country and the leadership that makes a real difference. He introduces Michael Stevens, variable operations director at Bob Ruth Ford he’s met during his career. 

[01:29] Michael’s Background
Michael Stevens shares his journey in the automotive industry, starting in 2010 after college and the challenges he faced at the beginning of his career. He touches on his sales experience and his time at Bob Ruth Ford, highlighting the importance of leadership and culture in transforming the business.

[03:13] The Importance of Culture
Michael explains how culture was a problem in his previous role, leading to high turnover and low morale. He discusses the pivotal moment that made him realize the value of a positive work environment and how leadership plays a role in changing dealership culture.

[05:49] The Role of Gratitude
Tim and Michael discuss the impact of gratitude in leadership and personal growth. Michael shares his daily routine, which starts with journaling three things he’s grateful for, emphasizing how this practice has changed his mindset and outlook.

[07:06] Leading with Intention
Michael describes how the practice of gratitude and having the right intentions has transformed his leadership style and impacted his team at Bob Ruth Ford. 

[09:35] Legacy and Impact
Tim reflects on the legacy we leave behind and the importance of making an impact in both personal and professional lives. 

[14:54] Empowering Employees
Michael explains how Bob Ruth Ford invests in its people by identifying their unique talents and giving them opportunities to grow, leading to remarkable results. He highlights the importance of getting to know your employees, understanding their "why," and helping them achieve their goals.

[18:05] The Power of Belief
Tim and Michael discuss the importance of believing in yourself and your team. Michael shares his mantra, “I am, I can, I will,” and how it drives his leadership and personal development.

[00:21:58] Leading by Example
Michael talks about how leaders need to care for their teams and understand their personal goals to create a cohesive and motivated workforce. He shares examples of how Bob Ruth Ford fosters a culture where people feel valued.

[27:09] Closing Thoughts
Michael leaves a final message for new GMs and leaders, encouraging them to focus on building relationships with their teams and being servant leaders. He emphasizes that knowing your people and helping them find their “why” is the key to success.

[28:00] Outro
Tim thanks Michael for his insights and reminds listeners of the importance of continuous improvement in leadership and teamwork. 

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction
• 1:29 Michael’s Background
• 3:13 The Importance of Culture
• 5:49 The Role of Gratitude
• 7:06 Leading with Intention
• 9:35 Legacy and Impact
• 14:54 Empowering Employees
• 18:05 The Power of Belief
• 21:58 Leading by Example
• 27:09 Closing Thoughts
• 28:00 Outro

Transcript

00;00;00;26 - 00;00;38;21

Speaker 1

In over three decades, I've learned that truly great car dealerships are only great because of one thing leadership. So I'm sitting down with the great men and women. Inspiring Automotive on Tim Talks automotive Leadership and beyond. You welcome everyone for yet another edition of Tim Talks Leadership and Beyond. You know, you guys know the story. I have the privilege of traveling this beautiful country of ours, going in and out of some of the best and sometimes the worst dealerships in the country.

00;00;38;21 - 00;01;05;05

Speaker 1

And, you know, when you're on hundreds and hundreds of zoom calls, almost. I don't want to exaggerate. Car guys exaggerate. Let's say I'm on a 150 zoom calls, a month. But, you know, they're there occasionally and it doesn't happen often. There's that person that stands out. That person that was like, man, that cat is different. Like, I want to I want to learn from that guy.

00;01;05;07 - 00;01;29;24

Speaker 1

And our guest today, almost after the second or third time, I had the privilege of communicating with him. I'm like, can you please come on? Tim talks as again, we try to pour into the community that has been so good to us and automotive and help leaders, that new GSM, that new GM, that new variable ops director, whatever the case.

00;01;29;26 - 00;01;49;02

Speaker 1

So we can, as we always say, success leaves clues. So, ladies and gentlemen, it's my pleasure to introduce to you. Some of you may know him. Michael Stevens, the variable ops director here at the one and only Bob Ruth Ford. Michael, welcome to Tim Talks, brother.

00;01;49;09 - 00;01;51;27

Speaker 2

Thank you sir. Happy to be here.

00;01;52;00 - 00;02;10;06

Speaker 1

Awesome, awesome. Well, I mean, let's just dive right into it, brother. I mean, let me tell you, a little bit about your story. I mean, you know, how long you been in automotive? You know, the path to, Bob Ruth, you know, all the above. Like, take us up there and then we'll unpack a little bit.

00;02;10;08 - 00;02;26;05

Speaker 1

You know, the differences, that I saw in your leadership and and, you know, it's one thing to say something, but when the numbers are immediately impacted, that's a whole other thing. So. So let let let the ten talks listeners out there know a little bit about Michael.

00;02;26;08 - 00;02;44;11

Speaker 2

So I actually got in the auto industry in 2010 pretty fresh out of college. I was a new father at the time. I had some sales experience through college, actually stopped for about a year and sold when the stock really well, kind of put sales on the back as an option if I got out. Nothing else made a lot of sense.

00;02;44;15 - 00;03;12;29

Speaker 2

I'm also a chemistry minor, so it's just a passion of mine. Got in the auto industry at Stellar Dodge in York, Pennsylvania. I work for John June Volvo, his family of dealerships for 14 years. I came to that store. They were selling roughly 60, 50, 60 cars. Month was originally owned by Dave Stetler. And John had, gotten that store in, in a in a buyout and, when I left, they were doing roughly 140 car, 150 cars a month, quite a bit of gross and variable.

00;03;13;01 - 00;03;29;03

Speaker 2

My reasoning was the world at the time, we all know during Covid took, took out a huge uptick for all of us and then a huge downturn. And at that time, I had a very young daughter that I was missing a lot of time with that. Honestly. But and this is no shot at the dealership I came from.

00;03;29;03 - 00;03;53;00

Speaker 2

But culture was never the way I thought sales should be. I was kind of brought into that, thrown into the pond. Either they swim where they sink. Fortunately for me, I could sell and I could deal with a little bit of that environment. But what I learned was over time, turnover was a problem. Culture was a problem, and people weren't necessarily happy to come to work.

00;03;53;02 - 00;04;14;28

Speaker 2

And the one thing I always wondered was why does nobody notice this? Why isn't this a topic in our Monday morning sales meeting about why nobody wants to be here? It's doom and gloom, you know, and sales is exciting. This is fun. We sell relationships. That's a really fun thing to do. And I found myself falling into that, and I actually model it with my employees.

00;04;14;28 - 00;04;32;13

Speaker 2

I talk about in my meeting. Every morning is at 6:00 on Sunday evening. This feeling hit, and we can all level with this feeling of, I don't know if I want to go there and this, this, negative thing kind of came over me of, like, I got to get ready to go there, and I don't want to go there.

00;04;32;15 - 00;04;49;23

Speaker 2

So that led me to Rob Bruce. I actually found him. I actually found Rob Dale, his vice president, through Joe Farquhar, who is a Zurich representative, and I was a pretty good seller for Zurich and had a really good relationship with him. And he just wouldn't let me go. And I got out of the car business. I was a general manager in a German in Harrisburg.

00;04;49;23 - 00;05;11;01

Speaker 2

I was loving my life. Not a lot of easy. It was easy, but it was boring. Joe Farquhar put me in touch with Rob Dale, which led me to rob Bruce. And believe or not, Rob Bruce and I have a lot of connections through gratitude, intentions, being good humans, caring about people, building relationships, things that most humans kind of don't find till later in life.

00;05;11;03 - 00;05;29;12

Speaker 2

And we really hit it big through that in our own connection. And I asked him for the opportunity to if I was going to do this, to allow me to do it that way. And, you know, that's already his belief. He loves his employees. He runs a business like I've never seen. He cares about his people, and people can say that.

00;05;29;14 - 00;05;42;05

Speaker 2

But to do it, I believe you see it in production. And this store is one of those ones that you can step back now. And look, we've said we're going to sell a thousand cars in a month and we're on the road to it. We're on our way there.

00;05;42;07 - 00;06;17;12

Speaker 1

You know, you touched on something that we've we've talked about multiple times in here with multiple guests getting ready to, you know, whether it's Lynn Hudson, whether it's Damien, whether it's, we've we've got several, podcasts in the can per se. And I want to talk about that word gratitude for a little bit. You know, a lot of us, you know, I started a very long time ago selling cars and, you know, had had, you know, sales orders, what it up and thrown at me and, you know, checks lit on fire and literally, like, seen everything, you know, talk about that mindset of of gratitude in your store.

00;06;17;12 - 00;06;37;08

Speaker 1

And by the way, we'll get to the numbers in a little bit. But, you know, obviously nothing, confidential, but the impact that you've already made in that store is, is, is pretty exciting. But but talk about that gratitude word when you, you know, again, there's a lot of words that people throw out there. You know, culture, you know, I call them Sunday school words.

00;06;37;08 - 00;06;44;12

Speaker 1

Right. Like everybody you go to any culture and and gratitude. But what does it really mean and what does it really look like? What does it mean to you?

00;06;44;19 - 00;07;06;19

Speaker 2

I'll take it down. It simply starts from the morning routine. And that's where most of us follow up is in our morning routine. You have to do this daily to allow yourself to lead into your day. One of the first things. First of all, if I don't touch electronics for about the first 30 minutes on work, I believe that you have to ground yourself and people will give me credit for it.

00;07;06;19 - 00;07;22;15

Speaker 2

Put me on being grounded and being prepared. Going into your day is number one that I do journal. And the first thing I enter in my journal is three things I'm grateful for. And, you know, in the beginning, when you first start doing this, you kind of look at it like, well, I'm happy to have my job. You know, I'm happy to have my family.

00;07;22;15 - 00;07;40;03

Speaker 2

I'm happy to have. And we all kind of have those things. But it's deeper than that. And what I've found is it's it's having grace in this simple thing. It's being a I can take a breath, I can walk to my bathroom, I can answer my phone. I can see what my breakfast on my plate looks like. I can do anything.

00;07;40;10 - 00;07;43;26

Speaker 2

And there's just you can really make it sound familiar.

00;07;43;28 - 00;07;48;28

Speaker 1

This was not rehearsed, ladies and gentlemen. Was not rehearsed.

00;07;49;00 - 00;08;13;06

Speaker 2

Unbelievable. You have to make it. And when I say it like I think you just hit on it, saying it is one thing. Saying it is, is is generically one thing. But to actually do it, what I found here is what has happened is, is people, when they buy into it, they start to replicate it. And one of the things I've used in my morning meetings to get people to see is to walk around.

00;08;13;06 - 00;08;29;02

Speaker 2

I go around the room and I say, what are you grateful for? Tell me why you're here. And that's another point. Is my why? Why am I here? I might doing this. Most people will tell you, well, I have bills to pay you right now. At the end of the day, that's not a lie. We do it for our kids.

00;08;29;02 - 00;08;46;08

Speaker 2

We do it because we have passion. We do it because we love it. If you can harness that, why and have gratitude at the same time and have good intentions, you can do anything you want. I don't know if I will share this one thing that was like to you. For me, it's a book called The Secret.

00;08;46;10 - 00;09;04;20

Speaker 2

Thoughts become things. I have a plan I have made for all of our staff that actually says it. If you're thinking like, yeah, people are going to think we're nuts for this term, but if you think it, it will happen. And when I, we made this hashtag, I, when we made this hashtag, we all believe it.

00;09;04;22 - 00;09;16;25

Speaker 2

We all believe we're going to do this. And I know it. When you have enough people believing in something and growing in that direction, it will happen. That's the fact. It's just a fact.

00;09;16;28 - 00;09;35;16

Speaker 1

You know, ladies and gentlemen, the ironic, you know, the fact that you even used and I used go to the bathroom and it might sound silly, but my dad, who I love dearly, who gave his life to servicing a community as a pastor of a church, can't go to the bathroom on his own. So daily, in my gratitude time, I'm telling you, understanding.

00;09;35;21 - 00;09;56;01

Speaker 1

Listen, listen. Turn the volume up a little bit. If you're in your car, on your way to work, if you're getting ready to have a sales meeting. I'm telling you, man, I got some news last night. The guy that hired me and gave me my first manager job 27 years ago had no idea. Shame on me for not being in touch with him.

00;09;56;04 - 00;10;15;07

Speaker 1

Bart Barton passed away. I found out last night. 62 years old. 62 years old. The guy that took me out of the dealership, not out. Out of the one dealership that I was in place. Me, probably shouldn't have, but, you know, place me as a as a finance director. I never spun paper in my life, and we figured it out right.

00;10;15;09 - 00;10;43;19

Speaker 1

And that's right. But that that that, you know, guys, I mean, we we worry. And I'm preaching to myself right now. We worry about the little stuff. And at the end of the day, you know, a this isn't a sermon where we're not promised tomorrow. I mean, what do people say about you when you're gone? And, you know, I told my team and we have a field sales call and, I don't know, it doesn't really matter, but I basically took back over.

00;10;43;19 - 00;11;04;10

Speaker 1

I'm passionate about sales. Our company grew at an exorbitant rate. But I, you know, did the co-founder thing, and that obviously doesn't change, but but took sales back over. Not quite even 90 days ago. And one thing that I've been pouring into my people is exactly what you just said it is. You have to believe it.

00;11;04;10 - 00;11;30;19

Speaker 1

Not only believe it, write it down. And the problem with a lot of, dealerships and I've seen it, and I'm not going to call the bad ones out. We have an industry of leaders, whether that's whatever title general manager, GSM sales manager, PR manager, whatever that title is, that unfortunately become the smartest people in the room and they go to a conference, they go to a digital dealer, they go to a nada.

00;11;30;19 - 00;11;43;10

Speaker 1

They have their friend that says, and then they they come back to the store and then they make these radical changes, right? These radical changes. And then they last three weeks. They last four weeks, and then.

00;11;43;10 - 00;11;59;13

Speaker 2

They reactionary number one, the most seeming they're reactionary. And I will say this, this is all sales guys. We can all admit it. We're the easiest sell in the room, period. Yep. So yeah, we get all the jazz and we get all that. We go all we gotta have that. I'm going the change all of our process. And I'm going to say this.

00;11;59;15 - 00;12;14;06

Speaker 2

We've gone back to the basics. We've gotten brilliant at the basics. Rob, has, we have a VIP experience here. We will sell you a car however you want to buy it. You don't want to commend. You don't want to text. You don't want to talk. You want to text, you don't want. We'll do it, however.

00;12;14;06 - 00;12;26;11

Speaker 2

But we know why people don't want to come to the dealership. We get it and we're willing to hear that. And that's one thing that sets us apart to what you said earlier, Tim, about where 80% of the things you worry about don't ever happen, never happen.

00;12;26;11 - 00;12;26;23

Speaker 1

Amen.

00;12;26;23 - 00;12;46;12

Speaker 2

Now that way, thinking like, I gotta worry about this, why most of that stuff never even happens. It's it's the reality. The one thing I will say though, here that is different, and I think this is where most dealers, because you mentioned about buying products that go to these seminars, come back, we gotta do this. Where you got to do all your work is your people.

00;12;46;14 - 00;13;06;20

Speaker 2

And when you're willing to spend your time getting to know your sales rep, your parts county representative, your service advisor, your lot guy, we took a lot girl who is now almost head of marketing because she came to me one day and said, listen, I made this video. Tell me what you think, watch the video. And I was like, this girl is talented.

00;13;06;22 - 00;13;23;20

Speaker 2

We gave her a shot. We believed in her and now she's killing it. And I think most companies are afraid to do that. And I will say this to your point about my mentor put up with a lot of my crap, number one. But she gave me an opportunity to be successful because he saw something in me.

00;13;23;20 - 00;13;42;27

Speaker 2

And I think that's most of us that came from the old school car arena, is somebody gave us a shot. That's how all this happened. Well, the truth of it is everybody wants a shot. Everybody wants to be a part of something great like this. If you bring them all in and you make them feel a part of it, you get by.

00;13;42;29 - 00;14;01;27

Speaker 2

And when that buying happens, that's when things start to really change. I mean, when we got buy in for like, I'll give you the number one dealer complaint is dealer activity. So how do I get my people to call and follow up. Right. A number one thing. Well we made it part of our soundboard. We have activities we check in twice a day.

00;14;02;00 - 00;14;20;11

Speaker 2

We look to see where people are and we're not negative. If you're behind, we go, hey, listen, let me pull your side. You need some help with your activities. You've been delivering some cars. You've had some ups. What do you need? We hold them accountable to it. And it takes 67 days to make a habit. But 18 salespeople now who get all their activity is done by 4:00 every day.

00;14;20;14 - 00;14;44;20

Speaker 2

Because we care, because we're willing to help them. We don't jam it down their throat and say, we're gonna fire you. If you don't, we're going to send you home. We help them, we help them. So I think a lot of dealers, I'm not calling anybody out for anything other than you have to be a human. Go back and look at how we experience the car business when we went through it and the things we want to change, because these are all things that you and I, based on our history, we would have changed when we got into management.

00;14;44;23 - 00;14;54;21

Speaker 2

We want to feel cared about. We want to feel like we're important. We want to feel like our daughter's gymnastics practice matters instead of, you can't go to that. You got people coming.

00;14;54;23 - 00;14;57;12

Speaker 1

Or feeling guilty for taking time off.

00;14;57;15 - 00;15;10;02

Speaker 2

If you want your people to love their family, and that's what motivates them when they come. That's their why. That's why they do all of that. So you take that away from them. Now you just created an employee and that's a number.

00;15;10;04 - 00;15;32;20

Speaker 1

No, I believe it. In fact, not only do I believe it, you know, you said something about the book The Secret and, you know, some some people are maybe bought in May not be bought in, but I will believe I told my team this and I'm not sure when this podcast is going to air guarantee it's not going to air before tomorrow, because my sales meeting tomorrow, we have a, we got a pretty, pretty big remote team.

00;15;32;22 - 00;15;53;16

Speaker 1

And I think it's extremely important to, to we have the power to speak things into life. We really do. You know, they say that, there are multiple things. You know, Zig Ziglar, you know, positive thinking doesn't work. 100% of the time, but negative thinking does, right? If you think you can or you think you can't, you're right.

00;15;53;16 - 00;16;12;04

Speaker 1

You know all that. There's a reason that these things are out there in the exercise that I'm going to take my team through is physically writing down, you know, we have our goals, on where we're going to be this month. But if you don't write your own goals down, I think that is, a big mess happened for years.

00;16;12;04 - 00;16;40;09

Speaker 1

I didn't until now. I literally have notebooks plastered all over my office of what we're about to do. Big whiteboard behind the camera here, of what we are going to do. So. So the thing that I'm going to challenge my team based on. But believing it and writing that no magic wand but our mind is that we've had since since we've taken this back over, we've had a drastic change and we talk about the renewing of the mind.

00;16;40;12 - 00;17;05;06

Speaker 1

But you hit on it. When people are happier at home, it just makes them better at work. This isn't rocket science, and I'm going to take them to the exercise of I am fill in the blank. Listen, I am the best daddy on the planet. I am the best husband on the planet. I am the best whatever I am.

00;17;05;06 - 00;17;27;08

Speaker 1

Tech founder on the planet. We are going to hit these numbers. And when you write those down and when you work on being a better daddy, a better significant other, a better whatever and work on that, you know, even with the news of Barr passing away, I'm like, are you freaking kidding me right now? I mean, what if today?

00;17;27;09 - 00;17;45;18

Speaker 1

You know, I hate to get morbid, but I mean, what if. I mean, that's the reality. I mean, what are people going to say about you when you're gone? What impact other than a few dollars that you can leave behind? I mean, that makes a difference. And people say, you know, and the people that I've had on this podcast since we've revamped Em talks, are incredible freaking humans.

00;17;45;26 - 00;18;05;23

Speaker 1

And those are the type of people that go into a dealership, same dealership, you know, whether it's Patrick J. Bad, whether it's you, Michael, you know, going into a dealership, you know, he's been there five years, was selling, you know, now he's selling five largest store in Georgia, same location, same building people.

00;18;05;26 - 00;18;14;00

Speaker 2

It's just people. It's all of these, you know, when you said it, there is I always say I am, I can and I will. Those are three things I always remind myself.

00;18;14;00 - 00;18;15;14

Speaker 1

Of, that I am and I can and I will.

00;18;15;14 - 00;18;34;01

Speaker 2

I can and I will. And one of the things I will tell you, you really hit it with legacy. So in my previous career, I don't, you know, we all have goals, right? We want to we want a home, we want cars, we want, we want a fully furnished home. We want to take the car all the all the the American dream, all the things on a filled in that bubble of what it is.

00;18;34;01 - 00;18;51;12

Speaker 2

Well, that change for me, at a very young age, I had most of that. I was able to experience that. I realized, well, is this it? And there was a moment there in between. And that's when I did, in fact, leave the car business. And I took a lot of time and am I met Rob and I came into this environment.

00;18;51;12 - 00;19;04;16

Speaker 2

I realized when I was here for now was a legacy. And you said that word earlier, and I'm going to say this to you, I don't have a son. I actually have a daughter who who knows that you want to be in the car business. And she might. She's a little salesperson like her dad. But I want to leave a legacy.

00;19;04;22 - 00;19;29;00

Speaker 2

And that's what actually braided me with Rob roots is Rob wants this to be. He cares about his people. He doesn't want this this Taj Mahal dealership with. I mean, we weren't Elysburg Pennsylvania people. We don't have a Taj Mahal dealership. This this doesn't look like what you see. But, like, you see, I want people to look back and go, oh, that was a great place to work.

00;19;29;03 - 00;19;46;28

Speaker 2

And it was spot. And I was a part of something that I'd never felt his opponent before. And it was my job. This wasn't an extracurricular activity and this wasn't a hobby. I got paid to do this. When you can create that, that can go forever. And I when I have meetings, I talk. It's a it's a controlled burn.

00;19;47;04 - 00;20;07;08

Speaker 2

Once it starts burning, you won't stop it. It's going to keep. And that's culture. And what happens to the leaders out there that are going what how do I do that? Where do I start? Well, you start with yourself. You said yourself accountable to this daily activity, to this morning routine, to this have a morning meeting every morning I'm going to plug Glenn Mondays, book the 800 club.

00;20;07;11 - 00;20;29;09

Speaker 2

Fantastic organization has helped us with a lot of organizational things to get our staff, you know, prepared for their day and not being negative and staying positive. There's just a way, as a leader, but you got to start with yourself. And once you start holding yourself accountable to that, you will find that when you start creating culture, culture will push out the bad parts of the hug.

00;20;29;12 - 00;20;53;02

Speaker 2

It'll actually smoke them out. They'll come out, they'll they'll realize, I don't belong here. I'm not going to fit into this. And your job gets really easy from that perspective, because now people are calling me who said, I'm hearing about Bob Ruth, I'm hearing about what you're doing. I want to be a part of this. I mean, finance directors teams are selling cars for us now with the hey, I'll wait to move up, but I want to work here.

00;20;53;05 - 00;20;58;09

Speaker 2

This is where I want to do it. I mean, I had to send a message in itself, you know?

00;20;58;12 - 00;21;19;22

Speaker 1

You know that, That's incredible. In fact, you know, 20, gosh, 20 years ago September I laughed, an elevated role to come as a sales manager at a group here in Atlanta, the great Hennessy organization. And I do the exact same. I want to, you know, I just want to be a part of the your organization. And I think that Maxwell nailed it.

00;21;19;24 - 00;21;36;21

Speaker 1

It's you know and the and I've mentioned it several times in here. But again success leaves clues and this isn't rocket science. You said it 100. I haven't said it. 100. You said it ten times. You know, it's about people. It's about people, about people. But it's the it's the the steadfastness of drawing the line in the sand.

00;21;36;21 - 00;21;43;15

Speaker 1

This is where we're going. And we're not we're not deviating from it. But it's the law of attraction. Something's going on at Rob root for it.

00;21;43;18 - 00;21;58;00

Speaker 2

There's a yeah, there's a magnet pulls it and when you when you tell yourself that you care that the one thing that you have to remind is, is it really a relationship? Do you really know their kids names? Do you really know what they do? You really know their goals? Do you really know what's going on in their life?

00;21;58;00 - 00;22;16;15

Speaker 2

Do you really understand them as a human being? That that's where leaders not bosses, not managers, leaders, that's where they grow from. They come from a place of and these people don't found you anywhere because they believe in you. They're part into what you're doing because they know you have their back. And I really do. I there's there's not much I wouldn't do for anyone.

00;22;16;15 - 00;22;30;08

Speaker 2

All our staff here. That's it. And that's a culture I'm going to give credit where it's due. That's Rob Ruth to the core. That's a human being that he is. I've never met an owner that was completely geared that way. Rob is just belt different. That's the truth.

00;22;30;11 - 00;22;46;10

Speaker 1

No, it starts it starts there. Because you also have to have leadership. Whoever you call boss, you have to have leadership that's going to allow you to do it. It's not going to come in and go to one of those meetings like we talked about. And, you know, we want to rip everything up and be steadfast. But, you know, it's it's the law of attraction.

00;22;46;10 - 00;23;05;17

Speaker 1

Something's going on here. And then a lot of duplication allowing people to, you know, you don't want to create. You know, we always talk about on social media, I've got this many followers, I got this many leaders, right. I've got little leaders, right. That that are, you know, little models. And look, people need to be a lot better than me.

00;23;05;17 - 00;23;10;23

Speaker 1

But what I'm saying is the way we've done things, it's it's pretty simple.

00;23;10;26 - 00;23;13;27

Speaker 2

You know, another one term quick is people are afraid of talent.

00;23;13;29 - 00;23;14;14

Speaker 1

They're wet.

00;23;14;14 - 00;23;32;13

Speaker 2

They're afraid of talent. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. You can't have. I've to exams. I got spinning paper and finance. Who are fantastic people who are more talented. Me in some ways, you can't be who I want all the time in this building. I'll take it all. I'm not afraid of that. And that's another thing I took from Rob Dale and Rob Ruth is that we.

00;23;32;15 - 00;23;39;01

Speaker 2

We're not afraid of that. We want talented people. Even if you're better, it doesn't matter. We want you on our team.

00;23;39;03 - 00;24;04;04

Speaker 1

Our 100%. You hit it right on the head. I've said it again. Success leaves clues. Guys, the biggest problem in any dealership, any business, period. Insecurity, pride. And they're usually one and the same. Everybody's jockeying for position, you know. Oh, I can't hire them all that. You know, I understand, like a lot of people know Bob Lane, and Bob Lanham is a better in a lot of things than I am.

00;24;04;06 - 00;24;22;28

Speaker 1

Joe Gilmore, former dealer, principal, owned multiple dealerships in the Detroit area. Way better and a lot of things than I am. That's okay. I'm going to stay in my lane and do as as some people say, Tim, things like this pour into people, preach to, you know, the good news of of car now and what we're doing.

00;24;22;28 - 00;24;42;01

Speaker 1

So, so we have to be comfortable being uncomfortable, but we have to be comfortable if we truly want to move the ship forward, if we truly we have to be okay. And that starts with humility and dealership. I think there's a fine line there. Michael, I think that, you know, when people talk about humility, you know, oh.

00;24;42;01 - 00;25;04;17

Speaker 1

Oh, no, woe is me. No. There's a big difference between, you know, conceit and confidence. I'm going to take comments every time. Unfortunately, in our business, the reason that people don't grow, the reason that they still say is like you were at the new you, you've been in the gym world for a long time. And, and I started out very young, and that's all I did.

00;25;04;17 - 00;25;09;16

Speaker 1

And and now, Michael, I'm officially skinny, fat and skinny or skinny fat is I.

00;25;09;16 - 00;25;10;26

Speaker 2

Do I understand?

00;25;10;28 - 00;25;32;03

Speaker 1

Yeah, yeah, yeah. My arms got skinny, my belly got fat. I'm getting ready to be a grandpa. But I'm trying, right. I have to ab I have ABBA. Yeah. So anyway, one okay, I have one. I have an oblique. What? I stretch my arms out or not. Yeah. So anyway, so, you know, I, I think that it's, it's extremely important.

00;25;32;03 - 00;25;50;16

Speaker 1

It's just like going to the gym. You have some people that go to the gym and they've gone for years and they look exactly the same because nothing changes in the kitchen. There's no nothing change. They don't grow, they don't grow, they don't get lean. They get the same thing. They go, they hang out by the machine for, you know, and this isn't a health and fitness show, but it's just a fact, right?

00;25;50;16 - 00;26;08;04

Speaker 1

They hang out by the by the machine. Leg press looks good. I know what it can do, but I'm going to talk to my buddy for 25 minutes and it's about time to go. So what we're trying to say is if nothing changes, nothing changes these basic principles that you guys Tim talks world out there. Listen, that you've heard.

00;26;08;06 - 00;26;26;07

Speaker 1

We don't rehearse these with these do I got on the phone with Michael five minutes before and say, hey, listen, I just want you to tune and you get I just want you to tell your story. And the fact that he talks about I am I can, I will, which I wrote down which I'm going to add to my sales meeting other than just I am tomorrow.

00;26;26;15 - 00;26;44;27

Speaker 1

And the fact that he talks about he's grateful every morning for going to the bathroom and everybody you guys know, you know, being able to go to the bathroom on your own. And I'm not trying to be silly or gross. I mean, it's just, you know, guys, we have so much to be thankful for. And when we start our day that way, everything changes.

00;26;44;29 - 00;26;47;00

Speaker 1

And so Michael destroyed our business.

00;26;47;00 - 00;27;09;05

Speaker 2

This made my life fun again. This made everything I do worth it. This brought back all the things that I thought I couldn't get back that were gone. It brought it all back in that one simple thing. And I'll leave you with this. A lot of the things that we think we don't want to do is where the real change is, is if you're willing to do the things that you don't want to do, that's where you're going to find the most growth.

00;27;09;08 - 00;27;31;01

Speaker 2

And you said the word uncomfortable, yet uncomfortable. That's not the truth. I always tell people I'll use the Wall Street, he says. Pick up the phone. While most of us are still afraid because we're going to get an objection, we're going to get somebody who does is it nice they don't want to talk to us, pick up the phone, have some gratitude, have some good intentions, make a relationship with somebody and you'll change your entire day.

00;27;31;03 - 00;27;32;11

Speaker 2

Let's start.

00;27;32;14 - 00;28;00;17

Speaker 1

Michael, I have no where this is. This has been a great episode. Hopefully, ladies and gentlemen, you've learned something today from Michael Stevens. Rob Root for shout out to Rob Bruce. You know, Michael, you wouldn't be able to do what you do, without his leadership and him allowing you to do that. So I would argue that that the growth that you have seen in a very short period of time on, on this mentality was because of that.

00;28;00;19 - 00;28;24;15

Speaker 1

So, to, you know, one minute as you're talking to that brand new GM, that brand new GSM, as we've just got a couple maybe we got like a minute 50 left, you're talking to that person. Maybe, maybe been there is a little bit like, what's one thing that you want to just whisper in their ear as they're either starting their new career or sitting in a brand new spot or a brand new store?

00;28;24;18 - 00;28;43;25

Speaker 2

Make relationships. That's where we fail is is we walk past people in the hallway at work and we don't really know is when, you know, you can you can find their why when you know their why, you have all the power in the world. And that's where leaders and I'm going to say, if you call yourself a leader, you better be a servant leader because leaders are bosses.

00;28;43;25 - 00;29;03;10

Speaker 2

Bosses aren't leaders. Have to be able to know your people and understand why they're here. And if you know that, you harness all the power. That's what brought them here. It's that magnet you're talking about. And that's what's happening here with us, is we've we've realized that if you care about genuinely care not just not just the typical I care no really care.

00;29;03;15 - 00;29;17;26

Speaker 2

What are the why are they here. Find their why and when you know that and they know that, you can continue to remind them of that and help them stay on track for what you need them and they need to do to be successful. So be a servant leader. That's true.

00;29;17;28 - 00;29;41;20

Speaker 1

I love it. Success clues. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you so much for taking your time. Whether it's on Apple Pie, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you tuned in to Tim Talks, we're so grateful for you. Thank you. Thank you for the kind words, for the, the Damien podcast that was just released not too long ago. It had some people, friends of mine say, hey, I use that for my sales meeting.

00;29;41;22 - 00;29;58;22

Speaker 1

If we want just to pour into the community. That's been so good to, listen, as we always say here on Tim Talks. Listen, no one is smarter than everyone. Let's just continue to get better together. Until next time.

00;29;58;24 - 00;30;02;24

Unknown

And I.

00;30;02;26 - 00;30;06;07

Unknown

I give you.