TimTalks: Automotive Leadership and Beyond

Finding the Gifts in Challenges with Brad Wise

• CarNow • Season 2 • Episode 13

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In this episode of TimTalks, Tim sits down with Brad Wise, executive manager at Ferman Automotive, to explore the transformative power of leadership.

Brad encourages us to find the gift within challenges, illustrating how reframing obstacles can unlock hidden opportunities From overcoming limiting beliefs to recruiting for success, Brad's insights will motivate you to embrace progress over perfection. Whether you’re in the automotive industry or navigating your own leadership journey, this conversation will help you succeed.

Connect with Brad on LinkedIn, and subscribe to his podcast, WISE UP.

[00:00 – 01:00] Introduction

Tim introduces the episode, focusing on leadership in car dealerships and welcoming Brad Wise, Executive Manager at Ferman Automotive.

[01:01 – 03:27] Brad’s Journey

Brad shares his journey from a college baseball player to a leader in the automotive industry. Early mentors shaped his career and instilled key values.

[03:28 – 05:00] Overcoming Early Challenges

Brad discusses his humble beginnings in the industry, from his first day in a Sears suit to building confidence through mentorship and hard work.

[05:01 – 07:00] Joining Ferman Automotive

After 25 years in the industry, Brad joined Ferman Automotive. He highlights the company’s 127-year legacy and supportive culture.

[07:01 – 08:59] Transforming Leadership

Brad shares how he identified organizational strengths and opportunities, implementing daily meetings focused on personal development and positivity.

[09:00 – 11:50] The Power of Inspiration

Brad emphasizes the importance of self-development, using inspirational stories to motivate his team. Progress, he notes, is the key to happiness.

[11:51 – 14:45] Building a Positive Culture

Brad highlights the connection between personal and professional growth. His leadership approach centers on empowering employees to succeed in all areas of life.

[14:46 – 17:42] Balancing Accountability

Brad balances a supportive culture with clear expectations, focusing on recruiting, lead handling, training, and service retention.

[17:43 – 21:25] Creative Recruiting

Brad’s innovative recruiting methods, like targeted social media and nontraditional talent pools, attract top-tier candidates to Ferman.

[21:26 – 24:42] Overcoming Limitations

Brad encourages team members to turn challenges into opportunities, sharing stories of famous figures who used adversity as fuel for success.

[24:43 – 26:58] Finding the Gifts

Brad shares how reframing challenges, like a long commute, helped him grow. He urges others to seek the hidden benefits in difficult situations.

[26:59 – 28:58] Advice for Leaders

Brad advises new leaders to prioritize visibility, celebrate progress over perfection, and recognize unsung heroes within their teams.

[28:59 – 32:14] Closing Thoughts

Tim reflects on Brad’s inspiring insights, encouraging listeners to focus on progress and growth. Brad invites everyone to check out his podcast, "WISE UP."

00;00;00;26 - 00;00;37;00
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. Now welcome everyone to yet another episode of Tim Talks Leadership and Beyond, where our goal is to bring you every single week someone that has made an absolute impact, obviously in their dealership, but in the lives of their people and their community.

00;00;37;00 - 00;01;00;22
Speaker 1
And I have the privilege, to bring you one of those humans today. I have heard I have not physically met Brad yet. But I have heard, you know, it's I think it's a it's kind of a bigger deal. In fact, at least it is for me. When you hear what someone's doing, when you hear what kind of leader they are.

00;01;00;22 - 00;01;26;26
Speaker 1
So. So I know this guy is the real deal. And he is the executive manager at Ferman Chevy. Excuse me? Mazda. Chevy. Chevy. Mazda. Firm and incredible organization. 127 years in business there in the beautiful state of Florida. And with that, Brad, did I get all that right?

00;01;26;28 - 00;01;30;19
Speaker 2
Yes, absolutely. Appreciate.

00;01;30;21 - 00;01;39;20
Speaker 1
That's awesome. Brad Wise, thank you so much, for the privilege to be able to communicate with you and, and coming on our show. Truly appreciate it.

00;01;39;22 - 00;01;41;21
Speaker 2
It's a pleasure to be here. Thanks for having me.

00;01;41;23 - 00;01;58;10
Speaker 1
As a matter of fact, you have, your own podcast, which which I think is, is probably a cooler title than mine based on your last name. And is it? That is that is Wise Up, the Wise Up Podcast. And I'm assuming people can find that Spotify.

00;01;58;12 - 00;02;20;12
Speaker 2
Apple, all of that. I have a lot of fun with that. Learning that that whole space. And, it's a good outlet for creativity. It's a good recruiting tool. It's not really about the car business. It's more about, self-development things that can apply to any business. So, encourage anybody to take a listen to either. Appreciate it.

00;02;20;14 - 00;02;44;15
Speaker 1
Absolutely. I'm going to, I've take I've taken notes and I am going to definitely do that as well. Let's just start with, you know, I know a lot of people in this space know you. We met through, we have the privilege to partner together. With some of the products that we have. Today's not about that, but, you know, we had the privilege to meet each other through, clubhouse.

00;02;45;08 - 00;03;01;21
Speaker 1
And then through that, obviously just hearing repetition and stories of number one Ferman and which is an incredible organization. And then, and Joe Schubert. But I think, you know, take us back a little bit. Tell us your story, Brad. You know, how did you get in the car business? You know, how long have you been at Furman?

00;03;01;28 - 00;03;05;04
Speaker 1
You know, so on and so forth. We let let's start there.

00;03;05;14 - 00;03;34;03
Speaker 2
Sure. I mean, I was. If I can do it, anyone can do it. I was a, you know, a CS student in school. I was a college jock. I majored in baseball in college, and, and, let me really take school that seriously. So when, you know, I got out of school. Out of college, I was living in an apartment with someone who worked at a car dealership, and it just so happened that the GM there also played baseball at at the same school I played baseball on.

00;03;34;05 - 00;03;42;23
Speaker 2
And he said, hey, you ought to come down there and look for get a job because of that, you know? So obviously that guy and myself hit it off for that reason. And he's been you.

00;03;42;23 - 00;03;44;04
Speaker 1
Were in college then.

00;03;44;06 - 00;03;59;03
Speaker 2
I was just out of college. So I was like, okay, I'm getting into the workforce now trying to figure out what I was going to do. And, he guided me to the dealership. I met, gentleman by the name of Jerry Motz, who played baseball at the same college, and he was a great mentor of mine.

00;03;59;06 - 00;04;18;08
Speaker 2
In fact, I have a picture of him on my wall over here, and he took a naive country boy kid and taught him not only about the car business, but about, the world. So I had some really good managers and role models and sales and about what to do and what not to do, you know, some colorful characters along the way.

00;04;18;11 - 00;04;42;19
Speaker 2
Yeah. My mom dropped me off at the front door of the dealership in a suit that she bought me at Sears the day before. I walked every single day until somebody told me I needed, you know, I was really naive, you know, and I really was raised by my manager, so that's. That's just something that, management is so important in the automobile industry and probably any industry to really guide people and give them advice and counsel, and and that's what they did.

00;04;42;19 - 00;05;01;09
Speaker 2
And and in short order, I got off to a really good start. And then I started getting the magic confidence that I really, you know, lacked. You know, I know you're a big Tony Robbins guy and so am I am I leverage my leverage at the time was to not embarrass myself because they had that board in the conference room, the number one and the worst one.

00;05;01;11 - 00;05;18;13
Speaker 2
I would have done anything to avoid being at the bottom of that board. So it wasn't. My driving force was not to be successful was to not be on the bottom of that board. So I listened to the managers and did you know, I just landed somebody in a car. I brought them in, the manager closed them, and, you know, and then I started learning from their closes and their techniques, work ethics.

00;05;18;13 - 00;05;42;23
Speaker 2
And then, it then it was just a rapid acceleration in the automobile business. I became a sales manager at a very young age of a large Chevy store. Then the GSM, and then eventually the GM. The owner died on it kind of unexpectedly. But I was there for 25 years and then moved on. But, I went to Michigan, where my wife is from, to take her back to her family that was up there.

00;05;42;23 - 00;06;03;00
Speaker 2
And then one day I got a phone call from an executive recruiter, about Ferman and, I really believe it was probably the the greatest open point GM position in the country. I mean, my predecessor was here for 35 years, and, it's a gold mine store, right on the the strip are all the biggest dealers in the country are.

00;06;03;02 - 00;06;23;07
Speaker 2
And with 127 years in business, just ultra compliant, they treat us like absolute gold. So I mean, that's really it. I want to pinch myself. I just can't believe that I work for this organization. But, we've had some great success success since I've been here, so I can't wait to get to work every day. So that's fun.

00;06;23;09 - 00;06;26;10
Speaker 1
That's amazing. So how long have you been at, Ferman?

00;06;26;12 - 00;06;27;15
Speaker 2
About seven years.

00;06;27;17 - 00;06;46;11
Speaker 1
Seven years? Awesome, awesome. So? So let me let let's go back seven, seven years ago. Obviously, you know, you were you were Uber successful at your at your last stop that you were there 25 years. I was never I was a place eight years in another place ten years. And then we started, you know, our, CarNow.

00;06;46;11 - 00;07;06;10
Speaker 1
But, it's incredible to have that type of run. Number one. It's not normal anymore. You see, people, you know, three years here, two years there, you know, kind of jumping around, but seven years, you know, you roll up your sleeves and and you dive in. What are some of the things? And again, like I said, ladies and gentlemen, like other people.

00;07;06;10 - 00;07;24;02
Speaker 1
And this is probably more so than not, you know, other people talk about Brad and his leadership and, and, and how he cares about his people. But we'll get to that in a second. But what was like what did you do day one? You know, when you first got here, you know, whether you had to change the culture, didn't change the culture.

00;07;24;02 - 00;07;39;13
Speaker 1
It was a good culture, you know, that that is thrown around a lot as well. So take us back in time on, on from there till till now. On how you kind of set the not kind of how you set the tone to what, your stores are today.

00;07;39;15 - 00;07;59;11
Speaker 2
Well, I spent a lifetime of learning, leadership and best practices in the automobile business. So I have to say that I'm a I have always been a researcher, even when I was a college baseball player trying to throw 90 miles an hour, I'd be research and medical journals and pitching books and everything else. So I don't know where that came from inside me.

00;07;59;11 - 00;08;28;10
Speaker 2
But I've always been a learner, so I had consumed tons and tons of leadership, information, self-development information before I even took this job. So I knew I knew what to do. And one of the thing is, you know, when you're when you're trying to start a movement is what it's like. You're trying to start a movement. And, if you're if you get into an organization that has a lot of complacency when people don't want to change or energy vampires, you know that your first meeting is going to be very important.

00;08;28;10 - 00;08;48;19
Speaker 2
So I really wanted to know what was awkward, what was missing? What do you love? What do you hate? What do our guests love? What do our guests hate and look for common denominators. And then the next thing is, every single morning we have meetings and they have nothing to do with the car business. It has to do with being more, doing more, exposing them to the self-development world that we all, they.

00;08;48;19 - 00;09;10;16
Speaker 2
I know that you know, that a lot of people know is really the secret to happiness and the secret to success in business and your personal life is to get tuned into that radio station of the self-development world, as opposed to what you learn in school, which is pretty much useless. And then your well intentioned family members telling you to these things, which are kind of if you listen, uncle G are great.

00;09;10;16 - 00;09;34;10
Speaker 2
Grant Cardone that explains pretty eloquently how that information is not serving you. So it's just to and just to give you a real world example, it might be, yeah, weight loss stories are great ones. So there's a you know, there's a great video of someone who is, by 300 pounds and, is bedridden because of, some military, injuries and his back.

00;09;34;10 - 00;09;53;15
Speaker 2
And you can't walk and you can just see the dead look on his face. And it showed the miraculous change in someone in six months, going from that state to running marathons with the brightest smile you could possibly imagine. In fact, I encourage everybody to watch it. Maybe if you can put links in the show notes. But it's the diamond.

00;09;53;15 - 00;10;16;22
Speaker 2
Dallas is, Diamond Dallas, page. I think his name is he's a, he was a wrestler. Yeah. Yeah, he's a yoga guy. So deep yoga, DDP yoga is what it is. And just just Google DDP yoga and the Arthur video. And that's about eight minutes of the best gold you'll ever see. And it just shows that when people progress at something how happy they can be.

00;10;16;22 - 00;10;44;08
Speaker 2
So it's the stacking of these meetings every single day. I've seen seeing the world, you know, a championship fisherman with no arms and legs, a 8080 year old nun who competes in Ironman competitions. You know, I've got a whole arsenal of all these stories in it, and you'd have to be a fool not to see that and say, God, if these people can overcome the kinds of kinds of hurdles and at the same time look at the smile on their face, it's really the secret.

00;10;44;08 - 00;11;19;01
Speaker 2
I think it's the secret of the human condition, is to be happy and fulfilled, and human beings have to be progressing. It's something to be happy. And and I'm the ambassador of progress. That's the way I look at myself. I'm trying to get people to be more, see more, educate themselves on a new language that's empowering instead of the what you see in the masses right now, everybody attacking each other, playing the blame game, with playing victims and, you know, blaming the past, blaming others that, that, that, that does not make you happy.

00;11;19;01 - 00;11;32;15
Speaker 2
And and I guess I'll put a bow on that by saying, even if everything I'm saying isn't based on fact, if I believe it's true and it makes my life life better, what's the harm in that?

00;11;32;17 - 00;11;55;03
Speaker 1
I mean, you two minutes hit a grand slam and something that that we've touched base on multiple times. I continue to say, you know, it's amazing. I'll say it again, you know, have you seen the, the Netflix series Live to 100? And it talks about the Centurion, you know, the people that are over 100 in their day to day.

00;11;55;03 - 00;12;13;13
Speaker 1
And the guy goes all over the world, and then he puts at the end, he puts together this color. We all of the same thing, whether it's, you know, they live in an incline. It's a mediterranean diet. They're around friends and family. They have every faith, no matter what that faith is. And and he puts these color wheels together that create this.

00;12;13;20 - 00;12;17;01
Speaker 1
You know, what creates how do you live? Have you seen that?

00;12;17;03 - 00;12;22;00
Speaker 2
No, but I'm aware of it because I know there's a mention of walking in it that, you know.

00;12;22;03 - 00;12;23;16
Speaker 1
Yes. Yeah.

00;12;23;18 - 00;12;24;14
Speaker 2
You know, cowboy.

00;12;24;14 - 00;12;48;11
Speaker 1
Getting up 4:00 in the morning and and and and and but what I'm trying to tell you, ladies and gentlemen, is lean in a little bit because. Do you see the overlap here? Do you see our leadership in Beyond Color Wheel coming together? We've said in here before, I, I absolutely, love and the respect that I have for you just went up tenfold.

00;12;48;11 - 00;13;07;27
Speaker 1
I don't know if it could, but the fact that you don't talk about business and you talk about that on a daily basis, and you talk about because I always say, if we're better humans, we become better employee. You got to be a better human first. And if you think you you know, and you know, I, was a manager at a Lexus store for a decade, and, you know, it's in their creed.

00;13;07;27 - 00;13;36;01
Speaker 1
If you think you can, you will. Right? Yeah. Working on a project with Damien, Boudreau. And he brings up a story. You know, in the 1960s, it was impossible. Impossible to break a four minute mile. You absolutely can't break a four minute mile until someone did. And then the miraculous thing that I'll quite frankly, preach here is the world record lasted two weeks.

00;13;36;04 - 00;13;36;22
Speaker 2
Yeah.

00;13;36;24 - 00;13;56;15
Speaker 1
So all you know, all of history, no one ran faster that we know of on record for four minutes or faster in a mile. And it can't be done. It can't be done until somebody did it. And but it all it took was someone seeing that it can be done and then it is done. So, ladies and gentlemen, I don't know what position you are.

00;13;56;25 - 00;14;22;14
Speaker 1
Maybe you're not even in the automotive space. I know I've got some text and some emails from people outside of the space. We're glad that we could partner with you, on your leadership journey. And your life journey. That's what we're here about. But I don't want you to miss that. Brad, who obviously is Uber successful, could probably go anywhere he wanted to go, but he pour it into his people daily and motivates them to be better humans, better daddies, better husbands.

00;14;22;14 - 00;14;47;19
Speaker 1
Does this sound familiar? Hello. Better wives? Better girlfriends? Better significant others? I mean guys, that is probably the largest key that will unlock, greatness in your organization. I mean, I absolutely love it. In fact, we're going to have to start sharing some of these videos because, look, life gets very difficult. You know, we all go through stuff, right?

00;14;47;19 - 00;15;10;19
Speaker 1
I mean, we all go through things. Unfortunately, people pass away, people break up, things are lost. And and every day, you know, as we're hoarse, cuss in an employee or you have no idea what people are going through. And having that type of breakthrough mentality to where you're giving them a platform where you're not bust them up because they, you know, sales are XYZ.

00;15;11;01 - 00;15;29;28
Speaker 1
But you're encouraging them, you know, every day that that is huge. And that leads me because I'm always interested, because I want to learn like we were we were a company that grew very, very quickly. And the best part of our company is how many stores we have. And the worst part about our company is how many stores we have.

00;15;29;28 - 00;15;59;27
Speaker 1
Right. So so I'm breaking we as a leadership down are breaking down the game film right now and and putting that process together. And maybe you know that that what worked a while ago maybe doesn't work now. But let's let's talk about with as with, the leadership that you have in your stores, I'm always interested and I've asked several people this question, but I want your take on it with that type of vibe, culture, feeling whatever you want to say within your store to where you're pulling in and making people better humans every single day.

00;16;00;02 - 00;16;20;05
Speaker 1
How do you hold that? Is there anything that changes as far as holding them accountable as far as discipline, when they don't do right, you know, and I've heard a million stories. Oh, well, you, you know, you you you fired me. And you're supposed to be this. And, you know, this company supposed to be, you know, you know what we used to call la familia?

00;16;20;05 - 00;16;36;10
Speaker 1
You know this. But but but you did this, and you did. You know? You know, how do you bridge that gap? I'm just curious. You don't have to go into detail, obviously. From people. But, you know, sometimes when we set the tone that way and we're constantly pouring into people, you know, it's it's makes it a little more difficult to have that.

00;16;36;10 - 00;16;46;02
Speaker 1
Hey, look, you're at eight cars. Everybody else is at 12 or whatever. How how do you walk that tightrope per se and hold the culture? But yet. Yeah, have firm discipline.

00;16;46;04 - 00;16;51;02
Speaker 2
I think a lot of organizations don't hold people accountable because they can't replace.

00;16;51;04 - 00;16;51;26
Speaker 1
Right?

00;16;51;28 - 00;17;16;02
Speaker 2
They hold they put, they associate more pain to having to replace that position than the pleasure of getting somebody better. So and the only way to avoid that is you have to be a master recruiter. And there's four pillars of my focus every single day. It's recruiting, lead handling, training and service retention. Those are the four things that if you're good at those four things, you're going to be, great in your business.

00;17;16;02 - 00;17;18;14
Speaker 2
So you got to be a master recruiter and then.

00;17;18;17 - 00;17;20;10
Speaker 1
Recruiting lead handling.

00;17;20;12 - 00;17;36;09
Speaker 2
Training and service retention. Okay. That's for me. I'm a I'm one of my strong suits is I'm a recruiter. I do all sorts of, recruiting efforts that are unusual off the grid. And,

00;17;36;12 - 00;17;37;13
Speaker 1
Can you give us one?

00;17;37;16 - 00;18;04;18
Speaker 2
Yeah, sure. I go in, I go, well, first of all, my social media posts are very intentional. Trying to sell Ferman, Florida, sunshine, guns, no state tax. You know, I'm putting posts out there trying to attract a superstar up north to come and play for firm. And so, yeah, I'm trying to create a playground for talented people. In other words.

00;18;04;20 - 00;18;20;29
Speaker 2
Talented people, for example, would be, you know, in sports, because I have a sports background, I manage this just like I'm managing sports is. I have to have the best players I can have the best coaches I can have the best plays, I can have the best facility, but I'm not going to win unless I have the best players.

00;18;21;01 - 00;18;43;02
Speaker 2
One of my main, best players is that they can take objections and overcome objection. And somebody who wants a four wheel drive and all we have is a two wheel drive. I can convince them to buy a four wheel drive ethically, convince somebody to spend more on their car, on the pavement because of through value and really understanding the vehicle, and get them to see the value in spending more, as opposed to selling people who came in to buy it.

00;18;43;04 - 00;19;07;07
Speaker 2
You know, a chimpanzee can do that. So I need to find these talented people, and it's not that hard to find them, because you and I know most stores don't have good cultures. And for that, I'm very happy to be competing in that environment where the managers aren't servants to talented people. We're servants, service advisors and revenue generators. We seed the path for those folks, and I need to find the superstars so I could.

00;19;07;14 - 00;19;25;06
Speaker 2
And what do what do playgrounds look like? There's freedoms we give our our our top producers freedoms, schedule freedoms, freedoms to wear, whatever they want. Because if you're talented and you're great, other people know that and they're going to try to steal you, you know, so this, you know, to win a Super Bowl, you have to have great players.

00;19;25;08 - 00;19;47;27
Speaker 2
There's there's no substitute for that. Tom Brady left. The Patriots came to Tampa. They won a Super Bowl okay. Bill Belichick didn't. So it isn't me. It's a player. But it is me if I'm recruiting those kinds of people. So from that aspect of things recruiting is a very big part. Other I go in and I go in on in on Indeed the website and there's people there updating their resumes.

00;19;48;00 - 00;20;14;13
Speaker 2
I'll go in there and coach my, competition to find their employees that updated their resume in the last two weeks. And then I'll it gives me all their background, all their information. That's I look in bartenders and waiters are great car people. I'll go into a Facebook group of bartenders and, and, waiters and put a informational thing out there about the car business is, you know, you can make $100,000 and not smell like French fries or or whatever.

00;20;14;13 - 00;20;33;29
Speaker 2
So, yeah. So you always gotta be. You always got to be recruiting. That's definitely one of my, my strengths when it comes to, those kinds of things. But I find that, you know, limiting beliefs is really. Boy, it's just like I'm on a crusade to try to change limiting beliefs because it's it's people I assume want to be happy.

00;20;34;01 - 00;20;53;26
Speaker 2
I mean, that really is the outcome of life is and it has to be built. And so many people are three feet from gold and they're just going east looking for a sunset. And I just want to shake them and say what I've learned. You were talking about things like, their background or their, where they came from.

00;20;54;01 - 00;21;25;24
Speaker 2
I mean, if you read any biography of any famous, successful, happy person, the first two chapters are horrible. Every single mom almost says that they've got disabilities or bad home life. So, I mean, you're never gonna hear about somebody who said I was born rich. And, you know, you can't hardly even name one, you know? Yeah. If you look at some of these, the offspring of some famous people, you know, they don't really do anything, you know, it's these immigrants and ADHDs and broken families and, and struggles.

00;21;25;27 - 00;21;45;26
Speaker 2
That's where the real juice of life is. So if you start living, you're stopped using this as an excuse and use that as a superpower. You know, if I had, you know, ADHD or something like that, I could name ten people, including Steve Jobs, that also had that and call it a superpower. So you get to decide what things mean, you know, a divorce.

00;21;45;26 - 00;22;00;10
Speaker 2
What does that mean, somebody died? What does I get to choose with? That means if my 85 year old grandmother passes away and I put my hand on the door to the funeral home, I can say to myself, this is going to be a celebration of someone's life, or I'm going to dress in black and cry with everybody else.

00;22;00;13 - 00;22;35;25
Speaker 2
I get to choose what this funeral means, you know? Or look at, look at, a bad childhood is as they blame it for what it is. But also, maybe I wouldn't be as determined as I am now or as gritty as I am now if if I didn't have that experience. So I'm like, blaming that intelligently and using that as super as a, as a fuel or a super power to, you know, finding a worthy opponent, you know, using that as fuel so you can almost take any conventional wisdom of things and turn it around and give it a completely different meaning.

00;22;35;27 - 00;22;51;27
Speaker 2
And that's what I try to do when I'm, you know, in car dealerships, there's a lot of drama, you know, there is, you know, and that's sort of my role is to sort of be that psychiatrist in a lot of ways, because I can pull something out of my quiver that I've learned that is going to help somebody in that situation.

00;22;51;29 - 00;23;10;28
Speaker 2
And I think, I create a bond like that with some people. And, I mean, it's just my role here, you know, everybody has a role to play. Not the mind's better than anything else. That's just kind of what I do. I look into the hearts and minds and souls of people, and I can just tell by looking in their eyes that something's missing.

00;23;11;00 - 00;23;29;29
Speaker 2
Let's go to my office and talk about it. And sometimes you go home and you're just exhausted from, you know, energy vampires sometimes that exist that we eradicate from our store. But, that's in any business, not just the car business, but seems to be a little bit more, prevalent in the auto industry.

00;23;31;04 - 00;23;50;05
Speaker 1
You know, that's, I'm sitting here and I'm actually getting fired up. I mean, I love that I love that quote. What does that mean? You know, what does that mean? I you know, I, I, I've said a bunch of times and it's not I didn't coin it by any means, but you either wake up a victim, and there's a lot of people that just wake up, like you said.

00;23;50;05 - 00;24;18;11
Speaker 1
Victims. Yeah. People just wake up. Unfortunately, this country is full of them, you know, this world is full of, mainly, unfortunately, this country that we love. You and I both love this country so much. You know, and and people wake up victims other than the people that just want to overcome and adapt and leave a better, you know, a better way for your children and leave a better way and you're and you're right, you know, I go through so many and a lot of people don't know you've gone through stuff.

00;24;18;11 - 00;24;37;24
Speaker 1
It's been a tough, you know, with I mean, goodness, my house burnt down. My, my, my, my mom passed away. My dad had a stroke. I mean, it just keeps coming, you know? But I can tell you now that because of at least my, you know, but my son just got married. I just became a grandpa, like I like, but it has new meaning.

00;24;37;24 - 00;24;51;14
Speaker 1
Like, because of all that bad, allows me to truly enjoy the good. Now I will just. Side note for you. If someone can help me in the car when I'm driving in traffic, like I become a completely different person. So I'm good.

00;24;51;14 - 00;25;12;27
Speaker 2
And that I may say, well, first of all, most all problems are gifts and it takes a little while sometimes for the gift to appear. I had an hour and 15 minute commute to work every day. I hated it. I would listen to Howard Stern all day. Yeah, and then I then I stopped doing that. And then, you know, I started doing is listening to books, podcasts, Facebook, audio books.

00;25;12;29 - 00;25;32;00
Speaker 2
For four years, I spent 3.5 hours of education on the way. And so that problem of my commute was one of the biggest gifts of my life. So now I have a 15 minute commute, so I don't I have to do it in a little bit different, different scenario. But that's just a perfect example where that that problem was a gift.

00;25;32;00 - 00;25;52;13
Speaker 2
And and if you people look back that a divorce or something probably opened the floodgates to some new possibility at the time was very crushing. And you have to have empathy for people that go through tough times. But but if you live your life saying, well, what's the gift in this? You know what is going to be the gift in this?

00;25;52;13 - 00;26;04;15
Speaker 2
I mean, that's an oversimplification. That's easy for me to say, but there is truth to the fact that you can't deny that a lot of problems in life gifts have, come out of it.

00;26;04;17 - 00;26;26;14
Speaker 1
Well, if you say, you know, I'm not being rude, I'm taking, copious notes. Brad, we are going to have to do a part two. Truly, you know, look, I don't want to get all gushy, and people already think I'm weird. And you know what? I don't even care. You know, I'm I'm pretty transparent everywhere. My emotions on the sleeves and on my sleeve.

00;26;26;14 - 00;26;49;04
Speaker 1
Number one, I need to get down to Tampa and just. We just need to hang out, and I need to. I need be in your presence, brother, because you are the kind of people that, you know, they always say, show me your five closest people, and I show you who you become. You know, I love to surround myself with like minded people, but people that have even gone further and and are pushing the envelope even more and and, sir, you have done that.

00;26;49;04 - 00;27;07;07
Speaker 1
What is the gift in this? And what does that mean? Ladies and gentlemen, it has been an absolute pleasure. You know, before we left, any final thoughts? I want to I want to give you just a minute or two. I know we get we got to land the plane, as I say, and we want to keep these things around 30.

00;27;07;07 - 00;27;21;14
Speaker 1
But but any final thoughts to that new GM, GSM, new guy in the chair? You know what what is your you know, you're you're already on the other side of the minefield. You're still learning. But but you've walked that gantlet like, what would you pour into them?

00;27;21;17 - 00;27;41;26
Speaker 2
Well, I do a lot of my you know, managing by walking around is a real important thing. You know, instead of hide in your office all day, you walking around all the departments, I'm very strategic about it. And again, you'll get it. You'll just pick up on what's happening. You know, you'll you can just tell by someone's posture or their cadence of their walk or their tone or whatever, that something's missing.

00;27;41;29 - 00;28;10;12
Speaker 2
And I'll do almost anything for my people. And I know the, the very smallest things, whether it's send somebody the box game last night, that's an unsung hero, somebody who's vital to the organization but doesn't generally get the tickets or the accolades, I, I that I go after that purposely. There's so many people that make the dealership successful that don't get the accolades, that those are the people you really need to really acknowledge and and just be honest with them.

00;28;10;12 - 00;28;38;13
Speaker 2
Let them know that how important they are. But at the same time, you know, there's the Dennis Rodman's that are very, very, talented but require a different kind of management style. Yeah. You know, I guess the answer to that question simply is don't look for perfection, look for progress. So if you're trying to improve your lead handling or closing ratio or your digital retailing metrics next month, are those metrics better than they were the month before, and then the next month?

00;28;38;13 - 00;28;56;20
Speaker 2
Are they better than the month before? And then as long as you don't go backwards, just look for progress every month and celebrate those wins in a fun way and let because what gets recognized in public gets repeated all the time. I would not, because it's not worth it. The effort to get to try to be perfect at something, look for progress.

00;28;56;20 - 00;28;57;23
Speaker 2
That's what I would say.

00;28;57;26 - 00;29;18;17
Speaker 1
Another write down. These are all going to make really good t shirts. Don't look for perfection and look for progress. I freaking love it man. I have written down so many one liners and these one liners you could literally do 30 or 40. You could do an hour, talk of or even just personal reflection. Brad Wise, it has been a true pleasure.

00;29;18;17 - 00;29;42;28
Speaker 1
Please. We're going to put the link if we can. Hopefully, guys, we can put the link to the wise up podcast. We're going to put that in the comments below to where people can find you. And again, you know, I know how busy you're I have an idea of how busy you are. But the fact that, you know, you took a few minutes to, to to hang out with us means the world.

00;29;43;20 - 00;29;56;07
Speaker 1
And, obviously, you know, you're doing incredible work there in Florida. I might have to go hang out and figure out what? No. No state taxes. But no state.

00;29;56;10 - 00;30;00;18
Speaker 2
I went African season. No, that I didn't tell you had two hurricanes last week. We're down like I.

00;30;00;18 - 00;30;04;22
Speaker 1
Tell you on Facebook. Board in the house up. But everything's okay. Everybody's good.

00;30;04;24 - 00;30;20;12
Speaker 2
At. The remarkable thing is that business is tripled right now because of all the cars that have, you know, been total in the flood. So we're we're super busy right now. But yeah, there's a lot of, despair and, displacement going on down here. So.

00;30;20;15 - 00;30;35;22
Speaker 1
Well, we pray always. Well, for the people that have lost, you know, it's it's again, you know, how you know, what is the gift in all of this? I tell you this, and I know, I know, I mean, I could keep going on and on. I know Rob, who produces this show, is probably getting ready to kick me.

00;30;35;22 - 00;30;52;21
Speaker 1
But, you know, I, my family and I and, it's tough for me not to tear up because it was the toughest time of my life. When my house burnt down, I was literally in Detroit, my wife, we had a little condo in Florida. My son was 18 and home by himself, and the house burned down and and the one thing that good that came out of it is our family.

00;30;52;24 - 00;31;11;03
Speaker 1
It was tough. It was we were angry, you know, why did that? But but we have never and we've never looked back. We've never been closer. Yeah, we are right now. And thank God nobody got hurt. Dogs were okay, you know, we lost stuff. But, But but that's so true to everything that you said. Ladies and gentlemen, Brad Wise.

00;31;11;05 - 00;31;40;04
Speaker 1
Thank you. Please click on the Wise Up podcast. Look, these these. When you find people, they just want to make people better and pour into people's lives. Man, you need to latch onto those type of people. And Brad Wise is one of them. Thank you. Thank you for the incredible humans at Ferman Automotive 127. In this day and age of acquisition and everything else, what an incredible accomplishment that is for allowing you, to treat your people and create that type of culture.

00;31;40;06 - 00;32;02;19
Speaker 1
So. And yet, ladies and gentlemen, it has been another. Thank you so much for stopping by. Thank you for listening. Hopefully we helped your commute. You got fired up like I did. Maybe in your commute. And, look, we're just simple folk here at Tim Talks. I'm just a country boy from Kentucky. And, look, we haven't got it all figured out, but as I always say, no one is smarter than everyone.

00;32;02;24 - 00;32;06;12
Speaker 1
We're just going to keep getting better together. We'll see you next time.