Raising the Standard: Unlocking Peak Performance with Jonathan Dawson

Unlock elite sales success! Jonathan Dawson joins Tim Cox for an inspiring conversation. Jonathan shares game-changing insights from his 25-year journey in the automotive industry. A 24-time NADA speaker, co-founder of the Pinnacle Society, and president of Sellchology Sales Training, Jonathan dives deep into the mindset, strategies, and leadership principles that separate top performers from the rest.

In this episode, discover how raising your standards can transform your business and why belief systems drive behaviors. Jonathan breaks down his SOW Principle—Systems, Opportunities, and Work Ethic—that fuels elite sales success.

Connect with Jonathan on LinkedIn and Facebook.

 [00:00–02:02] Introduction & Welcome Jonathan joins the show, sharing his excitement about being part of a platform that influences hearts, minds, and lives. 

[03:00–03:58] Celebrating 25 Years in the Industry Jonathan reflects on his 25-year journey in the car business and the honor of being a 24-time NADA speaker. 

[03:58–04:45] Pinnacle Training Center and Society Introduction to the Pinnacle Training Center in Atlanta and the Pinnacle Society, a mastermind group for elite sales performers co-founded with Frank Trinity and Ali Reda. 

[05:19–06:13] Record-Breaking Sales Achievements Highlighting Ali Reda’s world record of selling 1,582 cars in a year and the mindset behind creating a supportive space for high performers. 

[10:23–11:37] Leadership, Standards, and Accountability A candid discussion on leadership failures, fear of accountability, and why raising standards is critical for dealership success. 

[12:14–13:45] Mission 22: Redefining Sales Goals Jonathan explains Mission 22, a strategy advocating for a minimum of 22 car sales per person per month, challenging dealerships to raise their baseline. 

[16:16–17:15] Breaking Limiting Beliefs Drawing parallels with breaking the four-minute mile, Jonathan discusses how shifting beliefs can unlock new levels of performance. 

[18:08–21:14] Three Pillars of Sales Success 

Jonathan outlines the three pillars of sales success he calls the SOW principle: systems, opportunities, and work ethic. 

[24:11–25:20] Shifting Mindsets How changing beliefs and embracing new strategies helped sales professionals achieve record-breaking numbers. 

[28:32–30:04] Hunger and Humility Jonathan shares the two essential traits for success: the drive for more and the willingness to keep learning. 

[30:04–31:01] Breaking Through Mediocrity Exploring the dangers of complacent middle management and the importance of leadership that embraces risk and innovation. 

[31:22–32:16] Closing Thoughts Jonathan closes by emphasizing that leaders must remain hungry for growth and humble enough to embrace continuous improvement. 

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction & Welcome
• 3:00 Celebrating 25 Years in the Industry
• 3:58 Pinnacle Training Center and Society
• 5:19 Record-Breaking Sales Achievements
• 10:23 Leadership, Standards, and Accountability
• 12:14 Mission 22: Redefining Sales Goals
• 16:16 Breaking Limiting Beliefs
• 18:08 Three Pillars of Sales Success
• 24:11 Shifting Mindsets
• 28:32 Hunger and Humility
• 30:04 Breaking Through Mediocrity
• 31:22 Closing Thoughts

Transcript

00:00:00:00 - 00:00:15:28

00:00:15:28 - 00:02:02:29

Unknown

My pleasure, as always, Tim. To talk with you and to be on this, little, little broadcast that you have that changes people's minds and hearts and ultimately, their lives. Pleasure to be here, as always.

00:02:10:22 - 00:02:16:03

Unknown

Yeah.

00:02:58:07 - 00:02:58:24

Unknown

of this

00:03:00:10 - 00:03:20:07

Unknown

I appreciate that. This year celebrates my 25th year in the car business. Quarter of a century. It's fascinating, actually, to say that number out loud. It really does make me feel both old and humbled, like, holy. But it's been 24 years. So 25 years now, I, For those who are not familiar with my work. You can, of course.

00:03:20:12 - 00:03:39:17

Unknown

Please, you know, Google me if you'd like to and find out a little bit. But, you know, if I go backwards in time, you know, where I'm at recently and and right now is, you know, I just celebrated my 24th time as an Nada speaker. Which is, of course, a great privilege and honor to be selected because that is a dealer committee selection.

00:03:39:22 - 00:03:58:21

Unknown

So they look at hundreds and hundreds of applications every single year and say, who has a message that resonates, that's relevant, that's real world, that's applicable. And 24 times, the dealer body has said, bring this guy to nada. For those who are not familiar, I have my own Pinnacle Training center referencing what Tim showed you in that workbook.

00:03:58:28 - 00:04:06:00

Unknown

I host classes at my training center for any pain point within a dealership, so we have a class actually coming up next week,

00:04:06:00 - 00:04:24:03

Unknown

I believe our next class as a service advisor. Class, we have both advanced and, what we call introductory fundamental class for service advisors. If service manager classes, finance and of course, sales and sales management classes, as well as my pinnacle training Center in Atlanta.

00:04:24:05 - 00:04:26:15

Unknown

I, I named that center in

00:04:26:15 - 00:04:45:09

Unknown

honor of my Pinnacle Society, which is a private mastermind that me, my dear friend Frank Trinity and Ali Reda, we co-founded and created for the top in the elite sales performers in the world. We have some of the best salespeople literally, who've ever done this job are in my network. And then that's in that community with us.

00:04:45:12 - 00:04:54:23

Unknown

And we celebrate. Salespeople are hitting milestones that most of you would not even believe. Yeah.

00:04:54:25 - 00:05:00:25

Unknown

No. Yeah.

00:05:00:28 - 00:05:12:17

Unknown

Yeah.

00:05:12:20 - 00:05:19:04

Unknown

Yeah. Yeah. Briefly. Yeah. Yeah, sure. Appreciate that. So the

00:05:19:04 - 00:05:35:16

Unknown

Pinnacle Society, like I said, founded by Frank Kennedy and Ali Rita Ali, Rita set the, reset the world record when he did 1582 cars in a year. His personal best is 209 in a month, which beat his previous best of 2 or 3. He's had a 32 car day twice.

00:05:35:18 - 00:05:55:10

Unknown

Just recently had a 22 car Thursday. The Frank Trinity, did 1404 vehicles last year, working an average of a 19 day work month, and did 1404, Honda Store. So he and I, we are the founders of it, but we created it to the point that you just said the mantra, which is it's lonely at the top.

00:05:55:13 - 00:06:02:21

Unknown

We said, we want to invert that mantra. We want it to no longer be lonely at the top. So we wanted to create a place where high performers can celebrate their success

00:06:02:21 - 00:06:13:13

Unknown

and be celebrated, where they can share their struggles and get real counsel and advice to help them grow, and where they can be truly challenged to what is their next level and what's that next gear look like for them?

00:06:13:15 - 00:06:31:02

Unknown

And the criteria, quite frankly, for any store, the criteria is you have to be in first, second or third place at the dealership in a in an average production level, or you have to have a minimum of 150,000 lower your annual income or 25 car average. You have to at least check one of those three boxes for you to be eligible.

00:06:31:02 - 00:06:32:09

Unknown

When you have to be interviewed

00:06:32:09 - 00:06:51:00

Unknown

by one of the founders and then accepted. And we we don't accept everybody for lots of reasons, but we want people who have the right heart, the right attitude, the right business strategy, the right character to be part of what we do. Because everything we teach is about community service, character, integrity based selling, relational based selling.

00:06:51:03 - 00:07:07:09

Unknown

And I don't have to tell you ten there are other trainers out there who don't care about some of the things, but we do, and those are important foundations for us. So that's, that's the that's where the pinnacle side is that if you are watching this and you either qualifier know somebody who might please do have them reach out to me Facebook Messenger or whatever.

00:07:07:09 - 00:07:40:27

Unknown

And. Okay.

00:07:40:27 - 00:07:42:03

Unknown

So, you know,

00:07:57:28 - 00:07:58:29

Unknown

Jump right. Jump right

00:09:40:01 - 00:10:00:13

Unknown

Well, I would say, like, obviously, there are degrees of that. Of that answer. Right? I never want to be, arrogant and try to say that, hey, everyone gets these results or, you know, I mean, it's just the reality of life that, you know, you can give the same book to 50 people. Some will never crack the cover and some will change their lives because of it.

00:10:00:13 - 00:10:23:11

Unknown

So the same thing is to some degree true is so ecology. Obviously, we get above average results consistent enough for our clients that I get invited to 20 groups and I get referred as much as I do because our results are, I guess, trending above that normal average results. But I would say that what you can expect or what you should hope for, and even if you don't ever do business with me, if I could just impart a couple things to you.

00:10:23:11 - 00:10:33:00

Unknown

If you're in a leadership role, or you see yourself as a sales leader, is it really comes to a topic that so many often times we come to, which is the mindset and the belief system, right?

00:10:33:03 - 00:10:45:16

Unknown

Because behaviors fundamentally follow beliefs, beliefs drive behavior. And so how you, as, as David Souders puts it, one of the chief marketing officer for you.

00:10:45:20 - 00:10:52:06

Unknown

So you know, how you view things will determine how you do things and when when we

00:10:52:06 - 00:11:02:01

Unknown

try to coach leadership teams and management and, and owners, the first thing that when we're talking about these ideas of so-called use, hey, let's raise our standards

00:11:02:01 - 00:11:19:28

Unknown

because here's a, here's a symptom that I see across the nation. In fact, just today I was talking to one of my field reps about this, and I'm going to use a term and I and it sounds mean, and it's probably because it's intended to look a little bit be mean, but there's a lot of impotent cowards in management positions in power.

00:11:19:29 - 00:11:37:19

Unknown

They have no power, and they're not willing to do anything to change things. They're not willing to risk anything. And and to the point that a lot of times, like they don't want to hold anyone accountable to anything, because the moment they put a standard out there and ask anyone to hold themselves to a standard or, or say, I'm going to hold you to a standard, they're afraid.

00:11:37:19 - 00:11:53:17

Unknown

They're so afraid of the consequences of a standard. So it's like, hey, we got to we got to be able to produce at this level. And it's like, hey, this person didn't produce well, what? What if I fire them? Well, then what if I'm short staffed? What if I lose sales? You're already losing sales. There is not a zero sum.

00:11:53:17 - 00:12:14:00

Unknown

This is not a game where it's like, if I do this, I never lose sales. And if I do this, I lose sales. You're already. Do you not think having an eight and nine car per person average, do you not think you're losing sales? But when I talk to dealerships about some of my stores averaging north of 20 cars per person, as somebody who's familiar with my work knows, I have a mission 22 strategy.

00:12:14:02 - 00:12:39:06

Unknown

Mission 22 Tim is that until the actual mathematical average of your store is 22 cars per person, which means if you have ten people, you're selling 220 plus cars a month as a store out until that baseline minimum standard is hit, your store is fundamentally broken. And when you tell a dealer or GM your store is broken, if you don't have a 22 car per person average, they go, who are you?

00:12:39:06 - 00:12:59:12

Unknown

And who do you think you are? And telling me this, you know, we're the leader in our whatever and we have an 11 per person hour. I go, yeah, and you're still broken. You're broken. Most of your team is unproductive. Most of the time they're working for you. You have a sales force that is that is unproductive. North of 50% of every day they're in the building.

00:12:59:15 - 00:13:20:11

Unknown

That is not something you should be proud of. So 22 comes from this idea of of you have 22 scheduled workdays on the calendar for the average sales force. That means you we need to produce a deal a day at minimum acceptable standard to justify you leaving your family and coming to a dealership all day. When I first tell dealers about this, they go, gosh, John, we're at like nine per person now.

00:13:20:11 - 00:13:45:05

Unknown

You're saying 22. If I got to 13, I'd be excited. Yeah, I know because you have low standards because you don't know what's possible. And I say this again with conviction. I say this with conviction. I have been in 3000 dealerships in seven countries. I have seen more than you. I haven't run your store, but I've seen your store a thousand times.

00:13:45:06 - 00:14:07:13

Unknown

Your store is not that special. It's not that unique. The stuff you wrestle with struggle with the things you tolerate and are frustrated by someone else has solved. Someone has the blueprint, the map. That's why when people join the Pinnacle Society, you know they come in and they think they're at like 98% of their capacity. It's so funny to watch somebody join who's at like 28 cars a month and they're like, man.

00:14:07:13 - 00:14:26:05

Unknown

And you understand at my store, that's the best. Like, I've hit 35 before, but like, I'm at 28 car average and the next person's like in the low 20s. And then some people are in the teens. But like, trust me, if I could sell 40 cars a month, you know, I would. And they join pinnacle and like three months later they hit 50 or 60 and you're like, what happened?

00:14:26:05 - 00:14:47:23

Unknown

And they're like, man, I changed my beliefs. I added a new level of standard. So if I'm when I'm talking to dealers, that's the first thing is you have to because here's the reality to them. Here's the truth. This is the hard truth. I either with a standard, I either will continue to lower my standard to meet my people, or I'm going to have to raise my people to meet my standard.

00:14:47:25 - 00:15:10:19

Unknown

But that is the only option. I either lower my standard to meet where my weakest people are, or I will have to develop my people to hold to a standard. And what's really sad, terribly sad, is how many dealerships will not invest. Not just in me. I'm talking in general. They won't invest in their team because they keep judging what the weakest players on the team will do.

00:15:10:21 - 00:15:30:27

Unknown

It's like, well, I don't want to invest in training because most of my guys won't do it. Okay, so the 30% of your team that's desperate, hungry, that's your bench, your future bench, the 30% of your team that will grow. We we're going to keep them down because you tolerate the 70% of weak people dictating your company's future.

00:15:31:00 - 00:15:37:29

Unknown

Interesting strategy.

00:15:37:29 - 00:15:55:21

Unknown

it's we. We told the Ben Carson story a couple weeks back, you know, about, you know, same brain. It's it's, renewing your mind, and, you know, some. It's what you think you can do. I mean, I've heard, you know, Damian Boudreau, story alley story. Frank story.

00:15:55:21 - 00:16:16:04

Unknown

I mean, they're very, very similar. And when we think, you know, it goes back to the four minute mile, you know, back in the 50s, nobody could break the four minute mile. It couldn't be done. And then it once it happened, once it happened, the world record literally lasted for barely two weeks because something went off in their brain that, wow, he did it.

00:16:16:04 - 00:16:37:28

Unknown

If he can do it, I can do it. And and, you know, just phenomenal. Let's talk about the, in fact, when when I was talking with Rob, who produces the show before, you came on, I was explaining cell ecology, and it it really, intrigued him because it's the psychology of of sales. It is that, in fact, I want it.

00:16:37:28 - 00:16:54:24

Unknown

My son lives in and, Scottsdale, Arizona. And he's crushing it. Doing well. But there's my wife is like, I want you to send him to Jonathan's class. Like, I want Jonathan to pour into him because he's he's already crushing it. And the president that the company is, you know, you know, saying what a workhorse he is and all this other stuff.

00:16:54:24 - 00:17:15:28

Unknown

But there's never, a limit to what that's the great thing about sales. What do you think the other again, mindset is, is, number one, understanding that, you know, 28 is not a big deal. We can get 40. But just the basic day to day, you know, our friend Kevin at Butler Lexus, I steal the quote all the time.

00:17:16:01 - 00:17:33:04

Unknown

Most salespeople go to work to wait instead of going to work to work. But what are some of the basic blocking and tackling that you change? And I've also heard you talk about, not sell and maybe I'm sure I'm going to butcher this, not sell for the, you know, most people. Okay, I got one on the board.

00:17:33:04 - 00:17:38:10

Unknown

But selling to their community, to their family. Like what is the main basic blocking and tackling from

00:17:38:10 - 00:17:45:21

Unknown

taking even that 15 or 20 a month car sales person? 225 or so. What, other than their brain? Or is it

00:17:50:24 - 00:18:07:08

Unknown

Well, oftentimes it comes down to in the pinnacle society. So I'm going to talk about, even though you're asking about what? What should, like, a person stuck at 15 cars, I still want to benchmark it against what the best in the world do. Right? So the best of the world always work on these three aspects of

00:18:07:08 - 00:18:08:05

Unknown

business development.

00:18:08:07 - 00:18:24:13

Unknown

Three areas of business development. So the we call it you. It's the principle of so to reap. And so W is the acronym for the three principles. So the first one the S is systems. Now let me give you a working definition for systems as we discuss it

00:18:24:13 - 00:18:40:04

Unknown

in the pinnacle society. And what I teach, even a brand new salesperson who's been selling cars for three seconds, system ization is anything I do that causes anything I'm already doing to become easier or more efficient or more effective.

00:18:40:07 - 00:19:04:08

Unknown

So I take the things I'm already doing and I ask a question. If I had to make it 1% easier, more efficient, or more effective, the thing I'm doing now, what would be one thing I could do that would make it easier, more efficient, more effective? And systematization is refining that process basically continuously. And sometimes, like in a daily practice, we talk about like a super daily application of that.

00:19:04:08 - 00:19:19:12

Unknown

It's like, let's say I'm at a sales person's desk or I'm a BDC, just as I'm about to hit send on an email. But before I hit send, I'm about to hit send. I come and tap you on the shoulder and I say this, hey, I've got a briefcase that's got $10,000 cash in it before you hit send.

00:19:19:12 - 00:19:38:28

Unknown

If you can think of just one way to make any part of this email better before you hit send, and I agree, that does make it better. You win $10,000. Any one thing you can do, just pick one thing that makes it better. And I agree. Yep, that made it better. Win ten grand, read the email and come up with one thing better you could do.

00:19:39:01 - 00:19:54:07

Unknown

And sometimes they'll go, I found three typos. I go, would fixing typos make it better? And they go, yeah, you just want and grant. And so now you're about to hit send. But before you hit send I say, hey, I got 25 grand. Now, if you can find one thing to make it better now you win 25 grand.

00:19:54:07 - 00:20:08:15

Unknown

Can you think of one thing? And they go. Actually, if I separate this paragraph and put a like a title above each part because it's really two kind of things. So maybe I put a like a title above each of those. So it has a little bit better formatting. I said I agree, that makes it better. You've done won $25,000.

00:20:08:15 - 00:20:27:04

Unknown

Now before you hit send because you're about to hit send, I have $50,000. If you can find one thing to make it better, can you find one more thing for 50 grand? And I do this mental exercise. It's like this thought experiment with people. And what's fascinating is they go, man, like, if you had a briefcase, I could probably find ten ways to make it better.

00:20:27:04 - 00:20:52:02

Unknown

And then I say, well, when you learn to realize that when you make things ten times better without the briefcase, the briefcase eventually shows up. Like when you become the kind of person who builds efficiency and effectiveness into what you're doing. When you become better, you get paid better, right? So systems is the first thing that we talk a lot about in the society.

00:20:52:02 - 00:21:14:14

Unknown

And it's a big part of psychology, is teaching them to recognize how to systematize things, how to streamline things, how to make things overall better. Let me give you a very funny story that Frank Brunetti tells when he talks about systems, you know, from his desk when you physically get up. And again, this is a guy who sold, you know, 100 and whatever it was 100 and something cars every single month last year, working 19 days a month.

00:21:14:16 - 00:21:31:24

Unknown

Right. So when he gets up from his desk, when he gets up, if he takes a left, it takes him like 19 steps to get to the finance office. But if he takes a right, it takes like 27 steps. Right? So he he literally tracked his steps because he's like, I'm going to go, I'm going to get up and go to finance.

00:21:31:24 - 00:21:55:23

Unknown

How many times in a day if I have a ten car day, right? So he just literally tracks steps. And what he discovered was that it was intentionally turning left instead of turning right, had this many steps at this much time, compounded over days and weeks and years. And he figured on average it can add 20 units a month or, sorry, a year, 20 units a year to his overall business in efficiency because he can sell a car in 30 minutes.

00:21:56:00 - 00:22:27:18

Unknown

So if you stack enough of this stuff together, you're doing it multiple times. It's like you can figure out how to like because efficiency compounds, right? It just over time it gets everything gets better. This is systems. Now the second one is so so there's opportunities. The next thing that I would talk to any new person about or anybody who's stuck is do you know how and do you take personal responsibility for self generating your opportunities opportunities is about everything I do to let everyone else know what I do.

00:22:27:21 - 00:22:54:13

Unknown

So systems is everything I do or anything I do to cause anything I'm already doing to be easier, more efficient, more effective opportunities is everything I do to let everyone know what I do. Do you have strategies and systems around self-generation of traffic opportunities? Because in a business, if I asked you, Tim, you probably know the answer to this, but who's the most important person in the business?

00:22:54:15 - 00:23:14:19

Unknown

Yeah. Well, who's who's the most important person to a business? That's right. That's what everybody says, right? The answer is actually that's not true. Most important person is the person who can generate customers. So. Right. So in a dealership you say the most important person is the customer. Now hold on. The really the most important person is the person who can generate the customers.

00:23:14:21 - 00:23:32:08

Unknown

Because if I'm a sales person and I can self generate 50 people a month to walk in and buy from me, and I sell 47 out of 50, which some of my students do, they talk to 52 people and sell 48 cars in a month. If you can do that, you are the most valuable person in that building right now.

00:23:32:10 - 00:23:53:06

Unknown

It's the person who can generate the customer. That's why what you guys do, a car now is so invaluable to dealerships because you generate conversations that convert into connections that turn into car deals. And so whoever can master the art and the science of creating customers is the that's the most important person. So opportunities is everything I do to let everyone I know know what I do.

00:23:53:06 - 00:24:11:03

Unknown

And so many salespeople don't know how to self generate five extra conversations a week. And so they plateau prematurely and they don't know what to do to unlock that next level. One of my students, Jeff Baker, he had been trying to get to 40 cars for ten years. He said, I've been trying to get to 40 cars for ten years.

00:24:11:10 - 00:24:35:26

Unknown

He's never hit 40 cars. He goes through some psychology, changing some of his strategy systems. You know, his opportunities. Two months later, he hit 62, two months after a guy had been trying for for ten years to get to 40. Well, if you sat down with Jeff, Jeff would tell you that the thing that changed was that his beliefs first change of what was possible because he had hit a plateau prematurely in his brain of what the store could do.

00:24:35:28 - 00:24:54:16

Unknown

But then his behaviors began to change around self generation traffic. And one of the things for a guy like him was a little bit of an old timer, was doing social media. He had he's like, I'm not a social media guy. I don't do any of those videos things. Well, one of his customers, because he made a promise to himself that he was going to get out of his own way.

00:24:54:18 - 00:25:20:02

Unknown

He did a Facebook Live with a local politician, like a city council person who was very, very, kind of very well-known name in his town. And that one video went like minor viral, got like 20,000 views, and he sold like 15 cars off of one video. And but that video, which is the tactical part, right? That's the technique would have never happened if I didn't change his beliefs first about what was possible, because he would have never done the video.

00:25:20:02 - 00:25:44:21

Unknown

Right. So sell so social media strategies, all the things. So that's the third part. That is the work ethic. Now when you hear the term work ethic, what most people misunderstand about that term is they think it means working hard or being, you know, being driven work ethic. If you look at, you know, the word ethic, the word ethic means to do things correctly or rightly to do them.

00:25:44:21 - 00:26:00:13

Unknown

Right. So a lot of times with a breakdown is with a lot of salespeople. You said it with Kevin Deutsch's call. You know, they come to work today instead of to work. When we teach work ethic through psychology, what we want to do is teach them how to think about the way they work so that they work correctly or rightly.

00:26:00:13 - 00:26:21:11

Unknown

And part of that means you have to start with an end business goal in mind. So we have students, sociology students, pinnacles, people, my salespeople, I call them mine, but they work at stores. Some of them literally sell 25 cars a month, but only work two weeks a month. Some of them sell 30 cars a month and only work three days a week.

00:26:21:13 - 00:26:40:02

Unknown

We have people who sell 40 plus cars a month and only work four days a week. What we want to do is start with the end in mind. It's a biblical principle, but you start with the vision of the end result and you teach people. If it were true that you can have a business that will one day work as hard for you as you've worked for it, what does that business look like?

00:26:40:04 - 00:27:00:02

Unknown

Designed the business model in advance. And then what is the work ethic? What is the correct and right way to work around building that? So that in some cases, some of my students, one of my students I celebrated last year, it's the second year in a row as the number one car salesman for his entire state. But I helped him and I say I helped him because he gives me credit and they're my client.

00:27:00:04 - 00:27:20:29

Unknown

But he's three third year in the business and his third year selling cars. He hit number one in the entire state for his brand. Now, I mean, like you've got people in that same state that have been selling that brand for ten years, 15, 20 and here's a person with the right work ethic based on systems, opportunities, work ethic with the right strategy.

00:27:21:02 - 00:27:27:18

Unknown

And they're able to hit accelerate to that level that fast. That's what's possible. But most people have never seen it, so they don't believe it.

00:28:32:29 - 00:28:53:06

Unknown

You know, so there's two primary ingredients that I can summarize what I look for in a great client that works with me, that allows us to serve them and their community through what we do. There's two primary ingredients, and these are general statements. But I want somebody who's hungry, somebody who believes there's more and wants more. Right. So who's that hunger behind what they're doing?

00:28:53:08 - 00:29:16:10

Unknown

They're going after stuff. But also then tempered with that or combined with that is humility, the willingness to ask a question, the willingness to seek counsel. You know, Mike's my best client. I'm constantly humbled. And we could throw out names because you and I share a bunch of these friends. But there's some of the literally the best. Not only human beings on the planet, operators on the planet, but they're legitimately for their brand.

00:29:16:11 - 00:29:29:14

Unknown

They're super profitable. They're number one of their state, number one of their zone, number one in the brand. And they're incredibly humble in how often. And I'm humbled by it all the time when they come to me and say, hey John, I have a question. I have an idea. Can I throw something past you? Can you look into this?

00:29:29:14 - 00:30:04:15

Unknown

Can you research this? Can you ask around for me? And I think, wow, here's somebody literally at the apex, the best of their game. And they're still so humble in spirit and willingness to go. I am a student of life and business, and I'm not done learning. And so I think it does make a huge difference. If you're in at the executive level leadership, do you still have the humility to say, hey, maybe we're broken because our store average is 12 cars per person or 13, but this guy's saying their stores out, they're doing 22, 24 or 25 per person and growing sales and taking market share from their competitor.

00:30:04:17 - 00:30:26:14

Unknown

Holy buckets. What are we doing? Are you humble enough to say, hey, there might be a different or better way? And are you hungry? Do you want more for your people and for your store so you can be a brighter light in your community? Do you have that? Those are the two traits. And then of course, if it starts at the executive level, if that's where it's what's at the leadership, oftentimes that will then permeate to the what I call the middle management.

00:30:26:14 - 00:30:43:29

Unknown

Right? The desk manager, sales manager, so forth. The people are kind of in the operational roles and that level, but sometimes there's a disconnect. And this is where it's interesting, where I'll meet stores where the owner, you clearly can sense that they want more, and then they have a whole bunch of what I would refer to as mediocre managers.

00:30:44:01 - 00:31:01:13

Unknown

These people are just there to protect their jobs. They will not take a risk. They won't do any change that ruffles a feather because they don't want to lose their job, and they're unwilling to take any initiative because then the light shines on them just a little bit too much that someone might pay attention to whether or not they're worth their paycheck.

00:31:01:16 - 00:31:04:12

Unknown

So I would just challenge you. Look, if you're a driver at

00:31:04:12 - 00:31:22:00

Unknown

your store, you know, be the driver, be be the one that's willing to take on risk. And, and in the market place in general, maybe not at your store right now, but in the marketplace in general, the marketplace will reward you for your effort when you are humble and hungry.

00:31:22:02 - 00:31:46:26

Unknown

And that's that's what it takes, because the buy in piece, at the at the team level, you'll never have unanimous buy in. Okay. So if there's ten people on your sales, four and you launch an initiative, but you want to get all ten bought into the same level, even God can't do that. Do you understand that God wants all to come to a saving knowledge of the grace of God?

00:31:46:28 - 00:32:05:11

Unknown

God wants all to repent and turn to him. God wants that for everyone. He his heart is that none should perish. And yet the stubbornness of humanity is such that people can literally be given the gift of life or any gift and reject it anyway. So the reality is you're dealing with human hearts. Human hearts are deceitfully and desperately wicked.

00:32:05:15 - 00:32:23:20

Unknown

They make stupid choices all the time. So if you're a leader and you're like, well, I want everyone, I want all ten of my people to see what I see. That's not how brains work. That's not how human. You know, even when we came to, like, taking the promised land, if you look at the Scripture story, the taking, the promised land, when the when the scouts came back and said, hey, it flows with milk and honey, right?

00:32:23:26 - 00:32:52:09

Unknown

Bunch of people are like, there were giants there too, though. It's like you're always going to get resistance to change. You're always going to even the promised land. You'll get resistance to even the Promised Land. You'll get resistance. So when you're trying to offer something of value to your team, and you're making a decision on how you're going to proceed based on your weakest players, you are letting them hold hostage the vision, mission, and future of your business.

00:32:52:11 - 00:34:27:14

Unknown

And if that's something you're willing to do, then by all means give them the keys to the kingdom. But if you're not willing to do that, stop making decisions on the people that won't say yes right away.

00:34:27:17 - 00:34:30:11

Unknown

And then. Thank you to.

00:34:30:11 - 00:34:37:25

Unknown

And I.

00:34:37:27 - 00:34:38:29

Unknown

Knew.