Challenging Ego and Creating Empathy with April Simmons

Challenging Ego and Creating Empathy with April Simmons

Tim sits down with industry powerhouse, April Simmons, to explore her journey from loan officer to digital retailing pioneer to operations leader at Horne Auto Group.

April shares candid stories of breaking barriers as a woman in automotive, building successful internet departments, and discovering her “second mountain”—a mission to empower others.

From resilience to reinvention, this TimTalks episode has actionable insights for anyone looking to grow in the auto industry.

Connect with April on LinkedIn.

[00:00 – 01:04] Opening & Guest Introduction
Tim introduces the episode and welcomes long-time friend and automotive leader April Simmons.

[01:04 – 02:31] A Decade of Partnership
April reflects on meeting Tim in 2016 and their early work together to bring CarNow into Earnhardt.

[02:31 – 03:57] Taking Risks as a Thought Leader
April and Tim recall navigating early challenges of introducing new tech into traditional dealerships.

[03:57 – 05:02] April’s Automotive Origin Story
From a Nebraska bank loan officer to the Arizona car scene, April shares her path to the auto industry.

[05:02 – 07:22] Early Lessons & Adapting
April discusses her evolution with technology, from banking systems to the dawn of digital retailing.

[07:22 – 09:04] Entering Retail Automotive & Breaking Barriers
April shares her journey into finance and her determination to rise in a male-dominated industry.

[09:04 – 12:03] Building Internet Departments & Learning Marketing
April explains how she learned internet sales and marketing by leveraging vendor insights and curiosity.

[12:03 – 13:29] The Secret Sauce: Communication
April’s success formula: apply proven retail principles while evolving communication methods.

[13:29 – 17:21] Women in Automotive: Opportunity & Obstacles
Tim and April explore how women dominate when given the chance, and what holds the industry back from greater inclusivity.

[17:21 – 22:10] Retaining Women & Evolving Culture
April stresses retention and the need for leadership to evolve beyond historic toxic norms.

[22:10 – 26:08] Treat People How You Wish To Be Treated
A powerful discussion on breaking cycles and building better, healthier leadership environments.

[26:08 – 31:22] From Survival to Joy
April opens up about transitioning from survival mode to a values-driven life and leadership journey.

[31:22 – 36:08] The Call to Empower
April outlines her calling to be the “foundation of others’ evolution,” teaching and empowering without boundaries.

[36:08 – 37:43] Continuous Improvement
April shares her word of the year: Kaizen. She gives insight into how small daily actions fuel growth and clarity.

[37:43 – 37:54] Closing Remarks
Tim and April wrap the episode with gratitude, encouragement, and a commitment to always get better together.

Chapters

• 0:00 Opening & Guest Introduction
• 1:04 A Decade of Partnership
• 2:31 Taking Risks as a Thought Leader
• 3:57 April’s Automotive Origin Story
• 5:03 Early Lessons & Adapting
• 7:22 Entering Retail Automotive & Breaking Barriers
• 9:04 Building Internet Departments & Learning Marketing
• 12:03 The Secret Sauce: Communication
• 13:29 Women in Automotive: Opportunity & Obstacles
• 17:21 Retaining Women & Evolving Culture
• 22:10 Treat People How You Wish To Be Treated
• 26:08 From Survival to Joy
• 31:32 The Call to Empower
• 36:08 Continuous Improvement
• 37:43 Closing Remarks

Transcript

00:00:00:25 - 00:00:25:28
Unknown
In over three decades, I have 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. Welcome everyone to yet another episode of Tim Talks Leadership and Beyond. And I know I get pretty excited about every one of these that we do.

00:00:25:28 - 00:01:04:03
Unknown
But look, this automotive space is just filled with incredible humans. And this one I have known I had the privilege to meet. And way back in 2016, when she worked for Earnhardt and was, really leading the charge on getting our platform car now into that group. And since then, you see her come up time and time again, almost every single show, people, whether it's digital dealer or DMC or MRC or or a soda con or business bourbon, cigars, like she's everywhere.

00:01:04:03 - 00:01:27:01
Unknown
And we're going to unpack that today on what makes her tick and her leadership and what she wants to bring to the space. So without further ado, I want to bring my dear friend for now, what, nine years? The one and only April Simmons. April. Thank you so much for taking a few minutes out of your crazy.

00:01:27:01 - 00:01:49:06
Unknown
In fact, I literally I was going through LinkedIn this morning and I turned on CBT news. And you're there. And I was like, yeah, I got the right person on this. So, April, listen, buddy, welcome and thank you for, being on Tim Talks. You know, I'm super excited to be here. And to your point, yeah, I have a lot of conversations that I get out there.

00:01:49:06 - 00:02:08:29
Unknown
But this one, when you said, hey, you want to come on two blocks, I was super excited because you are like my OG. You are one of my favorite, favorite people. And I like to do business with people that I like. And, we've known each other for almost a decade. It's it's one of those things crazy talk about and say, hey, I'm an OG.

00:02:09:01 - 00:02:31:10
Unknown
You just, you know, oh, yeah, just sit down. Because, I mean, if I'm not mistaken, I think I was your second client in Phoenix. Period. Yes. You were first store. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Here in Arizona. So I, I do like to I get bragging rights for that. Yeah. It's interesting because people are like, oh, you asked you have his cell phone number.

00:02:31:10 - 00:03:00:03
Unknown
I'm like, I've had it since 2016. Because, like, it wasn't just, you know, it's still so hard in our space and people don't understand what we have to go through to get a yes on a contract. But you and I had to go through when you are a thought leader, when you're the first one to step out and try something new and do something different, you have to go through way more hoops and hurdles, because there's not already these questions answered, right?

00:03:00:03 - 00:03:20:24
Unknown
Nobody's. When you're creating the path right, it's a little more difficult to get people to say yes. And so you are so amazing going through. I mean, we put it was the ringer, right? It was a rigorous, absolute ringer, to getting us to the finish line. And you didn't give up and I didn't give up. And we made it there.

00:03:21:00 - 00:03:38:00
Unknown
And now here we are, almost a decade later. Crazy. A decade, and I'm a grandpa. I mean, things changed in ten years. So, like, gray hair, gray hair, all of it changes. All of the changes. I can't eat the pizza. I'm blond on the top ten, blond on the top. So when the grains pop through there, that is.

00:03:38:00 - 00:03:57:06
Unknown
Yeah. Awesome. Awesome. I just want to dive into it, give a little bit because I want to get into your story and especially what you're doing now. And we had an incredible, just talk, in Scottsdale, and I want to unpack that a little bit at the, at the tail end. That's exciting. What you're you know, what was what it really driving you now.

00:03:57:06 - 00:04:17:10
Unknown
But give it a little bit. I know a lot of people have seen you out and about for that person that has it, like give it a little bit of background. How did you get in the automotive space? You know your story. You know horn, what you're doing there. Kind of give us a Reader's Digest for you younger folks that used to be a really small magazine that would come to the house, and they had really short stories.

00:04:17:15 - 00:04:37:18
Unknown
So for everyone under 40, Reader's Digest version just means a short version. Sorry for the public service announcement, but yes, give us your background story. Right? Like the rush, right? Right. Just for the new people dragnet. Give me the facts, ma'am. Only facts. So? So it's interesting that people, they always say you read they're born in the car.

00:04:37:18 - 00:05:02:09
Unknown
But since we fell in the car business, I come into the car business. I grew up in Nebraska, which a lot of people don't know that I've lived in Arizona since 1999. But back in 1996, I was managing restaurants and unfortunately got into a really bad car accident. And that car accident meant that I could no longer physically do my job, and that I wanted to get into business of some sort.

00:05:02:12 - 00:05:27:19
Unknown
So I actually applied to become a teller at a bank. Yeah, that's for just a couple of short months. And they put me into the loan department. And this particular bank actually bought all of the loans for the car dealerships in Omaha. In Nebraska. This is how I learned about the car business. And this is before. And I'll age myself incredibly, because this was, you know, 1996, a long time ago, we weren't faxing credit.

00:05:27:19 - 00:05:50:03
Unknown
Okay? This is when the when the car dealership still brought applications to the bank. We sat down and made these determinations. And that was before beacon score, I think. Or it just came counted up. All the ones. All the twos. Yeah. I remember like literally old school. What is the collateral? What is the character like. You literally had little, you know, buckets that we put all these things in to make determination.

00:05:50:05 - 00:06:16:27
Unknown
And we did either do dealer reserve by hand. There was no fancy programs and things of that nature. So it was really, an interesting time. I, in fact, so funny. I remember at the bank when we first got these guys right, and I be. It's a mouse. Okay. Young. Okay. I being young was easy to adapt, but a lot of people at the bank really struggled with using a mouse.

00:06:16:27 - 00:06:37:27
Unknown
So much so that I would have to take my hand over their hand and help them kind of learn how to use a balance. Right? So and I and I share that because I think of people like, Jim Zeigler, who is so important to to my life as well. And he always was evolving no matter what age he got to.

00:06:38:00 - 00:07:00:23
Unknown
And so I think that's something that just resonates with me to always say, like, don't be scared of the mouse, right? So today it might be I, you know, when you and I met, it was chat. It evolved to digital retelling. Right. There's all these things. But I think that the most important thing we can remember, and if you want to stay relevant, is to not be scared of the new thing.

00:07:00:26 - 00:07:22:09
Unknown
And so I say, I'm a pioneer. I say I'm just not scared to try things. Now. I might try it and be like, this was hot garbage. So I'm often the first one to say, okay, throw it in the garbage when we need to do like don't don't try to make it work if it doesn't work, but try new things, because new things turn into stuff that we all take for granted.

00:07:22:09 - 00:07:47:18
Unknown
I mean, like to say a mouse, right? We would be like, what? Like that was a thing. Yeah, that was a thing that was difficult for people to, you know, adapt to, something so simple that now is like having a that it's crazy. In fact, there's a very quick story. Kerry Cave, who was one of the early, people here at car now, he was talking about he was working for another company and he delivered, you know, some computers for their software.

00:07:47:18 - 00:08:06:18
Unknown
And I think it was a lot links, which was incredible back and not lot links. Lee, what was it? At least profit. Least profit or one of those. One of those. Yeah. Yeah. They, they, they gave you the whole computer and this and that and that and markets get like all that stuff. So he, he had a, he had a dealer like a sales manager call and he said I got a problem.

00:08:06:18 - 00:08:24:06
Unknown
He said what's your problem. He said, I can't use this computer. It's it's messed up. He said, what are you talking about? He said, the keys, the keyboard is not in alphabetical order. And Kerry said, yeah, you've got a problem start. And I said, but you know. And so that's, you know, that's when I started the business. That's how I got into the car business.

00:08:24:06 - 00:08:43:00
Unknown
And then I actually moved to the suburbs of Chicago for a bit, sold insurance. So kind of learned the insurance side. And here was April, you know, in 1999 of Arizona, said, I want to get on to the retail side of automotive now and walked in saying, hey, I can sell insurance. I know all about this stuff.

00:08:43:00 - 00:09:04:05
Unknown
So like, put me in finance, right? So how naive of me. That's not how it works. So I actually did, office work. I did, finance backup, I sold cars, I did all of the things. And then moved into finance. I spent eight years in the finance department. Fought tooth and nail to get on the desk.

00:09:04:05 - 00:09:29:17
Unknown
And back then, or very, very few women. Yeah, not a lot of at all. And certainly not women on the task. So it's very difficult for them to consider to put me on the desk. But I finally thought long and hard enough and got on the desk, spent seven years as a manager and then had my GM call me one day and say, April, I keep hiring internet people and they can't sell.

00:09:29:20 - 00:09:47:02
Unknown
You can sell. I need you to go learn the internet. Oh yeah. That's actually how I ended up being in the ER. Yeah. But, and I was probably not the right choice because back then I was the last one to do things. Like I was the last one to go from, you know, tapes to CDs. Yeah. Last one to go from.

00:09:47:09 - 00:10:05:07
Unknown
Right. My dad was better at email than I was. He would he would call me and leave me a voicemail to tell me. He sent me an email because I didn't check it very often. So. Right. So I was like, I don't know, I think you guys might be wrong about putting April back there, but I knew that that was where this business was heading.

00:10:05:10 - 00:10:24:23
Unknown
I could see the writing already on the wall. And so I thought, well, you got to learn it. This is actually how I started to first learn marketing, because I understood I needed to, in my quest to know it all and understand it all so that I could make better decisions for my department and really help grow this, grow this thing.

00:10:24:23 - 00:10:50:01
Unknown
I needed to understand where these things came from and how it all worked. And back then I literally would just call every vendor and I'd be like, hey, come in, tell me this guy said this. What do you say? Like, I literally just put vendors against each other. But what that did was help me learn. Yeah, they would show me and they would take the time to explain to me what vendor came in and said why they were so great, why they may or may have been right or wrong.

00:10:50:03 - 00:11:22:04
Unknown
And over time that just helped me to to learn. But what I really will tell people and still to this day, where everyone I think fails when they're evolving or adapting in this business is the main thing, is still the main thing. Yeah. 1980, 1990. Yeah. Thousand to 20. Yeah. Nothing has actually changed. So it's just the method of which we communicate that has changed.

00:11:22:06 - 00:11:41:00
Unknown
You know, now we're on our cell phones and now we email and now we do these other now we have digital retailing. Now we have, you know, platforms like this where you and I are even at the same state and we can have conversations. These things are just methods of communication. But buying and selling cars, the meat and potatoes of it has not changed.

00:11:41:03 - 00:12:03:10
Unknown
So all I did was took the steps of the sale. Everything that I knew in retail, automotive and apply that into the internet department. And I will tell you, that's my secret sauce. When everyone says, April, what's your secret sauce to success? I said, it's real simple. I didn't try to change what works. I just adapted the method of communication.

00:12:03:12 - 00:12:24:24
Unknown
That's amazing. And, and and again. And then you've been it. How long have you been at horn? So fast? Okay, so fast forward. I spent at how I built three different internet departments. I then, I still have my sights on wanting to be a GM. Became a GSM, started did some GM work for a little while, and then the horns reached down about me becoming a GM at one of their stores.

00:12:24:24 - 00:12:40:02
Unknown
And I said, you know, I don't want to do that anymore. I kind of outlined what my current role is, and I said, this is, this is what you need. You need a person to help you build these departments to understand the vendors, to hold people accountable, to work with operations and tech stack and all these different things.

00:12:40:02 - 00:12:59:22
Unknown
And they said, you know, we agree. So I came in and I built their department starting in 2017, at the Kia location. And then in 2018, they moved me to the corporate role. So I've been in the corporate position here with Horn Auto Group in Arizona since 2018. Yeah, yeah, I remember that. In fact, I remember you touring.

00:12:59:24 - 00:13:29:20
Unknown
You gave me a tour of the BDC, on my first, Scottsdale tour or Phoenix tour and, so anyway, yeah, incredible stuff. I want to, I want to touch base on. I'm seeing a, I don't to say a movement. How do we get more where obviously automotive is a heavily male, heavily male dominated space.

00:13:29:22 - 00:13:56:18
Unknown
Right. But when when I look and as I'm a, a front row seat courtside cheerleader to what you're doing. Brooke. Who? Everyone. All the all you have to say is Brooke, everybody knows facts and feelings. What what Brooke is doing, you know, and, you know, Laura Halter. Liz, you know, I mean, it goes on and on.

00:13:56:21 - 00:14:28:08
Unknown
I just, I why is it because I don't know, like, there's so many incredible women in automotive, and they're not just average. Like, they're crushing it, like, what do you think? How do we attract more women to automotive than now? Because I think that, you know, there's this wall, especially when people either come on to a lot or they come into the service drive, like every single, lady service advisor that I've ever met dominates the service drive.

00:14:28:08 - 00:14:46:13
Unknown
Like like what do you think? How can we break in? This was unscripted. I'm just asking, like, there's so many incredible humans that are ladies in our space that are not only just surviving, they're kicking the door down. How do we get more women in the space? Because as a if I was a dealer principal, I would try to hire as many nothing against.

00:14:46:13 - 00:15:03:09
Unknown
I mean, obviously I'm gonna hire the most qualified person, but I mean, how do we get more? Because more than not, they just knock the door down and start dominating. How do we do that? Well, first, first things first. You have to. You have to really take a look in the mirror, and say what is most important to you?

00:15:03:09 - 00:15:26:06
Unknown
Pride or paycheck. Yeah. Because unfortunately, you know, a lot of women have come into this space, but there have been just as many, if not more that have left the space. Yeah. And so if we want to attract more women to the, to this space, step number one is retain the ones that come in, the ones that say, I'm willing to come and try and give this a whirl.

00:15:26:12 - 00:15:57:23
Unknown
We need to work on retaining those. And unfortunately what happens is men and and a generalization. Right. Because we're talking generalizations here. But men tend to have a pride about them. That ego that that space that says you're not supposed to let a girl beat you. Okay. And to what? Everything you just said, it's absolutely true. Women tend to dominate in sales because men customers are not intimidated by them.

00:15:57:27 - 00:16:22:01
Unknown
Number one, female customers make 80% of the decision making and in female recognizes that in herself and tends to actually talk to the decision maker where a lot of men still have that, like, well, we're on the golf course and it's just us, buddy, old pal, old chums and men's make decisions. And you know, you're not going to let little old miss, you know, tell you what to do, right?

00:16:22:04 - 00:16:52:18
Unknown
That mentality still exists so much. Both in the way that they sell, but also then how they deal with working with females. So when they start to have this mentality, well, I have to beat the girl. Then they start to make things uncomfortable for the women. Right? Like then it becomes this competition. And when it becomes competitive, there tends to be those, you know, those side cuts, those jobs, those things.

00:16:52:20 - 00:17:21:19
Unknown
And that tends to then create a space where women don't want to be. So I would tell you that if we want to attract more women, start with retaining women and do it in that sense to say what matters more to you? Do you want to make more money or does your pride matter more? If you're actually honest with yourself and you say the paycheck matters more than the pride, then I think we will solve the problem almost over.

00:17:21:21 - 00:17:45:29
Unknown
But, you know, like pride is still and look, and I'm going to date myself. But I was full disclosure, I was 17 years old, 17. I wasn't officially legal. Right. And I was selling cars in Florence, Kentucky. And I talk about it. It's a leadership talk all the time. And I was so. So this is not please, this is not we're not bashing anybody.

00:17:46:06 - 00:18:04:13
Unknown
It's just it's just pride in general. And pride can be is had by male and female. And I'm telling you that way back in 1989, as a 17 year old kid, I started kicking the door down and I was selling a bunch of cars because I didn't know any better. I went to work, to work. I didn't go to work to wait around and smoke and joke and see what I'm going to have for lunch and all that other stuff.

00:18:04:13 - 00:18:20:14
Unknown
Although I ate lunch right. But, but but the old guard, you know, as I called, not to be ugly, but the, you know, the guys with the big old potbelly smoking cigarets. By the way, it was a brand new dealership brand. You still smelled the paint, but it was in Kentucky and it had ashtrays on every sales desk.

00:18:20:14 - 00:18:37:17
Unknown
That's how old I am. So anyway, but they were getting in my head. How many hours you working? You're not really making that much money. And a sales manager saw that. So I was even getting beat up and discouraged. And I'm a dude. I was just a kid, right? So I don't think it's even. I think it's just pride.

00:18:37:17 - 00:18:54:09
Unknown
And it took a minute, which is a whole other leadership talk. It took a manager. In fact, I just went to to Jake Sweeney two weeks ago and at corporate, and one of the gentlemen there was there and I said, can you please find Dave? So, Dave, if you're out there, I know you're probably up there in years because I'm 53 now, and I was 17.

00:18:54:11 - 00:19:09:14
Unknown
But I would love to just hug your neck because he took me a walk and it was a ten minute talk. Walked me up the hill, pointed at a house across from the dealership and said, son, don't listen to the noise. You've got so much talent. You can, you can, you can have a house like that in this business.

00:19:09:14 - 00:19:29:06
Unknown
And it was that ten minute talk that really set me on the on the course where I didn't listen to the noise. So I think in general pride and insecurity. Right. And they're one in the same quite frankly, there's closely to I think every evil thing that happens in this world stems from pride. That's a whole other message.

00:19:29:09 - 00:19:47:15
Unknown
But I just getting rid of the noise. But I just I'm impressed. And I and I see it and I see the encouragement. That you guys kind of you're, you're you're, you know, you're a, a club per se, like. And you and you've and you feed off each other, and I just, I just think it's I just think it's great.

00:19:47:15 - 00:20:07:09
Unknown
And I just want to get, you know, again, all of us as leaders, if I, if I'm back at the dealership, I think healthy competition is good without demeaning anyone. And that drive. But I would definitely be be on the lookout for as many amazing, women as I possibly could and human beings to to to fill this.

00:20:07:15 - 00:20:31:25
Unknown
I can my number one piece of advice to dealer principals and general managers or desk managers. Right? We came up in a different time. Right? We were we were not always treated the best. Right. We were into work 100 hour weeks. We I mean genuinely like and people like, how did ours. I'm like, no like genuinely I, I can go back and tell you there many, many weeks that that we worked that hard.

00:20:31:27 - 00:20:53:21
Unknown
And I think that that is one of the other things that that holds not only women but men. And now younger people go, well, that doesn't even make sense. Why would we why would you do that? So I think we also have to say this, and this is this is the words that I use. We need to treat people the way we wish we were treated, not necessarily the way that we were.

00:20:53:23 - 00:21:23:28
Unknown
Yeah. Strong because in order to truly evolve, evolution, right, is about being better than what you were handed, right? Yeah. Whole goal of being a better. I want to be a better parent than my parents were to me. I hope that my child becomes a better parent than I was, that we learn a little bit from those mistakes so that we don't have to always had the exact same, mistakes and generation by generation.

00:21:24:00 - 00:21:40:06
Unknown
So if we want to do that, if we want to bring more women in and we want to make more money and we want to sell more service, more cars, and we don't want to burn people out, and we don't want to have, you know, suicide and alcoholism and all the different things. Then we have to make change.

00:21:40:06 - 00:22:10:06
Unknown
And, and we can't just go, well, that's what I went through. So they deserve to go through what I had to go through. Yeah. It's the mentality that jacks up evolving. Right. That's that's why, you know, an alcoholic parent has an alcoholic child has because we go, well they did it. So I'm going to do it. If you decide to choose to be the human that says, I'm going to do it different, then you will help to make the the thing move and evolve.

00:22:10:07 - 00:22:34:27
Unknown
But if you say, I'm going to treat everyone who works for me like crap because I was treated like crap, then you're not going to actually have change. You know, the common denominator? We've had Patrick bad. We've have Kevin Doyle. We've had so many great leaders that they lead the complete opposite of probably the way they grew up.

00:22:34:27 - 00:23:00:17
Unknown
In fact, I know for a fact, Kevin, because Kevin's a few years older than me, you know, throwing papers in your fit, you know, all that stuff. But he encourages his people. Patrick encourages their people they love on their people. They they hold them accountable. And true culture, we've said in here many, many times is when, you know, not everybody has a perfect month, but when someone fails to hit their number, they go into your office and say, boss, I apologize.

00:23:00:17 - 00:23:16:12
Unknown
They let you down right? That type of culture to where you're pouring into some people that they care about you and they don't want to let you down. I think it's guys, we've had so many. We're saying the the funny thing is I was getting raped. Rob. Rob produces this show. I know he's on the back end listening and all this.

00:23:16:12 - 00:23:39:13
Unknown
There's so many familiar things, that Apryl just said that are just true, that are just absolutely true. I want to pivot as we go to the back half and land the plane, of the podcast. And I felt very honored. I will tell you, and we don't have to get into any personal stuff, but, you know, at the last DMC event at the Bryant Park, shout out to to to Brian.

00:23:39:13 - 00:24:01:15
Unknown
But at the last event, you just asked if I could talk if we I had a few minutes and I felt honored that you wanted to pick my brain. But as we started talk and I think there comes a point in your life and I don't know what exact age that is. Maybe, you know, for some people, maybe 30 from some people might be 40, you know, but you start thinking like, what difference am I going to make in this world?

00:24:01:15 - 00:24:27:07
Unknown
Like what mode? And I ask you a simple question. You know, I have the privilege. I don't know why I'm just a hillbilly from Kentucky, but I listen to people and I love on people, and I try to encourage, but I ask you a question, and the question was simple, and it was how I lead every conversation when people, whether they they want my advice on what their next step is and how to do some things.

00:24:27:07 - 00:25:01:03
Unknown
And and that was what brings you joy. And let's just start there as you talk about your second mountain and life, can you just give and maybe it's a Reader's Digest. You go as long as you want, but, you know, let's talk about that question, because I think with so many of us, ladies and gentlemen, leaders, to be the true leaders that we need to be, when you've reached that mountain and I think we're always striving, but you've got, you know, you know, a 20,000 followers on, on LinkedIn, whatever that is for you.

00:25:01:03 - 00:25:22:23
Unknown
But that second mountain, like, what brings you joy? Will you will you just unpack that a little bit, that that conversation that you had with me sitting outside at that table, at DMC? Yes. First things first. So I just want to thank you again for taking that time. Because it is really it. You've been a big part of my life for almost a decade, right?

00:25:22:23 - 00:25:43:29
Unknown
And I just I watch what you do. I watch how you pour into other people. So I knew that you were the person that I wanted to have that conversation with. And the fact that you agreed, to take your time during a very busy time for you, at a conference. It's a busy time for somebody like yourself because you're working a lot of avenues to take that time meant the world to me.

00:25:43:29 - 00:26:08:28
Unknown
So again, thank you for that. Of course. All right. The second mountain thing. So this really stems from a few different things for me as you start to transition in your life. And for me that there's a core difference of old April 1st, not April, a new April 2nd mountain, April. And here's where. To me, the defining line is in my first mountain I am.

00:26:09:00 - 00:26:29:04
Unknown
I'm going to be honest and vulnerable to tell you I was a flying monkey and a friend of mine like she she she coined that, that phrase. So and I use it now because it's exactly what I was. Even when I didn't agree with something, sometimes I had to just do the thing that I was told to do to survive.

00:26:29:04 - 00:26:57:25
Unknown
Right? I think a lot of times in our first mountain we make decisions and survival mode, right? I have to pay my own bills. I have a child to support, I have a husband to support. I have all these things that are determined upon me making a paycheck, right? And thus decisions are made based on money not necessary, based on joy.

00:26:57:27 - 00:27:30:15
Unknown
There's an aspect where you hit a spot in your life where you get a freedom, and that freedom comes from being able to now transition, choice, making a way from survival and money to joy. And what is it that I like to do and what do I want to do and where do I want to be? And that happened for me with, you know, my son moving out and graduating college and my husband and I are, you know, four years away from from him retiring.

00:27:30:18 - 00:28:01:07
Unknown
And so there's a spot now in my life where I go, now I can make choices for me. And when you start to suddenly have that after decades of not having it, it's a freedom. But it's also kind of scary because you don't necessarily fully know what brings you joy. It's it's taken me the better part of this year, and having multiple conversations with people that I love, trust.

00:28:01:07 - 00:28:23:13
Unknown
I'm in a group with flies aboard Tricentennial Delta who have spent life changing, with with women in automotive. They are some of the other women that you mentioned earlier that I, I've had the opportunity to be a big part of my life since 2019. There's so much foundational things that have happened in my life in the last six, seven years to have me look in the mirror and answer that question.

00:28:23:13 - 00:28:46:21
Unknown
Tim, what brings April Simmons joy so that I can figure out what do I want to do with my life? Now that I have a choice, right? And some people say, well, April, you always had a choice. And I will say, yes and no. Right. I think there's an aspect where where there is some, some things that we do when our kids are young and stuff that, that are different.

00:28:46:24 - 00:29:08:29
Unknown
What are the sacrifices you're willing to make? I was not willing to sacrifice my son, potentially not having a roof over his head. Right, right, right. I was going to do those things. So anyway, that'll that'll being said said trying to learn the point. What brings me joy, really, truly, number one, is problem solving. I've always just loved solving problems.

00:29:08:29 - 00:29:26:24
Unknown
You know, when somebody else can't figure it out. And I like who. Give it to me, give it to me, give me the tough problem. I love solving problems. I think that's why I enjoy operations so much in tech Stack and try new things, because I'll z out all the issues and and and where we can make it better.

00:29:26:26 - 00:29:47:24
Unknown
I like to make things better, but I really love to make people better. I really love, you know, some of my biggest wins have not been my best paycheck. I honestly can't even tell you what my number one paycheck is going back all these years. But what I can tell you is the stories of the humans who have told me that change their life.

00:29:47:27 - 00:30:17:28
Unknown
I can tell you date, time, exact words used in a text message or conversation. So I can tell you that my joy comes from being. The foundation of evolution, I think, is what I would call it, right? Like like saying, hey, if I can now help you learn all these lessons that I learned the hard way and give you that foundation to where you don't have to start from scratch, right?

00:30:17:28 - 00:30:52:27
Unknown
You can start from, you know, the second story of the house, not the foundation of the house, then how much better are you going to be? And so I really realized that, you know, education and empowering people. And I want to empower people regardless of their leader. Okay. Oh, you talk about these podcasts or me going and talking on stages or giving away my playbook for free, or talking to other people in my industry who have nothing to do with my group and taking my personal time.

00:30:52:29 - 00:31:22:21
Unknown
It's because I want every human to be empowered, regardless of whether they have somebody who is willing to teach them at their dealership, or they have a great leader at their dealership or what have you. I think every person should be able to be successful in this business with all the tools like zooms and stream yards and LinkedIn's and all these tools we now have, we didn't have, everyone should be able to be empowered to be successful.

00:31:22:24 - 00:31:51:12
Unknown
April, I love that. In fact, that's that's really what inspired, this podcast, this leadership podcast, because I have the privilege sometimes when my flights are delayed and we almost run into another plane like last week, which is a whole other story, you know, it's not as lovely. But in all seriousness, I do have the privilege of of weekly, meeting with some of the best human beings and the best operators and, and and sometimes not so much.

00:31:51:12 - 00:32:04:16
Unknown
And being able to help those people out, because I can remember at the dealership, you know, I was, you know, I never went to a conference. I never listen to anything. I, you know, I, I had an idea there was a BMW store that was selling a ton of cars, and I kind of tried to mimic right down the street.

00:32:04:16 - 00:32:21:26
Unknown
So I try to mimic what they were doing. And then we started selling a bunch of cars. But but I wanted to be able to take what, you know, a Patrick did or a Troy do horn, dude or, or a Kevin Deutsch did or what? What are these two? That maybe it's a small dealer in Dothan, Alabama.

00:32:21:26 - 00:32:42:09
Unknown
Right? That here's the playbook. Hey, try these different things because at the end of the day, it is it's about leadership. And as I said before, it's the great philosopher Michael Jackson once said, you know, we got to start with a man or a woman in the mirror and are you looking at your face and have you and and it really comes down to that.

00:32:42:09 - 00:33:01:24
Unknown
And I quote this a zillion times, you know, Kevin Doyle said, most people in the automotive business, the reason they're not successful was they go to work to wait. They don't go to work to work. And it is amazing how lucky you become when you just work. When you just work, we show up. We show up at 9:00 for our shift.

00:33:01:24 - 00:33:28:00
Unknown
We're smoking a joke and we're looking at social media. What are we going to have for lunch? It. Seriously? I love what you said. In fact, you know, I won't tell anybody else the title, but I am working on a book and I am going to quote you in there. I love what you said. Being the foundation of evolution of their evolution, because at the same time, you know, it all starts with the renewing of your mind, right?

00:33:28:04 - 00:33:48:08
Unknown
You know, we are so as human beings, we are so comfy. I had the I had this talk with a Ford dealer yesterday. He pulled me in and thanked me for the car. As I was encouraging him, I said, I said, your people, so many people. Sometimes you got to make tough decisions because some, many people are comfortable being comfortable.

00:33:48:10 - 00:34:04:15
Unknown
And I was comfortable at a Lexus dealership. My bills were paid. I didn't, but I wanted to make a difference. I wanted to step out. I wanted something that I could call my own, that we could go change something, you know? And I think that second mountain for you, I've known it firsthand, being able to pour into people.

00:34:04:15 - 00:34:27:23
Unknown
I see the people taking notes when you speak, you know, it's always easy, when someone's trying to cross a minefield to ask the person on the other side how to get across. And that is, ladies and gentlemen, all we are trying to do here on team talks. I am definitely not the smartest person in the room. I'm trying to bring those people to you and show you how to get across that minefield.

00:34:27:26 - 00:34:47:07
Unknown
April, I'm going to let you land the plane. Any final thoughts? For our listeners, I know this goes out to, Gosh, everybody, in the all the all the canal users, which is over 30,000 people a week, plus people on a podcast and everything else. So, so with that big audience, what, what do you want to say to them?

00:34:47:07 - 00:35:18:09
Unknown
To land the plane? I think you're just be this don't don't over, don't over complicate things, you know, show up every day. My, I always do a word of the year, and so I'll share my word of the year. This year is is kaizen. Because I think that you see continuous improvement. Kaizen stands for continuous improvement. And I think that that is something that if you're doing that every day, if you're giving gratitude every day, that's the key to do something, you know, to, learn something new every day.

00:35:18:09 - 00:35:37:22
Unknown
I mean, this is my this is my, like, my book of, just, you know, thoughts and notes. And I just jot these things down. And then the ones that really, really resonate get kind of my first sticky note. And I will tell you ten if you have two my sticky I that are things that Tim has said to me that I like.

00:35:37:22 - 00:36:08:20
Unknown
Yeah, that's, that's gold right there. And these are the things that on tough days or days where I find myself moving away from making the main thing the main thing. Okay. I think too much in automotive. We're really guilty of getting away from making the main thing the main thing. I might just pop in and take five minutes to listen to a ten talk or or go to LinkedIn and look at something that is that is going to help get my mind turned back into the right channel so that I can actually perform.

00:36:08:24 - 00:36:37:09
Unknown
So I think that's my biggest piece of advice is in 2025 and beyond, there's no excuse for not doing the best you can do and finding resources and work on that continuous improvement. Do something every day that makes yourself just a little better. Ladies, we are here for that from the one and only April. So for April, thank you so much for, taking a few minutes to come on with us.

00:36:37:12 - 00:36:56:10
Unknown
Sounds like we're going to need to do a, a second session to get it all in. Because I there's a lot of other questions I would like to ask, but we'll save that for the part two of this particular conversation. Ladies and gentlemen, we've just tried to make ourselves a little better today. Hopefully, we've made you a little better today.

00:36:56:10 - 00:37:22:01
Unknown
I just want to be a little better. I want to be a better daddy, a better husband, a better leader. I want to eat better than I did yesterday. Like. Like that's that is. That is the key. Let's let's get better today than we were yesterday. And the first step. And April said it and we've set it on here hundreds of times is to is the key I think is to start your day with gratitude.

00:37:22:06 - 00:37:43:15
Unknown
Because at the end of the day, most of us have it. In fact, probably all of us listening to this podcast podcast have it so much better and we need to be thankful for that than most folks. So thank you. We love you. Thanks again. Until next time we will see you again on Tim Talks, where we always say no one is smarter than everyone.

00:37:43:17 - 00:37:53:28
Unknown
Let's just continue to get better together. We'll see you next time. And I.

00:37:54:00 - 01:16:37:14
Unknown
Thank you.

01:16:37:16 - 01:17:04:14
Unknown
It. Over three decades, I have 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. Welcome everyone again to this 25th episode. This 25th episode of Tim Talks Leadership and beyond. And this is going to be a little different.

01:17:04:14 - 01:17:24:26
Unknown
We're going to change it up just a little bit today. I'm super fired up because, you know, our our vision for this talk was to truly pour into people, to make people better, to make you better at your job, and more importantly, a better human being. If we can possibly do that, and seeing life, as beautiful, it is.

01:17:24:26 - 01:17:50:07
Unknown
It is. So with that, we are going to give you a step by step way, to do that. And we are excited to do that today. And today. The guest is pretty special. I met this guy via the clubhouse app. Heard about him, and he was talking in there one day about changing the culture, changing the culture.

01:17:50:07 - 01:18:13:09
Unknown
And he said, I changed the culture. We started. He didn't say, he said we started changing the culture on my first day. And a little more back story. And I'm going to have Roger come in here in just a second. But the reason you need to lean in a little bit, I was asked and by the way, I do have permission from the Butlers to use this.

01:18:13:12 - 01:18:33:13
Unknown
But I was asked to come speak to some of their leadership about a year and a half ago, and we were fortunate enough to be one of their leading vendors, actually their highest closing vendor. But the power and what we're going to talk about today is through culture, through paying attention. And we're going to do a step by step.

01:18:33:20 - 01:19:09:11
Unknown
You can see this top dealership here. If we can zoom in a little bit, was closing at 30%, but this bottom dealership was closing at 3%. So again, a 27% difference with the same tool. And why the difference? And this going from 30 or from 3% all the way to 30 to 37% closing, we're going to see how and why, the one and only Roger from Valdosta Toyota.

01:19:09:13 - 01:19:28:08
Unknown
Pretty long intro, but I had a lot to get in there. Roger. Welcome to Tim Talks, brother. Thank you man, thank you for having me. My pleasure. Yeah. Let's just dive right into it. Can you give us a little bit of background? I think, you know, people hear these podcasts, we keep them around 30 minutes. You know, that's the average commute time.

01:19:28:08 - 01:19:56:08
Unknown
But, I'll give us a little bit of background. You've been in the car business a while, and then you landed in Valdosta, and then we'll start unpacking that a little bit. Sure. You know, I've been probably in every position in the dealership, started out obviously in sales, finance, sales manager, GSM, GM, part owner of a Ford store and, heard to the grapevine, you know, that this up, you know, opportunity, you know, may become available.

01:19:56:08 - 01:20:17:20
Unknown
And I had an outgoing GM that plan to retire. And if I could come in and run a variable department, it's kind of my position to lose. And, you know, started out, five visits here and, you know, after my first visit, you know, started to join together and, see what we couldn't do to fix a lot of things.

01:20:17:20 - 01:20:39:08
Unknown
You know, during the interview, I ask many questions, and, you know, what's this process look like? What's the culture like? And every time I ask a question, his response to me was pretty simple. Non-existent, non-existent. Non-existent. Don't have it non-existent. So, okay, well, you know, I probably was the fifth or sixth guy in the last 13, 14, 15 months, whatever that may be.

01:20:39:08 - 01:21:03:01
Unknown
And, I assured him that, you know, if we could get a good team together that we could we could move the needle that transition into something, that's that's much greater than than probably what he's ever seen it. So we we went down that that that, you know, that path together. And through a lot of conversations, I started October 1st, which, mind you, we had a hurricane the day before.

01:21:03:03 - 01:21:39:02
Unknown
So I was driving 45 minutes to work. The first three weeks I was here, I didn't have a house. My family wasn't here. The town was devastated. You know, from from Helena. And, you know, a lot of people were up in arms and, you know, so October 1st, I came in and out of sales meeting, October 2nd, I came internet sales meeting, October 3rd, I came in, so I did three days of at least an hour long sales meeting, just laying out the basic expectations of what the dealership would look like and the culture would be moving forward.

01:21:39:04 - 01:21:59:04
Unknown
And I said, 25% of us won't be here 30 days from now on. The 25% will be here 60 days from now. Not because I don't want you to be here. We just you don't fit the culture, right? And at no point should any of us, not just myself, but any of us, compromised. Three basic needs and that's.

01:21:59:04 - 01:22:25:10
Unknown
You gotta love the work. You got to love people, and you got to serve somebody other than yourself. And if you can do those three things, we'll have a nice ten, 15 year run together. We'll break all records and and develop a culture that most people envy. And, fast forward, we've, managed to, break every record except for one.

01:22:25:13 - 01:22:57:19
Unknown
And I think that that next one's coming. It takes a little more time, but, complete buy in, you know, alignment. I've got some great people. I've got it. And just an amazing team that has done some legendary things. I mean, you're talking 35 year records that went down in the first six months of, the team being put together, and they just showed up early, showed out when they were here and stayed late.

01:22:57:21 - 01:23:22:12
Unknown
And, you know, I need to get them some more help. That's the only problem I have, right? I just need to add more people. I think the first thing that changed the culture, and I hear this a lot. Yeah. Can you can you talk about that, Roger? Because because I briefly mentioned in the intro. And what I found fascinating is, is you were challenged by somebody that I love and respect and he he's like, how do you he said, you can't change the culture in a day.

01:23:22:12 - 01:23:51:17
Unknown
And you're like, well, we, we did. And and can you unpack that a little bit? Yes. It takes time for people to grow, but especially in a store, when you've got the part owner saying non-existent, non-existent, non-existent, you know, that's not an easy task because quite frankly, you know, I've been on the other end of that as a young 23 year old salesperson, you know, and you've got a new guy or new gal that comes in and it's almost like a mental eye roll, right?

01:23:51:17 - 01:24:06:01
Unknown
It's like, oh, here we go, here we go again. Here. This guy, oh, this guy is going to change the world. Oh, you know, and everybody's Miss America right. All this he's going to he's coming in. He's going to he's going to solve world peace. And he's oh here we go. So so how. Because you know, it's just human nature.

01:24:06:05 - 01:24:30:23
Unknown
Not that it's wrong, but it's I mean especially you just said they went through 4 or 5 guys in 18 months or whatever, whatever the exact number was. But they went through multiple leaders right before Ricky found you. So. So can you unpack that? How in the world after, you know, a store's been through three or 4 or 5 leaders in a very, very short period of time, you're going to have meant whether they're telling you they're going to have the mental eye roll.

01:24:30:23 - 01:24:58:10
Unknown
Here we go again. How do you immediately what are some of the things, you said sales mean? What are some of the things? And you pour into your people. And I hear that and I've heard of that and I've heard from your people, you know, on clubhouse and other places. So can you help us? When you say the culture started to change day one, you know, what were some of the granular things that you did, with your team?

01:24:58:13 - 01:25:22:00
Unknown
I gave them the power that they needed to do the job. And that may sound basic, and it may sound, you know, cliche or, unheard of. But the reality is, I think you get power by giving. So we talk about empowerment all the time. But the reality is, I don't think most, if it's 5%, it's 1%.

01:25:22:03 - 01:25:46:19
Unknown
And what I mean by that is I didn't I didn't come in and hire a bunch of salespeople. What I did do is take the people that I had all of them and said, it's your team. I'm here to help mentor and coach you into the best team y'all can possibly be. But I need y'all to understand that you hire the people that are on your team moving forward, and they all kind of looked at me.

01:25:46:19 - 01:26:10:04
Unknown
Craziness said I will find the candidate through whatever means. I will put that candidate in front of all of y'all. They will spend a day at the dealership, they will talk to everybody here, and then you all will vote whether you want them on your team or not. And that pretty much happened day three. And I gave them the power of to to work their own schedules, their own day off.

01:26:10:04 - 01:26:35:28
Unknown
If you want a Friday in the car business, off, that's unheard of. One Saturday in the car business, that's an show. But the reality of it is, is I was told years ago of, very smart man who said, Roger, there are three kinds of leaders. There are good leaders, great leaders and supreme leaders. And once you master, being a supreme leader, you don't even have to be in the building.

01:26:36:00 - 01:26:58:19
Unknown
They will work harder for you when you're not there versus when you are there. And the only way you'll ever get there is to give the power of your people to do and make the decisions that you yourself can make. Let them write the bad checks. Let them make the mistakes, and let them grow because somebody at some point did the same thing for you.

01:26:58:19 - 01:27:30:16
Unknown
And that's how you became a good leader. And, as that process took place, we have a book club. So every Friday, I let them pick the book. And every Friday we go over a chapter in the book, and then we apply what we have read throughout the next week. Do not take huge post-it notes and put them in the sales room, of what we've learned, what we went over so that every time we go in there, that's the forefront of our mind.

01:27:30:18 - 01:27:58:28
Unknown
And that's genuinely being interested in someone other than yourself. Smiling, using a person's first name. All the things that we forget about as we become old car dogs, that we need to be reminded. And I think that the culture of giving, the culture of helping someone buy a car. So the trying to sell something, is just a different approach altogether.

01:27:59:01 - 01:28:22:25
Unknown
Mind you, this is the first dealership that I've actually ran this type of culture. I wasn't that guy. If you were to talk to me when I was a general manager at the Ford store that I came from prior to coming here, it's not the mindset that I had. But I took two months off in between.

01:28:22:27 - 01:28:48:14
Unknown
A little stint in Texas and my next gig, and I evaluated myself, which is probably the hardest thing that most of us try to do or don't want to do. And I really looked in the mirror and said, there are some things fundamentally that I've got to change to make the transition from a great leader to a supreme leader.

01:28:48:17 - 01:29:10:22
Unknown
And it's scary. It's really scary. And most people, man, they just don't want to do it because they've always done things a certain way. And, you know, I understand it from a, from a butler's perspective. I mean, they've got all their time money invested in dealerships. And, you know, it's hard to make a change because you don't want to lose the farm.

01:29:10:24 - 01:29:37:04
Unknown
Right. And, but for me, I thought. Well, the Bible talks about being steel less, and, so it's hard, man. It's hard for two months to take the job offers that I had. I wasn't looking really, excited to work on me and be what I needed to be for other people until I transitioned myself.

01:29:37:06 - 01:29:54:15
Unknown
And, it was a very humbling experience for myself. And, you know, I said the next gig that I take, for, you know,

01:29:54:18 - 01:30:24:24
Unknown
Before everything I can and my people. And I'll see what happens and what is transition and transpired here at this dealership is nothing short of anything I could have ever imagined. And, we talk about it all the time. Put your people first. The reality is, really, we don't. It's about me. Me me me. And, I just haven't taken that approach at all.

01:30:24:24 - 01:30:53:16
Unknown
Not a single day. As I thought about myself, I thought about them, and I've put them first. And what they have done, you know, I've got guys behind houses for the first time in their lives. Cars for the first time in their lives, making enormous amounts of money that they never thought were possible. And and when you can resonate that in somebody becomes contagious within your dealership.

01:30:53:19 - 01:31:25:11
Unknown
I don't have to manage people. I don't have to manage a sales force. They manage themselves. I hear salespeople tell other salespeople, you're on. Next up, you have an internet lead on a clock. You have installed a walkie talkie system, which is pretty basic. But we all can hear. We all have earpieces, and we all talk and communicate with one another every day to make sure that everybody that comes in or around the dealership doors are open for them, they're greeted and welcomed.

01:31:25:14 - 01:31:50:21
Unknown
If you need to go to your service, it doesn't matter whether we work at sales. We're just here to serve the people. And I think that you have the greatest impact when you change your community's mindset of you first. And that's what we try to do, is just change the community's perception of what we do. At Toyota and it's been a it's been a phenomenal last eight months.

01:31:50:21 - 01:32:19:22
Unknown
And I really has, you know, you hit on something that that we talk about here in a lot and, and I it it's just unbelievable what happens. You said something I had to work on myself first. And you know as leaders we love us. Some of us as people, as humans. We love us. Some us. I love me, some me.

01:32:19:24 - 01:32:35:24
Unknown
Right. Sure. And and it's very difficult. And my wife reminds me all the time there's a talk that I give, I can, you know, that I've given several times. That is, And it's entitled. What is it like to be on the other side of you? Well, my wife reminds me sometimes, you know, you remember that. Talk to him.

01:32:36:01 - 01:32:54:20
Unknown
It sucks right now, being on the other side of you. So, you know, I think the fact that you took two months to work on yourself to heal from whatever you went through, we don't have to get into that to understand that. Maybe the way that you did it. And I've gone through that the way that you did it before is not working.

01:32:54:22 - 01:33:22:12
Unknown
You mentioned scripture. There's a lot of scripture for that. There's also scriptures that say they who who humble themselves will be exalted, and those who exalt themselves will be humbled. I think that I think that something happens when we humble ourselves, something as leaders, something happens not. And again, I know you're in clubhouse. I'm in clubhouse sometimes and and Facebook and all this other stuff, and maybe I should or shouldn't post more than I do.

01:33:22:12 - 01:33:42:07
Unknown
I don't know, I don't post a lot, but there's a lot of people that say one thing and and I'm not casting stones. I don't know, I'm assuming there's a lot of people that that say one thing in these social media outlets and look at my life and look how great where I. But at the same time, if you talk to the people that work for on the like, they're, you know, you get a completely different answer.

01:33:42:09 - 01:34:11:07
Unknown
And I think it's extremely important to understand, you know, Maxwell said. You know, great leaders, come to the determination that they want to make a difference with people that want to make a difference, doing something that makes a difference. And the fact that, you know, you humbled yourself, you changed your mindset, and therefore the only thing you did was allow your people, you gave your people by and you gave them something to believe in.

01:34:11:07 - 01:34:45:28
Unknown
You gave them, you know, an environment, that built the, the team. So it's just, a phenomenal job. I am going to, actually look at my calendar. I want to I want to come down to Valdosta to pour into your team because they have encouraged me, because they listen. And hopefully I can pour into them and encourage them because because they need to understand that people are talking about, obviously through your leadership, but what they are doing, and hopefully that will encourage them to continue to move the bar.

01:34:46:00 - 01:35:09:18
Unknown
Very seldom do we do this. And but I think it's in fact, we've never done it. But I think I've got a lot of dealers, across the country. I opened up the conversation. You know, the reason I wanted Roger to come on is because I saw his numbers before he got there. I saw, at least through our Carnell to what?

01:35:09:18 - 01:35:39:09
Unknown
They were closing again, very bottom. There's nobody. I don't know if you can. There's nobody, below Valdosta Toyota. A year and a half ago, they were closing at 3%, with 100 leads. So I want to touch base. There's a lot of people out there. There's a lot of, And look, we're building I, we're we're going to release, you know, full I sweet the end of this next year.

01:35:39:09 - 01:36:02:20
Unknown
But I think with the tools that we've enhanced now, I want you, if you don't mind, to give a play by play, it's easy to say. Oh, you went from 3 to 37% closing. Can you give us. Because I want my team to hear this, too. We're going to give this to. Can you give other dealers, that are possibly using our product?

01:36:02:22 - 01:36:27:11
Unknown
Obviously could be using any product, but but with the way our product is set up car now on how you we know that you are converting at 80% chat to lead Dr.. You know to lead is is over 80% and of that 80% you're closing at 30 plus percent. I don't want to give you the exact number depending on the month.

01:36:27:13 - 01:36:56:25
Unknown
So, you know, with all the pizzazz. And Bob Lanham gave me this quote yesterday and I love it. You know, a lot of dealers right now are worried about pizzazz, but they forget about performance. That's why as a company, we were up 280%, first quarter of this year just because there was a lot of people coming back, because that lead to close was not as high as it was, when they left us, when they left us, they saw pizzazz.

01:36:57:00 - 01:37:15:23
Unknown
They leave us and they come back. Would you please be so kind to give us a step by step? How in the world? Same tool. Now I will full disclosure, you went from our messaging tool. Only one of the first things you did when you got there is you went to our entire real time retail, our full suite program.

01:37:15:26 - 01:37:40:19
Unknown
So tell us how in the world you went from 3% to 37%, closing? Well, it obviously took me, you know, a few months, but, the first thing, you're not ever using car. Now, I wanted to spend some time with, You know, the power that Ricky gave me was unprecedented. We've never given anybody that, you know, has ever been at this store in 15 years.

01:37:40:19 - 01:38:01:12
Unknown
It's been here. The power of the gave me. They didn't give it to me day one. And I think the reason he continued to give me. And now, I mean, I have the best relationship with the God everybody thought it wouldn't work because we're too tight a, you know, we're lions on hill. Very stuck in our way of doing things.

01:38:01:12 - 01:38:19:15
Unknown
And, and what I've learned is that when I looked at the tool initially and what we were using it for and looked at it from an outside in perspective of how if I were going to buy a car, how would I want to be engaged? How would I want to be talked to? How would I want to be treated?

01:38:19:17 - 01:38:44:03
Unknown
And then get other people's advice on that same exact thing. So and looking at the conversion rates of just running it like it was and kind of you guys taking, you know, all of it and it, it, it hit me sitting in my office one day talking with a guy from clubhouse that I think this is the best tool I've ever seen in the car business.

01:38:44:03 - 01:39:15:02
Unknown
Forget the the autos and the this and the that and the, you know, a, this and that. At the end of the day, I still think we're human beings wanting to be served by human beings, and we're all so instant gratification creatures. We want it now and we want it our way. So if I have 35% of my population that I hold myself that wants to be dealt with, when I have a question I want you to answer, I need someone there.

01:39:15:04 - 01:39:47:10
Unknown
So I took hired a one guy, one position, unleashed all of car now and said, I'm going to work with you every single day. Day in and day out. And you are going to show that engagement is the key to all, in my opinion. Future business down the road, because the experience is what we remember. We don't really remember the car that we, you know, we bought eight years ago, we don't really remember, you know, what interest rate we paid, how much money we put down.

01:39:47:10 - 01:40:30:23
Unknown
But we do remember our experience. And if I can give you a great experience and do not be sitting in my showroom, what tool out there do I have that can possess and do those things? And without fail? Man, your tool is, in my opinion, the best I have ever seen in my decades of doing this. Because there is a, I think, a form of population that is coming, in the younger stages that grew up, social media, grew up talking to a, all they want to do is text and the, the foundation of the of your company and how it was built provides that for them.

01:40:30:26 - 01:41:02:22
Unknown
And I do think it's the way of the future, I think. 37, 3533 whatever it may be, I think you're going to see 4040 to 47, 50, as we get better at our, our own engagement, and our, our community understands and the surrounding community understands that we can meet you at whatever point you're buying experiences. And we have that capability of you talking and speaking and video and live with with someone at the dealership.

01:41:02:24 - 01:41:25:27
Unknown
I think that raises the bar for us. So day by day, he and I went through every single lead. What our talk points are, how we should address, those leads coming in, who we get to when we drop it to a sales person when it comes to me, at the end of the day, it's just going to take a lot of time, you know?

01:41:26:00 - 01:41:41:12
Unknown
So you, Sorry. Can you give us a step by step? So you got it. You told me you got a 70 inch screen. Where's that 17th screen at? We sat in front of JT. Or is that at the sales desk? Where is that? We have four of those going up in what we call the war room.

01:41:41:14 - 01:42:02:17
Unknown
That's nothing but anybody at any time. The butlers, you know, visitors, other dealers can visit and come down and see, that you don't have to ask any question. You can literally walk into the to the war room and look at all of those screens and see real time what's actually taking place and what's going on.

01:42:02:20 - 01:42:36:15
Unknown
Picture that had another person for car now so that we can really step the game up. I would like to maybe integrate, some view in with that with you guys if that's. Yeah, possible. And, really take it to the next level to give that that trade. It's that, live in person. And, and, and you know, so I actually the step by step is, is been make it vocal, make it known, engage it, work on it every day to get better.

01:42:36:18 - 01:42:59:12
Unknown
I did a day. Listen, I've become much softer. I guess you could say most people. New force man. You've got. So my accountability is still there, but my accountability is in a different measure, a different measurement. Meaning the person has to know what the responsibility is before they can be held to any kind of accountability standard.

01:42:59:14 - 01:43:23:12
Unknown
But we always talk as leaders of how others accountable, but yet not holding ourselves accountable to the people in which we're trying to empower to do what we do. And that's an everyday thing that's not a once a week, once a month, end of the month. That's an every day you come in, you bomb, you first bomb, you look at what you've got going on.

01:43:23:12 - 01:43:46:01
Unknown
You discuss it throughout the day. You check in, you check off and you check out. And that's something that's religious in the dealership that wasn't present before. What that also gives us an ability to do is to hedge things before they happen, and address things while they're happening, not always looking in the rearview mirror. Oh, well, that happened, and we never put a plan to fix it.

01:43:46:01 - 01:44:07:12
Unknown
Or if we do, it sounds good, but we as leaders don't actually get in and do it with them. So I think JT would tell you that my engagement with him is is daily, sometimes hourly. I will jump into conversations when I see that he's having problems. I carry it everywhere I go. It's on my phone, it's on my desktop.

01:44:07:15 - 01:44:36:07
Unknown
And and the accountability to the to the partner. Right. Because I see you guys as a phenomenal partner. I don't not hear from you. Any time I've ever reached out to Cornell, it's instantly fixed. And it's usually fixed above and beyond. Whatever question I may have had, which is, is is rare. And we let's just face it, there's so many one 800 numbers to call and you can't ever get resolution.

01:44:36:07 - 01:44:54:02
Unknown
And I'm going to give you a ticket number. And it's not that with your company, man. So, I would tell you that, you're doing a phenomenal job. And if if we had more partners like you, the car business would become a lot easier for all. I appreciate that, Roger. Let me just let me make sure that I get this right.

01:44:54:02 - 01:45:14:21
Unknown
So as JT so you got these. You created a war room. Okay, where anybody can see, you know, all this money, you know, you know, we're paying tens of thousands, if not some dealerships, hundreds of thousands dealer groups, millions of dollars to get people to come to our website. And we just hope that it works. Right. So and they walk around our websites unassisted.

01:45:14:21 - 01:45:32:08
Unknown
So let me just make sure that I. So you've got these 70 inch screens that are the war room is JT sitting in the war room. Yes. Perfect. Okay. So you you step one. You got you got something visual that you can see where these leads are. Come in. Step two I guess step one is hiring the right guy or girl to be their champion.

01:45:32:08 - 01:45:57:03
Unknown
Okay. You put the screen in front of them and then you coach, and then you're constant, and then they're engaging right at the right time. And then after they're engaging at the right time, you are, you know, holding JT and now soon to be another person accountable and you're jumping in. So you are checking. So I wish it was maybe I don't wish it was more complicated.

01:45:57:03 - 01:46:18:08
Unknown
I mean it literally. Ladies and gentlemen, it's called paying attention. They got a large monitor. You can't miss it. They created a war room. I'm sure they've got a monitor for venue. You know, those guys are doing incredible things. That's why we did a beautiful API integration into venue. So if a customer, scans a trade in our tool, it immediately populates in the inventory tool.

01:46:18:08 - 01:46:36:09
Unknown
We did that. We did that for you a few weeks back. So paying attention, creating a champion 2 or 3, four, sometimes five times a day. You're getting with JT. Where are we at? Where are we at. And that's how you closed. And then you review the game film. Okay. We should have said this. We should have said that.

01:46:36:09 - 01:47:01:19
Unknown
Hey, let's try this. And continually changing the tackle box right on how we're getting people in. And that's how you went from what I have proof right here from 3% to in the 30s consistently month in month out. Is that what I've got correct. He he's done a phenomenal job. Yeah he is he is he is everything that everybody said he wouldn't be and I think yeah.

01:47:01:20 - 01:47:37:12
Unknown
One thing I would tell you, Tim, that I, I didn't discuss or talk about is belief, right. It's so my new to most. But when you come to work every day believing that you're going to be successful, and your people believe they're going to be successful, it just changes. It's not it's not a job anymore. It's like it's you get to come to work to help, someone regain independence, whether that's a crash vehicle, wreck vehicle, parking vehicle or whatever.

01:47:37:15 - 01:48:05:00
Unknown
To enhance their, independence in the day, that's all. Basically a lot of people are is it's tough. Right. So, he is he has been kind enough to to let me, you know, I took a guy who was in a shell. Yeah. Who was not an outgoing and introverted completely. Everybody asked me what I was doing.

01:48:05:03 - 01:48:24:18
Unknown
It's not going to work. I believed, I believe, and can I, Roger, let me. And I don't think Thomas would care that I shared this. You know, all of us who have kids, we want the best for our kids. And unfortunately, as teenagers and as young people, we go through our time, right? We go through rebellion.

01:48:24:18 - 01:48:52:08
Unknown
We go through not wanting what we want. And this, ladies and gentlemen, this is a young man that I can remember Thomas calling me. I'll never forget it because I was with my son, moving him into a new house at Arizona State. And and Thomas, his father, JT's father was weeping on the phone. And as I began to pray with Thomas over JT that I never met, and Thomas made several of those phone calls and just asking for prayer, and God that God would do a work in JT's life.

01:48:52:10 - 01:49:14:15
Unknown
And man, this is the guy. This is the guy. The guy that Thomas was, oh my gosh, my son needs direction. That people were all over the country praying over that you picked. And people said, you know what? What are you doing? You know, this guy's introverted. And now, wow, I mean, be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

01:49:14:15 - 01:49:35:27
Unknown
Just a phenomenal just a it's just a beautiful story. In fact, I probably need to get JT on here. One time. Maybe we'll do an episode too with JT as well. I, just a phenomenal story. Yeah. I'd love for you to talk with him. He's, you know, we're working on tone and inflection now, right? Causes, to his own.

01:49:36:00 - 01:50:02:22
Unknown
Right? Recognition. He needs to work on his tone inflection so he cannot practice and practice and practice. So when he leaves every day, he has to come in and check out with me. And he has to practice and show me that he's working on his tone and inflection because he was just so monotone, so quiet, so shell driven to where now, he is not anywhere close to the same person.

01:50:02:22 - 01:50:20:23
Unknown
So I think it's it's a multitude of things, but, but, but, when looking and talking with JT, I looked at your platform, who you were, who you stood, you know, with your beliefs. And I thought it was the perfect thing for him. I could have put him in sales. I could put him in a BDC room.

01:50:20:23 - 01:50:41:18
Unknown
I could have done a lot of things. But I thought, this is him, right? And and, you know, I've got to make sure that if, you know, I took a different approach to when those two months off and I said to myself, it's I've always just given up, right. And instead it's them. It's they don't want it.

01:50:41:25 - 01:51:05:10
Unknown
They they're not they're not car guys. They're not this or not that. You know, so if you're going to hire somebody, Roger, you're going to put somebody on the team. You've got to do everything in your power to ensure that they are successful. Your turnover rate becomes nothing. And I think the only way you can do that, honestly, is to really love people.

01:51:05:10 - 01:51:34:01
Unknown
And I took a different mindset and a different approach and listen, everybody knows some people know about Alex. And and I will tell you that that Alex is not a perfect man. I don't expect him to be. And what I learned in those 37 days changed my life. So I'm thankful for Alex. And a lot of ways, he and I have talked, and he and I are perfect, and, and and, at first, I didn't think that.

01:51:34:07 - 01:52:16:01
Unknown
Right. But as time went on, I'm grateful. I'm grateful for him. And and in the time that I spent there, it's what needed to happen, for me to transform. So, you know, I'm excited, man, about car. Now, I really am. I think it is the future of a lot. That's why I'm going to add another person, who's going to be I'm going to let JT have an employee which people would never thought would, would, would have ever happened, to let him, pour in to, to to to car now and, and another person, that I think we can take it to, to a much

01:52:16:01 - 01:52:37:03
Unknown
higher level than what we're at right now. Roger, thank you so much. When? A few minutes long, I thought it was extremely important to get as much as we could in, ladies and gentlemen, at the end of the day, amazing things happen when you humble yourselves. Amazing things happen when we, you know, as we always say, just for today.

01:52:37:03 - 01:53:01:04
Unknown
Just for today, allow me to treat people as though they're more important than me. This is a real life story. I have real life numbers to see physically exactly what happens when we make those decisions. Roger. Thank you, for your time today, ladies and gentlemen. Hopefully this helped you. Hopefully this encouraged you. If you want to reach out to Roger, I'm sure he'll be happy.

01:53:01:04 - 01:53:16:17
Unknown
If you want to visit his dealership. Look at his war room. If you want to call. I know I'm going to plan a trip down there and hopefully love on JT and that team a little bit. Because it encourages me. Listen, we're all in this together. And as I always say, no one smarter than everyone.

01:53:16:17 - 01:53:37:08
Unknown
So let's just keep getting better together. Roger. Thank you. Until next time. We'll see you on the 26 episode of Tim Talks Leadership and Beyond. Very soon. We'll see you then. God bless. And I.

01:53:37:10 - 01:53:38:12
Unknown
Guess you.