Transcript 0:00 [upbeat music] So it is so fun to be able to connect with the people we see all over the industry doing the real work on the front lines. Uh, Ed Roberts, you have a very special guest today. 0:15 We're gonna let you introduce your guest. So I have my fixed ops director. A lot of people see what we do at Bozard Ford Lincoln, uh, but not necessarily see all the people behind the scenes. 0:23 And Matt Norris is my fixed operations director, and, uh, he's been with the store now for coming up on six years. Yep. And- Wow... uh, been in that role since I vacated it back in, uh, 2021. So let's get this straight. 0:35 You vacated the role and you had to fill his shoes. Yeah. [laughs] No, no small task there. I, uh, yeah, no expectation, no small task. 0:43 What, what's the nature of, like, the mentoring relationship you had with Ed leading into that? Like, did you feel ready when you stepped in? I did. Uh, Ed, Ed's very, uh... 0:52 We- we've been doing leadership classes at the dealership now for, uh, a little over two years. 0:56 Um, one of the other service managers and I went to Ed, uh, a little over two years ago, and, "Hey, we're looking for more, uh, for more growth, not just personally, but obviously professionally." And so we created... 1:07 Ed helped us put this program together, and he's pretty much led it. But, uh, three days a week we do some leadership meetings. 1:13 Uh, and it's, it's really benefited me, not just in a business, uh, aspect, but also in my personal relationship at home with my wife and, and, and my kids as well, so. 1:22 See, you did this thing just there, I don't know if you noticed it. You just kind of said, like, "You know, three days a week, we blah, blah, blah," you know? As if that's normal. 1:28 [laughs] As if that's somewhat normal, right? 1:30 Like, that, I think that in itself speaks volumes to the operational fortitude of an organization to say, "Nope, we are gonna commit three days a week," time, however long that is, I don't care if it's 10 minutes or two hours, time to saying, "This is important, because if we don't do it, we'll die" right? 1:50 It's like that's the mentality you have to have to make sure that happens, Ed. So I wanna dive into it a little bit because he, he didn't, he didn't plan it out well enough. No, I didn't. 1:59 A- about 60 days into it, his wife says, "What's, what's, what's going on with you? You're changing. You, you, you're... I'm having fun with this. Whatever you're doing- Wow [laughs]... keep doing it." 2:10 [laughs] And that's what leadership is. Don't ever leave that job. Yeah, that's what leadership is. Oh, man. It's becoming a better human. 2:13 And when you become a better human, the ones around you feel that, and they become better humans as well. It is. And it... 2:18 And the other cool thing that you've, we've gotten to see over the course of this two and a half years is it started out with three of us, then it quickly became five of us, and now it's, I think, 10 of us that are doing it consistently three days a week. 2:30 And it's one thing that we don't... Like, there's no excuse. Like, we... It's, it's so important to us that we do this every single day that we... It's planned. When do you, when do you meet? 2:39 Like, what's the structure around it? Mondays- 'Cause, like, there's probably a lot of people listening that are like, "Okay," like, "How is this... How do you fit this in?" Yeah, it's, it's a good point. 2:46 'Cause obviously service, service director, you have kind of a busy position. It... Yeah. [laughs] Just a little bit, right? Kind of a couple little parts. So we meet three days a week. 2:52 It's on Mondays, Thursdays, and Fridays. Mondays one person from the group presents, and then Thursdays and Fridays Ed usually will... 3:00 Thursdays is usually a very interactive, uh, portion of it, and then Fridays is, is, uh- More lecture... is, is more lecture. But it, it, it's really good because we don't s- we don't focus- And what time is it? 3:10 Like a morning thing? Yeah, so- Eight o'clock. Uh, we, we try to keep it between 30 to 40 minutes. Sometimes- Yep... it's a little bit shorter, sometimes a little bit longer. Yeah. 3:18 Um, but, so we commit a couple hours a week to it. Yeah. Right. And, uh, the impact from it is huge. And it's not... We, we're, we're specifically avoiding business related stuff. 3:27 We talk about, like, the overarching how do you become a better person, how do you become a better leader, and what those qualities, uh, involve. 3:33 And, and we discuss and we dive into those and discuss those, but we make it a point not to go into the day-to-day operations and- Right. Right. 3:39 'Cause then you're meeting- You've got other, you've got other times for that... to get back. Yeah. Absolutely. That's 100% correct. So. Oh, my goodness. 3:44 Every time- I've got, like, little chills down my back every time we start talking... I'm so excited. The well gets deeper, and deeper, and deeper. 3:50 Well, because we talk about in our industry, we're like train, train, train, train, train. And everybody's talking about training. Train your people. Get good people or get your people good, right, is the phrase. 3:59 And, and that always is centered around the process of doing your job, right? Right. 4:05 And though those are important things, that type of training, that type of interaction with leadership and employees is extremely important. The, 4:14 the, the change that can be done through personal growth as opposed to professional, like practical, tactical, expedi... I- it makes the practical, tactical stuff go so much faster, right? Absolutely. 4:27 Have you seen in those 10 people, like, the thing of doing your job role actually have an impact too? It, it, it, it's incredible. 4:37 You, you can look at all of the people that have been involved in it since day one, including myself, and the people that have subsequently joined the group because of their desire. We don't go out and farm it. We're... 4:47 It- it's strictly like you see us in there, you ask about it, you're inquisitive, and these people are like, "Hey, I really wanna be a part of this" That's the first- It's like Fight Club... that's the first... 4:56 Well, it's the first- [laughs] You gotta wanna be a part of it... literally it's the first- Yeah. Yeah... criteria for that. Like, you have- You gotta want it... to actually pursue it yourself. Yeah. 5:02 Yeah, you gotta want it. How did it start? So, like I said, about two and a half years ago, um, John Douglas and I, uh, were co-managing, working for Ed. 5:12 We're co-managing, uh, you know, the, the s- the service department, and we both felt like we were lacking a lot of, like, you, you know, backup. 5:21 In our industry it's r- it's, it's, it's so common, "Hey, you did a great job selling cars. You did a great job s- right, in service. Here's a service manager position." Now you're in charge. 5:30 "Here's a sales manager position." Totally different role. But there's been, but there's been no leadership or there's been no formal, like, training and, and people pouring into other people- Right... 5:38 on how to, how to be a leader and how to lead people properly. 5:41 It's just been, "Hey, you were really successful, and you sold a lot of cars," or, "You wrote a lot of service," or, "You turned a lot of hours, and now we're gonna put you into this position." 5:48 And so some of that was that, that, that effect of getting put into those positions without having a lot of that background of how do we lead people? How do we truly- Yeah... 5:56 care about our people and treat them the way they should be treated? And how do we grow them and mentor them? And, and that's really ultimately like, "Hey, we feel like this is where we're really lacking. 6:05 Can you help us with this?" And he was like100% all the way and let's run with it Heck yes. And every leader wants that out of your people, right? Yeah. And yes, let me, let me break that down just a little bit more. 6:14 John and, and Matt was running a very large, very successful fixed operations department and, and that's demanding in itself. Sure. 6:21 And in those moments you feel like you gotta pick up a lot of pieces, and that's where busy versus... In fact, that was our first meeting was, "We're busy," 'cause they says, "Hey, we need some help. 6:31 We need some guidance because we don't feel like we- we're- we're- we ever have enough time to get everything done we need to do." And I said, "We gotta figure things out and become less busy. 6:38 Let's look at what we're doing." And so th- that led into the mastering the art of delegation and all those elements and, and leveraging strengths and those things to make them more effective. Yeah. 6:48 And immediately they felt an impact from it, and they wanted more. So the Mondays, everybody that's in there goes in rotation. So every 10 weeks, each one of them holds it. 6:55 So it goes in rotation on, on a different person going every Monday, and then I'm hosting it Thursday and Friday unless I'm out, and then Matt will take over and run with it. But it, it... 7:03 Everybody grows from it, and when that happens, everybody, everybody in the store wins because they're connected to one of those 10 people somewhere along the way. Yeah. What's one step that... 7:13 I think there are probably a lot of people hearing this that this triggers something inside them, sort of saying, "That sounds great," like you said, all this training your people. 7:21 How, what would your, uh, response or what would your advice be to leadership who maybe hears this or may- or maybe even they're not in leadership, but this is kind of magnetic and drawing them forward. 7:31 What's a good starting point, right? Like, I mean, I'm talking like training this. How do you, like, make a commitment to actually move a little bit forward? Well, it starts with, with starting. 7:40 It starts with- What's, what's mile one?... with scheduling it, because we talk about that we need to do training, and every year we usually, that's usually part of our priorities. We need to make sure- Yes... 7:47 we do some training. Always. But we never, ever get started with it. And you can't make something better until you get it started. So, so get started. YouTube some stuff. G- use the resources that's out there. 7:59 It's already there. Use some stuff to get started with it. And then- You're not gonna say this, I'm gonna say this. Your book, Mile One Leadership, is a great place to get started because you- Yeah... 8:07 could literally just take a chapter of it at a time, and from someone who's actually practicing it right now, and you're pretty, you're pretty responsive and available. 8:15 Like, even you on LinkedIn, like, you love to help people do this. Yeah, absolutely. 8:18 So I'm, I'm gonna go ahead and recommend your book, Mile One Leadership, as a good place to start because you can go chapter by chapter, and there's a lot of bite-sized principles- Absolutely... 8:26 that you unpack enough that it could easily become a discussion in a session. So I will take that one- Or a few sessions... 8:31 for, for a moment because I wrote the book in a way that if you take a moment and it takes about seven minutes to read a chapter, and if you read that chapter- Yes... 8:39 whatever chapter that is, you should get something from it. And if you do, read another one. And if you don't, pass it along to somebody else. 8:46 But if you take those seven minutes to read that chapter, that is a leadership class that you can literally put together for your team, yes. That's amazing. 8:52 Well, gentlemen, thank you so much for sharing a little bit of your heart for the industry, your heart for each other and, and, and your team, and giving maybe, like, a pathway for someone to start. Appreciate it. 9:01 And I appreciate you guys making us available to the, uh- Always... to, to the industry. Always. Thank you guys for what you do. Always. Thanks, guys. [upbeat music]
