Dealership Diversity Through Authentic Leadership

Dimitrius Naylor: 0:00

When that candidate, whether it be diversity, inclusion, equity, whatever they're looking for, right, when they've walked into that store, can they see themselves in that role? Can they see themselves included and feel included in that store? Do they feel like it's open because I know that there's been times and I've been all across the country, I've walked in stores and walked right out because they doesn't look or feel like a place that I would feel included at.

‍Daniel Govaer: 0:29

Welcome back, everybody for another episode of the wheelhouse. And we are super excited to continue on our series. And today to help us with our discussions really, we're going to be shining a light on on the power that you have in your dealership showcasing some of the unique and diverse narratives of the people that you have working in there. And how is that something that you can employ, to help make your dealership stronger and really set you apart and make an extraordinary culture and an extraordinary tight network of people that you have in the dealership by just getting to know and understanding who it is that you have in the stories that they have in the dealership? So to help me do that, we've got Demetrius Naylor, who's the director of Cavinder Nissan, I have Karen Byrd gm of colonial VW Subaru and Alan Brown gm of sanparks, fivestar Chevrolet. And of course, a quick reminder that the opinions and views expressed herein are those of the speakers themselves and not their associated companies or subsidiaries or its affiliates. All right, now that we've got that out of the way, we always do start off our show with a 32nd Each person around the horn, what do you see what do you know? We're three weeks basically into the new year. And Alex Allen, I'm sorry, let's go ahead and then start with you have got 30 seconds on the clock. And go ahead.

Alan Brown: 1:43

Yeah, so you know, it seems like January's turned out a little soft. You know, I've got to go back four or five years to to see if I can get a similar cadence. I think we all pulled some business ahead through COVID. And, you know, when those customers are coming back to us to trade, there's a difference in right. And obviously, the used car market has corrected itself. So we got a few headwinds here in January, that's different than the last couple of years.

Daniel Govaer: 2:11

Right. And so, you know, market to do correct themselves. And that's one of the benefits of being in the in the free market enterprise. And so that's it. But it's good to hear from people that that understood that that was happening. And it sounds like you're you're well prepared for that. Karen, I've got 30 seconds on the clock for you go ahead when you're ready.

Karen Byrd: 2:27

Awesome. So I do agree with Mr. Brown. I'm sorry, I didn't get your first name. I do agree with you. We are certainly seeing a shift now in the industry, even though rates are dropping. However, I think we you know, we have to just get back to basics, you know, do a lot of data mining, you know, things that we did before, you know, we experienced the pandemic error. And I do think that I do think that they're going to eventually, you know, stable stabilize. Yeah.

Daniel Govaer: 2:56

Okay. Yeah. All right. Appreciate that. And 30 seconds backup on the clock. Dimitri, go ahead and round it up.

Dimitrius Naylor: 3:03

I think biggest thing we're seeing right now is compression margin compressions. We're definitely seeing everybody's scrambling for for retention as as market share definitely becomes a race for most of the dealerships around me that I see. But retention been one of the biggest issues along with the dropping of rates, but then the negative equity situation that is really taking a toll on a lot of dealerships. So definitely some interesting headwinds, as Alan said, so definitely agree with this.

Daniel Govaer: 3:34

I won't, I won't, I won't take the time now to refer you back to my stance on retention versus loyalty, Demetrius but but if only but if only you had loyalty, you wouldn't be worried so much about retention, but that's okay. We will there's we cover that in another different episode. That's alright. What we're going to do now is sort of get into our in depth discussion and actually had a conversation with a few people. Demetrius is one of them. And we're going to start off and here's a quick clip that we're going to play about. Why do most people not share about their unique upbringings in the dealership environment? You

Dimitrius Naylor: 4:06

approach every situation? With? What's the catch? What's the catch? what's the, what's the thing? What's the Get me what's the gotcha and every situation? So you're very guarded. I didn't until very recently, not very recently, but like, more recently, as I got longer in the tooth in my career, like start sharing, like, my new thing is like full transparency like, but like, fully sharing all the experiences because like, with Melvin, like you just don't know how people are going to perceive you. So if you don't know how people are going to perceive you, so it's better off just to keep it status quo, so that we don't judge you or oh, they're looking for you to do whatever the circumstances that you came from. So I don't know for me, it's just I never shared I got used to not sharing too much. Keeping a very surface level keeping a very A very minimal conversation. You just knew that Demetrius were going to show up in work like a dog and he was gonna go home. Yeah,

Daniel Govaer: 5:08

you know, Demetrius, I'll tell you that scared, you know, as a as a GM as someone, you know, that runs stores like that scared me right that, that there'd be somebody that would show up to a store and work as we're asking them to work but not feel comfortable to share about themselves as a person, whether whether the opportunity is given could be one of the reasons why not but but let me go ahead and ask them and ask our panel. You know, Karen Allen, what do you guys think about that?

Alan Brown: 5:35

Well, I'll go first, you know, it starts with us as a leader being transparent and being open, you know, the moment we expose ourselves, right, especially as we're getting to know somebody in that in that beginning stage, that that sets the tone, that they can open up, because of what you just expose for yourself, you know, all of us are broken, all of us have made mistakes in the past, or, you know, got into the car business, because we couldn't afford to go to college, or different, you know, economic reasons. And we got in, we got good mentorship, and we flourished from that standpoint. So as leaders today, that's what we're responsible to do, is to help build up the generation below us. And sometimes that takes us exposing ourselves first, to get them to open up, and then we can find the best that they have to offer not only us, but themselves.

Karen Byrd: 6:33

And I would what I would like to add to that, you know, as leader still, you know, we lead the whole human, you know, we get to know them get to know their families, and, and also share, you know, share when we can know about who we are, you know, where we're from, what was it like, you know, growing up, you know, where I went to school? You know, I mean, for my story, I think it's a unique one, you know, I grew up in South America, you know, I came to United States at the age of 17. You know, I love to share stories about my country, and you know, our culture there and stuff like that. I think it's really interesting. And I also like to learn about other people's, where they're from, you know, if they have different cultures, because I'm into different foods, you know, from all over the world. So for me, I'm open to just getting to know them in every way possible. I can or whatever they're willing to share with me too. Yeah.

Daniel Govaer: 7:21

Yeah. Is there a, is there a fear of being labeled? Is there a, you know, having a being typecast? Or, you know, something like that? Is that something to meet you? You're nodding? Yes. I mean, is that something? Is that one of the reasons and did sort of, other than eaten on Let's assume you don't have the leader that presents that type of authentic leadership? If you start talking about yourself? Does that, you know, from different backgrounds? Does that then? Yeah, are you concerned about being labeled? Are you concerned about having a name attached or a title attached,

Dimitrius Naylor: 7:53

you definitely are concerned about the diminished value that you're maybe austere upbringing, or whatever it was, you definitely worried about that diminished, you definitely worried about somebody labeling you and going, Oh, he's one of those guys, or he used to be excellent. And you're waiting for that other shoe to drop, and like, Oh, he's going to be the quote unquote, angry black guy, or whatever it's going to be like, you just don't know what other people are going to type cashews and, and code switching became the new thing, just like diversity data, all these different labels, and it's just, you don't have that confidence that you're not going to be judged, and that you're not going to receive diminished value over time, based on being fully transparent in who you are, and what you were.

Karen Byrd: 8:35

And I think that will vary by culture, you know, every every culture, every dealership environment is completely different. They're not all the same. So I can I can agree with Demetrius and where he's coming from, I mean, that culture has to support, you know, that person wanting to open up as well. You know, it has to be the culture.

Daniel Govaer: 8:55

Yeah, no one's doubting that you go to work and work, right. But the thing is, is about how much better you know, like if we're talking earlier about, you know, our the loyalty that we want to generate from clients, right, and I just firmly believe this is a hill I will plant every flag on. If you don't have that from your team members, you're not going to expect that don't do not expect expect that from your clientele, if your team members aren't loyal to it. Right. And like Erica Bruno said, if your team members don't want to come to that place, then you can't expect that your clients would then also so it's not about that I need I wouldn't expect that I any of you would come to work and not work and not give me you know, everything that you know how to do but the question is like, what's the untold benefits and bounty of when you have a place that welcomes you as a human being?

Dimitrius Naylor: 9:41

Do people feel comfortable is showing up as their authentic self. And once you allow that space and that revenue for people to say like, I've show up good, bad or indifferent. I'm Demetrius, this is who I am. This is what I represent. I've overcame some challenges just like most of us have, but I show up as this Person authentically, and I don't have to mask all mask on every single day when I show up to work. And then that's where you build a real load to because they recognize that you're a real human being. And then your, your associates can come in and say, boss has bad days to bosses, boss has a real effective boss has all these different things that are going on or have happened in his life. And then you can really show that not just because I'm in this position of power, then you can really show like, Hey, I overcame that adversity. So can you and then that really becomes where that that bridges gaps.

Daniel Govaer: 10:33

Yeah, and I'm I really can't diet. I mean, I and I really want to also amplify what Alan said earlier, you know, authentic leadership, it's not just, I wish it wasn't a buzzword, because it's such an important concept. It took me forever to be able to talk about experiences from the military or PTSD, and add related items from that. And it took me a while to be able to say that once I did, though, the conversations that I could have with my team became infinitely better. And it's not that we couldn't have conversations before, but with the language we use, or where how we were talking could definitely improve, you know, really can't apply it on and up for that authentic leadership is something that's, that's sorely needed. If I could get in around the horn of of around a minute of of what your individual story was the the good but cliffnotes version of from the starting point to how you got here today. And so Karen, if we go ahead and start in the top left corner, and go ahead and tell us I

Karen Byrd: 11:29

moved to United States when I was 17. I was born and raised in South America, Guyana, a very small country, it's right next to Venezuela. And I started out life very young, you know, a marriage, children, you know, very, very at a very young age. So it was very difficult for a woman, let alone a woman of color at that time to enter into the automotive industry. But that didn't stop me. I mean, I went on the tour of several dealerships. And in today's time, and the very last one, I almost gave up on it almost quit. And then I came home and I decided to give a woman a try. And when I when I call the dealer principal at that time happened to answer the phone, believe it or not back then to dealer principal answer the phone. And my first question was, do you hire women? And he said, absolutely. I said, I would love to come down for an interview. And I said, Can I come in now? And he's like, yes, absolutely. Come on down. So that's where it all started for me. And once I got into the industry and realized that this is what I wanted to do, I never looked back down. Yes,

Alan Brown: 12:34

there. Well, in 1990, I started washing cars and going to college. And the whole purpose of it was to put a build up enough money so I could go off to college. I was going to community college, my my grandfather actually worked for Ford and retired from there and said, Hey, Ford was good to me. So I started a Ford store in Garland, Texas and ended up spending 27 years with the family had incredible mentors along the way. So I love telling sales associates that come to work for us that you know, I started much lower than you did, because I washed cars about two and a half years in the very beginning. I came from very blue collar humble beginnings. My father was a police officer. And in fact, I thought when I retired when I when I got through college, I wanted to be an FBI agent. Right? That's, that's all I knew. But a conversation with our GSM kept me in the business. That fast forward. My career with the family ended up partnering in three Volkswagen stores. And I was chairman of National Council through the emission scandal with Volkswagen of America. So, you know, I've got to see and do a lot of things. And it's been from learning from good people in this industry and learning from the day to day activity of this industry. That was my Ivy League college, Demetrius,

Daniel Govaer: 13:59

let's go ahead and wrap up with with your version of how you got to where you are, from the

Dimitrius Naylor: 14:04

beginning. Down and dirty quick is for me, got out of the Marine Corps. And with the Marine Corps to being homeless, poor decisions, poor planning on my part, but And it'd be homeless for a year and a half. Went from couch urban to actually living in my car sneaking in and out of hotels to to wash, wash myself and being able to wash my clothes and things while I was cooking at restaurants and literally served the GSM my very first GSM I served him some food and sold him on a sandwich that we were selling. And he was like if you ever need a job, you have a job with me. And I literally entered the car business while being homeless, sleeping out of my car and saved enough money, went to go bought some dress clothes and showed up to the dealership and he slid a box of blank cards over to me said I've been waiting on your head and me a box of blank cards in a phonebook and said there's your desk right there. And it's been history ever since then. I just naturally gravitated towards his business because he took a shot at winning took him out, he gave me an opportunity. And I think that's the biggest thing for myself is just making sure that I forward that opportunity to as many people as I possibly can. And that's how I came into the business and just been running ever since and, and trying to make sure that I steward the opportunity that was given to me and

Daniel Govaer: 15:21

go on to the next thing now. And we talked to Melvin Rodriguez Melvin's been working on the on the East Coast for a long time. Working in PA right now, what a great story, a great organization and kind of off the cuff. I just asked him what we're talking about everyone's upbringing in their childhood and what got you here? So it was almost just like an off the cuff question. I said, What's a memory from your childhood that sticks out? And and here's the answer that he gave us,

Unknown: 15:44

I went to a birthday party, that I begged my parents, I think, for days and days to let me go and leaving the birthday party, which was like, literally three blocks I was coming out of it was they had a small hall where they did the party, and I came out. And I one of the guys grabbed me thinking I was somebody else, and put a gun right to my head. Just out of thinking that I was somebody else's brother, looking for somebody that owed money, and probably the scariest moment of my life. I never ran home so fast.

Daniel Govaer: 16:29

And that's shocking to a lot of people. And then that's also at the same time, probably there's people that are listening to this that are like, Yeah, I can relate to that. Do we know in our stores, you know, those kinds of stories do we do we do we know in our stores that, you know, that kind of a path that people have been on before they got to us?

Dimitrius Naylor: 16:51

I don't think you don't, I don't think we I don't think a lot of times because of the way stores are set up. And we don't have that diversity in our stores a lot of times or we haven't had it, there hasn't been a safe space to share those kinds of experiences. And, and, you know, when everybody looks like one person, you want to act and feel like that person as well. So I don't think there's a lot of there's a lot of space for that, or there hasn't I shouldn't say there is there hasn't been a lot of space for that, to share in those experiences, you know, mean? And say, Hey, I went through something, I went through something similar, you know what I mean? Even if it's sales personnel board, or whoever it is, it doesn't matter. Um, I just don't think that there's there's been a whole lot of space for that in the past.

Alan Brown: 17:40

Yeah, yeah, I think you calling it space is a smart way to do it, I think that there is a human element of what we do every day. And then there's an HR element of what we do every day. And sometimes we can get massively watered down with the HR element, and forget the human element. And we've got to work hard and making sure that we spend plenty of time and space when the human element.

Karen Byrd: 18:09

Very true. And that is why I mentioned earlier, you know, we have to coach, you know, lead the entire human, you know, I like to be able to have one on ones on a regular basis with my team. Um, because, you know, there's a lot to learn about them, you know, when they're going through, you know, having a bad day, you know, you know, let's talk about it, you know, what's on your mind, you know, do you mind sharing, and they know that I care, and you know, in that in that aspect, they'll open up and then they'll let me know what's happening. And I listened, listen, to understand where they're coming from, you know, and whatever support that I can I can lend at that time. You know, I'm here for them. I mean, I've had an instance one where I had an employee totally lost it on the job completely mentally. And everyone was afraid of him. And I pulled him aside and I said, Listen, I understand exactly what you're going through. I know, I personally have a family member that's going through the same thing I understand. And it's okay, let me get you some help. And I drove him to the hospital, you know, right after work and got him because I understood. So, you know, we have to care, you know, we have to ask, and we have to be there just to genuinely support them. Yeah. Yeah.

Daniel Govaer: 19:18

And, and I suppose maybe this would be a question for for legal expert on in the in the realm of, of what we can ask in the HR world. Right. But I mean, is it a worthwhile? Are there worthwhile questions that we can ask in the interview process? B. I mean, is it and I well, I guess my other question would be, I mean, do you see a benefit to that to asking those types of questions to gaining kind of information? You know, could you ask somebody what's the what's the story, you know, a formative experience you went through in your childhood that lasts with you today?

Alan Brown: 19:48

Well, in but you know, to bridge the gap with that. I think I touched on it in the very, very beginning of this. It starts with us. Let me tell you my story. Right. Let me Let me tell you about my walk, what got me in the car business? Why did I have to perform at the level that I needed to perform at based on what I was walking through as a as a young adult that couldn't afford to go to college and this sort of thing, right? So I think when we, with the experience, right, start to walk somebody through what that path looks like, and what that path was for us, then we've earned the right for them to respond. Now, if they choose not to respond, then we have to be sensitive, because we're still building the relationship. But I have learned in all my years of doing this, when I tell you everything, right, and I expose it all, it's amazing the feedback that I get, right, and that's feedback that I didn't have to go prod and scare HR with. I exposed to Alpha brainwaves. And by doing so I started to build a relationship.

Daniel Govaer: 20:54

That's, that's incredibly impactful. And so the minutes, because I think a lot of times when you get into an interview process, it's your maybe we're too cautious to talk about ourselves, because we want to be making it about the other person. But the point that you just made, right, I mean, it's the more you know, you give them the opportunity based off of what you've just said.

Unknown: 21:14

Yep, absolutely. Okay.

Daniel Govaer: 21:19

And I think so, the next, what we kind of we're what we're sort of leading to here as far as benefits to knowing these types of stories and knowing the paths that people have have traveled on. How does this affect recruiting? And and so we've got, let's, we'll hear from Demetrius again. And kind of what do you look for when recruiting

Dimitrius Naylor: 21:42

all the highperformance that I've run into, most recently, one of my main salespeople, she was looking for a house with their kids, you know, I mean, I posted that online as well. Their wives drive them people without wise. To me, it's just like, it's hard to moat. It's hard to motivate, inspire and grow those people because they have nothing. That is they have no attachment to anything. It's very much difficult to get those people across a certain line. I like people that are internally driven, and those are the people I resonate with the most. And I think that does come from my background of being homeless, and then being in being an orphanage and being like, it's just people that like, just keep driving. Those are those are my people

Daniel Govaer: 22:26

will say, Yeah, tell me about that mean, yeah. Go ahead and expound upon that. Because as you were asking is, you know, is what do you look for when you're looking for a place right when when people you know, businesses are recruiting but so are so are? So is the talent pool, essentially. Right? So go ahead.

Dimitrius Naylor: 22:42

I think the why for me is, once you figure out somebody's why, and then you make it bigger than the work, you make it bigger than the dollar figure, when you figure that out, that's an internal fire that no amount of anything can drowned out, they're either going to find it and achieve it with you are going to find the in a cheat with somebody else. My job is just to steward that and go, Okay. This is what you said, you want it. I'm all aboard on helping you get there. This is the pathway, we can get you there. And I think what we're both looking for is aligned. If you do this, I'm going to get you there. And then we're going to figure out how do we get you to the next level of that thing, right? So the young lady said she wanted a house, right? Okay, now she wants a house. Okay, so now you got the house? What's the new thing? What do you want more than just the house? What is the house provided? And once we start peeling back that onion, and we start figuring out, like, what the true why is, it was really she wants a house that all of her grandkids can come and visit. But then she wants to be able to have a place where she can pass along to her kids, when she retires or when you know, God forbid she passes. So she was looking for a secondary house as well. So like once we start uncovering those things, we can then just start, okay, a lot, this is how we get there, keep them on the path. And then that helps motivate them and then we can grow them and then when they get sick and tired of it or they have that all day that bad day, we sit him back down like hey, remember what we talked about? Or why you're here? Hey, let's just bring it all back in and they'll take the rest of the day off. But don't forget your why and then that is that I think that brings it full circle for a lot of people

Karen Byrd: 24:19

how are you? So I'm gonna take another perspective at that too. You know, so when I meet someone for the first time and an interview in them, for me I look for beyond passion is if they really want want the job, not necessarily you know, knowing how to do the job because if people don't have that, that spark in their belly, that passion to want to do something it's very it's very, it's most likely that they're probably not going to go the extra mile or give it you know, because they have to show up with something and then we add to that, you know, we we prepare the career path for them. Amen, we support them along the way. But you know, it's funny that we're having this conversation because this morning, I read a quote from Simon Sinek, that is so true to what we're talking about. And he said, great companies, don't hire skilled people and motivate them. Great companies hire motivated people and inspire them. So the bulk of the work just like Mr. Brown said, and I am so sorry, I keep forgetting your first thing. I didn't write it down, by the way. So I apologize. You know, the, on the leaders, I mean, it's really, it's really on the leaders, you know, because you can hire the best guy out there, but he gets there, and you're not doing what you know to call, you're not doing what it takes to cultivate and help to develop this skill set and unlock the potential in that individual. It means nothing. They're going to leave anyway.

Daniel Govaer: 25:45

Yeah, it's. And I've, and I've heard that me Simon's a brilliant individual, no question, when one day will be maybe lucky enough to have him on here. Also, I, I've heard that also actually from Dan Nordstrom, explaining about Nordstrom hiring philosophy and hiring for attitude, and train for the aptitude. And I think that makes a lot of sense to what you mean, does this how does how do you? How would you use these sorts of things? I mean, does this apply in a strategy towards recruiting when you're looking for, you know, other than, you know, Karen brought up some great points, what else is there? And understanding the different types of backgrounds that you have in the dealership? Or that you don't have and the dealership? Does it? Does that matter? Does that help in recruiting? Does it matter? When someone how does someone perceive the store? When they walk in and they look around? Does that still make an impact in their in their decision about where to go work?

Karen Byrd: 26:40

Absolutely, I think so. I think when people come to us, you know, besides putting out an ad and looking, you know, for candidates, I think a lot of the candidates we get they they start us out, they search our Google reviews, they read our customer comments, and a lot of times they want to work here because of what they read the feedback that they're also seeing. So I believe that those candidates, they do their homework, maybe it's word of mouth, from somebody who purchased a car here before that recommended, hey, maybe this is a good place, you know, to do to work. So So yes, I do feel that they do have some, you know, insight about the company. And then you know, I also like to take time to feed to share the feedback with the history of our company, you know, where we started, you know, where we came from, where we're going, I think all of those things are very important to let the candidates know.

Alan Brown: 27:33

And, you know, all of us do a lot on social media, you know, with with our employees and in different departments. And you know, that's a great way also to attract that new talent out there, because they're seeing employees in real time having fun, and being celebrated in a social setting. So you know, you can't fake that it's genuine, and it's authentic.

Dimitrius Naylor: 27:58

I think we just heard, I think we just skirted past one portion of that conversation, I think, like, has to be acknowledged. And it's just like, when that candidate, whether it be diversity, inclusion, equity, whatever they're looking for, right, when they've walked into that store, can they see themselves in that role? Can they see themselves included and feel included in that store? Do they feel like it's open because I know that there's been times and I've been all across the country, I've walked in stores and walked right out because they it doesn't look or feel like a place that I would feel included that? It doesn't, it was very all one all one way we'll say we'll say whitewashed one way, or it was all brown washed a different way. And I didn't feel included, or it didn't feel like there was space there for somebody who looked like me. And I think and I said this last night, if we're going to have diversity, and we're going to keep on using this word, because I think it makes a certain demographic of people feel good that they can say, Oh, yes, we're a diverse culture. Another another very worried right now, right? We're a diverse culture, because we have one black guy, we have one Spanish guy, and then we don't know what you don't know what Daniel is, right? So we have these group of people, right? And it was like, Yes, we're very diverse. But if that person can't walk in that store and feel like they would be included, they would be welcomed, they would be appreciated and celebrated. That person's not going to want to stay there. And they're not going to stay there for a long period of time. And they don't need to go down this rabbit hole of like, all these different races or anything like that. But I do want to acknowledge the fact that we have to start providing an environment, one for employees, so where they feel safe, honored, celebrated, appreciated. But we also have to start looking more like the communities in which we expect to take them and I think once we start recognizing that, for so long, we took from communities that did not look like us, but we expect them to take their hard earned money when we Didn't employ those same type of people, we had we had a problem, we still have a problems industry, it may not be as bad as it used to, but it's still exist and worked every from where from West Virginia, Virginia, North Carolina, and it still exists. I talked about it last night, I still got the comment, we don't want the front office to change the look of the way it's always looked. Well, you read between the lines. And I think that is where you start to recognize that we have a problem in this industry, where we want the entire dealership to look like one person or one subset group group of people. And until we break that and dismantle that, this industry still got a lot of work to do. Yeah,

Alan Brown: 30:37

so you know, to nailers point a minute ago, where you really had to just touch on the subject head on. And thank you for doing that, you know, I believe when you get your culture to a space in place, you can do this, when you're going through the interview process. And you're going to the start of that, you need to have a culture where that potential candidate can go talk to anybody in the store and ask them any question about their experience as an employee in that store, period, end of story. And if you start to lose a candidate over that, then hey, let's remember something the head controls the body, right? And then maybe the head of that store needs to do some self evaluation on what culture he's really or she has really created, versus what reality is.

Karen Byrd: 31:33

I have an orientation checklists for every new hire, I also have an onboarding process. And I also have, you know, a set aside time when I personally get to introduce that individual to the entire team. And, you know, let them you know, take a chance, you know, share with the team know who you are, you know, what you did before, and what led you to the business though, I do agree with that. I mean, it's, you know, you just can't throw them thrown to the curb and forget about them. I mean, if you're relying on this individual to be part of your team that you're growing, let them feel important from from day one, you know, you have to roll out the red carpet and give them all the support, like I said earlier that they need to thrive in that new environment.

Daniel Govaer: 32:16

The point is, that, that Alan's making so well is that you you you're open to listen and that you not only are open to listen passively, but you're actively seeking to understand and to listen. And, you know, that's something we ask ourselves to do for our clients. Why wouldn't we do that for our team members? Also, Demetrius, you have any any last chance burning desires here?

Dimitrius Naylor: 32:38

I think for me, it's we want to create better cultures, more diverse cultures, with intentionality. We want to build intentional cultures, it starts with the interview starts with turning, and what I always say, like I don't like I can look at the resume, we can look at the sheet of paper we can, we can manipulate the facts, just like anything, right? But at the end of the day, turn the paper over. Ask them what's nearby, ask them what, what really brought them here, ask them some of the challenges, ask them some of the wins that they've had in life, and where they're at. And then find out if one if we got high trust, if we can trust these high integrity, high character? And do they have fiber? Can they be high performers. And if they check those four boxes, trust, character, integrity, and performance, give them the opportunity, because you don't know how many people out there are just looking for that one opportunity that one shot that one, that one place, it's gonna say, You know what may be rough around the edges, I may not look like everybody else thinks I should look or I may not look like the rest of the staff here. But if I was just given the opportunity, like I was given, you'd watch so many more people come through this industry, that would blow your mind. But one of the biggest things that I've ever did was in the last three years, and I took it from me. But anyways, we've removed performance, and one on ones from the same meeting. And that has changed the entire game for the way I interact with, with the associates. Performance is one thing we have performance, a KPIs, metrics and everything. But then when you sit down, you get to know the heart of that individual, you get to know what they're really here for, where they're headed and where their heart is. And if they're aligned. And if they're misaligned, how do we get them back aligned, I once we start having those conversations with people, that's where you get people that are ready to run through a brick wall starts at the interview. And if we can start being better about the way we approach those that are looking for an opportunity,

Daniel Govaer: 34:31

we'll change the industry. That's something to keep definitely in mind. Guys, thank you so much for joining, joining me and in talking about these topics and giving your insight and some great actionable tips that hopefully will help everyone who's listening or watching out there and you go back to the store to at least start wanting to try one of them and and let's just start a bit of the change that we want to see unless and let's shape this industry so that it makes sense for everyone who's coming up in it and that we make our future leaders even more plausible to take over and to continue and do better than even than we've done so far. And isn't that really the name of the game? So once again, thank you so much to my panel. Thank you guys for listening. Joining us here on the wheelhouse and we look forward to seeing you again in two weeks.

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