Jedi Mind Tricks with Ed Roberts

Paul J Daly: 0:00All right. So how many authors have we had on the show? I can't. There's at least one. This is auto collabs At least one, and so we're double in that You, i'm so listen I today's guest, Jim McKelvey Right.

‍Kyle Mountsier: 0:21

Oh yeah, we did, he did. Did he write a book? He was the very first podcast. Did he write a book? I don't know.

Michael Cirillo: 0:27

Maybe he wrote a New York Times best. So I know he used his laundry basket as a desk.

Kyle Mountsier: 0:32

He did use his laundry during the pie, i forgot all about that. We're starting.

Paul J Daly: 0:36

He's like one of my kids is about to like put on their bathing suit. I need to move this camera. It was amazing.

Kyle Mountsier: 0:42

It was one of the best podcasts. You're like New York Times bestseller Massey. Yeah, That's the way authors are, though, you know. That's why they don't make movies. They're authors, you know.

Paul J Daly: 0:53

So I don't know. He does a lot. I mean, there's an element of the down to earth nature of people who give you very practical advice, and today's guest is definitely no exception, and Roberts is one of the most practical and really just kind people. He's got like this southern way about him, but is he from Florida? Do you know where's he from?

Kyle Mountsier: 1:11

I don't know where he's originally from.

Paul J Daly: 1:13

He lives in Florida.

Kyle Mountsier: 1:14

Lives in Florida. It doesn't sound like a Florida accent when I've talked to Well, you know, florida is like Florida is this kind of mixed bag, you know, Yeah, it's a little bit southern, it's a little bit northern And you never know what you're going to get, kind of feels a lot, you go to.

Speaker 2: 1:31

Naples.

Kyle Mountsier: 1:31

Everybody's from Ohio You go to you know. I am central Florida, everybody's from central Florida, and if you've been to central Florida, you know exactly what.

Michael Cirillo: 1:44

I'm talking about.

Kyle Mountsier: 1:44

You get the joke, you get the joke.

Michael Cirillo: 1:46

So what I do know is every interaction I've had with him in passing, on a podcast, whatever he has the most inviting smile of any grown man, i think kind of kind eyes man. Yes, you feel his smile, which is, I think, a unique trait for a leader in in our industry.

Kyle Mountsier: 2:04

Well, hey, if you are listening to this podcast, you may want to hit pause, head over to the YouTube and watch the video episode. But if you don't, we hope you enjoy this conversation.

Paul J Daly: 2:19

And thank you so much for joining us today. It is always good to see your smiling face. It immediately makes me feel better.

Ed Roberts: 2:25

I appreciate you guys. appreciate you guys Have a meal.

Paul J Daly: 2:28

All right. So we're here to talk about your book because you have a lifetime and a career full of understanding, wisdom and lessons learned and mistakes made, and you've tried to like truncate that and put it in a book so you can share it quickly with all of us. Have you always wanted to write a book like, is this like a lifelong goal, or did you just think of it? one day? You say I'm going to do this.

Ed Roberts: 2:51

It has not the. I've been pressured for probably the last 20 years to write a book and there was a zero interest at that point. And maybe about 10 years ago, i started taking some notes and I said, if I have a right one, i'll make sure I put this in it. And then, late last year, i said all right, i think I want to do it And I did it. Listening to I decided to do it listen to a book that a friend of mine wrote And I said I'm going to call them and tell them I'm writing a book And that's where it started And then ended up interviewing some publishers and landed on one. And here we go Love it.

Kyle Mountsier: 3:25

I like it. So you were like if my friend can write a book?

Michael Cirillo: 3:28

goodness, all right, anything he can do, write me a letter.

Paul J Daly: 3:34

You didn't tell you, his friend's name is Simon Sinek. That's great. So give us a summary of the premise of the book. It's called mile one.

Ed Roberts: 3:48

It's called mile one, an endless journey to effective leadership, And truly what it is is a lot of times we look at things and we set ourselves with goals to go chase down something big and we don't know where to start. And it's really just breaking it down to where people can relate and say, okay, I can do that. And when you have everybody on the team saying, okay, I can do that, and they're picking up their element of it, it becomes easy. So you break it down a little steps and those steps for their mile one, that's their next mile one. So now we're all rowing, rather than some going along for the ride and some drilling holes. Everybody's rowing And it makes the mountain very accomplishable.

Kyle Mountsier: 4:24

You said something right in there that I think is really, really interesting, and I don't know if this is actually a part of this, because I haven't read the book yet, but I'm excited to. You said that's their mile one, and then their new mile one, and then their new mile one. Is that kind of a theme of like, no, you're just starting on the next thing, you don't have to ever really do mile 20 because you're just always at mile one, and if you kind of take that, is that a theme that I'm picking up there Your spot on.

Ed Roberts: 4:54

That's exactly it. It's an endless journey, so you always have that next mile one. And one of the things that I say in the book and I'll highlight on it real quick here is when we interview and we start a new job somewhere along the way, they said Hey, these are the things that I need you to really focus on, because maybe the last guy didn't focus on those things. Well, reality is that's the low hanging fruit that they feel like they have a lot of opportunity with. Well, those things always exist. There's always low hanging fruit, and so, identifying those things and making sure that we're focusing on them And it isn't that we go out and conquer them and we're done, because we're never done, so there's always more behind it?

Michael Cirillo: 5:27

How do you get your, how do you help your team become comfortable with the fact that our lives have kind of been conditioned up until we get into the workforce, that there is a beginning and an end to things, right Like I go to school, i go home from school, i graduate from school? How do you get them comfortable with the fact that this journey has no end? Yeah, asking for a friend right, yeah Well, it makes me think of like I had a guy wants to know.

Ed Roberts: 5:53

Seriously, I had a team member wants to.

Michael Cirillo: 5:55

Every week when we get on our team call, they're like he'd be. Like I just feel like I'm climbing a mountain and I'll never get to the top. I was like because, bro, when you get to the top it means you're dead.

Ed Roberts: 6:06

Exactly, that's the end. Well, it's about it from car terms. I mean every every 10 of the month ends. We're zeros on the first and we got to start all over, right? So it's really the culture And what we express, what I express to my team around here a lot is good is never good enough. Even though we did good last month, this doesn't get us anywhere this month. Or even though we did good last month, that doesn't mean that we can repeat that and still be good this month. We always have to constantly be reinventing ourselves to get better.

Paul J Daly: 6:34

Is this something that so, like picking that as the topic or at least the thesis of the book, it obviously comes from you. Have you, did you walk that yourself? Or is it something you've identified like this needs to be addressed in like all of your leadership and team building? Like, where's the synthesis of, like you mean knowing that that is the thing that you need to communicate to everyone right now.

Ed Roberts: 6:56

Well, that's a simpler term of what I used to tell our team here, because I mean 10, 11, 12 years ago. this was a store that wasn't performing well at all. We'd sell 50 cars a month, And the today or last month we sold 700.

Kyle Mountsier: 7:10

Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Hold on Skrrt. Because you're about to tell everyone how many you sell right now and how big the store is and all the things that you're doing now. Don't go too quick there, because we got to slow down. So 10 to 12 years ago you guys like that store was a 50. So when did you come on board?

Ed Roberts: 7:35

I came on September of 2012.

Kyle Mountsier: 7:38

Okay, so around that time that that was a 50 car store is what kind of like the normal pacing output was Where? where were, before you get to like the punchline here, where were, where were some of like the growth points along the way that you can point to that were either like perceived glass ceilings or like points that that you saw like pivotal turn points, either in volume or team or relationship with the community? What were some of those that triggered to hold the punchline for everyone for a minute here?

Ed Roberts: 8:17

The key part of that is changing the culture. The mindset here before or then was we're waiting for things to get better. Well, we can't wait for things to get better. We got to make them better. So we had to shift that mindset to tell me what we can do. What can we do today to get better? What can we do rather than what are we waiting for, what can't we do? And shifting that to what we can make happen is what gets the ball rolling. But a big theme to that was one of the things that I would preach to them, and then it was unfathomable to see where it was at. But what I would preach is someone has to be number one. Why can't it be us? We don't get up in front of the mirror and tell ourselves we're going to be average, i'm going to be average today. No, we're going to go out and perform today. We're going to make something happen. Well, if we're going to do that, let's go out and be the best at it. And that's really what evolved into. good is never good enough. And because that's more, that's easier to understand. Yes, it's tough to chase that number one spot, but it's never tough to try to get better, every single day be better than what was yesterday.

Kyle Mountsier: 9:14

All right, give it. Given the number one spot. What is that? What does that mean? now We let, we made everyone think for everyone, like actually scrubbed two minutes ahead, just to see it.

Michael Cirillo: 9:25

Fifty five cars a month.

Ed Roberts: 9:30

We're not in the thousand yet. Let's leave it at that. We're better than 700, not in the thousand. I'm met growth.

Paul J Daly: 9:37

Wow, what in that Can you identify and maybe tie this back to something in the book, like, can you identify a moment in that journey from 50 to 700 plus where you kind of hit the ceiling a couple times and you're like you know where the curve kind of stopped and you had to like think like why aren't we getting through this next level?

Ed Roberts: 9:57

Is there a ceiling, and that's the mind that you have had A perceived ceiling right Like was there a moment that you can identify?

Kyle Mountsier: 10:03

You can level it out and you had to like reshift, rethink, remotivate, like. was there ever? were there those times where it just wasn't like a straight lineup? You?

Ed Roberts: 10:12

know there's times where that curve drops down. I mean, this year we have immense growth where a lot of people are saying that things are tight and this, that and the other, And we still have immense growth. We've had that immense growth year after year. Some years that growth is is low, teen, Some years it's 20, 30% And so, yes, there is different things, but it's it's. The key part of that is, would that kind of growth you're bringing new people in? and bringing new people in you have to. They have to be able to buy into all those values and all those things that you're chasing after, because they haven't been exposed to that before And the so a lot of times there's a little bit of withdrawal, that they're waiting for somebody to come behind them and zap them, And it's it's more of the coaching mindset, rather than always finding them doing something wrong and counseling with them. It's more coaching. But hey, we're driving forward, We're not driving backwards. So it's the mindset as you grow with additional people. How do you-?

Kyle Mountsier: 11:08

I find that a lot of times, those additional people can actually provide the impetus for something new, right? Maybe they come in with new creative juice or they come with an additive portion to the culture that really, like highlights something that was missing, right, like some, some energy or some intent that was missing. Like, if you can hire those key people that really they actually like they leapfrog the culture and pull it forward, even from and that doesn't have to be from leadership spots, like I find a lot of times that'll be like a new sales person providing a whole new energy to the team. that just like boom, all of a sudden we're in a whole, we're just operating in a different clip because that person was additive to the culture, instead of just kind of swimming with the stream right.

Ed Roberts: 11:54

Well, that's the collaborative element, because when you bring them in, yes, they've done things differently somewhere else. They may have had something that worked better than what we're doing here And in most environments. You come in and you survive. That's what you're doing. You're in survival mode And here it's very collaborative. So if they can bring something to the team, then we all win, and so it opens their mind to bring those things out. Or sometimes it isn't even something they've tried before. It's something that they've wanted to try, but somebody's held them back from trying it. And we're not afraid to try anything. But when you try things, you have to be able to say, hey, okay, that didn't work. You had to be able to swallow your pride a little bit there and move forward. And as you're trying things and we're gonna try things all the time we're going to make mistakes and we're gonna learn from them. And just because it didn't work the way we tried it doesn't mean it's not going to work. It just didn't work that way. We're gonna still try it again in a different direction. How do you-.

Michael Cirillo: 12:48

How do you How do you track Like? I feel like in business we have this higher slow fire, fast mentality In this concept. How do you? because, obviously, when you look at the anatomy of a team, any team, there's gonna be stronger players and there's gonna be some weaker players. How do you assess? Okay, what am I trying to ask here? I feel like the broad stroke of the brush is we're gonna compare our weakest player to the strongest player And if they don't measure up, then they're gone. How do you look at the anatomy of your team and say, okay, well, obviously I have stronger players and I have some weaker players. What is the line for whether or not a team player gets to stay on the team?

Ed Roberts: 13:34

We are very team oriented store and each member on that team supports each other. And with doing that and this is not something that's created overnight you have to be focused on the long game to do this. But we've went from 43 employees to yesterday 329th employee started with us. With that kind of growth, the idea is to keep moving forward and to look inside before we look outside. Most of the time we run an ad, we're only running an ad for an entry level position. In doing so, everybody on that team has got to train the people around them so that they can put themselves in a position to move forward into that next role, because we want that person to come from within. But they have to prepare their replacement to be able to do that.

Michael Cirillo: 14:18

I knew you had some intelligent answer, because I don't see a pillow that you scream into anywhere in the background there.

Kyle Mountsier: 14:28

His answer is I take this drumstick and just whoop-pack someone actually.

Ed Roberts: 14:32

It goes in places. You empower them so that things don't stop. I mean, think about it. We've all been in partnership before where our phones blowing up because they don't have the answers that they need or whatever else. It's not that they don't have the answers, they're afraid to make the decision, and you've got to give them that empowerment to make that decision.

Michael Cirillo: 14:52

Ed's version of the. I was going to say, ed, your version of the baseball bat. Like the intimidation thing with the baseball bat is like doing paradiddles on your desk with drumsticks.

Ed Roberts: 15:05

There's a baseball bat back there too. Oh, okay, there it is. Yeah, he's like I hide that.

Kyle Mountsier: 15:09

Don't worry, i got a baseball bat. Pulls it out from under the desk right. That's the one.

Paul J Daly: 15:13

The old kneecapper. Oh, you got a full box full of tools.

Kyle Mountsier: 15:17

I'm going to lean in on the empower word because it's like a leadership hot button word. It's a word that I think everyone says they want to be empowered and every leader would say they desire to empower their people. But even leaders that do that constantly run up against this barrier to actually get there right, Where maybe they say, like my people are empowered to go do things and they'll tell their team that, But then they're constantly running up against having to fight every fire, answer every question or make every minor decision. Are there like practical things, after you, consciously, the organization makes the decision and communicates the desire to empower. What are practical things in like the day to day that you put in place or are putting in place that allow you to like functionally enable empowerment?

Ed Roberts: 16:19

I'm going to break it down to the simplest terms, it's being approachable. If you're approachable, empowerment becomes easy, because they are asking you the questions that they want to know the answer to, and when they're asking you those questions, they're informing themselves to make better decisions. And when they can make better decisions, then the empowerment just comes naturally. Now are they going to make mistakes? Yes, and we're going to talk about them. But we're going to talk about not zap them, because if I zap them, then they're not going to make the mistake the next time And my phone blows up. I don't want my phone to blow up, i want them to be empowered. So we're going to talk about hey, we could have done this differently and probably got a different outcome, and so, but it's more of being approachable, that's what really lays the foundation for empowerment.

Kyle Mountsier: 17:01

That's interesting because Because I got to. Yeah, sorry, paul. So what I think most people say when they want to say that they're empowering someone is nobody has to ever ask me a question. And you just said that's not the case, right? Because actually empowering them is giving them the access to me at a lower, like barrier of entry. That makes it easy for them to take the next step, the next time, because they're not fearing when they come to me, right?

Paul J Daly: 17:32

It's actually.

Kyle Mountsier: 17:33

Empowerment actually requires more involvement.

Paul J Daly: 17:35

Jedi mind trick is what it is.

Kyle Mountsier: 17:38

Come on now.

Ed Roberts: 17:39

The information before the mistake. If you do that, then the answer is much better. If they seek it after the fact, then that's when we have an issue.

Paul J Daly: 17:49

So what are the characteristics of approachable? Because I think a lot of people might say I'm approachable, what about me? And let me just say this For anyone who's been and worked in a dealership most the pace of many managers in a dealership is the opposite of approachable, and maybe they are kind and maybe they are empathetic, but the pace, the body like. So what? how can people like build some self-awareness and know whether or not they're approachable?

Ed Roberts: 18:19

That's connecting It's. I mean we can blast through the showroom or through the shop and say good morning to everybody as we're blasting through, but we're just going through it a motion, then We're not doing anything, we're not making any connections. But if we go out, we stop or we go out and identify, like yesterday I went out and talked to everyone that exceeded their objective or whatever the situation may be, and we talked about their performance and how they got there and what shifted it. It was in the pace cycle, the ones that really knocked out a park. I wanna go see them, but I also wanna go see the other side, and so not just there when they do something wrong. I'm there at several different levels at several different times, and then when I am passing through, it's not just a good morning, keep right on passing, don't even listen to the answer or how you don't wanna. It's truly stopping and making those connections. That's the start of being approachable, because if they commonly talk to you, then they feel comfortable talking to you. If they never talk to you, except when there's an issue, they'll avoid you until they have to talk to you.

Kyle Mountsier: 19:15

See, he went on Jedi Mind Trick again. He was like the way you be approachable, is you actually approach them, Which is? you see what he did there.

Paul J Daly: 19:26

You gotta be the approachee first. Yeah, michael's swiping the hands. These aren't the droids you're looking for, okay, so let me ask you this The book's about to be released. Where can people get it?

Ed Roberts: 19:41

Right now it's available on my website at mal1leadershipcom, about a week before the book is actually released. July 20th it'll be available on Amazon, but today you can do pre-orders and all pre-orders I'm sending out an autographed copy of, so it doesn't matter whether you're a big bag or hard bag. I don't know if my signature will mean anything or not, but we'll put it on there and have a little fun with it.

Paul J Daly: 20:03

It means something to us. I do have another question What is your hope? Like the book's about to be released, what is the impact you hope that it makes?

Ed Roberts: 20:13

So the last chapter in the book talks about who needs a title, because that question is asked a lot about don't need a title to be a leader? And the short answer to that is no, and that's the emphasis of it I won't. Leading people is a lot like parenting. If we don't beat our kids because they fall off their bicycle, we go over and we brush them off and we encourage them to get back up and go forward, and that's what leadership is is all those same elements, just done with our people. And so the book I want people to get from it that they can become better humans without having a title And they can put themselves in better positions to pick up those titles along the way.

Kyle Mountsier: 20:56

I love it. It's all about the human impact and not so much about how many cars you sold last month. It's like, hey, i want some better humans working in or outside the auto industry. Well, ed, we've just had a fun time talking to you, learning from you, like we're all just kids sitting around a chair just wondering where to go next. So we got a couple of friends that will tell about all that. But thanks so much for coming on. Congrats on the book, wish you all the success And I'm sure we'll chat against.

Ed Roberts: 21:24

Thanks guys, thanks for our meal.

Kyle Mountsier: 21:30

Ed Roberts, out here. Jedi mind trick in everyone.

Paul J Daly: 21:33

He's like so everyone thinks, but actually you know it's like a mix between Jedi mind tricks and, like Confucius say, you know, it was unbelievable.

Kyle Mountsier: 21:48

You know, i like he and what I love about people that do so well at caring leadership and empathetic leadership is, you know, to most people they're like. Well, the way you would do that is blabber, blabber, blabber, blabber, blabber, blabber.

Ed Roberts: 22:04

Right, and it's just five steps And he's like no, it's actually just so easy.

Kyle Mountsier: 22:09

All you do is, when you walk out, you just actually care. You know, and it's just this ease about it that is so.

Paul J Daly: 22:17

What you don't know is the book is only one page long.

Michael Cirillo: 22:23

Oh man, he is the. He's the practical side to Ben Hadley's philosophy. You know like we talk about bands like the clouds and precipitation, and this is why we have Kevlar seat belts. And, and Ed Roberts would be like, the way to put on a seat belt is to put on a seat belt And not where a seat belt.

Paul J Daly: 22:43

Well, I love it.

Michael Cirillo: 22:50

No.

Paul J Daly: 22:50

I can't read the book.

Kyle Mountsier: 22:52

Yeah, you, i'm going to want to read the book. I'm going to get that thing on preorder, if you have signed one you're listening and you haven't got it. It's mile one. I know, like Paul was talking about his accent earlier, m I L E one. Spell it out. Oh and E dot com And you can check out that book. But, on behalf of myself. I'm out here All day, daily and the Michael's Cirillo. We hope you have a great day and we'll see you next time here on auto clubs.

Speaker 2: 23:18

Sign up for our free and fun to read daily email for a free shot of relevant news and automotive retail media and pop culture. You can get it now at a so to dot com. That's ASO T You dot com. If you love this podcast, please leave us a review and share it with a friend. Thanks again for listening. We'll see you next time. Welcome to our collapse.

Paul J Daly: 23:53

Why are we recording?

Ed Roberts: 23:55

Yeah, we're rolling.

‍