Episode Transcript
[00:00:09] Speaker A: You're listening to Selling the Dream. This isn't an interview and we're not journalists, but each week we'll ask our guests to open up and share their secrets to business success.
Let's have a conversation and have some fun.
[00:00:24] Speaker B: Hey, everybody. Welcome to Selling a Dream podcast for salespeople, leaders, entrepreneurs, and anybody else that's just bored and wants something to listen to.
As always, I'm joined with my co host, Mr. Joe Iredell.
Joe, good to see you again.
[00:00:41] Speaker C: Yes, sir. How are you?
[00:00:42] Speaker B: I'm good. I'm good.
So if you're. If you're not on YouTube, if you're not watching this on YouTube, you can't tell that Joe's a black eye.
[00:00:50] Speaker B: What happened to your eye, man?
[00:00:53] Speaker C: Just. Just another day in the gym, man. A little. A little extra love on my. With from my sparring partner the other day.
[00:01:00] Speaker B: So one of these days we have to tell the story about how I got a black guy that one time at Yellow Book and the story around that. I think that's a different platform than here we are today.
[00:01:12] Speaker C: But that's more of a. That's more of a cautionary tale than a.
You know.
[00:01:18] Speaker B: That's true.
[00:01:21] Speaker B: Right?
We have an awesome show today, Joe. We have a really cool guest who, again, another common connection here with our boy Jay Duran, Shout out the J Culture Matters podcast.
[00:01:36] Speaker B: He is just full of so many great connections, and we're lucky enough to just kind of like stand close enough to him that sometimes they bounce off of him and end up on our podcast.
We're like.
[00:01:47] Speaker C: I feel like we're like the. What's that fish that swims around the sharks and gets all the.
It's all the scraps I'll take.
[00:01:56] Speaker D: I just.
[00:01:56] Speaker B: Yeah, I guess that that's kind of what it is, but. But I'll take it either way.
[00:02:00] Speaker C: Yeah, it's okay.
[00:02:02] Speaker B: Today we're joined by very special guest, Chris Bester. Chris is the CEO or COO of Huber Vester Auto Group. Chris has been in the automotive business and in the leadership thought space for a very long time.
[00:02:14] Speaker C: And.
[00:02:14] Speaker B: And we are incredibly excited to have Chris today. He's also the host of Answers from the Stairs podcast, author of the book Answers from the Stairs. And we are incredibly delighted to have Chris with us here today. Chris, welcome to Selling the Dream.
[00:02:29] Speaker D: Ken. Joe, thank you very much for having me. I truly appreciate the invitation and I'm looking forward to this conversation.
[00:02:35] Speaker C: Really.
[00:02:36] Speaker B: Am I going to stop right there? And I want to compliment you already, Chris, you have that podcast voice, man, you got that, like, that smooth, you know, easy listening. Like, I could see me listening to you in the car. Whereas me, I imagine people are like, oh, my God, I wish this guy.
[00:02:53] Speaker D: I probably started trying to perfect that as a high school student when there were girls that I needed to see if I could, like, talk them into getting in the car.
The weird guy. I'm not going to offer candy, but, you know.
[00:03:07] Speaker B: Listen, if you said ban, I was. We were pretty much gonna have to end the conversation.
[00:03:12] Speaker D: Yeah, there was. There was no white panel van. There was no white panel.
[00:03:15] Speaker B: That's good. Well, Chris, thanks for joining us, man. I really do appreciate Chris, for our listeners. Can you just kind of give us just a quick background on. On. I know you've been in the automotive space for. For quite a while, and. And I believe you're also kind of, you know, continuing a family legacy there. Tell us a little bit about yourself.
[00:03:34] Speaker D: Yeah, so have been in the business in this space with my dad since 1991.
We had a. The first dealership he ever bought he was a partner in. And then he went in and as a 5050 partner in his second dealership. He was one of five, four in the first one. And then it became 5050 the second time.
And that was when I was in college and started really enjoying entrepreneurship in my, like, business classes.
And so being involved with him in a space where there was a business being created was super, super appealing to me.
[00:04:08] Speaker D: I graduated college in 94, so that dates me a little bit.
But by then he was just a solo operator. He had bought out his partner. It was just him.
And this was kind of his, I'll say this, the third.
[00:04:22] Speaker D: Maybe fourth entrepreneurial journey that he had started in. He was a farmer. We were tobacco farmers until I was 11 years old. And then he went into a little bit of a used car. Like, he did a stint in used cars as a. As a salesperson. But then he got into insurance and did really, really well at insurance.
And that's how we got into the car space, because the guy just needed. He just needed an investor.
But my dad had always loved the idea of being in the car space.
[00:04:53] Speaker D: But I started out in the detail department, kind of worked in parts and service.
Spent some time on the sales floor with a horrible sales manager back in the day when they would, like, scream at you, treat you like trash, which I despised.
In fact, it's. I said, I'm never going to be in the car business, you know, but things obviously, in a great way have Evolved.
But yeah, he was a solopreneur. That led us to buy another dealership. Led us to another dealership. And we've had as many as nine rooftops at one time.
Strategically now we're down to three. They're all in Wilson, North Carolina.
We have spent most of the time in the. In North Carolina. He's had a couple of. A couple of ventures where he went to other states, but I've just kind of always been alongside him. I mean, that was just kind of what like. I like working with my father.
[00:05:46] Speaker D: Most days.
I mean, it's still family, but yeah, just went through the ranks of just every step along the way. I've worked in every department other than the accounting department.
I do a really good job of being able to read a financial statement, but they really don't want me doing the input of that data for sure.
[00:06:08] Speaker D: I mean, it's sales management, you know, business management. And then general manager for our Honda dealership for nine years. I ran just one rooftop and we had 38, 39, 40 employees there most of the time. In 2014, he partnered with the general manager of our Toyota store and they bought a dealership in South Carolina.
So Jimmy was his name. He picked up his family and moved with my dad as a partner for him, which is unusual in this space. Usually you just never get out and do your own thing. The guy that is whose name is on the building is going to keep his name on all the buildings. That's just not our. Our thought process or it's not my father's thought process. It never has been. But when that happened, we needed someone to be basically the operations guy. And so I moved from running one dealership to the five that we had at the time.
[00:06:57] Speaker C: Wow.
[00:06:57] Speaker D: And just kind of been kind of in that spot and kind of evolving out of that and more. More of an executive CEO role now we've hired a, um. It's funny, I guess we actually have the same title currently because he's a director of operations, which really means he's just the coo.
But yeah, just have been in this space mainly for a long, long time. My sister worked in this space until two years ago, so she was, you know, with us every day. My dad still comes into work probably 90 days out of a hundred.
So he's here all the time at 73.
Loves this space. If he's selling a car, get out of his way.
[00:07:39] Speaker D: I like the idea of building people. He. He likes the idea of selling cars. I like the idea of building people.
[00:07:46] Speaker D: So I I have always said, you.
[00:07:49] Speaker B: Know, in your experience between the selling and the leading, you know, it sounds like you've really gravitated to the leadership side, and that's kind of really what gets you going. Is that true?
[00:08:00] Speaker D: Yeah.
When people ask me what the business I'm in, I like to say I hope that what people say about us is that we're a leadership development company disguised as a car dealership.
I love the idea of building people up, finding people that don't see what they actually have in themselves and helping them discover it.
And sometimes that means they move on to something other than the car business.
[00:08:24] Speaker C: You know.
[00:08:27] Speaker D: But I. I like the idea of leading people to be the best they can be.
[00:08:32] Speaker C: So. So is owning a car dealership, is that similar. Is it a similar setup to, like, a franchise? Like, if you buy into a franchise, like the car dealership space, like, they give you the playbook, and it's like you're dealing with the manufacturers, and this is how you do it. Or is there a lot of.
[00:08:47] Speaker D: You're definitely dealing. Yeah, you're definitely dealing with manufacturers, and they have standards of how you're.
[00:08:52] Speaker B: The.
[00:08:53] Speaker D: How the buildings look and how they're decorated and all that kind of stuff, but they don't give you a playbook.
[00:08:58] Speaker C: Okay.
[00:08:58] Speaker D: At all.
And it's very, very different based on who the manufacturer is. So, you know, we have Toyota, Chevy, and Honda right now.
[00:09:08] Speaker D: And through Toyota, it's. What's the biggest difference is, like, our Chevrolet come. Our Chevrolets come directly from Chevrolet. Our Hondas come directly from Honda. Our Toyotas come from Southeast Toyota. So there's two distributor ships. So Toyota, you got Toyota national, who supplies cars to everybody outside of those two distributorships.
[00:09:31] Speaker D: And ours, our distributor, Southeast Toyota, they're based out of Florida. So everything from North Carolina south into Florida is part of Southeast Toyota.
They give you a lot of playbook. They want to see the dealer win. There's a lot of guys in the Southeast Toyota organization that have been in the space, the retail space, so they know what it's like to be in the dealership.
I've never met anybody who worked for Chevrolet that ever spent any time.
[00:09:59] Speaker D: So they are just Chevy corporate. Like, that's like. They bleed Chevrolet.
[00:10:04] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:10:05] Speaker D: Whereas Toyota bleeds.
Hey, let's make the dealer win. Because then when we bleed, it's a lot of blood because it's really good, you know?
But they do a lot to really try to help us move the business forward.
[00:10:17] Speaker C: Big.
[00:10:18] Speaker D: I mean, big, big difference between them and everybody else. But I think it's because they are part of a. It's a different network. It's a distributorship. Like they're, they're buying every single car from Toyota and then distributing it to us. Sure, we pay somewhat of a premium for that. Yeah. But what I see is the way they help us succeed in the business is worth the premium.
[00:10:39] Speaker C: But that being said, the reason why I asked the question was more for clarification of, like, you know, know everything that you're describing. The journey with your dad going from insurance and all this. Like, it's not, I bought a McDonald's and I can go let McDonald's run McDonald's.
[00:10:54] Speaker D: This is.
[00:10:55] Speaker B: You're.
[00:10:56] Speaker C: You're building a business, you're figuring it out. No one's holding your hand and saying, you know, this is how you do it.
[00:11:02] Speaker D: Yeah, there is, There is none of that.
In fact. I mean, I love Honda, the brand, but their, their attitude is you're lucky to have the sign.
[00:11:14] Speaker D: So it's like every, every manufacturer is a little bit different. And I don't want to make any enemies because who knows who will end up owning?
But, but what I'm saying is it's just how they, how they operate the franchise part of it is drastically different. Yeah, but, yeah, it's not like you, like, if you buy a Chick Fil A, you know, the only requirement is five grand cash, and you have to have worked at Chick.
[00:11:36] Speaker C: Right.
[00:11:36] Speaker D: And then they just hand you a playbook and you're a partner and you just. If you, hey, if you, if you handle that playbook really, really well, you will be successful in a Chick Fil A. Yep. Just keep saying, my pleasure, man. Let's just roll on.
[00:11:51] Speaker C: The wheel.
[00:11:52] Speaker D: Right? So that. But that's not the case here. Like, we. Every sales process is different dealership to dealership, and you know, we just try to keep it as, as customer centric as possible.
[00:12:02] Speaker D: That some of the training for the technicians and stuff is the same because it's very niched in that, like a Chevrolet guy doesn't want to go work on Toyotas most of the time. Sure. You know, and vice versa.
[00:12:12] Speaker C: So you, you had mentioned that your, your method.
[00:12:15] Speaker B: Before I go any further, apologize. Interrupt.
You have one job, Joe, with one job. That's to remind me to do two truths and a lot.
All right, One job.
[00:12:26] Speaker C: Before we go any further, qualified for that job, man, before we go any.
[00:12:30] Speaker B: Further, I forgot, as I always do, because I, I get so excited to jump right in. Two truths and a lie. Chris, give us Your two truths. Give us your life. By the end of the episode, we're going to chat a little bit. I think me and Joe are going to try and figure out which one's the lie. And, you know, you know, sometimes we're on, sometimes we're off, but let's. Let's have a little fun here. Give me your three facts.
[00:12:50] Speaker D: So three stories, I'm not going to tell you. Like, if I say two truths and lies, I might introduce them that way, but three stories.
First story, I was a massive comic book geek as a kid. I collected comic books well into college.
Never missed an episode of Super Friends on Saturday. That kind of guy, right? And I'm such a big fan of Superman. I actually have a pretty large Superman tattoo.
[00:13:21] Speaker C: For the record, you don't have to prove. We don't have to prove anything.
[00:13:25] Speaker C: This is the honor system.
[00:13:27] Speaker D: Yeah. So second story is, you know, I said, I've always enjoyed working with my father.
The first time I actually had a responsibility in anything that he was involved in was when I was five years old.
[00:13:42] Speaker D: And third story is my wife and I won the state bodybuilding show in 2008. Not as a couple, but individually in our individual departments.
[00:13:52] Speaker B: North Carolina.
[00:13:54] Speaker C: Wow.
[00:13:57] Speaker C: Maybe the Superman tattoo helped, huh?
[00:14:02] Speaker D: Could have.
[00:14:05] Speaker D: That all depends on placement.
[00:14:10] Speaker B: That's good stuff there. All right, so I digress. I apologize. I interrupted. We were talking about, you know, the idea between truly building a business or following a playbook. And not that there's anything wrong with following a playbook, but, you know, the journey and experience and growth and wisdom that comes from kind of figuring it out. I think that separates a lot of people who are in your space versus, you know, in other franchise spaces. Am I. Am I correct? And that's where you're headed, Joe.
[00:14:39] Speaker C: Yeah. So actually, kind of why I brought that question up is because.
So you had mentioned that your methodology of building people versus your dad's, you know, passion of selling cars, they seem, at surface level, kind of diametrically opposite. So as you're growing the business, how did. How did that kind of either conflict or go hand in hand with, like, the operation of how to build out and scale your dealerships?
[00:15:08] Speaker D: Yeah, I think in the beginning, there was probably a lot of conflict in that, you know, because the general idea in this space is you're going to have about a 60 to 70% turn of employees in the front, in the. In the sales space.
[00:15:24] Speaker B: 60 to 70%. Over what time frame? Year over year, Year over year.
Wow.
[00:15:29] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:15:29] Speaker D: In the automotive industry, that's the average when it comes to the back side of the building which is, you know, the parts and service department, it's way, way less. You're at about a 40% there.
[00:15:43] Speaker D: In the accounting space. You hardly have any. Like it's very, very small.
[00:15:47] Speaker D: And very risk averse. Yes. So, you know, one of the goals that I set out a couple years ago was is it, is there a way that we can attract people to this space that have never thought about the space in it in you know, at all. You know, this is right before, right after Covet actually.
And, but I would, I want to attract somebody that wants to do this as a career because most people that do sales, right. It's.
[00:16:16] Speaker D: It'S almost a last resort. It's either sales and military. Right. It's, it's kind of like, well, I can just go sell something. Like that's kind of the thought going in. It's never the thought of. And if I start selling in this organization, I can eventually work my way into some upper level management. I think it's just the idea I'm just going, I'm, you know, I use the word just in quotes because I think sales is huge value.
But I don't think they go in thinking of a career. And my goal was how do we start leading people well once they get in the organization, teaching them, if they lead themselves well, that this could be a long term career that is very fruitful in most spaces. And so like I started doing leadership development classes inside the organization like small groups of five or six where they spend 26 weeks with me one on one just growing and leading themselves well. So they could see this could, this actually could be a career because I can lead myself well here and end up with something.
And I, and I use, you know, we've had four people through our organization that started out at some level of management. We usually got them as management that have grown into general managers that eventually my dad partnered with, that had that owned their dealerships and, and in a couple of cases exited and, and exited really, really well at a very ripe age under 50.
So I mean there's lots of fruit here. But leading yourself well versus just the idea of we're here to sell and service cars, you know.
[00:17:53] Speaker B: So there's a portion of your recruiting, so to speak, where like you're bringing these salespeople, you're not even necessarily looking for quote unquote salespeople. How do you evaluate. And someone who's also in a similar space where I need to recruit, I Need to teach. I need to learn or help people learn how to lead themselves.
How do, what do you target? We look for in potential candidates that, that you think you can grow.
[00:18:20] Speaker D: Yeah. So we actually, I have a team, I have a.
[00:18:26] Speaker D: I wouldn't call them a recruiting agency because that's, that would be really.
[00:18:32] Speaker D: A disservice to what they actually do. I mean they came in and they're helping us create an ecosystem where we actually can consistently source and go after exactly who we're looking for.
[00:18:45] Speaker D: And it started a couple years ago with them, but it's them understanding who is it that we're trying to be, understanding our value systems, understanding our motivations, understanding our, our mission statement. Like, you know, we, we talk about that a lot. And then them seeing how we show up in our community because it's again, we are extremely well known in this community of how we support the community. We won a state award for.
[00:19:11] Speaker D: Education this past year. We won a governor's award. I mean it's just like we, we, they know that we want to participate and help. So I want to attract people that see that as an attraction. Right. That want to be involved in the community.
[00:19:27] Speaker D: But that self driven part's hard to measure. And one of the things that we use is the PI.
I don't know if you've seen that, but it's a, it's. I don't want to call it a personality exam, but it gives you a very clear picture of in like seven minutes. Like when I took the test, I'm like, yeah, let's skip some pages. Like it's not enough here. But it's dead on. It's absolutely dead on who you are. So we had, we took, everybody in the organization took that and we compared that to a level of success. So we've got guys here. I've got a guy that, his, his record monthly sales is 63 cars, which the average salesperson in America sells 14 days. 14, 16.
Okay, well what's his PI look like?
You know, and then we've got a guy, another guy that's consistently 30 to 40. What's his PI look like? Because those guys are good. Culture fits.
They do a really good job with customer service. They have lots of repeat and referral business. Right. Even though they're not great at follow up, people just love them enough that they really want to continue to buy from them.
And how do we create an avatar based on who those guys are and then go out and look for that avatar of a person who sees who we are? As an organization and wants to be a part of the organization because of who we are. And then if, if who we are attracts them and they can show up like these guys can, then all we've got to do is get them in here and teach them this art of selling a car. The skill, you know, because skills are, I mean, selling is a skill set. Like it can be taught. I mean you got to have some personality. But it, it absolutely can be taught.
So what I look for is really just the avatar of who we've got that's currently successful. Then how do we just, can we not cookie cutter that? Because everybody's personality and how they show up is different. But there's a key component of what it looks like to be successful, you know.
[00:21:22] Speaker B: All right, so paint that picture for me. Describe the avatar.
[00:21:28] Speaker D: High, high work ethic.
[00:21:33] Speaker D: I mean my guy, that's 63 cars a month. He's been with me 20. This is his 27th year in our organization.
[00:21:41] Speaker D: We open up the sales floor at 9 o'. Clock. He's here usually around 7:30.
[00:21:47] Speaker D: He gets to choose his own work hours because of his level of like we, we, we award time. Right. So if you're a high achiever, you, you get to make your own schedule.
He's here all the time because he wants to be. You know.
[00:22:02] Speaker D: They have a high. I don't want, I don't, I don't think empathy is the right word, but they have a, a very high level to connect with a customer very, very quickly.
[00:22:14] Speaker D: One's name one. Our two top performers is a guy named Alton and a guy named Johnny. And I actually went to high school with Johnny Kent in the little town that he lives in. He might as well be the mayor. Like everybody knows him because he's just, he's really quick to connect with people.
[00:22:30] Speaker B: He's good at remembering people's names.
[00:22:33] Speaker D: Yes.
[00:22:34] Speaker B: That's huge.
[00:22:35] Speaker D: Yeah, his unbelievable.
[00:22:37] Speaker B: I go, you go to the gym and you're like that one guy that walks in and he's like, like, hi Tommy. Hi Tina. Hey, Bill. You know, and you know, he just knows everyone's name. Everyone knows his name now. You know, that's something. That's a skill. I, I don't call it a skill or talent.
[00:22:50] Speaker D: It's a skill.
[00:22:53] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:22:53] Speaker B: It's an area that like Eve I know that I, I've worked on in the past and I know that it makes a difference. I'm still nowhere near as good as I'd like to be at remembering names, but. Yeah, remember names Is huge.
[00:23:02] Speaker D: Yeah. When, when, when, you know, I'm Ken. I'm glad you brought it up because people like hearing their own name.
[00:23:07] Speaker B: Thank you for saying my name, by the way.
[00:23:09] Speaker D: Chris. Right. So glad you noticed.
You know, set. But yeah, really good at that.
[00:23:17] Speaker D: But I. I think, if I could say that there's one other commonality because they actually show up completely different in their PI.
So we look for both of those types.
[00:23:32] Speaker D: But work ethics, the thing they have in common, the ability to easily, easily connect with people. The ability to remember people's names.
[00:23:42] Speaker D: I think the other thing would be, you know, when I say connect with people, the ability to make someone feel like they're the only person in the room when you're in front of them.
[00:23:48] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:23:48] Speaker D: I think that, you know, sales people traditionally are very distractible.
[00:23:54] Speaker D: And these guys aren't.
You know, they're. They're unfortunately really not good at organizational tasks, you know, but not. Not because they're distracted. It's just because that thing that's in front of them is the thing, the person that's in front of them is. That's the most important thing right now.
[00:24:19] Speaker D: And I think the high desire to learn is a big part of it, too. They've never stopped learning. I mean, the Guy's doing this 27 years and, you know, there's a new Camry that comes out every three years, and you give him a week, and he knows all of it, you know.
[00:24:37] Speaker B: So it's funny you say, I think that sales people catch a bad rap a lot of times. You know, the attention deficit, you know, the inability to focus and all that other stuff. And, And I think what it boils down to, like, in a lot of cases, it's. It's actually hyper focus. Right? It's. It's the reason I can't. I didn't hear what, what you said here is because I was already hyper focused on this or already hyper focused on the person that I'm talking to, which is why I forgot to send that email, you know, that I thought I was going to send. You know, so, so, so it's an interesting. It's an interesting way to put it. I hadn't actually thought of that before, but I'm going to use that in defense of myself going forward as to why.
[00:25:17] Speaker D: There'S. There's a dent. There's a difference between attention to detail and lack of executive functioning.
Like in my middle daughter, who's super smart, man, and you know, she had a teacher that asked her one time, hey, I really need to learn how to teach her. She was the youngest one in class. She started school a year early.
She said, and she's by far the most intelligent in the class. I just can't keep her focused. Right. That typical. Hey, is there an ADD problem?
And we took and had her test, and he's like, she definitely doesn't need medication.
He said, it's just executive function. If you give her a list of five things. Hey, clean up your room, right? Take a shower, fold your clothes, feed your dog.
The house is on fire.
She wouldn't know what to do first.
[00:26:02] Speaker B: Interesting, right?
[00:26:04] Speaker D: Whereas most people go, well, I got to get out of the house. And she's like, no, I. I need to wash my clothes.
[00:26:10] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:26:10] Speaker D: You know, so. But, yeah, I think there's a big difference there.
And, you know, with us, one of the things we do when guys get to a certain level, we actually assign them and offer a free assistant so they have a. Like a sidekick that has high level of executive functioning. Right.
[00:26:30] Speaker B: Wow.
[00:26:30] Speaker D: That probably don't have the.
I'm not gonna say work ethic, because those ladies work really, really hard that work with them, but the ability to connect quickly, like, all the things that the. The charisma of a salesperson, sure, they don't have that, but do their paperwork.
Spot on.
[00:26:50] Speaker B: I think it's about energy.
[00:26:51] Speaker C: You need one of those. Where do I get one of those, man?
[00:26:54] Speaker D: Well, if you come here, if you come sell cars, 25amonth for 90 days, we'll get you one. All right.
[00:27:00] Speaker B: Honestly, though, Joe, Andrew has been a game changer in my world and in my business, and even. Even, you know, on the. On the personal side. Amy, my wife, she is my executive function. Like, you know, there's no doubt in my mind that I wouldn't be where I am today if it wasn't for her, you know, kind of managing that stuff. And I do believe that creative energy and execution energy, you know, there are two different kinds of energy. And, you know, it's hard to bounce back and forth between the two. Now, maybe in a situation where it was required, the ladies that are helping your salespeople, sure, they could probably find the creative energy to go out and do what they're doing, but they can't do both. I don't think that many people can do both well. And I. And I think that if your salespeople were put in office, they were like, look, this is your new job, and work it the way the best way you can. They'll probably find a way to do it. At an acceptable level. But hey, it's not their skill. It's not their.
[00:27:48] Speaker C: Yeah, I don't, I don't think it's sustainable. I don't think you could do it. If you're one or the other, you can't do the other consistently.
[00:27:54] Speaker B: Maybe that's a good point period of time.
[00:27:56] Speaker C: But yes, like, everyone's capable of it, but like, you couldn't.
Eventually it drops off.
[00:28:02] Speaker D: So, yeah, so when you take the PI, there's, you know, one of the things I've actually, actually had some guys do is Gallup has a strength finders test.
And, you know, they take your strengths and divide them into four categories to see the relational, relational category, an influence category, a strategy category, or an execution strat. You know, in the majority that are in sales, they look at their strengths is going to be really, really high relation, really, really high influence, probably low strategy and very low execution.
The majority, you know.
[00:28:38] Speaker B: Yeah.
So influence is a word that in my research came up numerous times and I wanted to get your take on, on influence and leadership.
[00:28:52] Speaker C: Right.
[00:28:53] Speaker B: You know, you had mentioned, you had said that basically leadership is just your ability to inclusion influence and everyone has influence. Expand on that a little bit.
[00:29:05] Speaker D: I think that's a Maxwell quote, John Maxwell quote I got from him. I believe.
[00:29:12] Speaker D: You have the ability to influence whether people decide to let you influence them or not. You don't have control over that.
[00:29:20] Speaker D: But you do. And even that's influence.
[00:29:23] Speaker C: Right.
[00:29:24] Speaker D: If you're showing up in a way that they're like, yeah, I know, I want no part of that life, then they're like, then the influence you have is influencing them away from the activities that you're doing.
Right.
I think in my opinion, leadership.
[00:29:40] Speaker D: Is being intentional about the influence that you're trying to have. Like, if it's, if you know the vision of an organization and you know where you're trying to get to then, and you're going to try to lead in that way, then what you've got to do is influence.
By leading, like, you've got to be able to be acting out that so that it influences others in a way that moves them towards that direction, whatever that, whatever that vision looks like.
[00:30:11] Speaker C: So talk to me about, like faith, family, how that all comes into your, your business, because I think that's a great segue into leading by example and getting the people around you to buy in on a bigger level than just selling cars. Am I right?
[00:30:28] Speaker D: Absolutely.
I, I do not hide my faith at all when I introduce myself in public. I introduce Myself as a bold man who acts with integrity and from love. And I stand as a beacon pointing to God's grace and mercy.
I lead men to be followers of Jesus and to be better leaders wherever they put their feet so they can lead others to Jesus. Like, that's who I am and that's who we.
When. If at the end of my days they say that about me, I'll feel like I've done the right thing.
So in our organization, I don't hide it. I don't ask people to hide their faith. And I would love to help them develop their faith.
When I did leadership training, one of the things we talked about was their calibration, which is either mental or spiritual, how they're feeling that well, being in that space.
[00:31:17] Speaker D: And a lot of people walked in there going, I need you to help me with my spiritual walk. Like that's.
[00:31:24] Speaker D: But I think that comes from what they see daily.
You know, it's one thing to wear some type of a.
[00:31:33] Speaker D: I'll say a fake based T shirt. Right.
And then walk around cussing everybody you see.
[00:31:40] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:31:41] Speaker D: Or you could wear no logo. And people, you show up and they go, what's different about you?
You know, so that's where I think leadership and influence come is there's something different. There's some achievement, there's some success in areas that I want success in.
And then let's have a conversation about it. I mean, my, my wife and I have a podcast, you know, I have mine, and we have one together called Fake Family Fulfillment where she and I sit and interview couples and interview, have conversations with each other. And we've produced two books out of that that are very, very strategic about leading your marriage and leading your family.
But it comes from influence of what's caught, not taught. It's one thing to talk about it, but when you're living it out and walking it out, then they begin to catch the lesson.
So I mean, that's misleadership by influence, you know, but you can, you can definitely have people choose to find another leader because of your influence.
Sure.
[00:32:48] Speaker B: I absolutely love that leadership of the family piece. And I think that, you know, there's so many lessons in leadership that people that fall on deaf ear because people have this idea that leaders are like General Patton.
[00:33:01] Speaker D: Right.
[00:33:01] Speaker B: Or a CEO of a major corporation, which obviously, you know, that is, that those are leaders. But people forget that, you know, you need these leadership skills, you need these traits, these soft skills to lead in all situations. And especially, especially as a parent, you know, I'm a father. You guys are fathers.
You know, if you, if you disregard your role as the leader in the household. And I'm not saying that, you know, I'm not bringing in barrel hierarchies here. I'm just saying, like, you know, you got to have those skills. You got to understand how to influence your kids, get them to do what's in their best interest, you know, not be their friend. Right. A lot of times that carries over in the business world too, right? Like, is it saving? It's like if you want to, if you want to make friends, sell ice cream.
Otherwise, if you want to be a leader, you're not going to hold a lot of friends. And that, that's part of it. And you know, I guess again, from a pure curiosity place, someone who's lived it, you know, what's your experience with the mentorship of the people that you're, that you're training, you're teaching, you're leading, you're growing, you're cultivating, and you start to really, really care for them, right? And then you still gotta find that way to make sure you have that delineation point between leader and friend. Is that, is that delineation point as important as a lot of people think?
[00:34:24] Speaker D: I, I believe so.
[00:34:28] Speaker D: Because.
And this is just speaking from my own experience, I, I had a, a situation in 2006, so it's been a while ago. This is a lesson I learned a long time ago where there was a guy that was part of the management staff here.
[00:34:48] Speaker D: Our dealership, that I have become really good friends with. And.
[00:34:54] Speaker D: It, I, I'll say the terminology, just about burning the buildings down, trying to help him be better, regardless of the other 39 people, right. That are in the building.
And the, the thing that kept coming to me is my, my dad, when we were farming, he said, chris is not about the 12 people that are here today doing the job. Right. It's about those 12 families.
So if you multiply out the, in the impact that you're having, it's not just on people that are in the room with you, it's the people you can't see that they go home to.
So when you say, okay, well, about burned the building down for one guy and there were 39 other people in the building, well, if they have a spouse and just one kid, you know, that's over a hundred people that are being affected by a bad decision.
Making a friend, right? And not leading. And I wasn't leading him well, like I was failing him for sure as a Leader, you know, and from a.
[00:35:54] Speaker B: Very compassionate place, though, right?
[00:35:56] Speaker D: Yeah. All from compassion, you know, so when.
[00:35:59] Speaker C: You said you were trying to help him, you were helping him be better at sales or be a better person in general.
[00:36:06] Speaker D: Better person in general. He just had a lot going on. He had a gambling addiction. And, like, there's a lot going on. And he just wanted to help that guy, you know?
[00:36:16] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:36:17] Speaker D: He had a family, he had. He had children. Like, he had those things.
And, and the, the right way was to let him. The right. What ended up happening is the right way to lead him was to let him fail rather than keep trying to prop him up. You know, that's a hard.
[00:36:32] Speaker C: That's such a hard.
[00:36:33] Speaker D: It's very hard.
[00:36:34] Speaker C: Such a hard, you know, kind of let.
Let someone fall on their face and not intervene when you can see the, the train going off the tracks and, you know, you know, it's preventable. But some people, you know, like, we like the expression, some people just have to touch the stove to learn that it's hot.
[00:36:53] Speaker D: Well, I mean, even if, you know, Ken, you talked about, you know, your children.
You go through three cycles with your kids in their early life. I'll say, first seven, eight years, you're a cop. Hey, don't do this, don't touch that. Don't do this, don't like. And then you become more of a coach. You're more on the sidelines, guiding them through things, telling them as they're in it, hey, this is what you should do. And then they grow. You grow into being a consultant. Hey, Dad, I got this going on. Give me your feedback.
And I think what I've seen is so many parents try to stay cop.
And, you know, the idea of a helicopter parent, if you helicopter a kid too close, you're just going to chop their head off with a blade.
They don't ever become their own person. And I've seen so many kids.
Yeah. And so, so many kids leave the home, whether it's for college or their first career or whatever. And because mom and dad have been hovering over top of them, copying, copying, copying, copying, copying. They don't even know the right decisions to make because they've always been told the decision.
So when faced with a big decision, they're like, oh, I don't know. And they're not. They've never gotten moved into. I need to go ask my parents because they're my consultant. My parents are a cop, you know, so that's. And I think one of the things that we could learn is to almost apply that with new employees for a little while, you got to be a cop. Because they're new to the organization.
And then coaching them in the moment. You know, one of the best things you can do as a salesperson, let them sit and listen as you're going through a sales process, right? And then step back, and then you stand over them and kind of coach them through it. And then it becomes consultant. Hey, this is what I got. What do you think? You know, it's. You can do the same process with any. Any type of relationship where you're trying to grow someone, you know. And you spoke to something while ago about.
I've actually started stepping into some business advisory. This is a completely new you thing for me. Like, it's in the early birthing stages.
But what I have come to realize is we have. There's nine areas that we have to be really, really good at to begin to operate in excellence. Number one, body, soul, mind, spirit. You know, you, Joe, you spoke. You spoke to me about faith. Like, for me, faith is the center of it all. So that's the spirit part of it, you know? But having good soul relationships with. Which are the horizontal relationships with people around us, who's holding us accountable? Who can we go to when there's a problem?
[00:39:22] Speaker D: Mind is what are we feeding it? And we metabolize everything we consume, whether it's by a mouth or our ears, our eyes. There's a metabolism metabolization that happens.
And then our body. I think we should be stewarding our body well in order to perform. People are depending on me to be healthy.
You know, at this point, we've got about 145 employees.
When you multiply that out by three, it gets close to a thousand really, really quick.
And if there's a thousand people saying, is Chris healthy today? Is he fit to lead today? Nobody's worried about me dropping from a heart attack because I'm, you know, my cholesterol is 400 or whatever. Like, it's. It's important that you gain good control of your body, maintenance of your body, recalled. We're given the calling, right? The assignment of a father or an. And a husband. That's an assignment. Those two things, right? So how are we showing up with intentionality with our kids? How are we showing it with intentionality with our spouse?
And then the other thing is a worker and a steward. Like, worker means I can own a business, and I'm still a worker. I can lead a business. I'm still a worker. I can help manage a Business. I'm still a worker. I can be on the front lines. I'm still a worker. Like, that's an assignment given us.
And the steward is time, talent, and treasures. How am I doing it? Stewarding my time? How am I doing it? Stewarding the talents that I know God gave me?
And how am I stewarding the resources that are coming from the use of that time and talent?
You know? And then the last thing, which is really just something that's happened to me, I'd say, in the last four years, is understanding. There's got to be a circle of genius around me.
I have to be able to pluck people that are steps ahead of me when I'm growing into something new. Hey, this is. And I. And I need to. I need to have really good.
Some people want to call it networking. I think it's a step closer than that. You know, if there's. If there's these areas that I need to work on, then who's my circle of genius in business? Who's my circle of genius in my spiritual walk? Who's my circle of genius in my body? Who's my circle of genius when it comes to how I'm intentional with my family? Like, it's like having someone there that's not someone in the daily. Right. But in. In a time of need, I can pick up the phone and go, hey. And they'll. And they'll pick up because they know where you're at, and they're aligned with where you're trying to go, and they're.
[00:41:42] Speaker B: Not too close to the situation where they can give you true perspective that. That's outside perspective, and not someone who's, you know, allows you to get caught up in your own stuff. And, And. And from a compassionate standpoint, kind of coddling you in some cases, right? Where it's like, you know, I feel. You feel bad today. All right, you know, I'm gonna take it easy on it. Like, I love the idea that there's people out there that are.
[00:42:04] Speaker D: That.
[00:42:04] Speaker B: That understand what I want, understand what I need to do to get there, and won't let me and my stuff get in the way.
[00:42:09] Speaker D: Right? And. And. And part of that, too, is.
[00:42:14] Speaker D: Having that point of view, and being truthful is a big thing. Like, they've got to be able to. To step into that and be true. And I think what would make it different for me is a. A guy in a position of leadership in.
And he feels like the business is failing. Most of the time, it's because of a lack of self awareness, of how he shows up, when he. How people talk about him when he leaves the room, right?
And you can look at a financial statement and go, well, this is wrong, right? What are you doing about it? And then you can listen to the feedback of what he's trying to do, and usually he's getting in the way, right? So. But I can look at a financial statement, go, there's a problem here. There's a problem there.
How are you trying to handle it? And usually it's because he's trying to handle it, you know? So, sure.
[00:43:00] Speaker C: You gotta get out of your own way sometimes.
[00:43:03] Speaker B: That's my favorite phrase when I was working with some of the best coaches I've had in the past is like, the reason I need you is because everything I have got me here. I need. I need that. I need something else, you know, that other perspective.
And sometimes Zed Fordyce, good friend of the show, says, learning is sometimes just remembering.
And. And that's my. That's another one of my favorite lines, because sometimes people just talking, like, me and Joe have these conversations sometimes, and, like, he'll say something that I probably said to him at one point, but he'll say it back to me, and I'm like, that's right. You know what I mean? Like, you just. You remember that that's what this is what you're supposed to do here. And it's. It's a really cool thing that.
[00:43:44] Speaker C: That was kind of like underhanded shade you just threw there. I don't know if you fought that. But like.
[00:43:51] Speaker C: I say, I have some original thoughts, too, Kenny.
[00:43:57] Speaker C: But that's all right.
[00:43:58] Speaker D: Hey, what I. What I heard, Joe. What I heard was Ken say, sometimes I got to eat my own dog food.
[00:44:02] Speaker C: Huh?
[00:44:03] Speaker D: Exactly.
[00:44:03] Speaker C: Exactly.
It was like, I know so much that I've taught Joe that sometimes he tells it back to me, and I forgot what I even told him in the first place.
[00:44:13] Speaker C: Well, thank you for that.
[00:44:16] Speaker B: It's funny, Chris.
We started the show off with the word blueprint and one of Joe's first questions.
And that's the best way I can Describe the last 15 minutes of hearing you talk. And that is that you laid out a really phenomenal blueprint around, you know, mind, body, mind, body, soul and spirit, stewardship and metabolization of everything. And then, of course, your circle of genius. I think that's phenomenal for anyone listening.
I would challenge you to go back and re. Listen to the last 15 minutes again and really write down what Chris was talking about. I think there's so much in what you just said, Chris.
I'm not just kissing your butt. I'm not just saying Chris over and over again to get you to like me. That was some really good stuff.
[00:45:11] Speaker D: Thank you, Ken.
[00:45:13] Speaker B: All right, so here's what we're gonna do. I want to get to the two truths and a lie. But before I do, I just real quick, I want to ask you about your podcast. Now you have answered. Right behind you. Answers from the stairs. Where did that.
What is the. What is the overarching for the people that are listening? What's the concepts behind the podcast? And where did that name come from?
[00:45:30] Speaker D: I'll do the best I can to sum it up as quickly as possible. In 2018, we had a marketing team, and my father's always been the guy behind the scenes. Like, there's people that come in all the time and go, oh, there's a real Hubert. Yeah, he's actually here today. You know, that's who he is. That's his personality, right?
[00:45:50] Speaker D: And they came to me and said, hey, this the company, the organization needs a face.
And like, we think you need to be the face. And they were trying to convince me to do a YouTube channel. I'm like, if I'm going to go to YouTube, I am either looking for a new motorcycle or something in my house is broken. Like, I'm not a YouTuber. I don't like. It's not. It's just not. Was not my platform. This is 2018.
About 30 days after that, he comes to me and he goes, hey, Instagram's doing something new. They're calling it Instagram TV. They're trying to compete with YouTube, with long form video.
You got to be there. Nobody's there, nobody will see it. But you got to create content. And you're already on Instagram.
[00:46:28] Speaker D: And I was like, all right. So I got to thinking about that. Well, during that time, I was not competing in sport bodybuilding anymore, but I still try to maintain my body. And so I was going down doing, you know, 25, 30, 45 minutes on a stairmill, and I was always listening or watching something that was leadership based, business based, faith based. There's always something in my ears to pass the time.
And I took a picture of my stairmill one day, just not thinking as a joke. And I said, I heard there's answers at the top of this thing. Because you, you never get to the top. It's kind of like any type of development. You really never get to the end of development.
So I was like, oh, I'll call it that. So I got off my stairs that day, had a selfie, a selfie gimbal and like a really tiny, not so good mic.
[00:47:18] Speaker B: And.
[00:47:18] Speaker D: And it was just, good morning, welcome to episode one of Answers from the Stairs. And I just walked and had a conversation about whatever I was listening to. Always giving credit to who it came from. Like if it was John Maxwell or like it didn't matter who it came from, they just said it better than me. They were just much more articulate at giving that advice. But it was advice I had either used or thought I had value in.
And it started out again just on Instagram tv. And then I thought, well, I wonder what would happen if I put this on LinkedIn, because that's more business oriented content.
And it was before LinkedIn tried to become the new Facebook and they changed their algorithm and all that.
And it just blew up. Like it was every, like it was thousands of views of every video. I'm like, holy smokes, man. This is actually something.
[00:48:05] Speaker D: So that was the again, just. And I did Monday through Friday, every day, five days a week for 345 episodes.
[00:48:14] Speaker B: Wow.
[00:48:15] Speaker D: So you know, almost 30, 30 hours of content. It's a lot of me walking around talking, right? Because I did it. Was I literally pouring, sweat dripping.
[00:48:25] Speaker D: Bless you. And so that was, that was where the title came from. And then I had a discipleship group around me in 2020 and they was like, man, you really should write a book.
I had no interest in being an author.
And they know you've already written the book, you just don't know it yet. And they just kept on me and on me and on me.
And so I sat down with the publisher and said, hey, there's this idea for a book. And they walked me through the process of writing it.
And so I came up with a book that was really based on that content. The ideas, what I had learned. Again, always giving credit to where I had heard it. You know, not taking it as my own fault, but adding in the application of it. This is what I heard, this is how I applied it, and this is the results of it.
[00:49:13] Speaker D: And the team that helped me put the book together said, hey, we're going to take that Instagram content, we're going to chop it up and make a small little five minute podcast quote, unquote podcast clips.
Well, then this past year I got this idea. I was like, you know what, I should actually ask other people about their answers from their walk of entrepreneurship.
[00:49:32] Speaker D: So I started sending out invitations to people, and they started saying, yes, hey, I'll be a guest. So the first 50 episodes are nothing but old content of mine. It started with 51. It started to be me interviewing people from all walks of life, whether it's the car space. Like, my first interview with was with Scott Ganell, who is the president of a company called Jim Moran. JM Family.
They're big in the car space. But he was part of my group that challenged me to write the book. I was like, dude, you got to be my first guest. You know.
[00:50:04] Speaker D: Had Ryan Mickler on there from Order of Man, had Mikey Taylor on there, who was a professional skateboarder.
So just a little bit of everybody's entrepreneur, entrepreneurial walk. So the idea is, hey, do you remember the first time you ever got paid for value?
Right? That's really your first entrepreneurial endeavor. Somebody pays you to do something and you go, oh, I'm gonna create something out of this.
And then walking them from that until where they are now through all their walks of all their steps along the way.
Yeah.
[00:50:35] Speaker B: So I love it. So similar, so many similarities. And, and you know how a lot of this stuff comes about, you know, you just, just continuing to do work on yourself and, and, and, and grow and help and. And all of a sudden, you know, an opportunity shows up, you know, and I applaud you for, for taking advantage of it. I look forward to becoming a friend of the show and be listening to it, adding it to the list of. Of podcasts, as my friend Al Perry calls it.
What do you call it? Windshield University.
[00:51:08] Speaker D: There's a lot of truth in that. Yeah, a lot of truth.
[00:51:11] Speaker B: Does most of his best learning when he's in the car just listening to podcasts. So.
All right, let's get down to the really important, serious topic of a Superman tattoo. So, Joe, I'm going to recap the three. Two, the three. The three facts.
[00:51:26] Speaker C: And.
[00:51:27] Speaker B: And then I think I know the answer, but of course I'm pretty sure.
[00:51:29] Speaker C: I know the answer.
[00:51:32] Speaker B: Massive comic book fan from the time he grew up all the way through college. And it. It culminated in. In his. His. His oversized Superman tattoo. That's fact number one. He began working for his father, basically. First job he had for his dad was at the age of five.
And then him and his wife both won individually won state bodybuilding championships, I'm going to say in the same year, if I'm not mistaken, was the fact was in the same year. So, Joe, which one of you, which one of those things do you think Is not true.
[00:52:08] Speaker C: So I know that you threw in the oversized Superman. I don't remember him saying.
[00:52:14] Speaker D: I don't know.
[00:52:14] Speaker C: I don't remember you saying it with him saying it was oversized, but, well.
[00:52:18] Speaker B: It was like he said, a large.
[00:52:19] Speaker C: Superman type, sizable size of it. Sizable isn't oversized?
[00:52:25] Speaker C: The devil's in the details with these things. True.
Well, see, I would have thought that was true, but when he had mentioned his podcast of when you can. The question on his podcast of the first time that you got paid for your value, then that. That instantly made me think of his. His other statement of working for his dad when he was 5. So I think that that probably would tie together then. Obviously, you know, he's not gonna.
I don't think that he would bring up bodybuilding, him and his wife winning, if they didn't actually win. So I'm gonna go ahead and say that we don't need proof of this, but the. The tattoo is. Is the lie.
[00:53:16] Speaker B: I think I'm gonna agree that the tattoo is a lie, but as always, I like to think of the caveats. I think there is a tattoo. I just don't think it's Superman.
[00:53:29] Speaker B: Which was the lie.
[00:53:31] Speaker D: So I have lots of tattoos. Actually.
My whole back is tattooed. None of them are superhero oriented.
I have one that's an octopus, which is my. Align your nine state. Like, it goes back to that.
[00:53:46] Speaker D: Which you may be able to see it.
[00:53:49] Speaker B: There you go.
[00:53:50] Speaker C: All right.
[00:53:54] Speaker D: My wife and I did win in 2008. We both won our class at the state national. At the state bodybuilding competition. She won actually in figure, and I won in.
[00:54:05] Speaker D: Heavyweight bodybuilding.
And so that was a.
Interesting time for both of us is competing. We did that twice. We competed twice together, once at the state level and once at the national level for masters. And I would not recommend spending 16 weeks starving yourself with your wife when you have children.
They have to go to therapy because of it now and all those sorts of things. So. But we did win.
[00:54:32] Speaker D: 2008 and then. Which was really. It really was pretty cool experience to share with her. And I did have my first job with my father when I was five. We were. Again, we were tobacco farmers. And he brought me out to where the.
And this goes way, way back. But one of the jobs that I had way back then, because it was a way back, and.
But there was a. You would put. It was like a sewing machine. You put tobacco on it. It would go a little ways, and you'd put a stick on it, and then you put more tobacco on top of that, and it would sew the tobacco together and leave the stick available to be picked up and put into a tobacco curing bar.
And my job was putting the sticks on.
And then when it was time to take it out, it was my job because, again, I'm five years old and was a tiny little fellow. But you had to put the tobacco in a sheet, a burlap sheet, to bring it to market, and you would put as much as you could inside the sheet. So they had this big round cylinder they would. To put the tobacco in. And they would put me in the cylinder to walk around like I was squishing grapes, to keep packing the tobacco down because I was not big enough to break the stems, but I was big enough to pack it down. Wow. So, yeah, and I remember this.
[00:55:46] Speaker B: How much did you get paid for that?
[00:55:48] Speaker D: A roof over my head and dinner.
[00:55:52] Speaker C: You got a pack of Marlboros.
[00:55:57] Speaker B: That's good.
[00:55:58] Speaker D: Yeah. I remember asking my dad when he was. Because he always paid his. His. The work and help with cash. And I remember being in the room with him and he was paying them in cash. I'm like, so, like, where's my pile? And he goes, you get a roof, you get food. That's your pile.
[00:56:16] Speaker C: That's a pretty good deal. That's actually a really good deal.
[00:56:18] Speaker D: Yeah, I got way more than they did.
I got a lot of life lessons out of that, too, man.
[00:56:24] Speaker B: That's wild.
[00:56:26] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:56:27] Speaker B: Thank you so, so much for hanging out with us today, really. I enjoyed the conversation. I always feel so special, selfish in these things because I ask these questions that I learn and, you know, I feel like, you know, everybody, we're all just here. For me, it's all about me today. Okay.
But. But it was really cool. I look forward to answers from the Stairs podcast and the book. If you send me the link to the book, I'll drop that in the. The show notes as well when we. When we put it out. And we hope to. We hope to have you back. Hope you're willing to come back and hang out with us and, you know, learn and teach some more.
[00:57:00] Speaker D: Joe, Ken, I have thoroughly enjoyed this conversation. I really appreciate it. Thank you so much.
[00:57:04] Speaker C: You bet.
[00:57:05] Speaker B: All right, guys, have a good one.
[00:57:07] Speaker A: Thanks for listening to Selling the Dream. We know you don't want to miss a single episode, so go subscribe today, wherever you get your podcasts, and then make sure to share the show with your friends and leave us a review.
