what’s going on what’s up folks, this is ramirez the car guy, and this is foreign and we are brewing solutions on the car guy, coffee podcast and we are super pumped up to have a great conversation with an incredible incredible individual that loves to Roll with the champions – and i love it folks – there is so much that’s going on in in everybody’s world right now and we are excited to just have a quick cup of coffee and a conversation with a solution.
But do us a favor, you know what they need to do right i mean you all need to share this tag: tag a car guy, car gal or anybody who’s looking to grow right now, if you’re somebody out there, that’s motivated and ready to do something and Need a little bit of caffeine caffeination in your drink, give us a shout: man send some people out there.
Let them know that car guy coffee is ready to go right.
Now, we’re ready to grow we’re gon na we got somebody today, that’s gon na help.
You guys get to the next level in the car business.
He is doing some amazing stuff.
His company we’re gon na get deep in it, but i pre-check llc folks go check that out while we’re in here.
If you want to just do a quick search while we’re doing all our intros check them out, because blake norberg is ready to show you guys what it’s all about we’re gon na get into a five-liner with him today.
I’m super excited about that.
We’re gon na ask him five questions.
We’re also gon na get about his business a little bit.
This might be a little bit of an extended little thing, but we want to talk about.
I pre-check because i pre-check is the hottest new thing coming through the business right now and blake is all excited right now to talk about it.
So folks make sure you share make sure you let people know come on in this room, get into the cafe.
Who do you like? It is time to get a cup of coffee for well, if you can’t send them an actual physical cup of coffee, send them a cup of coffee by tagging them getting them in the cafe.
Here we go car guys and car gals welcome to the podcast.
Let’s brew: , hey fred, what’s the biggest room in the world, it’s the room for improvement.
You’re welcome, [, Music ] get you some of that.
You know.
What’s up think ad group dealership toolkit those two found a way to really work together to make sure that they find solutions for your business uh.
Make sure that you reach out, but, like you saw it, didn’t even play the video right guess what i have a whole lot of room for improvement.
That’s right! So car guys car gals make sure that you are taking a look deep within pulling off the layers that maybe everybody else sees.
Maybe it’s a little discreet, but just to find out that underneath you are elite.
Oh my goodness.
Sometimes i don’t know.
Do you sound a little salesy sound a little cheesy a little bit, but that’s okay! That’s what it’s! Okay! I like my pizza cheesy.
I, like my pizza cheese, give me some of that.
Throw me some of that cheesy pie.
That’s a spicy meatball speaking of spicy meatballs, guess, what’s on its way to you soon: , cargo, coffee, food, man.
We cannot tell you how excited and how pumped up we are about that.
So many things are coming to the culmination of that first and incredible brew.
That’s going to be available for all of you all if you know some professional people that want to brew solutions with some people that talk about it different than a couple of car guys, but they talk about it.
Like a couple of car gals man, you need to get them inside of the cafe because they tell it like it is, and they laugh until you laugh, and it’s an amazing experience having a cup of coffee in a conversation with them.
So make sure that you find out more about them, but they make things better.
Just like our friends at exogloss that rock it out making sure that you have the right appearance.
You know it protects you! , hey, hey folks, guess! What’s going up when it’s what’s the thing that comes after, what’s going on right now, the next it’s next right and guess: what’s next, the next sale make sure you guys get up in that next cell , without further ado car guys And car guys we are going to be bringing to you the incredible brew that is on its way.
I don’t know how you’re watching this this, if it’s on a phone, if it’s on a computer screen, if it’s on a desktop, if it’s on a laptop, an ipad wherever it is, it probably has the same button somewhere and it’s the share button share it real Quick give it a quick share, because this is an incredible solution area that’s coming through and bringing a solution to you he’s bringing you solutions just like this, we’re so getting ready to go car guys, [, Music ].
Did you guys hear that that was so awesome? I know you all heard it in the background.
It was that lady’s voice go.
What was that you know hey.
I don’t blame him if i was watching car guy coffee i’d make the same noise right so folks, good morning, good morning, good morning, we’re so excited.
We got, we have some guests in here already this morning we got jay woolridge.
Thank you so much for being here, charles higgins, my man, robert robert jacko, i know robert jacko is a great person.
I know that.
Actually, he knows blake, and you know i mean there’s a lot of great words.
I can say about robert jacko he’s somebody.
I’ve had a great conversation with i’ve seen him do some amazing stuff.
So, thanks for being here this morning, robert you’re, a great guy.
We also got dj up in the easy.
I thank you for sending out some names.
He put rudy’s name in there, michelle matisse.
Yes, that’s brewing solutions, that’s my dude! So speaking of brewing solutions, we got a solutionary inside of the building he’s in the back room, but we’re about to bring him through right now, car guys, car, gals and all you solutionaries out there do us a quick favor and welcome [ Applause ].
Oh, he even got he even got his hoodie on now he tried to feel he’s getting it yeah.
You guys can see that this guy’s got good taste in football right.
He knows who the team is matter of fact.
He didn’t just pick it because he’s a bandwagon guy, the guy went to school in alabama, i mean that he is alumni.
He believes in the program not just for football, but in every sport they do.
He believes in that school and he’ll do anything he can to help promote that school, and i love that and he’s very true pride in that that crimson tide.
You know what i mean, so i love that so welcome to the team.
Welcome to the cafe.
Let’s get this day going, what’s up, blake, not much guys just uh glad to be home.
Finally, i it was a long day yesterday was it was in two different states: uh woke up in the gulf of mexico and and uh on the beach and meeting with a big dealer group down there and then had to drop my partner off the airport and Come back up to uh birmingham headed to atlanta.
Tomorrow, though man, that’s awesome, you are busy, i know you’ve been hustling, hustling hustling man and that’s the only way to be.
You know, and i see that you do that you don’t just do that with business.
You also do that in your personal, like you with the way you work out with all those things.
I know you just finished the 75 strong.
Congratulations on that man.
I know that that was that’s a hard task to accomplish that’s two days.
That’s two times a day, one inside one outside workout and that’s no drinking that’s reading a book.
That’s so many things involved in that to help you grow and you did that and you did it like a gentleman man, you you crushed it so way to go and for anybody out there thinking about doing it, i mean it’s a life changer.
I mean it really: i’m i’m borderline, it’s a big commitment, but i’m borderline right now, big commitment, yes, um! Do people fail and have to start over? Yes, uh.
You know, i think i read the book, like, like three percent of people actually finish the program uh, but you know it gets those habits that you should be doing, uh kind of ingrained in you and they say it takes 66 days to form a habit.
Well, you’re doing this for 75 days.
You know, i agree with that, because you know and there’s no doubt in my mind it takes a long time now you can.
You can start things, but in order to make it a real true body habit, it does take about 66 days.
I’ve read different stories about how long it takes some people say it takes a full 90 days, not 87.
I’ve heard that before i’ve heard i’ve heard 15 days, i’ve heard all these different ones, but i honestly believe you hidden there right on the number about 66 days.
You know when you get into that little over a two month.
Mark you start to.
Should i keep going and then, if once you break through that threshold you’re there, man and you’re definitely doing that man, you look good too bro.
Looking like you’re in good shape, you look like you’re ready to go you’re ready to just throw some hands and stuff.
Let’s make this happen man, so you know we we like to have a lot of fun here at the cafe man, we’re going to ask you some questions and these questions are about how you got to where you’re at today.
You know, and my very first question i like to ask everybody – is the same one, but before we do all these questions we always like.
We got ta we’re gon na throw hands, and what we do is we’re gon na do the forgive focus fly with you.
That’s right, it’s so important to do it.
I’m gon na have lou break it down for you real quick, so i’m sure that you’ve ran into a few situations where you’ve fallen a little short or somebody’s shorted.
You sure that you’ve ran into situations that you have had to forgive others when maybe they didn’t deserve it, because you’ve been forgiven because you can really, we can truly never really earn it right.
It’s a decision that comes from you to you and to others, and that’s to forgive otherwise.
The weight of unforgiveness will stop you from accomplishing what it is that you want to accomplish inside of your life and you won’t be able to fly being weighed down.
So we apply three f’s, we forgive first.
We then focus on where it is that we want to go so we forgive it.
Then we focus and then we aim out and we fly and then we keep growing, keep growing and we keep doing bigger things.
The more that we forgive others and focus on what it is that we can do together, but usually once we’re in a lifestyle of forgiving other people, then the hardest thing to forgive is yourself.
You know, i know that i could have put a little bit more in today.
I know that i could have uh.
I could have gotten that project done or i could have put in that extra rep or i could have read that extra book or i could have got that extra deal or whatever it is car guys car guys.
You know where it is that you fall short on the daily basis.
We want to make sure that we continuously encourage you to focus on what you can improve on right now, because the biggest room in the world is the room for improvement.
You know and folks it that’s what it’s all about and the more you can improve the better it can be, and that’s what’s so beautiful about the the three f’s man it can really it can really, if you break it down logically, and you think simple, it’s Those three words it is that simple you just need to forgive.
You really do forgive everything man, let it go, focus focus on what you want.
Blake knows what i’m talking about.
Blake focuses his ass off man and seriously i mean guys if you guys haven’t watched blake in the last.
I i’ve been paying attention to him for the last basically year, i’ve seen where he’s been going.
I see where he’s trying to get to and he’s doing it he’s doing it with class.
You know he comes from a good pedigree of car people too.
It’s not you know, so he it’s it’s almost like pressure on him to do well, but he’s, but he’s doing it in his own way.
He’s not doing it in the same path as his.
What his predecessors were he’s doing it his own way, he’s carving his own path, he’s taking the path of that was least taken right.
I love that about blake.
So thank you for being here this morning and let’s get this focused fly pain going man.
Let’s do it cross your arms with me real quick on three we’re gon na wipe it off we’re gon na focus and we’re gon na fly one two three forgive focus official forever.
You are now a car guy coffee approved.
Let’s make this happen.
My friend, i’m [, __ ] up you’re gon na.
Ask you these five questions.
These five questions are fun.
The first question is always the same one.
It’s your! Why? What is the way that what is the purpose? What makes you wake up every day and say i’m going to do this and i’m going to do it the best that i possibly can i’m going to make sure that i am going to stay growing.
What is that um just to maximize my potential, my god-given potential, you know and and really you know, focus on you know typically four or five different areas of my life.
You know physically mentally spiritually, you know obviously financially um, you know and and help my team grow be be a you know.
A team player put the team first uh and really go out and you know win the day.
You know when people talk about new year’s resolutions.
I talk about winning the day.
Come on.
I love it.
Love it love it love it.
Small accomplishments, become big accomplishments.
Daily accomplishments become weekly accomplishments, which turns into monthly accomplishments, which turns into a year of just amazing work folks, it always seems like it takes so long to do something.
Oh this, whole year, no years go by fast.
Folks, we can attest to every year seems faster than the last one.
2020 flew by 2021, it’s already over a month old folks, we’re into the second month already.
What are you doing if we learn anything from 2020? It’s like you know.
We can’t take the day for granted.
You know, we’ve got to be grateful, we’ve got to wake up with an attitude of gratitude and and and and not not take your health for granted.
That’s for sure, not you know not take life for granted and and and just just go out and win the day.
Dude love it man.
You got a great great attitude and you definitely always have man.
I like it man, you got.
You almost got that um surfer feel to you, even though you’re from alabama, but you’ve been up to the coast.
Quite a bit.
You really do you got that you know hang loose phil.
You know – and i like that – yeah i’m from l.
a, but i’ve spent a lot of time in l.
a, my friend.
Ah now it all makes sense.
It all makes all the sense in the world.
Now i get the vibe of you, man and i love that vibe.
It’s a very it’s a very cheap product, i’m talking about lower alabama, but i’ve spent a lot of time on it.
I knew i had a feeling you were gon na hit me with that.
Dude you know.
What’s so funny is that i was in the air force many years ago right and when i joined this is in the 90s and my when i was at technical school one of my favorite instructors of all time.
I can’t remember his name and i wish i did, but he would always he first time we met him were in class.
He was, you know, teaching us electro.
I did electronics on jets, so he’s teaching us electronic stuff and he was like hey man.
You know you got that accent, hey man, listen, y’all, know where i’m from we’re like now where your friend goes, i’m from l.
a, and he said i was like really seriously.
He goes no man, you know what i’m saying, yeah so los angeles, because no man lower alabama, i absolutely loved it.
That’s the first time.
I’ve ever heard that – and this is like in 97.
– and i he was so funny and he was so cool that personality having that that lower alabama accent that lower alabama lifestyle, because it’s a it’s a it’s a it’s very much like a southern california.
Lifestyle very relaxed you know, enjoy life, the weather’s great we’re going to just do things.
You know you know when i was out in l.
a working at this big dealership out there, that they actually had a salesman there um that his name was alabama and the guy sold like 50 cars a month, but he was from alabama and they called him alabama.
You know you definitely uh.
You definitely have that swag about you and i love it man and that’s something that i always liked about you, because you’re just you’re so just cool and i’m sure that it works really well with you.
When you go talk to dealers, they probably love it, because they don’t feel pressure from you at all.
They just feel like you just want to help and you’re weird and you’re willing to do it with it with a good attitude, and i love that and willing to walk a mile in their shoes.
You know, i think, that’s, that’s that’s big too.
You know it is man, no doubt about it.
I mean that’s, that’s what it’s like when you really build relationships right, you really build relationships rather than seek revenue right now.
The the way that that we were taught in many cases was grow up pick a job that makes a lot of money.
Do it and repeat the cycle again and again, you know no dreams, no, no, nothing fit into the box this way, and this is how the education systems are gon na have to work so that you can do a thing yep.
Well, all of those molds have been broken over time, whether it’s been in sports with or it’s been in, the automotive industry or it’s been in any sort of creative or entertainment.
People have been breaking the mold constantly because there really isn’t a limit to us, except for us, our own yeah.
We limit ourselves we’re the ones that put the stop on what it is that we can actually do, and you know different things influence us.
Sometimes we do incredible things because we constantly have people pouring into us.
We constantly have good coaches, we constantly have good friends and mentors.
We constantly have good books.
You know mentors in a box right that are pouring into us.
We we constantly have an uh, a podcast in the ear like the core guy coffee podcast anyway, but we constantly have something going inside of us.
That is making us be better, and that’s often what’s going to pour back out of that cup same thing on any level.
But if you don’t cultivate that you can grow a lot of a lot of weeds, you can get stagnated and during during the covet it was easy.
You said, guard your health mainly because it’s so easy to not do anything.
It was so easy for people to not do anything in their business in their career, and this is where that’s, where people, i think felt it.
The worst is that they felt on um like like they’re, not being completed, they’re, not being used.
You know a person on a team wants to feel like they’re part of a team right, a person, that’s accomplishing a goal together, wants to feel like they’re part of accomplishing that goal together, whether you sat on the sideline or you were in the game.
You know from beginning to end you, you got the same ring, but there’s something different when you feel as though you were part of the team, and you can still be on the sideline and never play it down right and and it’d be an actual contributor to The team and it’s and and the atmosphere right still get a championship.
Rightly there.
Nobody wants.
Everybody wants that everybody wants that opportunity to be part of a team, and i’m so glad that you’re bringing that in and that culture is getting shifted around, because, ultimately, what we’re trying to do is accomplish a goal for the buyer.
The person doing business we’re trying to accomplish their goal and the dealer is trying to get in line with that goal right and be able to right fit it facilitate it and make it in a streamlined process as smooth as possible.
Smooth opera, fake norberg sitting right here, just chilling keeping it hanging loose right, but i want to ask you this: what was it that made made? You make the transition into the automotive industry.
That is me allowing all of these experiences to start to weld together.
What was it that brought you in the car business i mean literally.
I grew up on a showroom floor.
Um yeah, i was, i was rummaging through some stuff, and this is an ad from back in the 80s uh.
My father did a training session with uh.
The alpha dog, um and what’s crazy, is this is me in the end, put that up further on the screen.
Put that up further: oh dude, that is the coolest thing in the freaking world.
Bro wow! Look at that car behind you! That’s so awesome man! Dude, look at you, you were.
You were born to sell.
You came out with with your hand, out like how you doing today, sir, so i’ve got this framed somewhere but um.
I i i didn’t it’s not here at this office right now, but um i i did not want to get in the core business man.
I i grew up around it.
You know i i didn’t see my father for four or five days: he’d go out in the road and hustle and you know, sell credit insurance back in the 80s when, when everybody had credit insurance on their loan um, whether they knew it or not.
[ Laughter, ], so true, and then he got into the gap.
When gap came around, i mean he rode the waves, and i saw him do just amazing things and i did not want to get in the car business and actually started in the the mortgage business and then uh.
I got kind of frustrated with that and my dad said: well, you need to go talk to this big warranty company and at least hear him out, and they put me in a car dealership for a weekend and uh.
You know asked me to take notes what i saw about the f i office, and then i started out as one of those uh what they call a rent orion where you you travel uh all over the country and uh, either sink or swim.
You go and work and do finance at a dealership um.
So i got i got to learn everything from washington.
Do walk from you know.
Do everything washing cars help wash cars sell cars desk deals, so i learned the f and i side and i got really good at that and then um and then and then mama called just like you know you hear, bear bryant, mom called and – and i i Worked in atlanta for a couple years with the big warranty, company and and uh handled, some big stores like penske and carl black and and then i came back and worked with my father for 10 years.
Uh it worked at every one of his dealerships.
You know did did a week here did a week a weekend.
There helped him develop some more, you know income streams and then i just kind of got got complacent.
You know i wanted to go, do something else.
I mean you know and that’s when i met another guy in the car business, who also had a father that had about 35 dealerships and he taught me the digital marketing side and and uh.
So i took a leap of faith and and as steve harvey says, uh i i i i i jumped off the cliff.
You know i love it.
Man got some good ones and then the parachute didn’t open at first and then i got really good at selling websites and they sold the company and uh had kind of had the rug pulled out from underneath me.
Um, like you said, you got ta, forgive and forget you know, and man i i landed.
I had this.
I pre-check program that we’re going to talk about at some point solution.
You know landed in my lap.
I vetted it through one of my best friends in the car business and and i went all in and sold my way back.
Gentlemen – hey that’s and you’re just and it’s just the beginning of the rise.
You know, and i think that you you got something here and i think that you’re very passionate about it.
The thing is about anything is: if you have passion it will do something great.
You have to put the time in put the work in and you will get back everything you put into it.
If you believe in that product – and i and i know you do and that’s that’s awesome man and the story of going through all those things getting into the business you’re right, you know when your parents are in the business a lot of times you’re.
Like i ain’t going to do that, i don’t want to do it.
I want to do something my own, but then you know you go off you try and then you realize man, this business and that’s the thing about the car business.
It’s very difficult.
It’s it’s! Not excuse me it’s very easy to get attached to the car business because there’s so many different avenues that you can be part of it right.
You can, you can be effin, i you could be a salesperson.
You can be cleanup, you can own a detailed department if you want, you can there’s so many levels of each one of those spots too right and then you know being an owner, then being a vendor.
You know becoming a vendor can be a big deal too, because that can that opens you up to the whole nation and and and being let you know being a vendor can be.
You know a lot of people that make the transition from the retail side to the vendor side or you get a rude awakening because it is, it is tough when you, when you have you know door slam, people, you know cut you off or you know say No, and sometimes it takes four or five – i mean it takes a lot of persistence.
You know it does.
You know you’re, right and and you’re, not you don’t have the the up bust.
Just you know, unloading leads on you, you’ve got it.
Sometimes you want to generate your own leads, which i think the the best salesman in our business by the way are those ones that use tools like next sale or facebook to you know generate their own leads, uh and – and i i just did a call this Morning with linkedin on how to generate more leads through linkedin by you know, it takes work um, you know, and you guys have done a phenomenal job with you know, with what you guys do and uh that’s why i wanted to come on and and and be With you guys and learn from the best, you know: yeah dude, it’s good.
You know when you feed off each other best feed off each other.
You learn ideas and you share ideas and you grow.
Yes, we do work our asses off, but you know we do that because we love, we have the same kind of passion you have for what we do.
You know we we want to get it out there.
We want to get people like you and get people to hear the stories you know about how you can do this, how you can work for a company company could just dump itself and say you know what you don’t have a job anymore and you you, like You said you forgave, you forgotten, you went ahead and focused on what you wanted.
You found you found i pre-check bro and then you’re, like i’m gon na explode this and i’m gon na fly with this, and you did that kudos to you for that.
The story is amazing: i love all the stuff that you’re talking about here, because you’re bringing up some really good points, you’re, bringing up things that people need to hear because it’s not always easy.
It’s not always the path least resistance matter of fact.
The path of least resistance sucks, there’s nothing there for you, you don’t grow.
You just stay constant, you’re, just comfortable who wants to be comfortable.
I mean don’t get me wrong.
That word, comfortable sounds really good.
You know having your blanket you feel great, but folks when you want to grow, there’s no way that comfortable is going to work, for you think comfortable is a bad word.
If you can change that in your brain, because when you want to, if your body is changing and you’re trying to do the 75 hard, you can’t be comfortable doing 75 hard.
You can’t, while doing 10 hard right you got to you got to do.
You have to work your body to pass its its breaking point, those it’s like doing, push-ups when you’re doing push-ups.
If you stop right when it started hurting, you didn’t gain anything you have to push through that pain.
You have to keep pushing until you can’t do what i call muscle failure.
That is when you get results.
The only way you get results is through the uncomfortable, so blake is showing that blake.
I think that that business doing what it did was the best thing ever that could have happened for you, because you probably at one point i’m gon na guess you were getting comfortable there.
You were doing really well, you were doing fine and else and you were like swept they just took that rug from underneath your feet and you’re like whoa.
What am i gon na do uncomfortable and then you grew from that and look at you.
You got a smile on your face.
You just knocked out 75 hard this year, you’re doing more things than i than you could ever imagine and you’re doing it, and it was like no big deal on to the next thing right going and then there is and then there’s phase one where you take The five-minute cold shower, so that’s talking so now, you’re, really starting to yeah.
I forgot about that one, oh yeah! That’s you know.
I try to do that.
Like tony robbins talks about cold showers too, he says that it’s it’s like you, you take these! You take these cold showers, it energizes you, it breaks, it wakes you up, it does all this stuff.
I try to do it whoo the first minute.
If you get past the first minute, you know and it’s all about the breathing.
I think you know it’s not so bad and especially after you read those uh, you know you read david goggins can’t hurt me and they’re any when they’re going through the seal training.
You know swimming out it.
You know that that that that’s that’s that’s! That’s tough! Seals training, yeah david david goggins, does knows what he’s talking about absolutely amazing person.
You know you won’t talk about somebody who stays uncomfortable, that is they.
That is the definition of uncomfortable.
This guy goes all this stuff look easy.
You know he does and it’s true though, but that’s the thing like you know, we we, as human beings, we kind of got into comfort levels in life we all under we all we have ac in our house.
We have, you, know a refrigerator in our house.
We have a bathroom multitude of bathrooms in your house.
There was a time in this world, not that long ago we all had to go outside to use the bathroom.
We all had to get running water from the freaking.
You didn’t have running water.
You went to the freaking pond or you went to the spring and you pulled up water for the day and you drank that water and that’s what you used to cook eat clean all that stuff and life was not easy.
Air conditioning was non-existent, refrigerator come on, people had to eat their food.
What they had that was it whatever you ate it was.
It was good until it was bad.
There was no, let’s see a lot of people.
It’s still now i mean the world still.
Has that going on, you know we’re very fortunate here in the beautiful country of the united states, that we have some amenities that are just way above and beyond what most people in the world have that are standard amenities to us to other people.
That is luxury like straight up luxury to have a more than one bathroom in the house, a bathroom that runs in the house.
You know anyway.
I don’t want to get too deep about that, but you know blake, there’s there’s a lot of things that we do when we get in this business and there’s and there’s people that we meet when we get in this business, and i know that your father there’s A big big influence on you and i obviously already kind of threw his name in there when he was telling you hey, go check out this warranty company, but as you were coming up in this game, i know you got friends and i i know you got You know other people that you would consider like good, good car people or good business people or somebody who was a good mentor out of all of them.
You know you don’t have to pick one, but if there was one who would it be? You know who’s that one guy that really helps you make that pivot um there there there’s there’s a a couple of guys.
I mean uh yeah, i think uh, you know i.
I have a a buddy he’s.
He he helped um grow the website.
Company um a guy named brett sutherland.
He he kind of had a really you know big effect on me on on really becoming a sales machine.
You know you know unleashing the the 10x within me.
I guess you know getting me.
You know turned on to cardone university turned on the 10x.
You know i’ve had some other guys.
Like dave anderson come into my life, you know um chris martinez, i i’ve been, you know if you really want to be good.
You surround yourself with the best boom.
Come on level up by the way you know, i’ve had other people that have not i’ve come in contact with, but you know chris martinez, i think is, is awesome.
Example, one of the humblest guys i’ve met in the car business.
Uh guy sold a thousand cars.
A month and and he’s still a friend, client um, you know i pick his brain all the time you know and and he’s just you know when you put people like that in your circle, um that that they make you better they they they inspire.
You know you got ta, have you know a wolf pack almost? Secondly, you’re right man and you’re, put you put that so right and folks, if you’re not hearing what he’s saying you’re, not picking up what he’s putting down is that who you surround yourself is who you become listen, if you put yourself around people who give up And quit and they they don’t care and they’re, not trying to grow you’re gon na do the same thing.
It’s the way it works folks, just like when you grew up in high school you when you hung out around people what if they were doing bad stuff, you started doing the bad stuff.
If they were doing the right stuff, you were doing the right stuff.
We all know how it is it’s hard for us as people we, we tend to move with the crowd and even if you don’t want to it’s just it’s just kind of like what we do.
So if you want to grow, find five people that you think that are amazing or something like that, you know it doesn’t have to be five.
I’m just saying find people he’s talking about chris martinez, folks.
We just interviewed him the other day.
Let’s do this! This dude is amazing.
Chris is very humble, like he said.
Chris is the kind of guy that, if you called up and asked for advice, he’s going to give it to you, he always finds time for people that are looking to grow he’s not.
You know he recognizes real recognize is real right, so when you, when you recognize that it’s easy to pour into them like it’s hard for me to pour into somebody, i know that’s full of crap like i know that they’re just gon na keep stumbling, even though I could throw i’ve gave this guy 20 tips, yet this guy never takes one and he keeps doing it.
He keeps coming to me like he wants something.
It’s like dude.
Listen, it’s time for you to do it.
Just do it you know, and but you you definitely write on that.
You hit that on the that nail like pink, you knock it in one hit you’re like you surround yourself with people that you want to emulate and you want to be like you know, and you want to reach and some matter of fact.
It’s like the whole hiring process.
When you hire people, you want to hire people that are, if you’re a bee type person.
You want to hire a type people to work for you, because that will bring your level up.
That will make you an a type person and it’s the way it works and, like you know like bear, i remember when i was in at alabama.
We watched a video and management class on who we thought the best manager was uh ever and they showed a video of bear bryant and but he always surrounded themselves with.
You know he had the guys that were smarter than him that knew the x’s and o’s and and then he also you know he had the guys that could motivate the players.
I mean just like you see now with uh that other coach, that’s uh in tuscaloosa uh.
What was that guy’s name again? Oh gosh.
I don’t know man he’s kind of new, but he’s on a different level.
Man, unbelievable.
I mean when you, when you’re talking about coach you’re, that’s that is it like.
That’s like, i think, every program in the country would take him on at any moment.
You know like hey.
They just can’t afford them, not all of them.
[ Laughter ], but he’s worth every penny, there’s no doubt he brings so much to a program.
He brings players, he brings, he brings intensity, he brings, he brings up a process and that process is unfathable.
I mean people come in when they get into that process.
Not only does the team win but those players, they all go off and they do amazing stuff, not just in football but in life right he’s a life coach.
He helps these young men cultivate to become people in the community that will help the community that will make the community better wherever they go.
You see these players go to these if they play, if they even play nfl.
Like he’s, i mean he puts people out in the community that we may not hear because they’re not nfl players, but they go out and they do big things.
They got an education.
Now they they went to one of the greatest schools in the country.
They get to go out, they have the.
They also have mixed.
You know blessing you know and that that that right there alone was, is a big deal.
So no, i love it man, we got some people jumping in.
We got so many people just commenting having a chance to talk about stacy, she’s, saying it’s the opposite.
You got mike larkin talking some stuff up in here.
Referrals are the best ask for three for every sale.
That’s my muscle memory high school football coach used to say how good do you want to be? That’s facts.
Good morning says alex, and then we got somebody i’m not sure who it is folks.
He says: yo yo.
I know you’re gon na, like this yo yo roll tide, roll, yes, roll tide row.
I know that uh.
He has a couple.
Well, he at least has one alabama fan.
Yes, logan logan, yes, he’s logan.
Somebody said he’s a big sure that he gets into the cafe today, but he’s a he’s.
A legacy salesman as well right, so his his father, joined up with us got trained up by us, still works with us uh on a daily basis.
We get to see his son grow.
Graduate start off in detail, then say hey this is, you know, he’s seeing some of the people that come to say, hey.
I need this cleaned up and he’s like if they can do this, i can do this right and, and so he he steps up and he becomes uh an incredible, an incredible servant and and such an honor to watch him become, who it is that he is, But he spent that time just like you discovering himself trying to figure out what is it that i do like? What is it that i don’t like what is my persona? How do i fit inside of this niche – and i mean tying just trying to tie a lot of that together to go into this, but we we talked about process.
We talked about the up bus when you’re when you’re a vendor, guess what everybody thinks is going to happen when they spend some money with you that the up bus is found is going to find your palace.
It’s going to find your dealership, you are the guy.
That’s getting the up bus to me and that pressure gets put on to so many vendors um, where they, they forget to say to the dealer or to who it is that they’re on the mission with hey.
What is it that you’re actually trying to accomplish, and where are you trying to go because based off of where you’re really trying to aim is the only way that i can accomplish? What is is supposed to get accomplished here and people that pay a little bit? Much for a cup of coffee take coffee seriously.
They take that seriously.
Just like a establishment that brews it you can have the best furniture you can have the best equipment you can have the best water source.
You can have the absolute best of everything.
The best flow, the best look, the best graphics, all of those things to have your coffee shop looking good, but if you don’t get the right beans, if you don’t get the right quality product inside of that entirely cool awesome process, you have you’re not going to Have people coming that are wanting something good and coming back again, because you’re going to realize that that’s not good enough just because it all looks good.
There has to be some true substance to it, always and there’s always a price to pay for that substance, which is why people will spend extra money on their coffee by going to a starbucks or going to another um nice coffee shop, right, you’re, gon na.
Do that because a good cup of coffee is worth it, but speaking of starbucks right cheers.
I know you guys cheers to you.
My friend amanda, i’m glad you’re here this morning.
Blake, you know it’s we’ve been, you know getting to know you.
I’ve met you through the think tank and some things like that, but we’ve always kind of connected and and i’m you know like i mentioned earlier, you know you got me into that 22 push-up challenge.
Yes – and i really appreciate you getting me involved in that, because that was a big deal to us man, i’m a veteran he’s, a veteran, my friend, i appreciate you man.
I appreciate you for doing the push-up challenge and inspiring me to do it and as crazy as it sounds like i remember when i started people were like.
Why are you doing it’s just push-ups? I was like well it’s because it brings awareness and believe it or not.
It reached a lot more than you think it reached a whole lot of people.
It’s like it’s just it’s just doing push.
I was like well, listen, it reaches and if you get and if you challenge somebody every day, even if only like five people, even if only one person did the challenge that you that you challenged, that’s that’s them doing it 22 times.
That’s them talking about it.
Every single day for 22 days, that’s them talking about.
What’s going on with veterans, what’s sad about, what’s going on with veterans, you know it’s unfortunate that that’s happening veterans.
They need to have more love thrown at them.
They, you know, don’t get me wrong.
They’re they’re! It’s a job, they did, you know they went out and they did it.
They didn’t get drafted to do it, but folks, if you’ve ever served and if you’ve ever been anywhere overseas – and you had to see the things that these guys and gals have been through.
You would understand what they’re going through and why they think they the way they think and the way they feel they’re young people who get influenced majorly.
You got ta think a lot of these kids, their kids, 18 years old, joining the military getting hand in m16 or m4.
Excuse me handing an m4 to say: hey we’re going to train you, don’t even they train them, but then we’re going to send you out to the to the world and we’re going to put you somewhere that you’ve never seen that is a war zone you’re going To see people and kids you’re going to see stuff that you just can’t believe is happening.
It’s going to change you and you’re going to do all this stuff for a basically minimum wage, all right, that’s basically how they get paid.
You know, especially when you’re not an nco, when you’re lower rank e4 lower e5.
Even you know, but you’re getting paid lower and don’t get me wrong.
They don’t do it for the money they’re doing it because they have pride for their country, but once again they go there and then this happens.
Folks, none of us can explain some people come back.
Un unscathed, they’re fine, but a majority of them come back and there’s some kind of ptsd going on and when – and i don’t mean to go into a tangent about it, but i want to bring it up one more time.
Just for a moment is just talk about these veterans.
Folks, if you, if you’re out there and you care, go out there and figure out a way to support, if you know, veterans make sure you reach out to them.
Let them know you care, let them know you’ve always got a shoulder for them to cry on or an ear for them to listen to to speak into.
I should say, and that’s what that’s all they need.
They need somebody to hear their story.
Somebody to sympathize for him it’s hard to empathize, it’s hard to put yourself in those shoes because none of us unless you’ve been there, you don’t know what that’s like.
I promise you promise, you don’t have any idea what they’ve been through and it’s it’s.
You know.
I know people and i hate you know.
I know people who’ve been in situations where the only ones who came back from that situation.
Imagine that imagine being all your best friends, everybody that you come up with your hoorah, your battle, buddies, you’re, all together and you’re.
The only one who came back that is hard, it’s hard to believe and then you’re questioning yourself.
Why am i the one? That’s that’s, not that’s unfair for them.
You know and understand that, once again, they are mostly young people that are going through this people who just started their lives, and this is their first reaction in human, in real interaction in life is go out there and this happens now they come back and man.
It’s tough, it’s tough for them to readjust to the real world, so support your veterans.
Folks, i’m not going to get too much more to support your veterans i’ll spend as much time as possible, making sure that we raise awareness for who it is that actually puts themselves in front of us.
Yes to protect us and, and we honor them – and i want to tie all of all of that, together with understanding the price that is paid to accomplish greatness right.
We have freedom, because people put their life on the line for it.
We have the ability to do incredible things, because people put the price beneath what they were willing to sacrifice.
They laid themself out.
The word says: no, greater love can a man have than if he lays his life down for his brother, and we do that for ourselves daily.
We figure out how to do that.
On a team.
We figure out how to do that in dealership culture in business culture in in all of our relationships right inside of a family, and all of these things, like i said they come at a price.
They come at an expense and for the greater rewards are going to be a deeper expense and all of the people that are joining us right now and all these solutionaries are some seriously quality people to be brewing with, and i want you all to know that We see that your success comes at a price and we get it.
We celebrate that you can get past that that’s why we have blake on here.
He shows us that every day you can get past that challenge with a smile with a word of encouragement for somebody else, because somebody else is facing the same challenge that you may be facing, or somebody else has already been through it.
That’s why it’s important to have mentors that can say exactly what it is: you’re stressing and losing your mind over chill out soldier you’re going to be okay, calm down, you know what i mean, and so i say that to say what would be the the greatest Or the hardest lesson that you’ve learned that cost you somewhat the most.
What was the most costly lesson that you’ve had inside of this shift, that you’ve had from going to being a legacy dealer to being who it is that you are today that that actually has your your tentacles tapped into many different things in the automotive industry? You know what i mean: you’ve exploded outside of the box.
Like our friends at dealership, toolkit right, you, you have exploded into the market to help bring improvement.
What’s been the most costly lesson in that experience to you so you’re asking me right.
Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, i think um, you know just you know when when you, when you do something new um, you know the the most costly experience is.
Is you know not having it’s just like any organization? You know when you, when you put people when you put the you know the wrong people uh in the wrong roles.
Sometimes um and like dave anderson says you train transfer, you terminate right and – and i think you know you know what one of the things i’ve learned in the last 90 days – is i’ve kind of rolled rolled up my sleeves and you, you have to inspect what You expect sometimes that’s exactly right and get under the hood and take a look at what’s going on uh, when when you, when you sell somebody something and it’s not getting executed correctly um and you’re trying to grow a company uh.
That’s that’s that you know not having those those key personnel executing what you’re selling, and so you can deliver the promise that can be kind of that can be very costly.
I mean that’s, that’s actually, folks, that’s what maintenance is.
What a great tip write that down! Folks, that is a great one.
You know it is.
It is about that and he’s 100 right, and when those types of lessons come around, you want to make sure that you learn those lessons and not repeat the same mistakes.
You always want to keep doing those things.
That’s called insanity when you keep doing the same thing, expecting a different result right and so he’s learning from that.
He i love the.
I love that he used that word track inspect what you expect.
That is the key to pretty much everything in life um.
You could translate that to your family life.
You could translate that to your personal life.
You could translate that to business.
There’s so many things that that if you incorporate inspecting what you expect, it will change things.
You know people a lot of times, things think and assume things are just going the way they should and a lot of times when you go in and you double check.
It’s something there’s a kink in there somewhere and you need to fix it.
It gets frustrating right, it does get frustrating and you know when you inspect it, you find those things and you’ll be able to correct it sooner than later and before it becomes, it’s like listening to uh phone calls at a dealership, they’re more funny.
You know, like i used to get frustrated with them now i listen to him and i just kind of laugh because it’s like listen.
Why get frustrated? Because you know don’t get me wrong.
That’s why we’re listening to this? That’s why we listened to him.
You know i actually had a conversation with a sales person can the other day, and it was kind of a heated conversation a little bit and i actually had to apologize because i did kind of get loud and i kind of got mad because they were like They told me we shouldn’t have our phone calls recorded, so i looked at him like excuse, you alex he was like well, it actually makes us worse.
I was like oh wow, so then i have oh right.
I was like first of all, you never answer the phone right, so i was like you never answer the phone you know so i kind of went on and i said, listen the reason why that you’re not getting any better at things because you’re you’re, because you’re Not even trying you’re you’re trying to do it your way and you’re in understanding that your way doesn’t work.
That’s why you don’t want to answer the phone and be recorded.
You need to do it our way.
We there’s a certain reason why we teach you certain word tracks in certain scripts to speak to these people when there’s an incoming phone call so being recorded, you should be excited, i said dude.
If it was me, i’d be the baddest man on the phone, because guess what? If i’m, the baddest man on phone means, i’m gon na get the most leads means.
I’m gon na get the most phone calls i’m going to get more people to come in.
I’m going to sell more cars, so why would you tell me that you – and i i really got so obsessed like so you? Basically, so i’m telling you that you need to answer my phones and you don’t want to answer my phone.
So why are you working here? That’s basically how i got to that point.
You know i was like, and that is the biggest profit leak at most dealerships.
