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How are YOU driving vision, today?
Vision defined: "The ability to think about or plan the future with imagination or wisdom." Today, visionary leaders are changing the world, in Automotive, Sports, Entertainment, Science, Education and Space...to name just a few. Join us, as together we search out those agents of change and explore their vision, its impact, and how they are driving their vision, TODAY.
The whole point is to come together and talk about the things that we like that are happening with our culture and our relationships inside the store.
Sam DArc:Welcome everyone to the Driving Vision Podcast brought to you by the Zigler Auto Group. And here with me, Auto Group director of Talent Development, Mike Van Ryn. Welcome, Mike. Hey. Thanks, Sam.
Sam DArc:Be sure to subscribe to the podcast. Like it if you do, and leave a comment. Hey, everybody in our internals, future of Zach Today in Driving Vision podcast with me today. So we have 2 special guests who are not strangers to the podcast. So Araya Daniels with our training and development department.
Sam DArc:Araya, welcome.
Ariah Daniels:Hello. Hello. Thanks, Sam.
Sam DArc:And then, of course, long time, guest and VP of training and development across the Ziglar Auto Group, Mike Van Ryn. Mike, welcome.
Mike Van Ryn:Thank you, Sam.
Sam DArc:So it's crazy. We're all here, you know, doing our work stuff, and we pause for a minute on this Friday just to have a conversation about what the heck's going on in your world. Right? There's a lot of really cool and interesting stuff going on in the Zigler Auto Group as it relates to your departments. Mike, let's start with some of the awards, and then let's transition into culture surveys.
Sam DArc:So Zigler has a unique culture. We've talked a lot about that the past several weeks on the podcast. And, Mike, there's some pretty cool awards that team Ziegler has achieved and earned. Mike, what what are they recently?
Mike Van Ryn:Yeah. 2024 awards, Sam. They've been a lot, for us recently, but, it's a tribute to our team and everything they do for each other, our culture, and then our customers. But we received the best and brightest companies to work for award, for Chicago, 11 time winner. West Michigan, 18 time winner.
Mike Van Ryn:Milwaukee, a 3 time winner. We won the elite award there. And then nationally received the award and were a 6 time winner. In addition to that, Sam and Araya, we actually had Glassdoor best led companies award this year. And this was the 1st year, that they've ever done this award.
Mike Van Ryn:So it was neat to be on the roster there. And then Glassdoor best places to work award, which is our 2nd year running. So lots of awards, and we just wanna thank our team for everything they do.
Sam DArc:So, Mike, the Glassdoor stuff is kind of interesting because that's a national award. It's a really super well recognized company. And you sit alongside some other really large companies, Starbucks and Delta and Southwest. That's pretty cool to see an auto group sitting so high atop a ranking for an award like that. And it speaks to culture, which is what Araya is working on right now.
Sam DArc:So, Araya, for the past many months, you've been running around not running around. You've been traveling around the Ziegler Auto Group. Do you feel like you've been running, Araya? You have been running.
Ariah Daniels:Honestly, yes. But all in good fun and good spirit and obviously for a good cause. So Yeah. A lot
Sam DArc:of companies out there, Araya, talk about culture and they say it. And we always talk about as soon as you talk about culture, it kinda slips between your fingers because it's tough to really figure out what culture is. Araya, I'm aware of many other auto groups that say, hey, we do anything beyond, like, an annual survey. Well, you're out actually talking to teams deliberately and intentionally. Tell us about what you've been up to these past couple of
Ariah Daniels:times. You know, when you say something, I think that's really important, Sam, is, like, culture is this buzzword. Right? And so when we think about culture, it's made up of so many different areas and facets and so many different dynamics. And when you have 25 100 employees across 40 different locations, I mean, that that can get lost.
Ariah Daniels:And so it's something that's really important to us and go back to that word intentional. We're intentional about bringing our teams together and collaborating, and we've done that for many years. So this year, we decided to do something a little bit different. In years past, we actually sent out an anonymous survey, and it kind of got lost in the shuffle over, like, a good 2 month period before we got the information back and before we were able to deliver that to our teams. And so this year, we decided to try something different where we went, in person to our teams and into our stores and actually did live surveying.
Ariah Daniels:And so that would capture really what's happening in real time across our stores. And so instead of getting, you know, a survey that was 60 days old, we're able to capture really what's happening at the time that's going on in the stores with different processes and procedures. And the whole point is to come together and talk about the things that we like that are happening with our culture and our relationships inside the store, and then we spend some time talking about maybe the things that need some some improvement and some tweaking. And, yeah. So we're getting down to the wire of those, and they've been so wonderful.
Ariah Daniels:It made a lot of different actions that we've done across the board so far.
Sam DArc:So I have a question, Araya. This is a brand new process for this year. Right? Before it was a survey. I won't even ask which store you started with.
Sam DArc:But there are people that are in the auto industry that are like, oh my gosh. You go into a store and you say, hey. What could we do better? And you would just be just there would be a 1,000,000 things thrown at you. So, like, that first store you walked into, you're sitting in a conference room.
Sam DArc:You've probably got 40 or 50 people there, and you ask the question, what was that like that first day? Was it intimidating? What was it like?
Ariah Daniels:You know, this year, not necessarily. You know, if anything, I think it's so refreshing because Yeah. There's something about getting everyone in the same room with all of the same thought process that we're just here to be better. And so, like, I think when you do that and we we really set the tone of, like, hey. We're respectful of each other's opinions and how we see things.
Ariah Daniels:We all have different perceptions of things, but respectful of each other's opinions and how we see things. We all have different perceptions of things. But ultimately, at the end of this conversation, we're gonna leave with better ideas on how to just be better, better as a team, and more successful, and more profitable. Like, all those things go go hand in hand. So I guess I wouldn't say it was intimidating, but nonetheless, for everyone else, just was refreshing to be able to speak their minds.
Sam DArc:I love that, Araya, because I think a lot of companies, they fear asking that question for the answer. They don't want to create drama, trauma, and trauma. They don't want to, like, they don't want to disturb something that they figure if left, unspoken or undone or unaddressed, they'll just go away, but it doesn't. Right?
Ariah Daniels:Yeah. Because I think sometimes people will come in and they'll feel strongly about something and we have to really figure out, okay, like, where's that drama? Like, let's cut that off, bring together a solution if we're upset about something, and that's where the conversations are just different. We're not there to just talk about things that maybe we're unhappy about. We actually are bringing together solutions on how to improve them.
Sam DArc:So as I've watched you go through and do this process in multiple different stores, one of the other challenges that you think of in other, auto groups, not Ziegler, but, you know, somebody from corporate swings into a store. They create this drama. They throw a bunch of people under the bus. Somebody gets fired, and you move on. You haven't done that.
Sam DArc:Right? Like, you're there truly to give the store tools to address things on their own. Right?
Ariah Daniels:Oh, yeah. Correct. Yeah. There's never any you know, I'm sure from from a few people and just across the board, there are times where people feel a little, intimidated or less less interested to speak up, but we really encourage those kind of difficult I hate calling them difficult, necessary conversations or Jim
Sam DArc:Craig said that last week. Yeah.
Ariah Daniels:Yeah. Necessary conversations to have, and they're they're challenging at times. There there are times where we get a little heated and we debate back and forth, but, ultimately, everyone's just on the same page and has good feelings about where the store is headed after those conversations.
Sam DArc:What is it about those necessary conversations that once had it's really the portal to progress. Right? Without having those, everybody calls them tough conversations. Jim Craig said necessary conversations. Once we have that, we can progress in a way before we could, Mariah.
Ariah Daniels:Oh, yeah. Well, it creates a level of trust, I think, you know, like everyone is finally on board and maybe, you know, agree to disagree on certain things. But ultimately, there's trust there because everyone is has the same common goal and that's just to become better.
Sam DArc:Yeah. Yeah. Boy, I like that. So the other thing that makes Ziegler, I think, unique and and and, you know, I've worked with auto dealers across the country for decades. We compete against each other in a way that very few companies compete, and then we collaborate in a way that very few companies collaborate.
Sam DArc:How has that come out in the culture surveys and and your interactions in the stores these past months?
Ariah Daniels:Yeah. So it's funny, and I know Mike can probably chime into this too and and attest to the stores that he's gone into, but it seems like almost always some of our action plans align with other stores' action plans. And a lot of the times and really what we saw quite a bit this year is just different communication processes. So communication within each department or communication between departments or as a store as a whole, everyone really just wants to feel included and involved in what's going on. And sometimes, you know, we get so busy and we've got so many team members in our our stores that some of that information can get lost.
Ariah Daniels:So so it's all about bringing us back together to to to really set the standard of what we want our communication to look like, what do we want our culture to look like. So by having those conversations, it's it's similar across all of our stores in a sense of that way. Way. Mike, you're probably seeing the same thing in the ones you've done.
Mike Van Ryn:Yeah. Very similar. Well said, Araya. One of the things I've seen too that's been rewarding Sam and Raya's over the years. I mean, we started this thing in 2006, and we didn't know where it would go, but we've continued to improve every year.
Mike Van Ryn:And it's from ideas and suggestions from our employees or our team members, I should say. And just to see things that have come out of these meetings, right, or I have that we've been able to implement for their store, but also for the whole auto group. I mean, a couple examples would be I know in a few minutes, we're gonna talk about our product knowledge and walk around competition. That that came in as an idea out of one of these sessions. The president's circle for service technicians and how we reward them and honor them, the service technicians and service advisors.
Mike Van Ryn:That was an idea from one of these sessions. The the last one is just simple, but it's, every morning on on Monday, we get an email and it's employees' birthdays for the week. That came as an idea out of one of these sessions. Those are 3 tangible things that have become a part of our culture that came out of these meetings, Sam.
Sam DArc:So it's interesting, Mike and Araya. People talk about money. Right? Money is an important component of an employment contract and what we do when we work for we we give up a portion of our time. I've often said that the automotive is the the last great American institution.
Sam DArc:Right? You can bring all your talents, whatever your background, from whatever diverse area you are, and you can the sky's the limit. There is no limitations. Right? And it's interesting because in automotive, also, we wanna feel like we're making a difference.
Sam DArc:It's almost a human bill of rights that I can be employed, give up my time, and I wanna be able to make a difference. And, Araya, both you and Mike are saying that. Right? Employees are saying, I want to work, give a little bit of my life, and I wanna see that what I'm doing makes a true difference in the world, Araya. Right?
Sam DArc:Is that showing up in the surveys you're seeing?
Ariah Daniels:Oh, yeah. Absolutely. I think there's there's so much respect for each other, and we really do operate. It's it's funny because you think, like, every store has maybe a little bit different of a culture, but ultimately at the end of the day, everyone really is a family in our stores. And that's so cool to see just the the relationships that have been fostered and the things that, you know, each one of our stores does, but, yeah, I think you hit it on the head, like, everyone is just so, empathetic and sympathetic to each other's goals and aspirations and personal and professional growth, to to back that up and be able to have that support in each store is totally, totally there.
Mike Van Ryn:And a lot of that comes down, Araya and Sam, to, selection selection of the right people for our team.
Ariah Daniels:Yeah.
Mike Van Ryn:And Araya and I always say when we're doing our training development sessions that everybody that comes on board either takes the culture up a notch or takes our culture down a notch. It never remains stagnant. Yeah.
Ariah Daniels:For sure.
Sam DArc:That's true. That's awesome. That is awesome. Well, thank you to you both for doing this process. And, it's fun to see as people go, as teams have gone through this, they've become more cohesive and they've become a bigger, better part of our overall team.
Sam DArc:And this elusive culture thing somehow becomes, somehow becomes stronger. And it's fascinating because, again, going back to this idea, some companies don't even wanna ask because they're afraid of the answer. Team Ziegler, we're not afraid of it. We're gonna deal with that tough stuff.
Ariah Daniels:We definitely embrace it. You know, we look at we look at challenges like that, and I love that about our organization is that we almost invite challenges because we embrace it as as an opportunity to just become better. Right? I I just love that we do that. And, to do just that.
Sam DArc:I interviewed this week an an author of a of a book that does sales training, and it's been associated with some large groups like Sewell and others that'll play in months, in coming weeks. But one of the things he talked about is it's important for a winning team and a winning sales person to have adversity intelligence. So to know how to overcome it, how to approach it, how to go through it. Like, we've been hit by adversity recently. Right?
Sam DArc:And it's it's interesting because every piece of adversity ends up kind of contributing to the bigger whole. So Aaron talked about, you know, in o one, there was a recession. In o eight, there was a massive recession. The biggest we've seen in the car business ever since there was recession, the biggest we've seen the car business ever since there was COVID. Right?
Sam DArc:And each moment helped grow the company. And then, you know, we had the CDK outage. And, I was blown away by the responses of our teams when we talk about culture. Rather than closing the doors and saying, hey. We're done.
Sam DArc:We're not gonna go any further. People, like, just said, you know, we can't do this anymore. They said, how do I do this different? And a team's ability to innovate and be resourceful instead of looking for the resources, they started to go to paper and whatnot. I don't know if either of you have thoughts about how kind of the team dealt with the challenge that was that shutdown, but, you know, it was 10 days.
Sam DArc:It was crazy while the Russians got our data back. And it wasn't even us. It was a partner. Right? So it had nothing to do with us.
Ariah Daniels:Right? So it's volumes to our culture. I think if if our culture, was not in a way where it was productive and positive and we didn't have processes in place, then we probably would have went backwards. Right? So I think it's important it's such an important piece that when you have good processes in place and and good relationships with people that you can get through anything.
Ariah Daniels:So
Sam DArc:Yeah. So to all of our teams that are listening to this, thank you for your hard work during that period. You know, we had a finance meeting this past week. We do it every quarter where we recap best practices from the prior quarter. And I was kind of expect Mike, you were there.
Sam DArc:You were in the meeting. I was expecting everybody in that meeting to be super tired and kind of exhausted. There'd be some fatigue and kind of a little bit of frustration because maybe things had gone backwards. And it was fascinating because there was an energy. There was an excitement.
Sam DArc:There was an engagement. And maybe even more important, they actually held the line very well during the outage. Probably better, I think, you know, as I compare we met with our insurance provider, this week as well. And as I compared notes with him with what other groups experienced, I mean, we we we were to your point, or I from a cultural standpoint, we were resilient in a way that is a little bit astonishing.
Mike Van Ryn:Yeah. I totally saw that as well, Sam, in the meeting with you this week and there was a good energy and collaboration. And then also, the tie in is really neat coming from the training development side that recently we brought in a speaker and her name was Rebecca Gregory. And she was 10 years ago, unfortunately, her and her 5 year old son were in the Boston Marathon bombing. And she talked about going through 76 surgeries.
Mike Van Ryn:She talked about mindset. She talked about resiliency. And, you know, Sam, we all go through challenges in our life. And like Araya said, we have to look at those challenges and make them become opportunities. So the things that Rebecca Gregory taught us a couple months ago, you know, just tied in directly with what we've gone through recently.
Ariah Daniels:One of our trainers that joins us, Tim Tarantine, is with us today, actually, across all of our stores. He's been in all of our regions, this week which has been wonderful. And part of our conversation and topic is getting unstuck and how do we reinvigorate ourself and how do we find our passions and our whys. And so recentering yourself to those things is what keeps us going. And it's what it's how we can overcome a lot of these obstacles like the CDK outage.
Ariah Daniels:Right? So
Sam DArc:Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So so, actually, to our external audience and to our internal, you can go back and find and search Tim Tarrantyne in our episodes. He's been a many time guest.
Sam DArc:He's a partner within the Zigler Auto Group in a lot of us the same ways as Jim Craig is. So we'd love to have him, back, soon to talk more about this getting unstuck. But it is interesting. Like, when you think about a large team, how do you go from adversity and having to be super resourceful and expending a lot of energy to just continuing that? And and I and and I was impressed, with you know, it was impressive and very interesting as a social experiment, you know, how how well they did that.
Sam DArc:Now, Mike, you you brought up Rebecca Gregory, and and we've talked a lot on this show about the Ziegler speaker series. So she was part of that. Just to give some background, Ziegler speaker series, multiple speakers every single year from different disciplines. I don't you know, it's interesting, Mike. We've never really had like maybe the closest person in the in the, car business we've had in that is, like, Grant Cardone.
Sam DArc:Right? But now he's in real estate. Right? It's not people that are vendors in automotive or automotive specific. They're outside the industry, and there's a reason for that, Mike.
Sam DArc:Share that with us.
Mike Van Ryn:Yeah. You know what, Sam? Great question. It's all walks of life, these speakers. And we typically bring in about, 5 speakers a year for us to learn and grow.
Mike Van Ryn:And a lot of times, our team members will even bring a family member in with them. Some of them bring their kids in to learn. Yeah. So they're learning things professionally, but also personally outside of work. So, you know, Rebecca Gregory was 1 and and Sam, we interviewed her on our podcast.
Mike Van Ryn:So you can go back and check out Rebecca Gregory. Another one definitely is, Jimmy Urie. And Jimmy was just in about a month ago. And Jimmy may not recognize his name, but, you know, names like Kenny Chesney, Tim McGraw, Rascal Flats.
Sam DArc:Who's Tim McGraw, Mike? I don't know who that is.
Mike Van Ryn:You've seen McGraw. Concert, Sam. Come on now.
Sam DArc:I I know he's married to a Faith Hill. I don't know who Tim is, but I know who Faith
Mike Van Ryn:is. Jimmy's good. Country music, singer and songwriter. Yeah. And he's written so many different, songs.
Sam DArc:So, Mike, who's coming up in the speaker series? Who can we look forward to in the coming months? Not to put you on the spot. I know you're working on some things. Any any, any any teases to tell us about?
Mike Van Ryn:Well, while we're working on a few things outside of, outside of the norm, things we've
Sam DArc:not
Mike Van Ryn:had before. So maybe Okay. Could be a could be a bodybuilder.
Sam DArc:Oh. What do
Mike Van Ryn:you what do you think of that?
Sam DArc:Actually, that'd be fun. Araya's got a super big, you've got kind of an an iconic Instagram following, Araya, watching you. Oh, I
Ariah Daniels:am no bodybuilding.
Sam DArc:Your workout routine, I would love to figure out the bodybuilding thing. I'm trying to figure out how to how to do that. I drink more proteins than I
Mike Van Ryn:drink there.
Sam DArc:But yeah. That'd be fun.
Mike Van Ryn:Jimmy Urie. Check Jimmy Urie out too on our podcast, Sam. And, also, he's got a song right now on the charts. It's called She's Somebody's Daughter by Drew Baldridge. Jimmy wrote this song, and last week, it was ranked number 8.
Mike Van Ryn:This week, it's projected to be at 5 on the Billboard charts.
Sam DArc:Wow. Wow. Okay. So Ziegler speaker series, that's awesome. Let's also talk about performance groups.
Sam DArc:So we have several groups across the auto group. For our internal employees, they know about these. For external, they may not. If I wanna become a finance manager, I can join a group and learn a little about it. If I wanna become a general manager, I can join a group, learn about it, and become proficient.
Sam DArc:Aaron even talked about it on the dealers Dealership Car Guy podcast with Yossi, how, hey, we can teach you how to become a general manager as an example. So this past week, we just graduated 10 finance managers. Right? Mike, you were there. Tell us a little bit about what that experience was like to see 10.
Sam DArc:We started with 22, 23, so it was less than half that finished. Because it's not easy. It's not a layup. You've gotta do things. But, give give me your thoughts on that.
Mike Van Ryn:Well, the word rigorous comes up. Right? It must be a rigorous curriculum that they're going through. And they raise their hand and say, hey. I wanna learn more about, finance.
Mike Van Ryn:And I may be in a sales role. I may be in a office role. I may be in any role with the organization, but they raise their hand and challenge themselves, get out of their comfort zone. And, Sam, I know one of the things you do with them, along with our friends from Brown and Brown is have them do role playing. And it's uncomfortable when we're role playing in front of our peers.
Mike Van Ryn:But no need to see those 10 graduates, come through the program. And Sam and Araya, as both of you know, through our development program at Ziegler University, we've had so many people be promoted from within. That's what it's all about. Hanging on, to our our team members, our retention at Ziegler, and then also helping people achieve their goals.
Sam DArc:Hey. So, Mike, is it failure that only 10 out of 22 or 21 graduated 6, 7 months later? Or is that success?
Mike Van Ryn:That's a great question. You know, as leaders, we have to look upon ourselves and make sure that, we're doing everything we can to coach and mentor people.
Sam DArc:Mike, the answer is it's success. Darn it.
Mike Van Ryn:So so I don't know, man. Come on. Oh, there may be some self reflection in there, Sam.
Sam DArc:It's success. So it may be failure on my part for not getting everybody through, but, it also could be success that not everybody is suited for every job. Right? And so initially, I may hand raise and say, hey. I wanna become a finance manager.
Sam DArc:Do you know one thing I learned as as we went through this session? So 2 things I learned. I'll share it with you here. You didn't even ask. Araya asked, what did Sam, what did you learn?
Sam DArc:And I'll share.
Ariah Daniels:Sam, what did
Sam DArc:you learn? Oh, fantastic. I'm gonna tell you. So there were two things that are fascinating. Number 1, finance manager, for those who are outside the industry, is a leadership role without question.
Sam DArc:But in a traditional setting, you have no higher fire. You don't sign paychecks. You don't do performance reviews. You like, you're not a traditional leader with a bunch of followers who are assigned with you. So finance managers lead by influence.
Sam DArc:They don't lead by title. And that can be the toughest thing, but it can also be the greatest thing to learn. It is an awesome way to lead, but not everybody's suited for that. So if somebody comes into it thinking, hey. I can lead by title, and they expect people to follow by title, they are going to, a, be miserable because they're gonna be like, hey.
Sam DArc:Somebody's supposed to be listening to me, and they're not. And they're gonna fail. The other thing that's interesting about the finance role is cars were selling tangible. You can touch, see, feel it, get excited about it. In finance, it's not as tangible because you're selling protections, and that's a big switch.
Sam DArc:So not everybody's well suited for it, but I love here at our group that if you have an interest in it, you can hand raise. You can learn about it, figure out if it's a good path. And then we've got some other performance groups to go down go down the path of if that doesn't work, Mike, I think you're
Ariah Daniels:gonna to say that I think it's such an important piece that you're stating. And, like, obviously, we we want and we encourage people to raise their hand to wanna try new things. Right? But I'm a huge believer. We all have different talents and strengths that make you good at what you do, and we wanna help people pull those out.
Ariah Daniels:And I'll be the first to admit, I went through finance at one point, and I hated it. Right? So, like, I that was I hate to say it to the finance guy that I didn't like finance, but
Sam DArc:You're not supposed to say that. Come on.
Mike Van Ryn:Can we edit that? No.
Ariah Daniels:I'll say it wasn't my strength. Right? So it wasn't my strength. It was not my strength. But
Sam DArc:No. You know, you how boring would the world be? How boring would the world be if we all did the same thing in our strength for all of us? Right. Like, if we just had a company of 25100 general managers, how boring would that be?
Sam DArc:That's why we always talk about, like, the detailer is such an important job. No matter who it is, what if they do their job to the best of their ability, they know their job, they do their job. We are better as a team. And and so I like that. Tell us, what are some of the other performance groups for those internally or and even externally that might be interested in joining some of those opportunities?
Sam DArc:Go for it.
Mike Van Ryn:I'll share a couple, then I'll turn it over to Araya that, she has one kicking off here in a week or 2.
Sam DArc:Oh. But Cool. I want the others.
Mike Van Ryn:Yeah. So many other things we've had, Sam. And and I'll say this. I'll I'll I'll say I was really proud of our performance group for, F and I, and we had 3 of our new stores represented there, Sam. That was pretty neat too that we just brought online last year.
Mike Van Ryn:But,
Sam DArc:Subaru Fort Wayne, Subaru Lafayette, they did a they did a nice job. Yep.
Mike Van Ryn:And Holland too.
Sam DArc:And Holland. Yeah.
Mike Van Ryn:Yeah. Pretty neat. So we have a general manager performance group
Sam DArc:k.
Mike Van Ryn:That meets regularly with Aaron Ziegler and Yep. Dan Scheid and and you, Sam.
Sam DArc:Yep. We also
Mike Van Ryn:have, an academy class that's very similar to the NADA Academy.
Sam DArc:It's It's like a dealer 20 or NADA Academy.
Mike Van Ryn:Yeah. Yeah. So those are two levels. And then Araya's kicking one off here in a couple weeks, I believe.
Sam DArc:So Araya.
Mike Van Ryn:Really neat.
Sam DArc:So this is not live, and and this isn't happening right now. Give us a tease on what's going on.
Ariah Daniels:Yeah. I'm really excited. We've got well, actually, you know, we have so many different facets going on and 2 that are kicking off again next week. So we actually have, our women in leadership group. So we've just recently started a women leaders of the ZAG group that brings together a bunch of female leaders in the organization.
Ariah Daniels:It's just a way to connect and inspire and empower, what typically has been a non dominated field in, you know, in our industry for for women. So we've got a coaching call on that next Thursday, but we're also kicking off a new series of our aspiring leaders course, which is really for any leader in the organization who's interested in just growing in a capacity of their leadership and maybe they have, future endeavors to wanna grow into a new role. And so we go through kind of a 5 series class and curriculum where they get to learn from so many different leaders inside the organization and go through some different things that help them really step out of their comfort zone and grow as a person personally and professionally. So we've we've always got something going on, but those are the 2 that are coming up, in the next week, which I'm really excited for.
Sam DArc:So, Rya, what if I wanna join one of those? What if I wanna join one of those 2 groups? How can I get more information now? I know the first one I can't join, but, the second one I might be able to. What, who do I reach out
Ariah Daniels:to? Just raise your hand. Honestly, at this point, raise your hand. You can always reach out to me or or Mike or really even just your manager, your general manager, like, really have that conversation. I always tell people, anyone coming in is to never assume that your managers are mind readers.
Ariah Daniels:No one knows what your goals are and where it is that you wanna go. You're master of your own ship and it's you for you to decide where it is that you wanna go with your life and your career. And so I always tell everyone, speak up. And so we are more than happy to, to help guide someone in in where to start and what that looks like.
Mike Van Ryn:I was gonna say it was neat, Sam, to, that, Erin Ziegler and I were able to kick off the, women leadership call and just need to see that thing, get rolling throughout the organization. And Ryan Arise has done an incredible job with that. And, we're only able to be on there for 5 minutes, and we get kicked off.
Sam DArc:Well, I was gonna say what a cool meeting that would be. There's some incredible women across our auto group in in one Absolutely. Besides yourself, obviously, Araya, but our head of security. So the only person in our company who carries a gun every single day and is constantly thinking about protecting the auto group, Carrie Ann Thomas, she's an incredible, individual. And so the depth, the strength, that those will be fascinating conversations that you have.
Sam DArc:You keep looking over your shoulder eyes. Tim Tarrantyne there?
Ariah Daniels:You know, Tim's here, but also, Bob Kiel, our fixed ops director, is here, and he's just making a few comments.
Sam DArc:Comments. So I'm having. Oh my gosh. Wait, tell Bob to
Bob Kuehl:come over here. Bob?
Sam DArc:So Bob is actually
Ariah Daniels:another great instrumental part of, one of our
Sam DArc:academy classes.
Ariah Daniels:Yeah, have
Sam DArc:have Bob tell us about the academies. Hey, Bob. What what service academy do we have going on here?
Bob Kuehl:Well, we have a couple of them going on. Obviously, we just did a parts segment of our nada academy and the next one is on service but then we have our technician university that, we're in our 3rd session. So by the end of this year we will have 33 technicians that we have graduated and put into the workforce within the company.
Sam DArc:And not only are those technicians graduated that didn't have that experience prior to, but we formed a special relationship with a tool provider through NASCAR. And that tool provider has, delivered through a partnership with Ziegler tools to these aspiring technicians. It that's a pretty cool thing. Tell us what you get when you graduate from us the Aspiring Technicians course.
Bob Kuehl:So with our academy, the auto group supplies you with $3,500 worth of tools, to purchase at your discretion. We didn't wanna just buy a tool set, because some guys are at different levels of their of their tool inventory, so to speak. So we we have set up that and then with our relationship with Mac Tools through NASCAR, being we are it is an education based situation that we set up. They, allow our people to purchase at a 50% discount. So that $35100 turns into 7000 overnight.
Sam DArc:Props to Mac Tools, Black and Decker, and and and Robert Newman who helped us put that together. But, that's not totally a secret. That's a pretty cool thing. Here's the interesting thing I found in the world. It's not so much having the information and knowing what to do.
Sam DArc:Everybody knows what to do. It's doing it. It's executing on it. It's like my friend, just a couple days ago trying to get a rental car from a place that had no rental cars. It's not about taking the reservation.
Sam DArc:It's about holding the reservation. That, by the way, is a Seinfeld line. So Bob, thank you for all you're doing on the, aspiring technicians, creating technicians across the Ziglar Auto Group, one of the toughest positions to hire for. And, Araya, we know you've gotta go because you're busy getting back into the Tim Tarrantyne thing. Before we break, one question for all for both of you.
Sam DArc:Auto and retail, in particular, is a tough gig. Like, it takes a lot of time. It takes a lot of attention. The hours are long. Yet we stop to do these things every now and again, culture surveys, Tim Tarrantyne training, podcasts, meetings with Ziegler speaker series.
Sam DArc:What's that all about? Why take time out of our day to do things that aren't directly revenue generating that don't sell a car in this moment, Araya? We'll start with you, and then, Mike, well, let you have the last word.
Ariah Daniels:Oh, man. It because they matter. It's it it's what brings everyone together. It's what helps everyone continue to grow. It helps us collaborate.
Ariah Daniels:It helps us just do so many different things that are just beyond what our day to day roles and responsibilities are, and that's just a part of the connection that we create and the culture that we have, and it's an elite one. So, all those things are just so instrumental into creating an organization that is a winning organization for sure.
Sam DArc:That's awesome, Mariah. Mike.
Mike Van Ryn:It's about Kaizen. Continuous improvement.
Sam DArc:We
Mike Van Ryn:wanna continually improve and get better for our customers every day and get better for each other and continue to build our world class culture across Zingler Auto.
Sam DArc:Thank you, everybody. Appreciate for being on the podcast today. Special thanks to Mike Van Ryan. Alright. Daniel's Bob Kiel came in at the very end for contributing this week's episode.
Sam DArc:Until next week, how are you driving vision today?