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“Leaving the industry better than I found it”-Dave Foy
Each week, Dave sits with a panel of guests to discuss the topic of the week. From Coaching for Success to Sales vs. Service, Dave talks to the industry and professional leaders that can bring their insight and knowledge to the viewers.
Our W.E. A.R.E Feature airs on the third Thursday of the month and spotlights Women in Fixed Ops and how they are changing the industry and leading the charge to a better customer experience.
Welcome to another edition of Fixed Ops
Mastermind.
Today, I am joined by Liam Snell,
who is the Talent Acquisition Partner at
Holt Automotive Staffing.
Welcome to the show.
Thank you.
Thank you very much for having me, Karl.
How has your month been?
Yeah, it's been busy.
I've actually I've got a little bit of
time off,
which is is a bit bit frowned upon
in recruitment.
But I've got some time at home
redecorating next week.
So we've been clearing everything out and
now everything's going in.
So I'm going to be busy.
Sounds like fun and a lot of work
all at the same time.
Yeah.
So how did your background in motor
insurance prepare you for recruiting,
recruiting in automotive?
Yeah,
so when I was working in motor insurance,
I spent a lot of time with customers.
It was very customer facing job.
A lot of them were only having to
deal with things once a year.
So they're not confident with it.
They're not used to doing it.
So they do get frustrated and they do
get rushed.
My job really was to help calm them
down and see them through the process,
translate anything that was complicated
into into
plain English for them,
easy to break down and understand because
if you don't understand it,
they don't understand it.
So you really had to explain it to
me like I'm five so I could explain
it properly to them.
So I was going through decisions that
they're not used to making,
guiding them through it.
And that experience had really prepared me
more for recruitment than I could ever
imagine.
I was a guy actually,
who was my boss who come to work
for Holtz Automotive and brought me across
with him and said,
it's exactly the same as what we do.
But yeah, it was,
it's very similar in a lot of ways.
You've got candidates are not used to
moving jobs that often.
So it can be a bit of a
nerve wracking experience for them.
I'm sure you'll understand.
yourself as well is hiring managers.
Sometimes hiring is very on and off.
So not always used to that process as
well.
So it's been really,
really nice and straightforward going from
explaining a process to one set of people
to another.
And I'm a bit geeky in that way.
I do like to break things down
I was going to ask you,
so what made you make the shift from
customer facing insurance sales into
talent acquisition?
And do you think that that gives you
a different approach to a typical
recruiter or an advantage?
I think with my time in insurance,
we were we went from being very sales
driven to
what we called more systemic.
So it was more about doing the right
thing.
So it wasn't always about hitting targets
and getting commission.
Because sometimes when that is the case,
you do it.
And then the next thing is,
is that it?
What am I going to do tomorrow?
I've already done so much today.
And I think when you get financially
driven like that,
you don't create a good impact.
You can be seen as quite brash.
You can be seen as being needy is
probably the wrong word,
persistent in a bad way.
I would probably put it,
but it's little things like that.
And as well, the approach that I took,
it was you're dealing with people who are
upset, have dealt with difficult things,
can't keep payments up, things like that.
And it's the same with candidates on the
other side.
They go through bad times.
In particular,
there's one instance where you really have
to, I think I mentioned it before,
show a lot of empathy to people in
both careers.
there's people that have been unemployed.
And I know that we do get stories
where people have been unemployed for a
certain amount of time.
But just going back,
there was one instance where I had a
guy who was caring for his wife for
a few years, who, unfortunately,
his wife passed away.
So I won't mention any names to keep
his identity safe.
But finding him a job after three years
was really
emotional, you know, you,
you stop thinking about the money.
And it's more, again,
doing the right thing.
When you get people saying thank you,
I've got my life back on track.
It's, it's a real turnaround.
And that that's what shapes my style now
is I'm very empathetic towards people.
And I still still am very disciplined from
the sales side of it.
But, you know, you,
you have to slow things down sometimes and
just do what's right.
Yeah, no,
I believe that a thousand percent for sure
from a customer standpoint,
from an employee standpoint,
from a vendor partner standpoint.
I mean,
we all have things outside of what we're
doing and working together to accomplish
the ultimate goal and, you know,
be doing it together is is really
rewarding and uh i will say by the
feedback that i've seen from uh from your
customers and and others that have worked
with you um they are constantly saying
that you know you've built a reputation to
be responsive full of empathy um do you
know is that something that you think
you've learned over time or uh something
that you developed or do you think it's
something that's somewhat natural to you
I think it's definitely something I've
developed over time.
I think everyone is a, you know,
I'm not a teenager anymore.
I'm far from it, but you know,
in those,
in those years you have no empathy and,
and, you know,
life comes at you quick and then all
of a sudden it, um, it,
it changes fast.
I think I've definitely become more
empathetic as I, uh,
as I became a father.
So, um, you know,
I've got two girls at home and,
and a dog.
So it's, uh,
you do have to be more empathetic.
And it's tough being a girl dad.
I don't know if you've got children
yourself, Kyle, but it's tough.
I have a boy and a girl,
and I will tell you, yeah,
there's empathy,
and then there's also fear.
It doesn't matter how old they are.
My son just started college this week,
and my daughter is a sophomore in high
school.
And I'll tell you,
I think I'm more nervous now than I
ever have been.
It just continues to become more
challenging.
But, yes,
I definitely see where you're coming from.
I've got one that's just started school
and one who is starting school in a
couple of weeks.
Oh, boy.
yeah i'm at that stage still but it's
um i do i do fight again with
that empathy is i i now care about
things i never thought i would yeah yeah
i used to care about don't matter anymore
Yeah, it's not about you.
It's about everybody else.
You know, it comes first for sure,
which kind of loads us into, you know,
so we talk about culture and fit quite
a bit.
How do you balance the urgency of needing
to fill the role for your client and,
you know,
making sure that you have the right
integrity and the right person to match
the role that you're that you're trying to
fill?
yeah i mean i get people who call
me for long-term projects i get people
that call me for for short-term fixes um
i have built myself a bit of a
reputation of being a bit of both i've
worked especially in the uk recruitment a
lot of what i did was long-term projects
um and then some very quick fixed term
temporary fixes as well um
I mean,
I've had a dealership call me in a
panic before,
we need somebody in two days,
we're gonna fall behind.
And it's tempting just to send the first
half decent person that you find,
but you've got to still treat it as
that long-term prospect.
I know you need to fill this job
in two days,
but what kind of person are you looking
for to fit your culture
long term and you know you you end
up finding people when it doesn't always
take two days you know that sometimes it
takes minutes sometimes it may take a week
um but you you find people that don't
just just fit the technical ability they
need to have good temperament and i've
spoken to a lot of people about this
lately temperament of employees and they
get people in for that fast
turn around and it doesn't work out
because they come in there in this
particular instance they were quite
aggressive with you know why am I doing
this why don't I do this and that's
not what you're there for you're a new
employee right you know there's a game to
be played isn't there within the
dealership world and you've got to be in
the game because if you're not you'll soon
be out of the door again and then
that leaves them in the same
same situation.
But luckily, yeah,
we found someone who was a good fit,
calm, steady.
If we rushed,
we probably would have found them the
wrong person.
Like I said,
it didn't take a couple of days.
And then it would have been my reputation
on the line, as well.
Like, there's a lot to think about.
Like you said,
I'm not just thinking about yourself.
I know what I just said sounded like
I was thinking about myself,
but it was more
thinking long term who's who's going to
fit that culture long term and you have
to balance urgency i think with the
integrity sometimes sure do you do you
find that you have um from a candidate
standpoint do you have a a list that
you're working off of that you know when
that role comes up they come right to
mind
Yeah, of course.
And I don't want to give away too
many secrets of the trade,
otherwise I'll be out of the job.
But there's certain funnels.
So I like to well-qualify jobs.
I need to know who else works there,
why the last person left,
ins and outs of the dealership.
I quite often ask people for photos and
videos of the dealership just so I can
get a feel for the place if I'm
not there.
As you can tell by my voice,
I'm not always in the States.
But yeah, it's one of those things.
So I like to have a funnel.
So there's certain things I like to do.
We have a database.
We find people on that database.
And I think just going through the levels
of this funnel,
a lot of people only see the end
of it.
They see the placement.
What they don't see is the
two thousand people that I've emailed and
text and write the four hundred people who
have responded.
And then those out of those four hundred,
maybe a hundred good people.
And this is just one funnel through our
database.
This happens at different points.
Out of those hundred people,
there may be twenty people that are good
enough out of those twenty people.
you may only want to see four of
them.
And out of those four,
you might only hire one.
So, you know,
that's how we like to do it.
Makes sense.
So staffing on its own touches a lot
of different positions, whether it's tech,
service, management, sales.
So how do you adapt your strategy
depending on what type of professional
you're looking to fill?
Yeah, I mean,
I've definitely learned from mistakes.
I have,
especially going from the UK to the US,
you need to hit the ground running.
So you go into your default mode.
I learned very quickly that was not how
to do it.
But like I said,
I learned from my mistakes.
I've tried to pitch a service advisor a
role the same way I would pitch a
technician a role and the same way I
would pitch a manager a role.
complete misfire on my part.
It doesn't really work like that.
The technician doesn't care about the
money side so much to a degree.
He doesn't need a breakdown of every way
he's gonna make money.
He just needs to know he's gonna make
money.
Whereas a service advisor is a bit more,
I don't know if you've ever heard of
like flying colors.
They're a bit more of a blue
in the sense that they need to know
everything.
They need to know a bit more.
And then obviously a manager, again,
it's all about leadership, style, vision,
the growth opportunities.
Some technicians don't care about that.
Some service advisors don't care about
that.
Some managers definitely care about that.
So it's almost like switching languages.
Now, I can only speak English,
but I think it is a different language
between a technician, an advisor,
a sales consultant,
a fixed ops director,
you have to speak to them differently.
And you have to adapt to that.
So have you had to learn different terms
from the UK to the States as far
as saying the right things that it's
understood depending on what the role is?
Yeah, absolutely.
It took me a long time.
A couple of phrases that threw me out
straight away.
I couldn't get used to saying dollars.
That threw me out for a while.
So a lot of people were putting the
phone down on me straight away.
The other term that I learned very quickly
was flat rate.
So again, I've learned from my mistakes.
I've qualified jobs.
How much do you pay?
We pay thirty dollars an hour.
And in my mind, oh, great.
How many hours do they work?
Forty five hours a week.
OK,
thirty dollars an hour by forty five
hours.
This is how much they make.
Right.
Obviously,
flat rate does not mean that at all.
Thirty-five dollars is for the hours worth
of production that they do,
which I have now learned.
And I can explain very well.
Practice makes perfect, right?
Yeah, exactly.
And I'm still learning.
As we all are.
I think, you know,
the big thing for me in my career
is always...
Every day I'm trying to learn as much
as I possibly can about our business and
what it does and how we can be
better serving of our people and obviously
our clients because without them,
we're nothing.
So that consistent learning has to happen.
Otherwise, like you said earlier,
we'd be on the outside looking in and
we don't want that.
Yeah.
From a learning standpoint as well,
before our call,
I was on a call with a service
manager for an independent store.
We weren't talking about work.
We were just talking about the industry.
And he was telling me what he thought
and why certain people are leaving.
I don't know.
I put a post out on LinkedIn recently
about why are people turning away?
what they're saying,
he come back to me and he he
told me exactly what he thought.
And that's a really good thing to know.
He's an ex technician.
So I know,
in their mindset where things are going
wrong.
So we like said learning every day.
And it helps you be able to guide
the conversation when you have a new
candidate or another client that's looking
to fill a role.
Speaking of filling roles,
can you think about a specific placement
that you have made that just went above
and beyond just, hey,
this is the skill set and it transformed
both the store and the person?
Yeah, absolutely.
I think going back to the beginning where
I mentioned about a candidate who was
caring for his wife for a while and
going through all of the trials and
tribulations of that, it's sad.
Most employers would overlook somebody
like that.
But I needed in that instance to really
sit them down,
go through
their skill set,
see how they are in this individual.
You can say he's trying to get back
into the job market.
So he's resilient.
Resiliency was low,
but he's getting back into it.
His resiliency was building with every
conversation I was having.
And he went from someone that kind of,
you know, lost his life, lost his wife,
you know,
and to get them
into a position and a management position
in particular,
where they were low of confidence.
Like I said,
they were building that resiliency back up
for them then to turn around to me
and say that they feel like they've got
their life back on track.
Unbelievable for me.
I don't care how we performed in store.
Knowing that I've had that impact,
it means a lot.
Yeah.
It's one that you take home and
always remember.
And they're still employed to this day.
I still keep in touch with them too.
So it's worked for everybody.
That's fantastic.
Yeah.
Awesome.
So let me ask you, talent trends,
they change fast.
What's one shift in candidate mindset that
you're seeing right now in the recruiting
side?
Is it money?
Is it I want more time?
What's the mindset?
It's funny.
You mentioned that because that leads back
to the conversation I was having earlier
on.
So from a technician standpoint, people...
what they want more money.
It's an expensive world,
especially post-COVID.
Everyone is vying to get that top dollar.
But it's difficult to do that.
A lot of resumes I see and probably
resumes you've seen as well is people jump
around to find the best money.
I think the reason why we see that
trend is the world,
especially in the States,
has moved so quickly.
With the changing of presidents and
tariffs and things like that,
people are now aware that they can move.
They can change their levels of pay.
One thing I especially see is flat rate
pay.
It's been the standard for years.
And the more hours you book,
the more hours you earn.
It works in busier times.
When things slow down,
it doesn't work as well.
And you find a lot of people trying
to leave the dealership world and find
something maybe in diesel work or even
construction where they get paid hourly.
You don't like seeing your money drop.
And that's the case for a lot of
technicians I speak to.
There's a lot of instability around flat
rate.
And I'm a fan of flat rate.
I think it works and it teaches people
to work hard.
Um, I love it for, for that reason.
And I wish that they did it in
the UK as well, but, but people,
they need that stability.
Um, and I don't,
I know some dealerships offer a hybrid
level of pay, um, where you do,
you still get paid,
but I think that mindset shift is,
is slowly changing.
So some people, uh,
I deal with a couple of dealerships in
Virginia who do offer just a standard
hourly rate.
but then they do pay them production but
that that their base pay is not on
that production if that makes sense yeah
they're given a salary and then yeah yeah
so um yeah like i said well it's
not just candidates that are changing the
industry is changing with tariffs and you
have some some uh manufacturers in trouble
and new people entering the game all the
time i think
Rivian for one, so in and out,
same as Tesla.
So in and out with hiring people,
firing people.
And people don't get that money anywhere
else,
so they go somewhere else for flat rate.
Right.
Then they find that, oh,
I'm not actually earning as much.
I'll go and find another job at a
different Tesla store.
Then that store closes.
It's just typical if that's where the
world is now.
Do you think that it's from your side
recruiting?
Is it your responsibility to lay out the
flat rate and what the expectation is for
the technician?
Or is it really on the client that's
hiring you to be able to say what
they can provide?
Because ultimately,
isn't that on them and not you?
Yeah, I think it's a bit of both.
I think there has to be an expectation
provided by us.
as recruiters to kind of say to these
guys, hey,
I can get you fifty dollars an hour,
but I need you to know you're going
to have to work hard to maintain that
because the work might not always be
there.
So when there is work,
you have to really give it your all.
And I think there's some people that are
afraid of that.
But yeah, I mean,
some some dealership groups,
they they may not.
And you'll probably see this from a lot
of job adverts.
There's no salary posted.
There has to be a transparency there,
whether it's you post it on your job
ad or tell me and I can do
it.
You know, it's one of those things.
You have to be transparent with it,
I think, for sure.
And it falls, especially on recruiters,
because I think in the States,
I think recruitment gets a bit of a
bad rap for being very, like,
linear about
I'm going to get you,
I'm going to put you there.
You know, and it's not always like that.
And it shouldn't be like that.
So I think there's a lot of distrust
in recruiters,
which is why they're not told the
salaries,
people don't like telling recruiters how
much they make.
And everyone's just got kind of piled
together and make it happen.
There's definitely responsibility from
everyone.
Yeah, I mean,
transparency is the number one thing that
you can control, right?
So if you're transparent and you're given
the accurate information,
then you should be able to get accurate
information back.
So, yeah, I think all parties involved,
if I'm hiring you to recruit for me,
you need to have all the facts in
play.
That way there,
when you are getting the candidates,
they make sense and you don't always
judge.
And then on the other end of it,
if I'm not giving you what's going to
happen,
that person that you've now landed with
me,
when they're looking for their next
position,
they're not calling you because they're
like, well,
that didn't work the last time.
So all it does is hurt all of
us.
So, yeah,
I would say transparency across the board
is the most important thing.
Where do you see the state of recruitment
at the moment?
It'd be interesting to know from your
point of view,
if you feel that there's a distrust in
certain things and the way things are
done,
because I bet you get a thousand people
a day contacting you.
yeah i mean i think that there's a
lot of people out there that are that'll
hit you up and you know in your
linkedin profile and hey you know i have
this opportunity or hey i can fill that
opportunity i think um much like any of
my other uh vendor partners that i have
out there it's about making sure that we
are on the same page we have the
same the same goals um i i want
you to be a great advocate for me
and me for you.
So I think you're a hundred percent right.
I think there's folks out there that have
great
great reputations like yourself.
I mean, it's not hidden.
And the ones that are true and showing
the theme care and are not just trying
to fill a role so that they can
click a checkbox,
those are the ones that are going to
succeed.
I will say that there's still a little
too much.
It's the way we've always done it,
so it's a comfortability thing.
I want to be able to hold you
accountable and I want you to be able
to hold me accountable.
Yeah.
We're extensions of each other's business.
A hundred percent.
A hundred percent.
I mean,
if things are going well for me,
I'm going to promote you.
And when somebody says, hey,
I need to fill a role,
this is who I want to call.
But, you know,
I think what I'm trying to learn now
is that there is a lot of differences
and I'm curious.
one of the,
if you could tell me maybe the three
biggest differences between, you know,
recruiting in the automotive business in
the States and the UK,
what's the big difference?
Cause I'm, you know, the podcast now,
um,
for me is let's get together so we
can be great together.
And I want to learn what's going on
throughout the world, um,
to be able to take the things that
are going well in other countries and
things that are going well in our country
and be able to use them all together
to make all of us better.
So I'm curious, um, what,
what your thoughts are there.
Definitely for one, I would say is,
is speed of delivery.
And it's something that we've always, um,
ourselves on and it's probably easier from
you know english person to english company
whereas i find um with some companies
there is a a long process and i
know you guys you do your interviews and
drug screenings and background checks and
as we do here as well that i
think a lot of the differences um for
an example in the uk when i did
my recruiting in automotive
I could have somebody's resume sent,
interview and drug test the same day and
start the next day.
Wow.
That's a huge thing.
Over here is the speed of how quickly
you can hire.
And sometimes it doesn't work out,
but I think that also comes with the
reputation.
I had some really great clients here where
we would do recruitment days together.
And the people that I was finding for
them,
I was going to the assessment days with
them.
So they also do assessment days.
So an interview process could be two,
three hours long,
but everything gets done in that day.
You get offered the job in that day
and you start ASAP.
Obviously, we are notice periods.
And this is probably difference number
two.
is the notice period.
So in the States,
it's typically two weeks.
Whereas in the UK,
it's four to eight weeks.
Because I think in the States,
a lot of companies pay weekly or biweekly.
Whereas here,
it's either weekly or monthly.
And some people get those production
bonuses paid out on a quarter.
So they don't want to leave because they
lose their bonus.
So the speed is definitely one.
I think, well, especially for me,
the second thing is being able to get
out and see you guys.
It's a lot more difficult to do it
from when I'm in England.
I mean, I was recently in Charlotte,
North Carolina,
had a great time there with some clients,
saw some good sites,
met some great people.
Looking to go back,
we've got offices opening up shortly in
Florida.
We're looking at Texas as well.
where our boss already has his own office
set up there.
So he's over there, too.
But yeah,
that's going to be a big definitely a
big game changer because I think people
trust a face more than they trust a
voice.
Sure.
And being in front of somebody is so,
so important.
And the third one, I'm not really sure.
It's probably that change in pay,
as I mentioned,
is everything is hourly here.
But it'll be hours,
time by the number of hours,
time by weeks in a year.
So it's very straightforward how much
money you're going to earn.
You know if you're going to be paid
fifty grand a year as a basic.
Whereas I think in the dealership world,
especially for a technician,
you might earn fifty grand,
you might earn a hundred grand.
right so i think as well as well
we're just just going back to that is
in the uk services is seen as very
important um in the dealership world
service is sort of at the forefront and
it's probably the the politeness of
english people is you know it's that
customer service based role whereas in
america it's um it's a lot more turnover
based is in money wise.
So sales is at the forefront.
And that's great.
And in the UK, it's service,
it's service based,
it's more about the aftercare.
But you're not saying it's not in the
in the States.
I think in the UK,
people care more about the service that
they've received.
And that's what creates the repeat
business.
I suppose you'll probably get people that
come and buy a car and you never
see them again.
Whereas I can tell you I, my mechanic,
I go to
And I've gone to four years because he's
there for me when I need him.
I've followed him around wherever he's
worked.
And I think it's probably a bit tougher
to do that in the States,
probably because you're so big.
Yeah, I would say, I mean,
we're definitely sales focused and fixed
in a lot of ways.
Unfortunately, it takes the back burner.
But if you talk to people that have
come up on the fixed side,
we say sales sells the first one and
we sell the next five.
So I think depending on the group and
depending on the philosophy,
it's encouraging to hear that that's the
way that it is over there because uh
I agree um you know coming up from
the fixed side um yeah you know I
believe you know we obviously are seeing
the guests more often so um where you
know if they're enjoying the experience
then they're going to buy the car but
um so the wages themselves are a lot
lower in the UK as well yeah I
yeah I imagine uh
Here, I think, you know,
it's kind of a flat rate really has
exploded it, right?
Because, you know,
the question mark of are the hours
available?
Who's going to earn them?
And how are we going to get there
kind of determines it.
But yeah, I could definitely see that.
So let me ask you,
if you could wave a magic wand and
fix one persistent challenge that hiring
people face today, what would it be?
And why do you think?
um this is probably on a personal
standpoint and i've gone back to it it's
the i'm not sure if you would call
it a communication gap um but this there
again goes into the the distrust in in
recruiters i think um is you can you
can send a resume um you can uh
that so you'll send the resume and then
the manager be like great what's that
number which is fine
Like you said,
if that's where you do it,
that's where you do it,
we find a way that works.
But it's,
it's that so there's a communication gap
there,
because then the feedback loop kind of
closes there,
which is where we we like to operate
with is in those gaps.
I've had people that have interviewed and
five weeks later been offered a job.
But three weeks before that they've been
written off, you know,
that they're not a great fit.
And then they come back to me a
few weeks after that.
Oh, actually,
we've decided that we want to hire them.
And it raises a question.
So with the communication gap was why were
they not a good fit then?
But they are a good fit now.
Sure.
Or vice versa.
Yeah, yeah.
But, you know,
silence is more damaging than rejection.
It's better to hear.
And I used to shy away from this
a lot.
And this is kind of that learning curve
for me was I was very client focused.
I would if you if you said jump,
I would say how high kind of thing
I was waiting for you to tell me
and not so much me coming to you,
which I think I had that flipping mindset,
which makes it.
lot quicker and better um i've i've had
people like i said i think the term
would be they've been ghosted by by
clients without any feedback um and i've
had to push and push and push and
push and push and again that goes goes
back to the um the difference with with
the speed yeah i think i'm so so
and again it's only my personal opinion uh
i'm so used to bit that fix uh
fast pace um whereas sometimes it's not so
much there in the states because you guys
are busy and and i know that and
i know from working with fix ops directors
it's it's hard to to tie you to
you guys down sometimes but if i if
i could fix one thing it would just
uh have timely communication like set a
timeline they're going to interview i'm
going to do this
then you're going to give me feedback.
Then I'm going to go to them.
I'm going to find out if they want
the job and then you're going to give
me the next steps.
That's how I try and work it with
my clients now.
And that was for years of getting it
wrong.
But you have to get it wrong to
get it right.
Yeah, absolutely.
I think, you know,
what I pick up most from there is
communication, communication,
communication.
And if we're not great at communication,
then none of us can get our jobs
done right.
But, you know, from a standpoint of
client to a vendor.
I find that the vendor partners in some
cases are complacent or worried about,
am I going to lose the client if
I actually say how I feel?
When it comes to my partners,
I tell them straight out, listen,
if something that I'm saying or doing or
whatever is not making sense, stop me.
And shoot me straight,
let me know what the story is because
I'd rather make sure that I have somebody
that's with me than somebody that's just
agreeing with anything that I say.
So bravo for that.
Yeah, I mean,
there isn't a particular right way or
wrong way of doing recruitment,
but you don't need to reinvent the wheel.
It just needs to be smoother.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Just find a way to make it all
go the way we need it to go.
Work with cars.
You don't need me to tell you how
to make your car move.
Just find a way to make everything more
efficient.
That's for sure.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So what legacy do you see your recruiting
shaping over the next decade for both
talent and the teams that hire them?
Yeah.
Well,
I know from my time in insurance that
I'm still spoken about in those circles in
a good way.
I've been told in a good way.
There's no publicity.
Even bad publicity is good publicity.
But I would like to think in ten
years' time,
I still want to be recruiting in the
States.
Well, I say I want to be.
I will be still recruiting in the States.
And I don't want
people to think of me and my legacy
as, oh,
who's that English guy who filled that
role five years ago?
Let's give him a call.
I want people to be like,
Liam's helped us shape our business.
He changed the way that we looked at
recruitment.
And if I can
do do that and help find tomorrow's fixed
office directors and VP of sales and you
know, and VP themselves, you know,
the mentors in the dealership world,
I know that I've left something behind.
Because those people will ultimately go on
and change dealerships and to a degree
change lives.
So I would like that to be my
impact.
In short,
I want people to remember me for the
work that I've done,
not that I do work.
I love it.
I love it.
The founder of FixOps Mastermind,
Dave Foy, has coined the phrase,
wanting to weave automotive better than we
found it.
And the way that you just described that
is exactly what we're trying to do.
Oh, good.
everybody working together for the same
common goal,
which is to make us all better.
And if we do all of that when
we're done,
people will remember us for exactly that,
you know,
the work and the care that we put
forward to the people around us and our
clients.
so let me ask you you have a
uh a free evening uh what's your go-to
for for uh disconnecting uh what what's
the go-to for for liam uh well recruitment
recruitment doesn't really stop um and
especially if you think um
At the moment,
I'm in the UK right now.
So I know when we originally were going
to talk,
it was going to be much later in
the day.
So it would have been midnight here.
So like I said, it never sleeps.
To really unwind,
I used to play a lot of rugby,
which helped me unwind.
But since having kids,
I can't really do that anymore.
There's only so many times I've been sent
to the hospital and get away with it,
you know?
Right.
But...
unwinding is for me is I I enjoy
spending time with my kids I enjoy
spending time with my family if it's not
too dark by the time I get home
I'll walk the dog um my partner she
often wakes up for me so it's always
great like and that's my unwinding is I
go home and I see them um yeah
and then it's kind of like any pressure
from a tough day is just gone so
I wouldn't say so much that I switch
off but the pressure is just gone
Yeah,
it gives you a little bit of time
to remember what you do it all for,
you know,
when you get home and you get to
see the little ones and your partner.
And it just makes you smile and say,
hey, today, today was good,
bad or indifferent.
It doesn't matter now because I'm here
with you.
So, man, that's amazing.
If you asked me that question five or
six years ago,
it would have been a different answer.
Of course.
I think that's the same for almost all
of us.
Once you have a significant other and
children, then yeah,
everything just changes.
Yeah, absolutely.
So let me ask you one last question.
So what do you think the best non-industry
lesson you've carried into recruiting is?
I know you kind of talked about that
engagement with customers,
but is there something specific that you
carried in that has given you the be-all,
if you will?
That is a really, really good question.
It's, it's probably,
and this again is coming from a sports
background.
I used to play a lot of football
or soccer.
Sorry.
Sorry.
Soccer.
No, you're good.
You're good.
Um, and especially with, um, and, and,
and this really,
this is one of the reasons I loved
playing rugby so much, um, was there's,
there's a saying rugby,
and I'm sure you guys have the same
in,
in American football and other sports or
basketball is
we get up and we go again.
Yes.
Does that make sense?
Yes, absolutely.
It sure does.
Exactly.
And especially from rugby,
because a lot of rugby is you're in
it and it's get up, go again.
You get up, you go again.
You get up, you go again.
And I think when you really instill that
into your mind,
it builds so much resiliency and it's
something I definitely,
I fall back on a lot is,
you know, days can get tough,
but when they do,
you get up and you go again.
I love it.
I absolutely love it.
Well, man, I appreciate your time,
and I know I got you up late
here.
No, it's not too bad now.
It's only – it's seven-fifty in the
evening.
Oh, it's not terrible, right?
So it's nice and early now.
So is the dinner in time for some
tea?
Yeah, yeah,
so probably pull a couple more hours in
the office and then head home.
I like how you said tea as well.
You know,
I know how much – how important that
is to you guys,
so –
But man,
I appreciate the time and what you bring
to the industry.
And I look forward to many more
conversations and having you back on
again.
Yeah, absolutely.
It was an awesome conversation.
And good luck remodeling and having all
that stuff going on.
But appreciate the time for sure, man.
No, I appreciate it as well.
Thank you very much, Kyle.
All right.
We'll talk soon.
Thanks.