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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 episode
of the Fixed Ops Mastermind Podcast.
Today, I am joined by Russell Hill,
the co-founder and managing
partner of Fixed Ops Marketing.
Welcome to the show, Russell.
Oh, I'm humbled, honored,
and heart-filled of
gratitude that I might be
able to share a little bit of my strength,
some of my wisdom, etc.,
I'm sure you will not disappoint.
You never do.
So we'll jump right in.
So you've worn just about
every hat in this business.
And what about it has kept
you hooked on automotive
for all the years that you've been in it?
Well, that's a double-edged sword.
It's the people and the opportunity.
It's the opportunity that
regardless of who you are,
your background doesn't
make any difference.
If you have the drive, the tenacity,
and you have the
perseverance and you find your own lane,
you can make anything happen.
You can make all your dreams come true.
That's so true.
You can write your own ticket.
So true.
You know,
being a kid that didn't go to college,
this business has been all I've known.
And I think we've done pretty well.
My kids get everything that
they want and we've lived a
good life with more to come.
It does provide that, doesn't it?
Yeah, it sure does.
So your story,
I've been lucky enough to
see you a lot on fixed ops
mastermind and other places.
So being able to learn who you are more,
you've had some big
personal challenges and,
and overcome them and use
them to your advantage.
What's shaped the way that
you connect with people in
the industry through those
personal challenges?
Well,
I think that there's two important
dates in my life and that
was the day I was born.
And then the day I figured out why,
and what I mean by that is, um,
so I struggled with, uh,
drug and alcohol dependency for a long,
long time.
And I paid some heavy prices
for it as well.
And I was in the grips of
hell in one particular moment.
And this was essentially December first,
nineteen ninety four.
And I had a very I'm not a religious guy,
but I'm a very spiritual guy.
And I had a I had a knife in
my hand and I was I was
ready to end it all.
And I was I had done so much
drugs and drank so much.
I think it maybe even had a
stroke or heart attack or I don't know.
It was bad.
And I grew up in upper middle class,
mom and dad, church, all that stuff.
And so I've always believed
that there was a God,
but I never knew what it
meant to have a relationship with him,
which is an important part
of my life or the force, the power,
whatever you want to call it.
And so I dropped to my knees
and I said a prayer.
And in that moment,
I had what's called a
burning bush moment for me.
I wasn't high or drunk anymore.
And for the first time in my entire life,
I ceased a total surrender.
I ceased fighting everyone and everything.
I took ownership for everything.
That happened and that
happened in my life up until that moment.
And I quit fighting
everybody and blaming
everybody and took ownership of that.
And that set me on a
tremendous trajectory.
And I ended up,
I was in Dallas at the time.
And I called my father and
my mother and father
completely disowned me,
wouldn't answer my phone calls.
But I reached out to my dad
and he picked up the phone.
And that was probably the
first time in three years
that that had happened.
I mean, it was it was really bad.
And anything that wasn't
nailed down or anybody I
can manipulate to get what I wanted,
that's what I would do.
And if I couldn't get it, I'd steal it.
So,
but my dad answered the phone and he
came and picked me up and
dropped me off in Sherman, Texas,
where I'm still at today
and gave me enough money
for food and a hotel for three nights.
And that was it.
And I'm fixing to celebrate
thirty one years clean and sober.
Amen.
Just that story resonates with me.
I'm thankful that I haven't
been completely bit by the
alcoholism and drug piece,
but I've definitely
experienced it throughout my family.
And my dad, who was one of my best friends,
other than my wife,
Similar story, right?
He was going down that road and he now is,
I think Halloween is thirty five years.
So it resonates with me and
it proves that when you hit that bottom,
you can get back up.
So my hat's off to you.
Thank you.
That was the worst day and
the best day of my life simultaneously.
Absolutely.
I have no regrets.
You know, one time on a show,
somebody asked me, Russell,
if you could go back and
tell your eight-year-old
self something to offset, you know,
some of the pitfalls that
you experienced in your journey,
what would that be?
Well, first of all, when I was eight,
I wouldn't listen to you.
So it wouldn't make any sense.
What you said to me,
I had to go through what I
had to go through.
And I'm,
I'm grateful for that because it
is helped shake me to be the, the father,
the son,
the grandfather and the husband
and the friend that I am today.
And somebody that a lot of
us in this industry look up
to and appreciate and, and man,
I don't even know how to
follow that up any further.
So, but yeah,
I appreciate every time that
we get to spend time together.
I know that.
But so looking back, you know,
who is someone that, you know,
changed the way that you
lead and you collaborate?
And how do you keep that ripple and pay,
I guess,
pay it forward today for the
folks that need it?
Well,
I would say that there's really three.
The first one is a gentleman
by the name of Mike Biggers,
who was my sales manager in
nineteen eighty five when I
first started selling automobiles.
That would be the first one.
Thank you, Mike.
Still,
I still communicate with them rarely,
but still communicate with them.
The second one is a
gentleman by the name of D or D Murphy,
who was my sponsor.
When I first moved up to
Sherman and got into the program,
I went to a ninety day
treatment facility.
But we went to a meetings
every night in a meetings, whatever.
It never worked before.
I tried that out.
How many times?
And then the third one,
I won't say his last name.
His name is Roger.
He had a really profound
impact on me because.
And I was involved.
I was I was a sales manager.
No, no, no, no, no, no.
That was before.
No,
I was GM of a Chrysler Plymouth Jeep
store at the time.
And this was in nineteen ninety eight.
Nine, I believe, when that happened.
Anyway,
I was involved in some other things
outside of the car business.
And I met this guy,
multi-multi-millionaire, attorney,
networker.
I mean, just a go-getter.
Man, every time you walked into the room,
it's like, man, you just felt this energy,
right?
Yeah.
And so I asked him one day to take me,
if I could take him to lunch.
And he said, yes.
And the purpose of that was
I wanted to tap in, uh,
before I probably wouldn't
have ever reached out to
somebody like that.
You know, I felt like, ah, they,
they wouldn't talk to me, et cetera,
but he did.
And we sat down, we had lunch,
broke bread.
It was great.
And I asked him to tell me his story,
but really what I wanted to
find out did his insides
match his outsides.
And they in fact did.
And I asked him,
you've heard those things
like when the student's ready,
the teacher will appear,
when the teacher's ready,
the student will appear, et cetera.
So I asked him if he would mentor me.
And lead me.
And he said, yes.
But then he also said,
and a lot of people have heard this,
but you know,
it's okay because some
people never have and they
hear it for the first time, right?
He said, Russell,
are you willing to do the
things that other people
aren't willing to do so you
can have them become the
things that most people
will never have or never become?
And he, I said, yes.
And he said, listen,
I'm going to make some suggestions.
I'll meet with you once a
month and you can call me.
But the suggestions I'm going to make,
I want you to keep one thing in mind.
What you have doesn't interest me.
OK, what I have is what you want.
So there's no there's no games.
There's no agenda.
There's nothing in this for
me except helping somebody
who appears to be ready to
go to the next level.
But I'm going to get you so
far outside of your comfort zone.
that you might not want to continue on,
but if you do,
I promise you within a year,
your life will transform
and send you on a
trajectory that you could only fathom.
And one of the first things
he did is he gave me a book
on how to win friends and
influence people by Dale Carnegie.
And my instructions were to
read fifteen minutes a day.
Don't finish the sentence, the paragraph,
the page.
Stop.
And I didn't realize about
discipline at the time.
What do you meant by that?
And I said, yeah, I can do they said.
Fifteen minutes a day.
Most people don't even do that, Russell.
But let's start there.
And he worked with me for
quite some time and it
wasn't even a year.
It was six months.
And my life completely transformed.
He's probably had the single
largest impact from a
professional in business
and success and chasing my
dreams and staying outside
of your comfort zone
because it's a real
dangerous place for me.
Wow.
And if you've told the story
a million times,
a million one has to happen
because anybody that gets to hear it,
can be excited about the
opportunity that comes up
at the right time.
They say that, you know,
the right things happen to
the right people at the right time.
And that was it for you for sure.
So kind of leads me into the next question,
which was, you know,
I think both of us believe
that no one wins alone in the business.
How have you seen dealers
and vendors working
together to be their best?
Well, that's a,
That's a little too quick.
Okay.
So there's stages we go
through in life and where I
see dealers work the best
is when they reach this
particular stage that I'm
going to mention,
but I want to talk about
the first stage and that's
when we're born.
we're dependent for
everything on our parents
there are gods there are I
mean everything uh well
then you know we start
reaching about two to three
years old and we start to
exercise independence you
know I can do this I got
this I don't need any help
right most people literally
don't get out of that realm
But the, the, the part of the evolution of,
of a human,
I believe is interdependence where it's,
Hey, I can't do this by myself, Kyle,
but you and I together can
accomplish so much more as a team and, uh,
dealerships that are really
successful practice
interdependence and realize
that they can't do it by themselves.
And it takes a team.
Yes.
I definitely agree.
I know that the vendor
partners that I put in play
with me are people that
want to make sure that we
are all winning together.
Yes.
You know, I think that it's really,
really important,
especially on the fix up side, because,
you know, marketing,
marketing and the operation side,
like they feel like
separate worlds a lot of times.
Right.
So, you know,
it's it's definitely one of
my weaker sides is the
marketing piece because
because it's either been
done for me or
manufacturers told me how
they want it done or the
best I can come up with is
doing it on demand or
something like that.
How do you think that we can
bridge the gap so that
fixed and variable and or
the whole store is
marketing together so that
we all roll in the same
direction and pass that same message?
That's a great question.
Well, first of all,
we're all on the same team.
That interdependence really helps.
I really believe that the
speed of the pack is set by the leader.
I firmly believe that.
And listen, I spend probably four,
sometimes five hours a day
on top of running a company
in other rooms,
whether it be all things car biz,
all things used cars,
all things fixed operations,
a lethal set.
It goes fixed ops mastermind.
It goes on and on and on.
And a lot of people are
talking about the same things, Kyle,
that I heard and was
talking about in nineteen eighty five.
You know,
the challenges that we face and
dealing with people.
Uh, they'll say a lot of the right things,
but are they, as I mentioned earlier,
are you willing to do the things right?
And most people really aren't.
And I kind of think of, you know,
everybody, uh, I think of it like this,
ninety-five percenters and
five percenters.
And what I mean by that is
ninety-five percent of the
population is getting their
information from the same
ninety-five percent of the
population that has what
they have or less than what they have.
And they wonder why the hell
they don't have anymore.
Right.
And so to make significant change,
because patterns are set
really early and most people don't change,
not really most,
but there are some that
will step way outside and
realize what it takes to
really affect that type of change.
When you've been doing
something for thirty or forty years,
just making a decision one
day without knowing what to
do or how to get there.
Unfortunately,
the greatest predictor of
future behavior is previous behavior.
Yeah.
And so it's really important
that the leader does the best they can.
And in the rooms that you and I are in,
That's the cream of the crop.
Those rooms that I'm in,
I show up because I learn, I absorb,
even to this day because I realize,
and I want everybody to
really take note of this,
the significant problems
and challenges that you and
I face today can't be
solved at the same level of
thinking used to create them.
Something has to change.
How do I do that?
It's not rocket science.
There's only three things.
So if you're listening,
write this down or if
you're recording it or
whatever the case may be.
So
Only three things are going
to dictate a different tomorrow.
What you read, what you listen to,
and who you associate with.
New input will dictate new output.
But you can't wait until
tomorrow or next week.
It starts right now, today.
New input dictates new output.
If not, everything, Kyle,
that you and I and all of
you out there have ever seen, heard, read,
or done up until this very moment
is our default.
Unless we input new,
that's the definition of insanity, right?
Keep doing the same,
expecting different results.
You have to input new.
Whatever it is that you're after,
I'm going to tell you to dream big, okay?
Because all my life, people said, Russell,
you can't do that.
I tried that.
That won't work.
And they got interrupted by
somebody who just did.
Yeah.
Man, that's...
Every time I talk to you,
I just get more and more fired up.
It's so right.
And one of the things that I
had talked to Dave about
prior to him asking me or
kind of forcing me into
becoming a director
You know,
one of the things that I saw was
you have all these
different great minds that
are doing different things.
Right.
But they're all doing this similar thing.
You know, and so my thought is,
let's get them all together.
So let's get a bunch of us together.
Let's have a panel join the
shows together.
And the more we all
incorporate together with the same ideas.
I like that.
Then the better off we're
going to be because, yeah,
there could be different philosophies.
There could be different
ways of getting to the final product.
But what if we all work
together to find the best way?
Because who wins at that point?
every single person that
we're responsible for from
an employee standpoint
their families their
families their families
more importantly every
customer that we strive to
get into our buildings
every day are the ones that
reap the biggest benefits
if we all just work
together absolutely there's
one very important ingredient
And we would probably get to it.
I don't know.
But my ADHD type A mind
works kind of weird.
So I had an opportunity to
develop a relationship with
Zig Ziglar and lead a devotional.
I was invited to lead a
devotional with him there
and his staff in Dallas.
And I ascribe to the Zig Ziglar philosophy,
if you help enough other
people get what they want,
you'll get what you want.
You see,
the main ingredient that has
evolved my life as a human
being is understanding that
what I have is in direct
proportion to what I give.
So it's important to elevate
people along the way and
try to pull them up if
that's what they want.
If not,
Love them where they're at
and move on down the road.
Maybe you plant a seed.
But it's important for
someone to have a particular balance,
I believe.
And you can only achieve
that by helping other
people win along the way.
Yeah, I agree a hundred percent.
So, I mean, my question was,
what was one example where
you've seen a store really
turn things around and it
was because the right
people are on the same page?
Maybe that's the story you just told.
Well, it is, but it's not.
So there's several examples.
The one that just popped into my mind
is a gentleman that I've
gotten to know and getting
to know more and he's also
a client of mine as well
but that philosophy we were
just talking about is
patrick abbott at beaver
toyota mazda that guy is um
It's really amazing when
you're interacting with him,
the guy is nonstop, so busy.
And I met him a long,
long time ago when he was
with Van Tile before they
got bought out by Berkshire
Hathaway with my first company,
which is a CRM company.
But he's the kind of guy
when you're talking to him, brother,
you have his attention.
It's all yours because
there's so many distractions.
Getting a hold of them can
be really tough.
But as far as a nucleus,
a team of following hand
raisers that will,
will lay down and get run
over before he gets hurt.
I've been to his store and
I've met a lot of those
people and that's his culture.
That's that's awesome.
Uh, I've heard a lot about that,
that story and him specifically,
unfortunately, maybe
You got another guy I have
to try and get on the show.
All right.
We'll get that story.
Kind of switching gears just a little bit.
Tech is something that I've
gotten pretty heavily involved in.
And it's moving so quickly.
But it's only as good as the
people that are using the
tech and how they're
getting their team to use it as well.
What is your take on
blending new tools with the
human touch that will keep
guests coming back into the building?
So last night on the mastermind,
Michael Peterson was talking about AI and
Do you remember last time?
Yeah.
So, um,
I don't have the exact numbers in
front of me, but a hundred years ago,
the amount of people that
were in the farming
community in the United
States was astronomically high.
Okay.
Today it's only two percent
and we produce more than we
did back then.
Now that took a hundred
years to get there.
And, you know,
people had to evolve and other, you know,
they learned, yeah, okay, yeah.
Well,
he also talked about AI from the top
down instead of from the bottom up,
which that one was.
And
In the next five years,
we're going to move as fast
as we did the last hundred,
except it's going to happen
in the next five years.
So we need to embrace,
there's a lot of change coming.
Some people will lose their jobs.
I heard it said that a third
will lose their jobs.
A third, I can't remember the stats,
et cetera.
I got lost on it.
But most people's jobs,
jobs will not go away,
but their job description
and how they do their jobs
will be different with
robotics and artificial intelligence.
Absolutely.
And we have to keep in mind there was,
you know, chat GPT, et cetera,
is only like three years old.
And it's amazing.
And I can't even fathom that
the microprocessors are a
hundred thousand times
faster than the human brain.
It's staggering.
And there's some things that
people get really scared about.
I mean, you may not know this,
but a lot of people listening might.
Maybe you do.
Do you remember a cartoon
called The Jetsons?
yeah okay well they actually
have the if you look at the
jetsons one on youtube
you'll see that there's
flying vehicles just like
you saw in the jetsons and
then there's the robots you
know all that kind of stuff
so it's coming now but
there's a lot of things
that can be really scary
Yeah,
good people are going to do good
things and bad people, unfortunately,
are going to do bad things.
That's just or whatever it is.
It's almost like somebody
winning the lottery.
What they're doing up until that moment,
when that big influx of cash comes,
all it does is accelerate
all those bad habits.
And most of them are stir crazy.
And where I'm going with
that is keep in mind
there's always a human side to AI.
But two and a half years ago or last year,
and it's like I was on this
show that Wendy Reeves
started called The Human Side of AI.
And a lot of really
influential people in there.
And I learned a lot of great stuff.
One of them was April Simmons.
From the dealer's perspective,
dealers were signing up
left and right for anything that said AI.
But they weren't looking at
it as a supplement to what
they were doing.
They were looking at it as
to do something that they
didn't want to do.
And not only that,
but nothing communicated
with anything else.
So you went from what you call ADD,
another damn dashboard.
So you went from two or
three screens to five or six or whatever.
Anyway,
those people were signing up and
canceling just as fast.
And I think there's been a
little leveling in the field.
People are starting to
really grasp and understand that.
Let me make sure I understood.
Ask me that.
I think I got off track about, Oh,
so technology is going to be crucial.
And I think one of the
biggest areas that's going
to benefit the most is fixed operations,
merchandising, distribution, marketing,
timely communication with our clients,
uh,
And the reason I say they're
probably going to benefit
the most is because they
are lacking the most when
it comes to what matched
against the variable side
and what they have.
So I think that's going to be a huge play.
And that's going to affect
the variable side too, because listen,
In nineteen eighty five,
the average person sold ten
cars when I started selling
cars in twenty twenty five.
It's like nine point seven.
I mean,
we have all this amazing technology.
but it's being used for the
wrong purposes.
And I really believe this
saying it's come in fact,
data is extremely important.
Marketing with the right content,
with the right information
at the right time and
engaging customers in a way
that they want to be engaged.
I don't care if they're
eighteen years old or eighty years old.
And unfortunately,
on the website and the marketing,
you know,
that's a whole nother topic on
advertising and marketing
and whoever in the company
is doing it for fixed
operations because they're
not really doing it the right way anyway.
Or at all.
Well, that too.
Yeah, exactly.
But you're one hundred percent right.
what keeps the guests coming
back is us having the
proper data with the proper
message at the proper time
and and and and you know
going back to the you know
the fixed house mastermind
last night you know it is
happening so damn fast you
know just in I I mean I've
been involved in in
AI now probably going on ten,
eleven months, maybe twelve, you know,
maybe twelve months.
Sure.
And it's changed
dramatically since day one
when I learned anything about it.
But you're right.
The fixed side is going to
be at a huge advantage.
And honestly,
if the stores that have been hemmed in,
not being able to get work
done and having cars that
have been sitting there for two, three,
four, five weeks,
depending on what it is,
They're going to be the ones,
if they put it in play the right way,
as I think the tech grows,
our efficiency goes through the roof.
I mean, here before long,
we're going to know what's
wrong with the car.
We're going to order the part in advance.
The customers are going to come in.
We're going to diagnose it,
confirm the repair,
fix it all in the same day.
And I'm not going to have to
tell you that it's going to
be three weeks,
because I know what's going on.
So there's definitely a way
for us to improve.
Absolutely.
and the marketing marketing
you're absolutely right
it's it's gonna be a a a
blessing uh where we
finally are gonna
understand it more uh I
think I think things really
are gonna start evolving
fast we've had uh the the
same challenges on the
fixed side as they have on
the variable side and that is that
You know,
NADA says there's sixteen
independents around every
franchise dealer.
That's staggering.
We've lost billions of
dollars and it's really
dramatically affected our repeat,
our referral and our retention.
And there's a lot there's a
lot of reasons why.
But you know what?
We're starting to figure
that out as a community.
I agree.
And we're going to embrace and the A.I.
And the other tools that are
going to be available are
going to supplement the
things that we just we
don't have time for and
take us away from the most
important thing.
And that's our guests, our customers.
They're the most important
thing is to be customer centric.
Absolutely.
I agree.
So I guess, you know,
if you were to be able to
wave a magic wand and get
every dealer group,
vendor and OEM to commit to
one shared improvement in fixed ops,
what would it be?
Well, I got this idea, and it wasn't mine.
There's not really too many
original ideas.
But whoever, if it's an automotive group,
a single point, et cetera,
if you could bring...
Everybody in your case, Kyle,
that you have a partnership within,
anything that affects your
fixed operations,
that there needs to be at
least once a year,
if not once every six months,
there needs to be a
collaborative effort where
everybody shows up and
spends a half a day or a
day because all the vendors
want is to make you happy, Kyle.
and to provide you with what
you need so you can do your
job more efficiently.
So there's a lot of things
that if everybody got
together and I'm talking
about someone from one of
your technicians, advisors, you,
a sales service manager, whatever.
But if all the vendors can
get in one place and
everybody can listen to
what everybody else is saying,
and be able to communicate
and coordinate with some of
the other vendors because
they all want the same thing.
It's about being customer centric.
And in this case,
you would be the customer.
So it'd be important you
could hear the feedback and
what's going on.
And it would provide a
tremendous amount of efficiencies,
I believe.
Amen.
That's a heck of an answer.
You're just on fire.
So I know we talked about
five years from now,
but let's talk about ten years from now.
So ten years from now,
what do you hope to look back on and say,
man,
we finally nailed this as an industry.
We've finally got this thing figured out.
And what a difference.
It's happening right now as we speak.
I really believe.
that there is a huge paradigm shift.
And that's not just because
I grew up on the verbal side,
but I believe there's a
huge paradigm shift.
And what I mean by that, that has several,
maybe I've heard different,
but it's rules and
regulations that establish
the boundaries that we live by today.
So unfortunately,
part of what's going on
means that we're going to
have to get outside of our
comfort zone and we're
going to have to be open
and make some changes.
And you heard what I said
earlier about the ninety
five and the five percenters.
Yes.
Unfortunately, people resist change.
They just do.
There's only there's only.
The only person or persons
that really love change is a crying baby.
Beyond that,
nobody else really enjoys change,
but they wanna be changed really quick,
you know?
And a lot of that is gonna be,
so even the mentality of
the leadership today is changing.
Now I may be a little biased
because I'm in the rooms
with the five percenters.
But when I'm out there in the market,
I see we need to adapt.
For the first time in history,
we have four generations
working in automotive.
Four different generations
at one time in this business.
And the way it used to be is
not the way it is now.
And I don't know if I got it.
Oh, so in ten years,
we'll look back and say, you know what?
I was a part of that revolution.
yeah because it's going to
happen it's exciting I mean
it is where we're heading
and where we can go if
everybody's on board
working it together
absolutely man it's it's
amazing um so I'm going to
ask you uh I'm going to ask
you a question that I don't
think I know the answer to
for myself which is if you
weren't in the automotive
industry what what would
you be doing public speaking
We do that now.
Right.
But but I would be.
So I still even at almost
thirty one years now,
I still go to meetings.
I still sponsor people.
I took a crack one time with
a crack at a doctor with a
doctor friend of mine
opening a sober living community.
Uh, one for men and one for women,
eighteen to twenty six years old,
but that wasn't one of the
traditional thirty,
sixty or ninety day programs.
It was a year to a year and
a half because it takes a long time.
As a matter of fact, I mean, uh,
my sponsor,
when I first got into the program, uh, he,
he was pretty brutal on me.
He said, Russell,
there's only one thing that
you have to change.
Only one thing.
I said, Oh, D what is that one thing?
Everything.
everything you have to
change everything and it
takes time because you have
this such that the problem
I realized then was not
even the drugs and alcohol
because I started so early
the problem was the way I thought
And I didn't have any tools.
This is the most dangerous
place that most people
could live right here.
And when you realize that
and you know what to do to offset that,
unfortunately, it takes time.
It takes commitment and
tenacity and perseverance.
But if you really want to
make effective change and
there's something
particular you want in life,
Even when I read that book, Dale Carnegie,
How to Win Friends and Influence People,
I've absorbed so many of
Napoleon Hill and Augment.
It goes on and on and on.
They all say the same thing
in different ways.
And we pick up on different things.
But to affect any kind of change,
it starts right here,
the head and the heart.
And it doesn't happen overnight.
It takes consistent work every single day.
But the next thing you know,
you look back and go, wow,
What a journey, what a journey.
So storytelling, because I would like to,
I got a, as a matter of fact,
I'm writing a book right
now with my chief marketing officer,
Cherry.
And we're just about finished.
It's two and a half years in the making.
And I think it's going to be
a fascinating read,
not only for automotive and
overcoming obstacles, but realizing, hey,
if
If I did it or you did it
and they know the trials,
I think we all have crossroads.
Most of us where we overcame
really substantial things.
And I still deal with some things today.
But the two biggest things
for me that are dangerous are secrets.
resentments those are the
two biggest things that
cause people in sobriety to
go back out over and over
and over again they don't
get it uh you have to deal
with the crap in your life
and try to figure out where
it came from so you can set
yourself on a on a
different trajectory and
you have to read and you
have to listen and you you
got to quit listening to
all that negative crap you know
Did that answer your question?
Yes.
Yes, it did.
It did.
And I think just like you are here,
you'd be perfect there.
Thank you very much.
So I guess if you could
learn one skill instantly,
I guess outside of automotive,
and I guess I'm going to
put you on the spot and say
public speaking,
what skill would you
instantly like to learn?
opening people's eyes if I
could learn that one skill
and I could do it really
quick to help them see
what's really possible in
their life it would be
opening people's eyes to
understanding you're your
own worst enemy get the
hell out of the way and
open your eyes to what's
possible because do you
remember and all of you out
there in yukon when you were in like
Oh,
junior high or high school or whatever.
I mean, you know,
you're cutting it up with your friends.
You have these big lofty
dreams and think you're
going to go out and conquer
the world and you're not going to do this,
but you're going to do that.
And then you go to college and,
and then you start,
you start trading your time
for money because they
still teach the same things today and
in in school go to school
get good grades so you can
go to a good college and
unfortunately most of them
come out heavily debt-laden
ninety-two percent of them
don't even work in the
chosen field they got the
degree in unfortunately
that's another story but
what I mean by that is when
they when people start
trading their time for
money they get bought then
they have families and
credit cards they don't
even understand money and
they get into debt and
don't really understand that and
The older people get,
those dreams are still there.
Those things that lit you up
and excited you're still there.
But what I found over the years,
particularly with older people,
when you really,
when they're ready and you
try to find out what their dreams were.
Um, they're,
they're reluctant and some of
them are really get
emotional when they start
tapping in to those dreams
because people sold them.
You can't do that.
I tried that.
That doesn't work.
You got a family, you got a job,
you got a car payment.
Well, they, they do work and yes, you can.
Love it.
So one superpower in automotive.
where you can change the
dynamic so one superpower
in automotive what is it
what would you want it to
be oh man one superpower
gosh one superpower
Man, that's a tough one.
One superpower.
Man, Kyle, that's a good one, brother.
For me, I think you already have it.
You have the ability to engage people in
your story and you have the
ability to bring people
together to make us all go
in the right direction and
that I think is a superpower in itself.
I think what you've given to
me in the short time that
we've known each other and
the personal touch and the
trials and tribulations to
get to an accomplishment of
where you are.
Writing a book that I'm the
first one on the list ready
to buy it right now.
So as soon as it's ready, I want it.
I think that's the
superpower is to be able to
wear all the hats that
you've worn in this career
and continue every day to
get up with the energy and
the fire to make everybody
around you better.
Man, that's a superpower.
And in my opinion, you're blessed with it.
Well, thank you.
It's been a real pleasure, you know,
getting to know you over
the last few months and mastermind.
And, you know,
everybody in that room
really thinks alike.
They really do.
They just want the best.
I want the best,
but I want to show up and be available.
And I'm struggling right now
with balance because
of the dream I'm chasing.
This is my third company,
and this one is really the rainmaker.
But I'm at a level that I've
never been at before.
And I really have to focus
in on some of the tools
that I have about acceptance is the key,
let go and let God.
I think that part of my success,
or all of my success,
is actually attributed to
one thing is that I have a
tremendous spiritual
grounding in my life.
And I think that's real important.
And whether somebody knows
what that is or not,
if you just believe that
there's something greater
than you out there,
That's, it's like a mustard seed.
That's all you need to get started.
That has had a profound impact.
And I think the most
powerful tool in my arsenal
today is the power of prayer.
But I even think, which is another,
maybe another conversation,
but even prayer, I think people,
it's like, God, why me?
I mean, there's...
Our job is to show up every
day and create.
That's what we're supposed to do.
And we're supposed to help
people along the way.
I really believe that's an
important part because in the end,
When I'm in, hopefully in my own home,
when I pass away,
I don't want to be looking back saying,
I wish I would have spent
more time at work.
And so one of the things I'm
balancing right now is that
I just bought a piece of
property that my wife and I,
after all the, I'm sixty six years old,
that we're going to build our dream home.
And my wife is a rock man.
I mean,
she believes and encourages me in a
way that I need.
And I think all of us really do.
So we bought this piece of property.
We told our kids,
so all three of our kids
and all four of our
grandkids live within nine
and a half minutes of us.
We're in each other's lives all the time.
When I'm not doing this or that,
then I'm going to meetings
or helping somebody in
recovery and the best I can.
But we bought this property
to build our dream home.
It was twelve acres.
Beautiful, beautiful.
All three of our kids want
to sell their homes and
build on that property.
That's amazing.
I mean, man, that is like the apex,
the pinnacle,
the cherry on top for me as
I start to unwind.
I don't know if I can ever quit working,
working,
but at this level and the things
I'm learning right now is tremendous.
And some of those,
I learned something from everybody.
And you're an amazing person.
Bye, Kyle.
The things I hear you say
and how you want to help
other people and you want
people that are trying to
get in your way just to get
out of your way and let you
institute and implement and
realize the things that you
want to accomplish based
upon how I know you right now.
you're getting there or
you're already there.
I know sometimes, you know,
GMs and stuff like that,
they'll get in your way,
but you just stay in your own lane,
run your own race.
When it's time to push back,
you push back and you seem
to be the kind of guy that
pushes back when it's appropriate,
but in a loving understanding way,
instead of some condescending, like,
you know, you know what I mean?
Yeah.
Yeah, no, absolutely.
And thank you for the kind words, uh,
It's greatly appreciated.
Man,
I know we could go for hours and hours
and hours,
but I want to thank you again
for taking the time with me
and telling your story again.
I tell you,
it's never going to get old on me.
every single time I pick up
another piece that I need
to use in my own arsenal
and that's what it's all
about um you know us
getting together so that we
can be great together and
uh so uh again Russell Hill
from fixed Ops um uh
marketing I appreciate your
time and uh I hope to do
this again very very soon
I do too.
And I'd like to end with this.
If nobody told you that you
were greatly appreciated
and that they loved you,
I just told you that.
So thank you.
I'm humbled, honored,
and grateful to have the
time to engage with you and
the audience or whoever's
going to be absorbed in this.
So thank you all.
Thank you.
And I love you too, by the way.
Right.
Thank you very much.
Right.
That's a wrap, right?