Lithia used to have. I had achieved my goal, and that was a good day. Who have your mentors been? What did you learn from them? Adam Britzius was one of the people who initially hired me. I worked for him for four years at the store in Billings. He was a former Marine, and I learned a lot about discipline from him — specifically, doing the hard things, even when you don’t want to. The challenge for me was that I’m naturally a leader by example. I played football in college and was captain of the team. I didn’t have to think about being a leader. I just showed up and did what I had to do and I naturally became a leader. But, when I became a sales manager at 26, with a whole new team that didn’t know me, I had to push myself. He really helped me see that leading a team meant setting processes and working with people. Keith Deschane is another leader in Lithia who helped me in my career. He taught me the business aspect of this job, which I was really interested in. A lot of this industry is filled with people who run stores or maybe even own stores, and it started with them being really good at selling. But the business is so much more than that — we’re not just good at selling, we’re good at business. When you mentor others, what are three pieces of advice you would share? 1. Focus on having a plan. Addressing problems as they arise without a plan is very reactive and leads to tumultuously changing directions. When you’re leading a team, you should take account of everything, have goals and make a plan. 2. Inspect what you expect. I’m a natural believer in people but the danger is that I might expect that they’ll do the job exactly how I would have done it, or they would be as accountable or as responsible as I would be. When you find out that’s not the case, it brings frustration. I’ve had to learn to inspect my expectations. Part of that is ensuring others have the tools to get the job done and having open lines of communication with regular check-ins. Having a plan is part of this process. 3. This business is very people-centric and a lot of industries have kind of gone away from people being the foundation. Customers and employees alike want human assurance, people assurance. As managers, it’s easy to get frustrated with people. But if people didn’t do things that were frustrating, we wouldn’t need managers. So, we have to remember that if you’re raising your hand to be a manager, you have to be able to deal with the challenges of people. How long have you been an MTADA member? What are the benefits of membership? I have been a member of the association for the past eight years. Before I joined MTADA, I didn’t know what their purpose was. I assumed it was a state organization because Montana was in the name. That was my naivete. Once I started to realize that the point was protecting the well-being of the dealers of the dealerships, I was all in. It’s easy for non-members to think “We’ll just do it ourselves. I don’t need to be part of a group.” But at the same time, we must realize that we’re dealing with big entities like the government and manufacturers. Even though Lithia is big, my store is not — it’s a pretty humble size. So when dealers lock arms and work together, we are strong and can make a difference. Any last thoughts? One of my favorite quotes that has helped me came from my mentor Adam Britzius who I previously mentioned. He drew upon his military training and taught me to “Embrace the suck.” It is inevitable that hard things happen in life. It helps us not be a victim of circumstance and take ownership of the things we can control. It’s our job to overcome challenges and to keep in mind that results are often harsh but always fair. 19 MONTANA AUTO DEALER
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