What three things have you learned during your career that you would pass on to someone you are mentoring? 1. You can only control what you can, and you must let go of the rest. People tend to internalize things they can’t control, which will chew them up. There will be high-stress situations where you can’t make everybody happy. Deal the best with what you can and try for the best outcome, but in the end, sometimes you just have to let things go. 2. Don’t ever ask anybody to do something you wouldn’t do yourself. As an owner, I work alongside my people. Last year, we had a service advisor leave us. I ended up working as a service advisor for five and a half months. I didn’t want to hire a warm body. I wanted to hire the right person. It took that long to find someone who could operate as we wanted them to operate and had the same belief system and moral compass. As a leader, if your employees see you doing everything they do, especially the more menial jobs, they’ll realize that we are all equally important team members. Everybody has to work together to make things happen. 3. Do the right thing, and money follows. If you take care of your customers, they will return, and you will continue earning a living. If you focus solely on the money, your customers can tell, and they will most likely not return. It’s that simple. What does the best day in this business look like for you? Busy. When we’re busy, everybody’s happy. I can’t think of anything better. 18
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy ODQxMjUw