Keep The Change

Christian McDaniel was a Chick-fil-A general manager, chasing his dream of becoming an owner operator. Then, in a Starbucks bathroom, he told God, “I’ll do whatever you want me to do.” Less than a month later, he found out he hadn’t been selected.

That closed door led him to build a tower climbing company from scratch and, eventually, into ministry. Today he is the Associate Pastor of Connections at Bridge Church in Virginia Beach. He teaches the Business as Mission track at Bridge School of Ministry, and he founded Launchpad.

In this episode:

• Growing up a pastor’s kid in a home where miracles were normal
• Why there’s no such thing as a “servant leader,” because serving is just leadership
• How a church can hold volunteers to a culture of excellence
• Why “if I build it, they will come” sinks so many new businesses
• Leadership as seeing further ahead and removing barriers before your people hit them
• His vision to raise up tens of thousands of entrepreneurs so their income never limits their dreams

Connect with Christian: [email protected]

In 1996, Joseph Robinson’s dad bought a failing Toyota store in Jackson, Tennessee, with a total stranger he picked up on the drive over. When Toyota told him he would have to sell it, he said, “Give me six months.” He turned the store around and went on to win Toyota’s President’s Award multiple times.

Years later, Joseph left a banking career in Dallas to come home. He was the owner’s son, and he started as a porter at age 30. Today he is the general manager and a dealer principal alongside his father, and he was named to Automotive News’ 40 Under 40.

In this episode:

• Why he runs Robinson Toyota like a boutique hotel, built on Unreasonable Hospitality
• The simple cone trick he invented as a porter that the store still uses today
• Why he hires about one out of every ten people he interviews
• Why every customer is a billboard, and why he keeps a small ad budget
• His leadership style: don’t just tell people what to do, tell them why
• The biggest lesson his dad taught him: treat everyone the same

Listener offer: Bart is giving a free one on one coaching session to the first ten listeners who reach out. He’s also offering the Five Levels of Leadership survey free to anyone. Email [email protected] or call 480-327-8751.

Connect with Joseph on Facebook (Joseph Robinson) or Instagram (Joseph N. Robinson)

Jason Miller got fired from his first youth ministry job, and he says he totally deserved it. The ministry was growing fast, but he didn’t have the character behind it. Years later, his first church as lead pastor closed. Those failures taught him what leadership really is.

Today Jason is lead pastor at Zion Lutheran Church in Clear Lake, Iowa, with 26 years in ministry, and he coaches leaders in every kind of business. He and Bart met at the Maxwell Leadership International Conference.

In this episode:

• Why he used to think leaders needed all the answers, and why that sank him
• The difference between managing and leading: managers get tasks done, leaders inspire people to want to do the task
• How Moses striking the rock teaches a lesson about self-awareness
• WAIT, which stands for “Why am I talking?”, and the four questions he asks himself before he speaks
• The joke he made from the stage that hurt people, and how he made it right
• Why real sobriety isn’t just not drinking, it’s sober thinking

This conversation isn’t just for pastors. It’s for anyone who leads people, whether you run a church, a car dealership, or a 7-Eleven.

Connect with Jason:
 Instagram: soulgym.daily
 TikTok: j.d.miller
 Coaching: [email protected]

Dana Rowe was a bank teller who was great with customers but could never balance her cash drawer. Her company didn’t fire her. They moved her to customer service, and she thrived. Today she leads the same way.

Dana is VP of Business Development at KYCS Global. KYCS stands for Keep Your Community Safe. She started as a road warrior cold calling dealerships for Boomerang Tracking, the Canadian arm of LoJack. Now her company protects vehicles for Honda, Acura, BMW, Mercedes and Rolls-Royce, and it is breaking into the US market.

In this episode:

• How KYCS won Honda Canada when auto theft in Canada exploded during COVID
• Why perseverance became her personal mantra after a painful divorce
• Her mom, her biggest mentor, and a family story of boundaries and redemption
• The leadership mistake of only listening to people who think like you
• Why encouragement and appreciation shape a team more than anything else
• Her honest answer on where her own company needs to grow

Bart also offers the Five Levels of Leadership assessment free to every listener. Email [email protected] or call 480-327-8751.

Learn more about Dana’s company at kycsglobal.com.

What does it look like to lead people who are broken, hurting, and rebuilding their lives — and what can every leader learn from that?

In this episode of Keep the Change, Bart sits down with his longtime friend Scott Rodgers — pastor, author, and leader — for a conversation about leading with compassion, building culture in ministry, and what it really means to treat people the way they want to be treated.

Scott shares how he's leading a thriving Celebrate Recovery ministry and the leadership principles that apply whether you're running a business, a team, or a church.

In this episode:

• Why leading volunteers is one of the hardest — and most rewarding — leadership challenges
• The difference between the Golden Rule and the Platinum Rule (and why it changes everything)
• How compassion, mercy, and grace aren't soft skills — they're leadership essentials
• Why knowing someone's story is the key to leading them well
• Don't be that boss — what great leadership actually looks like in practice

Connect with Scott Rodgers on social media — search Rodgers (R-O-D-G-E-R-S)

Subscribe to Keep the Change and share this episode with a leader who needs to hear it.

From EMT to GSM: Michael Wengert on Showing Up

Michael Wengert was an EMT for eight years until a layoff sent him to a Toyota dealership. He was top salesperson by month two. Now he is the General Sales Manager at Toyota of Lancaster in Southern California.

Bart Nollenberger and Michael talk about leading a sales team, owning every problem, keeping processes simple, and serving today's customer who shows up already knowing the stock number. Michael also shares why his store's culture keeps people for decades, and why the key to any job is simple: just show up.

Reach Michael at [email protected]

Bart Nollenberger Coaching | AutoMastery University | Keep the Change Academy
Maxwell Leadership Certified Executive Director
480-327-8751 | [email protected]

Most car salespeople don't have a word-track problem. They have a prospecting problem.

Trent Denman has spent 15+ years as an auto broker at HM Brown in Colorado Springs, selling thousands of cars across recessions, COVID, and supply chain shortages, almost entirely from business he generated himself. He's also the founder of Elevation Performance Group and a fellow Maxwell Leadership executive director.

Trent and Bart dig into why dealerships holding on to the four-square are looking through an old lens. They discuss why CarMax and Carvana are winning on less hassle rather than lower prices, and why the salesperson of the future is a brand ambassador who owns the deal start to finish. Trent shares the BMX state championship visualization that took him from zero cars to the #1 broker in his company. He also explains what HM Brown founder Bud Brown taught him about vision, and how his Automotive Sales Accelerator trains salespeople to become "invaluable."

Learn more at TrentDenman.com.

Forty-four years in the car business, eight dealerships, and one rule Greg Pollice won't break: if you don't believe it, don't say it.

Greg Pollice, GM of Brenneman Ford in Chester, PA, joins Bart to talk about what's actually changed in dealership leadership — and what hasn't. He came in when contracts were hand-typed and management was a dictatorship. Today he calls his whole staff "my children," hires salespeople with zero car experience so they learn his process clean, and interviews every employee in a store before he changes a thing.

We cover his coaching philosophy ("Somebody taught me. I made it my own. Are you going to own it or not?"), why he hits people with the hard feedback when they're winning instead of losing, the technician shortage he calls the industry's biggest challenge, and the one-month promise he makes when he takes over a failing store.

Plus: 44 years of marriage, a house full of granddaughters, and the father-in-law who taught him that being a good dad makes you a better leader.

Greg shares his personal email and cell in the episode — he means it.

Ask any executive how important culture is and you'll hear "it's our DNA." Ask how they measure it and the room goes quiet.

Tyler Long built the tool that answers that. He and Bart get into why engagement surveys capture opinions while the Culture Health Scorecard measures behavior, why one client's "fun" score dropping was the best news in the report, and the one word that decides whether any of it works.

00:00 Meet Tyler Long
04:29 Googling "leadership development in Branson" — nothing
08:59 The Chick-fil-A owner with 46 leaders
12:54 Prescribing before diagnosing
18:01 The 10 attributes of a healthy culture
18:28 Opinions vs. behaviors
20:13 Accountability holds up the bar
24:26 When fun masks no trust
27:59 20 weeks of candor
37:30 Culture work is whack-a-mole
41:39 The Leadership Maturity Assessment
45:39 One word: willingness
46:40 Why Legacy Leadership became OrgIQ

Tyler: [email protected]

#KeepTheChange #Leadership #OrgIQ #BartNollenberger

Every month, in thousands of businesses, the same thing happens: the top producer gets promoted to run the department. Ninety days later she's exhausted, working more hours than anyone, and the department is no better than it was before she got there — because everything that made her great at the old job is the wrong instinct for the new one. And nobody told her.

In this episode, Bart Nollenberger pulls two books together that don't look like they belong on the same shelf — Jack Welch's Winning and Gallup's It's the Manager — and shows how they answer the same question from opposite ends: what actually makes a team perform.

In this episode:

• Why "I'm not in it for the numbers, I'm in it for the people" is a false choice — and what a struggling business always protects last
• The leadership transition nobody warns you about: before you're a leader it's all about me; after, it's all about we
• Welch's leadership rules, including "always be coaching" and why leaders celebrate far too little
• Why candor is the biggest dirty little secret in business — and the three things it costs you when it's missing: ideas, speed, and money
• The meeting after the meeting: why the parking lot conversation isn't a communication issue, it's a you issue
• The three tickets to entry you can't coach — integrity, intelligence, maturity — plus Welch's Four E's and a P (energy, energize, edge, execute, passion), run against a real top producer
• Gallup's numbers: only ~15% of workers are engaged, and roughly 70% of that variation traces back to one person — the manager
• Moving from boss to coach: weekly 15-minute sessions, the "advice monster," and the coaching questions that actually work — What's on your mind? And what else? What's the real challenge for you?
• Why Bart calls it "activating" instead of coaching — your people aren't confused, they're stuck, and information doesn't fix stuck

The question to take with you: when was the last time somebody who works for you told you that you were wrong? If you can't remember, that's your starting point.

Mentioned in this episode: The Culture Scorecard — an anonymous, ten-attribute assessment of your team's culture that shows the gap between what leadership believes and what the floor actually experiences, and returns the top three fixes for the next six months ranked by impact. Link in the show notes.

Bonus for listeners: The first ten people to email Bart get an emotional intelligence assessment plus a half-hour coaching session on the results — automotive-centric, or customized to your industry. Reach out at [email protected].

Take care of your people. Let's go win.