Keep The Change

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)

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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.

Mickey Seelye and Stan Qualls return to Keep the Change for an hour that turned into more than a business conversation.

Mickey runs Seelye Auto Group, five Southwest Michigan stores founded in 1963 by his grandfather — a wounded Iwo Jima Marine who went from bagging groceries to janitor to owner. Stan, the group's VP and chairman of the NADA Kia 20 Group, came up with no legacy and no plan until the car business gave him an identity.

They get specific about culture: questions are your allies, don't sacrifice the relationship to be right, be curious not judgmental. Empathy, certainty, professionalism. Accountability people thrive in — and why they've lost only two or three managers in five years. Plus why Mickey turns down faster growth to protect impact, and why he'd shut the doors before selling out.

Reach Mickey at [email protected] and Stan at [email protected].

Share it with someone who needs it, and subscribe wherever you listen.

Chris Saraceno is back on Keep the Change. As VP and Partner of Kelly Automotive Group (12 franchises, 7 locations, ~500 team members), Chris knows what it takes to build and sustain culture at scale.

In this conversation, Bart and Chris go deep on why culture is really about behaviors, how great leaders adapt their communication style to each individual, and why being questioned by your team is a sign of a healthy organization. Chris shares lessons from his mentor Eustace Wolfington — including "think like a customer" and "don't play God, present options" — and how those principles still shape his leadership 40+ years into the automotive industry.

They cover the Theory of 5 framework (spiritual, partner, family, business/finance, health/fitness), Chris's upcoming children's book The Magic Stone, the power of catching people doing something right, and why candor paired with compassion is what separates good leaders from great ones.

Find Chris at TheoryOf5 and on LinkedIn and Facebook.

CONNECT WITH CHRIS SARACENO:
 Website: TheoryOf5.com
 LinkedIn: Chris Saraceno
 Facebook: Chris Saraceno

Books mentioned: The Theory of 5 Book by Chris Saraceno | Winning by Jack Welch | The Next Conversation by Jefferson Fisher | The Self-Aware Leader by John Maxwell | Crucial Conversations | It's the Manager (Gallup)

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Ken Cook, owner of BZ Automotive in Indiana, sits down with Bart Nollenberger to share his journey from a short career in the Marine Corps to becoming a successful independent dealer in a market dominated by giants. 

Ken opens up about the power of core values in shaping culture, why he rewards employees based on those values (including sending a long-tenured couple to Hawaii), and the personal decisions — like giving up alcohol — that transformed his leadership. 

Bart and Ken also dive into the Johari Window, emotional intelligence, and why the best leaders take an honest look at themselves before asking anything of their team. Whether you're running a dealership, building a business, or leading a team of any size, this conversation will challenge you to raise your own standard.

Ken's contact: [email protected]

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Rob Ruth from Bob Ruth Ford joins Bart Nollenberger for a second time to pull back the curtain on the buying center model that transformed his dealership. Rob shares how he went from personally messaging sellers on Facebook Marketplace to building a six-person team that acquired a record 362 vehicles off the street last month. He walks through the staffing, the daily metrics, the hiring profile, and why your used car department is the single biggest lever you can control as a dealer.

 They also dig into leadership, the power of attitude, and why the best time to invest in new processes is when times are good — not when you're desperate.

Connect with Rob Ruth on LinkedIn, Instagram, or Facebook.

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