192 - Standing at the Crossroads featuring Brian Bates, EAS Tire and Auto
February 9, 2025 - 01:42:25
Show Summary:
Service, leadership, and purpose sit at the center of Brian Bates’ journey. A military veteran and president of EAS Tire and Auto in Denver, Brian shares how his path from technician to multi-location owner was shaped by mentorship, values-based leadership, and a deep belief that business exists to serve people first.
This episode of Leading Edge: Standing at the Crossroads explores what it takes to scale without losing your soul. Brian reflects on building culture before growth, hiring for character, creating opportunity for others, and why fixing cars was never the end goal, only the entry point. From nearly running out of cash to leading a rapidly growing organization, he breaks down the leadership shifts required to move from survival, to success, to significance.
At its core, this conversation is about legacy. Not store count, revenue, or titles, but the lasting impact a leader leaves on people, families, teams, and communities through principled decisions and servant leadership.
Thinking about the legacy you are building as a shop owner or leader? Meet with Michael Smith to start a leadership and legacy strategy conversation: https://theinstitute.zohobookings.com/#/Executive-Owner-Strategy-Session
Kent Bullard, COO of The Institute
Michael Smith, Chief Strategy Officer at The Institute
Brian Bates, owenr of EAS Tire and Auto
[00:02:54] - Brian Bates shares how the auto industry started as a practical move to provide for his family, then became something bigger.
[00:05:38] - A strong mentor helped turn leadership theory into real-world skill through daily application.
[00:11:34] - Brian Bates says fixing cars was “a ticket to the dance,” but the real work is serving people.
[00:12:21] - The shift from “building my lifestyle” to “removing obstacles for others” became Brian Bates’ definition of leadership.
[00:16:10] - The turning point came when the question changed from “how much more can I take?” to “how far can I take this?”
[00:23:00] - Culture stopped being chaos once purpose and values were defined clearly enough to attract the right people.
[00:29:18] - Big growth goals felt outrageous at first, then got outpaced by momentum and opportunity.
[00:49:15] - Values-based accountability replaces rules with ownership, and misfits often choose to exit on their own.
[01:23:37] - Brian Bates breaks down success as survival, success, and significance, then explains what it looks like to leave without the business collapsing.
In every business journey, there are defining moments or challenges that build resilience and milestones that fuel growth. We’d love to hear about yours! What lessons, breakthroughs, or pivotal experiences have shaped your path in the automotive industry?
Share your story with us at [email protected], and you might be featured in an upcoming episode.
👉 Unlock the full experience - watch the full webinar on YouTube: https://youtu.be/_n_jyKDI-Rc
Don’t miss exclusive insights, expert takeaways, and real talk you won’t hear anywhere else. Hit Subscribe, drop a comment, and share it with someone who needs to hear this!
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Episode Transcript Disclaimer
This transcript was generated using artificial intelligence and may contain errors. If you notice any inaccuracies, please contact us at [email protected]. Kent Bullard: Hello everybody and welcome to the Institute's Leading Edge Crossroads podcast where we examine the decisions that professionals make that define careers that shape industries that inspire thought leadership and ultimately build lasting legacies. I'm Kent Bullard and I'm joined here with my esteemed colleague, Michael Hertzberg Smith.
Kent Bullard: And today we're privileged to be speaking with Brian Bates of EAS Tire and Auto. You're the president there out of Denver. Today's guest, Brian Bates is a proud fourth generation Colorado native and an accomplished entrepreneur with a rich history of service and dedication. After graduating from Golden High School in 1991, Brian followed his family's tradition of military service joining the army and serving honorably until 1996.
Kent Bullard: During this time in Germany, he and his wife Rondi welcome their son, the first of two children who would become your greatest pride. Right. Right. Brian transitioned into the automotive industry balancing work as a technician at Planet Honda and earning a degree in business management from Metro State University of Denver in 2000.
Kent Bullard: With an A SCL one Master Technician Certification and an a M designation, he quickly rose to prominence in the field. In 2004, he took the leap to entrepreneurship opening his first shop in Columbine Hills. Today he is the owner of 12 Thriving Shops and a founding partner of Straightaway Tire and Auto.
Kent Bullard: Formed in 2023 with Michael Smith's help, and alongside four of your closest friends. Recognize for your excellence. Brian's shops were awarded the number one Napa auto Care Center in the nation in 2018. Beyond his professional success, he treasures his roles as a family man recently celebrating the birth of his first grandchild, Tatum Duke, in October, 2024.
Kent Bullard: When not working, Brian enjoys snow skiing, boating, wake boarding, and four-wheeling, inviting the adventurous spirit of his Colorado roots. We're thrilled to have Brian Bates share his remarkable journey and insights with us today on the Institute's leading Edge Crossroads podcast. Welcome, Brian.
Brian Bates: Thank you. Thanks for having me on, Ken. Good seeing you again, Michael. You too, my friend.
Kent Bullard: I love it. Listeners as we go through the topics today, the shared experience from Brian, if you have any questions or comments about this content, please go down in the comments and ask your questions. That's the whole point of this podcast.
Kent Bullard: We also ask if you do enjoy what you hear, please like and share so that others can benefit from this conversation as well. And of course, you can find more information about the institute at We are the institute.com. So Brian, I wanna start off, you know, what originally drew you into the industry and what inspired you to commit to it?
Brian Bates: Well, you know, the first thing that drew me to the industry was the ability, the opportunity to provide for my family after getting outta the military and while I was going to pursue my degree at Metro State. The, the idea that I could make decent money and work during the day was very inviting at the time.
Brian Bates: I, you know, most of my options were in the restaurant industry or some, you know, retail industry that, you know, would be odd hours, odd days, that sort of thing. So that was the original draw. And then after being in it for a few years, I was just really drawn by the people, you know, the customers the ownership of the dealership, the store manager, my colleagues that I was working with on a day-to-day basis.
Brian Bates: And just really had a good time working and in the trenches and just doing all the rolling up the sleeves, getting dirty and filling. At the end of the day, like I'd really accomplished something and watching my pay increase as my knowledge increased, being able to invest in myself with technical expertise, with experience, the challenge of.
Brian Bates: Figuring out what's going on with a car or beating flat rate time and making, you know, more money as a result. So, and again, working with other people and as I grew in the dealership, I became a mentor and had several apprentices working for me throughout the years. And that was also rewarding and exciting to see them grow and to be able to share my knowledge with them and help them experience the same sort of success that I was able to, and the same opportunities that I was able to, I got into the industry.
Brian Bates: So that, that was my initial draw to the industry and then it just kind of took off from there.
Michael Smith: Well, you had a positive mentor relationship at the dealership, if I remember the original stories. Could you tell us a little bit about that positive mentor in your life and how it kind of got you started and kind of a thought process about how to be in this industry?
Brian Bates: Yeah. So it, it really was an unintentional situation, but I just can't think of a better luck of the draw or a better situation just by, you know, happenstance for me or anybody in any industry really. I I was going to, to school, getting my degree going to night school mostly. I had some day classes, but most of them were night.
Brian Bates: And so as I moved up in the ranks, I was able to really utilize a lot of that knowledge that I was learning at the dealer or at school. At the dealership as I was working on it, especially since I was getting a degree in management, which is mainly people once I realized that my a degree in management wasn't all about accounting and spreadsheets and you know, crunching numbers and whatnot and I realized that it was all about leadership and organizational behavior, you know, motivating people and all those fun things that we kinda talk about on a daily basis.
Brian Bates: That's what really. Gave me a passion for getting a degree in management. And so I was fortunate to have the dealership, the service manager at the dealership who ended up being the fixed operation manager, as the dealership grew. He was very passionate about leadership and just about the industry and mentoring and helping people.
Brian Bates: And so as I was learning all the stuff I was learning at school, I was able to really talk with him and have that second sort of education and mentorship. That was the application of the knowledge. You know, not knowledge isn't alone, isn't power. The application of the knowledge is really where the power comes in.
Brian Bates: And so the ability to really apply all that knowledge as I was growing and learning and working at the dealership, and then to multiply that with a mentor that really could help me make sense of what, you know, what. What to do in certain situations and kind of how the world works and how to, like you said, Michael, how to be and the important things about just work in general, but especially the automotive industry.
Brian Bates: That was that, that was just so powerful in my career that that, like I said, I just can't imagine that I could have been in a better situation than that.
Michael Smith: So many, I'm sorry. So many of us have these leadership experiences where we get. Into leaders, being leaders ourselves. And we look back and, well, I don't wanna do this and I don't wanna do that.
Michael Smith: Oh my gosh. When I'm a leader, I'm not gonna do that. And I'm just pleased you and I talked, Ben, known each other for quite a while and I know who, how that mentor meant a lot to you and how you were able to walk outta that experience with those memories and with those perspectives. And to some extent have it be a little bit of your leadership foundation as you came out into your own.
Michael Smith: And I just I loved it. That's why I just asked, I know that's, to have a positive start. Like that's a great building, building block start. Right. So
Kent Bullard: we've been Absolutely,
Kent Bullard: We've been having kind of this internal conversation outside the podcast, I mean, today just about application. And I'm curious to know, what do you think was the driving factor or the inspiration for you to take what you were learning and to apply it?
Kent Bullard: What got you to apply that knowledge?
Brian Bates: Well, a little bit of it was just being forced into they say necessity is a mother of invention, right? So I think it's the same about the application of knowledge is is, you know, the necessity of it. But you know, I started at the dealership just ripping plastic off of new vehicles and you know, getting 'em ready for the front line and which is really the, you know, as far as the service department, that's about the entry IST level, if that's a word in the dealership.
Brian Bates: And so went from there to being, you know, they started letting me work on vehicles and then worked my way into a line technician position. And then eventually after a couple years, I was a team leader. And then after a few more years I moved into a shop foreman position. So. It again, just kind of followed in line with where I was at school.
Brian Bates: After getting through my general studies after a couple years, I was actually moving into that leadership position and taking some of those basic management classes and you know, I also, while I was in the military, I was a sergeant, so had taken quite a bit of leadership classes in the military as well.
Brian Bates: So wasn't a stranger to leadership at all. But it just, you know, continued on as I was going into management. And, you know, a lot of that real instinctive leadership that you have in the military, which really is, you know, a lot of self preservation based and based on you know, the preservation of your colleagues and the people beside you and above you and, you know, that you're serving.
Brian Bates: So, all of that again, just is that building upon, you know, a foundation upon another foundation that really got me to the point where I was applying what I learned and again, my passion people, you know, probably not so much recently just because, you know, I've seen more as the business owner versus the car guy.
Brian Bates: But a lot of people used to ask me, Hey, you know, what kind of cars do you have? What cars do you love? What do you love about working on cars? And I mean, the answer to that is honestly I really don't have a passion to work on cars. That was just what gave me a ticket to the dance, was that I could work on cars and make money.
Brian Bates: And while I was mastering and learning more about how to run the shop how to lead people, how to be, you know, the best leader and the kind of leader that leader that people will follow and that I can inspire other people to to follow the purpose and the drive and where we're going as a company and where I'm, you know, wanting to go as a, as an individual in this field.
Brian Bates: And it being my career is you know, and that is all dependent on helping other people get where they want to go, right? I mean, this isn't I think some people feel like being in business or being a business owner is that everybody serves your your whim and that the business is there to serve your lifestyle.
Brian Bates: And I don't agree with that. I think that the purpose of being a business owner is that you have the ability to really have a significant impact on other people's lives and to help them get where they want to go. And the more you're able to do that a higher level and at, you know, a larger scale, then then you benefit from it, right?
Brian Bates: But you know that's a result. That's not the purpose. It's a, you know, a benefit or a result of what you're doing. And the purpose really is that you're, you know, you're helping other people get where they want to go so that you can, you know, get where you want to go and that's where you move from.
Brian Bates: Being a rank and file person to being a leader is that you're dependent on the results of the people that are on your team, right? The people you serve, people that you're saying, Hey, you know, I'm here to remove obstacles outta your way so that you can do what you want to or what what you're looking to do that I can help you get where you want go.
Brian Bates: Right. Versus, Hey, you know, I need you to do these items so that I can elevate myself to the next position or to a higher level. I mean, I think that's really old school thinking. So
Kent Bullard: I'm curious to know, going back to the early days, was it a cycle of, a consistent cycle of learning, applying and then seeing the results, you know, learn, apply, result, or were there key moments in the beginning part of your journey that got you focused on like memories that it's like, I distinctly remember this happened and I was like, I wanna pursue management, or I wanna pursue leadership.
Brian Bates: So, you know, that's a pretty loaded question, right? Because what's going through my mind is, and I say loaded meaning complex, right? Is that what's going through my mind is that there in, you know, my experience, there's that process, but it's not one dimensional, it's multidimensional. When you start you're thinking about, as a father, you know, you go through that, where do I want to be?
Brian Bates: How am I gonna get there? Here's the plan. Execute, then, you know, what are the results? And that can be in several different aspects. Just in, you know, as being a father or, you know, you know, be, you know, in, in your financial, knowledge and in your career. And, you know, Michael Smith does a a great exercise in one of his leadership classes about the Wheel of Life, you know, and there's all those spokes in the wheel of life.
Brian Bates: And so I think that's, that cycle is is, like I said, just multi-layer, multi-dimensional, and each one is kind of at a different phase at any given time. The as far as my career goes, I think again, that there's different things that kind of that, that I look at, Hey, this is where I wanna be. Maybe that could be, you know, one layer would be pay, another layer would be, you know, where I am as a technician, you know, my skill level as a technician, where I am in the company as far as, you know, the level of my position, right?
Brian Bates: Compared to other people in the company. So, you know, to answer your question. As far as my career I think that it was something that just kind of started building on itself. Right. And you know, John Maxwell talks about this in his, in one of his books. I think probably several of his books, a lot of 'em have the same thing, but they that at some point, I think in our careers, we go from this point of like, how far do I have to go?
Brian Bates: How much work do I have to do to attain success? And then that's kind of that input of energy. Right. And your. You're kind of feeling like you're exhausted and there's times where you know, you might feel like giving up or, you know, you might have to take a break, that sort of thing.
Brian Bates: And that to me is that input of energy you're constantly putting a ton of energy in. And in my career, at least at some point, those scales sort of tipped where you get more energy out of it than what you're putting into it. And you move to this instead of, how much do I have to do in order to reach success?
Brian Bates: I'm thinking, how far can I take this? And and just, you know, those victories give you more energy and you start really, you wake up saying, you know, Hey look, you know, you're excited to go to work. I had a friend, I was at the gym and told him, Hey, I've got a hard stop.
Brian Bates: I think it was six 30 I had to leave. And he goes, oh, do you have to go to work at that time? And I just looked at him and said, no, I get to go to work. Like, you know, I'm excited. I have a hard stop because I gotta get this, you know, this project going, and I'm excited to get there. And no, I don't have to.
Brian Bates: I have the opportunity and the privilege to go do this. So, but, you know, it's not always like that. And so over time I just felt like I could see that energy and the return on my investment just start to kind of build sort of the snowball. And then it started, you know, I started.
Brian Bates: Getting like that glimpse of, Hey, look, this is kind of fun. There's a lot of pain involved, but you know, every once in a while something's fun, right? And then then over time it's like, you know, this is about half pain, half fun. And then at this point in my career, I think is there's, you know, some moments of stress or frustration, but.
Brian Bates: By large, just a lot of fun and excitement and and something that again I wake up and I'm excited to, to get in and get going on the day and see, you know, what the day has in store for me.
Kent Bullard: I'm somewhat a little relieved that you have the same thoughts that a lot of us do in that Wow, today sucks a little bit.
Kent Bullard: And it's gonna be hard and it's challenging. And, you know, you said, you talked about the thought of giving up and the thought of, you know, maybe I need to take a break. But also I think I, I can appreciate that you more so have this con can continuous, iterative process of how am I continually moving forward or getting better until you hit that tipping point.
Kent Bullard: And I wanna talk about what that looked like for you. A little later on when you did hit that tipping point, what did it feel like? What did it look like? But more so I'm curious to go back to again, the struggle. So when you first started your business what were some of the most challenging obstacles that you faced and what do you think you did that helped you overcome those challenges?
Brian Bates: Well, I would say by far the largest challenge or obstacle that I faced was myself. You know, I mean, and I say that because if I knew now or back then what I know now, then I feel like I could have accomplished a ton more, a ton faster. So my frustrations. We're largely surrounded by people because that's the biggest challenge.
Brian Bates: I feel like most people in this industry, and I feel like just in business in general, right, when you're in the people business some people are, you know, in say the aeronautics business or you know, engineering or, you know, most business does serve people in some sort of a capacity, but I feel like the automotive.
Brian Bates: Industry is largely there to serve people, right? That, that's really the focus and people that understand that people are the focus. It's not cars. We, you know, we fix cars as a as part of our job. That's what we do. But really the focus is people. And and that's our job is to serve our customers, to serve the community, to serve our team members because.
Brian Bates: You know, in the end the further they get in life and the further we can help them accomplish what they're looking to accomplish, whether it's to have a reliable vehicle that they can depend on without breaking the bank and a place they can trust, or whether it's a place they can go to work and earn a good living and reach the potential that they deserve in life.
Brian Bates: That, that's really what the fact that when I said earlier that fixing cars just gave me a ticket to the dance, you know, the dance is the people, you know, fixing cars is not the dance. You know, if you can do, if you can fix the cars, then you know then you get a play out on the playground with everyone else.
Brian Bates: But if you can't fix cars, or if you can't work well and sell be a good advisor on the front counter, you know, be a good manager, that sort of thing, then then you don't get a play in where all the action is. So, so, what was your question
Michael Smith: again? So, just for fun. No I'll build on this when I, just for fun, when I met you. Many years ago you had three stores and you had four leaders around you. One was kind of a general manager and there were three store managers. And you were talking before about, gee, if I knew then what I know now, right.
Michael Smith: That those guys didn't really like each other and they didn't work very well together and there wasn't a lot of teamwork going on and they kind of had different agendas and you tried to go help and they did their own thing after you left and all kinds of crazy stuff like that. Just for fun, looking back, w what, knowing now what, you know, years later 'cause there'd be a lot of people that may be listening to this, that are living the life now that I'm just described, that you were living then what did, what would you have taken back and from today to that time to start with what were the things that you've learned that would've been useful then when it was a little messy with leadership and the people around you?
Brian Bates: You know, I would say the biggest thing that I learned. Having purpose being principle based having values as a company, operating principles, and how powerful that is to attract the sort of people that aren't dysfunctional, like what you talked about. Michael? I'd love to tell that story about how you and I met.
Brian Bates: That's just fine. You go for it. Well, we, you know, Michael and I met you know, just kind of make a long story short, he was an advisor that was helping consult with a group of other people. And I really needed to understand how to increase revenue and increase profitability, all those things that most business owners think about to some degree or another.
Brian Bates: Right? I mean, you know, you can't do this if you don't have the revenue and the expense structure figured out. And Michael was one of the first people to talk to me and he said, Hey, look, you really need to get your mission, your purpose put together and really work on your culture of the business, whatnot.
Brian Bates: It's, you know, fairly dysfunctional and it's creating a lot of problems and obstacles in your business. And I said, yeah I get that. Let me figure out how to sell more work first and then generate that revenue and then we'll get to the culture thing later. And and so we you know, Michael was very persistent and said, Hey, are you ready to start working on your culture and really, you know, taking your business to the next level?
Brian Bates: And as I started really analyzing what was going on in my business, I started realizing that it was all my frustrations were born out of, you know, just problems in the culture. And the culture was being dictated by some of the people that I hired. And, you know, I was, I was definitely never denied that the culture was all mine.
Brian Bates: You know, I owned it good and bad. And so I finally, sCU to Michael's, you know, suggestions of, Hey, let's work on it. Let's work on it. Said, yeah, you know what, you're right Michael. Let's work on this. And we just started creating a vision for the company that created a vacuum and drew people into this idea that we created.
Brian Bates: And I created it with the help of Michael and in collaboration with the rest of the team that was there at the time. And anybody that we hired afterwards, we were very clear that, hey, this is who we are as a company and these are the values that we hold important, and this is our purpose as a company and this is the mission that we're on.
Brian Bates: And if you're if you're excited about that, I think you'll fit really well into the team. If you're not, then I wouldn't. Accept a position here, right? Because we just know it's better off to, if people don't believe in teamwork or growth or servant being a servant to to other people or being a professional in this industry, those are four core values.
Brian Bates: Then then they probably won't work out. Those are the things that some of those people that were dysfunctional when Michael and I met those are the people that didn't work out, and it's because they didn't have those values. They didn't believe in teamwork. Like, like Michael said, they were backstabbing each other and they didn't believe in growing and being professional and and really caring about their customers and their teammates and the vendors and and really serving them and understanding that the result of increased revenue in general is a result of how well you serve people and care about them versus.
Brian Bates: Saying, Hey, let's manipulate people in order to generate revenue, which is you know, very shortsighted and lacks a ton of integrity, right? Has a bunch of problems associated with that. So, Michael I remember you asked me when we first started out, Hey, what do you wanna be doing in two years?
Brian Bates: And I said, well, I want to this was 2018. I said, well, I want to either build a company up to a place where I can sell it and get out of the industry because I was pretty burnt out. Or I said, I want to either be having fun and ready to continue to grow this business to to, to the highest, you know, potential that I can.
Brian Bates: And the more we got into it, the more I realized that they were really one and the same. Right? Businesses that are very attractive have great cultures. They have high revenue. They they're they're fun. They're they're functional, meaning that they're not passive aggressive. They're they're active and collaborative and and they feed they, you know, get energy from the the business itself.
Brian Bates: And once I out all the components that go into that, and much the same as kind of seeing that glimpse of leadership and there's a lot of pain and a little bit of, Hey, that was fun. You know, I wanna do it again. The same thing happened with the business over the years. And then it became something that, you know, over, you know, the next two years that Michael helped me build to the point where we were saying, Hey, look, this is a lot of fun.
Brian Bates: Let's you know, we're building something special here. And we could see people being drawn to the business and just kind of jumping on our crusade and saying, Hey, you know, we're gonna, we're gonna build something special here. And we made some predictions that were very bold. I believe we said we were going to get to 10 stores by 2025.
Brian Bates: We're at actually that bio is just a about a year outdated. We've got 14 stores right now. We're we're under LOI for another seven locations that will close by the end of probably the middle of January. And then we've got two more locations that we've got lined up for probably a February close.
Brian Bates: So we'll be somewhere around 23, 24 stores here by the end of the second, or the first quarter in 2025. And I think we predicted 25 stores by 2030 was in our mission statement. And that
Michael Smith: felt big at the time. Remember? That was like, wow, that's just
Michael Smith: big and so far out.
Brian Bates: doesn't seem like it was a
Kent Bullard: big enough goal.
Michael Smith: Little did you know.
Brian Bates: Well, no, it wasn't. And you know, the funny part about it was everybody thought we were just crazy. They're just, you know, and as those that had a little bit of faith started seeing, oh wow this is really you know, moving in the right direction. And then we started acquiring a couple stores and then, you know, there was another.
Brian Bates: You know, people work for opportunity. They, they need money, right? They wanna be paid fairly, but the main reason the, especially the rock stars and unicorns are on your team is for the opportunity to see that, Hey, I've got the opportunity to compete for a position or to grow within the company based on my merits.
Brian Bates: They don't, you know, rock stars and unicorns don't expect entitlement, but they do expect to be paid for their talent and their efforts. And that involves having the opportunity to do that, right? I mean, if all we have is a position as a GS and there's a master tech that wants to join our team, you know, if there's not that opportunity, then he's not gonna join our team.
Brian Bates: Right? But, you know, if that master tech. Position is available and they say, Hey, I wanna move into management. And, you know, maybe being an area manager and learning the ropes here and possibly starting my own business. And if that opportunity is there and they see it then they wanna be on your team.
Brian Bates: If they see that, hey, this shop has been a three bay shop for the last 50 years and no sign of growing, no potential, then you know, they, you could pay them what they're looking to make. You know, the true unicorns aren't gonna wanna work there.
Michael Smith: Well, one of my, one of my favorite stories that, that you've told is that when you guys bought an a shutdown building and you put your brand on the front while you were getting ready to launch you started taking proactive phone calls from masters that were driving back and forth on their way to work.
Michael Smith: They saw the sign, you guys had your reputation in the market, and that they'd call and say, Hey, I'm a master tech. I'm a master service advisor. I'm a top end store manager, and when you guys start interviewing, I wanna be on the list. And it's such an interesting story because the industry is like, well, how are we gonna find good talent?
Michael Smith: And it's like, well, if you set this up right, they all they have to do is drive by the sign. Right. It's just an interesting you know, result that you guys have experienced. So,
Brian Bates: congratulations. Yeah. No, it does.
Brian Bates: itself. And that, that is one of the you know, we have a little over a hundred employees or team members right now.
Brian Bates: And when we get done with this acquisition of seven locations, we'll have somewhere around 150. And it's a big question, Hey, I've got six people in my store and it's extremely challenging to keep my store staffed. How do you do it with 150? And it's, to me, it's relative that the larger you grow, the more opportunity is there.
Brian Bates: And so you do attract, if your culture is right, you do attract the right kind of people. Now there's other stores that, you know, we probably all know of a group, a chain of stores or something where. They're a large organization and they're struggling to keep good team members and their bays are empty, the parking lot's empty, that sort of thing.
Brian Bates: And it does work both ways, right? It's not a given that if you're just, if you just scale your company, that you know people are gonna be attracted to you, you still have to do the work. Right. You still have to, you have to scale
Michael Smith: it the right way. You have to scale it
Brian Bates: the right way.
Kent Bullard: Absolutely. So, I'm I wanna go back a little bit because you talked about the people that are saying, well, you know, I've got the three bay shop.
Kent Bullard: This is where I'm at. I'm, you know, at what point in your journey did you hit that crossroad? You see, I got the title there. Yeah, you got the crossroad in there. In there. When did you hit that crossroad? When you considered a future beyond the current business you had.
Brian Bates: So the question being when I was just at a single store and I considered a business beyond that.
Kent Bullard: than just the single location? Yeah. When did you decide to go big?
Kent Bullard: happened? Right?
Brian Bates: Like, yeah. You know, that was a matter of just realizing. That I had people on my team that had bigger ambitions than to just work at a single location. Our first location was a four bay converted gas station.
Brian Bates: You know, had been a two bay gas station. The owner before me had added on a couple more lifts or a couple more bays, and I realized that if if I didn't give more opportunities, I was going to le lose people. And it was just going to be difficult to hold onto good, solid people. So. I found a, another store that had closed down during the 2008 recession, and we signed a lease on that building and started hiring more people.
Brian Bates: And the people that were at the first location, they were very excited that we were growing. I realized that our customers you know, something that I didn't expect, but the customers were really excited to see us growing too. You know, they, people like doing business with a winning, winning team.
Brian Bates: And so when they see that you're growing and that you're becoming, you know, larger or you know, you're having increased success as time goes on, there's a sense of comfort there, I think from your customers to know that, hey, they must be doing well. They must be doing a good job. I'm at the right place.
Brian Bates: And so they did get excited about and I think everybody. Well, well, not everybody. A lot of people like to see people win that if they understand small business that it's very risky. It's it's extremely grueling. You know, we almost went out of business a couple years after I bought the the shop.
Brian Bates: We were down to our last few thousand dollars and at the beginning of January, one year, which is not the time to, you know, be short on cash flow. And we just, we had the best January we'd ever had. We only had a January, one January to base that off of, but it was a really good January compared to that one.
Brian Bates: And we were able to put some money in in the bank and start building up our cash reserve again. So I think people understand how difficult it is and they they admire and respect when somebody is actually. Making progress so that I started seeing the the exponential traction of having a second location.
Brian Bates: I was able to attract more customers and more team members. And so, I had a conversation with John ler and Dan Gilley at the time, and they had told me from experience, Hey. If you go to two locations, you should plan to go to three locations because most people never stay at two locations.
Brian Bates: There are some, but most people either go from one to two to one, or they go from one to two to three, and you know, they may stay at three or they may move forward, but two locations is just twice as much work. 'cause you don't have the ability to have a layer of middle management there as an area manager and work on some of the stuff that.
Brian Bates: The business, you know, you know, it just so happens that running the business ends up being a full-time job at some point. So you just, you need to have people there to work on keeping everything going, the processes and working with the team members and whatnot. Helping them solve problems, solving their issues for them as they're bringing up, you know, challenges that they're faced with.
Brian Bates: So, so yeah. Then, you know, two businesses just, you know, I knew that I was gonna go to three, and then when I got to three, I met Michael and I was, you know, trying to run three individual businesses. And Michael was pretty quick to point out that, hey, we need to run a single business here, not three individuals.
Brian Bates: And then helped me find a find my, my business partner bill kind of a mutual friend, or Michael was a mutual friend of Bill and mine. And so, you know, bill and I hit it off and we both believed in the same things, had the same values and whatnot. And bill helped me run it as a single business versus three separate ones.
Brian Bates: And then that's really when things started taking off was just. Bringing all those components together and building a cohesive business versus multiplying, you know, the work we were able to multiply and scale the business versus just adding more and more tasks to our day. Well,
Michael Smith: you two together are a fantastic combination because you were by, by defensiveness, I suppose, having to work in the business quite a bit.
Michael Smith: And then when Bill showed up, he was fully capable from a background of 30 store overview. Right. Kind of a, he had a big background when he sat down, he said, give it to me. I'll run it. You go out and work on the business and I'll work in it. And you guys are a fabulous combination that way because he's a machine running it from within and you've done extraordinary things from the outside of your business working in, you know, from the outside.
Michael Smith: And it's been a, it's been a powerful combination. You two and that's scale allowed you to do that, right? You two then scaled up and then you could put talent around you and the talent that would aspire for growth came to you and the people who didn't want to grow left you and you replaced them with people who wanted to grow.
Michael Smith: And it sort of takes on a life of its own and Right, right. And it'd be great if you would share a little bit about that life of its own and the leaders that you can attract now versus the ones that left that didn't wanna be part of this. Right. Because you guys recruit and hire in a different way than most folks do.
Michael Smith: What you and Bill do at the beginning is different than what most people do. It'd be awesome if you would just share a little bit of a snippet of that about what you're able to do with what you've built.
Brian Bates: I I feel real fortunate that I was able to connect with somebody like Bill that is extremely talented and wise and and has the shares the same values and principles that I do.
Brian Bates: The other part of that though is that kind of going back to what we were talking about, really putting that defining that foundation of who are we as a business and what are our values and our mission and our purpose. That's really what Drew Bill to me, right? I mean, he had an offer to go work at the headquarters of Advanced Auto Parts, and he was ready to accept that offer, move to North Carolina.
Michael Smith: yeah, not to interrupt you, but that was my conversation with him. I said wait. Freaking on the plane. I got one more guy you need to talk to before you decide to fly outta town. Right. And that was you guys getting together and connecting on your dreams or your visions together.
Michael Smith: Right. Which I just wanna throw that in. There was, he was one foot out the door on the way to Raleigh at that point. Interesting.
Brian Bates: Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. And so, so, so I'd say I'm fortunate on one side, you know, there's, there is a little bit of luck involved there, but you know, those kind of people I think are around us.
Brian Bates: But if they're not attracted or you don't have something to attract them to your business, then you will never know. Right. You know, they'll either not reveal themselves as a unicorn and open up or. You'll know their unicorn and be frustrated that they don't want to take a job. And truly that's what you're trying to sell them is a job versus a career and an opportunity that you'll be frustrated that they're walking away and going somewhere else.
Brian Bates: I'm attracted to something else. So with with Bill coming on board I did express my passion for leadership and to grow the company and to run a business that we could look at and be very proud of. And all the principles that we wanted to build that business on are, you know, our purpose is, you know, very simple.
Brian Bates: It's a little bit more defined on our purpose statement, but it's just about making other people's lives better. And if we can fix a car or if we can help, a team member or be involved in the community and just use our position and our skills as auto repair professionals to make other people's lives better.
Brian Bates: Then the result is that we get rewarded with with more profits. However that just allows us to, gives us the power to grow our families and you know, to create this sort of a legacy that we wanna create. In the end, I, you know, I don't think anybody in in the right frame of mind, meaning that is doing this for the right reasons or business for the right reasons.
Brian Bates: Really if they are, looks at it and says, Hey, look, if I can, if I can manipulate people to do the right thing or help other people, then I can buy that Lear jet or that this is going to be one of those businesses where I'm going to be, you know, a multi-billionaire, that sort of thing.
Brian Bates: I mean, you know, is it possible? Maybe, but I think most people are just looking at it like, Hey, you know, if I do a solid business, I can earn a good living and, you know, retire someday and put, you know, my kids through school and live in a comfortable house. And. That's where it comes back to, you really need to, you know, once you define the higher purpose of working on cars, then a lot of that just, you know, it takes care of itself, right?
Brian Bates: You don't have to say, how do I, you know, how do I generate more sales? What's the sales program that, you know, the sales training I need to put my advisors in and, you know, the technicians and whatnot, and you're trying to manage personalities and you just feel like you're, you know, managing a three ring circus.
Brian Bates: So, so when it does come to finding that person that you're looking for, again, your biggest challenge is in your own in your own mirror of saying, what kind of business are, am I passionate about defining that business and then finding those people that wanna join in on that. Yep.
Michael Smith: And the beauty of it is that when you get that team built and you guys are walking out, the purpose of the character that the loyal brand ambassador customers that are meaning based, they're chasing meaning to find you guys, and they come for auto repair and they leave with a meaning connection.
Michael Smith: Their motivation internally is to come back to you again because you're talking their language. And those are the people that will build these long-term covenant relationships that are really, you know, the future profitability of the industry is knowing how to serve that top end client. And they come because of who you've demonstrated that you actually are.
Michael Smith: And it's just a super powerful, you're right, it takes care of itself in the end, right? Once you make that commitment, build the culture, get the rock stars, walk it out. In real life, those customers come and they're sticky. They'll stay forever. Right. They're
Brian Bates: great customers. So, so one of part of your question was how do we hire what's the process that we use to hire and that is the process is we I kind of joke around with our managers because we do a little bit of a two step process where we'll interview at a higher level for that candidate, and then we will have the managers really look into the technical capacity of the candidate.
Brian Bates: And we're, as we're developing our managers, we're developing them so that they can also hire for that higher or interview for that higher level. But really what we try to do is just. When we're interviewing for the character side of things, we're looking for, are these candidates, are they humble?
Brian Bates: Are they hungry, and are they smart? You know, and emotionally smart, meaning that they work well with other people and do they hold the values that we hold very high. And once we check those boxes, then we say, okay, now can you do the job that we're hiring you for? So in, in short, I just. Tell our managers, you know, if they don't understand that process, that we're just trying to make sure that we don't get any psycho killers into the, you know, trying to eliminate those, you know, murders from our from our shop.
Michael Smith: but it is genius. It's genius because you and Bill spend your time making sure that the cultural fit is there and that you're hiring champions and these people are the real deal. And then when the time comes that they've passed that level of test, which it's a rarefied crowd that can join you at the level that you guys have chosen to live, then whether they can fix cars or sell at the front desk, lots of people can fix cars and sell at the front desk and don't fit your culture model.
Michael Smith: So it makes a lot of sense that's where you guys put your time is making sure you're hiring family and it's very powerful.
Brian Bates: And so I, I kind of say the ax murder tongue in cheek, but really they're not killing people, but they're killing the culture, right? I mean, they bring an ax in and they start swinging at your culture and it destroys your culture.
Brian Bates: And the beauty of. When you hire based on values and principles and purpose and whatnot, when you have the conversation, like one of our principles our values is teamwork and an operating principle is to be on time. Right? And the reason for that is your team is depending on you. I depend on, as a technician I would depend on an advisor to be there to take care of the customer so that I have work to work on or cars to work on, right?
Brian Bates: And as an advisor, they're depending on you to show up so that when they're taking care of the customers, that they can give the customer what they came in for. So instead of saying, Hey, the rules are to, you gotta be here, ready to work at eight o'clock, and if you don't follow those rules, we're gonna let you go.
Brian Bates: The conversation is, Hey, when we hired you, you expressed to me that you have a strong belief and you hold teamwork at a very high. Value and what you're doing when you don't show up on time is you're letting your team down. So, you know, is there something that's getting in the way of, you know, I mean, if you've got, you know, childcare duties and, you know, things get hung up or whatnot, then that's understandable.
Brian Bates: But if somebody just isn't motivated to get to work on time and and they just cannot. And it happens to all of us, right? Where it's this 23-year-old technician that for some reason can't make it to work before eight 15, no matter what you say. And even if you have these conversations and say, Hey, look you believe, you said you believe in teamwork, but you're violating that principle on a regular basis.
Brian Bates: So what is it? Is it that you don't believe in teamwork or that you know, you do believe in teamwork, but you're just, you know, violating your own personal value. And if that's the case, like you should rethink, you know, do you really believe in teamwork? And if you do, you should stay true to yourself on that.
Brian Bates: And the beauty of this is that, I can tell you just on that conversation alone, right? Just somebody that won't come into work or can't make it to work on time. And when you sit down and you talk to 'em and say, Hey, look, this is all about teamwork. Not a rule that if you break the rule, I'm the boss and you better do it.
Brian Bates: Or you're fired, right? But it's, Hey, we're building a team here and you're letting us down. And I've got a responsibility to everybody else on the team to make sure that people are coming, that, that are all the people that are joining our team also hold those values very highly. So, you've consistently demonstrated you can't make it to work before eight 15.
Brian Bates: You violated this over and even though you realize you're violating it, like, do you really fit in here? I mean, what you tell me, is this really where you should be? Like how and sometimes. And a lot of times, honestly, you know, and those are different con conversations based on whether they're violating different values.
Brian Bates: A lot of times they say, you know what I, I really don't feel like this is where I need to be. And you just say, well, what are you gonna do? And I'm gonna go find somewhere else to work. That's probably what I would suggest. Right? Yeah. And I can't tell you how many times I've had that conversation with people and they just self eliminate.
Brian Bates: Right. But it does give them the opportunity to leave on their own terms versus feeling like you unjustifiably fired them because of some arbitrary rule that really doesn't matter.
Michael Smith: Well, and Brian, to use language, Kent and I were talking about earlier today, you have set up a redemptive culture and you have redemptive conversations with people.
Michael Smith: And if they choose not to redeem, right? Not to challenge themselves and say, Hey, I'm living outside of my belief structure and I'm okay with that. I think I'll take that somewhere else. Then they're own, they're in charge of their own remedial solution to that, right? As you say, they self dismiss and you're like, well, can I help you?
Michael Smith: You know, I'll give you a good work referral. I can't give you a good cultural referral, but I'll give you a good work referral. Can I help you? Right, right. And it's just, it's a completely different. Expectations set. You're not in contest with them anymore. You're not pushing them to show up on time.
Michael Smith: They start either doing it because it becomes important to them, or they decide they don't care. And then they pick it up, take it somewhere
Brian Bates: else, right? And we've had,
Brian Bates: plenty of those conversations as well, right? Is, Hey, do you realize you're violating this principle that you know, on the surface have told me that you hold a very highly, and they go, you know what, I hadn't thought about it that way, but you're right.
Brian Bates: And I need to get my act together. And you know that also solves the problem when they look at it and it's just, it's about running a principle values-based organization versus a rules-based positional organization that is very ative, right? Hey, do it this way, or Get out
Michael Smith: well, and that.
Michael Smith: That very moment is very psychologically sticky, right? When somebody comes to a conclusion that you're helping them to become a better person and they actually make that decision for themselves, they appreciate that from you and they appreciate you, and that makes 'em stickier as an employee, right?
Michael Smith: They're less likely to pick up and go somewhere
Kent Bullard: else. It's very powerful. Who wouldn't wanna work for somebody that is driving that? I mean, you're people first. You know, one of the, one of the first things that made you kind of look at pursuing being better is that you were the obstacle. You changed your own perception first, and then you looked at, well, in order to take care of the people that I'm serving, they need more opportunity.
Kent Bullard: And so the reason you bought another business was to serve others. I mean, your whole drive is to help people. And who wouldn't want to be a part of that? How attractive is that to work for somebody whose sole purpose is to serve you, to make you the best possible version of yourself?
Brian Bates: And that's the fundamental concept of a servant leader, right. Is, and that's exactly what I want to be known for, is somebody that came in and helped other people and was, you know, interested in their, personally, interested in their success, not interested in manipulating somebody for my personal success of building, you know, some accounts, you know, a cash account or whatnot.
Michael Smith: Well, and the beauty of it is they work harder for you. They produce more, they do it partially for themselves, partially to be part of a championship team, partially to make you proud of. Which is a beautiful relationship, and you end up getting more productivity out of them. Right? It, the productivity follows this self instead of chasing it.
Michael Smith: It's a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Kent Bullard: So, so you're building this legacy and you are actively building a lasting legacy. What are the, what elements are most important for you to leave both personally and professionally through your company?
Brian Bates: Leave? Like, when I leave the industry
Kent Bullard: Yeah. The legacy. Leave this earth or whatever leaving looks like to you.
Michael Smith: Let's start with leaving the industry. Yeah. Let's, or leaving the company. Maybe stay in the industry, right? Let's back it off at death a little bit, right? So,
Brian Bates: yeah. Yeah. No. You know, bill does a good job at teaching a class the five levels of leadership. And one of the exercises at the end of that class is to write your own, your own obituary, right? And it can be just a career obituary or whatever you wanna, but it is, you know, like, what do you want people to say about you? And I always joke around that I've never heard an accountant give an obituary in my life, right? It's like, you know, and pull out the net worth statement as well.
Brian Bates: You know, he had these loans, but you know, he also had this money in the bank and, you know, well, we should all be so proud of Joe. You know, he was worth $800,000 when he passed away. And you know, there's the benefactors right there, Susie, and you know, Michael, or you know what, whatnot. But but you know, it's true, right?
Brian Bates: Is, you know, you want to turn around five years from now or 10 or 20 or 30 and say, man, that was really cool what I did, and not have regrets. Know that you're gonna make mistakes, but not regret you know, and to me, regretting is not trying or not, chasing or aiming for a noble purpose versus you know, things, right, or just, you know, some cash account.
Brian Bates: I think Sam Walton, he was on his deathbed and somebody asked him his thoughts as he was he was, you know, terminally ill. And he said, you know, I'm I got it all wrong. I mean, here's a guy who's a billionaire. And he said, you know, my, my wife doesn't like me. My daughter doesn't really know who I am.
Brian Bates: I don't know my daughter, and I'm one of the wealthiest people in the world. I messed up and, and those are things that, you know, experiences that, you know, are cautionary tales where you say, Hey, what are the important things? Well, you know, I wanna be known as someone who was there and that, you know, had a balanced involvement in my family, right?
Brian Bates: That I wasn't, you know, so involved at being a part of their life that I'd neglected giving them, you know, the security of, you know, you know, a good education and, you know, and living in a safe neighborhood and all those things that come with earning a good living, but not so much that, you know, that pursuit that, that I'm known as the workaholic that, you know, how proud are we of dad?
Brian Bates: We don't know who he is, but man, he worked his tail to the bone and look at all the things that we have as a result. So, you know, I wanna be known as a good, you know, father and husband and grandfather and and, you know, my parents are still alive, so, you know, definitely I think they would say I'm I turned out pretty good as a son and I, you know, spend a lot of time with them, which they, you know, appreciate more than anything.
Brian Bates: My my career, I wanted to be known as somebody that helped people get where they wanted to go. That, you know, provided a place that, that could, you know, really be proud of what they did for a living that they could be proud of the organization that they worked for and that they that they admired.
Brian Bates: You know, me as a as a, you know, person that, you know, stood for, good and principles had cared probably more than, you know, people thought I should care about people in the company. And, you know, that's easy to say. There's times where I think, you know, to me, I know I'm probably in, in the right place when people are saying, yeah, you know what, that person doesn't deserve to to be in this company, hasn't done something to, you know, like a capital, hey, that, you know, sin of they stole or they, you know, devalued a customer or something like that.
Brian Bates: But just, yeah, you know what, they don't have their stuff together. But you know, Brian. Gave them more grace than they deserved. And I want to be known as somebody who probably expected more than other people thought was possible. Right. And you know, I think, you know, we probably, you know, earned that reputation for sure, you know, amongst a lot of people is that, you know, five years ago they would've said, Hey, it's not possible to do the sort of things that we've done in the last five years.
Brian Bates: And I'm sure they're saying some of that about the next five years. Although we might have a little more credibility than we did five years ago,
Michael Smith: well fi three stores to 31 in a short period of time. It's quite a testimony. So, you know, that's quite a legacy in the business. You're, you guys are building, do
Kent Bullard: you, do you find, oh, sorry, go ahead, Brian.
Brian Bates: Oh no, I was just gonna say, you know, to your point about the number of stores I think I would be disappointed if I had two stores and they weren't. They weren't the sort of stores I could be proud of versus you know, having 31 stores. You know, to me it'd be, is it something you can be proud of?
Brian Bates: Because I do feel like there are, you know, organizations or, you know, individuals that are going out there and just saying, you know, Hey, look at all. I mean, it's like comparing belt buckles out at the rodeo, you know? I mean, we built scale. We built scale, but it was ugly look. Yeah, exactly right.
Brian Bates: Yeah. Yeah. And it and it all boils down when you look at those ugly stories, they always boiled down to how did it impact people? And the stories that people admire are the ones who are like, man, that company grew and, you know, they, we had fun, or their employees had a good time, they earned a good living.
Brian Bates: They, you know, they built something special that everybody admired and just, you know, were in awe about, you know, based on all those, you know, the, you know, Christmas parties and the community involvements and the the ability to, you know, help customers, you know, how good their, you know, their customer, their hospitality and their technical expertise, all those sorts of things, right?
Brian Bates: Those are the things where you look at it and you go, wow, man, that's a powerful organization, whether it's three stores or 50 stores, right? It could be three stores of, oh my gosh, that place is, I've heard that's a nightmare to work there. They're just abusive to their employees and all those ugly things.
Brian Bates: And so, again, to, to the point of our purpose and mission statement the purpose is to make people's lives better. And the mission is to do it at the largest scale possible, while still serving our purpose of making people's lives better. If at some point we're not making people's lives better, or we're, you know, doing, you know, like the scale is tipped of, Hey, you know, we're probably making more lives worse than we are better at that point, it's a failure, right.
Michael Smith: But I'm gonna, I'm gonna just recognize what you said. That's phenomenal. You're gonna do it right first, according to your definition of Right. And then scale is multiplication on the back end. But if you can't multiply doing it right, you're not gonna multiply. Right. You have it in order and your soul, which is beautiful.
Kent Bullard: I think that answered my question I was gonna ask, 'cause I can see that there's probably some people out there that think, you know, the only way that these people are able to scale and grow these platforms, these organizations is large, is because they took, you know, shortcuts or they lied or they cheated and did these things.
Kent Bullard: How do you feel or what are your thoughts on maintaining your values and principles as you scale? And I think you somewhat answered that, but I mean, what would you tell the people out there that who might be skeptic about, you know, well, I have to sell my soul in order to be able to attain something like this.
Brian Bates: I would go back to diving into your values, right? And really looking at this and saying the money and the growth as a result of doing the right thing. Doing the right thing doesn't result in, or, and making a bunch of money doesn't result in, now we can do the right thing. It, you know, that has to come first.
Brian Bates: So, and people have to define what that is for them. I you know, I'm not saying that, hey, you know, that purpose that I've defined for our company is the only true path. I've talked to a lot of business owners and they've got a lot of different purposes. And again, when we start talking about talking to team members and saying, Hey.
Brian Bates: Do you really feel like you fit in here? It doesn't mean that person is just a throwaway and you know that they'll never fit in anywhere. It's just, hey, you gotta find a place where you fit in that they believe in, you know, that gives you passion and that, you know, you get energy to, you know, make it to work at eight o'clock or whatnot.
Brian Bates: I had a technician, a shop foreman years ago, and he said, he was gonna leave me because he wanted to go work for another company that that were the technicians were extremely competitive and, you know, basically to the point of being cutthroat. But that was where he thrived. He just loved the competition of, Hey, I want to, you know, work by myself.
Brian Bates: I don't want to, you know, have lateral support to, you know, be there for my fellow technician. I just wanna bring my cars in, do my work, and show everybody that. I'm the best. And he called it a shark tank, right? He said, Hey, look, that place is a shark tank. And this whole, like, me helping other people out and being a shop foreman just has really taken a lot of my time and it's really like, I'm not happy
Kent Bullard: Having listened to your value and your purpose and everything you've talked about, you know, throughout this podcast, it's now glaringly obvious of like how selfish of a mentality that is in per once you have that perspective to say, well, he just wanted to carry about himself and no one else.
Kent Bullard: And obviously that person is gonna work themselves out of your organization because you are so driven on helping others. And that takes. You know, relationships that takes connection, that takes effort for someone else's benefit, which is almost the exact opposite of
Michael Smith: it. Well, and the team, it's completely selfless.
Michael Smith: The team will help you purge too, right? Right. I mean, once you get a team of people who are working as a team and some lone stars over there, star or not they're not gonna put up with that for very long. They're either gonna expect them to step into the team and contribute, or the team's gonna start to push 'em out the front door, so
Brian Bates: Or they'll attract other people that are cutthroat. Right. I mean, those are the only people that will stick around. And yeah and we knew it was gonna be painful, but when he explained it to me that way, I thought, I'm gonna lose a lot of money. But I'm not gonna talk this guy out of leaving. I, you know, I mean, that, that's the last thing I, you know, the I can't make an argument to him.
Brian Bates: That was going to get him to stay. Because the only argument would be, Hey look, let's change the culture of this company. And you know, I'll get technicians next to you that are competitive as well and let's just see you guys, you know, fight over the work and you know, cut each other's throats
Michael Smith: well, and you're right, the alternative is they stay and then they're kind of a cancer.
Michael Smith: And then you know, you don't deal with them and other people can't figure out why you don't deal with them. And then now there's a cultural problem because you believe in teamwork, but you're not building teamwork and you're letting the star sit in the corner and be difficult. And if this toxic thing forms and it, we talk a little bit like cancer in the body and it's like, are you better off letting the cancer remove itself or cutting it out and sending that.
Michael Smith: Terribly painful, high performer, right? And it's like watching the money walk out the front door. But what you replace them with is somebody who fits and the team tightens up and helps each other more, and they more than replace themselves. It's just hard to watch that high producer walk out the front door and wish you could change it.
Michael Smith: It's like there goes the money in the short run, Rick,
Brian Bates: If you've been in this industry long enough, you've had, and this guy really wasn't a prima donna. I mean, he really tried to do this. He just came to the realization that he was trying to be somebody who he wasn't, and he needed to go work somewhere else.
Brian Bates: And I agreed with him. And I still see I saw him probably a couple weeks ago at a party that you know, was being held by a friend of mine that, you know, worked on our team and invited me to his birthday party. But still now, I mean, I still like the guy. He just he isn't a fit, right?
Brian Bates: I mean, he is. Great technician. And and he was trying to be somebody that he wasn't he didn't become toxic, anything like that. It was just one of those things where I just looked at it and said, man, these guys are hard to find and this is gonna hurt. But but at any rate, you know, that's, I think when you look at people, back to your point, Michael, when you said, Hey, look, we're not gonna give you a character reference, but we give you a reference when somebody leaves the team.
Brian Bates: You know, somebody, so if he was asking for a reference to a company that said, Hey, you know, we hire sharks. I would be like, man, this guy is perfect, too unique. He's gonna fit this, he's a great
Kent Bullard: way, he's gonna fit right in. And it's not, and it's not to disparage him in any sense. You know, I said selfish, but really you've got, if you've got two purposes or two, you know, directional ideologies and you're starting to split those, I mean, that, that's gonna cause friction in where you're going.
Kent Bullard: And really what you're looking for is that unification of purpose. Right. Not to say that his purpose is bad or negative or anything, because I could see good businesses being built off of that. Well, we are competitive at being the best. And that's what it looks like, right?
Brian Bates: Yep. Well, that's one of the first, times I listen to Mike speak. He talked about the Evergreen study in Harvard, and they is that is the Evergreen study, right? Oh yeah. The Evergreen
Michael Smith: project. Evergreen study, absolutely. Yep.
Brian Bates: Yep. And they they talked about alignment principle alignment, and that if the people on your team are not aligned with your values, then they're not a good fit.
Brian Bates: And when you truly get that synergy, it's when people align with your values and, you know, then you start building this culture that's based on, you know, those values and principles and purpose and whatnot. And that's really where you start, you know, picking up momentum. And again, it just, you know, that, that was probably, you know, in, at that phase of my business, when I needed to go from three and beyond stores, that was a defining moment for me.
Brian Bates: Was realizing that, hey, I'm hiring people based on their technical ability and they're coming in and it's completely dysfunctional because they don't all believe the same values. And and I was, you know, just running around, putting fires out and, you know, dealing with, you know, Michael said, you know, I would, you know, go in and try to fix something and leave, and somebody was undermining me in a conversation by the water cooler.
Brian Bates: And I mean, that sort of stuff you know, is very destructive. It's, you know, triangulation. I mean, you know, I know a lot more now than I did back then, and I can recognize it very quickly now and just say, Hey, this person needs to understand what they're doing is destructive. And when they understand that if they continue to do it, that person is gone.
Brian Bates: I don't care if that's our lead technician at the shop or not. We've, we have hired people based on gossip. Good technicians too. But we refuse to let technicians of any level come in and divide our team by gossiping and you know, talking smack about other people, we let 'em know we, we give them, you know, more warnings than we probably should, but in the end, if they're just hell bent on gossiping and disparaging other team members or myself, or, you know, leadership or the company in general, then you know, hey, you know, let me give you a reference to our competition.
Brian Bates: You can go do that there,
Michael Smith: as I've heard you say, you promote them to customers, so
Brian Bates: Yeah. Give them, release them to the industry so.
Kent Bullard: I love that. I love to kind of step into somewhat of a lightning round here. Okay. This has been a phenomenal conversation, but I wanna jump into a lightning round.
Kent Bullard: All right. Just a few questions and we'll dive into those. First question, what's a piece of advice that you once received that you now find invaluable?
Brian Bates: Invaluable? I would like to give two, two pieces of advice. One was when I was in high school, I wanted to be a veterinarian, and I interviewed as part of a class, kind of, you know, career day project.
Brian Bates: We were, we spent a day with a professional that we, you know, aspired to be. And I asked our local veterinarian who we'd been bringing our animals to for years. So it kind of, you know, formed a relationship with them. Some questions and one of I forget the question that I asked, but one of his answers was, you need to learn to love learning.
Brian Bates: And he just, you know, and that has always stuck with me that and I feel like the flip side of that, that he was cautioning me against was don't become complacent and stop growing. And, you know, stop learning that, you know, you will reach a high level of success if you really enjoy learning.
Brian Bates: Not just do it because it's a chore, but just really love the whole idea of learning. And you know, and I try to. The other day I was at the grocery store and I saw a pomegranate and I'm like, like, I've never bought a pomegranate before. What the heck is, you know, how do you eat a pomegranate? I don't know.
Brian Bates: And so I took it home and I couldn't really find any good answers on YouTube, or I just cut it and I threw it in a juicer and it tasted terrible. And I realized that it's just the seeds, right? It's like nobody eats the pomegranate and they just eat the seeds. And when I figured that out, I was like, oh, they're pretty good.
Brian Bates: I don't know if they're worth the effort of digging 'em out, but they're pretty good once you get 'em separated. But those are the sort of things, I mean, just small things all the way to like, how do, I mean, we're in we're in sponsored by investors in a larger group that that we formed with five other businesses that came outta the institute and or for others rather, but.
Brian Bates: Like, how do we operate and grow this to a I mean, I've read books about growing the business to a billion dollar a year business. And and it's possible, you know, I mean, we could we're we're certainly in those sort of circles that can help us grow to where we could be, you know.
Brian Bates: Billion dollar a year business. So, so to me that, that's the first set of piece of advice is no matter where I've been, I've always just like known that there's something else to learn and I wanna learn it and have fun at it. Like the pomegranate thing was a kind of a pain in the butt. I made a big mess, but it was like, it was just fun learning about pomegranates.
Brian Bates: Right. And then the second set of advice was when I was getting my degree, I had not yet committed to the fact that I was going to be in the automotive industry for my career. And I was talking to my mentor at the dealership, his name was Chuck, and he's from Texas. And he'd had a very interesting career.
Brian Bates: He had worked on cars as a young man and then had a. Then went into the business of selling satellites when the satellites in the eighties used to be these huge, you know, dishes that took up, you know, a quarter of your yard in the backyard. And and then he, you know, he he did some other some other, you know, things here and there, but he kept getting pulled back into the automotive industry and and then just found a passion for it eventually.
Brian Bates: And he said, you know, as I was talking about some of the options that I could do, as, as you know, I was getting close to getting my degree, he said excuse me. He said, you know, Brian, let me give you some advice. You're a car guy, you'll always be a car guy. And the sooner that you accept that, the more successful you'll be.
Brian Bates: If you try to get out of this industry, you'll realize that this industry. Has a lot more opportunity than most anything you'll find outside of this industry. And you're very talented in this industry. So save yourself the trouble and put your head down and make the most of this opportunity and it'll treat you well.
Brian Bates: And and he was right. You know, I think that the automotive industry is, it's always just been a solid industry with tons of opportunity and something that I think a lot of people look at all of the, you know, the pain that is, that can come out of this industry and it can cloud. The opportunity and the the good things that are in this industry that that you can't find anywhere else.
Brian Bates: Or if you do it might come with, you know, a lot of baggage that, you know, really drowns it out as well. So, so those are the two bits of advice. Great
Kent Bullard: advice, kind of, kind of making the most outta the opportunity that's already there right in front of you. Right. Make your own grass green.
Brian Bates: Well, and there's the saying, right? The grass is green where you water it. And so, and you know, no matter where you go, there you are, that the challenges are usually in the mirror, right? The reason you're probably not happy is because, you know, the person in the mirror.
Brian Bates: It's not because of your situation or lack of opportunity, you know, you know, opportunity to do something that you have passion over whatnot. It's just like the way you're looking at things or the way you're approaching things, that's where your frustration is born from those areas, not.
Brian Bates: Because there's I'm gonna say this. You may or may not leave it in your podcast, but I read a book and there's this book that I, or this quote that I read and I memorized it because it was like, man, that is, that's just sums up so much. But it was written, I think in the late 18 hundreds by an English guy, and he said the fountain of content must spring from within because he who has such little knowledge of human natures to try to change anyone's disposition other than his own, will end his life in fruitless efforts and multiply that which he proposes to remove.
Brian Bates: And it's like, absolutely. It's such a powerful quote. I mean, it's, man, I read it in that book. Mm-hmm. And I was just like. Man, I've gotta memorize that because it's so true. You can't go around trying to change other people. And that happiness comes from, you know, from inside. It doesn't come from everything outside.
Brian Bates: It comes from within you. And it's about your perspective and how you view things. And seeing the glass is half full and deciding that you're going to be positive and that you're gonna bring energy and be in a fountain, not a drain. All those things, right? And if you try to, you know, go around by finding happiness, by changing other people, all you're going to do is make things worse and end your life, you know, waste your life.
Brian Bates: And make things worse. Right. So, anyways, that that's one of my favorite quotes. I love
Brian Bates: My favorite quote and,
Kent Bullard: you know, learn to love learning. I wrote from pomegranates to private equity, you know, second lightning round question, you know, question lightning round.
Brian Bates: I don't know if I'm making it lightning for you, for a crock pot round.
Kent Bullard: How do you define success today and how has that definition shifted over time?
Brian Bates: Wow. You know, we Michael and I, as we were working on changing our culture, I read a book and this guy is saying, or he had asserted something in the book that everybody goes through. Phases in their life. And there's three main phases, and that is survival, success, and significance.
Brian Bates: And I think in each one of those phases, there's a success right there. There's a defining or definition of success. So when I first started in my business, the success was I'm surviving. And and you know that I was proud of that, right? I mean, but if I had gone 20 years and people said, Hey, how are you doing in business?
Brian Bates: Well, we survived another year. I. I wouldn't define that as success, but in that first phase, you know, those first two or three years, survival was a level of success. And then success, right? That's the, hey, we're growing, we're, you know, we're making good, you know, revenue, able to buy, you know, a nicer car than I had before.
Brian Bates: You know, take some nice vacations, that sort of thing. Able to employ, you know, people and give them opportunity and help customers. And we're known as the one of the top shops in the area to bring your vehicle. I mean, we've, we're gaining that reputation. So all those things, defining success as a small business.
Brian Bates: And it was like, wow, man, this is great. So when we achieved that, that was to me that was success. I would define that as success. And now, you know. We're in this significance phase where we say, okay, we obviously know how to survive and we know how to be successful. And you can't just disregard those two things and say, Hey, you know, we're going to now move into significance.
Brian Bates: They just, you know, they're at odds with each other for one, but you still, you have to build upon, you can't just, you know, walk through and then di discard that phase as you're going through. So at any rate, you know, knowing that we're very successful and we know what a successful, how a successful business should run and maintaining that success.
Brian Bates: And then also moving into using that success as a way to be significant in a lot of aspects of you know, the industry and in the community and my personal life and, you know, professional life and friends and, you know, just that whole wheel of life. That's really how I would define, you know, success moving forward.
Brian Bates: Right? And at some point you know, everybody exits their career either, you know, horizontally or vertically. I'm hoping, you know, vertically is is how I exit. But you know, when we get through or I get through to the point where I say, you know, Hey I was successful in this significant phase, I feel like it'll be that.
Brian Bates: I was able to develop people to run the business and to have the opportunity to run that bus, you know, the business, whatever, you know, phase it's in when I decide to to walk away. And that the business continues on and that, you know, there's a there's a tempered emotion that comes out of it.
Brian Bates: One, one of not, you know, I don't want a an emotion of, thank God that metal fart finally moved on. Right. You know, it's a, he should have moved on years ago. But I don't want people to go, oh my gosh, how are we gonna survive without him? Right? I want that level of success to be, man. He accomplished a lot of great things and did so much and prepared us.
Brian Bates: And gave us so much, you know, opportunity to grow and to learn and to be successful in this industry. And I wanna accomplish those sorts of things. And, you know, not these exact same things, but those sorts of things in my career that I can look back on and say, well, I'm really proud of that.
Brian Bates: And that people will say that, you know, he did a good job in this industry and added a lot of value to it. So that's, you know, I mean, when I look at legacy and success, to me it, it has some somewhat of that feel, right? I mean, as I'm going through, it starts, you know, forming and shape, you know, becoming a certain shape and color and light as.
Brian Bates: The more I go into, you know, my career, I always look at, you know, my life or my career, whatever is this blank canvas and you know. Bob Ross used to be that guy on PBS that had the big hair. And my mom loved to be happy Little
Michael Smith: picture, right?
Brian Bates: Yeah. And he would make a mistake. It's like, oh, there's a happy little mistake.
Brian Bates: And then all of a sudden it's like, holy cow, man, that like, it looks like he meant to put it in there even though he's, oops. And who knows if he did it on accident or or did it on purpose to try to make it look like an accident. But there's a lot of accidents that I've made in my life that I look back on.
Brian Bates: It's like, man, I'm glad I made that accident. And that just paints a that, that's that, you know, rock that's, you know, that looked like initially, boy that's a mistake. Oops. Didn't you know it was supposed to be a bush And, you know, I didn't do it right now. Looks like a rock. And now, you know, you build this painting around there and then, you know, you look at the finished painting, you go, man, that mistake, you know, looks like it was meant to be.
Michael Smith: well, I'll
Brian Bates: say those are if
Michael Smith: you let me speak just for a second into your significance comment. You, as long as I've known you have been focused on. Deriving meaning and putting meaning in front of what you're doing and bringing people along with you. And I'll say it, a hundred employees, I'm gonna guess that if they're all reasonably stable and you don't have any more of those cowboys or cowgirls out there trying to do their own thing, that's 101 multiplication of what you've got in your hand.
Michael Smith: Now, of leaders and team members who are meaning driven they're focused on significance in the work that they do and the contribution that you guys make to your customers and to your communities, and that, that multiplication model is profound, right? It's not just about success taking home a paycheck or survival, whew, we survived another day.
Michael Smith: Right? You guys are in a different level than most businesses, period. And in our industry, it's an extraordinary. Level and you're multiplying. The bigger you guys get, the more people you bring with you that fit, that, the more they're empowered to walk out. Whether you go out and I hope you go out vertical or yeah, vertical.
Michael Smith: I wanna go out that way too, right? Let's go out and do something on the backside together. But you know, when you're out of it and those people are still in it and they're still making a contribution, that they're not making a survival contribution anymore, they're not making a success. They're in the meaning zone.
Michael Smith: They're in the significant zone, and they've got a hundred and 150 or more people out there spreading meaning. In the world. And that's really a profound legacy that we're talking about here. That's a huge contribution that you guys have made and what's important to you. I just, I didn't want that to go by without really telling you how powerful I think that is.
Brian Bates: it's extremely powerful and I think if anybody people were to take one thing out of this podcast, I would say that's, I mean, if you're looking for the secret that's a huge part of it. If it's not the secret it's a huge part of it. The power of saying, Hey, it's not about money. It's about the, what the money represents.
Brian Bates: The money represents what we're doing. And the more we do the right thing, the more people pay us to do it right. They patronize our business. They support us and and they buy more from us which allows us to continue to grow. Whereas I, you know, I hear like we just, we hired a gal. She's actually, it's interesting.
Brian Bates: We were looking at the recruiting component and we decided rather than hire a recruiter to bring more people in, let's look at where the holes are in our bucket and let's seal those up and make it, you know, as a stable, a bucket as possible. Meaning that instead of seeing our bucket and saying, we've got a lot of holes in the bucket and we're leaking water, everybody has turnover in their company.
Brian Bates: Right? I feel like our turnover is pretty low, but I still feel like, Hey, you know, we could do a better job. There's people that you know, have probably left or that, you know, we've we've, you know, parted ways with that. Probably it was because of what we were doing, not or our environment or something that we weren't doing was the reason why they left.
Brian Bates: And so we hired a what we labeled our team development manager and that person. Comes in and has career discussions with our team members make sure that they're onboarded properly, they understand all the purpose of the business and all those things that right now it's becoming difficult for us to really, you know, make sure that there, there's a solid foundation there.
Brian Bates: So as we saw that starting to kind of wobble, we said, Hey, we need to hire somebody who's dedicated. It means so much that we dedicated somebody to say. This is, you know, where, you know what the company stands for. Make sure that they understand the values and that they align with those values. And now, where do you want to go in this career?
Brian Bates: Where do you want to go in this company? Let's bring our, you know, our training resources, everything into your, you know, to you so that you can grow as a person in a profession and what roadblocks are in your way. And give 'em the feedback to those managers, those leaders that are there to serve and to remove roadblocks so that people can perform at their highest level.
Brian Bates: So, at any rate the the idea that we're chasing money, the person that we hired said that they left a company because they were they were focused on making money. They were moving towards a very sales organized or sales centric culture instead of a people culture. And and we we agree with the philosophy that we're in the hospitality industry, right?
Brian Bates: And that's not just hospitality for our customers, but also for people on the team. And what hospitality means is just that experience, that full experience, not just the transaction. Like you can go to Motel six and get a bed and a shower and all those things, right? Or you can go to the Ritz Carlton or the Four Seasons.
Brian Bates: There's a super big difference in, in the price that you will pay, but people pay it for the experience, the hospitality. And not that we're looking to, you know, blow people away and overdo it with our hospitality. But we also want to know that, hey, look, the hospitality is extremely important.
Brian Bates: And so for us, and I think as you grow any business grows more and more. If you start really focusing on those numbers, then you will have people that will become discouraged about that and say, Hey, look, this is all about the money. All they care about is the money. And if you let that creep into your business you're in for trouble.
Brian Bates: Because the people that stay know, you know, they will have decided that the way to get recognized in this company is to make more money for the company and generate revenue. And so we we constantly, I don't think you can say it enough. It's not, it's like saying, you know, I love you in a marriage.
Brian Bates: You know, you don't just say, Hey, I love you. When you get married and then say, if anything changes, I'll let you know. You know, just know once a year on your
Michael Smith: anniversary
Brian Bates: one more time. Right. But it's it's the same thing about the revenue is a representation of the experience that the customer has.
Brian Bates: And part of that experience is connecting with a customer and understanding them and having them feel like they're cared for and they're not just a number, and you're not just, you know, targeting their wallet, you're targeting, you know, their needs as a customer and serving them. So when we celebrate a record month or you know, a great day or you know, a, you know, any sort of achievement or whatnot, we always recognize the behavior that goes into that.
Brian Bates: Right? It's like, Hey, this is a result. You know, the stats here the score at the end of a football game is representative of how they played the game and we're not. You know, we're, when teams take the field, they know they have to put points on the board in order to score, but they also know how they have to come together as a team and the actions that it takes in order to score those points.
Brian Bates: Otherwise they'd be. Going to the hardware store to get a ladder to climb up to the scoreboard to start, you know, putting points on the board, right? And so it's not about putting points on the board, it's what those points represent. And that's the the thing that makes people admire games and admire the people that win at those games is what it takes, the work and the effort that it takes to win that game.
Brian Bates: So, so at any rate, you know, again, if people take anything away from this podcast I hope they, they realize that's the key, right? Is the power of having that purpose and understanding that this is the reason why we're in business and it's something more noble than, you know, fixing cars and being the best repair shop in town.
Brian Bates: I mean, that's, it should be something that inspires the higher level that you develop that purpose and create it, and then reinforce it and bring other people onto your crusade. The higher level people you get, you don't get the people that are like, Hey, I just want to be the best and I wanna work in a shark tank and you know, we're gonna be the best shop and I'm gonna be the best person in the best shop you want to be.
Brian Bates: Hey, you know, and if that's what you want, then that's that's fine. But for us. That purpose of, you know, making other people's lives better and growing our influence and growing the company based on doing that at, you know, a larger and larger level is something that has has been really fun for us.
Michael Smith: Well, I'll tell you, you know, you you're walk and talk and testimony is that you guys are building a skyscraper and you're gonna have 31 floors on it here soon, and there's more in the pipeline behind that, right. As an idea. And every rockstar you bring in is another iron steel pillar. That you put in the ground at the foundation and the fact that you've doubled down on your investment by having the focus be their intake and their cultural alignment and their development and the strengthening of them.
Michael Smith: It's almost like you're getting these giant rockstar pillars and then you're deep, you're embedding them deep in concrete, and the stronger your foundation comes of this stuff, the more floors you can put on it, the more floors you can put on it. And it's, I mean, the you're investing in what you believe in and it's a beautiful thing to watch it succeed and grow and get stronger and taller and higher.
Michael Smith: And it's impressive indeed. You can see it from a long way away at this point. A lot of people watching you. So congratulations. You guys are killing it.
Kent Bullard: Yeah. Brian, this has been such a fulfilling. Conversation just jam packed with value. You kinda answered my final question, which is what message would you leave for somebody who is pursuing to do what you are doing?
Kent Bullard: And I think, you know, I wrote down here do what inspires. I think that's something you said and I think that speaks to everything that you've discussed today. And I just, I truly want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for sharing this with just me on a personal level. I've got a lot out of this and definitely spoken to some parts of myself.
Kent Bullard: So I thank you very much for that. Yeah,
Brian Bates: I I love sharing and helping, helping people. But I also think that gives me the or at least opens the door to learn from other people. And and the one thing that I always loved about going to the the bot or the peer groups the gear groups that you guys have is just getting with other owners and just knowing that it could be the guy that opened his shop two weeks ago, or the guy that has been running a shop for 40 years, but they're, I was gonna learn something from somebody.
Brian Bates: Right? And and I just always, I learned, well, I hadn't always learned, but through my experience, I learned that you just don't discount anybody that has anything to say or whatnot because everybody's has their own experience. And whether they're running a John Deere shop out in the middle of, you know, Kansas, or they're running some, you know, high euro shop in the middle of San Francisco, there's a, you know, there's something that they know that will help you in your business, right?
Brian Bates: I mean, if they're successful in business, it's not because they don't know what they're doing. They've figured something out that probably will help me to bring value to the people that are working in our stores, right? So it's it's, I don't know. Like I said, that's the passion that I developed with just business.
Brian Bates: And it doesn't matter whether you're running a. Plumbing business or you know, you know, medical supply business or whatnot. It's all about leadership and, you know, really serving other people through those principles because everything rises and falls in leadership. I mean, it, you know, you can see it time and time again where you go into a location that's struggling and this place lacks leadership.
Brian Bates: Or you go into a place that you know is struggling and then you put the right leader in there and it just takes off almost on day one and you go, yeah, that's the power of leadership. Right. So,
Kent Bullard: well, Brian, thank you so much for the time. Those of you who have been listening, again, if you have any questions or comments about the stuff we covered today, if you'd like to learn more again, comments below and you can find more information at, we are the institute.com.
Kent Bullard: Brian, thank you so much.
Michael Smith: Thank you my friend.
Kent Bullard: President of ESA Tire and Auto. It's been a pleasure.
Brian Bates: Yeah, it's a pleasure's been mine. Thank you guys for having me on.
Michael Smith: Take care, my friend. Yep.
