From Sales Floor to Market President: Lessons in Leadership and Resilience

[0:00]  I think High performers not always but a good high percentage of top performers at least in this industry have more of a a selfish nature to them right it's about them only about them and a lot of times they they're not really focused on the big picture I think normally a lot of times when you see those the middle Auto Pack consistent performers they perform individually but they also bring a team Dynamic and help they're ones that are always volunteering to do you know the stuff that they don't get paid for they always willing to help a fellow teammate they're always willing to help a new sales associate that's just coming on board and so you see those uh leadership traits a lot more in that middle of the pack to Upper end more so

[0:52]  than just the the top performer most cases if you change the incentive right you change the outcome and when the incentive is let's just rack up these deals and at the end of the month it's going to be who's got the most on the board right that changes the way in which we engage with people but if you have somebody who isn't so driven for those results they can put their time into investing into other people which is so interesting to think about in hindsight as you were talking there I'm thinking yeah the people in the middle are the glue right that hold the team together which is so important all right guys welcome back to a brand new episode of the heart and hustle podcast now I'm incredibly excited to sit across this table from this digital

[1:40]  leader here today because we're going to learn a couple lessons some of these lessons are going to be what it's like to have patience in a role that's presented to us how the trajectory of our life might be changed by a simple conversation and so much more today I've got Kelly Alston the market president of Mills Auto Group here with me man Kelly welcome to the show thank you great appreciate you having me so Kelly um you know I heard that once upon a time you were given a piece of advice where someone said just give it a year talk about how that simple suggestion kind of Chang the trajectory of your professional life for me absolutely so I I started selling cars part-time while I was in college and uh it was simply just going to be a Resume Builder and uh I

[2:28]  was getting a degree finance and my whole game plan was to uh get into banking go back to uh New York which is where I'm from work on Wall Street as an investment banker and um when I went in to resign for my part-time sales position uh when I was getting ready to graduate the uh VP of the company decided to come down and take me out to lunch and uh have a conversation with me about really considering the automo of Industry as a career and um you know we had a great lunch had a great conversation and uh you know he convinced me to give it one year to see where it took me and um you know that turned out to be a very

[3:15]  pivotal conversation that helped me make probably what I would consider the best decision I could ever made how was your mindset when you come back from that conversation someone just took you aside put the time in effort to say hey Kelly I see something in you right I'm paraphrasing here of course but just give me a year and see where you're at how did that feel when you left that conversation you it made me feel Valu you know because here I am I'm not you know a high level manager or anything in the company I am a part-time salesperson and you know for someone and at that time I'm 22 years old to sit across the table from me very successful person sit across the table from me and say look you've got what it takes give give it a year let's see where it takes us because I see it in you so you know

[4:04]  what I left that conversation you know with a lot of confidence um and it really helped Propel me to to understand that you know I can really do something special so what happens in that year so in that year I start off selling cars full-time um you know did really well started being handed some leadership stuff amongst the salese and then then 10 months in I got promoted uh to finance manager and so part of that maturation process or that Ascension through the organization means first of all you're a pretty badass salesman if you're being asked to be in a position of leadership help coach up the team now you're a f you know you're a finance manager what is the process and responsibilities of a finance manager that are a little bit

[4:50]  different from the sales process what's that look like oh it's probably the second most important position in the whole dealership um you're responsible for uh cash flow so you know one getting the customer approved Contracting them disclosing all the you know Federal documents on the loan and everything like that as well as um your responsible for generating income from selling products such as warranties and insurance and then you got to make sure the money gets into the cash register as well as make sure the car gets properly registered with DMV so it is a very uh detailed and very intense position and how did you kind of fall into that because I know that you had some Finance

[5:37]  I would say passion right before we started the sales position so does this naturally the Ascension for you and you're like hey this is my element where I'm doing all of it yeah and you know what it was the path that the company had that was like the second step that's your first step into management so it it was it was more their career path and um I learned a lot and it was a uh it was a very tough position and it was a very tough transition initially going into it for me because it required a lot of detail and I wasn't a very naturally detailed person at that stage in the game and how did we become that more detailed person was it a necessity or you just recognized that this is my unlock my level up that kind it was out of necessity so funny story um my paperwork was terrible my DMV paperwork was terrible and I had a

[6:29]  title clerk who I frustrated to no end and she actually went to the general manager and gave him an ultimatum and told him either he was going to get rid of me or she was going to quit that's how bad it was and um I'll never forget it he pulled me in office with her and he sat there and told me he said you know she just gave me ultimatum either it's her or you and I don't like ultimatums and I don't like being put in this position so he made us work together he he told her you're going to teach him and he's going to listen and the two of you will work together because but you both are too

[7:17]  valuable to me for either one of you to go and begrudgingly she sat with me for hours and really taught me and trained me and really gave me an understanding of how I made her job so difficult and um you know I listened to her and I put the focus and effort into it and and you know what got it fixed went from being one of the worst to one of the best as it as it relates to the paperwork wow and I'm sure that you know you had to have a little bit of humility right sitting down across the table with her saying okay I'mma listen I'm the finance manager here you know I'm making sure these deals come through this is just paperwork but you had to read a refocused f focus on that when she got done with you oh oh my goodness yeah because I I had I had no idea that she

[8:06]  felt that way to the point where she walked in and said fire him so that was a that was a eye openening experience at that point have you taken that nugget of wisdom right around healthy conflict when something's wrong something's not right having the conversation Upstream rather than having it come Downstream to the point where your manager or your boss is saying I got an ultimatum here it's either you or you so you two need to figure it out yeah absolutely you know having that experience I think it really helped me to develop the insight to be able to to look at things happening before it gets to that point so that I can insert myself and and and solve the problem before it becomes that type of problem

[8:56]  so you know that experience definitely helped me a lot is as it relates to especially getting into the roles that I I went on to uh to occupy let's talk about that a little bit so finance manager conversation with our title clerk right what's the next step up in our career and how did we get there so next step was sales manager and um you know based on my performance in finance they realized that I would be a very good sales manager so they promoted me to sales manager and my initial stent as a sales manager was very short it was only like two months and did a really good job and then this was around 2001 when the internet first became a thing in automotive and we had been acquired

[9:47]  by big uh Automotive uh consolidator and they had this initiative that they were going to have platform internet sales directors and they wanted us to create processes and everything like that so I get called back into the same vp's office that took me to lunch and um he sits down he says look I don't know what this internet sales thing is but you're the youngest sales manager in the company know you know what the internet is I need you to figure it out and so at this time I'm 24 years old and I'm handed this huge responsibility of creating the uh

[10:35]  process um deciding who's going to be involved in it and then having to roll this out to all of the general managers of 17 dealerships so you know tall task and I would say that one position prepared me for everything going forward because I had to be creative and then I had to go in and sell these top level professionals on my idea for how we're going to execute this process that they had never done before I need to know what these conversations look like 24 year old coming in and pitching the internet right to people who were seasoned what

[11:21]  is this like oh it it it it was crazy because no one really understood the concept and I and I was very bold and ambitious because the one thing I asked every general manager for was their number one salesperson Not only was I coming in and say hey we're g to change the way we do things this is going to be a whole new segment of business but I went in and asked and I said look I need your best person I don't need your second best I don't need your third best I need the best person and they all looked at me like I was crazy what was the rationale behind that because they would be able to touch more people on the internet than they would standing around waiting for that face to face

[12:08]  contact and if I remember correctly I got 12 out of the 17 to give me their number one person and the other five gave me their second and third best and within a year we were outperforming the normal sales people in profit let let me let me wrap my head around this um first of all with a little bit of hindsight 2020 right totally makes sense what we're talking about but this is a huge change agent activity so how are we engaging in sales early 2000s around High ticket items like Automotive right like how are we pushing this and how is the sales process look online so and I'm figuring out as I went along right but what I

[12:57]  understood was these early adopters to the process they wanted the reason why they were going through the internet is because they didn't want the traditional sales process right they didn't want to spend the time in the dealership they wanted to get as much done before they came in as possible and they wanted to be a very short seamless transaction and I also realized that they would pay for it that was the key you know first couple of you know when we first turned it on I wanted to engage the customers myself and I kind I figured out real quick that these people just wanted to be taken care of they were okay paying what they had to pay if they didn't have to deal with the the headache and the and and

[13:44]  the hassle and I also realized that most of them wanted Prime premium merchandise so they weren't trying to buy the you know everyday vehicle they were coming in looking at what was hot highest intent buyers exactly best resources give me what I need and let me get out of here right exactly and then once once I had the data to show that look we're running higher gross profit on these deals then you're running in a traditional process then they understood that they needed to have a better quality salesperson in this in this situation and um it it did so

[14:32]  well that I was only in the job for 14 months I was gonna say they put you somewhere else real quick I sold myself out of that job wow and it was it the other it was two other interesting things so one they started inviting me to the general manager meetings so I was one of the only non-general managers invited in these meetings but they brought me in there to really put pressure on the general managers because they always wanted me to show my numbers versus everybody else's and it put a lot of pressure on the general managers for performance a lot of pressure any negative push back on this internet whz kid who's coming in

[15:19]  and showing us the hard data about the numbers you know what I'm saying no they wanted me you know they really wanted me to come and spend more time in the store so when it was time for them to have the conver ation it's kind of funny how Automotive works sometimes sometimes you can uh earn your way out of a position because you make too much money and um that was the situation they they had no clue that we would be able to do what we did so when they sat down and had a conversation with me and told me okay look we want to put you back in the store continue your pro your progression they literally told me I had to pick I could go to any store every general manager wanted me to come work for them so I had my pick of where I wanted to go work so how does young Kelly because right now we're talking right you said

[16:05]  you're a 24y old who goes into that General uh General manager's office right 14 months later so I'm guessing you're like 25 26 at this point in time you've got the pick of the landscape how do you keep your ego in check at that point in time to stay humble recognize you got so much more impact you can make well you know I think I've always I've always been humble and I and I think it really comes from my from my upbringing so I never I've never gotten too high I've never gotten too low I always kind of stay in the middle and I'm always trying to figure out okay what's the next step so for me I looked at okay where can I go have the greatest impact that will help me get to the next step quicker

[16:55]  so I think they were shocked when I picked the store to go to I picked the worst store in the group to go back to man you're writing a hell of a story right now this is so cool so we picked the worst store to go to yep and it just happened to be the store that I originally started selling cars in and it was a Nissan dealership and it was struggling and um I picked to go back there um because I knew I could go in there and make a difference and I knew it would stand out if I just went to one of the stores that was already doing well you know probably could have helped them move the needle some but it wouldn't been as you know recognizable at that point yeah we're looking for impact at this point in time right it's much easier to take a 30 to a 90 than

[17:43]  take a 90 to 100 right absolutely absolutely okay so we're in the store now where we move we go to the Nissan store that we first started selling cars at right what is the next process of your career at that point I'm focusing more on used cars to get that background and really go in there and take a strong leadership role had a great general manager at the time that really invested and and and really helped me work on the people piece because I was just a hard charge and you know take prisoners if I had to you know either you were going to be a hostage or a volunteer either one it didn't matter to me and um really help refine that piece and I and another pivotal

[18:33]  conversation you know I am driving these people to no end to get these get the results and we're getting the results and um same VP comes back and has another conversation with me takes me to lunch again and he comes to inform me that my number one salesperson asked for a transfer because of me and I had no idea what's the first reaction you hear when you say that this has got to be him this ain't me you know what I mean like why you looking at me for this I'm like what do you what do you mean and he explains to me that you know what the way I was communicating um you know it it just

[19:23]  wore thin and you know he told me something he said Kelly you are talented enough that people will follow you because of who you are not what you say or how you say it and it he encouraged me to go back and have conversations with all of my salese on how they really felt about me now you want to talk about a humbling experience that was a humble in experience because you know I'm thinking these guys love me because I'm helping them make so much money but they tolerated me

[20:13]  because I made them a lot of money and but this one person the paycheck couldn't be big enough for them to continue to deal with me and that changed my whole whole communication style whole communication style I mean at one point in time right we think that results are going to drive results but the skill set of being a sales manager being a Salesman right does not correlate into the skill set of being a leader and getting the best out of people which is a huge maturation of process it does not and I'm G tell you something I've noticed the the top salesperson the number one guy usually doesn't make the best leader

[21:04]  it's usually ones in the middle of the pack that end up being the best leaders and the best managers why do you think that is well because I think High performers not always but a good high percentage of top performers at least in this industry have more of a a selfish nature to them right it's about them only about them and a lot of times they they're not really focused on the big picture and you know what there's nothing wrong with that because there's a place for those performers right um and I think normally a lot of times when you see those the mid- order pack consistent performers they perform individually but they also bring a team Dynamic and they're willing to help

[21:51]  they're the ones that are always volunteering to do you know the stuff that they don't get paid for they always willing to help a fellow teammate they're always willing to help a new sales associate that's just coming on board um and so you see those um leadership traits a lot more in that middle of the pack to Upper end more so than just the the top performer in most cases yeah I mean the the if you change the incentive right you change the outcome and when the incentive is let's just rack up all these deals and at the end of the month it's going to be who's got the most on the board right that changes the way in which we engage with people but if you have somebody who isn't so driven for those results they can put their time into investing into other people which is so interesting to

[22:38]  think about in hindsight as you were talking there I'm thinking yeah the people in the middle are the glue right that hold the team together which is so important absolutely man so we've spent many years right in this space okay how has the industry changed I mean something that everybody who's going to be tuning in watching and listening to this episode is like yeah the automotive Market went crazy from the pandemic forward so what are some of the big changes that we're kind of seeing on the other side of that world changing event that we all went through well um I think we're going to see some really drastic changes um I think we're going to see um a lot of Manufacturers consolidating um especially with this EV uh situation it's going to be interesting to see how it comans out with the new

[23:26]  Administration um because if they get rid of these EV tax credits that's really going to change a lot of things and it's going to force the manufacturers to Pivot on some huge Investments they've already made in shifting drastically towards EV so that's going to be very interesting to see how this all plays out in the next year or two do you think that those Legacy this is kind of a question that's on the the front of my mind um I currently so I'm not going to be holding any punches here I grew up in Detroit like we talked about in our original call right I've probably had had maybe like 12 13 cars to this point in my life I recently in 2022 hopped into a Tesla a model y right completely changed my entire perspective of the automotive industry do you think from your unbiased perspective right do you think that Ford

[24:16]  all these other type of companies are going to be able to make the transition to the EV Marketplace because the manufacturing isn't set up that way they're having to re-engineer the entire businesses to be able to make money on these cars that they're producing it is it's going to be very tough and see the biggest issue is none of them are making money on these EV sales they're they're losing big dollars because the investment is so great in R&D and everything for them to to you know to develop these new products and when you're fighting a Tesla that's been around for years and let's face it nothing's really changed with the car right so we can't the Legacy manufacturers cannot compete on price I mean he can just keep lowering it and lowering it

[25:06]  because his cost basis is so much less than everybody else's so it's it's going to be very interesting to see um how they pivot in the situation and then especially if the EV tax credit goes away that plays into Tesla's hand and makes every everybody else a lot less competitive oh man it's just interesting to think about how when we ignore something that seems so obvious in an industry like this before you know it you're going to look and you're going to be surrounded by competition you're not going to have a way out back in 2021 I first started looking into some of the vehicles from like Ford and Chevrolet Chevy came out with a Chevy Volt which unfortunately started fires in people's garages the Ford Lightning came out but

[25:53]  they were selling those things in dealerships like 880,000 over MSRP you know what I mean so like these vehicles were so expensive that I just didn't think that there was a way for these people these Legacy Automotive manufacturers to navigate the changing landscape as quickly as they Tred to it's just interesting to hear somebody's perspective who's like in it like you are yeah it it's gonna be very it's concerning it's concerning but there a lot of them are already starting to Pivot and back away from you know their hard stances on EV and now hybrids are going to be really the way to go for more efficiency um I think you'll see a lot more hybrids and not as many full electric vehicles man so what are we thinking about the transition to a younger generation of young Kelly who are coming

[26:41]  to work in the automotive space how are you thinking they're interpreting the landscape right now the opportunities that are in front of them have things changed over the years or what's kind of your two cents on that yeah things have changed drastically and they're going to have to continue to change you know the automotive industry has always been a very time intensive business you got to be there to make the money so you know one of the biggest um detractors in our business has always been um the hours right week working weekends working late nights and the younger Workforce is more motivated by time than money right so you know my generation we would grad gladly trade dollars per time right right if you paid me enough I work

[27:29]  as many hours as you as you wanted me to work that is not this generation they are not motivated by money they're motivated by time and really want to be included right they want to be included and that is a very drastic shift from what the traditional Automotive business you know has been so definitely a transition I think about a term that I've tried to float and a framework I've tried to create here on the podcast called the instant gratification trap we have a younger generation of people who have been slowly but surely conditioned by the things that we engage with through social media and the little device that's always with us never outside of Arms Reach to look for things instantaneously I order food it'll be here in 20 minutes I need a car

[28:15]  someone's stranger is going to pull up in front of my house I need XYZ it'll be here tomorrow via Amazon but when you think about creating a sustainable career in an industry like you have talking 20 plus years of dedication and time time do you think we're going to hit a clipping point where this younger generation expects the promotions the pay the titles but they just haven't put in the time that's necessary to actually Ascend the same way that you did 100% I mean I've experienced it um you know it's funny I think it was uh almost 10 years ago now I uh had the brilliant idea that I was going to go recruit a bunch of uh kids directly out of college into the automotive industry um went down to Northwood University uh brought back five kids convinced five kids to

[29:03]  come move to Charlotte North Carolina to sell cars and Brilliant kids you know we we did a great job with them but it did not move fast enough for them they you know six months in they wanted to be the general manager so it was uh it was very interesting it was eye opening but but definitely there is not the level of patience that I had to have matriculating through um and what most cases will be required to move through the ranks because you know what it's the automotive industry is a very complex landscape and you don't learn it and

[29:51]  master it in 90 days one year and every time you get promoted in a position you're start starting over and you got a lot to learn and it takes a long time to master the skills necessary especially to do it the right way you know to do it the wrong way you know you you can maybe move a little bit fast but if you really are going to be effective in your role it takes some time feel like we heard that story growing up right there was the tortoise in the hair seemed like no matter how fast the hair wanted to run it's always he's going to be losing that race the slow and steady progression and that element of patience is something I think we really need to harp on a little bit more yeah and you know what it and it didn't happen fast enough for me right I yeah I always thought I was ready before

[30:42]  I was ready um but I think it's a little bit more pronounced now you know I I thought I was ready after a year right now it's six months right so it it's it's it's definitely a big difference how have you seen so we've talked about you know you your transformation your maturation process and being a leader getting the most out of others right we've worked in a couple different areas and divisions inside the business how have you thought about the differences in generations of leaders right I have a book here I'd love to bring into these conversations I'm not sure if I brought this up last time Gary ve social media Gary vaynerchuck Book 12 and a half leveraging the emotional ingredients necessary for business success whole emphasis of this book is in the Future

[31:30]  Leaders of great organizations who can build a following of people who are willing to go to war for the mission that everybody's on it means you're gonna not have to show up like Steve Jobs who ruled like a tyrant and was a real hard ass but more importantly somebody who's skilled in the soft skills compassion empathy kind cander tenacity um curiosity how do you kind of think about that Changing of the Guard from a skill set perspective to get the next or the most out of the Next Generation absolutely so you know that's something that I'm working with our leaders on right now you know we do a lot of leadership training and you know those soft skills are mandatory now because you have to have a different conversation right you have to have a

[32:18]  different approach you really have to take the time to know your staff on an individual basis to understand what makes this person tick what how I get the most out of this one person so there's not one message anymore for the staff it used to be you could bring a bunch of people in a room you know you can you can hit them with a couple of things motivate them wind them up send them out you know on on a mission now you know you can still do that but 40% of the room is going to get it and 60% of the room is not and you really have to focus in on an individual basis um and have all those soft skills you know listening and patience is huge and you've got to be willing to answer the

[33:09]  question of why right because when I came along you just did it because you were told to do it now everybody wants to know the why behind it and you got to be willing one willing to explain the why but also skilled enough to explain it in a way that they get and then they take it and run with it I I'm going to share an example of one of my favorite leaders right now um this individual has been in the spotlight in the uh Sports World Collegiate world over the last I would say year year and a half Dion Sanders right coach at University of Colorado Buffalo there was a a video I was watching one time and somebody was asking him like Dion how did you become such a great leader right you deal with so many young men who are from so many

[33:58]  different backgrounds and families and cultures how do you get the most out of all of them and he said well I'll tell you what I don't do is come in and speak that one message because I'm only hitting a certain amount of my men so what I have to do is spend enough time around everybody to understand what makes everybody tick Keenan might be somebody I need to grab by the caller and have a real conversation with Kelly might be somebody I need to pull into my office and say hey man haven't seen what you've been doing I'm really proud of you let's keep working right you have to be able to attack the group from a different perspective as a leader so who is one one of your favorite leaders who you've drawn inspiration from so it's funny um Deion Sanders is probably uh the number one guy right now um just seeing what he's been able to do from Jackson State and how quickly he's

[34:47]  done it and then with the with the character that he's doing it with I think that's the one thing that a lot of people are not talking about you know they talk about you know because he's a flashy guy so you he's got great on liners so you you take all of that right but when you see when you really peel back the onion and you see how deep and granular he gets with these kids and then the character that he's doing it with and he's not deviating no matter what comes his way he is not changing who he is and his way of doing it so that that is um that's been a great example great example I mean I just love how he's not coming across cocky he's coming across as convicted

[35:36]  right he's like I know who I am so why do you think I'm G to give anybody's or give two cents to anybody's opinion that's not me dog you know what I mean I just love the way in which he carries himself he's like just one of my all-time favorite leaders y authentic authentic great word man so here's a question for you if we could go back in time Kelly right to let's say 20 in 2001 and we're sitting in a room with you for 5 minutes uninterrupted advice to help that younger version of Kelly navigate to become the person who sits in front of me here today what advice would you give to him oh man um one I would tell him to be patient okay it's not going to happen fast enough but it's going to happen at

[36:26]  the right time right um I had someone tell me one time just because it's your time doesn't mean it's your turn and and that that resonated so one be patient um two people will follow you for who you are more than what you do so make sure who you are is in the Forefront and then what you do people even love you more for that um and then the third thing is to um really enjoy the process enjoy the process because every

[37:19]  step is going to be something that you are able to take with you to the next challenge that's going to prepare you for it do you believe in fate I do to a degree I do to a degree you know my father when I was growing up he always uh he had a saying in our family he said everything happens for a reason right sometimes you get cut from the squad sometimes you lose the job sometimes you miss you get a flat tire but you never know what happens on the other side of that right and as I as I kind of sit here and think about the advice that I would give to my younger version to myself it would be enjoy the journey M you know we spend so much time as high Achievers thinking about okay I'm here the next place I got to get to is there and once I get there the next

[38:06]  place I need to get to is there and we're always moving that goal poost or that accomplishment turns into a horizon eventually we're always chasing absolutely and my biggest fear is that I'm gonna get to the end of the race 70y old 80y old Keenan and be like wow you really accomplished everything that you said you were going to but guess what you [ __ ] it up because you didn't enjoy any of the steps that got us here today you know what I mean that's a tough balance it is it is very tough balance especially when you're when you're driven right you're conditioned to what's next you know one of the things that I've had to work on I probably my biggest struggle I've always struggled with recognition giving recognition and it's because it's something that I've never

[38:54]  needed right I've always been wired to just go get it and I've always been more focused on my misses I count my misses I don't count my makes and that's transitioned also into leadership too and I've really had to try and focus in and give recognition because a lot of people do need it right um and it pushes them further it gives them fuel you know to keep going and and and I've had to work on it with my kids as well right um because I've got very high expectations for them I've got high expectations for the people that that I

[39:41]  work with and um you know meeting my expectation is the qualifier right but a lot of times that deserves a good job and I've had to condition myself to uh to really point that out and focus on if if if I have a Kryptonite that is My Kryptonite is giving recognition man you're talking about it with me too man it's uh there's a process and I was talking to my girl about this the other night I was like you know it's interesting when you're a high achiever you always want to accomplish more and the the stress that I give myself is I know deep down inside of me that I could be doing more I don't know if that's actually true or not but that's the voice in the back of my head so so every

[40:27]  single day when I wake up right I need to crush the gym at 5:30 in the morning I need to be good on all my conversations I need to articulate myself well I need to remember to do all the stuff around the house I need to support my girl throughout the day emotionally and physically when she's here and then if I do all those things I come back to the Baseline of saying okay today was a good day but if you hear that from the outside that sounds like a pretty [ __ ] awesome day you know what I mean but it's the bare minimum for me and it's like I'm just trying to stretch my boundaries to be a little bit more appreciative of the things that I do accomplish on a daily basis because that sense of inadequacy or that coming from that mindset of scarcity sometimes over a longer time Horizon man could be a dangerous little equation for yourself it can absolutely how do you think about accountability in your life do you mean self- accountability

[41:17]  how do you think about accountability when I say accountability what pops into your mind first thing self-accountability accountability for others what are you thinking um being respons responsible being responsible whether it's uh for my own actions or being responsible for the people whove entrusted their careers right in my hand right holding them accountable but also being accountable to them uh to give them what they need in order to be successful but um I learned accountability at a very young age very young age you got a story for us oh my dad was Mr accountability um very little got past him and um he had extremely high

[42:09]  expectations um and once you showed what you were capable of that was the that was the floor and that was the expectation and um you know it he did not let anything fall through the cracks it was you were always on your aame and he helds you the task to what he expected you to do and what you were expected to do as you got older did you start looking at that as not so much like a parental weight that they put on us because I'm sure as a young man it's like Dad come on I'm doing my best it's like I know you can do better but when we get older with a little bit of perspective it's really a blessing that somebody cared that much about us to hold us to a higher standard 100% I mean I I am forever in

[42:57]  debed to him for that because it truly made me who I am today now I'm a big Sports guy right played football basketball as you can see my picture of Kobe over here can't always get the picture right um baseball is my my big sport played in college I'm a big uh like Babe Ruth guy right because he called his shot I want you to call your shot over 2025 2026 what are we looking to accomplish Kelly looking to uh from a personal level um you know definitely looking to one uh improve from a fitness standpoint right that's kind of the mode I'm in right now uh I'll be 50 in two years so when I hit 50 I want to be in

[43:47]  the best shape of my life so that's one of the things and then from a professional standpoint just continue to grow um continue to grow uh myself my skill set um but also continue to grow um the business that I'm entrusted to lead you know maximize our opportunities that's that's that's what I'm looking do to do over the next two years so we have a we have a tradition here on the podcast okay um what we do is we have our previous guest ask our current guest a blind question and because you're talking about growth I think this is a really important one um if you had a magic wand that had one Magic wave in it what would you wipe it

[44:35]  towards or wand it towards and what change would you hope it caused for your personal growth that's a good question um what would I wave it towards my personal growth um man whoever asked that question man that that that's a that's a deep one what would I wave it towards my personal growth um I would wave it in order to freely give recognition I love that man you know

[45:24]  it's easy to understand um why you're here the podcast because you are the definition of heart and hustle Kelly we talked about your maturation process how much you've grown in this role how it felt for you when someone took you aside and said just give me a year and look where we're at 25 plus years later right doing our thing and still having a huge impact man I'm really proud of the individual who sits across from me here today but also for you coming on and blessing the stage with me and talking about your heart and hustle man I can't thank you enough for coming on the show I I appreciate you having me