AutoShop Ministries Episode 2 - Make Your Best Your Standard: From Technician to CEO

0:00It's Joe Adams with Adams Automotive, the number one shop in America. This is Master Tech to Millionaire presented by Auto Shop Answers, where we talk about the transition from technician to business owner and CEO. We're here once again with Auto Shop Ministries chaplain, Devonte Tidwell. We're gonna be talking today about, you know, I'll actually, before I get into that, I'll say, how you doing, Devonte?

0:24And let you introduce the topic. How you doing, Devonte? Man, I'm doing well. Everything is great. It's a great morning where I am. So I'm, you know, I'm happy. Like, it's gonna be good. I'm looking forward to some golf later. You know, it's gonna be, it's gonna be an incredible, it's gonna be an incredible day. It's gonna be an incredible week. So I'm excited.

0:40Man, you're playing golf. It's 10,000 degrees outside, man. What's the, you must be addicted. Well, the golf bug got me, okay? Like, it's pretty bad. That's right. My wife is tired of seeing packages come to the house. So, so pray for me too. Oh man, yeah. That's funny. The Lord's a golfer. So anyway, So let's get right into it. What are we talking about today?

1:02Yeah, I want to talk to people today about holding a standard of excellence. You know, I think one of the things that I see, Joe, is people will try to hold a different level of standards for different things, right? And I understand that. That's just human nature, right? We may want to be really good in one area that we care about and maybe an area that we're not so passionate about.

1:24We're like, ah, I'll get to it. Ah. I'm not going to show up as my best. It's okay if I'm a little late. It's okay if I don't show up at all. Like, I want to talk about your best being your standard. Because when something is your standard, Joe, you and I know it bleeds over into everything. It bleeds over into how you play golf.

1:44It bleeds over into how you love your spouse. It bleeds over into your work, how you do business, how you do partnerships, how you treat employees. When you say, man, I'm going to give my absolute best, it becomes your standard. So I want to talk today about that a little bit because I think it's really imperative and important that we gain this concept.

2:03Like, and I say gain intentionally. I don't want to just say learn because if you just learn it but you don't apply it and it doesn't become something attached to you, it's just cool knowledge, right? I want them to gain this idea and encourage all of us to say, man, what is my personal standard and why is it that way? So let me read scripture so that it gives us a little bit of the, the backdrop and the foundation for what it is that I'm trying to explain.

2:27So Colossians chapter 3, verse 23 says this: Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ that you are serving. Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart as working for the Lord, not humans.

2:53Imagine that God is always watching, right? We've heard that. And, and if you spent any amount of time in church as a kid especially, you'd be like, man, God, hey, God's always watching. And that typically was used to like make us be afraid of making poor decisions, right? But I think the deeper concept in this is that we are— we have an obligation to somebody that's more important than anybody here on Earth.

3:19We have an obligation to the God of the universe. We have an obligation to the God that fashioned us, that formed us, that put this plan for our life into place. And when you have that context as your backdrop, it changes the way you approach things. It's like, uh, did I get up? Did I greet my kids properly this morning? Did I spend some real time with them, or did I just say, hey, I really need to get out the door because I got to make it here because my boss said that if I'm late one more time, then that's going to be the end, and So now we're focused on the humans, but I

3:49believe that this is telling us that, wait a second, there's an even bigger and more important boss, if you will, right? And it's, it's the Lord. We are working for Jesus. So everything we do, if he gave this to us, if it's a blessing, if there's— we couldn't make, you know, our best, um, efforts get it happen, like make it happen on our own.

4:13He had to put some things in place. The fact that you and I are sitting here is a miracle. Yes, do we Do we do our absolute best and do we try? Absolutely. But there are still some things along the way that if that didn't happen, if we weren't born to this family at this time, you and I wouldn't be having this conversation, right?

4:29So I want to be very clear when I talk about your best, because I don't want that to be synonymous with perfect. And typically, sometimes people will hear best and think they automatically mean perfect. Does that make sense? Yeah, that totally makes sense. I think you just have an internal— I think the Holy Spirit, sometimes you just have conviction on like when you know you're slacking, right?

4:52You know, it's like, right, I think God just wants you to try, uh, your very best. So, so what do you mean by that? Uh, yeah, give a little bit more color on that. Perfect. Let me, let me, let me unpack that some, because when I say your best and not perfect, perfection has gained less success than, than people's best have. How do I know?

5:11I don't need the numbers because nobody's perfect. The person who has been perfect has been zero. It has gotten us nothing. But the people who do their best— consistency is the thing that has been the key. I would love somebody who is more consistent to be on my team to help build the business, to help follow leads and chase them down and build connections and partnerships that are consistent.

5:34I know what I'm getting. When you're on the golf course, you want the person who's gonna give their best every single time if you have a partner, right? Like, I want, I want your best every single time that we're out there. I want your best every single time that, you know, I show up and we have a conversation. I want the best of your attention.

5:50This is what God is saying. I'm not saying perfect because perfect is unattainable. But if we give our best and we say, you know what, I laid down at night and today I gave everything I had and it was the best that I could do with the resources, with the relationships, with the spaces that I had, then you can rest, right? That's, that's when you have that Holy Spirit conviction that you mentioned where when you're not doing your best, when you're slacking some, You don't have that.

6:14You get the complete opposite. You get peace. You almost get like this proverbial pat on the back from the Lord saying, man, you did your best today and I'm pleased with you. God honors that because he knows that when you do it and it's your standard, it becomes something that you uphold, right? You are giving him honor with your effort. I'll say it that way.

6:36You are giving him honor. You are saying thank you without saying thank you. You know what I mean? Yeah. And if I could chime in just on like personal anecdotes. I think people that are listening to it, everybody here, you know, has worked in a shop, hopefully for a long time or a little bit of time. And one story that I have, you're basically saying the Lord honors your effort, you know, honors your try.

7:00And I have this just story that sticks out in my mind from 2023. We're at the Barker Cypress location, and this is very much a momentum business. When the phone's not ringing, there's no customers coming in, it's like you kind of get tempted to kind of like lean on the mop a little bit and kind of like just slack, basically. And we're opening this store in 2023 and it's slow.

7:26Like, it's just— there's literally nothing to do. Like, there's no cars. It's— there's no customers. It's a brand new store. It's like 10 in the morning. And eventually I'm like, all right, I'm not going to just like give up and wait. So we just like got busy. It's like, all right, like, let's just move some cars around in the parking lot and look busier, like move them to the front of the parking lot so people are driving by.

7:49Like we wouldn't change the sign. We're like, hey, let's just move the sign around. You know, it's like inspect some of the cars that are already here again, or let's bring the shuttle in and make it look like we're working on it. Just like, yeah, yeah, yeah. You have some movement. Yeah. Or like practice, you know, let's practice our sales stuff or— and but like, I don't have the data to prove this, but I just swear by it.

8:12I felt like right when we stopped moving, In the next 30 minutes, like, 2 customers walk in, phone starts ringing. And like the, and I bet people in the industry, like, I bet that's not an uncommon experience. It's like, if you're lazy and you slow down and you're not moving around, it's gonna kind of stay that way. But if you're just like, never surrender, like, I'm just gonna keep working, I swear it's either the universe or God or whatever kind of rewards that effort.

8:41And that standard like you're talking about. Yeah, absolutely. And I got scripture for it. You know, I know that it's a concept that God honors. So let me, let me read a few scriptures that I wrote down because it's the perfect segue as we get into laziness, right? I talked about how consistency absolutely works. Perfection doesn't. But you know what else never works?

8:59Laziness. Oh yeah. Proverbs 13:4 says this: The soul of a sluggard craves but gets nothing. While the soul of the diligent is richly supplied. This is the Bible now. Like, this is not, you know, a cool Devontaism. You know what I mean? Like, this is the Bible. I'll give you another one. Proverbs 18:9: Whoever is slack in his work is a brother to him who destroys.

9:26Yeah. You hear how strong this language is, like, against laziness? It literally is saying laziness builds nothing. As a matter of fact, it is so poorly constructed when you apply it to your life, it's like you're actually doing the opposite. Laziness doesn't not only build anything, it destroys things. Like, it destroys morale, it destroys progress, it destroys, uh, um, efficiency. Like, laziness is a parasite of our effort.

9:57And if we would just do our best, you still— maybe it's not Maybe it's not that you have 100% every single day. Because I want to encourage some people out there to like, man, you know, I felt like I just didn't have it today. And they'll make that sound like it's laziness. But here's one thing I heard, I thought it was a beautiful quote.

10:15Somebody said, if all you had today was 80%, but you gave 80%, that was your best. Doesn't mean that yesterday, oh, I had 100% yesterday, man, I was able to get a good breakfast in, man, I I hit a PR in the gym. Like, man, I feel great. You know what I mean? I finally broke out of that bench press plateau. I felt cool.

10:35My shirt was feeling a little better on my chest because of my, you know, my bench press got up. But today, man, I just didn't have it. You know, I didn't sleep well. I had a tough conversation with the spouse yesterday, man. We had some tough business decisions to make. We had a meeting that I thought was only going to be a quick conversation turned into a 3-hour emergency.

10:54And man, all I got today is 70%. But if you gave that 70%, you still gave your best. But the problem with laziness is when you have 80% and you give 20. Yeah, you just like mail it in. You're like, man, yeah. It's like the best workouts are when you're not feeling good. You're like, man, I can't go today. And then you push through it.

11:14Like anybody can go to the gym when they're feeling themselves and it's like, man, I feel great today. But it's like, it's that momentum and that like keeping that consistency. Like, are you the guy who just mails it in? 'Cause that's who you are, you know? But if you're the person who's, Man, I'm not feeling good. I'm not gonna mail it in.

11:29I swear, God rewards that for sure. Yeah, absolutely. And I think you've mentioned this before, you know, in a previous episode that your dad says this, right? Like how you do anything is how you do everything. So if you start to be, if you start to get lazy, it starts in the small details. It starts in the things you think you don't care about or that you can slack on, but eventually it bleeds over into everything else, right?

11:51So I think that's what's so important about understanding doing— understanding that your best being your standard, if you start with it small, then it bleeds over into everything else. I just want to repeat that because there's, you know, I think I've talked about this, but— or maybe I talked about it with you, but I'll share with everybody else. Like, the military talks about micro wins, and they're like, man, we don't get into the military as a Navy SEAL.

12:13You know, my dad was in the military, you know, and he did 20 years in the, in the United States Navy. And the Navy SEALs say we don't build crazy discipline better than the 99% of the world by just waking up and just choosing to be disciplined. Mm-hmm. You set in micro wins. So you say, okay, I'm gonna get up at 4 o'clock every day for a week.

12:33And then you get up 4 o'clock every day for a week. You say, hey, I'm gonna get up at 4 o'clock every day for a week, and then I'm gonna pray for 30 minutes. I'm gonna spend some time in my Bible. Then you get do that. But now you've stacked that micro win on top of the, okay, now we're 2 weeks in of getting up at 4:00 AM.

12:48We're 1 week in. To adding my prayer and devotion time. All right, cool. We got that down for a week. Week 3, I'm going to get up at 4 AM. I'm going to spend time in my Bible and pray, and I'm going to be in the gym and I'm going to rack— like, I'm going to unrack the weights at 0500, right? It's okay.

13:03Now we're doing that for weeks. So now I got 3 weeks of getting up at 4 AM. I got 2 weeks of prayer and devotion. I've got 1 week of unracking the weights at 5 AM in my garage. Well, then now over time, as you keep adding They've just been stacking on top of each other and you don't even realize that you've become more disciplined and that is your standard.

13:21Well, the same thing applies with our effort and doing our best. If you say, okay, I'm going to do my best, how's that going to start? Hmm. I'm going to do my best and I'm going to put my best foot forward with what I put on in the morning. Like, I'm not going to grab the socks that were just laying by the bed from last night.

13:37Like, I'm actually going to go get clean socks. Okay, let's start there. I'm actually going to make sure that, you know, I take my clothes to the dry cleaner. I'm actually going to make sure that that my stations are clean. As soon as I get there, I'm gonna get there 15 minutes early so that maybe all the other techs don't do it.

13:53But I'm going to get there and make sure that my station is clean so that when I get ready to work, I know where everything is. I'm not, you know, trying to scramble through a drawer to find a tool or find— let me— my desk needs to be organized. I don't want to have to move papers out of the way and then forget that I didn't turn in reports.

14:10And it starts with the small things.. And then you do that for a week and then you add another one and another one. And then by the time you get to 3 months, Joe, you're looking up and like, man, who is this person? I got 1% better every single day and I wasn't lazy. And because my best was my standard, now everything that I have, my output is also better.

14:29My, my, my input got better, so my output got better. People are noticing. It's like, man, like you just look so put together, man. You look so vibrant, man. Your work, the quality has just improved. The, the shop numbers are through the roof. The, Customers feel it, you know what I mean? So I think when your best becomes your standard, Joe, it's only a matter of time before it becomes contagious.

14:51That's the word I want to use. It's not just consistent, it's contagious. Does that make sense? I totally buy your standard. I've never read the book, but I think you're referring to— it's like Atomic Habits or something. You know, it's like you get 1% better every day and then it's— it seems like a small, like atomic, you know, like it seems like a small thing, but it kind of compounds over the years.

15:12One thing for me is like making my my bed. Yeah, I didn't— I never made my bed as a kid. Don't talk to my mom, will tell you, you know. But like, at some point when I got— when I grew up, it's like, man, this is just like, I'm, I'm gonna be a person who does this, you know. Like, I'm gonna be a person— like, I'm gonna be a person who makes the bed.

15:30It's like a 1% thing. Like, I'm gonna do it. And I don't do it perfectly every time, but it's like that slowly became like, okay, that's like the standard in my life. And I think the biblical part for me is like, it's kind of like a still small voice. Like when you know. Yeah. When you know, like I'll give you an example.

15:49Like this last week, like I, you know, me and my wife, we've got a shoe closet like right by the door, you know? And I just threw my tennis shoes in there. Yeah. And I like walked away and then I was like, no. And so I like walked back and I was like, okay, I'm gonna put the shoes, 'cause I know my wife would like, would appreciate this.

16:07I'm gonna put them like in line with the, the other ones. And that might sound like a stupid anecdote, but I felt it. I was like, I was lazy. I just threw it in there. Like, that's my dad's rules. Like, the way you do anything is the way you do everything. That's who you are. Like, that's like, I need to, it's like a micro way for me to serve my wife.

16:27And then eventually I think you're 100% right. It just bleeds into the quality of the way you do everything for sure. And you don't even realize that they're attached, right? The reason that you started to feel bad, if they weren't attached, Joe, You wouldn't have felt bad about it, right? If that wasn't a part of your standard. But because you started making your bed up right now, it's like, oh, I can check that task off.

16:47That's my standard. I make sure that that's done. Let me go back and get these shoes. Then it's not only, oh, let me go back and get the shoes. Let me organize the desk. Okay, maybe the desk is not the case. Oh, hey, these dishes are there. Let me make sure I do the, you know, and it just starts to become everything.

17:02And then you look at the rest of your life, your finances are doing better because of it. You know, your your spirit is doing better because of you. Like, man, I'm not missing time with God. At some point today, I need to spend some time and just say, God, what do you wanna say? And God, here's how I'm feeling. Let me just pray.

17:19Maybe it's on the commute. It's like, man, here's a cool thing, you know, and I know that we'll get into some of the challenges and the practical things in a little bit, but like, I wanna give people something now. One of the things that I changed was I stopped listening to music on the way to work. And it's not because I feel convicted about listening to music.

17:37Like, I love music. I've been a musician since I was in the 4th grade. But I got a guitar, I got a bass sitting right here with an amp, you know, so I'm like, right behind me. But what I've learned is, man, with the amount of traffic I have in Houston, could I use that time to be on the phone with somebody catching up, encouraging, You know, not putting in more work, but yeah, sometimes it's like, look, I can get ahead before I even get into the whirlwind of meetings I'm getting ready to walk into in the office, right?

18:09I can take care of some personal things, some travel, some other— or I can call my parents. I can say, hey, you know, hey Mom, how you doing? Hey Dad, how you doing, right? Or I can spend that time and listen to an audiobook. It's like, man, let me— I've poured out, I poured out so much this week. Let me, let me just refresh.

18:27Before I get today, let me find something that I'm interested in. Let me read a book that has nothing to do with what I'm building just so that I learn something to keep my brain sharp. Right. And, and these are practical things where it says, man, that's just got to be my best. How do I maximize my time? And my— is this— is just listening to the latest album going to be the best use of my time while I'm sitting in traffic that in Houston where you can be an hour away from Houston and still be in Houston, like, you know what I mean?

18:55Like while I'm sitting in traffic, on 45. Is the best use of my time to be entertained? Or could I use this to be connected, to be educated, to get ahead, to be quiet? You know what I mean? To just regulate. There are a whole lot of different things where I say, man, now, now, because I wasn't lazy and say, man, let me just, let me just take my mind off and be entertained.

19:17I said, man, what is the best use of this amount of time that I know I'm going to have every day? Oh, okay. Now, because that is my standard, Joe, it's my standard to get up and get into my garage and work out. It's my standard to wake up at 5 AM and start my morning with prayer and then get in there and lift and then get my kids dressed and take them to school and be the— it's, it's my standard.

19:38So now when I'm by myself, nobody's watching, nobody else is in the car. I don't deviate from the standards, right? You know, so I think that's where you're feeling with the shoes. It's, it seems minor. It's not a dumb anecdote at all. It's just as indicative that it's become a standard for you. Yeah. You know, and you see it in the small things.

19:58So yeah, for sure. I think laziness, you're just cheating yourself. Like you're, you're getting, you're taking a shortcut, but you're just cheating yourself in the long run. One of my favorite Bible verses is also recommendation for anybody in business who's a Christian, read a Proverbs a day. There's 31 Proverbs. Yep. It's like, I swear that God is an investor. He's an entrepreneur.

20:19And one of my, you know, I try to read, I know don't do it every day, but I try to read them in the mornings. And one of my one of my favorite ones is Proverbs 22:29. It says, "Do you see any truly competent workers? They will serve kings rather than working for ordinary people." And I notice that one every time because it's like, we talk about this concept in our business of like creating your own luck.

20:44Like people will say like, "Oh, you got lucky." Like, you know, you got lucky because of this, this, and this. You were born into this, this, and this. It's like, A lot of people get lucky, sure, but a lot of people create their own luck. Right. And that's right out of the Bible. It's like, yeah, it's like God, even, you know, whenever Solomon wrote this 2,000 years ago or 3,000 years ago, he's like, man, do you see any truly competent workers?

21:07Like, they will, they will be so diligent and be so excellent at their work, whatever their labor is. Yeah. That they're naturally going to create their own opportunity and they will end up working for the king. Like the king, you know, they're working like King David, you know, like, right, think about it back then, like they will be, they will go from wherever they're at, they will work for the, for the king, you know.

21:26And so I don't want it to be like, uh, you know, the boss in 2026 is the king, you know, but no, but the idea is, I think it's the same idea. It's like, man, that excellent level of standard that you have working in the fields for 3,000 years ago, like even back then, it's like if you see anybody that's truly competent, yeah, like I can tell you where where they're gonna end up.

21:50And I think the same thing applies today for sure. Absolutely. Your excellence gives you access, right? That's the concept is it may not be the king, it may be in the C-suite, it may be wherever, you know, whatever is the top of where you're trying, of your field or your industry, right? But your excellence will eventually give you access, right? You know, I love, I agree with you, man.

22:13Read a Proverbs a day, a proverb a day. I love Proverbs 31 because a lot of people talk about this when they're trying to pick a wife, right? When they're, 'cause this section in Proverbs 31 is talking about the description of a worthy woman. But I just talk about the concept of diligence, right? And doing the best. I'm gonna read some of these, and I want, I want you to, to think about this being, man, she does her best.

22:36Says, an excellent wife, who can find her? This is 31, verse 10. For her worth is far above jewels, valuable, right? The heart of her husband trusts in her, and he will have no lack of gain. This is because of her. She does him good and not evil all the days of her life. Consistency, right? Being her best. She looks for wool and linen and works with her hands in delight.

23:01She is like merchant ships. She brings food from afar. She rises while it's still night, gives food to her house and portions to her attendants. She considers a field and buys it. From her earnings, she plants a vineyard. That sounds like real estate investment to me, right? You know what I mean? That's funny. You know, that's Amazing. She surrounds her waist with strength, makes her arms strong.

23:23She takes care of her body. She works out. Like, isn't that— she senses that her profit is good. Like, this is literally Proverb telling you, man, even the person you partner with should be doing their best. Because for sure, when you— if you can pick out how they do their best when it's time to plant a vineyard or consider your field or what linens you pick or feeding your family Again, it's because her best was her standard, right?

23:53Speaking of best, I'm a Chicago Bears fan. You know, we've talked about this before. I'm sorry. No, wait, relax now. Relax. Man, and we have this new coach who's like killing it, man. He's one of the best coaches in football. And again, it only took us 100 years to get there, but we're here. So listen, I'm just grateful that I'm living in such a time as this.

24:13So he has this saying after every win.. And it's a quote that he heard in high school, but it's something that becomes his standard. And he says, good, better, best. Never let it rest until your good gets better and your better gets best. Bears on 3. And they, and it's taken over social media. It's gone viral multiple times because they're good now.

24:32But his standard is he wants to be consistent. So if you watch Ben Johnson on the sideline, they can throw a 50-yard bomb touchdown. And he's standing on the sideline the same way. When things go wrong, he's standing on the sideline the same way. Because it's like, one, the game's not over. We're not done. We're not— this isn't our best yet. We can be better.

24:50Somebody was off on this play. Somebody missed a block, right? But it started back when he first got hired, Joe, when they were in training camp. And I don't know how much people know about football, but the quarterback, the play calls are like 14 words long. Then you have to remember where everybody is. Then you have to remember who's moving. Then you gotta remember where you need to go based on the defense.

25:13So, and you have 40 seconds to do it all. So he's like, instead of being worried about executing the play, they get into the huddle a few times, and it became a national story when they were writing about it because obviously he was a big-time coach. They get into the huddle, Joe, and they call the play, and as soon as Caleb Williams breaks the huddle, he blows the whistle and says, go back and do it again.

25:35He doesn't even care about the play afterwards. He said, because I don't like the way that it sounded when y'all broke the huddle. I didn't like where the offensive linemen were standing when they needed to be listening. Mm-hmm. So if you can't get that right, it's only a matter of time before a receiver runs the wrong route. Caleb throws the ball where he expects them to be, and now they're not there.

25:54But if you set the standard from the beginning in the minor details, it's— it becomes something that explodes into everything else. So if you say, all right, I'm not even gonna let you break my huddle to go out there and run the play, I don't care how much time we waste. Go back and do it again. I don't like the way it sounds.

26:12I don't like your volume. I didn't like how everybody didn't clap. I didn't like how everybody wasn't leaned in and listening. Like, you were drying your face mask and you were over there trying to pull up your socks. Listen to the play. Because then if you don't, then the opposite becomes true. The laziness becomes true. And you become like Proverbs 18. You become a brother to one who destroys.

26:34You know, you ever heard of That's So Good? You ever hear of this coach, John Wooden? For UCLA. He was a basketball coach. I heard this story that at the start of the season, he would practice this. Literally, he would, he would get with the team and they would practice putting their socks and shoes on properly and tying them the right way.

26:57Why? Because it's like the same idea. It's like, well, no, like, this is like, like, you will get blisters on your feet. You know, you won't be like, if you like, it'll affect your performance if you don't have like quality equipment and they're not tied tightly the right way. And it's like the sloppy details. Like if you're gonna be sloppy and just throw your shoes on, like get outta here.

27:16You know, we're a bunch of professionals. Like if you're gonna break the huddle and with, you know what I mean? It's so fun. That's so funny. Like, like I love that cuz it does, it for sure compounds into, into, into who you are for sure. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. So, you know, let me give people a challenge that they can actually go today and do something practically with, right?

27:36Um, it's— I want them to find micro wins with God in mind. Okay, I want them to find a micro win. So what you can do today, if you're out there listening, again, I encourage you to go get a journal. I've said that in previous episodes because you only get to know your progress if you can go back and look at it, right?

27:55Don't just say this was a cool idea and it was inspirational. Go write this stuff down. Um, so today I want you to write down Micro wins. Maybe you do need to get up earlier. Maybe you do need to stop sleeping in. That's a micro win. You start there, do it for a week before you add another. So say, okay, I need to get up earlier, or I need to organize my shoes, right?

28:16Or I need to just do the dishes. I eat off the dishes just like everybody else in my house. Let me— I need to do the dishes. I'm gonna wash the dishes every single day. That's it. Pick one micro win and do it to the best of your ability. You say, man, I'm gonna wash these plates better than anybody has ever washed a plate on this side of the Mississippi.

28:35You know what I mean? Like, I want you to wash— I want you to do your absolute best. Because if you start with the micro wins, it only is a matter of the time. Like we've talked about, if you break the huddle right, then it's a matter of time before everybody's where they need to be on the field when we snap the ball, when the game is on the line, when the pressure situations are on, when there's 70,000 people screaming, you know, when the clock is running down.

28:56When you got defenders trying to take your neck off. Like, it's, it's only a matter of time before it, it translates to the big moments. Because every battle and every piece of success is not won when it's time to be successful. It's won with being your best in the consistent micro details. Yeah, you win on Sunday, but you really win on Monday practicing for next time, you know.

29:18Yeah, the business application to, you know, just to recap, is just like your quality of your excellence is the way in the small things compounds into the big things. And, you know, as a shop owner, owner. Something Todd always says, our CEO, is he's like, he says, it can never be us. We have to live and operate above reproach, you know, because in business, but also in just your life, like, your life is a ministry and people watch you, especially as a leader of a company, even as a service advisor or a manager.

29:47Like, your life is literally a ministry, and, and you set the standard. And so two examples, like, show up to work on time, Like if you're the owner and you show up late, like what do you think's going to happen? People are going to be like, well, you know, that's like, that's the excellence or the quality of this organization. And if he's going to show up late, then I'll show up a couple of minutes late.

30:06Right. You know, another one a lot of owners do is they just take— they'll run money through the business. They'll take money out of the cash drawer. Yeah. And it's like, that might seem like a small thing, like taking a $20 out of the cash drawer. You're the owner, but your people see that. Right. You know what I mean? Like they see, like they see when you use the company credit card for like your daughter's, you know, like textbooks at school or whatever and try to write it off against the government.

30:30It's like you might, you might save some money on taxes, but you're just like, Todd says, he's like, you have to be above reproach and it can never be you in business because you can't have that decision fatigue of like, oh, did I not set up our team right? Or did I not do the training? It's like you have to be the person who's first in line at the, you know, you're training more than everybody else.

30:54Tom Brady is in the film room more than anybody else. Yes. And both professionally and biblically, I think that just applies to, uh, your life. Like, at your business, people are watching you, but in your family, people are watching you. And the way you put— not to be, you know, but the way you put the shoes in, the way you wash the dishes.

31:11Yeah. Like, your kids learn that stuff, and they learn, like, what, what excellence looks like and working for the Lord. So, man, this was great. Verse of the podcast, Colossians 3:23, do everything as if you're working for the Lord. Yeah, man. Thank you, Devonte. You want to— you want to pray us out as we go into this week? Absolutely. Father, I thank you so much for everybody listening this week.

31:32God, I thank you that you are setting up on their heart right now— some of them already know what it is— the micro wins that they need to put in place. God, I thank you that they will continue to be better because they are continuing to give their best. Thank you for honoring their try. And when they give their best, Father, I pray that they know that it will not be in vain.

31:52Help them this week be closer to you, closer to each other. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen. Well, man, thank you, Devonte. Thank you, everyone listening. Uh, happy Sunday. Let's go have an amazing day, and we'll see you guys next week. Let's go. For more information, reach out to Todd Westerland at 925-980-8012 or visit autoshopandauto.com. Answers.com. You can get more information about key-to-key to callbacks, uh, courtside.

32:19We have a VIP Rack Attack Day where you spend an entire day in the trenches with our team learning this perfected business model. We offer leadership classes, we have an AI Academy, and also get more information about auto shop callbacks. We have auto tech training. We are literally your one-stop shop. Once again, that number for Todd Westerland is 925-980-8012.