Ep 138: How Daily Actions Shape Tomorrow’s Results with Al and Alex Oramas

0:00We wanted to talk and touch people's hearts. That was the whole premise of what we are. As leaders, we have to touch people's hearts. What you do today is gonna affect you tomorrow. Well, essentially it's writing plans today because you're not promised tomorrow. If something were to happen, God forbid, today to you, is there a plan in action or something in place that those that are left behind or left in your absence or your wake are gonna be able to take make and move and keep the direction going and the vision that you might have had for the business.

0:30You're listening to the Limitless Leadership Podcast, the podcast designed to help automotive repair shops learn how to lead, coach, train, and manage their team better by sharing proven techniques and thought-provoking interviews from industry leaders. Are you ready to transform your leadership skills by tapping into unrecognized potential to achieve limitless results? Let's get ready for liftoff. It's time to go from great to greater.

0:55Here's today's episode. All right, welcome back everyone to another episode of the Limitless Leadership Podcast. I'm joined by a couple friends of mine. Uh, we were able to connect what, maybe a month ago or so, uh, in Arizona at the Ratchet and Wrench Management Conference.. And, um, and, and these guys are, uh, owners and, uh, it's a father and son combination. There's other siblings involved in the business, but I got my friends Al and Alex Aramas in front of me today.

1:30They're the owners of Pro Auto Care. Al is the CEO. Alex is the COO. Correct. Uh, guys, thanks for being here. Hey Josh, thanks for having us. Yeah, thank you for having us. We really appreciate this opportunity. Awesome. Well, let's get right into it. Go ahead and share with the audience who you are, what you do, and how you do it. All right folks, as you know, great leadership isn't about doing everything the best.

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3:40Al, I'll let you take the floor first. Oh my, he put me first. Let's do it. Well, my name is Al Aramis, and I am the first generation auto shop owner. I've been in business now coming on 34 years out of Denver, Colorado. We also have a location in Littleton, and we're actually expanding. I'm pretty fortunate. I was an automotive technician for years, opened up the shop in '92.

4:03And so I've got 4 kids. All 4 kids work for the company and they're actually now shareholders. So I'll let my shareholders take over the next piece. Yeah. Yeah. So Al's obviously been in the industry a very long time, 34 years owning a business, but obviously he precedes that in his wealth of knowledge. I've been in the industry now 16 years myself.

4:26Also sit on a couple of boards as well for the automotive. So ASA, I'm the chairman of the ASA Colorado chapter. I also sit on a couple advisory boards for CDOT and a couple other boards on top of that for community colleges that are wanting to grow and build their automotive programs. Just the automotive industry is my space and it's just where I've always been.

4:48Love that. So for those listening, I'm gonna encourage you to watch this episode as well. We are doing this episode live at the 2025 Apex Show in Las Vegas, Nevada. Now, The episode itself is not streaming live, but we recorded this live in person. So you can watch this episode on YouTube at The Bearded Leader is where you can find us, at The Bearded Leader.

5:09Uh, I shared with our audience that we connected, the three of us connected at Ratchet and Wrench in Arizona earlier this year. And unfortunately we were both presenting at the same time. Sure. And so I was disappointed that I didn't get to sit in your presentation cuz I was presenting myself, but you guys did a presentation on leadership as well. Can I, can I ask you to share with our audience what the presentation was all about in regards to leadership and maybe share a few, a few nuggets from your session?

5:39Yeah, absolutely. You want me to take this one? Yeah, I'll give you the title piece because that kind of answers it. Now let's see if you can roll. Yeah, the title was simple. It was, uh, What's Next? Question mark. Okay. Doing today, uh, what, and what you do today will affect tomorrow. And that's all the leadership piece, right? Love that. Yeah, exactly.

5:57And with the title, we obviously took it into kind of real world scenarios. My apologies, it's been a long day. But no, that's the human element in me, okay? I'm flawed, right? Yeah, I dig that. Yeah. Guys, I'll say this, and I'm speaking to the audience right now. So the Aramises and myself, we're on day 2 of a massive 3-day convention. Yeah, our feet are tired, our brains are mush.

6:28I mean, it has been a time. We're in the process, I'm going to shift gears for just a split second. We're actually purposely here for looking for air compressors for our shops. Okay. So we're going over numbers, we're looking at the details, CFM. Those of you who don't know CFM, it's something you want to look into for sure. What's a CFM? To me, that's just a TLA, a 3-letter acronym.

6:47No, no, no, it stands for cubic, I think it's— It's a cubic feet of air pressure. It's the measurement of flow and recovery that a compressor can produce in order to power a tool that needs a high demand of air. Okay. Yeah. So we've been looking at all those numbers, crunching them in. Holy smokes. We were talking right before we started. I've already walked 9,000 or 7,500 steps and it's not even lunchtime.

7:07Yeah. Yeah. Like, and so we still got a long morning. This morning. Yeah. It's just morning. And that was the same thing for yesterday. But no, we wanted to talk and touch people's hearts. Yeah. That was the whole premise of what we are as leaders. We have to touch people's hearts and then we can force their hands to follow the direction we want them to go.

7:25And talking about what you do today is going to affect you tomorrow. Well, essentially it's writing plans today because you're not promised tomorrow. If you— if something were to happen, God forbid, today to you, is there a plan in action or something in place that those that are left behind or left in your absence or your wake are going to be able to take, make, and move and keep the direction going and the vision that you might have had for the business.

7:49That's really what we wanted to talk about. And I think we, I think we 100% nailed it. We had so many people come up afterwards saying, oh my gosh, your presentation. How do you do this? What do you do with this? Where do I go with this? And we were able to touch people's hearts. Growth is a lot easier when you're not trying to figure out alone.

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8:30Tickets are on sale now, and Limitless Leadership Podcast listeners can get $500 off standard pricing with code LIMITLESS500. Go to tekmetric.com Tektonik. That's T-E-K-T-O-N-I-K. T-O-N-I-C, or use the link in the show notes. Guys, I commend you for that. I commend you for approaching your session in that regard. I'm a big believer in being able to do what we can to show up for those that we're leading.

9:00We're serving those that we're leading, and we're available for those that we're leading. The best ability for a leader is availability, and when you can show up, you truly get to connect, and you do get to touch a heart. And it extends beyond just the professional relationship. Like, this is something that you're able to make an impact on someone to truly change their life.

9:16And I love, I love the title too, because I'll just share with you my book. It's called Leading a Legacy. And the subtitle of the book is called— so it's Leading a Legacy: How to Live Today to Make an Impact for Tomorrow. I mean, that lines up pretty darn well. That's literally like what you guys are doing, right? 100%. So share with the audience what it means to live today to make an impact for tomorrow.

9:35As leaders, how can we approach our team in our shop to make an impact for tomorrow? Absolutely. I'll take the lead on that one because this is really cool. That's so much of the session, what we wrote were the actual practical things that we were doing. What we figured out was we would come back with the energy and excitement from training, education, conferences, whatever, but how do you put that onto the ground and how can you make a move forward?

10:01So, what we would do is we'd go to these great events and we would leave and say, "Okay, here's a page full of stuff." We'd write up and say, "Which are the 3 most important? Just let's execute. Let's follow these because these will have the most lasting change." By doing that would give us, as leaders, clarity, but then we could take that and communicate it to the people that were executing.

10:26In our stores, we're currently sitting at about 20. We have 28 employees between the two locations. So we're leading all these people, but I lead in other places. I lead in churches. I sit on the boards of churches, and Al alluded to organizations. So all of those practical applications. So we've put that as a forefront and then a presentation and helping people make it to bite-sized pieces, if you would, okay?

10:52So you leave it with this enthusiasm Part of the inspiration was, guys, write something you could execute. Don't come back with, I got 7 pages of information and I'm going to change this and do that. And what happens? We get pushed back. We can't execute. We can't complete because life happens, right? Yeah. Knowledge without application is just information. Sure is. And I really admire and respect the fact that you're mindful of, look, we're not trying to change the world overnight.

11:21No. Go to this event and get a lot of nuggets. Take some— take notes, but just focus on 3 things. Something I share a lot in trainings is how when we focus on changing behaviors, because it's changing behaviors, forming habits, all of this is part of the process. When you get new knowledge, then you apply it so that it's not just information.

11:40But if you're trying to change just one behavior and only one, if you're only focusing on one, you have an 85% success— 85% chance of success with that behavior change. If you're trying to change 2 behaviors at the same time, that 85% drops all the way down to 40%. And if you try to change 3, it drops all the way down to 5%.

12:00Now, I'm not suggesting that saying, hey, work on these 3 things is a bad idea. What I am suggesting is there's a lot of ideas. Just narrow it down to 3 right now. We're going to get to the others as we, as we move forward. Absolutely. Well, Part of the reason why we pick 3 is one, it's an effect that I call the seagull effect.

12:20You're probably like, what the heck is the seagull effect? I'm familiar with this. Yeah, you, as an owner or a leader or a mentor or whatever it is, you have a tendency, you get all of this information, pages worth of information, and you come into a business or come into your own home because sometimes you're like, this is a great idea, I can take this home.

12:36And you come in and you poop all over everybody with new ideas and then you fly away. Yep. And that is, we can't do that. And that's why we narrow it down to 3 because if you're trying trying to manage 25, 30 different tasks all at once to measure them, see how well they're doing, you're gonna fail. But if you focus on 3 areas and, and everybody is bought into those 3 ideas, your chances of successes do greatly increase.

12:56Yes, they might be low to a start, but if you got a team that again, you can touch their heart. Yeah. Well then you can get them to move. Their hands will follow. If you touch somebody's heart, their hands will follow. Well, and, and, and when you have a team, it's okay to introduce 3 ideas because you can have your team start championing certain things as well.

13:12Um, so I, I appreciate the fact that you're mindful of this, the seagull effect first and foremost. I haven't heard a lot of people who know about the seagull effect. Um, but I think, you know, I think we've all heard the, the concept of like the, the 3 days, the worst 3 days for anyone in the shop is when their shop owner comes back from a conference.

13:29Oh yeah. I mean, it's like, because there's a lot of seagulls out there. We don't know it. We don't realize it, but there are. Well, and that, that to that point, our guys are actually excited. Hey, what'd you learn? Is there anything good? That's great. You know what? We did learn a lot of good stuff. We'll have a conversation here. We got our areas of focus and we'll talk about them.

13:46We don't give them all of it at once because then all of a sudden now you create chaos in their minds too. And they think all these ideas are great. So they— our guys are willing and wanting to always make improvements. So now all of a sudden you've now created chaos in their life and then it just backfills everything and it hurts.

14:04The other saying we always use is you can either be a shotgun or a marksman rifle. Okay, well, a shotgun's gonna put a bunch of holes in everything and create a lot of chaos, or you could be a precision rifle— one bullet, one target, one execution. Love that. So much smarter to do it that way. That's why we pick 3. 3 rounds, 3 targets, 3 kills.

14:22Alex, um, I wanna, I wanna highlight and honor you for a second. When you talked about how when you come back from a conference, your team is excited, they're like, hey, what'd you learn? I mean, like, they're they're anxiously awaiting with excitement what, what you got so you can deliver it to them and they can start executing. That's a testament to both of your leadership.

14:42That's a testament to your hiring process, hiring the right people, getting the right people on the bus, getting the wrong people off the bus. Um, can you speak to the listening audience about what your hiring process looks like and making sure that you're able to get that right person on the bus who's actually excited when their owner comes back from a conference?

14:58Absolutely. You want me to take this one? You got this on a roll because you were just talking. Give them about the A, B, and C. Yeah, so, so A, B, and C. So, so we basically— and this, this gets a little bit more intimate in a sense, and this is something you don't necessarily want to just give to your whole crew, but something you can internalize as like a leader or an owner or whoever you are in a higher level up.

15:19A, B, and C players. Okay, A players are those that you really couldn't operate without that you need on your team. They make your life a little easier. B players need a little bit more coaching. They're still very valuable, but if they left, it wouldn't be as detrimental as if an A player left. C players, to the point of getting on the bus and getting off the bus— C players are those people that probably shouldn't be on your team anymore, okay?

15:42That if they did leave, it really wouldn't hurt your feelings too, too much, okay? You would keep moving on, but Sometimes you have to have C players, sometimes you have to have B players, and then you always are looking for A players, but you need people to grow and build, people that are wanting to rise. So as part of this process, we've now really stopped hiring for ability.

16:03And so, so we got the chart that I use is ability versus will. Okay. You could have all the ability in the world. You could be the best technician or the best advisor or the best salesperson on the planet. But if you have no will or desire to continue educating or learning or growing or being better every single day, you will not go anywhere.

16:23But you can be somebody who has very little ability, minimal skill, but a ton of will, a ton of desire, a ton of curiosity. Yeah. And I can grow your ability. The saying I created was, I can't create in you the will to do something, but I can create the ability for you to do something. Guys, I'll say this. When we met at Ratchet and Wrench, I could tell there's some alignment with how we view things, which subsequently means there's alignment with how we do things.

16:53I think there's alignment with even just our beliefs. You know, you're talking about will versus skill. I call it will versus skill. It's easy for me to remember too because it rhymes. Right. But something that you— I like that you talked about like, I'm not hiring for ability. Ability can be taught. We know that. I believe in hiring values over skill set, values over talent, values over ability, because if I'm hiring— I call it the CIA team member, people who are coachable, intelligent, and who have the right attitude.

17:20And the I for intelligent is not necessarily book smarts, it's emotional intelligence. It's recognizing self-awareness and situational awareness, when and where to exercise empathy, because as we're leading people or serving people at the shop, empathy is a massive skill set that we need to exercise on a regular basis. So are my team members CIA team members? And can I identify my CIA team members who have skill as well?

17:47I mean, that's a recipe for success. Absolutely. Absolutely. Well, I wanted to make sure that we touch base going back. I'm going to steal that, the CIA. I really like that. I'm taking that. But on the hiring process, we've really stopped looking at the ability piece of it. It's a factor. Like, don't get me wrong, if you have an ability, it just changes the trajectory of your growth path.

18:07It just accelerates you up a few steps. But part of my questions for these guys are like, hey, we've talked all about these skills, your tools, your understanding of how this component works. That's great and all, but what do you do outside of work? Like, let me hear about your hobbies. And we've changed that and we've learned so much more about people I— you can see the, the light come up.

18:31Oh, you know what? My favorite thing to do outside of work is hang out with my family. Boom, that's a family man. That's a family-oriented person. Yeah, that's important because we're a family-oriented company. We have what is called a PAC Way, and one of our PAC Ways is PAC is a family. It's just clearly spelled out. It basically is talking to the point of like, through, through whatever it is, we will always have each other's back because we're a family.

18:53Yeah, at the end of the day, we spend more time together here than we do in our own homes. That's right. So it's so important. But that just, it changed the conversation because then you can see the curiosity. We had a gentleman, he's like, oh yeah, I like building computers. Okay. That's pretty challenging, isn't it? Yeah, super challenging. Tell me how you work through those processes.

19:11Well, I watch a lot of YouTube videos. I want to make sure that I'm growing. And this guy is curious. He wants to learn. He wants to grow. He wants to expand his horizon. I can take that and amplify it. And create a new trajectory that this person may have not even known existed. What you're describing, Alex, is this— I mean, I know we all know the phrase, people don't care how much you know until they know how much you care.

19:32Yeah. And when you can start asking questions, when you can exercise what curiosity looks like and model for your team members or prospective team members what being curious looks like, it starts to open up some opportunities and kind of a new world, a new perspective shift for them. When you're curious, you're in learning mode, and if you're in learning mode, you're you're in growth mode.

19:50So being able to ask the questions and show a genuine interest, authentic genuine interest in your team, that's gonna create engagement. And I am just— I mean, if you've listened to this podcast before, you've heard me say probably till I'm blue in the face, connection creates engagement, engagement increases performance. As business owners, as shop owners, you want to increase your sales and you want to increase your revenue, and you're mindful of the KPIs that drive the sales and You're mindful of the transactional side of the business, but you guys both know that that can all be a byproduct when you have an engaged team.

20:25Like, just like when you're serving your guests, you serve your guests. The guest experience is a relationship. The transaction becomes a natural byproduct. Sure it is. Absolutely. Yeah. People are the, are the entire thing of what we do. It's not just customers. We call it our external customers and our internal customers. Okay. Can you elaborate? Yeah. So our internal customers are our people.

20:51We understand that they have a choice. They literally, if you could, if you call a customer, you get, you got to look at that. Hey, they can shop anywhere, right? Well, they can work anywhere. Okay. And who's, who's doing the best job to lure, to pay, to handle? So part of what we've been talking about was like, hey, coming back from these conferences, coming up with 1, 2, or 3 things to do.

21:13Alex just talked about the interview process, right? So one of the items that we started from Ratchet and Wrench last year, okay, we wrote up one of the items was make a better onboarding process from the start to the middle to the finish. So the start is the piece you just talked about, the interview. What does an interview actually look like? Yeah, we spend more than half of the time talking to them about them, how they think, what gets them excited, what are they proud about, what have they done.

21:45So this is amazing piece that he just brought up because we just interviewed a young man who said, "I have never interviewed with somebody and been asked what you've asked me. This is the best interview I've ever been." Oh yeah. I mean, it makes prospective team members want to come work for you and they already did. But now they want to come work for you even more because it's very evident what kind of culture you've been able to create and cultivate.

22:10By the way, I mentioned, I referenced the CIA team member. Yeah. I have a 5-page interview guide for anyone listening, even for you guys if you're interested. Oh, I'd love that. I'm happy to send it your way. Yeah. So if you're listening and you want this 5-page interview guide, there's over 40 questions on how to identify people who are coachable, emotionally intelligent, and who have the right attitude for your shop.

22:30So just email me josh@limitlessleadership.co, not com. People who— people like dot com would cost me $100 grand to buy the dot com. Yeah, I mean, hey man, I don't got that kind of money. M is not worth that kind of— anyway, josh@limitlessleadership.co. I'm happy to send you guys that, that, uh, that resource. Well, you know that M stands for money, right? It's just gonna cost— oh yeah, that's what it is.

22:51Yeah, cost effective, and then you got money. Hey, you know what? And God's gonna provide, by the way. I know you guys are believers. Alex, I heard you talk about I was next to you when you were telling somebody at Ratchet Wrench that you were praying before the session. I sure was. So someone was asking like, hey, what were you doing before the session?

23:08Because they saw you kind of in the corner and you're like, hey, I was praying. And as a believer myself, I know that God is moving in and through Limitless Leadership in great and mighty ways. That is, it's not me. Like, I can't grow without him and him being the center of of this company. I'll ask you, because I know you guys well enough to know that you're also believers.

23:31Absolutely. What, what role does faith play in your business? It's everything. I'll just say it's everything. I mean, we have a choice every single day. We can hold everything close to our chest and say, I did this, or we can hold everything with an open hand and say, He did this. Yeah. If I'm being honest, I'm a flawed individual. You heard me stumbling on my words earlier, like That's me.

23:53We all are, man. We all are. Yeah, sure. That's it. It's a learning thing. But with him, all things are possible. I mean, he talks about where two or three are gathered in my name, he's there in the mix. He's in the midst of this room right here that we're sitting in. Yeah. And his power is going to overflow. And so what's happened for us is that we have never been ashamed of our faith.

24:13Our employees, our people, the people around us see us, who we are, what we are. I'm this way all the time. I'm a constant giver. That's what we're called to be. That's who we are. We lift up our brothers and our sisters and those that may be listening and having a tough time. Faith will help you overcome some amazing adversity. I'm one of those.

24:36I was a man that had a real checkered upbringing and I've changed all things by walking with God. I understand that people have different levels of what they believe, but understand this: God will reveal himself based off of the desire that you have to connect with him. That's right. I like that. I teach this all over. So you talked about the event.

24:59Yeah, we pray for those as we come to these events. We say, God, guide us, put us with people. We've connected with so many people already, man. It's like we're exchanging phone numbers, right? Yeah, exchange of phone numbers, contacts. People are like, oh, I know you from this place. I'm like, I didn't realize we were as popular as we were, but it's not, it's not for my glory, it's for his glory.

25:20Yeah, but it's, it's been, it's been an amazing event. And talking about our presentation, I literally was in the front quarter, you know, and my prayer was, Lord, give me the discernment to touch the people in this room's heart. Yeah. And, and I swear to you, if you could feel a presence in that room, that he was in the midst, he was in the midst of us.

25:41Yeah. And the wording, the way we were bouncing off, people were saying, we've never heard anybody talk as smoothly, two of you in a room, like two people in a room. Like it was, they're super clunky. And we managed through him to have a very smooth, we had very deliberate actions, touch people. Like it was all him. People noticed it too. People actually commented about it.

26:03And about that, and about— thank you for sharing your faith. I even had somebody come over and gave me that coin. Yeah, medallion. Put on the whole armor of God. Uh, he said, here, man, I want you to have this. Thank you, man. I said, I will keep this forever. I think we can all attest to the fact that our plans, while we might think that we have like our plans, we're— we got, we got everything figured out, right?

26:26Like, hey, here's what I'm going to do, here's how it's going to look., and our plans are, you know, they're not often God's plans. And if you're like me, you've learned the hard way. I've tried too many times to force something, but what I know is that my plans can't be forced, his plans can't be stopped. And ultimately, as long as I am obeying, I'm listening and obeying, and I'm doing my best to trust in him, because I think for a lot of us, we might be thinking, you know what, I kind of feel like maybe God's calling me out of this or calling me to that or I just feel there's a nudge that

26:57we know is him, but it's like, well, hang on, God, show me, give me a sign first and then I'll trust you. Like, show me and then I'll trust you. And what he's always saying, if we're listening, is no, Josh, trust me and I'll show you. And if we can start putting, just truly letting go and letting God and trust, he's gonna reveal himself in great and mighty ways that we cannot even imagine.

27:21It is a big one. I got one to add on that. I think this will talk to your audience really big. I just, I wrote a, I teach and do sermons. I have been in ministry for over 25 years. I wrote a thing about trusting the promises of God. Most people operate under the commandments of God, which are the do and do nots and what have you.

27:44And sure, that lines you up because you can find much of that But you see, the promises of God require our faith, and faith is that— is trusting something that's unseen, or going through believing something before it actually happens. It's what you just talked about. God, these are my conditions, these are how I— yeah, and he doesn't ask. He— that's not how it operates.

28:05You see, you're missing— you're just— you're literally— this is that saying where I bought this beautiful cart. Oh yeah. Where's the horse to pull it? Uh, I'm working on that. That's not how you operate with God. You have to trust him on his promises, just like Abraham trusted the promises. He went out, people asked him probably on a journey when he went to the watering hole, hey, where you going?

28:27Um, I don't know. Uh, how do you know when you get there? Well, he said he'll let me know. Uh, what are you gonna do for food or water? He said he'd provide. And if you think like that, that's the reason I brought all this up, is that Even in business and all the things, put it before God and say, guess what, man, I don't, I don't have it in me, but I know in you I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

28:52Al, I really appreciate you sharing that. I can tell you, as a still a fairly new entrepreneur, I've been doing this for 2 and a half years. I left a great organization, uh, had a great role in that organization, but I felt like God was calling me out of that organization and I was about to jump into this terrifying world of entrepreneurship, not knowing what was going to be coming next, but knowing that that's what God was calling me to do.

29:15And for the last 2 and a half years, I've gotten to the point where I'm like, you know what? I still don't understand how, but I know why. Like, God is like— he keeps providing. He just keeps providing. And even when there are times when it feels like the next couple of months, I'm not really sure where work is going to come.

29:33I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to retain clients. I'm not sure if this training is going to happen. I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to speak at this event. I'm not sure about X, Y, and Z. He continues to provide every single time. And now I've gotten to the point where it's like I can almost— I can almost— almost the key word— I can almost get to a point where it's like I'm not ever worried about anything because I just keep on putting my faith above my fears.

29:55And it's not easy, but it's possible. And he keeps on showing up. No, I, I absolutely— but just remember, God is not the author of fear. That's right. That's a big thing to remember. Yeah, your faith is so much bigger. See, see, darkness happens, happens with the absence of light, okay? It's not the other way around. Light's the absence of darkness. No, no, no, it's, it's darkness is the absence of, of light.

30:19Sure. So if you have light or, or God in your life and he's your light, well, the darkness and the fear and all that stuff Yeah, you still have to like be conscious of them because they're always there, they're always lurking. All those things are always going to be there, they're never going to go away. But if you can just point and shoot and aim towards God and say, Lord, your will be done, that's it.

30:41I mean, point me— the similarity between faith and fear is that they both believe in a future that hasn't happened yet. Correct. So why wouldn't we choose faith, right? Correct. Let me, let me get— let me ask you guys this. So this is a leadership podcast. Yeah, you guys, I can already tell in the the, what, 20 minutes that we've been chatting together.

30:56Y'all are fantastic leaders. It's no secret as to why you led a leadership presentation at Ratchet Wrench. But I'll ask you, and this is for either one of you or both of you, what does leadership mean to you? Great question. I'll let you take this one. Sure. I've had a lot of years of doing this. I've led a lot of people in many different— from faith-based charitable-based, organizational.

31:24I think leadership to me is a simple thing where when you turn around and see who's following, that is the clear picture of leadership because people follow leadership. Leadership is being able to be steady, to not create chaos, to be a voice of reason, and also be malleable, soft, be able to what you deliver to do it in softness, but be able to receive.

31:56I say like this, I listen with the intent to listen, not the intent to reply. It's taken years to learn this. It's hard. I want to say this, Al, and this actually is for both of you guys. There is a gentle, soft spirit about both of you guys. Um, I, I am— I, I live with more anxiety than I think the average person does.

32:16Like, that's just me admitting that, right? And I can tell you in the, in the conversations that you— that we've had, um, I— like, you are someone who I would want to be around more because of this calming presence that you provide. So I want to, I want to highlight both you guys for, for that. Thank you. Um, I appreciate that. Yeah, you talked about being malleable, you also talked about a leader is someone who does not create chaos.

32:43Here's my question, because in a shop environment, we know, I mean, we're truly inviting the chaos, but it's a controlled chaos. How as leaders can we invite the chaos without cultivating this chaotic type of environment, if that makes sense? Mindset. Okay, elaborate. Literally, literally what it comes down to, mindset. So talking about chaos, okay, this morning, 5:30, 5:30 this morning, I get a call from my GM saying, hey, by the way, uh, one of our guys, um, is currently on his way to the emergency room.

33:21Neighbors found him unconscious on the sidewalk. Also had a one of our other co-workers call out. Okay, cool. Let me see what I can come up with give me a few minutes, let me call you back. Get on the horn with Al, hey, by the way, we got this going on, here's my thoughts, tell me what you think. It's being able to like be a calm in the storm for everybody.

33:43Chaos is always gonna be there, it's going to arise. But as a leader or somebody that people are looking up to, you have to be kind of a pillar or an anchor In the chaos, the pivot, the malleable. Okay, dang, that sucked. That really hurt. I just got hit on the chin. All right, let's not let that happen again, but how can we react to this thing scenario?

34:06But that's— it's all mindset. I could have spun out. I could have been like, oh my God, this is horrible. This is— this sucks. What am I gonna do? We're what, 650 miles away from DIA? It's not like I can get there in 20 minutes and solve these problems. Yeah, I just physically can't. But it's being able to pivot. It's being able to say, hey, let me handle this.

34:26I got you covered. I got your back. Let me find a solution to the problems and I'll tell you what I'm going to do. So it was moving people from one store to the other store, asking ladies from other departments that are normally not on the counter, hey, I just need you to be able to field phone calls for these guys. Okay.

34:40Hey, Michelle, I need you to help back up Lene because she's going to be filling in this area. Boom, boom, boom, boom. Getting everybody on the same page, having conversations with everybody. Telling the plan and everybody at the end of it, it's like, all right, we're going to be good. You got this. You're taking, you're sharing actionable steps that we can take as leaders.

34:57You're communicating in a way where you're delegating authority to those who can help you pivot in the midst of chaos. Let me ask you for the listening audience who understands that what you're sharing is important, but struggles with emotional regulation. How can we work on mindset mindset so that we understand that ultimately our thoughts dictate feelings, our feelings dictate actions, our actions dictate results, but we struggle with our thoughts.

35:23Talk to the listening audience about the ones who struggle with their thoughts and steps they can take to improve their mindset. Being that this is God-based. Come on. Fear-based or to that aspect, that's where I always go. Okay. Lord, give me discernment. Lord, give me the mental fortitude that I need. Lord, help me in this situation. Okay, I give it to him first, then somehow miraculously he uses me, and then we get the job done.

35:48Like, for instance, I was telling him this morning, I said, you know what, through all of that chaos, I was at complete peace and understanding. Yeah, my breath didn't raise. I mean, I was pacing back and forth just because that's what I do, just to get my thoughts moving. Sure. I feel like my legs are moving, then my thoughts are moving. Uh, I don't know if that's true or not, but yeah, no, it works.

36:05But Really, you go straight to the source of power, energy, motivation, understanding, knowledge, all of it. Go straight to the source and plug in, and then things start moving, things start happening. That's really what it comes down to. Biggest thing too is take a breath, okay? You don't need to make a decision right there in that moment. Just, phew, okay, all right.

36:31Let's do this step, do this step, but it's very, very actionable. Okay, I need to make sure that I have people at this location. So that's step 1. Okay, I know I've got coverage there. Okay, can I steal somebody from that store to take them and put them at the other store? What's the workload like? Okay, so answer that question. Workload looks okay at both stores.

36:47It's a little bit light right now, so this should— this actually works out. I'm going to take this person over here. Hey, so-and-so, are you okay with me taking Isaac over to our other store? Yeah, yeah, that shouldn't be an issue at all. Okay, perfect. Then you communicate with the other store and just go through. It's an action plan. Step 1, step 2, step 3, step 4.

37:05And once you start checking those boxes, before you know it, you've finished 20 items and the problem's solved. It's good. Yeah, very good. Yeah. So you hit on something. If I can hit a little piece, um, what you said about even yourself, uh, just feeling the anxiousness, anxiety, and the thing that comes, uh, it's very real in our society. Okay. Um, people are now getting to a point where they're openly admitting it.

37:28They openly— what now? Admitting the fact that they, they admit, oh yeah, I, I, I have— I suffer from anxiety, I suffer from that. And, and what happens is it's clarity of mind, being able to clear your mind on things, um, because the events are real, man. Uh, pressure and the stress that comes, the way people act, things people say. Whatever it might be, and you fill it out.

37:52And so we try to teach our people how not to get sucked into the event and have— be that force. Alex teaches us a lot. We've got one young man who's coming to be with us. His name is Chris Kerner. He's our general manager, and he gets all the pressure and stress. We see it, so we recognize it. So we tell him, hey, man, Why don't you take a breather just a minute?

38:18Just, hey, you being— let me jump in and handle this. So, peace. So let me go make that call. Alex does that all the time. Yeah, no, absolutely. It's, it's being pressure cooker. It's the best example. Like, like one of those little, little pressure cookers. We have to be that release valve on the top. Okay. As small as maybe insignificant as that thing is, that is the only reason why that thing doesn't explode.— if it makes sense.

38:44We got to be a pressure relief valve. Yeah, no, that makes sense. And I appreciate both of you guys for sharing what you did. You shared, Alex, the first step of what I coach people on in the 3 Ps on how to regulate their emotion, which is to pause. That's the first thing you said. You know, we can actually just take a step back and pause.

39:00So you pause, you process, and you pivot. You pause, process, pivot. That's, that's an easy 3-step approach to regulating your emotions. Where I can pause, I can physically remove myself from the situation, take a breath, recognize, and start processing what I'm thinking, knowing that my thoughts will ultimately dictate my results. And when I can start processing, I'm challenging my thoughts, I'm questioning my thoughts, I'm getting a new perspective.

39:25And with perspective, the way that we view things drives the way that we do things, which means I can pivot accordingly, knowing that I do have— and when I say I have anxiety, it's definitely not like crippling anxiety, right? I, I know, I know myself well enough to know this is why I have my own coach. Even as a coach, I have my own coach.

39:42I think it's important that everyone has a coach. Of course, I mean, I'm biased, but I have my own coach. I also work with a counselor, folks. I'm even married to a licensed professional counselor, so I get free counseling all the time, even when I don't want it. But she's great at it and I need it. That's what my wife is. Oh my goodness, you just realized now your wife's a counselor, right?

39:58Yeah, truth, truth. If you're married, you're probably married to a quote-unquote counselor, because ultimately, especially men, guys, whether we like it or not, our wives are going to be our counselor. Mine just happens to be licensed. Yeah, that's cool. And mine gave me a lot of— I love her because she gives me so many things. We've been married now, we're going on 30 years.

40:15Congratulations, man. Thank you, man. And it's been pretty cool. Um, she deals with me, she deals with the maniac. Yeah, yeah. You know, I'm also drinking a cup of coffee right now. Yeah. We were gonna go get a Red Bull here in a minute. There you go. There you go. Let's all have anxiety together. So let's do it. This is good, great.

40:33Hey guys, so another question I like to ask every guest on the podcast is what is the best advice you've ever received from a coach or mentor? Yeah, so this one is one, there's a gentleman, his name's Ricky Jordan. Hopefully he doesn't mind me talking about him, but he's a shop owner in Texas of Fifth Gear. I was going through a rough patch personally of deciding whether or not I wanted to stick with the company or go and do something else.

40:59See, I have an ability to go anywhere and get work and do anything and be successful. I thank God my father instilled in me a really good work ethic, so I know I would have been fine. But I got an opportunity to sit in this gentleman's office, and he's just— he's my mentor. He's a coach to me. And he said, you need to stop thinking of yourself as, as a position inside of the organization and think of yourself as a shareholder.

41:26Yeah. See, you can't fire shareholders per se. You can fire employees, but what you have in front of you is a share— is you are a shareholder. Think of it that way. And I, and that is something that has stuck with me to this day that I always refer to. I am a shareholder in this organization and a position is just a position.

41:45That if somebody better should be COO or even CEO, who am I to not put them in there? My position is secured. I'm a shareholder. But if I could take this thing by putting somebody else who's better, more suited than even myself in a seat to accelerate this company and our organization to the next level, why would I be the bottle cap that restricts it?

42:08Let me ask you this, because what you're sharing is similar to my concept on providing or, um, uh, creating intrapreneurs within a shop, which means that you as the owner are creating intrapreneurs, which means they, they're taking ownership figuratively. They're taking ownership of the shop. Like, you want your team members to think like an owner. You guys are how many miles away from Denver right now?

42:32I mean, we're in Vegas. I think it was 950 is what it was to DIA from, from where we were when we were sitting this morning. So the CEO and the COO are out this week in Vegas, which means there are people at your shop who are manning the shop and serving guests and fixing cars and doing all the things that need to get done so that you guys can even be here.

42:54That's right. You have owners in your business right now. Yes. Speak to the listening audience who struggles with leaving their shop for lunch, let alone an entire convention. That's such a big subject matter. So I understood a very long time ago I could not fix all the cars, diagnose all the cars, sell every ticket. That was years ago. And I started building people, and I started giving them responsibility, and I started letting go.

43:17You have to, as a person— because I cannot tell you how many people I've given advice to, shop owners that say just what you said, we can't leave, we can't go. You, you need to change that. You're just in the— not in the right spot, you are working on the business or working in the business. Which of the two is it? And we hear that said so much, and then people are stuck because they go, yeah, but I have to be there because if I'm not there, it's not going to run right.

43:48It's not running right because you've never relinquished the responsibility. You've never enabled— there's a great Bible saying, it's I give a man a fish if you can teach him to fish. Yeah. If he fishes, he now knows how to provide for himself. That has been a point that I've worked on forever. And you said, hey, we're here. I haven't called the shop once.

44:11Okay. I have not called anything. I need to know, I'll ask Alex. Alex called and he's calling more to be, hey man, how are you doing? Is everything good? I don't need to know numbers. I don't need to, I have access to that if I wanted it. Yeah. That mindset is going to be so liberating for somebody listening that if you begin and how do you do it?

44:32Well, you need to become number one, the best person to work for. You need to stop, look in the mirror real hard and long and just say to yourself, are you the best person to work for? And then the second question is, would you work for you? I love that. Yeah. I mean, like, what is it like to be on the other side of my leadership?

44:50Right. Love that. Folks, any parting words of wisdom before we cut you loose? The road might seem a little challenging and a little daunting ahead of whoever may be hearing this. If you're in the scenarios of not being able to relinquish some of that authority and some of that power and control, it's going to be a daunting road, but I assure you it'll be worth it.

45:14The last thing I'll say is you have a choice to either be a cow or a buffalo. Cows run from storms and run from problems. Buffaloes run towards storms and towards problems to get through to the other side where the grass is nice and green. Choose to be a buffalo. Yeah, don't be a cow. Love that. Yeah, nothing, uh, is impossible if you set your mind to make to change.

45:41You have to internalize things. You have to really, like I said, look in that mirror. You will alleviate so much stress. You'll empower people and you'll watch them grow. And it'll be the greatest reward that you'll get. It's never going to be the amount of money you put in the bank. That'll never bring you joy. You'll never be fulfilled fulfilled in the growth of stores.

46:07I've seen guys that are miserable that own multiple stores, but those ones that are amazing are the ones that have these people that literally will take bullets for them. And that's the kind of leader I want to be. That's the kind of leader my leaders want to be. And that's who we are as owners, as leaders, as mentors. Yeah, you guys are great.

46:28Alex Aramis, Pro Auto Care. Al Aramis. Pro Auto Care. Thank you guys for being on the Leadership Podcast. Absolutely. Thank you for having us. Thanks for having us, Josh. And thank you for tuning in to another episode. As you know, we look to transform our leadership skills by tapping into unrecognized potential to achieve limitless results. So thanks again for being here. Have a great day, everyone.

46:47Don't forget to smile today. Don't forget to tell your loved ones how much they mean to you. I'm Josh Parnell, reminding you to keep leading well.