Ep 151: The 4-Day Workweek Changed Their Lives | Erich and Lola Schmidt

0:00It is incredible to watch people that are unsure of themselves, are apprehensive, have huge amounts of anxiety about being yelled at or being reprimanded for things. And then you bring them into a situation like what we have right now with our high-performing people. And I can tell you in 3 months, these people are absolutely transformed to different people. They communicate, they talk, you know, like— They're happy again, they're smiling.

0:27They look happy again. You know, it's just really an amazing thing that is— That's right. If I'm toxic in an environment, I'm contagious, right? It spreads like cancer. We always say that, but it can be the opposite on the positive side too. You'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.

0:55Are 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. Here's today's episode. All right everyone, welcome back to another episode of the Limitless Leadership Podcast. I got two great guests on today. We're kind Coming at you from the 2025 Apex Show in Las Vegas, Nevada.

1:26We're on the tail end of this show, so we're at day 3. I think everyone is tired, everyone's feet hurt. We got SEMA happening next door, and it has been just a wild and busy few days. But speaking of, I'll say, speaking of wild and busy, I got two wild and busy guests, my friends, Lola and Eric Schmidt of Schmidt Auto Care out of— help me out, I know you're in Ohio.

1:53Springboro. Springboro, Ohio. And I say, I mean, maybe not so wild, but you're definitely busy. You guys are busy, you got a lot going on. Uh, first and foremost, welcome back to the show. Glad to have you on. Thank you, I'm so glad to see you here. Yeah, yeah, likewise, likewise. Uh, so if you're listening and you're thinking, wait, hasn't Josh had them on before?

2:12Yes, I have. They're that awesome. And so, uh, you know, I did, I did a single episode with Lola and a single episode with Eric and now, uh, have the opportunity to interview both of you, uh, at the same time, which I'm, I'm excited about. So this is a husband and wife, uh, uh, shop owner, uh, team here, uh, Schmidt Auto Care, again out of Springboro, Ohio.

2:34Um, let's just go ahead and get right into it. If you would, go and share with the audience who you are, what you do, and how you do it. Ladies first. Oh, okay. Hey, um, I'm Lola. I do all of the operations and kind of back-end stuff in the house, make sure that HR documents are in place and Um, I do a lot in the marketing and branding realm.

2:55I don't do anything in the technical side. I can't work on your car. I'm not going to write you service. So I'm like the backend business person. Oh, and now I'm educating shop owners too sometimes. So that's fun too. Promotive is tackling one of the toughest challenges in the automotive industry, finding and hiring great technicians. Their team is built from people who know the aftermarket.

3:15Understand technician roles, and recognize what actually makes someone a strong, long-term fit. Promotive builds recruiting pipelines for the shops they support. They uncover talent you won't find on job boards, run intentional and structured screenings, and guide candidates through interview prep and communication so shops can make confident decisions. Shops choose Promotive because their process creates consistency, momentum instead of waiting, clarity instead of guesswork, and a partnership instead of a transaction.

3:42If your shop is hiring or preparing for growth, head to gopromotive.com. You can schedule a discovery call, submit your openings, and see how Promotive supports shops nationwide. All right, folks, as you know, great leadership isn't about doing everything the best. It's actually about having the right partners in your corner to build your shop success. It's about putting the right team in place.

4:04It's about choosing the right vendors to make you a pro, making pro moves. And when I think about the pros, I think about Shop Marketing Pros. The know, like, and trust factor, that's a real thing. And Shop Marketing Pros understands that. That's why I wanna recommend Shop Marketing Pros to become your marketing partner in your shop. They get to know, like, and trust you and your business to then help your audience get to know, like, and trust you too, and bring your shop to the next level.

4:31So when I talk about making pro moves, this is the kind of move I'm talking about. This is the kind of standard-setting partnership that's gonna elevate your shop. So if you're ready to become a pro in your shop, visit shopmarketingpros.com and partner with the best. Yeah. And you are great at what you do, Lola. I wanna, I don't wanna glaze over this.

4:49I don't wanna glaze over this introduction cuz you're selling yourself short. You are the process princess. Uh, you, uh, and by the way, before, before I forget, share with the audience, your Facebook group, uh, is tremendous. Uh, it's a tremendous resource. Thank you. Uh, can you share with the audience what the group is? Yeah. Auto Docs and Design. Design. Um, I really want to help people design good documentation that makes sense for their business.

5:13And so that's what I'm looking to kind of push into, help them design their processes, maybe design their branding look, how should their paperwork look and be set up. Yeah, it's a big hole, I think, inside of this industry, and it's not really thought about or talked about very often. So I want to kind of bring that to life for people. Yeah, and you can connect with both Lola and Eric on social media.

5:34I, I really view both of you as industry leaders, people who are at the forefront of the pack, if you will, leading the way and helping and serving. And I just admire and respect both of you so much because of what you do and how you do it. Lola, you talked about how you're, you're the marketing, the HR, all those things, not technical.

5:56Well, Eric, you're the complete opposite. So you're, you're all, you are the technician shop owner. So share with the audience who you are, what you do and how you do it. Yep. So I'm Eric Schmidt, Schmidt Auto Care. So, uh, as far as the technical stuff, um, yeah, I'm— I feel like I'm falling behind, right? So we have this great staff that really just covers up everything, and so now I'm kind of the guy that don't know what to do with his hands sometimes.

6:22Um, so I still aid in some of the technical stuff. We still make group, uh, efforts for scan tools and technology in the shop, stuff like that. I'm very much involved with that. However, my staff really just takes care of a lot of that stuff, man. They're just rock stars with that. Yeah. And so it really allows me to focus on better leadership skills, leading my team to more success, and really just making sure our ship is going in the right direction.

6:53We've got tons of big plans for the future, and we'll see where it carries us. You guys are doing amazing, and I love how you invest in your people. Uh, you serve your people, you grow and develop your people. They not only come to training, they lead training because just what, 2 months ago, uh, uh, you know, Lola, you were at Ratchet and Wrench delivering a session yourself, but your service manager, Jake, correct?

7:18Yep. Jake also delivered a session. I sat in both of your sessions and both were amazing. Um, but you got, I mean, what other shop owners are bringing their team to, to, to training events and they are leading these sessions. Jake crushed it. He did an amazing job, but that's a testament to both of your leadership. Um, it's a testament to the fact that you recognize that anytime you go to an event like, like Apex or SEMA or Vision or the ASTA Expo or Ratchet and Wrench or Tectonic is coming up in April for the first time.

7:52There's all these great events, right? But it's training doesn't cost, it pays. And if we look at it as a cost versus an investment, a cost is something that you're, you're giving up, not getting anything in return. It's like, it's gonna cost me something. An investment costs you something, but you get way more in return. And you both recognize that as owners, and that's why you and your team are attending these events.

8:16Can you speak to the listening audience who, they themselves, if they're an owner, doesn't yet come to events, let alone inviting their team or bringing their team along with them. How important is it that you're getting everyone involved with these events? I mean, I think it's incredibly important. Um, so I think initially in the beginning as well, right? So, uh, I know it's a huge expense to the shop.

8:40I mean, it costs us a very sizable amount to bring everybody to— I think it was Vision, right? We went to Vision, took our entire team, or was it— SDA was the first thing. Yeah, that we shut the shop down, and That's a little bit cheaper than Vision, right? So we did spend a sizable sum of money. But what it does, man, is if you have high performers or you have people that have interest in, in bettering themselves and moving forward with things, is it shows them what we don't see in the automotive.

9:08And if you've never been to one of these things like Apex or Vision or ASTA, you know, I don't think people really understand in shop land how important and how life-changing that can be because we just think we're going to go to a regular old training like an O'Reilly thing. But it's not even that. And I know Lucas and everybody else talk about it all the time.

9:28It's about the amazing connections you make out in the hallways, right? That's it. And I can tell you, I take more value— not that I don't take value from the classes, right? But I take more value from networking with guys. And you meet these people that are better than you and have these great ideas to bounce off while we're talking this business..

9:48And it just really is a way to elevate each other, almost like a fellowship. Yeah. That we only see a couple of times a year. Right. Right. And it is very uplifting and invigorating. So if you are burned out in your shop, please come to one of these things and don't be scared to talk to people. These dudes have infinite amounts of knowledge.

10:08I can tell you right now that I've always been proud of my leadership, but I can tell you 3 years ago we had bad things happen and we brought it back to this from now., from then to now, and really great things are happening. So even if you're in a bad place, man, it can always be turned over. It's a lot of work.

10:26It's not easy, but it can be made to happen. Leadership grows faster in the right rooms. The auto repair industry is evolving, and the shops that win long-term aren't chasing every new trend. They're choosing what aligns, what works, and what lasts. Tectonic 2026 is where shop owners, advisors, and technicians come together to sharpen what actually moves the needle. Better leadership, better execution, and a healthier team culture.

10:47Whether you're leading the shop, managing the front counter, or turning wrenches in the bay, there's a place for you here. Tektonik is happening April 9th through the 11th in Houston, Texas. Tickets 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-C, or use the link in the show notes.

11:10It's no secret in our industry that speed of service sells. As our world moves faster, instant gratification isn't a want, it's an expectation. It's proven that the faster you communicate with your guest after they hand over their keys, the higher your close ratio and ARO is. This critical window is called your golden hour. And let's be real, it's hard to achieve when you're buried in essential tasks.

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11:53I like that you highlighted the fact that when you come to these events, it's not just about the training, which is great, by the way. The training— there's world-class trainers delivering world-class trainings at, at these amazing events. But the real value— and you said the key word, Eric— life-changing. This isn't just professional growth and development. Like, this can truly change your life when you meet people.

12:15And I know, I mean, you guys are in Ohio, you have great shop owners in Florida, in Texas, in California, and all the— and we get to reconvene and have these great conversations with folks we met at the last event. And we get to talk about the wins and the losses, like the ups and the downs and in-betweens. And it's life-changing because, you know, Hey, I'm not, I'm not alone in this.

12:38Like, I'm not the only one. I'm not on an island like I thought I was. When I start meeting people who are experiencing the same challenges that I'm experiencing as a shop owner, and granted, you know, I'm not a shop owner. I'm, I'm speaking in generalities here. Sure. But when I, when, when I'm, when I'm connecting with the, these folks, we are now able to do peer-to-peer, uh, conversations with, with, with each other even after the events.

12:58Mm-hmm. And that's where the real relationships get formed is Beyond the training, it's like, it's gonna be at the restaurants, it's gonna be at the bars, it's gonna be at these events in, in the lobby, um, uh, after the trainings. Yeah. Um, let me ask you what kind of— speak to, if, if you could, I'm, I'm, I'm kind of going off the cuff here, but if you could speak, speak to an example of, of a relationship that y'all have been able to form over the years with someone attending these events and the benefits that that relationship has brought to both, both parties, not just professionally, but personally?

13:34Oh, can I do this one? Yeah, because I'm sure— yeah, no, you have the great people, man. So, you know, when I started here in this industry, I didn't know about cars, right? I don't know the industry. I'm not from it. And I was— I don't know, I guess it was ASTA, and I somehow met Lucas, and, um, we were chitter-chattering, and really he was instrumental.

13:55I kind of had said I would like to be a speaker. I used to do this in an old industry I was in. I would love to bring some of that expertise in. And he was listening to me and I had put in my first like bid for Ratchet and Wrench to speak at like 3 years ago. And I was like, dang, I'm probably not gonna get picked.

14:12Nobody knows me. And I know that man went to bat on that board and spoke up and said, hey, there's a new girl that wants to do that. 'Cause I had enough people that said somebody threw their hat in the ring and he was the only one that would've had the hat on that board that knew me. Yeah. So I know he had something to do with that.

14:28And if he hadn't have said that and I hadn't got that opportunity, I may not be speaking at anything. But it would parlayed into one event after another. So for me, it opened huge doors. Yeah, just like, I don't even remember how I really met him or ran into him at that event, but it made a massive difference in my career and in my life.

14:48Um, so that general basic conversation of just saying, I'd like to be a speaker one day, and I wasn't even He didn't really have anything else to say much about it really, but he just kept it in his memory. So I felt like that was like a beautiful moment. Yeah. That we could build together. Lola, I can— I'll say this, I can relate to exactly what you're sharing.

15:07I, you know, while I, while I haven't— I've been in the industry for over a decade, but I was in the industry with Christian Brothers Automotive. I was kind of in this CBA bubble, if you will. So people outside of CBA didn't know who I was. And, you know, one, one opportunity led to another opportunity, then to another opportunity, and so forth and so on.

15:28And then I connect with both of you, and, and I'm convinced that, that both of you have name-dropped me on, you know, on occasion to help me, you know, get my foot in the door, which has been tremendous. And so I want to thank you for that. But you talked about how you weren't in this industry before. You came out of the cosmetics industry.

15:47Talk about what that transition was like from one industry to the next, and also how your experience in that previous industry has been able to help you in the automotive repair industry. Sure. So, you know, when Eric and I were talking and he was like, 'cause we'd had Emma and I couldn't travel the same, like it just wasn't gonna be able to do that anymore.

16:09I was gonna be a non-existent mom. So when I talked to Eric about it and he was like, well, why don't you join the shop? I'm like, oh, I don't know anything about auto care. I can't really join your shop. And then I started watching and I would just like drop by the shop and I saw opportunity. I saw where little pieces of what I did with the branding and the marketing and different things in cosmetics really could also translate if we could swing it right into automotives and that we could push the shop.

16:38And he was looking for more traffic. He was looking to grow. He was kind of at like a plateau., and I'm like, okay, well I could maybe drip in some of my knowledge. And then this fiasco happened where he had a technician and he had to let him go and there was like an unemployment issue cuz there was just no paperwork in place.

16:52And I knew the paperwork that needed to go into place. Yeah. And I was like, I can protect us from this for the future. I know what we need to do. I did this in corporate America. So a lot of the little things that I did really just translated well. Business is business, right? Like you're just selling or moving another product in some way.

17:09Mm-hmm. So I just took kind of those skills and moved it into autocare. Not everything translated perfectly and beautifully, and I had a lot of learning curves, but I, I did. I just took the things that I knew about how you should make something look to sell it. Yeah. And we started to put a look together, and that's where the branding really like came into place.

17:33And I'm passionate about that. You make something look pretty, you're going to buy it. If what's in that little bag right there on the floor made me look pretty today and it took me, what, all of 20 seconds for me to look at him and say, pay that woman, give me that product. And that's what I wanted to bring to AutoCare. I wanted to make shiny packages.

17:53Processes, branding, marketing, the aesthetics absolutely make a difference. Let's speak to a change that was implemented because of your leadership, because of a great idea that you had, which was when y'all went from 5 days a week to 4 days a week. A lot of listeners have probably thought about, could we go from 6 to 5 or 5 to 4? Could we go from 7 to 6?

18:21I mean, whatever, right? But to go to a 4-day workweek, it can be, it can feel daunting, intimidating. It can make us think, well, how are we gonna make more money by working one day less? I mean, I'll first and foremost say, ask Chick-fil-A how that works for them. But let me ask you, uh, could you share with the audience, uh, what that process was like to go from 5 to 4 and also, um, how that's benefited your shop, uh, in hindsight?

18:49Do you wanna— so Eric, there's Lucas right there, my fun little champion. Um, okay, so when we— when I pitched it to Eric originally, it was like 2019. Okay. And I was like, I think we could do a 4-day work week because in corporate America, I really— my team was most effective on the 4-day work week. We had much better production, right?

19:11And so I was like, I think we could do this. And he was not trying to hear me about that because that's not traditional. That's not what shops do, right? Yeah. And so 2020 came and COVID, and it just sucked, and everybody was miserable, and there was no cars in the shop. So I was like, hey, can we start the 4-day work week now?

19:26We can say we're doing summer hours, that we're coming out of COVID and we need to heal. If it sucks and it falls apart, we can pull it back in September and we'll call it back to fall hours. Yeah. Right. We had a plan B. Roll back. So we had timelines for everything. We rolled it out to our team. We rolled it out to the public about 90 days before we started the campaign telling them what we were gonna be doing.

19:47So they weren't shocked, right? They would, so they didn't know, or so they couldn't say they didn't know. And then we planned all these marketing things around it and we never went back. Like it was immediate. Like probably week 1, what did we see? Like better productivity, better efficiency. Attitudes were like, whoa, that first 3-day weekend they had, it was like life-changing for them.

20:13Yeah. And all, you're working the same hours. We still stretched out 8 to 7, so they're still working 40 hours. They were just happier. And when you're happier, you're more productive. Preach. I mean, you're, you're creating engagement. And what we know is that connection creates engagement and engagement increases performance. You talked about how happy they were. Their attitudes were better. And attitude, it's powerful.

20:35One of my favorite quotes from Zig Ziglar, he says, your attitude, not your aptitude, will determine your altitude. And I believe as a leadership coach, what I encourage my clients to do is hire your CIA team members. People who are coachable, intelligent, and who have the right attitude. It's powerful when you have everyone jiving with a positive attitude, a happy— this, this happiness about them, right?

20:56Because we know that one bad apple can ruin a bunch. Yes, man. Let me tell you, I was just talking, uh, to Jeff Compton right out here. Uh-huh. And, uh, Jeff and I, um, I was telling him about our staff that we have now. And so, you know, I've been doing this for 32 years at this point. I was technician almost the entire time.

21:17I've had the shop for 16 years at this point, and I wrenched through most of my shop ownership as well. It's only been in the last couple years that I've kind of laid off all of that and, and try to manage a shop. But what was crazy is when this new staff came about, we followed the same process and training and onboarding that we normally do.

21:36Now, granted, we had a little scare there, so we very much paid much more attention to what we were doing or much more attentive to the things that we were doing. But I have never in my career worked with such high-level performing people. Okay. And it is the absolute most life-changing thing that you will ever do in business because, again, I sometimes don't know what to do with my hands because things that I set out to do, and maybe it's an owner thing and maybe I didn't do it fast enough for somebody, but they get it done, man, and they do it well, and they take pride in it, and they move forward with that

22:08with a smile on their face and no attitudes, and they're looking for more. And it's— I've never had that in my career, right? So imagine working 30 years or 20 years in a career where you're just around miserable, toxic people, man. But the thing was, I myself was toxic. I did not know because that's how I was raised up in the industry.

22:30My parents are white-collar workers, man. They're not the people that taught me how to function in a workplace, because I never had a white-collar job until now. So, and I still don't consider it white-collar, right? You know, but it's the high-level performers that make it happen, and, and it's just unbelievable how they can transform your personal life. Yes. And your mental well-being to allow you to operate a business cleaner.

22:57That is the craziest thing. Well, that's why when you say it's life-changing, it's not— again, it's not just the professional difference. It's a personal difference. It's a mindset shift. You view things differently. You do things differently. There's a, a weight lifted off your shoulders. You referenced Jeff Compton. So for listeners who don't know, I think everyone, most people know, but he's the Jaded Mechanic.

23:17He has a great podcast, the Jaded Mechanic Podcast. But even his, the title of his name, I always say like, dude, that is the, the best name for a podcast, the Jaded Mechanic, because, because we're accustomed to the toxic, the negative, the jaded, disgruntled employee. And it— but when things change, when engagement occurs, and then performance is just an increase in performance as a byproduct of engagement.

23:45But when the engaged employee— sorry, when the employee becomes engaged, it is a life-changing move that happens. And everyone is more productive. I can tell you we brought in 2 employees. I'll just— they might be talking with Jeff soon. So, but they are 2 technicians. They came from a dealership that did not treat them well. Okay. And it is incredible to watch people that are unsure of themselves, are apprehensive, have huge amounts of anxiety about being yelled at or being reprimanded for things.

24:21And then you bring them into a situation like what we have right now with our high-performing people. And I can tell you, in 3 months, these people are absolutely transformed to different people. They communicate, they talk, you know, like they look happy again. You know, it's just really an amazing thing. That is, if I'm toxic in an environment, I'm contagious, right? It spreads like cancer.

24:47We always say that. But it can be the opposite on the positive side too. And the positivity absolutely spreads like cancer as well. Joy is contagious too. That's right. You can infect, you can affect, you get to affect change. I got to assume that for the first few weeks of these individuals being there, they're probably thinking like, hang on a second, when's the other shoe going to drop?

25:07Like, this can't all be true, right? They were verbal about it. They looked right at me and I said, hey, we're going to do these couple of things. And, you know, and then every single day when we have new employees and I still do it, even if you've been with me for 5 years, I'm gonna walk out every morning I'm at that shop and I'm gonna ask how everybody's doing.

25:22I walk the floor and I ask, how you're doing? How was your weekend? What did you do? We got guys that race. Hey man, how'd your race go? You know, let's, let's take some interest in people's lives a little bit. Yes. But the thing was, man, as I was trying to do some things with these, these texts that we pulled from the dealer, and one of them looked right at me and he goes, I can't trust you, it's a trap.

25:42And I'm like, wow, man, I I was like, I feel you on that, dude. Like, I do, but it's not a trap. I can promise you that the intentions are quite well here. And, uh, I said, the only way I'm going to prove that to you is by doing it. That's what we're going to do. And now they've been with us 7 months, so they're, they're in it now.

26:02They're embedded in the culture now. They see it's not a— we're not going to drop a shoe on them. Yeah, yeah. Eric, good on you, man, for, for for receiving what he shared when he said, hey, it's a trap. You know, I like it was— he made a definitive statement. It's a trap. I can't trust you. And good on you for saying, okay, hey, I like— because you understand what I've been there from.

26:23You understand where he's been there, man. But your actions are going to speak louder than words. Once again, this is a testament to both of your leadership and what you provide for your team members. I'll ask you, and this could be for either or both of you, If I were to ask you, what does leadership mean to you? How would you answer that question?

26:41I think my answer's even evolved since we talked before. Um, leadership is creating stability and growth opportunity, I think. Okay. Eric, anything to add or, or you? I mean, yeah, it's a great example. I'll always stick with mine. Let's, let's create an environment that helps uplift people. To uplift themselves, right? So if I can create a, a good, safe, uh, pleasurable environment, uh, that we can make a little bit of money, we can take a little bit of that stress off, that's uplifting in itself for those people, right?

27:18Yeah. Um, and I think that if we can teach people to do that, then they can be their own drivers in success. And that's the biggest thing for me, man, is how can I autonomize this person to drive their own success, right? And there is a certain amount of uplifting, there's a certain amount of motivation, and what'll push you have to give people to make them know that they're great at what they do.

27:41I can tell you, I didn't know I was a great electrical or diagnostician guy until I was about 30 years old. Okay, well, I started my company at 36, so— or no, I started at 30. What the heck am I talking about? So yeah, it was like my mid-20s I realized this, and I'm standing in the middle of a dealership with 60-some guys realizing that I know a lot more than these, these older guys.

28:04And, and I realized that by people asking me non-stop questions in the dealership about things. No, I asked my fair share of questions and I still do it today. But I like bouncing information off of people too, right? I like sharing information and seeing if people agree or disagree. And if they disagree, why? How can we look at that and say, okay?

28:23And that's where for technical leadership type stuff, any of that stuff, man, it's all about the communication back and forth. Preach. And we can learn how to disagree without being disagreeable. Absolutely. Right. I wish more people would learn that. Well, and that's the thing. Like if we start seeking first to understand, then be understood, That's one easy first step for us to be, uh, to, to learn how to disagree without being disagreeable.

28:46Eric, you said a word that I, I love. You said it's a combination of words a couple times now, life-changing. Since the last time you and I have spoke, since the last time you were on this, on this podcast, um, you were at the, at the time y'all were in the middle of buying a building. Yep. Um, you're going through that process.

29:02Um, that was what, 6 months ago or so, something like that? Something like that? Probably. Yeah, right around that. Yeah, right around that. So let me ask you, uh, what, what is— what has it been like? What's the update like now that you have, um— because that's a pretty big deal. That's a life-changing event, right? I was so scared. Well, so here's the thing, man, and, and if you're a business owner that has a good profitable shop that moves some numbers, I, I will say that there is a certain point of numbers when you're looking at them all the time and handling this that you get kind of immune to it, right?

29:34Yeah. So we bought a Hunter alignment rack today, and that was a very sizable purchase, right? That was supposed to be a whole secret. Um, oh well, whoops, hang on a second. Here's the thing— abort, abort. Um, but anyways, um, it'll be fine by the time they hear it. You cannot put this out for a while now. So anyways, that was a big thing, but there wasn't that much nervousness with it.

29:58Yeah, if that makes sense, right? Because when we do big purchases, we go buy a new car, we buy a house, we buy we have this underlying nervousness, right? And I had a huge amount of anxiety about buying a 7-figure building, right? And, and I know my wife very much had that anxiety, right? I'm usually the calming source to that. I'm a little more immune to those numbers than she is.

30:21But it's been good. And the reason is, is because we appropriately planned for this. We financially planned for it. We had a plan in place of how we move forward with things. What happens if this happens? Where do we go from here? Financial processes were in place. Yes. Two years before we purchased. Absolutely. We made sure also that we were prepared for everything that might smack us upside the head.

30:46Okay. And sometimes you are not prepared for those things, and sometimes you cannot foresee that. But the overall experience of buying the building, getting it, making our payments at this point, and moving forward with things, I can't even say that I— yes, I can't even feel it. Love that. Love that. Congratulations. Yeah, thank you so much. That is like— I don't Again, I don't want to glaze over that either.

31:06That's a massive accomplishment. Um, you know, you just talked about, um, about planning, how important planning is. I think we've all heard the phrase, failing to plan is planning to fail. And a lot of us, uh, well, you know, we're going to find every excuse in the book. And to us, it's a reason. Well, the reason I didn't plan, the reason I didn't do this or that.

31:24And someone else is listening and saying, that's just an excuse. All excuses, reason and excuse are the same thing, just depending on who it's coming from, right? It's the same kind of, same kind of concept. Um, let me ask you, so, cuz the second question I ask every guest on this podcast is, uh, what is the best advice you've ever received from a coach or a mentor?

31:41You guys have been offering a lot of great advice on, on, oh my gosh, throughout this show, but, but what kind of, what's the best advice you've ever received? Oh, you're gonna have to go first on that because I, there's so many. I can hon— this year I have received so many words of what's that have actually changed my mind shift on a lot of things.

32:04Okay. Um, you know, eternally my dad and my grandpa were always like, you know, work smarter, not harder. Find the people who, you know, you don't wanna do the things, find the people that are better than you. So I can give you all those cliché answers, but it was really like my brother the other day who I was talking to and I was trying to like rework this Processes class that I've been giving.

32:25And it was literally because I'm bored saying the same words, right? Because I've taught the class now several times. And he was like, are you doing things for you or for them? He was like, because right now it seems like that class was working and you're now bored and you're trying to change things for you. He was like, your focus is off now.

32:45And he was like, you need to get back to them. Yeah. He's like, stop changing things that are working. Because you want it to look prettier or whatever. He was like, it's working. Cater to them. That's good. That's strong. So that really like set me in my seat. Cause I'll rip a whole presentation apart like an hour before I'm supposed to present it and then put myself into massive anxiety.

33:06Yeah. And there's no need because it was solid and what I had to deliver was good and I just needed to believe in that and focus on the people. So that for me was good advice that I recently received. Lola, I've heard you, I've sat in multiple sessions of yours before. Everything you've done, everything I've seen you do is killer. Like, it's amazing.

33:25It's great. So, I mean, my, my unsolicited advice as you're sharing that is we can have this relentless pursuit of perfection knowing we're never gonna attain it, but ultimately you're in the seat that you're in for a reason. Like, you're really good at what you do. People know that. And, and I'm just gonna say like, you can put out anything and it's gonna be great, but I like, I like the fact that the reminder from your brother is like, look, you're already doing a great job.

33:49They're receiving it. Don't fix it if it's not broke, right? You know, I mean, I don't know. You know, I feel like you're probably the same way, though. Like, you're always just like striving for the next best thing, you know, the next level. Because you care. Level the presentation up. She has a motorcycle hobby without having motorcycles. She likes to tinker just on the business side of things.

34:09Yeah. And sometimes, and I think that's what he's getting at, is quit tinkering here and focus over here, right? We've tinkered enough here. It's as perfect as it's going to get because we never reach perfection, right? Yeah. And, and, and let's move our visions over here now and work on this. And let's do these in blocks of a time to where we build our empire, right?

34:27Because you build an empire one block at a time. Oh, that's good. Yeah. And, and that's what you have to do. So if you get stagnated on focus in one place, you're not going to do very good because you leave all these other things unattended. And we tend to do that as leaders because we have so much coming at us all the time.

34:44All the time. Right. And we do get overwhelmed. I mean, I'm telling Laura Lee this week, I mean, I'm probably going to turn off my social media for a little bit. I do this in like 6-month increments every couple of years. Just— it just helps me clear my mind. There's a lot of toxicity that runs through those, the political unrest, all this crazy stuff, man.

35:02And my brain, along with trying to manage my company, my family, everything else, it just gets to a critical load point where it's like, man, I can't, I just can't, I can't funnel all of this anymore. So the, the social media has been the biggest relief to my brain. And so I leave it for a couple months, and, and it's kind of crazy, man, because you pick up the phone every 3 minutes looking through, and I delete it off my phone, right?

35:26And then I realize after about a week or two, just like smoking, is you just kind of put it down and you don't pick it back up again. And then you stop looking for that because that dopamine hit is not there anymore, right? So I think it's the same thing in business, you know. It's— she looks at something, and that advice is, is basically that.

35:43It's saying, let's focus on the next building block to the empire. We've got this building block, it's cemented in place, we're good to go. Yeah, let's go over here. Now, some of the cement cracks, go over and repair it real quick and come back and do this. But if you focus in one place, you're going to fail on the others, and you're going to let other people down, because there's one person at least standing in every one of those sectors waiting for you.

36:04Yeah, that's good. Well, and you're speaking opportunity of empowering and delegating because, uh, it, it's gonna feel like you're handling everything and everything's a priority. But if everything's a priority, nothing's a priority. Right. So this gives you an opportunity to effectively and accordingly delegate and empower. Yeah. So that you're not just carrying the weight of everything because you have a great team.

36:23Y'all continue to build and grow and develop leaders within your brand. And when the leader gets better, everyone gets better. Eric, uh, same question to you. What's the best advice you've ever received from a coach or a mentor? You know, it's not, it's, it's kind of an indirect advice that you would look at, I guess, is I've just, don't, don't worry about it so much, you know?

36:49And, and really I think it kind of comes from Cecil for the most part, because when we talk about things and we are in a stressful situation, it's not really that big of a deal, right? So, You know, it's one of those things where things, when we're a new owner, things that we worry about are things that I don't care about at all as an owner anymore.

37:11Right. So we just went through a little bit of a slow clip at our shop. You know, financially, I can look in my history and say, yeah, now we haven't had this hit in 2 years. We've had a little bit of weirdness in our economy. Right. So there's been pockets of the country that just didn't get slow times for the last couple of years.

37:29Um, and, uh, so basically, uh, you know, it— I've learned to not worry about it. Yeah, that's good. And, and because it, it makes no sense about me worrying about that because then it takes my focus away about how we can fix it. Yeah. Okay, that's good. I like it. And so what we need to do is stop worrying and attent— and, and be attentive to it.

37:52That's good, right? Good. Love that. I think people worry because they don't have the correct data to lean on. They're not looking at certain things in Brands and their business. And if you don't know your historical information and how trends go, you will get nervous. You will be anxiety filled. Yeah. So plan, prepare, right? I mean, when the pressure's on, we don't rise to the occasion.

38:18We fall to our highest level of preparation. So how are we planning for what's to come? Even if we don't know what's to come, you're still planning ahead. You got the plan B, like you talked about, like, hey, I had a plan A for the 4-Day Workweek. But I also had a plan B just in case it didn't work. Mm-hmm. I, I like the fallback, uh, plan that you had, right?

38:35Uh, well, Lola Schmidt, Eric Schmidt, thank you both for being on the podcast. Thank you. Once again. Thanks for having me. Always a pleasure. And thank you for tuning in to another episode of the Limitless Leadership Podcast. As you know, we look to transform our leadership skills by tapping into unrecognized potential to achieve limitless results. So thanks again, everyone. Have a great day.

38:53Don't forget to smile today. Tell your loved ones how much they mean to you. I'm Josh Parnell reminding you to keep leading well.