Money Series: Digging Deep - A Fresh Approach to Business Inspired by Washing a Car

Ever scrutinized the scratches on your car after giving it a good hand wash? Well, strap in, because that's exactly where I'm taking you – a journey of exploration that started with a hand-washed car and ended up being a whole new approach to business. What began as a simple observation about a local car rental service turned into a profound realization about the dangers of surface cleaning in business. Automatic car washes may be quick and efficient, but they miss the minutiae - the small scratches, the chips in the paint, the dirt in the corners. And that's exactly how we sometimes treat our businesses, covering up surface issues with money and speed instead of digging deep to find the root problems.

Today, I share my own story - how washing my own car led to fresh insights into my business and helped me identify unnoticed issues. It's all about getting your hands dirty, really understanding every aspect of your business, and not shying away from the nitty-gritty. I also talk about my experience as a shadow CEO, where I dissect businesses and rebuild them, starting from the back and working my way to the front. Inspired by the diligence of a centenarian business owner and my own experiences, this episode is a call to action to all business leaders out there. So, let's grab that bucket and sponge, and get ready to dive into the grimy parts of our business, shall we?

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

The brushes on used automatic washes are not properly cleaned and therefore you know what happens they create streaks on your car, they create all those swirls and, more importantly, you know what's real they create damage. Here's the number one thing that I have sat with forever in a day. It is so true as a CEO, to throw money and to throw speed at your problems. The reality is that we can't throw money and we can't throw speed at our problems because it actually doesn't fix the problem and the real and the goal for me is to fix the problem. So the other day I was saying to myself man, you know down the street, so right here we're at the studio and we acquired a building down the street here in Phoenix, arizona and right next to it is like a super mom and pop tarot business. Now I was driving by and I realized that every single car that they're renting out they're renting out cars ridiculously and I saw that every single one of them were being washed by hand and it led me to this crazy idea. I was like why are they washing all their cars by hand? They have like 35 cars. In the art of scaling a business. I'm here thinking it would be so fast you could come through, you're good. It would be so, so fast for us to put them all through the cars. But then I'm like no, because someone that CEO said I don't want to damage the car, I want to do it right, I want to get longevity, I want my cars to be crystal, crystal clean. And then it hit me. One was the last time I washed my car. The reality is that I sit inside of my car, go through a drive-through all these things happen and I believe my car is clean on the other side. But that's because I got rid of the surface dirt. I feel like I had to go wash my car because in my business I had become true to just surface dirt.

Speaker 1: 1:55

Surface dirt is the easiest way to go out of business. It's the easiest way to lose star employees. It's the easiest way to eff up your cash flow. Say hello to the train. It is the easiest way. I bet you the train's gonna stop right here because it's like we don't care about what you have to say. But it's the easiest way to just kind of go down south and, as a CEO, when you have a lot of different departments, you're looking around and you're like well, what? Why? Is it customer service? Is it the sales department? Is it marketing? You're thinking to yourself you need a new executive leader. 15, you hear this bright idea that you should have a course, a podcast, whatever it might be, and all of a sudden you squirrel and the truth is that the problems in your business are right inside of the dirt. You don't want to see. It is all the things that the car wash, the automated process, the automated process it can't get to.

Speaker 1: 2:48

This year, coming back into my company, I realized that I had too many things on autopilot. I came back into my company after being a year off, being sick, and when you're scaling a company, you absolutely have to have your hand on things in order to figure out well, what do I do next? What I started to do was put myself through this automated process, but then, guess what happened? I was like when was the last time? What come? Let's venture. Well, I was like when was the last time there was a whole fight about to break out? I'm like I don't think I want to be a part of it. But listen, think about this with me when was the last time you washed your own car? I mean, imagine if I told you that by washing your own car, you would pick up the dirt on the inside and the outside of your business. What if I told you that by washing your own car, you would make your company stronger? So what I decided to do was I sat down. Come with me, we're gonna go this way.

Speaker 1: 3:50

So what I decided to do was I went outside seven o'clock in the morning and I washed my own car. I know this sounds absolutely insane, but I realized I hadn't done this in too long and it was way too long. I got a bucket, I got soap, I got water and I and my hose and I started washing. Here's what I found my car had way more scratches on it than I realized. I also saw that I had paint coming off on the top of my car and never even noticed. And then inside of the cracks it looked like that stuff hadn't been washed in a decade. And all I could think to myself was I would have never have seen these things had I been on the inside comfortably paying my way through the problem Number one. Stop paying your way through the problem Number two. Stop throwing money at the situations and stop throwing speed the name of the game like to actually win in this CEO business thing is to go back to the basics, go back to the basics.

Speaker 1: 4:50

So for me, walking outside with a bucket and a mop was every bit of me going back to the basics in my business. It was being able to see, like, what's happening, what's not happening, where's the real dirt, where do I? What do I actually need to fix? You know, it reminds me of this client. I had this client. I can't wait to tell you one day about this business. This guy has been here. Hold on, let me show you this real quick. This guy has been here in business, I believe, for 60 something years, and the word on the street is that he's like a hundred and three or four years old. He's so awesome and inspires me every day because right now he's sitting there and he's at work.

Speaker 1: 5:28

Anyhow, it's a different CEO story, but the truth is that I said to myself the very first time that I started flipping not flipping businesses, but I. We have a world called the shadow CEO. That's where I take companies and I go inside and pull these companies apart and pull them back together. So I started asking myself like what was one of the key ways in which I went into a chimney company. They were doing about four or $5 million and the reality is that he brought me in to fix things on the front end. So I was brought in to fix like their service department not service department, but to add a service part of their business to up their sales, to add more reoccurring revenue. But the reality is that for me, every time I'm going to like start something like that, like every time I'm gonna dive into a business and pull apart their business, I start at the back end. I go back to the basics. So what I did is I got to their city, got dressed six o'clock in the morning and got ready to load the trucks. I went in the trucks and went out on the field.

Speaker 1: 6:37

There is no way for you to see how to fix your company if you're way over there. The easiest, like right away, number one thing that you can do right now with what you have that will cost you a penny, that'll be easy and that'll bring all your people closer to you, is by going in the center, into the back, whatever and wherever is fulfillment. However, you serve customers and clients. That's where you see your front end problems by starting at the back. I pray that that makes sense. From this CEO to another. I'm gonna tell you there is nothing that's gonna help you win this thing faster than getting yourself dirty. So in our, very on our, in this episode of the Daily Tea, that is it. I am looking. I'm headed back inside so I can start at the back of another part of a product or service that we sell and work my way up to the front to figure out how to make this thing stronger. I wanna know what are you gonna do? Are you gonna go wash your car? I'm gonna tell you it is so high opening.