Driving Growth Through Relationships with Ian Simkiss of Centennial Leasing and Sales

In this episode of Connections That Matter, I sit down with Ian Simkiss, an auto broker with Centennial Leasing and Sales, to explore how meaningful relationships fuel long-term business growth.

Ian shares how he supports his sales team in building trust-driven client connections, how collaboration plays a key role in his success, and the mission behind his impactful work through his nonprofit.

🎧 From car sales to community service, Ian shows how leading with relationships can drive results in business—and beyond.

Want to come network with us! Check out our next events here. https://www.eventbrite.com/cc/nia-next-level-networking-3697909

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

It makes a lot more sense to work on what I call guerrilla marketing, but really work on the one-to-one and and build relationships within the community.

SPEAKER_01 0:14

What's up everybody? Welcome to another episode of Connections That Matter. I have a really awesome guest today. We have Ian Semkist from Centennial Leasing and Sales of Northern Colorado. Ian, welcome to the show. Thanks.

SPEAKER_00 0:28

Good to see you.

SPEAKER_01 0:29

Awesome. Well, let's jump into it because Centennial Leasing and Sales is not like your average car buying experience.

SPEAKER_00 0:37

No, no, it's your best automotive buying experience. In fact, it's a tagline somewhere.

SPEAKER_01 0:41

Yeah, well, well, I mean, from from me looking out from uh from outside, I see a lot of people posting like cargur's or hitting up social media. But you've always invested in networking and uh relationships. Um so talk to me about that.

SPEAKER_00 0:56

Well, you know, there's a there's a long, very, very long-winded version of it, but we are able to get any make, any model, new or used. If there's factory incentives, programs, rebates, leases on a new car, we can get it for you uh and cut the hassle out of the car deal, which is what we sell. Um, but if we're gonna compete on a marketing level with all of those manufacturers, the amount of money that has to go into the marketing budget is well, it's it's just not feasible. So it makes a lot more sense to work what I call guerrilla marketing, but really work on the one-to-one and and and build relationships within the community um that that really bring you a long-term repeat referral business where you're not constantly shopping for cold, you know, cold, cold leads and and starting from scratch. It's you know, we we we get a lot of really warm opportunities to help people buy cars and and really change the auto buying experience across the industry one one client at a time.

SPEAKER_01 1:55

So how do you foster that relationship as you're connecting with clients or building that? What are some tips and tricks?

SPEAKER_00 2:02

Well, um, lots of answers to that. You know, I I always use a pretty good client of mine as a as an example. Any anything can be a fishing hole, if you will, anything could be a networking group, but you know, you never find me walking in carrying business cards saying, Hey, I'm your local car guy. It's not, you know, it it usually comes up organically in a conversation. And a good a good friend of mine uh that I met at my gym uh one day walked up and said, Hey, you're a car guy? Kind of like, what are we trying to accomplish? And and and you know, we'd we'd been talking back and forth for for months, uh, see each other every day at lunch at the gym, and the next thing you know, he's asking me about a truck, and that was about eight years and probably hundred car deals ago. Wow. Um, so it's really it needs to come organically, it needs to come as a um as a relationship first, like anything else. If you're if you want it to be long-living, you know, marriage, friendships, whatever else, if if you start with the aggressive push, it's not as real as if you build it from the ground up. So it really starts with getting to know your client, getting to know your potential client. Um, and then we've got a pretty we've got a pretty well-written process that you know it's it's it's very simple. We go from here's who we are, what we do, why we do it. And if that sounds good to you, uh we'll take to the next step. The next step being we're gonna discover what it is that we're trying to accomplish. So uh what what vehicle, the why, all those pieces. Um, and then what's really probably one of the best things is we do carry inventory uh in the in the shop. Um last check, I think we're about 33% of the of the units that we sell are not in inventory. We go out and find them for our clients. So take the shopping out of your hands. You guys do it once every three, four, five years. We do it 10 times a day, and then you know, we we come back with uh with some options for the client and then help you make an educated decision as opposed to what everyone knows what the car buying experience is, and that's as much pressure as possible at a high gross profit per transaction as you as possible, um, and not not at all caring about what that next transaction looks like for the consumer, because we made all our money today, and whether or not we see you again is not that big a deal. And then you start getting into why that doesn't make any sense and go back to the marketing budget to continue driving cold leads and just picking through the best suckers, if you will. It just doesn't make sense. So that's that's really where I've you know, for the last decade in northern Colorado, that's what I've focused it on, and I I feel like we've done a pretty good job of that. Um we sell over 100 cars a month, and um again, new used, whatever. So is that an answer?

SPEAKER_01 4:45

Yeah, and as a general manager, you know, in working and finding sales staff, um uh the people that I see you hire are really more relational, they're more um there to make a connection and build a relationship. Um, how do you how do you hire people like that? Where do you find people like that?

SPEAKER_00 5:02

Oh, I wish it was easy. I'd have more. I wish it was easy, I would have a lot more. You know, the uh the shortest answer is all of the people that have stuck, and they're we've got some car guys. I mean, I I was a quote unquote car guy before I started Centennial. I spent a long time at the dealerships running everything from the floor sales guy to this to the sales and finance manager. Um, but every every one of our consultants that has really stuck uh is is referral as well. You know, somebody knows somebody that is working somewhere. Um we've we've hired through Indeeds and we've hired through LinkedIn and we constantly have ads out. But it it's really if you're not looking out for the client, you're not gonna last. You know, if you're looking out for yourself and you and you're looking out for the quick buck, it the the other consultants won't have it. The clients will read right through it. You know, we we get a lot of people that walk in and say, you know, we where where where'd you hear about us? And it it's amazing how many times, oh, we read your reviews. Yeah. Um, we're five-star rated on every platform except Facebook, which that's a funny one. Um an ex-consultant's sister rated us a three, and we've never been able to get out of it. Um, but you know, people walk in and say, you know, I want to I want to work with this consultant because his name's in half of the reviews, or this can't be real. I mean, I've heard that. Like, there's no way these things are real. And then on their way out the door, like that actually is exactly what was promised. Um most people are expecting used car dealer tactics, new car dealer tactics, gamesmanship, uh, all the things, and and any consultants that that run that way just they don't last. They just don't fit the culture. That's that's the really key important uh ingredient is if they fit the machine and we're all rowing the same direction, then it works. Um, so where do we find them? Wherever we can. I mean, uh, you know, there's there's been a lot of times I've I've considered looking towards people doing social work, making not very much money, um, that that truly want to help people because that's what the the best of the best are. You know, they're not they're sales guys, they're good, high quality consultants, and they definitely make a good living. But it's not there's never there's never a a beginning of the process of what's in it for me. It's how do we help you accomplish what you want? Oh, and by the way, we're gonna make some money in the in the process because it's not it, it's not UNICEF.

SPEAKER_01 7:26

Yeah, well, it's it's funny. Uh I speaking of Facebook, I I got a Facebook memory uh where I bought a vehicle. It was my first family car. So uh pregnant with kids, and we got a Saturn view way back in the day, and um an SUV. And it's interesting to me like that more car guys are not into the networking because there's different cars for different phases of your life, right? When you're starting a family or all of a sudden we had two car seats and we needed something a little bit bigger or life changes. Uh you know, now my daughter's 14. It's like, what's a good car? You know, she's when she starts to get in, we're we're having her save up money for that. Good. Uh but in the key situations of your families growing up, there's a lot of other people who are targeting that. I don't see them reaching out to automotive uh specialists like you. Um what do you think?

SPEAKER_00 8:16

Well, that that that's shame on us, I suppose. Um, but that's that's one of those things that you look at the grand scheme of things. Uh we've been in business in 93 since 93 in northern Colorado. Um, and over the last 10 years, we've really like turned on the gas and and grow 10, 12% clip every year, which I think is sustainable without burning your reputation, without burning out your people. Um, you know, I'm a sales guy, always it it could always be better. Sure. Um but but ultimately that's something that we we've just recently in the last probably three, I don't know, I lose track of time, my life's a blur. Um last three probably last three years, we've really drilled down and focused on who our target clients are. Um and and we're modeled different, you know, than than any dealership. And that's where like you like you mentioned, Danny, that they um car dealerships don't go to network events um or groups or chambers or whatever. They it's very much a you know, if I work at a Chevy store, I walk into a networking group and go, Hey, I'm your Chevy guy. Where well I don't want a Chevy, I want a Ford. Well, I can't help you. Versus the broker model that we've got and we've really developed and created in Colorado is I I don't particularly care which vehicle you buy as long as I know where you buy it, which is with us. Um it's not a hard pressure sale, there's none of that with us. Um again, it's about options. And, you know, to your point, life changes for all of us every couple of years, whether we want to admit it or not. And so one of our one of our key things is is really looking at leases. Um, you know, don't want to give me off on a tangent on that, but I I'm a firm believer, you know, we could all agree that cars depreciate. Yeah. And uh that's what in layman's terms, you're financing the depreciation at your usage level and saving ton, you know, tons of money in interest the way that we slow people down and show them. Um that's an option that at a dealership you walk in and say, I want the lowest payment I can get, and and they'll do that for you. They'll put you in a you know, 7,500 mile a year lease on the smallest car, small the wrongest car for your needs. Um, and then they'll pressure you into saying yes to that. And then they they never ask the question, do you drive 30,000 miles a year? And so that's where the lease, you know, that's from across the across the universe, that's where the lease has a bad connotation because it's it's been used advantageously for the dealer, not for the client. And we've been doing it for 40 years, looking at it as the best way to buy a car for the client. So um those are the things that set us apart, and yes, life changes, you know, and who knows, maybe I need a truck to pull a camper in three years. My my Corvette's not gonna do that. So who do I go to? Well, I go to somebody that's that's knowledgeable, uh, you know, uh expert in the in the business and the in the way the money spends, um, trustworthy has the reputation that we've got, um, that we've built through networking. I mean, it's that's really it all comes back to that. You know, we the the line item number for our budget for uh for for marketing is not near what anyone thinks it is, it's very low. So it when I talked about our model being different, the consultants um are the ones out there sourcing their opportunities. We we provide all the tools that they could need, all the connections, all the bank, you know, to do finances and all the things, but it's really on them to to bring those opportunities.

SPEAKER_01 11:51

When you you are so clear on the different types of avatars of your clients. Like when we were talking before, you're like at the transplant, the family. Uh talk to me about those four ones and uh which which uh are all your sales consultants the as good on all of them or some of the things.

SPEAKER_00 12:07

No, no, no, they all definitely have different that's a good question. Um they all and and then depending on which angle you want to look at, they're all they deal with the same people. It's kind of funny. But you know, we started uh Centennial Leasing and Sales started in 1984 as a fleet leasing company, um, meaning that you know a a small to medium enterprise company, anywhere from one to fifty units, would call, you know, come to us and we would source the vehicle and lease it to them. And after a couple of years, people that work for those companies would call us and say, you know, we we really like what you did for the company. Can you help out my wife or my you know, my neighbor? And we went, Yeah, we could probably could do that. So we kind of flipped the switch onto a full full broker model in in in 87, 88, um, and have been doing it ever since. Um so the the one of the one of the prime clients is that fleet manager, right? The the the guy that, especially that small and medium enterprise, they're usually, you know, they're they're like the people we have in all our networking groups. They're they're they're they're busy working, they don't have time to go shop for a car. They don't want to play the game on buying three trucks at the same time and having to go back and forth on each of them and all that. They they want somebody to help walk them through the branding process of developing a model for their business that says, you know, like my friend that the from the gym, they always buy the same RAM truck from me. So every truck that's on the road with their logo on it matches. That's that's that's a pretty low-hanging fruit for us. Sure. Um, the transplants, my favorite, because people are moving from to northern Colorado, really Colorado all over, but the the population boom in northern Colorado is so so massive. Um, those are people moving from anywhere in the country, uh, even in Colorado, that have no idea that there's a different way to buy a car. Um if we can get, you know, real estate agents, uh, other networking groups, magazines, whoever it is that's out there that knows us and the reputation that we have to say walk into Centennial, we can take them out of the market forever. Uh, and they'll be our client because we do the things the way we do them. Um, you know, the family is is a clear-cut one as well, you know. Um and then the busy professional, um, same, same kind type conversation, whether it's that fleet manager or the owner, that busy professional is the person that just doesn't want to play, doesn't want to play the games, doesn't have the time, um, is just looking for somebody to handle the the deal for them, and we do that. Uh, there's no there's no like I said, there's no hidden fees, there's no extra nonsense in the deal. It's it's very cut and dry, it's very transparent. Um I think you'll find of you know, I I I as of this morning, I want to say that we have 960. We've we're on a push to get to a thousand by July, um, five-star reviews on Google. Um you'd be hard pressed to find any of them that say best deal in the language. It's not it's not what we do. If you want to go, you want to go negotiate the best deal that you could possibly get, there's every other place out there. If you want to get the best value, the most transparent, the most seamless, well, there's only one place to get that, and that's that's Centennial.

SPEAKER_01 15:06

So well, if you are a Centennial client and you haven't left them a five-star review, uh make sure you drop it.

SPEAKER_00 15:14

Make sure you put my name in it so I win that competition.

SPEAKER_01 15:16

That's for you. Um Well, yeah, no, so so let's go back to the fleet stuff because uh, you know, as I I watch I just love watching people win and succeed. And uh one of my clients had a uh the mom and pop and one crew, and then in two years they they grew to 14 crews. But there's a lot of infrastructure that goes in there uh as a plumbing business. They you know they needed another truck. Um how do you keep people going in the relationships with the business owners to manage their growth?

SPEAKER_00 15:44

Aaron Powell What do you mean exactly?

SPEAKER_01 15:46

Yeah, I mean uh somebody's talking about their goal, like in a lot of a lot of ways, a vehicle is a tool to have a lot of people.

SPEAKER_00 15:52

No, it's very much a tool. Yeah, that's a yeah. So one of the things that I coach, and I can't, I mean, I can lead horses to water, if you know what I mean. But um one of the one of the things that I coach is, you know, everybody, every business, you know, does their projections in the fourth quarter, right, for what they're gonna do following year, 2026, you know. And so one of the things that I that I make sure with with my personal fleet clients, you know, I make a call September-ish and say, hey, you know, the end of the year is coming, there's there's tax write-off benefits. I don't get too deep into them, but they're out there called Section 179, some other things. Are we in need of any vehicles before the end of the year? Because I really don't want you to call me on December 15th looking for a real specific unit because you're gonna want a white one, you're gonna get a purple one. Um and that's what's gonna be available. So I'd rather order that vehicle. Yes, we can order a new car for you and have it in a normal market, which we're we'll see what happens. But in a normal market, 60 to 90 days, you'll get exactly what you ordered delivered right to your doorstep. You know, you have to come to us, we'll bring it right to you. But um, once that once that fiscal planning has happened and you get through that tax season, the push, the tax push at the end of the year, well then it it's what I what I coach with my my my consultants and what I do with my clients is try and have a meeting with them sometime in January to sit down and say, okay, so your projections say that you're gonna do X amount of business, X amount of growth, what's your current fleet status look like? What are you projecting for growth? And what do we need to do to help you build that? Um from our perspective, is it a van with rack systems in it that's gonna take a month from the time it gets built and delivered to put out? And if that's so and you need four of them, well it's just schedule an order. Then you got pipeline deals for yourself and your clients are taken care of. And that's really that fleet management that a lot of bigger companies have that person working for them. They have a staff's a staff seat for it, but uh like the people you're talking about, they they're not there yet. Yeah. Um, maybe they'll never be there. Um, or maybe they never need to be there because we're helping them satisfy that. So I've got a couple of guys that are extremely, extremely good at that. Um, those those big fleets. Um you know, I've got one guy that does all his marketing on Facebook, not Facebook Marketplace, but he does he does an incredible job of keeping um keeping his face out there. Uh, you know, every person that he meets uh goes into his friends list and he he you know he's constantly talking to him and and posting videos and and marketing. Um, we've got guys that that take forever to close car deals, don't really care. You know, it might take a month where you know dealership expectation is you're gonna be there all day and it's gonna take all day. But one of my guys is good, I mean, he slows people down to the point that, yeah, you guys, you know, we're not we're not ready to buy a car. And it's always a weird feeling, like, well, wait, where's the where's the where's the closing manager? Where's the pressure come from? And then well, we gotta think about it. Well, have we delivered every, you know, there's no Zig Ziggler um Grant Cardone closing techniques. I mean, I know them all, I know the games, but but at the end of the day, if that client buys from us as opposed to is sold at a dealership, and that that is a very different perspective that we have, um, the chances of them going somewhere else are next to none. O model, the way the the way that we're structured runs 60 plus percent repeat referral.

SPEAKER_01 19:30

Okay. So if somebody buys a truck for their business, let's say they're they're building out a van or a service truck of some kind, do you find that they're already assembled or do you have partners that you work with to customize it?

SPEAKER_00 19:42

Uh a little bit of both. It kind of depends on the situation. You know, there's we've got some clients that have really specific needs. Um there's also some of those clients that have really specific needs that there's there's a bin package out there from you know an upfit company that we just call up and say, we need we need the plumbing package, and yeah, the the they know what that is, and and then it gets installed in the van. I you know, a lot uh a lot of especially that startup type, it it's unfortunately it's trial and error. I mean, we we we sourced a a client that um went out and ordered a fleet of trucks, like they they had grown to that that size, you know, that size of you know 15 crews or whatever, and they went out and sourced a a group of a fleet of vehicles for their um for their foreman. And at the end, you know, when the vehicles were delivered, they all showed up with um no air conditioning and no Bluetooth and no cruise control. And they found out real fast that they need all of that for their guys that are out on the streets, and so we were able to switch them out. But you know, that's that's that goes back to it's not about the quick sale, it's about delivering the right product and and delivering the right promise. So um yeah, it's it just kind of depends. I mean, we'll we'll go out and find used stuff, you know, but not as much on the fleet units because they uh they usually the used used fleets are pretty banged up. Um but it it may be 90% of what the client's looking for and the price point matches, and they're happy with it, and we'll we'll do that deal too. So awesome. Both both directions to answer that.

SPEAKER_01 21:19

Well, in northern Colorado, there's uh you know, uh there's definitely a community feel. Yeah. Uh what are some business owners that are working well with you that you're talking with, that you're collaborating with that you might want to highlight?

SPEAKER_00 21:31

Um well, I mean, the you probably our biggest fleets, we we we work with uh inline electric. Um good example, the uh the CEO, uh chair, president of a parent company, and and and our accountant were golfing somewhere in the mountains and w got paired up with these two guys that they they talked up who we are and what we do, and they turned them to me and I talked up who who we are and what we do, and this sounds pretty good. And we we threw him to one of the consultants and he's done a great job. They probably they're probably 20 vehicles deep. I I fact check me on that, but I feel like that's about right. You know, all phase mitigation right behind us there in Windsor. Uh we we were able to take them out of uh enterprise fleet leases. Um comparing apples to apples and not apples to oranges are are that's where I go back. It's not advertised as the best deal, but it's a better, more transparent deal. And and we picked up their entire fleet across the front range. Um in in in networking answers, I had a flood in my basement um on a Friday night, of course, and at 7 30 when I walked in and uh I picked up the phone, called my insurance agent, who I always I'm always a fan of, uh being able to yell at him whenever possible. Um but you know, he said, well I'll just call a mitigation crew, and I called all phase, and because they know who I am and I know who they are, they were there 20 minutes later and they took really good care of us. And that that goes to to show that those relationships are not one way. Um, you know, uh Lightfield Enterprises does a uh a ton of concrete and uh you see their LEI signs all over Northern Colorado. Um that's where I met I met him at the gym. I met his GM at the gym. And to give you an idea, when they parted ways a couple of years ago, their GM went to another similar company, and they they now buy all their vehicles from us. So I mean, I I can list off the hundreds of those. You know, we built our building in 2021, um, and uh we we worked with the Ninan group, uh, which was an incredible experience. Uh we've we've we've sourced several vehicles for that company through the relationship of them building our building and us providing some vehicles for them. Um, but the the the concrete pad, which you gotta come check it out, it's inside. You've been there, but I'm saying that to everybody else, just come see it. Um we've got an indoor showroom. The floor's a little dirty. I need a I need a good cleaning crew that's not too expensive to polish it up. But um when when the floor was finished, one of another one of our clients worked through Neenan as a subcontractor. That's that that that company's probably bought 25, 30 trucks from us over the years. So it that's that's what it's about. You know, the uh whether we said, hey, Neenan, please use uh top gun concrete or not, we didn't. It just happened, but it was like, hey, I know that truck, and I that I know that work, and you know, it just all pieces together in a in a good networking setting. Sure. Um and and again, we haven't we haven't spent a whole lot of money on that. It's it's really word of mouth and it's really doing what we said we're gonna do.

SPEAKER_01 24:48

Yeah, I mean it sounds like the return on relationships. And I think as a especially the way that you're building relationships, you want to network with other people that have that similar approach in their own business.

SPEAKER_00 24:57

Yeah, I um I I I I'll use my insurance agent, but you know, I I I am the guy that and I know there's a large segment of the market because I'm you and I we met through networking groups for that in itself. Um, but I I'm the guy that will pay 15% or more on my car insurance to be able to call and yell at my insurance agent on Friday night at 7 30 and tell them I've got a flood and you need to solve it. So I think there's a lot of people that are out there that are that are looking for that, you know. And I think the more digital the world goes, the more important that relationship is. Because I mean, I'm a consumer. If I don't know, of course I'm gonna go look at reviews, of course I'm gonna go look at, but at the end of the day, I'm gonna call somebody in my pretty extensive network and call and say, hey, who do you know that does X, Y, or Z? And somebody in that network is gonna have an answer for that. And the chances of that person getting my business as a consumer are astronomically higher than me just finding a cut rate on the internet.

SPEAKER_01 25:59

Awesome. Well, uh, you know, I would love for more people to go shop for their next car with Centennial. Me too. When is the uh when's the right time to have the conversation? I mean, is it right when you're we need a new car or is it it sounds like earlier than that?

SPEAKER_00 26:14

I if if I have my way, I love daylight. I know that sounds wild. Um, I mean, we'll we'll we'll try and do everything we can in in the immediate if you need it. The issue with that is, and and it comes down to a question that I I coached really for that discovery process, and we really we really fine-tuned that through COVID um and uh you know, product shortages, which everybody went through thanks to all the electronic gear out there that people were working from home, all the chip shortages and all those things that happened through 21 and 22. One of the one of the questions that we developed is okay, so what's the perfect car? You know, so obviously we're not talking about a Bentley SUV, but like what really fits your needs. Um and then where are you willing to compromise? I'm not I'm gonna do everything I can to deliver 100% of the car that you want. But if it's 90%, what 10% are you willing to compromise on? And then that really gives us options to be able to go out and find multiple different versions of what might work for them. Um does that answer that? Yeah. Um I mean that's that's that's like I said, that's more what it's about is it's your money. I want to see you again, let's spend it wisely. Um I won't, you know, I won't let a certain I won't let certain deals roll out if they're come across my desk, you know, long-term finance, high interest rate. I'd rather coach you to fix your credit than put you in a bad deal. Because the chances of you coming back are are zero. Sure. Where if we take care of you and we follow through on that, it's 50% plus. And then then you look at line items for marketing and you go, well, it doesn't really matter that we don't spend that much because these these these clients woke just keep walking in the door as referrals or as repeat.

SPEAKER_01 27:59

Awesome. Well, with in connections that matter, one of the things we do at the end is uh offer up to our audience if there's any additional connections that you're looking for. So uh is there any any any industries or verticals that you would love additional connections with?

SPEAKER_00 28:14

Yeah, I mean I'm gonna I'm gonna use it as a springboard to talk about my charity too. There you go. Um because that's uh it's something that's near and dear to my heart and uh it's uh just trying to fix the world. That's I won't I won't get too long on like yeah, you know, just trying to fix the world. But uh in 2020, the in northern Colorado, we had some pretty severe uh literal and figurative fires. Uh everyone remembers 2020. Um and uh I kind of watched the sunset. I had this epiphany um of the earth rotating, not the sun setting, and that it's a big round world. I'm not I'm not a I'm not a flat earther.

unknown 28:53

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 28:53

I definitely believe I definitely believe that the world is round, but um, you know, it's one of those just moments that you can see it happening and go, whoa, and then and then we've got these literal and figurative fires, and how do we get here? And you know, I'm like, we can't do anything about Beijing or Moscow or even even uh Washington DC. And I mean, I'm constantly fighting with local things. Um so what can we do? And one of the one of the big things to me is you know, working very very close with the home builders association, another place that we do, yeah. I mean, it's like shooting fish in a barrel if you do it right. You know, there's plumbers and HVACs and all the companies that buy fleet vehicles. Um, but we got we joined and I and I got pretty active in it. Um so I went in the next day and said, I got an idea. We're gonna we're gonna get construction industry connected to the high schools and get and get kids um trained. I mean, that's the best way to put it. We're training employees at the high school level. Uh first thing they do is get an OSHA certificate through our program. Then they get a pre-apprenticeship uh certificate training, which is packed core with tool selection and um basic construction math. So theoretically, the kid is uh is knows how to pick the right job or right tool for the right job, measure it and do it safely. Um and then and then they start earning certificates um in nine different pathways, I think I should know better, but uh plumbing, framing, masonry, uh HVAC, green building. There, I think there's nine. I won't be able to name them all, um, which are industry recognized across the country. Um so if they could, you know, they could graduate at 18 and move to Florida with a plumbing certificate and an OSHE card and get hired on as a journeyman apprentice right then and there. We'd obviously want to keep them in northern Colorado. And we're part of a bigger program called Careers in Construction Colorado out of Colorado Springs. We're the Northern Colorado chapter. In the 24-25 school year, we supported over 400 kids. We've got 11 sites. Um it's a nationally recognized uh curriculum, like I said. Um we have industry experts go from, you know, it's drywall. We've had drywall people in the classroom with a high school instructor showing the tips and tricks and shortcuts and you know making it real and tangible. We do job site, um uh they call it work-based learning. It's a field trip, but we do job site tours, we do job shadows, we um we had a job fair at Centennial uh in March. We we had over 100 kids show up. I think it was 125, and we had 25 employers ready to hire. Cool. Um so it's it's pretty fun, it's pretty big. It's and and this next year, uh, I think we've got 14 MOUs, uh memorable memorandum of understanding contracts with with Pooter School District, Thompson School District, District 6, uh Roosevelt, uh R RE5J, uh Resurrection, Career uh Colorado Early College in Fort Collins. Um we got I mean we got a lot of support, um, a lot of kids to support. And uh in in 2020, this is 25, yeah, in 2024. Um we we realized that this this budget and the way that the home builders association is set up is uh is it's a 501c6 which has um endorsement for for candidates involved so they can't do uh charitable to donation receipts um and and we can't uh apply for grants and so we formed uh the nonprofit, it's called Built No Co. Uh we're officially big boy charity in in September, so this will be our first fiscal year. Uh we got there, we got here uh almost entirely funded on grants. Um I don't know if you've seen what's going on in the world, but grants are drying up a little bit right now, so we we definitely need some we definitely need some cash infusement in infusement. So that's that's something that I would throw out. Um it's builtnoco.org is the website. You know, you I'm sure you'll have the contact information attached. Uh I'll get you with our our director of workforce development, whether it be class presentations, uh high school liaisons, job shadows, work-based learning, or or fundraising to help us proceed with what we're doing. I I I could use all of that. So any anyone I can talk to, any, any, and and it's really fun. You know, I'll I'll do a speech in front of like home builder association or or a sector partnership, and inevitably a banker or a you know, a real estate agent or a mortgage broker will walk up and say, I want to get involved, but I don't know how to swing a hammer. Well, we do, I mean, we do um mock interview, resume, soft building skills stuff too. So all kinds of different ways to help us build that.

SPEAKER_01 33:35

Well, if you're looking for a vehicle or you're a northern Colorado business professional wanting to network with somebody who builds relationships, how can they get a hold of you?

SPEAKER_00 33:44

Uh I don't carry cards. Uh you can reach me uh on my cell 970-302-6285. Uh emails emails good. I'll get you eventually. Um, stop it and say hi. I yeah, don't don't be sad when when the the uh the people up front say you need to schedule a meeting because I I you've seen it. I go go go. Um we're just like said, we're trying to fix the world. I you know, the the one of the one of my favorite things that I say about Centennial, um, and I've I've been saying this for about a decade, is it, you know, we we sell cars. It's it we're not curing cancer, but we kind of are. You know, it's an industry that's that's that does not inspire confidence for the consumer. Um, you know, everybody walks away, did I get a good deal? You know, I remember working at stores, we'd have a huge Saturday at a dealership, and on Monday morning there'd be you know five, ten cars sitting out front with buyer's remorse written on them. And and I can say honestly, in the 15 years I've been with Centennial, I can probably count on one hand how many times buyer's remorse has been real. I mean, we we did have a guy that bought a long bed crew cab truck, $80 some thousand dollar truck uh on Friday and uh Monday he called and said, Yeah, my wife said no. Whoops. And uh, you know, the consultant was like, Well, what do we do? And I was like, Well, I think he's embarrassed enough. We'll we'll just take him out of the truck. We don't need to we don't need to add insult to injury to him. So yeah, come stop by and see us. I mean, we got a beautiful facility, and and like I said, if it's not on our website, that's why I always always try and try and make a point of that. If it's not on there, it doesn't mean we can't go find it. About a third of the cars we sell are are something that we went out and find, be it auction or some you know, other dealers or whatever that looks like. But but being able to take control of the car deal from the consumer's perspective, have have your needs really truly analyzed and and listened to and have pres uh options presented. Um I wouldn't have stuck for 15 years if it wasn't about that. It's it's it's truly about I at the end of the day, I'm probably a lazy sales guy. I don't want to work that hard. So if they just keep coming back, I don't have to, I don't have to keep marketing for them.

SPEAKER_01 35:58

There you go. Well, Ian, thanks so much for coming on the show. Great to have you.

SPEAKER_00 36:02

Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 36:02

Hey all, thanks for watching. I love networking and building relationships with other Northern Colorado business leaders. So if you want to come meet some of these podcast guests, meet me or meet some other amazing entrepreneurs in Northern Colorado, I would love to have you attend one of our next events. Uh go in the podcast description. There's a ways that you can see our upcoming schedule. And maybe you could be a future podcast guest as well. Thanks.