131 - Struggling to Hire? Imagine Recruiting in the Last Frontier with Mike Simard

131 - Struggling to Hire? Imagine Recruiting in the Last Frontier with Mike Simard April 28, 2025 - 00:32:39

 

Show Summary:

Recorded at the Institute Summit, Mike Simard dives into the challenges of recruiting and developing talent, especially in a unique setting like Alaska. He shares his innovative strategy of acquiring lube centers as entry points for new team members and highlights the critical role of strong company culture and leadership. Mike also emphasizes the importance of building the right team, balancing the visionary and integrator roles, and the need to continuously adapt in the ever-evolving automotive industry.

 

Host(s):

Carm Capriotto, Remarkable Results Radio

 

Guest(s):

Mike Simard, owner of Simard Automotive

 

Show Highlights:

Mike Simard's Background (00:00:00)
Acquisition of Lube Centers (00:02:10)
Energy and Problem-Solving (00:02:43)
Vision for Training Talent (00:03:41)
Geographic Logistics (00:05:12)
Talent Development and Apprenticeship (00:05:41)
Industry Comparison (00:06:32)
Recruitment Challenges (00:09:04)
Relocation and Recruitment Process (00:12:31)
Motivation for Policy Writing (00:16:03)
Understanding Unique Selling Points (00:18:05)
Building a Strong Team (00:19:20)
Learning from Coaches (00:21:52)
Delegating Responsibilities (00:22:30)
Building Company Culture (00:25:47)
Understanding the 'Why' (00:27:09)
Finding the Right People (00:28:34)
Balancing Inner Voices (00:30:04)
Breaking Barriers in the Industry (00:30:35)

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Episode Transcript Disclaimer
This transcript was generated using artificial intelligence and may contain errors. If you notice any inaccuracies, please contact us at marketing@wearetheinstitute.com.

 

Episode Transcript:

Carm Capriotto: This is the Aftermarket Radio Network everybody. Carm Capriotto Remarkable Results Radio in Amelia Island. We're here at the Institute Summit. We are the institute.com. Thank you so much to Kent and Cecil and the entire team from the institute to be here just a few hours ago. Michael, were you in the room when I gave my little speech?

Mike Simard: I was not. 

Carm Capriotto: You weren't? I was not. Okay. Well, they'll do it right now for you.

Mike Simard: Let's hear it. 

Carm Capriotto: No. It's a little longer than this podcast will warrant. Yeah, and it was great doing that and a lot of great friends, top tier shop owners that are here, and glad you're here with me. So we appreciate everything from the institute and how they're growing and how they have these incredible groups.

Carm Capriotto: More than 16% of light duty vehicles on the road are EV and hybrid. Is your shop ready to safely and properly service them? Get your shop trained and equipped to service hybrid and EV vehicles. With Napa Auto Tech's innovative, EV Ready, level one, high Voltage awareness and maintenance training. Hey, for over 30 years, Napa Tracks has made selecting the right shop management system easy by offering the best, most comprehensive SMS in the industry.

Carm Capriotto: We'll prove to you that TRACKS is the single best shop management system in the business. Find NAPA tracks on the web at N APA TRA cs.com. Also, thanks to aftermarket management network.com for information that can help you move your business ahead. And for the free and informative labor rate tracker.com.

Carm Capriotto: With me is Mike Simard. You were on a couple of years ago at the same event. That's right. Wow. Two, three. 

Mike Simard: That you even pronounced my name right? Still. So, 

Carm Capriotto: all right, throw the dollar over. I've been practicing it seven locations, but there's a couple of really unique things about Michael that you all need to know while you're driving down the highway on your treadmill.

Carm Capriotto: Listening to this, because you're here to listen, to learn. Just one thing from Michael Smart. It's got seven locations, but they're in Fairbanks, Alaska, Fairbanks, and Anchorage. And Anchorage. Now you see I got an incredible update. Last time I knew you, you 

Mike Simard: had four I. So I met you in Florida and at that time I had four locations, comprehensive models in Fairbanks, and then we a few months later had bought three lu and tire stores and a tire warehouse and two are in Anchorage.

Mike Simard: So we're now in the Anchorage market as 

Carm Capriotto: well is the tire warehouses just like they do in Canada where they store the tires for people or you distributor of tires too 

Mike Simard: distributor. So, ah, we have more buying power through this point S group that we join a tire buying group co-op, and we need to house the tires.

Mike Simard: Got it. 

Carm Capriotto: So. Amazing. Where the hell do you find the energy to do this? 

Mike Simard: Well, my wife says if I wasn't doing something, I'd break things just to. Just to stay going, so I like to 

Carm Capriotto: You're the Energizer bunny. 

Mike Simard: Yeah. I like to solve problems. I like to do different things. Oh God. I like to. Oh, I so love that. 

Carm Capriotto: Yeah.

Mike Simard: You know, I sleep good at night most of the time. Do you invent problems so you can fix 'em? That's what I said. Yeah. She said if you didn't go find something broken to fix I know. Or build something new. I'm so much like that. Yeah. I really, 

Carm Capriotto: does it still continue to work? Okay. Which 

Mike Simard: parts 

Carm Capriotto: I know Think about it and 

Mike Simard: can it do it better?

Mike Simard: You know? Can we get a better mousetrap? Teresa says, dad, it's fine. 

Carm Capriotto: Well, yeah, it's fine, dad, because I've always been this perpetual upgrader, you know, 2.0, 2.1 2 3, 3 0.0. I've always been, you never stay stagnant, right? 

Mike Simard: Well, our purpose, our vision is always try to elevate others the highest potential, so you better live that yourself.

Carm Capriotto: Michael, it seems crazy for you to go and buy some lube centers 

Mike Simard: and did you have a purpose to do that was the deal, right? The biggest thing, you know, I discovered a lot of new things, so I love learning and it's a new challenge and one of the things we need to do is continue to find great talent and grow our own by buying.

Mike Simard: I always had this vision many years ago, didn't quite understand what it meant, but the vision was like over on that side of town we'd have this teaching training shop. A place that maybe we can find talent, find people that want to come into this industry and train them up. People need to come in for a convenience oil change.

Mike Simard: They need to get some basic services and then get on their way. It's a wonderful place to teach people a better industry and kinda get them started, you know, and make sure they have their basic hygiene, make sure they really want to go down that road, and when we find out that they're a value fit, that there's somebody that wants to learn.

Mike Simard: That somebody we can maybe take all the way into our four year apprenticeship program. And so I had that vision and that just happens to be that one of the stores I bought in Fairbanks was in that same side of town and never thought that'd be the place, this one particular location. 'cause I was like, that's something I can't do.

Mike Simard: I. Had a limiting mindset there for a while. Yeah, sure. And then all of a sudden we did it and then we grew in the Anchorage market. 'cause they're really thirsty for, we believe what we have. And now we actually have promoted, hopefully next month will be the third apprentice. Out of that same location I.

Carm Capriotto: Apprentice out there into, 

Mike Simard: so that's into our general service shops. Into your, okay. And then we can grow them to a level master tech. 

Carm Capriotto: I just logistically need to understand how far away is Fairbanks and Anchorage? 

Mike Simard: Six hours unless, 

Carm Capriotto: oh, okay. You're going faster. So this isn't someone that you train 'em in Anchorage and move 'em into Fairbanks 

Mike Simard: for the Fairbanks market.

Mike Simard: But we actually just last October started our first ever 

Carm Capriotto: Anchorage Apprentice two, so I think we've got seven or eight now. Okay. Alright. It's such a great idea. That an independent successful goes into a specialty shop for entry level maintenance. And looks at that as a team building operation. 

Mike Simard: Yeah, that was the first vision actually.

Mike Simard: It wasn't like, I'm gonna go make a bunch of money or just get more car count. I was like, I wonder if we can find people and attract them and teach them who we are and maybe we can, you know, are you gonna show up in time? Are you gonna comb your hair? Are you gonna wear a uniform? Do you get along as a team?

Mike Simard: Can we teach you some life skills, some basic goal setting. Quality control. Do you care? Do you have customer service so you can actually, the lube model's kind of interesting 'cause a lot of people will change the oil and interface with the customer at the same time. So you actually can get advisors out of this.

Mike Simard: Technicians. And also when I went into that side of the industry, I didn't realize, you know, being part of the institute and ROO and the legacy evolution of this wonderful thing that they're doing here at the summit. I didn't realize how much they need there too. And we can share and learn from both sides of that industry.

Mike Simard: The tire and lube business and the comprehensive model. It's very interesting how they can share and grow together. 

Carm Capriotto: Why don't I hear a lot about that here in the States, and it's going through my mind. Well, they don't want to compete with Jiffy. You must have Jiffy Lubes up there. I 

Mike Simard: think we have two other quick lubes in Fairbanks.

Carm Capriotto: Okay. 

Mike Simard: Wow. It's then us. Okay. And then you have the dealership Fast lubes, of course. 

Carm Capriotto: Okay. So when I think of what you did as a proving ground, if you will, for talent. To feed growth of your other comprehensive stores as I think you called them. Why wouldn't we be thinking of doing that here? 'cause I don't know a lot of independent professional shops that own quick lubes.

Carm Capriotto: I think they have quick lube bays. I get that. I know a bunch of people that have quick lube bays. It's probably an incubation for talent, but it's a brilliant move. 

Mike Simard: Well, I guess I didn't really think of it until you asked me about it. The dealership does it for obvious reasons. They service the same brand.

Mike Simard: Yeah. I have a couple of friends that have done it. I find there's a few of us out there doing it. I can tell you one thing. We also have a couple of gas stations. Now, the reason why we bought them is because they were great quality shops already in excellent locations, and Fairbanks just doesn't have a lot of opportunity to buy shops.

Mike Simard: So I can tell you one thing though, if you can do one thing really well and get really good at it and don't do 27 things and try to do them all really well. Doing one thing really well is easier. And when you say that, you mean 

Carm Capriotto: oil changes 

Mike Simard: Really well. So if you just, if you do tires or you just do lube or you do comprehensive, but we do that and we'd sell gas, and then we have a tire distribution system.

Mike Simard: So I. The complexity of it is challenging, and so maybe that's one reason why not everybody's doing that. 

Carm Capriotto: Okay, got it. The lube centers, are they finding work for your comprehensive, your four other stores? Yes. That's the other benefit. 

Mike Simard: So they, we have a little internal referral system. Okay. We also at this time have branded them differently, so if you go to our website, you won't see that tire and lube model on there.

Mike Simard: Okay. Yeah. Because customers are expecting different things. You, in a convenience store, you expect one thing, you go into a big grocery store, you expect another thing. And so we wanted to be able to still provide to our small communities the opportunity to get the kind of service that they associate with that type of store or that brand.

Carm Capriotto: This is fascinating. I'm with Mike Sard from Fairbanks, Alaska from Sard Automotive, four stores, actually seven locations all together, a couple of quick loses and a tire distribution place. Is this the only place that you're recruiting? No. And so that's the big thing. I mean, you know, listen to my listener, you know, Carm, I'm interested in everything in the industry and including this man from Alaska.

Carm Capriotto: I've always wanted to do a story on mushing. Your mush dogs. 

Mike Simard: Oh, you're gonna come up sometime, right? And see us? Yeah. Yeah, we 

Carm Capriotto: are. Yeah. Yeah. How many hours is that? I mean, from Florida here, 

Mike Simard: driving or flying? You know, it's only like 13, 15 hours. So it's 

Carm Capriotto: only 13 or 15 hours to fly. That's right. Like to Florida.

Carm Capriotto: Yeah, but from Buffalo, maybe what? 10? Add 

Mike Simard: two, three more hours. Go to Boston and then go, 

Carm Capriotto: oh, I live near 

Mike Simard: Toronto. Jets are fast. Okay. You can make it. No excuse. You wanna go Tracy? Next summer. Tracy wants to go take you fishing. Oh, maybe you can bring Michael Smith or somebody. There's, oh my God, 

Carm Capriotto: what I'm telling you, I would, I 

Mike Simard: can buy fuel.

Carm Capriotto: We'll have 'em buy fuel. It would be a blast to hang out with a whole group of, if you ever get a group of institute people that want to just come up for the Alaskan trip of a lifetime, I'm in. 

Mike Simard: Oh, we had Bates and Waffler, and you did Casey last year. We do that. They know how it works. You buy fuel for my, and maybe a bottle of Kraken and then I take a minute when they want to go, oh my God.

Mike Simard: We could do a podcast out to see. Would you like that on Starlink, huh? Yes sir. Okay, done. You continue 

Carm Capriotto: to stretch this balloon here. Maybe you help me 

Mike Simard: recruit. That's not a conflict of interest. We'll, even, well, 

Carm Capriotto: let's talk. I'll buy the fuel. Alright, so let's talk about that, which is where I was going like, Hey, let's go.

Carm Capriotto: Was kind of going down that rabbit hole of. Anybody from the us you see your ads and say, I think I want to go up there where it's cold and there's no sun. Or where there's a need and I can fill it. How do you wanna look? I love that. How do you wanna look at that? I love that. You know? Oh, that's perfect.

Carm Capriotto: That's the exact answer. I see what happens with the sun on my head. Yeah. Too much. Yep. It's making it hardened a little bit from the north. Yeah. 

Mike Simard: I had to buy sunscreen. 

Carm Capriotto: Day one man from the North country, was it the Game of Thrones? Anyway, but I digress. Recruiting, I mean, is it all Alaskan talent you're finding?

Mike Simard: So we continue to evolve in recruiting. I sat down the other day and wrote a well over a couple weeks, a 200 page playbook on recruiting. Just try to dump everything out on my knowledge and Oh wow. This Playbook builder called The Way Book when our coach said many years ago, you gotta recruit. It's coming.

Mike Simard: He was right. And especially in Alaska it became more noticeable. A very small place to, to pull from. And uh, especially since COVID, you know, I think the attrition, people moving around more and more everywhere. And so we recruit, had some really good talent from Florida. It's really weird, Texas. I can't seem to get anybody outta the northwest.

Mike Simard: You think that'd be natural? It's like one plane ride. Just go over the border. But we recruit all over. So we're hoping though, in the next couple years. With, shoot, I think we're close. Like I said, between six and eight apprentices now. That next couple years, they're gonna start getting their master program in a little more time in saddle.

Mike Simard: And so maybe we have a little less room for the people down here now. We'll keep growing shops that'll, if it's right to do so and so we'll continue to, to 

Carm Capriotto: my listener. Don't be pissed that I'm trying to talk to Mike to recruit great talent to go up to Alaska. But my curiosity of where you find great people, then you say, yeah, people, they want a life change.

Carm Capriotto: If the whole family comes up, do you getting single people going up? 

Mike Simard: Yeah. And of course we wouldn't recruit from our friends, so we're not gonna do that here. Sure. We all have a hard time. So we'd be happy to share. That's smart. We do share with our friends. That's smart. Yeah. Like this is how we find technicians and so I wanna help the industry, so I'm not gonna try to pull people other shops, but obviously we don't wanna hold people back.

Mike Simard: So actually I prefer a support system, but we're not gonna discriminate against anybody. So I. We go through a very long process. I can give you the overview if you want. Sure. We've done some stuff on social. I've been in Texas before meetings with like, Hey, that guy in Alaska, and usually I'm out at sea saying, come join us for Alaska, so I gotta sell it a little bit.

Mike Simard: Yeah, I get it. Yeah. And so we have multiple parts of the leadership team, of our leaders, and we all recruit. We talk to them and we kind of reconvene and say, how's this working? What do you think about this position? We really talk about the trial. We do a job trial. If they pass all the interviews, they come up for two weeks.

Mike Simard: We pay them, they work with us. Every shop is a loaner toolbox and they work under the lead tech. And then we have a conversation. We take 'em out to dinner, how's it going? And then we give 'em a pretty substantial relocation package if we make that full-time job offer. And we'll move a whole family up. 

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Carm Capriotto: And we train your people on site. Yep, on site. And we offer remote refresher training 10 times a week, and customer support is open. Six days a week, give us a call. Visit the website or join our Facebook community today to learn more. We'll prove to you that Trax is the single best shop management system in the business.

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Carm Capriotto: If there's a job fit, you're gonna do what's right. That's right for them. That's right. 

Mike Simard: And then we'll house 'em for the first 90 days as well. Yeah, on top of that. And so usually it's enough to get started. That's an 

Carm Capriotto: expensive, 

Mike Simard: it's very expensive. Whoa. I just actually calculated it three days ago. I 

Carm Capriotto: don't know if you want me to tell you what it costs, but Yeah.

Carm Capriotto: I'm so curious. I'm sure my audience is, I mean, 

Mike Simard: It might scare people. It shouldn't be super 

Carm Capriotto: secret, but it's a reality of life. What it takes to, for you to recruit into Alaska can, I guess. Yeah. 20 grand 

Mike Simard: total cost more. 

Carm Capriotto: Wow. Yeah. Can I jump up another 10? 

Mike Simard: If you don't count the money you lost because maybe someone left.

Carm Capriotto: Okay. Yeah. 

Mike Simard: I think it was in the 30 something thousand. Now this is providing them 10,000 plus and then you're providing for the salary when they come up. Yeah. And then your time. It depends, however you wanna break it out. And if you indeed spend and sponsor, there's other ways to do it. That's the current mode.

Mike Simard: And I remember when I had a single one or two stores thinking that a recruitment fee or whatever, it's like, how am I gonna run my store? How am I gonna make payroll? How am I gonna serve customers? How am I gonna fix cars and recruit? That's what we had to do. Right? People don't understand what that takes.

Mike Simard: And it's harder now, 

Carm Capriotto: but you figured it out through. The right profit, the right gross margins, the right sales structure, the right everything. I mean, people can't be listening to this podcast and saying, I don't know how he does it, but you do. And you do it because you have great disciplines, good structures, I'm sure.

Carm Capriotto: Great programs and policies and people and culture. That's right. And all of that allows you to spend that kind of money. Now are you recruiting one or two a year? One every couple of years. Like that 

Mike Simard: depends how much you grow and it depends how well you take care of the people you had. Right? And it depends on how sticky you can make your company.

Mike Simard: So the idea is that people matter. And I think it really comes down to the continual evolution of our understanding. Our ability to find people that, that believe in our values and believe in our purpose. And then of course, Alaska is very unique. So the thing I can tell people, my recommendation to people is like, every place you are okay, has a unique thing about it.

Mike Simard: Now, I wouldn't wanna live in Arizona anytime soon because I was talking to Arizona and friends. I'm like, every day you get up, it's the same except that three days of rain. So for me, I like change. Okay. And so, but that's very appealing to somebody that maybe is sick of the cold or sick of the rain. No, I got it.

Mike Simard: So the grass looks greener on every side of the fence. So find your, you know, unique selling point for your Yeah. Company. But what about your community? And you will find people that want to come to you. And so you have to start that relationship. Obviously you have to start that connection. And then make sure it's a fit, and then you will make mistakes just like any technician minded person like myself.

Mike Simard: And just keep learning, 

Carm Capriotto: keep growing. Mike, what happens if you get hit by a bus tomorrow? People gonna handle it. 

Mike Simard: Well, 

Carm Capriotto: my attorney 

Mike Simard: told me to raise my life insurance, so Okay. That I did that part. Well, good. That's get your will, get your affairs 

Carm Capriotto: in order, get all that in order. But you're gone for a couple of weeks.

Carm Capriotto: You got a great team that's just charging ahead. I mean, the culture, the kind of people tell us you don't have to leave for two weeks. You could leave for, you know, work. Three days at the shop and two at home. As long as you have the right team, and obviously you've had to build that. Yeah. 

Mike Simard: And still learning, still growing.

Mike Simard: You know, I think obviously you can't start that way if you're running a single store. You've gotta pour in your people. I think it was just like, Dan, just like a lot of people talked about at this summit here, is find somebody that you can pour into, find somebody that wants it, find somebody that wants to learn.

Carm Capriotto: I love the word pour into, but they have to have the capacity to drink that Kool-Aid, don't they? Yeah. Yeah, they do. And sometimes you believe in the person, but they don't get what you're trying to do. 

Mike Simard: I'm an activator, right? Yes. So, and I have Woo, and then all those things. So that I'm really good at getting people started.

Mike Simard: And one person said for me from one of my strengths is I've gotten older, getting older, approaching 50. You start, hopefully wisdom comes in with less hair and more gray isn't, wait a minute. That's the idea. I think wisdom, I'm still acquiring it. I'm asking for it and I seem to get a lot of lessons to teach me it, but yeah.

Mike Simard: So you get kicked in the ass and instead of failing backwards, you fail forward. Yeah, exactly. So really trying to learn how to 

Carm Capriotto: do that better. So how do you guys survive the rollercoaster of business and weather and stuff like that? 

Mike Simard: So again, the institute's done a good job. I'm not here to sell the institute.

Mike Simard: Right. But I have some really good coaches that help us plan, forecast. Yeah. You gotta scroll away. What's that? Yeah. Because you're the leader, like you're helping feed all these mouths, all these people relying on you. The weight of leadership. So weight of responsibility. So like right now, first quarter's kind of slow.

Mike Simard: So you have to be ready to weather that storm. 

Carm Capriotto: Do you stop marketing? Do you keep marketing? You know, there's, people are saying, well, I'm really busy. I'm gonna, I'm gonna pull my marketing back, and then all of a sudden they're only four days out instead of eight days out, and then they want to turn it on.

Carm Capriotto: I. But it's tough to turn it on and have an instant result. 

Mike Simard: Right. And when the market and the customer, the demand's not there, or it's around the holidays, they don't always have the money. It's kinda like recruiting. Do you recruit when that person leaves or do you do it before? Yeah, so we really learn that stuff now.

Mike Simard: You can listen to the coaches, you should really listen to coaches, but a lot of us are stubborn. A lot of us are a personalities and like, oh, I'm gonna figure it out myself. Right. Well then you get burned and you get hurt and you can choose to either cry or fail forward, like you said. We 

Carm Capriotto: could do hours on.

Carm Capriotto: I didn't listen to my coach and here's what happened. Yeah. And now I regret. I 

Mike Simard: was right like two times though. I'll just say, 

Carm Capriotto: okay, 

Mike Simard: that's okay. Out of 20 years, two out 20 years, I remember 

Carm Capriotto: two out of how many 

Mike Simard: things they told you. Hundreds, right? Yeah. And with my wife, I think I was right. Less times. I'm just saying that was married for longer.

Mike Simard: But my wife's always right. That's why I'm happily married one time, but 

Carm Capriotto: that's it. She'll listen to this and so you're, hi, nice to meet you. Yep. Long distance. Sorry hun, please don't think terrible of me. No. Type A. What did you call yourself a few minutes ago? Oh, an 

Mike Simard: activator. An 

Carm Capriotto: activator. What kind of skills do you delegate?

Carm Capriotto: 'cause you just don't like to do 'em? 

Mike Simard: Well, it's funny. That's where I was thinking about the wisdom part. Like we didn't stage this at all. I've learned some of us have read the book E Os or Traction. Oh yeah, 

Carm Capriotto: sure. Are you doing that? 

Mike Simard: I. Yeah, we're actually going through the scaling up process, which, okay.

Mike Simard: Which I found out is where, and you're the visionary. You're the visionary. I'm the visionary all the way. I read a book like Rocket of Fuel and I'm like, yeah, so it's okay to be me. Like this is like, I know everything about me. It's okay. I know. So what I have now up there is somebody that compliments me really well.

Mike Simard: She's been with me 12, 13 years and she like, I'm a high di. And I know I'm using a lot of the profiling things and stuff, so I'm just a driven Sure. Like a driven coach. Like I wanna win but I wanna win together. And she's a very high sc so it's a very complimentary so, and if she hears me say this, she'll be a little concerned 'cause she don't like when I say the word friction or a little bit conflict.

Mike Simard: So there's some of that sometimes. 

Carm Capriotto: Yeah. But an SC should be a great integrator. Exactly. Does she want to be an integrator? 

Mike Simard: Yeah. Okay. So you're finding a right role for her? Yeah, and very complimentary. I'll cast the vision, but she's more wired for lingering behind and supporting. Okay. And making sure they're getting all the details.

Mike Simard: Yeah, they need to. So it's like a perfect thing. I don't like great details. I don't like to slow down. And S As and C's. I love the details and really wanna make sure it's, are you high D or high A? High D I'm like 99, 98. 

Carm Capriotto: Okay. 

Mike Simard: Alright. Depends if you depends. 

Carm Capriotto: We're partying, 

Mike Simard: we're gonna have fun or we're gonna fight.

Mike Simard: So whichever one. 

Carm Capriotto: Wow. Not 

Mike Simard: fight, but 

Carm Capriotto: you're an all. We'll fight for my team, like a good coach. You're an all in di or DI. Yeah. Wow. It's fun. I have to tell you, and I know a lot about disc. I went through all kinds of training, got a textbook on it. I've got a great, oh, by the way, go to my website.

Carm Capriotto: Remarkable results is slash downloads are on my downloads page. On the website, there's this great chart on disc for your salespeople to see. I think it's so cool to see a high D that has high I high. I could get along with that person. You and I could be friends for a long time. But for me, a high I to work for only a D, that's a tough thing.

Carm Capriotto: Unless the D is willing to listen to my crazy visionary off the wall. Hey, it's, you know, this is good stuff. It's gonna be fun. I had a boss like that. But ultimately, I believe we ended up becoming really close and good friends at the run of my career. I almost believe I really do that. I changed him a little bit from being such a, just a driver.

Carm Capriotto: Tough D. A tough D, and I got some of his D. When you had to go out and do stuff, you had to make things happen and you want to go out as a high I, Hey, come on everybody. We're gonna do this thing. They say, okay, we're gonna have another fun day of really new important policies with km. And you know, I needed my lu razzi in the room, my high D, to say, alright, here's what we're gonna do right now.

Carm Capriotto: So, and I find that fascinating in building and growing culture in the business. Is it all you or is you bring the team together? Do they know? We do what we love to do. This is the kind of company we have. We take care of people, we take care of you, we take care of the clients. How have you built this great culture?

Carm Capriotto: We're still 

Mike Simard: working on 

Carm Capriotto: it. Okay. We're not, that's a great answer. Not answer, by the way. Honestly, we're not. I love that 

Mike Simard: and I am, you know what? Our values is excellence, so I always want to keep growing. I'm very mindful of that, trying to stay humble. I think the biggest thing that I'm continuing to get, hopefully, some more wisdom on is really in the leadership team, really looking for people that we can compliment each other and also making sure we have the skills to not like get stuck in a certain place like we did the Working Genius the other day.

Mike Simard: Won't go too deep into that. I'm still learning about it, but I really resonated with, I could clearly see what I love to do and what I don't love to do. And then, but then I looked at back at DISC or some of those people on my team. I was like, but you do. And so what I realized, the more I stay in that visionary space, casting the Y, I just, I probably put eight hours in that beach, or I wore a trench.

Mike Simard: And a lot of like earbuds in vacuum, just talking to my people. Yeah. Yeah. And literally, I swear we talked about why, and Dan Clark talked about why. Yeah. And the why. It's like, I know, how do I get through? Like they didn't see that coming and I've been talking about it for a couple months. It's like, how do I get through and talking to my wife or talking to.

Mike Simard: Chief of staff and it's like, how do I get through and help from a perspective of Michael Smith and I talk all the time, and I think I wore him out on the beach too for two different walks, but really coming down to if you can get someone else to see the vision and see the why. Okay. And now that's where I need to live.

Mike Simard: Now I also know how to do the how. So, but what's dangerous for me, I'm finding as I'm getting older, is that if I stand how too long in those details, that's probably not the best space for me at the size of this company right now. Yeah. 

Carm Capriotto: When I was listening to Dan Clark and I didn't hear his entire presentation today.

Carm Capriotto: He did say it's the why, not the what. And I wrote that down and I was impacted by it because when you talk to people about their why, it's tough for a lot of people. It's tough to know and to figure out. Appreciate, understand their why, but by saying it's not your what, that person maybe can back into the why.

Carm Capriotto: He, it's not what you do, it's why you do it. And I thought that could be a game changer for somebody struggling with their why. Yeah. Now I get the whole how thing. I really understand the how thing, how you know, it's like who not how. Right. Another great book that really helps you understand it's Dan Sullivan.

Carm Capriotto: Dan Sullivan. Yeah. It's, when I hired Tracy was Barry Barrett, who sent me the book and I was telling him about me and Tracy talking and he sent me the book. I realized that she was my how 

Mike Simard: she's a who that can figure out the how that, yeah, exactly. You focus on what you need. Exactly 

Carm Capriotto: right. It's amazing.

Carm Capriotto: We're a tiny little company, but in your company I can see the value that it brings. 

Mike Simard: Wow. Yeah. Actually, just funny, I picked up another book called Who. By Jeff Smart. Okay. Top grading. I think his father wrote the book all about top grading and interviewing and having a players and his book's called Who?

Mike Simard: And it's like, oh my gosh. It's like Dan Sullivan and him had a conversation. Yeah. And he does it a different way. It's a little bit different take on it, but I think that's the whole wisdom part. I was saying that I'm hoping and praying I get smarter as I go and stop beating my head against the wall at times.

Mike Simard: And if you can find those that are really good at something, 'cause you don't have to be the smartest guy in the room, like get over that thing. Right. Find someone that's just loves doing that one thing. And there's things I just don't like to do and I love leading teams, but there's certain parts of that I do really well and there's certain parts I can do and I need to do.

Mike Simard: And when you're a single store owner, have a couple stores, guess what, like which hat you're wearing today? It's tough. It's tough. Yeah. 

Carm Capriotto: Hope to get smart. You just said that about a minute ago. I hope to get smart. You will. Because you hope. Because you know that's something you have to do for so many that just don't want to get ahead, that are languishing and struggling and really hurt our industry.

Carm Capriotto: They don't want to get smart 'cause they're afraid what it looks like. Yeah. I've been there. 

Mike Simard: That guy's still in there. He still talks to me. 

Carm Capriotto: And what do you do? Do you just grab him by the throat and throw 'em in the corner? Well, 

Mike Simard: I tell you, sometimes I lose the battles, but gonna win the war. 

Carm Capriotto: Oh. Is he screaming at you or just whispering in your ear?

Carm Capriotto: Oh, you'd name it. They'll try every little thing. And I 

Mike Simard: don't wanna go too far into that. The devil in one shoulder, angel in the other. But you know, as Michael talked about, and Dan talked about it, you know, we have a soul, we have a spirit, we have our body, we have things, forces, environments around us. We have people that talk to us in the past that are still talking to us that weren't very nice and things.

Mike Simard: And so what you said was very important. I think you have to first believe. I mean really we're such amazing humans, right? You have to first believe you can. I love what Dan said. Dan said today. What he say? Something about when your wise bigger than your why not? Yeah. That's what I took 

Carm Capriotto: away. When your wise bigger than your why not?

Carm Capriotto: And that to me, I was like, helps you understand your why. Mike, thank you so much for the, I enjoy this to a degree that I believe there's a lot of people out there. We always try to break these barriers that, you know, I just believe people have in general, but there's barriers in our industry of people wanting to jump and get ahead.

Carm Capriotto: I, it was a great episode to hear what you're doing and how you're doing it, so I appreciate you being here. Mike Smart's automotive Fairbanks. Anchorage, Alaska, seven locations. God bless you, man. Yes, thank you so much. 

Mike Simard: Yeah, thanks Carmen. 

Carm Capriotto: Thanks for being on board to listen and learn from the Premier Automotive aftermarket podcast.

Carm Capriotto: Until next time.