EXPERIENCE 121 | Serial Entrepreneurship and Culture Building with Warren Yoder - CEO of the Yoder Family of Companies

Warren Yoder is the c e o of the Yoder family of companies, which includes numerous Weld County and Larimer County Enterprises, namely Weld County Garage, Yoder Chevrolet, Abbra of Fort Collins and Greeley, the Carriage Shop, Cayman Direct, ironclad Manufacturing, truck City. Drivewise and Driven Financial all are in the automotive industry or adjacent, and Warren has spent his whole career in the automotive sector. Which like any sector, is the people business. This episode runs fast through a series of foundings and acquisitions with lots of discussions about the why. At each stage, we get deep into Warren's transition into leadership and growing outside the shadow of his father, as well as the delicacy of preparing the next generation. The Go companies are known across the region as employers of choice, and we spend a lot of time discussing how they've managed this during a season with so many labor challenges. Warren's a natural entrepreneur and a gifted leader, and it was great getting to know him during this conversation and our preceding coffee when he's ready. Warren would make an amazing local facilitator and I'm honored to share with you all my conversation with Warren Yoder. Welcome back to The Local Experience Podcast. My guest today is Warren Yoder, and Warren is the c e o of the uh, Yoder family of companies. And that includes, I gotta refer to my notes here, the Weld County Garage. Yoder Chevrolet, Abra of Fort Collins, and Greeley, the Carriage Shop, Keyman Cayman Direct Ironclad Manufacturing, truck City, Drivewise, and Driven Financial. Wide spectrum, sir. Yes, as of now, that's what it includes. Do you want to, um, like kind of overview a little bit? I mean most of'em are fairly obvious at Yoder Chevrolet I assume is a Chevrolet dealership, correct? Yep. Uh, weld County Garage is kind of a service and repair, but also sales, is that right? Actually Weld County Garage is a Buick gmc. Oh. Uh, dealership. And the interesting history about Weld County Garage, it's um, started in 1908. Oh wow. And it is the oldest Buick dealership, west of the Mississippi. Oh wow. That is still in business. So, um, yeah, they got Buick in 1910 and I think GMC followed around the thirties. Wow. With Pontiac then coming after that. Well, it doesn't seem like there were cars yet, but obviously Buick was one of the first on the marketplace. They were. When we think about like the Ford model, Teases and stuff that wasn't until later, like the twenties. Right. Well, um, history lesson. I know. Um, yeah, I, I think mid-teens. Okay. Yeah. Interesting. Yeah. It's, um, looking at her, you know, the ledger of accounts and such, I think the first Buick sold was to w d far. Mm-hmm. In 19, 19, 10. Okay. Do you remember how much it, it was like, uh, what I remember like, it was like seven$95, which was outrageous at the time. Yeah. People that were buying horses for$25 would say, Who, who can afford that, right? Yeah. So well over time, who can afford not to? Exactly. So you got the Buick GMC there. Chevrolet, a separate building or are they attached to, uh, separate building. Okay. In, yep. Fort Lupton. And then Abbra is a, is a franchise, right? A Autoglass repair? It is a, a, a franchise, um, collision shop. Oh, collision shop? Mm-hmm. Okay. Sorry. I, for some reason thought glass repair. They do have glass, but yeah. Oh, so there's some glass shops, but yeah, the main, the main portion of is, is collision. Okay. So they fix, fix the cars, the dinged up cars. Sometimes you buy in auctions or trade in and things like that, or Mostly it's just in independent. Yeah. Most of 98% of our business is insurance work. So if you get an accident and, yeah. Yeah. Nothing related to the dealerships necessarily. Not really. And then, uh, carriage shop, that's a little interesting Name. Tell me about carriage shop. Carriage shop is a another, um, auto collision. Okay. Um, shop here in Fort Collins. And, um, yeah. So I had been talking to the owners for a few years about potentially buying their stop, you know, their shop. Okay. And Steven and Lynn were ready to retire and called me up good business with some good employees and customers and whatever else. Yeah. Um, is that fill a different niche than the Abbra Fort Collins then? Uh, a little bit. It, um, would not be a franchise. So it's a independent shop and, um, yeah, it allows us to do, um, you know, go about business a little bit different. If you're fixing up old Volkswagen vans, you would take it to the carriage shop probably. Well, you know, the thing about nobody wants that. Well, yeah, the, the, in that, in that space, it's real, you know, if you're doing production body work, you know, insurance work Yep. It's hard to do restoration. A one-off custom in the middle of that. Yeah. Those are, they're two different animals and they take a lot of time, a lot of energy and, um, so they don't go well in a enough, in a regular production shop. Fair enough. Okay. Uh, going down the list, Cayman Direct. Cayman with a K. Cayman with a K. Yeah. Our son's name or, or youngest son is Cayman with a C. And, and, uh, yeah, so this is, um, We're a business development company and, uh, what we do, there's, we, uh, work with dealers across the country and we do a lot of their inbound service calls. And so you may call your local dealer getting a scheduling a service appointment and could potentially be talking to us. Oh, really? So it's a call center? It's a call center for that industry. For the, yeah. For the automotive service industry. And, um, yeah. And then we do outbound calls, customers, customer, um, service. Service. Hmm. Um, special order parts. Yeah. Um, just kinda leveraging that expertise you've built within the, the dealerships, I guess. Mm-hmm. But also we need this service and that's exactly how's makes sense to have it outside the building. We, uh, we had a, a bdc, a business development, uh, department within our dealership. And, um, the manufacturer was sending other dealers to see how we did it, and then we had requests for other dealers that said, Hey, could you set one up in my store? And just over time we thought, well, we probably oughta charge. Right. We can't hardly charge enough as consultants to, to do it. Really? Yeah. So it makes more sense as a subscription almost service. Yeah. So we just, um, jumped in the business and it's been about three years. Okay. How, how many people are taking service calls and how many other? We currently have, um, 27 agents. Wow. Yeah. Okay. And that seems like you could serve that many customers then? Well, no. Ish. I don't know. We have, uh, we're working with about 70 dealers across country. Yeah. Oh, wow. So, um, so we, we actually have some, um, you know, we, we got more, um, I think we could, with those 27 agents, we could probably service another 10 dealers, you know, before we had some, got some slack capacity still. Yeah, we have some capacity. By the way, I, I tuck my thing in the cushion, so you've got some free slack there. I don't know if that'll work for you. It's kind of annoying otherwise. Yeah. Um, okay, well that's a, that's a really, uh, interesting spinoff just all on its own and probably a lot of upside cuz there's a lot of dealers that don't do it very good and don't wanna mess with it if they could avoid it, I suspect, you know, that is the truth. And really when you look at product productivity and efficiency of employees, one of the things that really slows that productivity of a service writer, um, within a service department is how often they're on the phone. Right. Right. They're, they're greeting customers that come in the service department. They're getting estimates back from technicians. They're figuring estimates, they're trying to, you know, move vehicles around the shop and keep. Keep the flow going. And so a lot of times if a customer's calling in for a service appointment, they're really not taking that time that they need to with a customer to figure out, you know, their needs or if there's additional services that Yeah. Cuz they're rushing to try to get back into the Yeah. They just want to get back physical environment more. Yeah. Actually, my, my, my mechanic, uh, I won't mention names, but he's a chatty Kathy. Like, he'll be telling you about his girlfriend, their trip they took and stuff. And I'm like, dude, you should probably get back to Yeah. Real work, but whatever. Well, I, I, I thought, which is also a bad thing. Well, that's what I thought. I'm like, well, where did the service writer ever come into the play in the, in the, in the service industry? But it was that, it was a technician back there turning wrenches and then a customer comes in and is like, oh, I gotta stop. Yeah. I gotta stop and Right. You know? Yeah. Well, and mechanics are, Grumpy cuz it's a pain in the butt sometimes to figure things out. Yeah. So now you've got a customer coming in and the last thing they wanna do is stop and talk to that customer when they're in a, they just nick their knuckles trying to get that stupid nut off again. Exactly. So, uh, very interesting. Uh, and iron clad manufacturing ironclad is another business that, um, we, uh, started within our organization that, and we, uh, the majority of what we're doing there is, um, building truck bodies, flatbeds for customers. And it was just getting to the point where, Us outsourcing beds to, uh, with other manufacturers, time delays and, you know, and that business to business space. Oh, so you're, you sell a lot of those kind of trucks that have the flatbed set and a lot of commercial, you couldn't sell'em cuz you couldn't get the product. Yeah. So, you know, six months to get a bed and, and quite frankly, the pro, uh, the quality wasn't there. So yeah, we have a, we had a gentleman within our organization said, I, I think I can do this big better. It give me a week to engineer it. I can figure it out. Yeah. So, yeah, that's, um, kind of been a fun little, um, process and Yeah. Yeah. Different than most of the rest of them. Or manufacturing instead of service as most of the other operations are. It is, yeah. And, uh, we're trying to figure out that space. Yeah. Manufacturing's different. Well, you know, you, you learn some things here and there and eventually you put it all together. Uh, truck City. Okay. Truck City is a, um, Their focus is fleet and commercial service. Okay. And maintenance. Oh. And really tailored towards the business to business, you know? Yeah. Yeah. There's an, the name on the title of a company, you know, a plumbing or whatever. We, you know, when you look at the service industry, the retail service is different than Yeah. Commercial, you know, the needs of the Totally. As, as much as a retail salesman might want to have a big commercial account, he's really not equipped to really understand their needs Exactly. And give'em the right product. Turn it at the right times for mileage different things. Yeah. And then it's maintenance and sales. Yeah. A lot of times anyway. Yeah. And we have a full commercial, um, and fleet staff, you know Right. For, for sales and then for the services. Yeah. Yeah. A little bit like SKAs got their big heavy truck. Yep. Division kind of. Exactly. You know, cuz it's a different set of needs for a different set of customers. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. Um, Drivewise we're almost to the end, I promise. Okay. Drivewise is a, um, we are, I guess what you would call it as a buy here, pay here. Operations. Okay. So, um, basically we're working in the space there with customers who can't get financing for automobiles on a, um, conventional level. Yeah. You know, can't walk into a dealer or go to a bank and get financing just cuz of credit challenge itself. So, Is the impetus to starting that one because you had junky vehicles, you wanted to get rid of the somebody or because you wanted to help people that otherwise were having a struggle getting a dependable car? Well, it's a trick question. No, it's, it's, uh, I mean, it's hard, it's challenging space. Right? It's, it's a great question because the business model that we, that we work under is not the old typical buy here, pay her model where you had a junky car and you, you know, you had$200 in it and you came in and someone gave you a hundred dollars down and a hundred dollars worth for two years. Yeah. And soon as they repo, you grab it back and you start to process over. And it's not, that's not how we operate it. We, we try the best we can to put a good quality car on the road. So, um, you know, the, the amount of money that we're putting on the street is pretty significant, you know? Yeah. So, um, It's a whole different business model. But yeah, I imagine, I mean, as hard as you try, you probably still have to do repossessions and things like that sometimes and whatever else, but it's, um, it's a, uh, it's an interesting business, but it's challenging. You know, on the other hand, it's, it's, it's very rewarding, you know? Yeah. Finding somebody the right color of Lexus isn't the same as getting a, a single mom a car that she can actually depend on. That's right. For a new job, getting back and forth to work. And that's, you know, we're so many people in the, when you're looking for a car, it's, everything we look at is, it's mostly want, right? Oh, I want the new car, I want the new color. And, but yeah, for this, um, population, it's 99% neat. It's not a, yeah, it's not a What are your most popular cars in that space? Like, cuz you can do whatever, right? You don't have to do Buick GMC C Chevrolet. No. Um, You know, um, Hyundais, um, seem to be very popular. Um, mid-size SUVs, you know, it kind of follows what Yeah. The regular trends is what regular trends are, you know? Fair. Um, it's just hard to get like a, you know, a, a eight year old Honda that you could justify putting in a program like this, just cuz they're, the values are just too high. Right, right. Makes sense. Yeah. Still can't afford it. Yeah. Um, and then finally Driven Financial. Is that the sidekick to Drivewise Driven Financial would be the bank basically for, um, yeah. For, uh, Drivewise and yeah, so that's the finance company. I see, I see. Well, that was fun. Yeah. And there might be one or two we've missed out there. Who knows? Or you'll start something new before this podcast is out. Um, I think I remember that, uh, you grew up in family business, is that right? Your, your family had Weld County Garage at least before. Yeah. Yeah. So, uh, can you take me back? Yeah. My father, uh, has a very interesting story. Him and a few cousins grew up in a Amish home in a Kansas, and at 17, him and three of his cousins decided maybe it would be a good idea to run away from home or at least get out, get to the big city. So, and this is Tell is like circa 1945 or something? It would've been before World War ii. No, he was born in 1940, so, okay. Yeah. About, uh, yeah, 57 and, yeah. And yeah. So he moved to, they all moved to Denver and, um, you know, I think about this 17 years old. Yeah. And, uh, well, not to mention from a fairly, uh, restricted or, you know Yeah. Separated of community. Exactly. And, um, so he at a young age had to, you know, he was very entrepreneurial and started his own gas station and got into the car business and later, uh, had worked for a d Ford dealer in Denver. How did he, like, do you know the story of how he, did he have money? No. Or like, how did he get a gas station tipped up and, you know, found somebody always just worked hard and saved and that's kind of the way it was. Yeah. Um, and he always had people that came alongside him and, you know, had favor with people and Yeah. People, uh, Really liked him. So they would, they may say, Hey, um, we know you work hard, let me help you out. Maybe start a business or, mm-hmm. And that's kind of how it all morphed. He, he eventually came to work for Gardens and Wheeler, Ford and Greeley in this 1970s and had a few investors came to him and said, Hey, um, we'd like to buy the Weld County Garage. We want you to come in as a partner. And that was in 82. And I start working there, I think in 84, working in the body shop. Okay. Cleaning cars, did whatever, you know? Yeah. Yeah. And I truly didn't think that's what I wanted to be. I wanted to be an architect. That was, that was my. My wife's school. Tell me a little bit more about that childhood journey. Were you in Denver most of that time then until the Weld County GR garage came around? Or gardens and wheeler you said? So that was up here. Yeah. So I, yeah. My first 12 years was spent in Denver. Okay. Until we moved to Creeley. And uh, how was that for you? Oh, it was strange. Yeah. Really? Because you're urban Denver, I assume? Kind of, yeah. And getting up here and people looked weird and I, uh, yeah. It was hard. Yeah. You know, nothing that a kid in fifth grade can't bounce back from. But it was, you know, those first two weeks I'm thinking, I don't know if I wanna, maybe I need to runaway. And do you have, do you have siblings too? Two sisters. Two older sisters. All right. All right. Yep. So they probably took it harder than you did. Uh, oh, yeah. I mean, just based on their ages and stuff at the time. Yeah. And, and the school system was tough. You know, it was, it was really hard on my older sister and not, you know, people didn't accept her. And it was just, it was just, it was tough. There was, it was a battle, it seemed like growing up, you know? Yeah. No particular reason. I just think it's childhood. But yeah, no, if you got it too easy, it's probably gonna hit you later, I guess. Yeah. You know, something's, something's gonna hit. Nobody goes through life, uh, on Easy Street the whole time. No, correct. Yeah. So, so this investor group comes together with your dad and, and picks up the Weld County garage and you're sweeping floors and, uh, working on things. Were you a car head already? No, not really. Um, I was, you said architect was your dream? Yeah, I was starting to buy and sell a few cars. You know, I, because I worked in the body shop, I'd fix'em up and paint'em and sell'em and, and, uh, yeah. So I was doing that until I could get ready to go to school to be an architect. And the, uh, you know, my least favorite subject was math and, uh, I didn't do well with it at all. And they insisted on a lot of math for architects. Yeah, it's weird. And I didn't know that, so just thought you had to use a ruler and draw straight lights. Come on. A funny story though. I had, I was going to Ames, um, taking night classes, um, as I was working in the body shop and I was doing some civil drafting and we were out on break and, um, the instructor, the professor was out there smoking his cigarette under the lamp and he called me over. He says, Hey, Yoder, come here. Yeah. What's up? He says, you need to stay in the car business. What? He says, yeah, you need to stay in the car business. And I said, so do you want me to go back to class? He said, Nope, not necessary. I walked in and, you know, put my slide rule on my pencils and put in a box and laughed. I got fired from college. He invited you to not be in his class anymore? Yeah. Was that crazy? I'm just like, do you think that was because he. Had a sense of you needed to be in the car business or that you were just never gonna make it in that path? I think, I think it was, I think it was both. You know, I, I look back on my life and I think I, I think it's, it was divine intervention at that time, you know what I mean? Yeah. But at the time I'm like, all right, whatever. I just got rejected by my teacher. I think I just got fired from college. It's a lot easier to see Providence once You've spotted a few times though, huh? Yeah. Yeah. So, uh, so what's, does that change your next day? I, I did at that point think, well, maybe I need to make this my career. Yeah. So, yeah. You know, just worked through the different departments in the dealerships and Yeah. Eventually went to, uh, uh, national Auto Dealers, uh, dealer Academy. Okay. And, um, which is kinda like a year long. School. Sure. How what do they teach you? Well, they teach you, uh, management skills and different things. Margins, all the different business operations. Exactly. All the different departments, new cars, used cars, parts service, accounting, that kind of thing. Finance is a big deal. Finance for dealerships or tends to be interesting. So, so was it, uh, like tell me about the environment, cuz your dad's still the boss, right? As you're kind of working your way through departments. Was it like you had to earn every promotion you got along the way? Did people look at you like, you know, he gets his chances because he is, what's your dad's name, Lee, because he is Lee's boy, you know, that kind of thing. How does that dynamic play out for you? Yeah, that's a great question cuz I'm watching my son go through that right now. Right? And, um, it was, it was funny cuz I called myself. I had, I, I had a, there was a gentleman in the, uh, dealership who called me the d p s. And that meant dealer principle's son. So yeah. I think, you know, along myself, along with I think a lot of young people coming up through a family business Yeah. Struggle with, you know, they, what do they think about me? It's almost like you're either working extra hard to prove everyone wrong. Yep. Or you are actually coasting, you are that Yeah. That silver spoon, right? Yeah. Yeah. Um, and some people might think one thing and other people think the other. Exactly. Even if you're actually just working pretty hard. Yeah. Yeah. And my son and I have had a lot of conversations and he, he battles with it as well. Yeah. Yeah. And uh, the big thing is, you know, as you're coming up eventually, like myself, I had to. Get my own team around me. Mm-hmm. You know, to where it wasn't my dad's team. Right. So, and that was hard in itself cuz you know, you had to let people go and, and just Yeah. People have been around for a long time cuz you know, it's, it's hard. It's, and so, um, you learn a lot, I think at a pretty young age, you know. Tell me about like what the business, was it just the Chevrolet and the, and the Buick GMC dealerships at that time? No, it was at the time it was just the Buick GMC store. Oh really? Okay. And then, uh, you know, my dad had a, always had this heart to help people out in the buy here, pay here world. And, um, and kind of as I start running the organization, he was able to go off and start a buy here, pay here. Oh, I see. And that's, so he was still the primary owner probably. Mm-hmm. But gave you more and more responsibility there and had this passion to start the Drivewise. Yes, exactly. Cool. And it was under a different name. Um, But yeah, that was his heart. Um, because I started in the body shop, I really liked that business. And in the dealership world, uh, body shops are a department, like the parts department or service department. Sure. And I wanted to, uh, take that out. Right. So I took, that's when we become an ABRA franchise. Okay. And I took, I took the abra out, made it a standalone business one. Uh, well, for the main reason I wanted to start building equity in another business, right? Mm-hmm. And if it's a, just a department within a dealership, there's Right. You're not really, you're not really building any equity in, well, I'm imagining to myself that also now you can use that space at the dealership to do more service work, do more service, or sell more cars, or do the things that you really do well there. Yeah. And, and let the body guys really stay productive all the time on the body. Yeah. Exactly. I have other customers too. Not just when it happened to be your customers that ran into somebody. Cuz I have to think there's lots of more highs and lows at the dealership space than it like an Abra. Yeah. Um, not necessarily people crash stuff all the time. It's, it's, I'll tell you when the worst was. Well, as soon as people got back on the road from Covid Right. All these rusty drivers, it, it covid and then always the first snow storm of the, of the new year. Yeah. Like in October, you know, and people are just, you just forget. Right. They've been meaning to replace their tires all summer and Yeah. On these ice skates. Yeah. Yep. So, okay. So that Aber became really the first way for, in some ways your first venture of your own. Uh, yeah, I think you could, you could say that. Yeah. Yeah. Um, okay. And talk to me about the, I guess talk to me about the car business in general, like, Obviously long-standing customer relationships and, you know, having enough margin, doing the right add-ons, you know, there's the business to it, but what are the, the things that really set Weld County Garage apart if, if you will, and let you success in growing that? Yeah, I think really what separates us apart is, um, you know, forever dealerships across the country have been, you know, a local business person. Yeah. Very involved in the community and Yeah. And, uh, on three nonprofit boards and Exactly. And they're, and they're usually on busy intersections and streets, so it's a very, um, high profile business. Yeah. You know what I mean? And, um, yeah. You know, I'm not as familiar with Greeley, but in Fort Collins, if you're a, a Dellen Bob or Aley or a Markley or whatever Yeah. The, and. And that's the beauty. You can, everyone can go to these names, right? You can think of'em in, in the different towns. And so it's, it, it really is, you know, that, that, that relational ship, right? Um, that these business owners have in their communities. And, and really that's what sets us apart. Um, and I think still sets us apart with everything in, you know, so many things in the world are consolidating. And you know, right now we have three, um, three of the dealers left in Greeley are not. Part of some bigger Oh, really big consolidated growth. Yeah. John Elway's been buying dealerships up and down the front range pretty fast. Motorcycles too. Um, yeah. And so it, with that, with anything, when, when things get so big, I mean, the first thing you, there's obviously, uh, things change, right? It goes from how well you're taking care of the customer to how well the balance sheet looks. Right? Right. What's the return? We just paid a lot of money for the store. How are we getting the profits? So, um, yeah. I think, um, yeah, that's probably the, the biggest for the long game. Yeah. Uh, yeah. Otherwise, when I was first in banking, I worked for a bank called Community First National Bank, and they had like 120 banks or something like that. But their, their kind of motto, if you will, was they let each kind of region have a lot of. Independence, you know, and each bank itself had a fair bit of independence, and then regionally they were clump. So it wasn't just some headquarters barking down orders from on high. My sense is you might have a lot of autonomy within this family of businesses as well. Yeah. We, um, we try to, yeah. You know, it works better when I do it sounds, sometimes I squeeze it and I break it in theory. You know, I, I, I always like, you know, for taking over a, you know, for buying a business or something, I think, man, we're gonna be able to take care of these employees so much better than the, you know, the proprietary proprietary did or maybe how the last business was. You know, we, we do things better and, and we're just a better organization and, you know, perceptionally, not everyone feels the same way. Yeah. You know what I mean? Um, and um, but I think overall throughout our company, we got a great culture. You know, we have, um, We have a, a care team where someone from each organization is represented and oh, we've got a portion of our profits that go into this care team. And that, that really is, um, what we do with that is we give back to the employees. So if, um, you might have a, someone who's dealing with a, a death in the family Yeah. Or they can't major illness of their spouse or something. Yeah. And they're like, Hey, we can't afford plane tickets to get back to New Jersey to go to a funeral. Or, you know, so We'll, we'll pay for that. We'll, we have a down payment as assistance, um, to buy a house and depending on income levels. And right now we are also, um, looking to start a, uh, uh, a daycare center for Oh, cool. Mainly for our employees. Yeah. And, uh, yeah, so. That kinda stuff's fun. That's the rewarding part of the business. I mean, well, and it makes it a lot harder for somebody else with a similar pay package and whatever to, to lure people away. Hopefully. Hopefully. That's the idea. Anyway, so, um, so to get back to the journey a little bit, so you, you move out this collision department create the first abbra in, in Greeley, I assume? Yes. And then how did the Fort Collins Abbra come along? Well, we were just, we, uh, with, with Abbra corporately, we had a territory which was, uh, Loveland, Fort Collins, Cheyenne. And uh, so we had just started looking for a shop that may be ready to. Cell and Gotcha. And that's when, um, that ended up being Cooper's Auto Body Long-Term Collision family here in, in Fort Collins. And Gotcha. Actually, really good customers of ours bought a lot of parts from us and, um, Joel and John or just fabulous people. Yeah. Well and they were looking for somebody that would take good care of their baby and their employees and that was a thing. Yeah. Yeah. That's one of the most, uh, I think that's one thing that I guess the Joe public wouldn't understand about buying or selling a business is, you know, if you've got this business with 20 employees and you know, most of the employees fairly well over time and a lot of their spouses and their kids have been around and, you know, to just sell it to the highest bidder isn't necessarily a lot of folks' motivations. That's right. If financial isn't the main driver, you know, and that's what we've been seeing. It's not, they just want their employees taken care of. Yeah. Yeah. My dad's a farmer up in North Dakota and uh, uh, for, for his landlords, it, it's kind of the same. Like they just wanna see their land taken well care of. Yeah. And be productive and not be overrun with weeds or, or things like that. And so, you know, basically the way you market for new landlords in farm country is have good clean fields. Yeah. You know, they know who that is. You bet they do. That's they can see it. Same kind of thing, you know, reputations among your employees. I mean, and people in the industry, I assume, you know, mechanics or, or collision people and stuff, they know a lot of other collision people that work for other shops and you know, the banking industry, you know, all the other bankers in town. I'm sure the car dealers know all of each other kind of. Yeah, exactly. And so building that reputation as one of the choice places. Mm-hmm. And it kind of sets an expectation on how you work, how you show up. Sure does. Yeah. No, that's, that's a, that's the biggest pointer I believe. Yeah. Yeah. So, um, tell me a little bit more about kind of the, the, I guess, carriage shop came along and kind of much the same thing you mentioned, the proprietors of that. Yeah. I had, um, tried to, um, talk to them about buying about four years ago, three years ago. Oh, so this is a new one here? This was, well, that was carriage shop. And it was really funny cuz I could never get, I couldn't, I couldn't get, you know, the gatekeepers kept me away from Steve. And, uh, so I, I called in and told him I was an upset customer and I had some body work there and I, I wanna come in and talk to the owner. So that's how I got in. Uh, Steve didn't appreciate that, but I, I had, at least, I had him and his wife's ear just told him I had wanna buy their shop and, um, And how did you know you wanted to buy it? You know, because it was, it had a good reputation. Yeah. Same kind of the same type of deal, you know, that we're talking about here. Good reputation, uh, did good work. Um, family owned deal and uh, and Steve was very adamant and he didn't wanna sell. Um, he didn't wanna sell at that time. So the minute I closed the deal with, uh, Cooper's not the minute, but it was about three months later, Steve called me back and he said he thought he missed his chance. He said, Hey, now I want to sell. And I'm like, well, this is a great time to tell me, you know, and, uh, so anyway, we were able to put a, he's, you know, we were able to structure a deal that worked out for him and us, and yeah. So, yeah. Interesting. That's, uh, that fear of missing out can sometimes be a motivator, right? Yeah. So, um, like, talk to me a little bit about the people's side. Of, of growing these teams and raising up leaders for these businesses? Or maybe you've been blessed to be able to keep leadership in place with some of these acquisitions and different things, but I know people turn over and change, like, what are you doing? What do you do well in that space? I mean, is that you, is it people on your team now that are the most responsible? Well, it, it really is, um, the people on the team that's most responsible. I, you know, as I look at our organization and how we grew and uh, you know, it was, I mean, I was so involved with everything, you know? Yeah. Banking, the hr, the, just so much. But as the organization grows, you just can't. You just don't have the bandwidth, you know? Yeah. And, uh, so someone told me, Hey, you need to find a cfo, someone to help you out on the finance end of it. And so we'd kind of gone through all that, you know, and Gotcha. Um, had, we've had a few different CFOs through the years, and each one of them had different, um, set of skills that was able to get us to the new next level incrementally, the new next level. Yep. Yeah. And, um, and so that's really been, I can't imagine it at this point, right? If you had as many channels flowing through you Yeah. As you did back when, so Yeah. But on the, you know, on the, on the operations side, the, the general managers for the organizations are, um, yeah. I mean, we, they're high test folks already, and we, yeah. I just, I mean, God's blessed. I, I feel that way that he's really blessed us with some really talented people, you know? Yeah, yeah. Well that's sometimes how you can recognize. Uh, with humility that he's got a plan for you, you know, is that he brings these great people around you that wanna be part of Yeah. What you're doing. Yeah. You know, and it allows us, even though we know we're kind of miserable dipshits sometimes Yeah. That we, you know, it all, we aren't always that dumb, otherwise we wouldn't have other people that are great. Yeah. Believing in us. And, uh, yeah. I think, um, you know, I, I always look at not always, I think just over the last few years, I think one of my strengths is, is, uh, vision direction, you know? Yeah. So, um, you know, I think it's easier to get people alongside you if you have at least some good, you know, vision. Yeah, for sure. No. Yeah. Uh, nobody wants to, to, yeah. Jump in a car and say, where are we going? I don't know. That's right. We'll just drive until we figure it out. Spin the bottle. Uh, tell me a little bit more about the launch of that, the Cayman Direct business. Yeah. Like I said, Cayman Direct, uh, really started off, um, from our own in, in-house business development center. Yeah. And we had, we had really done a really good job with that. And, uh, general Motors started sending, um, oh, we gotta take a break here and, uh, try to buy a Volkswagen van. So, uh, we'll be right back. And we're back. So we jumped off, uh, so that you could try to secure a what? Oh, uh, a Volkswagen van. Camper Van. Camper van. Camper van. Or camper Van Vanni. Again. Van again? Yeah. Okay. A which you've become a fan of. We were sharing notes, uh, before we actually started the pod. What was the first, uh, dip into that? The first dip into that was, uh, my son, my oldest son at 13 decided he wanted a, uh, a Volkswagen van for his first car. And I'm like, that's a no-brainer. Let's go find one. Right. Dang. You know, that's when I was like, these things are expensive. They're hard to find in the ones that are, and they break that all the time, junk. And so that kind of, yeah, I kind of started it. That was a 74 van again, or, uh, type two. And yeah, soon after that I bought a 21 window, uh, that's in restoration. And uh, my youngest son decided he wanted a Volkswagen bus, so we did find another 70, uh, 75. And now he's got an 85 van again. And so, yeah. Yeah. If you ever wanna get pulled over just for kicks, just drive your van again over to Nebraska. Oh yeah. Right. Colorado plates with Colorado plates on it. Yeah. Yeah. Anyway, I digress. It's, uh, there is something though. I mean, you're, you're automatically deemed a. You know, a pot smoker if you drive one Yeah. You just are, right? Yeah. Yeah. Well, you might as well live up to it. It's just like, just Yeah. It's kind of funny, you know, I, uh, we, we got, we had an exchange student from Italy last fall, and he was a little bit interested in the, the weed culture here. You know, it wasn't really a thing. The, the, the mafia makes sure it stays illegal in Italy. Okay. Uh, but, uh, so we watched, like, I think we watched the, maybe the whole movie, but the, one of the old Ong movies with the driving the weed bust down in Mexico. Oh, that's, Trevor opened the door and the smoke rolls. I digress. Um, so when we jumped off, we were talking really kind of about culture and developing people and just that notion, I was, I wanted to skip back a notch and like when your father exited the management of the Weld County Garage to go pursue the, the Drivewise business, was he just kind of. Out or did like, was that a, a five year transition or what, what did that look like for mostly out your organization? Really mostly out. And by this time, you know, um, I was getting my team in place and this allowed him to, um, go do what he wanted to do. Yeah. And I love the automotive dealership world. I, it's a lot of fun. Very challenging, a lot of moving pieces, and, um, so yeah. And it's, it's, uh, it's a bit of a young person's game I think, you know? Yeah. Yeah. So I'm glad I have a, a son who's 31 who's in the business and Yeah. Loves it. Is he the, Operator now of Weld County Garage or? He's, he is, uh, working toward that. He is operation, he's in charge of operations, so Okay. Uh, he oversees the dealerships, truck City ironclad. Oh. And, um, yeah. So he is more at the headquarters office in some ways. Yeah. Um, in that kind of a role. Yeah. So he'd be like the coo, if you will Yeah. Of at least a segment of, uh, the Yoder family. Exactly. Yeah. Doesn't have as much probably to do with the, does he deal with like the service writing business, the Cayman and stuff like that too? Or not as much more in the physical operations. I'm kinda of, uh, as you're reading, I'm, I'm putting my, my focus more on the collision shops. Oh, buy here, pay here, and, uh, in the, in the business development portion. Yeah. Yeah. Fair enough. And do you have more than one son? Two other boys. Okay. And, um, are they also involved in the. No. About operations? Nope. Uh, neither one of them want anything to do with the car business. Yeah. And my middle son's in the, um, construction world. He works for a big GC in Denver. Okay. Builds multifamily housing and, and then our youngest is graduating from high school this year. Oh. So, okay. Gotcha. Yeah. So it's your oldest son that's, uh, uh, in the dealership world still. Yeah. Very good. And so, um, talk to me a little bit more about the, the manufacturing business. I mean, you hinted toward it, it was for the, the flatbed trucks and things like that. Supply. Is this covid related supply chain challenges or before the mainly, yeah. Covid related supply chain issues. Um, so yeah, just workforce issues. Yeah. Um, I then what happened, you know, uh, inventory becomes so scarce. Um, oh, for cars and everything. Just for cars and trucks in general. So it was, you know, um, that posed a lot of problems, so, yeah. How was that for, I mean, everybody bought the, you know, everybody had a lot of extra juice from Uncle Sam's money and whatever, so I assumed there was a lot of demand for vehicles, but you just couldn't get supply a lot of times. And the dynamics, like, talk to me about navigating the business through Covid Nation and, and maybe how the different businesses, uh, responded and reacted differently. Yeah. The, um, not too much collision stuff happening for a few months there. I reckon collision went to zero, right? Yeah. So, sorry. That's not funny. I'm sure when you got 14 salaries on it, or 20 No, it did. Was like, man, you know, there was, we went from having 150 cars in our lot to be repaired to having two. Right. You know, and, uh, so. Yeah. But y when Covid first came down, and, and I say this sincerely because I knew whenever there's a, some kind of natural or some big disaster that strikes you remember nine 11 or Sure. Or, you know, 2008 financial, crazy. I, I've always seen the manufacturer step up. They've always came to the table. Right. First of almost any other industry, the automobile manufacturers come up cuz they have to keep their factories going. Right? Right. So I, I told my manager, Tom, I said, you guys go out and get every piece of inventory you can. Hmm. You know, just. Just get whatever you can, you know, this is so much, so much we've got on our credit line. This is, yeah. And, and the world goes into these holes. Right. Stick your head in the sand. And, and there's probably opportunity at the time people are like, there's always the opportunity trying to get rid of stuff. Cause they wanted to be liquid, I think. Yeah. Everyone, you stick your head in the sand. Let, this is great. So I was like, get as much inform inventory as you can and, and it didn't take long and sales were brisk. I mean brisk. And then of course then the manufacturer started shutting down. Right? Right. And my, my buddy got a, one of the like 2,300 Corvettes that were made that first year with the mid-engine. Yeah. Uh, because they had to manufacture ventilators so we could kill people faster apparently. Anyway. Oops. Yeah. But, uh, yeah. You know, it was well used cars went so crazy. I guess it was the absence of new cars available that made the used car market go so nutty. It's, that's what happens. Yeah. So think of it this way. This is really interesting and I learned this back in 2008 with the cash for clunkers, right? Mm-hmm. When the financial crisis hit, um, the government's like, we'll pay you$4,500 to get rid of your Yeah. Your clunker, right? We want to clean up the air, we wanna do whatever. Well, the, when new car demand is down, it should be running about 15 to a healthy new car market is above 15 million units a year. Okay? Okay. When it starts stepping below that, what people don't realize, there's 12 million units, 12 million million coming off the road every year. They're just worn out. Worn out, get totaled. Right. Whatever, something. Yep. So we need new cars Yeah. To replenish what's coming off. Right. So if, if, if the difference, if, if if automobile manufacturer, if, if the new cars market is at about 14 million new units and there's 12 million coming off mm-hmm. There's just not much going in. Right. Into the, into the system. Yeah. And that growths, so then automatically prices rise, right? Mm-hmm. So, and then the other thing that, you know, consumers don't think about, but let's say there's a, a massive hurricane in Houston. Sure. Like what happened a couple years ago and it floods half the city and, you know, um, three or 400,000 cars get totaled. And right now how do you replace that? You know, all of a sudden that takes a, a really big hit mm-hmm. On one of the new cars. That are in the marketplace. Mm-hmm. And then the used cars address. Sure. So it's been a very volatile, um, marketplace in the auto automotive space. Over the last, uh, you know, even prior to Covid, is there, um, any like, market fixing or things like that? Is there powerful collusion of forces or things like that? Or is it really just the wild, wild west? You want bid it up at the auction if you want it bad enough. If, if you don't, then don't kind of thing. Yeah. Yeah. It's kinda like buying a stock, you know, how, how, how much are you willing to pay for a certain, yeah. Something or another where you still think you can turn around and make a return on it? Sell it for more than that. Yeah. Yeah. So, uh, it's just more about being attuned to the market than anything. Being attuned to the market. And then it's also what are the banks gonna do? How are they gonna finance it, you know, or. Are they gonna follow the trends as well? Which you almost have to if you're gonna be in the finance space, right? Totally. Yeah. So, um, go ahead. No. Oh, so, um, so the collision business gets decimated for at least a few months and then got all these rusty drivers coming back on the road after a while kind of thing. Uh, and probably smashing their cars more. How about some of the other, I imagine like the, the, for the same reason, like even the, the business development service didn't have much going on because people weren't wearing their cars out or needing service or things as much either for a season at least. Yeah. Or they were trying to buy stuff cuz they got cash in hand. It, it, um, so for the, uh, business development portion of it, it was where we. You know, we dealers, like many business people, were like, how do we cut our expenses? Right? Right. We gotta start, we gotta get rid of software, we gotta get rid of any outside services, we gotta do this. Well, we were on that list, right? So we had to get very creative and, uh, how we were approaching these dealers and how we want to come alongside them and be their partners. And, and, uh, but what had happened quickly was the service business was dropping, but sales was really starting to pick up. Mm-hmm. So, uh, during that time we did a lot of sales calls and sales appointments. Like even through your, your business development service. Yeah. Like instead of checking on people's, uh, oil change plans or whatever you were calling'em, saying, Hey, we got some new, it's a great time. New inventory in great time to buy a new car. Yeah. Yeah. Well that makes a difference for them, right? They can, yeah. Pencil that out pretty quickly then Yeah. So, um, so I, you know, talk to me maybe a little bit about like business principles, like some of those things that you didn't know that first year taking over for dad at the garage and, and, and or some things that maybe your son, uh, still has yet to learn. I think business principles, you know, I watched my dad a lot when I was young and I, he always would do whatever to take care of a customer. And I'd sit there on the sidelines and like, is this man stupid? He's jerk. Jerk. Gosh, he's giving away all this money and these people aren't even right. And you know what I mean? And yeah, so that was probably my best lesson, I think, um, how hard you need to work to, you know, take care of a customer. And, um, so he really instilled that in myself. Um, But, you know, business principles, I think, you know, they, they really morph, I think as you grow older and you, you know, you've been through so much, right. And how you look at things and how you don't react is same way as you would've when you're 30, which is okay, you know? But, um, no, that's fair. Yeah. So I, I, you know, that I'd still like to be, to me, number one, I'd really like to take care of our employees more. So Yeah. They, they're first for you over the customers in a, in a bit of a way. Yeah. I mean that, well, they're the ones that actually interact with the customers. They're the frontline. Yeah. And, um, yeah, so that's really where my heart lays, I think, at this point in the game, you know? Yeah. What's next for you, like from a business perspective? Uh, do you have other. Businesses you'd like to start or acquire or, you know, what's your sunset look like? You're a pretty young guy, yet, you're not even 50, are you? Just over? I'm 56. Oh, okay. Yep. So, so you got, you know, 10 good years. 15, if you're lucky. Well, 20 if you're really lucky. I, I, yeah. I, um, I, in other good years after that, not to scare you. Yeah. But, you know, none of us know what we have. But the, um, it is to me more, I would rather be developing people at this stage in the game than so much, you know, starting another business. Although I, I love business, I love the X's and O's and the puzzles and putting things together and, um, but it just doesn't, it still drives me, but I. What I could do 15 years ago in a daze. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Versus what I can do now is two different things and I'm kind of that weird age group that's stuck between the old way of things and technology, you know? So Yeah. Yeah. I'm more, you might not be the right guy to really lead fully into the next generation of tech. Yeah. No, I'm not, you know, I still have list right on paper and half list on my computer and half on paper. And so I'm not that efficient when it comes to technology. But, um, and, and yeah. So I look at, into the future and what it looks like and it's more, I'd rather be developing people more than I would, or mentoring or that kind of thing's more than I would. Yeah. Um, you know, figuring what. Color car we should have. Do you do some of that intentionally now? Do you have I do. Specific people within your organization or outside of, more so outside the organization. Yeah. Yeah. Couple young guys that I, you know, mentor and, um, you know, uh, and some people inside the organization. Yeah. And that's what really what drives me, you know, is when I get that one-on-one time with people. Yeah. Yeah. It starts to get increasingly rare and then you can kind of finally make space for that. Yeah. Intentional time. Yeah. Again, yeah. Now you, uh, when we first really connected and, and got acquainted, you mentioned that you were in a, a Vistage chapter. Yes. Um, your first pure advisory experience, um, of, of your life, I think. Right. You hadn't been a, were you in dealer twenties or things like that before? Yeah, in, currently in dealer twenties. Yeah. Okay. And in Vistage as well. So maybe can you contrast that with me a little bit for those that are listening? A dealer 20 is basically an industry specific peer advisory organization, but dealers come from all over the country where they're not, you know, stepping on each other's toes, kind of, yeah. Um, whereas Vistage or local think tank or diverse industries within one region, so that's why they can be authentic is cause they're not really competing with each other. Yeah. And so yeah. Contrast that a little bit to me. Uh, yeah. Contrast, like, and I, I look at just that diverse versus the industry thing. The, um, you know, and I wouldn't have thought this until I got involved with, you know, another peer group like Vistage and it was a new charter group, so everyone in there was, you know, was brand new to each other, brand new to each other. And you, I I've noticed in our group, which is really, um, unique from what I even hear in Vistage is just, um, you know, I kind of wanna call it the brotherhood. Just how close everyone is. Yeah. And how transparent. Right. And it's a beautiful thing when people are willing to just. Really be transparent. Yeah. Instead of trying to It feels good. It does. Yeah. Trying to, you know, well, you know, this, everything's great over here and I got the best marriage and, you know, my kids, my kids never disappoint. Yeah. This is just, you know, and it's nothing like that. Um, which is really, it's really special. I would give up the industry group in a heartbeat. Hmm. Cool. You know, that's a good testimony. Keep to keep the other, you know, a peer advisory and what's the, what's the name of your chair for that group? Uh, Ron Ferguson. Ron, I think you were supposed to introduce me to Ron one of these days actually. Yeah. I thought, thought I sent you an email. Oh, did I? Oh, it's very possible I missed it. So anyway, I'll circle back. Ron, if you're listening out there. Cheers. I'm a, uh, abundance-minded believer that more people should be in pure advisory, but I do plan to get, uh, Warren as a facilitator for local Think tank down the line here. So just seems like just the right type sounds interesting. It will be, it will be. You're a little too busy right now, but let me know. Um, so. Uh, any other like, business things you'd really wanna share? I, I don't think we, people could look up all these different businesses and find their websites and all that kind of stuff, so we're not gonna take the time to do that. How to find, but, you know, from a, from a business, we're gonna shift into kind of some of the closing segments after that. Yeah. No, not that I can think of. It's just, yeah. Yeah. It's, it's, uh, a steady progression through your, through your journey there. So, um, as you know, we always talk about faith, family, and politics and, uh, so it's your choice, which, which one of those you'd like to lead off with? Well, we've talked about your family a little already, but talked about my family and then whenever we are having dinner with friends, I said I, I'm not gonna get involved with any politics. Oh, okay. I just won't talk about'em. Alright. Uh, yeah, so, uh, it makes me laugh. A couple years ago we were having the Thanksgiving dinner and, and, uh, the, uh, fire. A, a fire truck and an ambulance pulled up on their street across, you know, so something happened across the street Right at the south. Right, right. And my son says, my middle son says, oh, they must have brought up Trump's name at the dinner table. Oh gosh. They said that was, I thought that was funny, you know, but yeah, so I don't, I don't talk about politics. But not even local politics. Weld County? No, not really. No. None of that sense. And I, I support politicians. You know, I just, I don't, I just don't like to talk about it. Yeah, that's fair. Um, yeah. So, um, that being a pass, uh, would you prefer to talk about faith or family first? I, I love to talk about faith. You know, I think that's, that's good. You were from an Amish family, I guess, uh, by the way, I was thinking earlier, like, I know your dad stuck around and ended up, you know, getting into the gardens and Wheeler and eventually Weld County Garage. But did the cousins all stick around? Did they go back to the Amish, uh, country? No, they all, they all stayed here in Denver as well and had their own paths. Interesting. And, um, you know, it's not, I think the Amish. And it was more Mennonite from where my dad was from, but I see. So you weren't like, excommunicated, you know, it wasn't like, yeah, yeah. You're outta here and you're no longer part of this the deal. But, but it's totally different lifestyle. Right? It is a totally different lifestyle. We have, it's actually some of the best farmers around our region in North Dakota or Mennonites. Yeah. And, uh, yeah, that'll be, you know, have a buggy, but a combine is a, that's a piece of farm equipment, so you can That's right. Could have a 700,000 combine and a, you know, a horse and buggy too, but it's cool. Yeah. It's, it's funny dynamics, but as you know, good people, you know, salt of the earth, great cooks and all that stuff. So what was, uh, did your dad find faith otherwise? Uh, then after coming to Denver and stuff, was that a part of your family growing up? Yeah, it was. It was, uh, it was a, it was a big part of the family and, um, you know, I think like any of us, it's, it's not. You know, where I had to get to in my life. It was, it's not about religion, you know, it's not about Yeah. Being religious. That's why I say faith. I, I, yeah. Religion's kind of yucky for most people. Yeah. But, you know, and until going through really hard times in my life personally, it was really when I was like, oh, so there is a God out there that wants to have a relationship. Right? Mm. And that, that was the whole turning point for me. It wasn't about, you know, none of us are good enough and ever will be by anything that we can do to, to be accepted by a creator. Right. Is that, uh, is that a season of your life that, that you talk about publicly, these, these hard times? Was that pre-kids, pre-marriage, or where was this in that journey? It was, no, this was, uh, it was just some really tough issues that my wife and I went through in her marriage, you know? Yeah. And trying to keep our marriage intact. And, um, yeah. You know, I, I, I. I heard a lot of friends who got divorced, they're like, man, the hardest thing you'll ever go through is getting divorced. I'm like, no. The hardest thing you ever go through is keeping your marriage, you know? So anyway, it was just, it was just, yeah, some of that stuff. And, um, so was that a, a, a fresh faith for you? You know, you suggested that you kind of grew up in a, in a Christian oriented home at least, but it became real for you later when the tough times came. Is that the right way to understand that? But I think that's how God gets our attention, right? Sure. I would've been no different than most any other young person I know. You, you, you get married, you have children, you start. You know, you're going through the deal and, oh yeah, I gotta check the box and go to church every now and then. We'll, we'll pray before dinner or whatever. And, uh, you know, life just takes over and you're next thing you know, one parent's going this way with a child, another one's going this way. And, you know, you're maybe seeing each other for 15 minutes and you know what I mean? It's just like, yeah, yeah. Holy cow, man, this sucks. You know? And it's like, whatever. And, um, so yeah, it was just, you know, however God's gonna grab your attention, it's, it's gonna, he's gonna do it. At least I'm glad he did in my life, you know? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, yeah. So, but really since then has been, it's been a, it's been a crazy, life's so much more, um, one abundant, but so much so. Just crazier in a good way. You know what I mean? Like, yeah. Dang. I'm thinking about that providence thing. I, you commented, or I observed earlier, like, how many times in your life have, have you looked back a little later or whatever and said, oh yeah, God, God had me there. You know, I was, I was praying one day about a situation and, and my prayer was, God, show me the path, direct my path. Just show me where you, how you want me to go. And I heard his voice say, look behind you. And I, I'm literally in the car and I'm like, what? I looked behind me and I saw this path and it was this windy path, beautiful cobblestone, perfectly manicured, um, landscaping. And I'm like, Oh my gosh, that's a perfect path. Even as crappy and horrible as it's been. It's a beautiful path. But, and then I realized, I'm like, if God shows me the way now, I don't need him anymore. Hmm. And that was my prayer. Show me the way. Just show me the way. You know, give me the, give it for me. Show me the way and I'll take care of it for Yeah. The genie a bottle. God. Yeah. Yeah. And I'll take it from here. And that's usually, I think, how we all live our lives, you know, it's like we just want the good times. I just want, oh, just get me to the good times and things will be fine. Yeah, yeah. You know, kind of appreciating those, uh, those challenging times. There's a, an old joke, my friends share that, uh, you know, there's fun times that were fun at the time it was happening, and you really can barely remember those. And then there's fun times or meaningful times that were a real struggle at the time. Oh yeah. You know, going through it was, Yeah. So let's talk a little bit more about the love story. Um, what's your wife's name? Julie. Julie. Um, where, where does Julie come into this, uh, journey here? Were you high school sweethearts? Did she come, uh, you know, front desk at the dealership at some point? What was that story? Well, it was a nightclub and she, no, no, um, Yeah, she was my senior year in high school, I'd been going through the public schools my senior year. I went to the local Christian school in Greeley. My wife on the other hand had been there since she was in third grade, and she went to the public school Oh. Her senior year. And I didn't know her from Adam, and she had been in the public schools for about three days. Came back to, uh, the Christian school and that's how we met. Oh, wow. Yeah. So, you know, we dated for about four years and then got married. Yeah. How long before? Uh, what's your, your oldest? He's 31. So we, we were married. Married about five years. Okay. So you had some good time together? Oh yeah. Before that. Um, and what was it, uh, what was it that drew you to her initially? Um, Uh, well, obviously for a guy it's always the looks, right? No, not always, but, you know, commonly, commonly, yeah. Yeah, yeah. So it was, it was certainly that and just, and we all like different kinds of looks. Yeah. A little bit. So that's part of the blessing too. And yeah, and she was, she was just a really cool girl, you know, and she still is a really cool girl. Yeah, by far my best friend. Yeah. That's awesome. Yeah. Um, how about, uh, same question in Reser reverse. What, uh, what caused her to give you the time of day to, to Young Warren? Wow. You know, that's a really good question. At that time, not now, not when you were trying to work out the kinks. Well, it has to be good looks right? Clearly. Yeah, clearly. No. Um, yeah, I don't know. Um, yeah, I think she, you know, like we all do in high school, Man, I, I think he's cute. I think she's cute. You know, go, you know, so you tell a friend, so they say, so pass something. Yeah. Um, even as, as senior, it seems really corny, but that's kind of how it started, I guess. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. So, um, we always do a one word description of the kids. Uh, so can you give me a name and a, uh, a one word description, then just expand a little bit on, uh, each child? So your, your oldest is, well, my oldest is Chase. Chase, okay. And I would say one, one word description is, uh, determined. Um, Otherwise, I'd say damn. And determined. He's determined and so everything he's going through in his life is just a re a reminder of everything I went through. So he is 31 right now? He's 31, uh, single guys. Yeah. He's married. Married. Three. Three kids. Okay. Yeah. So he, he's got the, the, the zone defense has been broken now. Yeah. Yeah. It's a challenge. And managing life and, you know, family and, and wanting to show up and, you know, fill dad's shoes. Yeah. And then some within the business family. Exactly. Yeah. A lot of pressure. It is a lot of pressure. One of my best friends is Aaron Everett. And, uh, Stan's son. Yeah. And just, you know, the, as he said one time, uh, you know, facing the ghost of his grandfather is something he does at least once a week, if not once a day. And it's such a true statement, you know, and, and I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll share this because I think it's really important. It's probably one of the most important things that's ever happened in my life. But, um, I had a complete stranger, and this was a lady, um, and I had just met her and her husband and, you know, they were in our dealership doing some, some work. And she had come up to me at lunch and she says, I, this has never happened to me, but I got, there's just something I gotta tell you. And I'm freaking out, like, what is this some problem? Right? She made a pass up. Me No, no, that I was just like, what is she? Yeah. You know? And, and she was like, I've never had this before. And then she says, You need to quit following. You need to quit worrying about following in your father's footsteps. God has his own path for you. And I'm like, it was like a thousand pounds just right. The millstone. Just, and I'm like, that is so true. Yeah. And it's, it's true for everybody, you know, no matter who your, your father is. Yeah. Who your mother. It's, that is the truth. That, and it was just like, that is when my life turned. Wow. It, it, it, it turned on. How old were you? I was 40. 40. Oh. Probably 40. I 45, 46. Yeah. Yeah. So it was like nine years, 10 years ago, nine years ago, whatever. And I think I, I'm like, oh, I wish I would've had this word. 20 years ago. Yeah. But I, it wouldn't have been the right time. Yeah. But yeah. Yeah. You wouldn't have had the resources and, and even the confidence, honestly. Yeah. Because that's when this, this string of businesses really started to really unfold was, and that had to been so empowering to you within that space. Completely changed the direction. Yeah. Do you wanna say thanks to her? You remember her name? I don't remember her name. It's like, maybe it was, she was just an angel. I don't know. But it was crazy. Yeah. Yeah. So I think that's real. I, I tell that story to a lot of people cuz I know there's a lot of young people that identify with that. Yeah. Well, and if, if frankly if somebody tells you, you, you're really special, believe them. Yeah. You know, unless it's a creepy dude in the van. Exactly. And you're a small child that doesn't take that with a great salt, but yeah. Um, well that's cool. That's a really great, uh, testimonial there. Yeah. Um, so. Anything. I guess we've covered family a fair bit. You got some, some grandkids then too. Yeah. You got three, just the three, um, three grandkids. Oh, sorry, I, I sidetracked. Uh, cuz you got two more kids to tell me about. Two, two boys. Yeah. Oh, you got two boys, three boys. Three boys, two other boys. Yeah. I got a middle son. He's 29. Okay. His name is Chandler and, uh, Chandler. Chandler. Mm-hmm. And, you know, um, what comes to my mind, uh, is just, you know, intelligent. Um, and I say that cuz um, I'm not a very smart person when it comes to stuff, you know, and, and seeing how his mind thinks, especially in the construction end and, you know, figuring psis of, you know, tensions. Yeah. Just integrated all those details. Yeah. And, and, uh, this was the kid who. When he was young, we had to, uh, make him put his shoes in a basket by the door when he came in because every time he took his shoes off and we would go to leave, he couldn't find them every time. Not here and there every single time. My house right now has at least four pairs of shoes, not where they're supposed to be, uh, somewhere. And, and then your kids can't find'em. Right? Where are they? And I thought, that's me. That's me putting'em there. Sorry Jill. And I thought, uh, I don't think this kid will will make in society. That was mine. I really thought that. Right. And, uh, he's doing great and just intelligent. His mind thinks something, well, I think it's a, it's something that you've probably learned as your journey. There's so many different kinds of intelligence, you know, that you might be a, yeah, you might be a nine and this particular kind of intelligence and a six over here, and then a eight over here and a three over here. That's part of that value of those groups, like a Vistage or a local think tank is people thinking differently than you can really Yeah. Drop some sunshine on your life. Yeah. You know, and, and open up, you know, crowd out those dark places. Exactly. Cool. Well that's a, that's a blessing. Yeah. And he's working in construction in Denver. He's, yeah. Working in construction. Is he married? No, not yet. Nothing yet. So no grandkids there? No grandkids there. And then the last, the last is, uh, Cayman. Oh yeah. And, uh, yeah, so. When I think of him, it's um, oh, he is a little younger too. He's 10 years behind or something. He's high schooler. Yeah. 10 years. Yeah. That was another, uh, miracle in our life. We, you know, the doctors said we couldn't have any more children. Oh, wow. And that's a whole nother story. But, you know, he is, um, I look at him as, you know, he just loves the underdog. He, and he's such an encouraging person and not so much he, he is in our lives, you know, but how I watch him interact with people is like, yeah, double his age. That's cool. Good maturity. Yeah. Yeah. And, you know, just he loves the, under the underdog, you know, it's, he's just not into. The who's who and Yeah. Yeah. I just booked, uh, do you know Reno Caesar? He's the Egg and I founder. Okay. Just booked him for the podcast in a few weeks. And, uh, his, he, his special talent is making everybody he talks to believe, and it's true that he thinks they're just the best. Yeah. You know, and they have all this opportunity and potential and it doesn't matter if they're a bus boy at the egg, I, or a president of a bank, you know, or whatever. Uh, just a real big encourager, right. Yeah. Yeah. That's a special talent for sure. That's cool. It is. It is a talent. Yeah. So, um, so we skipped the political section, but we can go back to there if there's any particular things that you feel, um, motivated to just share thoughts on. It doesn't have to be R versus D or blue red or things like that, but in the space of society, like how could we do a better job of. Organizing our people. You know, are you a, a big federalized guy? Are you a local power guy? Are you, yeah. Any, any just general thoughts? No. Probably a little more local power. You know, and I, and I don't like to talk about politics because on just the high level, it's just, yeah. There's, it's just, it really all different kinds of people buy cars, ands all that. Well, yeah. And it's just, there's landmines and it's, um, and it's not, not to do with our business. I'm like, I just, you know, there's no, it, it's the same thing everyone says. There's no reasoning, there's no rationality. There's no one who is willing to hear another side. There's just, yeah. Well, that's kind of why I choose to talk about it here is having this at least be a little place where people can agree or disagree and it be okay. And we can still leave as, yeah. Friends after. I've had many times where, You know, I have a certain belief and someone has challenged my thinking and I've walked away and be like, Hmm, maybe they see that's novel right there. Yeah. That's cause nobody changes their mind and celebrates it afterwards. Or even has doubt. You have to assume that. There's no doubt we don't want to get to that. We don't wanna, we don't want to take our pride away and be able to say, I just wanna understand. Yeah. I wanna, where are you coming from here? Right. And I don't think people think maliciously, you know, but it's not like rarely. Yeah. I mean, we all think maliciously, don't get me wrong, but it's not like we have this big agenda to, to just completely, you know, blow somebody up or certain group up and just, yeah. I think that that's probably my biggest complaint is the, the fear mongering. Yeah. You know, you know, Charlie Kirk's an evil racist and so is. Whoever else on the other side. Right. Yeah. And it's like, you know, I don't have, I intentionally try to keep an open Yeah. And gather lots of different perspectives and I, I don't really see that many evil people like trying to lead Yeah. People astre. Yeah. Now there's gotta be, I don't see that many great people trying to lead people to the good path. Either that many great people trying to bring people together. Right. Yeah. So, I don't know, I've actually thought about getting into politics. Yeah. What would you do? Um, even as something like a city council or Yeah. You know, county commissioner maybe. Yeah. I, I don't know if I'd wanna go that far out to start. That's a more of a full-time job kind of thing. Yeah. Yeah. But I do like, I mean, I think you can, you know, I think you can make a difference. Um, the problem, you know, as in. That type of public servants is people don't want their shit drug up from the past and Right. You know, so it's like, it's not worth it. Yeah. So what happens is you get, you know, you get a bunch of ambitious people that haven't actually done anything Yeah. With their life. You know, a lot of times, I mean, you're, you're at a great model of, I think the kind of leader that our government and our, especially our local governments and stuff, should want. You know, you, you've built organizations, you've built wealth within your families and outside. You've created hundreds of jobs probably over time, and you've got like a heart that says we should have this care program where we divert some of our profits to really taking care of our employees that are in the most vulnerable spots in their life. Yeah. You know, that seems like the kind of characteristics that almost everybody could get behind. Yeah. And somebody will dig out some. Old stuff that somebody said to somebody when you and your wife were having a tough time and like, put it on the front page of the newspaper if you get too close. Yeah. And so it's like, do I want to really subject myself to that? Yeah. So, well, I guess all I can say is, uh, I hope you do. And, uh, don't pay attention to the slings and arrows. They're, the haters are usually got nothing better to say. Yeah. So, so we'll see. Yeah. Well I, I've thought the same things. My, uh, my guest Tom Lucero is like a political consultant kind of guy, former radio personality. And he was saying that when you get into politics, you know, one of three things is gonna suffer either your business or your family or the politics. Oh, okay. I was gonna say, uh, and I was like, well, I'm down for like half-assing it on a city council job. Yeah. But I'm not gonna let my business or my family suffer. He was, We were actually in his journey talking about his divorce. Yeah. Some years ago when he got more involved in politics. And I was like, well, I'm not gonna put that on the chopping block. Yeah. You know, nor local think tank. And as much as I love Fort Collins and as much as I think our city council could use more experience and wisdom within their ranks, I just don't know. And that's a, unfortunately, that's where so many people are, right? Yeah. It's like, I don't know, we could thumb wrestle for it right now and a loser has to run for city council. If we've been drinking bourbon instead of coffee, maybe we would. But yeah, next time, we'll, we'll put off the next conversation different. Something that I can win in. Fair enough. Yeah. Where's the win-win there? Um, so you were, you were saying when you first came in that you were a little nervous about the Loco experience, what story you might share of that craziest experience or moment, or, it doesn't have to be a moment, it could be a week or a year in the life. Oh, yeah. I mean, I read that question, you know, we're gonna have, what's the craziest thing that's happened, you know, and I, I, I'm like, man, I'm, I got a really boring life. I love my life, don't get me wrong, but it's like I didn't, you know, no near death experiences, no near death, no jumping out of airplanes or, you know, um, no, uh, payroll's due on Friday and I am 200,000 short. I go to Vegas and yeah, come back and woo, make payroll and the rest is a success story. That'd be a good one. You know, I don't know I'll let you get away with a good joke if you want's instead. Yeah. You know, it was at the doctor the other day in, uh, he, uh, he was writing me a prescription and, uh, he reaches for his pen, right. And he pulled out a thermometer. Oh. A, uh, rectal thermometer and he says, I'm asshole, has my pen. That's pretty good. That's one of my favorites. Well, Warren, I hope you've enjoyed this conversation. I know I have. It's been good. And, uh, I look forward to, um, our next conversation and, uh, back Kirk. Uh, yeah, thanks for having me on. I yeah, appreciate all you're doing to, to really build, you know, culture and community and jobs over there and mostly in Weld County and a little bit here over in Larmer. Yeah. So it's fun. Godspeed for now. And, uh, you know, next cup of coffee's on me. All right. All right. Appreciate it. Got speed. Thanks.