Larry and Brian discuss coming from what you’re good at to accelerating your company growth by seeking assistance in what you’re not. Brian is a persuasive and adaptable top-performer who is skilled in establishing, managing, and mentoring key executives and business owners as well as individual contributors in a business. He has a passion for changing the cultural fabric of people leadership, marketing, and sales in companies by empowering teams to exceed goals. Learn more: https://www.businessconsultingcharlotte.com/
https://www.businessconsultingcharlotte.com/
Larry Olsen: Welcome. I'm Larry Olsen, and what's on your mind? Once set, it delivers your life. To change the outcomes we want, we must change the plays we’re running. Join us at Mindset Playbook with Real people - Real talk for Real insight.
Narrator: Today's episode is sponsored by Aperneo, An Achievement Acceleration Company, whose approach to professional development enables clients to gain insights and perspectives to live, work, and engage with more success.
Larry Olsen [00:00:19] I want to welcome everyone to Mindset Playbook and thank you for taking your time to invest it with myself and my guests today, which I think you'll find very interesting. And those of you that are kind of stuck or looking forward to moving beyond where you currently are in your business or your personal life. Our guest today will give you some great insights in how to go about doing that. Brian Johnson is the founder and owner of Maine and Johnson, a Charlotte, North Carolina based business consultant and coaching company aimed at seeing small to medium sized businesses thrive, not just survive. Maine and Johnson Partners with business owners to bridge that gap between what success they've had and the success they seek. He has a passion for changing the cultural fabric that people leadership, marketing and sales and companies by empowering teams to exceed goals. Welcome to the show, Brian.
Brian Johnson [00:01:21] Thanks, Larry. I appreciate it. Thank you for having me on.
Larry Olsen [00:01:23] You're welcome. Hey, Bryan, in the world of business consultants, what do you believe sets you apart from the rest? And quite frankly, why should anyone care?
Brian Johnson [00:01:35] Yeah, very good, right? I mean there are tons of consultants out there. There are a lot of really good ones that specialize in certain things. And as we kind of work with our customers and what we try to instill is, you know, a lot of people are very good at ideation. A lot of people are really good at execution and then a lot of people are good at setting the plans, right? So, kind of that bridge between, we play in all of those spaces. And so, when we work with a business, we'll help partner with them on their ideation side. We love that piece of creating, but where we make kind of our inroads is helping take those ideas and then fitting them with those companies to actually make execution, the piece that we help them deliver the most on. So, we don't like to come in and drop a grenade in the room and get everybody riled up and then leave you to kind of handle the pieces next. We like to be in that partnership phase where what you're seeking to do needs to be adjusted and tailored as you go, not just at the beginning stage. So very, very much into the execution piece, which, you know, has kind of been what we've done that I think has been a little bit different and helps us stand out with our customers.
Larry Olsen [00:02:50] You know, anyone who has started their own company as you have had some kind of catalyst or something that you discovered along your adventure? What do you think it was that caused you to want to have a company of your own to assist people and perhaps some of the challenges you faced or some of the solutions you found that you were able to utilize to break through yourself or offer to others?
Brian Johnson [00:03:15] Yeah, I mean, as I spent my time in the corporate world and I really enjoyed it. So, this isn't one of those stories where, you know, I got soured by the corporate world and then left because I could do it better on my own. That's not really my thing, but what I did find is through my transitions and as things kind of took shape, I realized that there was a point where I the enjoyment factor, I was getting out of the larger organization and my contribution became more through others rather than on my own. And while, well, that's great, because that's the great part about being a leader is, you know, seeing your stuff done through other people and seeing what you can get through them accomplish, right? And as I got into it, I started to notice that there wasn't something that I felt I was putting my stamp on. It was part of a greater good and I don't have a problem with, you know, the team aspect of it. But I did find that there wasn't something where I felt at the end of the day, this is what I was doing to make the world a better place, or this is what I was doing to help make a difference that I felt really great about. And I don't want to. It's nothing like I said nothing sour about the corporate world. Like, you’re play playing that, you know, that part of my development wouldn't have happened without it. I'll say it that way. You know, as I kind of wound up moving to Charlotte, loved the area as I kind of was assessing, take an inventory of the rest of my life type of thing. I said, where I want to be is where I'm at. What I want to do might be the thing that changes, and I started trying to. I know this sounds archaic a little bit, but in the end, I was just like, If I didn't do this, what could I get paid to do and how would that look where I'm able to make an impact, like sitting across from somebody and feeling like I'm having a play in that? And I kind of thought a little bit about, you know, my father owned a couple of restaurants, didn't go get a college degree. To be honest, he kind of got stuck having to buy them because he managed 14 different restaurants. So, he was kind of a overall the operations. And then when the owner wanted to sell, there wasn't somebody that was going to come in and buy 14 operations. So, what wound up happening was he wound up having to buy in order to not take a major step back and in terms of like where his kind of quality of life was. So he bought three of them and my dad's a great man still around, you know, learn a lot from him. But he ran those restaurants and it drove him into the ground. He wound up having a lot of health conditions and things that arose from the stress. And needless to say, a few years after he bought him, he had to get rid of it because he couldn't run them anymore. And, you know, they're fine. You know, this isn't about like, you know, trying to rescue my, my father or anything. It's not like that at all. But when I thought about it, I was like, he can't be the only business owner that has faced this situation where he was really good at doing something. And then he wasn't maybe the best at the business side of it. What could I do to help those people like my dad's that are out there in the business world? And that's really where I got to the point where it's like, I know everybody leaves the corporate world and becomes a consultant. But I actually want to do that. You know, I want to work, and we do work a lot with some of the small businesses like the, you know, the average Joe that was great at landscaping and then didn't want to work for somebody else anymore or wound up inheriting the company he was working at. You know, and now that person is a business owner and not a landscaper, right? And so that was really kind of how we made that transition. And then I've always been a proponent of I just want to have a company where people can benefit from working, not just I have employees, but I'm hiring people to be around for a while and to really invest in them. And so, kind of created the model where we did a little coaching a little consulting a little bit of both. And, you know, being able to hire and bring people into kind of contribute to the organization because it's funny. I said, you know, the idea planning and then execution my weakness within my own business is actually carrying all that all the way through. So, I hire blind spot help, you know, to help make sure some of those things wind up getting done. So, but that's kind of how we got here.
Larry Olsen [00:07:28] Yeah, you know, you talked about that transition. And, you know, people can be really good at being single, but they're not really good at being married, right? You can be really good at being a manager, but then because you were such a great performer, they put you in a leadership position and you can just crash. That occurs in every life form, business, you name it, and how do you what do you do to go about assisting people and not stumbling through that transition?
Brian Johnson [00:08:13] But you know, when we look at like how leaders are, you know, empowered and made like, I believe that you have to figure out what people are strong at, like where can they leverage their own abilities and then understand where they're not? And in that transition, like when we work with business owners, that might be a year or two into it and sometimes out of sheer will, you can make a business run for a couple of years just because of, you know, you're new and you're in you're really putting your focus on it. But at some point, you kind of exhaust your own great ideas and the ways things do it, you have to reinvest in yourself in some way. One of the things that we do with those business owners, we really find out, what are you actually good at? Like, let's not pretend like, who will you be? But what are you at the core? Good at doing? And then how do you fill in those vacancies that you need to have to be successful? You know, not. You don't need to be great at everything. You only need to be really great at a couple of things to succeed. And then how do we build that around you so that that transition isn't so much about all, about you, but it's about your business and your part in it as the business owner or the CEO or the leader. However, you look at that from that standpoint.
Larry Olsen [00:09:24] So when you talked about the ideazation part of your business, is that where you're getting into, you know, what do you want to be as a company when you grow up, type of thing? Is that what you mean by that?
Brian Johnson [00:09:38] Yeah. And so, it's, you know, as you're as you're looking at the strategy and we all know like, I kind of joke and say, you know, tell me somebody who's still following through on their three-year plan that they put together in 2019. Right? I mean, I if you are, congratulations, you predicted a pandemic way to go. But you know, as you think about that, it's like it's not so much that it has to happen the way you set it out. And I think I want to say it. Gosh, I can't remember which, you know, World War Two, you know, leader it was, but it was, you know, planning is plans are worthless, but planning is indispensable. And when you get to that notion that I'm going to revisit this and recreate everything or build on where I'm at, but if I'm building another floor, it doesn't have to look like the floor below it, you know on that. How so? What am I doing to invest in my business and myself? And what we like to do with those businesses is really discover what are the things that are working, what things aren't. Let's not try to, you know, just because you listen to a great podcast and you hear that this is what you're supposed to do, that everybody's success story isn't yours. You know, you've got to write your own. It can have bits and pieces from others. But in the end, it's still your story. Yeah. And what does that look like? And that changes, you know, life. Life influences business all the time. I mean, I'd love to see businesses really rather simple. It's people that make it complicated, you know, in that I'd love to be able to say I could just go diagnose business all the time. And it's just exactly how the businesses and that's all the influence you can have. But in the end, we all know life plays a role in that. And as your life changes, you may have to adapt your business to support that life. And you know, we like to take that into account. Like, it's not a here's what this type of business should be doing at all times.
Larry Olsen [00:11:24] Yeah. One of the things that I found in growing my business is I know what I'm good at and then I recognize what it takes to be good at that and I try to apply it to the things I'm not so good at. And I get stretched, I get frustrated, and I and I'm not good at what I'm not good at. And I recognize that. Well, practice, keep working at it, you know, research, learn, and all of that takes time. Is that where you folks see yourselves coming in and making that difference within an organization?
Brian Johnson [00:12:02] Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I have worked with my handful share of businesses that just simply need it fixed and we will do that. But that's not where we like to focus. We would rather refer people in that scenario, maybe to somebody who does want to do that. Where we do spend a lot of our time are not companies that are maybe need rescued as much as they may have plateaued. And the whole point that we exist for is just to accelerate businesses getting to where they probably would get on their own. But it's how do you condense that time frame so that they get there faster, and they can move on to things? I mean, really, time is the one resource that we can't ever replace. And so we try to condense that down and really focus on those things that that make the biggest impact. Like, you know, Larry, in your example, you said, you know, sometimes you like to take your strengths and place them on you, you know, areas where you're not as strong in it and it winds up stringing you out a little. That's exactly what we try to work with companies to avoid. And you know, I'll use my company as an example. I mean, I've got, you know, several employees that I had in roles, right? And here I'm preaching this out to the customers I'm working with, and we wound up sitting down and kind of reassessing and doing some assessments. Come to find out I've got people in the wrong spots simply based on their strengths and found out. I'm trying to, you know, will things to happen in the business where I can just hand it off and that person is built for that. And so, you know, you jumble roles. I mean, I'm not saying don't have roles in your organization, but sometimes you know your point guard might need to be your shooting guard. In some instances, things like that and let the game play out with the people on the court not necessarily tell them this is where you'll stand, this is how you'll shoot. I want you to shoot right hand. I want, you know, let them kind of give them the boundaries, like, don't dribble out of bounds. You know, you shoot at this goal, not the one behind us. You know that type of thing, but then let them figure out how to score. And we do that with organizations to say, like, if you're really good at this, let's double down on that and let you do that piece. But where you might have some blind spots or some opportunities for for growth, maybe that's where you leverage the experiences and the talents of the people in your organization to do it. And if they're not there, then how when we make a hire, how do we make sure we cover that blind spot?
Larry Olsen [00:14:24] So very, very nice. What size companies do you typically work with?
Brian Johnson [00:14:29] Yes. So, there's an element and this is not restricted to Charlotte, but we kind of promote it to be community based. So, we've got some companies that are in that, you know, two hundred and fifty thousand to like four million range that we kind of categorize as small business coaching that really anything goes in their business. We're not coming in saying we're just going to focus on this. We're going to look at the whole business and help them continue to progress that. After that, when we get into coaching or I'm sorry, consulting some of the areas that we spend are a little bit more in that, like 10 to $50 million range where they've got the horsepower. And it may just be around getting the pieces to fit where they're headed. I'd like to say so many times in COVID probably expose this for most businesses, but what you were doing to serve your market three years ago isn't probably the model that you're going to need three years from now. And we like to look at it, and it's not, hey, we got to go hire a bunch of this. You might have it in the organization. It just may mean refreshing how those people are used or what the org chart really looks like. Or, you know, maybe what capabilities you as a group don't have that you do need to bring in? And how do we get those? Can you train them, or do you have to hire them? So, but yeah, that's kind of the range. And like I said, the reason I mentioned the horsepower is it's not usually about acquiring resources as much as maximizing the utilization of them.
Larry Olsen [00:15:53] You know, one of the key element that my organization works with are the habits, attitudes, beliefs and expectations that people bring to the party. Yeah. And you being on the outside as they're listening in their own head have their own dialog going on or agreeing or disagreeing with what you're sharing. And here you can put something into place and then follow up and notice that nothing's really been accomplished. And that can be really frustrating, especially when you thought you've got an agreement with everyone, right? How do you deal with overcoming the attitudes, if you will, that people have that keep them from? They want to move forward. But what you're asking them to do sometimes may seem risky. You're asking me to delegate, you know, on that requires trust. Things may not go. The way you would have wanted him to go may not have been your way. But anyway, how do you how do you find yourself as an organization assisting people with that?
Brian Johnson [00:16:54] Yeah. And it kind of. There's a couple of avenues on this. And maybe your question specifically, I'll try to answer the way I think you're asking, but this is the biggest thing that we find when we're working with organizations is. And I know if you're if you're on LinkedIn, you see this a million times, I mean, every leadership post is about failing your way to success or something along those lines, and that's true. I also would say that sometimes that failing or maybe it doesn't happen the way you want to or want it to is also learning not to do that way again. And the thing that we find with people that try to take on more and more, they become the limiting factor in their organization's growth. And the reason is, I mean, we only have so much time, energy money to be able to do all of the things that we want to do. So, at some point that growth is going to have to come, not through us, but by us and how we do that when we work with companies like you kind of said, when you realize that delegating may not get the result the way you want to or the way you might have done it. Does it still get the result, though? I mean, if you get 80 percent of the right answer and you're looking for 100, can you work with 80 if you get 80 on five different things rather than 100 on two? And that's where we kind of work with companies to see what that fit is. I don't want to simply say as a blanket statement, you should always accept 80 percent of the answer and move on. But in some cases, organizations spend so much time on perfection. They don't see that continual movement forward. We'll get you further in the long run. You know, it's like for singles are the same amount as a solo home run. Yeah, but how many times when you swing for the home run, do you actually get on base? And that's what we try to work with them to really discover. Like, how do you get that? I mean, it's like the movie Moneyball. And sorry, I'm a sports guy. So, you know, it's like, I'm not paying you to get on or I'm not paying you to get thrown out on seconds. So don't steal. I'm paying you to get on first. I mean, in the end, if we can keep getting people on first, we keep score runs.
Larry Olsen [00:18:55] Yeah, yeah. Very nice. Very nice. I remember years ago we'd started a rock band, a bunch of middle aged and older gentlemen. And our first gig was like a P.F. Chang's rock and roll marathon, where every mile they had a band playing and we're getting ready to go on band stage in the one of the gentlemen that was a big investor and developer. As a business, he said, Hey, you guys. We're not looking for that home run. Let's just go out there and hit singles. Yeah. And it was really kind of relaxing to be able to recognize that you don't have to hit it. You don't have to make it work every single time the way that it, you know the grand slam. Yeah. And like you said, and getting how do you equate to a business owner what getting on base means getting to first means?
Brian Johnson [00:20:07] Yeah, I mean, to be honest, most business owners wind up in the end, you've got to prove out essentially what the value is that you're endeavoring to do whatever that value needs to be, you do need to find that. Yeah. And so, we sit down in the, you know, kind of in the assessment phase with these companies and whatever we're going to try to accomplish. We like to work through an assessment where we give them the plan at the end of that 90 days and say, hey, this is what we believe. We've discovered talking to your customers, employees, things like that, and I'm giving you the long winded version of your question, the answer, right? But as you go through that assessment and at the end of the 90 days and this is where we kind of come back to the execution, we're happy to hand you a plan. You pay for the 90 days we spent with you and you kind of get what you're looking for. Or we can give you a proposal on how we can help you execute it over, you know, say, the next 12 months or whatever the period of time that is, that makes sense in that as we kind of look. You know, how do you determine what those values are? We basically like to sit down and say, what is the outcome of this activity if it's successful? And when we say outcome, like is this a $200000 savings initiative that you could put in there? And that requires, you know, your supply chain group to work more in on just in time basis or something of that nature. And then you see what that value is that most of the time, if you set out and let's say it's a $200000 value and we'll use my 80 percent example, I think I'm going to do this right. But if you wind up coming out and you find out it's one hundred and sixty thousand dollars in savings, you were shooting for 200, but you put other resources on and got 160. Are you going to give that money back because it wasn't two hundred, you're not in? And so that's the thing is, I believe you've got to tie what that result is in terms of how he doesn't always have to be money, you know, but what that value is for the activity and then you can very quickly see what the ROI are. I was on that effort. Yeah. And I think when you get business owners in that space now, all of a sudden coming up a little bit short is moving the needle tremendously. I don't I'm not sure if you've ever read the book Atomic Habits by James Clear but love that one. And one of the points they make. I'm sure he wasn't the first person to say it but improving one percent every day is a thirty seven and a half percent improvement each year. But how many times do we go set our plans for like that one thing that boost revenue by 20 percent?
Larry Olsen [00:22:29] Yeah, good point. Good point. “Incremental”.
Brian Johnson [00:22:32] Exactly. Consistency, you know.
Larry Olsen [00:22:34] Yeah. And you're also getting rewarded by recognizing that as a business owner, that you are making these incremental steps? So, what do you find to be your biggest challenge in the work that you do?
Brian Johnson [00:22:53] You know, I think it's kind of what you hit on earlier. I mean, the people that we've worked with very much know how we're differentiated, you know, and we've been in business for a little over three and a half years. So, we're still building on this so that my story isn't written yet with this either. But what we find is really trying to kind of get, you know, your identification and specializations and things like that in front of people. That's probably the biggest one. I mean, as we sit down with people, we feel very comfortable like running. That assessment period allows businesses sort of like, hey, this is either a good fit or it's not. Or maybe what we find is the path forward you don't need us for. You've got the resources you just need to plan. There you go. And finding that method has helped us figure out who the right partners are for us, for some of our longer-term things. But that's probably the biggest challenge is really just getting in front of people that we know need something, but maybe not figuring out what they need. And a lot of cases, the decisions made prior to us ever finding them that I'm just going to invest in more marketing, you know, and that's fine. I mean, sometimes that's our recommendation for you. But sometimes being a bigger ship only means you sink further out. You know, you can take on more water, but you still go down.
Larry Olsen [00:24:11] Yeah, yeah. You know, we've heard regarding our clients or customers that they're always right. I found in when I was starting my business that there were some customers I wanted to fire. Yeah, and I don't mean that they weren't great people. It's just that it wasn't a fit, but I wasn't paying attention to that because it was going to create some income. Yeah. And as you as you mature in your three years, have you found yourself? And I'm almost leading the witness in this. I'll have to rephrase the question how have you kept yourself? Is free from that as you cannot bring it on somebody that it's not going to be a good fit.
Brian Johnson [00:24:56] Yeah. So, we kind of have, you know, when I talk about our sales team, which is really everybody in the company. So, we have a pretty wide open bonus structure for anyone that works for the company. If you bring on a new customer at three months, you get a half month's revenue from that customer. At nine months, you get a full month's revenue as a bonus. And so, part of the reason is you just don't bring in people that you yourself, whoever gets the introduction doesn't feel like they're a long-term fit. Now, that doesn't always work out that way, but as a starting point, it's not about leads converted as the true measure. It's more retention as the true measure. So, we try to be very open when we sit down with, you know, kind of in that discovery process with the company and just say, I mean, our intention is we're going to over invest in the beginning, but we expect it like nine, 12 months out. You know, we're still having a great dialog moving your business forward. Know what are the things that you're expecting to achieve in the next 12 months? More. When we sit down together, I mean, we clearly know what we're trying to accomplish with you, or at least we're having that dialog. What is? You want to get out of this relationship. And what does that look like? Yeah. And I I think if you can draw that out, you know, we found that, and it may be our culture and style too. But as we get those, we've rarely come across people that are, you know, two three months into it, you know, have any sort of reconsideration because we want to make sure before we start, I don't overinvest and then lose that customer.
Larry Olsen [00:26:23] Now in point. Good point. I know the first question I always ask is why are we having this conversation?
Brian Johnson [00:26:30] Exactly right.
Larry Olsen [00:26:32] I mean, I may have all the information to answer that question myself. But things change.
Brian Johnson [00:26:37] Yeah. And you even mentioned that like firing customers. I mean, the goal would be you never have to get to fire a customer that eventually, you know, you run its course and you both mutually part. But we work with a lot of companies that do have that issue where they're like, I just, you know, this customer, I make this amount of money, but they're always calling me. It's like, well, you don't really make that amount of money. That's just what you have based on price and cost. But what you're not putting in, there is all the follow up, the time and the energy you have to invest. And we try to tell customers whatever we can do to kind of get this. This notion there that firing customers isn't necessarily bad. A step backwards doesn't mean you're not going to take two steps forward. But we always try to tell them the best gift. You can give you a competition to send them your worst customers, you know. So, you know, in this league that one six
Larry Olsen [00:27:26] the right word but allowing the customer to go succeed with somebody else.
Brian Johnson [00:27:30] Right? I mean, we find people that were a value oriented customer were differentiated. That's what they'll say is that's our model. Well, then don't keep your price buyers. Yeah, I mean, your price buyers aren't going to pay for that. Send them to somebody who doesn't want to do all those extras and just want to show up and do the work because that's who they're going to fit with better. Absolutely. Yeah, you're doing them a favor, actually.
Larry Olsen [00:27:52] You bet. Because the expectations are different. Exactly. Yeah, for sure. So, time has like flown. We have all heard the old bumper sticker. But anyway, what would you like people to take away from what you and I have been talking about? And your company that they can connect with you. You know, which will be available on this site when they go to find out about listening to this podcast. But outside of that, what would you like to do with the few minutes we have left? How would you like to kind of wrap it up for our listeners?
Brian Johnson [00:28:37] Yeah, I would say the biggest thing that I've been fascinated with about doing this, you know, what we're doing now is just meeting and talking with new business owners. mean, I can tell you, you know, on, you know, hands and toes, the number of times you know that I sat down with another business owner and basically it wasn't about necessarily fostering a business relationship, but just that learning and exchanging. I mean, I'm a business owner, too. And I would say when we stop doing those sorts of things, we start building, we start walling ourselves in. And I would just encourage. I'm always open for, you know, you just want to have a 15, 20 minutes get to know you chat. And that's it. That's great because part of my goal is to expand my network of just great business owners. So, you know, definitely check out the website if there's products or services that we offer, that makes sense. Great. I'd love to just, you know, have somebody hit me up for a 15 minute Zoom call, meet somebody new and say, You know what? I love that I met somebody in Montana. And then, you know what? Wherever else it comes from, just to be able to have those dialogs and expand my ability to also be better at reaching my customers in the future from the things I might learn from those conversations?
Larry Olsen [00:29:49] I can tell, and I'm sure the individuals that are listening to this and are seeing clips from it recognize that you're really easy person to open up to. And that's a real an asset for you to say the least, because that can really stop a lot of great things from happening, because all of what you may have to offer, they're not going to take advantage of it if they don't feel comfortable. And you've made us all feel very comfortable, Brian and I appreciate it.
Brian Johnson [00:30:20] Well, I thank you a lot, Larry. I mean, I hope your audience, you know, continues to listen to your podcast and loves this one as well. But it's been a pleasure to be on the show.
Larry Olsen [00:30:30] Well, thank you very much. And then all the best to you and those of you that are listening. I'd really recommend you taking the shot and giving this guy a call or zooming up with him and finding out whether or not this is a fit or not. And if you're interested in growth and getting beyond where you currently are, I can tell you that Brian Johnson is your man, and he surrounds himself with people that are like minded. So, you've got great opportunity there and check his website out. It's very informative, beautiful, and I think you'll find a lot of value there. Thank you again. And whatever you're doing, listeners, we both thank you for investing your time and what we had to offer. And again, remember and I say this at every closing, wherever you are is exactly where you need to be to have the type of life that maybe once was just a dream. And when it all gets down to it, not only is it important to have that visionary end result, but to make the right choices. And Brian, you've really steered this in some great direction as to what some of those right choices are not only to grow our life but to grow our business as well. And I thank you for that.
Brian Johnson [00:31:46] Appreciate it, Larry. Thank you.
Larry Olsen [00:31:48] All right. Take care, everybody. See you next time.
Narrator: Thank you for listening. If you've enjoyed this episode, we ask that you please subscribe and share with your friends and associates. Welcome to our next episode of The Great Automotive Experience with the President of Temecula Valley Toyota, Tom Rudnai. Tom was voted by Los Angeles Magazine the most influential person in the automotive retail industry and his remarkable journey speaks for itself. Join Larry and Tom and find out more about what drives success in all areas of our lives.