The Succession Plan Most Tire Shops Overlook

00:00 It may be blue collar, but it's white collar money. It can be, you know, and it has a lot of upsides to it, but it's got so much stability and there's a lot of reward to it. Right. 00:09 We're needed as much as a doctor, a lawyer, an attorney, an accountant.

00:16 Welcome to the Gain Traction Podcast, the official Podcast for tire business. I am Mike Edge, your host, and I have the privilege of interviewing the tire dealers, shop owners, counter sales reps, technicians, industry executives, and other thought leaders of our industry. This episode is brought to you by Tread Partners. Tread Partners is the leading digital marketing agency that specializes in digital marketing for multi location tire and auto repair shops.

Tread Partners works with clients that have hundreds of locations, down to five locations. Get a professional, unbiased opinion and let Tread Partners review what you're doing. It starts with a simple conversation. To contact Tread Partners, visit treadpartners.

com so let's get started. Welcome to the Gain Traction Podcast, the official Podcast for tire business. My guest today is Brad Templin, the owner of Scott's. 01:04 You save tires and auto repair with four stores indiana and Illinois.

Brad, welcome to the Gain Traction Podcast. 01:12 Mike, good afternoon. Thanks for having me. 01:14 Yeah, glad to have you.

You know, we kind of have a little common ground because I'm on the border of Indiana. I mean, I'm across the river, but your wife is directly across the river, or where she's from is Tell City, Indiana, if I remember right. 01:29 Correct. 01:29 Yeah.

01:32 Yeah. So they're in between it. They're in New Boston is technically the town, but it's right between Tel City and Santa Claus. 01:40 Yeah.

Just so everybody knows, there is a town indiana called Santa Claus. 01:44 Oh, yeah? 01:45 Yeah. And it does have one of the best theme parks in the United States by far.

01:49 Oh, then every kid has to go. It's called Holiday World. They have every season. They have every holiday.

01:56 It's. Yeah. 01:57 I have two little ones and that's hands down their joy of the summer. 02:00 Well, we live so close to.

We had passes one time where the kid, you know, they could go every day if they wanted to or whatever. But it's a great. And if you like roller coasters, it's a great roller coaster park. 02:10 Yes.

My wife jokes that Holiday World was a second babysitter when she was growing up. They would get those passes and the kids would be gone. 02:19 All right, so let me get back on. See, see, I'm good at this.

I. I get that. I digress. But I think it's pretty cool.

But you're in like kind of north. I mean, to give people a visual. You're northwestern Indiana, kind of. 02:33 Correct.

So yeah, we have two in Illinois, two indiana. The two that are closest to each other are right smack dab on the border. They're about nine miles apart. Yeah.

02:44 All right. And you guys might end up with Chicago Bears just a little bit north of you if everything goes right. We'll see, which is crazy. So tell me a little bit about yourself.

You know, give the audience a little bit about who Brad is. Did you grow up in this industry around it at all? 03:02 So, yes and no. My joke with everybody that my great grandfather got us all into this.

So back in 1919, he started the first parts distributorship in Chicagoland. Grew that over time. And my father was the first of the templins to not continue and end his career at what was called Motive Parts of America. So he was the youngest of the cousins.

So he had all of his uncles involved, a couple about three of his cousins were males as well involved in it. And he kind of just saw, I'm gonna sit here, wait for an opportunity, somebody to pass, retire, something to happen for me to get my shot. And so he grew up, you know, always around auto and said, well, maybe I don't do the part side of it. I'll, I'll do.

Actually, it started as just tire side of it. 03:51 Bought a two bay gas station, 1981. And even in Chicagoland, they just did every tire outside. They stored tires inside, jacked everything up, no lifts.

And they did that for about 12 years. That, that was our start. 04:04 That's fantastic. So when did you know you wanted to be in the business?

04:11 I had a buddy who suggested it. 04:14 Right. 04:14 Yeah, right. And, and that's really what I, I want to, you know, just talk about and put out there because I have now fallen so in love with this industry.

I see so much opportunity and Runway in front of it. And we love to spend time and we. It's a needed conversation, this technician shortage or training or whatever we want to call it. Right.

And it's across the trades. But I don't feel we talk enough about second generation ownership. And from the get go, I want to say second generation ownership doesn't even have to be blood. It could be that top of, you know, manager who's been with you 20 years, a lead tech, a foreman, you know, somebody who's in that culture who already knows what your secret sauce is.

And it can change their life by doing an owner finance to them. 05:02 Well, the comforting thing for our industry, I mean there's, you know, some people look at it as a double edged sword that, you know, it's a slow moving industry in a lot of ways. You know, like it doesn't change fast, but that's both good and bad. Right.

I mean, and there's a lot of stability that goes with it because look, everybody has tires and everybody has auto repair problems. Somewhere on their path of life they got to take care of. And you know, with the average age of cars being 12.8 years now that are on the road, I mean it makes it for a really good business for you guys and shops like you guys.

05:44 Right. And I think even now the shops that are, it's easier to work with an existing shop than to even say I'm a really great tech or I'm a really great manager or service advisor and I want to go open a shop. You know, taking over a succession plan of an already successful shop that you're familiar with. You have such a great Runway opportunity, really just a platform to grow your idea with.

Yeah. And, and that was the thing that I didn't realize growing up. And I think there's a lot of us. Is it the trades in general?

I don't think it's an automotive thing either that, you know, I grew up in the 90s and at that time it was, you do really good in school, then you take the standardized test. 06:26 If you do really well on that, a couple of good schools to look at you got to pick the best of those because that's the only way to get a great corporate job and then work really hard again for four years and then you get this career and hopefully by the time you're 45, you sit in this beautiful office, downtown Chicago, oversee the skyline and you just entertain clients.

I, I swear that's every kid who grew up in the 90s. That's what were told that was success. 06:53 And, and it's such a fallacy. Right.

I mean, because, you know, a lot of people like ask me about the industry as a whole and many people have listed this Podcast know that I'll say, well, I love the people of the industry, but you know, the cool thing about this industry is people are very down to earth, very salty. It may be blue collar, but it's white collar money. It can be, you know, and it has a lot of upsides to it, but it's got so much stability and there's a lot of reward to it. Right.

I mean, you fix people's problems, you help people and usually dire need and the good ones don't forget it. I mean, the good clients or good customers. 07:33 Right. I mean we are, we're needed as much as a doctor, a lawyer, an attorney, an accountant.

And I think too, to your point is this is a very humble and again, I have just so fallen in love with it because of that unfortunately I think at times we do a bad job of maybe not brag, you know, don't have to brag, but just opening that curtain a little bit to let somebody see the other side of things. That shop ownership is very rewarding. It is very financially successful. We have a lot of, you know, successful financial managers, GMs that are in this industry and we don't do maybe a good enough job of showing that or explaining that to let somebody know this is an opportunity.

08:18 I agree. And I don't think it's. I read this book one time called the E. Myth.

I don't know if you ever heard of it. 08:25 I have. I love it. 08:26 Yeah.

Michael Gerber. So, you know, I may have talked about on the Podcast before, but I think it's important to reiterate that, you know, it's important for a young man, young woman to know what their talent set is and it's okay to say what you're good at. I mean, I think we forget that humility has a lot to understanding. Humility is the acceptance of the facts as they are regardless.

If I'm bad at something, I admit it. If I'm good at something, admit it, I accept it. And understanding those, you know, pros and cons about oneself having self awareness, I think benefits you going into whatever you want to do, but also fitting into a team. Right.

And you know, sometimes it. You're not cut out to be the executive. Maybe you don't like wearing every hat, but it's good to know that, right? 09:15 But you could, it's kind of like you're.

But you're always in control of your career, even if you're working for somebody else. Because if you're the best mechanic, trust me, shop owners are gonna love you and you'll get what you want. I mean, you're, it's like signing a pro athlete a contract. I mean, if he asked for a little extra, you're probably going to say yeah.

I mean, he's worth it. I've had him for two years. I can't lose this guy. I mean, if you're smart, you know what I'm saying?

And if he's smart, he's going to know the market out there, but he's not going to be like trying to kill his boss or whatever. He wants to be part of a family, just wants to be appreciated just like everybody. But there's a. I'm just saying.

09:54 I guess what I'm trying to say is there's a lot of leverage within the industry in a lot of different positions. You don't have to be the guy owning the shop. And that's what Michael Gerber's whole E myth kind of explains. Well, you know, because what the first thing he opens up with is that there's X amount of businesses that open today, right this year, and within five years, 5, 95% of them will be closed five years.

That's staggering. And the E Myth, folks, is the entrepreneurial myth that we believe exists for everybody. But his whole point, I think in that book, and he uses the fictitious baker, the lady that or Sarah, I think is her name. 10:38 Bakery.

10:39 Yeah, it's a bakery. I think her. He used a fictitious name. I think he used Sarah.

But he talked about how she liked baking cakes and everything. But once she became a business, she didn't enjoy it anymore because what she did, she was a technician personality. She was very good at baking cakes. But running a bakery is completely different than baking cakes.

Anyway, his whole point was she would have been better off remaining a baker or not opening the business because it created so many headaches and you know what I mean? Like, but then on the other side, there are people built just like you are that want to run a shop. They like switching the hats up, they like managing and they coordinate. I mean, you guys are coordinators, you know what I'm saying?

And that's the benefit. 11:25 But I just think that book is one of those books that really make you think. 11:29 I, I love that book. We read it as an executive team and everybody had out.

There's three different. Your technician, manager and entrepreneur or visionary. And as we read it, we all had to pick, you know, what were. Pick what we thought each other were.

We did kind of like a book discussion about it and it was fantastic. It was. I would recommend that to anyone, especially on a leadership team of maybe four to five people. I think it's a great read and just dive through it every few chapters, meet up and have a 45 minute discussion.

12:01 But to your point, on that is I think there too it's that a lot of times it's a technician minded person who's leading the shop, owning a shop, running an independent and they keep seeing it through the eyes of the technician and it at times might scare them or frustrate them or overwhelm them with how do I see this as the visionary? How do I even just see this as the manager? And the one thing I again back to that, you know, raising in the 90s or growing up in the 90s and dealing with you know, school, school, get that white collar job and that success and you'll be so calm and great that our parents, they, that they're saving us or not savior but protecting us by not having us come into the blue collar world or into ownership or whatnot.

12:50 Because they still remember which, as we all should, the hard times more than the good times. They remember the times that they couldn't maybe hit payroll when the business was only two or three years old or the times that they were trying to figure out how am I going to pay my vendors next month or what. You know.08 right.

I mean there was a ton of COVID right that came through and they think yeah, you know what, it's a lot of stress. It's hard. There's been times where I thought I made the wrong choice maybe in opening the shop or doing this. And you know, I'm going to protect them by saying you're smart and great, go do white collar work, sit at a desk, have a 9 to 5, get that security and great.

13:32 There are some people that are going to thrive in that. Back to this, you know, e myth. But there's a lot of people that I think our parents think they're protecting us yet they're keeping us away from the greatest opportunity we could have. 13:43 100%.

Look, I think one of the greatest things you can tell youth in general is don't be afraid to fail. And when you are not afraid to fail, then you have to have the wherewithal to recognize as you're learning. You know, how when you're falling down and things like that. And I'm not talking about giving up, I'm talking about recognizing your skill sets.

You know, and, and you do. When you fail through something you start to begin to, especially as you mature, you figure out real quick what you don't like and what you do like. And hey, I happen to be good at this. And I remember and I've said this probably on the Podcast a million times.

But my dad, man, he used to tell me all the time, Mike, gotta play to your strengths, man. 14:27 Quit worrying about what you're not good at. And I couldn't get that through my head because I had, I guess you'd say it's pride, but you'd have pride about wanting to accomplish. You know, I can overcome these things, but they would suck the energy out of me, you know what I mean?

It would be like. Because I didn't like them anyway. But by golly, I was going to figure out how to do it, you know, and I could do it. But man, it was just a low energy grind, you know what I mean?

It was just miserable. And now I think this topic's important because I think that, I think all of us in this industry should encourage all the. If you believe in the industry, why wouldn't you encourage youth around you to get in the industry? Right?

15:08 Right. 15:10 And say, hey, here's your opportunities, you know, I mean, you'd be a tech, like you said, or you could be a counter sales rep, or you could be get, work your way into management. You go into ownership. I mean, there's just.

And then on the tire side, I mean, you know, you get some of these companies, I mean, you can be a regional manager, you can sell tires multiple ways. You can go up that corporate ladder of tires, whatever, you know what I'm saying. But there's so many, there's so many layers just within the tire and automotive repair space. 15:39 And I think too, if, you know, somebody's listening to this right now and maybe they're 60 plus, they got some gas left in the tank, but they know that, man, 10 years seems like a long time to still be doing this.

I think that we instantly gravitate towards, you know, the Hot Topic articles are every week, it's great. Water bought this, sun bought this. 16:02 Yeah. 16:02 You know, Pinnacle's doing this, whatever it be, and we know that there's a great financial, you know, exit to those options because we know that they have the financial means, they can structure the deals.

Right. We know that it can get to the finish line. But an owner financing to the guy who's 62 and has a manager who's maybe been with them 15, 18 years and he's 4850 for that transition to occur. I mean, you would change that guy's life.

And I'm not saying give it to him for free either. And I'm not saying to say one day just walk in and say, okay, you owe me all this money. You enter out, right. It's that the owner financing piece.

The owner can still get great, you know, return on in a sense their asset. 16:48 Don't, don't pick that guy you don't trust. I mean, don't just try to, you know, sometimes I think you, we do it like we. I've seen it done where people just try to put.

They want out fast, too fast and they want to push that square peg, the round hole. This will work out. I'll make sure it does. No, no, you're talking, we're talking about, you're, you and I are talking about that guy that you.

He's already proven his loyalty and he's already proven he's got the grind. He's already in it. He's, you know, and it would be a real. And you've already witnessed saying man, I don't have to be here.

And he runs the shop. Right. I mean he takes care of everything. Okay, well there's your owner financing.

That's what you're saying, right? Right. 17:28 And it allows you to probably have less tax implications too. I mean it makes everything a little bit easier, right?

17:35 Yeah. I mean, you know, long term there's some risks that I guess you have to take on with it. Right. This guy could ruin everything.

Or granted to. Right. Their life isn't always guaranteed. But to, you know, to mitigating risk or always evaluating risk, knowing that failure is okay.

If this person's been there for how many years, they know the culture, they know the guys, they already probably have keys to the shop, they're opening it up on the days that you're on vacation, they're running it for the week. You go down and see your kids, wherever they are, whatever it be. Right. It's.

They've maybe not proven it over a 52 week period, but I'm going to tell you that they could probably do it more than we want to say they can. 18:13 Yeah. 18:14 At times that there's still that technician hat coming back to the myth of we almost feel like we lose our identity or we aren't as valuable if we're not needed. And the reality is if you have some tenured people and you have a successful business, there's a lot of people put pouring into that success.

And an exit can be financially great for you and it can really change somebody's life. Or again, if it is blood, you know, maybe your children are maybe, you know, doing sales somewhere or they're out on the east coast wanting to become a surf instructor. But you know, if reality comes back to them and they say, hey dad, I don't know what to do. Well, listen, I'm not going to hand this to you.

I'm not going to baby you. There's me, no nepotism here. 18:56 But you know, if you want to at least see what this is like, come give it a couple months try. Come see what life is like.

You know, don't give it to them. Don't let them, you know, become manager overnight. Make them be. I was a tire tech when I first came back.

Yeah, I give that to my mom. I mean she had this plan that she thought out and we took some time for me to come back. But yeah, I went to school for aerospace engineering. I moved after I went to Purdue, after Purdue had a job doing that with a technical sales role.

Was then going back to get my MBA and started to realize, I think I'm going to leave the company I'm with. 19:34 And that's when the colleague at work was the one who put it to me and said, man, you're really barking up this corporate ladder. This, you know, granted, great, like all power to you. Maybe you become the next CEO of GE and I'll read a book about you one day.

But you know, reality is, and this was what really set it for me was when you're in a smaller pond, maybe there's one Brad. But when you get to a 300,000 person company, it's. It can't just always come down to hard work, grit, determination. This is hands down, nobody else can outwork them.

There's a hundred of you that are all really qualified, that are all deserving as well. So at times it is timing, it is maybe the right fit. 20:17 It is they did this assignment over it, whatever it be, at times there's going to be chance and do you want to leave your life up to chance? You want to go build something for yourself?

And that hit me like a ton of bricks. Called my mom and yeah, she came and met me and I told her were sitting at a bar, I said I think I want to quit my job and move home. And she about fell off the bar stool. 20:41 Oh, I guarantee you made her day though, right?

20:43 Oh yeah. Oh yeah. I think it was both. I think there a bit of worry or scared, like I said, of what happened to you.

Yeah. Like, oh my gosh, you really think this is your best opportunity or you know, wow, this is a change. 20:55 Yeah. 20:55 And then to like it's to her leadership.

I came back, I was a tire tech for about six, eight months, shadowed some mechanics, then I was on the counter for a little bit. Then went and opened the next store. And she told me from the get go that I'm not, Don't even talk to me about another store opening, stores, expansion, nothing until you've worked every job. 21:15 Yes, ma'.

Am. 21:16 And yeah. And honestly, there was a part of me that felt like I knew there was going to be something, there was going to be some hurdle I had to jump. So I just kind of said, yeah, you know, I'm, let's just get going.

Let's just give this a try. I'm excited. And you know what? There was just, we had a lot of good tenured people, we had a lot of good staff.

It was so fun coming back and seeing the opportunity that I thought I saw on paper, that I thought I saw just with our, you know, at that point, we've been what, over 35 years in business that I, I knew we could grow it. I knew there was an opportunity. The platform, right, like I said, is the heart. To me, the hard work was done.

21:51 I'm not the technician, I'm not the GM. I'm that visionary. I love working on something to 90%. And then I dropped the ball.

22:00 Yeah, no, I, I, I get it. And, and, but you, you're still a very important piece of the puzzle for the next step. It's kind of like I've interviewed some other generational people. The gosh, I've gone blank on their.

More Auto Tire and automotive. I think it is, it's over in Rock Falls West. What's that? 22:19 Rock Falls More Tire.

Kayla and Kyle. 22:23 Yes. 22:24 Yeah, they're in a group with us. 22:26 Okay.

So it was interesting because they talked about their dad and him building it and the control that they, you know, that generation above you can't let go. Right. I mean, and it's understandable. I mean, my gosh, they built it, right?

It's, how do you, how do you get those reins out of your fingers? You got them in there, you know, and then you're supposed to let go and let this, you know, your younger generation take over. But it's interesting when you hear that conversation and then, you know, yours, and it's, it's a process for both parties, right. It's a process for the second generation and the first one or whatever generation is passing it on, but the next one really does have something to offer.

I mean, the vision they bring is different, right? They have a different. And everybody's perspective is different. 23:12 We're all.

Even though we're in the same families and whatnot or in the same communities, we can still see something from a slightly different angle and see an opportunity. And it's really interesting, though, but when people, especially in, you know, in the row today, and you watch them slowly let go and then see that satisfaction on their face, like, hey, this is. This. This can go without me.

You know, nothing's on fire, right? And. But that's. But that whole process is a beautiful one thing to witness sense.

I'm not saying it's easy, but there is a beauty in the simplicity of it. I mean, it's just like both sides are willing to keep communicating, then it'll work out. 23:55 That, yeah, that's the key. I think it's on both sides understanding just where the other person's coming from.

24:00 Well, I like what you said, too. Like, you know, like, the hard part's over. Well, I mean, you know, that's what I. I was picturing, like, Kayla and Kyle talking about their dad, you know, I mean, they're like, hey, he did.

He. He had to do this to get us to this. But it's interesting how they can come in and go, hey, dad, you know, we could upgrade the software and do this way more efficiently. And he's like, what?

Why? I got a system here. It works, you know, or whatever it might have been. You know what I'm saying, though?

But it's like the next generation recognizes, oh, man, we can grease these tracks and make what you built even go better, you know, and that's what's fun about it. 24:36 And I think another piece of it, too, is especially as you start to get. Leave it just a little bit bigger, because I also don't want anyone to think that growth is the only way to be successful or what we define as success. But it's.

You would hope that if you have an aging owner or ownership or management or whatever, it be that there was people coming in along the way, though, that are at more the start of their careers, the beginning of an opportunity. And if somebody can come in and, like you said, grease that track, get some momentum, do something different or cool or, you know, maybe just bringing on new services or whatever, that now great. It's an opportunity for that person who's now maybe starting to get to the lead or at the helm.

25:18 But all these people who are at the start of their career they now get those same opportunities everybody else who's been at the company for 25 years has had. And if that just wants to exit and walk away and is looking only for. Not to say that it's bad, but, you know, just a paycheck. We all know the fortunate and scary stories.

We've heard of PE or bad buyouts or, you know, M&As that have gone wrong. That again, I think looking internal, be it blood or not blood, really keeps that legacy and everything moving forward for the shop and the community. A lot of times we're such a big part of these communities. 25:51 Oh yeah.

I mean, you know, what's so funny is that most of the time if you think about it, you guys know, and I'm talking about smaller communities, but you know, your mayor, you know, and saying, you know, your politicians, I mean, so many people are bringing their vehicles to you and you get to know such a random group of the people of the community that you're invested, man. I mean, not just financially, emotionally connected. 26:19 Yeah, same thing. I mean, we.

Right, you work with the little leagues or you work with some non profits or a food pantry or whatnot, right? It's like you're constantly, you know, moving around these areas you're doing, I always say if we're only fixing cars, we're doing it wrong. And there's so many of these smaller businesses out there that do far more than lay pipe and do plumbing or fix cars or just do bakeries. They work with the PTOs or they're active in the local church or whatever it is.

And they do so much more than just provide the products or services that go out the door. 26:54 Now we got a small business owner I went, I grew up with, he's a year behind me in school, but he owns a bunch of small business around here and owns. 27:01 A. 27:04 Franchise, Donato Pizzas.

But man, that guy, he is so active locally. Like he donates pizza everywhere, you know, I mean, and that's a big deal to small organizations that, you know, hey, putting out a few hundred bucks to get, you know, their group or whatever, something to eat and attract them to have that conversation and move next steps, whatever. It's just a big deal. Those little steps go a long way.

27:28 Into that piece, right? It's, you know, I always think of it, you see was Dr. Pepper that does the big check at the Collins games or if you throw the ball through, they give you like a hundred thousand or whatever. You know, these large corporations are, you know, they're not.

Not donating or not providing surety or whatnot. But to your point, how many dominoes do you know are giving out free pizza to the local boy Scouts who. Maybe they're struggling. They just started or whatnot.

27:53 Or. Yeah. 27:53 Helping out the local food pantry with something or whatever. It's just they don't have that bandwidth to do it at such a level that we can.

And so again, I. There's so much opportunity on that independent side. 28:06 There is. There is.

And it makes you guys valuable in multiple ways. Not, not just the fact that you're ruining dollars in the community, but you're. You're fixing people's cars and getting them back on the road in a trustworthy way, and people know that spreads. But then you're hiring people, then you're involved back giving back to, you know, your schools, PTOs, all that stuff.

And it just, it's a, It's. You're, You're. You said this earlier, like you're just as important as the doctor and lawyer or whatever, and you are because those two. Well, particularly your doctor, I'm gonna say attorney as much, but your doctor definitely, because it's a very intimate situation in your life, your health.

Right. And when it's down and it. You. You want your doctor, same thing with.

Same thing with your transportation. And you're in a very. 28:55 You're always in a very critical position in that relationship for their life, if that makes sense. 29:03 Absolutely.

You can't. Yeah. Mars broken. You can't get to daycare, you can't get to sports, you can't get to work, and your life's starting to shut down now.

29:13 That's it. Well, on a side note, or let the people. Let my audience know a little bit more about you. What's your.

What's your favorite hobby? 29:21 Favorite hobby? I'm going to say it's cycling, maybe some swimming, but I enjoy triathlon. 29:29 Oh, nice.

Okay. I didn't know. Well, I have a couple buddies and they don't do it anymore, but they used to do it. One of them is terrible to say this guy used to abuse his body, but He's.

He's only 50. I guess he turns 55 in a month. I think he does. He has already had two hip replacements.

No. Oh, yeah. 29:53 Poor guy. 29:54 Oh, yeah.

I mean, he's doing fine, but I mean, I'm like, hey, dude, that's all those pounding you gave your body when you're young. Oh, no doubt. He said hands down. So I think it Be excessive, obviously.

But that's awesome that you do that. I think that's one of those things that's. It's like you're fighting. It's.

It's a battle against yourself. 30:17 It's a test of your will at times. 30:20 Yes, yes. But that probably helps you with work, I'd say.

I think, I mean, I, I would say that the big time stress reliever. In some ways it is Paul for sure. 30:29 The stress reliever. And honestly.

So I got into triathlon, like right after college. It's just coincidentally. And then stopped once I had kids and recently got back into it. But even the triathlon, community or support group, whatever you want to call it's.

It's a lot of. Just a personality people. So, you know, we do the club that I'm in for, the town I live in, we do a run every Thursday night. But it's.

We're big on having fun, so we run from a brewery to another brewery. 31:02 I might need to join that one. I like that. 31:05 If you missed the start of the run, you're welcome to join just for the beer afterwards.

31:09 Anyway. I never. 31:11 A lot of those conversations too are just, you know, again, it's those a. Personalities, you know, talk about it.

A lot of like the five people you sit around yourself with or whatnot, or the kind of set your ceiling that I've definitely found that too of just a lot of other business owners or C level executives that get into triathlon. And like you said, it's just, you start running, you start hanging out, you're drinking beers, you're bouncing ideas. It's been very rewarding. 31:37 That's fantastic.

I'll say something on here that people probably don't know. I may have said this before, but I. At my age now, I love chopping wood. Oh, splitter.

31:48 Or you're an axe guy. 31:49 Oh, no, I'm talking with the, the mall and everything. I'm not talking about the automatic splitter. I'm just sweating pushing the button.

No, no. And matter of fact, if it's one of my buddies that I do it with, his uncle was like, where's your splitter? We're just gonna chop it good. Yeah, yeah, I won't do that too long.

And we're like, no, I don't think you get the point. We, we like chopping, we like chocolate. But, you know, there's something satisfying about it because A, it's exhausting, but B, there's this production at the end that Right. 32:19 You see it?

32:20 You see it? It's instant. It's so simple, and yet I like it so much. I mean, it sounds like it's just this repetitive job or whatever, and you just, you know, bending over, putting these big logs up, and then, you know, you work on splitting them and then you bottom up and however big they are and then try to get them in quarters and then you're stacking them, and it's just.

There's something satisfying about it. 32:42 No, that's great. So my in laws actually heat their home through a fire stove still. 32:48 Wow.

Okay. 32:50 But. So they do have a splitter, but I'll bet. Yeah, I hear you.

I'm. Maybe I'll have to do it just a few times to get some exercise, even using the splitter. Just because you got to make so much to. 33:00 Well, yeah, you've been that bending over part, because when we've been over to pick them up and move them and create our log pals, it's.

It's crazy. But we go to a deer camp and we do it at that place, though. And now we have this second generation that comes in and like, we. Me and.

And my buddy, we're the older guys now, and it's like, wait a minute, did you see how much. Now we're like the old man. Like, did you see how many. How many logs they burned last night?

The hell was that about? You know, they don't even have any appreciation. It's like that took a lot of work to create that whole stock and they went through half of it. You know, it's like they didn't care, right?

Because they didn't do that. Whereas we're a little bit more moderate. 33:38 Right? You know, hey, five logs can get you started and keep you warm out here, and you don't need 20 logs piled in here.

You know, it's funny, but. But the. 33:47 The. 33:48 The youth, they do, like, the.

The one thing about our group, they. They think the bigger the fire, the better, you know, So I think that's. 33:54 A guy thing, right? 33:55 It is.

Especially if you're not the one chopping the wood. 33:58 Right? There you go. You're giving them the best of both worlds.

34:01 Well, listen, Brad, I'm glad we. We connected, and I'm glad that you came on the Gain Traction Podcast. I really appreciate you being here. 34:08 Oh, absolutely.

I think this is great. Love what you guys are doing, and I'd love Tread Partners as well. 34:13 Thank you very much. Have a great day and we'll.

We'll catch up with you later. 34:17 Sounds good. See you, Mike. 34:19 To all our listeners out there, thanks for always being part of the Gain Traction Podcast.

We'll see you next time. Hey folks, Mike Edge here with the Gain Traction Podcast. Real quick, we get a lot of people ask us, they know Gain Traction, but who's Tread Partners? Well, Tread Partners is our parent company and they're a marketing agency dedicated strictly to tire and automotive repair shops.

Anywhere from five locations all the way up to hundreds of locations. And primarily one field that is always a pain for most people is paid search or PPC or Google Ads. We see enormous amount of waste in it and we see inefficient spend in it. You want to know if you're doing well or not, give us a call.

We'll help you. We'll audit your account. 34:57 We'll look under the hood and tell you if you're doing things the right way or the wrong way and help you optimize that spend. You can reach me and I'll direct you in the right direction@mikereadpartners.

com or feel free to go to treadpartners.com the website. To all our listeners, thank you for being part of the Gain Traction Podcast. We are grateful for you.

If you'd like to find more podcasts like this, please visit Gain Traction Podcast. Com. If you'd like to make a guest recommendation, please email me at Mike at treadpartners. Com.

This episode has been powered by Tread Partners, the leader in digital marketing for multilocation tire and auto repair shops. To learn more about Tread Partners, visit treadpartners. Com.