Ernie Boch Jr. - Building A Billion Dollar Automotive Empire (With Kieran O'bBrien)

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What's going on, everyone? Casey Adams here. Welcome back to the Rise of the Young podcast. Today we have Ernie Bach Jr. Here with us. Ernie Bach Jr. Is an American business executive who is the CEO, president and spokesman of Bach Enterprises, a $1 billion business consisting primarily of automotive dealerships in Massachusetts. Bach is a local celebrity in the greater Boston area who has a passion for music and makes television cameos and has a creative approach to advertising and selling cars. Also on this episode, I brought on my best friend, Kieran o' Brien to enhance this conversation. He is in the automotive industry and he actually showed me who Ernie Bach Jr. Was. So shout out to Kieran for coming on. Thanks so much, my brother. And that being said, make sure you check out Ernie Bach Jr. On Instagram, follow his journey and enjoy the episode. What's going on, everyone?

Casey Adams here. Welcome back to the Rise of the Young podcast. Today I am very excited to say that we have the one and Only Ernie Bach Jr here with us, the CEO and founder of Bach Enterprises. Thanks so much for coming on.

Thank you. Thanks for having me.

Absolutely. And also joined by my good friend and business partner, Kieran o', Brien, he's going to be coming on to enhance this conversation. So, Kieran, thanks so much for coming on as well.

What's going on, everyone? Thanks for having me. Casey, for having me.

Thanks.

So, Ernie, first off, I want to say I'm not only inspired by your story, but I'd love to touch on just in the automotive business as of right now, with coronavirus and everything happening, how are you looking at the current landscape of what's happening in the transitions that are occurring?

Well, it's no secret, it's tough out there. I think that there will be a shake up. I think that some people, quite honestly, won't make it. I think some of the larger dealers might become smaller dealers and I think some of the smaller dealers will rise because it's not about being the smartest or the strongest. It's all about being able to change and adapt to this environment. And that's what the people that are still doing business. You have to remember that in most states, most dealerships, the service department is still open. Got it?

Yes. I want to touch on as well, because Kieran, he works a lot of dealerships. I'd love for you to expand on that.

Yeah. So I think, you know, my biggest question is, how do you think this is going to change the future of the automotive dealership industry in terms of how business is conducted? You know, the sales of vehicles. I remember one of your interviews that we listened to before we did this one. You were talking a bit about how budget vehicles are going to become more popular for people who don't want to do public transit anymore. Do you have anything else that might fall into that category?

Well, I think this industry will be changed much like a lot of industries. The entertainment industry, for example, who's going to go to a venue with 10,000 people, 6,000 people, 4,000 people, and then the dealership will have to adapt. It's such in motion thing happening. It's very, very hard to say this is how it's going to be. You have to really adapt to the day to day difference. I think a lot of the good dealers and the people that really want to do business are masking people, gloving people, doing social distancing, getting their online stuff even better than it was. There's a lot of horrible things about this, but some good things will come out of it.

Love it. And I want to sort of change gears here. Just regarding your experience as an entrepreneur, when did you get involved personally in the automotive business and how did that transition in your life occur?

Well, my grandfather started the company that I have right now in 1938. Wow. He was a technician or a mechanic at Boston Cadillac, which was a giant Cadillac store in Boston, Massachusetts. We have what we call Command, which is where Boston University is. And a lot of the buildings that Boston University owns to this day were giant, massive automobile dealerships, like movie theaters used to be in the 20s and 30s, palaces. And my grandfather worked there as a tech, as a mechanic. And on the weekends he used to fix cars. He used to fix the neighbors cars on the weekends. And business got so good the weekend Business got so good that he left his job at Cadillac and started fixing cars in his garage full time. And then around the late 40s, it got so busy that he bought a little gas station on Route 1. Route 1 in Norwood, Massachusetts, which still stands today. Not as a gas station. It's a. It's Newberry Comics. It's a record store. Yep, right. Right on Route 1. And then from there, his first. The first dealership that. That he got was Nash. Nash in the very early 50s, got a Nash dealership. And then my father took over. My grandfather died. My father and his brother brought it to the number one Nash store in the country. And then in 1971, we got Oldsmobile and Toyota, and it just blossomed from there. And in 71, I also got the exclusive distributor rights for Subaru in the six states of New England. So that. But really the. He really didn't really. The money, really making money really didn't happen until the early 80s when got it, all that stuff was in place and the business started to give back. It was a lot of investment up front. And then when I was about 22, 23, I put a suit on for the first time and just went from there. My father died in 03, so I had been working with him for 10 years shoulder to shoulder, and when he died in 03, I took over. Cool.

So I think on that note, I've seen Casey over the last few days. He's interviewing all these highly successful people for his podcast. And one theme, because of everything that's happening in the world right now, one theme that he's asking people like yourself is what your experience has been with previous economic recessions. Right. So you've lived through a couple of them in the early 2000s and 08.09, of course. So, you know, what was your experience through those? And then how can we kind of take some lessons from what you learned from those and apply them to what might be happening over the coming months?

I remember the first one was mid-70s. 76. Prime was 21%. That was. That was a tough one. Then the crash in the late 80s. And then the. The 9091 was. I didn't really get hurt in the 9091 because I was on a growth spurt. We were really, really growing then. And then, of course, the worldwide economic downturn of 2008. And that's where all the hardcore lessons came to me in 2008. This is quite different. You know that 2000, 2008 was a. Was a. It was kind of a slap in the face. It wasn't taking you down and strangle you on the floor. But in 2008, I didn't cut one dime of advertising, not one dime. I spent the resources keeping the Subaru name in New England, you know, throughout New England and my retail stores because I knew when we were going to come out of this that it was going to be better. And it's all about market share in the automotive industry and almost any industry. It's about market share and you have to stay current, you have to live through what is happening. You can't hide your head in the sand, you have to move the money, you have to keep business going. And the guy did that in 08 and 09 survived.

Love that. So you touched on Subaru.

I'd love for you to walk us.

Through the story of how you gained rights to them, especially here in the US like how did that come into your life and how did you negotiate that deal?

Okay, well it's a. After the second World War the automotive industry exploded and the Japanese came in unsure footed. In the mid-50s it still still wasn't quite accepted when Toyota came with the Land Cruiser and that was the first car that actually came and stayed and they, the Japanese didn't attempt, was still a little dicey. So they had a theory that they would come to the United States and take an American and have, give them a distributorship, have them build the market. So we sell all these vehicles to one guy, he develops the market and that's, that's basically the model that they used. And almost every brand had a distributor, they had a distributor. Now there's only four distributors of automotive left in the United States to Toyota and two Subaru. The, the Japanese have been buying up, buying back the distribution points because they have it pretty down now. I mean, you know, they, they really, they control the United States very nicely with the imports. So people that are surviving, myself, the other Subaru distributor and the two Toyota distributors, I feel, and the statistics prove it, that we do better than the factory. We're a private company and we've built the market. Everybody has their own way of doing it. And I've said this before, that there's a lot of successful guys do things very differently, very differently. But there's always a thread that goes through the success. Always a thread. There's always a saneness of super successful people. I think Tony Robbins, I think he's the guy that really that put that together. And you know, because he took all these guys and said what the hell are they doing. And that's what Tony preaches from his history of looking at these guys.

Love that. How do you define success in your life with all the different accomplishments and massive businesses? What do you define success as?

I think success is freedom. That's what I think. I think when you wake up in the morning, you decide what you're going to do. Whether you're going to decide to go into work at 6:30 and work for 18 hours. You can do whatever you want as long or do nothing. Whatever you decide, I think that is success. I think people, people really want that. They work hard to do it or they don't work hard to do it and just do what they do. It's all what you want.

Love it. Right.

I have a question regarding Bach Enterprises. So I know you guys do all sorts of different things and obviously the primary thing is the car dealerships. How has Bak Enterprises kind of shifted over the last 10, 20 years in terms of what the day to day is? Have you sold any of the dealerships, acquired new ones? What's the status of all that stuff?

About five years ago I sold most of my dealerships. I sold two Toyota, two Honda. Body shop, rental, big used car place. I sold it all. I retained Ferrari. Ferrari of New England is mine. I retained it because I love the cars. I think Ferrari is one of the greatest machines ever built. So I got out of the. I got out of the retail business. I still, I own the land and the building for the businesses and I had a five year deal to be the spokesperson after I sold them. My contract is coming up in September. I don't feel that they will renew. So I am concentrating on Subaru of America. I mean, sorry, don't scratch that. Subaru of Subaru of New England. I also have my foundation Music Drives Us. And I'm involved with the BOK center which is two theaters in downtown Boston. One's a 1500 seat venue, one's a 3500 seat venue. And then I have various projects that I like to do to just keep it going.

Yeah. Can you tell me more about Music Drives Us?

Well, Music Drives Us is I grew up, I graduated high school in 1976. Okay, right in there. And I call the golden age of. And I still listen. I listened to the same stuff when I was 14. And the coolest thing about that is that who I listened to. I listened to Joe Perry from Aerosmith, Jimmy Page from Led Zeppelin, Jeff Beck, the Beatles, the Rolling Stones. And then from the Rolling Stones I went down into the the, the country blues guys, Mississippi John Hurt and all that stuff. ZZ Top. But the coolest thing is the rock stars. When I was a kid, I still. Rock stars. They're still there. They're still. You can go see ZZ Top, you can go see the Rolling Stones, you can go see Jetpack, you can go see Aerosmith. You can go, this is amazing.

Very cool.

Where does that passion for music come from? Did that at 14, you listen to all these different rock stars?

I always liked music. I was, I just always liked music. The problem is, is, you know, as I, I'm just not that good, you know, I'm, I, I think that, I really believe that, that, that of course you can work hard and become very, very good. There's many people that weren't born with it. There's a lot of people that are naturals that are born with it. I personally didn't get that gift. It's funny because my mother's brother's side of the family, two of the kids have perfect pitch. They all have relative pitch and they are masters on their instruments. I, I don't know what the hell happened, but I missed it. But even though I couldn't really play that well, I will. It was always interesting to me because music did something to me when I, when I, you know, when, when the Immigrant Song came out, when it first came out in. And when I was in junior high, when Woodstock happened. I've talked about this before. In 1960, you know, the late 60s, 68, 69. When Woodstock came. Let me tell you, that rocked my world. That changed everything, everything for me. That whole rock and roll lifestyle, that whole thing, it just changed me.

Love it.

Yeah.

So no, that was super interesting. I'd love to hear more about some of the instruments that you play. What are some of your favorite instruments to play? Do you have any?

I just play guitar. I play guitar. You know. It's funny, since the early 80s, most of my friends are musicians. Most of them are musicians. I didn't purposely do that. I just, I'm just, I don't know, I guess I'm just naturally drawn to musicians. I have a lot of friends that are, you know, pro guys that, you know, make a really good living in the industry.

Yeah. When it comes to your day to day as an individual, what's your daily routine, if you have one?

I definitely have one. I'm a real, I'm a real traditionalist. I wake up 6:30, 7 o' clock every day. I work out at 10, 10am Every day. But Sunday, and I just have a routine. I get up, have my coffee, then find out if anybody's looking for me. Does anybody need it? General managers, what do you need? What do we have to do to make this day happen? And then I work out, and I haven't really. Of course, now I'm not going into the office. We're doing mostly everything online. But I stopped going in every day about three years ago. And I have meetings at my house. My managers come to me, and I've really, over the last, I don't know, six, seven, eight years, have planned for that moment, gave them the tools they need. At my company at Subaru of New England, I have about 160 people that work there. And the average. They've been. The average person has been there 17 years. Wow. I have a really amazing group of people that are very, very good at their job. And you just give them a little. Give them a little room to run and everything's going smooth.

Love that. When it comes to just the business itself. How your grandfather started in 1938, what were some of the lessons that you learned from your grandfather that were passed on to your father that you would. That you've taken as, you know, parts of your character?

Absolutely. I've learned everything about basic business from my father, who learned from my grandfather. When I was working shoulder to shoulder with my father and problems were presented, you know, because it's always something that has to be done. I thought I had a tough job. I really did. I thought, you know, I was there second in command, you know, on Boots on the ground. I really thought I had a tough job. But in reality, if I had a problem, I would present the problem to my father or his situation. He'd give me my marching orders, and I'd do it. It was. It was simple. And nine times out of ten, he was right. The one time he was wrong, the other nine made up for. I actually realized how easy my job was until I lost my father. And now all those decisions are on me. But I just go back. I go back and I'm a. I'm a basics to the basics. I always think, okay, what from? From really the ground floor. What should we do? And I feel that I have developed the filters for the people that work with me, that if a problem is presented, if you present a problem to five of my people, they will all come with the same solution, the same solution, which will be the basics of the company. So that's. That's how I run my life. The only way I Love that.

Good.

So I'm a big car nut. I'd love to talk about cars quickly because you and I, Ernie, were messaging on Instagram. You told me about that Bentley that you posted on your story, the super rare Bentley that you have in your collection. I'd love to talk quickly about your personal car collection. What are some of the cool cars you have in the garage these days?

Well, I collect cars that say, I don't do drugs. I don't chase women. I have a girlfriend. I don't gamble. You know, give me something. I collect basically Italian, English and German from the 70s. That's really where I am. There's a, you know, a modern supercar here and there or final series of tremendous vehicles. But basically it's 60s and 70s. I really love, absolutely love it. Very cool.

What would you say to someone that's now, I would say in 2020 that's looking to not only start a company, but for example, I'm 19 years old, Karen's 20. And to the young entrepreneurs that are out there during a time like this, what advice do you give to young entrepreneurs?

This is the advice I would give. Don't stop. Never stop. And really don't listen to the negative people, the haters telling you it can't be done. It shouldn't be done. Nobody's done it. Let me tell you, if I listen to people, I'd be living in a trailer park. Okay? I. You have to have a mission. You have to have the end in sight before you start. What's the end game? Think of it like, like you're. You jump on the ship with Columbus. You are not going back. You not going back. You are hitting the new world no matter what. And if you have that. My grandfather had a saying. Never quit. Never quit. And a lot of people win by attrition. They just hang in there so long that it works. I'll give you an example of that. When I first started actually selling automobiles, I was terrible, absolutely terrible. I was actually frightened to get on the, to get on the showroom floor. It was, it was the early 80s. It was tough. But I sold more than anybody else because I was there more than anybody else. I worked 12, 14 hours a day. I fell into deals because I was just there. And that's what you have to do. It's the 10,000 hour rule. You know that after you do the 10,000 hours, there's a whole nother set of things you have to do. It's not just 10,000.

Love that.

So I'd love To ask, both on a personal level and with Bach Enterprises and everything else you're involved in, what are some of the exciting things that you have coming up? Any new launches or anything like that?

Well, on the automotive side, Ferrari is coming out with a tremendous amount of new vehicles. They are, they are on a roll. They are producing stuff that you would only dream about 10 or. It's incredible what's happening with that part of the business. And then of course, the, the everyday cars, the Toyotas, the Hondas, the Nissan, all that. The competition is getting fierce. The technology, technology is getting better, so the cars are getting better and less expensive. So there's a lot of, there's a lot of good, exciting things on the, on the horizon. Transportation is, is going to go through this whole, you know, driverless car, and this is going to be a big. Over the next 20 years, it's going to move fast and you, you have to adapt.

Who do you think are going to be some of the biggest players moving into a world of autonomous vehicles and all this new AI and everything? Obviously, besides Tesla, who do you think are going to be some of the biggest players?

I think the big guys, the General Motors, the Fords and stuff like that. What worries me about the industry right now is the electric car. The electric vehicle. The electric vehicle is less than 3% of total vehicle sales. Less than 3%. Yet every manufacturer has an initiative. There will be a tsunami of electric vehicles hitting the market and they are going to be more expensive than the regular vehicles. So something has to gift the PC feeling good that we're making the electric vehicle saving the world. And that whole view is going to hit a reality soon because the sales just aren't there. They just aren't there.

Last question before we wrap up. I want to be respectful of time, of just. If you were to give yourself advice from building team culture and scaling your company, what advice would you give to your younger self?

I would, I would. The advice I would give to my younger self would be, I'm glad you did what you did because it would be a different world if you didn't. And what I've always done is I've always, always surrounded myself with more talented people than myself. I never, ever want to be the smartest guy in the room ever. Any band I was in, I was always the worst guy in the band. Always, always, always the worst guy in the band. And I loved it. Absolutely loved it. And when I hire someone to this day for whatever slot we have to put him or her in, I want them to teach me. I want, you know, I'm bringing you in for your expertise. Of course, you know, it's my company. You will work for me. But I'm bringing you in to help us as a whole have. I believe that you have to take care of your people. If you don't take care of your people and build a strong, strong machine to do what you want to do, then you're going to, you're going to. You're not going to be as successful you have. You have to build it around you.

I love that.

I've always been taught that. And to me, it's a natural thing. I love people that have. That can bring more to the table than myself.

Well, Ernie, I just want to say thank you so much for coming on the podcast today. Where is the best place where people can stay up to date with everything that you've got?

Well, I'm on social. I'm on Instagram. Niebach Jr. I'm on Twitter. Niebockjr. You know, Facebook, Facebook. Facebook's a little tough because when they first started Facebook, they never said you only get 5,000 friends. So, you know, I do have a. I guess a private Facebook that I can't. I can't add anybody more even if I wanted to, but I have a public Facebook, so Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. I'm on.

Love that. Anything else you want to say?

It was great speaking with you and.

Yeah, yeah, man.

Ernie.

And everyone listening. Make sure you check out Ernie on Instagram. I know that I follow you along and it's super cool to, you know, stay up to date with everything happening. So thanks so much for coming on.

Well, I appreciate it. Thank you.

Monarch Legacy of Monsters An Apple original series the world is on fire. I decided to do something about it on November 17th. This place, it's not ours. Believe me. The most massive event of the year arrives. If you come with me, you'll know everything. I promise.

My God. Go.

Monarch Legacy of monsters streaming November 17th only on Apple TV.

Plus.