Senator Mike Reichenbach

This is Coffee with Cool People. I'm Chip Munn, and today I'm having coffee with Senator Mike Reckonbach. Now, before, Mike, we jump in, one of your slogans was tough name, easy deal. So I have to ask for my own sake. I was thinking about it in the car on the way over here this morning. Phonetically, does your name end in a K, a W, or an A? So is it Rick and Buck? Is Is it Rickenbaugh or is it Rickenball?

Chip's been brushing up on his German a little bit there. Sprechen Sie Deutsch? So phonetically it'd be Rickenbach is how my great-great-grandfather and grandmother would have pronounced it there. Over the years we've simplified it to Rickenball, but Rickenbach is how it would have been pronounced. Nice.

Yeah. Well, it is good to be able to spend some time with you. I'm excited to, you know, again, we've known each other or of each other, see each other around a lot. You are out and about a good bit, but I'm excited to kind of get to know a little bit more. So the first question I like to ask is, who is Mike Rickenbaugh?

I tell you, that's probably one of the simplest yet deepest questions I've been asked in a long time. I get asked a lot of things. How do I fix the roads? How do we fix the economy? Fix the infrastructure? But who is Mike Rickenbaugh? Well, I won't be one of those people who answers in third person, so I'll say I instead of Mike Rickenbaugh is. I think the simplest answer is I'm a man who is incredibly grateful for a life that has been good. And I would say without question, God's grace and his mercy have allowed me to go from a child born to a 14-year-old mother and a 15-year-old father biologically to being adopted by wonderful parents who taught me love and discipline and work ethic and family to being somewhat of an overachiever. Valedictorian of my high school and 3-time All-State in track and an academic scholarship to college and an honors program and an accounting degree. I wasn't pushed to be an overachiever. I just liked to excel. So, you know, wasn't gifted with the natural talents to be the smartest or the fastest, but I did learn work ethic from my mom and my dad. Mom and dad. When I say mom and dad, those are the people who adopted me at a very young age. The people who gave birth to me, and of which I am their DNA, appreciate them not aborting me, you know, that I have life. But, you know, that's not my mom and my dad. But my mom and my dad, my family, the Rickenbaums, they taught me work ethic. And that work ethic is something that I leaned into and realized that I didn't need to be the smartest or the fastest or the strongest, but if I worked harder than most people, I would excel beyond most people. So that got me to a lot of different places, opened up a lot of doors, and I'm very grateful for that work ethic, very grateful for the opportunities. Now at a point at 50, soon to be 51, and I'm married to the love of my life, and Cherise and I have 26 years now. We've been fortunate with 2 kids, 21 and 19, and Family is not easy, but family is good, and I love it. And we're really trying— I say we, Charisse and I are a unit. Anybody who knows us kind of knows that we're together about 98% of the time. We function as a unit. Um, really transitioning from focusing on success now to focusing on significance. And it doesn't mean you have to be in politics to be significant. You can be significant in any arena as a teacher, a doctor, a financial advisor, or police officer. But for us, it appears that we have a chance to be significant for our community in politics. So we're not reaching for more dealerships and to build more stores and to buy more stores. We have 3 and we're very fortunate and blessed to have that. But now it's how do we be significant to help those around us? And as of right now, it looks as though God's opened doors to that, to be in politics.

Yeah, well, I mean, and I must admit, I was both surprised and unsurprised at the same time when I saw that you decided to do that, 'cause there are a lot of people who, it's a very public arena and you've never been shy about being public between the TV commercials and your family's always been a big part of that. It's got to be fun for you going back and watching them grow up on television, but also just as we've been sitting here, you've gotten up 3 or 4 times to, talk to people and you're incredibly personable. I gotta be honest with you, the first time, first few times I ever met you, it's hard to tell whether or not that's genuine because it's just so nice. And I don't know, we're a little bit cynical in this world sometimes today. And so it's hard until you get to know somebody and say, "Man, is he really that way all the time or is this?" Again, is my man trying to sell cars? 'Cause he's obviously really good at that. It's just, you know, it's always been obvious to me that you were really outgoing. Like, this is just who you are. But to venture into the world of politics, man, I've been on the periphery of politics one or two times, and it can be an ugly business. So, you know, before we go back into some of the how you got here, I'm curious, why? Why would you, 'cause you're successful, you got successful businesses, a lot going on. Great family. Politics is a good place to get your nose bloody and get humbled real quick. Did you just want to feel worse about yourself?

I mean, what is it? I figured I could either get a voluntary colonoscopy every day or I could go into politics.

Yeah, yeah, about the same.

About the same. You know, it's a great question as to why. I mean, my undergrad's in accounting, my MBA's in strategy and finance type of work. Business is my arena. That's where fortunately I've been able to be successful. So we figured that would be our career, and Charisse and I figured that would be our ambition moving forward. It's been good to us, but you do reach— there's a book Bob Buford wrote, a book called Halftime.

Sure. Well, when you said success to significance, I, I had a feel I was going to ask you if that was something that meant a lot to me.

And for anybody who's in their late 40s, early 50s, that Bob Buford wrote it called Halftime, and he talks about there's a point where you get where success is no longer viewed as another fill-in-the-blank, another dealership, another store, another client. You start looking at, you know, what will my legacy be? How will I have made the world better? Now we create jobs, and we have 180 employees, so those 180 employees and their families rely on our decision-making. So again, there's no certainly mutually exclusive rule that says you can't be in business or in a for-profit business and and be successful and significant both. But we reached a point where we're like— and this was probably 5 years ago, Chip— we were in the General Assembly watching a bill that was germane to our industry, and we realized that a lot of attorneys, you know, a lot of good attorneys are our friends, but not a lot of business people in the General Assembly. 124 state reps and 46 senators, and there's more attorneys than anything else. And begin to question Some of them didn't necessarily understand how a P&L works and how a balance sheet works and an income statement that's relevant to the average person that if you don't have it, you can't spend it. And what debt-to-equity ratios look like and then how we run our businesses and how you run, you know, you help and advise clients on how to manage their personal business assets as well as their business assets and realize if there's ever going to be a time that a door opens, perhaps we can lend our to bring our traits and our talents to the political arena, but didn't think that would be anytime soon. And then when Senator Leatherman, God rest his soul, when he passed away and the state Senate seat opened up, we said, you know what, this could be a unique opportunity. And we had passed on previous opportunities when Mayor Wakela had mentioned he was not running. Several, several, to the point of hundreds and hundreds of people reached out to us. The request to run for mayor of Florence. We love Florence. This is our lifetime home. We never plan on leaving. Didn't feel it in our hearts. And Sharice and I took a week away and we prayed and we fasted. And we're like, God, are you calling us to be mayor, to run for it? We didn't feel it. So we were confident to decline that race. And then frankly, when our Congressman Tom Rice voted for impeachment, I got calls from D.C. all the way down to the local level here about, would you consider running for the congressional seat? And we did the same thing. Doesn't matter what our chances of winning are, how good they are, if we're not called for it, we don't want it. So we declined both the option of running for both of those two seats, but we felt the right calling to run for the state Senate, that we could be effective for the folks of Florence and the PD in South Carolina by bringing our time, talents, and treasures in the business arena to the political arena. But I think more than anything, The reason we ran is because we do really want to be different. It's not a platitude or a campaign slogan. We don't need politics. We've got 3 dealerships that are very busy and the opportunity to buy more. If we've got an opportunity to help and make lives better, then God use us. But let's approach it with an open hand, like it's yours. As opposed to that closed fist to say, let's hold on to the seat no matter what the cost, so that every vote we take and every decision we make is how do we hold on to it. That doesn't— us, if we're not long for the political world, and we hope to be, we hope to be here as long as we can be effective, but if we're not long for it, that's okay. Like, life moves on. It's not our identity. So we want to do good while we're there.

I think that's, um, yeah, that's awesome. As you were talking One of the things that resonated with me was, have you ever read the book, "The Prayer of Jabez"?

I have.

It is, you know, it's a very small part of the Bible, but it's, "Bless me indeed, expand my borders," and, you know, and letting God do that. And I just think that it's really interesting. I was reminded of that kind of while you were talking, is just a, you know, Expand my boy, whatever that is.

What is the Prayer of Jabez? A summary.

It is a book about— there's only a couple of sentences in one of the books of the Bible, and right off I don't remember which one it is, but it talks about— it's rattling off kind of all these names, so-and-so and so-and-so, but it stops in the middle and it says, you know, But Jabez, and he talks about how Jabez says, you know, "Lord, bless me indeed, expand my borders, and protect me from pain so that I won't cause pain." And the book then breaks down those things into kind of what that means or what the author kind of believes it means. And his thing was that, you know, Jabez must have been somebody special because in the midst of all these names where it's just almost, and I don't know that it's in the begat section, but it stopped and actually talked about him. And I can remember I re-listened to it. The book's from, I don't know, maybe the early 2000s, but I re-listened to it recently just for my own life. And again, his thing is enlarge my borders, use me like you were saying. And I think that's again, it's the right attitude. For, yeah, for all of us. And so I think it's interesting that you— I do remember a pretty strong Facebook campaign to get you to run for mayor. And again, that was probably the first time I thought Mike would have to be crazy to get— I thought he was crazy when he went on America's Funniest Home Videos. I mean, this is, this is next level stuff.

That was vicious.

But yeah, it was. But it's again, it's a It's easy to get sucked in, right? And so how do you, when you look at all the, I don't know, temptation, we'll call it. Yeah, folks won't know, but I'll go ahead and put it on the record that Mike paid for the coffee today because there are so many potential pitfalls that come along with being in government. How do you stay away from all that?

Yeah, you know what, I'd be naive if I said, "Let me give you the answers to that." I can tell you what's happened in the first 6 months because it's a long road, and people who have done it for 20 and 30 and 40 years, I'm sure their answers are maybe very different as to how you guard against it. For me, it's first and foremost has got to be through prayer and through seeking God first. And that's not a sanctimonious, "Boi, that Mike Rickenbacker is so—" So pious. Yeah, I'm not. Like, I am so much a sinner, and I realize my own fallibility. But this morning, you know, I'm up in the living room reading the Word and praying, not because I want to, Chip. And there's some people I envy them, or admire maybe is a better word. I admire them because they like it. They love the discipline and the rigor and spending just the lavish time in God's Word. It isn't me. To me, prayer And reading God's Word is a lot like the gym. I don't like working out, but I understand that if I don't do it, I am worse for it. My body is worse for it. And I'm better, I take care of myself if I do. It's the right thing to do. Same thing this morning. This is before the phone starts ringing and I check my emails. I'm reading and I'm praying because if I don't have that moral compass, that plumb line to keep me going due north, like, I'll stray and I will make the types of decisions that are not only contrary to where, what I wanted to be, but could be contrary to even to my constituents and contrary to my Lord who put me here because I'm flesh. But I don't wanna follow the flesh, it's gotta be through discipline. So that's first and foremost is Mike, get the heck outta bed even when I don't want to. You know, it's warm, Charisse is there beside me, but I'm like, get up and go pray and go read. I spend the first 30 minutes doing that. Second of all, I've got, you know, if you know, you know, Sharice, she's my rock. She is the one who will tell me, don't believe your own press. Like, we've been, we've been together for 26 years. I know you. Like, be, be the man you are. And she'll, she'll call me out. So whereas there may be a facade or a veneer that others may not see the real Mike, she knows me, and she's a praying woman, and she'll call me out. So I'm blessed So those are the two things that, as of now, my plan is if I can stay consistent in my word and the prayer and I be open and vulnerable to Cherisse, 'cause she's the one who really knows me and then won't give me the hype, I think it's gonna be a good thing. Not easy, but it'll be good. Sure.

Well, I find that lots of good things aren't easy. You know, it's that old saying, "Just 'cause it's simple doesn't make it easy." And I— I think there's a lot of— an awful lot of truth to that. So before you were a businessman and a husband and a senator, you're a little baby. You talked about being adopted. How old were you when you were adopted?

So I went into the foster care system first, and I was there for like the first several months of my life. And then ends up the woman who fostered me, her sister who came to see me, as the story goes, fell in love with me. Then they adopted adopted me. So foster care for the first several months, and then so in the first year I was adopted.

Then how about that? Um, and so I— if you don't mind my asking, have you ever met your biological parents?

I have, yeah. That's, um, the, my biological mother. I've never met my biological father. Okay. Um, so I was born in the very small farm town, and about 30 minutes from there, there was the, the larger town where you'd go as a youngster, and You were born in Pamplaco? Yeah, kind of like that. Pamplaco to Florence, kind of like that thing. So this was a little farm— old farm town called Bluffton. But I went to a, a dance club as an 18-year-old with a bunch of high school seniors, and I met a woman who, long story short, had the same last name as my biological mother. That's the only piece of information the adoption agency would give us was her last name. But I knew what town I was born in, so I was in that town that weekend and I met a woman who had the same last name. And I said, you know, curiously, this— I was adopted and my biological mother had this last name. And this young girl was only at the time 3 years older than me and said, yeah, I got a big family, I don't know who that would be. Long— fast forward, long story short, she calls me a week or two later and says, you know, I've been making you and your story to one of my sisters. And my sister got real quiet and said, look, we've got a family secret that we've never talked about. Our oldest sister had a baby 18 years ago, but it was a family secret. Nobody— so long story short, yes, I did dance with my aunt. Oh yeah. Then, so then we met, um, and we— it's— it was an interesting, interesting time. Yeah, made a lot of newspapers. One of those serendipitous stories that people don't see often.

Yeah, that's, uh, that's wild. Um, and so then What was it like growing up with your parents? So, and just so that I don't know, where did you grow up?

Yeah, it's a little town called Bluffton, Ohio. It's a little farm town in northwestern Ohio. So cornfields, wheat fields, population of about almost 3,000 and 2 stoplights. That's pretty much the town. So an awful lot like a Pamplaco or a Johnsonville. But with stoplights. Maybe more like Johnsonville. More Johnsonville, 'cause we have 2 stoplights. You're right, more like a Johnsonville. Johnstonville, perhaps. And yeah, I love that because that's why I have such an affinity for the rural community here in South Carolina. People say, like, why do you spend so much time in Pamplaco and Johnstonville and Coward and Scranton and Effingham? And because that's how I was raised. There's good people there, and we need to support them and protect them because they're a good part of our state. But, you know, growing up in a small town with a— and this is early 1970s— white family, Black child was an uncommon experience there. But my family did a really good job of helping me learn my identity and being proud of being Black, but then also realizing that they didn't have really Black friends. They didn't have a Black network. The town was all-white town. So I lived in— I've always lived in two different worlds. But my mom and my dad, they feared God and they loved me, and they did the best they could. I remember my mom put me on her lap and just singing the songs like, "I am black and I am beautiful." This was a white woman who had never known a black person until she got into high school. But she did everything she could to instill pride in who I was, so I never felt inferior. Because obviously, did I get called names and things happen? I mean, that's part of you know, the reality of being a minority, but they never let me be a victim by it. So they taught me that one way that you don't be a victim is that you outwork other people. Right. And that probably really where the genesis of my work ethic came from. And it wasn't that, say, you know, you've got to be the best, but I learned that when you're the best, it's much harder to be a victim. Sure. When you're number one in your graduating class, you're not a victim. Or when you get that scholarship, they can't deny you when your GPA is that strong. So when you're the fastest on the track and you, you run even after practice. I was a hurdler and I ran, I would take hurdles home and just run at night under the streetlights. So that work ethic helped me avoid being a victim mentality.

Yeah, well, and again, I don't know that it's the title of the book, but one of the ones that I read said, "Be so good they can't ignore you." Yeah. And I think there's a lot to be learned from that. So you graduated first in your class, went to—

Bowling Green. Went to Bowling Green State University, which is in Ohio. So I got my accounting degree there, was in the Bowling Green Honors Program there. Did 4 years, got my accounting degree, went and worked in corporate America in operations, finance, accounting type of roles. Met Charisse. So got out of college in '94. '94, met Charisse and fell crazy head over heels. Met her in January of '96, asked her to marry me in March, and we were married in August because the sharks were swimming around her. They were swimming hard, you know what it's like. And I was like, I gotta lock this down. So we got married, and then at that point knew that really to have an upward mobility in business I needed an MBA. So then went to University of Michigan. So I was looking for a top 5 business school and got my MBA there. And Charisse was great. She worked. I went to school for 2 years, got my MBA, and then went to work for Ford Motor Company. And I got a really good opportunity before and did automotive strategy for them and traveled a large part of the world and had a great career. The only downside, Chip, is every 18 to 24 months you get a phone call that says, "We would like you to move here or there." And you can say no about once, but if you say no the second time, you're what they call in the corporate world is you're derailed. They will remember that, and you don't get the additional phone calls, at least not to the places you want to go. So our next— we were in Ford of Europe for a while, but then our next move was going to be Ford of Asia Pacific. But we had, we had our two kids at that time. We had been married 5 years, and then we had our first— Olivia first, and then Isaiah. And we just didn't want to raise our kids in China. They were, you know, away from family, very disruptive. And some people are adventurous like that, but We wanted more stable routes. So we knew that if we were going to make the move away from Ford and tell them, "No, we're not gonna go to China," we'd need to prepare for what the future would look like. So we decided to start buying dealerships. We had saved a lot of money. You know, you don't grow up with a lot. You learn to live with, we learned to live within our means. So we saved a lot of money and we took every penny we had saved and put it into the first dealership. Dealership, and that brought us to Florence in 2008.

How about that? So you wanted stability, so you decided in 2008 you would invest all of your money in a small business.

Yeah, that's such a good idea. Brilliant. Really, 2007 is when we decided, and I was like, you know what, we're smarter than the average bear. We'll be able to make this work, not realizing that it was one of the hardest things we'd ever done. Oh, those are tough years. Yeah.

Well, first, what was it like moving to Florence in 2008?

Yeah, you know, um, because I was raised in a small town, Florence is obviously much bigger than where I was raised, but we wanted a town where we could be part of the community. And we had told Ford Motor Company, we'll go anywhere in the country to buy our first store, but here's how much money we have, where can we go? We first went to Dallas and we were working at a dealership as the general manager to decide to buy it outside of Dallas. But it's Dallas, it's a major, major city and We never really felt like that was the right fit. And we were driving downtown Dallas one day, and this was in now early '08, and we see a big crane peeling off the name Troy Aikman from Troy Aikman Ford. And if anybody who knows football knows Troy Aikman's an icon in Dallas. And I said to Cherise, you know, I don't know what's going on, but if Troy Aikman can't make a Ford store work in Dallas, Texas, right, it's the wrong market for for us. We need to find something a little more manageable, smaller, because there was like 11 Ford stores in Dallas at the time. So we told Ford we're open to any other stores that become available before we buy this one. And they called and said fly to Florence, South Carolina, and take a look at that market. We flew in here and we had 72 hours to look at the town, look at schools, look at the dealership. And we said, you know what, all right, we've got— we went into what it's called a a 21-day fast, a Daniel fast. Went to a Daniel fast where you don't— you eat, but you eat just vegetables and you drink water just for sustenance. You kind of get off of rich foods, really to kind of discipline your body. We did a 21-day Daniel fast, but 3 days into it, so they told us you had to make a decision. So we're like, God, we're submitting this to you. Do we stay in Dallas or do we go to Florence? And we felt the peace So we chose Florence and we never looked back. I mean, we loved Florence. It's a type of town that we tell people who consider coming here, it will embrace you and it'll adopt you if you allow it. But for those who want to stiff-arm it, it's a tough town. And we've heard some doctors, especially, you know, being vice chair of the McLeod Foundation board, sometimes I'll meet with doctors who their spouses are really unhappy in particular in particular, and that's tough when your spouse is unhappy. But sometimes those are spouses who won't get engaged, or the doctor or the spouse, they won't get engaged, they won't go out and do stuff. Put yourself out there. We put ourselves out here in Florence. We went to events, we went to, you know, areas where there were people, and people were quick to accept us. But you got to work at it too. But Florence was wonderful for us.

Yeah, well, I too have found that not being— I mean, being from near here but not from here. Again, Trish and I both have certainly found that to be true. What was it like, Mike? Okay, so Florence was great. It was embracing, you embraced it, big hug, right? Mike and Florence hugging it out. What was it like starting the dealership or getting involved in that? 'Cause 2008 had to have been tough.

Yeah, you know, that's— How'd you make it? Yeah, those are those days when you're like, you know, God, I may lose it all. We could lose everything, but we trusted you. And, you know, with an accounting background, I really figured I could outwork the situation from the business aspect. I didn't know how to sell cars really, but I knew how to manage the P&L. So as we realized we couldn't sell cars, like the revenues just couldn't get generated because banks got squirrely and we all remember what it was like, it was expense reduction. And we went from over 60 employees down to 50 employees, down to 40 employees, because the 3 largest expenses we could control were personnel, were floor plan, and for advertising. So we couldn't go dark in advertising because if you go dark, then nobody comes in. But we could manage our floor plan, you know, take on less inventory. But then we had to shut down or lower the expense or the personnel expense. I was wearing multiple hats. I was doing really the controller's work while also general managing and doing the advertising. We were doing it all. And even then I was working 7 days a week, 10, 12 hours a day. And I remember coming home and telling Sharice, honey, like, I promise you, I will make sure you and the kids are taken care of. If I got to work 3 jobs, if I got to go to Walmart, if we lose everything, I got you. Like, we'll be all right, but I can't make this work. We were hemorrhaging $100,000 a month. We were losing every month. Man, we were burning through our cash reserves so quickly that we knew the only way to manage this would be to truly cut our expenses and cut them quickly. So '08 was the worst. '09, we started to turn a little bit there, and that's frankly just attrition of the marketplace. We outlasted the other Ford dealerships around us. So Lake City Ford closed, then Mullins' Ford store closed, then Shiraz's Ford store closed. So we picked up those additional markets because we tightened our belt faster than the others did. It's really kind of really why the business aspect and that acumen helped us be successful. They knew how to sell cars better than I did, but I could see how to manage the business aspect and reduce expenses quicker.

Yeah, why it is, uh, So, so fast forward however far you want to, you know, most businesses die quicker from indigestion than they do from starvation. Managing starvation was obviously difficult, but from there you've gone on to buy another dealership. You guys left and came back. And so what's the growth process been like and how have you managed that?

Yeah, you know, and I certainly don't take the credit for it. We had a great team. I mean, people who really worked hard through those tough years, those that we were able to maintain, and in God's grace helped us get through it, Chip. But we came out of '08 and '09 and then into 2010, we were really the only man standing when these other stores around us were closing. So we picked up a lot of market share, but that caught the attention of a lot of manufacturers, and they looked at us and they said, "All right, you know, you were the—" And I don't always characterize myself as, you know, I was the first Black this. People like to do that, and I get it. Sometimes it can be used as an example for those who don't feel that, like, the United States is the greatest nation on this planet, which I believe it is. It gives opportunity for anybody who's willing to work at it. So I like being an example, but, you know, at the time I was the the youngest. I was the youngest dealer in the state, and I was one of 5 Black dealers in the state. So when you're so young but you're making it work, it catches the attention of a lot of manufacturers who liked our pedigree. And they're like, okay, you're not a typical car guy who just grew up selling cars. You know business, you know better than a lot of us do. We would like you to consider running or managing stores that have our brand on it and owning those stores. So then Chevy came to us and they said, have you ever been to Hilton Head? And, uh, it's funny, Chip, the first time they called and they said, would you be interested in doing a brand new dealership in Hilton Head? I said no. I said, Florence is our forever home, never want to leave, don't really want to go do another store, so thank you but no. And they're like, really? You're going to turn down the opportunity of a brand new store in Hilton Hilton Head? And I said, yeah, we're good. And a week later they called back and they said, all right, we're about to shut the window of new applications for this brand new dealership because we've got a store in Beaufort and one in Savannah but nothing in Hilton Head. Are you sure? And I said, I think I'm good. And they said, do us one favor, we really like what we see with you, drive down there this weekend, do a little market research. I know Florence is your forever home, but go take a look at Hilton Head and Bluffton and see if that that might be a market you ought to consider. So we got in the car, we went down there, and you know, it didn't take long for us to realize, might want to reconsider this, cuz it's a really good market. And having a brand new Chevy store, the only Chevy point to cover Bluffton and Hilton Head, ended up being a good move. So we put our, our name in the hopper in the application, large application, thinking this just would be a nice exercise to see what process is like, because there was over 100 dealers that wanted that store. I mean, some of the biggest, including Hendrick's and several others. But we made it from 100 down to the field of 50, down to the field of 25, made it to the top 10, the final 10, and then the final 5. And then we had to do in-person interviews with the executive team of General Motors. And Charisse and I and our team went in there and presented, and they said, we're gonna, we're gonna roll the dice on you. And they awarded us that point. And then the same thing happened with the Volkswagen here in Florence. So we've been, we've been blessed. Yeah.

What does it take to build a good team? Because you mentioned your team several times and how integral they are. What does that mean? What, what does it take to be a good team member?

Well, first of all, I want to say to anybody who's listening, even with the best of intentions, you do get it wrong sometimes.— or let me put it this way, I get it wrong sometimes, and don't be upset if you get it wrong sometimes, whoever's listening to this. Dating and hiring are a lot alike in that the first date is as good as it's going to get. And say, I've found the same with hiring someone. They tell you they're going to do all the right things, and I'm going to do this process and this process, but then they don't always do it. So having the ability to humility to say I got it wrong and the humility to say I'm wrong, I need to pull the pin on this person and go to someone else. I love giving people opportunities, but sometimes they have oversold themselves or they're incapable, unwilling. Not being so entrenched in the decision that I was right, to not step back can be dangerous. So when I'm wrong, and Charissa and I, we discuss everything, we're like, you know, we picked wrong on this person. Here. That's a big part of it, but I think the biggest skill set that has worked for us is listening. Like, listening to your team. Now, not managing by committee, but just because our name's on the building of all these stores, listening to them and saying, "Give us your input. Give us your insight. What are you seeing?" People who talk more than they listen are oftentimes those that I see fall away because they don't get good inputs. So I'd say listening is probably the first and foremost.

So when you're looking at people and you're looking for what makes a good team member—

yeah, first of all, it would depend upon the position. Obviously, um, my positions that are customer-facing are very different skill sets than those that are not customer-facing, like my technicians. Our technicians are incredible. We employ more techs than anything else, and they generate tremendous opportunities for us to be successful because they're working on people's vehicles and they got to get it right. So for them, attention to detail and a commitment to get it right the first time is important, because if you bring in your $30,000, $40,000, $50,000 vehicle and it's got a problem, a malfunction, if our technicians who are factory trained, if they don't fix it right, that mulligan to say, oh, I'll get it next time, you lose trust. People go elsewhere. So that attention to detail and to be an incredibly good craftsman, either in a body shop or the truck shop or diesel center, any of our technicians, that's first and foremost. On the customer-facing, while attention to detail is important, boy, humility. Humility to listen, because for too many years, car dealers had the reputation that I'm gonna sell you what I want you to buy, not I'm gonna listen to you, what your needs are. But the internet has largely changed that. People can shop at any dealership within 100 miles from their couch. You got to be better than the rest, and that means you got to listen to what they want. They may not want a 4x4 Lariat or a King Ranch, and just because a salesman wants to sell that, that person may only they need a 4x2 XLT F-150. So listen to their needs and then help fill those needs as opposed to pushing what you want them to buy. So the skill sets kind of change depending upon the job.

How do you get the two of them to work together when they're— and I'm assuming they have to work together. I could see an opera, a lot of opportunity when the sales team and the service team work together, but they're two different personalities. Right. How do you get the two of them to work together?

Yeah, that's a great question. That's really by showing the interdependence. All of you technicians, you guys do great work, but guess what? If we don't sell cars that come back into your shop, you don't feed your family. And likewise, all of you sales consultants who want to go ahead and put your chest out because you just sold another new piece of metal out there and I'm so proud of the job you're doing. You do a great job. Keep in mind that any vehicle is man-made, and anything man-made will break. It's just a matter of time, whether that be from time or the elements or craftsmanship. Every manufacturer cannot produce a reasonably affordable vehicle that will never break. So when it does break, you need technician to repair it correctly, because if they don't, guess what? That customer doesn't return. So you need each other. You— neither of you eat long term if the other person's not doing their job. And we've had to have several meetings, Chip, where we bring everybody together and be like, you know, all you technicians who think that you're the backbone, you are, because you keep them running. But if they don't keep selling them, you get no more cars coming through. And our— the verbiage in our industry is units in operation. If you don't have units in operation that are registered to your market, those techs don't work. But sales consultants, we show them the stats to say that if customers have poor service experiences, they don't come back to buy because they buy every 3 to 4 years is the trade cycle, but they will service every 4 to 6 months. So they got a lot more opportunities to be either pleased or displeased in service.

So do you, you bring them all together?

Oh yeah. Yep. Yeah, because they need to better understand that. Like, you sales consultant, you're not going to see this customer for 3 more years, but service is going to touch them 10 times in this period.

How would you know when that's an issue?

We have a customer service score. Okay. CSI scores will allow us to see where we do. And the scores are very separate: sales, CSI, customer service index, and then service. And if we start to see any kind of fluctuation, we bring them together and be like, all right, service, when you see sales CSI scores going down, you need to be concerned about that, and vice versa.

Huh, that's fascinating. It's, uh, well, I'll do a better job from now on participating in the surveys now that I know how people use them. And, and, uh, of course, nobody would know this except for just probably Trish and you and me, um, but I I actually bought my Ford F-150. I recommend the 4x4. I just think they look a little bit stronger, if you will, but via text message. And that takes a lot of trust. Yeah. And trust is a big deal, I know, in, in your world, you know, because again, you're taking and dropping off, uh, your ride and hoping that somebody's going to fix it in such a way that you're transporting What is, um, when you think about trust, it's a big deal in your business. When I say that word to you, what comes to mind? The 30 pretty much does everything that the 50 can do, but it's a smaller footprint, so it works better in a smaller space like an outpatient clinic.

Responsibility. It's an awesome responsibility for someone to trust you with the second largest purchase they make. And normally a vehicle is the second largest purchase behind where they live. The average used car price last year was over $30,000. That's used car. Average new car transaction price is over $40,000. That's a lot of money. And when someone's willing to trust you either with the sales or the service of that vehicle, what a responsibility, what a daunting responsibility to take that and to, and to know that if you don't do it right, they don't get to work on time, they don't get their kids to school, they don't get their kids to daycare, they may not get the medical care they need. Like, that's— it's not as simple as they went through a drive-through and the french fries might have been a little cold this time, we'll get them next time. We're talking about affecting people's lives, not just their comfort of my my fries were cold or my burger wasn't done well enough. We got to get it right. So we let our people know that, yeah, you do this for a living, and you know, you as a technician, you know, you, you turn wrenches day after day after day, but never forget what your mean— what your work means to people's lives. That mom may not get her kids to school, that dad may not get to work and may lose his job or get written up, or that grandmother may not get her insulin injection or get her, her work done at the hospital if that car breaks down. So what you do impacts lives. And reminding them of that, you never know what people are going through in an average day, but if they can't get where they need to be, their lives are going to be worse.

Yeah, well, you mentioned responsibility and the importance of getting it right. When I think about those topics, I think about my kids. Right. Tell me a little bit about Mike as a dad.

Being a dad's hard. You know, it's hard. You kind of have, at least I had the idea of, you know, if you do everything right as a parent, it'll play out exactly as you would think. And we love our kids, we're the best. I mean, they're the best to us, right? They're 21 and 19, and our daughter, she's graduated from Carolina already, got out in 3 years, and she's working, and she's a behavioral therapist for, um, children with autism. I never saw that coming. There was a time when— not that we were pushing them into the dealership, but, you know, we worked really hard to build the Rick and Bob name, and like, you know, maybe they'll want to come into the dealerships. And but they both were like, you know what, we want to make our own path. Like, okay, good for you. Um, behavioral therapist for autism is hard work. It's real challenging, but that's her path. And Isaiah, he's, he's interested in psychology, and so he's going down that course there. So very, very proud of them, but not the path that we necessarily thought they would take. But ultimately, I realized that that's hubris to, to determine, here's what my kids are going to do. You can do the best you can, you lay the foundation, but they're not ours. Like, we really believe, like, they're God's. And God, thank you for giving us this time to be their parents, but they belong to you. So the time, the talents, the treasure, everything you put into them, the very DNA, how they think, what they do, let it be to your glory. And that doesn't necessarily mean it's going to be in the path that we would have expected.

Sure. So, Olivia, what's the thing you're proudest of? Her heart.

Working with autistic children is tough. And the farther along on the spectrum they are, I mean, they'll even be violent. Not intentionally, but if a trigger happens, they'll— they bit her. They bit— bitten? What's the past tense of bite? Bit? They bit her? Is that right?

Bit is the past. I think bitten would be the action. Action, maybe.

Huh, my English teacher in my school would have been very disappointed in me.

Me too. Sorry, Miss Morgan.

Yeah, I know. So, um, they have— she's been bitten several times, she's been scratched, and it's generally like something will trigger one of her students, um, at the clinic that she's at. But she keeps going back and she's like, I— they need help, and the parents need help. So her heart to go do that. I'm not cut out for that. Right. That's just not who I am. So the fact that she is not only feels called to that, but has leaned into and embraced that calling.

Sure. How about Isaiah?

Yeah, I'd say, you know, Isaiah's a sophomore now at USC, and I love the fact that he's engaging. There was a timeframe where he would spend the majority of his free time on a video game.

Yeah, I think my son Hampton was on there with him most of the time.

A lot of that time. And I, you know, I'd take nothing away from that, but I'd be like, Isaiah, come down and have dinner with us, spend time with us, talk with us. And it felt like such a chore for him to be a part of it. But he's really turned that corner. And now he'll like, he'll want to talk. He'll want to tell us about his day or what his classes are like. So I think just him maturing as a young man. I remember being 19 and I was a bit of a nitwit at 19. Sure. So I'm proud of him that he's turning the corner probably faster than I did.

Yeah, well, it's, uh, you know, again, it's always awesome to see our kids just grow into mature people. Yeah. And I think I work with a lot of folks who have, um, younger kids, and of course it's easy to say don't blink and all those things, um, but I think sometimes they just need to hear hold on. That's right. You know, because it is, it is tough. Well, Mike, to wrap up, kind of the question I like to I wanted to kind of summarize and ask at the end is, if you had to pick one character, fictional, that best represents— so it can be a comic book character, it can be a superhero— that you feel like best represents Mike Rickabaugh, who would it be and why?

Yeah, fictional character. One of my strongest assets is loyalty. I'm okay with not being the smartest guy in the room. I'd like to say maybe one of the better looking guys. Ah, it depends on whether or not I'm there. There you go, nice. But I know I'm not the smartest guy, but I'm incredibly loyal, fiercely loyal. So I gravitate toward the people that I'm thinking are some of the more loyal characters in a I think of loyalty and I think of characters that I really like. One of my favorite movies is Gladiator. Nice. I just love Russell Crowe. Maximus Aurelius. Yeah, Maximus Aurelius. We who are about to die salute you. Exactly right. Are you not entertained? I mean, I love that movie. I got chill bumps thinking about it. I know, yeah. And although that's more mainstream, just the other day Charisse and I watched it again. Leonidas in the 300. And I think about the loyalty that those men had to each other. So I would say not the main character, but either Maximus's right hand, or— and unfortunately, you know, his right hand ended up getting hung, which is not cool at all, right? But Maximus's left— his right hand, or Leonidas's right hand, that would just go to the very end. To the end. Sure. For doing what is right.

And Leonidas' guy also brought his son to the end. Yes. Because his son was one of the 300. Exactly right. I literally just watched that movie within the last 2 weeks. Yeah. And because I'm coaching high school football, so one of the things that I've done, you mentioned I think at one point being empty nesters and trying to figure, is I started coaching high school football and I remembered back when I was playing ball, like during the summer, we would watch all the movies. Like last night I just watched Creed again. Oh yeah. Like just to get jacked up. And one of those movies for me was 300. And you're right, I had not thought about that 'cause it's easy to focus on the main guy because I like to watch movies like that for leadership, right? And it's like, look at how this guy led. But I think that it's, It's also awesome to point out the guy who was right there willing to follow and give it all kind of for the cause. And I think sometimes probably— I'm glad you pointed that out because I think a lot of times that guy could easily get forgotten in the story of the hero, right?

And I think I'm not even being in politics in the state Senate. I've realized that there are some politicians that I watch that it's about the credit is what's their focus. They need to get the credit because they want the soundbite. They want— and their ambition is what drives them. And I, you know, Chip, I take nothing away from that. They're ambitious and that's what drives them. Sure. That's not what drives me. Like, I'm okay with somebody else getting the credit. I want to make lives better. So they can have the press conference. I'll happily stand to the side as long as I know I'm doing the right thing.

Right. Well, Mike, it's been awesome. I really I really appreciate you spending time with me.

Chip, thank you for this opportunity. We look forward to following you in college— for high school football season, man. Yeah, go Titans! All right.