The Last Ten Percent

The Last 10%. Welcome back to the Elevate Polk Podcast. I'm your host, Chrissanne Long. Previously with me, I had Nate "The Great" Kendrick. However, due to some technical difficulties, this episode will be presented to you a little bit differently than usual. We had our guest, the incredible Mayor Bill Mutz, joining us in the studio to record our episode, and we discovered that we had some technical difficulties along the way. So what you're going to notice in this episode is the recording audio is a little bit less higher quality than you're used to, but we promise as we get a little further down the show, it will improve because we did figure it out in time to save some of the audio. We hope that you enjoy the show. We really felt that the quality of the conversation was so high, we didn't want to leave it out. So have a wonderful time listening to our amazing Bill Mutz and his experience as an entrepreneur in Polk County.

Okay.

So you were born successful, right?

Oh no, that is not the way that it occurs. In fact, I can remember as a kid thinking that, you know, just watching my dad work and I've always admired what he was doing and watching him every day come home and he always wore the suit and tie. Just thinking how my dad is successful. I'll never be like him. I mean, I think there's times when you're young that you just kind of check out and say, he's more successful than I would ever be. And you can fall in the shadow of something like that and, and, um, quit early. Probably one of the things that helped me the most was in 8th grade I got hired to build, uh, to be part of a team to build a mile and a half of board fence through a woods in southern Indiana, uh, where it was lots of trees, lots of roots that were down in the ground that we, even though we used a little farm tractor and a post hole drill, you're snapping the auger off all the time, having to put new pins in all the time. And then carrying the posts out, tipping the posts, cutting the wood, making the boards that go on, cutting out the crooked parts, you know, having to go back and carry all that and thinking about we have to do this for a mile and a half.

And we just went one foot.

After a whole 8-foot sections and, you know, 5 boards in the pattern and then go back once it was all built and paint it. But I think what was really good for me in that— and that job, by the way, was 50 cents an hour for me.

Oh wow.

So that ages me right away. But I learned from the crew of mostly college-age guys that I was working alongside at that time how persistence is just one section at a time. And I think we think we can race forward and press some button and all of a sudden we arrive, when in fact that learning how to build is a persistent task. Learning how to cut grass is a persistent task.

Yeah.

You know, trimming, doing the last 10% of any task is what makes it like everybody else's or something that separates it. And building into your routine of selling or your routine of managing all the little steps that take place. The one common denominator through them all is relationships and being predisposed to learn from other people. And so you have to— I was interviewing an Army general, I mean an Air Force general in our area once recently and asked him what makes the best military leaders. And his response was the people who are the best The best followers—

Oh, wow.

People who could take commands in the field when they didn't even agree, but they did it because it's what they were supposed to do, are the ones who become the best leaders. And that makes total sense if you think through it, because we don't want— we love to issue orders, we don't like to take them. Yeah. We're not wired to take them.

Right.

And so when I think of looking backwards in my life, I think about I was predisposed to the people that I was working for as being my mentors, whether I liked them because it didn't always necessarily like them or not. And every one of them has things they're going to teach you along the way. And some of those things are going to be how you relate to people or how you shouldn't relate to people, what was deficient. And when you think about ultimately success in business and success in anything we do, it is relationship-based. Yeah, I'd love to go to 20 other things that, you know, are hard work.

This is a really unique thing that nobody's ever said before.

It's like, how do we think we're going to skate around this by a better Excel sheet. We just don't.

Yeah.

And so we can have tools that manage what we're doing, but relationships are where we learn. Relationships are where we transfer confidence or not. Relationships are what allow us to empower people because we have trust in what we see. Or not. Yeah. And so you don't want to let go of what you don't think will be managed well, or you do let go and recognize they'll handle it better and that elements of creativity that you don't have.

Right.

Because we're all limited by the perspectives that we have based on the blinders on either side of our mindset. Even if we think we're broadly open-minded, we have a set of blinders. And that's what teams are all about, is pulling off blinders, expanding the view, you know, going to panorama in terms of what can be done instead of just our own myopic path.

Yeah.

Can you share a time when you found out about a blind spot a little bit late that maybe you weren't—

Sure.

—maybe seeing?

So I worked for this wonderful German sales manager, and he'd be kind of the typically stoic guy. And I'm 26, 27 probably, and he is 60 and has the office where he's sitting behind it, almost, if you can imagine, a big bulldog. Kind of head in that.

If you could see the face he's making right now. And his name was Ivan.

Oh, and I loved Ivan because he taught me a lot about selling. And I had become in our organization the top-selling salesman. And so there's a piece of you that when that starts to happen, you get a little confident that you understand the program and not everybody necessarily is as gifted as you are. And those things, by the way, are an absence of humility, which is about when you plummet off the cliff. Oh boy. Every time that happens. Yeah. And so We had a sales program out, I won't go into the details on it, but most of the people were selling well and I didn't sell any of them. And it was important in our system of selling. I worked for a large, very large automotive warehouse parts distribution center and Ivan was the sales manager of that. It's very important of the 230 lines that we had to sell aspects of every line. We had marketing departments that put programs together and so they put this program together Ivan said, called me into his office, said, you haven't sold any of these assortments to any of your customers. It's odd to me that none of your customers want a program that we've spent a lot of time and money putting together. I said, well, it's not a good program for them either. He goes, oh, well, tell me about that, Bill. Tell me about why it's not a good program for that. Because as I said earlier to you, we had spent a marketing department that's worked together on a program. We've worked with our vendors to buy this program, to bring these into the warehouse. We're stocking them and we want to put them into our hard stores out there. So why isn't it a good program? I said, because most of our customers have most of these tools already and it isn't, it wasn't well conceived in terms of the way that it was chosen. It should have different assortments. He said, well, okay, let me help you understand something. I'm not interested in any of your excuses. I was just asking. He said, what I want you to do is sell the program because other people decided to put it together. And I remember thinking at that time, I'm right, he's wrong. But the reality was I worked for a company, the company had asked to have that done. It wasn't immoral to sell this to these people. I hadn't presented it. I went out, presented it, and probably didn't present it as 100% as I could have, but about 80% of my customers bought the program and, you know, I've been and I had a follow-up conversation on that. What it taught me was, though, that it is easy. And by the way, when my customers bought that, the ones who complained about that duplicating some of the things they had, I made a recommendation that maybe we would return some of the other inventory that they have back to our warehouse that they could build some credit on. And so there's other ways to try and help them and mitigate what's a shared concern instead of trying to ignore it. And I think that's important too. I had the highest return rate of any of our salespeople in the field, but I also had $1 million more sales a year than any of those salespeople. So it was kind of, you know, if you manage your customers well, if you take care of them well, then they'll have the money to be able to help their businesses grow. And they were all growing. So that comes along with that.

So you're working for this company, you're working underneath Ivan. When did the thought come to your head that you're going to start pursuing your own venture, or was that a little bit further down the road?

Well, I worked for several other people after that and in distribution businesses primarily and grew in operations side, which I enjoyed doing, and I loved doing the sales side because— but that's because they're all people and it's all about influencing people. And along the way, I eventually was working for a company that got purchased And in that company, they asked me to be a national sales manager for them, and it was a very— a national marketing manager for them, and it was a very hard role for me to do, to put together programs, because programs are isolated from people. Programs are different than that, and I actually asked to get out of that alignment first and then started looking to do some things on my own.

Oh, wow. I think that's important because a lot of people, they'll look at the opportunity and say, this is an opportunity. I've gotten here. Now I'm in a new position. But the self-awareness to know who you are, what you're good at. Because when I think about myself, I'm the same way. If I'm not interacting with people, I just can't function.

Yeah, I'm the same way. I'm thinking back to— your 8th grade task that you described and wondering at that point in time or at what point in time in your life did you decide or did you think or did you begin to believe that someday you would be an entrepreneur, have your own business, run your own business? When did that become a thing for you?

Well, I think probably it wasn't too far from that era because in my mind this is kind of really my crew and it really wasn't my crew at all. And so there's this this little part of you that's inside that says, I'm going to help motivate these— even these college guys to want to do some things when I want to— they want to quit a little early. They don't want to necessarily take everything we could take in the truck right now out to the field. And you said, we can put 4 more posts on there. And being that little sparky voice that people would look at and look down, you'd be quiet, kind of thing. But I think there's this early sense of wanting to maximize. And wanting to constantly try and figure out how we can use every moment well. Because you have one minute to use in your life and it's over, and then you get another minute and it's over.

Where did that come from? I don't—

I think probably my parents were really good at teaching self-discipline. Okay. And so they didn't try and solve all your questions. They tried to— my parents would frequently say, well, what do you think's the best thing to do? What do you think the wisest thing to do is? And What are your friends doing in that regard? And I liked working, and I liked hard working, and we sweat like crazy. I mean, I worked with salt in my eyes all the time in terms of that's just the way it was, and working in little cutoff jeans, and that's all we wore, you know, because it was summer and hot, and you get all scratched up by stuff that hits you because all you have is your skin on. And that never bothered me. It was just hard work to me was something that you did and you I did this last night. We got home from a dinner last night and I went out and pulled branches up to the street because it's trash day today, you know, and it was late, but it's just what you do to finish the day fully. It's that last 10% again. Right. The last 10% is such a difference maker, both in initiative that you take and in tasks you complete, because there's a piece in us that always wants to quit early. I want to always push past the last piece of me, well, I have enough energy in a day to do one more thing and get one more thing done. And I think the reality is that when you move forward, then it equips you early in the morning to get out earlier because you don't have that thing to do then, right? As well as, um, and so, you know, I was in my office this morning at 7 o'clock and I was way behind on notes I wanted to write to people and I haven't had a slot for it and I was really ready to leave by 7, I said, "I'm going to go and write those notes." There's a part of me, and this is today, but there's a part of me that says, "I'd like to just sit down and read the paper and just do a coffee and, you know, watch the sun come up," versus the part that says, "This is how you get that slot filled." So there's tasks every day in front of us that we've got to kick off, and we've got to figure out what it is we do to meet the appropriate amount of time that I have to get some of those done. And I think I've lived my life that way.

So you're talking, and ever since I've known you, and I think everyone who knows you sees you as this extremely confident person. So I want to ask you, if you can have a moment of vulnerability with us, is there time— are there times, even today, or are— have there been times when you don't feel confident? And what do you do? And, and just talk us through times when you're just not at your best game or when life isn't exactly how you want it to be.

Yeah, so that's very important to know how you navigate through those waters because you have to, you know, and you can't ignore the moments. So what are some things that steal my confidence? Absence of sleep. So not getting enough rest is one of the things that wears you down quickly because first of all, you don't have enough stamina, and secondly, you're not as sharp, you're not as solutions-oriented, you're more negative, all the things that can set you up. If I am having a hard point in our, my relationship with my wife, that's the most worthless I am. So if Pam and I aren't getting along on something, that is my biggest struggle point. The rest of the world can be wonderful. I have got to get that resolved because we just don't do long periods of time of being at an impasse with each other. We can't. Well, first of all, I couldn't because Pim wouldn't let me. Let's start with what's real. But secondly, it's just that the importance of the most important relationship on earth, which is with your spouse, is paramount to being successful in other things. The third thing is you have times you walk in a room that you're confident and you have times you walk in a room where you feel like, I don't know anybody in this room, I don't really have anything to say here. This happens today. I'm 67. This happens to me today. I don't— you know, you don't walk in a room and every— in every room you ever walk in and get electrified. And I like people and I'm an extrovert, but there's times I don't want to go and there's times I'm too tired and I want to be— I just want to go home. Just want to go in where I can shut the front door and be inside my house and not have to think about what needs to be said and being up for some conversation that somebody's going to ask you to have. And I think it's important when you're feeling that way to do that, by the way, go home. Mm-hmm. You know, don't— because you're probably not going to add a lot of value and it's going to be draining for you. Some people are more introverted than others and they have to push themselves into those arenas always. At least if you're an introvert, at least go for a short time that you can do it and try and focus on 1 or 2 people that you can build a relationship on. I have a lot of times that I'll think I'm not equipped enough now to talk about this topic. That's probably one of the areas that haunts me the most. We don't have enough time to do all the learning that we'd love to do to back up everything that we'd like to support, even in areas that we're passionate in. And as you know, on an Enneagram, the 5, who is the Analyzer, they're going to gather that data and they're not going to report on anything until they are at least 85% 0.27% in on knowledge in that area. And when you are someone that doesn't have all the time to be, to do that kind of analysis, you have to rely on people who do, A, and B, you have to make some room for your gut impressions not always being right and to recognize that you may have some portion of this understanding, but you're predisposed to listening to nuggets of other aspects that you may not have considered. And so once you recognize your own finiteness, it's much easier to walk into a room of uncertainty because you recognize part of how I'm going to grow in this room is from the people that are in it, and I don't bring everything to this room. When you think you're the smartest guy in the room, you're in trouble, almost always. And because I don't think the smartest guy in the room probably is in there. There are people that are informed in lots of areas. And so it's our job to try and be informed and be open to people. Um, and I think then the last thing is that I always have had people in my life that I thought, oh, I wish I could be like them. And probably that's been less true in the last maybe 10 to 15 years of my life, because you start to realize, hey, look, God has equipped me with the giftedness I need to do what I need to do. I am not— and none of us are everybody. And so I have a sidewalk of life I can influence and prepare in, and that I have some competency in, and I want to exercise my gifts that he has given in those areas of competency where I can positively impact people and where I can positively create change in the way— in the quality of life for people, in their marriages, in their parenting. 'cause those are probably the 3 areas that are the most important to us. And so when you do that, you recognize you bring some set of gifts, but other people in the room bring others.

Yeah, I wouldn't say shift the conversation, but kind of move it a little bit further down the road to when you're starting to put together this thing called a dealership and what those pieces look like? Because you had experience, lots of experience in the industry, but now you're shifting to a new role and from a new side of things. What did that look like?

So the biggest mistake I've made vocationally is not to have spent more time working for someone else in an automotive dealership before we owned one. So I am a huge believer in learning on other people's time. That is not an insincere effort. That is not a manipulative or selfish effort. It is to recognize, A, you may not like that industry as much as you thought you did if you spend some time in it, and B, you're going to find some things that you didn't realize you needed to know because they just weren't in the frame of your reference. Right. That's the mistake I did in the car dealership business. I wish I had worked for someone for a year or two earlier, but at the time we made the decision to try and buy the dealership, you don't have the life time left in your mind anyway to do that. So my encouragement is that if you have a passion about any arena you want to grow, work in the arena on someone else's dime, get that experience. So, and I had the confidence not to do that because I changed jobs several other times or been involved in some other efforts where I was a partner, and I felt like business principles were pretty transferable. From one industry to another. Car industry is a tough industry. So the business had 8 businesses in it. You had to learn a lot. Cash moves really fast. You're dealing with people who change fast. It's not an industry with a lot of stability and employees staying with you. There's a lot of transference in between the dealerships all the time as you go along. And you're not making— and if you're a relationship person, you're not making the difference in those lives that you want to make and having the impact on them that you want to do, and you don't have a whole lot of time to work on that. You got to figure out how you're managing the business. So all that came at a fast and furious flurry for me when I got started in that. And I think that it's just important to recognize that if you're going to go— the more complicated the business, the more you want to spend time working for someone else before you get started.

How did you, when you're dealing with this industry that's moving quick, It's a lot of changes, but you're also having to balance family, being in a new location.

How did you balance that? Depended on God a lot, and that's the truth, because there was no way to get through it because it was so much so fast. And the kids are crying at night about the fact that we disrupted their entire lives and moved them from all of their friends and the school they loved and all the things you can hear. And of course, I have this every other year, so I have a a freshman in college, a junior in high school, sophomore, all the way down through. And particularly for those top 4 or 5 kids, it was hugely disruptive. And of course they made friends, and of course life went on. But while you're dealing with work as well as that at home, you start to second-guess yourself. You know, was this the right thing to do? Did I make the right decision? And you can't— so I think there have to be some footings in all major decision-making that have to be farther back, and mine really were a function of prayer in my life. I, and I really felt very much that God led me to work towards seeing if we could buy the dealership and making the move and then coming. And all the barriers that I had kind of hoped would be broken down, none of them were broken down ever. So those are open doors, and so we moved. And when you have that happen, that's got to be your footer. You've got to go back to that and say, "This is the right decision to have made. We have to push through it." And the beginnings are the hardest parts. The transitions are the hardest parts. The quitting happens early. And so you have to just push when it isn't fun, when you're scrambling for cash, you know, when you're trying to figure out how much you cannot pay yourself and still get by and make it work at home, but while you make sure everybody else gets paid. That's the reality of starting a business. And it isn't fun. Yeah. Can you speak on that a little bit more?

Because I feel like a lot of people when they're starting off, they're expecting to hit it big and get that 6-figure salary immediately about them.

Well, I think it's also important that we just really, really make it super obvious what you just said. Not paying yourself, but paying everyone else. And I think I can speak to that. I think, Nate, you know that story, but a lot of entrepreneurs go in thinking it's about the money and they're going to be able to make the money and they're going to control how much money that they're going to make, but the reality is a little bit different. So like dive into that a little bit more on the critical needs of survival.

Well, I think it's juxtaposed against an unrealistic expectation. So I'm starting my business, this passion that I love, and I'm going to be getting into it and I'm going to be, you know, you don't say this out loud, but I'm going to be good at it, you know, and I've sold stuff before and this is going to work again. And then all of a sudden that's not your reality. So, and plus I told my kids, this by the way is going to give us more time together. I'm going to have more time to spend with you at home than that, because I have always worked hard. So to me a 60-hour week is a stride week. That's just what you do. And when you hear people talk about 40-hour weeks, you go, like it's a lot of work, you go, wow.

I don't know what that's like.

So I was thinking maybe I'd get to a 40-hour week. And then I'd have some more time with kids at home. And the how— and the how our family's getting bigger all the time. You have to add that other dimension. And you find that's not the treadmill you're on. And in a business entrepreneurial start, you are on a treadmill whether you like it or not. It got turned on and the only way off is flat on your face and drug onto the floor. And so you figure out how to run faster and harder and how to equip more people and how to do it as the bills are mounting and as the cash flow is starting to move and now the collections are being picked up. And so you start to recognize, I've got to do all these elements no differently than when you run on a treadmill. It involves balance, it involves cadence, it involves technique that keeps you from wearing out, it involves conditioning. And so all of those are steps that we have to take in order to be sustained while you remember What's my footing? Where is my confidence? And how am I going to persevere? And so many times it is the last 10%, not only in the way we polish off something we do for customers, but in our last efforts, and we quit early. We just quit early. We're so close. And so the parallel to me is pushing a car or a dead truck from a stop. You know, it's the inertia is up front. It seems like forever. It starts to move a little bit. And then you look down the street and you see, "Oh, this is actually uphill." And you go, "Ugh, I can't do that." And you're right. And so if you quit pushing, you won't. But if you keep pushing, you know, and let's make it just a mild hill. You know, that's generally what's in front of us is a mild hill. And we can push it and we can gain momentum. And even though it's uphill, we can still move the car or the truck. And so, perseverance, intentionality, fairness, ethics, all the things that will take energy but they give you energy. Those are all things that give you energy because as you have success in them, it gives you more positive energy to have more success in doing those things, as opposed to manipulation, absence of relationships, ethical compromises. All those things steal energy. Yeah. And they make it harder to do that. The hill gets higher faster. And so it's just a matter of there's no right way to do the wrong thing. You can work on doing the right thing because it's the right way to do it all the time and have success or not. And so I think persevering high intentionality and trying to do things in the right way. And you're not going to do this perfectly. You're going to make mistakes. So you go back and tell someone, "I did this wrong. I am sorry. I apologize. This is how I correct that." Yeah. And keep short accounts.

I love everything that you're talking about because these are very simple principles that are often so easily overlooked. Yeah.

Well, and I think in business there's a mindset. There's two different mindsets. There's your mindset and then there's this very I want to just say nefarious kind of world out there of business where it's cutthroat and it's dog-eat-dog and it's the survival of the fittest. That's not about relationships. That's about me, me, me, me, me taking over whatever I can take over. I think this is kind of a mini revolution in the business world that I'm watching and seeing because we're looking around and for people like me getting into entrepreneurship without a background or any really preparation preparation for it, I'm like, I can't be one of those people. I can't be a dog-eat-dog, cutting corners, no integrity, you know, taking advantage of people, manipulating. That won't work because that's not who I am. So how do you get in the game if that's not who you are? You find mentors, you find leaders, you find people who are doing it the way that you would do it if you, if you had a chance, and you follow and listen to them. So that's my next question to you is like, who— I know, I know we've, we've mentioned your relationship with God, and I don't want to de-emphasize that I know you lean into your faith, and I know that that is a huge part of the person that you are, and that's why I love you so much, because you encourage me to kind of remind myself to go in that direction whenever I'm needing that. But I want to know some of the influencers, people that you've read or people that you've known that have just been mentors or at least influencers in your life.

Yeah, I have had the privilege of most of those being people that I knew and, or I and I was around. And so what was nice is even before reading, I'd say probably if I were going to my earliest reading that I can remember of a mindset changer, it would be Zig Ziglar. As I look back, and still his principles are so rock solid, you know, today because he was that person. I have never been a burn your competitor person. I am a— we're competitors. How could we ever work together? Let's collaborate. Let's partner. You want to do this? Show together. I'm like, you know, I mean, I'm just that person where there are other people that are burn competitors, and you know those people. So you're absolutely right, Chrissanne, you want to align yourself with people that are going to be shared values. By the way, burn your competitor people make money, right? That's not the end game in life, you know. And so, gosh, if money made us happy, Melinda and Bill Gates wouldn't be getting a divorce.

Oh man, yeah, that's so true.

And, and listen, They're generous-minded people. A billion dollars plus a year is a generous thing, an intentional foundation that they're going to continue to work at. But look at this, because if you don't get this, you miss everything. Money never makes us happy. Money is a tool. Money is a tool that helps you accomplish things in life, buy things. But I was far more motivated to employ. So my biggest mentor, uh, early on in my life was my grandfather. So my dad was a more conventional and very ethical but very competitive businessman. My grandfather was a more relational businessman. So I learned, you know, I had a guy that I was working in a plant with once in the summer where my dad and grandfather had both worked. This was a sheet metal plant and we were cutting steel during the summer and I was packing these 6-inch pipes into a box all summer and working with this line. And the guy came up to me, said, "You know what?" And this is the end of my time working there. "You're much more like your grandpa than your dad." Oh, so that was kind of my first revelation that to think about the difference between them. But the real difference was my grandfather loved people. And so it was, he was in the plant. He wanted to know what was happening with people's lives and how they could be helped. And if somebody was having a little trouble with college and And so he was just a person who cared a lot about community. And so that was my first influencer, and I have been much more like him as a response. His grandfather was superintendent of Indiana Public Schools, so, which is interesting, and was the last real public servant until the lieutenant governor, who is a second cousin of my father actually in Indiana. Had run for governor and lost to Evan Bayh, who was Birch Bayh's son. And as superintendent of public schools, that was a Jacob much farther back. I became the one after that. So, you know, it's interesting that we can flip and say there's these public servants along the way. But if you look at their records, all of them were public servants, not politicians. And I think that is a huge difference in mentoring is, and this is just a new arena, because I don't ever look at myself as a, you know, people say you're a politician. It's funny, I'll hear someone say that and go, why not? Because I don't even think that way. I mean, of what we think about as politicians. I am just a person here to try and make our community the best community it can be. And that's what a public servant ought to do. Yeah. Because they ought to be oriented towards what do we need to do to take care of people. And so I think there's a heritage of that that comes from my past. I have had pastors who are mentors, and I have had a particular pastor who is probably the one that was the most influential one in me making a decision about moving to Lakeland, which, you know, all these things get provided in our lives at the right time, at the right moment, and we have to recognize our job is to pursue And then when there's an intervention that needs to take place, it takes place. And I was talking with him and I said, "You know, I just need to know how you're thinking about this." And I'd given him all the alternatives of staying in India and doing one pursuit or going to Florida and buying the steel ship. And he smiled at me and patted my hand on the table where he was. And he said, "Just decide." And I went, "What?" Like, "How is that helpful?" So here's this person that I really, I really I want to get some input from. And what are we doing in the process of that? A lot of times we are trying to have somebody else make our decision, and we can end up pointing our finger and saying, "If I just hadn't done what you said." We don't. We have to make our own decisions.

Oh, that's so good. That is gold. Good.

Very good. It was very hard for me, and it was very interesting because I was very involved with bringing him to our church originally. He'd come from Texas. And when I told him, okay, then I'm gonna do Florida, and he said, then I'm gonna go back to Texas. Mm. He was waiting on my decision for a decision that he could make.

To make his own decision.

Wow. Which was very interesting. And he did, and it ended well. So you want to have those mentors along the way in your life.

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In 1996. And one of the things that I noticed immediately, and I wasn't prepared for, I had never even really thought of it, was that you have no history when you come to a new place. No one knows you. They don't care about you. They don't— You don't even know where the hardware store is. And so everything you do, you learn firsthand as you're going along. And it was easier for me to do that than it was for Pam because I was at least involved in a retail business. And then I was fortunately asked to be part of a Leadership Lakeland class that first year, which was paramount for me in terms of being able to understand the city, the dynamics, Polk County and get a sense of perspective of history of Lakeland for my own benefit. And it gave me an early love for the city. Harder for Pam. I'd say it was probably 2 to 3 years for my wife before she felt like Lakeland was home. She's spending most of the time with the kids. She's getting 'em in school and doing things. Her world is very, very tight. My wife is, if you know my wife, is she's a, she has a zeal for living and life and fun and And so it was hard for me to watch her constrained where she didn't have any of those relationships.

And what were those conversations like? I mean, were there moments when she said, "Bill, I can't believe you did this to me, and I want to go home, and get me off of this treadmill you chose to put us on"?

Yes, and there were all of those, and the kids crying in the background. And so you really have to weigh heavily, is this the right thing to have done, and are we on the right course? And if you have a peace about that and you drive, then you must drive forward and sit tight and rely on the foundational decisions that you made when you did it. If you were finding it's too negatively affecting your relationship, that your spouse doesn't really believe you're listening well to them, that's a problem. So we did this hand in hand and I'd say, okay, so what do you need? She'd need, I need to know how long you're gonna be spending this much time at work. And I said, well, I think safely, probably October 1st, by October 1st, let's say this is an April conversation, I think I can be where I can manage more time leaving a little earlier and being at home. But right now, the chapter of my life I'm in, I have got to be focused on work and less on the family, and you're gonna have to pick up more of those pieces. So she pulled out her calendar, Bill at home October 1st. And so what happened about October 3rd or 4th, do you think? You weren't quite there. No, I wasn't quite there. And Pam goes, pulls her calendar up and says, "I'm there. I waited. I want more of you at home." So I really, really worked harder to leave earlier starting then. And I think that's a— I only use that point as it's a healthy dynamic in your marriage to make sure that you're doing what you need to do. Because reality is, An entrepreneur can stay at work forever. Yeah. Yeah. And, and because why? We can always do something better. And there's one more thing to be done and there's one more collection to be made or whatever it is. And so we don't ever want to leave deep down. Now you want more than life and I don't mean that, but we don't live to work. Work is what provides our ability to live. And there's a big difference between those two things. So we have to be able to see work as a place to be able to provide for my family and for our passions, the things we want to chase in life, the things we want to make a difference in doing. And so, um, that means I have to make what's important to my wife that important to me. Yeah. And when I can learn to do that and work hard at work, but then also make sure I'm working to celebrate the things that matter that she wants to accomplish, then we get some semblance of balance. Because that's the time frame that you're going to have to stay within, that you can't exceed. Because if you 'Cause there's only 24 hours in a day and you have to sleep. And so you can only do so much. You can't learn how to get caught up until you learn what to cut out. And so there's always things you can be cutting out in your life that you don't need to be doing.

And a lot of that comes from delegating, trusting the people that you hire on your team to do the work.

Which by the way, lets them grow.

And lets them grow and become future leaders or opportunities for their growth. It also allows you to see yourself as not the superhero or, you know, that you're not— I am the one that can own— I'm the only one that can do all of the things and nobody else can help. And without me, there is no business. I mean, there's a lot of that, that ego that comes into play. When you were talking about that, though, it brought me back to a memory. My mom— my dad owned the Hallmark store when I was little. I mean, he owned it until I was an adult, but This memory is before they got a divorce, and it was my dad coming home late again from the store. And he— we had already eaten dinner, and dinner she had chosen because her children had asked for hot dogs was hot dogs. And so hot dogs were left over. He was waiting. He was coming home and he was extremely angry that it was hot dogs for dinner. And I worked this hard. And, you know, just there were— I just vividly remember the argument in my, in my mind. And I just think, you know, They weren't resilient enough to be strong enough to bend, like that Tanya Tucker song. You've got to be strong enough to bend. And so it's a testament to Pam's resilience and testament to her ability to be specific about what she needs and then hold you accountable to the things. And then you answering the call, maybe not exactly on the exact date, but at least realizing if I want this to work, I have to make sure that my wife knows how much I love her and the family is taken care of. So it's an extremely valuable lesson.

Oh, it's so important. Tremendously different person because of Pam than I would have been without her. Yeah.

And aren't we all? We're all different because of Pam. I love her so much.

But, you know, because she was relentless about what were values and she knew and she was sharing the vision. She wasn't fighting the vision. She was just recognizing it has to have limits. And I have to have you home and this is too many kids and I'm not doing this on my own. Yeah. And that's great stuff.

How did you, when, when you had that conversation with your wife, how did you, because you said like you didn't know any people, there wasn't any background here with family history. How did you build strong relationships within your team to, to trust them to say, I'm building this, but I'm gonna have to, you know, start to build it in a way to where I'm gonna rely on other people that I'm just getting to know for the first time.

Well, you learn to let them go. And the numbers will play the music. You'll see that they can make it happen or that they can't make it happen. And most people will not disappoint you. Most people, given the fact that they're in the slots that they're in, and if they're in the right skill sets, and you have to have round pegs in round holes, will perform well. And I had a conversation yesterday with a person that doesn't feel empowered. And it's not what we ever want to have happen. It can happen. Inadvertently sometimes, and sometimes it happens because we're deficient in the way, in our, in a leadership style. But we have got to work on having people be empowered. It's much more important than pay, much more important than pay. And they're multiplying what you can accomplish with probably a greater sense of creativity because they're more focused on it and they're on the front line of it every day. So I'm a big believer, and was anyway when I started the business, that frontline decision makers make the best decisions properly equipped. So we did at the dealership, we had a policy that if you have a customer who's very upset about an issue, you have up to $300 discretionarily to spend on that customer any way you want. We will never question what you decide to do. And most people don't want to take that responsibility and they hear you say it, but they shake their head. No, I'm not. I'm not doing that. And then they need to see that it actually happens. And it doesn't mean you don't go back and say, Hey Nate, you could have done that $300 maybe a little differently if we do this next time. But that's coaching and that's after the fact and it's built on the fact you took initiative. And you have to be celebrated for taking initiative and know that I'm glad you took the initiative. And most customers are reasonable anyway and they won't ask for $300 worth of stuff. They'll just say, hey, if you can just do X, Y, Z, I'd be fine. But you're asking them what would this take in order for us to make you happy, because we let you down, and I'm sorry.

Yeah, yeah. So I'm going to tell a little story about our very first— do you remember the very first time you met me?

Well, the one I think back to was in my office.

Yes. Yes. Remember how I got there?

Uh, you drove. Well, do you remember—

do you remember how the appointment got set up? No, I don't. Okay, so I'm going to read to you the original text message— or it wasn't a text message, I didn't have your cell phone number— um, the Facebook message that I sent to you. And I want I want everyone to hear kind of, because this goes back to our last episode, Nate, about how you reach out to people who are already busy, you know, you need a mentor and you just being mindful and respectful. And I just was, while we were, while we were, while we were stopping, while we were talking through this episode, I thought I wanted to pull this back up. So this is the very first message in 2013, July 2nd, 2013, that I sent to Bill Mutz. I have searched high and low for an email address for you and I cannot find it anywhere. I was wondering, and I know you are busier than I am, if you'd have some time to meet with me to discuss some leadership questions I have. So you know where I'm coming from. My background is not strong in the area of leadership, and most everything I do, I do on intuition. I see some great opportunities in my future, and frankly, I don't want to muck them up. I have identified my weaknesses and I want to beef them up a bit. Would you be able to squeeze in some time next week to give me some suggestions on crafting a plan for what's next and potentially point me in the right direction as far as resources, coaches, or anything that might help me build a bit more confidence in the area of leadership. I know you're busy, and I want you to know I won't be insulted at all if you can't squeeze in this time.

But look at how much initiative is in that request. Yes. Filled with points.

And I read it, and I get goosebumps because I know right where I was at that moment in time. And the chance that there was going to be like, you were never going to read it, you were never going to reply to it. Here is this person who I admire. And I think a lot of people, we look up to people, and we're never willing to take the initiative. But if we are willing to take the initiative, because now people are so much more accessible, you know, people, you know, public leaders and, and, you know, and you're being in public leadership today, you are very accessible. And I admire that in you. But I also think that there was some, some couple of key points I want to point out on this is humility, respect for the person's time, and an expectation of it's okay if you say no. And so many times I get messages, and I'm sure you do too. So I kind of wanted you to coach a little bit as to, um, you know, in the busy world of entrepreneurship, being where you were at the time, this is a different role that you're in, but back then you were willing to, to take time for an emerging leader, somebody that you didn't have a relationship at that point. Um, what would you recommend people who seek mentors to do when they reach out to the person for the first time?

Well, Recognize that part of the reason you think people are more publicly accessible today is because you know that they are, and that is because you've taken those steps. And there would be a lot of people who are listeners who don't think they are because they've never taken those steps. So part of your reality is because of what you grasped. And that's what we need to do. We talk about life hacks today, but I used to have life axioms. I can convert them to life hacks if you'd like. One of those is people are more important than things. And so that can sound, well, of course. Well, I don't think it's necessarily always of course. And so I am predisposed and have been that if somebody wants help, I'm going to bend towards my ability to at least see what I can do to help them. That means I am predisposed to calendar clearing when there's a hand in the air. And so, because I think we can miss a teachable moment in someone's life when they might be in a crux and you just don't know it. And so if somebody sticks their hand in the air and says, "I would love to be able to have help," you go in short distance to be able to get that done. And I followed up on one of those today with Tracy because I'm wanting to get some— who's my executive assistant— who I'm wanting to get someone scheduled that we don't have scheduled yet. Because I know they're in a crux spot right now and we need to get that on the calendar. And that allows you to clear your schedule of other things and do those things first. People always come first. And I can't ever tell you one time that I can recall where I have been predisposed to people and, and changed and altered my schedule that it wasn't something I shouldn't have done.

And that reminds me of the book Give and Take by Adam Grant. And there's a quote, a piece in there where there's a man who says, you know, always be willing to do something that's going to take 5 minutes of your time for someone else, right? Maybe one time a day, maybe, you know, set some, but when someone comes to you for help, I know we've talked about, you know, the assumption that we're too busy to take time for others, you know? And so there's a very important balance that we have to have as entrepreneurs with our time. Absolutely. And yet there's always this, you're predisposed to help others. And so what I think is important, if, if a message is sent to me, and I'm sure because of who you are and Nate, probably the same, if the information about the why the meeting is being asked for is in the message, then the answer is a lot more easy for the person to say, yes, I will help. Sometimes you get the messages of, hey, can we get together for coffee? And now you've gotta figure out what's, what's behind the coffee. What is there that's, that's going to happen? So for entrepreneurs, who are, you know, at a maybe a little bit more advanced, you know, maybe 5, 6, 7, 8 years down the road. And now you're looking at ways that you could mentor others, be prepared for those kinds of questions to come up. And for those of you who are just starting out and really looking for how do I reach out to someone who I don't know, but I really want to have a conversation with, there's a little bit of a model. It's not perfect, but I mean, it's something that I think was— it opened up my eyes to the reality that there are people like Bill Mutz in the world who will take time for someone he's never met to sit down and take this time. And you don't know until you ask.

So I was going to ask you, because I'm looking from the other side too now, because you have a high velocity of meetings on a consistent basis, on a daily basis, and you also have a family. How do you guard your time?

Well, it's interesting. I don't claim a lot of free time as an expectation. So it's nice to get free time. And but it's not an expectation. So I can go zero time to myself. Pam can't, by the way, and you have to know there's a difference in the way people are wired. Pam doesn't have time to herself. It's not a pretty picture. So we make sure that she can do whatever she needs to do. She can do— she has to exercise. I don't have to exercise. And that's not necessarily an advocation that that's the right decision. I just— I'm not wired to have to do that. So It's many times what don't you do that you have to start with. I don't do a lot of television and I don't have an expectation for free time. I don't do— my time on social media is very quick and brief. I actually was on social media much more before being a mayor. It's too easy to offend people inadvertently after becoming mayor. So I am very light on social media today. So that, that makes that a little easier. Not an expectation for free time and a willingness. And then the thing that's probably most important that I haven't mentioned, I try and do everything possible I can with Pam so that if I'm not working then and I'm going to be at home, I don't do events that are for me events that she doesn't come to. Ideally, I do the stuff that we can do together. And we have a Down's daughter who's now 22 and lives with us as well. And so we went to dinner with someone last night and I asked them if I can bring Emma because Emma is so pleasant anyway and she loves to come and see things and enjoy it and she manages it well. And so I really try and do things that the three of us can do primarily. Then you're sharing whatever you're doing in life and also you're learning mutually together from it. It's broadening the perspectives of the relationships that they get to see. and it makes them more involved in the city in which they live.

Nice. I, you know, it makes me, it makes me think about now. So that transition, because you were in the private sector and then you transitioned to the public sector, how, how was that and how have you been balancing that? Because I would assume that that is a balancing act. It is.

It's, it really is easy. And it's easy because if you really care about people, then being in the public sector is our antenna moments. You're measuring what you're doing. I can't drive home and not think about an infrastructure thing there, or I go around to another neighborhood where I just had a conversation with somebody today, you know, on the phone that I want to see what that's like. That's just part of my responsibility. So it's kind of fun because you're living in the organism that you are responsible to help shape.

How has it been seeing— because you said '96, and, you know, I was, I think I was 5 in '96, and from what I can remember, Lakeland was very different back then. It was very different. How has it been for you to see the growth of Lakeland? Oh, wonderful.

And to be a part of what's— it's gonna look like for the next 10 years is sensational. And so it was part of my reluctance to move was Lakeland. Mm-hmm. 'Cause I just didn't see much of a city here. And I remember standing on the corner where Joffrey's Coffee, which is what today now— Delicious. No, it's the other corner. Oh, sorry. Harry's. Harry's. Oh, sorry, Harry's. So, it's today's Harry's. Standing there looking at boarded-up windows and very little traffic, and it was like 11 o'clock in the morning, and it was a cold day. It was 29 degrees, and it was gray, which wouldn't be typical. Yeah. And going, ugh. You know, I live in Indianapolis, which is a thriving Midwest city. We have hundreds of friends. But it's usually 29 and Gray.

Yeah.

But it is also 29 and Gray.

So it's like you brought it here almost, right?

It followed me. So it was a reluctance. And where you don't see that today, I mean, I think about what we're gonna have this weekend and have a buena market downtown in a little, Street Action on Kentucky and the fact that, you know, there's this vibrancy that we haven't had in the past and that it continues and continues and continues. And the pressures to do more and increase are greater. And what a great place to be able to live in a state that is growing phenomenally and will continue to, and in the center of it between two wonderful cities that are larger metros in an area where we have to expand as people move to Florida because it's where there's room. Yeah, right. —so it's all— we have all the right elements. This is like if you got to pick SimCity and say, let's play here, that's what you'd have done.

Yeah, I think we— I agree. I really do agree, especially from the business side. What are you looking forward to see in the next— or expecting to see in the next 5 to 10 years for businesses and entrepreneurs and people that are starting things locally?

Continue to be a place that's a thriving place for entrepreneurs to have success, and we have to work harder on that than we already are. And you're in the center of doing that all the time. But we have got to continue mentoring. We have got to continue, and we're doing some of this, and we're seeing it happen, and it's coming together, and we have to teach and train well. We have to work on more technology-based businesses. We have to work on more healthcare-based businesses. I think the autonomous vehicle arena still is a very, very critical thing for us to take a major role in. I don't know how unique it, becomes on a longer-term basis. And we need to think about how we produce power in a more cost-effective way. And this is such a wonderful time where 3-year plans are probably your long-range plans, 10 years are vision, and then adapting and staying nimble in the process is what's going to separate us. We do all of that well, find and seek manufacturing businesses, expand our air center. We do all of that well and then honor people along the way. The city will be dynamic. And our biggest differentiator and the thing that'll be hardest for us to do, and it's hardest for most communities to do, is honor people. We can do that here. Yeah, yeah. We have the right stuff here to do that.

Well, and I want to, as we wrap up, I want to ask you a couple things to just comment on in the conversations that we've had. And one of the things I admire most about you is all of the things that you've shared with us today. You will acknowledge that's your perspective, right? This was your experience. It's your lens. It's how you, you know, the life that you have lived is based on your experience. And yet you're so able and capable of seeing through other lenses or trying, or at least acknowledging that, hey, this isn't the way it is for everyone. Confidence seemed to have come naturally for you, but not everyone feels confidence. And so you have an innate propensity towards empathy that, that I think allows us to have these kinds of conversations. So as we are advancing entrepreneurial, you know, endeavors as far as just in general creating a more entrepreneurial eco— a better entrepreneurial ecosystem, Let's talk a little bit about those on the fringe, those that are not necessarily feeling like, hey, this place is amenable to me starting a business, to me, you know, fitting in or belonging. And I want to know how I can get in. And you have— you and I have had lots of conversations on this topic. So I just kind of want you to riff a little bit on that.

Sure. I think you raise your hand and there are people here that will help. And that's not lip service. That's real. And so You can call me, you can certainly call Chrissanne Long the way, and we will help connect, understand and connect you. There is no reason for us not, for you to think that what you want to do isn't important enough, what your capabilities are aren't successful enough. If you think you can try and you have a passion and you'll work hard, you can be successful. But it takes a lot of sweat. It takes a lot of work. It takes a lot of dying to self. I think one of the reasons that we are amenable to this and the reason that it's attractive to us is that I just really don't believe there's very many people that wake up every day going, "I'm going to be a mean person. I hate life." There are people that don't feel plugged in, There are people that don't have hope. There are people that aren't guided well, but they can raise their hands. I mean, the one thing you still have is you can raise your hand if you have an issue. And what do I mean by that? I mean, let us know so that we can do something that comes alongside you. So if you start there and you believe that people really desire to grow and do and be positive and not be cynical every day when they wake up, that deep down, that's what they'd like to do is they'd like to be positive about life because positivity creates energy, cynicism steals it. And so if you feel that way, it's easy to love those people unconditionally because what you're doing is trying to understand what background they've come from. And when we talk about level playing fields, it's an impossibility because life isn't fair. So start there. And so we can't ever be— I tell my own kids this, I will never treat you fairly. And as we were raising them, Don't expect to be treated fairly. You're going to have a great day that I get you something sometime. You're going to have a great day that I give you something sometime. We're going to have experiences that we'll get, but we'll work to try and be as equitable in that process as we can. But it doesn't mean you're totally fair. And there's a kind of a— what's the word? When you're neurotic, it's neurotic to try and create fairness all the time. If we were trying to do that as parents with our kids, Even if I'm trying to do— It's unhealthy. It's unhealthy. And the expectation is, where's my trophy? Which is also unhealthy. It's not real. So you get what you work hard and volunteer to try and do and accomplish. And so people will come alongside you and work on that basis. And because we don't come from level playing fields, then it's important to try and do everything we can to lift people up to the playing field on which they can play and that they want to do so. Oh, that's so good. And not necessarily that we're going to equalize everything, but we're going to try and make their giftedness be able to shine on the sidewalk of their life that they can impact and get them going so that they feel the purposefulness of life and the joy and energy that comes from that. Yeah, that was so good.

I'm so glad you riffed just exactly the way you did. I think it just really boils down to what we talked about recently, Nate, is just showing up. I was on a Zoom call or a Clubhouse call or something recently, and someone was saying something and had that sense of feeling hurt, feeling like I wasn't included. And I use the mantra of, invite yourself. I have sat on the sidelines and I have watched feeling like, oh, nobody invited me. Oh, I feel so sad. But then I get off my butt and I go and I show up and I have a great time. And it's really easy to get caught up. Personally, I can get caught up in, oh, that's not, you know, I'm not invited. And we have to, as entrepreneurs, I mean, the whole part is, you know, you can't sit on the sidelines and expect your business to thrive. You're going to have to get out of that. You're going to have to find a nonprofit to pour into. You're going to need to show up and be seen as someone who's committed and consistent and is a part of the community in a way that's for the long haul, because as you've proven, you're not going anywhere. And now that's why we know that you are our leader, because you have been here to put in the time to be recognized as such. I've been putting in my time. I'm not putting in my time because I'm trying to achieve some sort of level of recognition. It's really just because I'm committed to Polk County and I love my community and I love the idea of what 10 years could look like if we found all of the people who are looking for the hands that are raised in the air and saying to them, hey, we're here, let's see what we can do to help you because we need more Bill Muttzes, we need more Nates, more Chrissannes Long, more of the great people in the community that are out there looking for people that need help. So that was fantastic. Thank you for sharing.

Well, and if you want to stay on the couch, Enjoy the view because that's what it's going to be.

And it's on you. You're the one choosing to sit on the couch. We want you to come out, hang out, and be part of our community. Come to Mayfair this weekend. Or, well, I guess when you hear this, Mayfair will have been last weekend. So come to the next community event. Come to the next Mayfair.

Basically, Chrissanne's saying, come, show up. Show up. And you'll get on people's radars.

Yeah, so this episode should be heard on Wednesday. And the next day, if you hear this episode on Wednesday, 12th, come to the meet and greet, the Bridge Local meet and greet, and say, hey, because you told me to get off the couch, I'm here. Because, and then figure out where your calendar is and start making, you know, find out where chamber events are, find out when Catapult events are, find out when there are things going on in the community that you can see and start building your tribe. I mean, that's really ultimately how I started. And thankfully Bill was there to see my hand and take time and continues to be a mentor to me. And So we're so grateful that we had this chance to spend time together.

And I'm grateful to be able to see how awesomely you have taken hold of that opportunity.

Well, you know what? And I'll say this. If it hadn't been for you, I still would've found an opportunity. I don't think that I— I agree with that. And I know that I can say that to you, but it's like, if the door doesn't open, find another door. You bet. Right? And if he hadn't answered, I would've found someone else to go to. So it's not the rejection that Bill Mutz may have never answered the question or responded, Do it, find a way, whatever it takes.

And, and persist. Yeah.

Well, thank you. Yes. Thank you for your time.

We appreciate that. My pleasure.

This was really great. I think that this was a unique conversation that nobody's ever really been able to have with our esteemed mayor. So thanks for digging deep and telling all of these great stories and sharing that with us today. So we will wrap up, but we will have to have you back on again. Okay. All right. It's a deal. Well, thanks for listening everyone. And remember, we have We have a new episode each week, so be sure to subscribe on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen. And remember to leave us a review. We promise to read every one. You can always find all of our episodes at Elevate Polk. And if there's something you want to hear about on an upcoming, on an upcoming episode, reach out to us on Facebook at Elevate Polk.