Episode 088: Building Blocks of Culture Preview with Sam Bradford

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3, 2, 1.

We are a podcast dedicated to talking about the fundamentals, standards, and best practices that empower today's fleets to achieve fleet success. Let's get into the show.

All right. Welcome back for another episode of the Fleet Success Show. I'm your host, Josh Turley, joined again today by Jeff Jenkins.

Hey, y'all.

And today we've got a special guest speaker, the one and only Sam Bradford.

Hey, hey, hey.

Hey, hey, hey.

Hey, who'd that sound like?

So Sam is going to be speaking at Fleet Success Summit 2023, one of our repeat speakers from 2022. We loved him so much, we just wanted to bring it back again.

It's hard not to love Sam.

It is, like, especially you meet him and you're just like, dude, this guy—

guys, I'm right here.

He's a little bit like the, uh, like the guy off of, uh, what is that, um, you know, The Dude Abides. Oh man, you know what I'm talking about?

Yeah, I totally—

Big Lebowski. Thank you. Right, The Dude. Um, so yeah, so we met, you know, just a little history on, on Sam, intro you a little bit. Um, You and I got introduced through Patrick Lencioni's group, The Table Group.

Yep.

Uh, you know, we were looking for guest speakers for Summit and, you know, we reached out and they said, well, actually we've got somebody in your area that we think you'd really like to meet. Uh, and they were not wrong. They did not disappoint. Uh, Sam, you work over at Dutch Bros right now?

Yep.

And, you know, they said, well, you know, like, he's an amazing speaker, he's very dynamic, like, you'll, you'll really like this guy. Uh, so, you know, you and I, like, we just— I drove up to Dutch Bros, you know, headquarters over there in, uh, what is that, Dutch Bros Arizona on that side of the valley?

Yep.

Because there's like two different Dutch Bros in Arizona. Yep. Right. So go over to Tempe and he whips me up, he's like, hey, you want a coffee? Just like, yeah, free coffee. And I'm like, well, I'll do a hot chocolate. Yeah, yeah. Best hot chocolate I've ever had. Um, and you've seen Dutch Bros popping up, right? I mean, they're just like, they have a fanatic following. Even at like midnight, you know, you'll see a line going around the building. It's crazy. Um, but we got to talking and we realized that, you know, Sam, you and I, like, we had a very similar journey, uh, with regards to like our leadership, um, conversion. I don't know what you want to call it, like just the materials we've read. Yeah, some of the experiences gone through. Um, it was just really kind of cool, is like we gelled a lot off of like, oh yeah, I remember this, and we read that same book, and we— you kind of just And then we got introduced to the same people through the same events. And, um, I remember specifically, you know, talking about Ramsey and EntreLeadership. Yeah. Uh, you know, talking about Alex Judd, who's one of the coaches, the former coaches at EntreLeadership. And, uh, he's now living out here in Arizona. Um, we were talking about, you know, meeting up through, uh, Lencioni and some of the, like, and Chris Tkachla, who's the one that, you know, we got introduced through.

Yeah.

Um, and just, you know, reading The Advantage and Five Dysfunctions of a Team, Ideal Team Player. Just some, some absolute pillars of books. So it was a lot of fun as we were gelling and just, you know, talking a little bit about what you had going on over at Dutch Bros. Yeah. And so, like, you know, in that, in that meeting, I don't know what you remember from that meeting, but share with our listeners a little bit about what you're doing at Dutch Bros and, and kind of how we got introduced, I guess.

Yeah. Um, so I'm the director of people development at Dutch Bros, and, and what I get to do is just grow our leadership teams. We teach classes on goal setting, self-leadership, personal finance. And it's funny because you might think like, man, why are you talking about that at a coffee shop? You know, it's like this has nothing to do with coffee, but yet we just believe that our people are so valuable and that we need to grow them and we need to like give them the tools that they need to be, to be successful in life, whether they stay at Dutch or not. And so And that has just been a passion and a driving force for me is like, how do we grow and develop our people? Um, and that's led me down that journey of finding books, finding podcasts, anything that I could find that would, that would just kind of fill me up. And on that journey, I, I got connected with Ramsey's group and then I got connected with Lencioni's group. And it's just been such a cool thing to see how all these connections just play out. And, and I remember when Krista called me, She's like, hey, we got these guys in Phoenix, they're Fleet, you know, they're going to do this event. And I was just like, oh man, that's so cool. I'm so pumped. And I just, I remember you coming in and I felt the same way. It felt almost a little like stepbrothers. Like, we did, we just become best friends, you know?

I think that just happened.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Uh, we just, it was that moment of just being like, man, here's another person who's just as passionate about leadership development, about just growing people. About just helping people succeed. And it was like, man, I was sold. And when I heard your heart and your passion for what Summit was going to be, I was like, man, I'm so down. Uh, that was— it was awesome.

It was really cool. Yeah, just kindred spirits.

Yes.

So, yes. Well, and I think what's— what was fascinating to me too was you talked about developing people and like, this is not something you do at a coffee shop, much less a coffee shop that you're employing, you know, a bunch of 18 and 19-year-old kids. You know, because let's say like they really are still just kids, like, yeah, in life.

Yeah.

Um, that are not looking for a career being a bro-ista, right? And yes, we said bro-ista, they're not baristas.

Yeah.

Bro-ista is Dutch Bros. Um, but that's, you know, like we're investing in people that are like, we know they're not going to be here for the long haul.

Yeah.

Um, and I think that for me, like that spoke to me too, like in our, in fleet world, we get that all the time. It's like, well, I'm not going to invest in them because then they're just going to leave.

Yeah.

They're going to go find a better paying job.

Yes.

And like, we talk about that all the time, is, well, how do you do that? Invest in them but make it so they don't want to leave.

Yep.

Right? Like, they leave when they're— when they need to leave, you know, it's time for them to leave, and you can be happy for that. But until then, right, like, you, you're there and you're, you're creating an environment that they want to stay at.

Yes.

Um, and so I— you guys have done a great job so far over at Dutch Bros, and a lot of that, you know, you're, you're doing— just the fact that you're doing people development and you're teaching them how to be better people, not better brewistas, not better employees, but better people. Uh, and the positive ramification that's having on you guys from the recruitment standpoint, yeah, retention standpoint, uh, growth and development, you know, as the company grows and expands, uh, you know, like, it's, it's definitely— it's been cool to watch you guys apply these lessons.

Yeah, it's so massive. And I think that's so interesting when people are like, What if we invest in them and they leave? Right. The other thought is like, what if we don't invest in them and they stay? Like, what if, what if we just have mediocre employees that don't want to be here all the time for the rest of our lives? Yeah. I mean, we could, we could make these, this place so incredible. And it's really like, that's what it becomes. It becomes like a leadership factory and it, and it becomes this thing where people are drawn to those things. They're like, man, I want to go work for this coffee shop. And honestly, that's my story. That's— I didn't like— I didn't start at Dutch Bros when I was 18. I was actually in all kinds of construction fields and did all kinds of manual labor. And I ended up becoming a youth pastor at like 25 because I had a huge heart for young people. But the way that I found Dutch Bros was through EntreLeadership podcast. They interviewed Travis Borzema and I was freaking out. I was like, This exists? Like, what is this? And I found the closest one to my house and I drove down there and I was like, hey, would you guys come talk to my leadership team about like how to build culture? And they were like, yeah. And it was the craziest thing. I mean, I literally had them come talk to my leadership team and I remember walking out of that meeting, it was a lot like when we met. I walked out of there and I was like, I went home and told my wife, I was like, hey, I think I need to go work at Dutch Bros. Like, I'm gonna leave this full-time job with all my benefits, with all this stuff, to go work part-time as a bro-ista in a drive-through coffee shop at 30. And it was wild because it attracted me. This culture attracted me. And I was like, I want to be a part of this thing. And that's, that's kind of like, that's what happens when you invest in your culture, is it attracts good people and it repels people that aren't interested, people that are like, this is dumb.

It's like, great, go have no interest in being a better person. Yeah, no interest in learning and being a better leader, right? Like, let's just, just let me make coffee.

Yeah, there's plenty of places you can go make coffee and you don't have to care, and they, they're green and they put little things around your cup. No, no, no, no, no. Oh man. But yeah, it's, we love all coffee here.

That's not, that's not created.

It was a political answer.

I say it's not created equal.

Hey man, I, I love, I love just hitting different coffee shops and checking out what's out there. Um, and, and I think Travis, like our founder, he always says like there's— I love just that like, and it goes with business, not having a scarcity mindset, not, not disparaging our, our, um, competitors, but, but knowing that like, hey, they make us better. And like, I, I, uh, I appreciate it because I'm like, man, without those people we wouldn't be here because they paved a lot of ways True. And so just showing that respect to them, being like, hey man, we appreciate what you do, um, I think that's just a good business practice.

Well, you can still say we appreciate what you do, but our coffee's better.

Like, there's nothing wrong with that. Something about our process, you know, just the fact that you look at the lines, like the customer speaks, right?

Yes.

That's what's so cool too, is that we get that a lot. I get people asking us all the time, why are you guys' lines so long? Like, what, what are you guys putting in your coffee? And the reality is our coffee's good, but it's not the reason that our lines are so long.

It's not special.

It's not.

It's just coffee grounds.

It's coffee, and it's, it's, it's like the syrup. It's— those things are there, but what makes the biggest impact is our people. It's that our— it's our— we teach our people to care. We teach them to love our customers. And man, those genuine human connections are why people come back and why people feel so, like, just in love. To, like, they see Dutch, they're like, oh, let's go, let's go get a coffee and hang out.

Yeah, well, and talk to me a little bit about that, you know, because, like, I've heard stories of people going through drive-throughs and just— it's that connection, right? Like, if you've seen this, you've had experiences, so maybe, like, share with our listeners some of the experiences that you've seen. Like, this is what the difference is, like, the Dutch Bro difference. Yeah, it's not the coffee, it's, it's this interaction. What are some of your favorite interactions you've had?

So I've got, I've got one that I actually did a TEDx talk on, um, where I was just like, it, it's so funny because it's, it's small talk. You have such a short amount of time in a drive-through to have these really short conversations. But I, I just, I was taking a text order, this woman pulled up, I asked her how her day was going, and she just gave me that like, uh, like, it's, it's okay. And I was like, what's going on? And she's like, I gotta go to work. And I was like, what do you, what do you do for work? And she's like, I'm a loan officer at a bank. And I could just tell she hated it. And I, and it just, just, I just asked this really fast question. I was like, hey, if you could do anything in the world, what would you do? And she didn't even blink, Josh. She didn't even take a breath. She was like, I would be a marine biologist. And I was just shocked. I was like, you know, like what you want to do. And I was like, what's holding you back? And she's like, well, school, you know, I gotta do— and at this point I had just left my full-time job as a youth pastor, and I had literally started taking my— started working on my associate's degree. So I'm just looking at her and I'm like, listen, your life is too important to go to do your job every day and hate what you do. You need to go to school. Like, I'm, I, I'm doing this right now currently because like Our lives are so short, and, and how are you going to miss out? Like, when is the last time you went through a restaurant, a drive-through restaurant, and somebody like just engaged with you like that? I mean, there's— that's like a funny one and a silly one. Like, there's, there's some heavy, heavy, heavy ones. Heavy ones. We, we had one just a while back at one of our stores where this gal came through. Luckily it was really slow. And our person that was taking her order just took time and just sat with her and talked with her and just checked in with her and see how she was doing. And they had like a 15-minute conversation at the window. And that's not something that we would disparage. I mean, of course, if there's a long line, like, we got to keep it moving. But this wasn't that time. And, and honestly, that young girl came back a few weeks later, found the girl that she was having the conversation with and said, I was ready to just go take my own life at that point. Like, my life was so miserable. I felt like nobody cared. And it sounds crazy, but she was like, the fact that you took time and you just listened and you talked, she's like, I want to live. And I also— she was like, hey, can I put my application in? And we hired her and she's a phenomenal employee. There's stories of— there was a couple that was pregnant and they were— they would keep coming through and getting their coffee. And then there was a time when they just weren't— they didn't come in for like a few weeks and the crew was worried about them. And all of a sudden they came and they asked for one of our employees by name. They're like, hey, is Caleb here? We just had our baby. We're in that— we're in the NICU and like, this is our first stop. When we got out, we want Caleb. We wanted to see if Caleb would hold the baby. What was he— yeah, it's like the connections that take place are just authentic and real. Yeah, it was funny. One time I saw on Instagram, we posted a thing for our job. We had a job posting and, and somebody on Instagram said, I would— she— they said, I would like to work at Dutch Bros, but I couldn't pretend to care. And, and I was just like, oh, they think that we're pretending. Like, no, like, this is truly authentic. Like, this is who we are. We, we hire people that care, and we, and we teach our people to care, and we give them space to care. We don't, we don't force them to say, hey, just hurry up and get these people out of here. We're like, make connections with people, make them feel seen and heard.

Yeah, right. And it's, you know, like you're delivering that with your cup of coffee.

Yeah.

And that's what people are buying is the connection.

Yes.

Right. It's not the coffee, it's the connection. Yes. And so, so you're talking about this, you know, like we'll do a little preview here.

Yeah.

Um, you're going to be speaking at this next year's summit.

Yeah.

Uh, you're going to speak on a little bit different topic. I want to talk about your topic from this year a little bit, but your, your topic from for this next year. Give us like a quick, you know, down and dirty, what are people looking forward to when they come and hear you speak this year?

Yes. First of all, I just, if you're hearing this, you need to come to Summit. Like, I am not in the fleet industry and I not only spoke, but I attended the whole thing. And I can remember my wife being like, babe, you're going to go to this thing? I'm like, yeah. She's like, you don't have, you don't work in fleet at all. I'm like, no, no, I want to be here. I want to be around these guys. and I took just pages of notes. It was so phenomenal. And so if you're in fleet, you need to show up. You need to be there. It was so good. Um, this year I'm gonna— or sorry, next year I'm gonna be speaking on— my premise is Maslow's hierarchy of needs, if you've ever heard of it. I learned about it in psychology, and it was basically this idea of like— and I experienced this in my own childhood if you go to school and you have like— and you're hungry, then you're never going to be able to like focus on what you need to focus on. There's like a thing that you've got to have your basic needs met first before you can go and learn. And then the next one up is like safety. You need to feel safe to feel like you can learn and you can grow. And then there's connection, and it keeps going, and the very top is self-actualization. And so I took this thought of like Everybody wants this incredible culture, but they want to skip all the steps and just jump to like, hey, let's just buy this package and we're going to have this incredible culture.

Let's go buy a ping pong table. Yeah. And put it in the break room.

People are going to love it. It's going to be amazing. And they're going to just like— but there's steps. And so I want to just go down and break down what's the base level that we need to like meet. And then what do we build on top of to get to this place where we have a culture where people want to show up and they want to do the things that we're doing and they want to like make a difference in the world. Yeah.

And so you talk about, you know, you're kind of at that tip, right? You know, you know, dealing with the giving connection with your coffee. Yeah. And how that helps the, you know, these are baristas are coming in, they're 18, 19 years old.

Yeah.

Like, look, I just need a paycheck.

Yes.

But then at the same time, you're, you know, you're getting them all the way through that to this moment of like you are having an impact and you have a purpose. Right? And right now that purpose is like, you could be making somebody's day and helping them, you know, like maybe they're suicidal and you're bringing them back from the brink.

Yeah, right?

Like you have a moment to make an impact and a connection and like, wow, what kind of like just motivational purpose you need to go run through a wall and be like, heck yes, right? Like this is what I'm gonna go do and like I'm fired up and I'm making a difference in the world.

Yep.

Um, and that's like, that's, that's the pinnacle right there. That's self-actualization. Yes. In a nutshell.

Yes.

And people yearn for that. Uh, but I love that you're, you're taking a step back and saying, yeah, but before you go jumping off the cliff on self-actualization and like trying to connect to a purpose, it's going to fall on deaf ears if you haven't taken care of the basics first.

Yes. Right.

And I totally love that you're, you're thinking about that and that you're going to kind of outline for them like, look, step 1, baby steps. Yeah. Yeah. Talk about Ramsey, Ramsey and his Total Money Makeover, the baby step process.

Yep.

Step 1 is emergency fund, right? Make sure that, you know, you're not getting into more debt. Because of things that happen. Yeah. And there's the same thing with building the culture. So it's kind of cool you're, uh, you're laying that out there for them.

I'm really excited about it.

Well, this is like— this is the whole thing too, is a lot of people aren't going to be familiar with Maslow's hierarchy of needs, right? They might have heard it in passing, or it's just not something that they were ever taught.

Yeah.

I did this, uh, oh, probably a few months ago when we were at Fleet Pros, and we were talking about, uh, pull your attention, and and a lot of them, like, we hear it all the time, oh, well, they just leave for the money. Yeah, I'm like, well, kind of, right? But like, and then I had to introduce this concept of the hygiene factors, right? And I remember who created this thing, but, um, you know, basically that money is a dissatisfier versus like self-actualization is a satisfier, right? Yeah, there does get to a point where you can have too much money, like it just doesn't have the same effect. It's like drinking too much water. Yeah, at some point you're just not thirsty anymore.

Yep.

And so for people to kind of like learn these concepts, especially in fleet, I mean, you get this in the brewista business, like they're not familiar with this, right? They're making coffee. Yeah. Who knew they were going to learn about psych, you know, when they come into your room? That was kind of the reception I got at the Fleet Pros thing was like, huh, I've never like, I didn't know about this or I had never heard about this. Yeah. You know, it's like, yeah, but like in business we hear about these things a lot. So like the gap, and that's like the quintessential, that's the, that's the, you know, macrocosm. I guess this story is the microcosm of the whole thing, the whole movement. Yeah, what we're trying to do with Fleet Success, which is, you know, bridge the gap between what we're learning in business and what we're learning in, in leadership and, and blend it with all the things that we know in fleet. Yeah, the lessons we get from the Salt Skippers of the world and things like that.

So Well, most people don't focus on that basic personal basic. Yeah, business, right? If you go into a job, you teach the basics of that job or those responsibilities, right? But they don't have the basic like, hey, okay, what about me as a person, right?

You're a cog in a machine.

Exactly right.

And they don't think about how do I make this cog more resilient.

Yeah, so when that cog falls off, yeah, right, they don't understand why.

Yeah, it's a, it's an incredible movement, you know. And like you said, Sam, like, you definitely want to be there because these are the kinds of lessons we're going to learn, you know. We've got Anita Grantham coming, which, she's awesome if you've ever heard her speak. And like, she's a big HR culture, like, we drink from the same cup for sure, right? Jim Collins nut. Um, and if she's listening to this, like, she'll appreciate that.

Yeah.

Um, You know, Christine Rogers, Tim Ammon, you know, we've got some like really amazing people that just have great leadership lessons. You know, we're going to be talking about the pillars. Yeah, but you're going to come out of there just— you're going to raise the lid on your leadership development, 100%. You know, and that's— you and I, like, we talk about John Maxwell, Law of Leadership, Law of the Lid, like one of the most important ones that we talk about all the time, which is that the organization cannot outgrow the leader.

Yep.

Just can't. And so the only way to raise the lid on the organization, up the lever, up the leader, right? You got to up-level the leader. So if you're a leader in our fleet organization, like, you need to be here and listen to these stories because this is what's going to help you lead your people.

Yep.

So yeah, we could almost make a guarantee if you attend, you listen, take notes, go back, apply the principles and lessons you learn.

Yeah.

You will not necessarily turn around, but you will make vast improvements, not only on your people but yourself as well.

Yeah. And like leaps and bounds, not little tiny, like, you know, incremental improvements. Like, you're going to make significant strides because a lot of people just haven't implemented even the basics.

Yeah.

Of, you know, like what you're going to talk about. Um, and hopefully if you've been listening for a while, right, we've covered a lot of this stuff, but I love hearing the different perspectives because you guys bring so much flavor to it. I'm like, oh, that was so good. I'm gonna write that down, right? And I like, I drink from a fire hose on this stuff, and there's still stuff that I'm like, oh, that's new, I haven't thought about it that way, or ooh, you know, I'm gonna start applying this in my own business. Yeah. And we're a software company, right? And, and so it's just, it's kind of fun to go through it that way. Um, now last year you spoke at Summit.

Yeah.

And I mean, like, you brought the house down. You were easily our best speaker at the event. Mike Pitcher was a very close second. Yeah, like you guys were head and shoulders above the rest of the crew. And that was like, we had Kristin Hadid. Yeah, we had Brett Gilliland. Like, we had some really good speakers. Jeff spoke, for crying out loud. Yeah, right.

And seriously, I don't know how you beat me. So I didn't drop enough F-bombs in my speech, apparently.

But I will tell you is like, you know, there was not a dry eye in the place after you got done speaking because like you just, you connected.

Yeah.

You know, and like we talk about Dutch Bros, but man, like, you know, you carried that connection in that room. Yeah. And so I love for our listeners, if they weren't at Summit in 2022, you know, share a little bit of that story or I guess, you know, some of the, you know, the key takeaways that you give with, you know, that you gave last year.

Yeah, um, I think, I think the, the biggest thing that, that helped people so much was just like initially just sharing my story and connecting with people on that level of like, look, this is kind of my background, this is where I come from.

And, um, and it was not a good place. Like, you didn't start with a silver spoon, you know, like you definitely had some chips stacked against you.

Lots of trauma, lots of heartache, lots of like struggling through school and barely barely making it. And, and that's why Maslow— I connect with that so much as well, because it's just like, it's not a theory. It's like, it's real. I embody it. Like, I, I can—

you lived it.

I can feel it. And I know that when my home life was so crazy, I couldn't focus on school, and it just was not a priority for me. And it makes sense going into business of like, if, if all these things are a mess and you want your people to care, like, they're, they're no— they don't have the ability to get to that level. Yeah, right. They're thinking about everything else. But, um, I just shared, I shared about, I love, I love just like the idea that people think, well, we can't have a good culture because we're in this business. And I think about like, if there was ever an excuse that could be given, it would be, we're in the fast food business. Like, you can't have a good culture, we do fast food. And I, and I always tell people, I'm like, if, if we got together in Jeff's car and we drove around and went to different fast food places and we asked them, hey, how hard is it to find good employees? They would tell us it's impossible.

Yep.

We say, hey, how do you guys find good young people? They'd say they don't exist. And I'd be like, you're right, because they all work at Dutch Bros. Um, but I think it's mindset, and that's what, that's what's so tough. And, and that's what I was speaking on of like, hey, The idea of building this amazing, this amazing leadership machine is, is that like the mindset is like, we can't look at our people and think they're dumb, they're lazy. They only care about— we have to look at them and go, man, how do we, instead of like, instead of shirking our responsibility, like they're our employees now. So they're a part of us. Let's, let's invest in them, pour in them, grow them, make them the best that they can be and watch them flourish. Like, It's incredible when I sit in our leadership meetings, we'll have, we'll have our managers and our assistants in a leadership meeting. And I'm by far the oldest person in the room. And, and these young people are running this company, this massive company. And it's like, that's, people go, young people, you can't trust them. You can't give them anything. And I'm like, I would love for you to come sit in one of our leadership meetings and watch these incredible people. Um, but yeah, I think, I think that was really like my focus was just helping the people in the fleet industry realize like it's not about like trying to go find people, that it's about investing in the people that you already have. There's already stuff that's working in like in your company that you just need to grow and pour into.

Yeah.

And, and see that blossom instead of having this, well, we could be better if we were in a different industry.

Yep. And you talked to— you hit the nail on the head, which was mindset. Yeah, right. And I'd love, like, because your story was such a demonstration of this is— if I could have just sat back and said, well, woe is me.

Yeah, right.

Like, I had all this crap and it just hit after hit after hit. And even when I got high, right, and I had a great moment in my life— not that getting high caused the great moment, but like a high moment in your life. I had to clarify that.

I liked it the first way.

I know. Even when you have that high moment, yes, high watermark, boom, here's another hit, right? And how the mindset was what carried you through. And that honestly is like, you know, this led me to this great place and this led me to like doing my dream job. Yes, it was because I just wouldn't— I refused to let all the negativity change my mindset. Yeah. Um, and you mentioned, you know, he had this like growth versus scarcity mindset. And I remember the first time I heard this was, uh, Clayton Maske was talking about it on a podcast Um, he's the CEO of a company called Keep. They're a fairly large software company here in the Valley. And, um, it was right, right as the pandemic was coming in, and he says, now look, you guys are, you know, like, everybody's running scared right now. And, and March was the longest month ever in the history of months, but just because of how fast everything was changing.

Yep.

Uh, right at the beginning of shutdown, uh, he says, but you as business owners, you have to decide are you going to have a growth mindset or a scarcity mindset? A lot of people right now, they're running around scared and they've got a scarcity mindset. And so when you have a scarcity mindset, you know, it's, you know, zero-sum game. You've got to hoard as much as you can and, you know, like you're holding on to capital. He says it's not a bad place to be right now, right? You know, make sure that you've got enough to get through the winter kind of a thing. Because— but the really successful people are going to be the ones that have a growth mindset and they look for the opportunity. They say, okay, the world's shutting down right now. How am I going to take advantage of that? Yeah, how do I use this and, and use it as leverage for my business, for my thing, and realize that there's opportunity now?

Yep, right.

And when you take off the scarcity blinders of like hunker down, batten down the hatches, right, like let's just survive, right, you get out of that mindset into, well, where are the opportunities, right? You know, you're the fox in winter and you're pulling out left and right just different opportunities and you're feeding right? And you're eating. Yeah. Well, everybody else is, uh, you know, is basically trying to hibernate through, through the roughest parts of the, the year. Um, and I think we kind of all get into that mindset as I wonder, you know, we, we feel this recession coming.

Yeah.

Are we in scarcity mode? Are we saying, hey, there's an opportunity?

Yep.

Um, I remember when the Great Resignation hit, like everybody was panicking, right? Oh my gosh, the Great Resignation, we're losing people left and right, there's staffing shortage. You go to restaurant after restaurant please be patient with our servers because there's a staffing shortage. And right, like, it was all scarcity mindset.

Yep.

Um, but the people who had invested in their people, the people who had invested in culture, they looked at that because I looked at that, right? I know there's people like me. And they said, there's a lot of people on the market right now.

Yeah.

And guess what they're looking for, right? They're looking for that place to work itself. Exactly. Great place to work, self-actualization. They're looking for purpose and connection. There's an opportunity for us to go out and really get some talent that's looking for what we have to offer.

Yep.

Um, you know, so it's that scarcity growth mindset shift.

I love it.

And as long as you've got the right mindset, you're gonna get through anything, you know. And, and growth mindset, if you didn't pick up, like, that's the right mindset to be having.

Yeah.

Um, you know, otherwise you're just gonna always be living at a state of fear, and we make bad decisions when we're afraid. It's just, you know, like our brains are physically structured, uh, you know, to, to make scarcity-type decisions when we're afraid. Yeah. So, wow, man, this is just awesome. Who knew we were going to be talking about so much about psychology today?

Yeah, Carol Dweck, uh, she actually wrote Mindset, like, uh, the book, um, and she talks about growth or fixed. Like, fixed is just like thinking that what you have is all what you're always going to have and you can't grow.

As good as it gets.

Oh man. That, that was a huge book for me, um, that really stood out.

It's just right there. There's a moment. I'm gonna write that down. See, yeah, every time I listen to you, like, good stuff, man.

So, so Carol Dweck led me after she— in that book, she talks about the, the lady that wrote the book Seabiscuit. She did like a whole thing on, on the story of Seabiscuit. And then I ended up reading that book, and that book was wild. Like, I laughed and cried. It was It was amazing. But yeah, it's, it's a lot of that. It's not, it's not the adversity that's gonna like, it's not gonna make or break you, but the adversity is what's gonna cause you to rise. And like, and that's what, that's what my story is. And that's what every successful story is, is that hardships happen. Like Maxwell has a quote that says, with every opportunity there's a difficulty, and with every difficulty there's an opportunity. Did I say them both the same?

Yeah.

With every opportunity, there's a difficulty. And with every difficulty, there's an opportunity. I think I always, I always say it.

Yeah, you're right.

They're there. They're there in both things. And the problem is, is that most of the time with opportunity, I see it and I get all excited and I don't realize that there's going to be hardship in it.

Yeah.

And then with every difficulty, I see it and I go, this is going to be the end of me. This is so terrible. And I don't realize there's an opportunity in here if I would just look for it and be open. And like, there's something, there's a, there's an opportunity to learn and grow. So I, I absolutely love those.

All right. That's on my list now. And for all the listeners, they're always hitting, you know, asking, well, hey, any good books for us to read? So Kathy Dweck, Mindset, Carol Dweck, Mindset.

Yeah. So good.

All right. Um, well, any parting thoughts? Any, I don't even, that was awesome.

I, I am, uh, speechless.

The other half of that.

So it's hard, it's like, it's hard, right? Because I don't want to cut off what you guys are saying, interject, because I'm just like so captivated with the conversation that happens. So I didn't really have much to input. You got it all, Sam.

I don't know.

I do have a question though, and you can't— you don't give me multiple answers, just give me one, because you, you always say, you know, multiples. Okay, if, if our audience wants one book one, dude. Just pick one. What's it gonna be?

Oh, that's not fair.

It is fair.

It's like asking, like, which, which kid's your favorite?

I could, I could answer that.

I have an answer for both of them.

Oh man, okay.

All right, your kids aren't old enough yet.

Yeah, well, I only have one, so she is my favorite.

Okay, look at that.

He's like, I'm still waiting for my favorite to be born.

Yeah.

Okay, I'm gonna give the book this. See, whenever my employees come in and they ask the same question, like, what book should I read? I'm like, let's talk about it because I'm going to help you find a book that's going to fit you better. Okay, because if I just give you what would fit me, you might be like, this book is stupid. But I'm gonna just, just for this, I'm just gonna give you the book that made the biggest impact on me personally was Self Leadership and the One Minute Manager. Um, and it was because I was having like a victim mindset. I was blaming my boss. I was blaming all these, all these factors in my life of like why I couldn't be successful or why I was having such a hard time. And for whatever reason, Self Leadership and The One Minute Manager just hit me like a ton of bricks. And I realized like one of the chapters in there was called People Aren't Mind Readers. And I just realized like, man, I have all these feelings towards my boss, towards my work, towards my situation. That I have not even begun to share with him, but I'm holding him accountable for all these things. Like, I'm mad at him for not fixing all these things, and I haven't even had the courage. And, and I can be gracious to myself because I realize my past affects that. And like, my past, my— the trauma, the, the hardship, it's scary to have those conversations. But it was just this moment where I realized, oh, I'm in control. Oh, I have power that I'm not, that I'm not taking advantage of. And instead of just living in that victim mentality, it caused me to rise up and, and to do something different about it. And, and that's why I'm sitting here today. It's because I started just asking, like, hey, what could I do in this situation? How could I make this better? So, Self-Leadership and the One Minute Manager. I don't think it's the best book that's ever been written, but it, it impacted—

it was the one that had the biggest—

it had the biggest impact on me.

Who wrote that? Was that Blanchard?

It was Blanchard.

Yeah, Ken Blanchard.

Yeah, Ken Blanchard.

He's a leadership guru. I love watching his videos. Like, he has some great videos online. No, um, he's right up there with like a Covey.

Yeah.

Or, you know, in my mind, like a Lencioni or any of those. Like, he's a Drucker, right? Like, he is definitely one of the big names in, in leadership development.

Ah, so I'm proud of you.

Yeah, thank you. Yeah, meeting you guys was incredible, by the way. Jeff, we didn't even get to talk about— just, just like We just, we're just saying how long it's been. Only been like under a year that we've known each other, and yet it feels like, it feels like a long time.

Yeah, it's been under a year. I mean, you know, how I met Sam is that we were actually at the summit, and I'm going back to where our, our eating area was, and Sam's walking in, and I thought it was like some homeless dude coming inside looking for food or something.

So it would not have been out of the question.

It would not have been in the head or anything. So it's like, dude, who's this guy? Like, long beard, right?

What wearing Crocs, looking lost, probably like a flannel shirt or something like that, you know. Yeah, yeah.

So, so on that funny note, one time when I was taking orders at Dutch Bros, um, I had— it was early in the morning and I was out there taking orders, and, and the, the, the lady that the, the— in the car wouldn't roll her window down. And, and I was like trying to talk to her through the window and she wouldn't. She just refused. And she just pulled forward and I was like, oh man, I don't know what happened. And then she told the people up front, she said, hey, there's a homeless guy in your driveway, it's asking for money. And they were like, oh no, that's our employee, he was trying to take your order. So it's not the first time I've been called homeless.

You just have this epic beard game. I think that's what throws people off. They're like, man, that beard, like, that's, that's a homeless guy beard.

Yeah, that guy can't afford a razor or hot water or anything.

Yeah, yeah, we'll get you cleaned up, don't worry.

Oh man.

I love it.

Well, uh, you know, Sam, thank you very much for coming out here. Yeah, being with us, uh, speaking a little bit to our listeners.

Yeah.

Um, really looking forward to March and hearing from you again.

Yes.

Um, as always, like, it's always a pleasure just getting to spend some time with you. And every time we see each other, like, you know, you just give me this huge old hug. Oh, right. And just connection, man. Yeah, you're amazing.

Thank you.

Like, your passion is contagious, honestly. Like probably more than anything else.

You got a standing ovation at the summit because of that.

Yeah, it's the— that's just the delivery, right? Like, you relate to people. Your, your emotion on stage, it's just— it's, dude, it's contagious. Like, I don't know what else to say. I get goosebumps thinking about it.

Yeah, I'm so— I'm so excited for, for next year, and I'm looking forward to meeting our— your listeners and, and, and just seeing you guys out there. It's going to be phenomenal. You're not going to want to miss it. And, and I'm I'm just so— like I already said, like, the speaker lineup is phenomenal. I got to hear Pitcher last year or this year, and I love him. So excited. And then I've heard Anita, and I can't wait to hear her again. Like, it's just gonna be— it's gonna be a phenomenal time.

She's saucy. Like, she gets super— like, just, she's fun.

I love it.

So, all right, well, uh, you know, if you're looking for information on Fleet Success Summit, you can go to fleetsuccesssummit.com. Uh, and Jeff, I keep screwing up the dates. 21st, 22nd, 20th, 21st. It's online, dude.

Now you've got me confused because you asked.

I always screw it up.

If you would, if you wouldn't have asked, I could have just thrown it out there.

You should go so confident and everybody's like, oh yeah, he knows what he's talking about. Uh, fleetsuccesssummit.com. Go up, get signed up, register. It's going to be at Luxor, Las Vegas, uh, at some point in March.

21st, 22nd.

Boom, 21st. There you go. Go sign up. It like, you will not regret being there for this event. You will regret missing it though, just because of the, just the level and the caliber of speakers that we're bringing into this. Like, you will, you will not walk out of there the same. You're going to walk out of there a changed person. Yep. And I like, that's a guarantee. If you walk out of there and you don't feel like you changed, you know, like, not only will I refund you, but I will have a moment of truth conversation with you because you closed your heart. To that moment. Um, and you should have, you should have gotten away with something. And so I'll still refund you your dang money, but I tell you what, I guarantee you're coming out of there with something.

I couldn't agree more.

I gotta tell you this too. I had— you guys allowed me to invite guests, and, and I invited two people to come, and both of them walked away going, that company was so intentional, everybody that works for them was so sweet, like it was just so welcoming. Yeah, and, and they were blown away. They're like, I've been to different events and I've been to different things, but I've never felt so welcomed by people that didn't know me. And everybody wanted to make sure— I was like, this, this is who they are. Like, and, and I, I just like, it's that connection. It's the same thing. It's so beautiful. And so, ah, I'm excited. I can't wait.

All right, well, uh, there you go. There's your marching orders. fleetsuccesssummit.com. As always, if you guys have any questions, uh, or any follow-up if you want to ask you can send them to podcast@rtafleet.com. We can get you in touch with Sam if you want to reach out to him separately. But until next time, see ya.

See you guys later.

Thanks for joining us on this episode of the Fleet Success Show. If you like the show, we'd appreciate your 5-star review. Be sure to subscribe anywhere you listen to podcasts and come hang out with us us on social media at Fleet Success. See you next time.