Episode 185: Underdog to MVP: Promoting Yourself (and Your Fleet) the Right Way #fleetmanagement

This is the Fleet Success Show dedicated to helping you and your fleet succeed using the experience of fleet professionals and Hall of Fame fleet legends. The show that explores how the pillars of stakeholder satisfaction, intentional culture, resource efficiency, and risk management all combine to lead your fleet to success. We're glad you're here. Now let's get into the show.

Hi everybody, and welcome back to another episode of the Fleet Success Show. I am your host today, Mark Canton. I am joined by my good friend and colleague Facundo Tassera. Did I say that right, Facundo?

Very Italian with the last name, but yeah, try.

I'm trying to honor the, you know, the Argentinian Italian last part of the most beautiful Spanish in the world, according to me. Don't tell my wife I said that. She's Colombian. But it's really— it's really beautiful way to speak Spanish. But anyway, I'm Mark Anthony. I think most of you know me. Been in the fleet industry for approaching 30 years now. Ran a university fleet in New York City. Go Rams. Did consulting for a bunch of years. And now I find myself at RTA leading up product and consulting. And Facundo, a multi-year winner of many awards. Tell us a little bit about your background real quick.

So I started kind of like everybody else, wanting nothing to do with automotive. And I needed a part-time job in college. And so I said, Dad, you're going to hire me. And so he hired me. And started there at the front office, and then it kind of went from there, right? Which is like, hey, you're the owner's son. Now that you're kind of the owner's son, you're also kind of the manager. So learned to do that. Went to government fleet, couple different ones, went to tech startup, got recruited with the FBI somewhere in the middle there. That's always a fun story. And then here I am with RTA as a fleet success manager.

Awesome, dude. So listen, I wanted to have you on because obviously we— thanks to NAFSA, we've been getting to talk a little bit more than we normally do. We always talk, but we've gotten to spend a little time around lately, and, um, you've been getting hit up on LinkedIn and other spots, like, with requests from folks to, to hit certain topics, uh, for the show. And Josh and I, you know, we love that. We love to kind of respond to things people are asking for us to talk about. So you had one recently that I thought was super interesting, and I thought I'd have you on the show and we'd have a little conversation about it. What was that topic?

So it was, how do you promote oneself without being arrogant? That was a good one.

Now, that's interesting. Like, what do you say to people like me who my first instinct is, I don't know that you can.

There is definitely a fine line between talking about yourself. So when I say yourself, I'm also saying your fleet, right?

Your organization. Okay. Right. That's a key nuance.

Very key, right? Because if you don't promote yourself, who's going to? Or your organization, especially in fleet. So, yeah, but there still is a very fine line because at the end of the day, people are like, oh, here he is again talking about something he's done or, you know, or they've done or whatever. Right. So it's interestingly, you know, in the offsites we do the help certs, right? So yesterday we had our CS offsite and I got the feedback actually from someone on the CS team. They said that they were concerned that I was walking kind of the fine line between you know, this arrogance and, you know, promoting what you're doing. And I was like, you know, I really appreciate you bringing that to my attention because for me, I always tell people the way that I am with, with you, Mark, is the same way that I am with my kids. It's the same way that I am with Josh. It's the same way that I am with my previous city manager. It's just who I am, right? I like to have fun. I like to joke around. I don't wanna take myself seriously. And sometimes, you know, I make fun of myself, you know, poke fun at others, whatever it might be, right? It's, you just have fun. And, you know, I kind of made it, I took the note from that person or the, you know, calling you out.

Feedback.

Feedback, yeah. And I was just like, you know, I really appreciate you making me aware of that. So I'll make sure that I continue to pay attention to the way that I talk about whatever, right? Because now what I'm doing is, you know, you promote RTA a little bit, you promote what we're doing, you promote the folks that we have here. Um, there was a time where, you know, you have to— when you position yourself in the industry and as a leader or as somebody who can offer advice to somebody, you do have to tell a little bit about what you've done in the past to establish a little bit of credibility, right? So, um, anyway, that was kind of, uh, perfect timing, right? This had been on my mind and here we are just 24 hours later.

Yeah, but that's interesting because you mentioned like you promote yourself— you promote rather what RTA does, but you, you're really more promoting— I don't know, I feel like I read your stuff obviously a lot and I also know kind of what we're trying to do here, and you're promoting good practices, you're promoting opportunities for people to help themselves, to help others, right? It's not really about you or about saying, oh, look at us, we're so wonderful. That's not really what's going on here, right? So that's not the approach and that's good. You're not making it about you.

But sometimes you do kind of have to make it about you, right? Because when— here's the thing. So here's some feedback I got when I started speaking in front of— in trade shows, right? They're like, one thing that I really appreciate the way when you present is you'll lay out a fleet concept, you talk about something, and then you'll give us some context, usually a past experience of mine or something I've heard about, right? And what do you have to do when you're talking about that? Sometimes you can talk about how you screwed up, but other times you talk about how you had success. And so you walk again that fine line of, look, I'm not trying to brag here or whatever, this is just what happened. Sometimes you gotta brag a little bit, But, you know, it's— you do have to always be careful on the delivery and the things that you tell in the story to not make it seem like you're making it always about yourself, right?

Well, I totally agree with you there. Again, though, I feel like it's kind of a shared experience situation, right? You know, yeah, you're going to screw up sometimes, you're going to have some successes. Hey man, if you never had any successes, you wouldn't be up on stage giving that talk to folks, right? And folks certainly want to hear about you know, those things that worked and, and how they worked and why they worked and the evidence that they worked. And, uh, you know, so I think that's, that's a key piece to it. Um, and you mentioned— all right, so I want to go back to the top though, because you said your fleet. Now, you know, one of the things I believe is, you know, the best way to promote the fleet is to do that, to promote the fleet, right? And tell the story, tell it often, get out in front and tell it with data. And the focus in my mind is about all the wonderful accomplishments that your team has done, that as a group you've accomplished, that your customers have helped you accomplish, and so forth and so on. Because ultimately, that's what fleet is, right? It's like this network of, of stuff, of dots, right, that includes assets, includes people. And there's a lot of moving parts and a lot of expertise and a lot of effort that all have to happen, you know, time well timed in a certain way and in a certain order and in a certain flow for it to go right. And that's one of the reasons it's so complex, something, you know, I love to talk about. So, you know, when you promote the fleet, that's a little different than promoting yourself, right? Because I think it's pretty easy. And I think I would encourage folks, don't talk about yourself, right? Talk, talk about your team, talk about the work that the organization has done. Because obviously, if you're leading the fleet, it's a reflection of your leadership. You don't need to talk about yourself, right? What are your thoughts on that?

Yeah, I mean, I think one thing that I was about to say here and I completely let skip— lost my train of thought totally. But if you're not out there promoting yourself, who's, who's going to tell your story? I mean, let's be honest, right? The industry that we're in, in automotive fleet, whatever you want to call it, some industries you can start kind of like at neutral. I'm not even sure how I'm trying to explain this, but you start like you walk into an organization and you just walk in, there's no— you're walking in with your hands up or kind of on the defensive. In automotive, I'll give you one. When I was at my dad's shop, when you had a new customer that came in, they would immediately walk in with their hands up, right? Why? Because you're in automotive, you're in a tech mechanic shop, you're full of a bunch of technicians. They thought you were going to rip them off. So you already started kind of with this deficit of trying to gain their trust, right? And so there was some times where you had to talk about you know, this is how we talk with our customers, this is how we do business, this is why I'm the person that you should trust. So you do have to tell some stories about yourself or your organization or what you're doing, right? So there's no different in government fleet, right? Because that people still think about it that way, right? You're a cost center. Why should we give you any more money? Well, I need to tell you about my wins or things that we've been doing. When I say my, I mean my fleet. Why should you trust us with more money? Or why should you listen to us? Or why should you give us the time? Well, here's why.

I'll buy that. Yeah, I think that's a really good example, right? You know, in the end, sometimes you— and when you're talking about your past experiences before you were at this fleet, they almost default to being an I, even if they were a team win, right? Kind of a thing. Because from the perspective of the listener, you're the only person part of that team. In front of them. So, so that's interesting. So, so we've kind of gotten into this a little bit, but what are some other tips you might have, like, for people who are, you know, trying to promote themselves, trying to promote their fleet, trying to get out in front and get the, get the good message out there?

I always talk about knowing your elevator pitch, right? So you have to know that one way to promote yourself happened to me. Here we go, I'm telling a story about something that happened to me. I literally, in the city of Norfolk, I got into the elevator with the city manager on the 11th floor. Him and I are going down together. This is perfect. I have him locked in an elevator for my elevator pitch, right? So I started throwing things at him like, hey, some of the things we had accomplished, some of the things we want to do, some of our challenges. Went from there to the elevator, walked out to the parking lot with him. So I had a little bit of extra time, but I knew the things that I needed to talk about. And that It wasn't something because I'm brilliant and I'm smart and that's it. No, I kind of ripped that off from somebody else that told me at a fleet event that I had been to before, you know, you have to know these, you know, basic things, these fundamental facts about your fleet that you have to be able to talk about. Some of them may not be great. Some of them may be great, you know, things, ways that you've improved. So you have to be able to promote yourself in those ways, right? It could be your fleet needs, KPIs, accomplishments. I mean, all of those things are things that help or conversation starters or an opportunity to make an impact in front of the folks. Some of these elevator pitches might be with somebody you talk to randomly on the subway someday, right? 'Cause you talk to 'em and like, hey, what do you do? I run fleet management, or I'm in fleet management. Well, what does that do? You do this. Well, what do you guys, what matters to you? Well, here's some of the KPIs. That'll help in that way. But when you meet these key people, you need to be armed with those kinds of KPIs or that kind of data to be able to, so you know what you're talking about.

Right, right. Are there any, 'cause I think you make a good point. One of the things we talk a lot about here when we talk about KPIs or we teach a session on metrics or data management, one of the things that almost always comes up or is in almost all of our presentations, many of us have done it, is kind of knowing your audience. Right. So certain KPIs and certain measurements and certain facts are going to matter more to certain kinds of people than to others. Right. So that's a good point. Now, let's talk about this city manager, just to use as an example. What are the kinds of metrics? And I know we're going on a tangent. I promise I'll bring it back. But what— and it doesn't have to be metrics, but metrics or anything else. What are the key things that you would say to a fleet manager who's trying to get some airtime, trying to get some attention for whatever reason, they're fighting for resources, there's some issue that's coming down the pipe, whatever it may be. What are those like, you know, 2 or 3 or whatever count it is for you, things that you need to just have handy at all times?

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First of all, before you get into those key metrics, one thing you have to do is do your homework and understand what's important to that person that's running your organization.

Right.

Yeah.

So like, you know, sustainability was a thing for him, you know.

Good call. Yeah, good point.

Yeah. So, so sustainability was a thing for him. That was actually the reason that I was at City Hall. I had borrowed an electric vehicle from a manufacturer and I had it I took it down to the city manager's office. I said, here's the key. Let me know if you have any questions. Drive it for a couple of weeks, and then I'm going to tell you why I want to get that vehicle. And then I did the same thing with a hybrid. And so I let them drive it. So I knew those things were important to them. But the things that were important to them is like cost, those sorts of things. So then maybe asset availability. Why is that important?

How does it impact if we use this other green solution? How does that impact cost? How does that impact availability potential?

Yeah, so one of the key things that I had there, which, you know, it may or may not be in the top few, I think for me it might be, is PM compliance, right? So why is it important that people are bringing in their vehicles, right?

Yeah, I'd say I agree with you.

You know, so the other thing was how productive are our technicians, you know? So how many hours are they billing in the course of a year? And when you review that, right, when I came in is, well, why does that matter? Well, because then I can look at, well, are they billing correctly? Then we talk about efficiency. Are they taking 3 hours on a 1-hour job?

Yeah, but to your point, if your argument is I need more techs, then you better know this is how many hours my techs can bill. This is how many they are billing. If your argument is, hey, I need to replace some people here, we got some bad apples, You need to know this is how many tech hours techs should be able to bill. This is what they're doing, you know, those sorts of things. So yeah, that's a good point. So know your audience and know your message. Uh, and, and that should come out of a combination of what they care about and what, what you care about. Somehow trying to blend those two things together, uh, to get your point across. Right. And so there's a, there's an embedded element here that I kind of skipped, but I like, we're talking around it, but it, you know, it's kind of implied like there's this concept, I think, of who you're talking to, right? I think you might say get in front of the right people or something like that. I think I've heard you say that in the past. So, you know, talk to me about that. What do you— you know, what is your concept there? Because for you, what you're— I'm putting words in your mouth, but I've heard you say it before. You know, Tony and I, and Steve to a degree, we talk a lot about telling your story, telling your story with data, getting out in front, controlling the narrative, all that jazz. But I think you add an element, which is, and make sure the right people are hearing that story, right? So what are your thoughts there?

So one of the things that— the way that I had— so it was a little tough for me in the city of Norfolk because that building was, you know, downtown, right? And the people that I needed to get in front of were typically between floors 8 and 11, and my shop was clear across town. And so, well, how do I do that? How do I get in front of them without just randomly appearing like You know, some weird guy, right? You know, so—

Using those FBI skills, baby.

Yeah, it's like one of these, like, here we go, like—

Sneaking into janitor's closet. Yeah, right?

You come out right in front of him. So what I did was I told the staff over at Fleet, I said, look, anytime you get a call from these departments, especially the city manager's office, you let me know and I will personally pick up, drop off, whatever I need to do to get in front of them, right? I don't want them delivering the vehicles or calling to have the vehicles picked up, whatever. Like if they need something, you let me know and then, you know, I'll go there and pick it up. So I started doing that. I would go downtown and I would, you know, I started talking to the receptionist and like, hey, how you doing, blah, blah, blah. And then, oh, this is Facundo, he's from, you know, he's visiting from Fleet. And oh, here comes Marcus and here comes Sabrina and here comes these other folks. And so they knew who I was now, right? And then they saw that I was dressed the part, you know, that I was trying to change the perception of Fleet, right? So getting in front of those people, I learned that Beth, the head of purchasing, liked coffee. Great. I like coffee too. Let's go get coffee, right? And so when things started to go out to purchasing, I had a direct— I could text her, hey, Beth, what's going on with this? Right? Like, you have to get yourself in front of those key people.

So is that like, uh, memorizing the— their— what is the thing today, right? Memorizing someone's Starbucks, uh, order? Yeah, it's like a— it's like a term of endearment these days. Oh, you know the star?

Whatever it takes, right? Like, you know, uh, Marcus used to like to— you know, he used to like to run, right? I hate running. Um, and so we would have these, uh, 5Ks in our neighborhood I think it was once a year. I really dreaded running for, you know, kind of getting ready for that. But I knew that I was going to run into Marcus there in a different element and just chit-chat with him and see this different side of who I was. And it helped, right? Because it just— it started building this relationship, this sense of trust. You know, my family was there with me like, oh, this is your wife, this is your wife, these are your kids. Yeah.

You know, it made you a human being.

Exactly.

So in a good way.

Yeah. So, so, you know, Talking to these people, these key players in different spots, right? Like the other one was the sustainability manager. Hey, sustainability manager, if you can get your hands on whatever money, here's my idea to do sustainability for the city of Norfolk. And by the way, I changed our, you know, our mission and our vision to include certain things to kind of intertwine it to what's going on downtown, right? To show you that I'm a team player here, right? We're all going in the same direction.

Yeah, yeah, very good. That's so— that's interesting because that's really— to kind of dovetail that a little bit, you know, one of the things I know you've heard me say, I know, here, you know, here at Nauseam, is the struggle that so many fleet managers have with getting replacement funds, right? And sustainability and replacement today are in, you know, what's the word, intrinsically intertwined or something like that. You know, because that's what we're talking about, right? We're talking about potentially replacing ICE vehicles with something that's other than ICE. And so, and so it's an opportunity for people certainly to tell the story. But kind of putting that aside, you know, just in general, it's really hard to argue for additional resources if no one is listening. And you're not seriously you know, being considered. So, you know, when I hear your thought, I, I'm aware. I mean, I know more than— I mean, I know way too many fleet managers who will say to me, Mark, I can't, just can't get them to listen. And we give them tools and we give them data and all that, but this is sort of a different tool in the toolbox, which is, hey man, go, go make— go meet them, go make sure they know who you are. And that, that might expedite, you know, you still got to do the data, right? Your point— I don't want to put words in your mouth, but You got to be legit because if you're a phony, you'll get found out fairly quickly.

You know, the data, right? Like, so, um, I don't know, let's take the, the, the, the mother of them all, right? Fleet availability. You give fleet availability to the city manager and he's going to be like, great, this is whatever it is, 95%, hopefully, this is perfect. He has no idea what that may or may not mean. No idea. So like you said earlier, How do you translate that into something that makes sense to them? Typically, safety, dollars and cents, sustainability, saving time, all of those things. It's 95% asset availability, and here's why this is important to you. You got to make that, that translation, or else it, it means nothing. You know, I always— so, you know, we were talking about one time, I was I remember at a meeting, we were talking about the condition of fire apparatus. And, you know, they were talking about just the maintenance of them and the cost and all these things. I was like, look, I wanna walk you through something, and I just want you to think about this. When somebody calls 911, that's the first part. Person's gotta answer the phone. They have to dispatch. The people have to receive that. They have to jump in the truck. Here's where it gets interesting for fleet. Truck has to turn on. Cool. Has to make it to wherever it's going, to a fire, for example. Has to make it to the fire. Great. Now the most important part is the equipment on board has to be there. It has to work. Otherwise it's just a pretty expensive red piece of metal that just made it there.

Maybe on wheels, maybe red, you know.

So I've seen some white ones or something.

Yeah, and yellow and whatever, right?

So, um, but, but unless you paint the picture of all these different things, right? It's not like a traditional sedan where you get in and you drive it and you typically, you know, mission accomplished. Not for a fire truck, you know? So I had to tell the story of why it's so important to maintain them and PM them on time and all of these different things, because there's so many different steps that driving the thing to the event is only, I don't know if you want it, let's just call it half the, you know, situation, right?

Yeah, it's a good point. What, you know, what you're doing is— so, so we're talking about telling the story, uh, and I think some of the tips you're given here are how to make sure essentially you have a captive audience, you have an audience that's paying attention, let's say, and then it's hitting home for them, right?

It's hitting home for them, right?

And it's hitting home, right? So it's, it's sort of another tool in the toolbox, or several more tools, and I love it, right? So I stand by telling your story with data. You just kind of express that. But you make a great point. You need to be able to articulate it. You need to be able to take that and turn it into something real for people. And you need to make sure people are listening and hearing it. And one of the best ways to do that is to establish relationships with people, uh, fundamentally, right? Um, so that's, that's a really interesting point.

And one thing I learned from our marketing folks is don't be afraid to repeat stories, right? Because just because I told you the story doesn't mean that other people heard the story. So sometimes if you feel like you're repeating yourself, you probably are, but you probably should.

Right, that's an interesting thought. But what's the rule? You have to say it 7 times before people remember it. So, um, you know, that's interesting. And there's another thing here, Facundo, you're touching on, um, but there's a relentless, relentlessness to the, to the approach you're talking about, right? Um, I'm not taking no for an answer, and not in a I'm a tough guy jerk sort of a way, but in a I'm not going to give up and throw my hands up Because let's be honest, we've seen way too many fleet managers will do that, right? They just, they give up. They, it's a struggle. There are things that are challenging, whether it's the replacement, like I said, or they can't get a tech hired, or, you know, whatever it may be, or the culture in the shop is terrible, or whatever it may be, you know, and then, oh, it's HR, I can't hire someone, it takes too long, I can't fire someone. You get a lot of throwing your hands up in our industry. And once, once you do that, you've lost. Now it's over, right? Um, and so part of the message I'm hearing you say is that's not okay. Is that fair? I know I'm putting words in your mouth a little bit, but that's part of why you're doing the things you're talking about doing, correct?

And then also, timing is everything, right? You can't start to promote— you can't start to promote your organization, yourself, whatever you're trying to get in front of people and talk about. You can't meet him for the first time and give them a couple nuggets and be like, "And I need $500,000." You definitely can't do that, right? It took— I mean, I don't remember how long it took before I really had to ask. I mean, there was a couple of times that I received an order that we should have— that was supposed to be canceled by purchasing. It wasn't, and it was delivered, and I was at an event, and they had that vehicle there for me. And they were like, okay, well, the rest of them are— they were just delivered to your shop, but I wanted to bring this because I knew you were going to be at this event today. And it was like $280,000, right? So I had to go to the city manager's office. Luckily, after I had established the relationships and they knew what I was doing, and I was like, yeah. So I called Sabrina. I always joke about this with Sabrina. I'm still in touch with her. I was like, hey, do you remember that time where I called for forgiveness? And so I had to call her. And the first thing I said, I'm like, hey, Sabrina, I got to ask for forgiveness. She's like, uh-oh, what happened? So I had to tell her, hey, look, we got these vehicles, they were on order, we canceled them. Apparently that cancellation didn't make it through to the dealer. So they're here and I have an invoice for us and it's $200,000 and whatever it is. And, you know, so, all right, so meet me, meet me at the city manager's office. We're going to talk with Marcus. And so Marcus comes out from an office and Winter comes around the corner. He's like, oh, you're here for the pitch? Another pitch? I was like, yeah, you know, we'll see how this one goes. And so I had to, talk about what happened. And they were like, okay, cool, we know what you're trying to do. You've made us aware of what you're trying to do. You've told us why we should do it. Um, so you'll have the funds in your account tomorrow to be able to pay. And I was like, that's it? $200,000 and some bucks? They're like, yeah, that's it.

Oh wow.

Yeah. Yeah.

And have you mentioned where this was on, on, on video yet? Because it's gonna have a lot of people applying for a job there next week.

What's that? Some of those— some of the people that are still there, you mean?

Yeah, yeah.

Some of that— all of those folks have moved on to different organizations. This was years ago.

Like every fleet manager listening to this right now is like, I want to work there. Yeah.

No, sorry. Those guys have moved on. Those guys have moved on. They're still good guys though. Good guys and gals.

That's awesome. Yeah, that's awesome. All right, man. With that, are there any other sort of tips or tricks or any other pieces of this maybe we haven't hit yet?

Yeah, I think I mentioned it briefly, but You're doing all these things, right? You're promoting yourself, you're promoting your organization, you're talking about the great things that you're doing, you know, your elevator pitch, you're getting in front of the right people. Don't forget that impression, that first impression. They'll remember that, right? And then when you meet them again, or when they introduce you to somebody, dress the part. And typically what I always recommend is, you know, dress similar to the folks that you're going to be talking to. Right. So if you're going downtown, if I knew I'm going to be going downtown, the new thing— people started coming to fleet management in Norfolk. They're like, whoa, who are you? I'm like, well, I'm the fleet manager. They're like, oh, we thought you'd be— why are you so dressed up? I'm like, well, this is just the way that I dress because I'm trying to change the game here. I wasn't wearing a suit and a tie, but I was wearing a blazer and slacks with no tie. That was my typical thing. And so, you know, if it was super important, maybe I'd wear a tie for whatever. But when I would go then run into the city manager and those folks, the only thing that they were wearing different than I was was likely just a tie. And so now I'm trying to put myself on their level so they can see that, like, hey, just because I'm in fleet management doesn't mean that we can't talk the same and respect the same and all those things, right?

So, I mean, let's, let's pause on that because you're talking really— you're talking psychology here, right? You're breaking down sort of in, you know, psychological mental barriers, innate, for lack of a better word, biases that all human beings have, right? All human beings are guilty of this. I'm not trying to— but what you're saying, you're making a statement by dressing like the people you're talking to, which is, hey, I'm on your level, hey, I'm one of you, right? Which, which, let's be honest, with Fleet, I talk about it a lot. One of the challenges is people don't respect and don't appreciate just how complex and how difficult it is to be a great fleet organization. And I want to call out exactly what I think you're saying, which is the sort of the start point is, or the assumption is, oh, you're less sophisticated because you're a grease monkey or you're turning wrenches and you can't speak my language, or you're maybe even not as intelligent if we're being honest, right? And that's— I know a lot of fleet people like myself, have had to break down that barrier. I'm sure a lot of folks can speak to that. And that's really what you're calling out here, right? You weren't going to let anybody sort of corner you or peg you into a particular stereotype. Am I putting words in your mouth, or is that 100% accurate?

Right. You have to dress the part, right? You have to show them that, you know, this is— what you're representing is a team of professionals. Yes, they happen to be technicians or fleet professionals or people that work in and around vehicles. Yes, but they are professionals in what they do. So I'm going to dress professionally to represent them on your level.

Right. Yeah, that's interesting. And I think that's really great advice because a lot of folks worked up the chain and they're not used to that. Maybe they came through the wrench turning and sort of worked up through a fleet supervisor. And certainly you got to wear the appropriate gear for the work you're doing. Um, and then I think there's like a reverse, right? There's, you know, you know, I've seen this as well, right? Oh, this guy's a suit, this gal's a suit, they don't know anything about fleet, they're an administrator that the city put in here, uh, to watch us kind of a thing. And you might have some of the reverse that you have to overcome.

Yeah, right. And a little, a little secret— sorry to cut you off— but yeah, sometimes when, you know, when you're dressing the part, you're going to get invitations to places that you typically wouldn't get invited to. Right. So like different meetings or, hey, you know what? You made a good point that other meeting. Why don't you come to this other meeting that has nothing to do with fleet? You know, we'd like to have your perspective.

Right. But, and you've told other stories, I think, on this show, and at least to me personally, about the other side of this right now. How do you maintain— what you don't want to do is alienate yourself from the people who are in the shop.

Right, right, right.

So talk, talk to me for a second about that. Like, how do you maintain that balance? Now here you are going into fleet every day in a jacket.

Yeah, well, I think so. So one of the things that when I really started doing— I started doing this in the city of Ormond Beach, but it was a little bit more laid back, right? It was a beach town, so it was a lot more laid back. I really turned it up in the city of Norfolk, and a lot really had to do with the hierarchy, the structure of the organization, right? So it was the fleet manager, it was me, and then I had a business manager and an assistant fleet manager. And the business manager had everybody in the office under him. The assistant fleet manager had all the supervisors reporting to him. It was a really nice structure, right? And so I told them, I was like, look, I'm not asking you guys to do anything differently, but you know that a lot of the things that I need to do, I need to do really outside this building. I trust that you guys have this place under control. What I'm here to do is to turn things around, to get more respect, to get money, to replace lifts that are leaking into the ground, you know, all of these things that I have to do, and I can't do that here. I have to do that somewhere else, right? So I'm not gonna ask you to do anything differently, but I'm gonna, this is the way that I'm going to represent Fleet. And that message started to be spread throughout Fleet. So then when I started walking through the shop some days, because I didn't forget to walk around the shop too, right? So I high-fived people and talked to people and put myself, One key tip, if you follow a terrible football team like the Washington Redskins back in the day and everybody else happens to be a fan of somebody else that they would play, I would always go to the shop on purpose on Mondays so people could talk trash to me, right? So they would be like, oh, you know, we beat the Redskins or whatever, you know, just to have a little bit of fun. But they knew what I was doing, right? So they didn't— there was no change in the technician's attitude by seeing me walking through the shop in that way. They knew what I was doing.

I think that's an important point. So, and it's also interesting to hear you describe your role, right? You were the ambassador of Fleet to the city, if you want to call it that.

Yeah, sure.

I mean, yeah, right? Like kind of, uh, you know, I'm just listening to how you described to your assistant and your business managers there, right? So yeah, that's, that's an interesting thought. And, and, you know, obviously every organization is a little bit different depending on, you know, your staff and how many you have. If you're tiny, if you're large, etc., those roles can be a little bit different. But if you're the fleet manager, at least part of your week needs to be just that, right? Ambassador or representative of fleet. So that's great, man. I think with that, we're going to, we're going to wrap it up and call it a podcast here. I really appreciate your insight and your input. It was really cool having you on. And, you know, if you guys have any other ideas that you want to suggest to us, you know, Facundo is super active on LinkedIn. You can hit me on LinkedIn. But of course, you can email us at podcast@rtafleet.com. We love to hear your thoughts. We love to hear your ideas and your questions for topics or, you know, who you want to see on the show, whatever it may be. We love your suggestions. So Facundo, thank you so much for spending some time with me. I know it's late on a Friday. I'm recording in Arizona. You're out east in Florida. You're being super cool about that. I appreciate it. It's a pleasure talking with you, my friend. It was a pleasure seeing you at NAAFA last week as well. And I'm looking forward to seeing you again soon.

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