Go, go, go, that's the Darrin Bauer way. He's a third-generation owner of the successful Arnie Bauer Buick GMC Cadillac dealership in Matteson, IL. Darrin is committed to customer satisfaction and quality service. It's the cornerstone of his success. It was through a loss that he's learned the importance of taking time to enjoy life.
Go, go, go, that's the Darrin Bauer way. He's a third-generation owner of the successful Arnie Bauer Buick GMC Cadillac dealership in Matteson, IL. Darrin is committed to customer satisfaction and quality service. It's the cornerstone of his success. It was through a loss that he's learned the importance of taking time to enjoy life.
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Dave
I think we've started the podcast. Thank you for participating. I think, obviously for.
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Darrin
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Dave
Everybody that's listening. Darrin and I are very good friends. We've been friends since we were children. For some reason, I became his next door neighbor.
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Darrin
I told him to go ahead and look at the house next door. I said, Hey, it's for sale. Why don't you look at it? I went on vacation and about a month and a half later. I said, Hey, you ever look at that house next door? I said, Yeah, right. He goes, I bought it.
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Dave
There we go.
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Darrin
Dave moved next door.
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Dave
You were like unbelievable. It is. All this is a subject for a whole other podcast. By the way.
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Darrin
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Dave
All kinds of stories there. But no, thank you for for doing this. I think you've got a lot to offer. You're in good company with a lot of the other business owners and eventually we'll get into some bigger companies that aren't necessarily business owners and entrepreneurs, but more president CEO types to offer their perspective. So you've been in business for a long, long time.
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Dave
You're a third generation owner of a dealership, really now multiple dealerships and started by your grandfather, your father, and now you. And there's a long history dating back to 1945. You've had an enormous amount of success and of course like any business challenges and difficulties along the way that you've overcome and those are some things we want to talk about.
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Dave
We want to talk about.
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Darrin
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Dave
those things so that people listening can learn, you know, maybe develop their own ideas on how to not necessarily run, you know, start and run a dealership or build a dealership, but just business in general as well. Let's go through the whole history so I understand it. Your grandfather, Ernie Bower, started the business in 1945. Correct me if I'm wrong, he started out as an Oldsmobile dealership.
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Dave
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Darrin
Yep, Super Motor Sales.
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Dave
Super Motor Sales. This is something I didn't know. His partner was Spurty. We think Harold Spurty was a banker.
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Darrin
So my Grandfather Arnie was the sales guy.
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Dave
OK
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Darrin
And he needed backing. So Spurty, I believe, was the guy that backed him. There may have been a third guy involved at one time, but he got out quickly. So they were partners and they made it work. And then a few years later, they added Cadillac to it. So it was Oldsmobile Cadillac for years.
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Dave
I think this is interesting because, you know, Arnie Bower has been in the community for so long.
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Darrin
Our 77th year.
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Dave
77th year. And, and people that know you, people that have been buying cars for years this is your family history. This is, this is interesting. You know, a lot of people probably don't know know about some of this. So he starts it in 1948. He goes ahead and adds Cadillac and then down the road he ends up buying out Spurty. He sells the Oldsmobile brand in the early sixties or the rights to it and then he moves into Chicago Heights in 1965 and then you and I start to come into the world right about then.
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Darrin
We actually they moved into the dealership the month I was born so that was it and they had to sell Cadillac wanted to have only Cadillac standalone dealers. So just Cadillac, nothing else in the showroom.
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Dave
OK, that was.
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Darrin
That's why he was forced to sell Oldsmobile. That was a decision back in the sixties.
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Dave
He thought that was a good move. So he went ahead with that. Stayed in business for a number of years. And then Denny Bower, your father comes in and takes over as.
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Darrin
The operating dealer. Yeah. Now, my grandfather, to my knowledge, he was there most of the time, but he never really relinquished all control. But he would start to go away for the winners and then he'd come back and then still work there every day, but he'd be gone in the winter.
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Dave
So it's just kind of a transition period. Right. And but also, your dad had some brothers that were in the business earlier.
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Darrin
So my father has two brothers. They were both in the business. Bob was the oldest and he was the salesman of the group, I guess you'd say. That's what he always focused on.
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Dave
OK.
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Darrin
My Uncle Dave, he was always more in the office. He wasn't as much of a salesperson. He'd work in the back but a lot more in the office. My father was the youngest and he was more the accountant of the group. And even though and he would sell too, but he was more watching. So they all did something different in the store.
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Darrin
And that's probably why it worked for so long, is that they didn't overlap in each other. That's probably why the three of them could work together with their father in one store. There's a lot of family, a lot of mouths to feed. Yeah, right. I after I came along, I didn't have any other family. It was just me.
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Darrin
So I don't know what my father went through. I'm glad I didn't have to deal with it, so I'm glad it was just me. I don't know how I would have done with working with two other people.
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Dave
Right. Family members. You know, that's another podcast. I mean, you know, working with family is sometimes tricky. A lot of potential good can come out of it, but a lot of potential conflict as well as it's not always easy. Eventually at GMC right. Now we're into the 80's. 1988 roughly. This is just after we graduate high school.
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Darrin
Yes.
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Dave
They add GMC right. So Cadillac you know back in the seventies and eighties it's a it's a symbol. It is you know it's a status right. So a lot of people that are buying Cadillacs, especially those bigger older cars back then, you know retirees, people that have, you know, had a little bit of money. And so you're selling to a very specific target market, right.
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Dave
I mean you're not it's not necessarily you know, the college kid or the 20 something that's getting their first job. Right. It's and so I assume you want to grow, right? So you want you want to add some new vehicles.
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Darrin
Yep. So I went to Northern Illinois along with somebody else we know pretty well. Yeah. And that was in the eighties. I graduated 88.
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Dave
OK.
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Darrin
My father acquired GMC, I want to say in January, February of 1988 just before I graduated.
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Dave
OK.
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Darrin
And it was all about diversification. We went through being just a Cadillac dealer through some good times and bad times and just like anybody, nobody invests in one stock and holds it alone. They diversify and there's no difference. You know, I'm more stable if I have different oars in the water. So that's where he decided back in 88.
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Dave
And this, what you just said, this is something that you're probably constantly thinking about even today as you're evolving and how to diversify, how to protect yourself, how to deal with the, the, the unknowns. Right. You eventually move to Matteson Auto Mall in Matteson Illinois. And I never know how to pronounce it right, cause it's spelled Matt-i-sen but I think Madison.
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Darrin
Matt-i-sen that's what the people want you to say. But customers come to the same bunch of different things. I'm OK anyway. And at one time this was when we opened it here. It was largest auto mall in the country. It's located on a major expressway just south of another major expressway, and it was the largest auto mall in the country.
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Dave
And then 2006, you acquire Pontiac and Buick. Oh, my God. Now, you're really getting aggressive.
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Darrin
We went ahead. Although I know I gave you a few notes there. Yeah, I will tell you in approximately 03 or four, we were going to go in partnership with the local dealer here. He had Oldsmobile. You may not know this. He had Oldsmobile and Buick. We had Cadillac and GMC.
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Dave
OK.
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Darrin
So at that time, GM wanted Cadillac, Oldsmobile dealers together. So we were going to go into partnership with them and we're going to have Cadillac Oldsmobile in one store and then Buick, GMC in another. So we actually applied. We came to an agreement, we applied to General Motors. It was just taking quite a while for an approval. I'll never forget it when I was outside, because we live in Chicago and we get snow in the winter.
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Darrin
And one of the worst parts, the worst part about my business is when we have to go ahead and scrape the snow off of every car and move every car and plow the whole lot. And then when you're done, you get the privilege of moving them back to where they were in the first place. So I was outside scraping it.
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Darrin
My father came out, he goes, You're not going to believe this. I said, What? He goes, GM just killed Oldsmobile. I said, What do you mean? He goes, Its brand is discontinued, and therefore we never went into partnership with the people. And that was the first brand to go. So not to say it all duplicates itself, but we want to expand.
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Darrin
We had an opportunity to get Pontiac and Buick. Pontiac at the time was a very large seller in Chicago. And very popular. They would flirt with getting close to Chevrolet, which is by far bigger brand. So we had it for we had a store where we had Cadillac, Buick, GMC and Pontiac. While when the economy started to collapse, GM GM went ahead and then killed Pontiac.
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Darrin
So we had the privilege. We bought it. We bought this franchise for a large sum. We had the privilege of selling it just for a short, short time. So we never really recouped our investment. OK, anywhere near anywhere near the investment.
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Dave
Didn't see it coming.
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Darrin
Does not see them killing Pontiac and you assume they would kill Buick. One of the reasons, because Buick is an iconic model in China, and they were selling triple the amount in China as they were in the United States. Something to that effect?
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Dave
Wow, and how is Buick doing today?
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Darrin
Buick has done Buick has done very well. We've done very well with Buick, where it was an old person's car. They're great cars and appeals to a bunch of ages. A lot of ages.
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Dave
Yes, I'll say 2009, ten we hit. That was a big, scary period for a lot of people. The economic collapse. I know for my business that it was a learning experience. What happened in your world in that during that collapse?
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Darrin
So in our the car business was going along fine. 20 and in September we had a we had a good month and in the car business we look at it by month for the most part. It was a good month. September 30th it was fine. October 1st nobody walked in the door looking for a car and it sounds like a big exaggeration from one day to the next. It was not. So the second day I think we had October 2nd we had one person come in a car like this a strange. Third day nobody came in looking for car and that was the beginning of the disaster.
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Dave
How long did it take you to realize that, hey, this is concerning.
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Darrin
Three days in a row where nobody's walking in the door? Yeah, that was that was a little strange.
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Dave
OK.
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Darrin
And then what preceded therefore right after that was just was just unbelievable was just where we had that quarter by far was the worst quarter we've ever had. It was the worst. That quarter was worse than almost any year we did well. So it was just unbelievable how bad that was. We still have cars, OK? So we when we get a car and we finance our cars just like a lot of people do.
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Darrin
So I don't own every car on our lot. I finance them. And then when I sell them I pay them off just like a customer would over five years. Well, they were still coming in because I ordered them and they can come in for the next two months to three months. Well, we weren't selling cars, but the cars ordered were still coming in.
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Dave
Inventory is going up.
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Darrin
But it's going up and nobody's walking in the door to get rid of inventory. And every dealer's in the same situation and the costs are just increasing, increasing because my interest cost is just skyrocketing and there's no relief in sight because I can't get rid of the cars right.
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Dave
You've got to you got to think through this. What are you doing? What are you in a survival mode?
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Darrin
During the first month, later in the month, we adjusted to skinny up a few things. During the next month when we started, nothing else was happening. Going into December. It was survival mode because we just made a major investment in Pontiac and Buick. We never recouped it. We still have to pay on that. So then Pontiac went away shortly after that.
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Darrin
I guess the point is, we went ahead and we all got together trying to figure out what to do. Everybody's getting everything up. And when it came time to it, I put every penny I had back in. Family did. And we just tried to survive. We skinnied up as much as we can.
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Dave
Skinny up meaning you're reducing operations somehow, every cost.
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Darrin
Yeah, absolutely. You know, if you want to stay here, we reduced your pay,. Not that we wanted to. You don't have to. But at that time, somebody in the car business, you couldn't go anywhere and get a job.
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Dave
Because we all we all share in the success. So we're all going to share in the pain a little bit.
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Darrin
That's exactly right. Not something we wanted to do, but it was that or I have to let people go. All right. And at no point, do I want to do that. That's not enjoyable for anybody. Especially them or me. So that was that was the hardest part that lasted in through 2009. 2009 did get better until later on in the year.
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Darrin
But that was that was the rough part. That's when gas prices spiked, too. I can't remember, 08 or nine gas prices went crazy and people reacted just like that.
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Dave
Right. And at some point, so maybe let's say 2010 because you're saying it lasted through nine, you start to see some signs of recovery. Right. And things will improve and then you can normalize. But now you're like, phew, you know, we made it. We made we survived. Now you start thinking, what did I learn?
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Dave
What did I learn from that whole experience? What am I going to do different? And I, I don't know too many people. I mean, I do know some that were completely unaffected during that period, but most people I know were affected during that downturn in some way, shape or form. I know I learned a lot. Would did you start thinking about what am I going to do differently going forward?
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Darrin
After the initial chopping of everything we had to do, whether it be advertising, whether the only thing we couldn't stop is our one of our large expenses interest because of all the vehicles. We still had the vehicles. We couldn't get rid of the vehicles that was still there. We couldn't do anything about that. But as oh nine went through and you kept skinnying skinnying, everything up, you just reestablished your cost levels.
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Darrin
So as it went on and as we went through oh nine went through ten realized that we have to keep these costs in line. What what's the minimum you could do, you feel the pain and then relax a little bit. So if you're really trying to cut things out, it was hurt too much and then go ahead and relax a little bit and add a little bit.
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Darrin
And then that was kind of where things and I'll tell you to this day, there's different dealers we'll talk to and things like that. I remember that. And when things get a little out of line we constantly go back and look. What if it turns like it did on a day? We have to be prepared so we're OK.
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Darrin
You felt something like that.
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Dave
Going back to your previous comments, you know, diversification. Right. And you can only control so much. I think moving forward, we we decided that we wanted to fill up a few more baskets, diversify, serve some different industries, but also always managing our position, you know, being a little more fiscally responsible, even in good times, because that'll help you float through the bad times, right?
00:16:00:14 - 00:16:16:02
Dave
Yeah, for sure. We learned a lot, but but also just calculated risks. You know, in my younger years, just it's just throwing money at things and throwing money at problems and going all in on things that it was more calculated risk.
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Darrin
Absolutely. That's the way we adjust now.
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Dave
You've grown your company through sales. You've grown your company through diversification by adding new product lines that we didn't talk about used cars. Because eventually you focused more on use cars, right?
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Darrin
Correct. It's another brand.
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Dave
Another brand.
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Darrin
Yes. Early on, when I was very young in the business, we did not focus on used cars and therefore that cost us when things get turbulent. You want as many things balancing you out is can be. If you're all in one. If you're all in one basket, you're not going to help yourself when there's a problem. You may rise up
00:16:51:07 - 00:17:03:18
Darrin
when it's very good in that basket, but when it's not. You want to balance out. So that's one thing we did. We hired somebody and he helped us. He helped us open our eyes. And we've continued that trend ever since.
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Dave
You've got all these different brands, you've got high end expensive vehicles and SUV, you've got sedans and cars that parents can provide to their kids. You've got used cars maybe that, you know, a college kid to have. You've got really everything now, right? And so if there's changes or trends in the market, you've got all different directions you can go, right?
00:17:27:16 - 00:17:47:10
Dave
This has provided this tremendous growth. And, you know, some of the metrics you gave me that that are a testament to that growth, you were $70 million in sales company, grew to 92 million in 1981. Million in 2021 and even even you admitted you had to look up some of these numbers right. I mean it's probably.
00:17:47:11 - 00:18:11:01
Dave
I mean which is interesting, right. So you know a lot of companies manufacturing for instance will look at sales growth because they know, you know they're they know that's a metric that you the stockholders are going to look at or they know they're there. What the bottom line is you're focused on something different right. You know a number of vehicles sold, you know, and the profits that you get from that because that's what supports your operation.
00:18:11:01 - 00:18:13:07
Dave
Right. So it's not always that top line, right?
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Darrin
Correct. Our sales volume will somewhat trickle down, but depends how effective we are with everything. How effective are you controlling your costs? How effective are you in other parts of the business? Doesn't matter as much. The group, you know, the gross sales. It just does matter just what the net is you know, like I had such a set of numbers and look them up because I haven't looked at them for a long time, you know, but we were it took us a long time to get to a thousand vehicles and what was it in 2019?
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Darrin
We had 2000. We probably would have still kept going until the till the Covid hit.
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Dave
Right.
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Darrin
Well that was a, that's a whole different story we might touch upon later but.
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Dave
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
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Darrin
So yeah. So we have to look at how we think we did great. How it affected us in the bottom line. That's what I look at. And when we think we're doing well, are we doing well? So the numbers we have to look and see what we did comparable to everybody else. So if we think we had a good month, we can be happy.
00:19:19:05 - 00:19:33:02
Darrin
We might look out there and say, Oh, look at what happened out in the market. We were we did do a good job. You know, look at where we are. We know we're usually about here. Hey, look at us. We rank up here. What if we have a great month and we're usually here and we were down here?
00:19:33:19 - 00:19:53:13
Darrin
We may have thought we had a great month, but compared to what was out there being sold, we didn't. So we gave ourselves a pat the back when really we should gave a kick in the ass and vice versa. You know, I think it's important to see what's going on out there around you in our monthly cycles.
00:19:53:19 - 00:20:03:12
Darrin
This has been different in Covid just because the product is so erratic. So that's a little bit different nowadays. But otherwise, for every other year, that that's what we try to look at.
00:20:03:22 - 00:20:11:05
Dave
OK, and are you then are you the numbers guy? Are you looking at all that detail and trying to make course corrections?
00:20:11:05 - 00:20:17:06
Darrin
And so I will be quite honest, accounting was never my strong suit in college. I took the class.
00:20:17:19 - 00:20:19:11
Dave
I know you got some outside help twice.
00:20:19:21 - 00:20:51:03
Darrin
Right? Same textbook twice. But that's a different story. But so now my father, who's 80, he's here all the time. He does the same thing all the time. He goes away for the winter a little bit more now. But he's the numbers guy in the background. That's what he really enjoys. I surround myself with people that are very good with that, but when it comes down to the sales and where we are and directionally where we need to be, yeah, that's kind of where I, that's where I kind of let everybody know what we need do.
00:20:51:11 - 00:21:01:02
Darrin
OK, here's what I need. So if we do all these if we hit all these metrics, I don't have to worry about the bottom because I know we're going to be good. We hit these metrics, then I know we're going to be good.
00:21:01:02 - 00:21:28:24
Dave
Hitting numbers, focusing on numbers. Very important. But it's not always about numbers, right? Numbers evolve. Numbers take care of themselves when you're doing other things right. You know, you're building your brand, doing good by your customers, right? Your customers are your most important asset. How do you see yourself as different from other dealerships and dealerships, car dealerships? I mean, you know, over time they have a bit of a bad rap.
00:21:28:24 - 00:21:48:09
Dave
So you're fighting you're fighting an uphill battle because, you know, the bad dealerships give the good ones, you know, make it harder for them. Right. And so customers aren't always easy to come in and trust trust a dealership or trust a car salesman. Right. What makes party power different? What do you do better than other dealerships?
00:21:48:13 - 00:22:11:08
Darrin
There's different dealerships that go ahead and are more associated with what's around them. Some people are some people run it as a flat out. This is my business. I distance myself from it when I'm over, when it's I'm not there. I'm not that way. I'm more of a personable person. So my office, although you can't see it right now, but my office has one door and it's a glass door and a glass wall.
00:22:11:10 - 00:22:31:12
Darrin
I think if somebody wanted to find me. Dave, is it pretty simple? And I care. This is what it is. Somebody walks in the showroom. I see arguably everybody that walks in the shop. Yes. I have no problem being out there and I enjoy talking to customers. We try to take care of our people, take care of our people, take care of the public.
00:22:31:17 - 00:22:47:17
Darrin
OK, so when I'm when I'm out there, if we're out for dinner, if we're out socializing I'll have customers come up to me all the time and talk to me. I'm going to tell you because I thought I'd been thinking about different things. But we're going to talk about. Every time I'm out there, people come up and say, oh, I love my Enclave.
00:22:47:17 - 00:23:12:21
Darrin
I love my XT5, you know this and I didn't know it had this feature. So that's great. 20 some years of just living the time we live in. I had 1 time I had somebody come up to me and I was out and he went ahead and just he ripped me. He ripped me a new one. Never happened before. We were out at a social event, both had a few drinks in us, maybe he had a few more than me, I don't know.
00:23:14:12 - 00:23:34:13
Darrin
But he told me his concerns. First thing I did is I put it in my phone so I would remember what he said. Next day, found out what the concerns was and addressed the concerns. I know we're not going to get perfect, but if somebody come up to me and tell me something, I can deal with them and they know they're dealing with me and that's there's nothing else to do as long as it's reasonable.
00:23:34:17 - 00:23:41:19
Darrin
And then people for the most part, are reasonable. You know, we're going to solve that and talk about it so that they can feel comfortable the next time.
00:23:42:03 - 00:23:45:03
Dave
So if it's yeah, if it's reasonable, you're going to make it right.
00:23:45:06 - 00:23:49:23
Darrin
It usually is reasonable, right? But there are sometimes we do have unreasonable requests.
00:23:50:01 - 00:23:50:07
Dave
Sure.
00:23:51:05 - 00:23:53:02
Darrin
And that does happen.
00:23:53:22 - 00:24:01:13
Dave
Right? Some people you know, they're just going to be miserable no matter what and there's nothing you can do about it. Right.
00:24:01:13 - 00:24:22:11
Darrin
Exactly right. I know I'm not going to sell everybody. I have people I know I've never sold them a car even though we're close and that's OK. Whatever, whatever they want, I will always help them out. I'm going to bring this up which you probably don't remember. So I'm going to say we're going to go back to the mid nineties because, you know, I don't have much up there.
00:24:22:11 - 00:24:30:18
Darrin
I'm a little you know. We already said when we graduated. Yep, you too. You came in looking for a car. The very first car you ever got.
00:24:31:18 - 00:24:34:10
Dave
I'm sure it was black.
00:24:35:15 - 00:24:38:03
Darrin
It was black. It was clean at the time. But that's a different pod.
00:24:38:10 - 00:24:38:16
Dave
Yeah.
00:24:40:13 - 00:24:58:11
Darrin
And you came up to me and we're sitting down and everything and you're thinking about what you want to do. I can't tell you what it was. Could have been an Envoy, a Jimmy. And you said to me, I don't like buying things from friends because if something's wrong I'm never, I don't want it to end our friendship. I don't expect you to remember that.
00:24:58:17 - 00:25:01:20
Darrin
But I remember it. I remember it. I mean, 25 years later.
00:25:01:20 - 00:25:17:15
Dave
Yeah, I could see myself saying that. I've said similar things before. If you if you do business with a friend and somehow something goes wrong, you're going to lose the business and the friend. Right? And it might be similar with family, too. You know? I mean, those are the...
00:25:18:09 - 00:25:36:11
Darrin
Absolutely. Apparently it's worked out OK. So maybe the difference is I'm going to try and make sure I do it, make sure it's right. I can't do everything. I'm not. Some times there are problems that nothing we can do about it. I think that's one of the things such as different. I do know dealers that are very similar to that.
00:25:36:18 - 00:25:54:08
Darrin
They just want to take care of the people because I don't go on vacation because of one sale. I go because I take care of a lot of people that affords me to take my family on vacation and that's it. Some some dealers don't. And that's why we get sometimes get a bad rap, you know, saying here I had a problem and I wasn't taken care of.
00:25:54:08 - 00:26:16:02
Darrin
And that story will continue to go. And when it's rolling downhill, it's getting bigger and bigger and more and more fallacies. But as you said before, other dealers like that can make it hard, but they also make it easier because when they walk in and you treat them right and they come in looking for a fight because that's what they just experienced. You don't give it to them after they understand that this is the way it is.
00:26:16:13 - 00:26:18:15
Darrin
They just relax and they enjoy the experience.
00:26:19:00 - 00:26:46:02
Dave
So this is reputation. I mean, your reputation is everything you're building. This is your personal brand, and people come to trust you because you do what you say and you treat them right and you're going to you know, you're going to make every effort to take care of any reasonable problem that comes up. You're talking about values here. It's projected not to the customer, but to the people that work for you because they also take care of your customers.
00:26:46:05 - 00:27:01:16
Dave
If you had to pick one value that was most important to you as an owner as a dealership, what would that be? What's the most important thing for you as an employer and as a seller in the community?
00:27:02:01 - 00:27:24:07
Darrin
Had to put it down to one value. I think people have to be honest here. You need to be honest. If you're coming in with a looking to buy a vehicle, be honest. We've had people here that we're not OK. They're not long term employees. We don't want to keep them long term. I don't want to have a headache and people calling me back up daily, weekly saying, you know, hey, he promised me this.
00:27:24:07 - 00:27:38:14
Darrin
I don't have anymore. You know, that's that's not what I want to deal with. You bring your car in for service. You know, if something's wrong you want them to tell you here, this is what's wrong, this is the problem. Here's stuff that is also going to go wrong in the future. But you don't need to do it now.
00:27:38:20 - 00:27:54:13
Darrin
But just keep your mind this might happen you might say, hey, this is a problem right now. This is why you need to do this, even though you didn't know. If you're honest with them and you can show them they're just going to be better for next time. And it just builds and it makes things easier because I had a major life thing in my life happen.
00:27:54:13 - 00:28:15:13
Darrin
12 years ago. And I you know, I want things to be easier. I have to deal with any issues like that. So if we set ourselves up every day, those those issues never arise. When we have that or we have a problem. I don't want to fix today's problem. Today's problem. If we fix the problems tomorrow, well, that kinda solves today.
00:28:15:18 - 00:28:38:06
Darrin
Let's not put the Band-Aid on it. Let's figure out why it happened. Let's fix that. And now we never have to deal with this problem again. Same way you're honest. You don't have to deal with the any issues later complaints to managers, complaints to me, that's what has to be that's the way I, I like my I should think about it and solve issues to set them stuff up in the future because it's very frustrating.
00:28:38:10 - 00:28:59:18
Dave
If honesty is the most important thing. And you hired surround yourself with people that are going to that have similar values. I suspect that these people are going to stick around for a while. You've had a lot of long term employees working there. What are some of the things that you do to keep good employees? And is it is it always about money?
00:28:59:18 - 00:29:00:03
Dave
Is it?
00:29:00:12 - 00:29:20:05
Darrin
I don't think it's always about money. Is that always a percentage of it? I don't think it's number one unless something different happens. I think the way you treat them purely the way you treat them, clearly explained what you want. And here these are the these are the goals. This is why it's a goal. This is what we need to get to.
00:29:20:06 - 00:29:38:07
Darrin
Those are the, when they can think of that simply like that. I think that helps them out tremendously. And they don't have to guess where I'm coming from. Now that is not my best strong suit. That is something I'm trying to work on every day just to make them understand where I want where I want things to go and how I think we should get there.
00:29:38:24 - 00:29:48:15
Darrin
But I'm not going to give you the roadmap because I don't know the road as well as you do, but this is where I want to go. How are we going to get there? And so you're going to have to figure out the road map.
00:29:48:15 - 00:30:03:15
Dave
So you're not the type of manager that's going to that's going to be a hawk and sit over their shoulder all the time and tell them every stop. Right. You tell him or point B is and you know, for the most part, you know, they can figure out how to navigate there in the best way.
00:30:04:07 - 00:30:05:03
Darrin
That's what I believe I do.
00:30:05:04 - 00:30:09:03
Dave
Yeah. Provided they operate within the values of Arnie Bauer.
00:30:09:06 - 00:30:24:16
Darrin
I don't want to go ahead and tell them what to do, because if I have to tell them what to do, then they're not a manager. So I want them to hear this is my thought. What do you think? Tell me when I'm right tell me when I'm wrong. And blah, blah. And a lot of times they'll look at me if I have a sales meeting and they'll just say, that's not going to work.
00:30:24:16 - 00:30:38:01
Darrin
And they'll say, why. I say come on, I think it'll work. And they'll say, it won't. Well then chances are OK, and that's OK. I mean, my vision isn't that way and I'll, I'll drop it or reevaluate, reevaluate at a later time.
00:30:38:14 - 00:30:42:20
Dave
How important is it to acknowledge achievement once they get to that point B?
00:30:42:20 - 00:30:49:08
Darrin
I think that's extremely important. And arguably my, my least effective thing I do well. Whether you knew that or not.
00:30:49:18 - 00:30:50:12
Dave
I don't work for you.
00:30:53:00 - 00:30:53:07
Darrin
Thank god.
00:30:53:07 - 00:30:53:15
Dave
00:30:56:11 - 00:31:11:09
Darrin
I think that's the thing I have to focus on the most, but I'm trying to work on that and get better. And I think that is it could be done more. Almost everywhere I go, I see some managers that are very good at it and it's not me and trying to work on that. And I'll even tell them exactly that.
00:31:11:15 - 00:31:32:13
Dave
If I think about it a little bit, you know, if we're setting goals and achieving those goals and making sure that employees feel valued and they're appreciated for their part in hitting those goals. And I'm not talking about just constant acknowledgment, you know, hey, congratulations. You showed up to work on time today. You know, I mean, we don't need to we don't need to overdo it.
00:31:32:13 - 00:31:36:00
Dave
Right. But for achievement, you know, for for real achievement, you know.
00:31:36:12 - 00:31:49:05
Darrin
And if it's true and honest and sporadic, I think it would be the most effective if I come in every first two months. And Hey, great job. Great job. Well, then, you know what? First a month they're going to come to expect. Great job.
00:31:49:14 - 00:31:50:03
Dave
Right?
00:31:50:22 - 00:32:10:06
Darrin
So and it could be anything I when I see something that I like, I go I try to go out and tell them and I don't care if it's manager, salesman, mechanic, parts, it doesn't matter where it is. One of our porters helps do something just that little extra. Try and tell 'em all the time. It'll be my directive.
00:32:10:13 - 00:32:32:03
Dave
You know, and we may have already addressed this through some of the conversation, the history, but of of Arnie Bower, but trying to think of, you know, a decision that you made or some direction that you took, and at some point you realize it was, it was going to go wrong. It was a failure, you know, and would you if you can think of what did you learn from that?
00:32:32:07 - 00:32:50:11
Darrin
It's more with personnel. When I go ahead and I will tell them something to do, this is what I want and really drive to that there is no result. And eventually I go ahead and see something that it wasn't going to work in the first place. And that's OK. I don't mind failing. I always tell the managers just do something.
00:32:50:19 - 00:33:12:18
Darrin
I told my kids, do something and if you fail, it's OK. I mean, learn by your failures. It's OK. Don't just, don't do it the same way. Learn from that. You do it second, third time. Now we have a little problem, you know? But I made different decisions as far as, I'll do a lot of the ordering for the cars, I'll guess on certain things, they don't work.
00:33:13:03 - 00:33:31:17
Darrin
I try to learn from everything from that. Personnel. I've had people that I said, Don't hire my managers said,yes, do it. And it works out great. If you kind of show them, tell them something and they try to prove you wrong, sometimes it's OK to tell me I'm wrong. You know, make make a good thing happen.
00:33:32:00 - 00:33:32:12
Darrin
Right? Right.
00:33:32:18 - 00:33:41:23
Dave
So sometimes I think what I'm hearing is that, you know, maybe sometimes you got to put your ego aside and say, you know what, maybe, maybe somebody's got a better idea.
00:33:41:23 - 00:33:56:10
Darrin
I love when they have a good idea. And I'm like, why didn't we think about that? You know, I go to there's groups we go to in our business. It's called the twenty group. Different dealers get together from around the country and you all share ideas and you might come back with an idea that is the simplest thing of all time.
00:33:57:12 - 00:34:03:18
Darrin
But you never thought of it. And it comes back and it makes it makes it direct change right away.
00:34:03:22 - 00:34:16:19
Dave
I gotta ask you a question now that I've asked in every interview, my listeners are going to get sick, sick of it, actually. You know, why does he keep asking this? So I want to talk about can I ask you about love? I'm not talking about how much you love me. You know, I'm talking.
00:34:17:11 - 00:34:18:22
Darrin
It's immense. It's immense.
00:34:21:10 - 00:34:30:15
Dave
I'm talking about what you love to do, right? What gets you up in the morning? What is it you love about your job? And every day, you know?
00:34:30:15 - 00:34:54:21
Darrin
I love interacting with my people here at work and customers. And I think if that ever went away, that's when I could become the person or the business owner or dealer that runs remote and has somebody run everything. And I'm not involved because that happens just like any business. You could have somebody be the general manager. They run everything, and all you do is you sit back and do nothing.
00:34:55:12 - 00:35:15:23
Darrin
That's why. That's why I come to work and to see how how we can make it better. But what can we do to make it better? And I always love trying different things. Managers come to my office for an idea last thing I want to do is go ahead and shoot them down. You know, the only thing I would say is like, we can't do this because of this reason.
00:35:16:13 - 00:35:31:20
Darrin
It could be legal. It's almost another never unethical, but that's very common. That's the fun part, talking to the people that you become, you know, I become friends with many of my employees. I think that's the one part where I go to work.
00:35:32:03 - 00:35:45:05
Dave
What about the future? I mean, is it about getting bigger? Is it about selling more cars? Well, it's always about selling more cars. Right? Profitability. You never stop setting goals. What's on your mind right now? What's what's what's next? You know.
00:35:45:13 - 00:36:06:19
Darrin
Two years ago, we acquired a Chevy Buick store in Wilmington. A small town half hour away, and it's a Chevy Buick store. The reason we did it is they do have Chevy, and that's a little more diversification for us. So we have customers that might have drive a Cadillac, they might have an Escalade, they might, you know, whatever their business might buy trucks so we can sell them.
00:36:06:19 - 00:36:31:15
Darrin
GMC is a whatnot. And yet and their kids need a car. So we'll sell them something less expensive used car. So we try to do that with Chevy. It's the same concept with just a little more diversification. There's different things there. So if something happens, we have a little more with. So we got it two years ago. Three weeks before Covid hit and that's kind of been my project. Somebody goes
00:36:31:15 - 00:36:52:21
Darrin
Why would you do that? You don't have to. And I just I think it's great. I think enjoy it and watch something grow. I think that that will be the fun part of it. Watch it grow and go from there. Yeah. And if I can ever go away and, you know, for a few months at a time and sit back and watch it and trust to be there and everything's rolling away, I think that would be a great goal.
00:36:53:01 - 00:36:54:15
Darrin
I think you might even come and visit.
00:36:54:23 - 00:37:20:10
Dave
Yes. Uninvited, too. Those are great goals. It requires leadership. You know, what is your definition of a good leader? I mean, because your employees are going to follow, your customers are going to keep coming. You know, how do you define leadership and how do you see yourself as a leader?
00:37:20:14 - 00:37:53:16
Darrin
I think I touched on when you have people underneath you, you have to go ahead and tell them what's expected. I think you need to lay out a clear path, everything clear in their head. If they have to think about what you're thinking, then they have a distraction in their head. And if you want all your employees, no matter what, you know where they are in the whole hierarchy of the organization to be thinking about something other than their job or how they make sure they do the right job instead of doing what they should be doing.
00:37:54:09 - 00:38:16:10
Darrin
It's a distraction. You don't need that. So if if we don't say here this is this, we need to go here or we're here, we need to move it this way and explain why it's going to make it easier for them and there just to be a better employee. And next time you say something, they're going to listen that much more intently because they know you're not on, you know, go find this picture somewhere in the dealership.
00:38:17:01 - 00:38:26:00
Darrin
No, for no reason. They need to be clear. So that can be just so much simpler for them, right? If they do that, they're more comfortable the job and they can go ahead and be more effective.
00:38:26:04 - 00:38:44:20
Dave
I was going to ask you about balance right. So in the early days of my startup business I was working such long hours and you know, other areas of my life were suffering as a result. And it took me years to try and find a good balance. Right. And I've asked that kind of question in previous interviews.
00:38:44:20 - 00:39:03:12
Dave
But, you know, you're a little bit different and unique as far as my opinion goes. You're never you're never shut off. You're always dialed in. Even when you're not working, you're working. And so somehow you're able to integrate work and personal life together. Like you said, you're out to dinner. You're still selling your brand, right? You're still meeting people.
00:39:03:12 - 00:39:03:15
Darrin
00:39:04:02 - 00:39:11:19
Dave
Talking to people and and so forth. But but how do you find that balance where you can kind of shut it off for a little bit? And, you know, how important is that?
00:39:11:22 - 00:39:37:10
Darrin
I'm going to say til about I was 45. I would be working all the time. The balance I would take for my family. But it was always going, but I would work differently. Everything would be a little more consuming. I had a major life change. Right? My wife passed away in 2010. After that. I mean, 2010 was a year where I had to go ahead. Natalie was in the hospital for off and on throughout the whole year.
00:39:37:11 - 00:40:00:23
Darrin
She ended up passing in December. That took a lot out of me that year. Since then, I dedicated myself, especially more right away at the business because I did take mental time off during that whole year. But after that, after a few years I had to rebalance my whole life and I realized I'm going to do certain things.
00:40:01:08 - 00:40:20:22
Darrin
I want to do certain things because I know somebody that, you know, it was my wife she didn't have the opportunity to do that anymore. And I know we would have so I know that it's that you need to enjoy every second of it because I enjoy when I'm here at work. If I don't enjoy it, I don't know what to do.
00:40:21:05 - 00:40:39:19
Darrin
You got to I have to I have to make it income. So I want to enjoy it. That's why it's all me people. But when I'm away, I'm going to go enjoy myself, doesn't matter what it is, it could be going on vacation. It's going wherever for dinner. It could be going out for the night or for the weekend somewhere.
00:40:39:24 - 00:41:04:02
Darrin
Whatever it is, I think that that did change my focus a little bit. I became a one type of a person and kind of switched over to another. You just as much as anybody else probably know that. And I think that if you enjoy yourself here at work and away, as I try to every day, I try to have a smile on my face all the time and it kind of seems normal.
00:41:05:07 - 00:41:18:00
Darrin
It all blurs together, you know? So when I'm at work or play it, sometimes it's the same thing I've got my phone on. I don't care where I am. As long as I can answer the phone. If a customer has a problem, I'll try and solve the problem the best I can. If somebody wants something, I'll try to help them out right there.
00:41:18:10 - 00:41:23:15
Darrin
We've been together and it's I'm sure it's happened, you know, Enjoy every second because not everybody can.
00:41:23:16 - 00:41:52:11
Dave
That's the point where I kind of usually end the interview. But I forgot to ask you a question that I've also asked in my other interviews. I forgot to mention that your, so your first marriage to Natalie produced two great kids that I've been privileged to watch grow up. Brandon and Olivia. If I ask them what they admire most in their father and be honest, because I'm going to ask.
00:41:52:20 - 00:41:54:06
Darrin
I know you will. You probably already texted them.
00:41:54:17 - 00:41:57:02
Dave
Could be. What do you think they would say?
00:41:57:03 - 00:41:58:12
Darrin
Was not ready for that question?
00:41:59:01 - 00:42:00:11
Dave
I gotcha. Gotcha.
00:42:00:13 - 00:42:04:14
Darrin
That is a good one. You've asked our good people in this question? Or am I the first one?
00:42:04:21 - 00:42:05:03
Dave
I have.
00:42:05:17 - 00:42:15:00
Darrin
I would say. They would say I always try to help them. I always try to help them all the time and I've always oh, I know what it is.
00:42:15:07 - 00:42:15:14
Dave
OK.
00:42:16:02 - 00:42:33:09
Darrin
I'm always going. I'm going to find the text. Give me a sec. I think that that would be that would be the thing that they would say the most that I am. I always have something going. If I'm not working. If I'm doing something, I'm always doing something. I'm not good at sitting around.
00:42:33:09 - 00:42:35:09
Dave
Always doing something productive.
00:42:35:14 - 00:42:58:07
Darrin
Always trying to do something productive. My son sent me something. He was at work. He works away from home right now in Ohio. And he was just, he didn't know what to do. And he says, and you'll like both these things. He basically said, I blame you. And this is a text out of the blue. He goes, you did two things.
00:42:58:11 - 00:43:19:19
Darrin
You make me go for ice cream all the time. Because when they kids. I'm a decent sized guy. I like ice cream, so I still still to this day, they go ahead and and he goes out all the time for ice cream, which is good because he works out a lot. Second thing is, I always have to do something.
00:43:20:08 - 00:43:38:02
Darrin
I never thought about it. But since they go ahead and I guess this is the way I was, I raised them is that, you know, you just don't sit you go do something. You know, whether it's work, whether it's play, whether it's going out for dinner or whether whatever it is, maybe we're going away for the weekend.
00:43:38:10 - 00:43:40:06
Dave
Does everything you do have to have a purpose?
00:43:40:07 - 00:44:00:11
Darrin
No. It doesn't have to have a purpose. Do something that you go ahead and enjoy and try this. You know go here. Let's go here. Let's try this restaurant. Let's hey, let's go to the ballgame today. Why? Just just let's go you know why not? So he texted me out of the blue. I just started laughing.
00:44:00:13 - 00:44:01:07
Darrin
I wish I could find that.
00:44:02:11 - 00:44:02:15
Dave
00:44:02:24 - 00:44:07:05
Darrin
He told me that out of the blue. And I'm like, OK, I think both kids would say I'm always doing something.
00:44:07:12 - 00:44:26:19
Dave
So you've instilled some good things. You've passed on passed on a few good things. So you got to feel good about that. That's important. And that's what we're trying to do with these podcasts, you know? And I think a lot of people aren't productive or have good ideas and they just don't take action and I don't know what it is.
00:44:27:09 - 00:44:49:05
Dave
I'm the same way. I have to be doing something. I have to be bettering myself all the time, you know? And for a lot of different reasons, there's always good reasons. And these are the things we teach kids when we're coaching sports, you know? Why do you play what's what's your reason? But I think what is it that stops people fear, you know, fear of failure.
00:44:49:11 - 00:44:59:20
Dave
You know, you and I both know a lot of people. We see people that we see the full spectrum of people right highly successful and. Yeah. What do you think it is? I mean.
00:45:00:09 - 00:45:32:12
Darrin
Complacency. If you're in a spot where it's good and here I've got to move from here, over here, maybe it's not something I want to do right now. Maybe, you know, I'll just you know, I don't really want to do that. Or for some people, maybe I don't want to stretch that far outside the boundaries. You know, I think one thing that helped you and me is when we coached kids. To watch you do something that maybe I wasn't that good at, but if I can express to the kids and have them fall in love with something and help them out, I mean, that was great.
00:45:32:12 - 00:45:52:17
Darrin
I love doing that, you know, and we got to a point of certain things where I'm out. I had to step back because I couldn't help them anymore. And to know when that step is, you know, tell you what to have to do something like that just makes you go the next thing the next thing you step on a limb for or I'm going to step on a limb for somebody.
00:45:53:07 - 00:45:56:10
Darrin
You know, I think that that helps dramatically. You were excellent at that.
00:45:56:10 - 00:46:04:10
Dave
That's great. Is there anything anything we didn't talk about you want to talk about? Here it comes.
00:46:04:20 - 00:46:31:17
Darrin
Somebody asked me yesterday about something and they said one of the one things you enjoy at work, I enjoy it when people retire and I never thought about it till about five years ago, five or six years ago. When you have somebody here that worked here went had two, three kids, put them through, maybe a private high school, put them through college and now and they retire from everything.
00:46:32:01 - 00:47:02:20
Darrin
You look back and say, it's pretty cool. I provided something for this guy who he could take care of, his family, his kids. Now doing this, you know, is whatever they're doing now and he retires where he's happy. I mean, that's pretty cool. Yeah. That's what that's what I never thought about. But I enjoy so although I never want good people to retire because the good I like it when they do because no, that's a self-fulfilling it makes you feel good.
00:47:02:20 - 00:47:03:06
Darrin
00:47:04:04 - 00:47:04:19
Dave
Yeah. It makes you feel good. You're providing.
00:47:04:23 - 00:47:05:04
Darrin
Yeah.
00:47:05:06 - 00:47:07:24
Dave
You're providing for a lot of families.
00:47:08:10 - 00:47:12:15
Darrin
Somebody asked me that question yesterday. I never really said.
00:47:12:15 - 00:47:23:13
Dave
That's inspiring. I mean, has there been anybody in your life growing up that has inspired you or been a mentor to you? Well, you get it. You know, other than me.
00:47:23:19 - 00:47:24:10
Darrin
Other than you.
00:47:25:11 - 00:47:25:17
Dave
Yeah.
00:47:27:10 - 00:47:50:24
Darrin
I worked with my father ever since I was ever since 1988, if not before that. And you know, to say that he hasn't been that major factor in my business life, you know and personal of course. But to not would be foolish. Now we don't do the same things well. That's probably why it has worked so well. Right.
00:47:51:06 - 00:47:53:18
Darrin
Would you agree we're fairly different?
00:47:56:02 - 00:48:09:11
Darrin
He's a much better dresser than I am. I don't dress that well but I think that's one reason. But I think that is, you know, I think if there's somebody it would be him. I never told him that. Hopefully he watches the pocket.
00:48:10:10 - 00:48:11:12
Dave
Well you've learned a lot, right?
00:48:11:13 - 00:48:13:24
Darrin
I've learned, I've learned a lot.
00:48:14:04 - 00:48:21:03
Dave
That's a great ending I think. But for those listening, if this doesn't get cut by Victoria in editing.
00:48:22:02 - 00:48:25:11
Darrin
Listen, if she cuts it, we've got enough stuff on her because.
00:48:26:01 - 00:48:26:10
Dave
Yeah.
00:48:26:21 - 00:48:30:21
Darrin
You know, she she's a little younger than us. 20, 30 years younger than us.
00:48:30:24 - 00:48:45:04
Dave
This is, this is interesting because. All right, so I've known Darrin since high school really. We were in the Marian Catholic Marching Band together. Which is interesting because all our kids were athletes and none of them very musical.
00:48:46:13 - 00:48:47:07
Darrin
Not at all.
00:48:48:02 - 00:48:51:02
Dave
And so we both played trombone together.
00:48:51:02 - 00:48:53:00
Darrin
I was the last class to lose.
00:48:53:08 - 00:48:53:17
Dave
Yeah.
00:48:53:22 - 00:48:55:08
Darrin
You were the first class to win.
00:48:55:14 - 00:48:59:03
Dave
There we go. Yep. Thank you for that.
00:48:59:17 - 00:49:00:14
Darrin
You're a winner.
00:49:02:01 - 00:49:15:09
Dave
You know, we went off to college. Darrin went to Northern Illinois. I went to Milwaukee School of Engineering. My wife, my future wife, who I dated in high school, probably wouldn't have dated if Darrin hadn't, you know, helped connect us.
00:49:15:16 - 00:49:19:11
Darrin
Just totally made you go ask her to homecoming.
00:49:19:16 - 00:49:20:02
Dave
Right?
00:49:20:10 - 00:49:22:23
Darrin
And, you know, what did she say as soon as you asked her?
00:49:23:02 - 00:49:42:06
Dave
Well, I didn't actually ask her. I was I well, I asked her if she would if she was going to if she was going to the dance with anybody. And she said, yeah, I'll go. And then I said, well, I'm asking for some other person who will remain nameless just to be a snot and she still went. I don't know why.
00:49:42:22 - 00:49:43:17
Darrin
And still with her.
00:49:43:18 - 00:49:50:10
Dave
And here we are. She went to Northern Illinois and as an as an accounting major. So she helped you with your accounting?
00:49:51:02 - 00:49:53:04
Darrin
Yes. I wish she would have helped me more.
00:49:54:00 - 00:50:04:24
Dave
We had a lot of good years in college, and then I moved in next door to you. We spent our lives raising our kids and, you know, acting like two year olds for how many years?
00:50:06:00 - 00:50:09:03
Darrin
I enjoy acting like a two year old because that's a lot of enjoyment.
00:50:09:03 - 00:50:25:14
Dave
Yeah. And, you know, it's been a rollercoaster ride. Usually it's felt out of control sometimes, you know, and that's probably why I break into your home unannounced. Steal things out of your steal things out of your fridge.
00:50:26:01 - 00:50:39:09
Darrin
So people my son was sitting on the couch at night. All of a sudden he hears the door open. He looks, here comes Dave, walks in the kitchen, opens the fridge, grabs a ketchup bottle, closes the fridge, walks out the door.
00:50:39:13 - 00:50:46:06
Dave
It was an emergency. It was an absolute emergency. I did it. It was. I did not have time to explain.
00:50:47:18 - 00:51:04:04
Darrin
Fortunately, I end up getting remarried. Yeah, of course. You know, and Dave was my best man at that wedding and very good job. And my wife now understands all the stories I would tell them, all the stories that I would tell her about you. Now she gets to see it firsthand.
00:51:04:11 - 00:51:09:06
Dave
Yes. Well, I hope that it's better than having a normal neighbor.
00:51:10:15 - 00:51:11:15
Darrin
Having an abnormal neighbor?
00:51:11:15 - 00:51:15:24
Dave
Yeah. Just yeah, I think it hopefully makes life a little more interesting.
00:51:16:18 - 00:51:17:21
Darrin
Absolutely.
00:51:19:05 - 00:51:53:22
Dave
So that's that. And hopefully we can we can do some podcasts where we talk about those stories and other nonsense, and that'll be a little more entertaining. But this one was about trying to do some good for younger people. And talk about business and success and what it takes and the enduring commitment that it takes. To all the different things we talked about, from values to leadership to treating people right, facing down challenges, et cetera.
00:51:53:22 - 00:51:59:05
Dave
So that's what this was about. A great job, great congratulations. I think there's a lot of great content here.