132 - Your Business Playbook: Strategy, Data, and Accountability with Ross Bernstein

132 - Your Business Playbook: Strategy, Data, and Accountability with Ross Bernstein

May 26, 2025 - 00:42:53

Show Summary:

Recorded live at the Institute Summit, this insightful conversation explores how business leaders can apply sports principles—like team chemistry, leadership, and preparation—to enhance performance. Keynote speaker Ross Bernstein underscores the impact of storytelling as a powerful communication and trust building tool, sharing lessons from icons like Scotty Bowman and Jay Leno. The discussion reinforces the importance of having a solid business playbook grounded in strategy, data, and accountability, while also addressing the need to adapt to change, foster a culture of loyalty, leverage technology for growth, and prioritize meaningful personal connections and networking.

A best-selling author of nearly 50 sports books, Ross Bernstein, is an award-winning peak performance business speaker who’s keynoted conferences on all seven continents for audiences as small as 10 and as large as 10,000. Ross and his books have been featured on thousands of television and radio programs over the years, including CNN, ESPN, Bloomberg, Fox News, and “CBS This Morning,” as well as in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, and USA Today. https://www.rossbernsteinspeaking.com/

 

Host(s):

Carm Capriotto, Remarkable Results Radio

 

Guest(s):

Ross Bernstein, Speaker and Author

 

Show Highlights:

Introduction to the Episode (00:00:00)
Importance of Storytelling (00:02:51)
Jay Leno's Storytelling Practice (00:03:50)
Team Chemistry in Sports (00:05:06)
Scotty Bowman's Coaching Insights (00:06:29)
Building Team Chemistry (00:08:00)
Innovative Recruiting Strategies (00:08:47)
The Power of the Playbook (00:12:17)
Measuring Performance (00:13:06)
Continual Improvement in Business (00:14:21)
Ketchup Insights (00:15:45)
Practicing What We Learn (00:20:02)
Generational Workforce Changes (00:22:11)
Creating Loyalty in Teams (00:22:55)
Time Perception (00:23:10)
Focus and Distractions (00:23:49)
Engagement in Presentations (00:24:38)
Struggle and Growth (00:27:26)
Humility in Leadership (00:28:25)
Client Experience Officer Concept (00:30:05)
Philanthropy and Business Success (00:30:23)
Gamification in Customer Engagement (00:32:36)
Adapting to Change (00:35:14)
Networking and Personal Connections (00:36:21)
Legacy Business Lessons (00:37:08)
Business Fundamentals (00:39:00)

In every business journey, there are defining moments or challenges that build resilience and milestones that fuel growth. We’d love to hear about yours! What lessons, breakthroughs, or pivotal experiences have shaped your path in the automotive industry?

Share your story with us at info@wearetheinstitute.com, and you might be featured in an upcoming episode.

 

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Episode Transcript Disclaimer
This transcript was generated using artificial intelligence and may contain errors. If you notice any inaccuracies, please contact us at marketing@wearetheinstitute.com.

 

Episode Transcript:

Carm Capriotto: This is the Aftermarket Radio Network. Hey everybody. Carm Capto. Remarkable Results Radio, again, back here in Amelia Island in Florida with the Institute 2025 Summit. Theme is standout. My next guest is absolutely outstanding. We are the institute.com. Thanks to Cecil and Kent for having us out here. I've learned a lot, met a lot of nice, neat new friends, and thank you so much to our sponsors.

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Carm Capriotto: By offering the best, most comprehensive SMS in the industry, we'll prove to you that Trax is the single best shop management system in the business. Find Napa tracks on the web at N apa A-T-R-A-C s.com. Hey, welcome back. Let me tell you about my next guest. In fact, there's so much to talk about that I have to actually read it from his mini bio here.

Carm Capriotto: The best selling author of nearly 50 sports books. Damn, I've always wanted to write just one. He's a peak performance business speaker and proud member of the Speakers Hall of Fame, which is no easy task, and you proved that to us this morning. His keynoted conferences all over seven continents, been featured on CNN, CBS mornings, MSNBC, SPN, and Fox News, as well as the Wall Street Journal, New York Times and USA today.

Carm Capriotto: His mission for us today in the conference, as we heard his keynote, is to get us all thinking differently about how we can raise our game to the next level. Sports was, man, everything you talked about with sports, you opened up with Tom Brady, and so since I'm from Buffalo. I wasn't comfortable with that.

Ross Bernstein: I'm from Minnesota. I wasn't comfortable with that. 

Carm Capriotto: I just thought, here I am figuring out how the damn man beat us forever. Right. I know we may have been one in 10 years, I just don't quite remember that. But Ross Bernstein, you just, you nailed it. You were telling stories up there and you covered 16 different, if you will, strategies or concepts for us.

Carm Capriotto: And I wanna talk about a few of them. But the theme that we've been hearing from all of our speakers, and as I was spending time at the lunches and at the breakfasts, this whole storytelling thing is big. I mean, that's what you did. You got up on stage and all you did and all 16 key strategies was tell us a story.

Carm Capriotto: Mm-hmm. And the audience was glued. Why storytelling so 

Ross Bernstein: important. Well, thank you, Carm. Thanks for having me. I'm honored to be here. Storytelling is just the best way to communicate, right? We've been doing it forever. When a great storyteller tells a story and they talk about their family, you think about your family.

Ross Bernstein: When they talk about their job, you think about your job. We learned that from Walt Disney, right? Books, movies, and our brains are wired for storytelling. So I think it's a muscle. You can get better at it. You can work at it. Yeah. I remember one time I was speaking at a conference with Jay Leno. And I was visiting with him in the green room and I was, you know, in awe, this celebrity.

Ross Bernstein: But of course he was the nicest guy in the world, just as you'd imagine. Asked me all about me. And I was fascinated to learn, and this is back in the nineties before cell phones and social media and video that every Saturday night when he was at the peak of the Tonight Show, when he was making a guy, probably made a hundred million dollars that he would every Saturday night at midnight, he would do like an a standup improv set at the Hermosa Beach Comedy Magic Club for the drunks.

Ross Bernstein: And it, you know, before anyone could record it, but he would basically practice his story. Yeah. He was honing hon it and, and he said, you know, if I could tighten up a story by. Two or three words just do people laugh differently. And I thought, I was amazed that here's a guy who's had such success yet, was so particular and wanted to practice and make it right.

Ross Bernstein: And that really stuck with me about that. That's what makes the great ones great, is that even those little things, they can just, they can work on him. 

Carm Capriotto: Jay Leno was a real guy, man. I mean, he was the real deal. I loved Jay Lenon. I continued to like him today. Of course. I'm old enough to remember Johnny Carson.

Carm Capriotto: Me too. And those were big shoes to fill, weren't they? In this industry, we're small business people and we're trying to teach them through coaching and what I do on the podcast and the networking groups that exist, how to become a more sophisticated business person. And everything you talked about today helped us become more sophisticated.

Carm Capriotto: One of them was team chemistry. I think we struggled with that a lot since most of our CEOs are business owners today. Never went to a leadership class. They came up from the wrench world into being a CEO chemistry. Let me see. I remember going to a class in school and we had something foaming on the counter.

Carm Capriotto: That's not it today, 

Ross Bernstein: chemistry is the biggest thing in sports and that they're aware of and they work on it constantly, and we don't think about it in business. Teams start out the season and they go to training camp in a small town, middle of nowhere, no spouses, no kids. 'cause they need to figure out chemistry, who gets along, 

Carm Capriotto: who they 

Ross Bernstein: are.

Ross Bernstein: Yeah. Do these guys get along? Do they not get along? Who are the team cancers? Who are the bad apples? I did a book called Raising Stanley, right? I interviewed hundreds of professional hockey players who'd hoisted the Stanley Cup, and I wanted to know why. Looking for the trends and the patterns and the commonalities, and I got to know Scotty Bowman, who wrote the foreword for the book, and it was fascinating getting to know this guy.

Ross Bernstein: He's the winningest coach in the history of the National Hockey League. He's got 14 Stanley Cup rings. He even named his freaking kid Stanley, which is pretty cool. Now, Stanley's won three Stanley Cups, so this kid was destined for greatness. But I remember Scotty talking about the importance of chemistry and about not having the best players but the right players.

Ross Bernstein: And when he was at the Detroit Red Wings, it was a masterclass. He was able to put the right people together. And by the way, the 14 cups wasn't a dynasty team, like the Yankees. It was, he had a repeatable process. He was able to recreate in St. Louis and Buffalo, Pittsburgh, Montreal, Detroit, and he would put the right people together.

Ross Bernstein: So in Detroit, he had one line of all Russians. There was actually a movie about 'em called the Russian five. And it's interesting 'cause three of them were there originally and they were really good. They scored a ton of goals. But they were wild. They drank a lot of vodka and it, so he literally, he knew that the only way to get the right chemistry was to get two older veterans that these kids looked up to that would listen to him.

Ross Bernstein: So he literally went to Moscow and like with brown paper, sacks of cash allegedly, and car keys to his fancy car, convinced him to defect to come to America, play hockey, get 'em an apartment. No. And once those old guys got there, these kids shaped up. It was an incredible line. And then they had another line of all Swedes and see, Scotty understood that when you put friends together, high school teammates, college teammates, they had fun, they'd fight for each other, they'd enjoy assists more than goals 'cause that guy's buying beer.

Ross Bernstein: So he was able to do more with less. He didn't have the best players, he had the right players in the right chemistry. And it's cliche, the long to hire, quick to fire, but it's so true. If there's a team can't surf. If there's a bad apple or someone's not, maybe not necessarily performing, but if they're bad for team chemistry, they gotta go.

Ross Bernstein: And that's why I talk about a lot of guys who are like clubhouse guys. The veterans. Yeah. They're the ones that keep the peace. They're the ones that let the managers know, Hey, these guys don't get along. There's, there's gonna be conflict. You gotta trade one of 'em. You gotta do something. If the chemistry is off, the team will never win and you can win in sports.

Ross Bernstein: You don't have to have the best players if as long as you get the right chemistry and players love each other. Whenever teams win Super Bowl, you watch this whenever this after the Super Bowl, when they interview people, they're gonna say, we were like family. Yeah, we all got along right? We wanna want to go out to dinner together.

Ross Bernstein: And teams that lose is drama, conflict, egos. So it's a fascinating thing. 

Carm Capriotto: How do we build chemistry? Obviously we need to be creative like Scotty was and think, if you will, outside of the box. And we have to bring our intuition to the world we live in. We have to observe, we have to listen. We have to see if we've got high fives going on, if we have people supporting each other inside of our service.

Carm Capriotto: You can 

Ross Bernstein: also, you can also incentivize your people to bring in their friends. I have companies that will do that, right? Yeah. They'll, they'll give you a signing bonus. So you bring in a friend. It's hard enough to get kids into the trades these days, right? 

Carm Capriotto: Yeah. 

Ross Bernstein: Oh yeah. I worked for a cool company one time.

Ross Bernstein: I speak at about 130 conferences per year, and they're all different industries. I do a lot of work in the automotive space, a lot of different touch points, but I do every industry and I had a, a gig one time at this Precision manufacturing conference and before I came in I was doing some homework and I went and met with this company and they make these little like springs and stamps, like little tiny, but they have to be within like a millionth of a micron of an inch or they.

Ross Bernstein: Because they go into like airplane doors and cell phones. Mm-hmm. They gotta be perfect. And if there's any problem that, you know, lawsuits, it takes a year to apprentice on this machine just to make these tiny parts. And it's monotonous and boring. It's not sexy. And this company was gonna die because they had all these old people that were aging out, that were all retiring and they, they had no pipeline of young talent.

Ross Bernstein: So they had to take some drastic measures. So they went out and they acquired this local community college, which had been disrupted by online university. So they had closed, and they were part of this other college, but there was an empty building. So they bought it and they invested. They put some of those machines in there and they kind of cleaned them up.

Ross Bernstein: They didn't look good, but then they added in some video games, a bar, a little kitchen. And then they got very strategic about recruiting, who they thought would, might be good at operating these machines. So they went for kids who were wanting to get into the trades, farm kids, motorheads, military kids, whoever they thought, and they'd bring 'em in.

Ross Bernstein: And then they brought back some of their older retirees and they trained them. And it was this really fun environment. They had music playing. It was very different than the traditional setting. And a couple things happened. Number one, the kids had fun, and as soon as they liked it, they said, Hey, we'll pay off your student loan at this trade school for what we've created just for this machines, and we'll incentivize you if you bring in some of your buddies.

Ross Bernstein: So they did, and it created this pipeline. So three things happened. Number one, they had a whole pipeline of new talent of kids who wanted to be there. Number two, they created a new culture. The chemistry, the culture changed and the old people wanted to come back to work. They said, Hey, now it's fun. You got this new energy.

Ross Bernstein: There's music. It's like people are going on after work and people like each other. And it wasn't just a job, it was more of a career and it was fun. And number three, the college that they'd partnered with. Had a hundred percent job placement. So it was a win-win win. And that college was promoting them and encouraging.

Ross Bernstein: And that's the thing, like you've gotta be able to find talent these days and acquire, there's two ways to get talent. You draft it, you know, like in sports, you develop it or you acquire it, which is making a trade. And you gotta buy someone. If you need a new CFO or shop manager, it's gonna cost you a lot.

Ross Bernstein: So. But then there's this gray area of finding those sort of emerging leaders, those diamonds in the rough, where you recruit kids who you think would come in and you make it fun. So I'm always fascinated. I don't tell people how to do it. I'm not the hero of my story. I just share other stories of how people say, here's 

Carm Capriotto: maybe this would work for you.

Carm Capriotto: You're challenging, or think, I love what you just said. And I wrote down the words Work, family. And then I wrote down, reinvent the family. It doesn't mean that we can't have the most spotless employee kitchen, a clean refrigerator where all the food's been there for over a week or two. I mean, just as good of a coffee selection as we have for our customers out front.

Carm Capriotto: And that's kind of been a discussion trend lately, is to work on the inside as much as we work on the outside. Since this whole thing was sports themed and I kind of, I've always compared what we do to the medical field to a certain degree because of the knowledge that people have to have and the specialties they have to have, which is really kind of slamming us as an industry.

Carm Capriotto: But there were so many sports analogies and when I heard you talk about playbook, you know it's on the Apple iPad and they've got a playbook. I started to think about the playbook for our people is the career path we outline for them. And the tools that we provide them and the, if you will, the functionality of solving problems for our people.

Carm Capriotto: Talk to me about the power of the playbook in sports. 

Ross Bernstein: Yeah, it's interesting. In that module I was talking about Tom Brady and all the specialized coaching that he would receive and spent extra money for. You know, now they're using, kids are using data, predictive analytics, artificial intelligence algorithms, and they measure everything.

Ross Bernstein: There's a saying in sport, the film don't lie, so they record everything and, and there's no arguing that way because a coach walks out in the huddle and says, they don't ask what happened. I don't want your interpretation of what you think happened. They just show the video. Because the film don't lie. So they record everything and then they discuss it and then they hold them accountable.

Ross Bernstein: And it's pretty fascinating. But each player has a custom playbook. So they, they load it up with data and film, and if they're recovering from a knee injury, they wanna know certain KPIs and metrics. How's it feeling? How many miles did you run today? How about yesterday, last week, last month, last year?

Ross Bernstein: What's your core body temperature? What's your blood pressure? I mean, what are you measuring? You can't get better if you don't measure it. So they measure everything and they wanna know is it a positive or negative measurement? Like, is it good, bad, they don't wanna get better in a big way. They wanna get better in a little way every day.

Ross Bernstein: They wanna get a little bit better and they know there's gonna be setbacks, injuries, there's gonna be confidence issues. So they want to get better and they wanna help build their confidence and get better. So video and data is the sort of the key to that. But then having, instead of just a playbook that is, you know, tired and old and outdated, the second it comes out, they have a, an iPad that they can upload with new information of things you wanna watch.

Ross Bernstein: Then they can hold 'em accountable. Did you watch these videos? It'll tell 'em, did you watch it? Yes. How many times did you watch it in slow motion? Did you, what did you look for? What did you learn? And then they practice over and over and they hold 'em accountable. And if you don't practice and do these things, you're on the bench or you're working our trades you or cut you.

Ross Bernstein: So we don't do that in business. We don't practice making phone calls. We don't teach our young people how to work with the customer. We just say, Nope, I fixed it. Right. Well, you gotta train them. It's like storytelling. You gotta, you gotta practice. Like sometimes my daughter, who's a wonderful storyteller, will tell this long.

Ross Bernstein: I'm like, honey, land the plane. Get to the point like, like make it like if it's funny, like get to it. Right. I love that. Yeah. So I mean, there's no one right way to do it and that's kinda what I do. I celebrate lots of different ways and I just do it to the lens of sports. It's kind of been my passion, but it applies to business, applies to life and you know, the people in your industry do an amazing.

Ross Bernstein: Service, they help to create the American dream. They help to make sure that our vehicles run well and that we're safe and that we can get to where we need to go to run our country. Yeah. And run businesses. And what they do is profound. And you know, I love setting the top producers. Like what makes the great ones great and why?

Ross Bernstein: Right. Like Tom Brady, like love 'em or hate him. I mean, the guys, the winningest. Ever. Mm-hmm. And it's not just getting to the top, it's staying at the top. It's that dynasty mentality. How do you continually deliver extraordinary customer experience? How do you continually hire and recruit and train young Gen Z talent that wants to work with you and stay with you?

Ross Bernstein: How do you continually come up with new, innovative ways to solve problems? This is what great companies do. Yeah. Last week I worked for Kraft Heinz for huge sales group of people that sell ketchup and condiments and Philadelphia cheese. And I'm like thinking like, man, what? You know, these, these guys sell ketchup packets?

Ross Bernstein: But no, they, they make the fun. Right. Like french fries aren't fun without Heinz ketchup. Bingo. And, and I'm like, it was just awesome. And they have so much fun and some they sell to mom and pop stores where they just got the old bottles of ketchup. And they even changed that. 'cause remember in the old days they would have a bottle of ketchup that was like a quarter empty and it was all kind of slimy in there.

Ross Bernstein: And you're like, Ugh, I don't want that. So they created these plastic bottles that are the identical color red. I dunno if you've seen like a Heinz bottle. It's, it won all these awards for packaging. It was really remarkable. And they can't fill 'em up. They make it so the cap, if you take the cap off, it breaks it, can't use it.

Ross Bernstein: It's one use, but it always looks full and it has a flip top. Yeah, it does. But you can't refill it. Okay. Like once you unscrew it, it's toast. It's, 

Carm Capriotto: yeah. 

Ross Bernstein: But you know, some sell packets, some sell those flip tops and they put 'em on the tables, you know, and they got those little baskets in the table. Some sell industrial, like the McDonald's where they buy 'em, where you pump it out at a pumping station.

Ross Bernstein: That's the thing I learn every day about new products, new companies, new, you know, and I'm so, for one day I'm an expert in ketchup. Right. So it's fascinating. 

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Carm Capriotto: Napa Trax is always customized and tailored for you, whether you are a one man shop or a large multi-pay or multi-location company. After all, it's your shop, so it's your choice. Visit us on the web at Napa Tracks. That's N-A-P-A-T-R-A-C s.com. Ross, I'm an expert in ketchup. Can I tell my story? 

Ross Bernstein: Calm the condiment king.

Ross Bernstein: I love it. Can I tell you my story? Let's hear. Let's I 

Carm Capriotto: come back from Apex, get off the plane, meet Anne. We go out with our friends. 'cause every Friday night we go out with friends. We're sitting, there's like eight of us at a table. And the food comes out and there were french fries on my plate, so I right in front of me, I reach for the ketchup bottle.

Carm Capriotto: It's one of those exact bottles you just described and I brought it near me and I flipped the top. It exploded. Oh no. It was, I'm wearing a white shirt, sport coat, the whole, it's all over me. Oh no. It's all over. My friend to the left, it's over, my friend to the right. And we're all scurrying for more napkins.

Carm Capriotto: Water spray bottle, the whole thing. I am glass. Catch it exploded. And what I want to know, and I've never really found out, maybe you can tell me. What happens? I mean, did it ferment? Why was that thing man explosive. I better call craft. 

Ross Bernstein: Maybe it was hunts. Maybe it wasn't their bottle. Let's say it was a competitor.

Carm Capriotto: Right? No, and I don't mean to bring up a brand. I just mean to bring up, yeah. What happens to ketchup bottles that explode? 

Ross Bernstein: I have no idea. We've all been there. Right? 

Carm Capriotto: I thank you. I've never told that story in my podcast. I think this is the first time. Okay. Thank you. You'll land the ketchup story for me.

Carm Capriotto: You mentioned the word practice just a few minutes ago, and in our industry, this continuing education that we have to be involved with CEO leadership training, service advisor training, and all the technology that goes on in the bays, we go out and educate. But if we don't come back and practice what we learned, we lose it.

Ross Bernstein: Yeah. And you know, this business, it's such a mom and pop business at its core. Like everyone who gets in. 

Carm Capriotto: Maybe they start as a mom and pop, but today we're much more sophisticated. Yeah, but they 

Ross Bernstein: know the business, right? It's not like you just bought it and you're hiring people to run. And people in this business are passionate about the business.

Ross Bernstein: Anyone our age certainly knows how to change a tire, change oil, work on the carburetor. Like those are, there's no such thing. Morning, no such thing. But the old Gs, they all, I get it. Know that stuff. I know what you. And it's a different world, so, but I think that's what's cool about this industry though, is that people are passionate about it.

Ross Bernstein: It's like I do a lot of work in the hospitality industry. I work at some of the biggest hotel and restaurant brands, and anytime you interview a restaurant manager who's been around for a little while, they all started out as a barback, a waiter, a waitress, a dishwasher, and they worked their way up.

Ross Bernstein: Assistant manager, swing manager, by the time they get to a manager or a franchisee. They know every touchpoint of the business. And that's the thing that's cool about your industry is that people know, like the CEOs, these companies, the owners, the shop owners, they know Yeah, they, they've been there.

Ross Bernstein: They've been in those bays. Right. Yeah. That's a really cool, unique differentiating factor about this industry is that you have that connection. I work in a lot of industries where people have no idea what goes on. In those other areas. Right? And that, I think that's unique. But how do you, but I think that also creates problems that you sort of take things for granted.

Ross Bernstein: You go, well, we've always done things that way, or, well, I know what's going on 'cause I've been there, done that. But the reality is that young people today and those kids that are in those bays, they think different. They have mental health issues, they care about different things and about work and culture and life after work.

Ross Bernstein: And so now you can't just be a boss, you've gotta be a psychologist, a mom, a dad. A shoulder to cry on. Yeah, you've gotta, kids wanna be promoted, you gotta give micro promotions, you've gotta. You gotta help 'em succeed or they're not gonna stick around. And if you wanna create loyalty, like I, I told a story today I've worked in, I worked for some, some restaurants that have 150 to 200% turnover every year.

Ross Bernstein: I mean, as bad as your listeners think they have it, imagine that that takes into account you might have a typical fast food QSR restaurant. 20 employees, five are lifers. Five have been there 10, 5, 10, 20 years. That's a lifetime in fast food, right? Some, but then you take the other end of the spectrum.

Ross Bernstein: They've been there five minutes or they said, you know what? On the way over the interview, the other guys, Arby's offered me a nickel, an hour more. So I'm gonna go there. So you're constantly, someone shows up day one, you train 'em, they quit. So they quit. That means you're coming in on Sunday, right? Yeah. So to create loyalty, to create that culture, that environment is such a key factor, and that's where being a great leader, being a good storyteller, listening, those are all those, that's the secret sauce.

Carm Capriotto: You said something I think almost near the end of your speech today about. A day, a week and a year. And I think you said, you know how quickly a day and a week goes by? No. You know, here. Oh, a day and a I'll 

Ross Bernstein: give you, it's, it's an old, it's an old proverb. It's not for me, but it's no days and weeks and months.

Ross Bernstein: Drag on. Right. But years fly by. Yeah. And that's, if you've got kids, then you, that connects with you. 

Carm Capriotto: Yeah, I know. Exactly. And so I wanna jump into the word focus right now because. Sometimes we just don't give our all to understanding what we want to do. I know you talk about goals and purpose and why it's been big at this conference.

Carm Capriotto: It's big, I think for all of us in life to do this. But focus, I think, is something that's pulling us away from really accomplishing our goals and our wives. How do we get some of the distractions away from us, Ross? How 

Ross Bernstein: it's a different world, social media, cell phones, I mean, they're, they're just a part of that world now.

Ross Bernstein: So you're gonna have, we've learned to live with, whenever I, I had a two hour speech today with a room full of people that were tired, hung over many of them, and basically. I look at them, they look at me and a lot of times I, I'll see someone basically with their phone and like this, and they go and they're looking at me like, okay, monkey boy dance, because if you suck, if I'm not interested, I'll be here for the next two hours.

Ross Bernstein: I don't need you. I need to be better than Instagram and Facebook. Whoa. If I can capture the audience, and that was, that's a superpower. That's a weird one. 'cause I don't take a breath for two hours and I'm up there. It's a pretty weird thing. But I'll tell you what, as I looked around the audience today, several hundred people, there were a couple people that were sound asleep.

Ross Bernstein: I'll tell you what, I think that's awesome because that's their time. My gift to them is time, and you never know what someone's going through in their life. I had a guy one time that was sleeping during my program and I didn't, afterwards, she came up to talk to me. He said, I want you to know I lost my mom this morning and I just wanted to listen, and then I wanted to zone out.

Ross Bernstein: I just didn't wanna be at her. Hey, I was really tired because my wife has cancer. And I'm like, man, I, you don't know what people are going through. 

Carm Capriotto: Everyone has a story. 

Ross Bernstein: Everyone has a story. And if I could give them the gift of just giving them a little time to catch up and get recharged, I mean, that's the thing at this conference, we're not on Zoom.

Ross Bernstein: We're not just like zooming in to be 'cause we had to or 'cause it's like they chose to invest to come here. They're not working in the business, they're working on the business and they're present and they're here. And they can take a part of whatever they're not required to be here. The boss is gonna fire them if they don't come to the keynote session.

Ross Bernstein: But they wanted to be there. And my job is to entertain and educate them and inspire them, and hopefully challenge 'em to think differently. But you never know what someone's going through. So I think. You need to be better than Facebook and Instagram. That's just the bottom line. And you need to be more interesting and you need to have a fun work culture, and you need to be able to have a let 'em, let their hair down, take 'em out, go out, make it fun for them, gamify it, make everything a game, right?

Ross Bernstein: That's what great sales organizations do is they gamify everything. So they say, Hey. If you do this, you do this, you win this and, and people wanna win. They wanna win whatever it is. So if you're not gamifying and making it fun, they can incentivize them. They're not gonna stick around. 

Carm Capriotto: Is it a generational thing for gamifying?

Carm Capriotto: A 

Ross Bernstein: hundred percent, yeah. Is it? But you see, like, let's tell you what, I'm on flights every day. Lots of old dudes and gals gaming on their phones. They're playing video games, everything. That little rush of dopamine, right? Whatever it is. But I see people gambling, sports gambling, they're playing roulette 21.

Ross Bernstein: People just, they wanna be entertained. It's a different way we entertain ourselves. Do we talk to each other anymore? Well, that's what these conferences are for, right? I mean, that's what's so good about a con. And that's, you know, during COVID, I lost my humanity, right? Like March 21st, 2020, I was. My first client canceled and then every client canceled, and I didn't know if I'd ever work again.

Ross Bernstein: And we started being on Zoom, and first people were like, oh, this is great. I'll never have to go to work again. And then six months in we're like, zoom sucks. Like I wanna be with people. Yeah. And I remember being that first conference where we were together and we were social distancing. We had masks on, we had wristbands.

Ross Bernstein: Remember, red means don't come near me. Yellow means I'm okay, blue, you can hug me. Do I remember? And these new rules and the P, PP and all these things. I remember that's when it made me think like, that's what's so cool about this. When you come to a conference, it's not about the conference, it's about having a steak and a beer and a glass of wine and shaking hands and making new friends and connecting on LinkedIn and Hey man, I can't wait to see you next year.

Ross Bernstein: And hey, we should. Do a mastermind. We should talk like we should go offline and we could share leads and, Hey, I got a guy, he's got a special vehicle. Maybe you'd be great for this. Or Can I borrow one of your pieces of equipment or whatever. Like that's what this is about. Yeah. It's collaboration. It's coming together.

Ross Bernstein: Right. You can't do that on Zoom. 

Carm Capriotto: Completely agree. I think you summed up what's important in today's world that we're not gonna learn this sitting on our ass. We're not gonna learn this scrolling mindlessly on our phones. We're not gonna learn anything about being better, getting out of our struggle. And I'm sorry to my listener because you hear me talk about struggle a lot today.

Carm Capriotto: We talked a little bit with some of our, our interviews here. The survivorship is the connection that I've made actually in the last interview that I did. If you're struggling and you don't care to survive, then continue to struggle. I have nothing more to do, say, or help you with, but if you do wanna survive.

Carm Capriotto: What we do on our podcast has a lot of the answers and or coming to events like this here at the summit at 2025 from the Institute. So thank you for bringing that up and forcing that into my listener's mind. You talked about being humble and I think for the most part, many in our industry are. Because we got what we got, not by being, I think, boisterous and big and loud.

Carm Capriotto: We just came back because we took care of people. They came in 'cause they loved us. But now I've gotta run a sustainable, profitable business. And I think to a point, we can be humble, but I think we also have to embrace that we've gotta make really tough decisions. If I'm a super humble person, can I really empower my people?

Ross Bernstein: A hundred percent. You know, I just met Cecil who started this whole thing and yeah. You're not gonna meet a more humble dude than Cecil. I know mean he's just salt of the earth as it gets. Right. And that's the thing, I sort of celebrate athletes who just, they've act like they've been there before. Right.

Ross Bernstein: They don't spike the ball, they don't dance, they don't track. Yeah. You told 

Carm Capriotto: the Walter Payton story. Yeah. And that's where this whole humble thing came from. Yeah. And 

Ross Bernstein: you know, and we like doing business of people like that. I mean, look, there's other people, I mean it, look, we're in an era of Trumpism where that's the anti humble, right?

Ross Bernstein: I mean, and you look at Muhammad Ali. Muhammad Ali wasn't humble. He was one of the most cocky athletes. He had swagger, you know, chutzpah, charisma. Call it what you want, but tell you what, there's lots of different ways to do business. And Ali used to say he'd won half his matches well before he ever stepped into the ring.

Ross Bernstein: When you're that confident, and you know what, if I'm going up against some guy for a piece of big piece of corporate business, and now the way to be humble is you people just know like, man, those guys, they have the best service. They got the best waiting room. They take care of you. They just shower you with they.

Ross Bernstein: Take little videos and call you and they don't nickel and dime you and they're not gonna try and, you know, screw your insurance company for extra money or whatever. They just, they're gonna take care of you. And like, that's the new cocky, right? That's the new way of being, like, you just kill 'em with kindness and service.

Ross Bernstein: And that's the new thing. Now, 

Carm Capriotto: I've talked to the industry about hiring A CXO for their small business, and they look at me like I'm really strange. The client experience officer. Our businesses are too small to even think of doing it, but the answer is we all have to be. Mm-hmm. The CXO, 

Ross Bernstein: well, I think you can do it now with social, so cool.

Ross Bernstein: So I talk a lot about philanthropy. I've got a charitable foundation and I'm involved a lot of charities. One of my favorite companies is a company called Starkey. They're a $6 billion medical device company. They make hearing aids, but they're not really known for their hearing aids. They're known for their philanthropy.

Ross Bernstein: Their founders, bill and Tani Austin, their passion is to watch little kids hear for the first time. Mm-hmm. So they have these mission trips and they get rock stars, politicians, professional athletes, they go to Haiti, Ghana, Liberia. They fit and they give kids hearing aids. But the secret of their success is they hire a bunch of young people like your amazing daughter, who understand technology and social, and they get little video snippets and they put 'em to great music.

Ross Bernstein: And they put 'em on TikTok and Snapchat and Instagram and YouTube and they go viral and it's these little kids hearing it and they go viral. And then every year they've got a gala. We get to go. It's, they raise at least $10 million every year. It's a Hollywood A-list event. They fly in 'cause they just love this company.

Ross Bernstein: I could just speak at their expo every other year. I'm a mini keynote and between President Bush and President Clinton Got it. Talk about bipartisanship. Okay. But this company in a. Completely commoditized industry of hearing aids has completely differentiated themselves and quite frankly, kicked butt to their philanthropy.

Ross Bernstein: They're not the low cost leader. They're not the Walmart of hearing aids. In fact, they're the opposite. They're the most expensive. But people choose to do business with them because they give and they serve the communities that serve them, and they do it. Through their social doesn't cost a lot to create great video content.

Ross Bernstein: That's storytelling done in little snippets. 30 seconds, 60 seconds, right? I mean so many of these of your listeners are, you know, they're just beating the dead horse with Facebook, you know, whatever. But you gotta think differently. And if you a CX perfect, that's a person that's gonna think differently about how they're gonna create different experiences, getting video testimonials of those great stories.

Ross Bernstein: How do you coach a young person to say, Hey, can I get a video testimonial? Would you tell the story? Because if the customer tell, like I work for a very similar group like this in the HVAC space, these are coaches like the institute where they tell coach mom and pop owners, plumbers, all these different things.

Ross Bernstein: And they do very similar thing 'cause it's a very similar industry. It was like your listeners, I told them about a story about video testimonials 'cause I have 150 on my website that people watch. That's what gets me booked for speaking. 'cause I'm in a very commoditized business of selling speeches. Yeah.

Ross Bernstein: So, 'cause they get proof from other CEOs, VPs of sales going on and on about how, how great my program was and how much they love my program. Love Ross. It's not me bragging about me, it's my best customers. Yeah. Yeah. So I coached this guy and how he could coach his people. So sure enough, Minnesota's story here.

Ross Bernstein: A guy, mom and pop guy, some big wig has a party going on at New Year's Eve at his house. The heat goes out New Year's Eve at like, you know, 11 o'clock at night. Who are you gonna call? He starts calling. No one's answering. Finally gets a guy after hours, 24 hours. Calls me, says I'll be right over midnight.

Ross Bernstein: Shows up, fix it. You don't have a good heater, Minnesota Midnight, you're gonna die. This guy was so happy that this guy came over and the guy said, Hey, can I ask you for a little video testimony? He remember? 'cause the guy gamified it. So if you bring the video, I'm gonna paid Friday off. Right? We're gonna get, we're gonna reward you gamify.

Ross Bernstein: So this CEO says, I'm switching all my business. I own all these companies. We're switching all our business to, you know, Bob's appliances, whatever it was. 'cause these guys were incredible. They came over. No one else took my call. These guys, he came over, he saved the day. He was so nice. Didn't nickel and dime me work and.

Ross Bernstein: It went viral. They got so much business from this guy telling this Bec, but it's because he asked for that and he didn't want it. Go back to your office. Record it just in the moment with the iPhone. Authentic, bad audio. That's much, much better. More real. And that's the kind of stuff people need, and that's what the CXO does.

Ross Bernstein: You get a kid who understands technology and how do you capture the hearts and minds of the customers? 'cause people have choices, they wanna work with them. And then the C XO is gonna tell people like, Hey, maybe you shouldn't be commenting on Trump and Elon or Hillary and Kamala or abortion or gun laws because maybe half your customers disagree with you.

Ross Bernstein: So don't do that. 

Carm Capriotto: Warning. That was one of the best pieces of advice we've had in a long time. Be careful. 

Ross Bernstein: Yeah. And just don't do it. Right. Half my, I'm Switzerland, half my clients watch Fox News. The other half. Watch M-S-N-B-C. Yeah. It would not be prudent or smart for me to comment on anything political in my life, so I don't 

Carm Capriotto: Yeah, that's smart.

Carm Capriotto: Yeah. I'm neutral too when it comes to all the great people in our industry. I'm moved by, first of all, your great speech, but in a very short time together, and I wanna leave. Ross with your piece on, be willing to change and we all can change and improve. But when you said lean in, that really grabbed me because I think we talk about stuff, we write things down.

Carm Capriotto: We have our purpose, we have our why, we have our goals. We, we never, if you will, I call it being bold, italic. Leaning into a decision or into a goal and saying, I am going to do it and I am gonna get it done. Talk to us about leaning in 

Ross Bernstein: it's inevitable. Change is here. I gave some examples in my world of certainly when COVID hit going virtual, a lot of my colleagues, competitors went broke.

Ross Bernstein: I have one of my best years ever, I. I was doing four gigs a day, right? I would, companies didn't have a budget. I said, no worries, twofer, bogo, I'll do this one for free. Bring me back next year, full fee, and I'll be in person. And 

Carm Capriotto: this is all online, right? 

Ross Bernstein: It was all online. But I came outta the pandemic as the busiest speaker on the planet because I didn't let those relationships die.

Ross Bernstein: I took care of 'em when they needed me, just like I learned from my grandpa in the furniture stores. Take care of people when they need you the most. Don't charge 'em. Help 'em. And they'll remember you. And I came out smoking and a lot of people never got their traction back. It's a momentum business. You get it, you keep it, but you gotta change, right?

Ross Bernstein: I mean, I wrote 50 books. Guess what? Bookstores are dying, right? Bookstores are gone. And now we've got eBooks and Kindles and nooks and audibles. And so content's changing. So you gotta change, you gotta adapt, you gotta do different things. I've had books are what I call currency. I just, I give 'em away.

Ross Bernstein: They're what I call that first warm puppy wet kiss. If a new client wants to hire me, I don't send them a brochure. I send 'em a bunch of my sports books for their bathroom library in it. Starts that conversation off in a really different perspective. 

Carm Capriotto: Cool. You just hit on something and I, I wanted this to be the last piece, but I can't let it be it.

Carm Capriotto: Okay. Because you talk about pick up the phone and call somebody. It resonated with me. You also said, what would Grandpa Joe do? Mm-hmm. Right? So you're thinking back to some legacy moments, the things that you've learned in your life, and we all have them, but we also have challenges of today that we're not quite sure what Grandpa Joe would do, and even if Grandpa Joe could even understand the situation that I'm in.

Carm Capriotto: So you pick up the phone and you learn to network. I think it's missing. We do have friends. Maybe not to the widest degree that we need to have in our industry as far as an influential network, 

Ross Bernstein: but 

Carm Capriotto: boy, we need to pick up the phone. Yeah, 

Ross Bernstein: I'm old school that way and I still call people. I check in, enjoy it.

Ross Bernstein: You know, I'd rather call someone when I'm up for a run or a walk than being a mastermind where I get pay to talk to them. I would rather just, Hey man, how you doing? How's your family? What's going on? Like, catch me up. Anything new and exciting, and I just check in on people. I remember when my dad took over the furniture stores in Southern Minnesota and he brought, he got a, he bought a computer and that was a big deal.

Ross Bernstein: 'cause we had file cabinets of all of our customers. And look, they would come in and pay it. They run a layaway, right? We would, they'd make payments like every Monday or whatever. First of the month, people would walk into the store and they would sit down, they'd have a cup of coffee and they would make a payment that was credit and those, right?

Ross Bernstein: Yeah. And my grandpa would always under promise and over delivery. He would. Make sure they left with a donut, or maybe we'd always get free carpet samples, those little squares, and that would always be like a new rug for the garage. Right? So people would always say, can I have a carpet? Of course you can.

Ross Bernstein: Right? They'd always leave with something. Right? And when we got the computer, this grandpa's like, well, they're not gonna come in anymore. Then what? It's scary, but every industry from the horse and buggy guys to, to now we've got hyperloops and autonomous vehicles and mass transit and trains and Uber. I mean, are people even gonna have cars in the next 10, 20 years?

Ross Bernstein: I don't know. But it's all about leaning in and saying, Hey man, let's just enjoy this ride and look, if you want out, get out. There's private equity. Let the young guys take in. Right? I mean, just like in Shawshank, get busy living. Or get busy dying, like enjoy this. Take care of people, have fun or find something else to do.

Ross Bernstein: It's okay. That's what this conference is about, man. Figure out that next step. If you're not passionate about it, pass the reins. It's okay. 

Carm Capriotto: That list that you read off of like 150 different things, did you write that last night or is that just kind of a standard piece? 

Ross Bernstein: I have no comment. 

Carm Capriotto: I customize it for every group.

Carm Capriotto: I bet you do. Yeah. Because we heard, of course, so much that it had relevancy to us. My client yesterday 

Ross Bernstein: was Ameriprise Financial Services. So they have very different problems than you have. Right, right. In this world. So every client has different challenges. 

Carm Capriotto: Oh my God. It was We're sitting there and he's going and going and going.

Carm Capriotto: Then he flips this little piece of paper over and he does another 50 or 60 over, and everyone resonated with me. 

Ross Bernstein: Yeah. But then, but the moral of that story was. What are the things you can control? Yeah. So many things you can't. Right, exactly. The economy and politics. Then it just comes back to like picking up the phone and just being nice and taking care of your mental health, your physical health.

Ross Bernstein: I mean, it's not rocket science. Business has always been business forever. People choose to do business with people who they like, who they trust. Who get it right and that at the end of the day, that's what it's about. People can get their car fixed anywhere. Why would they choose to get their car fixed or repaired with you?

Ross Bernstein: That's the secret, and that's what you do. You educate your listeners. You're a proponent of cheerleader for the industry. You're helping them solve problems, creating new ideas, ways to think and. So I just feel really lucky I got to spend a day and be an expert in this world. But I love meeting guys like you and your daughter and 

Carm Capriotto: yeah, thanks.

Carm Capriotto: You're all about helping. Thanks for hanging out with us. This is great. Ross Bernstein and author, former mascot. It's true. Oh my God. Former rodent Golden Gopher. Former former Godin rodent mascot. And you've gotta hear that story someday. You have a book about it. Am I right? 

Ross Bernstein: Well, it's not about me. It's more about the history of my books aren't about, I'm, like I say, I'm not the hero of my story.

Ross Bernstein: I talk about other people. That's a history of Gopher Hockey at the University of Minnesota, as told to a large smelly fury rodent. Thanks for being here, Nick. Great. Great to meet you. Thank you, Carl. 

Carm Capriotto: Thanks for being on board to listen and learn from the Premier Automotive aftermarket podcast. Until next time.