Why Family Time Is True Wealth | Ben Footh, Footh Auto Sales #015

Hi everyone, it's Karissa from Shining Light on Minnesota. We have a special guest here today, Ben Footh. Welcome, Ben. Thank you. Thank you for having me. You bet. Why don't we start off by telling our listeners a little bit about what you do in the community and how you got started? Sure. So, um, who I am, what I do. So, I own Footh Auto Sales and Service out of South St. Paul. Nice. Uh, also own uh Cornerstone Roofing and Restoration. Uh, it's based out of Mendota Heights and also an office up in Cross Lake, Minnesota. Um, and then also have a uh business uh in real estate management as well. So, flipping homes and managing rental properties. So, nice. So, how long have you been in the business and in the Twin Cities? Oh, goodness. So, I was born and raised in uh St. Paul, west side of St. Paul and uh I've always kind of been an entrepreneur. Started my first business with my brother when I was 14 years old uh mowing lawns and uh that morphed into a rather large company in high school and always had a love for automobiles. So at about the age of 16, found out that actually Selfie Chevrolet way back in the day was hiring for a lockey position. So I hired a couple buddies to mow all the lawns and ended up taking a job in the automotive industry as a lockkey. Okay. And that was kind of my uh my first foot in the door, so to speak. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. So you have a background in obviously automobiles. What's your favorite vehicle? O my favorite vehicle I would have to say would be a Porsche 911 would be my number one go-to vehicle would be a Turbo S. Yes. Perfect. Absolutely. So, you did you go to school around here? Where did you start off there? And tell us maybe a little bit about your background. Yeah. Yeah. So, I went to uh high school in uh Salt St. Paul. So, Salt St. Paul High School. Yep. And then ended up um going to um St. Mary's of UN St. Mary's University of Minnesota and then transferred ironically went to school for uh criminal justice law enforcement. So, transferred to Metro State. Um stayed in the car business. So, took a little break when I was actually in St. Mary's. Stayed in the car business. had some had a lot of success in the car business. Kind of a funny story. Was a lot guy. Got paged to the owner's office, part owner's office, and you know, kind of a weird thing back then. The car business was massive, tons of employees, and you know, Ben Footh to to uh Eric's office and went in there and he goes, "I I heard you can play basketball." And I go, "Yeah, actually I can." And he goes, "Get your stuff. You're playing in my three and three league." And uh ended up building a relationship with the GM part owner of the big Chevy store. Nice. He talked me into automotive sales and was like, "You got to try it. You got to try And I'm like, I just don't do this. High pressure. This is not my thing. And he goes, you know what? Just do it your way. And started automotive sales at a very young age. And had a lot of success just being transparent, just letting customers know like, hey, this is who I am. This is what I do. I'm not here to take your head off. I'm here to just treat you like family. Yeah. I'm off to college, you know. So, for me, it's not about making a ton of money. So, that really uh kind of a reverse selling technique and had a ton of success in the automotive industry doing that. Um, funny story in aftermarket, kind of a little bit of what you guys do, kind of changed the way that that dealer group operated in aftermarket by getting in and establishing a process in aftermarket where um before a customer would sign out, they had a chance to sit in front of me as an aftermarket manager and talk about products like, you know, tint, paint protection, aftermarket wheels, all sorts of fun accessories that they could then finance in to the motor vehicle. So, I had a chance to change that and that just you really sparked my interest and love for automobiles. Y. So, when I went off to college, I kind of struggled a little bit cuz I loved basketball, went there to play basketball and everybody was kind of in a different gear, you know, college and um little backstory on me. Uh my mother was one of nine, father one of six. Okay. Both born and raised in St. Paul. Um father was a postal worker, mother worked as a bus driver. So, for me, at the age of 14, I got kind of set off on my own. My parents were like, "If you want it, you'll work for it." Yep. And uh Sears on Rice Street when I was 14 was my last pair of shoes that I was per that I got bought by my parents. Nice. And uh kind of always been a self-starter. So when everybody was in college mode, I was back in the mode of earning. So coming into that college year, I had made a considerable amount of money. So everyone's like, let's party. And I'm like, I need to make money. Right. So I need to figure out the next step and my next angle. Yes. Exactly. Yeah. So I transferred back to St. Mary or to uh Metro State and uh was working during the day, finishing up school in the evenings for criminal justice law enforcement. Um that was the only other thing I could see myself doing was being a was being a police officer. So absolutely. Yeah. So went back into went back into the automotive industry at Salty Chev. Um actually ended up joining the Sal St. Paul Police Department as a police reserve. Nice. Wanted to see if this was maybe something for me. So I had a lot going on lot a ton of stuff go going on between school and then you know being a reserve police officer. So yeah it was an interesting journey. Interesting start. So what is your why? What drives you these days? Oh what drives me these days? I would say um my passion for the automotive industry is what really has driven you know so here's I'll back up a little bit. I was raised in a family that you know didn't didn't come from a business background. Right. Right. But I was raised always watching people talk about uh whatifs. What if I would have? Right. So my whole force behind what drove me to actually start my first business and I'll get to that very uh very uh interesting story. But what drove what what what really drove me was living I guess what scared me was I never wanted to look back and and say what if I would have tried to start a business right so when I had the opportunity to start my first car dealership which is Footh Automotive um it was crazy my wife was uh pregnant unemployed she was trying to find a job as a school teacher and I was managing a car dealership finishing up school at night and interesting story the chief of police at the time and saw St. Paul pulled me aside, went brought a vehicle for a test drive, pulls over two blocks later and says, "Ben, we will hire you to be a police officer, but are you sure this is what you want to do?" Right? Clearly the automotive industry is something you enjoy. So went home, uh, Christian, have faith, prayed about it with my wife, and she goes, "Well, what if what if you fail?" And I go, "Well, if I fail, then I can always be a police officer, right?" And uh, pray about it. The next day, my phone rings and gentleman owned a small lot down the block from where I was working. He said, "You're not going to believe it, but these guys left. you always mentioned you want to start. So I started my first dealership with $27,000 in my name and four cars. Yep. And uh by the grace of God, I get home the next day and my wife got hired to be a school teacher. So the baby was covered. You know, we're rolling now. Right. So I guess what really drove me like going back to your original question was the driving factor was wanting to work for myself. Yeah. Newly married. Yep. Um found out she was pregnant, child on the way. and making money is great, but what really was important to me was being an effective father and being an effective husband and recognizing that the hours in the automotive industry, working till 9:00 at night and working weekends, although the money was great, isn't the end all be all, right? So, my whole driving force initially was like, God, by the grace of God, if I can just make four to $5,000 a month and be my own boss. Yep. Uh that was really what drove me and it took me like four or five years to even do that, right? It's like I've got to I've got to still figure it out and there's still probably obstacles in the way. Yes. Crazy. It was it was a grind. And then this weird thing called Facebook happened. What's that? Right. So, uh, we're talking about that transparency and how we treated customers back when I first got in the business. I took that transparency to social media. So, rather than rather than marketing all these cliche practices, I just told people, here's who we are, here's how we operate. And I had a direct dial into Facebook and ended up at that time, again, didn't have a ton of money saved up. um had $43,000 to my name at that time and dedicated 25% of my cash flow to digital advertising and Facebook and our business went we went from a couple hundred,000 a year within four years we had been up to $7.5 million in sales and it was all Facebook Instagram and we just kept climbing kept going up. Yeah. Yeah. It was a it was a fun journey. It's amazing to see those algorithms too and just to try to play that game and the best times to do it and everything like that. What kind of luck have you seen as of lately? I mean, and that keeps changing and all the rails and everything like that. It is a moving target that I it's I mean, really, as it as it got more popular, and it's funny, I had dealer groups coming up to me at the auction like, "We're having meetings about how you're doing what you do, right?" And so, it was for me, it was always trying to stay ahead of everybody and do the next best thing. But, you know, a couple thousand dollars back then went a lot further than now. Now, I'd have to spend $100,000 a month to get the impressions that I was getting back then. So, and again, now that people are looking at when people started looking at Facebook and Instagram, I'm on to the next thing going, okay, what do I do next? How can I step up and be seen a different way? Exactly. So, trying to stay ahead of it. I personally believe our approach now it you know building the relationship and being consistent not just with what we market but how my employees behave and how we do business truthfully has become the backbone of the business because it's almost like small business in my opinion in my industry has gone back the other way of like your name and how you operate is the backbone of your is the backbone of your success. So now we go we're almost the other direction which is like just phone calls traditional advertising. I'm back insp let's let's go back to the mom and pops some of those people don't have the technology or the the whereabouts or the knowabouts to do it. So with social media, with everything that you see changing and going back to the grassroots, what do you find works right now? Obviously, is that working for you? Going back to the the old school traditional stuff and it is it is I mean it's a moving target. I mean co hit and I think anybody that was in business it was like uh I call it the calm before the storm. You know I look back now I'm like man we were really we were really blessed. It was like everybody's busy, everybody's making a lot of money. And I think that looking at the broad picture, so backing up, as the business grew, I watched friends and other people I knew um that were doing really well, right? And I asked myself, okay, how do I how do I do this different? There's a lot of people that put all their eggs in one one basket. So when the business blew up for me, I bought real estate, bought rental properties, diversified, owned a manufacturing company for a little bit, sold that. Uh now we own a construction company as well. So I diversified. So for me, digital advertising marketing is almost a moving target because it's it's not a broad spectrum. Like every industry is different, right? So now we're still doing the digital advertising, but we're having a ton of success with just relationship based networking. Yes. Uh versus just throwing money at Facebook and hoping hoping people call. Well, everything's perfect on Facebook, right? Right. Exactly. Exactly. But again, I guess the differing marketing approach. So, for instance, uh we have a a home up in Cross Lake just got pummeled with storms. Yes. And looking at all the other marketing approaches everybody else does. We just don't do that. We're based on a referral basis, our relationships. Before I opened that company, I met with over 27 agents, adjusters, and figured out how do I bring something to an industry um when it's just there's there's a million people doing it. And what what I found out was after years of flipping houses and already having these crews and now dedicating an actual company to construction exteriors was that communication and accountability are lacking. Yes. And I think across the board in any industry you look at there's opportunity right because the majority of people lack the ability to be accountable and to follow up and communicate effectively with their customers and vendors. Correct. So bringing that now to construction has been just absolute wild. It's been a it's been a great great few years so far. So, I found it's interesting for us because a lot of times we'll not only just go out and hit the streets and do the cold selling that you need to, but it's a getting in front of the people, too. So, lots of lunch and learns, lots of meet and greets, talking to people, but let them see your products. Let them feel the products. Don't just say, "Oh, go look at our website, you know, let's have that conversation. Let's show you what we have to offer." And that's getting planting the seeds for the future, what's coming, what's new, newer, bigger, better. Things like that as well. So, you were just not long ago up at the capital. Tell everybody a little bit about that. I was so um had an opportunity actually truthfully my phone I got a text message and it was like hey we'd like to send you to the capital thinking election year here it comes here comes the text messages and uh then my phone rang later that night company organization I should say by the by the um it's called Internet for Growth. So it's a coalition of small businesses and their whole purpose is to is to advocate for businesses like us in the space of digital advertising marketing. Yes. So, I get this call saying, "Hey, we'd like you to tell your story. Tell tell your story about what digital advertising did for you. Um, first generation business owner, how you're able to build multiple companies from advertising." So, um, Internet for Growth reached out, sent me out there, had a great experience. Um, the the nice thing about Minnesota is our lawmakers, uh, politicians are very receptive. Um, the changes that are coming down the pipeline with the privacy act, not to get too indepth, but it affects every business. It does. every small business's ability to digitally advertise. So once I heard like, okay, this could really impact my business, my family, my employees, who I'm targeting, who I'm going after, too, like those customers. Yes. Huge. I'm like, okay, I need to cut some time out and go out to DC. So had a great experience again, networking, met some other business owners, and just just had a great experience. Now it's important um I took a call last week with Dean Phillips office. So just trying to stay on top of it and make sure that we have that open conversation so that businesses the majority of small businesses I talked to have no idea that this is out there. Right. So just bringing awareness to that's been been fun for sure. Nice. So after you got back or when you were there, what was the feeling like? Did you feel kind of like wow this is this is an amazing opportunity or were you kind of still numb to it and just going with the flow or how did that go? Yeah, I mean it was an amazing opportunity. I mean it's hard right? We're coming off of years and years of toxic politics. So, it's really hard never being in being in DC and kind of having these like preconceived opinion on how politics work, right? And truthfully, most of them being true, no matter what side of the aisle of that you're on. So, it's really hard for me. The most valuable thing that I that I have um you know, money is great and has value, but time. So, my main concern in life is is my time being spent in the right areas, right? It's really hard to go out to DC and go in most places or any place and go, okay, am I actually being heard? You know, and I think that's my my general consensus was that yes, we were heard, right? Um, but this is a money thing. Yes. What corporation would get behind a bill that would make it so that companies like ours can't advertise, can't digitally advertise, right? So, my concerns lie more along those, but I think the op, you know, an option isn't to be quiet, right? So, I think it's important to continue to bring awareness to and continue to have that conversation. What do you see for the future in in your growth and what what's coming up down the road? Oh goodness. I think uh our exterior's companies. So when we began Cornerstone Construction, again looking at how do I bring how do we bring a company to the table that there's a lot of companies out there. So um my nephew, who's the other owner, Nick Footh, uh was a Department of Homeland Security special investigator. He left his job to come run the company and start the company. And then the other owner, uh Patrick Lau, owns a large insurance agency, very customer service driven. So, we're going to be seeing a lot of growth in that area. Um, our service department, we're really focusing on growth in our service area. Sales, I think we're good. We're pretty comfortable where we're at as far as our sales department, but I really see, in my opinion, the automotive industry going more service related. So, our growth is going to be focused on maintaining vehicles. I think as vehicles, like we all know, vehicles have gotten really expensive. Yes. Interest rates are terrible. At least you're able to get them though these days. Correct. Exactly. Yeah. COVID was crazy. Everybody paid way too much and it was Yeah, that was just that was wild. Uh but for us it's going to be more service related business in the automotive industry. Construction, we just hired some new project managers and just really growing in that area as well and still buying rental properties. Just bought another duplex in St. Paul. So yeah, you got to make sure that eb and flow is all all level. So if something does come up again, you have other assets to go after. Balance is key. Balance is key. No doubt. Most of your properties that you have, are they local or are they in and around the United States? Yeah, I'm funny. I uh you know I wasn't raised to be risky certainly but I I like to play it a little conservative. So all of my rental properties are in the St. Paul good Sal St. Paul Inenver Grove metro area. So I like to keep them where I can at least see them control them and and be involved with all the tenants as well. So definitely. So do you see down the road having your kids follow in your footsteps and taking over kind of doing what they want to do or you know what's your dream? It's funny, you know, father my father was a 33y year postal worker and he was always big about go get a government job. So I remember taking the postal exam just halfway through I got up and walked out and I thought to myself, this is not what I want to do. So with my children, here's the biggest thing. I don't want my kids chasing. I'm very grateful for what I have and blessed, but I never want my kids chasing like I had to chase. So, my biggest thing, like I I have a daughter who's 16 and I told her, "If you call me when you're 30 years old and you tell me that you're doing anything other than what you love, I will be disappointed. I don't care if it's making ice cream cones, selling cars, whatever it is." But I'm certainly I certainly don't want to pigeon my pigeon hole my children into the family business just because, right? I want them to just follow their passions and whatever that looks like. You know, at the end of the day, that's that's all I care about is if they're happy. It takes a long time for those kids when they're growing up to figure out what their passion is, too. It's a lot of dabbling around and it's not, hey, you're going to go to school and you're going to do this and you're going to follow in this footsteps. It's grow and see what you like to do and where you're good at and that could change when you're 50, that could change when you're 40. It's never guaranteed, right? Well, in my my generation especially, it was go to college, this is how you be successful. Go to college, spend the money. I have friends to this day that have hundreds of thousands of dollars in school loans, right? And they don't even utilize that college degree. So, the last thing I'm going to do is pigeon hole my kids and tell them the same thing. I don't care if it's trades. I don't care if it's a four-year degree. You want to take a couple years off, do it. Just figure out, in my opinion, people ask like, "How did you do it?" Well, it's easy. I don't work. Right. I do what I love. Y and it doesn't feel like work. Right. Right. And and I run my businesses the exact same way. I hire people for passion. People ask me, "How is your service department so successful?" Your crew, all your people, because it's simple. The end all beall isn't my business, right? It's God and family, right? I made a decision four years ago to close on weekends. We're one of few dealerships probably in the state that are closed on Saturdays and close at 6 p.m. Well, why? When I calculated it and looked at it and said, "Okay, it's going to cost me $140 to $180,000 a year net to be closed on Saturdays, but I'm still profitable and I can retain my staff long term." Yep. That made sense. Absolutely. You know, especially with the car dealerships and their hours that they have, those long nights, those long weekends, and it's like, right, to what extent they're going to get burnt out, they're not going to be happy. They're not going to be able or want to do their passion. So, yes. Right. Right. Well, and I was that guy on the other side of the desk that thought, man, look at these guys. They're up at their cabins on weekends. They're with their families on weekends. So, who am I to not allow that to the people that got me to where I am today? So, like this last weekend, we brought my dealership employees up to up to Cross Lake, had fun, stayed at the cabin, fished, brought everybody out to dinner. Like, I'm uh the culture that we have at our our place is key, and that is at any point in time if you're not happy, make a change, right? You know, I I had one of my uh service managers, Kenzie's, great employee. She came into my office a couple years back and she's like, "I think I might want to go back into dental to to be a dental hygienist." And I said, "Great. Use me as a crutch." Yep. Once you get entered back in the program, just let me know. And she left and then, you know, she called me back later. I think I like the automotive industry. What do you got from me? I'm like, well, got a spot over here. Live and learn. Yep. You got to try it out. You never know. It's always the whatifs and you don't want to have those whatifs. Definitely. I think the one thing I've learned with my kind of side story, but my father passed away in January is everybody always says you only live once, but you live every day. You only die once. So find your passion, do your passion, make the best of it, and you never know who and what steps you'll get get or take on the way. So I think that's really important. Absolutely. No, I agree. I think no tomorrow is never guaranteed. So when I take a look at the time again going back to that the the valuing of time Yeah. is so incred incredibly crucial and it's, you know, it's we're all conditions of our environment, right? So, it's difficult because I think everybody steps back and heard an interesting quote the other day. It's like in six months you're either going to be happy or you're going to be one or or you're going to be making excuses, right? We all make excuses to a degree, but I think looking at it and you mentioned like where do you see yourself having those plans in place, but then just taking it a day at a time, right? Absolutely. You can have those big picture huge goals, but at the same time make the best of today because those those obstacles aren't always nos. It's just, hey, let's let's figure out a different way or let's try something else and see what happens. Right. Right. And I always say I was just as happy going to the local park with my children when I was broke. Yep. Versus when I can go to, you know, the Cayman Islands. Like at the end of the day, it's the people around you, those experiences around you that create happiness. And that illusion of more money is going to going to make me more happy. And it's funny, big dealer group asked me, they're doing great. He says to me, "Ben, I can't believe you don't have 15 locations by now." And I said, "You got me read wrong, right? I don't want 15 locations." I always vowed that if I got put in the position that I always be humble enough to look back and go, "Okay, do I have time for my children?" Yes. I'm on school board. I coach all my kids sports. That is way more important to me to know that I get to have dinner with my family and coach and be present than than have a couple hundred million dollars more in 25 years that I can't bring when I die, right? You know, and those kids remember those things. It's like you're going to be the first one that they're going to look out and be like, "Hey, there's my dad." Or, "Where is he? Let's look through the crowd and try to see him." And if there's those days when you're not there or you're not present, they're going to be like, "I don't know if they ever were there." They're just trying to do it to then make you proud. Oh, definitely. Oh, 100%. 100%. So awesome. Well, where are you guys? Where's Footh Auto and how can people find you there? Yeah, so Footh Auto uh sales and service is in South St. Paul off of 494 in conquered. Uh what's unique about us? Um we're concierge based service department. So um at the end of this last year, we bought two more laner cars. We have two brand new Lexus SUVs, two brand new Trailblazers. Our whole thing is, you know, I I ran into a customer the other day and they said, "You know, I checked your shop out, but you're too expensive." Best compliment I've ever received. Are we in town? Absolutely not. But I have technicians that can build race cars. I look at it like if my wife is in a shop, who do I want changing the oil? I want somebody with experience that knows what they're doing. So my technicians are uh are the best in the area. We have a concierge based uh service program where we drop off and pick up. So if you're at work, you want your vehicle service. We do drop off and pickup services. Um yeah, we're we got our service department is great. I have some amazing technicians. Uh my service writers and managers aren't salespeople, right? You know, that's the biggest thing is they're not commissionbased. So, our uh service manager uh Patrick has 25 years experience as a mechanic. Amazing. And McKenzie came back to me from dental hygienist and I trained her to be a service manager. So, the biggest thing is diagnosing the vehicle and letting the customer know, communicating effectively with the customers, right? So, our goal isn't to upsell you things you don't need, right? So, if you're in the market for service, let us know. Car sales, exact same thing. I pull carfr reports on every single vehicle. The one thing that I do that I do not delegate is the purchasing of the automobiles. So I'm at the auction every single week, three days a week out buying the inventory to make sure that we're purchasing the right inventory. So if somebody wants a specific car, they can come to you and say, "Hey, I'm looking for this car. Can you go to the auction and try to find me one?" And I'll wait till you get it. Yeah, absolutely. So we do that. Uh we do that a lot. So we just picked up a 2024 Tundra for a customer, 4,000 miles, shipped it in from out of state. We do that and specialty cars. I've gotten people Lamborghinis, Ferraris, like we can get just about anything. And when I buy the cars, I buy them like I'm buying them for myself. So, I'm super picky with everything that I do. Um, police, military, obviously special special discounts for them. So, if you're police, military, fire, it's $1,000 over our cost. You get to see the check that I cut, it's $1,000 over. I don't care if it's a $70,000 truck, $1,000 over cost. Nice. So, what about your exterior construction? Yeah, exterior construction. You can give us a call. Uh, Cornerstone at 651-724-9377. Um, based out of Mendota Heights, also across Lake. Again, referral-based. Um, Cornerstone, again, the success. I wish I could take the credit for it, but it's our people. We have the best crews, bar none. They treat every single home like it's their personal home. And that's the big thing. Our big thing is communication and quality of work. Majority of insurance companies out there with these with these storms are approving 30-year shingles. We're automatically upgrading people to 45ear shingles. Again, it comes back down to the grassroots. If you take care of people and you treat them like your family, you get referrals. Cornerstone success was 150% over what we thought it was going to be last year because of our reputation and the quality of work, right? So, um yeah, give us a call if you're looking for anything exterior. Obviously, like everybody else, we do complimentary inspections and uh would definitely love to have the opportunity. So, are you guys hiring? Are you looking for people out there to come in, whether it's construction world or car sales or anything like that, or you guys kind of just Yeah. building positions for people. So, we literally just so um one of my um long long-term employees at Footh Auto Sales came into my office about three weeks ago and said, "Hey boss, I think I'm looking for a new opportunity. Just letting you know." I looked at him and said, "How do you feel about being trained in being a product project manager?" So, we've transferred some of the dealership staff for some opportunities over to construction. Um currently, we are hiring for a bilingual um salesperson at the automotive dealership. Nice. And uh we're in the process of purchasing another service center. So, I can't tell you where, but I can tell you that we will be hiring more technicians as well for that construction side of things. We have great crews. I think we're where we need there. So, how do you keep the younger generation that are coming out not so much computer related, but keep them motivated, keep them growing themselves. The younger generation, that is tough. You know, I think any business, you know, can agree the most difficult thing is is is finding accountable workers across the board. So when when hiring, I always take the the position into account. So again, hiring for passion, right? Like I had a guy, you know, and I've had a couple people like this, but interesting guy. I uh had a had a technician that I hired fresh out of school, ended up letting him go. Um just didn't like fixing cars, right? So finally I sat him down, young kid, and I was like, "Listen, we you use iPads for inspections. Like this is a simple process, but you're skipping some steps, and it's bigger than the fact it's not because you don't know. Talk to me." And I said, 'You don't look like you enjoy this.' And he goes, "Truthfully, I went into this because I kind of got pushed into it by my dad." Yeah. And I was like, "Well, I noticed your email. It was a proton email. What do you love? Do you love technology?" I love computers. I said, "So my advice would be that you're young. You're not married. Go into that world." So he came back down two weeks later. Best thing you ever did. I'm going to school for it and you know what I mean. So again, I think for me it's identifying people, younger generation that love cars, find their niche. Yeah. This weekend I'll be at Rock Falls. I have a Dodge Demon. I'll be drag racing at Rock Falls. That's where I find people. I want the mechanic that loves racing cars. I want the salesperson that's a car enthusiast. You know, I Brainard or International Raceway or wherever. Yeah. H, all that stuff. Yep. Yep. Yep. I do circuit track racing. But I think just finding those people that have the passion. So, if anybody's watching this and you know somebody that has passion, I'm always looking for people, you know. It's it's it's a like any other industry out there, if you have the right person, you want to keep them or you want to hire them. So, right. And it's can be constant training and it can be a daily test to try to find people and find their passion and it's a lot of motivation but switching paths when you're in there like hey this is great this is what I was passionate about in the beginning but now it's kind of molding and I see you have this other option let's let's try that. So growing with your employees is key and I love like I think I think when I take a look at where I was at like there's nothing better than having a manager or an owner invest back into their people. So, I'm all for when people come to me and they're like with ideas like, "What do you think about this? What do you think about, you know, like for a while I had a lot of my employees, we need to get into vehicle wraps." I'm like, "No way. There's people out there that are way better at doing it than us." Right. So, you know, great idea, but not what I'm doing. I know people that could do that. Let's sub that one out. Exactly. But like with the performance side of things, when you have guys that can build high performance cars and we all love vehicles, like, hey, let's do this. If we can monetize doing what we love, Yeah. I'm all for it. And make it fun, you know? Try something new. Why not? Yes. Absolutely. But my I think being an open book I think the I attribute a large part of my my success and everybody I hire I sit down and go you're coming to the table with experience share your experience right I am not pride comes before the fall I need to learn how to grow so a lot of these younger younger the younger generation coming in I can learn from these people right so for me it's constantly being able to mold the market what I stock for inventory today is going to be what it's going to be tomorrow it's an election year who knows what it's going to look like in a year so I think kind of Being a chameleon and being able to shift is really important. Yep. And I think with a lot of times in the changing of vehicles and all the electric stuff going on, things like that too, you never know what's going to be thrown at us in the future. Who knows? Who knows? Yeah. There's a lot of options out there. What do you see as some of your obstacles today that you really have learned from or that you could grow from or let our viewers know, hey, there's there's ways around it. obstacles today. Uh, you know, I would say the the moving obstacle in general, uh, well, I mean, I guess digital marketing is always a moving obstacle, right? Like trying to stay ahead of everything is very very very difficult. Um, goodness, you kind of stumped me with that question. I would say when I look back at all the businesses and the biggest obstacles that I've had, oh goodness, I would probably say I mean hiring's always up. Y's always the biggest obstacle, right? So, I think I think uh how you treat your employees is going to be huge. Um it's been an obstacle for me in the past. I think it's going to be an obstacle for every business, right? I mean, I mentioned earlier the calm before the storm. I think the most difficult thing to be to do as an owner is understand that you created the environment, right? So, I look back at co and I look at some of the complacency that I allowed to exist because I was complacent, right? Business was easy. Car sales was easy. Fixing cars was easy. I think everybody was making money. So, I take a look at shifting now how we work. That's right. Our sales staff could sit back and just make money. We didn't have to do a ton of followup because smarter, not harder. Right now, we're back to the old school way of like, "Hey, who do you know looking for a car? We thank you for your business." Right? So, I think understanding as an owner, the biggest obstacle is going to be swallowing your pride and going, "Okay, how do I adjust to whatever the economy or the market is going to bear?" Right? because at the end of the day it's what worked during COVID is not working today and what's going to work in four years is going to be completely different. So I think pivoting and learning, you know, I think having a good circle, right? So um before Facebook, I met with a good friend of mine who owns a company called Whip Bear. He met at Applebee's and I'm like, I don't know what to do. This is before I committed to Facebook and he looked at me third generation business. He goes, Ben, you got to figure out where you're spending money and how you're getting your sales. Y I went home, dug in, figured out, I sold a couple cars off this thing called Facebook. So I committed all that money to Facebook. Yeah. I learned from Chuck that I needed to deep dive into my company. I'm not I'm no accountant, but I certainly had the ability to do it and I did it and I pivoted and I adjusted. So, I think having the ability in the sense to be able to go, okay, this isn't working. How do I pivot and adjust and change and mold with the times, whether it's marketing or how you hire or how you operate can be key. The end all game is how you treat people. Like service is senior to sales, absolutely, but also your employees everywhere you go, you've got to be able to have that one-on-one connection. with the internet and everything, you start to kind of lose that and it's like, hey, let's just post this and post that. No, let's go there and have that conversation. Let's go. Let's get in front of those people and let them know that I'm here. I'm willing to listen. Let's figure it out. Absolutely. Absolutely. That's going to be key for sure. So, you have a lot of locations here in in and around the Twin Cities. Anything new and exciting other than the one coming up? Anything rental property wise that you're stirring in the mix, too, or you don't know yet? Oh, yeah. Yeah, we got a rental property we're targeting. I like to target like college campus areas. So, we're targeting just picked up a duplex over there that we're going to be was converted to residential. We got to flip it back over to a duplex. So, now it's navigating the interesting art of city code is probably the most challenging thing when dealing with rental properties. So, honestly, for me, the most exciting in my life is always my my family and I mean, we're coming into summer. We're going to we're going to Denver next week and then and then the Fourth of July weekend's going to be good for So, for me, just a lot of personal things. I think business I would say the biggest area I'm looking to expand in is probably real estate. I look back at when rates were 2 3%. And you know I took on good risk but I look back and I should have bought more right? So I look at what builds long-term wealth or mailbox money being the being the entrepreneurial keyword these days is more real estate. So my focus is going to be purchasing as much real estate as I possibly can. So you've done some traveling with your family. Where are some of your favorite places that you've gone and some of those fun memories that you've had? Oh, Grand Cayman Islands by far. Um, ironically, the place we bought up in Cross Lake, our neighbors are from there. Oh, nice. And ended up um going to Grand Cayman. That was probably our re most recent favorite place to travel for sure. Absolutely. Yep. So, do you see any obviously you've got Denver in the future, you've got some other trips planned. Anything big coming up in the mix that you guys are going to travel to or any events? Oh, goodness. What do we got going on for events? Um, so Fourth of July weekend out, fun stuff. Um I'm really big into uh car rallying and there's an organization called Crown. Okay. So Crown Rally is now called Crown Invitational. Very cool. Um they do basically a bunch of enthusiasts with vehicles get together. Um so I'm doing the North Rally which is from or from St. Paul over to Chicago. Yep. And so that'll be fun. And then in September, late September, we're doing Chicago to Atlanta. Nice. And people can go and hit those spots that you guys stop at along the way and look at the cars and talk to the drivers and everything too. Yes. It's great. again the opportunity to meet other people, network and for a good cause. So it's tied into the rally for calls. I know the last rally we did uh about a year and a half ago generated over a million dollars. Y um and I believe that towards went for child autism which is awesome. So a great opportunity to get together with people who love cars and other business owners like crazy. Uh one of the things I learned on the last south rally you talk about meeting people and having your circle be people who really challenge how you think how you operate. Y had a gentleman behind me in a McLaren, really nice car, and I was in the Porsche and he pulls over and I said, "I'm going to buy you lunch." And he goes, "Yeah, lunch is free." I'm like, "Okay, what do you do for buying you lunch? What do you do for a living?" And he turns out he's in real estate. He does mult, you know, huge developments and start talking to him and sharing my experience with him. And he gave me some ideas. He goes, "You need to be doing is targeting estate sales, tax sales, rehabbing them, cash out refinancing." I'm like, he gave me just a different perspective on real estate. And I'm like, "This makes perfect sense. I think of this." Yeah. Before I was putting cash down to finance it, then I was rehabbing it and I was putting all these money into him and not getting those funds back. Whereas, you know, Fred gave me the ability. He's like, "No, you got to use your cash. Buy it." All right. Cash cash money to make more money. Yes. Crazy, right? So, just like having surrounding yourself with people who challenge your thinking and really make you up your game. And I'm like, why did I think about this? Right. So, so my success, I'm no mental giant, but I'm really good at learning from people. And I think in business, as long as you you can swallow your pride and learn from people, whether it's in real estate or automotive or aftermarket or whatever it is, you're going to grow, right? It's been awesome. Well, everybody kind of has that learning experience now. We all grow when we all grow, right? So, it's getting out there and having those conversations with people, whether they're in the same market, just trying to see what's working for them, what's not, but also what's my next step? How can how can I improve and where can I grow from that, too? No doubt. No doubt. What about what about sun control? What what's on the horizon for you guys? We've got a lot of stuff. We just opened up our Florida location which is in Vero Beach, Florida, which has been great. We have a new full service marketing agency which has been wonderful. There's a lot more products that we do other than just Control the Sun. And people don't know about that. So that's why we're always trying to get in front of those contractors, get in front of those residences, go to car shows, everything like that. Go to the rallies, get in front of as many people as possible because we have products for everybody just like everybody else. people are like, "Oh, I don't need that. It might work." Okay, well, are your floors fading? You know, what's working? What's not working? Do you want some decorative film? You have a car, right? Do you want to protect your kids in the back seat or we've got paint protection films, new product defense light, bullet shield, which is great, which keeps our schools safe, our law enforcement centers, anything like that, government centers, we do it all. So, it's fun to just go in and kind of give our elevator speech to everybody, but have those conversations and not be scared to be like, "This might not be for you now, but let's plant the seeds and grow for the future." Right. That's cool. Yeah. I was shocked. You showed me a couple of the the products. I was like, "Wow, this is super cool." Right. Super cool. And letting actually having people come in with a baseball bat and taking wing wax at it or taking the bird film and putting it up and showing people how it works. It's it's letting people get the products in their hands, too. So seeing like when you do your houses, your exterior stuff, hey, I don't think I need this now, but great, now we have a raintorm, lots of winds coming in. Who are you going to call? So you have to stay on top of mind. Very cool. What kind of marketing or how do you guys think that that's going to grow in the future? What coverage areas do you have for all your different Yeah. So I mean, the the uh the the construction is is all referral-based, right? So it it all comes from agents. I mean, truthfully, a lot of my time um with with Patrick is spel is is spent whining, dining, networking, going to concerts, golfing, like doing all the fun stuff and then just letting and then obviously once we get the referrals showing these agents um that we can follow through, right? Right. Especially in the world of construction, so many contractors out there tell people that they have damage when they don't have damage and that affects when you file a claim affects people's premiums no matter what if there's damage or not. So, building relationships is going to be key for us, especially in construction. the automotive industry, the exact same thing. Just getting our name out there, working our referral bases, our customers, the thousands of people that we've sold cars to. I think our success when times, there's always great times, there's always going to be slow times, but our backbone is going to be the relationships that we have with our customers at the end of the day. So, we're going to be leaning heavily on those relationships. Obviously, still digital advertising and doing all, you know, all the traditional means, but I really think I think it's an election year and I think things are going to get a little bit tough for a lot of people. And I think how you how you performed in business and how you behaved is going to be directly correlated to to your success o over the next three to four years for sure. What do you see like with all the election everything else coming up, all the technology that's out there? Where do you think that that'll benefit in the future? Do you think it's going to continue to grow all the AI and everything like that or do you think that it's going to kind of come to a halt? Right. You know, it's funny you mentioned learning from the younger generation. I had this uh younger fellow actually owns uh Uncle Charlie marketing. He was in DC with me. Great guy. He looks at me and I told, you know, sharing stories. He goes, "You know, Ben, you know, you're just telling me about Facebook and how you were ahead of it." Yeah. He goes, "That's AI." Yep. He goes, "You need to get on board right now because AI is the new Facebook, right? I know your generation wants to fight it. There's like this inner urge to be like, you know, like back, I'm not doing Facebook and I'm not doing this." I have that inner urge to not want AI, but I'm accepting the fact that AI is the next Facebook Instagram. So, we're pushing really hard. We played around in it with some of the CRM stuff. AI is difficult. Like customers know when they're communicating with a human being in AI or AI still, right? So I think that's going to be a challenge in the AI space, but I'm certainly in a position where it's like, okay, swallow your pride, deep dive into this. How is this going to affect construction, real estate, the automotive industry? So I think that's probably going to be my next personal push is really learning more about AI and how I can use it to grow. And I think part of the AI world that people don't see is you still have to customize and make it some of your own cuz the algorithms out there, whether you're on social media or whatever, do know that you're using AI. So that'll help and affect everything. But what it all comes down to is being a person at the end of the day. Because there's a lot of kids that are like, "Oh, my computer will do it for me." You know, I don't need to do this. Every job that's out there soon will be taken over by a computer, having the AI, everything out there. Neurolink that's coming out, everything else. So it's just trying to be adaptive, changing, growing, but making it your own, right? And it's scary. I mean, we look at COVID and I I see the things I deal with at the schoolboard level with communication in children and development in children, uh, caused by lack of contact and communication during co. So, it's hard to look at AI and be super excited about it because I'm like, you know, my wife has her masters in educational leadership, so we have very different views. She's like very pro college. I'm very pro passion. Yeah. Don't care about a degree. like you know it's so when I take a look at AI it's hard for me to want to really embrace it because I see what lack of contact and lack of involvement has done for the younger kids and the younger generations so I'm hesitant for sure but I think it's going to play an integral part of our world and it just comes down to what degree right what degree do we allow to do and that's the biggest thing and you know Musk has warned about it himself beware of AI yeah you know so I think being guarded against it's going to be important too you know but again I I chalk it back up to how big do I want to grow? Right. Right. And for me, we're we're we're financially healthy. We're doing fine. I have the time to be with my family and my and my employees have that time and for me that's success. Perfect. So So how can people find you on social media? What are some of your your taglines and how can they get a hold of you? So uh on um Facebook it's Footh Auto Sales and Service. Same thing on um Instagram as well. Uh we are on Tik Tok as Footh Performance. So, we are out on Tik Tok as well. Cornerstone, you can look us up. Cornerstone MN on Instagram and Facebook as well. Perfect. Are you on LinkedIn? Are you on any other social sites? Or do you just kind of keep it more the Facebook, Instagram? I am on LinkedIn. I'll upfront. I don't do a ton. I've never really been been the big like corporate corporate guy. So, I haven't done a ton on LinkedIn. I just finally started refreshing my LinkedIn as I've as I branched out a little bit. But, I am on LinkedIn personally. People look me up. So, outstanding. And if they want to come to Footh Auto, what's the address where they can come or how can they find you? Yeah, so uh address where they can come is 528 Conquered Exchange South in South St. Paul, Minnesota 55075. And if you're watching this, I'm actually going to give you my personal sale. So if you need anything exteriors related, automotive related or maybe you want to have a cup of coffee. I'm I'm happy to talk to anybody. My personal cell is 651-261-9158. It's funny when you say that because I have my personal cell and that's out there on everything. That's on my business cards. But 99% of the time when the phone rings, I'm going to pick it up regardless of who you are, what day it is. I'm like, unless I have something going on with my kids, I'll set that aside. But I'll be like, it's you never know who it's going to be or what they're going to need or just absolutely answering the phone. But full disclosure, I went a little old school. I went back to a landline. So one when I get home now, my phone gets put up. I got a landline and if you're close, you have that number and if it's an emergency, call me. It's hard. like we built everything on social media and digital marketing and the cell phone has become right next to us. But I've also recognized that like it also impedes on our privacy and relationship. So like for me it's now that separation. So So you mean your phone's listening when we're having phone conversations and pulling up all those ads? Who would have thought? Who would have thought, right? Who would have thought? Right. They're all going to have Footh Auto Car Sales and Cornerstone ads pop up and Exactly. Let's go. Exactly. Yeah. We love it. Don't get me wrong. We love it. But, you know, definitely separating a little bit in the evening time for sure. Yes. Perfect. Well, we really appreciate having you on today. It was great to let you be in touch and let our viewers know and hear a little bit about your story and what's to come in the future. Awesome. Thank you very much for having me. Thank you so I appreciate it.