Driving Success as a Family Business With Steven and Susan Moss of Wilson Tire Pros and Automotive

Steven and Susan Moss own Wilson Tire Pros and Automotive, a three-location tire and automotive repair business in Burlington, North Carolina. Steven, who took over the business from his father in 2009, brings a hands-on background in automotive repair and business operations. After managing military contracts in her family’s hosiery business, Susan joined Steven full-time, catalyzing the company’s growth and operational evolution. Together, they’ve become prominent leaders in the Tire Pros network, with Susan now serving as the first female Chair of the National Dealer Council.

In this episode…

Family-run businesses are the heartbeat of many industries, including automotive service and repair. Growing from one location to three while balancing family, legacy, and leadership challenges requires grit, planning, and deep support systems. What lessons can other shop owners learn from a husband-and-wife team who grew their business through heart and hustle?

According to Susan and Steven Moss, who own and operate Wilson Tire Pros and Automotive, success comes from building community, embracing mentorship, and working through the numbers. From joining Tire Pros to implementing lessons from a 20 Group, they transformed their family business by leaning into smart processes and strategic relationships. Their journey offers a blueprint for growth-minded entrepreneurs.

On this episode of Gain Traction, host Mike Edge welcomes Steven and Susan for a conversation about growing a multi-location tire business, transitioning from technician to leader, and the power of industry networking. They share the sacrifices behind their success, how joining Tire Pros and a 20 Group transformed their business, and why trusting your team is essential for growth.

Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn: 

• [01:39] The origin of Wilson Tire Pros 
• [04:11] Why Susan Moss’ full-time involvement helped accelerate business expansion
• [08:18] How joining Tire Pros supported early growth through marketing and discounts
• [09:44] The impact of working with a dedicated Tire Pros marketing manager
• [13:38] Steven Moss’ unorthodox but successful journey to ASE certification
• [20:45] The personal sacrifices and teamwork that fueled early growth
• [26:48] Why growing from one to two locations is the hardest jump

Resources mentioned in this episode:

• Steven Moss on LinkedIn
• Susan Moss on LinkedIn 
• Wilson Tire Pros and Automotive 
• Tire Pros
• 20 Groups
• Mike Edge on LinkedIn
• Tread Partners

Quotable Moments:

• “It’s not rocket science — just treat people the way you want to be treated.”
• “Every car should be treated like it belongs to Grandma Moss: everything it needs, nothing it doesn’t.”
• “Our biggest asset is knowing every job in the shop — our worst asset is also knowing every job there.”
• “The jump from one to two locations is the scariest, but it’s also the most important step.”
• “We couldn’t have grown this business without each other’s full support, both at home and at work.”

Action Steps:

1. Leverage your network for support: Cultivate relationships in the industry for guidance and encouragement.
2. Transition out of technician mode: Focus on leadership and growth by training and trusting your team to take on responsibilities.
3. Use business metrics to guide decisions: Learn your KPIs, understand your numbers, and manage your shop with data, not guesswork.
4. Join a business peer group: Consider a 20 Group or similar cohort to share best practices and gain accountability from like-minded shop owners.
5. Balance family and business intentionally: Create routines and backup systems at home and at work to support long-term sustainability.

• Gain Traction Podcast
• Mike Edge
• Steven Moss
• Susan Moss
• Tread Partners
• Wilson Tire Pros and Automotive

Transcript

00:02
Welcome to the Gain Traction Podcast where we feature top tire and auto repair professionals, shop owners, industry executives and thought leaders and share their inspiring stories. Now let’s get started with the show. 

00:19
Welcome to the Gain Traction Podcast folks, the official podcast for tire business. I am Mike Edge, your host. We have the owners of Wilson Tire Pros and Automotive with three locations in the Burlington, North Carolina area. Stephen and Susan Moss are my guests today. But before we begin, this episode is brought to you by Tread Partners. Tread Partners is the leading digital marketing agency that specializes in digital marketing for multi location tire and auto repair shops. Tread Partners works with clients that have hundreds of locations down to five locations. Get a professional review of your digital marketing structure from an agency that works exclusively in this industry. Let Tread Partners take a look under your digital marketing hood today. Please visit treadpartners.com to contact them. 

01:01
My past guest shout out today is for Rob Howden, the Voice of the USF Pro 2000 Championship Racing Series. Please check out that podcast at gain traction podcast.com if you haven’t listened yet. Very cool, unique podcast. Had a lot of fun doing it. All right. So welcome to the podcast. Stephen and Susan, thank you. 

01:23
Glad to be here. 

01:23
Thank you for having us. 

01:25
Yeah, I’m glad you guys, glad to be introduced to you and I’m glad to be here with you. I think you guys have pretty cool story. So which one of you guys want to start and tell me about how you guys got started in business? 

01:39
Probably either one of us can do it. I’ve been in a little bit longer so I’ll jump in. I started my dad was actually a brick mason and commercial brick mason when he got home from Vietnam and that’s what his grand his dad did. So my grandfather and thank goodness for me in 1984 he bought a tire store or I guess I would be wearing work boots and slinging brick and mortar today. But he bought a tire store in 1984 and I used to ride a school bus there our original location which was in Elon and he kept that store through 200925 years. 

02:20
When he retired Susan and I decided to buy the business from him and my mom and best thing that we did for them and us I think a little did we know that we would lose mom to cancer five years later but it was they got five years of great retirement and were able to enjoy and travel the world a lot of places, see a lot of things. So definitely got one of our better decisions. We had the single location up until 2021 and right about that time, Susan had worked for her father in the hosiery mill. They owned a textile mill in Burlington which produced socks, a lot of them for the US Military, for the Army, Navy, Marine Corps and all. They. The. The standard issue. She can tell you more about that, but the standard issue boot sock for the military. 

03:12
Her dad redesigned the specs for that in like 99 or so. Anyway, he sold that business 21 or 22, I guess. And that allowed us. I knew when I had Susan full attention and I had her on board 100%, that. That we could expand our business together and we purchased our second location, actually. April Fool’s Day, April 1st of 2021. 

03:40
It’s appropriate, right? 

03:41
Yeah. Which was business. Had been in business since 1959. The name of it was Bulla Warren Tire and all. And they had previously been a tire pros dealer, a great guy, Stan Warick. And we bought the business from him. One of the best deals we ever did. Handshake agreement, phone call, handshake agreement. Went and met on a Saturday morning, wrote numbers down on the notepad and said, okay. And we shook hands and we closed 45 days later. 

04:11
Man, that doesn’t work out any better, does it? 

04:13
Does not happen like that very often. 

04:15
Wish we could find some more like. 

04:16
That, but great deal. Not that the other ones weren’t, but that one went extremely smooth. Been a great addition to our business. 

04:26
Well, and you picked up a lot of history there, it sounds like, I mean, 1959. 

04:30
Yeah, yeah, we. We do. You know, it was kind of tough. It had its. Had its speed bumps. Initially, the manager had been there. It was the only job he had ever had. He had worked there for 43 years. And. And they did not at the time have any computer point of sale system. They were still handwriting tickets. 

04:50
So it was challenging. 

04:52
Needless to say, he quit the first day. And it was not a bad thing. It was a little bit of a shock and a little bit of a hurdle. But he was very cordial. But it was an agreement between both of us. I could tell it was stressing him out. And I said, look, nothing is worth you putting yourself through this much, you know, mental anguish. And we. It was fine. It ended up working out. The big surprise was two weeks later, the guy that was the assistant manager, that would have been the manager, quit. And that was so all of a sudden, in the first two weeks, I’ve lost two people. 

05:31
Key people. 

05:33
Very key people. 

05:34
Yes. 

05:35
Initially, in those first two weeks, I think were like, what have we done? 

05:41
They were. 

05:43
But it, you know, it ended up working out. I was pretty much married to the place for the first several months. Actually had one of our great friends, Ryan Goff from Idaho, who has two tire press locations out there. Rogers tire pros, him and his brother Brad. Ryan. When he found out that I lost the two people key to two key people, he and his wife Andrea got on a plane and flew out here from Idaho and spent a week with me. Working with us and working in the shop. So not when you talk about, you know, acquaintances and things in the industry. There. There are acquaintances and people you meet and then there are best friends. 

06:21
And he definitely, he and his wife Andrea fall into that category because they literally stopped everything in their life and flew out here for a week and worked in that shot. He worked that counter with me solid. 

06:32
For a week and man, that is fantastic. 

06:35
And don’t hear those stories all the time. That’s why I think it’s definitely worth telling those people don’t come along in your life every day. No, we’ve known them for, Gosh, I guess 12, 13 years now. 

06:48
We met them on a tire dealers trip in Puerto Rico in 2011. 

06:51
Yeah, sure did. 

06:52
Well, you guys must have made a heck of an impression. 

06:55
We just hit it off and they just became like our best friends that live literally across the country from us. 

06:59
Yeah, we do. We travel out there once a year and they usually. At least once a year and they usually travel here once a year. So it’s been a great friendship, but we got through that time, which was tough. Found a manage. Actually found a manager from O’Reilly Auto Parts, a guy that I had dealt with that had been in the parts industry for about 20 years and I nicknamed him the Parts Wizard. Twenty years ago, I guess when I first started working with him and he ended up coming to work for us as a manager at that location and really got us through several years. And then in October of 23, 22. 22 gracious. In October of 22, we bought our third location which was in Meban. 

07:50
And it was another great deal, very easy transaction and just, you know, been growing ever since trying to do the things that everybody does, trying to put in proper training methods in place and hire the right people to further the business that we started with the standards and the process that you know, helped us grow and made us the shop, the top shop in the area. 

08:16
So you’re tire pros too, right? 

08:18
We are yes. 

08:19
How is that benefited and how’s that relationship been? 

08:23
You know, it’s been excellent. We, we joined Tire Pros the year after we bought the business. 

08:29
It’s like the first big decision we. 

08:31
Made, 2010, you know, it really was. And you know, back then we had a presentation with American Tire Distributors, with the Tire Pros people at the local distribution center. It was us. And I think there were at least one other tire dealer there, I think Keith and Lynn from Liberty Tire Pros, and maybe somebody else, I’m not sure, maybe Terry Sturgeon, I can’t remember. But anyway, they brought two or three of us in. We all got the presentation and we talked about it and we did. We signed up. At the time, were scared, you know, we just didn’t know. But it’s. It made sense for us on several levels. The monthly fee, the. The discounts and the advantages that we got through the program offset the cost immediately. And then the addition. 

09:22
What we really needed was like, marketing. So like, at the time we were receiving co op dollars and we really weren’t sure what to do with them at the. And you know, at the end of the year, they were saying, hey, you got $5,000 in co op funds that you need to spend up before December 31st. Like, what are we gonna do with that? So the marketing support was crucial. 

09:41
When we joined Tire Press, that was the key point, was the marketing manager. And we had an excellent one right out of the gate, a gentleman named Casey Wall. And it’s funny, our first meeting with him, he laid out all this stuff. We’re going to do this, we’re going to do this. And I looked at him and said, you have lost your mind. None of that’s going to work. You don’t know what you’re doing. I said, he convinced me. He said, I tell you what, let’s do it six months my way, and if it doesn’t work, we’ll do the last six months your way. I said, okay, fine. Well, thank goodness he was way smarter than I was and his way worked great. We grew our business huge those first few years. 

10:20
And with, you know, as with any business, growth is exciting and it’s fun, but you do hit a plateau where you grow to a point where the footprint is just not big enough. You need more baits, you need, you know, technicians, which means you need more space to put them. So Tire Pros was a very integral part of us growing our business at that time. And even with the one location, it took us five years to triple the business, I think four to five years. And we actually tripled the business in gross sales and unit volume from what it was when we took over. 

10:57
That’s fantastic, though. Even in that timeframe. I mean, you said it like it was a negative, though. I think that’s phenomenal. 

11:03
Yeah. No, no, I mean, yeah, it was that. Yeah, it was. It was a lot of work, a lot of sweat equity in that, in making it happen, you know, and it’s the small things, like going from. Gosh. I mean, I. When we bought the business, I. I mean, I was doing all the alignments. I was the only technician at my dad’s shop. I know we skipped a bunch in there, but I went to college at UNCG and commuted. And when I graduated in 97, my dad’s main mechanic quit and opened up a shop across town. And so I graduated and I had all these job offers through the college, and my dad said, well, here you’re gonna. You’re gonna work. You’re gonna be the technician at least for the. At least for this summer. And so thank goodness I did that. And I. 

11:46
And I never stepped away from it. 

11:48
Yeah. 

11:49
From 97 till probably 2010 or 11, I was the only technician at the shop. And mind you, I never took an automotive course in school, ever. Any type of automotive training. I just learned from the farm and my dad, and we did drag race from gosh. Drove from 1989 to 2015. And so was very mechanical and worked on stuff all the time. But it’s funny story, I. I. Like I said, I never had any formal training. Now I had books and things that I read. But in 2005, went to a Napa expo in Vegas, and I got to reading about a month before, and I was like, they got ASE tested, and I want to do that. So I signed up for. All they would let you take was four tests at one time. 

12:39
So I signed up for four tests, having no idea what I was getting into. And I had some buddies in the industry that worked for dealerships and stuff like that. So I called them, and I was like, hey, I’m gonna take four ASE tests. These are the four that I picked. And it was like, I think it was brakes, steering, and suspension. Oh, engine. I forget what they call drivetrain was one. And maybe engine performance. And they’re like, oh, have you been studying? Have you got the books? And I was like, oh, my God. I didn’t even know there was books. I just Thought there was, like, a knowledge test. So it long in the short of it. 

13:14
We go out there, and I’ll never forget the technician who was on stage that day with Napa as the technician of the year, getting his award. And we get into the testing center, and he was doing four retest. So the retest are half the questions. 

13:30
Okay. 

13:31
And I have always been. I’m certainly not smartest guy in the world, but I have always been really good at taking test. 

13:37
Oh, that’s great. That’s great to have that ability. 

13:39
Yeah. 

13:40
So we sit in this testing room, and I’ve got my four, you know, tests which are. I can’t remember, 50 or 100, whatever it was. And I sit down, and two hours in, I’m done with all four of my tests, and I’m kind of glancing over here at the guy next to me who’s the technician of the year, and he’s just finishing his second retest, and I’m thinking, oh, boy, oh, boy, I’m screwed. You know, I. I know I’ve blown this thing. So I’m like, well, I went back over a few of them and looked at some things, and finally I was like, you know what? It is what it is. So y. Me and. And you’re thinking at first probably that. 

14:15
Yeah, I missed a page or two in here. Something. 

14:18
I was like, yeah, what in the world? But turned them in and. And. And passed all of them, really. 

14:24
Congratulations. 

14:25
And so. Yeah. And so I tell people all the time that being able to take tests, having that skill really is an advantage because I’ve known great technicians that stress so much over taking a test like that. 

14:37
Yeah. 

14:38
That they end up psyching their self out and they fail miserably knowing that they have the knowledge to. Oh, yeah, do it. 

14:47
I know. 

14:48
I knew a lot of smart kids that just terrible at those, like, the ACT type stuff. Everything. Extremely smart. Just. Just didn’t like, they could not take those tests. 

14:56
Yeah. They just weren’t geared for them or. 

14:58
They froze up, Whatever you want to call it. Yeah. 

15:00
Right. So I said all that to say that I was the only technician there for all those years. And one of the hardest parts of becoming the business owner was because the first several. Even most of the first year, I was. Susan was working for her dad at the hosiery mill four or five days a week doing the books for the tire. 

15:18
And we have three children. We have three sons. 

15:20
Yeah, we got to think about that. 

15:22
That’s. 

15:22
That’s just a little part of there. Yeah. 

15:25
Yeah. And at the time our sons were. Gosh. That was in. We bought the business in 2009. So we had a seven year old, a five year old and a two year old. Two year old. Yeah. So I weren’t. 

15:39
Y’ all weren’t busy. 

15:40
I was hectic raising our kids and working for my dad and I was already doing some of the accounting and the bookkeeping for the shop. So. Yeah. So we were. I look back on those days and think, I’m not sure how we made it through, but go ahead and you. 

15:54
Know, those days were tough. I was there way early in the morning and I key the door every day. I was writing up every ticket, answering every phone call, still doing the alignments, running back and forth from the front counter. In our first week, I’ll never forget it. We were open the way the week fail. We were open three days and we did $12,000 in total sales. And I remember coming home, making that deposit at the end of that week and saying in 3D, I was like, know it was gross sales. But still, I remember looking at Susan and saying, we’re going to make this work. We can do this. You know, and so excited. But to transition from that to actually being a business owner and letting go of thinking I had touch every car. 

16:41
Yeah. 

16:41
And. And not be the technician guy and stop being the guy that when people came in, I want him to fix my car. 

16:48
Yeah. 

16:49
You know, I had done that for so long and you know that shop had been my life. 

16:54
Well, you took a lot of pride in it too. Yeah. It’s your baby. 

17:00
Our clients watched me grow up, you know, felt like family. And so that was a really tough move. But at the same time, it was the only move that led to actually being able to grow the business and turn it into something like it is today. And certainly the only move that led to being able to expand and to have multiple shops. We, if we had not done that, you know, I would probably still be wearing a work uniform every day, putting my boots on and busting the knuckles in the garage, which I love to do. 

17:30
But the, but the great thing is you really got that hardcore experience to know, you know what every part of the shop runs like. I mean, and not just a little bit. You were in it. I mean, neck deep, dude. I mean, you were there. 

17:46
I was fully immersed. And I tell people all the time, my biggest asset in the running my business is I can do every job in the shop. 

17:53
Yeah. 

17:54
And I have done them and Then I say, and my worst asset is I can do every job in the shop, and I have done them because it’s hard for me to. When you’re growing and when you do that, part of the growing pains is you have to let people learn. And I want. 

18:10
That’s what I was wondering. Yeah. 

18:11
I want to keep them from making the mistakes that I made. And you can try and you can do your best, and I want to do. I want to mentor them and do all that. And you try, but at the same time, there are just some things that they have to learn on their own. And at the same note, there are some inefficiencies or some processes in the shop that you don’t realize need working on until they fail. So you have to let that process happen, which hurts. 

18:36
It does hurt. 

18:37
It’s not good sometimes. It costs a lot of money. 

18:39
And it’s also a parallel to what raising kids. I mean, you gotta let your kids make those same mistakes sometimes. And you sit there and you scratch your head going, damn, boy, I just wish you’d learned from me. I know. 

18:49
Yeah. Do you see these scars? These scars are here. I’m hoping that you don’t have to wear them. 

18:54
Yeah, well, it’s funny because my dad passed away quite a few years ago, but I, you know, I’ve had my own kids now and everything, and so, I mean, I’ll sit there, look up some time ago. First of all, I owe you an apology. And second of all, thank you. You were right, you know, Right. Right about a lot of things. Right. You know, but it’s. 

19:13
It’s amazing how ignorant our fathers are from the time we’re 15 to 22 and how brilliant they become after that. 

19:21
Oh, yeah. And even more brilliant when you have kids. 

19:26
My dad, he used to tell me, you know, all this stuff. Oh, I’d get so mad about something or, you know, we didn’t argue a lot, but we worked together every day at the shop and then we raised together, so were like best friends as much as were father and son. And, you know, it’s funny, but I used to hear him say that all he said, keep on, by the time you’re 25, I’m be the smartest man you ever met. He sure was right. 

19:47
My dad said the same thing. And, man, he did get smarter the older I got. 

19:51
Yeah, absolutely. 

19:52
We’re starting to get into that phase of life because our oldest son is now 23. 

19:57
He’s not quite there yet. 

19:59
Close. And then we have a 20 year old that is not there and a 17 year old that is not there. 

20:05
I, I know, it’s, it’s fascinating. And we have two older daughters, so we have three sons, we have five kids, we have two older daughters and they’re both married now. And one’s about to have her first, the other one’s on her second. But it’s interesting how much they seem to be appreciating mom and dad more now than ever. And especially mom, you know, especially because they’re girls and they, you know, they realize what a mother sacrifice is. You know, take, bring a kid in the world and taking care of it at those early stages, you know, it’s, it’s interesting. Watch that little journey, you know, it is. 

20:45
And it’s tough. And we talk about it and you know, in those early days of growing the shop, I mean, Susan was, Gosh, I mean, everybody talks about. I was the one maybe at the shop working 14, 16 hours a day sometimes, but Susan was the one that was raising the boys. And there were times when she would come home from the hosier meal, pick them up from school, cook supper, bring supper to me at the shop with the boys so I could see them for half hour, whatever, while I was still at work fixing cars. And then she’d have to go home, clean up everything, put them to bed. I’d get home at 10:30, 11:00 clock at night, get a shower, go to sleep, get up, do it all over the next day. 

21:28
And you know, we could have never grown like we did if I didn’t have her as my partner and teammate in that and in doing it. And we work together so much for that. And you know, you look back and you talk about, I tried to make all the little league games and everything that I could, and sometimes I’d stop or run to the games and then go back to work at night, you know, doing it. But you make all those sacrifices. But it takes, in my opinion, it takes a part. Take someone like Susan in my life that was willing to put in the work at home knowing that I was building a future. 

22:01
But you got to have somebody that has your back. I mean, so that, you know, and both of you had each other’s back to make it work. And that’s just, y’ all made it work. And I, and you know, as tough as it is not saying you’d want to go through it again, I’m sure you look on it with fond memories at the same time. Like, hey, look what we did. 

22:17
I look back on those days and like I, were very fortunate. I worked two jobs from the time we bought our shop there, his or the, his Dad’s store. In 2009, I was already working for my father. I started working for him when I graduated from college. College and I was in charge of our military contracts as Stephen said earlier. So I was, I had to be in both places. And I was very fortunate that my dad had a 85,000 square foot facility and I had a really big office down there. And my mom kept our children before they went to school. But then if she couldn’t, our kids could come down to the hosiery mill and play in the office or go running through the mill with granddaddy. 

22:53
And then I would come home at lunch and I do all the bookkeeping for the shops and take care of the kids and you know, all that stuff. And I look back on those days and think they flew by and I wish I could go back and look at those and savor those moments. Even though were killing ourselves at the time, it was just a, it was a very important part of where we are now. And it’s what brought us to here. 

23:18
Neither one of us had any problem going. 

23:22
But it’s the sacrifices that we made then to put us where we are now with the three locations. And you know, I’m fortunate now. I used to be in the shops every day and now everything that we do is cloud based so I can work from home, which I can get so much done here. And we’re fortunate that we have really worked hard to, and put in the work early to be where we are now. 

23:44
That’s a great story. 

23:46
It’s all been, you know, it’s all been part of the whole plan and everything that worked out. One of the most beneficial things that we did, we joined tire pros and that put us in contact with, in my opinion, networking with the right people. One of the biggest steps that we did was at that meeting Susan mentioned in Puerto Rico when we met the golfs. Norm Gaither was there with 20 group and he spoke and at the time, Continental Tire came out as a partner, one of the biggest manufacturer partner that tire pros has had throughout the years. And they sponsored the 20 group, said, all right, the 20 dealers that sign up for this program will pay 50% of your first year’s dues to the group. So we jumped in on that the golfs jumped in. 

24:35
It was several of us, obviously, that did that. And that group stayed together for, gosh, seven or eight years, really, right until Covid. And that was very beneficial. That was the part in the networking with the dealers in the group that helped me get from keying the door every day, answering the phone, still trying touch every car. I’ll never forget Jeff and Keith Tucker out of Tennessee, the brothers. Oh, yeah, I know they. Keith would call me, we’d leave a meeting and we had our action items and things like that. Mine was simple things like take a lunch. Like, I mean, that’s how, you know, like, hey, leave the shop for 30 minutes and go to lunch. And we got stopped wearing a uniform to work. Yeah. 

25:20
We got back from a meeting in about a week later, my cell phone rang and it was Keith Tucker. And he said, what are you doing? It’s 12:30. I said, well, I’m doing this. He said, stop and get in your truck and go eat lunch. You know, little things like that, you know, just seem meaningless. But at the same time, gosh, those guys really helped me and pushed me and encouraged me to. To do that and it really made a difference. 

25:45
That’s when 20 Group helped us like, with. Figure out figuring out how to manage our business by the numbers. Like, that was things like if you don’t know what, you don’t know. Right. So like, we didn’t. We both have college degrees, which here, you know, I learned a few things there, but you learned so much more outside of. 

26:01
Totally. Totally. Yeah. 

26:03
And I value that experience. But still, like, you learned just a little bit there. And so like, the 20 group taught us how to manage our business by the numbers and keep up with like, our gross profit to payroll and like the numbers and that, the measurements, the KPIs that we needed to manage our business and, and be operating at a net profit that were wanting to be operating at. And it also taught us to work on our business and not in our business. Like, it helped us. 

26:29
That was the key. 

26:30
Yeah, it helped us learn to trust our employees that, you know, we’ve hired good people, we pay them fairly and we treat them well and to trust them and teach them first of all, but then trust them to do their jobs. And, and that was, that’s what 20 Group was so good for us in that. 

26:47
Well, there were several members in that group that were. It was a great mix of single store owners to multi store owners. And that. That’s very beneficial for someone like Us that was trying to transition from that and we tell people this all the time and I still think it holds true. That jump from one to two is the biggest hurdle you’ll have. 

27:07
Yeah. 

27:08
Three was not near as hard. But that jump from the single location to that second store and being a multi location. We talked to a good friend of ours, Josh Bachman, who is growing like crazy. I mean I think he’s up to 15 stores now, maybe it’s 17. And you know, we talk to him and we have that same conversation and he said, you’re exactly right. He said, I remember. And it is. That’s the scariest part. And then it does get easier and you know then that you, once you get above two stores, you know you have a system and systems and process place that are working and you still work on them all the time. 

27:44
Yeah. 

27:44
But very beneficial. Same conversation with Mark Pons. You know, they’ve done a great job near us and he’s been a great asset for us to lean on about stuff. 

27:56
Yeah. 

27:57
But, but really the networking side of that and the tire pros and 20 group were very beneficial at that time. The council structure within Tire Pros. Susan was actually on the National Dealer Council before I was. They wanted a strong female opinion and voice and I told them be careful what they asked for and they got it. And then after she was on the council I was on the regional councils and then rolled up to the national Council and became chair of the national dealer council in 2018. Sort of it by default right after the Bridgestone Firestone deal, tire hub and all with. With ATD when they pulled out. And that was a tough time for Tire Pros and atd obviously. My predecessor as chair was a. 

28:47
One of the smartest men I met in a long time named Perry Leonard out of Texas and he was chair and I was his co chair and when he rolled off I took that position and supposed to be like a one year deal at the time. There was so much going on it turned into more like four years and it was. But it was great. It was great. I enjoyed my time there. My time with AIR was gosh, through three different presidents. Attire pros. Dan Brown. 

29:16
Yeah. 

29:16
Ron Blair and. And Greg Vale and Greg Bale. I’m sorry, the current president, Greg Bale. And Greg was our region president with ATD for years. So he and I had a great relationship and that continued through that whole process. Ironically I wrote off in 22 and Susan just rolled on last month as chair of the. 

29:40
I wrote on I wrote on the ndc, actually. I. I got voted on right after you came on. 

29:45
Right. 

29:46
So I was on the NDC for. I came on in 22. And then just recently, they voted me in as chair of the National Theater Council for Tire Pro. So I’m the first female chair of the NDC for Tire Pros. 

30:00
Well, congratulations. 

30:01
Thank you. 

30:02
That’s awesome. What’s a. What’s a. What’s a code or a model? You guys live by any mantra, something that stands out to you? 

30:09
You know, I mean, in our life. You mean in general or just. Yeah, I mean, you know, a couple of them. You know, I tell people this all the time. It’s not rocket science. Right? In. In life and in business, if you want to be successful, treat people the way you want to be treated. Just be honest. When you make mistakes, own up to them, and handle the situation as if you were the person on the other side of the deal and how you would want that to be handled. 

30:32
I love it. 

30:33
And it’s. It’s not rocket science. In the shops, we. We have this same thing, and we’ve been talking about her a lot lately because she’s 97 now, and bless her heart, she’s coming to the end of her days and not doing great. But my grandmother Moss and I tell our guys at the shop, whenever we have a new employee, every car that comes in here, that. Every invoice, every ticket you pick up for that vehicle, treat it like Grandma Moss would like it was her car. It better get everything that it needs to a T, but not one single thing more. 

31:03
That’s awesome. 

31:04
If you’ll do every car like that, life will be a lot easier, and I’ll be a lot happier with you. 

31:08
I like it. Treat it like Grandma Moss’s car, huh? 

31:10
That’s it? Yeah, that’s it. Not rocket science, just. And do the. Do the basic things what. 

31:16
Just give the audience a little bit more about yourselves. What do you guys like to do for fun, outside work, hobby or anything? 

31:23
For years, it was drag racing. I drag race to IHRA and NHRA top Sportsman. Some super gas stuff. Quarter mile in NHRA top eliminator stuff around here. High dollar bracket races and things like that. All three of our boys had junior dragsters, so we had a big race rig with a stacker trailer and all. We put four cars in it and a golf cart, and it was a job. We would go for it. It turn into a job and not a hobby. 

31:49
Y’ all weren’t busy enough, were you? 

31:53
Retired from that were bored in 2015 and we bought a place at the Outer Banks of North Carolina Atlantic beach and got a boat and do a little bit offshore fishing with all of our kid, we certainly enjoy that. Our oldest son is in Fort Pierce, Florida with a friend of his and his dad, they’re fishing in the King Mackerel tournament down there. Big million dollar King Mackerel tournament. So he, you know that stuff we really have got to where we enjoyed that. And when we quit racing, I told Susan I was like I’m, it was the right move financially to quit racing. And I told her, I said that’s fine but I still need something, I want something competitive or something. I just, I miss that. Drag racing is extremely competitive. It’s an adrenaline rush. 

32:36
I mean I haven’t found anything yet that replaces zero to 185 miles an hour in seven seconds. But being out offshore and fishing and catching a big fish and the excitement around, that’s, it’s pretty close to it. 

32:49
Oh yeah, give our boys, they love to go offshore like we were down there for Easter and they’re old enough now, they go offshore by themselves. And I mean you got to go about 40 miles offshore to catch the fish they want to catch here. So they do a lot of that and they, we enjoy that. We love being down there, being on the boat and hanging out. Besides that, we both play golf. He probably plays a little more than I do. And we’re both into fitness. I work out five days a week. It’s what keeps me sane. It’s what keeps me from wanting to strangle a child or whatever. 

33:22
Or me. Or me. I try to work out three meals a day. Yeah. 

33:29
I think I got your pattern pal. 

33:31
There you go. I mean other than that we live on a farm about 100 acres. And our middle son wants, is aspiring to be a bull rider. He’s the one we talk about, you know how he’s 20, so he’s the smartest person he’s ever met and knows. 

33:46
Every hard headed one too. 

33:47
And that’s what’s going to take. 

33:50
So we have three bucking bulls in our backyard. 

33:53
We’re actually looking at them right now. So they, he rodeos and he started bull riding when he was in high school. He was I guess a sophomore in high school and he rode with the North Carolina High School Rodeo association and he wanted to continue that and he, we told him we would not help him if he wanted to have buck and bulls in an arena and he’s pretty much done it all on his own. He has a partner, Chris Rice, who is the president of Kali Racing, a really good friend of ours and one of his buddies, Bryce, that they’ve gone in and bought three bucking bulls together. And he, they have built an arena in our backyard. It literally, we live on a farm though, so he’s about, I don’t know, 20 or 30ft from our swimming pool. 

34:33
He’s out there feeding the bulls right now. 

34:35
It’s fun. 

34:36
They, he wanted buck and this is an interesting story because he wanted bucket shoots and they’re expensive and we’re like, buddy, we told you this is going to be your deal. You’re going to do it on your own. Well, he took welding in high school at our community college and he went to a scrap metal yard, bought the piping at like, you know, pennies on the dollar, like scrap metal price, and came home and welded a bucking shoe. Like, welded it. Like, it looks like you wouldn’t believe it. Like, I was like, see, you can do it when you want to. 

35:06
Well, but it also matters when parents won’t coddle, you know, I mean, you allow them figure it out themselves. That’s awesome. 

35:14
Determined. And it was like, and honestly it was one of the, the better things that we did for him and letting him figure it out on his own. And he’s the one that didn’t want to go to a four year school, which is totally fine. It’s not for everybody. And he’s, he works for our companies and then he works here, works on the farm. 

35:30
So he’ll probably be, he’ll probably end up being wildly successful somehow. 

35:35
We hope so. We hope so. 

35:38
Guys, I gotta tell you, and chickens. 

35:40
And horses on the farm. So it, we have plenty of things to keep us busy since we quit. 

35:44
Drag racing, so that’s awesome. Well, I gotta tell you guys have been awesome. I appreciate you being on the podcast. 

35:50
Thank you, thank you so. 

35:51
Much for having us, you know, and I hope somebody can listen to the podcast and maybe be inspired to go out and go into growth mode and buy that next location. And if in any way we can help someone, just like people that have helped us before us, certainly be glad to, if they can reach out to us, whatever. 

36:09
Honestly, I hope that happens. We get that, we get that request sometimes through the podcast. I’ll get an inquiry. Somebody will say, hey, I heard somebody, you know as a guest on your show or they’ll mention the name and they’ll say, is there any chance you can introduce me? I don’t compete against them. I just like to talk to them and so hope that happens. But you guys have been awesome. It’s been. You got a great story. Thank you. 

36:28
Thank you for having us. 

36:30
To all our listeners out there, you know we love you. Thanks for being part of the podcast. If you’d like to listen to more podcasts like this, just go to gaintractionpodcast.com till next time, we’ll see you here on Gain Traction. Thank you. Thanks for listening to the Gain Traction podcast. We’ll see you again next time. And be sure to click subscribe to get future episodes.