From Oil Changes to Leadership With TJ White of Tire Source Neighborhood Car Care

Episode 166

TJ White

Tire Source Neighborhood Car Care

TJ White is the General Manager of Tire Source Neighborhood Car Care, a company with six locations in the Canton and Akron, Ohio area that specializes in tire and auto repair services. Under TJ’s leadership, Tire Source has maintained strong community relationships and a reputation for customer loyalty, stemming from its innovative and efficient service practices. TJ grew up in Akron and has been part of the family business since he was 16, having worked his way up from changing oil and tires to his current managerial role.

In this episode…

Operating a tire and auto repair business with multiple locations presents an abundance of challenges and opportunities. What are some key strategies that contribute to success and growth?

According to TJ White of Tire Source Neighborhood Car Care, the company has several key strategies. Tire Source focuses on being innovative and efficient, staying up-to-date with technology, and investing in training and equipment. It takes a step-by-step approach to implementing new technologies, testing them at one location before rolling them out to all locations. Transparency with employees is a priority, leading to a low turnover rate.

On this episode of Gain Traction, Mike Edge welcomes TJ for a conversation about Tire Source, family history with Goodyear, business growth and strategy, and a memorable story about finding drugs in a spare tire. They also discuss the importance of efficiency and process, as well as the value of transparency and a positive work environment.

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

[02:24] TJ White discusses his deep-rooted community connections and customer relationships
[03:08] The White family’s unwavering loyalty to Goodyear tires
[08:07] Tire Source’s innovative approach to staying tech-savvy
[09:37] The strategic, step-by-step business improvement process used by Tire Source
[11:29] How Tire Source’s employee turnover stays low
[13:24] TJ’s philosophy: Efficiency and action drive success in business

Resources mentioned in this episode:

Quotable Moments:

“I’ve never entertained anything else. I grew up wanting to go to work with my dad every day.”
“Efficiency is something that drives me to become efficient in every way that I do anything.”
“We try and make it very clear what we can offer to you, what you can offer to us.”
“Everything can be fine-tuned, and then once you fine-tune it, you can fine-tune it again.”
“I like to think of us as innovative, efficient, and always trying to stay up with the times.”

Action Steps:

Focus on building strong community relationships: Engaging with the community and fostering trust can lead to long-term loyalty and customer retention, helping to stand out in a competitive market.
Embrace technological advancements: Investing in technology improves efficiency and service quality, providing a competitive edge and meeting modern customer expectations.
Implement a phased approach to new investments: This minimizes risk and allows for adjustments based on real-world feedback, managing resources and reducing potential waste.
Prioritize transparency in employment practices: By clearly communicating expectations and company values, businesses can foster a positive work environment and improve employee satisfaction.
Commit to continuous improvement: Address inefficiencies and seize opportunities for growth and development.

Transcript

Announcer:

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.

Mike:

Hello, folks. Welcome to the Gain Traction Podcast. I am Mike Edge, your host. My guest today is TJ White, general manager of the Tire Source Neighborhood Car Care with six locations in Canton and Akron, Ohio area. TJ and I met through another previous guest on Gain Traction, Logan Wilks of Wilks Tire & Battery with 14 locations down in Alabama. So thank you, Logan.

All right, so let me tell you who is sponsoring this podcast. This podcast is brought to you by Tread Partners and its educational marketing highlight for today. When it comes to your PPC budget and ad spend for multi-location operations, don’t put all your ad spend with Google in one bucket. Divide it up for accountability and control. If you’re pulling one Google Ads campaign across all locations, you might miss what’s really happening. One shop could be struggling while another’s overwhelmed with customers. By using local location-specific strategies, you can fine-tune your approach to give each shop exactly what it needs, when it needs it. All right, so let’s get this podcast started. TJ, welcome to the Gain Traction Podcast. Glad to have you.

TJ:

Hey, Mike. Glad to be here. Thank you for having me on and let’s shout out to Logan Wilks as well for introducing us and pleasure to be here.

Mike:

I eat lunch periodically with Logan and we seem to, and it’s probably more my fault than anything, we seem to go barbecue almost every time. I’m a barbecue guy. But let’s talk about, did you grow up in Canton, in Akron area?

TJ:

Yeah, grew up in Akron, little smaller town of Akron suburb called Copley. It’s where my dad grew up as well. So kind of kept the tradition going there and I’ve basically been in Akron my whole life.

Mike:

Awesome.

TJ:

Went up to Cleveland for one year of school, but for the most part been down here, went and finished my degree at Akron, so it’s born and raised.

Mike:

Awesome. So you know all your customers probably pretty good.

TJ:

Yeah, at most of the locations, yes I do. I’ve got one location in particular with a lot of strong relationships.

Mike:

That’s awesome. That’s kind of like the types of relationship where they just toss the keys on the counter and say, “Take care of it”?

TJ:

Absolutely. A lot of those.

Mike:

That’s awesome. Well, your dad, so when he did start in this business?

TJ:

He started Tire Source, it wasn’t called Tire Source at the time, but he started back in 1991 with a business partner and they had one location and started actually Medina, Ohio and has been doing it ever since. Now we have grown it up to six, and yeah.

Mike:

Have you guys always been Goodyear?

TJ:

We have always been Goodyear, yeah. We have family roots all the way back to my great-grandfather working in Goodyear in one way or another and we’ve always been a Goodyear dealer and probably always will be.

Mike:

That’s awesome. I like that kind of loyalty. So what happened next in your career? So you went to school you said in Akron, and then did you always know … I know we mentioned Logan, but for instance, he didn’t know if he was going to stay in the family business and it was started by his grandfather. Did you know you were going to stay in the family business?

TJ:

I did. I never thought of doing anything else. It’s actually a topic that’s come up somewhat recently in my life that I just, I’ve never entertained anything else. I grew up wanting to go to work with my dad every day and I think I started in the shops at 16 years old, changing oil and tires and I just loved every bit of it. And then from there … I did work through college. I kind of went away for one year but came back and did graduate with an accounting degree from Akron, but I did work through all of that and then I’ve always just been very interested in the business itself.

Mike:

So how many years have you been actually in it since you were 16? I guess you’re going to tell your age here, but.

TJ:

Yeah, I’m going on 15 years been in the business.

Mike:

That’s awesome. Man, you’ve got a lot of experience now in a short period of time. You got a memorable story yet? Anything stand out to you memorable or even funny encounter maybe?

TJ:

Well, I did think about that a little bit recently talking with, and this is kind of a one-off, off-the-wall story, but it definitely stands alone at the top of as far as interesting things we’ve had happen. I want to say it was maybe, try and keep this brief, maybe three or four years ago, we had a customer come in with a flat tire and the long story, there was a rental car and they needed to get a spare on immediately and get out of there. They were traveling, had to be somewhere.

We could not come up with the tire in their size in that amount of time, but we did find a spare tire that we just happened to have a pile of. There’s a body shop next door to one of our stores and anytime they scrapped the car, they would give us the spare tires just if we ever needed them. So we found a wheel and a tire that would match and they’ve been back in this store for years.

We go to dismount this tire as fast as we can and tell the customer, “We’ll have you out of here in 10 minutes,” and we go to dismount it and there’s all this stuff in the tire.

Mike:

Like what?

TJ:

Long story short, it turned into it was over six pounds of marijuana.

Mike:

Oh, nice!

TJ:

Being shipped … It was all packaged up and they said it could have been 10, 15 years old. So obviously we had to call the police and we had to have the police come in. We got the customer like, “We said five minutes. I know we can’t get you out in five minutes now. We’re in this situation.” And they came and they basically said there was long time ago where there was a rental cars that they were trying to smuggle drugs in the spare tires of the cars and they were catching people left and right, and this probably just somehow made it through and we could have had it in our back room for 10 years and we never would’ve ever known it. So they came and took it away and it was-

Mike:

So the tire came off of the next-door neighbor-

TJ:

We don’t know. That’s the other thing too. We had a collection of them for years and years. It’s not like something we never … They either came out of a car or no idea where it came from.

Mike:

Did the cops believe you guys at first?

TJ:

Oh, yeah.

Mike:

I guess they did since you called, I mean.

TJ:

Absolutely. It was almost hard to tell what it was, it was so old, but it was just one of those things that you would never expect dismounting the tire and you’re going to-

Mike:

What do you think the weight of it was in there?

TJ:

They came back and said they thought it was worth, it was about six pounds, which I mean I don’t know much about that stuff.

Mike:

Yeah, I don’t either. I was going to ask you, what’s the street value on something like that?

TJ:

Yeah, they said at one point it was probably worth a lot of money, but it was a very interesting situation we got ourselves in.

Mike:

Now that is a memorable story. Thank you. I mean I love stuff like that.

So tell me a little bit about Tire Source. Where do you guys see yourself today, and then where do you want to see yourself? And then what distinguishes you, do you feel, in the marketplace, your talent, the people you hire or the way you treat customers, etc?

TJ:

First off, all the above. I like to think of us as innovative, efficient, and always trying to stay up with the times as far as software, as far as technology, the machinery we use to work on vehicles and our training, keeping everyone up to date on everything.

Mike:

Would you say that you’re not, ’cause I mean there are a lot of people like this, afraid to reinvest in their business from technology or equipment. You’re always worried about that ROI, but you guys sound like that is what you guys focus, I mean you like to be up-to-date on all that?

TJ:

We absolutely do. We try and be at the top. In some areas you never want to be the first to do something, you never want to buy that first version of something that comes out, but in a lot of ways we try and be able to serve every customer that comes in and try and get a jumpstart on some of that stuff. So we do in most locations. I would say that’s how we do kind of counter that a little bit is we don’t necessarily do everything six times right away, but we like to at least say if we have a situation in one location, we can at least accommodate in another area. So we can take care of you, it just might not be at this location. So we do try and at least have one area updated fully at each location.

Mike:

In other words, what, you take a step-by-step approach with your stores. In one store you might choose to get whatever the newest equipment or software is, they get the try it first, that’s the guinea pig, see how things go. And then, I mean obviously if it’s a universal fit and you feel like, hey, now all the stores can maximize from it, then you roll it out.

TJ:

Absolutely, rinse and repeat. So it just depends on how it works.

Mike:

Well, and it sounds like you probably learned your lesson somewhere in the past when you think … Because sometimes things just look so doggone good, you’re like, “Man, I’m just going to go ahead and buy it for all six. I know it’s going to work.” And then you’re like, “Oh heck, that didn’t go over so well.”

TJ:

Right. We got some scanners and certain things collecting dust over the years where maybe we could have gotten away with one of them and in this situation. So that’s where, yeah, it’s a live and learn there.

Mike:

Yeah. How do you guys distinguish yourself in the marketplace when you hire people? It’s tough.

TJ:

It is. It’s tough. I mean, everyone’s going through their own employment associate circumstances. I would say that what we try and do is we’re very transparent with everything right up front. Try and make it very clear what we can offer to you, what you can offer to us, how we can work together. I would say that relatively, I think we have an extremely low turnover rate and I think that a lot of that is because we are very transparent. Because we want our associates to want to work here every day. If they do not want to be here every day, we don’t necessarily want them to be here. It doesn’t work. It’s not a two-way street that way. So we try and do our best, just be transparent, be honest with everyone, and that way they know what they’re getting into and there’s no surprises.

Mike:

That’s awesome. Well, and everybody, I mean you want people to feel good about getting up in the day, right? I mean if work’s a grind, I mean there’s always a grind to work to some degree, but the reality is we all know we have to and you might as well like what you do.

TJ:

Yeah.

Mike:

And you got to like the customers.

TJ:

Absolutely. And not every day’s the same and everyone knows that. And there’s going to be some, not every day is going to be perfect, but we try and make it as close to perfect as we can.

Mike:

So there’s always that, I always try to figure out where’s that cutoff point for certain companies. You guys have grown to a certain level. Do you have somebody that handles HR for you guys specifically?

TJ:

We do, actually, it’s my wife.

Mike:

She gets the hiring job.

TJ:

Yeah, she’s our controller, CFO controller, and she has been with us as well for quite a while. She did a stint with us during college and then she actually went and, she has an accounting degree as well, she went and worked at a CPA public firm for a while, three or four years, got some experience, and then we had a position open up for her to come back and do a lot of the accounting stuff. But the HR does fit in between her and our COO.

Mike:

So did you meet her in college?

TJ:

No, we met in high school.

Mike:

Okay.

TJ:

We’ve been together for, yeah, it’s been right around 15 years too. A lot happened 15 years ago, I guess.

Mike:

Oh, man. Yeah, I guarantee it. It sounds like it. So you said, “Hey, I got a place you can get a job.”

TJ:

Yeah.

Mike:

That was your pick-up line?

TJ:

That’s it.

Mike:

That’s funny. So I’m just curious, do you have a motto that you live by or anything like that?

TJ:

I wouldn’t really say a motto, but I just think that my, as far as personally, I like to be a go-getter and I don’t tend to put anything off. I like to get stuff done, take it right out in front of me and get it handled. And then efficiency is something that I don’t know why, but it drives me to just become efficient in every way that I do anything.

Mike:

That’s awesome. So you’re probably a process guy then.

TJ:

I am. Very, very much so.

Mike:

Yeah. So you’d like to look at something and immediately go, “Hmm. I bet you we could do it better this way and save X amount of time.”

TJ:

Everything can be fine-tuned and then once you fine-tune it, you can fine-tune it again.

Mike:

What’s that method Toyota teaches? Is it something like Kaizen or something like that? It’s a management method where every day is about constant improvement?

TJ:

I’m not familiar.

Mike:

Well, we got a couple of Toyota plants around us and I know a lot of people that work there and that’s one of the things they say that is pretty cool about it. You meet basically every day or at least several times a week and you’re going through the process with Kaizen of how could we have done this better? And it’s all about shaving time or less steps or less back-breaking work, whatever it might be. I mean it’s all about this, “Hey, how do we improve a little bit more every day?” It sounds like it’s right up your alley there.

TJ:

It does. It does sound right up my alley.

Mike:

Yeah, I think I’m saying the word right, the Kaizen method or whatever. And I like that, what you said. The other thing is it reminds me of a quote, I like history, but Benjamin Franklin always said, what is it? “Don’t put off tomorrow what you can do today.”

TJ:

Exactly.

Mike:

Yeah. And I think it makes your life a lot easier too. That list just, it’s always going to stack up to some degree. Right? But if you save it for tomorrow, something big’s going to hit you in the face tomorrow and you still have what was left over from yesterday.

TJ:

Exactly. And I bet you early on that that happened to me and that’s where I kind of drew the line and tried to change that portion of it. Now I wish I could say I stick to it a hundred percent of the time, but there’s areas that you don’t, but it does seem to make things easier when you grab them by the horns.

Mike:

So do you guys have children?

TJ:

I do. I have a year and a half old son.

Mike:

Nice. Congratulations.

TJ:

Yeah. He’s-

Mike:

Has he already expressed interest in the business?

TJ:

Kind of born into it. My dad’s Thomas the first. I’m Tom, TJ is for Tom Jr. And then my son is going to be, we call him Tommy, but he’s the third, so it’s [inaudible 00:16:13]

Mike:

That’s a good name. Most people don’t know this and they’re going to learn this on this podcast right now, but my first name is actually Thomas.

TJ:

Okay.

Mike:

Yeah. So it’s always been complicated when I travel. You got to use your first name, but I don’t go by it so I don’t recognize it when someone’s calling you by your first name. But anyway, good name. And then I’m actually going to have a grandson named Thomas. I just found out, so.

TJ:

Oh well, congratulations.

Mike:

Yeah, thank you. Thank you. Keep that name going, right?

TJ:

Absolutely.

Mike:

So does anything stand out? You know what I wanted to bring up with you, I thought about you. Have you ever eaten at Benders?

TJ:

I have. Yeah, many times.

Mike:

Okay. So when I was up there, Don Detore, with Tire Business, he took me there and you talking about cool place, I mean I’m talking like the wood, the marble, but it’s been around for over a hundred years.

TJ:

That’s what it has. Even when you walk in, the dip in the doorway from [inaudible 00:17:25] and on the, I think it’s some sort of sandstone, you can see the impression for a hundred years of foot traffic.

Mike:

It’s crazy. It’s always been a restaurant. And then Don told me that the only time they’ve ever been closed down was in 1988 they had a fire. But outside of that it didn’t destroy everything, they were able to reserve a lot. But anyway, whatever timeframe it took for them to get everything back up, smoke cleared out, all that stuff, but that was the only time that they’ve been closed for literally, I think like 110 years or something like that.

I love places like that. So I thought it was a real treat to be able to eat there. And I feel like it’s the same name. I don’t know if I’m right on that, but they got some pretty unique menu items. And then you guys, I mean they even tout the fish that comes out of Lake Erie there.

TJ:

Yeah, they do walleye, they do a lot. I was-

Mike:

They got a perch that I had while I was there.

TJ:

Yeah, perch. Yep. I always get the Scrod a la Foley. It’s delicious there, but it’s a very cool, unique place. You ever make it back up to the Akron Canton area, we’ll have to go there.

Mike:

No, absolutely. I’ll definitely do that with you because I’m a food connoisseur in the sense that I get to travel, so I love, love local places. So that show, what is it? Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives with Guy, I think that’s one of the coolest shows. I mean, I don’t watch TV a lot, but when I flip to that channel or you’re flipping around, you see it, you can’t help but think, “Man, that’s the spot that I might go to,” when you see the dishes that come out.

TJ:

Very cool.

Mike:

Let me ask on a personal level, I always ask people what their favorite something is. What’s your favorite food?

TJ:

Just in general it would probably be steak, but I think if I had to have an ideal meal, it would just be a nice piece of prime rib.

Mike:

There you go. So in other words, if you were going to have your last meal on earth and it tells you, that would be the one you would order?

TJ:

I believe so, yeah.

Mike:

Prime rib.

TJ:

If it was my last meal, I’d probably have a martini with it as well, I would say.

Mike:

With prime rib, do you like horseradish?

TJ:

Not at all … I do like it, but it’s not, I can’t have it overwhelm the prime rib.

Mike:

No, no. I agree. I like a little bit of it to have that bite, but I don’t want to lose my beef taste.

TJ:

Right. It’d be overwhelming.

Mike:

But I will tell you this, I was talking to my brother about this the other night. Have you ever had really strong horseradish? I mean it’d clear your nose like nobody. And I always tell myself and I forget, “Man, next time I get a heavy cold and I’m stuffed up, I’m just going to go eat a spoonful of one of those heavy bites.”

TJ:

[inaudible 00:20:07]

Mike:

Oh, yeah. I think it would be cleared out real quick. Some of it makes my, I mean, it can make my eyes water.

TJ:

Yeah. Have you ever been to St. Elmo’s in Indianapolis?

Mike:

No. And I’ve been there so many times and I’ve never been able to make it there.

TJ:

Yeah, they’re just known for their, I guess it’s a cocktail sauce, but it’s spicy. There’s some serious spicy horseradish in it.

Mike:

Oh, so horseradish just kind of the basis of it?

TJ:

Yes.

Mike:

Okay. Yeah, I’ll give that a shot when … I might have to go up there in a few months, so I’m glad you brought that up. I don’t live terribly far from there. I mean I’m about three, three and a half hours depending on traffic. So how far are you from there? You’re probably not that far either.

TJ:

No, probably I would say around four. Between four and five hours. I think it’s four. We have a one-hour time change when we go, so I don’t know exactly, but I’ve only been there a few times, but it’s a nice city.

Mike:

No, it is. Well I got to tell you, TJ, I’m glad Logan introduced us. I’ve learned a lot about your business and Tire Source. I like y’all’s name. I don’t know if I told you that yet.

TJ:

Appreciate it.

Mike:

Yeah, it’s a cool name. Did you guys come up with that or did you buy somebody out that had the name?

TJ:

No, we did come out with it. It was a little bit before my time. We had, I think it was maybe after the third or fourth store, they kind of all had their own names to start and then [inaudible 00:21:37] one ground up build and that seems to be right around the time where they picked the name, and it’s obviously Tire Source Neighborhood Car Care; we do typically kind of shorten it to Tire Source, but.

Mike:

Yeah, no, I got you. Well, thanks for being on the podcast. It’s been a pleasure having you.

TJ:

Yeah, I’ve had a great time. Thanks for having me.

Mike:

So to all our listeners out there, thank you for being part of the podcast. You guys, we are grateful for you. You guys make it happen. If you’d like to recommend a guest to me, please email me at [email protected]. Till next time, be safe and have a great day.

Announcer:

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.

Contents hide

1 In this episode…

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

1.2 Resources mentioned in this episode:

1.2.1 Quotable Moments:

1.2.2 Action Steps: