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Charles Mesones, Partner at Cook’s Tire & Service, has been a dedicated professional in the tire and auto repair Industry for over 25 years, following in the footsteps of his father, who managed a competing company during the 1980s. Charles’ journey began as a teenager, working under his father’s guidance, where he learned valuable life and business lessons. Today, Charles proudly continues the family tradition, with his eldest son excelling as a service advisor and his middle son voluntarily contributing on weekends, embodying the family’s passion for the industry.
In this episode…
How do you get the best out of your employees? What type of culture breeds a hardworking staff that prioritizes excellent service?
According to Charles Mesones of Cook’s Tire & Service, his goal is to create an environment where employees feel they are part of something meaningful — not just earning a paycheck. While he places a high value on stability, Charles prioritizes development and growth even more. He advocates for continual self-improvement, encouraging his team to become better versions of themselves through small, consistent wins and learning from failures. He stresses the importance of humility in leadership, acknowledging and correcting mistakes, thus fostering a culture of growth and respect within the business.
On this episode of Gain Traction, Mike Edge welcomes Charles for a conversation about a practical approach to staff and culture development. Charles talks about how two of his sons are making their way in the auto industry, why he prioritizes affording his team members beneficial career experience over employee retention, and the value of difficult conversations between leadership and individual contributors.
Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:
- Charles Mesones describes the culture at Cook’s Tire and Service
- How Charles ensures that everyone who works for his company grows and develops
- Why difficult conversations with employees shouldn’t be avoided by leadership
- Turning points and accomplishments, Charles is most proud of from his time with Cook’s
- How a former employee went from facing homelessness to managing a group of competing stores
- Why Charles has read Atomic Habits by James Clear numerous times
Resources mentioned in this episode:
Transcript
Announcer:
Welcome to the Gain Traction Podcast, where we feature top automotive entrepreneurs and experts 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. Today’s episode is brought to you by Tread Partners. If you want to generate more revenue and increase car accounts, call Tread Partners or go to treadpartners.com. Simply it’s the best in the business, especially as it pertains to multi-location tires and auto repair operations. They make all your stores winners. I’d like to give a shout-out to my new friend, Don Detore, editor of the leading tire publication, Tire Business. Don has a great story from being sports editor in Cleveland all the way now to editor of Tire Business, we did a great interview. You can look it up on gaintractionpodcast.com. And now today I want to give a shout-out to Giorgio Andonian with Focus Investment Banking. Giorgio introduced me to our guest today, and I’m very excited about having our guest, Charles Mozonis, the partner of Cook’s Tire and Service in Southern California. Charles, welcome to the Gain Traction Podcast.
Charles:
Thank you for having me, Mike. I really appreciate the time. Looking forward to go ahead and get this podcast going.
Mike:
Well, I tell you what, one of my favorite kind of guests to have on the program is somebody that operates multiple stores, is in the battle every day of selling and doing repairs, et cetera, is in the field. We interview a lot of people from manufacturers to editors of publications, et cetera, thought leaders in the industry, but my favorite are the people that are really doing the work every day. So we’re very excited about hearing your story.
Charles:
Thank you. Thank you, thank you. I’ve been in the business for about 25 plus years now. I come in as a second generation in this industry. My dad was a manager for a competitor of ours now years ago, back in the eighties and shoot, I remember being in the shop four or five years old, messing around with his oil filter inventory and just mixing it all up and playing with tires. I guess it’s in the family’s blood. My dad’s retired now, but he was the one who gave me my first job being a gopher, basically picking up parts, dropping off customers. Go for this, go for that. I was about 15, 16 years old when he gave me that opportunity. I had a Mazda B2500 truck, and it was a beater, but it was useful. But he gave me my opportunity and I got to work with my dad for many years, and he taught me a lot of valuable things, not only from business, but just life overall. And now I got three boys of my own. They’re 20, 17 and 14. My 20-year-old-
Mike:
And your 20 year old’s in it, right? He’s in it with you?
Charles:
Yeah, yeah, yeah. He’s a service advisor and man, he’s blossomed in his role and he’s learning as he goes. But he’s been such a great help, and especially with the new locations we just got at the beginning of October, and I’m truly blessed in the fact that I can count on him for those types of things.
Mike:
Well, you make it… So these are conversations I have with my sons as well, and then they’re just with people in general. But one of the things our culture misses that you’re providing is direct mentorship to a son. And I know we’re all mentors to our sons in some way as being dads. It’s just built in, but you’re training him in the business, and it appears that right now he likes it, which is great.
Charles:
Oh, yeah. Yeah. He enjoys it. His middle brother, he’s coming in on the weekends to help me out. He is going to school still. He’s a senior, and he volunteered. He knew these new locations were coming up and he’s like, “Dad, I want to help out. You don’t even have to pay me. I just want to learn.” And when he said that, man, I get emotional thinking about it because it’s about how they’ve gravitated on their own without me necessarily asking them and saying, “Hey, we want to do our part,” at such a young age. To me, that really means a lot as a dad. I mean, don’t get me wrong, the business is important, and I love the business, and your sons are stepping up and wanting to be part of something that you’re trying to grow. Man, I’m on a high when it comes to that as a father. It’s just really, truly-
Mike:
You should be. I think it says something about you, Charles. I mean, at least you’ve done something right to where I feel like when they kind of go down the path you want them to without asking. And it’s like they’re picking up or sensing where they need to be and they want to be part of it, which is great. You’ve obviously made it, you’ve obviously made it appealing to them. I’m not going to say it’s fun all the time, but it’s…
Charles:
No, no. Not fun all the time without a doubt, that’s for sure. It definitely has its trials and tribulations on an everyday basis. There’s no doubt. I would say for my boys, they have gravitated to that and just like how I did with my dad, and now it’s basically three generations in the business, and I get to talk to my dad about it, and he’s super excited for us. He wish he was in his prime getting things going with helping us out too. My dad is, if anything, he’s been a great advisor even to now.
Mike:
Yeah.
Charles:
I [inaudible 00:06:34].
Mike:
It’s got to be huge to have him still just available by phone call.
Charles:
Yeah, yeah. It’s great because anytime I encounter something that I’m having difficulty trying to just come to a decision, [inaudible 00:06:54] talk about work. I guess talking to him about work is [inaudible 00:07:04] talking about work, but it just seems like we’re talking about football or soccer, baseball or basketball. That’s how our conversations are. I get to hear all his old war stories from when it comes to the shops that he… And his experiences and stuff. So it’s great. It’s all around something that I want to continue this type of atmosphere and culture just within the business, and especially since my sons are involved.
Mike:
Well, speaking of culture, I know we talked about this a little bit as we’ve gotten to know each other, but talk to the audience about your culture at Cook’s Tire and Service in Southern California. What’s y’all’s philosophy?
Charles:
Well, I, well, I believe culture’s huge [inaudible 00:08:01].
Mike:
Hey, Charles, can you hear me? We’re having a hard time here. Hey, turn your video off, and it might help if you can hear me.
Charles:
On an employee sheet.
Mike:
Hey, Charles, can you hear me?
Charles:
Yes.
Mike:
Hey, we bugged out there for about a minute. Can you turn your video off and then we’ll be able to splice this together, but if you turn your video off, maybe it’ll come through clear.
Charles:
Sure.
Mike:
We’ll see. So let’s go back to this question. So Charles, tell me a little bit about culture. You mentioned culture. What’s the culture like at Cook’s Tire and Service?
Charles:
Well, I want to make sure I’m creating a culture where you’re just not another number as far as an employee goes. We want to build a family-oriented business and make sure everybody knows and understand that everybody’s part in the businesses is extremely important from the manager, the sales guy, the general service tech, the gopher, the mechanic. It’s something that I, deep down in my heart, believes what creates a great atmosphere, and also building a team, having a great team is so crucial to your business. To me, it’s the most important thing to go ahead and make sure most of your time and energy is being spent on that, because location, advertising, inventory, all that stuff, it’s all for naught if you don’t have the right people inside the shops.
Mike:
Well, and those kind of things anyway, they’re foregone conclusions to business. You got to manage your inventory, you got to price things right, you got to do all that. But the hard part, it’s always the people, isn’t it? I mean, just finding the right people and keeping the right people and making sure that everybody’s part of the team, I guess. Is that [inaudible 00:10:11]-
Charles:
Yeah, I mean, without a doubt, Mike, the people that I bring in, they’ve either worked for me in the past for many years, I’ve worked either alongside them or they’ve worked for me at one point or time or another in other companies, and we’ve been able to build good business relationships. Especially when you’re bringing in new employees, locations, really stuck in my… You’re putting yourself out there to make sure that this business becomes successful, but at the same time too, you have other people that have come into the business based on your word, that you’re going to help them make this successful, that they’re being supported and being held accountable and building something not only for the business, but for the employees and their families. That’s the way I look at it, and I believe when you look at it from that perspective, at least for me, I want to go ahead and put more effort, more time, more hours into the business to make sure that everybody that’s involved is benefiting from it.
Mike:
That’s a really good way of looking at Charles. I guess the best way I can describe it… I mean, everybody should look at their business that way, but it’s a generous way of looking at it. It sounds like it’s very motivating to you in the sense that, hey, I got to put this extra effort in because my employees, his kids depend on it. It’s not me and my family, it’s everybody’s family, and we all want to go home after a good, safe day of work and be comfortable or stable in a sense.
Charles:
Yeah, I mean, stability is so important. I also believe development and growth is even more of an importance. When I put a team together. When we have our business, we want to continue to, I tell my guys, “Look at yourself at this point in time and a year from now. Let’s make sure that you’ve developed and grown within the business in certain areas and aspects,” like double checking on them to make sure that they’re a better version of themselves at certain times, and building that within small wins. Every week we’re developing, we’re training, we’re growing, we’re improving, we’re going to make our mistakes, we’re going to have our failures, we’re going to screw something up, but are we learning from those mistakes, those failures, and developing as we grow, as not only as a team, but as individuals? Because I know it’s a cliche, but you’re only as strong as your weakest link, right?
Mike:
Yeah.
Charles:
So I do hold that very dear to my heart, that mindset of making sure that everybody is growing, not everybody’s stagnant and just not developing. It’s something that I believe that it makes a huge impact, and what creates an atmosphere for everybody involved to be, I’m not just collecting a check. I’m here part of something, I’m important, the business is growing, and I’m growing along with it, and I believe that that type of feel translates over to when you’re speaking to your customers, where instead of having to hold them accountable every single time and looking at numbers and statistics and say, “You’re not doing this, you’re not doing this. You need to improve. You need to push.” Yes, you have to have those accountability conversations. But the other part of leading a team and developing and growing a business is making sure that you’re giving them that support as well, and having actual reflection out of yourself as a leader and saying, did I make that mistake? The humbling yourself and admitting that you’re wrong and how to correct it going forward.
Mike:
Yeah, no, that’s awesome. I mean, it sounds to me like, another word I’m going to use is participation. They’re truly participating in the process versus just going through the process daily. And I guess what I’m thinking about there is it sounds to me like you have a very good open door of communication. They come up with an idea of how to do something better. hey, we’re all on the same team. We want to make this ship and move faster or whatever, more efficient. You’re all yours for that.
Charles:
Yeah, I am. It’s there definitely times where you have very difficult conversations, but at the end of the day, if you don’t have those type of conversations, you’re not going to progress anywhere. There’s certain individuals, especially in leadership positions that they don’t want to have those conversations. They just want the job done. And I mean, I get it. I do. I do. I want the job done too. But you have to go ahead and go through the difficulties of…
Mike:
Hey, Charles, it went dead there for a second. Again, hey, go back and say the difficulties of what?
Charles:
Having the difficulties of having those type of conversations. And like I said, some leaders, they just don’t want to have that. They just want the job done, and we just want the numbers, and you have to have those type of conversations to build a good strong sense of communication to make sure that you guys are moving forward and helping the business grow.
Mike:
How many techs do you guys have in the four locations that you have?
Charles:
Nine. About 15.
Mike:
That’s awesome.
Charles:
Yeah, 15 techs got about.
Mike:
Now, do they mentor off of each other?
Charles:
Yeah. As a matter of fact, I had one of my techs from my Whittier location got ahold of me and said, “Hey, do you mind if I talk to Tommy real quick? He’s not answering his phone.” And I said, “Oh, he’s working on an engine on a Jeep right now. Let me see if he’ll answer mine.” And Tommy picked up my phone call and he said, “Hey, what’s going on, boss?” And I said, “Hey, can you do me a favor and call Hesuse at Whittier? He’s having trouble with the car?” “Oh, yeah, no problem. I got it.”
Mike:
That’s awesome.
Charles:
And he’s actually mentored those technicians in that location. So there’s a sense of community that is really important for me that we can go ahead and have those conversations to help out each other in case we get into a really tough situation.
Mike:
Well, I mean, essentially you’re getting to duplicate yourself, right?
Charles:
Trying. Trying. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I want them to go ahead and take the initiative of watching for each other’s backs.
Mike:
So as you’ve grown this, Charles, what’s one of the biggest turning points or accomplishments that you’re most proud of after…? I know you’ve gotten to four stores now, but if you could look back on your history and say, man, that was a big deal right there, and we getting past that. I mean, I’m sure you’re going to probably say COVID in some way, but any big turning points you see in the company?
Charles:
Yeah, obviously COVID was a big situation to overcome, not only from a health perspective, but obviously from business, but something I hold dear to my heart, years ago I had a tire tech. He was [inaudible 00:18:42] old. Learning how to go ahead and do tires, we gave him an opportunity to go ahead and train with us and work with us. He stayed with us for a couple years and then he decided he wanted to be a tow truck driver, and I didn’t want him to leave. I wanted him to stay. I believed he had a potential, but he had made up his mind. And as 18 to 20 year olds do, they’re going to go ahead and find out, right?
So he did it I think a year later or so he came back. No, it was a couple of years. Yeah, a couple of years. He came back and he didn’t like it and he wanted another shot, and we gave him his position back. We opened up another location at that time, and he wanted to be a service advisor, and mind you, he was a tow truck driver, but there was a certain period in time in his life where he was homeless, and I wanted to help him because I saw potential in him. I wanted him to see that in himself. And when he came back and he became a tire guy, and then we got another location, I wanted to give him a shot as a service advisor. So he didn’t know how to sell a tire, so I literally had to show him on a point of sale system, this is how you type up the tire size. This is how you talk to customers. This is how you sell a tire. This is offer him these options and so forth. And he took real ownership of it.
Mike:
That’s awesome.
Charles:
And I gave him a full-time position as a service advisor. We had some managers that didn’t work out in that particular location, and he’s like, “Give me a crack at it. I think I can do it.” And I said, “Okay, I’m going to stay with you a couple months. I’m going to go ahead and show you what is expected as a manager, and if you’re able to prove to me, no problem, we’ll give you your shot.”
Mike:
Man.
Charles:
Lo and behold, he did, and he became a manager of ours. And then even better, he left me again, but I say it with great happiness because he was given an opportunity that at that point in time we could not give him, overseeing a group of stores for a competitor of ours.
Mike:
Okay.
Charles:
And I told him, “You got to do it, man. This is your shot. This is the whole reason why even back when I saw you as a tire tech, as a teenager why I felt like you were going to have that potential, and I know you were going through a lot of struggles in your life, and I just want you to go ahead and you have to take it even if you’re against me. Take it and run with it. Don’t look back, build off of it.” It was very hard for him to tell me. He got really emotional. We got really emotional because he knows how much time and effort we put into getting him to a certain point.
And at the end of the day, he has his own group of stores and he’ll still text me and call me and, “Hey, Charles, I got an issue with the customer. I got an issue with an employee. Can you help me out? What do you think?” And I have still had those communications with him because we went through a lot together. And that was an accomplishment for me because I was able to go ahead and help him see what he was capable of doing throughout the years. And he’s gotten to the point to where he’s running his own stories and that-
Mike:
Man, I’ll tell you [inaudible 00:22:36]-
Charles:
That’s an accomplishment.
Mike:
Charles, that’s a fantastic story and that’s a great accomplishment. That’s a great going from a tough situation to a great situation, but, man, even your attitude about him competing against you, but I mean, this guy went, he bettered himself and all that happened because of you and your team. And that’s just, man, that’s a beautiful story. I really appreciate you sharing that one.
Charles:
Yeah, of course, of course. I mean, I’m going to probably be a big crybaby on this podcast. Yeah, I do get emotional thinking about it because it does mean a lot to me to see people that have worked with me develop and grow, and I really do hold that at such a high level of importance within our culture, within our company to make sure that I give opportunities to individuals.
Mike:
Oh, man. I can-
Charles:
[inaudible 00:23:34] can better themselves.
Mike:
I can feel it. Well, that’s a good segue. We’re going to go from that serious moment and I think everybody has a lot of respect to hear a story like that. That’s just us awesome story to… We have a segment on here, Charles called Make Us Laugh. Do you have a funny story for us that you can share that’s happened somewhere in your career? Maybe somebody in the shop or to any… Maybe you want to be self-deprecating, got an embarrassing moment or something, got anything you can tell us that you can keep it clean on?
Charles:
I was going to say that’s good that you ended on keeping it clean, because there’s a lot of non-clean ones.
Mike:
Listen, I know you tired, guys. I understand.
Charles:
Years ago when I was a manager, I had a district manager that had this big event on a weekend. I was running one of my stores with my guys, and we put tents and balloons and tire displays, sidewalk displays and stuff, and oh man, for the life of me on that Saturday for whatever it was, it was a ghost town, and I could not believe it. I said, oh my God, if my boss swings by over here, he’s going to have a fit. And of course, to my luck. Of course, to my luck, he decides to go ahead and pull up that morning. And he had several locations, so what was the chance? But of course, that day he decided to swing on by.
Mike:
Of course.
Charles:
He comes out of the car and he says, “What’s going on, guys?” And I said, “I don’t know, boss. I did everything you said to do. I got everything set up. I got full crew here. We’re ready to rock and roll.” And he goes, “Well, what are the guys doing?” I said, “Well, they’re cleaning up the shop and we’re ready for the cars to come in.” He goes, “Well, somebody should be out there trying to flag them in.” And I said, “Yeah, of course. I’ll go ahead and do it.” So I went out to the sidewalk. I started trying to wave at customers and try to flag them down, and my DM’s like, “No, no, not like that. I’m going to show you how it’s done.” And I said, “Okay.” I thought I was doing a pretty good job. I was smiling and waving. I thought I was on a float or something. I was just trying to get people’s attention. He decides to take one of the tire bags off of the stack of tires.
Mike:
Oh, boy.
Charles:
Punches holes for his arms and for his head. Puts the tire bag on, and he starts dancing on the sidewalk as cars are going by.
Mike:
Oh my God.
Charles:
I got customers. Well, I say customers now ’cause they pulled in. The cars, they were just honking left and right, and people laughing, and this guy’s doing spin moves and ballerina moves. And I go, oh my God. Me and my guys, they were just shocked, they’re like, “Wow, this guy is something else.” And without a doubt, and to this day, he brought customers in. The first customer he brought in was a break job because he was dancing on the street. A guy came in and he says, “I saw him dancing. I don’t know what it was. I saw the balloons. I know I needed breaks. I decided to pull on up,” and I said, “My God, I’m never going to hear the end of this from my boss.” It was a sight to see. It did give me a life lesson where you can do something to a certain level, but if you really wanted that bad, you’ll be able to take it up a notch.
Mike:
Oh, yeah. I mean, that’s going-
Charles:
That’s what I took it from. But to see a six-foot three guy in a tire bag dancing around doing ballerina steps, my hat’s off to him.
Mike:
It’s like the customers that pull it in, they’re just like, man, for that effort, I’ve got to pull in.
Charles:
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Mike:
That’s fantastic. Well, on another personal note, Charles, what’s your favorite book or do you have a favorite or one that you really like?
Charles:
Yeah, Atomic Habits by James Clear. I’ve probably read that about five, six times. That book’s really important to me because I feel like as an individual, I always believed in motivating my teams, but just as important as making sure the consistency of development and holding your employees accountable and making sure that not only employees but the business overall and just making sure that you are developing and your growth is being compounded on little small wins. I took away from that book. That book does mean a lot. I had a vice president of a competitor of mine not too long ago, give me that book, and it made a big change. It made a big change in my life. I realized how important it is to go ahead and stay on the path and continue grinding no matter what adversities come your way. It’s not easy, obviously it’s easier said than done, but-
Mike:
It’s like I tell my kids, “You got to find some pleasure in the grind and you got to love the grind.”
Charles:
Oh, without a doubt. Without a doubt. I mean, I personally, I’m working open to close six days a week, probably 65, 70 hours plus a week, and I’m driving all around and I’m helping customers, talking to my staff, helping them out. If I got to help out cleaning, I don’t have a problem doing that. I clean. I got to go pick up tires, I go pick up tires, whatever it takes to help the business grow.
Mike:
Well, when I listened to you talk, Charles, I understand why Giorgio wanted you on as a guest and recommended you, highly recommended you, so all I can say is thanks for being a guest on Gain Traction today. It’s been a real pleasure.
Charles:
Yeah. Thank you so much for your time, Mike, and thank you for the opportunity. Just even speaking on this stuff, it gives me a lot of reflection, so thank you.
Mike:
Absolutely. And we’ll have you back someday.
Charles:
Absolutely. Look forward to it.
Mike:
Good. To all our listeners out there, thank you for being part of our podcast today. If you would like to recommend a guest, please don’t hesitate to email me at [email protected]. Until next time, be safe and have a great day.
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