Tires, Tears, and Triumphs: A 25-Year Odyssey With Jeff Mullersman of ATTURO Tires

Jeff Mullersman is the Midwest Sales Director at ATTURO Tires, with 25 years of experience in the tire industry. Jeff’s automotive career is full of twists and turns, beginning with getting ripped off and sweeping a go-kart parking lot. Undeterred, Jeff became a driver for Progressive Custom Wheels before moving on to sales, eventually running his own location in Omaha, Nebraska. When the company went under in 2000, he became a sales manager for Zisser Tire in St. Louis for several years during its gradual decline. Jeff briefly went into restaurateuring before returning to the automotive industry, where he found his home at ATTURO Tires.

In this episode…

Navigating the professional world is no easy feat, and Jeff Mullersman’s journey through the tire industry, filled with highs and lows, offers a wealth of lessons. From celebrating milestones to learning from setbacks, his story is a testament to the importance of resilience and adaptability.

As Jeff shares insights from his role at ATTURO Tires, one compelling revelation stands out: the power of humor in navigating professional challenges. Jeff’s ability to blend humor with professionalism adds a unique dimension to his approach, providing a valuable lesson for those looking to make an impact in their careers. Through anecdotes and experiences, the episode explores how a lighthearted perspective can be a strategic asset in fostering relationships and overcoming hurdles in the dynamic sales landscape.

On this episode of Gain Traction, Jeff chats with host Mike Edge about the power of humor in sales. Jeff’s unique approach has propelled his career and inspired many of those navigating the complexities of the tire business. His candid reflections provide practical advice for those in sales and valuable insights for professionals across various fields, emphasizing the significance of authenticity and relationship-building in achieving long-term success.

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

• Jeff Mullersman shares his journey from sweeping parking lots to steering sales strategies
• How managing a restaurant helped Jeff excel in tire sales
• Why honesty, empathy, and relationship-building are invaluable in the tire industry
• Jeff offers a relatable perspective on navigating diverse career landscapes
• Secrets of successful sales strategies and client relationship management
• The valuable blend of humor and professionalism in unexpected workplace situations
• Jeff talks about bridging the gap between his personal and professional life

Resources mentioned in this episode:

• Jeff Mullersman on LinkedIn
• ATTURO Tires
• Hunt Demarest on LinkedIn 
• Mike Edge on LinkedIn
• Tread Partners

• ATTURO Tires
• Gain Traction Podcast
• Jeff Mullersman
• Mike Edge
• Paar Melis & Associates
• Tread Partners
• Wrenches to Write Off's

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. This episode is brought to you by Tread Partners. Tread Partners specializes in PPC marketing. I know everyone knows how to do it and everyone already has someone doing a great job for them, but are you sure? Do you have a partner that specializes in tires and auto repair specifically? Do they have a list of 4,000 negative keywords to make sure you aren’t wasting money with Google? Do you know that you can get an outside assessment of what you’re doing right and wrong as it pertains to your PPC digital marketing budget? Tread Partners discovered tens of thousands of dollars per month in wasted spending with Google for its clients and those that just wanted an unbiased audit. Many of these shops were very successful already, but Tread showed them that they could still spend less and still do more.

Get a second opinion. What are you waiting for? Visit treadpartners.com. Also, I’d like to encourage you if you haven’t already, to listen to a recent podcast I did with Hunt Demarest. Hunt is a senior accountant with Paar, Melis & Associates and he specializes in working with automotive repair shops. He’s also the host of By The Numbers podcast. And it was just a cool podcast because of his experience on the accounting side with regards to tires and automotive repair, and I think it’s a great podcast, great listen.

So, all right. Today’s guest is Midwest Sales Director for Atturo Tires, Jeff Mullersman. Jeff and I met at SEMA this year when I stopped by the Atturo booth and we just hit it off. And the best part about it was Jeff already was a listener of Gain Traction and I found that out. He said he had listened to our podcast over the last, I guess several months, year, et cetera. And now, today, he is a guest. So Jeff, welcome to the Gain Traction podcast.

Jeff:

Thanks, Mike. Happy to be here.

Mike:

Yeah, so Jeff, I knew that after we hit it off I was like, “Man, this guy might make a great guest,” and I was glad to have you on here. I think you got a really cool story, journey in the tire industry. So let’s just start out back at the beginning, where you grew up and how’d you get to today but what was life like growing up, first job, that type of thing.

Jeff:

Oh, boy. So, I’m 51 now so we’re going to have to go back a little bit. I grew up mostly in St. Louis area, Florissant, Hazelwood suburb, went to Hazelwood West High School.

Mike:

Go-karts, right?

Jeff:

Yeah, there you go, yeah [inaudible 00:02:54] or the Blues, I’m a big hockey fan.

Mike:

Awesome.

Jeff:

But my first job was sweeping a parking lot at one of the places that had go-karts and the big slides. The guy paid me and my buddy 20 bucks to do the job. And when we got done, he split the 20 between the two of us and I thought, and I was like, “Where’s my other 10? I said 20.” So, lesson learned at a young age there. Make sure you negotiate that contract upfront and be clear.

Mike:

That is a great negotiating lesson at a young age.

Jeff:

Yes. But I got my start with a company called Progressive Custom Wheels back in the early ’90s, I was in my first year of college. And actually, the owner of Atturo, Michael Mathis, his dad got me the job back in the day as a driver for Progressive Custom Wheels. I worked my way up from a driver to a sales position. And within a couple years I had my own location and moved to Omaha, Nebraska to run that location for several years and became a development manager for them, open and close and location. So, I was in my early 20s at the time. I was with them up until their demise of 2000 when the bank came in and seized all assets. So, had just built a house, just had a baby, lost everything. I mean, we lost the car, lost the house, we didn’t lose the baby.

Mike:

Thanks for clarifying that, yeah.

Jeff:

Right. Yeah. And then, I got-

Mike:

You know you could do a really good country song with that, start it out right there.

Jeff:

Lost my job but not the baby. Yeah. So, Michael Mathis’ dad, Don Mathis, called me up, asked me to come back to St. Louis and meet with him and John Zisser, who owned Zisser Tire, John passed away not that long ago but he was a, both of them are an icon in the tire industry and they were running a company called ZT Wholesale. So, they invited me out, hired me, moved me back here, to home to St. Louis so brought my family to St. Louis and eventually became the sales manager for Sentaida International and John Zisser sold the company to Sentaida International, so worked up there quite a bit until they started closing some locations and having some financial difficulties. But I’ve got probably somewhere around 25 years in this business, I eventually opened a restaurant. I took a short break from the tire business and opened a restaurant and everybody thought I was crazy, and they were right, but…

Mike:

You had to find out, right?

Jeff:

It was a dream of ours to open a place. My wife and I, my first wife, was her dream as well. So we opened a cheesecake bakery and cafe in Florissant, Missouri in a old train station that we remodeled and turned into a restaurant. We were on the cover of Feast Magazine. I was on TV all the time. It was like being a minor celebrity. I couldn’t go to the grocery store without, “Hey, you’re that guy.” So it was awesome. It was a lot of work, taught me a lot of things. I don’t ever look at any of this stuff as a failure, but more of a lesson.

Mike:

Oh yeah, totally. I mean, it’s like kind of what you and I are talking about that it gives you an appreciation for where you’re at today.

Jeff:

Correct, yes.

Mike:

Yeah.

Jeff:

Yeah, and so I decided to go back into the tire business, got a job with a company called Plaza Tire, which is a pretty large family-owned chain.

Mike:

Oh yeah.

Jeff:

They just recently merged with Sun Auto, but I was a manager for them for five years, ran a couple different locations for them, and after about five years of that and pushing the age I am now, realized that I needed to get back into the wholesale business to where I could maybe control some more of my time physically being out in a shop all day long on your knees up and down, it is a lot of work. I have a lot of respect for these guys, and now I can kind of see it from both sides of the fence being in the wholesale business and also the retail. I know what the customers have to deal with on a regular basis. They want a good tire, a good quality tire. They want the customer to be happy, their customer to be happy. They don’t want any issues. They want to be able to take care of the customer, send them on their way and see them at the next rotation. So I get that and understand that and empathize with how much work goes into actually doing that.

Mike:

Would you say that’s the biggest lesson you’ve gotten from some of your experiences, just that empathy?

Jeff:

Yeah, I believe so. Back in the day, things operated a lot different than they do today. Usually you know, you knew your rep, you were friends with them, you saw them, you talked to them, you helped each other. Communication and things like that were very different. Today, I feel like a lot of companies have gotten away from that, where we still operate under that kind of old school mentality by supporting the customers and knowing them and knowing their needs and helping them to help each other. I mean, I’ve never done anything and been successful at anything doing it by myself. So it definitely takes a crew.

Mike:

It’s so interesting you brought this up because I met with, had lunch yesterday with the large tire hose seller, and it was interesting how he said that he felt that the manufacturers have pulled back from the face-to-face time since COVID, and he goes, “Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mind the efficiency of Zoom and Microsoft, et cetera and all the other ones that offer you the opportunity to meet with people online,” but he said, “It still doesn’t replace that relationship you build.” And he said, “And one of the things that we’re trying to do at their hose seller is just keep that touch point” that he goes, “I realize we maybe not have to meet as much, but we still have to sit with people and be human with them and build that relationship because ultimately it’s that relationship that matters.”

And I don’t know, you’re just touching on a point that I feel very strongly about, call me old school or whatever but it’s amazing. It’s just amazing for all the people that I have done interviews with on this podcast Gain Traction, and then the ones that I did not know but had a chance to meet this past year at SEMA, I don’t know, it made the relationship more in depth, you know what I’m saying? There’s just no getting around it.

Jeff:

Absolutely. I remember standing at the front counter and one of the reps come in and she was with Michelin Tire, and she said, introduced herself and I’m like, “Oh, good to meet you.” And she’s like, “When’s the last time you saw a rep?” And I said, “Never.” The only one out of all the tire brands that we carried, only one time in my five years there did I see or talk to one person. And to me, that just kind of baffled me coming up back in the day and how things used to be, and it was noticeable. So we always pushed the brands of the things that not just made us money, but also too that we had a relationship with that brand [inaudible 00:10:55].

Mike:

For whatever reason, Jeff, you and I both know this, but it’s almost like, I don’t know what the feeling is, but let’s say for instance, if I’ve had dinner with somebody, broken bread with them, whatever you want to call it, and had some laughs, gotten to know them a little bit on a personal level, you just feel better about picking up the phone and saying, because there is going to be problems, no matter, whatever relationship you’re in, you’re still going to have-

Jeff:

Absolutely, yeah.

Mike:

… something didn’t get delivered, right? But when you know that person, you can call them up and say, “Hey, we didn’t get this, can you…? But what can we do about it?” And more than likely, their attitude is, “I’ll get it taken care of.” But when you don’t know that person and you got to make that phone call, well, all of a sudden you get the procedural stuff, “Well, that’s not our protocol,” or this or that, and that relationship just stays ice-cold, and you don’t care about it other than if you got my product, I’m interested. If you don’t, at the price I want, I don’t care. Whereas if Jeff’s offering me something, man, I’m more inclined to listen because I know Jeff’s going to take care of me on the backside if any problems happen.

Jeff:

Yeah, I think that especially in this business and of the automotive industry just in general, especially at the retail level, most of the customers that come into the stores automatically think that you’re trying to take advantage of them.

Mike:

Oh yeah, yeah.

Jeff:

We’ve gotten a bad rap in this business for so long. So bringing this back down to a personal level and being able to connect with your customer and them understand you and you understand them changes the relationship. So people ask me, “Why are you successful at selling tires?” “Because I’m honest. I’m going to tell you exactly what you need to know.”

Mike:

Yeah.

Jeff:

“What my opinion is and what’s best. I’m not going to BS you to get you to do something. If I think it’s a good deal or if I know it’s a good deal, then I’m going to tell you. If it’s not, I’m going to tell you the same thing.”

Mike:

It’s like I want to be able to tell people that I like the product or I use the product, et cetera. I’m the same way. I had one, there’s been people in my past that have thought that sales, and they were in sales, they just basically thought they were in it to BS people. And I thought, no. One of the best books I ever read, and I was fortunate, I guess, to have found the book, but was a guy named Jerry Vass. I don’t know if you’ve heard of him. I hadn’t. I more or less found his book by accident, but he said, “You want to have long-term sales and you want to treat people, I mean, you want to have a successful career? Be brutally honest.” And he goes, “When I say brutally honest,” he said, “I’m talking like the truth all the time.” And when you do, yeah, people respect you a lot more. I’ve had people tell me in the past when I was in sales, “I can’t believe you just told me that.”

Jeff:

Right, yeah.

Mike:

“Yeah, I’m just telling you the truth.” and I’ve told people that I worked for, “I don’t like that product,” or “I don’t trust us on that product” or this or that. And they go, “Well, we still need to sell it.” I’m like, “No, I won’t be. It won’t be anything I lead with.” Now if my customer, if that’s the only option they got and they need it right now, yeah, I’ll tell them, but I’m not going to, I’m be upfront with them. But I love your attitude though, that you’re brutally honest with people.

Jeff:

You definitely have to believe in what you’re selling. And I mean you have to actually believe and love what you sell, that’s, I think, a big key to it. That’s one of the reasons I’m at Atturo Tires today. I love the brand, I love the tire, I love the family history behind it, and we go back a long way. But this is what drew me to the company and to getting back into this, was simply that, the relationship. I think it’s unbelievably important and is unfortunately being forgot and across the business world.

Mike:

Well translate that for me with regards to and our audience listening, what’s that mean? What’s Atturo mean to the people they deal with? So expand on this part of the relationships that you try to build.

Jeff:

So for me, I deal with a lot of people that are like me, right?

Mike:

Yeah.

Jeff:

We deal with a lot of independent dealers, which is nice. The independence in this country, in all businesses are getting squeezed out by big corporations, so they kind of feel left behind. So when somebody comes along that can sympathize and understand with them and wants to work closely with them and help them and ultimately help each other, it’s a win-win. So being honest and upfront and growing that relationship, a lot of the people I deal with, I’m friends with now, it’s made a lot of friends for me in this industry. So I deal with a lot of awesome people that I really enjoy and it shows, right?

Mike:

Yeah.

Jeff:

And ultimately that’s the key. And I’ll tell you what, in the retail end of it, the guy at the counter, or the lady, or the sales rep at the counter selling that product, that tire, they don’t know you? Then they’re going to make you or break you. They are the person, and they are usually under-recognized by many manufacturers. They don’t give the recognition to that guy at the counter selling the tires. They give recognition to the company or things like that. But taking care of those people at the counter, they’re grinding it out 10 hours a day, pushing your product. That’s the key. That is the key to the tire business right there.

Mike:

Man, that’s interesting. You actually got me thinking that that might be a, I don’t know that I’ve interviewed, I’ve interviewed a lot of owners, people that run companies, et cetera, but that might be the next person I need to interview is somebody that works the desk, the sales counter.

Jeff:

Yeah. I remember years ago at ZT Wholesale, I wanted to do an employee appreciation day for all the crew out in the warehouse. If you’ve ever loaded a 53 foot truck in St. Louis, 105 degree weather, you can understand why you’d have an appreciation day for these people that do this job. It’s not easy. Back then, we didn’t load things with pallets or anything like that. It was rolled into a truck and loaded. 1,500, 2,000, whatever the case might be, tires, and it’s grueling work so I wanted to have an appreciation day, and the big boss was like, “Why would you do that?” I said, “Well, there’s a, the reason why is because these guys are the ones that are getting it out the door for me, and they’re working hard every day. And if they weren’t loading the trucks, I’m not going out there to do it.”

I did help them occasionally, but I’m in nice dress clothes and I can’t go out there and load every truck with them, so I can’t do, again, you can’t do it on your own. You have to have a good crew. And I learned back then how important it was to take care of the whole team that’s around you so that you can get the job done, do it correctly and be successful.

Mike:

Yeah and I like the fact that you’re pointing out the… I mean, look, I get it. You got to have technicians and everything, and you got to have everybody else. You got to have everybody in the company, right? On the retail level to make it work, but that guy at the sales counter, he’s your face to the market. I mean-

Jeff:

Right.

Mike:

… when they come in, that’s who they’re encountering. And if that guy doesn’t feel appreciated in the company or whatever, or he had a bad day, ’cause he had to help load a truck or whatever you want to call it, I mean, that person really does matter. And I mean, you’re giving me even another perspective, but just a whole nother appreciation for the fact that those are long days, man, dealing with the public. And I had told you, I grew up working in a convenience store, and when you’re dealing with the public man, it’s mentally exhausting by the end of the day. I mean, you can be, I know the feeling of being drained, and especially I’ve worked two shifts before, 16 hours, and by the time you’re in the last couple hours, you’re just like, I don’t care. I just want to get out of here.

Jeff:

Right, yeah.

Mike:

You know?

Jeff:

Yeah. I’ve been there. Yeah, I have been there. I used to own a restaurant for a short time. I made myself a chef. So I figured the best way to be a chef was to make myself a restaurant. So I did. And my wife and I own this restaurant, and it was-

Mike:

Hey, what’d you specialize in? What type of culinary?

Jeff:

Well, it’s called De.lish Cheesecake Bakery & Cafe. So our specialty was cheesecake, so we made over 50 different-

Mike:

Oh, so it was almost like just desserts?

Jeff:

No, originally it started out as the place for the cheesecake, but eventually, like most things do, evolved into a full menu.

Mike:

Okay.

Jeff:

So she would do the desserts and I would do the hot foods, the soups, things like that. And everything was made from scratch. And it’s a different, the retail side of it. It’s a different world. So if you’ve never worked in that business, you meet a lot of interesting people, let’s put it that way.

Mike:

Oh, yeah. Well, all the way on different socio economic levels, everything in between too. And the complaints that you probably got or the oddity in complaints that you got.

Jeff:

Oh, yeah. Yeah. We actually ended up on the cover of Feast magazine, and we did really well with the restaurant, but I often felt it was like a spaceship landed outside and this was the first place people walked into or what is this place? People are sitting down eating and there’s a big sign on the front door, and I mean, I’m cooking food, so this is a restaurant. If you’ve never been to one, this is what they look like.

Mike:

[inaudible 00:21:16].

Jeff:

But I did have a lady come in to browse and we had a big display case with all the cheesecake, and she said, “Look at my thighs.” And started hitting her thighs, and she was in workout gear and spandex and I’m like, “Okay.” And she’s like, “I can’t eat any of this stuff.” And I’m like, “Okay. Have a nice day,” I guess. I mean…

Mike:

Yeah. What’d you come in here for? I don’t know how to help you. I mean.

Jeff:

Yeah, right, exactly. So I mean to torture yourself, I guess. I was always questioned is “Why do you make that one pound bacon sandwich?” Well, why not make a one pound bacon sandwich? I’m not trying to make health food here. This is not a health food. We made salads, but this is our deal, that comfort food.

Mike:

That’s it. It’s funny how people expect you to serve them something that is not your identity as a restaurant and yet you’re like, well, that’s not what we do here.

Jeff:

Right.

Mike:

I’ll never forget, I’m always go off tangents, but I was reading Forbes or Fortune magazine one time, and this was back in the day when McDonald’s had already been involved in it, but they were making some healthier options on their menu, and once they opened up that kind of can of worms, it was like, now the world was like, “Well, you should do more for healthier food or whatever.” Well, they’re interviewing the president and he goes, “What do you want me to say? We sell hamburgers and french fries. I mean, that’s what we do. If you don’t like our menu, this is not for you.” I mean, kind of. He was just kind of caught off guard by the interviewer’s question, but it was a written interview or something, but it was just kind of funny. What do you want me to, this is what we do. We make hamburgers and french fries.

Jeff:

Exactly.

Mike:

And so, okay, I mean we offered a couple of healthy items on the menu just to, maybe there’s people in the family vehicle that wanted other options, but we can’t be all things to all people.

Jeff:

Yeah, I came up with a cheesecake that was made from a very popular donut place that was directly across the street from me.

Mike:

Ooh, that sounds excellent.

Jeff:

Right, so I would go over there and get the donut holes and it’d take about 100 donut holes to make a cheesecake. So the bottom crust was donut holes-

Mike:

Ah, [inaudible 00:23:42].

Jeff:

… [inaudible 00:23:42] inside the cheesecake.

Mike:

[inaudible 00:23:44]. Oh, man.

Jeff:

It was raised, iced over like a cheesecake with the donuts on top of that. Well, Fox 2 in St. Louis here, asked me to come out and do a morning show with them. They used to invite me on all the time, bring the food, you know, that kind of thing. And so I went out there and they ran out of time, and their other guest was a health food critic and chef and put us together side by side in the studio.

Mike:

Interesting.

Jeff:

One with my crazy stuff, my sandwiches, and this cheesecake that was probably 1,500 calories a slice and so I him giving my spiel on the cheesecake, and this is what it is, and this is what we do. And he is like, “Look at this. Why would you eat that? Why would you want to eat that? Don’t eat that. You can’t eat that.” I’m like, “I mean, I get you’re making salads and fresh greens and things like that, but that’s what we do. We’re a cheesecake bakery. These are cheesecakes. Yes, they do have calories in them.”

Mike:

Yeah, dude. I mean, this thing might not be your thing, but okay, don’t eat them. I’ll take it. I got you covered.

Jeff:

I’m diabetic since I was 10 years old. I have juvenile diabetes. So can you imagine working in a place where all you do is make these delicious desserts but can’t eat them?

Mike:

Oh, man. You like torture then.

Jeff:

Yeah, it was. But after a while, one thing I found out, the greatest diet in the world is working in a restaurant ’cause you don’t want to eat any of the food after a little while. You get really tired of it so it’s a great alternative if you want.

Mike:

Yeah, it just becomes a product to you.

Jeff:

Right.

Mike:

Whereas, yeah.

Jeff:

I can no longer eat roast beef because of it.

Mike:

Really? Are you like that at home now? Still?

Jeff:

Still today. I can’t eat it. Yeah. I made it every day and shredded it and making sandwiches with it all day long on a homemade roast beef and Italian beef that we did. I can’t eat it anymore.

Mike:

Oh, that’s so funny.

Jeff:

[inaudible 00:25:47].

Mike:

Well, I get it though. I mean, you hit your lifetime limit probably, right?

Jeff:

Exactly. Yeah.

Mike:

So getting back to the tire business real quick. You got a funny story for us in the tire business?

Jeff:

Oh, I’ve got a lot. But one thing comes to mind when I was… Tell you this, when I was the sales manager for Sentaida International, we’d have our weekly meetings and that kind of thing, progress meetings and how things are going and plans and stuff. And we were getting towards the end of the month and I said, “We’ve got to hit the sales goal. If we hit the sales goal, I’ll do whatever you guys say. Whatever you want.” So…

Mike:

You left it that blank.

Jeff:

I left it that blank.

Mike:

Oh.

Jeff:

So they came up with the idea that I would have to wear a dress to work. So lo and behold, they hit their mark, which I think was like three million or something for that month. And sure enough, I had to wear a dress to work, so my closet doesn’t have a lot of dresses in it. So I go to my mom’s house and pick out an evening gown. Now get this, a sparkly evening gown. So I put this evening gown on and I have to drive to work in this evening gown.

Mike:

Oh.

Jeff:

So I didn’t have shoes to go with the evening gown. So at the time, I rode a lot of motorcycles, I just put on my motorcycle boots.

Mike:

Oh my gosh.

Jeff:

Every morning I stopped at the same gas station at a QuikTrip gas station near work and got a cup of coffee. Well, I walked into the QuikTrip and wearing a sparkly gown, and the look on their faces was priceless. I get up to the counter and the guy’s like, he saw me every morning and now I’m wearing a dress.

Mike:

I didn’t know.

Jeff:

I lost a bet. That’s it. That’s all you know. He is like, I’m like, “Here’s the money.” It’s like, “No, don’t worry about it. It’s fine. You can have the coffee.” So I get to work, of course, and everybody’s cracking up and laughing, and we’re totally blown away by how good I looked in this evening gown. So I got about four or five hours into work, and I thankfully changed my clothes after everybody got their pictures and their laugh and what have you.

Mike:

Oh man, that’ll teach you to open your mouth.

Jeff:

Yeah.

Mike:

And not put limitations on some things.

Jeff:

Exactly. [inaudible 00:28:09].

Mike:

What?

Jeff:

The president walks into my office, and he says, and his name was Jeff Chen, so Jeff and Jeff so he walks in and he says, “You don’t have the dress on anymore.” And I said, “Yeah, I couldn’t take it anymore. I had to change out of it.” He’s like, “Oh, I wanted you to sit on my desk so I could take some pictures.” I’m like, “Okay, I don’t know exactly where this is going, but I’m glad I took this off.”

Mike:

You just made me feel uncomfortable.

Jeff:

Exactly. Yeah. I learned a couple things that day. One, my mom and I wear the same size evening gown. Now, no offense to my mother because I was in great fit shape back then. And two, motivating your sales team can be almost anything. Usually we think monetary, but in order to grow your team together and have some laughs and really enjoy the job and make it fun, sometimes that means humiliating me. [inaudible 00:29:07].

Mike:

Man that’s… Hey, that’s going-

Jeff:

[inaudible 00:29:09] fine with that.

Mike:

… that’s going extreme but the best part about it was the convenience store clerk felt sorry for you and just gave you the coffee that day.

Jeff:

Right. Yeah. It wasn’t free the next day, but yeah, there are some pictures. I’m sure it’s still floating around the internet if you ever want to [inaudible 00:29:26].

Mike:

I’m going to see if there’s something out there under images and Jeff’s name. Yeah, we’ll see if we can’t find that.

Jeff:

There you go.

Mike:

Well, just on another personal question, just to help our audience know you a little bit better, what’s your favorite movie of all time?

Jeff:

Oh man. I’m a big sci-fi fan, so I think everybody’s going to say, a lot of people say Star Wars and things like that. I really don’t have a favorite movie, but I will tell you that Titanic, I may or may not have cried during Titanic. I mean towards the end, I mean, come on, get a, move over, there’s room on the door. I mean, can’t she just move over? There’s room.

Mike:

I know. I couldn’t understand that part either.

Jeff:

So I got kicked out of the theater because I was screaming at the screen. “There’s room on the door, move over Rose.”

Mike:

Did you really say that?

Jeff:

I did. Yeah. “Why is she not moving over?” Yeah.

Mike:

Hey, that’s selfish woman. What the heck?

Jeff:

But I do, we just saw the new Aquaman the other day. Really enjoyed that. I like the Marvel series.

Mike:

Are you a Lord of the Rings yeah?

Jeff:

I did. I love Lord of the Rings. My dad read that book while he was in Vietnam, which just kind of blows me away that he read Lord of the Rings when he was in Vietnam, read the books. I believe it’s that old.

Mike:

Oh yeah. It’s been a around a while.

Jeff:

Story’s been around a long time.

Mike:

Yeah, no, that’s cool. J.R.R. Tolkien, I think he lived in the early 1900s.

Jeff:

Yep.

Mike:

Oh yeah. Well, that’s awesome, man. Before we leave, is there any advice you’d give somebody in the tire business?

Jeff:

Absolutely. Like I said, I can’t say it enough. Getting to know your customers on a personal level and making that connection with them, I think makes a huge difference. Not only for them, but for your own sanity. When you have friends in this business that you’re dealing with, it makes your job much, much easier. And I deal with a lot of customers that are like, that, that I’ve come to know and appreciate and vice versa, and it makes my job a whole lot more enjoyable. And that’s what it’s all about, right?

Mike:

Yeah.

Jeff:

I mean, you want to be able to enjoy what you do, and I do love it here.

Mike:

Well, Jeff, if somebody wanted to get in touch with you at Atturo Tires, how would they reach you?

Jeff:

You know the best is to visit our website at atturotire, excuse me, atturo.com, A-T-T-U-R-O. You pick up a lot of information there, and there’s a link there you can click on to become a dealer or check out our product. That’s probably the easiest way.

Mike:

Awesome. That’s awesome. Well, man, I got to tell you, I really appreciate you being our guest today, and I had a hunch you’d be awesome, and it’s been a pleasure having you on here.

Jeff:

Well, thanks for having me, Mike. I really appreciate it. It was a lot of fun.

Mike:

Great. We’ll have you back sometime. So to all our listeners, thank you for being part of our podcast. If you’d like to recommend a guest to us, please email me at mike@ treadpartners.com. Till next time, be safe and have a great day.

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