Building Great Teams with J.R. Portman [E161]
Thanks to our Partners, Shop Boss and AppFueled
We all want great teams, but most shop owners don’t realize that a high-performing team doesn’t start with talent; it starts with culture. In this episode, I sit down with my right-hand man, J.R. Portman, and we unpack the real story behind building and keeping a team that not only performs but thrives.
JR’s been instrumental in shaping the culture here at Shop Marketing Pros, and together we walk through what it takes to build a team from scratch, the brutal cost of hanging on to the wrong people, and how to create an environment where your team steps up even when you’re on vacation.
We’ll get into hiring for character vs. capability, how tools like EOS and DISC can transform your business, what “core values” actually mean in the real world, and the moment when your team starts running the business better than you do.
This isn’t fluff. It’s real talk about what culture is, what happens when you get it wrong, and how it feels when you finally get it right.
This episode is sponsored by Shop Boss, manage and grow your shop with top features like integrated payments from 360 Payments.
Are you ready to convert clients to members? AppFueled specializes in creating custom apps tailored specifically for auto repair businesses. Build client loyalty. Get started today with your own customer loyalty app. Visit Appfueled.com
Lagniappe (Books, Links, Other Podcasts, etc)
EOS (Entrepreneurial Operating System)
Shop Marketing Pros – Core Values
The Five Dysfunctions of a Team Book
Show Notes with Timestamps
- Introduction and Sponsor Acknowledgments (00:00:01) Brief intro to the podcast, host, guest, and sponsor messages.
- JR’s Role and Team Building Philosophy (00:00:56) JR’s background, importance of team and culture, inevitability of workplace culture.
- Hiring for Character vs. Skill (00:02:38) Challenges in hiring, value of character over skill, teachability, and long-term impact.
- Personal Stories: Hiring for Character (00:04:34) Examples from Shop Marketing Pros, hiring people with no marketing background, teachability.
- Culture Forms with or Without You (00:08:14) Unintentional culture, negative environments, and the need for intentional leadership.
- Long Road to Positive Culture (00:09:48) Building culture takes time, sometimes requires hard choices, removing toxic high performers.
- Impact of Hiring for Culture (00:10:50) How hiring for culture affects retention, team performance, and broadens hiring pool.
- Employee Growth and Retention Stories (00:12:30) Michelle’s journey from assistant to SEO lead, training and internal growth.
- Using Assessments in Hiring (00:14:10) DISC, Kolbe, and other assessments to understand and hire for character.
- Sponsor Messages (00:15:24) Additional sponsor messages and product features.
- Defining Company Culture (00:17:18) What culture really means, how it’s perceived internally and externally.
- Culture’s External Impact (00:19:41) How culture affects customer experience and business reputation.
- Attracting the Right People: Core Values (00:21:45) Using core values to attract and hire the right team members.
- Hiring Based on Core Values (00:23:04) Practical process of hiring and reinforcing core values in the company.
- Hire Slow, Fire Fast Philosophy (00:25:28) Importance of removing toxic employees quickly, even if they are high performers.
- People Analyzer and Accountability (00:28:24) Using EOS tools like People Analyzer for objective hiring/firing decisions.
- Team Buy-In and Transparency (00:30:31) Empowering teams, using EOS tools like IDS and VTO, and sharing business metrics.
- Vision Traction Organizer (VTO) and Planning (00:33:26) How VTO helps with business planning, transparency, and team alignment.
- Letting Go of Control as a Leader (00:37:06) The leader’s role in culture, learning to trust the team, and gradual delegation.
- What a Great Team Looks Looks (00:40:41) Signs of a strong team: owner can step away, business runs smoothly, empowered employees.
- Empowering Mistakes and Growth (00:44:10) Allowing team members to make mistakes, fostering growth, and building confidence.
- Closing Thoughts and Outro (00:46:01) Final advice on team building, gratitude, and podcast outro.
How To Get In Touch
Join The Auto Repair Marketing Mastermind Group on Facebook
Get The Ultimate Guide to Auto Repair Shop Marketing Book
Email Us Podcast Questions or Topics
Thanks to our Partners, Shop Boss and AppFueled
This episode is sponsored by Shop Boss. You know, other shop management software makes you work, but Shop Boss works for you.
AppFueled at appfueled.com. “Are you ready to convert clients to members? AppFueled™ specializes in creating custom apps tailored specifically for auto repair businesses. Build your first app like a pro.”
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