I don’t know about you, but I felt as if the 2014 Car Wash Show™ flew by as fast at the whipping winds that blustered through downtown Chicago. What did you all think of the show? My favorite part was the keynote address by Daymond John and Robert Herjavec from the ABC hit series “Shark Tank.” I personally do not watch the show, but I still optimistically went to the keynote, knowing I could probably procure some kind of interesting sound bytes. To my surprise, what John and Herjavec instead offered was palpable and influential wisdom. It wasn’t because of their verve and stories of “Shark Tank” hits and misses. It was really because they were humble enough to offer up their own stories of set-backs and trepidations. It’s not about failures, it’s about tenacity they opined. “You’re never a failure until you stop,” said Herjavec. John, too, talked about how every misstep is still a step towards success. The takeaway here is that you have to keep moving ahead.

One of the greatest pearls of wisdom for me came from Herjavec who talked about the time he met Michael Eisner, former chief executive officer of The Walt Disney Company. In talking about taking pride of your business, Eisner said he made sure to instill the importance of cleanliness to the Disney parks workers and made sure guests of the parks knew it, too. Eisner told Herjavec that they made sure the parking lot was spotless each morning and each night. Why? Because it’s the first and the last thing each guest would see. Was cleaning a parking lot easy? No, but each guest had to feel as if they were entering a facility that cared about their image. “It’s about pride of ownership,” Herjavec said. When it comes to your car care business, are you taking pride in your image? Your reputation? Even if you’re a smaller operation, you must treat your property well and give your customers a nice place to visit, with prideful employees. It doesn’t have to exactly mimic the happiest place on earth, but it should at least be a close second.

Until next time,