Changing The Industry Podcast

Mickey Leech [00:00:00]:
Out.

Lucas Underwood [00:00:00]:
My co host. He'll be okay.

Mickey Leech [00:00:02]:
It'll be better.

Lucas Underwood [00:00:03]:
We'll talk.

Mickey Leech [00:00:04]:
We'll talk.

Lucas Underwood [00:00:04]:
That's it. We'll talk about you.

Mickey Leech [00:00:06]:
That's right.

Lucas Underwood [00:00:06]:
That's exactly right.

Mickey Leech [00:00:08]:
Snooze, you lose.

Lucas Underwood [00:00:10]:
That's it. Good morning.

Mickey Leech [00:00:11]:
Morning. How are you today?

Lucas Underwood [00:00:12]:
I'm fantastic. How are you? Good, very good, Very good. Introduce yourself.

Mickey Leech [00:00:16]:
Hey, everybody. I'm Mickey Leach, CEO of Schumacher Electric.

Lucas Underwood [00:00:20]:
Very cool. I've been using Schumacher products for years.

Mickey Leech [00:00:23]:
I wonder if your granddad did as well.

Lucas Underwood [00:00:25]:
No, he didn't because he was a. He was a restaurant owner.

Mickey Leech [00:00:29]:
Oh.

Lucas Underwood [00:00:30]:
And so then he became a tourist attraction owner and then my dad took that over and that had to be some good stories. Yeah, it was really cool. And so I have transitioned into business ownership myself with a shop. But it was not something that was passed down. It was just from tinkering and working on things, growing up. Right. And having the opportunity to do that.

Mickey Leech [00:00:49]:
Like the rest of us. Right. Just kind of into it.

Lucas Underwood [00:00:52]:
Absolutely. Tell us a little bit about your history because you, you weren't in the automotive space previously, were you?

Mickey Leech [00:00:58]:
I, I was in the wannabe automotive space. We were in outdoor power equipment.

Lucas Underwood [00:01:02]:
Right.

Mickey Leech [00:01:03]:
So we were making zero turn tractors, subcompact tractors, lawnmowers, chainsaws, leaf blowers.

Lucas Underwood [00:01:09]:
Okay.

Mickey Leech [00:01:10]:
So we were definitely in mechanical, but we were mowing grass, not racing down the street.

Lucas Underwood [00:01:14]:
Right, right. And then how did this happen? How did you transition into this? I mean.

Mickey Leech [00:01:19]:
Well, Don Schumacher, the son of the founder, 77 year old company, Don Schumacher, had recruited me from, from MTD Products where I spent about 20 years.

Lucas Underwood [00:01:29]:
Okay.

Mickey Leech [00:01:29]:
And he saw a transformation for Schumacher Electric. He wanted to pass it, you know, basically into the third generation of management.

Lucas Underwood [00:01:38]:
Right.

Mickey Leech [00:01:38]:
And they brought me and a bunch of others in to really develop product management so that we can bring more innovation to market e commerce and global expansion. So they found me and moved me to Texas and now I, now I'm a Texan running Schumacher Electric.

Lucas Underwood [00:01:56]:
Oh, man, that is awesome. When, when you look at it from the outside, looking in, in other words, you were in a completely different vertical, if you will, and now you move into this space. What were the realizations that you had when you made that move? Because I've talked to a lot of executives who have made a move like that and there were always four or five key things that they saw. And it's just like I hired a manager, right. I own an independent repair shop, right. And so I hire a manager and he is from the dealership world. And when he walked into my business, he said, holy cow, I see this. And wow, I love this.

Lucas Underwood [00:02:27]:
And this is very different than this. Right. It was a very different experience for him coming into my business. What were the things that you noticed coming into the automotive space and the automotive tool space?

Mickey Leech [00:02:38]:
I think most noticeable was what was similar, and that was good. People.

Lucas Underwood [00:02:43]:
Yeah, absolutely.

Mickey Leech [00:02:44]:
Like, people authentically want to do a good job.

Lucas Underwood [00:02:47]:
Yeah.

Mickey Leech [00:02:47]:
They have a lot of pride in their work. And also people want freedom in being able to work the way they want to work. Right, right. So, you know, automotive, similar to outdoor power equipment. Sure. Similar to other businesses.

Lucas Underwood [00:02:59]:
Right.

Mickey Leech [00:03:00]:
We found that if we. If we all share, like the common. What are we trying to achieve? Like, in your business, if you're the shop owner, you don't want to create a hostile environment.

Lucas Underwood [00:03:10]:
Right.

Mickey Leech [00:03:10]:
You want everybody to be working together to achieve something.

Lucas Underwood [00:03:13]:
Exactly. A common destination.

Mickey Leech [00:03:16]:
Yeah, yeah. And every business has their own thing. Whatever. Whatever that is, yours could be. You know what? We want to be the coolest shop in town. We want to be a place that employs a lot of other people. We want to be able to grow, give opportunities. So for me, that.

Mickey Leech [00:03:29]:
That was. I. I wasn't sure if it was going to be the same. So that was probably a good reassurance that people are people.

Lucas Underwood [00:03:37]:
Amen, buddy.

Mickey Leech [00:03:38]:
The best way to run a business is treat them like people.

Lucas Underwood [00:03:40]:
Exactly.

Mickey Leech [00:03:41]:
You know, you love on everybody, and everybody's got unique strengths, and you find how to benefit from them.

Lucas Underwood [00:03:46]:
What, What's. You know, you talk about that destination, we're going somewhere. One of the best motivational or leadership talks I've ever heard was Tim Kite, and he was talking about leadership, and he said, if you go somewhere and you don't take people with you, that's not leadership, that's personal agenda. Right. We're going somewhere. And that people want to be on a journey. They want to be going somewhere. So let me ask you this.

Lucas Underwood [00:04:09]:
Where is Schumacher going? What. What is the goal? What's the vision? What's the destination?

Mickey Leech [00:04:13]:
Well, we, first of all, we. We think of ourselves as we're here to empower. Right. Being an electrical power conversion company for 77 years. What, like, our purpose is to empower employees.

Lucas Underwood [00:04:24]:
Okay.

Mickey Leech [00:04:25]:
And our purpose is also to empower. Empower mechanics in the sense that you want to be able to do the work in a more efficient way.

Lucas Underwood [00:04:33]:
Right.

Mickey Leech [00:04:34]:
And we believe that by doing it, by being able to do that and bring products to market that help professionals or people at home accomplish. Nobody's like, waking up in the morning wanted to charge their battery. But there's a need. You need to charge it. Right. You're trying to achieve something.

Lucas Underwood [00:04:48]:
Right.

Mickey Leech [00:04:48]:
So we believe we're headed to a place where people see Schumacher as a benefit to whatever they're trying to achieve.

Lucas Underwood [00:04:56]:
Yeah.

Mickey Leech [00:04:57]:
Like, I think about what's very frustrating is, you know, you work hard all week, come home, and you're ready to go out on your bike or go on ATVs, whatever you do on the weekends, and the thing doesn't start.

Lucas Underwood [00:05:07]:
Right. Man, that's frustrating. Right. That's frustrating.

Mickey Leech [00:05:10]:
You don't have time. Nobody has time for that. Right. So we want to be able to help people. We want to empower them so that they can enjoy the liberty and mobility that comes with whatever vehicles or tools.

Lucas Underwood [00:05:20]:
Right. I think it's really easy for us in organizations to lose sight of our impact on the end user. Right. You know, and in a lot of ways, we think about, like, fixing a car. I jump in and I go to fix this car. To me, it's fixing the car, but to them, I can't get to work tomorrow without it. I can't get my kids from school. I have to go ask for a ride.

Lucas Underwood [00:05:41]:
I have to do something different. Well, same thing as you just said. You get on the lawnmower, and now I have to charge it, and I waste four hours wasting. Right.

Mickey Leech [00:05:50]:
You get that one nice spring day, and you're going to get out there.

Lucas Underwood [00:05:52]:
Exactly.

Mickey Leech [00:05:53]:
You got to go run, get a new battery.

Lucas Underwood [00:05:54]:
Yeah, it's a thing. It's a thing.

Mickey Leech [00:05:57]:
We do the same thing with jump starters.

Lucas Underwood [00:05:59]:
Yeah.

Mickey Leech [00:05:59]:
Right. So I. I told our employees a couple stories about my sister.

Lucas Underwood [00:06:05]:
Yeah, Right.

Mickey Leech [00:06:05]:
Single mother. She has, you know, of course, a tough job.

Lucas Underwood [00:06:09]:
Right.

Mickey Leech [00:06:10]:
And has to take her daughter to school. Her daughter's got a big test.

Lucas Underwood [00:06:13]:
Yeah.

Mickey Leech [00:06:14]:
Car doesn't start. Right. They live in Cleveland, Ohio area. Really cold, cold morning, car doesn't start. What do you do? You're not going to wait 45 minutes for a AAA guy because everybody else's car's not started.

Lucas Underwood [00:06:24]:
Right.

Mickey Leech [00:06:25]:
My niece is like, wait a minute. Uncle Mickey gave us a jump starter. It's like, you know, in the corner of the garage.

Lucas Underwood [00:06:31]:
Right.

Mickey Leech [00:06:31]:
All of a sudden, we've empowered her.

Lucas Underwood [00:06:34]:
To fire the car back up.

Mickey Leech [00:06:35]:
Gets up on YouTube, you know, figures out how to use it, puts, you know, the positive, the positive, negative. Start it up and go to school. Like, so she was on time, and my sister was on time to work, and she didn't feel reliant on somebody Else.

Lucas Underwood [00:06:47]:
Right.

Mickey Leech [00:06:47]:
And to me, that's powerful.

Lucas Underwood [00:06:49]:
It is. It definitely is. And I think that a lot of that comes from innovation within the organization. Right. Because it's people. We have to remember that the people who are working in these organizations are facing the same challenges everybody else does. Right. And so they're waking up to a dead battery from time to time.

Lucas Underwood [00:07:07]:
They're, you know. And so when you look at your. Your workforce right now, what do you think about the innovation that's coming out of. Of Schumacher? Because I've seen some neat new, cool products and things hitting the market.

Mickey Leech [00:07:18]:
I'm glad you've seen them.

Lucas Underwood [00:07:19]:
Yeah. And so tell me a little bit about where that innovation is coming from. Is it the people who are experiencing these things daily basis? It.

Mickey Leech [00:07:25]:
It's literally what you just said. It's people who are talking to everybody in our target market. Right. So we've got professional products with dsr. We're in shops. We're talking like, what are, what are the issues you're having, like in electrical vehicle or electric vehicle space?

Lucas Underwood [00:07:40]:
Yeah.

Mickey Leech [00:07:40]:
We talk to collision centers, and they're like, I need to get these EVs recharged a little bit to get them.

Lucas Underwood [00:07:46]:
Off, off the lot.

Mickey Leech [00:07:47]:
Right. So we've created mobile EV charging.

Lucas Underwood [00:07:50]:
Oh, wow.

Mickey Leech [00:07:51]:
Collision centers. Right. Because they don't. There's a power box on the wall, but you can't get the car close enough to charge it. Right. So it's just putting yourselves in the daily lives of people. And that was really one thing that I learned when I was at mtd is if you could solve, if you could make life easier for people.

Lucas Underwood [00:08:08]:
Yeah.

Mickey Leech [00:08:09]:
They'll be happy. And it's same in your business for sure.

Lucas Underwood [00:08:12]:
And there's no silver bullet. And I think that's the thing that we need to make sure people understand in business is there's no shortcut. Right. That you have to create a good product that people love that works and fills a need in the market.

Mickey Leech [00:08:25]:
Right.

Lucas Underwood [00:08:25]:
And that's where you find success. You can't shortcut that. You have to be good at what you do.

Mickey Leech [00:08:30]:
1 and I see, like, successful service shops care about their customers who are coming in.

Lucas Underwood [00:08:35]:
Yeah.

Mickey Leech [00:08:35]:
They're not. The successful service writers are thinking about what you just said. The person who's like, I got to get to work tomorrow or I've got to go on a family vacation or whatever their deal is, they're going to find a way to help that person and give them confidence that they got a good, good value from the shop.

Lucas Underwood [00:08:52]:
Yeah.

Mickey Leech [00:08:52]:
Right. They trust you. And if people trust each other, it makes sense.

Lucas Underwood [00:08:56]:
That's a big thing. Right. I mean, that's what it's all about, is trust and building those relationships. You know, over the past couple of years, we've been going to an event called Tool Tech and it's Equipment and Tool Institute. Right. Fantastic people. And I've always wondered, where does innovation in our industry come from? Like, what is the basis? Where's the seed? Where's the root of that? Because a lot of the people in some of these organizations aren't in the automotive space. Right.

Lucas Underwood [00:09:22]:
And so I start going to this event and I start seeing that these people are gearheads through and through. Right, exactly. And they're so passionate about it. They're so passionate about the cars, they're so passionate about the engineering and the things behind the scenes. And so it's been so cool for me to be able to see that transformation and see that engagement from those engineers, from those product developers within that attend the ETI events and then go out and start releasing these products that are truly what the shops need. How do you keep your finger on the pulse of what a shop needs?

Mickey Leech [00:09:57]:
Well, first of all, it goes back to performance. We're all into competition, competing, so we're all trying to do better than whomever else is trying to meet those needs. Right, Right. So Schumacher's got a rich history in NHRA and racing, Don Schumacher's and many hall of fames for racing. So we think of ourselves as a high performance team. And what we need to be able to do is out innovate somebody or out deliver a tool and in a way that doesn't destroy the competition.

Lucas Underwood [00:10:24]:
Right.

Mickey Leech [00:10:24]:
It's a really good industry that I think when we are all working together.

Lucas Underwood [00:10:28]:
Yeah.

Mickey Leech [00:10:28]:
Industry moves forward.

Lucas Underwood [00:10:29]:
Agreed. Agreed. Because that competition pushes everybody up.

Mickey Leech [00:10:33]:
And that's the fun part, Right?

Lucas Underwood [00:10:34]:
Yeah, yeah.

Mickey Leech [00:10:34]:
I mean, not interested in tearing other people down. It's. We're going to get better if our competition's better.

Lucas Underwood [00:10:40]:
Right.

Mickey Leech [00:10:40]:
And we're doing it in a way that it becomes fun. Right. Because you're trying to outperform what you did yesterday.

Lucas Underwood [00:10:46]:
Yeah.

Mickey Leech [00:10:46]:
As long as you're moving ahead, I, I think that's what it's all about.

Lucas Underwood [00:10:50]:
You know, and, and so let me ask you this, because we've got a lot of listeners who sometimes when, when we have an executive on the show, they say, oh, they just don't understand me. They. They've never been in my shoes. And so I always like to make sure that I Ask questions that help them connect with you.

Mickey Leech [00:11:05]:
Okay.

Lucas Underwood [00:11:05]:
What, what. How do you define success for you at Schumacher as an individual? What does success look like for you?

Mickey Leech [00:11:13]:
Me personally? It is one that my parents would be proud of me.

Lucas Underwood [00:11:18]:
Yeah.

Mickey Leech [00:11:18]:
Like, I never wanted to do something that they thought, well, wait a minute, you're underperforming your capabilities.

Lucas Underwood [00:11:23]:
Right.

Mickey Leech [00:11:24]:
So I think every individual, no matter what, where they came from, what they have, what capabilities they have.

Lucas Underwood [00:11:29]:
Yeah.

Mickey Leech [00:11:30]:
So long as they're performing at a level, at whatever, wherever they are, I think that's the success. And I think I feel very vulnerable if I haven't learned something or if I haven't developed a new school or a new skill.

Lucas Underwood [00:11:43]:
Yeah.

Mickey Leech [00:11:44]:
So, I mean, I'm an old guy now, and, you know, it's incredible the stuff I'm learning from the people who are coming out of school these days.

Lucas Underwood [00:11:51]:
Right.

Mickey Leech [00:11:51]:
And I've seen a lot of people in my peer group who feel threatened by the new guys.

Lucas Underwood [00:11:56]:
Yeah.

Mickey Leech [00:11:57]:
But it's a source of. Again, back to personal challenge. So I feel when I'm successful is when I'm learning and then applying whatever I've just learned.

Lucas Underwood [00:12:06]:
Got you. And that's a really cool perspective because I think a lot of people take a step back and they try to say, I will be successful when. Right. And they put some type of financial boundary on it, or they put. And they become miserable. Right. And a great example of that is I just built a new shop, Right. And I was in three bays, really small shop, and my vision has always been building this massive repair shop.

Lucas Underwood [00:12:29]:
Right. I don't know why you like that. Yeah, exactly. That's exactly what it is. But, you know, I wanted to build this new shop and I wanted to do all these things, and I had this vision in my head of what it was going to look like and how. How it was going to smell and how it was going to sound. And I accomplished that. But now I'm sitting around going, wait a minute.

Lucas Underwood [00:12:46]:
This is how I define success. What now? Right. Like, what's the next step? And so I think so many people focus on that aspect of success that it's a dollar bill, that it's a position. It's a. And I think it's so powerful to say, okay, I'm seeing success when I'm learning. I'm seeing success when I'm growing development. Right. The.

Mickey Leech [00:13:07]:
The.

Lucas Underwood [00:13:07]:
The same video I was telling you about, Tim Kite, he's talking. He talks about it in there, the performance pathway. And he said all that means is, is the Pathway to excellence is a little bit better tomorrow than you were today and a little bit better the next day. Not huge improvements, not massive changes, just a little bit at a time. And so I think that's, that is such a pivotal thing. And, and thank you for sharing that.

Mickey Leech [00:13:30]:
I mean, we, I mean that's basic stuff. We all learn that. Little kids in Sunday school, right?

Lucas Underwood [00:13:34]:
Yeah.

Mickey Leech [00:13:35]:
Like King Solomon, all this, like he had everything in the world, but he's like, this is vanity, this is nothing. Like, it's a big deal. I didn't help anybody, I didn't produce an opportunity for somebody else to grow.

Lucas Underwood [00:13:45]:
Exactly.

Mickey Leech [00:13:46]:
In your case, I'm sure there was somebody who influenced you in your career and helped you learn how to run a shop.

Lucas Underwood [00:13:52]:
Absolutely.

Mickey Leech [00:13:52]:
And those people probably feel good about being able to help you achieve what you just achieved.

Lucas Underwood [00:13:58]:
I think that's where we truly gain growth from. And that satisfaction, that urge, this thing that feels like it's missing. Right. Because I talked to a lot of shop owners who they, they feel like this is aimless, this is endless. I'm just going to do this for the rest of my life. And there's no, there's no job, Right. Yeah.

Mickey Leech [00:14:14]:
Brutal.

Lucas Underwood [00:14:15]:
And so I think that learning business management and learning how the business works is the key to preventing yourself from feeling that way. Right.

Mickey Leech [00:14:24]:
And I would also say don't be intimidated by it because, yeah, it's complex, but it's also basic.

Lucas Underwood [00:14:31]:
It's people.

Mickey Leech [00:14:32]:
Right. And you've got to be a good steward of whatever you've been blessed with. So, you know, you had your three bay garage and you're thinking, I'm going to do the other thing, but you took care of that business in a way that allowed you to do the next thing.

Lucas Underwood [00:14:43]:
Yeah.

Mickey Leech [00:14:44]:
I'm sure you weren't screwing around, investing in other things and doing side hustles that distracted you from whatever you were trying to achieve.

Lucas Underwood [00:14:52]:
I have seen so many people in business fail because of that. That. Right. And, and usually, you know, what they're doing, they're chasing a silver bullet is they're looking for that thing that's going to make them rich overnight and it's going to do all this stuff. And that doesn't work. Hard work gets you there eventually, no matter where you go in it and.

Mickey Leech [00:15:09]:
Wherever that is, it's up to you.

Lucas Underwood [00:15:10]:
Yeah.

Mickey Leech [00:15:11]:
Nobody should tell you wherever that is.

Lucas Underwood [00:15:13]:
When you were, when you were young, what was your vision for your life? Where did you think you were going?

Mickey Leech [00:15:17]:
My vision for my life was when I was really young professional baseball player.

Lucas Underwood [00:15:22]:
Really?

Mickey Leech [00:15:22]:
Yeah. But that. That dream was dashed really early. But when I was starting out my career, I. I had much lower sights for my career than where it is today.

Lucas Underwood [00:15:32]:
Okay.

Mickey Leech [00:15:33]:
And a lot of it has to do with my wife, my family, and the people I've worked with.

Lucas Underwood [00:15:37]:
Yeah.

Mickey Leech [00:15:37]:
Who kind of inspired me and showed me that there's a way to do this, that you can continue to develop yourself no matter what you're doing.

Lucas Underwood [00:15:44]:
Right.

Mickey Leech [00:15:44]:
And good things happen to good people.

Lucas Underwood [00:15:47]:
Where did you start out at? What was your first job?

Mickey Leech [00:15:49]:
Oh, my first job. Well, newspaper. Deliver newspapers.

Lucas Underwood [00:15:51]:
Right, right.

Mickey Leech [00:15:52]:
Yeah. Yeah. And then. And then we. I was changing electric signs. So I was the person who was up, like, 100ft up in the air, changing light bulbs and signs, like, on the highway and in front of restaurants. So I was like, you know, the disposable kid. Right.

Mickey Leech [00:16:07]:
Like, hey, put the kid up there.

Lucas Underwood [00:16:08]:
Yeah. He falls, he's fired before he hits the ground.

Mickey Leech [00:16:11]:
And then I spend a summer roofing and, you know, know, that was the slacky who was, you know, I shouldn't say slacky, but that's how they treated me. Right, right, right. Like, clean up the mess and throw the shingles up on the roof.

Lucas Underwood [00:16:22]:
Exactly. The Gopher. Right, the Gopher.

Mickey Leech [00:16:24]:
That's how they treated you. But that's how you learn how to be like, wait a minute, I don't want to be doing this forever. I want to. At one point, I thought I was going to be a contractor. I thought I was going to put aluminum siding on houses or vinyl siding back in those days.

Lucas Underwood [00:16:36]:
I think you made better choices than that. Right. And so tell us a little bit about the trajectory that got. Got you to MTD and then the trajectory that got you here.

Mickey Leech [00:16:45]:
I've been fortunate. I. I don't want to say lucky. Right. Because you put yourself in positions and things happen. But it's always when you surround yourself with good people, good things have happened, work crazy hard, and breaks come your way. And I. I would say it was.

Mickey Leech [00:17:02]:
So I started, like, when I got out of school. I was an accountant.

Lucas Underwood [00:17:05]:
Okay.

Mickey Leech [00:17:05]:
Well, I thought accountants were the ones who really ran the business. And certain. Soon learned, well, that's one piece of it. So I've actually had jobs in practically every part of a business.

Lucas Underwood [00:17:16]:
Really.

Mickey Leech [00:17:16]:
So if I were in a service shop, I would have played the role in all the different functions in a shop.

Lucas Underwood [00:17:22]:
Yeah.

Mickey Leech [00:17:22]:
So I'm not in Schumacher Electric. I can't do anybody's job better than they can.

Lucas Underwood [00:17:28]:
Right.

Mickey Leech [00:17:29]:
But I can Do I could generally manage and lead.

Lucas Underwood [00:17:33]:
Yeah. I can't be the head of everything to everybody.

Mickey Leech [00:17:36]:
I'm not better at any one thing than anybody else.

Lucas Underwood [00:17:40]:
You know, I've. That was a video that I made and released yesterday because I've had a lot of people ask me, how can you be at this show and the shop keep doing what it's doing?

Mickey Leech [00:17:49]:
That's good.

Lucas Underwood [00:17:50]:
And one of the things that. That so many people have taught me is you can't be the smartest person in the room. And if you're the smartest person in the room, you're in a bad way.

Mickey Leech [00:17:59]:
Better bring. Go find some smart friends.

Lucas Underwood [00:18:01]:
Exactly right. And so, you know, I've recently hired a manager, run the shop, and my coach, Cecil Bullard, has really pushed me to do that, to develop that and get somebody who's strong where I'm weak. Right.

Mickey Leech [00:18:11]:
Okay.

Lucas Underwood [00:18:12]:
And I think that so many leaders, especially the ones that seem to be limited. Okay. And what I mean by that is sometimes, especially in smaller businesses, you'll see that business hit a plateau, and that business will not grow above that plateau. And it just never seems to get it. Right. It never seems to expand.

Mickey Leech [00:18:30]:
Right.

Lucas Underwood [00:18:30]:
And if you really dig into that and you pay attention to it and you pay attention to those people, it's the leader who has to be in control. It's the leader who has to know everything. It's the leader who can't accept feedback from other people. And it's because they only their vision is. Is limited to what they can do. Right?

Mickey Leech [00:18:49]:
Yes. Yeah. And. And they. For me, you can see a lot of times they're the ones that become vulnerable to, like, when something changes.

Lucas Underwood [00:18:57]:
Yeah.

Mickey Leech [00:18:58]:
Like, you know, so much of the world is just. We've gone through some crazy times lately. Everything has changed. Everything's going to continue to change.

Lucas Underwood [00:19:05]:
Right.

Mickey Leech [00:19:06]:
And when you're that leader who, like, wants to have a particular vision and control that exact situation and stuff changes, you're toast.

Lucas Underwood [00:19:14]:
Exactly. Because you can't adapt.

Mickey Leech [00:19:16]:
And you got to have people who are empowered to say, okay, wait, I had this experience in another place, wherever I work, whatever I did, and this is maybe something we should try. And you try it.

Lucas Underwood [00:19:25]:
Let me ask you when. When we talk about culture in the business. Right. Because you came in and you. You took on a leadership position within this organization. Every time I've seen that there's cultural shifts.

Mickey Leech [00:19:37]:
Yes.

Lucas Underwood [00:19:37]:
And I'm confident you brought a positive change to the culture. What. What was it when you came in and. And started changing the culture? Did you see pushback from the employees? Did you see a shift in them? Tell us about that transition.

Mickey Leech [00:19:51]:
Well, first we, we were very intentional to take what was really good about the previous culture.

Lucas Underwood [00:19:57]:
Okay.

Mickey Leech [00:19:58]:
Right. So high performance racing, that theme of just winning and winning as a team was always part of the Schumacher culture. But over 74 years at that time, it had gotten a little bit of stale and it had gotten people where they were in charge of their own worlds and they wanted to leave it the way it was.

Lucas Underwood [00:20:16]:
Yeah.

Mickey Leech [00:20:17]:
So didn't get so much pushback from people who felt like they could be part of making a contribution to the team.

Lucas Underwood [00:20:24]:
Right.

Mickey Leech [00:20:25]:
Those folks came on board really quickly.

Lucas Underwood [00:20:26]:
Yeah.

Mickey Leech [00:20:27]:
It was the people who, like actually what you said about limited, they, they had the way things they wanted.

Lucas Underwood [00:20:32]:
Yeah.

Mickey Leech [00:20:33]:
They didn't want to lose control.

Lucas Underwood [00:20:35]:
Right.

Mickey Leech [00:20:35]:
Those are the people who struggled the most with it.

Lucas Underwood [00:20:38]:
I, you know, I think one of the most valuable lessons that I've ever personally had in life is, is a wake up call at one point in my life that I'm in control of nothing. Right. And so that realization is a major wake up call, right?

Mickey Leech [00:20:53]:
It is, yeah.

Lucas Underwood [00:20:55]:
And so, you know, for me, it incited a lot of anxiety. It created this concept because my family was all very religious. Right. And so the thing was, is you always just prayed about it. You're going to pray about it, we're going to pray about it. That's going to make it better. Well, eventually the writing's on the wall and there's no praying about it or anything else that's going to solve or fix that problem.

Mickey Leech [00:21:15]:
Well, you may have gotten your prayer answered.

Lucas Underwood [00:21:17]:
That's very true. That's very true.

Mickey Leech [00:21:19]:
Hey, by the way, you are empowered to answer that prayer, right?

Lucas Underwood [00:21:22]:
Exactly.

Mickey Leech [00:21:23]:
It's not you who did it.

Lucas Underwood [00:21:24]:
You got to do the work. You got to do the work.

Mickey Leech [00:21:27]:
Yeah. Nothing's given to you.

Lucas Underwood [00:21:28]:
And so I think that, that the relinquishment of that control or that perceived control, because at the end of the day, none of us are controlled, in control of anything. Right. We can make suggestions. We can try and influence the things to go our direction. The only thing we're in control of is what we say and what we do and how we act.

Mickey Leech [00:21:43]:
Oh, that's the toughest part for me.

Lucas Underwood [00:21:44]:
Yeah, I can believe it. It is for me too. Like, those are the ones that catch me up.

Mickey Leech [00:21:49]:
Right.

Lucas Underwood [00:21:50]:
So. But what, what's the vision over the next 5, 10 years for Schumacher talk.

Mickey Leech [00:21:56]:
About not in control? That. That's the tough answer. Right. Because, yeah, we're not in control of what's going.

Lucas Underwood [00:22:01]:
Yeah.

Mickey Leech [00:22:01]:
There might have been an election here in the US yesterday. We don't know what to tomorrow is going to bring. But what we can control is Schumacher Electric is going to continue to be a high performance team.

Lucas Underwood [00:22:12]:
Right.

Mickey Leech [00:22:12]:
And we're going to care about the people who are in the team and people we serve through our customers.

Lucas Underwood [00:22:17]:
Right.

Mickey Leech [00:22:18]:
And we're going to continue adapting to the industry. We always have 77 year rich history in improving power conversion.

Lucas Underwood [00:22:27]:
Right.

Mickey Leech [00:22:28]:
Our vision is we're always going to be making sure we have safe products primarily reliable and at a value. So those things aren't going to change, but how we do that is totally going to change. And I couldn't tell you what that's going to look like.

Lucas Underwood [00:22:40]:
Right. You know, there's a man named Ken Robinson. He was a professor of education and he said, how do we train the next generation and the generation of the 21st and 22nd, 23rd and 24th century, how do we train them? And he said, because we don't even know what tomorrow looks like. I mean, how are we going to train them for the next economy? How are we going to train them for the next administration, whatever it may be? And so I think we have to be agile. We have to be willing to shift and move and go where the market leads us. Do you see any big shifts coming in the market? I know we're talking about EV a lot, and I don't know about you. I'm seeing some of these corporations back away from the EV talk a little bit.

Mickey Leech [00:23:21]:
Talking big time.

Lucas Underwood [00:23:23]:
Yeah, they're backing away pretty quick. Right, right. And so what do you see coming down the pipe as far as shifts? I've spent a lot of time at ETI tooltech and I've listened to what the manufacturers are saying and I've listened to their perspectives and the things they're concerned about. I think that for the auto manufacturers, they are going into a period of, of tight net and gross profits here. Right. They're going to, they're going to be pushed. And so what does that mean down the road for Schumacher? What do you think it means for independent auto repair?

Mickey Leech [00:23:53]:
Well, first, I think everybody has a right to repair. Right. So I think there will always be freedom for us to be able to operate in an aftermarket business.

Lucas Underwood [00:24:00]:
Absolutely. Yes, sir.

Mickey Leech [00:24:01]:
Big deal. Less government interference is always better, I think, given people choice. And consumers being able to choose what they want and how they want it.

Lucas Underwood [00:24:10]:
Right.

Mickey Leech [00:24:11]:
Is always going to win when it Comes to ev I think back earlier in my career, I'm old enough to remember, remember when the dot com bubble burst?

Lucas Underwood [00:24:21]:
Right.

Mickey Leech [00:24:22]:
And like, oh my gosh, we're not gonna have an Internet anymore is like how some people thought about the bubble.

Lucas Underwood [00:24:26]:
Right. Yeah.

Mickey Leech [00:24:27]:
I think that's going on with EV in a sense, for sure. So back to the power of a consumer. There are some consumers and there's some businesses that have benefit from electric vehicle.

Lucas Underwood [00:24:38]:
Right.

Mickey Leech [00:24:38]:
So I think it'll always be part of how we move people and things, but it's not going to be for everybody. So I think it's just going to be a much smaller piece of the market.

Lucas Underwood [00:24:47]:
Right.

Mickey Leech [00:24:48]:
And I, I in general, you just can't get swept away with the hype.

Lucas Underwood [00:24:52]:
Yeah.

Mickey Leech [00:24:53]:
Right. You got to keep hold the line. Your progress. You got to hold the line. Move left or right, but don't turn right, don't turn left, sharp left.

Lucas Underwood [00:25:00]:
I've seen a lot of businesses tank from taking sharp lefts and sharp rights, trying to get in a direction, trying to get in front of something. And it kind of comes back to that silver bullet conversation. Right. They, they think they're going to intercept the silver bullet somewhere.

Mickey Leech [00:25:12]:
Right.

Lucas Underwood [00:25:12]:
Whereas if they would just stay the course and they would do what the business is supposed to do. Right.

Mickey Leech [00:25:18]:
It's a little bit like racing, though, Right? I mean, you got to push the envelope.

Lucas Underwood [00:25:20]:
Yep. Right.

Mickey Leech [00:25:21]:
If you're not feeling like you're a little bit out of control, you're probably not going fast enough.

Lucas Underwood [00:25:25]:
That. That's exactly right. If you're not outside the comfort zone. Right.

Mickey Leech [00:25:28]:
But, you know, you got to know what your car can do.

Lucas Underwood [00:25:30]:
Yeah.

Mickey Leech [00:25:31]:
Right. So you certainly don't want to blow an engine. You certainly don't want to, you know, spin it by turning too dang sharply.

Lucas Underwood [00:25:38]:
Right? Absolutely. I've seen it happen a lot. Well, how can our listeners get in touch with you?

Mickey Leech [00:25:43]:
What about your products go online everywhere? Schumacher Electric. And we're, we want to be. There's like a Schumacher for everybody.

Lucas Underwood [00:25:54]:
Yeah.

Mickey Leech [00:25:54]:
Like there is a season for every Schumacher and you can find us pretty much anywhere. And if you want to talk to me directly, I'm on LinkedIn in probably the easiest way to find me and always happy to help, help learn and whoever I could help with their career, you know, happy to do so.

Lucas Underwood [00:26:10]:
And that's awesome. That's awesome. You guys hiring? You know, there's a lot of technicians who are looking for other opportunities. Lots of stuff. Do you guys ever release hiring information?

Mickey Leech [00:26:18]:
We, we like to connect people with different shops. Like, we. We don't really have a lot of. We're just. We're small business like everybody else. Right?

Lucas Underwood [00:26:26]:
Yeah, for sure.

Mickey Leech [00:26:27]:
So we don't really have any direct jobs, but we know everybody in the industry.

Lucas Underwood [00:26:31]:
Right.

Mickey Leech [00:26:31]:
So maybe we could be a connector.

Lucas Underwood [00:26:33]:
Hey, that's awesome, man. That's awesome. Well, thank you for being here.

Mickey Leech [00:26:35]:
Yeah, thank you. Thanks for having me. And I hope you have a great show.

Lucas Underwood [00:26:38]:
Yes, sir. Thanks so much.

Mickey Leech [00:26:39]:
All right, good deal.