Family, Faith & Fleet Vehicles: Greg Althardt’s Vision for Peach State Truck Centers | Auto Industry Series

Anthony Codispoti : Welcome to another edition of the Inspired Stories podcast where leaders share their experiences so we can learn from their successes and be inspired by how they’ve overcome adversity. My name is Anthony Codispoti and today’s guest is Greg Althardt, CPA and Chief Operations Officer at Peach State Truck Centers. This prominent truck dealership has been serving customers for over 50 years selling and servicing freight liner, Ford and Western Star trucks as well as Thomas-built buses. Their mission is to provide excellent customer service and reliable solutions across sales, parts, financing and more. Under Greg’s leadership, Peach State has achieved best-in-class operational KPIs earning recognition as a successful dealer award finalist in 2017 and 2022, winning the ATD dealer of the year in 2021.

More exciting is the cultural transformation focusing on creating exceptional experiences for customers and employees through the Peach State Keys behavioral standards. Greg has over 26 years of experience in the automotive industry with a background as CFO at the same company and 13 years in public accounting serving the automotive commercial dealership space. He holds a BSA in accounting from the University of Missouri St. Louis and he is a graduate of the 26th class of the NADA University ATD.

He remains active in community initiatives such as sponsoring the Winship Cancer Institute’s Win the Fight 5K for 12 years. Before we get into all that good stuff, today’s episode is brought to you by my company, ADD-Back Benefits Agency, where we offer very specific and unique employee benefits that are both great for your team and fiscally optimized for your bottom line. One recent client was able to add over $900 per employee per year in extra cash flow by implementing one of our innovative programs. Results vary for each company and some organizations may not be eligible.

To find out if your company qualifies, contact us today at ADD-BackBenefits .com. All right, back to our guest today, the COO of Peach State Truck Centers. Greg, I appreciate you making the time to share your story today.

Greg Althardt  : Yeah, thanks for having me, Anthony. Really looking forward to it. Thanks.

Anthony Codispoti : So, Greg, back to the beginning. How’d you get started in the truck business?

Greg Althardt  : Yeah, so after graduating from University of Missouri in St. Louis and getting my CPA, I had my humble beginnings as an intern at Larson Allen, a CPA firm in St. Louis, Missouri. Fortunately, the firm there believed in the industry specialization and unlike the Big Four or Big Five at the time where you’re either put into tax or audit an arena, I got to begin serving dealerships from the very first year out of school. So, that was really my introduction into this industry.

Anthony Codispoti : So, 12 years into that. So, they put you into it and they said, here’s the industry that you’re going to start working in.

Greg Althardt  : 100%. Yep. So, I was in different dealerships two per week all over the country for starting as an intern and then ultimately leaving as the national partner in charge of commercial truck and trailer dealerships. Did that for 13 years.

Anthony Codispoti : So, there was something about serving the automotive and truck industry that really appealed to you?

Greg Althardt  : It was really interesting, especially as a kid out of school, walking around one of the very first assignments is going out and touching inventory. So, going into new car dealerships and everybody loves a new car smell, right? And you had to walk through and look at all these vehicles that I didn’t know.

No chance of affording, right? But opening them up and smelling and anyway, it was just, it’s a really, really, really interesting industry because you really have multiple businesses running under one roof, selling new vehicles, use vehicles, doing parts, doing service, financing operations, you know, all under one roof. So, that was very intriguing. Yep.

Anthony Codispoti : So, my friends that are in the tax and accounting space, you know, there are times of the year where it gets to be pretty intense. Was this your experience as well?

Greg Althardt  : Yes, intense is probably not the right word to explain it, but yes, all in consuming. It was basically September through April every year. It was 70 to 80 hours a week. My clients were all over the country. So, I traveled for over half the year. Probably had about two and a half months in order to be a husband and a dad at the time. Okay.

Anthony Codispoti : So, you were married and one or more kids and you’re trying to juggle all that?

Greg Althardt  : Yeah, it was really difficult. So, yes, married my high school sweetheart. So, she knew what she was getting into, got my CPA and started working for the firm and it’s like, okay, here we go. We are going to be partner as fast as we possibly can. So, yes, it was difficult to say the least.

Anthony Codispoti : So, at some point, you decided to make a transition from that like directly into working for a trucking company? Yeah.

Greg Althardt  : So, the owner of our organization, Rick Reynolds, shared a similar background to me. He started it right out of school, was in public accounting for PricewaterhouseCoopers, Coopers and Libran at that time. He ended up having a situation where, again, almost sharing the same type of story where he was trying to become partner.

He was doing whatever it took in order to make that happen and his wife at the time had a very catastrophic accident, causing him to reevaluate his life choices. And he was seeing me struggle for sure because we knew each other quite well. I went through the ATD dealer academy and they were the sponsoring dealer.

So, I got to spend weeks doing work at the particular dealership and I would just kind of bounce different things off of them. And he said, hey man, whenever you’re ready to leave, I’ve lived your life. There is something much better for you. Give me a call. Wow. Yep.

So, then it was about the third week of February. Every year, I would want to just go cry in a dark corner and go, what am I doing? What am I doing? And we had dinner that evening and he said, hey, I have a job for you.

Whenever you’re ready, come down. I would love for you to be my CFO. Which was great because they were also a client of mine. So, I was very familiar with the founder, the second generation owner and eight years of everything that the organization had done. So, that is how I entered Peach State Truck Centers.

Anthony Codispoti : Was it a hard decision to make? I mean, you were killing yourself over here in tax and accounting, but I assume you have some semblance of a life there, friends, family, etc. You’re going to pick up and move to another state.

Greg Althardt  : It was one of the most difficult decisions to ever make. I know you’re a fellow Midwesterner and being from St. Louis, trying to get a Midwesterner out of St. Louis is almost impossible. My wife, her whole family, my whole family, my sister, her brother, all aunts, uncles, everybody is there. But it’s even a more crazy story as we finally made the decision that it’s the right thing for our family. I had a five-year-old and a two-year-old at the time and my wife would even tell me throughout this journey of trying to become partner and making excuses that my priorities were not there.

They just weren’t set right. And I can even remember one time of just self-reflection of saying she’s right. I’m making excuses why I cannot make it to my two-year-old’s birthday party because he’s two-year-old, he’s two years old and he’ll never remember the fact that I wasn’t there. Because I needed to be at work, I needed to be seen, I needed to do extra work, etc.

etc. That the morning I was going to go in and tell my partners that I was leaving the firm, she woke up and shook me and said, you’re not going to believe this, but I’m pregnant. And I said, you’re kidding me. And these were not the two… I will put it this way. Our first one was planned.

We had him on April 16th, right? So I’m an accountant. She is very much OCD. So it was like, how do we maximize? And for anybody that’s listening that doesn’t know the whole accounting world, April 15th is tax due date.

April 16th, usually all the firms are closed and you’re playing golf or doing something. So we tried maximizing the total amount of time that would be available to home to help. So it’s so crazy. But anyway, this was not planned. And anyway, it was just so gut-wrenching because while I traveled all the time, she was at her parents’ house with the kids and over there four or five, very close to her family, very, very close to her family. And I could just not fathom going to tell my mother-in-law that not only am I taking your two green kids away, but the third that we didn’t even know we were going to have, I’m also taking away from you. And so I remember calling the owner of our organization and telling him, because I already said that, yep, I’m going to tell my partners the week before that said, I’m coming. We’re doing this. And we’re going to make the leap of faith.

I believe in you. I fortunately got to see many dealership families across the country, those that were awesome, those that I’d struggle to even walk in and have lunch with them to be around them. And the Reynolds family that runs this organization were just one of those people that had to walk over hot coals for just an amazing and amazing family.

So it was a fantastic opportunity. I ultimately call them and say, Rick, I can’t do this. I can’t do it. I can’t take my family away. So only having, again, an absolute breakdown with my wife is we’re just, you know, we’re crying together over a weekend.

And at the end of the day said, this is going to be the best thing for our family. We need to do it. So we made the jump in 2013 and came to the organization. It has been one of the best decisions that I’ve ever made, not just for our family, but it’s been for the company. I’m having more fun than I’ve ever had here in these last three years, actually getting out of the CFO role and getting into the COO role. So it’s just been fantastic for everybody.

Anthony Codispoti : I see that you’ve been with Pete State for almost 12 years, a little, almost eight and a half years as the CFO, now a little over three years as the COO. Why are you having so much fun? Is it just the removal of the pressure of sort of the annual tax season that you had to deal with before or is there more to it?

Greg Althardt  : No, there’s a lot more to it. So fortunately, getting out of public accounting, I didn’t have to, in moving here, I no longer had to keep track of what I did every 15 minutes. I no longer had those 75-hour work weeks during September, all the way through April. It was coming here and I’m an individual that likes doing different things. I like being challenged.

I like taking on new challenges. And so one thing was being from outside the organization, seeing things from a 30,000-foot level and serving other dealership clients across the country. I saw those that did things really well, really well. And Pete State was an amazing organization that takes care of their customers and has deep relationships with them. But there was a lot of opportunity when it comes to operational efficiency, operational excellence in what could or should be done.

So I came here and it was the mundane task, I’ll say just a little bit. It’s in finance and that’s great. We did some great things. We made accounting and the financial operations very efficient, but there was so much more that could be done with the organization. So I say I’ve been having more fun in the last three years because I’ve kind of, we’ve pushed the honor, not just myself, but the team, the leadership team, we’ve just kind of pushed the boundaries. And really five years ago we said, you know what? The status quo is no longer what’s going to take us into the next 50 years as we were approaching our 50-year anniversary, which means we need to reevaluate the way we do everything. So we need to not be so prideful of, yeah, we’ve been in business for 45 years and we’re pretty successful. Pat ourselves in the back looking at the financial statement and go, man, look how good we did. Instead of actually looking at the financial statement saying, what should we have done?

What can we do? We have so many talented people here in this organization. How do we harness their collective abilities to really take the organization to the next level? And then as technology is now coming out with autonomous vehicles and electric and things are changing clearly now politically by the day with tariffs and everything else, if we continue to operate the organization the way that we did, you know, in 1974 when it was founded, we will quickly find the fact that we’re no longer relevant. And we’re a family-run organization, which makes us different than almost everybody else here in the Atlanta Metro area. Let alone, you know, north and south Georgia as well. So.

Anthony Codispoti : So let’s talk, I want to hear more about some of those operational changes that you’re bringing about, but let’s take a step back and sort of explain to everybody a little bit more about what you guys do, the area that you serve, what kind of sets you apart from who else is in your competitive landscape. Sure.

Greg Althardt  : So everybody hears Peach State Truck Centers and immediately thinks that we’re a trucking company, that the 53-foot box trucks and the tractors that you see, you know, cutting too close to you on the roads, you know, that that’s what we do. And that’s exact, that’s not what we do. So I want you to picture your local Nissan Ford Chevy Mercedes dealer, we’re a truck dealership in that same fashion. We just serve the commercial truck space. So picture any commercial application that you can possibly think of from the over-the-road tractor to a local dump truck, to a FedEx or UPS delivery vehicle, to a Ford F-150, a plumber, you name it, we service the entire commercial truck space. We also sell Thomas-built school buses.

We have an emergency vehicle line. So again, virtually anything that you can think of from a commercial application of transportation outside of air transportation, that is what we sell. Then we also do sell parts. We do service, just like you would have at a normal dealership. We have a finance arm to our organization and use trucks as well.

Anthony Codispoti : So your customers are businesses, freight businesses?

Greg Althardt  : 100%. And, you know, I absolutely know that you would know names like Home Depot and Chick-fil-A and Delta and Old Dominion Freight Line is just to name a few UPS, just to name a few of our customers. So yes, it is primarily we are a B2B, not B2C. We do have some owner operators that do come in and purchase, but it’s primarily a B2B business.

Anthony Codispoti : And are you primarily serving like the greater Atlanta area?

Greg Althardt  : Yeah, great question. So our area of responsibilities actually takes us all the way to Tuscaloosa, Alabama. And just picture a giant triangle if you go from Tuscaloosa, Alabama, almost all the way to the South Carolina border up near Greensboro. We’re not in South Carolina, but then straight down to the middle of the state and Macon, Georgia and all the way back over to Harpersville or just south of Birmingham. So that entire area, which doesn’t come with us, on cup is the Atlanta metro area as well.

We have 14 locations here today. But set you apart from your competitors. I’m going to say number one is the purpose of why we’re in business, which is to make a positive difference in the lives of others. That is truly what sets ourselves apart. I know so many other organizations, there’s public organizations and private equity groups. There’s large multinational groups that are in our area. They’re all corporately ran, we’re family run, we’re a family run business, but we’re a business that cares about families. We create deeper relationships with our employees and our customers, we take care of them. So here in the Atlanta metro area, we actually are the only family run dealership.

We are moving into our third generation here shortly. And that is truly what sets ourselves apart from our competitors. And then I don’t want to get into too many exciting things here now, Anthony, but even the new facility that we’re building right now, we’re building 150,000 square foot new facility that is completely being designed around the experience, the employee experience and customer experience. And for every dealership that I’ve been to across the country and all of my years of service, this will be something nobody, nobody has anything like what we’re building. So it just isn’t four walls and in a dealership, we’re building a destination.

So a place where when you don’t have to buy a part or your truck isn’t broken, or you don’t have to buy a new truck, we still want you to come and be apart. We want to welcome you home as you travel that I 20 corridor with a sovereign lounge, we want to help solve some of the industry issues of a lack of parking. As you see these big rigs parked on the side of the roads, or on on ramps or off ramps, we want to bring that service that dealerships don’t normally have. We want to bring a subscription model, basically to being able to service the individuals that are the backbone of our industry, which are the drivers that move goods from one side of the country to the other side, we want to bring dignity and gratitude back to what they do and welcome them in a place where they can be, even if they don’t have to, if their truck isn’t broken down, or they don’t have to find an extra part or filter or whatever it might be.

Anthony Codispoti : So this is kind of like a truck stop on steroids?

Greg Althardt  : You can kind of call it that, it won’t quite be where we have barber shops and different things like that. Just picture, if you’re here in the southeast there’s an organization that’s called Buckeys, and Buckeys is a gas station, although if you normally think of a gas station when you’re going on a road trip, you’re thinking of a place that you have to stop, number one because you don’t, you need fuel, number two is because usually your kids have to go to the bathroom, your wife has had way too many iced teas or what have you, and has to stop, right? So what do you expect? You walk in, it’s a dirty restroom, you know, it’s a tile nasty floor, it doesn’t look like anybody that’s worked there has maybe showered in the last three years. Anyway, it’s not a very pleasant experience, whereas a Buckeys, it’s 100 well lit, very easy in and very easy out.

It is like a combination of cracker barrel, your local barbecue shop, and a convenience store in a nice setting, bathrooms that are so clean that you could eat off of. Again, I somewhat, these are not shameless plugs, but it’s the difference of going to the local carnival that’s at your, that comes to the town and going to the Walt Disney World Resort, right? It’s that difference. That is what we were bringing to the industry, it’s just a completely different experience. Yes, we’re still a dealership, yes, you need us for these things, but we are going to, when you do have to come to us, we are going to bring you a level of service that is completely not usual in our industry. We’re going to bring you the types of touches that you will see at a Ritz Carlton, a Nordstrom, a Disney, a Chick-fil-A type of an experience.

Anthony Codispoti : So somebody’s driving along the I-20 corridor, maybe they need service, maybe they don’t, maybe they just want to stop, and what will they see? Can they gas up? Can they get something to eat? They kind of hang out for a little while.

Greg Althardt  : Yep, so we’ll have the first-ever sovereign lounge, which most dealerships have a little driver’s lounge that might have a TV and, you know, maybe a nice chair where they can sit in there and relax. We’ll have a dog park, we’ll have an all-inclusive experience, picture it going through a Delta lounge, if you will. Sleeping pods, if they need it, if they’re a day driver or they’re coming into Atlanta, you know, because Atlanta traffic can be so bad and these drivers might have a 10-minute window before or after, and if they’re 10 minutes late, they are, they’ve just lost the contract or 50% of the contract. If they’re early, then they have to sit there and wait as well. So many individuals will drive hours to get just outside of the city to be able to time it to make sure that they’re not going to hit traffic. So sleeping pods, all-inclusive dining drinks, exclusive gear, dog park, the ability to park their vehicle if they’re quick. Not at this particular location, but we’ve even gone as crazy as to solve the issue of these poor individuals having to park their vehicles at a Walmart parking lot, walking a half a mile to the local whatever it is, McDonald’s or fast food restaurant to, how do we get a truck drive-through where you don’t even have to get out of your vehicle?

We can hand you your park, we can hand you something warm to eat, or you know what, park, come on in and enjoy yourself, welcome home. So those are just a few little touches and highlights of something that a dealership experience where you just won’t have. And we’ve taken somewhat from a cue from Disney and that is, how do we touch every experience or every sense to what you’ll see, what you’ll experience, what you’ll be able to touch, what you’ll be able to smell. It will just be an experience that will be second to none.

Anthony Codispoti : And this will be a subscription experience so people can become members and this will give them access to the whole setup.

Greg Althardt  : Yeah, so if you’re in for service, you have free access to if you normally drive this route, then yeah, so it’ll be a monthly fee where you’ll have access to all of these amenities. Like again, it’s not quite like going to your normal truck stop.

So picture, as I mentioned, the 1970s gas station experience, that’s what many of the truck stop experiences are. So we will not have fuel. We’re not going there, not taking on that liability. There actually is a truck stop right across the street from our location that they’ll be able to take care of those things, but yeah, we’ll give them a

Anthony Codispoti : different where did the idea for this come from, Craig?

Greg Althardt  : Yeah, so remember when I talked about how much fun that we’re having and it was the entire leadership team just kind of sitting around and saying, you know what? What if we thought about the way that we service our employees, how we take care of them and how we service our customers? What if we just break the mold and we get completely outside of our industry?

What can we look at? What other industries, what other organizations are known for exceptional service? What are other organizations that are known that just take care of their employees that no matter what, they would never leave them? Let’s start running towards that. And so it was, we actually did take our entire leader team down to the Walt Disney World Resort going through the Disney Institute programs and taken through VIP experiences, a lot of research and reading in books on various companies that are just known for exceptional service and saying, how do we replicate some of these things?

How do we take them and make them applicable to our industry? So again, when you look at a Bucky’s, what is it? It’s a gas station. But my kids, when I’m driving back to St. Louis from Atlanta, by God 40 miles out, it’s, we’re going to stop at Bucky’s. We’re going to stop at Bucky’s. We’re going to, we have to stop at Bucky’s and I usually try to say, we don’t have time.

And then I lose and we end up stopping at Bucky’s and then we’re walking out with $70 worth of crap that we never needed of walking in, taking our dog for a walk and that. So anyway, it’s really just a challenge to think differently, which has been one of my M.O .s, you know, ever since the time of being back at the firm to coming here to Peach State and just seeing how our leadership team, us involving our managers, everybody who leads individuals, we did the same experience with them all the way down to last year. I know you mentioned in the intro, we’re really good at what we do.

We have really locked down our foundations as far as best in class industry standards. So we’ve gotten very efficient at what we do and we’ve taken that from our frontline individuals to say, what are the pain points? I know where we, I know where we should be.

How can you help get us there? And so involving everybody from the front line to, again, operating at best in class, when you look at each one of our departments, again, just one of a quick shameless plug here. Inventory accuracy, we have $25 million worth of parts inventory in our locations.

67% three years ago, we’re at 98.9% inventory accuracy as it stands today. I have individuals that answer phones, individuals that are fulfilling orders that don’t work in our locations, they work out at their house. How can they adequately serve our customers if they cannot know for 100% certainty, or in this case, 99% certainty, that when it says we have one, we have one.

And when there is a truck down and it is a vital job and we tell them it’s going to be at their shop and we deliver it before 10 o’clock in the morning, it’s there 100% of the time so they can take care of their business.

Anthony Codispoti : So I want to go back to this. What do you call this new facility that you’re opening up the 150,000 square? It’s got to have a name, right?

Greg Althardt  : Well, it does. I mean, unfortunately, it’s not like the mega center. It’s, you know, it’s just, it’s our new facility that we will be opening in Villa Rica, Georgia. So it’s, it’s peach state. It technically won’t, isn’t our flagship, but it’s actually the first facility that we’ve gotten to build since our original location was built in 1974. Otherwise, as we’ve grown, we’ve acquired buildings and we’ve done some remodels to it, but it’s the first time that we’ve been able to to build, to design a building thinking about efficiency. How do we take care of our employees and what type of experience can we give our customers?

Anthony Codispoti : When will this open up, Greg? October of this year. So, I mean, it sounds amazing cutting edge. Nobody else is doing anything like this, but I also know you’re a finance guy. Like, is this going to pencil out?

Greg Althardt  : Sir, yes, I am a finance guy. So yes, that I will say some of it is a build it and they will come, but fortunately, Freightliner is one of the market share leaders over 40% market share in the commercial truck space.

One of a big issue in the industry. I’m just thinking of it as an airplane. If an airplane isn’t flying, the airline isn’t making money.

If a truck isn’t moving, the transportation companies are not making money. So our big answer to the industry is, we need to give you more capacity. We need to be efficient at what we do and we need to reduce your downtime. So if we communicate with you, we have the parts that are in stock, we have the capacity to make it happen. We’re tripling our capacity from our current location to 60 internal days in order to make sure that that’s the case. So I can get you the uptime that you need.

Anthony Codispoti : So I hear you talk a lot about taking care of the team. How can we service our customers? How can we service our employees? You know, how can we make this a place that they never want to leave? I’d like to hear more about that both from a recruiting standpoint as well as a retention standpoint. What are you guys doing that’s so effective?

Greg Althardt  : Yeah, it was again, five years ago, we did a hard look at the organization and said, hey, we’re good. And I’m just going to steal, again, another plug here for Jim Collins. Good to great. We’re a good company. What do we need to do to be a great company?

What are the things that we lack? And that was consistency across our locations. It was a lack of definition of what excellence is. Like again, in our mission and vision, it says we want to be the dealer and employer of choice, therefore the best. Yet we lacked the discipline and accountability and the definitions of what those things were. We didn’t have a training and development team at that point. So in our industry, a lot of times, the CFO or the COO, they’re the IT individuals, they’re the HR individuals, they’re the marketing people, you name it.

And I’m just going to tell you, none of those are my strong suits. So yes, that dealership location will pencil out from these things that we’re doing. And the last thing was innovation. That’s one thing that our industry, the automotive industry, is about 20 years ahead of us, almost always, in what we’re doing.

And we said, how can we leapfrog them? So it was those four areas that we really began to focus in on. And one of those things were, let’s get some individuals that have helped build employee retention programs, training programs.

How do we get better career pathing for the individuals that we’re going to bring in? And then it was just, again, focusing on these other organizations that have done an amazing job at creating an unbelievable workplace. So one of the very first things that we did was, you know, we used to hire individuals just willy-nilly as we needed them. We first, we kind of started with the mantra then of hire slow, fire fast.

Anybody that was going to lead people, we ended up having large panel interviews. And it was beginning to look more cultural fit than what did they know, because we can teach them the industry. So that was a big change to the organization. We began to have centralized orientations.

So instead of hiring everybody on a, well, I mean, again, willy-nilly, we said, we’re going to hire everybody, they’re all going to start every other week. And the very first thing that they’re going to do, we’re going to have a absolute designated program for when they come in, we’re going to make sure that they feel like a VIP at every location consistently, a half a day, walked around, introduced, taken to lunch, all of their stuff is ready, name tags are ready. And day two, they’re going to come to a central orientation and that orientation will be led by one of our leaders, myself, the owner of the company, the current CFO. One of the members of our leader team will be telling them, what is so different about Peach State Truck Centers? What are your roles and responsibilities?

And what did you get yourself into? We’re not just caring about, and we tell them this, and it’s absolutely true, we don’t care about making the next dollar, because I promise, I promise that when we all work together, and we work to serve the customer. And obviously, we focus on these leading indicators, leading operational indicators and stop looking at the financial statements. we will succeed and we have. So that was the beginning and then it was just how much more could we pour into them? How much more could we empower and engage them? So it wasn’t necessarily by adding additional benefits, although we did, we looked at our PTO programs and we actually have paid maternal and paternal leave, which our industry that’s almost unheard of in the truck side. So we challenged ourselves to say, you know what, if we’re gonna be the best, by God, let’s put our money where our mouth is and let’s lead the industry, not just in benefits, but now how can we give these individuals that we want to come to us? How do we give them the opportunity? So let’s train them, let’s give them a career path. Let’s start an emerging leaders program for all those that think that they might want to be in management, because I think we all know going from doer to manager, completely different set of skills and as an organization, we had never really thought about that. We just, we had almost the Peter principle in the past, which was, let’s just go ahead and, this guy’s a really great service writer. I bet he would make a good manager and then lo and behold, people are scratching their heads and going, why aren’t we getting results?

Why is everybody leaving? So we began to train our managers with managers, basics training specifically. We began to roll in some more programs. We even pushed our leadership team to go above and beyond to say, okay guys, we are going to do something on an annual basis that will become a contest to say, how do we come up with innovative ideas to challenge the industry to say, what’s an excellence in innovation as far as customer experience goes and employee experience? This is one of the times that we had our leadership team down at Disney and said, okay, here’s the job. We’re going to send you all off on a field trip. You’re going to go through the parks.

You’re going to take a VIP experience. You’re going to talk to their supervisors. You’re going to talk to their leads.

You’re going to talk to individuals. Why do they have such a high return rate? Which I know those things are starting to slip, but, and now you’re going to come back and you’re going to have something that is either, something that you have been inspired by, something that has had a light bulb go off, but how do we bring something like that back to our organization? And so they ended up coming up with an idea that we all ended up voting on called the Peach Data Employee Empowerment Program, where we basically said, you know what, $250 per head on an annual basis that we were going to turn over to a group of employees at every location and allow them to improve their workplace any way they want. So if that’s adding soda machines, gaming systems, whatever it is, as we wish for them to always put on that smiley face in front of, you know, on stage situations, how do we give them a reprieve and how can we ensure that they’re taking care of on their break time or when they need to step behind the wall, take a breath? How do we empower them to create this space? Because I think we all know too, we end up spending more time at work with the folks that we work with than at home when we’re not in bed. So how do we give them the empowerment to take this to the next level?

And then another idea popped out of it, and it’s like, what, we call what matters to you? $250 on an annual basis to every single employee to donate to whatever program that they want. If they have a kid that plays baseball, because we all know that the sponsorship items come flying in, hey, can we sponsor this? Yes.

You know what? I really, I don’t have a kid who plays baseball, but I’m really involved in the local youth group. Can I sponsor that? Yes.

I don’t mind saying it. We’re Christian based, and we want to ensure that we want to invest in you and what you want to invest in outside of the organization.

Anthony Codispoti : And… How else does that faith, does your faith show up in Peach Day?

Greg Althardt  : The way that we approach every day. So I won’t say it’s not like we have a morning prayer service where everybody is together, but it is truly, if you want to talk about the golden rule or how we make decisions, we make decisions that are based on a set of morality and standards, not just rolling over our employees or rolling over a customer in order to make the next dollar. So it really is looking out for the benefit of our families. And that’s how we really look at my role and how the owner looks at his calling. I’m taking care of 750 families.

Now, obviously there’s a whole work and productive side of this, but how can I make a positive difference in their lives? Which again, that we had a mission and we had a vision, but we didn’t necessarily have a central why. Our owner did, and this is, again, he’s so humble, but this is how he leads, and he was able to verbalize it.

And when he finally verbalized this, let’s make a positive difference. That makes no difference if it is just smiling. It’s somebody that’s walking on off the street, it’s helping to take care of an issue that they have, so they don’t have to take care of it. It is, how do we continue to look at, we have chaplains that do walk through the organization that, you know what, some of us don’t have people to talk to.

So let’s give them an outlet. And it doesn’t have to, it’s not biblically based, it’s just, hey, what, is there something going on? It’s two human beings talking, supporting each other. It’s two human beings talking, and now again, being in the position that I’m in, I don’t know that Sally has a particular issue, but the organization comes back and says, yes, you have no idea that Sally’s son is struggling, which we didn’t know that, not Sally, but you have individuals inside your organization that have kids that are struggling with addiction, or kids that are struggling with bullying, or kids that are thinking about suicide, or people that have spouses that have health issues, and just all the different human touches that we all have, everybody, every organization has it, but we try to be a bit more hypersensitive to number one, giving an outlet to it. And we have an EAP program where individuals can go to it, but that’s somebody having to pick up the phone.

This is an individual walking through on a weekly basis, saying, hey, hey, how are you doing? And you know what, 90% of the people never take them up, it’s small talk, what have you, but the 10% of the people, it’s made a profound difference.

Anthony Codispoti : It’s like you guys have sort of flipped the pyramid almost, rather than sort of a traditional, top down management, like, you know, the employees are there to sort of, you know, do your bidding, it’s kind of turned around, and like, how can I help you? How can I do something for you that’s gonna help you in your life, help you in your job? And that’s just gonna make the entire organization stronger and better.

Greg Althardt  : And Anthony, it has, I mean, it has, from five years ago to where we are today, and again, not to say that, not to diminish anything that happened, you know, prior to five years ago, or three years ago, or two years ago, nothing like that, because it was a great, it’s a great organization, but we found that when we’ve taken care of our people, when we’ve empowered our individuals, when we’ve given them a voice, and not just how we operate, we explain why we’re doing what we’re doing, and we take care of them, we provide some, I would call it guide rails. So like I mentioned earlier, the operational KPIs that we’ve hit, it’s having daily huddles, it’s having communication with them on a daily basis, and guys, this is what we need to accomplish, and this is why we’re going to do it. This is what your job is, and this is how you can impact it.

If there’s something that is impeding you, tell us. We’ll change it. If there’s something that’s broken, we’ll fix it. If there’s a tool or equipment that you need, we’ll get it for you, but we’re going to solve this problem together, and then showing them the metrics every day has just taken our operational excellence through the roof. Again, going back to Jim Collins, it’s easy to sit back and always do what you wanted to do, and then eventually the good companies, what were the great companies, Sears, Robo, you end up finding your now out of business. So tapping into that power and encouraging them, then taking care of them shows through, and our keys that you mentioned earlier, so it’s great, our operational foundation is set.

Now we will have continuous improvement as we continue to go on. I know I stood in front of our management group and said complacency is dead in this company. So if that makes you uncomfortable, well, we’ll work with you, but if that makes you uncomfortable, maybe this is no longer a place for you, but complacency is dead in this organization. If we’re not your own, we’re dying. If we’re not evolving, we’re dying. So then now layer on how we deliver that exceptional service with our keys, our behavioral standards to put into place, and it’s just giving a framework.

Again, going back to what am I so excited about? Seeing these naturally God gifted individuals show their unique talents, showing their smiles, guiding individuals to where they need to go no longer, pointing, listening with empathy, showing gratitude. I mean, Anthony, when’s the last time that you’ve actually gone to a place and it doesn’t look like you’ve actually put them out, even though that’s their job, right?

You’ve walked into a place and they’ve kind of looked at you like, what are you doing here? Another one? Another one? My goodness. And so that just, again, it was our owner crystallizing, and it is him, it is him to a T. Our owner stood in front of our leadership group and has told the entire organization too, guess what, we sell trucks, I don’t care about trucks.

I know nothing about them. Okay, so I think most business leaders would sit back and go, holy, you know what? This is the guy who’s leading the whole dang thing, and I’ll give you the same admission. When he said that, it was such a relief to me, I’m not a mechanical person. You don’t want me in the shop trying to fix anything, and I’m not an expert at selling these things, right? But I can’t help build a business. I can help execute a plan.

I’m good at strategic thinking. Same thing for him. He would rather take his time, his energy, and the blessings that God has bestowed on all of us to include where we’re at from a financial perspective, and say, how do I provide an opportunity for others to succeed? And that, again, for everything that we’re doing inside the organization here today. We just came off of having our first night of excellence, which was, again, I think I had mentioned it the other night, it’s not an employee gala, it’s not an employee party. It was specifically a night that we could all come together, all 725 of our employees and spouses, huge ballroom, A-list individual, and celebrate what we have all done together over the past several years. Giving out our first leader and employee of the year, milestones, we’ve started a business school to ensure that our managers who are leading people aren’t just, and we look at our managers, you have two jobs, get results, lead and retain people. We focus on both of those things now.

In the past, we focused on getting results, right, and then looking backwards. And so we’ve, again, it’s so exciting what’s happening right now, and then we’re gonna have a new facility.

Anthony Codispoti : Super enthused. Yeah, I am, I mean, I could sit here and bore you and your listeners for hours and hours upon end, but that just gives you a little glimpse into saying, I’ve had more fun in my professional career in the last few years, and it’s because we have challenged, we have challenged, everybody has challenged each other, the owners challenged us, we’ve challenged him, we’ve challenged the leadership, we’ve challenged managers, we’ve challenged everybody at the front lines, and to see everybody

Greg Althardt  : all swell up to, to basically, I think in a lot of ways, make what many people thought were impossible in our industry a reality, and then to actually see it come to fruition, for us to get all of the positive feedback that we’ve received from customers and employees, to all share in an evening of people walking the red carpet and all celebrating together, just the feedback that we’ve received this week is just, it’s kind of a bow to the package of just summarizing what these last few years have been about in our organization. What a sense of accomplishment.

Anthony Codispoti : And speaking of challenges, Greg, what’s a serious challenge that maybe you’ve overcome in your life, lessons learned and kind of how you got through it?

Greg Althardt  : Yeah, so I’ll go back, a couple. Number one, I played college baseball, and I thought I was pretty damn good. I go into my freshman year, and at the end of the day, I didn’t play a whole lot, and I ended up getting mad at the coach that I wasn’t getting playing time, and lo and behold, he taught me one of the best lessons that I’ve ever learned, and that is, you know what, just because you think you’re good, you need to work a little bit harder, you need to work a little bit harder than everybody else, and you know what, you need to take responsibility for, if you don’t like it, do something about it. Don’t let other people dictate to you. So that is how I approached moving into public accounting. Okay, I’m going to not rely on anybody else, we’re going to find out what needs to, what differentiates our firm and our service that we provide from anyone else.

Let’s run towards that. Only to be smacked into face, which I hate when my wife is right, I hate when she’s right, and unfortunately, she’s right most of the time, even when she’s not, she is. But in this case, my priorities were totally screwed, totally screwed. I was chasing, I was an intern, and wanted to become a partner as fast as possible, and I was chasing money, and I was chasing pride and power. It took me 13 years to finally, before I, when I came to Peach State to really realize that my priorities were not in my family, my priorities were not in my faith, my priorities were running after something that at the end of the day will never, will never be enough and will never make you happy.

So when you reach the top, if that’s all that you were shooting for, or you’ve reached a certain income level, and that’s all you’re shooting for, you won’t be happy.

Anthony Codispoti : What was the final trigger, you think that finally made you realize that? Was 13 years of being in public accounting, driving to become partner faster than anybody, just go, go, go, go, go, go, missing your son’s second birthday. What was the, what finally tipped it for you?

Greg Althardt  : The crystallization was six weeks after my daughter was born. I was again left because I felt like I needed to, I needed to go sell, I needed to go speak, I needed to go train, I needed to go serve the customers, and nobody could do it better than me. Which again, to everybody out there, yes they can.

And I’ve learned that, but nobody could do it better than me. I am in Maine, I have just come out of an industry conference, I ran upstairs to go do a webinar for the National Trailer Dealer Association on how to mitigate fraud in dealerships. Five minutes after it’s done, I pick up my blackberry at the time to tell you how long ago this was, and this is kind of where it gets fuzzy, but I call my wife and tell her I said it took me forever to finally dial your number, all I was dialing was letters, and long story short is, Pyrometics ended up showing some time later, I had no idea who I was, where I was, I had an episode of transient global adnesia because by stress and anxiety. You had an episode of what? Transient global amnesia, so for 18 hours my short term memory is completely wiped away, I didn’t know who I was, I knew who I was at that time, I didn’t know where I was, I didn’t know why I was there, I knew my wife and I knew that I had kids, but even the past 12 years of public accounting I didn’t even know anybody that I worked with. Which for me, I had no idea what was happening at the time, for my wife, for my family, I scared the crap out of them. Right, my wife’s at home, we have a six week old baby, and here are her husbands in Maine, again overextending himself and not being home, taking care of what’s truly important, and that was the moment where it was really like, what am I doing? Working 80 hours a year, or I’m sorry, 80 hours a week, I wish it was 80 hours a year, now I’d be bored.

Three thousand hours, seriously, three thousand hours a year, traveling, I lived in St. Louis, but I was in every corner of the country on a weekly basis. I had kids that were growing up, fortunately I came to this realization when my oldest son was five, my daughter was two, and it was time, again I hate to say that my wife was right, I had my priorities in the wrong place.

Anthony Codispoti : All that means is you married the right woman.

Greg Althardt  : That’s 100% baby, love her, she is the best. But then it was really, it was going through ATD dealer academy at the same time, so I was going through, I’ll call it, I knew dealerships from a 30,000 foot level down, so from looking at financial statements into the transactions, but I really didn’t understand the daily transactions up. And so it was going through that process that I would happen to be at Peach State one day, and talking to the owner of the organization, Rick Reynolds, who shared a similar background to me in public accounting, and just saw it on my face, and said, are you happy? And I said, no, I hate my life. When it comes to be every February, I absolutely hate my life. I don’t know why I’m doing it. I have spent nights, I mean literally, nine o’clock leaving a dealership to going to get chilies again, drinking too much beer, and then coming back to the hotel room and crying, and just saying, what am I doing? And he said, I’ve lived your life.

He says, there’s something better. If and when you’re ready to leave public accounting, I have an opportunity for you, which is ultimately how we ended up getting into Peach State, and then it took me getting out of it. I was so deep into it that it took me getting out of it to really realize just how screwed up my priorities were. Now, I will still tell you, even when I came here, the very first time of coming in, I had never been a CFO before.

I had an accounting degree, I worked in public accounting, I was a CPA, I knew a lot about the industry, but creating relationships and getting individuals to help do what you needed to get done. Yeah, I came in like a bull in a china shop. I was a young kid, 34, I’m 46 now.

So 34, bull in a china shop, just kinda running around, running a rough shot. I did not make very many friends when I first came in. I was slow to trust individuals. I still thought that I could do it all. And at the end of the day, I was a couple of years later going, I can’t.

I can’t, you know what? We have a lot of great individuals here. We need to start working together as a team. A lot of great individuals in the entire company. There were some gut checks at that time even, reading many books, but some gut checks around, you know, if we’re ever to scale, let me learn those lessons that I had back in public accounting, we have to do this as a team. So let’s form a great team around, let’s, for the weaknesses that I have, one of our other team members has a strength in this area. So let’s get together and how do we continue, how do we move forward as a combined group to achieve some amazing things? And that’s really where we’ve gotten in the past few years. My colleagues here actually referred to me, if they were here when I first got here, is OG, which is original Greg and everybody likes new Greg.

Anthony Codispoti : There’s a transition in the Greg personality, even during the time they’re at Peach State.

Greg Althardt  : 100%, 100%.

Anthony Codispoti : So, So I’m sorry, I just wanna make sure I follow this. Obviously there’s a big realization or crystallization when you had that health episode. And it’s like my priorities are totally out of whack. I have to get out of this. I hate my life every February.

I’m crying in the hotel rooms, drinking too much beer. Great, I found something else. You get there and there’s still sort of a, is it a gradual process of new Greg coming out? Or was there like another sort of, I don’t know, crystallizing moment that really shook you up?

Greg Althardt  : I would say it was really a moment of walking in here and trying to prove myself. So I felt very, you know, the owner of the organization just brought me and my family to Atlanta. I played college athletics. I’m a results oriented individual. I need to prove myself. And then the way that I went about trying to prove myself, just created bigger risks than, you know, number one, we still didn’t answer the issue.

And number two, I pissed everybody off. So there was never really a blow up, but it really was just seeing, in my role as CFO, I could only affect so many. I could only affect certain areas of the organization. It was really, the owner was talking to me about a transition, you know, before me becoming the COO.

And it was really kind of at that time, a realization of, you know what, the way that I approach things in my first few years here, won’t work. If I’m to be the COO of the organization, really my biggest power is to influence, motivate and excite. And unfortunately my natural tendency for results are, if 95% is excellent, I tend to focus on the 5% of the things that can be improved. I still struggle with that of, let’s celebrate the good. Let’s celebrate what we’ve done. Let’s put everything in a positive light. Let’s acknowledge the effort that’s being put into it. And then let’s think of new ways to supercharge, you know, that 95%, that that 5% will, you know, behind the scenes, we’ll try to wipe that stuff away. But publicly and professionally with all of our colleagues, how do we really motivate the individuals?

And it wasn’t come to them and say, you know what, we still need to do this, this, this, and this, that was original grade. It was having that crystallization of, you know what, if I’m to be successful as a COO, I can’t control every transaction. I can’t be at all 14 locations. I can’t be a part of, you know, the $3 billion that we do on an annual basis. I can’t be a part of every bit of that. The only thing that I can do is help influence people. And how can I do that? The way that I used to do it didn’t work.

Anthony Codispoti : So it was really bad. It’s like using this word and I think can be really helpful in situations like this. Wow, we did a really great job at this thing. Let’s celebrate that win. Like this is legitimate. Let’s be authentic about, you know, being happy about this. And there’s still opportunities for us to improve, right?

Greg Althardt  : Yep, yep. So anyway, that is in, that is in G or new G, new Greg and everybody is much more palatable and excited to work with new Greg. And I am too. And that’s again, for the last, say last three years, great five years, it was really coming to that realization. He said, you know what?

For really to make a difference in what we need to do as a dealership, hear some things. Everybody got, everybody grabbed onto it. And then it was really just working with and working through individuals in order to make that happen instead of trying to do it all oneself. And that was my, again, can’t do it all. If you ever want to grow, you’ll never be able to scale without it.

Anthony Codispoti : Tell me about the work that you do with Winship Cancer Institute. Why that’s so important to you?

Greg Althardt  : Yeah, so I mean, at the end of the day, it’s really, it was sponsored by the Reynolds family. So the individuals that own the organization here, the founder of the organization, Tom Reynolds’ wife, passed away from a rare form of cancer.

And Emory is an organization or a large healthcare group here in Atlanta. As she went through her cancer treatments, they were so helpful to the family to get them through that, some cutting edge research that ever since that point, it has been, what can we do in order to help build that cancer facility? What can we do in order to help cancer research to help other individuals that will eventually end up struggling with this particular disease?

How can we help eradicate that? And one of the ways that the organization does it or that Rick Reynolds, a family member, said, you know what, we’re going to be the premier sponsor for the Emory 5K Winship Run on an annual basis. And we have continued to be for 20 plus years. And so I know that our owner sits on one of the boards down there at their organization, but it’s very near and dear to him. And therefore it makes it very near and dear to the rest of the organization as we all participate in such a great organization. And hopefully, again, one day, that particular type of cancer will be much more treatable like many forms of cancer that there are out there.

Anthony Codispoti : Greg, you’ve already mentioned Jim Collins in the book, Good to Great. Any others that you might recommend to our listeners that have been particularly helpful for you?

Greg Althardt  : Yes, so a book called The Traveler’s Gift. I don’t know if you’ve ever heard of it. Okay, so there’s lots of, I’ll call it self-help books out there. This isn’t necessarily, hey, you need to do this, but it’s almost a narrative. And it teaches seven wonderful lessons. And it follows the story of a gentleman who was in a Fortune 500 company that ultimately gets laid off, loses everything, and is actually contemplating suicide.

Again, it’s a fiction story, but he goes back and meets all of these individuals, you know, technically, I don’t want to ruin the book, but as he is out and dreaming, he is meeting these individuals from history. And there’s seven wonderful lessons that I think that individuals can really take a hold of. And that is personal responsibility, seeking wisdom. So no matter what has happened, the buck stops with you.

If you don’t like it, do something about it. Number two, always seek out wisdom. What you think you know, you don’t. There’s so many people that have come before you, there’s so many other individuals out there, seek wisdom, take action. Don’t just complain about things, actually do something about it. And then forgiveness, gratitude, and then going above and beyond, never quitting, persevering beyond things. And so meeting different people from history that actually personified these particular lessons, I think is a great way that when individuals, they’re driving up and down the road, and they’re trying to keep up with the Joneses, again, they’re trying to find happiness, and something they’re never gonna find happiness in. If all you’re looking for is the next boat, or next good, or next item, the real true realization is, and now that I’m in my mid-40s, I’m realizing this, is what can you do for other people?

How can you help bring other people up? One of the things I do every morning on my way into work is pray, and to tell God what I’m thankful for. And it makes no difference of what it is, but finding gratitude in no matter what the situation is, if it’s just your health, if it’s the fact that you have a roof over your head. We have a group of individuals that I’ll text during the month of Thanksgiving, the month of November to each other, and to say, you know what, I’m really grateful for my wife. Even though she might’ve just dog chewed me for something I didn’t do that morning, the past 27 years have been amazing, right? And all of us can get sucked into whatever that stressful situation is, or short term, or even if it looks like something major, if it is a major change in life of, hey, I just got let go from an organization.

You can look at it one way and say I’m a victim, or you can look at it another way and say, I have an opportunity to do something different. So that one has been fantastic. Inside the business, The Power of Moments by Chip and Dan Heath was a great book, and then Unreasonable Hospitality was also a fantastic book.

Anthony Codispoti : Again, let’s be honest, I’ve mentioned several times on this show.

Greg Althardt  : Yes, so just looking outside the industry and saying, you know what, restaurants can do it, why can’t we do it? And it’s only because we haven’t thought of it being possible, and not only that, going back to, we can create moments in people’s lives to bring them joy. Again, even if it’s just a smile to recognition, to creating a moment out of nothing, and I’m not trying to be hallmark here, not trying to create a new card, but example, our Night of Excellence the other night will be a moment that we can capture once a year that will bring back the heartbeat and to celebrate our people, all bringing them together, getting to dress up, and having a wonderful evening together. That’s creating a moment that when people walk away from there saying, man, Peach State’s great, I’m so happy to be a part of this, I make a difference.

What I do every day makes a difference. And a lot of people don’t think that. They look at our big, they look at the trucks that we sell and go, wow, that’s dirty, or they diesel technicians, they walk out of here and they’re dirty and they’re greasy. But we honestly, during COVID, in the state of Georgia, we’re an essential business. If you were ordering things on Amazon or any goods that were still flowing, we had a hand in that. And that’s what we have to remind individuals. We were actually, we were the, I was on one of the commercials, one of our units that we sold was the first group to bring the COVID vaccine into the state of Georgia.

Oh, wow. So again, it kind of brings perspective to, you might think that all you do is show up and punch a clock and talk to a customer who’s mad because his truck’s broken down, but you know you have an opportunity to turn this negative situation around. Listen, that’s what he needs to know. Number two, reassure him that we’ve got him, we have the expertise and give him the information that he needs to know in order to address the rest of his business. And then while he’s here, let’s show him what Southern hospitality, what Peach State hospitality is like. And then when he leaves, let’s thank him for his business.

Let’s send him away from something a little goody that he didn’t even know that he needed or wanted. People don’t do, let’s just do it because, right? You have that ability on a daily basis. You truly do make a difference.

And when people start to look at what they do on a daily basis through that lens, instead of chasing the next whatever it is, Anthony, you have a much more happy life.

Anthony Codispoti : I love it. Greg, last question for you. Before I do it, I’m gonna point people to your website, which is peachstatetrucks.com. Last question for you as we wrap up here, Greg. As you look to the future, what are the changes coming to your industry that you’re most excited about?

Greg Althardt  : Yeah, well, there’s a lot of exciting things. Some of it is us kind of charting. I hope that we’re leading the industry in some of these new experiences as you look across the commercial truck dealership landscape. Obviously, there’s new technology that’s coming with autonomous vehicles, electrified vehicles, and even beyond that, hydrogen cell vehicles. There’s many different regulations that are changing the way that transportation is going to work. And really being a part of that is really exciting.

So being on the front edge of that and trying to help Washington decide what we’re going to eventually do, being involved, those types of things are really exciting to us.

Anthony Codispoti : That’s terrific. Greg, I wanna be the first one to thank you for sharing both your time and your story with us today. I really appreciate it.

Greg Althardt  : Sure, appreciate it, Anthony. Thanks so much for having me.

Anthony Codispoti : Folks, that’s a wrap on another episode of the Inspired Stories Podcast. Thanks for learning with us today. Thank you.