The Problem Solver: How Kelly Alston Rose to Market President at Mills Automotive Group

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 Kelly Alston, market president at Mills Automotive Group. Founded in 2004 and headquartered in Pineville, Louisiana, Mills Automotive Group is known for its wide selection of new and used vehicles, along with professional service and maintenance support. They carry multiple brands and have dealerships in seven states.

You can browse their inventory online at MillsAutogroup.com. Their mission is to treat every customer’s need with the utmost care and continue providing help beyond the date of purchase. Kelly has led teams in his role since February 2024 and brings vast experience in automotive sales and warranty processes. Prior to becoming market president, he served as a variable operations director and general manager at other dealerships, along the way that Group has been recognized for its unwavering dedication to customer service.

Mills Automotive Group has expanded its footprint while also collaborating with major manufacturers, recently partnering with Fisker to introduce electric vehicles. Now before we get into all that good stuff, today’s episode is brought to you by my company, Adback 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.

Some organizations may not be eligible to find out if your company qualifies. You can contact us today at adbackbenefitsagency.com. All right, back to our guest today, market president at Mills Auto Group. Kelly Alston, I appreciate you making the time to share your story today.

Thanks for having me. All right Kelly, so every inspiring story has a beginning. I’m curious to hear what sparked your journey in the car industry and what moments along the way made you realize that this was your calling?

Kelly Alston : So it’s a funny story. I got into this business by accident. I was in college getting my degree in finance and my ultimate goal was to graduate, get into banking, end up back in New York on Wall Street as an investment banker and I went to a job fair and I was just looking for something as a resume enhancement to kind of put me head and shoulders above everyone else that was just graduate with a college degree with no experience and ran across this one display. It was a car dealership and I always liked cars. My dad was really into cars.

He was in the car business as well. So I just had a conversation and so I ended up having a conversation with the guy. He invited me to his office and I was intrigued by it and I decided that I wanted to apply for the job and went and interviewed with the general manager and he originally told me that he wouldn’t hire me because I could only work part-time. So I made a deal with him and I told him if I could sell just as many or more than his average salesperson then he could keep me and if I didn’t then you know what I would walk away no questions asked and he took me up on that offer. So first month outsold most of the salespeople continued to do well and I actually went into resign because I had gotten a job with a bank when I graduated and the vice president of company and this was a pretty good size automotive group they had 20 stores and the vice president company came down and had a conversation with me basically telling me that you know he felt like I had what it took to go very far in his business and he asked me to give it one year to see where it took me and I agreed and the rest is history.

Anthony Codispoti : So a couple things I want to unpack there. First of all I think it’s really interesting that you went to him with sort of a counter offer hey let me work part-time if I can hit some numbers you keep me I’m going to guess you know car guys they’re sales guys right he probably kind of liked that that confidence that you were sort of bringing to the table he’s like all right let me give this young kid a shot.

Kelly Alston : Yep absolutely that was my first sale I had to sell me.

Anthony Codispoti : Now what was it that you think made you so successful right out of the gate with sales? Had you had some training did you have a background in sales?

Kelly Alston : No I think I’m a problem solver by nature and I think the fact that I’m a good listener so you know I would just ask good questions and you know people would basically tell me what it was going to take for them to buy a car and you know I just I listened and then I applied those things throughout the process to convince them to do it and I also think because I was a college student I was very unassuming and they didn’t look at me like they did maybe a typical salesperson you know just trying to get a commission you know I told everybody I was a college student and you know what I’m doing this for experience and I think that brought down the the guard and allowed me to gain trust quickly and which allowed me ultimately to sell so vehicles.

Anthony Codispoti : I like that hey I’m a college kid I’m doing this for the experience right that brings down brings down their guard because they know you’re like the car guy he’s got a commission to make he’s going to try to push something that is going to be good for him so you’ve sort of erased that right out of the gate. Now talk to me more about the part where you’re a problem solver you’re a good listener like for people listening now who are like hey I want to be better at sales I want to learn from Kelly and the the techniques that he’s used what what can you kind of teach us there?

Kelly Alston : You know I guess and for some reason it’s come naturally to me even when I was in school I was especially in math I was able to see the numbers they just look different to me and I could always come up with a a better method of getting the answer than what the teacher taught I don’t know if there’s just something intuitive about just figuring out a better and more efficient way to do it but I think that the problem solving part and the listening part is I usually work backwards I work from the result backwards and it allows me to come up with creative ways to get to that result even in conversations you know I even share with with my team you know I go into a conversation with what do I want it to result in and then I work backwards based on the person the situation you know my relationship and that garner is the way I deliver the message because at the end of the day I want to achieve a certain result so I work backwards from that and I think that’s that I apply the same principle when I’m solving any type of problem.

Anthony Codispoti : Let’s talk about it more specifically in a sales perspective can you maybe kind of role play for us an example of you’ve got a client that comes in a potential customer looking to buy a car you know that you want to help them kind of find the vehicle that’s best for them how do you work backwards and sort of structure your conversation around that?

Kelly Alston : Well for me in sales history it is usually a best teacher so usually I start off by asking questions about their last purchase right what was it about your what is it about your current car that you like the most what is it about your current car that you like the least what is the one thing that you that you wish you had in your current car you know what’s changed in your life since your last purchase right so typically people are creatures of habit so the same way they bought their last car is typically the same way they’re going about this one plus or minus you know something changing in their life where let’s say for instance they need something bigger because now they have a family or you know what they want something a little bit nicer because they got a job promotion and different things like that so just you know asking the right questions but starting from a point of you know what how did they what did they do the last time they were in this situation and they were looking to to purchase a vehicle because typically it’s going to be you know 90 of the same things this time around so

Anthony Codispoti : they asked you to stay you got that bank job that you were hoping for right the the job at that dealership helped with your resume helped to get you your foot in the door at that bank they’re like hold on Kelly we see something in you we want you to stay what was it about that environment that made you want to stick with it

Kelly Alston : a and it was funny so my general manager was also at this in this conversation they actually took me to lunch and I remember I was still on the the edge and the VP asked the general manager to show me his paycheck and when I saw the kind of money that he made I’m like okay and actually I made kind of a smart remark to him I was joking but I wasn’t joking I told him I said look I know I’m smarter than you so I know what I can do so I’m in but also it was a merit-based environment and I saw that you really could control your own destiny if you were a performer you know it wasn’t it was just about politics it wasn’t about who who liked you and who didn’t it was if you could perform and you could deliver results you would give bigger bigger opportunities so I’ve always been a person that would bet on myself so that that really intrigued me about about the business

Anthony Codispoti : Kelly you’ve obviously achieved a level of success that a lot of other folks would aspire to what do you feel like were the key decisions or actions along the way that helped you secure the role that you’ve got now being patient

Kelly Alston : being patient one of the things that is a stigma in this business is turnover and some of it is you know people being asked to leave but a lot of it is people searching for opportunities and you know trying to you know move up through the ranks so maybe you know going over here because maybe the grass looks greener over here I’ve only worked two places in 26 years wow so and I’ve had plenty of opportunities to leave both of the places numerous times and I think being patient believing in the process trusting the process and trusting the people that that I work with and I work for

Anthony Codispoti : you know Mills has become a pretty sizable collection of dealerships what is it about this company that you feel is allowed it to be so successful

Kelly Alston : um I’ll tell you the the owner of the company and I’ve known him for a very long time even prior to him starting his dealership group we actually worked at the same company um starting out um I came to work for him when he bought his second dealership and he’s just a genuine guy um that is very trustworthy and um he gives he gives back he’s a very generous person um and I think when you when you have those principles and um you know he’s a he’s a Christian guy and um you know uh I am as well and I just believe when you give you get in return and one thing that is not short this company’s never been short on is giving giving its resources and giving people opportunities to to improve themselves I think when you do that and you do things in the right mindset with the right intentions I just think it comes back to you and that’s why we’ve been able to grow so much

Anthony Codispoti : how does your faith influence your

Kelly Alston : leadership style they do not serve me I serve them um and you know that that’s that’s a principle straight out of the Bible right um so that’s that’s how we operate we turn we turn the pyramid upside down um you know I believe that the person at the top is most of the time the least important person because they’re the furthest away from where really the action happens right I used to tell my when I was running a dealership I used to reiterate to my team that I was the most out of control person in the whole store I relied on everybody else doing their job for my success so I had the least amount of control of anybody in the store uh and I and that’s how I operated so I made sure that everybody that was responsible for generating the results had everything they that they needed and I supported them in that way

Anthony Codispoti : can you maybe think of a specific example of the time where you kind of you know went out of your way to make sure that an employee had what they needed that I don’t know maybe that kind of thing wouldn’t have happened in a different type of work environment where somebody wasn’t driven by servant leadership

Kelly Alston : perfect example I got a great example so I had a young man um that I hired he was from Cuba um and this guy just had an amazing personality and so much energy and I remember when I interviewed him I really did not understand and 50% what he said but it was just a pure enthusiasm you know just something about him I’m I’m like I’ve got to give this guy a shot I’ve got to give him my opportunity and sure enough you know he comes in and customers love him they can’t understand half of what he’s saying but they just understand they just love his enthusiasm and after he was with me about three years I went and hired a English as a second language tutor for him out of my own pocket and I had them come in twice a week for an hour um to work with him on his English because I saw that he could be more than a salesperson but he had to improve this and as hard as he worked for me I wanted to give back for him to him I didn’t even try and run it through the company didn’t want to go I said you know what this is something that I’m going to do for him so that that’s a perfect example

Anthony Codispoti : that’s such a cool story uh so you’ve been with Mills since 2016 about eight or nine years just in the past year you’ve moved out I’ve been with 2006 2006 oh thanks for the correction so 18 years yeah okay just in the past year you’ve moved up to market president what what is that role what is market president do

Kelly Alston : so we have 34 stores in our group and um we went through a transition about a year ago where we uh decided to split the group in half so that we can have better coverage and oversight so in my previous role as variable operations director I was pretty much discharging the sales side of the operation for all of our stores so moving to the market president role now I’m in charge of every aspect of it so not just the sales but service accounting every single aspect of the of the business but I’m doing it for 18 of our stores in our southern region so I cover everything in North Carolina South Carolina and Louisiana

Anthony Codispoti : and so then you’ve got a counterpart who’s doing the same kind of role for the other 16 stores okay and that transition just happened about a year ago what a year ago um what was kind of the inspiration for making that change and how do you feel like it’s been going over the last 12 months

Kelly Alston : well the inspiration was to get the stores more support because we were spread way too thin trying to cover all the stores and I think it’s uh I think it’s going well the stores have definitely benefited from the additional support and the focus um I’ve been able to travel less so that’s been a personal personal benefit to me as well so it’s worked out well

Anthony Codispoti : so you mentioned that uh the owner that you work for that you work with uh you guys knew each other from a previous job and you came to work with him when he just had was it two dealerships yep two dealerships so from two dealerships to 34 that’s significant growth I mean the cost of opening up a dealership is not small I’m kind of curious to hear about growth strategy like what did you guys do to sort of pour gasoline on the fire and really light this thing up

Kelly Alston : well you know is is funny um when you talk about growth strategy there’s never been like a number of dealerships that he’s wanted to purchase or we wanted as a group we just looked at it on a case by case basis so if it was the right you know the right store in the right market the right brand uh then we just said yes to it so no no real like we want to go out and have all these stores it’s just you know when and it goes back to that faith piece right opportunities will find you you don’t you don’t have to chase and we’ve never chased anything literally just about every last one of these opportunities have found us whether it’s a manufacturer bringing it to us or a owner uh wanting to uh you know sell their business and uh wanted to sell it to a certain type of person um to make sure their employees are continue to take be taken care of so um that’s uh that’s how they’ve come they we haven’t chased them they’ve chased us

Anthony Codispoti : so I want to dig into that a little bit because there’s some people who are listening that may hear that advice and be like oh all I have to do is sit here on my couch and watch Netflix and the opportunities are going to find me and I don’t think that’s what your message is

Kelly Alston : now you know when you’re a performer when you perform um when your reputation and your work speaks for itself then people want to partner with you they want um to be a part of what you’re doing so like a lot of the a lot of the dealerships that we’ve we’ve gotten has have been from the manufacturers come in and say hey here’s this opportunity you know are you interested so and that only comes from from doing a good job in performing

Anthony Codispoti : that makes a lot more sense so these opportunities found you because you guys were executing every day at a really high level correct yep I’m I’m kind of curious as you think about sort of a consistent strategy that you guys might use at you know each dealership level that allows you to be so successful in hitting numbers in each location you know does that come down to you guys have got you know a really good marketing strategy you you’re running the best kinds of ads you’ve got uh you know the most effective sales people you’re representing the best brands like what what’s kind of the most important piece of all of that recruiting good people

Kelly Alston : people are everything in this business um because it’s it’s you know I call it the people but it’s not the car business it’s it’s the people business um and you know you got the best brand in the greatest location with the best marketing strategy but if when those customers show up they don’t find a group of people that they uh trust and want to do business with you’re not going to sell anything so it’s all people and we we we put a heavy focus on recruiting the right people um you know we hire more for mindset and skill set we can teach you a skill set we can teach a mindset um so that’s what we really focus on

Anthony Codispoti : and what is that mindset that you’re looking for

Kelly Alston : uh a determined and driven and we have what we call our five pillars which are our core values that of the uh of the group and his character integrity teamwork work ethic and performance those are our five pillars and that’s what we look for in every single team member that we bring on and you know we also look for the intangibles the things that you can’t teach I can’t teach someone drive I can’t teach someone desire right if you come with that and you come with those other five things I can teach you the skill set but I can’t teach you the right mindset

Anthony Codispoti : so for people listening who think oh yeah Kelly that makes a lot of sense I want to do that in my business but I don’t know how to identify somebody who has that kind of mindset from an interview environment like after they’ve been there for a few months you’ve seen how they operate see how they perform you see how they fit in with everybody you got a better sense but how do you guys kind of flesh that out in in the early stages before bringing them on board

Kelly Alston : well you know one of the things like I have a very regimented interviewing process that I seem to be able to get all the information that kind of brings up those things so one I tell when I saw the interview first question I asked is tell me your story I want to know your story right not your resume I want to know your story and it’s funny most people ask well how far do you how much do you want to know I say I tell them I want to know everything and you know one of the things that look for is have you faced adversity have you overcome adversity right and what what’s been the steps what’s been your decision making how did you end up where you are today and usually a person’s journey and when they tell you what they’ve been through and and also seeing how open they are with you tells me a lot about a person and then you know I build on the questions and I’ve got a series of questions that I ask that really allows me to get to know a person as a person not just question them about their experience at resume it’s typically I mean probably 15 minutes of the interview may be about the the technical part of things or their background you know the other I want 15 minutes that I may spend with them is about them as a person

Anthony Codispoti : that ratio really says a lot about what it is that you’re looking for I mean it backs up exactly what you’ve already told us you’re looking for mindset not skill set you can train the skills you want the person that fits you know so and one of the things you said is you know you’re looking for somebody that you know have you faced adversity have you overcome that adversity what did that look like I’m kind of curious to hear from your path you know looking back at some of your earlier roles general sales manager general manager is there maybe one specific experience that you can think about and a corresponding lesson from it that you still remember to this day that influences how you run the business today

Kelly Alston : well I’ll tell you and I moved up very fast at a very young age and I probably had a lot of roles that maybe I wasn’t my maturity level wasn’t ready for the position but my skill set was and it was a particular instance when I remember they they hired a gentleman to come in at a position above me and I felt like I should have had the job and I did not handle it the right way I made it my personal mission to show how less competent that guy was than I was and I was successful in doing that and they ended up moving the guy out of the position but they moved somebody else in the position and didn’t give it to me and I remember a conversation um saying VP and this is three four years later and he sat down with me and he shared with me he said you know um he was the wrong guy and you made sure we knew that but you also showed that you’re not ready for that leadership position either and he pointed out exactly how I should have handled that and that you know what he knew that from a skill set standpoint I was 100 percent ready for that job I can do the job hands down but he knew I was not ready from a maturity standpoint and um I mean he told me he’s like you know what you got to serve in order to be served and um you know I had to take a step back and I took a different approach and you know what I made the new guy I made him look good I made him as successful as he could be um and you know I ended up getting the job the next time around so but that was a very valuable lesson

Anthony Codispoti : so if you had that situation to do all over again uh and maybe using the advice that you were given on how you should have handled it uh from that VP what would you have done differently what would have been the right way

Kelly Alston : I would have supported them I would have trained them I would have helped them instead of exposed them I exposed all those weaknesses and I should have never done that.

Anthony Codispoti : Mills has positioned itself as a consumer focused dealer with in-house financing and maintenance. Can you maybe share an example of how you’ve integrated those services to create a seamless customer experience?

Kelly Alston : Well you know most dealerships operate this way but we just um we focus on retention we want the customers to come back we don’t want them to just buy one car we want to buy several cars from us so you know we focus on the areas where customers typically uh leave right so um sales sells the first car service sells everyone after that so you know uh regardless of how good of a sales experience someone has had if the service experience throughout throughout their ownership cycle um is not equally as good typically they won’t come back to the dealership and buy a car so we really focus in on that aspect.

Anthony Codispoti : Let’s talk about the warranty process. You’ve got a background in focusing on this. For lay people like myself, what’s an underappreciated aspect of warranties that can significantly influence a dealership’s success? How are you using that to benefit mills?

Kelly Alston : Well, you know, typically the thing that customers hate is paying for a car and paying to get it fixed as well. So, you know, we look at selling service contracts, not as just a profit center, but also a way of keeping the consumer happy and putting them in a position where they are not, you know, burdened with huge unexpected costs at the absolute wrong time, right? Nothing happens at the right time.

It always happens at the wrong time. So, you know, we really focus on providing that service to the consumer and really explaining it to them in the right way so that they make a good decision and decide to purchase, you know, a service contract so that they have more economical control over their, you know, car ownership experience.

Anthony Codispoti : How do you present that to a customer in a way that, right, doesn’t feel like you’re trying to upsell them, you know, hey, you want fries with that? You want to biggie size it? Like, how does that delivery kind of come across?

Kelly Alston : You know, we just, we lay it out and just, we tell the consumer everything that’s available for them from a product standpoint, whether it’s insurance, whether it’s coverage for their tires or tire and wheel, and we explain what it is, what are the benefits of having it, how much it costs, and we let them make the decision.

Anthony Codispoti : So, it’s not a pressure situation. It’s almost like you’re a teacher. You’re educating them. You’re just sharing information.

Kelly Alston : Very low pressure. You know what? We give you the opportunity to purchase it. Not really trying to sell you anything.

Anthony Codispoti : I want to talk about electrical vehicles. You guys recently partnered with Fisker. Tell me about that partnership and how it unfolded and how it’s going so far.

Kelly Alston : Well, Fisker, you know, Fisker has had some issues, so Fisker is no longer, they’re no longer a manufacturer. They’ve filed bankruptcy and they’ve gone on, but we’ve actually partnered with a different EV company called Benfast.

Anthony Codispoti : Okay. It’s been a long time, and it’s been a long time, and it’s been a long time, and it’s been a long time, and it’s been a long time, and it’s been a long time, and it’s been a long time, and it’s been a long time, and it’s been a long time, and it’s been a long time, and it’s been a long time, and it’s been a long time, and it’s been a long time, and it’s been a long time, and it’s been a long time, and it’s been a long time, and it’s been a long time, and it’s been a long time, and it’s been a long time, and it’s been a long time, and it’s been a long time, and it’s been a long time, and it’s been a long time, and it’s been a long time, and it’s been a long time, and it’s been a long time, and it’s been a long time, and it’s been a long time, but from what I understand, they are well-funded, well-healed, and they’ve got a good product and a great design, and we’ve been selling them now for about four months, and it’s a great car. I mean, they had a great lease for consumers, $3.49 a month, and, I mean, it’s a very nice car. SUV, leather, interior, very, very nice car.

Anthony Codispoti : I’m looking at the website here now. Yeah, they’re slick looking. What are maybe the advantages of, and this for folks who haven’t heard of it before, you can find their website, vinvinfastauto.us. What are some of the advantages of this particular line of electrical vehicles over maybe some of the other options out there?

Kelly Alston : One is the price point. The best way to purchase an EV is to lease it, because you get the government subsidies with the lease and everything like that. And they found a niche at that price point, but you don’t sacrifice anything. I mean, these cars have leather interior, all the features that you would find in a luxury vehicle. And it’s at a great price point.

Anthony Codispoti : And why specifically is the lease a better way to go with these cars?

Kelly Alston : Well, a couple of things. One is the cost. EVs are naturally more expensive, because it’s a lot more R &D in it. It’s a huge. Batteries are expensive. Yeah, a huge investment by the manufacturers. So the price point is pretty high. So leasing is the most affordable way to do it, as well as there’s a lot of volatility from a resale value with EVs.

I mean, it’s almost like watching a stock market. They go up, they go down, and leasing it will insulate you from the risk of what it may or may not be worth three years from now. Because there’s just still a lot of unknowns, especially with the new administration, quite possibly taking the focus away from EVs.

We just don’t know what that’s going to do to the market. So I advise most people to lease them, because at that point, at the end of your lease, if it’s not worth anywhere close to what they say is worth, you can drop it off and walk away. So all the risk is deferred to the lender. You’re not assuming any of that risk.

Anthony Codispoti : Makes a lot of sense. We’re recording this interview on January 22nd, 2025. As Kelly mentioned, new administration has come in. Not sure what that’s going to do to the landscape of EVs. So certainly some questions to be answered there over time. Kelly, you guys have got operations across seven states, hundreds of employees. I’m curious, how do you systematize and ensure consistent training, culture, service across all these different locations?

Kelly Alston : It’s very difficult. It’s a challenge. One is using technology to bring all of these people in all of these different places together, so that everyone is getting the same message at the same time. So we use a lot of technology. I have Zoom meetings once, twice a week with my teams, so that I can deliver a consistent message across the entire group and really charge them with letting it trickle down and then holding them accountable to it at every level.

Anthony Codispoti : I’m also curious, I would assume, and tell me if I’m wrong on this, Kelly, with so many different locations across seven different states, I would think that sometimes the market demand, I don’t know, just the flavor of the local community kind of dictates that the store be run a little bit differently. I see you nodding your head. What are some of those differences and how do you accommodate for them?

Kelly Alston : There’s certain nuances and certain markets for sure. And you got to keep your core principles, what they are, but allow for the little small niches in these certain communities. Give you a perfect example. We’ve got dealerships in New Orleans. We got to get those stores, Mardi Gras, off. They got to be off of Mardi Gras. The markets, everybody’s working.

That market, everybody’s off of Mardi Gras. So when you have certain things like that, then everywhere does have a different flavor a little bit. And you just got to allow some creativity in those markets, but keep the core of what you have in place from your principles and don’t deviate from it.

Anthony Codispoti : You mentioned relying on tech as a way to help communicate the mission, the values, across such a wide geography. You guys have been around for a while. There’s a lot of tradition within mills.

So I’m curious to hear maybe a particular example of a time where we’re able to introduce an innovation, maybe it was tech-related, or a new service that shows that balance of tradition with new.

Kelly Alston : Yeah, I will tell you this. Even though we’re a young company, we have remained pretty steadfast in the basics of things. Now, yeah, we’ve introduced new technology and different things like that, but we haven’t really deviated much from our core business and how we’ve done business. We do introduce new technology and things, and when we do that, we bring a team together to our headquarters in North Carolina and roll it out. And then we go into the stores to make sure it’s being implemented. A lot of times that’s when I’m traveling, we’re implementing new things because you gotta have boots on the ground, you have to see it in the environment. And it’s a lot of work, but we get it done. Let’s talk about COVID for a minute.

Anthony Codispoti : COVID put the auto industry on quite a roller coaster. What was it like for you guys, and how did you navigate that?

Kelly Alston : It was a very interesting time. I think we did a very good job. One of the things that we did, probably that I’m most proud of, is when everyone took the opportunity to lay people off, and cut their workforce because of all the different programs that were available, and everything else that was going on, we did not lay off one person.

Anthony Codispoti : Not one person across the entire organization?

Kelly Alston : Not one. We did not lay off one person. The only thing we did, and I remember the conversation was, we weren’t gonna lay anyone off, but if someone did not fit our culture, it was time to part ways with them, and replace them. Because we just had a belief that, you know what? We were gonna be okay, and we would figure it out, and the business would be fine. And we did not lay off one person during COVID.

Anthony Codispoti : Now, as we can kind of look in the rear view mirror, there was a big drop off, and then things came back like a rocket ship. And so, probably from a business perspective, looks like a pretty smart move to have not let people off. But you didn’t know that in those early days, weeks, months. You didn’t know if and when it was gonna come back. There was so much uncertainty at the time.

So, I don’t know, I’m gonna go out on a limb here, and tell me if I’m right or wrong. I get the sense that that decision not to lay anybody off was less about what made good business sense, and was more about how do we take care of our people, and how do we make sure that they can keep a roof over their head, that they can put food on their table, that they can take care of their families.

Kelly Alston : Absolutely, and it was actually the second time that we made this decision. So, the first time, back in 2008, we only had two dealerships. One was the store I was running, which was a Chrysler store. And if you remember back in 2008, Chrysler filed bankruptcy. Yeah.

Right? And I remember the night that they filed bankruptcy, myself and owner, we were sitting in my office, and literally we just stared at each other probably for 10 minutes. Neither one of us knew what to say. And I remember, you know, we prayed, and he’s like, let’s meet back eight o’clock in the morning, and we’ll figure it out. And came back at eight o’clock that morning, and he shared with me, he said, look, we’re not gonna lay a single person off.

You know what, we’re gonna cut everything before we cut people, and we’re gonna figure it out. And throughout that whole bankruptcy process with Chrysler, we didn’t lose not one person. So we had been there before in a situation where things didn’t look like it was gonna be okay. And so we had something to reference. And we came out of that, I mean, so strong because our people, they recognized the sacrifice of keeping everybody. So they worked twice as hard. So we believed that that was gonna happen again, and it did.

Anthony Codispoti : And remind us, how did the Chrysler bankruptcy play out?

Kelly Alston : Well, Chrysler sold to Fiat, Italian company, and they invested in it, and government put a bunch of money behind it, and business came back very strong, and Chrysler ended up working itself out and becoming a great brand again, with mainly Jeep and Ram, and we were very successful as a Chrysler dealer.

Anthony Codispoti : So as I hear these two examples, the Chrysler bankruptcy and the COVID experience, if we’re to draw sort of the thread between them, the common lesson to be learned, I mean, for your business, sort of backs up what you were saying before. You’re not in the car business, you’re in the people business. You guys always approached it from, how do we take care of our people first? And the rest of it’s gonna kind of figure itself out.

Kelly Alston : And I remember a mentor of mine shared with me. You know, he told me, he said, Kelly, if you always focus in your concern about what your people make, you’ll never have to worry about what you make. And that’s been a core principle of mine. You know what, as long as my people are successful, I have no choice but to be successful. So I focus my energy around them and not me. My success is gonna be a byproduct of theirs anyway.

Anthony Codispoti : I like that message. You know, Kelly, growth often comes from our biggest challenges. I would like to hear from you a serious challenge that you had to overcome. Maybe it’s business, maybe it’s personal, combination of the two. What was that? What were some practical steps that helped you overcome the challenge? And ultimately, what did you learn from that experience?

Kelly Alston : You know, probably the biggest challenge that I’ve had to overcome was, so I lost my dad at that time the height of my career. And my dad was my best friend. You know, I talked to him two, three times a day. He gave amazing advice. He could always point me in the right direction.

He just had a knack for it. And, you know, my career is taking off. I’m being recognized and, you know, stores, second records, everything’s going well. And then one day, you know, the compass, my compass, the thing that keeps me straight is gone. And I remember I felt like a, about to give an analogy like a kid that lost his parents in a grocery store. And you don’t know what’s gonna happen.

You can’t find your, you know what I mean? So I just, it was a different time for me. And, you know, I had to really rely on one, my faith, but two, all the lessons leading up to that point. And I remember sitting in my office one day. This was like a few weeks after, and, you know, almost hearing his voice in my ear saying, look, I prepared you for this.

You’re ready to run this race by yourself. And, you know, that was a very, very, very challenging time running the business, got a young family. And, you know, the one person I could always count on was no longer there. So, but it taught me a lot about myself. It taught me how resilient I was. It also taught me that as a parent, you are constantly preparing your children for you not being around. And you need to focus on that. You need to equip them with everything they need to be functional and thrive without you.

Anthony Codispoti : How old were you when your father passed? 35. 35. So obviously not a little kid, but I like that you’ve used that analogy, because that’s what it felt like, right? He was such a key part of your life. He was your compass. He was the person you could go to for advice, for help, and suddenly he’s gone. And that peace, that directional component of you has disappeared. Very disorienting, very emotional. Yeah, and tell me how you were able to lean on your faith to help you through this difficult time.

Kelly Alston : Well, you know what? I always believe everything happens for a reason. And, you know, I believe, you know, God doesn’t make any mistakes. And I began to kind of replay like the last couple of years and all the things that I was able to do for and with my dad during that time, because he had about a two year illness. And, you know, even flying home and staying in the hospital with him. And some of the most memorable conversations I have with my dad probably occurred two, three o’clock in the morning sitting in the hospital room. And, you know, although those, you know, at the time I looked at it as an inconvenience, you know, with him being in a hospital and everything like that, you know, I wouldn’t trade those days for anything. They were extremely valuable.

I hold on to them today. And, you know, so things work out when you look at something that isn’t ideal, right? But then you can look back and see that, you know what? It was all orchestrated because when, how else would I be fully engaged and we would have that time with no distractions other than in that hospital room at two, three o’clock in the morning to have some of the conversations that we had that really prepared me for life without him.

Anthony Codispoti : You know, I like what you said, Kelly, about, you know, as a parent, your biggest job is to help prepare the kids for the time when you’re not there. If, and how old are your kids now?

23 and 21. So if I asked you to give the single most important piece of advice or lesson learned to impart upon your kids for that eventuality, because we can go through a huge long list of things, right? Number one most important thing, what would that be? Let them make decisions.

Kelly Alston : So you can understand how they think, how they make decisions and then begin to guide them in their decision making process. That was one of the things my dad did for me. He never told me what to do. He would ask me questions. He would give me pros and cons and then he would let me make a decision and if it was a wrong decision, then we would recap it later. It was the right decision. You know what?

He would tell me, you know what? You did it the right way. And that’s one thing I’ve tried to do with my kids is to let them make decisions, you know, guide them, kind of beat the box around them, but let them play around in that box and see how they make decisions and try and give them guidance on the right way to assess things and make decisions.

Anthony Codispoti : You can ask them questions that kind of, you know, point their thinking in the right directions to at least be considering the right options. Kelly, if you were to recommend one resource, a book, a course, a podcast that would help someone grow either their business or as a person, what would that be?

Kelly Alston : The Craig Grochelle Leadership Podcast is phenomenal.

Anthony Codispoti : What would somebody get from that?

Kelly Alston : You get so much. So Craig Grochelle, he’s the pastor. I think the largest church in the country, Life Church, and he does a leadership podcast and it covers every topic. He does it, I think it’s twice a month, he puts it out every other Thursday or something like that, but he covers every leadership topic there is.

And, you know, there’s a lot of biblical principles in them as well. So I’ve actually used it with my team, you know, once a month I like to do a leadership thing on our call and I’ve used, it’s been two years now, two years ago, I decided that I was gonna use his podcast as the mechanism for my leadership training and my leaders love it.

Anthony Codispoti : And so what you’ll hear an episode and you’re like, oh, this is spot on, I’m going to ask my leadership team to listen to this and then we can all sort of discuss it, kind of like a book club together, is that?

Absolutely. Sort of how you use it? Mm-hmm.

No, yep. We will find the link for that podcast that Kelly mentioned and put it in the show notes for folks in case they can’t find it on their own. Kelly, curious to hear maybe a fun or interesting fact about you that most people wouldn’t know.

Kelly Alston : Oh, let’s see, fun or interesting fact that most people don’t know? I’d say this is interesting. So I’m in sales and I’m in front of people all the time, but I am an introvert.

Mm-hmm. I am an introvert. I would much rather be by myself than be around a bunch of people, but my life is people. So that’s a pretty interesting thing about me that my preference is I am an introvert.

Anthony Codispoti : That’s fascinating, right? Because you think of the most successful salespeople, you always think of a big personality, somebody who’s gregarious, who just naturally has the gift of gab and enjoys just sort of chatting with people. When you first got started in sales, did you recognize that you were an introvert and this was something that you had to overcome? Or how did you think through that?

Kelly Alston : For sure. You know, for me, the most awkward thing was going out and meeting a customer because it was a stranger, I didn’t like it. I mean, it was just, it was awkward for me. But, you know, I’m a competitive person.

So I had to figure it out. So for me, process, being very process-oriented and process-driven allowed me to overcome that awkwardness and that being an introvert. So I became very regimented in my approach and I really had my own sales process that I perfected that allowed me to get through the process, get all the information I needed, establish good rapport. I mean, literally my first 10 minutes with every customer was the same.

Anthony Codispoti : Tell us about it. Because I mean, there’s a lot of people listening who are like, yeah, I’m an introvert too. I’m in a sales role or I’d like to be in a sales role and it just feels so uncomfortable to me. What advice can you give from, you know, what you’ve learned, what you’ve tried?

Kelly Alston : Come up with a process, come up with almost a script. Right? So my first 10 minutes were scripted. So I went out and introduced myself to the customer, shook their hand. You know, I would not let the customer’s hand go until they gave me their name. Then I would use their name.

I would ask them specific questions. But one of the things that I was my icebreaker every single time was, so I was from New York. I was in North Carolina at the time. So one of the things that I always start the conversation off with was, you know what? You don’t sound like you’re from here. Where are you from? And, you know, they would tell me, well, no, I’m from here.

And then my follow up would be, you know, well, that’s odd. Most people I meet are not from here. Tell me what kept you here?

Or if they weren’t from here, my next question is what brought you here? And it would open up the conversation and then we could get on common ground. And then it would allow me to ask the other questions that were more related to their view. But it just, it was an easy icebreaker that, you know, one thing I learned, and I was a psychology minor in school too, is everybody likes to talk about themselves. So if I could get people to open up and start talking about themselves, they’ll never stop talking. And I’ll find out everything I need to know.

Anthony Codispoti : All of that. Kelly, I’ve got just one more question for you. But before I ask it, I want to do two things. Everybody listening today, I know that you love today’s content because Kelly’s been an amazing guest with lots of great advice. Please hit the follow button on your favorite podcast app so you can get more of these great stories. I also am going to let you know the best way to continue to follow Kelly’s story, to get in touch with him. That’s his LinkedIn page. We’re going to include that link in the show notes, but if you want to search for it now, his first name is Kelly, K-E-L-L-Y, last name, Alston, A-L-S-T-O-N.

Combine that with Mill’s Auto Group and you’ll find him. So last question for you, Kelly, as we look to the future, what exciting changes do you see coming in your industry and how can others prepare themselves to be part of that?

Kelly Alston : Well, I think probably some of the most exciting changes. I think we’ll see a shift in… Well, it’s already shifting how business is being done. It’s going to continue to evolve, especially with the new generation of the workforce coming on that is very different than my generation. They have things that are… They’re the things that are important to them are very different than what was important to my generation. Making money was primary. Now it’s about time and being included. And I think that’s going to create an evolution in the business that’s going to make it very different than what it is today.

Anthony Codispoti : Kelly, I want to be the first one to thank you for sharing both your time and your story with us today. I really appreciate it. Thank you. Appreciate your time. Folks, that’s a wrap on another episode of the Inspired Stories Podcast. Thanks for learning with us today.