Guest Bio: Kaiden Routh is the CEO of Routh Sales and Rentals, a second-generation family-owned equipment dealership with locations in Oklahoma and Arkansas.

After growing up around the family’s businesses, Kaiden worked his way through the different functions of the company before progressing into leadership. Today, he leads an organization serving contractors, farmers, landscapers, municipalities, and property owners through equipment sales, rentals, parts, and service.

Kaiden is passionate about developing strong teams, delivering exceptional customer service, embracing new technology, and continuing the legacy of a successful family business. He lives in Broken Bow, Oklahoma, with his wife and young children.

Episode Host: Henry Lopez is a serial entrepreneur, small business coach, and the host of The How of Business podcast show – dedicated to helping you start, run, grow and exit your small business.

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Transcript:

Henry Lopez  00:00

Welcome to this episode of the How Web Business. This is Henry Lopez, and my guest today. I’m excited to have Kaiden Routh with us. Kaiden, welcome to the show.

 

Kaiden Routh  00:07

Thanks, Henry.

 

Henry Lopez  00:07

I’ve been having the privilege of coaching Kaiden for I think it’s three years now, Kaiden, and so I finally convinced him to come on and share everything that he’s accomplished in in business ownership. So thanks for being with us today. So Kaiden Routh is the CEO of Routh Sales and Rentals, and he’s with me today to talk about growing up in a family business. This is a multi-generational family business, earning the responsibilities of leadership that he’s grown into and and learned how to do very well, and some of those lessons that he’s learned along the way, helping him grow this successful equipment dealership, is what Routh Sales and Rentals is. You can find all of the How of Business resources, including the show notes page for this episode, and learn more about my one-on-one and group coaching programs at thehowabusiness.com. And please subscribe wherever you might be listening, so you don’t miss any new episodes. So let me tell you a little bit more about Kaiden, and then we’ll get into the conversation. Kaiden Routh, as I said, is the CEO of Routh Sales and Rentals, a second-generation family-owned equipment dealership with locations in Oklahoma and Arkansas. After growing up around the business, Kaiden worked his way up into a leadership role, and now leads a company that serves contractors, farmers, landscapers, municipalities, and property owners through equipment sales, rentals, parts, and service. He’s passionate about building great teams, serving customers. He’s particularly passionate about customer service and continuing the legacy of a successful family business. Like I said, I’ve had the pleasure of coaching Kaiden over the last few years and have seen how how much he has grown just through his intelligence, perseverance, and willingness to to learn to be open to new ideas, I think, is part of what has gotten him to where he is today. He lives in Broken Bow, Oklahoma, with his wife and young children. And so, once again, Kate and Routh, welcome to the podcast.

 

Kaiden Routh  01:52

Thanks, Henry. I’m excited to be here.

 

Henry Lopez  01:53

Let’s start with your background. We grow. You were you grew up, and your your parents, your dad and your uncle, owned these businesses, right? As far back as you can remember.

 

Kaiden Routh  02:02

Yeah, I mean, from from the earliest age, we had multiple businesses within the family. You know, grew up around it, and you know, everyone kind of had a different business in the family. And just throughout my life, the it kind of changed. You know, we had larger, steady businesses that we grew over time, but there were a lot of just small little pop-up businesses we did, you know, oil change places, gas stations, things like that. That throughout my life, I got to see my parents and you know other family members dive into these things and and start from scratch or acquire. And that that’s kind of where I began my journey as you know an entrepreneur, business owner, getting that mindset.

 

Henry Lopez  02:42

So, as you were as you were getting the high school years, did you think I want to do this too, or I want nothing to do with that?

 

Kaiden Routh  02:49

So, I mean, to be honest, you know, throughout the school years, a lot of a lot of evenings, a lot of nights, you know, I was doing homework at an office, doing homework, you know, sitting somewhere, just you know, at a at a new business that they had acquired, and so there was a point in time to where you know I thought maybe it wasn’t for me. Maybe it was the go do the nine to five, go do something else. You know, I kind of went in engineering was something I went into for college, and the more I dug into it, you know, the the freedom, the accomplishment. I think a lot of the things that they got to have, I wanted that too, and so I I think that’s why I wanted to stay in the businesses.

 

Henry Lopez  03:26

I’ve talked about this before in the show, but very often the reason that children of business owners don’t want their businesses, all they ever heard at the dining room table or in the house were the headaches, the problems, and that’s something that you know as you’re modeling it now for young children, I think you’re very aware of that. We want to make sure we that they see both sides of it, not just the headaches. Yeah,

 

Kaiden Routh  03:46

I agree.

 

Henry Lopez  03:47

I think the key thing is the freedoms that that it provides.

 

Kaiden Routh  03:50

It does. I mean, the the freedom to me was was one of the most important things because my my wife and I, my family, you know, we’re we’re very spontaneous people. We I’ve always made the joke that we’ll discuss a trip in the morning, and at noon we’re leaving to go somewhere for for a few days or a week. And I don’t think there’s any other job you could have that allows that kind of freedom. Now, obviously, there’s the weight and the headaches that come with that, but for the most part, the the freedom for me was is very important.

 

Henry Lopez  04:18

So, did you end up going to university to study engineering, or what did you end up doing?

 

Kaiden Routh  04:22

I actually did. So I pursued it for a few years, and honestly, the the deeper I got, the longer I was in school, the more I knew that I didn’t want to do it. It was I felt that it was already a job, strict schedules, timelines, and things like that, and and you have that in business, but when you’re when you’re always at someone else’s mercy, it’s it’s a different mindset. And growing up around the businesses and seeing my family not having to deal with that, it’s tough to go from seeing people be the leaders and the bosses to you know then you’re going to go be someone who would work under someone like that.

 

Henry Lopez  04:56

Right, right. That’s that’s tough. And was there maybe not. Pressure, but desire from your dad to come work in the business, or what did he, or what did he want from you, or what of you?

 

Kaiden Routh  05:07

I would say subliminally, I could feel it, but he never pressured it and never put it on.

 

Henry Lopez  05:12

Fantastic! Yeah,

 

Kaiden Routh  05:13

it was a, it was a really good dynamic. He he never pushed me one way or the other. It was just kind of a whatever you want to do, we’ll support it.

 

Henry Lopez  05:19

All right, so you decide to join the business. In what capacity did you come into the business?

 

Kaiden Routh  05:24

So I mean, when I started, I coming from the family idea they were very hands-on. You know, they they ran it, ran every business at a ground level. So coming into the business, you know, I did everything. I ran a parts counter. You know, worked in service departments, worked in sales. I did a little bit of everything, and and that was kind of the rite of passage, I guess, as you would call it. Is you were you kind of had to within their businesses to to move up, and I do appreciate that looking back because I’ve seen similar situations where generational people step in straight into a leadership role, and it’s hard to gain respect for employees and things like that, and so I think for me the the respect came with employees because they knew I had done every job there, and it kind of gives you a well-rounded sense of how the business needs to operate. It

 

Henry Lopez  06:12

does, yeah. I mean that’s interesting point because that applies even when we’re starting a business from scratch. One of the values of making sure you understand how to do everything is exactly as you point to. Then, as you put people in those positions, you know what they’re doing, what how to do it, what the expectation should be. You understand it. You understand what you’re asking them to do. But in your environment, you needed to earn that respect instead of just being the boss’s son or the owner’s son who’s just given this position. Now you had to earn your way up the ranks. Nonetheless, let’s just jump forward on that point right quick, and then we’ll come back to the journey. I’m sure you still had those challenges of earning the respect of the team and them not just seeing you as well. Yeah, he’s the boss, but let’s call let’s call dad. Did did any of that happen once you progressed up to management?

 

Kaiden Routh  06:55

It did. I dealt with that for years. I would say that was a very challenging part when I first started was that, and it to be honest, the respect from the employees came faster than the respect from customers. The interesting, the biggest challenge I had, and you know, being in the equipment dealership rental business, it’s very relationship based. You know, most of the customers you deal with, you deal with them for years, and so you know, those customers that were legacy customers that had always dealt with my dad, my grandpa. If something didn’t happen the way they wanted to, when I was in charge, they made a phone call, and you know, then it was breaking that habit of they have to have my bat. When when they call, they have to trust. You know, I’ve made the right decision and not just roll over and let the customer run over the top of me. You know, that part was a challenge. It took some adjusting, and finally we got there, and kind of things started running smoother. But yeah, that that took years to train the customers that you can’t just call the old owner, you can’t call you know my dad, you can’t do things like that to just get whatever you want and run over the business. So

 

Henry Lopez  07:56

I mean, they it that’s just very normal. That’s the relationship that they had. It’s very I don’t mean this in any negative way, but a good old boy kind of connection. There’s a generational gap. All of those things, right? So you’re to them, you’re still just the the owner’s kid. That’s that’s just a fact. But you know, you got to give your dad a lot of credit, even though because your dad, from what you’ve described to me, is a very action kind of guy. Got a problem? Fix it. Very much. So I’m sure they were coming to him, and he wasn’t even hesitating. He took care of the problem, so you got to give him a lot of credit for coming around and understanding how he was undermining you, and to and to allow that transition to happen took a lot from him. I’m sure

 

Kaiden Routh  08:30

it did, and and that was one of the biggest challenges was the philosophy difference of how the business should operate. The and I do think it’s generational just with people, but the boots on the ground, running the business through tasks-that was how they operated, and they built a super successful, multiple successful businesses throughout the years based off that. I learned and and noticed early on that the scale that I wanted to grow to-that was not-I didn’t have the ability to do that if I continued that role. And you know that’s when you and I kind of started working together. When I realized that I can’t be the front line guy and grow the company the way I want it to grow. So you know you’ve helped me a lot with really finding my place in the business and and how I need to operate.

 

Henry Lopez  09:13

Yeah, thank you. And and that definitely was your constraint was scalability. And again, that business model, while it worked so well for them, and that’s the thing that’s hard. It’s hard to argue with success, right? It is. But again, you had you had to fight for that. But I give your because this is where I see a lot of multi generational businesses failing. Usually, it’s you know the new generation gets frustrated and then leaves, or you know it ends ugly.

 

Kaiden Routh  09:36

Yes,

 

Henry Lopez  09:37

but but your dad finally found it. He said, “Okay, I’m gonna. I may not agree, but I’m going to let you do your thing, and that’s huge to where you’ve gotten Routh to. I think

 

Kaiden Routh  09:45

it really it is. That’s for me was a huge stepping stone to to get over that hurdle of we aren’t going to see things eye to eye. You know, we aren’t. This business is not going to operate the way that it’s always done. For me, it was having to build a team and trust a team to. Make decisions and run the business when I’m not there.

 

Henry Lopez  10:02

Yeah, and you had to set boundaries too with your dad in particular. You had to say, “Dad, this is the way I’m going to do it. Right?

 

Kaiden Routh  10:09

We did.

 

Henry Lopez  10:09

You had to be firm, which is not easy to do.

 

Kaiden Routh  10:12

No, there were there was a period of time that it was it was tough. We went through about a year that it was really tough to to kind of break that. But once it did, it just totally changed the dynamic. This is

 

Henry Lopez  10:28

Henry Lopez briefly pausing this episode to invite you to schedule a free coaching consultation with me. I welcome the opportunity to chat with you about your business plans and offer the guidance and accountability that we all need to achieve success. As an experienced small business owner myself, I understand the challenges you’re experiencing, and often it’s about helping you ask the right questions to help you make progress towards achieving your goals. Whether it’s getting started with your first business or growing and maybe exiting your existing small business, I can help you get there. To find out more about my business coaching services and to schedule your free coaching consultation, please visit thehowabusiness.com. Take that next step today towards finally realizing your business ownership dreams. I look forward to speaking with you soon. Let’s just jump back a little bit to the history of. I understood correctly. Your dad started in construction, I believe, was the first business, right? And so Routh Sales and Rentals was kind of a not an offshoot, but a complementary business that he saw a gap in the market for. Is that right? It

 

Kaiden Routh  11:36

was, yeah. I mean, he. It was. It complemented him because they had lots of equipment with being in the construction, so they purchased an active business, and it was just needed some renewal, needed some new life put in it. Just kind of saw it as a side business to theirs, where they could use the advantage of having the extra equipment to make money on their equipment when they weren’t using it. But they didn’t see it as this is going to be a standalone, you know, this is going to grow. This is going to be a big business by itself. It was always just ancillary business to

 

Henry Lopez  12:08

them. Yeah, complementary business. And explain a little bit more. What type of equipment are we typically talking about there?

 

Kaiden Routh  12:13

Yeah, our biggest is construction equipment. We are in the compact construction equipment market. We also do a lot of agriculture stuff. We sell lawn mowers. We sell tractors. We sell construction equipment. We’re we’re kind of well rounded in just for the size of our market and and what we do. We we try to keep a little bit of everything.

 

Henry Lopez  12:31

And you you sell that. You also service them and you sell parts for those those that all of that equipment. Yeah,

 

Kaiden Routh  12:38

we we we rent as well. You know that’s a huge part of our business is is the rental side realizing that this thing could work by itself. This this would be a good business and kind of changing that dynamic of this thing’s going to stand alone. This business is going to be its own thing was really good for us.

 

Henry Lopez  12:55

And you’re a dealership as well, so explain that component of

 

Kaiden Routh  12:59

1. Yeah, so we work with a lot of manufacturers, I mean, just one our biggest manufacturer is Bobcat Construction Equipment. So we partner with them. We’ve got a couple locations with them in it, and basically we sell, service, parts, everything that has to do with their product line. We are a partner with them.

 

Henry Lopez  13:18

This is one of the more challenging parts of your business model is balancing that having inventory on the floor to sell, but the cost of of maintaining and holding that inventory, and these are expensive pieces of equipment. So that’s probably one of the biggest challenge areas in this business. I got to think

 

Kaiden Routh  13:33

it is. I make the joke a lot of times that it’s the hardest you’ll work to not make any money. the The overhead’s ridiculous. The you know staffing requirements are ridiculous. It it’s it’s a very labor time intensive business. But in reality, we’re I look at it as we’re problem solvers. That’s that’s how I want to think about it, and that’s how I try to get our team to is the equipment and and what we sell is just a tool for someone to use, we our job in this business is to pick the right tool for them, help them make the right decisions. Because really, all they’re trying to do is is do a job or solve a problem. So we’re providing them with a tool to solve that problem, and basically customers depend on us to help them make the right decisions for that job.

 

Henry Lopez  14:19

Yeah, well said. And so the next question I was going to ask you, but I think that’s a big part of the answer is why is Routh so successful? And I think that’s a big part of it. You look to solve customers’ problems, not just sell them a piece of equipment, right?

 

Kaiden Routh  14:31

Exactly. And

 

Henry Lopez  14:32

that also then leads to the business model depends on those people coming back to you to service those those machines, to buy parts, to rent other things, that that’s the model. It depends on those relationships that are longer term. Yeah,

 

Kaiden Routh  14:45

it does. And a lot of our success has came from the willingness to put the customers first. You know, a lot of times it’s not profitable to put the customer first and to continue that relationship and make sure it’s strong. But we have to look at it from a long term perspective. Perspective of these people are going to be doing business with us for years. We can’t burn a bridge over a few $1,000 or some a certain amount of money. It’s it’s a relationship business and it’s it’s for the long term.

 

Henry Lopez  15:12

That’s such an you know we’ve talked about it so much, but it’s such an important topic to me because I’m so big on customer services and the businesses that I’ve had. And I think one of the reasons why you execute so well is you know starting with your dad and then with you you believe this at the top at the highest level at the ownership level you believe in the importance of customer service it’s not just a plaque on the wall or you know something that we pretend to do this is something you believe in you want this business to represent you and your family name

 

Kaiden Routh  15:40

it is I mean, I’ve always put that first, and and I’ve put it into our employees that it is more important to satisfy the customer, to keep people happy, to keep our name in good graces with people, rather than you know worry about the bottom line or the profit. I mean, it is a business. You know, we’re here to make money, but and I I do think it’s the way that I grew up in the business is you put the customers first. The customers are the main priority, and keeping them successful keeps you successful.

 

Henry Lopez  16:07

Yeah, I mean, I remember back to we won’t talk about it the specifics, but maybe about a year ago you had a customer service incident, and what you know we talked about related to that is what can happen in an organization is we focus on the very small minority of people who may well be trying to take advantage of us, but the reality is the majority of the people-they’re not. They just really we something happened, or maybe there was a misunderstanding or a miscommunication. But they’re usually not trying to take advantage of us. We we usually should try to solve the problem in their favor. I

 

Kaiden Routh  16:36

1. I remember that, and and some of that comes down to is as every business owner knows, some people you will never make happy. You give them the world, and and they still will not be happy. And having to understand that because having your name on the business, you take everything. I take everything personally, and I had to learn one to separate myself from that. And the second was just know that no matter what we did for some people, they were never going to be happy, and you know they would trash you. They would do whatever. So having to understand that was a big challenge for me early on in the business.

 

Henry Lopez  17:07

That was a hard thing for me as well to accept that it’s okay to tell some people in not so many words to go away. In other words, to your point, there we can’t satisfy everybody, and those people that we can’t, that’s okay. We need to send them on their way. But of course, the majority of people they they really are honest when they’re saying this didn’t work right or this was broken or whatever the case might be, right?

 

Kaiden Routh  17:28

They are the

 

Henry Lopez  17:28

journey now to becoming CEO. Even as I think to three years ago, we started working together. You were still very much in the business. You think back of it. What are some of the key things that allowed you to begin to step up to that CEO role and let go of the day to day.

 

Kaiden Routh  17:43

I mean, really, it was a hard reality at first. It was the you can’t do it all reality that I think most business owners have to go through.

 

Henry Lopez  17:52

And it was what was modeled for you, wasn’t

 

Kaiden Routh  17:54

it? It was. I mean, and that’s what I grew up with: is is you do everything. You know, when there’s problems, you solve them. And having to, especially growing with multiple locations, I figured out really, really fast. And and that’s kind of when you and I started working together. Of I threw my hands up and felt like I couldn’t satisfy anybody. You know, employees weren’t happy, customers weren’t happy, and I just didn’t have the systems in place that would allow my team to be successful. And between you and I working together, I started implementing a lot of those things that helped the business get to where it needs to be, as well as you know, adding some really good team members that complemented my weaknesses and the areas that I struggled was what I tried to find people in that were they had their strengths there.

 

Henry Lopez  18:37

Yeah, you’ve built a great team. You brought in David, who’s your general manager, is that his title now?

 

Kaiden Routh  18:42

Yes,

 

Henry Lopez  18:43

and he’s done such a great job. You have other team leaders at both locations that have done tremendous work working with you to implement those systems, and you’ve empowered them to make decisions. I think that’s always the key thing. But I remember also then what always happens. You hit this as well is you get a little bit of an identity crisis. All right, if everybody’s doing all of these things, what am I supposed to do? What am I supposed to do as CEO? Right,

 

Kaiden Routh  19:06

I did. Yeah, that one was tough. It was, and to be honest, it was after a trip. Came back, I was gone for a couple of weeks, and

 

Henry Lopez  19:14

right, and it and the place did not fall apart, and they

 

Kaiden Routh  19:17

didn’t fall apart. Nobody really needed me. Like it was kind of odd walking back in to the business after that and trying to pick up and not trying to pick up because obviously there’s still things I needed to do but it was kind of the realization of this thing can’t operate without me and at first my mindset was I didn’t like it you know I I wanted that the need to need me but the more I think talking to you and kind of working through some of that stuff, I think it’s allowed me to just continue to focus on where the business needs to be going, rather than just needing to be there every day and and focus on the day to day task.

 

Henry Lopez  19:52

Yeah, there’s still plenty on your plate. There’s still plenty of responsibilities, but it doesn’t involve so much the day to day unless. There’s a problem or a challenge, or somebody leaves, or whatever the case might be. You’re focused on higher level, higher value things,

 

Kaiden Routh  20:06

correct?

 

Henry Lopez  20:06

And that’s where you should be as a CEO. I want to go back to because the flip side of it is, I I know that the other thing that happens, especially as you rise through the ranks and as you start to implement layers, is and and you also you had you went to a well you added a second store, and then sometimes a day a week when you worked from home. And I’m sure I remember you getting pushback where, well, we don’t see you anymore. People kind of start to resent it a little bit, right? They do. So you can think back to that. How did how did you manage that? How did that feel?

 

Kaiden Routh  20:33

So obviously, the business that I grew up in, employees saw my family every day. You know, it was every day, every day. And if if they were gone, everyone knew where they were at. You know, they were on vacation, or they were sick, or they were. You know, they always knew. And so, breaking that barrier of they don’t need to know if I’m going to be here or not, they don’t need to know where I’m at. That that took a little while, and it was challenging for me because it is. They people ask, you know, where are you at today? Why are you not here? This and that, and it took six months. You know, that’s probably what it took to really break that barrier. Of at some point, I just stopped answering the questions, and and that’s what it took. Was I just didn’t answer. And then you began

 

Henry Lopez  21:12

empowering the people that you had in place that they should be going to ask those questions. Right. It was a version of when customers used to bypass you and go to your dad. Right. It was a version of it was the internal,

 

Kaiden Routh  21:21

yeah, and I think just for anyone in the generational business, you’ve got to make sure that you don’t do it yourself because that was a bringing in a general manager. It was tough to start pushing people to him rather than answering the questions myself because for the first year, that’s what was happening. You know, they were coming to me, asking me the questions, and I was not doing a good job of pushing them back to the general manager. And you know, you and I talked about that a lot throughout the our meetings. Of don’t undermine him. You know, don’t undermine the people that you’re putting in place to run the business for you.

 

Henry Lopez  21:54

It’s easy to do because first of all, you can answer the question quick, right? So you know,

 

Kaiden Routh  22:00

yep,

 

Henry Lopez  22:00

David might need a little bit of research, and then it might-I’ll just answer the question. No big deal. But you don’t realize how much you’re undermining his power, and plus, you’ll never get out of those people coming to you. But the other dynamic is that people love access to power, and so it was whether they were conscious of it or not. It was great to be able to say, “Oh, I’ll just ask the owner. Right?

 

Kaiden Routh  22:18

Yeah.

 

Henry Lopez  22:19

And so that took some adjustment for people to say that this doesn’t mean that you still don’t have a say, but you no longer are going to directly access Kaiden for these day-to-day things. That doesn’t mean you can’t call him. That doesn’t mean you can’t go into his office. But it’s a different hierarchy that you had to put in place in order to scale. Otherwise, you’d be spending all day again stuck in a business making every decision. The other thing that it does is it forces empowerment of those team members.

 

Kaiden Routh  22:44

It does

 

Henry Lopez  22:44

because you’ve trained them, you’ve equipped them, and they’re capable of making decisions. But often, as owners, we enable them to ask us questions, and therefore we don’t develop their decision-making ability.

 

Kaiden Routh  22:54

I mean, I’ve always thought about it as as the band aid analogy. All I did was go around putting band aids all day, and we never fixed the actual problem. All we did was was put a bandaid on it to satisfy a customer, to satisfy the problem right then. And then a week later, the same problem came back up, and and another bandaid had to go on. So really training the team and just letting the business fail-not not the business fail, but letting some things happen that I didn’t want to happen. That was a big struggle for me to find the holes. You’ve kind of got to let some things happen that you know you don’t want to. You’re going to have mad customers. You’re going to have mad employees, but you’re never going to find where the business needs you unless you just let some of those things happen.

 

Henry Lopez  23:35

Well said. Well said. I think that’s such a great point because what what you’ve done is you’ve uncovered. Okay, well, what what’s broken here? What’s not working? That this person always has to ask me the same question, or why? Why are we getting these questions? Why? Why aren’t they using the resources that they have, or maybe they don’t have the resource? So you you’ve done a great job, and David has as well, is doing that root cause analysis of what was creating all of those questions, right? Correct. Sometimes, though, again, the biggest thing I find I’m not saying you were doing this necessarily in a lot of small businesses. Is the owner has retained all of that knowledge, and it’s again their identity of well, everybody has to come to me. I’m the chief guy here, and that’s my badge that I wear is the chief firefighter. And we have to be aware of that, like we talked about with the identity. What do you mostly as CEO now in this role, again, how many employees now across both locations?

 

Kaiden Routh  24:25

The operations that I’m responsible for, it’s I think we’ve got 32, 33 employees now.

 

Henry Lopez  24:31

Right, so pretty sizable. You’ve got a good organization structure. You’ve got David over both stores. You’ve got other leaders at both stores, both on the sales side and operations side. But still, that this size, there’s still times when if somebody leaves, you have to maybe step in. So that’s normal at this size of a business. But other than those exceptions, at a high level, what are you mostly focused on? What occupies your day? And the reason I ask this question is, I you know, you ask this question as well. Yeah. So what am I supposed to be focusing on as CEO? What do you focus. Now that you believe is where you should be, those you know those higher level, higher value activities.

 

Kaiden Routh  25:04

I mean, what I do my best to focus on, and obviously you still get drug into some not even day to day, but just less meaningful tasks. But what I really try is the growth of the business. Where do we want to go? What do we want to be like? What is the true future of our company and and how do we continue to grow it? The other part is is just the people in general. How do we make sure that our employees and our customers have the best experience with our business? We want to keep everyone happy to the best of our ability, and so I try to spend time focusing on how can we make things better for everybody involved with our business. And you know the last thing to me that I try to focus on is is making sure that we don’t get left behind as the industry changes the business changes you know with technology and AI things like that I try to spend some time to focus on how can we incorporate that into our business what are some other things we can do to just continue to get better

 

Henry Lopez  25:59

phenomenal yeah that’s exactly where I think you should continue to be focused. Is where are we going with the business? You have to also, of course, as you articulated, keep your finger on the pulse of generating money because we have no business if we’re not generating and increasing revenues, increasing sales. So you’re very close to that, the sales and marketing side of it. You’ve you’ve relinquished to a big extent the operational side of things. Correct. Although sometimes you have to step in because we never, you know, we don’t have perfect systems. We still have gaps that you improve time over time. But you’re focused on where is the business going? How do we get it there? How do we continue to expand? How do we stay relevant? How do we stay competitive?

 

Kaiden Routh  26:32

Also, another thing that I don’t, I think subliminally I do it. I don’t think about it as much intentionally. Is set the culture of the business. A big thing I do, you know, when I’m going into the location, is I’m trying my hardest to connect personally with employees rather than asking them about their task of the business. When I go into the locations, I’m just talking to everybody, meeting. How was the weekend? How’s your family? This and that. So, trying to kind of help the culture set of this is how our employees are supposed to operate. This is how we interact within each other. I think that is an important part for the CEO, the business owner to play. Is you have got to keep your culture, and you know we we we struggled with this a while back. Now we kind of had a culture problem at the second location, and you just have to. If someone’s not a cultural fit, they have to go, whether they’re a good employee or not, whether they’re doing their job or not, if the culture doesn’t work, it’s it’s not going to work.

 

Henry Lopez  27:25

That’s a hard thing to to learn and accept. Yeah, it is. But you’re thanks for making that point because I think you are in charge of culture as the CEO and studying that. But you make a good example. I’ve struggled with this. My business partner David Begin has struggled with that in the past, where we would walk into a business and and point out oh this isn’t done right or this needs to be fixed and and and give start giving orders yes and not only are you undermining your your leaders but also then they the staff fears you oh Henry’s coming you know so yeah that’s so used to having because I would visit Colorado Springs and oh my god Henry’s coming for a visit we get it all clean some of that is good but but I didn’t want them to fear me. I wanted them to be able to tell me what was going on and and be honest and share. But yeah, you wanted to to build the culture.

 

Kaiden Routh  28:10

We did, yeah.

 

Henry Lopez  28:11

And that’s that’s the key thing. The other thing that I found, and so you’re right. The other thing that I found is that culture is fickle. You know, it goes through it does goes through waves.

 

Kaiden Routh  28:20

It does, and and one, I mean, you know, with us having 33 employees now, one employee can destroy it. It is

 

Henry Lopez  28:28

can have a real big impact. They do,

 

Kaiden Routh  28:30

they do, and it’s it’s. I didn’t realize that until the recent situation. You know, you and I talked about is I did not realize one person was causing many that much problems. Yeah,

 

Henry Lopez  28:39

this is such a hard thing, such a hard thing, and I mean, I still struggle with it because that employee may well be doing their job otherwise very well, but if they’re not a cultural fit, at what cost? And the thing is that the culture, everybody else is looking to see what we accept from this one person, and if we continue to accept a certain behavior that’s not good for the rest of the team, the culture. Then everybody starts to think, you know what? Kaiden talks about culture, but it’s not real because he lets this person or that person get away with things, and so it undermines things. Because with culture, first and foremost, has got to be, I think, integrity and honesty and transparency.

 

Kaiden Routh  29:19

It does.

 

Henry Lopez  29:19

I think those things are key.

 

Kaiden Routh  29:21

Yeah, and when you have someone in a leadership role that doesn’t display what culture you want, it undermines the whole thing. Absolutely. Yeah. All right. Excellent. What do you love most about owning Routh Sales and Rentals today? My love has evolved for the business. The initial jumping into the business, I’ve loved equipment my whole life. You know, growing up around the construction company, you know, I I got to ride the bulldozers, the excavators, you know, the the truck at very young age. You know, I was getting to experience a lot of that, and a lot of people go their whole life and don’t get to and and dream of doing something like that. So the love for the equipment is kind of what brought me into. The business and kind of got me started, but just over time, it has developed to the people themselves. I still like the equipment. I still enjoy what I do. I still like the the aspect of our business, but I really just enjoy the people, the customers, like and and peers. Like I love getting to know peers, other business owners that are in a similar business than I am. I just really enjoy learning about people, meeting people, and building relationships that don’t even have to benefit my business. Just that I can get to know someone and learn about how they are too. I really enjoy that, and my business allows me to do a lot of that.

 

Henry Lopez  30:33

Yeah. Would you consider yourself, you know, as people? You say a people person? Is that you? Are you a social person by general nature, or

 

Kaiden Routh  30:40

I’m I’m a little introverted. I would say in a public setting with many strangers, I’m not. But if the collective strangers are similar, like in in meetings that I’ve had or conferences I’ve went to, you know, when it’s a lot of people in my position, it is a lot easier for me to go out and you know have conversations and meet people like that when I know that there’s a similar interest. But overall, I’m a pretty much an introverted person. Yeah,

 

Henry Lopez  31:06

I’m the same way. I’m the same way. You know, people always say, “How did you do sales? Well, I was paid to play a role, if you will, right? But I was always the type that then at night and at that cocktail party, I was like, “I’m just ready to go to my room. I’m exhausted, right? It drains my batteries.

 

Kaiden Routh  31:20

No, it’s a it’s a switch for sure that can it is a switch to turn it on, and we

 

Henry Lopez  31:24

have to be aware of that as as to our personalities. You know, I love working from home office. My business partner for a long time, David Begin, he needed to be out there at the business. That was his personality. That’s what he that was that’s what fueled him. And so people strike a balance. You have to be honest with yourself as to which it is. But as far as culture goes, and in the transition, people do need to see you to some extent, but they don’t they don’t have to see you every day, as you explained. Yeah, yeah, that’s critical. The other thing I didn’t mention back then to that point is what people also fear is, well, this must not be that important of a business anymore, or maybe he’s not, or maybe they’re going to shut it down, or maybe the business isn’t doing well. They start to think about all of those things that might be going wrong if you’re not there as they go through that transition. But then they they come around.

 

Kaiden Routh  32:09

They do, and I think someone in that position just they have to know that there are going to be some ups and downs when you’re transitioning to being there every day, being the person they talk to, to to not being that person, it’s it throws red flags to everybody. Could you possibly imagine? I’m sure you would do it if if it’s what you had to do for your family. But could you imagine being an employee for someone now? It would be tough. It would be very very tough to to take that. I mean, it would have to be a role, a sales role, something that had some flexibility. It would be very very hard for me to be a nine to five person.

 

Henry Lopez  32:43

That can you mentioned it early in the conversation? That ability to take time to be with your family or to spontaneously take a trip, not have to request time off, not have to see how many PTO days I have left, not have to answer to anybody to be able to you know leave for the afternoon and go pick up one of your kids from school. That’s golden for you, isn’t

 

Kaiden Routh  33:00

it? It is. I mean, that is more important to me than than really anything. Obviously, I want to grow the business and I want to build something that either I can pass on or sell or something like that. But in reality, it’s the ability that it gives me to do whatever I want with my family or or myself, golfing or anything like that. So, and I and I think that when you and I first started working together, I didn’t have any time. I I was a nine to five employee, even though I technically was a business owner. I I didn’t feel like one, and so having to make that transition to get the freedom is is a it’s a road. You know, it’s a it’s a trail that you have to go down to to get there because it. I would say anybody that’s building a business, they’re they’re in the middle of it right now.

 

Henry Lopez  33:43

Yeah, yeah, I know there’s no, and you have to be initially, but then you have to figure out how to scale, and that’s what you’ve done brilliantly over the last few years. All right, we’ll start to wrap it up. I’m always looking for book recommendations. Is there a book that you’ve read recently or in the past that’s had impact that you want to recommend?

 

Kaiden Routh  33:59

Yeah, you get it a lot, but I’m sure traction is that’s that’s the book for me. Just because of where we are now in the business of the the journey I’ve had to take the last three years of building the systems and getting things in place and and accountability, that book has has really helped me kind of shape. Working with you in the book has really helped me shape where we’re at in this business now. Yeah,

 

Henry Lopez  34:21

great book. It’s always I think it’s in the top five recommended books over 10 years that I’ve been asking that question. And I look at it. Wonder I think you do as well. It’s one of those books where yeah you should read it cover to cover one time. But then I use it as a reference manual. I’m looking at it right over here on the desk, and I have it doggy or write with notes on certain sections.

 

Kaiden Routh  34:38

And another thing that, and I think that I’ve struggled with it, and I’ve really tried to push myself. Is just AI using AI. I mean, it’s not a book, but it’s it’s it’s got the information that any book in the world has, and figuring out a way to implement it. You know, you and I we talked about it for training, we talked about it for research purposes, for new markets, things like that. I mean. It really is the greatest tool that you can have right now that most people probably aren’t utilizing.

 

Henry Lopez  35:05

Powerful. Thank you for mentioning that. You’ve done such a great job of of looking for ways to apply it beyond just you know help me write a better email. How do you apply it in the business? And you’ve been willing to experiment with it. And it doesn’t always work out, but you’ve been willing to experiment. I I you know, I talk about it AI a lot on this show because I’m finding so many business owners are just paralyzed by people are like either focusing on the potential negatives, but it’s really because they’re scared of adopting it, and I understand that, I get that, but you’ve got to keep playing with it and trying it and applying it as much as you can.

 

Kaiden Routh  35:37

Yeah, I mean, the the way that I really just had to force myself to do it. Was just on a personal level, you know. the The whole phrase of just Google it, don’t Google it, punch it in, punch it into AI. Allow yourself to just start baby stepping your way into using it and understanding how it works. And the more that you understand it, you can implement it. We, you know, we use it now for training. I just implemented some stuff to do some research on in our company for it. So we’re trying, you know, I’m trying my hardest to push that because I know that it’s it’s coming no matter what, whether we like it or not.

 

Henry Lopez  36:11

And it’s exactly right. Well said. Your competition is going to leverage it against you if you don’t, and it allows us now for the first time at our level as small business owners to have access to that level of computation of of computer thinking that just accelerates everything. That’s the way I’m using it now. It just accelerates everything that I do.

 

Kaiden Routh  36:29

It does. I mean, it’s crazy how fast you can get a much better answer to a question you had than you would have years ago with just your you know research that I could have done.

 

Henry Lopez  36:40

Right. Thank you. Thank you for that that insight. What’s one thing then that you want us to take away from this conversation that we’ve had? You know, we’ve covered a lot of stuff from multi generational business and coming into your your dad’s business to growing it to growing to being CEO and not working so much in the business, but on top of the business, on the business culture. We’ve talked about a lot of different things. What’s one thing in particular, somebody who’s listening, that you want them to take away from this conversation?

 

Kaiden Routh  37:06

I think for me, one of my biggest strengths is knowing where my weaknesses are. I realized early on I was not good at holding accountability. I was not good at things like that, and just being in the business owner, to me, the most important thing is know where you struggle, know where you’re are not good, and bring people in around you that are accelerate in those areas, and your business will flourish from it. I’d say that’s the most important thing to me is just understand where you need help in your business.

 

Henry Lopez  37:36

Brilliant insight. Of course, traction talks about a lot of that, but I think it takes though. This is one of the things I’ve always admired about you: is you’re willing to listen and take input and to acknowledge your ego. You don’t allow your ego to get in the way of saying, “I’m not good at that. I need to get help in that area, or “I need to learn this particular thing. I think that that speaks to you as a person and your character that you’re you’re comfortable with yourself and saying, “I don’t know that I need help there.

 

Kaiden Routh  38:03

Yeah, I am, and it’s it’s not the easiest thing to come around to. Is especially growing up in the business the way I did. Is you were you were looked to have all the answers and be able to do anything, and so realizing that I don’t have all the answers and I’m not going to be great at everything. was was a real eye opener, and to embrace it and to build a team around it has has made our business so much better.

 

Henry Lopez  38:29

One expression, not expression, but but a way of thinking about leadership that I read or heard once was that people aren’t expecting us as leaders to have all of the answers. We think that’s what they want from us. They actually see you as more human and accessible. If you say, I don’t know, but I’m going to find out, or I don’t know, no, but we’re going to figure it out. What they want from us as leaders is that we have a plan for where we’re going, and then people are willing to follow, especially if they trust you and believe in you. Not that you have all the answers, but that you have a plan of action, and that’s what you’ve done so brilliantly, especially in leading Routh. All right, thank you so much for taking this time to converse with me and share all of this, it’s it’s been a pleasure even getting to know some things that I didn’t know even after coaching you for three years. So thank you so much for taking the time to be with me today.

 

Kaiden Routh  39:09

Hey, I really enjoyed this. It’s something I’ve always kind of thought about and never really done. So this was exciting for me, and and I enjoyed it.

 

Henry Lopez  39:17

Thank you, thank you so much. This is Henry Lopez, and thanks for joining us for this episode of the How of Business, my guest again today, Kaiden Routh. I release new episodes every Monday morning. You can find the show anywhere you listen to podcasts, including the How of Business YouTube channel, and of course at my website, thehowofbusiness.com Thanks again for listening.