Gavin recently travelled to California and met up with Simon Leven from Leven Smash Repair Group in New South Wales. Simon had been in the United States to attend a Growth Conference in Las Vegas held by Grant Cardone. Simon loves studying leaders and successful people and hearing about their stories. He finds them very inspiring and at the Conference, Simon heard from speakers like John Travolta, Usher, Mayweather, Scooter Braun and even Magic Johnson.
Whilst in the USA Simon thought it would be great to visit the shop that Gavin always talks about in Mainline Autobody in Santa Maria. Gavin was able to arrange this and they were able to meet with its equally incredible leader Mr. Joe Hinkens.
Simon took so much from that visit. Joe has spent a lifetime perfecting a very complex industry with hundreds of moving parts and has done an exceptional job of pulling it all together, running a very high-performance team – high performance machine. If Body Shops were rated with Michelin star, then this would rate very high. Joe is a great leader with a great team, but he has not done this on his own, he has done it with a great team around him and relentless, persistence, hard work and focus.
Mainline Auto Body is very big on culture and energy and Simon rates this a 10/10, a rating he does not give lightly. You instantly feel the energy when you walk in, the staff are receptive, welcoming, focused and in control. They work together, have each other’s back and straight away you can tell they enjoy what they do and playing their part in the business.
While they were onsite, they noticed that Mainline was down their Production Manager, Parts Manager and Store manager and a few of the staff were feeling off but the business just ran. Staff just picked up the slack for the team members that were missing, they knew what needed to be done and when you go into a business that is that streamlined they don’t even look busy. Everyone knew what needed to be done and cars were going out the door. You needed to stop and look closely at all the processes that are happening right under your nose. You hear the word “Synergy” and Mainline is one of the first places that Simon has seen definition of that word. People working autonomously – fascinating to watch.
Simon only had one word for the main man himself – Joe Hinkens – Legend. He is the star of the show and an incredible leader. He is great with people, a great negotiator and probably one of the most abundant men Simon has come across, a wealth of knowledge and a delight to be around.
Gavin was very excited when Simon asked to visit Joe and the team at Mainline, it really lifts him up because you must visit it to experience the energy there. You leave motivated and energized with a newfound passion that you just want to step into another realm as a human being – just from that experience. Gavin not only wanted to set up the visit but join Simon because each time he visits he comes away with new inspiration.
Simon came away with so much energy, but you could easily get overwhelmed with what Joe has done. It is about potentially identifying one or two things that may have a great effect on his business and then share that with the team to see what they can implement to move the needle at Leven Smash Repairs. Work out what needs to happen and how we utilize what we already have in place to achieve the improvements. It is always about finding the next thing and saying this is what we are going to do.
Simon finished his trip to the States with another Conference called Mind Valley, a good opportunity to wind down, cool the jets and be ready to get back into it once back in Australia.
You can find out more about Leven Smash Repairs using the link below.
https://levensmashrepairs.com.au/