Turning Negatives into Positives

By Matt Richart

I have always been a half-glass-empty kind of guy. I don’t know why I have been this way most of my life, but I think it’s to protect myself from disappointment. I have always looked at the worst-case scenario of any situation and then would build back up to the positives. When we first started Digital EFX Wraps I looked at what would happen if we went out of business. How much debt would we be in? What would we be liable for financially? I also used this same approach in selling at times. I would let the customer know what could go wrong and why if we didn’t follow certain steps and guidelines. This is a good way to protect yourself and your company, but I started to see more negativity in myself in a lot of social settings. When our company was first created it was just Dallas and me. I’m sure at times my glass-half-empty attitude wore Dallas out mentally. I didn’t want to portray myself as a Debby downer, but I continued to look at every situation as what the worst-case scenario in that situation would be. When we started to slowly add new team members to our crew, I started to realize that being a leader requires more positivity than negativity. I finally got honest with myself and realized that I needed to change. Change is very difficult and can be very challenging. I just knew in the back of my mind that being a business owner required more precise leadership than positivity. I don’t think I would follow my leader into a burning building if they came across as negative most of the time. As I have mentioned in a few of my previous articles, fear really did hinder my growth at times. I do believe that I’m more realistic than most people but also think I read that as being negative or can come across that way to others. I can fully admit that my wife does not like my realistic approach to life at times so maybe that’s why I’m even more focused on being positive. I’m still not a big reader at the ripe old age of 47. With that said, being in this leadership role I have learned that it’s essential to pick up more books to read and to increase my knowledge. My interest in business development, team building, becoming a better leader, creating culture, and how to communicate better has pushed me to read more. I was looking over some topics recently regarding being positive and came across a great quote from Willie Nelson. He says, “Once you replace negative thoughts with positive ones, you’ll start having positive results”. This really hit home with the simplicity of his statement. I started to realize that to keep things positive I need to constantly have positive thoughts that replaced my negative thinking. I have said this before, but this is common sense. But it’s not common sense until it becomes common practice. So, working on staying positive became my focus so it was common practice. My team and my business partner may disagree that I haven’t changed but I truly believe I have turned the corner and continue to work on this characteristic of myself. Our company has been through a lot of growth along with ups and downs. I think we can all agree we have all dealt with this and continue to do so today. Creating a company that has been around for twenty years now definitely has negatives and positives that come across our desks every day. It’s how we handle these issues that are most important. In order for our team to have confidence in the leadership of our company we must convey positive energy along with positive thoughts. One way I have learned to combat this is to keep a smile on your face along with not showing your emotions on your sleeve. If the leadership seems calm, relaxed, and upbeat that will permeate into your team.

I had this topic set up for September’s issue but this morning we were dealt a large blow that I don’t mind sharing. Our team just completed a full wrap for a Lexus GX that just came out on the market. We did a wonderful color change in satin black for our local Lexus dealership and charged adequately for what it took to install properly with longevity. When the dealership picked up the vehicle they were impressed and happy with the work that we produced. The vehicle itself had some wiring issues and some of the sensors in the bumpers and fin antenna were not working properly. These issues were resolved but then the dealer noticed that the antenna and headliner were damaged and needed to be replaced. I won’t get into specifics of our quality control, checklists, and what we do to protect ourselves from he said she said. What I can say is basically the repair costs to what has happened erase the entire profitability of what we produced. The

first knee-jerk reaction would be to yell, scream, get angry, and lash out at whoever was involved in this project. What we did as a team was to reverse engineer what happened and how to resolve this issue moving forward. As leaders we stayed positive, and we wanted to make sure this huge mistake didn’t kill the momentum, attitude, and vibe of our entire shop. Let me say that our lead installer is devastated by what has happened. He is a seasoned wrapper that we rely on every day and have for over 10 years. I am a little sick to my stomach as to the amount of money it will cost to repair these issues and it did affect our monthly goals and revenue. What is most important is that we look at the bigger picture and how we can all learn from our mistakes. I can remember my 5th grade English teacher having a poster on her wall that said “If we all learned from every mistake, we all would be perfect” I still remember this statement today. Dallas and I stayed calm, and reserved, and talked through this incident with our team. Staying positive allowed our Install leader Darryl and our sales manager Neal to handle the situation more positively. I couldn’t be prouder of how they handled this horrible situation. While they both were upset and didn’t enjoy handling this situation they kept their heads high, put a smile on their faces, and put this issue to rest. Now, the most important part of turning negatives into positives is looking at this situation and how we can learn from it. Instead of beating ourselves up and draining all our momentum we now have implemented three more procedures to protect ourselves as a company moving

forward. As a team, we all got together to discuss what transpired, why it happened, and how to combat these issues moving forward and gave everyone a pat on the back. Nobody was injured and it wasn’t a complete failure. In the past, I would be defeated by this occurrence, and it would eat me up for days. Now it’s a relief to stay positive during these times, learn from our mistakes, and make sure our team knows we have their backs even when mistakes happen. I’m just thrilled I can type out this negative story with some positivity. Ten years ago, that would never have happened. I highly recommend if you have some of my same traits start to work on your outlook and positivity. Put a smile on your face every morning so that your team, clients, and family can feel your positivity. Staying positive has allowed me to enjoy life even more and to recognize when things are starting to become negative. Don’t allow too much negativity into your life and don’t dwell on the negative. It requires too much energy to be negative and angry. If you ever see me at a show or event, I will be more than happy to discuss the details of what transpired. Keep smiling and keep staying positive. It will pay dividends more than you know!!

Matt Richart Matt@digitalefxwraps.com Co-Owner/CFO, Digital EFX Wraps LLC. Instructor, Inside The Wrap Shop