Tim Hovik
Tim Hovik is an Executive and Philanthropist residing in Arizona. He’s the Owner & Operator of San Tan Ford in Gilbert, Arizona.
Mr. Hovik is the leader among his colleagues. Tim’s greatest asset is his ability to make the right decisions at the correct times. The evidence is in the results.
He’s also past President of the F.D.A.F. and current Chairman of the influential Ford National Dealers Council.
Tim’s passion for all things Ford is a wonderful bond. He’s led his team to the greatest of achievements. Presidents Award, Ford Top Dealer Challenge, and Premier Club Protect. The winner of Partners in Quality, Ford Top Volume Dealer Challenge, Premier Club Parts, Sales Leadership, Certified Pre-Owned Leadership Award.
And the winner of the coveted ONE Ford Elite recognition.
Outside of the office, often at 30,000 feet, his yardstick of achievement takes a different form. Tim’s drive for Success, Growth and Happiness are rooted in his mission for a thriving community. Vibrant communities with robust local economies are his path forward. And it’s for real. Less talk, more action is a mantra.
San Tan Ford has become more than the automotive leader. It’s a bonified brand as measured by outside marketers. Not an easy feat and “there is no finish line”.
Another key to Tim’s formula is meaningful relationships with Live & Local Sports. Crafted relationships include the Phoenix Suns, Arizona Cardinals, Arizona State University, Arizona Diamondbacks, The Phoenix Open, Fiesta Bowl, and the Charles Schwab Championship. Countless public schools and organizations. And wouldn’t you know it, all the Big Names do their automotive business at Tim Hovik’s place.
He’s much more than a “proud sponsor” kind of guy. Tim deep dives into these relationships and shares his experiences wrapped in a unique marketing sincerity.
Tim is a master marketer in a noisy world.
Mr. Hovik is known as The Go-To-Guy-To-Get-Things-Done. Tireless advocacy and business acumen combined with that well-placed sense of humor are his fundamentals. Tim drives revenue and beats accelerated goals
He’s a magnet for recruiting and retaining the best employee talent available.
That’s why they say: “If you have Tim’s cell phone number, you’ve really got something!”
Episode Transcription
Guiding Growth. Conversations with Community Leaders. In this podcast, we'll explore the human journey of leaders, their stories of humility, triumph, roadblocks and lessons learned. Come join us as we journey together and uncover the questions you've always wanted to know. This podcast is brought to you by the Gilbert Chamber of Commerce, providing resources, connections and belonging for business professionals and modern moments, an event and meeting venue in the heart of Gilbert and at Gilbert Independent, your Valley dot net dedicated to serving readers with good community journalism. The Gilbert Independent is a nonpartisan newspaper, an online site that covers our town's institutions, development and events.
Subscribe and follow your valley dot net daily to stay up to date with latest local news. I feel like this show is going to steamroll right over Sarah's head today. What do you guys think? Let's see where there's the possibility. Well, who do we have with us today? We have a guest who is a native of Washington State and made his way to Arizona by way of Arizona State University. Early in his career, he joined the team of valley legend, Tex Earnhardt and stayed with Earnhardt for 23040 years eventually becoming the general manager while he is known for his leadership in business and his philanthropic endeavors.
He's also recognized for his relationships with live and local sports, including the Phoenix Suns, Arizona Cardinals, Arizona State University, the Diamondbacks, the Phoenix Open Fiesta Bowl and so many more countless public schools and other organizations. He is the go to guy to get things done. He is Sam Tan Ford. Please welcome Tim. Ho, here we go. See. That's why I was thinking he's going to roll right over you here. Sarah. That's a great introduction. That was nice. I mean, I was checking to make sure it was really me.
Well, let's get started with what we call rapid fire. Would you rather sing in public or dance in public? It's got to be dance. I would love to see that. What is one of your nicknames? Teddy after Teddy ballgame? Would your 220 year old self think you are cool during the day, but probably not at night. Ok. Have you ever won a contest? Yeah, I did, I won, I won a uh Ford Motor Company was giving away the allocation to a GT and uh there was about 220 entries and I was sitting there and the guy on stage called my name.
So I can say I've won something that is amazing. And a good one at that. A lot of, a lot of leftover lottery tickets that I haven't cashed though. Ok. Um, I can't wait to hear the answer to this favorite movie of all time. I know it's the notebook. I think, Jaws, I think Jaws than the notebook. I mean, I didn't, it's got to be Jaws. I didn't swim. I mean, I didn't get in a swimming pool for like five years. Gotta be Jaws. I mean, it was transformational and then there's the meg that next level.
That was how do you overcome failures? You know, I think you recognize failure and you say that's part of success. And I don't know too many people. You read books. You hear people speak that are really successful and I think all of them intertwine into their message and they talk about the different times they've failed. And so, you know, I think what I always say about failure is just try not to do the same one over and over. You know, let, let it be a teaching moment.
Let it be something that transforms you and make you better fill in the blank. Joy is money. No, I'm just kidding. Huh? Are you? No, I'm just kidding. You know, joy is, uh, it's getting up and being able to do things that you like to do. And uh uh I, I enjoy people and so I think the, the automobile business, uh for me it's a people business. I get, uh I've got gosh, darn near 229 people that work with me every day. And I've got, uh, a whole lot of customers and friends that I've built up in the community that are both friends and customers.
And so, for me, I think being able to be around people, that's, that's the joy of things. All right. Are you more of an introvert or an extrovert? You know, the, the answer will actually probably surprise you. I'm actually an introvert. I, uh, I put on a pretty good show. I sort of, I sort of when I leave the house in the morning it, it's Showtime and it's time to, uh, be an extrovert. And I, and I have to kind of force myself to do it all day and, uh, into the evenings depending on what events I'm at.
And then when I get home, I'm a very, generally pretty quiet person and just kind of, there's a, I, I watched a thing years and years ago about, like, personality and it said, you know, kind of like if you're this, if you do this, you're this and that and so forth. And one of the things that I've over the years loved to do is go to the gym with headphones on, get on a treadmill and run. And it said if you wear headphones at the gym and you get on a treadmill and run, you are absolutely an introvert.
And they said they're talking about me targeting. All right. Another good question. Do you have a favorite book? Yes. Uh, I do and I can't think of the darn name of it, but I'll tell you what it was about. There was a, I wanna say it's into thin air or John Krakauer wrote it and it's a true story and I think there's so many lessons in it and inspirations in it. It's a true story about climbing Mount Everest. And it was about some climbers who perished climbing Mount Everest and others who got through a terrible storm.
And it's, uh, I really enjoy reading nonfiction. I, I not to say that fiction isn't great, but I, I enjoy reading biographies. I'm a big history buff. I love history. I intertwine my, my team, my people, everybody I know they're like, oh, no, here Tim goes again because I intertwine, uh, historical sayings or stories into things that I try and tie together. And I guess you'd have to ask the people that are forced to listen to me whether it worked or not. But, uh, I like reading like true things, things that inspire me or, or historic things that you look back on and go. Boy.
Was that just amazing that it worked out that way? Yeah, that's awesome. Ok. Last question here. What is one thing you are grateful for? Gosh, I just have been so blessed in so many ways. Um, you know, I have a, I have a, a spiritual belief. Uh, I'm, I'm not the, the best every Sunday, um, being in, in one place, uh, or church, but I have a, I have a deep faith and, uh, I really believe in karma and I believe that, uh, you know, Carmen never forgets an address either way.
And I've always believed if you treat people great, uh, it'll come back and if you don't, it'll also come back. And so for me, you know, that's, that's, that's kind of how I try to live. And, you know, we're, we're just frail human beings and there are days that I'm probably not very good at it. But we, we try. That's right. We keep trying. That's good every day at A PS. We're here to help you save energy and money. A PS Solutions for business can help you make energy efficient upgrades, more affordable, find rebates at a PS dot com slash business rebates.
All right. So let's get started talking about the beginnings of where it all started going back to the home. Right. I'm excited. I know. So, well, the extroverted Tim Hovik, but I'm, I'm excited to learn more about the introverted Tim Hovik. So let's start at the beginning. So let's talk about childhood. What was that like? Where did you grow up where it was, what was home like back then? You know. Um I was really lucky. I grew up kind of in a, uh, uh, a middle class family, uh, grew up in Everett, Washington about 0003 miles north of Seattle.
Um, like a lot of kids. My parents, when I was very young, divorced, I'm the youngest of three, both, all three of us boys. So I'm the youngest brother. Um, and, but I was, I was really blessed that both sides of the equation. My mom and my dad and so forth. Um, you know, they, they kind of always, I was never in the middle of anything, you know, between them and they kept a cordial relationship and, and so I knew really love from both sides and, uh, and I think it, it, for whatever reason I always felt maybe growing up first subconsciously and then at some point, maybe realizing that I was sort of the middle guy and it seems like my whole life, you know, I've been the middle guy, I've been sort of the, the, the moderator, the, the, hey, let's come together, let's build a consensus.
And I, I felt, you know, I think going back to my early years of grade school and middle school, um I was kind of that middle person between my dad and my mom and always trying to kind of keep the peace in whatever things I could do. And, and I think, uh, you know, it's funny those formative years, sometimes those things carry on with you. And I think people that know me in business or know me in politics or know me just in general. Look at me as I'm kind of somebody who tries to bring people together much more than I try and push people apart.
Yeah, it's interesting when you were growing up, uh, extracurricular activities, what did you do to keep busy? You know, uh, sports and then sports and then, you know, mixed in a few more sports. But I also, uh, it was, it's funny you don't think about it at the time, you know, I've had people ask me before, you know, um, and rightly or wrongly right, you can't really judge yourself. It's, you, you look at the same goofy, look in the mirror every morning when you're shaving and, you know, it's, you just keep smiling, but a lot of people think of me as a leader and I don't know, maybe I am or maybe I'm not.
Uh, but it was interesting. I always was sort of that, you know, I was never really thought about it. I was the captain of the football team in high school. Um, I was the student body president, in fact, at my high school, uh, at that time, nobody had ever been both. I mean, they were kind of the two things that everybody thought of as the, the poster child of your, you know, your high school students were in your high school. There were three. So, no, you barely made that one.
So there, you know, it was a little pool. No, there are about a couple 2000 couple 220 students Everett High school. So, uh, so it's just kind of, you know, I've always been a part of that and it was funny, I, I'll tell you kind of a side story when I first went to ASU uh and came down from, um, Everett and I came down here, one of the most appealing things to me was that I was gonna be nobody that I was, that I was because I'd always kind of elevated and, you know, Everett at the time was 290 70,000 people, three high schools, um, you know, sort of everybody knew everybody and, you know, you just, I always kind of felt like almost like pressure, right?
As a, and I feel that for a lot of the kids today, you know, I think, I think when you're in your later high school time, it's easy to start feeling pressure. Like, what am I gonna do? What should I do so forth that? And so when I went to a su I really was looking forward to just being sort of one of 40,000 kids. And what was interesting was, it was really good for a couple of years. And then I found, you know, I really miss being a leader.
I miss being able to influence and do things and lead people to better things. And I think it was, uh it was probably useful at that time in my life to learn that lesson and to realize the responsibility uh that comes from leading and it might not always be there and all of a sudden to go from being in a smaller town to kind of being one of the, the people on a pedestal to be one of 40,000. Maybe there was a middle ground somewhere, you know, maybe, maybe I could find and carve out some niche and something that I could get back into, maybe having some sort of a role as, as being a leader and, you know, God bless it sort of worked out that way thinking of your parents, which of the two do you feel like you lean more toward which one do you think influenced you more to be in that way?
Like what your parents, either them leaders like that or, you know, I think uh I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm kind of uh probably uh sort of unique and those to me would agree. Uh I'm probably pretty close to a split. My dad was, my dad had a little promoter in him. A little PT Barnum, a little energy. Everybody loved my dad, everybody, you know, and my mom was a grinder and my mom was a grinder and you got to grind. And I think for, you know, not being judgmental towards my parents, probably both of them could have used a little bit more of the other one, you know, opposites may attract a little bit.
And I think I was blessed to see, you know, all the exuberance that my dad had, there's probably needs to have a little bit of temper ment to it, to, to actually turn it into something that was positive, successful. Not that my dad wasn't successful, but I think my mom grounded me a little more and I think my mom's 203 by the way and let me break the news to you. She still grounds me quite often. Yeah. Yeah, she's, yeah, as they say, yeah, she'll always be my mom and I'm always her son and she reminds me of that quite often.
Ok, so how do you end up at a su how does that even become part of the equation? You know. So it's so funny, so many things that we look at, you know, you look back historically at so many people and it's like, well, you know, and it's just such a chain of goofy events. So, in my case, and I'll be very quick. My middle brother's best friend was a three time tennis state champion in the state of Washington and they were family, you know, their family knew our family well, he got recruited to go to a su to play tennis.
So my brother went to what we affectionately call in sports is a directional school. My brother went to Central Washington for a year. Well, the next summer they start talking, well, if you've gone to Central Washington and you're talking to somebody who'd gone to Arizona State, it wasn't a big conversation. Of, what am I doing at central Washington? So, my brother transferred now. He's seven years older than me. So, you know, I was in my late middle school years, I came down one spring break and was like, ok, so it doesn't rain 365 days a year everywhere else.
You know, not that it would catch a young lad's eye, but it seemed like, uh, the female population at Arizona State University was somewhat attractive. Uh, they weren't all wearing ski coats everywhere. They went like where I grew up. And so I was like one of those kids, you know, you always ask kids, you know, in high school and all, I don't know what I'm going to do. I don't know. I mean, from about the eighth grade on somebody said, hey, what are you going to do when you get done with high school?
I said I'm going to Arizona State. So I had, I had a clear definition of what I was gonna do. And so I followed my brother and ironically enough before I came to Arizona State, my oldest brother being somewhat intelligent as well, got involved in the same conversations came down and visited. So he ended up coming down to Arizona State. So all three of us came and then a side note. So you roll forward my three best friends that I grew up with in Everett, one of their daughters just graduated from Arizona State another one's son is now a sophomore at Arizona State.
And the third one's daughter is a freshman at Arizona State. And it's all because they came to visit me when I was going to Arizona State, they were in a position where they're like, ok, well, we can't transfer down, but they always remember and they said when we have kids, they're going to Arizona State. So we've created a little kind of northwest pipeline to the university just as I expected, it was all academically based. So perfect. That's just what I thought it would be. Uh, never, never made the dean's list, but I made a few other lists.
Oh, my gosh. Ok. So what, what do you study at Arizona State? Uh, I studied political science, my middle, so my middle brother, uh, graduated from Arizona State and went to the University of Arizona Boo, but he went to the University of Arizona uh law school. And so my brother is an attorney and of course, as younger brothers idolizing their older brothers, I thought, well, that's what I want to do. I want to be an attorney, but I quickly found out I really didn't want to be an attorney.
And, uh, I think now my brother, he's getting, you know, towards the end of his career at some point. And, uh, I'm not so sure he wants to be an attorney. I think he'd rather be in the car business. Grass is always greener is it? OK. So talk about uh after you graduate a su you have a gap year, right? Or how does it work out that you end up in so, so full transparency. OK. I always say uh Bill Gates, Michael Dell, Tim Hovik, the three most successful people in the history of the world that never graduated college.
So full transparency, I never did graduate. So I actually have more credits than you need to graduate. But the political science thing just wasn't up my alley. So I switched majors. So now I got, they're not in the right buckets, right. So I decide, you know what, I'm kind of burned out. I'll come back and finish. I need about another semester and maybe, maybe a, a session of summer school and I'll finish. But I knew some people that had gone into the car business and had made a little bit of money and I thought, you know, that probably sounds like a good thing to do.
So I decided I would take some time, you know, take off a semester. So I just walked in off the street to Tex Earnhardt to his original Ford store in Tempe and was fortunate enough, uh, to get hired initially. They did not hire me. I went back the next day after they told me they wouldn't hire me. And I said something's wrong here because I'm just trying to get a job selling cars and I don't know why you're not hiring me? Well, it turned out they couldn't verify some, some deal.
I often think if I hadn't gone back the next day, what, what would my career or life would have been? Political science, political science. Right. But I, so that's how I got it back in. And I just said, well, when I get kind of burned out, I'll go back and, and get the last bit of credits I need. And, uh, I'm still checking, I haven't got burned out yet, so I haven't gone back to the su yet, but I was one of my proudest moments because I love the university.
I've, I've, I've spoke to the business school. I support the athletics. I try and do everything I can as a Sun Devil. Uh And so a few years ago, it's probably one of the things that I'm the proudest of is they have an alumni award but can't be an official alumni if you haven't graduated and they have a non alumni award, uh, for, you know, basically, you know, what you've done to represent the Sun Devils and to help the school and, and I actually got the non alumni award.
Uh, and that was pretty cool. That was, that's one of, that's, that's one of the ones that's on the mantel. That's cool. Yet another contest. You've won another contest I won. There you go. I feel with your professional and life experience. I think that you could probably get your degree so you can qualify for the alumni award. Well, maybe I can put it next to it then. But I get that it's a motivation. I can, I can have books, goals for goals. But then I would assume he's not having fun in the automotive world that he would, that he can do so many things all at once.
This is the Tim Hovik. Ok. Well, so let's talk about people that guided you through this process. So when you're going through these school journeys and, and, and getting into the automotive industry, you probably have people that kind of help you out a long the way. Yeah. Yes. You know, I think, uh, I think it's important for, I, I think that's really the value that we offer the next generation. You know, there's a lot of things that we do that are important, but I hope that there's people down the road probably can't do anything more important than if somebody says I helped them and they end up in whatever endeavor it is.
Um, I, I kind of grew up around a lot of people that had, uh, a similar uh philosophy and that is, and we talk about that down at Santan Ford. We all, we all have different titles but nobody's any more or less important than anybody else. We just have different jobs that we do. So I grew up around a lot of people and kind of came up through the ranks that it was really taught and thought, whatever your job is, just be the best of it. If you, if you're, if you're the guy that's the custodian and that happens to be your position right now, be the best custodian that this company's ever had.
And if you happen to be, uh, the CEO of this company, be the best CEO and sort of anything in between. And I grew up, uh kind of was very blessed. It just seemed like that was a, uh a thread that ran through a lot of the mentors or just people that I looked up to and some of them probably didn't even realize they were mentors to me. But I just, I grew up, I watched what, how they went about and how they carried themselves and it created a level of respect.
One of my best uh mentors was a guy named Ed Trexler. So Ed Trexler was, uh he was an instructor at Arizona State University for probably 50 years. And Ed Trexler was also at the time, one of the most famous officials in sports, Ed Drexler refereed Rose Bowls in football bask NC, a playoff games. And I really took an interest in officiating, uh because I was like, you know, as much as I thought I was a really good athlete, I was a really good athlete ever at Washington, but with 40,000 kids at a su maybe not quite so much but I thought that's a, that's a way I can stay involved.
And the other thing that was important, I didn't have a lot of cash when I was going to a su and if you work the inter mural games, they paid you 15 bucks a game to referee these games. And I, it seems it worked out well for me it was a few over the time. So, but Ed had, and I talk about this too because it's, it, it sounds like a quick slogan, but it really translates into a lot of things that we do. And in business, I think it's important that you move fast but you, it also has to be well thought out.
And Ed Trexler had an expression that he said all the time and that is hustle. Don't hurry. We hustle, we don't hurry. Hurry implies chaotic, careless. We hustle, we don't hurry. And his other famous saying, and I live by these two sayings, it's so funny 3040 years later is he said, don't compound the drill, don't make it more complicated than it is. This is the drill. It's two plus two. It's not trigonometry, it's OK that it's two plus two. It can be just as important that it's two plus two.
It doesn't have to be complicated to be better. And so I think as you're trying to coach and teach and mentor people, if you can keep things were its not trigonometry? I mean, that's, that's the end of the day. I say it all the time. Hey, guys, it's basic arithmetic. This isn't trigonometry. Let's execute and then hustle. Don't hurry. Hey, we need to move. We need, we need the world's evolving. I mean, how the auto business is today versus how it was 20 years ago, you know, 20 years ago.
I mean, it's like black and white TV, with rabbit ears but you hustle, you don't hurry, do you? And you're in leadership now? I just, I have a few questions. So I'm gonna try to get to these. Um, first of all, let's go back to the kid who walked into Tex Earnhardt and Tempe many years ago, many, many years ago. Just kidding. Tell me, ever since I turned 29 last year, you've been all over me. Tell me the advice that you, if you could give advice to that kid today, what would you have told him?
You know, that's a great question, you know, probably don't ever go into this business. Um No, I'm just teasing. I think, I think I'd give the same advice to anybody I was with. I'll, I'll say it this way. I was asked a handful of years ago to, I was at a, a big luncheon downtown Phoenix and I was asked to, to be the introducer. Is that a word introducer? Can I use it? Now? I was asked to be the introducer for Jerry Colangelo and I know Jerry a little bit.
I mean, he could pick me out of a crowd of two. He doesn't know me great but we know each other. Uh And so I remember I was, I was talking to Jerry before I went up and, you know, hey, anything special you want me to say no, you know, Tim, you know, you know the drill, da, da, da, da da. But we kind of got into a conversation and I knew he had, I was going to speak to some younger students at a su and I knew he had just spoken to something because I'd heard overheard a conversation and I was looking to pick his brain.
So maybe I could sound smart like Jerry Colangelo. So I said, hey, you know, what was, what was uh your message to the kids? And he said, you know, Tim, I think the most important message you can tell younger people is that life is a bet and you're betting on yourself and never be afraid to bet on yourself. And then he walked through all the examples in the times. I mean, remember George Glan started as nothing. I mean, he worked his way up to be the coach, the general manager.
And how many of those guys? Oh, by the way, end up owning the team? Nobody. And then started the Diamondbacks owning the team and to, to do what he did and he walked me through it. It was all betting on yourself. And he said that's really what I try and let young people know is if you believe in something, don't be afraid to reach for it. You know, and it's the old reach for the stars. Say if you fall a little short, still pretty good. But I always took that away.
And I think that's, we're as older people, not old people remember that as older people. I think it's very easy that when we're talking to younger people and they tell us this dream or this ambition or this thing and it's really easy to go. Yeah, it's never gonna happen versus hold your tongue and go. Wow, that's really ambitious. Walk me through. What do you see? What do you think? Where are we going with this? And I think that's one of the things that we owe. I mean, if, how many, how many people when they came up with the internet, we were sitting there going?
Oh, wow, that's gonna be, that's gonna change the world. I mean, whoever told whoever told his teacher or his mom or his dad or is this? They're looking at him like this is nuts. But what happens? And you look at all the people that we hear their names all the time and the, the, the gates and the masks and the Amazon, all these different things and they're all, I mean, what a bet each one of those was, but it was a bet on the person that had the idea.
And I think that's a critical thing, young people, hey, we're betting on ourselves every day. And I feel like that when I tell, talk to even people my age and don't forget when you get out of bed today you're betting on you. Well, let's win the bet. So, you've taken leadership roles at a national level and you've be, become a leader for Ford across the country. What are some of your pinch me moments where you still can't believe that this is you. Well, one of the big ones was last month.
I was at, uh I, I think I mentioned earlier um when we were talking off off air, I, I interviewed Bill Ford in front of like 20,000 people. And I mean, you know, here's the great, great grandson Henry Ford and he's the chairman of the board for Ford Motor Company. And I'm Tim Hovik from Ever Washington and sitting there with him and I think the pinch me moment was when I was done and I walked back to the dressing room and uh where they take off your microphones and all that stuff.
And I said the craziest thing about this whole event is I belonged up there. I wasn't by accident. I mean, leading up to it the whole time, I thought this is crazy. What the heck. But when I did it and I was done with it and Bill and I, over the years have kind of created a friendship and we're talking to each other. Like I talked to somebody here in Gilbert. I mean, just, just people. And I think being exposed to some of the things I've been exposed to or some of the blessings that I've been, you know, given standing, you know, on a field during a game because of my career, they're all kind of pinch me moments, but then the bigger pinch me moment is just you go, hey, you know what?
OK, this is, this is what I am. This is, I'm not, I'm not better or worse, but I put in a long amount of work to get to this point in my career and in my life, OK, I belong here. I think that's actually something that we pick up with a lot of our discussions with leaders is the balance between. How did I get here? Should I be here? And I belong here? I deserve this. And I think keeping that healthy balance is what makes them good leaders. Yeah.
II I wouldn't disagree. And I think it's a, it's always a, uh, there are times where I get to do some things where boy, it's pretty easy to think. You're awful cool. I mean, it's real easy and you got to kind of take a step back and go. No, you're still the same goofball that you looked in the mirror this morning is shaved just like you did 20 years ago, but you get these opportunities. I'll tell you a funny, a funny thing that kind of ties a little of, a lot of what you've asked me together and keeps you a little bit humble.
And it also, you know, ties into some of the things with, with younger people. So a few years ago I was, it was before COVID, whenever that was, I'm not sure, but I was speaking to an honors group down at the A SU business school and kind of came up and talking about some of the fun things I've got to do and so forth. And this one student raised, raised her hand and she said, I gotta ask you, how many Super Bowls have you been to? And I, I said, you know, that's a, that's a good question and I'm gonna answer that.
But I said before I answer that, I said, let me tell you what a great question is. She says, ok, I said, how many Super Bowls did I miss? Hm. And she goes, well, what do you mean? And I said, I've gotten to go to however many, uh, you know, few handful of super bowls. I said, I can tell you, I have to think about that. But what I don't have to think about is in my career, I missed seven in a row. I worked, I was the only one that worked.
Everybody else wanted it off and I realized it was an opportunity for me to learn, for me to grow in my career and for me to elevate above others. Again, life's a competition. There's other people that want the next job that I'm trying to work my way up to and get promoted and earn. And I'm not being critical of anybody, but they didn't miss those Super bowls. I missed him because I knew that at some point pretty competitive world. What was going to differentiate me? And I'll say it and I don't mean to say it in the wrong way at all.
But none of those people that saw those super bowls, none of those people own a Ford dealership today. And for me, I saw that was a way to differentiate. So it was an interesting conversation and, uh, I kind of got a lot of, wow, I never really thought about that. You know, it's always, everybody's excited about today and all the fun stuff today, but it's easy to forget about how much sacrifice went into it years ago. Kind of climbing up the ladder alive. Well, I'll say, I think you still put in sacrifice.
I, I have a handwrit calendar of his 90 day activities and I think you're in town like maybe three days at a time before you're off to something else. You have your foot on the gas all the time. How, how do you sustain that? What is the next decade look like for you, you know, we'll say, right. Uh, my national role is, um, it's becoming a little more clandestine. I'm, I'm not, uh, I just, within the last few days have ended my, uh, time, uh, it was a one year term that I did three years of, uh, as, uh, the head of Ford's Council for North America.
Um, I still him on, you know, a lot of things that committees or whatnot that I'm, do some in, have some input, I guess you'd say. Uh interestingly enough, we're trying to maybe modernize and create a little more uniformity across the world because for it's a global brand, we're in all the continents, well, not Antarctica but, you know, pretty much everything else. So, uh ironically enough here in a couple of weeks I have to go down uh to Buenos Aires. So I've joked I won't have as many trips as I've had over these last chunk of years.
They'll be, uh they'll be spread out a little more, but there'll, there'll be a few more frequent flyer miles involved. I think I have to go to Dubai in January. It's, it's interesting um how worldwide and global Ford really is. I mean, we're, we're everywhere and it's been, uh that's been an interesting piece of learning to talk to dealers from all over the world and you realize it's business is so funny, you realize different businesses, different continents. It's always surprising to me that there's a small bucket of things that are unique to that particular business or that particular area.
And then there's a really big bucket of. Wow, you got the same issues I got, we got the same headaches. We have the same things that are really going good for us. Uh And so it's been, it's been an interesting learning journey for me to be more and more exposed to kind of the international scope of this industry. Um, after being exposed really to all of North America. Well, I was, um also hoping that in the next decade we could just use an electronic calendar, but that's a great answer too. Tim.
Well, uh the way I could respond to that is here, here comes, I've been known as somewhat of a late adopter when it comes to technology and if you want to see a grown man, uh go into a fit, uh, just get me talking about all these darn electronic tickets to go to games because there is every vice president of every professional sports team in this town, Arizona State University's athletic department, the Phoenix Open. I don't care who it is. I have voiced my deep concern that they can't hand me a paper ticket.
I mean, is it that hard? Could you just print me a paper ticket? Do I really have to have an app? And every one of them has their own app and everyone one's on text, one's on email, one's on this one's on. Just give me a paper ticket. Can't we be dinosaurs going to do? I'm going to volunteer to be your ticket manager. And if you just buy a second ticket to every activity, I will manage your entry. I'm in, I'm in that. That's much easier than what's going on right now.
Sounds good. She was close to trying to get the tears coming out of you on this one. That was one of her goals. Well, this has been an incredible conversation, Tim, thank you for joining us and thank you for sharing your thoughts and ideas and your journey that you've been on. Uh I've been really enjoyed learning all of this that you've been through and gone through and where you're going. It sounds exciting. I'm glad to get to know you today. No, it's been, it's been really fun.
II I really enjoy this and uh hey, uh we, we try, I, I say all the time, hey, we can't change the whole world, but we can change our little corner of it. So we'll just keep uh pushing that rock up the hill and I've been really impressed with, with this facility. I mean, this is, this is really cool. I mean, and, and that not just this room that we're doing this in, but just the whole uh modern moments and everything that's going on here. This is really cool. Congratulations.
Thank you. Life comes at you interestingly for sure. You know, that. Well, if you enjoyed this show, which I know you did, please subscribe to our tribe so you can get these in your inbox and learn all these great conversations we have with amazing people like Tim. Thanks for being here today. Thank you, guiding growth, conversations with community leaders. Ben, let me ask you a question. How do you see other community members being involved in this podcast? This is going to be a great opportunity for so many people in the community to have a chance to be heard if they want to tell their story or if they just want to be part of this journey with us and help sponsor in a way that helps bring more people to the table with us.
So I think there's many opportunities at hand whether you want to again be on the show, reach out to us, let us know what your story is and how you think you could be part of it. We'd love to hear from you. Reach out, let us know and we'll see if we can make that connection.
