Executive Profile with Jim Fitzpatrick, Powered by CBT News

Car Dealer by Day, Racing Champion by Night: Ben Keating Defies All Limits

• CBT News • Season 1 • Episode 11

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The journey from washing cars to building a 31-dealership empire and winning the prestigious 24 Hours of Le Mans isn't one traveled by many, but Ben Keating has navigated this extraordinary path with unwavering determination and a competitive spirit that defies conventional limits.

In this revealing Executive Profile, Ben Keating shares the remarkable story of how a college engineering graduate who once "hated the car business" transformed into one of the most successful automotive entrepreneurs in Texas. After witnessing the profit potential during a college internship, Keating dove headfirst into car sales, selling an astonishing 26 vehicles his first month and earning $11,400 when his engineering peers were making $40,000 annually. This early success, however, was just the prelude to a journey filled with both triumph and adversity.

Perhaps the most defining moment came when philosophical differences with his father led to his termination from the family business, leaving him unemployed with paper assets but no cash flow. With just $1,000 in the bank and a $1,200 mortgage payment looming, Keating faced a pivotal crossroads. Through creative financing and sheer determination, he purchased a bankrupt Ford dealership in Port Lavaca, Texas, transforming it into the foundation of what would become Keating Auto Group. His perspective on this challenging period reveals his entrepreneurial spirit: "Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose. Everyone asks me how I take all this risk, and the answer is: when you have nothing, there is no risk."

Today, Keating's business philosophy centers on developing talent from within and creating equity partnerships with store operators, fostering an ownership mentality throughout his organization. Beyond the showroom, his passion for competitive motorsports has led him to the winner's podium at the world's most prestigious racing events, including an emotional victory at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2023.

Looking toward the future of automotive retail, Keating maintains an adaptable approach to industry challenges: "I'm an omni-channel retailer. I don't care what Americans want to drive or how they want to buy it – I want to sell it to them." This flexibility, combined with his competitive drive, positions Keating Auto Group for continued success in an evolving marketplace.

Tune in to hear the full, unfiltered story of how Ben Keating built his automotive empire while pursuing his passion for racing at the highest levels of motorsport.

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Jim Fitzpatrick:

This is the Executive Profile, exclusively on CBT News. Today's episode has been sponsored by the Presidio Group.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

On this edition of the Executive Profile. We visited Ben Keating at the headquarters of Keating Auto Group in Victoria, texas. Ben Keating is a rare breed of visionary automotive entrepreneur and a world-class race car driver, whose dual passions have propelled him to the pinnacle of both industries. As the founder and principal of Keating Auto Group, he oversees one of Texas's largest privately held dealership networks, encompassing over 30 franchises across the state. Yet it's his second act behind the wheel that captivated motorsports fans worldwide. Ben and I discussed some of the important issues facing dealers today, including tariffs, evs and economic headwinds. We also discussed some of the many personal and professional challenges Ben faced in building his automotive empire. I know you'll enjoy this special edition of the Executive Profile featuring Ben Keating. Ben Keating, president and owner of Keating Automotive Group here in Victoria, texas. Thank you so much for allowing us to come in and spend some time with you here at CBT News. Thank you, jim. I'm excited that you came all the way to Victoria, texas. It's a beautiful spot and again, we appreciate you allowing us to come in here and have you featured on the Executive Profile.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

So let's start in the beginning and tell me a little bit about your family, your background. You're a third generation auto dealer and was the family from Victoria? No, so when I grew up, my grandparents were in Baytown, texas, on the east side of Houston. My grandfather was an engineer for Exxon or Humble Oil back in the day, I would say. Eventually, he and his brother became a car dealer. They decided it'd be fun to buy a dealership and then eventually, you know so, my grandfather became a Ford dealer, his brother became a Chevy dealer.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

Uh, and then battling it out in the same area. That's right, wow, that's right. But, uh, you know, as it happened, my grandfather had five children. Yeah, four of them became Ford dealers. That is incredible, wow. And what circa is this? What time period are we talking about? I'm going to say that I think they started selling out of their dealerships in the late 80s, okay, and I'm going to say that they were a dealer. I know that my grandfather was a dealer in the early 60s, okay, so something around that time frame. Sure, I've got all these photos of my grandfather with a brand new 65 Mustang sitting on the showroom floor.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

Wow.

Ben Keating:

What that would bring today. Right, that's right. Yeah, that's right. But, uh, so I grew up around the business. So my father was the Ford dealer in Tomball. Okay, uh, uh, I I moved there when I was two weeks old, uh, uh, and so you know, I say I wasn't born in Texas but I moved here as quickly as I could.

Ben Keating:

But I grew up in and around the car business at Tomball Ford and every time we went to Thanksgiving or Christmas or any family holiday, the conversation around the table was I mean, it was like a little 20 group, I would imagine. Yeah, everybody was a Ford dealer, that's right. And always talking about the various aspects of the business. I bet as a kid I didn't really think I was learning anything. Yeah, yeah. Now I look back on it and know that I was learning through osmosis. That's right. Right, at the very highest level, by the way. Right, I mean, you got all these dealer principals sitting around the table, right, and it's how many do you have out this month? What's your average gross profit? What's your back end look like? Oh, probably, back then there wasn't a back end, right? So it's really interesting. So in 1971, my father was working for Owens Corning Fiberglass in Pennsylvania.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

Okay.

Ben Keating:

And you know, he got a call from his father, my grandfather, that said why don't you come to Baytown, move back to Texas and start this new thing in our industry called finance and insurance? Oh my gosh, imagine that. And so, in 1971, my grandfather was asking my dad to come down, uh, to start this new thing. Isn't that amazing? And uh, you know, halfway down they stopped at a pay phone to give an update on their travels. At a pay phone to give an update on their travels. And halfway down, when they called my grandfather to say, you know, hey, this is where we are, he said, hey, what do you think about being a dealer instead? And so he had gotten a line on the Ford dealership in Tomball, and so you know that completes the circle of all the of all the boys.

Ben Keating:

That's right, that's kind of how it went down. Yeah, funny, because if any of any had daughters, uh, it might've been different, because certainly he did.

Ben Keating:

Okay, you know when I say that he had five children and four of them became dealers, right, two of those were daughters. Oh, no, kidding, okay, wow. So, wow, early, early on. Yes, yeah, you don't see a lot of female dealers that early, you know, in the of course. We need more female dealers today in the business, right, absolutely, that's something, that's something.

Ben Keating:

So, um, so, let's pick it up from there. So you go to work for and with your dad in the store. No, I, uh. So my experience in working in the dealership, uh, was made up of parking cars in a straight line, uh, washing cars and picking up trash. Okay, that's all I knew about the business, Sure, and I hated the business. I felt like you were doing it. All my memories were, you know, making minimum wage, doing minimum wage type jobs, Sure, and I hated it, right.

Ben Keating:

So, you know, I ended up going to Texas A&M and getting an engineering degree and I wanted nothing to do with the business. Okay, and Did you think? Because of the experience you had picking up trash and cleaning cars you were like, if this is the car business, that's right. Okay, that's right. No, it's like, you know, that's all I knew about the business, so I wanted nothing to do with it.

Ben Keating:

Sure, and I ended up, you know, in the middle of my engineering degree. I was expected to do an internship Okay, and I struggled to, you know, got wind that I was looking for something and invited me to do an internship with his company Okay. And so I did an internship with what I now would say is an insurance company. Okay, but their foot in the door was doing training, okay. And so I went to a different dealership every week all summer long, wow, doing training for car dealers. Some of it was sales manager training, some of it was salesperson training, some of it was F&I. This is great training for you, exactly, Wow. And so, knowing that I had this history of growing up around these car dealer type conversations, I had some sort of an idea in my head of what a well-run store would look like.

Ben Keating:

Sure, you had exposure to so many and so I also recognized it as being an ultra-competitive environment, right, and so what I came out of this internship with were several things. Number one you know these guys. I got access to see what kind of money these guys were making. Yeah, as a poor college kid it was. It was pretty impressive. It was an enormous sum of money, sure, and so I thought I mean number one these guys are making a ton of money, money, sure, and so I thought I mean number one these guys are making a ton of money. Number two generally speaking, these guys in my know-it-all college kids and naive self, I thought these guys are doing a terrible job of running their business.

Ben Keating:

You knew more, that's right. I mean, I won't say I knew more, but I thought that they were just not doing a very good job or running their business, sure. And would you have conversations with your dad about this? No, not yet. Okay, uh, uh. But so because I recognized it as being an ultra competitive environment. Yeah, I thought, man, if these guys are my competition, then this is the business I have to get into, because I can run circles around these guys, sure, and even running it as poorly as they're running it, they're still making this much money, right? That is literally where I divided that I was going to get in the car business, and that's so. You know, my wife and I met in engineering at A&M. We got married one week after we graduated. I told her to get a job anywhere USA because I can get a job in the car business, right. So she went to work at Dell building, you know, laptops.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

Yeah.

Ben Keating:

Wow, back in 1995. Okay, and I got a job selling Fords at Covert Ford in Austin. Wow, so my start was selling cars in Austin.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

Yeah, Did you?

Ben Keating:

find it to be as easy as you thought it was going to be when you were versus the training.

Ben Keating:

So I grew up at Tomball Ford, where the guys that I knew to be successful were selling somewhere between 12 to 15 cars a month, and I knew that. You know most of the guys at the dealership the high performers were selling 12 to 15. At Covert Ford, when I started in 95, this dealership was selling anywhere from 600 to 800 vehicles a month. It was a very big store. That is a high volume store, yeah, and they had roughly 45 salespeople. Okay, very, you know, smartly, I would say now, but they only kept track of the top 10 on the board, really. And so when you walked into the sales manager's office, you only saw the top 25% of their salespeople. Sure, and I'm looking up there in my interview and I'm like you know, it's 25 and 22 and 20. Yeah, yeah, but everybody was selling 20 cars a month, wow. And so, from your perspective, from my perspective, right, I knew what the top performers that I grew up with were doing, sure, and I thought I was scared to death, right, and to me this was a.

Ben Keating:

You know, I was making my bet on my life and my career, yeah, and so I told my wife at the time, you know, I don't know if I'm going to be successful in this or not but, I'm going to work from the time we open to the time we close, six days a week for this first month, and I'm making a commitment to myself that I'm never going to walk away from the opportunity to talk to a customer. And the end result is that you know, I sold 26 cars my first month. Wow, that's so big. I was salesman of the month Wonderful. My first month, very good.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

You were hooked.

Ben Keating:

In 1995, I made $11,400 as a salesperson selling cars. That is phenomenal, which the highest paid job that I graduated with at the time was 40 grand a year. Oh my gosh. And when I had just made 11 grand my first month selling cars, I'm like you're in, yeah.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

Completely hooked, exactly.

Ben Keating:

Exactly. And it's funny because people that are getting into the business today, they don't necessarily, as we know, they don't have that attitude of I'm going to work key to key and I'm going to work six days a week and I'm going to give it my all and I'm going to. You know, the first question today is well, when? What's my time off and what's the? You know the, the balance, the work life balance, all about and you know, and and we'll talk about that, but work, they just aren't the same as when you and I cut our teeth in the business. Right, we do a lot of recruiting out of Texas A&M. Okay, we have a really big kind of a system set up to where we do a lot of recruiting. That's great, wow. And that's one of the things that we have learned through the years of needing to deal with, needing to set up the right expectations for what this business is and what it isn't. That's right, because you've got to make sure they've got the proper expectations if they're going to be successful long term. So here you are knocking the cover off the bowl in another dealership. When do you join forces with the family business? So it's really funny as I look back on it. So I was very successful selling cars.

Ben Keating:

Yeah, I can't believe your dad wasn't on the phone every week, going for six months. I sold cars for six months and I thought I was doing really well. I was really eager to move up and Covert Ford, the dealership I worked for, was promoting a salesperson off of the floor to go into finance, be a finance manager, and they did not interview me and so I was taken aback by that. At the time I thought you know, I'm doing a great job here, I'm jumping through all the hoops, I'm doing everything I need to do. I'm not saying that I should be the one that is promoted, but I want to feel like I was at least considered. Sure, I want to be interviewed, sure, and I came to the realization that I wasn't going to move up as fast at this store as I wanted to. Sure, and I was very close with my dad at this time.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

Okay.

Ben Keating:

You know, and I knew him well enough to know, that the only reason he hadn't fired his used car manager was because he didn't have a replacement, and so I asked my father for the used car manager position. Wow, at Tomball Ford. Wow, that's different than a salesperson, as you know in business at Tomball Ford. Wow, that's different than a salesperson, as you know in the business. And uh, and my mom was wise enough to say this is a terrible idea. Do not do it.

Ben Keating:

To you or to him, or to both, both. Okay, and uh, we did it anyway.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

Okay.

Ben Keating:

Okay, and that's how I got started and that's something. Wow, never looked back, that's right. Yeah, yeah, so you stayed at that dealership and then talk talk to me about that, cause I know that. So, uh, uh, I became used car manager, uh, in, uh, in 96. Uh, and I, uh, I loved it. Yeah, Uh, it was a lot of problem solving. Yeah, I loved it. Yeah, it was a lot of problem solving. Yeah, you know everything about a used car inventory. Out there is, you know, everybody's judgment calls are on display. Of course they are.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

No question, especially back then. Yeah, yeah, you didn't have the technology.

Ben Keating:

Before you had all the technology that's available today. Right, it was. You know what do I keep and what do I wholesale. You know what do I recondition and what do I not recondition. What did I step on and pay?

Ben Keating:

way too much for what did I? Where do I price it at? Yeah, you know, and so you know everybody's. Decisions are out on display. This is true, decisions are out on display and, uh, I loved that analytical type of problem solving in that environment. Now, that can also be one of those areas. If you took over used cars, you're working for your dad where he's like, hey, your wholesale loss is too much and that car's 120 days. Were there arguments that ensued because of that? We were very close at the time and I was very successful quickly.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

Well, there you go.

Ben Keating:

And so it was more of you know. He put me on a pedestal, going man look how good I am. That's good, that's good Proud of you, and so I mean it's kind of interesting how things went along. Sure, I ended up so we were a Ford store. He gave me the opportunity to buy in as a partner in the store at 5% per year for five years. So all the money I could save was going into buying this 5% per year. It was a very discounted rate.

Ben Keating:

Yeah percent for a year. It was a very discounted rate, yeah, uh, and the idea was I'll sell you this 25 percent for five percent for five years at a discounted rate. Right, then the next 25 percent will be at a much higher rate and then the last 50 is going to be outrageously high. Still a very good deal, but you're going gonna have the income, sure to pay for it, right, couldn't beat the terms, of course, and so, uh, but still, at that point, everything I could say was going into buying this five percent per year, right, uh. And so I was an owner in the store, but I was still a used car manager. Yeah, and uh, I ended up hiring my for Ford rep to be the general sales manager, no kidding. So the used car manager is hiring the Ford rep to be the GSM, right, who's also an owner? Yeah, it's a little convoluted.

Ben Keating:

Yeah, eventually that GSM got an opportunity to be a general manager for AutoNation, so he left. Okay, I took that position. So I became the GSM there and took on those roles, and then everything was going fairly well. But as I got more involved in the leadership of the entire dealership, yeah, and I would say, more of my decisions are on display for everybody to critique. Sure, uh, uh, you know. Then we started to have a little conflict, okay, okay, so now it's just the one store that your dad has at that point in time and he's slowly selling it to you. Was his goal there to retire at some point in time and or to acquire more stores? What was he thinking?

Ben Keating:

I guess I'll say, uh, I think that was the original intent. Yeah, uh, uh. I'll also say we'll never know. Yeah, uh, you know the uh. My dad, his passion, or his fun, yeah, was to. We like to always say he loved to play in the dirt. Okay, he loved to. He had a lot of farmland, he had a lot of tractors and bulldozers and backhoes and you know he owned several pecan orchards. Sure, wow, and so that was his passion he loved to play with heavy machinery in the dirt. And so from the time of, I'm going to say from 96, through nine well, not 96, I'm moving to a new dealership location. So we bought property, okay, and he was basically the general contractor, but he did all the dirt work himself.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

No kidding.

Ben Keating:

Raised 17 acres four feet.

Ben Keating:

Oh my God, it was a swamp kind of area and he was gone playing in the dirt for three years, okay, and in that amount of time did you step up to become the general manager? No, I was the GSM. Gsm, okay, the general manager had been there for 40 years. Oh, wow, he wasn't going anywhere, right, right, years. Oh wow, he wasn't going anywhere, right, right, uh.

Ben Keating:

So the you know, uh, at this time I was 15, 20 owner, okay, but I was the gsm, okay, uh, okay, I was making a lot of those decisions. You're running the front end of the business, that's right, yeah, yeah and uh, and so, uh, after we moved into the new building, after the construction process was completed, and we're in there and we're rolling, I'll say a couple of things. My dad had been absent from the involvement for two or three years, which gave me a lot of autonomy to make things my own, of course, yeah. And then the other thing was that after that was over, he's back involved and he's looking for something to do, you know, sure. And that's where the conflict really kind of started. Yeah, sure, because he would say that's not how I want to do it, right, and I'm like, well, that's how we've done it for the last two years, right, right, and so Sure.

Ben Keating:

There's a lot of people watching that can relate to that. That's right.

Ben Keating:

Yeah, there were. You know, there were too many cooks in the kitchen, yeah, and the kitchen was too small that's right to work under. And, uh, I think part of it is that, uh, it was, you know, it was my unwillingness to uh, uh, uh, you know, to uh, I can't think of the right word but uh, it just acquiesced to his, his, exactly. Yeah, so his leadership, you know, uh, understand, I was very passionate about how I thought it should be done and, as we're in our younger years, when he came in and said, hey, that's not how I want to do it, sure, you know well, I think you're wrong.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

Yeah.

Ben Keating:

You know, uh, uh. And so you know when, when nine 11 happened, uh, uh, you know, uh, it was a big deal. My dad was ultra conservative, you know. I would call him a doomsday prepper kind of a guy. Okay, uh, and you know, always, you know, we used to always call him chicken little. You know the bird, the skies falling, the skies falling, sure. And so when 9-11 happened, he was like this is it? We're going to have World War III? Oh, wow, this is the big event that I've been telling you that's going to be coming for the last 20 years. This is it. Wow, it's time to circle the wagons. Yeah, hunker down, batten down the hatches. You know, this is the big one. Yeah, and he was ultra conservative. Those dealers who were around back then can remember that this was the first time in the history of the world that we had zero percent. I remember, yes, and so it was a big deal, sure, sure.

Ben Keating:

You know, everyone did very well, really good rate was back then was about similar to what it is today actually, which is kind of funny, I know.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

That's right.

Ben Keating:

Yeah, yeah so and it was the if you remember it was the I think it was the GM and all of the manufacturers got together and the theme was keep America rolling, that's right. So everybody did their part by going out and buying a car. And so you know, a good rate on a used car was seven or 8%, yeah, and you're getting 0% on a new one. Yep, we were selling new cars faster than we'd ever sold them before. Nobody wanted a used car, right? So I'm looking at it going, go, go, go, sell, sell, sell. We're not going to cover off the ball.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

This is awesome.

Ben Keating:

Go, go Full throttle ahead. My dad is saying you know, we have a way have a huge oversupply of used cars Because you're taking all these trades. Now, yeah, you're making two grand on every new car you sell, when I'm losing five grand on every trade you take in. And so we had this huge clash. Yeah, and to make a long story short, I got fired Okay, wow, from your own store. Sure, and it was an ugly split, yeah, okay, that's unfortunate At the time, you know it was.

Ben Keating:

I don't care what you do with your stock, I'm not going to buy it, okay, and so I don't have anybody to sell it to. Yeah, of course. And then, of course, at the time, I owned 20% of the store, right, and I have to pay tax on that income. Wow, but there were no, he didn't make any distributions, so you're coming out of your pocket to do the tax, to have the income to pay that tax. Sure, I didn't have any money in the bank. And, of course, your relationship on a personal side suffered. Sure, right, it was. You know, we all got attorneys, yeah, and it was an unfortunate deal. I can't tell you how many times I've sat across some dealers that have told similar stories.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

Yeah.

Ben Keating:

And so I was unemployed for five months. Yeah, really looking hard for an opportunity to buy because I wanted my own store. Yeah, yeah, and I didn't have any money. Yeah, all of my dealers, all my money was tied up in that dealership. Yeah, I owned 33% of the real estate. Okay, I owned 20% of the dealership and 6% to 10 of reinsurance. You know insurance side of stuff? Sure, uh, uh. I felt like I mean at the time, uh, I felt like a reasonable number on everything was $10 million, uh, uh, and uh, uh, he wasn't going to give me anything for it and so so you have a whole bunch of nothing at this point. But, yeah, yeah. So I mean I remember, uh, having, uh, a thousand dollars in the bank and having a mortgage of $1,200. Oh boy, uh uh, payment.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

Yeah, Uh, but on paper you're a multimillionaire?

Ben Keating:

Yeah, I don't know if I'd say multi. Uh, I don't say you know if you've got you know. So, like you said, $10 million and all of these assets, but you can't touch it. Value is in the eye of the beholder, right? So I ended up. I mean I went to the auction and bought cars on a friend's dealer license and wholesale them to another dealer just to be able to make my mortgage payment. Sure, sure. But I got the GSM I worked for at Tomball Ford when I was a 12-year-old punk kid. Wow, you know washing cars and parking cars at Tomball Ford. Yeah, my GSM was the Dodge Chrysler Jeep dealer in Port Lavaca, texas, and he called me. He knew I was looking for an opportunity. He called me and said hey, the Ford dealer just went broke in Port Lavaca. You need to get down here and check this deal out, yeah. So I went down there and again, make a long story really short, kind of. Put it all in a nutshell I negotiated a deal to purchase the dealership.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

Good for you In La Vaca.

Ben Keating:

No cash in the bank? Yeah, wow, and I knew enough about how Ford Credit calculated the required capital and working capital and all that stuff. Okay, I did my pro forma in a way that was very favorable towards me, and Ford knew you could roll cars, I mean at the end of the day, right, sort of Sort of. You know, I was still. I've never been a dealer, I've never been a general manager. You're still the GSM? Yeah, I got you, and so I've never been a general manager. Are you still the GSM? Yeah, I gotcha. Uh, and so so they weren't sure you could bite off the whole.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

They mean run the whole deal was still.

Ben Keating:

Let's face it, I was a dealer's kid, yeah, yeah, and as general rule, the dealer's kid doesn't get much respect.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

Uh, uh, uh.

Ben Keating:

Rodney Dangerfield.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

That's right.

Ben Keating:

But, the. I figured it out. Yeah, you know, I bought the entire dealership. You know the real estate, the franchise, the FF&E parts, beautiful, everything all in for nine hundred and twenty thousand dollars. Oh my gosh, wow. But the dealership had gone broke twice in seven years. Okay, so you had to go in there. You wanted to touch it. Yeah, you had to roll your shirt sleeves up and run that it was on two acres.

Ben Keating:

Oh my gosh, wow, total. But I put almost all the purchase on real estate and you were the dealer, and so I borrowed 320 grand from my grandfather.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

Okay, so your grandfather's still around.

Ben Keating:

He's still okay. Is he still at a store At that time? No, okay. But I borrowed 320 grand from my grandfather. You know he was on my dad's side of this argument. So he was telling me man, you got to settle things with your dad, yeah, yeah. At the same time, yeah, he loaned me $320,000 under the table without my dad knowing. Oh boy, and it's really funny, I can talk about it now. Yeah, but you had to prove to Ford Credit, who was making this loan, that I had unencumbered funds. Yeah, yeah, that's right. I didn't feel like I was allowed to for it to be loaned for my grandfather. So, uh, I took it down to, you know, the bank and I opened a CD. Uh, on Monday, 320 grand and there's my unencumbered funds.

Ben Keating:

I went back on Tuesday and I took the money out. You know, sorry, I made a bad decision. Take the money out, right. And they said, well, you're going to pay a penalty, no problem, I understand, yeah, yeah, yeah. But now I had paperwork, and so Ford Credit said, well, where'd this money come from? And I said, well, I've had this money sitting in a CD, exactly which is true, and I just took it out Right here it is.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

I've got it in my bank account.

Ben Keating:

Here's the paperwork where I closed out a CD. It's so fixing it out. That's how it happened. That's that's amazing to make at least one hundred and eighty thousand dollars a year. Fifteen thousand dollars a month was my standard of living, yeah, if you would. Yeah, with two children, yeah, and a wife, yeah, and you know, fifteen thousand dollars a month was it for me at the time, right. $15,000 a month was it for me at the time, right. And so we were very successful, very quickly, yeah, and because I had hired and trained so many people at Tomball Ford, I had a lot of them follow me, yeah.

Ben Keating:

I feel ugly with my dad at the time and you're competing with your dad, not really. We're two hours away, okay, okay, okay. So it wasn't the same market, okay, yeah. Once I recognized that, oh, we're gonna be successful, I'm gonna make at least 180 grand a year, yeah, I ended up calling my dad saying, hey, you know bury the hatchet yeah, I'll sell my stock for whatever you pay me for it.

Ben Keating:

Okay, I just, I just want to be done with this, right? Uh, uh and uh, they ended up paying me a million dollars for that stock. Uh and uh, uh, the Dodge Chrysler Jeep dealership across the street, the the guy that was my GSM that I worked for as a kid uh, called me up and said hey. And said, hey, I'm moving out of town, come buy me out. No kidding. So this all worked out kind of at the same time. Yeah, I got a million dollars from my dad, I paid back my grandfather the 320, and I bought the Dodge Chrysler Jeep dealership across the street for the 700. Oh my God, wow. And so now, wow. And so now, wow, in three months' time I had two dealerships in town. Yep, we were quite successful. Fairly quickly, 18 months later, I bought the Dodge Chrysler Jeep store in town. Okay, so Wow, you were on a roll. In roughly 22 months I'd gone from being unemployed with no money to having three dealerships in the small town of Port LaBaca, Texas. That is an amazing story. It really is.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

It's so inspiring.

Ben Keating:

I'd say I lean back on the old Janis Joplin, me and my Bobby McGee song of freedom's. Just another word for nothing left to lose, that's right. Everybody asks me you know, how do you take all this risk and go out there and stretch yourself? I love it, I love it. And the answer is you do it. You have nothing to lose, that's right. That's right. No kidding, wow, there was no risk for me, right, okay, wow, there was no risk for me.

Ben Keating:

Yeah, so talk to me about your dad, because I know there's some tragedy there. So walk me through that for the people that don't know. So my dad was a great man. Yeah, family attorney described it best in that he had a squirrel cage in his head and he couldn't figure out how to get the squirrel off of the squirrel cage. You know, he just had a wheel in his head that was going 24 seven Sure, and it literally drove him mad. Yeah, you know, we questioned whether or not he was bipolar, we questioned whether or not he was manic, uh, you know, or, but, uh, very brilliant businessman and, uh, and a ton of energy. Uh, uh, uh, just, uh, literally, that squirrel cage drove him mad, yeah, and he made the decision that maybe he ought to get on antidepressants. He did, and he was on antidepressants for about a week before he shot himself, oh geez. And literally two weeks after, it was all over the news about how there had been all these studies done where the risk of suicide greatly increases right after a person starts taking antidepressants, and it was like a textbook story for what happened with him.

Ben Keating:

Sure, uh and uh. But the good news is that, you know, uh, it had been uh, uh, it had been a long time, or a couple years, since I had gotten off the ground in Port Lavaca. Right, we had the opportunity to heal our relationship, make things better, ride the hatchet, all those types of things, right Before he passed away. That's great, but it also Still tough, yeah, sure, yeah, super tough, and also clearly the biggest opportunity for me in my lifetime, because, while we were very successful in Port Lavaca, these were small stores yeah, tomball was a big Metro Houston Ford store that was worth a ton of money, yeah, and I would work my whole life to be able to have enough money to buy something of that size, right, right.

Ben Keating:

And so you know, after six, about six months after my father had died, ford went to my mom and said you know, we want to talk to you about the future of this dealership. Sure, you got three options. You can operate it if you want to, but we hope you don't. You don't really have any business being in the car business dealership. Sure, you got three options. You can operate it if you want to, but we hope you don't. You don't really have any business being in the car business, yeah. Yeah, the number two is you know it's a big store, it's worth a lot of money, right, and you can sell it to somebody else if you want, but we hope you don't. Okay, of course she's like okay, you don't want me to keep it, you don't want me to keep it. You told me to sell it. What do you want me to do, right? Right, you know, uh, and and unbeknownst to her and unbeknownst to me, kind of a surprise to everybody was and we hope that you sell it to Ben. How about that?

Ben Keating:

And then, in the shocker, they turned to me. I was in the meeting with my mom. They turned to me and said Ben, we want you to sell everything in Port LaBaca and move back to Houston. Look at that. That came out of left field. At the time we'd taken this small Ford store that had gone broke twice. In seven years we were roughly 500% sales efficient, 500% sales efficient. Wow, we were the. We were now the number one volume uh, uh uh select Ford dealer uh, in the nation. In this little store, yeah, we were selling about uh eight 900 new per year, uh, and you know, selling over a hundred cars, new and used.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

Sure.

Ben Keating:

And so that was kind of the moment where I came on the scene for the manufacturers of saying, oh, this guy's not just a dealer's kid. Yeah, he knows what he's doing. He can sell cars, yeah, yeah, uh, and do you think some of that too, that the situation between your yourself and your dad drove you, as in you know we see in so many cases that there's no question, I'll show him. Yeah, Right.

Ben Keating:

I would you know. I would say you know, everybody's got you know. Yeah, and an oddity about them. Sure, talk about my dad having the squirrel cage in his head. Sure For me, I've got some sort of a screw loose that.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

Well, we're going to get into that in a minute, because you're sitting in one of these cars.

Ben Keating:

I love. You know, competition, yeah, feeds my soul. Right, it's what I would say, and so you know whether it is. You know when I'm hanging out with my family. Yeah, you know, I want to play cards, I want to play Rumikub, I want to play basketball, I think you just want to win.

Ben Keating:

Whatever we're playing, it's fun for me, sure sure, my recreation is racing cars Right, but my vocation of selling cars is also super competitive environment, right, and that feeds my soul in some way, and so I love the business. At the time, early on, I didn't have a life outside the business. I didn't have any recreation. This competitive business was my recreation and my vocation and my life.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

Right.

Ben Keating:

As it is, with a lot of car guys and a lot of people in the business, it would be foolish for me to say that challenge, if you will, or that situation with my dad didn't drive me. Sure, it did, it drove me, it drove you.

Ben Keating:

It drove me in the same way that that first month of selling cars at Covert Ford drove me. Right, you know I'm willing to put myself on the line, I'm willing to take it all to risk, and there ain't nobody that's going to outwork me. Right, there's nobody that's going to out problem solve me. Sure, and you know, I'll put it all on the line and I'm going to figure out how to do it Right, come hell or high water. You know it's quite the deal. You've done pretty good at that and holding that philosophy, because as we sit here today, the Keating Auto Group enjoys 32 rooftops, 31. 31 dealerships. Wow, wait till next month. Next month there'll be another acquisition in there, right, and in a very short period of time Talk to me about that. I mean, in some 23 years, you've accumulated 31 dealerships. That's a very aggressive growth rate.

Ben Keating:

Yeah, every time I could cobble together enough money, I'd buy another store and we were selling a lot of cars, which means we were attractive to a lot of manufacturers. Right, yeah, manufacturers were putting opportunities in front of us, okay, often. Okay, stores that need to be turned around, and they knew if you could get in there to do it. Yeah, and it was a matter of us being able to put together enough money, sure. And the reason why I said Tomball Ford, so let me go back to that, yeah, of us being able to put together enough money, sure. And the reason why I said tomball ford, so let me go back to that yeah, I could never have been able to afford that size of a store. My mom and I worked out a deal where she sold me the store okay, and she carried the note okay. My father had all these rules that everybody in the family knew. If anything ever happens to me, right, you know, sell the store, do not try to operate it. You know, don't try to operate it to my mom.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

Yeah.

Ben Keating:

Sell the store. Don't sell it for stock, only sell it for cash. Okay, and don't carry a note. Okay, get your money and get out.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

Right.

Ben Keating:

Right. Which gets back to your dad thinking you know, and here's a list of three people you could call who will give you a good offer. Wow, he was pretty detailed with it. Yeah, and so you know, don't sell it to a family member. Remember, all my family members were in the business? Yeah, of course that. One of his rules was don't sell it to a family member. Remember, all my family members were in the business? Yeah, of course, one of his rules was don't sell it to a family member, don't carry a note, don't take stock, don't try to operate it. We all knew these rules. Well, when Ford says hey, we really want you to sell it to Ben.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

Yeah.

Ben Keating:

You know I'm like man. That'd be a dream come true, of course, no question. And my mom broke all the rules. Yeah, you know, she carried the note. Yeah, she sold it to a family member. Sure, you know, sure, and, and it worked out. And she was very wise, though, she. She had a board of advisors made up of my grandfather oh, ok, the general manager. Ok, that had been at Tomball for the family attorney that I talked about. He had a bunch of advisors, and they structured it in such a way that I was not allowed to take any money out of the store until she got paid off like zero. I wasn't allowed to take a payroll, I wasn't allowed to take a distribution. She got all the money out of the store, which is great because I could live, because I could live off of Port Lavaca, of course, yeah and uh, but in in March of so I bought that store, I think in September of 95 of 2005.

Ben Keating:

Okay, in March of 06, uh, I'd taken a bunch of stuff that I'd learned in Port Lavaca and brought it back up into tombow ford and, uh, we had a huge month. Uh, we were the number one volume f series dealer in the nation. Oh my gosh. We were the number one volume ford store in houston. All of these were a really big deal. Yeah, of course, for this sleepy little door in tombow. And uh, chrysler came in the front door of Tomball Ford and said, hey, we saw what you did. We want you to have one of our stores. And I said, hey, the only thing I'd be interested in is the one right across the street. Again, making a long story short, they helped me work out a deal to buy the dealership across the street, but I didn't have any money still, because you're not taking any money out of the store. And my mom was loving the success that we were having, of course, loving being involved in the business in a way that she'd never been involved in before.

Ben Keating:

And her son she's helping her son at the same time. Yeah, so my mom loaned me half of the money to buy the Ford the Dodge store and Chrysler Financial loaned me the other half there you go, isn't it?

Ben Keating:

amazing how these deals come together. You know, we had bought I had bought five stores at this point, really six stores, because then Chrysler helped us buy the Chrysler Jeep store and moved it in to one. Okay, but, uh, we bought six stores and they were all a hundred percent leveraged, all on loan, oh my gosh. Uh, and so in 2013, uh, I paid my mom off, I paid my mom off. There you go, and that was really the big catalyst to where, okay, now I've got a lot more cash flow. Yeah, now my options are open, yep.

Ben Keating:

But you know, if I look back from when we started in 2002, roughly it's one dealership per year. Wow, for 17 years, incredible. So in 2019, we own 17 stores. Oh my gosh, that's a very impressive growth plan. Then. And were you, if I'm not mistaken, for the GMs and the management in there that take these stores over? Because obviously it's one thing to buy a store, it's another to be able to run the store right the way that it's been running, or increase volume and net profit, and what have you? You got to have the right operator in there, right? Yes, and again, this kind of goes back to Tom Wall Ford.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

Yeah.

Ben Keating:

When I had this ugly split with my dad. Yeah, it's the same time I had brought, I'd bought these three dealerships in Port LaBocca. Yeah, it's the same time I had brought, I'd bought these three dealerships in Port LaBaca. Okay, uh, because I had hired and trained all the people at Tomball Ford. Yeah, uh, I ended up you know I would say stealing. That has a bad connotation, even though that's what it was. You know, I ended up bringing we're bringing better, better term, bringing 14 people, managers out of Tomball Ford to Port Lavaca. So these are your disciples when it's time to acquire these other stores.

Ben Keating:

And we made the decision. I didn't realize that the whole world didn't operate like Houston. In Houston there are 26 Ford dealers and I learned how to convince people to come all the way up to Tomball to buy a car at.

Ben Keating:

Tomball Ford in the competition with these other 26 dealers, wow, and still make money that they've got a pass to get to your store. And so, when I moved down to South Texas, I thought that's the way the world operated. And I'm like, whoa, surprise, people are advertising their cars at a hundred dollars over invoice. Right, right, where am I going? Yeah, I'm used to losing $1,500 on every car I'm advertising. And so we made the decision not to change anything about the way we were going to operate. Okay, and so we were bringing the big city Houston operation to this small community in South Texas. Sure, and we were enormously successful. Sure, but because I was bringing so much horsepower, so much people asset into the deal, sure, you know, everybody, from a sales manager to a finance manager to a service manager, everybody knew what they were doing and they were really good at it.

Ben Keating:

And then also it should be said that, uh, it was probably easier for you to even acquire outside talent that knew of the success of your stores. No, not yet. No, it's true. Today, Okay, big time. Ok, but back then not true. Ok, because I would only promote from within. Ok, because they knew how we did things. They knew Right.

Ben Keating:

They knew the system, they knew what kind of decisions I would make and why I would make them. They'd make a decision like me, yeah, of course, and so as we grew, you know, I mean you know. So the way we have our group, the operator of the store has an equity ownership in the store. Ok, and I'm a huge believer in that and I've learned a lot through the years, trial and error, on how that is set up for us years trial and error on how that is set up for us, but what I would say is that you know it ended up.

Ben Keating:

We ended up taking people out of Port LaBaca. You know, quite frankly, we called Port LaBaca the Valley of Death. That's literally what we call it, because if you can sell cars in Port LaBaca, you can sell cars anywhere, and if you've gone through the valley of death and come out the other side, then you're going to be successful anywhere. And so what you know, we ended up taking people, you know, out of Port LaBocca and promoting them into okay, you go run this store in Bernie, you go run this store in Grapevine, you go run this store in College Station. So it was always, for the longest time, it was always promoting from within and giving them an opportunity to run their own store. That's fantastic. And are they equity partners today? In many cases, yes, that's fantastic. So it gives them all that opportunity.

Ben Keating:

You bet yeah, as well, so you know, up to 2019, we'd been in business for 17 years and we had 17 stores. Today, in the last five years, we've added 14 stores, oh my gosh. So we bought three in 2020. We bought eight in 2021. Wow, and then we bought three. And these are during time. These are times that everybody's getting a lot of money for their stores. Yes, although I'll say that all the deals we did in 2020, we closed them in 2020, but they were, they were deal before COVID. Like, I closed a deal on March 7th, a week before COVID was announced, oh boy. So I closed a deal on March 7th and one in June and then one in November, kind of before we knew what COVID was going to be. Yeah, yeah, for sure. And then in 2021, I bought eight stores.

Ben Keating:

It was really three groups, okay uh, uh you know, uh, uh, yeah, wow, and so uh, it was two groups in one individual store. All of them closed within two weeks.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

Oh, my god, yeah, but incredible.

Ben Keating:

Uh, uh. You know, by that time, yes, the expectations were really high, yeah, yeah, but at that time, yes, the expectations were really high, yeah, yeah, but at that time, in 21,. Even the feeling was, you know, this is going the other way next month. Yeah, yeah, this is the peak, that's right, and the reality is that it wasn't really the peak. No, no, I know, I know, and so I got really lucky is what I would say.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

You really did yeah yeah.

Ben Keating:

So if we're sitting here 10 years from now, what would the Keating Auto Group be comprised of? I mean, are you just on that, on that treadmill to go? Let's get more stores. And you have no idea you love the hunt, I do love the hunt.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

Yeah.

Ben Keating:

You know where we are, I'll say we're a very shallow organization. You know where we are? I'll say we're a very shallow organization. Ok, yeah, we don't have, you know, vice presidents or market president, presidents or you know regional Sure. Sure we have me COO of kind of an operations guy at Stephen Livesay and we've got a CFO kind of a money accounting, yeah, Business oriented guy, Sure Don Whitaker, and the three of us kind of run everything.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

You're always looking at deals.

Ben Keating:

Say again You're always looking at deals, though. I'm always looking at deals, but I'm also always. I think it's fair to say we are almost always beyond our bandwidth. Yeah, seems like you live on the edge. You like that? That's part of your DNA, yeah, I would say I'm always looking for deals. Never say never.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

Yeah.

Ben Keating:

I know myself well enough to say I'm probably going to buy something this year. Sure, so for dealers watching in this region, that might be a call All my deals are in Texas. I'm only a dealer in Texas, okay, and I want to stay that way.

Ben Keating:

You do Okay, I want to stay that way, you do. Okay, I want to stay that way, keep them all close. And I only want you know we defined our purchase requirements of we want to sell at least 150 cars a month, yeah, wow. And so we're looking at at least 1,800 to 2,000 total volume per year on a deal. But I'll also say that it's like any other business or any other organization. It's about people, of course, no question, and we've grown so quickly that we're thin on our people bench, I would say. And we're not thin on our people bench. We've got a lot of. We've got 2,700 people that work inside the Keating Auto Group.

Ben Keating:

We've got a lot of people that have made it well known. Hey, pick me, pick me, I'm in line for the next one. Yeah, we are thin in terms of the people that we feel like are really ready to run a big store. We got a lot of people that we'd be like, yeah, if we bought a small store, you'd be great for that. Yeah, yeah. But running a small store and running a big operation are just I find so let's switch gears a little bit, cause there's a lot happening in retail automotive today.

Ben Keating:

And the the president, president Trump just announced that we're going full guns in terms of tariffs 25% on all cars, all parts, from all every foreign brand out there.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

Yes.

Ben Keating:

As the owner of, you know, 20 or 31 dealerships today, and what is your take on that? When you hear that, what are your concerns? So I'll talk about a macro concern and a micro concern, in that I loved macroeconomics so much in college that I almost switched my major. Much in college that I almost switched my major. What I will say is that in today's day and age, it's a global economy. Flat out, it's a global economy. I think that I am very much in favor of making America great again. I'm very much in favor of bringing business here To try to make America more competitive by by making it more expensive, which is, in my opinion, the end result of tariffs at some level is going to be inflation. Yeah, you know, at some point, that tariff is going to be automatically be passed on to the consumer. Yeah, which is the definition of higher prices, that's right. Which is the definition of inflation, which you know, which means that rates aren't going to come down at the level that we want them to. Right, in fact, they might go back up and, you know, part of the reason why the United States is not as competitive is, you know, is because of you know, whatever call it, you know, I don't know 50, 60, 70 years of unions demanding, you know these. You know higher prices, which obviously gets transferred over into the customer at some level. The only reason we're building stuff somewhere else is because it's cheaper. That's right. And so you know, we've gone through a really great period, in my opinion, after NAFTA, of this free trade between Canada and Mexico, and you know you bring in everybody else. So I think the tariffs are short sighted, in my opinion. Ok, even though I would really love to see a resurgence in American manufacturing. I believe that Trump knows that he wants lower rates yeah. He knows he doesn't want inflation Right. He knows that the end result of tariffs would be that. Of course. You know he's smart enough to know all of those things I just talked about. That's right. I believe that he learned a lot about being a politician from being on the Apprentice reality TV. You know, right. You know saying you're fired, that's right. You know that. You know reality TV. The American public loves drama, reality TV. The American public loves drama, yep. And he's become an expert at that. That's right. And I believe he will put the United States in a much better position through negotiating with these tariffs. I believe they won't be a long term solution for him yeah. But even if they are a long-term solution for him, yeah, in another four years they're going to be gone. Right Right Now, we are sitting um in this incredible showroom here, which is in your corporate offices for keeping up with group, and you've got these incredible race cars and I know that that is your passion.

Ben Keating:

So in our final moments here, you got to tell me how did you get into racing? And then I gotta hear and I want our audience to hear about some of your amazing wins. So how did this whole thing come about? In christmas of 2005? Okay, my wife bought me a weekend at the track for christmas. She didn't figure out what to get a car guy.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

You get a man that has everything $225 gift certificate.

Ben Keating:

I didn't know anything about anything, okay. You weren't interested in racing. It wasn't like it wasn't in your, I knew nothing about. Nothing, anything Right about anything. I took a Dodge Viper off the showroom floor of Port Lavaca Dodge. I drove it the three hours to the track. I did not bring any tools. I did not bring a helmet. I wore shorts, a t-shirt and tennis shoes. I didn't know that I might have to take off my tires or bleed my brakes. I didn't know. I was supposed to have a helmet.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

I didn't know, oh, those were the real deal.

Ben Keating:

I was wearing canes. I didn't know I was supposed to have closed-toed shoes. You know all that stuff. I really looked like an idiot when I pulled up the first time because I was completely ignorant about it all. Sure, uh, and I did it and I called it an adrenaline flush, right, because instead of a rush, it was a flood. There were four groups. There were 20 minutes run groups, 20 minutes every time, uh, which means I was out there.

Ben Keating:

I didn't realize that a normal person could drive a car in that way. Beat the hell out of a car for 20 minutes. It was the most fun I'd ever had, but it was a huge adrenaline rush for 20 minutes and then, because I didn't know that I was supposed to be working on anything else, I was just sitting there waiting for the next run group. So I, you know, because there were four run groups, 20 minutes each, 20 minutes of pure adrenaline and then 60 minutes of waiting. Yeah, I don't remember ever being that relaxed in that 20 minute and that 60 minute waiting time. You just yeah, oh man, that was so much fun, but I had no skill. I didn't know what I was doing. I was just going out there and scaring the crap out of myself, and so I promised myself that I'd do it again. So I got it in Christmas in 05. I did it again in. I did it for the first time in 06. I did it again in January of 07.

Ben Keating:

I really make a shorter story and say that because it was a better value, I ended up buying a race car instead of converting my street car. Okay, in my third event ever, because I bought a race car, I got put in the race group. Oh boy. So I started racing wheel to wheel, without any race craft we would call it without any knowledge of what was going on. This is dangerous. In my first six events, I was involved in six incidents. Oh boy, that's a fancy word for a wreck.

Ben Keating:

Okay, now your wife's probably thinking maybe I shouldn't have purchased that. No, the nice thing about buying this race car. It was originally a road car, so it had a title, it had a VIN number. Okay, I put it in used car inventory and she had no idea what I was really doing.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

Sure.

Ben Keating:

But my first six events. I was involved in six wrecks. I got put on probation. Nobody wanted to drive with me. That's exactly what I needed. So in 08, so in the off season, I bought a bunch of textbooks, literally. I read up, I bought a simulator, I practiced online. Those simulators are amazing and I learned race craft and I learned the skill of driving. Okay, and in 08, I did eight races and I won seven of them, oh my gosh. So I won the national championship and I just kept moving up from there. Championship and I just kept moving up from there. When we won the 24 hours of lamar in the corvette in 23, uh, golly I. I I'll get choked up talking about it, but yeah, so when, as an american driver, right in an american car, with an american team, of course, standing on the top step with 300,000 fans below you, I've got great pictures. But listening to the Star Spangled Banner, oh, wow.

Ben Keating:

You're representing the US Up there representing the US Right by driver manufacturer and team. Yep Driver manufacturer and team listening to the Star-Spangled Banner above 300,000 French people or people from around the world, I mean that was powerful.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

Really special.

Ben Keating:

Wow, I'm getting goosebumps listening to that. That's incredible. To win the world championship in Corvette and to be a car dealer yes, and representing these brands yes. You must have heard from the leadership of all of these different companies car dealer yes, representing these brands yes. You must have heard from the leadership of all of these different companies to say way to go, ben.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

Yeah.

Ben Keating:

I have, yeah, and that all makes it really special, I bet. Wow, no question about it, you were awarded Time Dealer of the Year for the state of Texas. Yeah, we were the Texas. That was the Texas nominee. Talked to the nominee, right?

Jim Fitzpatrick:

Which is the winner of Texas?

Ben Keating:

Yes, that's right. That's right it is. That's an interesting thing for me. It's such an honor, sure, because I've grown up in the time period where, you know, I don't think my kids have any idea what Time magazine is. Right. That's a good point. You know, is that a line somewhere? Is that a social, exactly? But I grew up in a time period where Time magazine was it. That was it, that's right, you know. I think you know, maybe my grandparents would say Life magazine was the big deal for them.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

Right right.

Ben Keating:

For my generation, I think Time magazine is probably the one. That's right, and you know, even though my children's generation wouldn't know what Time magazine was, yeah, man, a lot of you, I wouldn't know what.

Ben Keating:

Time Magazine was, yeah, man, a lot of years. I love the fact that they still partner to create Time Dealer of the Year. That's amazing, and I grew up, you know, knowing a lot of the people that won those awards and thinking you know that was such a big honor. Yeah, you know that was such a big honor. Yeah, and for them, you know, for the Texas Auto Dealers Association to call me up and say, hey, you know, we've chosen you. Yeah, ha, a big deal. That's pretty cool.

Ben Keating:

One of the things I like to do is to learn from the people who have been there before me. Yeah, and so I like to go meet with dealers who are dealer groups that are larger than us, sir the Rick Hendricks or the you know, larry Van Tile. Sure, I'll use Larry Van Tile's great friend. I love the guy. Right, so much about our auto group is fashioned after what he created. Really Okay, so much about what we've done. I'm like that's the model I want to do. Yeah, he sold all of his stores for a huge amount of money. Right, clearly doesn't need to work anymore. Has more money than he can spend. Yeah, I think he's 82. Yeah, somewhere around there his non-compete ran out and he gets back in the car business.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

Just incredible.

Ben Keating:

What does that say about Larry? That's right, and I have other friends in the business. I can name a lot of people who are still going out and buying dealerships after being 80 years old. They love it, they love it.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

Their blood.

Ben Keating:

I'm afraid I'm inflicted with the same disease. I love the business. I get a really good return on investment. I don't think American consumers are going to go away from the automobile for a really long time. That's true. I would like to say I'm an omni-channel retailer. I don't care what the American public wants to drive. I don't care if it's an EV or an ICE or an airplane.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

Whatever?

Ben Keating:

they want to drive, I want to sell it. That's right, and however they want to buy, it is how I want to sell it to them, and I believe that's going to be true for the next really long time yeah, long after I'm gone. That's right. And so I think it's a fairly stable business. Yeah, and I'm comfortable, having made my bed there, made my home there. You certainly have left your mark. If I look at the people who have been there before me, I have to say that's probably me. Yeah, if I don't have to be in the office 24-7, if I can take all the time I need away, sure, why not keep doing it? Ben Keating, thank you so much. This has been such a pleasure and an honor, and keep doing what you're doing. You're making us look great in retail automotive.

Ben Keating:

As long as I can, as long as I'm going to keep driving race cars, I'll do it. Then I'll go to the ranch.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

Thanks for watching the Executive Profile exclusively on CBT News. Today's episode has been sponsored by the Presidio Group.