I tell all of our leaders and all of our teams that our number one job is to grow and develop our team. Our people are our secret sauce. My purpose in getting up every day are amazing . 90,000 people. That's how we have fun every single day. That's how we succeed. What if I told you that your biggest competitive advantage is something that you've already got? Welcome to How Leaders Lead. I'm David Novak and every week I have conversations with the very best leaders in the world to help you become the best leader that you can be. My guest today is Chrissy Taylor, the president and CEO of Enterprise Mobility. Now, when I say enterprise, the first thing that probably pops into your mind is their tagline. Pick enterprise will pick you up and for good reason, it's iconic. But guess what? That tagline didn 't come from a Madison Avenue ad agency. It came from an enterprise rental car branch manager. See, for Chrissy, the 90,000 people who work at Enterprise are what she calls her secret sauce. And she's passionate about listening to them and hearing them and developing them. She knows that taking care of those 90,000 people is key to happy customers, new ideas, big growth and more. Plus, Chrissy's positive energy is so infectious and it's the perfect way to, well, pick you up . So here's my conversation with my good friend and soon to be yours, Chrissy Taylor. Chrissy, it's great to have you on the show. Yeah, no, it's great to be here. Thank you so much for having me. I'm excited. Let's roll. Come on. Let's go. Okay. I like you got the kind of energy that I feed off of. Okay. Enterprise has been in your family your entire life. And I want to know one of your favorite memories in an enterprise rental car. Oh, in an enterprise rental car. Well, I remember lots of things about branches. I've washed a lot of cars. I've picked up a lot of customers in vehicles. Oh, okay. So I worked in our international operation. So I've had 17 different roles of Brown, the Globe for our company. And I worked for three years in our international operation. And when I worked in London, you know, they drive on the other side of the road. And when I first got there, I said, okay, I don't understand this market. What are our customers like? What are our employees like? I'm like, put me in a rental branch. I had already been a branch manager in our St. Louis location. And I'd worked to corporate for about three years. And then I took the opportunity to move over. And they said, great, let's put you in Guilford, in London, right outside London. And you're going to pick up customers. You're going to go on marketing and sales calls. You're going to drive customer service. And you get to drive these wonderful rental carts on the other side of the road and their manual. I went to go pick up a customer. I got lost for two hours. Let's say my customer service was not on point that day. But it's not always about, you know, how you do the customer service. It's the recovery on the back end. So my recovery on the back end was amazing. And needless to say, I did not drop that customer off when they returned the vehicle. But driving manual on the other side of the road, renting vehicles is not as easy as it looks. That's a good one. You know, Chr issy, you know, few years back, I was CEO of Young Brands. And I visited you and your team in St. Louis. And you wanted this to come so you could learn about franchising. And we wanted to come and learn about your amazing culture. But tell me, you know, what's happened in the world of franchising with you? Oh, my gosh, it's been amazing. So yes, so you came probably right in 2008, nine somewhere around there because my father, who is our CEO at the time, had just acquired national enalamo because we were trying to grow at the airport. But the other thing that national enalamo brought to us, which has been an amazing success and we're super proud of our partners, is franchising because we always said, well, we're a privately held multi generational family business and we're not going to franchise the enterprise brand. Well, never say never. Enter a national enalamo franchisees. And now we have over 90 countries. And so when you came, we were trying to understand what does that mean to have a franchise operation? What does that mean culturally? What does that mean from operating in different countries? Because we had, we already had owned and operated in five European countries, but operating in Asia was a totally different understanding. And so you all have done an amazing job of that. And so we wanted to learn from you and your very kind, you said you want to learn from our culture, but our franchise the operations have been amazing, a great addition. And from that meeting, we always say that when we bring on a partner, a franchise partner, they have full citizenship into the enterprise mobility world because they want to drive customer service and they're servicing the same customers that we are. So thank you for the guidance. Thank you for the great example. And it's worked out really, really well for us. And so we appreciate that help. Well, you know, Chrissy, we learned so much as well. And you know, one of the things that I had admired and read about from afar was your culture. And you know, without going into exactly, you know, all your cultural values, you know, just why do you think culture itself is so powerful? And why should a leader really focus on it? Culture is the DNA of your company. It's the personality of your company. And we're a family owned business. We're privately held. We're multi generation. I'm the third generation of the Taylor family who is running the business along with our great teammates. But it really comes down to a simple philosophy. And that was what my grandfather said. Jack Taylor is take care of your customers and employees first and everything else will follow. And that is how we run our business from top to bottom from our general managers in the field who are running our operations to our franchisees to all of our corporate own European countries. It's absolutely amazing. So everything that we do is customer centric. And we measure our customer service on every single brand, every single business line we're in, and all the way through. And everyone will get promoted on that. And so it's really, really important. We're doing the right things by our customers. And then our employees, we have 90,000 amazing employees. We have a great management trainee. We're one of the largest recruiter of college graduates. And so we have a responsibility as a company and as a family to make sure that our employees have opportunities and are progressing through our system. And so they're really learning the business and getting their MBA on the job. And if you do those things and you're growing the business. And then at the end of the day, if you're growing the business, you're going to have a reasonable bottom line. And we're going to be able to give back to the communities that have made us so, so successful. And so culture, it's just who we are to the core of our DNA. And that started with my grandfather. - You know, Chrissy, one of the things that I really admire about what you've done since you've become CEO is you've really reframed the business. Very strategic in your thought process and your approach. But I was very impressed when you went from being a rental car company to now being enterprise mobility. And I'd love to get into how people make decisions and how that happens. What process did you go through to broaden your frame of reference and move from rental cars? - Yeah. So it's a total team sport. And you know, fleet management was the original business that my grandfather created. And it is still our second largest business line. It has over 750,000 vehicles that we manage and lease. And so it's very, very important to us and runs core to who we are. And then our rental business has just over 1.5 million vehicles in our global fleet. And so we have customers that are crossing over between they're participating in our leasing services, they're participating in rental, in our truck, in car sales. And so our customers, we're really leading with our customers that help us all of a sudden understand that it's not just about renting cars. It's about the mobility landscape. It's changing and our customers are changing. But I'll take a step back. And so we have all of these great brands. It's absolutely amazing. And our 90,000 people drive that. And then we follow what our customer is doing. And we had a brand. It was not a consumer facing brand. And it was enterprise holdings. And it was just a way to talk about ourselves, but really internally. But when we saw our customers and we did about two years of, of insight and marketing and communication work and talking to our employees and talking to our customers. And we could see they were asking more from us because they were already doing that across our business lines. And so we all said, okay, we need something more in a better way for our sales team, better tools and resources to describe who we are and what we do and how we've evolved over time. And so enterprise mobility was launched about a year and a half ago, a little more than that, year and a half ago. And we really started internally because our 90,000 people are advocates. They're the ones who are going to bring the enthusiasm and the power and the illustration of what we do and enterprise mobility to life. And so for a year and a half, we 've really been focused internally. And now we're working externally to make sure our customers and other business partners and you understand what enterprise mobility is about. But it has been super, super fun. It's been the right move. And we've really enjoyed it. But it's a new brand. So it will take, you know, time to evolve and take on a life of its own. Now your grandfather, Jack, started this company in 1957 with seven vehicles. And now you've got this massive mobility company that you just described. How have you kept this, you know, company that started out is tiny. And now how have you kept it small? Or is that something that you try to even think about? Yeah, my grandfather and my dad always used to talk that it's not about being the biggest. It's about being the best. And so it's about an evolution and staying true to who you are and who we are to the core of our DNA. And being privately held, it's a competitive advantage. We can think for the long haul. And so we can take our time. We can think strategically. We can continue to reinvest in the business. And that has really helped us continue to grow and provide solutions and services and mobility lines to our customers. And then provide these really great careers and lives for our 90,000 employees, which our 90,000 employees are our purpose. But, you know, Jack always leads to look at my dad. And I think they were at a big meeting in front of a team. And they were on stage doing a Q&A, kind of like what we're doing right here. And they're in front of our teams. And Jack used to say, well, I remembered everybody's name in the company. And I knew they're spouses and I knew they're partners. And Andy, Andy's my dad, Andy, you came along and screwed it up. I don't know anybody anymore. And so that's always a running joke that, you know, it's gotten bigger. We don't know everybody's name or spouses anymore. But the culture has to remain the same. And it's really a privilege and honor, a thrill . It energizes me every single day to be part of it. My dad is actually sitting next to me in the office right there. And I'm wondering if he actually sometimes he just comes in. So we might have a special guest appearance. I hope he does because I'd like to say hello. I would love to see you because we, I told him, I said, Hey, I've got David on, you know, we're going to be talking . He's like, I remember they taught us all about franchising. So it's a team sport. We learned so much and both of you are great leaders. So I appreciate just having the opportunity to talk to you. You know, I understand that Jack, your grandfather, what was in the Navy and, you know, that seep into the culture and is it stuck in the culture in any way? Absolutely. We talk about that all the time. You know, right now we are a big company and, you know, those stories get formalized. But when, you know, back in Jack's day, those things weren't formalized. But he would talk about it that, you know, he went into the war. He went into the Navy. He flew off aircraft carriers. He was the real risk taker. But he was like, I hope that aircraft carrier doesn't move. There's no radar. And so that sense of teamwork, core discipline and bravery and just having to solve problems on the fly and being a team, those things resonate in our business. The vocabulary may be a little different than mission discipline. We talk about teamwork a lot, but it's culture, it's collaboration, it's communication, it's teamwork. It's helping each other, bringing your whole self to work, all of those things. And so his military background rings true in everything that we do. And it is a huge part of the legacy of our company that we can't forget because it just drives everything that we do. You know, your dad took over from your grandfather and was the CEO for over two decades. He's right next door. So I'm going to, maybe you can flatter him and he can hear the story. But tell me a story about the biggest leadership lesson that you picked up from him. You know, there's always those big moments. And I think there were two really big moments. And one was in 2007, we acquired national and alamo. And we had never done an acquisition that big. He had never done the team had never done an acquisition that big. And it was gigantic. And it was in rental car in our industry. And Jack had established our business in the home city suburban market. And so we decided that, hey, you know what, we should probably be on airport. And so our rental operation enterprise went on airport, but the growth was really slow. And we saw that it was going to take a very long time to gain the position that we needed, the real estate we needed, and develop our people for airport operations. And we needed to do something different. And so he had the ability and the strategic thinking to take a step back, recognize that we weren't, we weren't going to make it maybe, or just it wasn't going to be successful enough for us, for us that he said, okay, we should go by someone. And at the time, the marketplace, there had been some consolidation, there had been some bankruptcies. And so he saw that opportunity and went for it. And so I think that demonstrates his thoughtfulness, his strategic wherewithal, and the ability to take a step back and really understand what's the ultimate goal we're trying to achieve. So I think that was one of them. If you'll let me, I have another one. Sure, go ahead. Fire. So the other one was during the financial crisis, I had just come back from Europe and I'd been gone for three years. And I had never seen anything so dramatic in my life. And how was he going to rally the team? And what was going to happen? Are we going to make it? You know, we were buying cars. We're the largest purchaser of vehicles from the auto manufacturers. They owed us money. We owed them money. What was going to happen? Every single morning at eight o'clock, he got everyone around the table. Our sales team, our operators, our treasury department, our CFO, you name it, they were all around the table. And everyone every day would give a quick update about what was going on, what the cash flow situation was, how many cars were coming in, what was on their mind, what was the greatest concern. And then he would process all of that and say, okay, here's what I think I heard. That good, that right? And then confirm with everybody and say, here are the two takeaways , three takeaways that we need to accomplish today. And I'll see you all back tomorrow. It felt a little bit like micro-managing, but in a time of uncertainty, that communication and teamwork and getting your whatever was on your mind on the table was very helpful. And so fast forward to the pandemic, we did the same exact thing. We did the exact same thing. And that actually helped me manage through the pandemic. And so 10 years on, the same process helped. And the team actually recognized what I was doing. And so it was very, very helpful. That's a great story, you know. And I can't wait to talk more about how you're leading enterprise mobility. But first, I want to take you back, Grissy. You know, what's the story from your childhood that really shaped the kind of leader you are today? I was going to thought you were going to say like , what was I doing at enterprise? The first remember? Okay, how did it shape my leadership at? And so I think sports had a lot to do with my leadership. I played field hockey and I swam. I was a Division 1 field hockey player at Miami, Ohio. And those lessons that you learn in a team, the rules of the road, the rules of the game, what the playing field is, what you're good at, what's the team good at, what's my role in how do I be consistent and how do I work hard within that team. And so definitely sports being on the team, feeling like we had a mission that we needed to accomplish, learning how to win, learning how to lose, learning how to take others input, how to take feedback when you had a really bad game or you had a really good game. I would say sports drives a lot of my leadership. And you were a great athlete as I understand it, you were an all American field hockey player at Miami. Then you started at enterprise as a management intern in a lot of businesses. I'm sure you could probably jump a few levels, particularly in a family business. You might be able to start out more at the top. Why didn't you take that path? Yeah, so I actually was an intern after my freshman year in college. So in 1995 , 6, and so I just worked for two months. And I was like, okay, I know about the business because we talk about it at the family dinner table all of our life. And I knew customers and people, that's the most important. And so I was an intern after my freshman year because I needed a job and I needed, I'm like, I need some money. And so I did that and I really learned customer service and teamwork there. And then in 2000, became a full time management trainee. And 95% of our management team has been through our training program and they started the bottom and they worked their way up. They may not work all the way through the rental path and we're really big now. And so they can veer off and do what they're passionate about and what they're good at. And so there really was no room to jump off. It was, this is your in the management training program. This is what we do. This is how you learn the fundamentals of the business. You're getting your MBA on the job. And here are the things that you're going to learn . And I am motivated by that. I was motivated by that. I was motivated by the competition that happens. Friendly competition that happens between our locations, the camaraderie. I worked at eight different branches or we call them branches are locations, eight different locations in the St. Louis group. So I worked at the airport. I worked at a brand new location that we had just opened. I worked at a very old location that we had had for quite some time. And so there really was no room to jump. It wasn't a, it just wasn't a thing. This is what we do. And then finally, when I was a branch manager, they said, okay, your branch manager, you've gotten to one of the major milestones that our employees get to. Now you need to understand how big our company really is and not just think about the St. Louis market. And so then like many people do, when your branch manager, you have the opportunity to move into other divisions , I moved into corporate and had a variety of roles, a corporate to understand how big we were. We're outside the St. Louis market. We're in North America. What does that mean? What does treasury mean? What does IT mean? And so on. So they don't unfold it from there. Hey, everyone, it's Kula. And if you are looking for a resource to help you level up as a leader, go and get our weekly leadership digest. It's our roundup of leadership resources that we deliver straight to your inbox every Friday morning. It's totally free. And there are thousands of leaders who are using this resource to stay sharp in their role as a leader. So go to howleaderslead.com/digest. Grab this free weekly newsletter. Go to howleaderslead.com/digest and get it today. You know, as I understand, I may have the number wrong, but you've had at least you actually know?" 17 different roles at Enterprise before you became CEO. What would be the key lesson that you learned on the way up about each one of those jobs that you could give someone that they could think they think about how they move up an organization? Be curious and ask a lot of questions, because after 17 jobs, somebody would look at me and say, "You're a mile wide and inch deep. What do And so there's a lot of different experiences you take from that, but if you ask a lot of questions, you're curious about business lines, it all comes together. And at Enterprise Mobility, you realize that you might be in a different role in changing jobs within the company, but our founding values, our philosophies, our culture, how we grow and develop our teammates is all the same. And so I would tell somebody if you're moving around in a bunch of different jobs and be curious. That's our job. When you are a CEO, you have to be curious. You need to understand what's happening and what the pulses of the organization, because that's part of the way that you're going to make a decision. It's part of your intake of saying, "We need to do this to move forward." Well, curiosity is one of the reasons why I love this podcast, because I get to get to learn from you. I got to ask you, and I wasn't going to ask this before, but just watching you in action here, you're a great communicator. Is this something that you just learn naturally? Or did you go to expert to help you learn how to do it? Or how have you honed this skill, because you are a fantastic communicator? I am a huge preparer. So I've had some coaches along the way and some executive coaches along the way and some mentors. And because I just want to make sure that when I'm talking to my team, it's clear what I'm trying to communicate. And we talk a lot about authenticity. I think I bring a lot of energy and I want to be authentic. I don't have these big fluffy words, but I just want to be clear about the emotion or the subject matter or what's just going on in the company or what's going on with my family. And so I've had some training along the way, but it's really I also prepare. I thought about what I was going to say with you. I watched your interviews with other people. And one, it's very impressive. And then I'm impressed by them. And so I want to make sure that I'm in that category. And so I tell my team, nothing happens just like that. It's practice is preparation. You're going on a sales call role plays most uncomfortable thing in the entire world. But they're really, really important so that you understand what you want to communicate. And if you get in a bind, then you're like, Oh, I know what to say. I can I can back myself out of that and say it may be in a different way. In my research, I 've heard you talk about the importance of raising your hand for opportunities, even before you're totally ready. Will you share a story of when you did that, Chrissy? Oh, yes. Okay. So that is something that we talk about in our organization a lot that it's like you always want it to be perfect, but it is this is something else my grandfather used to say, it is not a perfect world. And so you need to raise your hand. You're ambitious. Like go for it. You're never going to be perfectly ready. And so I was running our retail car sale operation, which I was learning. And that was one of my 17 roles. And then I went out on maternity leave. So I was on maternity leave and an amazing executive of ours retired. And it was unexpected. And we retired for all positive reasons. And he was running North America. All of a sudden they're like, wait a minute, if Chr issy, she's had all these roles, she's worked internationally. And I give kudos to my dad and Pam Nicholson, who was the CEO before me, that they actually saw that that was an opportunity to position me to potentially be CEO because running North America is one of our largest jobs in our company. And so he retired. I was on maternity leave. I came back from maternity leave and they said, hey, there's an opportunity. And I'm like, what's going on? They're like, you're going to run North America. And I was like, what? They're like, you don't want to do it. And I'm like, Oh, no, I want to do it. I'm like, but I'm not ready. I can't what? Like no. Everyone who was going to be reporting to me had 25 plus years experience. They had worked their way all the way through the rental system. They were the experts that, you know, I was going to need to make decisions and work and collaborate with. And so that was a very, very scary, scary, but exciting moment in my career. And really, I think the turning point when it was like, okay, people have confidence in me. They trust me. They know I'm probably not quite ready, but they know that there 's a really good team around me. Let's put her in the job. Let's see if she can do it, because then the next step would be about three steps away from being CEO. If it was going to work out, they had to do that. So I would say that Pam took a risk and Andy, Andy dad took a risk. And then I needed to be willing to do that and raise my hand and say yes. A lot of things that I've read and, you know, talking to other female leaders, they have a hard time raising their hand, you know, for that job until they feel like they have everything in place and they're ready for the job. Whereas men, they'll raise their hand and they're not even close to being ready. You know, you know, you see that difference and how do you encourage women to think about this? I don't know. This isn't really advice, but someone told me this once and it was a senior vice president, female senior vice president for us, who I really respect and admire. And she's like, fake it till you make it. Just keep going. Just keep going. You're never going to perfectly be ready. And so the more I tell, I take it very seriously. My position is a role model or our employees are looking up to me. I take that very seriously. And it is my job, I believe, to pay it forward to all of the other men and women in the organization that I take my time to tell people why I've been successful, what's worked for me, it may not work for you, but you really need to sit and take time and reflect. And I learned to do that over time. And now, it's when somebody is like, well, I'm not sure I can go for that job. It's like , hey, let's sit down and talk about that. What are the really great things? What are the not so great things? What's the feedback then that you've gotten over time that questions your readiness? And then let's go figure out if you really are ready or not. And that takes time and energy. But I tell all of our leaders and all of our teams that our number one job is to grow and develop our team. Our people are our secret sauce. That's 90,000 people. I think I said it before, our purpose, my purpose and our family's purpose in getting up every day are amazing. 90,000 people. That's how we have fun every single day. That's how we succeed. That's how I feel like we're winning. And so you're ready. We just got to talk about it. We just, hey, we're going to get ready. So you have these 17 different jobs. You rise up the CO. Now you are in that corner office, or you're in the big office. And, you know, so you know, a lot of leaders can get detached from what's really going on. How do you get the real skinny from your people? How do you really go about learning what's happening in the business on the front line, which is critical in a retail business? Yep, great example. Last week, me and the team, we flew over to Europe. So I go over to Europe once a quarter. We were in UK. We went. We were in our London operations . We were in another one of our operations kind of outside Birmingham. And we go to all of our locations. We check it out. We talk to the team. We get department head updates. Just for the Birmingham area, I had our HR team giving us an update about what was going on, what was working really well, what did their hiring forecast look like, what can we help you with. We had their business manager give us an update about are they growing, what areas of the business do they need help with, what are they doing really well. And then we go to the locations. We talk to our people. Our young employees, if you just start asking questions about their business, they 're going to share because they're excited about it. And they know that we're coming. And so we spent a week in Europe doing that. And that is a great way to keep the pulse on what's going on in the organization. And then we've also we have department head meetings. We have town halls. We've got all of that communication that a lot of people developed over COVID in the pandemic. We're sitting on an example right now on this podcast that now I can reach more people, even though I'm sitting in my office, I can reach more people on a town hall or on department head meetings. And so that's, you hit the nail on the head. It is so important to keep the pulse of what's going on in the organization so that we can make decisions and we understand because we're a big aircraft carrier. You know, we've got 90,000 employees. We're an aircraft carrier. And so we don 't want to, we don't want to pivot it so fast. We should just be cruising along and we should be making slight tilts and slight adjustments as we go along so that we're all moving in the same direction. We're all we're all on board and we're all we're all moving forward. Now you say that the best ideas come from the field. What's your, what's your, you're a storyteller? I know what's your, what's your favorite story of the best idea you ever picked up from the front line? But historically it was, we'll pick you up. So I was not working for the company at the time, but in Florida because we were, you know, we had rental branches 15 minutes from 90, 90% of the population. So our locations and our people would go pick up our customers because the reason you're renting from us, the majority of the time is unfortunately you've gotten an accident. And so somebody in Florida , one of our managers was like, enterprise, we'll pick you up. And so that then became our commercial spot and our national marketing spot and a product we delivered out to our consumer for decades, for decades. We still pick customers up. So that was a historic best practice ever or a good idea. The other good idea that we've been working on for quite some time is our field. You know, they're constantly finding ways to be efficient, to drive customer service, to create less friction in the process, not have our customers wait in line. And finally somebody was like, I don't know who it was, but somebody in the field's like, you got to help us. We're supposed to be using our digital properties. Like, can't we just check in? Like, let's just check in online, like we do with the airlines and we're like, yes, we can. We can make this work. We can totally make this work. And so now when you go to the enterprise.com website, you can go ahead and check in online. You basically are pre-writing your rental ticket and then we will be more ready for you. You can bypass the counter and go. And so that has been very, very helpful for us. And those ideas come from our employees and the efficiencies that they are trying to create by driving customer service . And so I better be out in our markets, walking around, talking to everybody because they are the ones that are bringing those ideas that then me, I just need to put the firepower and the investment behind it. Because everyone's like, are you going to prove that, Chrissy? And it's like, well, yeah, I heard it from the field. Yeah, let's do this thing. Chrissy, how do you stay on top of competition or how do you look at competition itself? And I'm sure it's changed even with Uber's probably had some impact on your business. How do you look at competition? Yeah, the mobility landscape. I call the mobility landscape because as you said , it's changing. And it is changing. And there is a ton of opportunity for us. And I think one of the ways that we keep an eye on competition is really looking at ourselves and what are our core competencies, what are we really good at? And how do we continue to lean into that? Because I don't want to go off and do something that makes no sense for us just because somebody else in our marketplace is doing it. So our core competencies, if we continue to lean into those, which is customer service, employee development, growing our business, and that's just not daily rental. That's our retail car sale division. That's truck rental. That's commute. That's car share. That's fleet management. So if we continue to lean in those core things that we do and grow and listen to our customer, we will continue to be offering our customer different and better experiences that then move us into the leadership position. Because I believe we are in the leadership position today, but we cannot be complacent about that. So one, grow our core. Grow our core and all the things that we're doing today and develop our people. And then we need a team that is looking around scanning. Why are people renting cars from other people? Why are people getting in black cars or doing taxi in a different way? What do they like about that? What would we be good at doing in that area? And then how do we deliver on that in our own secret sauce way? And then what's technology that's evolving out there, whether it's EVA, VAI, and then how do we use those tools to then enhance what we're already doing? And so it's really an evolution, not a revolution, and it's one step at a time. But we got to grow what we're doing today to then evolve into the future. But we have people scanning. And then it's our 90,000 people that tell us what we're doing. Always comes back to them . I got to ask you, how's the electric vehicles impacted your business? I mean, what did you guys have to do as an organization to deal with that shift? Yeah, so again, it's an evolution. And we have to make sure that we put the customer at the center of everything that we do. And it's moving very quickly in Europe. And it 's also moving in North America. And so we have about 10,000-ish electric vehicles in our fleet. We have hybrid plug-ins and other hybrid vehicles to the tune of about 100,000 in our fleet. So we have them, but we need to make sure the customers understand them. And so we're in a unique position to educate the consumer. Because as I said, a majority of our customers have been in an accident. And so their car is in the shop. And sometimes they're not getting that car back. And so when they rent a vehicle from us, it's like a test drive. And so then our people need to be knowledgeable about our products. So then we can introduce this new technology to our consumer. And so we have the product. It's slow and steady. But we're working through it. And so it's been positive. But we still need to make sure there's more infrastructure in the world around us and in Europe. We also need to make sure that all of our partners, that we're partnering with them to understand what the legislative landscape is and who can we partner with to help make sure that the consumer can adopt to this new technology. It's complicated and it's going to take time. But I'm a fairly positive person. There is a huge- Are you going to be kidding me? I don't believe that. Right. There's a huge opportunity to be had there. But you can't get in front of the customer. You really just can't get in front of them. And so we need to make sure we're pacing with them. We're educating them. We're working with the manufacturers. I mean, that's what we do best. Let's make some relationships. Let's go out on some sales calls. Let's go talk to our let's go talk to the OEMs. Let's go talk to our government officials not to get deep or anything. But you got to bring everybody along. And so that takes time. That takes energy. But it's an evolution. Like if there's an opportunity, go for it. We'll be back with the rest of my conversation with Chrissy Taylor in just a moment. Well, March Madness tips off this weekend. And I don't know about you, but I'm looking forward to watching some great basketball over the next few weeks. And it got me thinking about a conversation with Dan Hurley, whose Yukon Huskies have won the tournament the last two years. In our episode of How Leaders Lead, Dan talks about how important it is to hire the right people who align with your level of passion. I recruit coaches to work for me that have incredible passion for the game. They have to love being a part of this tribe and want to invest absolutely everything they have into their obsession, which is basketball for all of us, our passion. So like they have to love it as much as I love it. Or else I cannot bring them in here. Because when the person that cares too much meets the person that doesn't care enough, things can tend to get very , very bumpy. So we're based on just like the work ethic has got to be there. It's got to meet mine. I mean, I don't have a lot of hobbies. I don't have a lot of balance. It's like, I love basketball. I love my in a good way. I love the cult that I'm a part of. And then I love my family . Go back and watch my entire conversation with Dan on How Leaders Lead YouTube channel, Episode 169. So you're in this big relationship business. You've got the 90,000 people. This is your biggest priority. This is what gets you up every day. So how do you think about AI in this world, in this people driven world? It is amazing and it can do amazing things. But I always talk about the marriage of our people and technology and how do you bring them together to create better experiences and then make their jobs more efficient. Because you never wanted to bring them together and then make their job harder to make the customer better. And so those, I think those two things work in parallel. And so AI or whatever the technology is, it's going to make our team better. Are there efficiencies to be had? Of course , there are always efficiencies to be had. But our people are smart. They're solving problems on the fly with customers that we need them. And so how do we make those things work together? It's a marriage. Makes sense. Now, now I understand you do something called cocktails with Chr issy. Tell us about that. Yes, cocktails with Chrissy because everything needs a spl ashing name. Oh, man, that started maybe three or four years. That was a while ago that that started. And so I said, this is the example of how you pay it forward. A huge responsibility to pay it forward and mentor and take the time to make sure that everyone is developing. So female leadership is important in our organization. And so I said, you know, we're corporate. You know, it's not like the field where everyone's scattered. Like we have a set group of people who are corporate. And I said, I would like to get together and know our field, our corporate folks. And so we took them in chunks. And so I got all of our level four leaders, which is our highest level in our corporation, got all the level four women together. And I took them for happy hour because what do we do best? We like to happy hour together. And so I we went to happy hour. And then I said , hey, I have a favor to ask all of you. Or if you could do me a favor, I'd love you to pay it forward on someone and we're going to break you all up into groups. And over the next year , I'm going to invite you in groups. And you're going to invite somebody who you think is a high performer, person, female, that has longevity with us and could really use, you know, in introduction. And so then each level four introduced a person on their team or somebody that wasn't on their team to the happy hour. And so we did it for a year and we got through all of the level three and level four employees at corporate. And then now we catch up, not quite as often because we were doing it like once a month. And all of a sudden I'm like, wow, that's a lot of happy hours. And so it was just a way for me to pay it back, but also get everyone involved. And then make sure that they understood that, hey, you've got to reach out to somebody. And so it actually it was super super fun. And I met a lot of great people. And now I'm watching them get promoted through our organization. You know, as a leader, Chrissy, how are you sharpening your act so that that you're getting better and better? Yeah, that's a great question. I really lean into our outside network. And so I'm part of several councils that then I can surround myself with other leaders who I believe are doing a good job in certain areas or just generally are amazing leaders. We have amazing partners. And so when we have somebody on campus or there's an opportunity to go visit a partner, I'm always like, yep, I'm in, I'm totally in because not only am I looking to drive our business, but I'm also looking to make a relationship so that I can get better. I can pick up the phone and call someone and say, hey, there's a lot going on in the world right now. Should I be worried about this? Are you worried about this? What's happening? And so it's really about making sure that I have a network where I can get guidance, I can get feedback, I can just have someone to call because that's really, really important as the world around us is changing very quickly. The mobility landscape is changing very quickly. And it also helps with the relationship if they've got a partnership with us because then when, hey, we're not perfect. Like if anybody thinks that they're perfect, we have a problem. And so when we make a mistake, I then have the ability to call that person up and say, hey, we made a mistake, can we work through this? Or who on your team should we be working through this? And that's a much easier conversation. And so it's multi, it's multi-pronged. You know, Christy, you obviously have a ton of positive energy. And I always say positive energy lifts, lifts people up, negative energy brings you down. And you're definitely in the positive gap here. You know, how do you get prepared for the day so that you can come into the office every day and go out in the field and set that tone of positive energy? I have an amazing husband. He does everything at home. He has a full- time job too. We have two amazing girls. And then my husband, who actually worked for enterprise for over 10 years. And so he understands the enterprise culture and all the things that are going on. But he has really taken the lead role at home so that when we're at home together, it's about being with our girls and getting organized and what's going on and who's going to the horseback writing lesson and who's going to the tennis. And so that when I come into work, I know all of that is being handled and that I can then bring my full self to work or I can bring my full self or my grumpy self home to my family. And so I give a lot of kudos and a lot of credit to my husband and the teamwork that we have together. The other thing from a business standpoint though, as I said, I'm a huge preparer. I like to see what's happening next week. I like to see what's happening the next day. I like to read things ahead of time. And sometimes time gets tight and I can't always do that. And so I do live by my calendar. Not everybody does that, but that helps me have a little sanity and feel like I had it makes me feel like I have a little bit of control when I probably don't have much control at all. I'm going to shift gears a second. It will come back to enterprise. But I understand you're also in the soccer business now, you know, and you own a major league soccer team. You know, is there a carryover from your training that you've had an enterprise that that you're you're bringing to owning a sports franchise? The only thing similar to field hockey and soccer is maybe some of the passing that happens on the field. I cannot say I know how to run a major league soccer team. My cousin does that. So it truly is a family business. So all the kudos to my cousin Carolyn Kindle, who is the CEO of the soccer club. So St. Louis City, we are awarded the franchisee in 2019. We have built a stadium in St. Louis. And I think the number one goal of bringing a soccer team to St. Louis and why the family was interested in this is because we love St. Louis. And this is about the community of St. Louis and making it a better place. We bring hundreds of people into St. Louis to live and work here because our headquarters is here. And we want it to be a thriving community where people live, where they work, where they give back, where they have, you know, and community giving that is very, very important to our family . And Jack started our business here. And so we've got huge roots here. So it's my dad always said we would never own a club, never own a sports team. Well, never say never when he came into so we have family meetings to keep everybody up to date on what's going on. He came in and he said, hey, there's this some soccer club idea. We're like, what? And he's like, yeah, we might don 't you think we should own a soccer team. We're like, you never said we would do that in our entire life. He's like, I think it's good for the community. Once he said community, we're like, okay, tell us more. What's going on? So it has been a huge win. It's super exciting. We're in our third year. We just started the season. We've tied or if you're English, you've drawn both games, both matches. But we're just at the beginning of our third season and we're very, very excited. So it's about St. Louis, the community and they have completely stepped up. So it's awesome. That's great. That's great. You know, this has been so much fun. I want to have a little bit more of my lightning round of questions. Are you ready for this? Oh, okay. There you go. The three words that best describe you energetic, open, hardworking. If you could be one person for a day beside yourself, who would it be? My daughter. What's your biggest pet peeve? My daughter cracks her knuckles. I'm like, please stop doing that. Who would play you in a movie? Kate Winslet. What 's something only the Taylor family knows about enterprise. Jack actually flew off the USS Essex longer in World War II than he did the USS Enterprise. But Enterprise is a better name for a rental car company. That's a good one. You're on a trip and you're renting a car. Which one are you going with? Luxury. What's something you love about St. Louis? St. Louis City Soccer Club. What's the one thing you do just for you? Dance. What's your most prized possession? My family. If I turned on the radio in your car, what would I hear? Do a leapa? What's something about you a few people would know? I'm a left handed twin. What's one of your daily rituals? Something that you never miss? My husband making me English tea in the morning. He's a Brit. That was great. You absolutely ace the lightning round. That was really good. All right. So here you are now. You're in the third generation leading enterprise and you talk about investing for the long haul. Same war. What does that mean to you? For a family business, it is a multi-generational family business. And my dad and Jack told us, like, we just need to continue to reinvest in this business and think for the long term. This is not about managing our stock price, our share price, quarterly earnings. It is fine . We need to make the right decisions for the long haul. That is how we've been successful. And we will continue to evolve. And if we do that, the opportunities are going to come our way. And we can be scanning for them. And we're not distracted by the day to day stuff. And we have a job to do every single day. No question. And we need to be the best at that. But really, it's about looking forward and being strategic and continuing to invest. And my dad has given us the ability to do that. What's on the horizon in the company that gets you most excited about where the company's heading? Enterprise mobility, baby. It absolutely is enterprise mobility and all the things that we can do as enterprise mobility. Because most people, you said it, most people know us as a rental car company. But we love rental. But we are way more than a rental car company. We are solving problems for consumers and businesses out there with nine distinct business lines. My job is to make sure that we are connecting all of those things together to move forward as enterprise mobility. So I'm most excited about enterprise mobility. Fantastic. Now, I understand that your kids will come up to the office on the weekends and do their homework while you work , okay? As a CEO, and as a mom, talk more about how you integrate the two. You talk about the importance of your husband and how he really plays a great role. But how do you do the mom CEO thing? What has actually helped is that we are more virtual too, and we've got our phones. And so on the weekend, or if I need to leave work earlier, for any of our executives or whoever needs to leave work early, there's a lot more flexibility. But we are always on. And so managing that, I think it's like what my dad did. We would talk about it at the dinner table. It's not something I shouldn't be talking about. It's something that I should be proud of. And so at the dinner table, I'm saying, how was your day? What happened during the day? And now I've picked up that my youngest is looking at me. She's like, how was your day? And I'm like, oh, thank you very much. Let's talk about that. Well, I went to go see one of our operations. I met five of our employees, and you know why that was important? And so then I'm dropping little nuggets, but I'm also talking about my day. And not just it's not like one dimensional. It's this multi- dimensional thing that's now moving from home to business. And that's okay. I think sometimes we think, or I used to think that I had to shut one off and turn one on. It actually is all together. And that's okay. So that's great. And it's not a perfect world. And so it's one day at a time. One day could be really great that I'm managing it. And one day I'm like, I am terrible. I'm terrible both being a CEO and a mom. You know, something that I'm sure your kids are picking up from you and your family, it's just the generosity of your family. Between your company foundation and your family foundation, you've given over a billion dollars away. What's the biggest thing that giving back is as taught you, Kristin? Yeah, it's so amazing. I have to tell a story. So we learned how to give back through my grandfather. Jack is the one who said, when you're successful and when you're doing great things, you have to give back. That is the reason that we are so successful because we are successful because of the communities that we live and work in. And so that cannot stop. And that is part of our founding values and our culture. And when I can't, we were debating about at what age Jack set us all down. So there's five of us in the third generation. I have two sisters and two cousins. We're all women. They're five of us. Jack set us down and said, I'm going to give each of you $5,000 and we're like $5,000. Like, what are we doing with $5,000? Okay, great. He goes, no, you have to go find an organization in St. Louis that you find yourself liking your passion about your interest in. And it's a nonprofit that does something good for St. Louis. It doesn't matter what area it is. It could be animals. It could be food banks. It could whatever . But you need to go find it. You then need to come back, report back, and then tell us why you want to give them $5,000. And then you can present the checks in them. And that is how our generation learned how to give back. And then he established the foundation for the business. And now the business gives back. And every single one of our operating groups actually has their own money that they have earned. It's part of their profit that then they know they give back to the communities in which they are establishing their operations. And so it runs deep. And it is an amazing thing. And it makes us, it makes us better. And that's why we do it is because Jack said it's the right thing to do. Well, I'll tell you what, the story you'd shared about Jack with you has just inspired me. I have my grandkids. I have two daughters, granddaughters, one's 13, one's 14. And I 've got a 10 year old coming up. But the 13 and 14 year olds, I'm going to do exactly what Jack did and put him to work. And I love that idea. So thank you very much for sharing that. That's great. So my daughter turns 15 in two weeks. And my husband and I just talked about it . And we said, I don't have any gifts for her. I'm like, we're going to do that. That's exactly what we're going to do. And so we're going to talk to her on her birthday and be like, here's $5 ,000. We're going to go. You're going to go do this. I love it. Thank you very much for that. You know, with with 25 years of enterprise mobility now, third generation leading the company, what do you Chrissy C is, is your unfinished business? When you say that this is what I think about, Jack was the real risk taker. And we talked about flying off aircraft carriers, starting a business with $25,000 of his own money. He understood how to get it going and how to take the risk. My dad understood how big the company could be, the visionary, putting the governance in place, really getting the strategic framework of the company going. And so now it's my job to leverage the great things that they've done to catapult us into the future. And so enterprise mobility, changing the name, that's not, I mean, that's great. I changed the name, but there's got to be some firepower behind that. And so if you want to call it unfinished business, my unfinished business is to get enterprise mobility over that hurdle that people know us more for rent, more than just a rental car company, because that's a legacy that my dad and grandfather left for me. So let's get this thing going. We are just getting started. I have no doubt. I have no doubt. Last question. What's one piece of advice you 'd give to anyone who wants to be a better leader? Just take it one day at a time. There is a lot coming at you. It can be very complicated. Just one day at a time and use your team. Being a CEO is the ultimate team sport. You are not by yourself. Chrissy, you have 90,000 team members, Dale. And I got to ask you, when you have 100,000, what are you going to do? Same thing. We're going to be awesome. I thought you'd show a gigantic Chrissy cocktail party. Oh, that too. I can definitely do that. I was like, I don't know. Was that a trick question? I'm like, we're trying to be efficient here. Maybe we'll have 100,000. No, it's amazing. We want to continue to grow. Growth is in our DNA. Customer service, our employee development, it is amazing. And I'm just really proud and thrilled of the accomplishments of the entire organization and very thankful for my awesome family. And I'm very thankful for you taking the time to share your insights and wish you all the best. You don't need a lot of luck because I know you're going to make it happen. Amazing. Thank you very much for your time and all of your support. We appreciate it. Chrissy's energy is contagious, isn't it? She's built her career on valuing others, and you can just hear how much she believes in her 90,000 people. Strategy is important, but at the end of the day, your biggest competitive advantage is the people around you. You've got to invest in them. That's how you create a culture where great ideas thrive, where your business moves forward and where customers can feel the difference. So here's your challenge this week. Find one way to invest in your people. Maybe it's encouraging someone to push themselves and go after a new opportunity. Maybe it's just recognizing great work. You know, I'm always a fan of that. But whatever you do, remember, those moments add up and they're what turns a good culture into a great one. Coming up next on how leaders lead is Pat Battle, executive chairman at Diamond Baseball Holdings, an ownership group that owns more than a third of the minor league baseball teams. Think big and where most people think about where here's an opportunity. Think beyond that. This was an audacious goal to roll up even 24 minor league baseball teams and it's turned into something even bigger than I could have imagined. So be sure to come back again next week to hear our entire conversation. Thanks again for tuning in to another episode of How Leaders Lead, where every Thursday you get to listen in while I interview some of the very best leaders in the world. I make it a point to give you something simple on each episode that you can apply to your business so that you will become the very best leader you can be.