Start with the finish in mind—that’s the daily approach Travis Mack takes as crew chief for NASCAR driver John Hunter Nemechek and the Legacy Motor Club™.
Mack understands that Nemechek’s success relies on three factors:
When you’re in the driver’s seat of your business, it can be difficult—impossible even—to do all those things. That’s why you need your own crew chief: a Certified Exit Planning Advisor (CEPA®).
If you’ve found DriveValue.com, you’re likely a race fan. You already know that behind every great driver is a great crew chief. In the same way, as an entrepreneur, you can lean on a CEPA to manage your team, help you plan, and make sure you are driving value. When the white flag waves, you have many options to see checkers—and harvest your business’s value—at the end.
DriveValue.com sat down with Mack to learn about leading the John Hunter Nemechek team—and how a crew chief and CEPA are similar.
For Mack, every offseason starts with people.
“I would give up some of my responsibilities and pay to get the right people with the right attitudes in the right positions,” says Mack. “In the end, that’s how we arrive at success.”
Last offseason, Mack led a reinvention of Legacy Motor Club. They moved things around the shop, reorganized people, and rethought how they built the race car.
“We wanted people to mingle more because culture and communication are so important,” says Mack. “It’s a long season of ups and downs—starting the right way with the end in mind is key.”
Business takeaway: Exit planning isn’t just about the end—it’s good business every day. A CEPA can help you identify gaps in your structural capital, making sure you’re building the right team to fuel success with the right processes and culture.
Even though each offseason starts with the end in mind, each race has stages within them.
“Race day is tricky and stressful,” says Mack. “Everything has to be perfect. We are up early to cross our Ts and dot our Is, but once the car’s on the grid, we can’t touch it.”
From planning to the pre-race meeting, Mack and his team have already considered every scenario. They know mistakes will happen and there’s so much in racing that is out of their control.
“We view a race in three stages,” says Mack. “Each stage is a race within itself—all leading up to us having the best finish possible.”
Business takeaway: A CEPA can lead you and your leadership team through 90-day sprints—smaller goals that drive value on your way to the finish line of exiting your business. While you can’t control everything around your business, 90 days is a short enough time to pivot if external factors aren’t going your way. The key is having options to finish the best you can when an exit presents itself—not having to gun it at the end.
Mack didn’t graduate with an engineering degree. In fact, he wanted to be a surgeon. Racing was a hobby for him—and one that finally called him to a career.
“I first worked as a mechanic for Hendrick Motorsports,” says Mack. “I consider myself a self-taught engineer.”
Working hard to learn what others trained for allowed Mack to have every possible job in a racing crew. That gives him an edge in practicality.
“Sometimes other people design a part on a computer and just expect it to work,” says Mack. “But I’ve been on the mechanic side, and I know how hard it is to transfer knowledge from a computer to a race car.”
In his first crew chief position, he came in wanting to work on the car first and foremost. In the end, Mack says he was more hands-on than he should have been.
“I discounted the importance of communication with the drivers and the engineers,” says Mack. “I thought putting the best physical car on the track every week would help performance. It didn’t.”
Now, he trusts his car chief and mechanics to put the best car on the track. He trusts his engineers with setup, and he spends time with the pit crew, driver, and management team.
“I’m communicating non-stop,” says Mack. “I can orchestrate, but I also have to trust.”
Business Takeaway: You’re an expert in the thing your business does. But that doesn’t mean you're an expert in how your business does. A CEPA can be your crew chief—someone who trusts the experts but ensures they’re all aligned for a strong finish.
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