Value DRiVEN: Scaling Brands Through Connection with Adam Sutton
In this episode of The Bliss Business Podcast, Adam Sutton, CEO of DX3 Brands and RNR Tire Express, shares how scaling brands through connection turns transactional service into real relationships, and why culture, customers, and community are the three C's driving sustainable franchise growth.
Scaling brands through connection starts with a simple swap: stop treating people like transactions and start treating them like relationships.
In this episode of The Bliss Business Podcast, we welcome Adam Sutton, CEO of DX3 Brands and RNR Tire Express, the national franchise retailer his father founded 25 years ago.
In Value DRiVEN: Scaling Brands Through Connection, we explore:
• Why connection is essential to scalable brand growth
• How values shape customer experience and franchise culture
• Why strong teams are the foundation of strong brands
• How community impact can become part of business strategy
• What it takes to preserve a family-business spirit while scaling nationally
• How leaders can create experiences that people remember and trust
Adam's framework runs on three core values he calls the three C's: culture, customers, and community, built in that order every time. "We call that relational, not transactional," he says of the experience he wants every RNR customer to feel, tracing the whole philosophy back to a line his father used to build the company: "If you love your people, they'll love your customers."
Scaling brands through connection also means resisting the urge to move fast just because you can. Adam compares growing RNR from 100 stores to 200 to turning a cruise ship, not a speedboat: deliberate, sometimes slow, but steady. His advice to leaders who feel overwhelmed by the size of the goal is blunt: "Start small and stay consistent."
That same intentionality carries into community. Rather than leaving giving back to chance, RNR built a community outreach guide, hired a national nonprofit coordinator, and now runs an annual Mother's Day car giveaway (more than 25 cars and counting) alongside a back to school backpack drive it fully funds and ships for its franchisees.
The same discipline applies to how a brand talks about itself outward, not just how it treats people inside the building: audiences can feel the difference between a company performing its values and one that has built systems around them, which is exactly the kind of authentic, purposeful marketing Zero Company helps its clients build.
Key Takeaways
• (5:46) “Relational, not transactional”: the three C’s, culture, customers, and community, built in that order, because team members who feel respected pass that respect on to customers
• (8:22) His father’s founding principle for RNR, 25 years ago: “if you love your people, they’ll love your customers.”
• (20:27) “Start small and stay consistent,” Adam Sutton’s advice for leaders who feel intimidated by the size of a culture goal
• (22:00) Scaling from 100 stores to 200 in six years, after 18 years to reach the first 100, by putting the right people in the right seats and “making the gray, black, and white.”
• (25:32) The cruise-ship metaphor: culture change at scale is deliberate, not fast, “it’s not a speedboat.”
• (30:13) The system behind the community value: a dedicated national nonprofit coordinator, an annual Mother’s Day car giveaway (more than 25 cars), and a company-funded backpack drive for franchisees who can’t run one on their own
FAQ
What does Adam Sutton mean by “relational, not transactional”?
It’s DX3 Brands’ shorthand for treating people, team members and customers, like relationships instead of numbers. Adam Sutton says the discipline starts with culture first, “we actually use the word team members and not employees,” and that respect passed down internally is what customers end up feeling on the other side of the counter.
How did RNR Tire Express scale from 100 stores to 200?
In six years, after taking 18 years to reach the first 100. Adam Sutton says the fix wasn’t speed, it was discipline: putting the right people in the right seats and “making the gray, black, and white,” turning loosely run processes into a documented system franchisees could actually follow.
What is RNR Tire Express’s approach to community giving?
A systemized, franchisor-funded program, not a side initiative. RNR built a community outreach guide, hired a national nonprofit coordinator to source local opportunities for owners, and runs an annual Mother’s Day car giveaway of more than 25 cars and a fully funded back-to-school backpack drive, so franchisees who “can’t afford to give away a car” still have an easy way to participate.
🎙️ Hosted by Stephen Sakach and Tullio Siragusa
🎧 Produced by Martha Huerta
A brand grows strongest when people feel connected to its purpose, its culture, and the value it creates in their lives.
Learn more about Adam Sutton, DX3 Brands, and RNR Tire Express at dx3brands.com and rnrtires.com. For more on building brands people trust, listen to Building Community and Connection in Business with Vince Quinn and Storytelling That Builds Connection with Ben Green.
CEO of DX3 Brands and RNR Tire Express
Adam B. Sutton is the CEO of DX3 Brands, (the franchisor of RNR Tire Express and Gigglewaters), where he leads a Value DRiVEN approach to developing strong teams, scaling brands and creating meaningful experiences for customers and communities. With a unique background spanning creative, technology and executive leadership, he has helped grow multiple companies and produced work for some of the world’s most recognized brands. He is passionate about mentorship, partnerships and building businesses that create lasting impact.
