Biden’s Big Tariffs, Dealership Delivery Lounge, and TikTok AI

Paul J Daly: 0:30

Yo, we finally did it where y'all had a soda kind of right now there's a lot going on behind these signs. But it is Tuesday. If you didn't know, may 14 People are starting to come in. We just seen the first little trickle of people. Our team is in shape. Our team is dialed in, and we are ready to have a bombastic ASOTU. CON,

‍Kyle Mountsier: 0:47

let's go. Well, first of all, this is our very first set deck for

Paul J Daly: 0:55

people. What's really involved? Like, let's do a show, what's the background was like, no, no, you have all these banners, let's drag them into place. So these are just some of the we have 100 of these.

Kyle Mountsier: 1:06

If you're flying in, you can actually if you're flying in today, you can actually get the event app right over here. If you're watching, and you've got a phone, like if you're on LinkedIn, and you got a phone in your hand, you can get the event app right there crazy stuff crazy. It's

Paul J Daly: 1:18

pretty unbelievable. Look, you've been here we've been talking about ASOTU CON. And now we get to execute for people coming in this morning in our team meeting. Remember, we were talking about the importance and the meaning that one moment can have on your perspective. And one moment that changes the way you look at the world and shift your perspective. And then all of a sudden it opens up and start solving the problems that you are trying to solve. And we're hoping for a lot of those moments actually, over 500 people are going to be

Kyle Mountsier: 1:43

here. Unbelievable, we're really I'm just excited to welcome the industry into the space and on our team has prepared so long, you know, you say like the one moment that can change your life. And that's going to look different for a lot of families. It could be a data thing. It's a data thing. It's a connection you make it's a potential, you know, like career opportunity. There are some people here that I know that are like literally without jobs right now and could find a place it it's so many opportunities that you get when you get into a space with light hearted like minded people that are all pursuing the same end target within our industry. And that's business operations. That change lives on the other end as well. It's

Unknown: 2:24

well said Well said, Hey,

Kyle Mountsier: 2:27

we got some stuff to talk about, though.

Paul J Daly: 2:28

Because I mean, everybody can't be at a soda con and there's still some things going on in the news. Absolutely. The world doesn't stop for a soda con, but with a lot of pressure mounting from Chinese Evie imports. The Biden administration has quadrupled its tariff on EVs coming from China and doubled many double the tariffs on many other import products. Basically, the changes are designed to reinforce domestic industry, obviously protect the US economy, protect auto dealers, auto manufacturing, basically, and they're saying they're going to implement implement the strategy. No surprise here sometime between 2024 Yeah, no and 2020

Kyle Mountsier: 3:06

It's all teared up and everything. Yep.

Paul J Daly: 3:08

Here's from the article, quote. The levees aim to counter China's rush into so called Legacy chips, which are older generation components that are still essential to the global economy. The Biden administration recently concluded a survey of more than 100 Auto aerospace, defense and other companies about their supply chain for those less advanced semiconductors. and the EU is considering launching a similar review of its own secretary, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said we will not tolerate surges of certain artificially cheap Chinese imports on American communities. Yeah,

Kyle Mountsier: 3:41

so basically a lot of this is meant to counteract the fact that the like Chinese manufacturing is trying is is working to continually subsidize reduced cost manufacturing or reduced price product price product and and show that hey, look like we've got to have price parity in the US but also the ability to make sure that US manufacturing some of the net new technologies that that push innovation are actually involved in like the products being brought to the US market so it's not just a hey, let's raise prices it's actually like a technology push as well. So yeah, and

Unknown: 4:23

obviously that the article talks about EVs we all know Chinese EVs, there's a lot of options there's a lot of tech billets, and there's a lot of kind of pricing, we call it manipulation and we call it messing with right the government has a lot to do with how things are priced in order to be competitive so we're trying to offer a level playing field and look what we how can you not be for like price parity and like we're all for competition absolutely not unfair competition,

Kyle Mountsier: 4:46

but a Forex over two years. It's going to be pretty wild. We'll see what happens with the market. A lot of people kind of are speculating like what's going to be the

Paul J Daly: 4:53

reaction if you knew this, there's gonna be an election this year. No

Kyle Mountsier: 4:55

way. It really could. Wild change the whole thing.

Paul J Daly: 4:58

Moving on. This is more fun. The story one of the first Toyota retailers in the country, a family run dealership Toyota of Greensboro. They were established back in 1965 has long been a busy retailer SE is a super busy store, oh services almost 24/7 They sell hundreds of vehicles a month. And recently, Toyota, big Toyota announced a $13.9 billion battery complex right down the road set to employ 5000 people. And so basically Toyota of Greensboro said, You know what, there's 5000 Toyota employees, we're gonna build a dedicated sales and service experience for and Toyota is in. Basically, they're spending $2 million to revamp what was formerly a used car center into this new sales and delivery hub only for Toyota employees. The new facility is gonna have a 10 day service center amenities like a pool table, refreshments, I saw the tabletops it's like this, like live edge finish wood tables, it looks gorgeous. Mary Reiss, who is the third generation dealer principle, I love that story already. We'll talk about that Barbie, we're making a trip one of the cars. She says everything I've had in my whole life is due to Toyota, this is an opportunity to give back to the company. We'd love that. That's, shall we Yeah, we're talking about dealer OEM relationships. She says it's an elevated experience. Because those 5000 people have just achieved she calls it a status as a Toyota employee, when a team member she goes on, I feel like our team members who have achieved that status as well that we owe the experience to them. So they have an employee purchase, right? They set it up just for the employees.

Kyle Mountsier: 6:35

Look, Mary, one of our own apps to you was snaps to you should be at ASOTU CON right should be at ASOTU CON, I love this story. The reason I love this story is because in her neighborhood, where she's at, that's the most important customer for her right, it is a care point to make that the thing that she and their dealership group care for in that community. What that means is actually that can be replicated, that you can do that. Maybe you have maybe in your like buyer persona or your community, there's a segment of your community that is committed to the success of your business, and you're committed to the sex success of that community. How do you serve them? Well, what's the feeling? What's the experience that they maybe get that's elevated? Or how can you take from this elevated experience and build that into your regular experience? Like looking at people that are doing things differently allows us all to like, trace that back into our business? So take elements of this, like how do you set up a unique experience and service that people want to come back to that people want to stay at? That's what I think is going to happen here. So

Paul J Daly: 7:47

and it also shows your own team that working for Toyota, whether it's a dealership, or the OEM is a big deal. It's a privilege. Yep. Right? It's a decision that you make every day. I'm going to work here, I'm not going to work here. And it's a decision that your managers and your bosses say they're worth being here or not.

Kyle Mountsier: 8:05

I love it. If you feel if you feel worthy of being at a place, you stay that long, no doubt. Well, speaking of saying that longer Oh,

Paul J Daly: 8:14

that's a good one.

Kyle Mountsier: 8:19

too, not just video search results, but search results, integrating generative AI into their platform called Get this fancy name, AI Smart Search.

Paul J Daly: 8:31

That was made by an AI translator had to be

Kyle Mountsier: 8:35

basically the platform's approach to cater to younger users who increasingly rely on tick tock for search needs over traditional engines like a YouTube or a Google. Basically, what happens is you search for something and there are AI generated responses at the top that are techspace responses, offering full, full page. Click Oh,

Unknown: 8:56

come on. Come on through, you're good to go. We've always got people coming through the morning. They're working this morning.

Kyle Mountsier: 9:05

So right now, this feature is limited to just a few specific queries at this point, and, and provides content from chap GPT when deemed relevant. They've evolved their search capabilities, potentially integrating Google search and even external search links and site links.

Paul J Daly: 9:25

Well, so wanted to be a Google basic Are you going to talk it now is that we're going to be like just talk it did I just clean that we were just talking they probably are the kids already? I mean, kids don't have tick tock but they probably know that they probably know we should ask it. I mean, I wonder what this is going to do. Obviously tick tock has been in the news a ton lately about the US potentially forcing a sale the company this have knowing search intent, they already know from video sampling, because a lot of people have gone to tick tock for information, restaurant recommendations, et cetera. But now that texts I can say personally, that I've used Like, open AI to search a lot more Oh, when I want a descriptive answer, as opposed to just search fields. One side, you were just telling me this morning that you're more and more frustrated with Google. Because when you get a no click search, it only gives you a summary overarching, like idea of what you're looking for. And you have to spend a lot more to force myself to get further down on the substance of the articles that's invited that summary. So obviously search is up for grabs. I no doubt there are people at Google. Yep. Running around like they haven't run. We haven't even talked

Kyle Mountsier: 10:28

about the open AI launch of world four Oh, yesterday, which I watched a video of it. I haven't I just logged in. And I was like, oh, it's no, it's like stupid. Good. It's unbelievable. Yeah, like they are challenging. They are a search engine. At this point in my voice, the whole nine yards, the world is flipping upside down.

Unknown: 10:49

I think this point, like no matter how big you are, and how establish or even if you've invented a technology or in a way to do something, you're not safe in this day and age. Same thing goes for every manufacturer,

Kyle Mountsier: 10:59

you're not safe. But you also have so much upside opportunity. Like there's gaps, yes, that you can go fill quickly. Right now, in every business, your business can be an early adopter of a gap platform. So leaning into those is a way to like get way more leverage where you typically wouldn't have it and maybe like a legacy search platform or something.

Paul J Daly: 11:20

But the mindset there has to be you have to be willing to get it wrong. 10 times. Absolutely right. Because you're gonna try the hard work. You have to do it. You have to do it. But I mean, look, you can roll the outro because we're gonna roll up because we have a group of people. In this place, welcome reception tonight, full day of content. Wednesday, Thursday, we'll get bearers on his way like, Oh, we're about to have the time look, follow us on LinkedIn. And we'll bring you as much as we possibly can. We'll see you soon

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