GM’s Growing Workforce, Minority Dealer Growth, Carless Communities

Paul Daly: 0:27Tuesday already, cars had 17 cups of coffee. By the time I even showed up on the life. Today we're talking about GMs growing workforce 2020 for minority dealer growth and Carla's communities. So people really want to know who kind of ID they stopped Carlat college communities kind of, kind of, we have to put a K for Carlis and a K for communities and then kind of watch it,

‍Kyle Mountsier: 0:52

watch that slow down. You're about to get yourself in trouble.

Paul Daly: 0:59

Pet peeve moment. There is very, they're very few things that annoy me more than those kinds of naming conventions.

Kyle Mountsier: 1:10

Like alliteration, just

Paul Daly: 1:14

the alliterations fight, it's when you started switching out CS and k, right? It's just I guess, there, maybe there's an instance or two where it's fun, but it's always one of those things, right? Just kind of roll my eyes a little bit.

Kyle Mountsier: 1:26

You get mad every time of course for kids commercial comes over the overlap radio stream. You know, ours for kids is

Paul Daly: 1:33

they don't spell the K, do they? I thought they did. Well, we'll give them a pass because it would just be bad for him to have anything against an organization.

Kyle Mountsier: 1:43

Yeah, it is. It's K AR. All

Paul Daly: 1:46

right. All right. Well, that's one of the few that I like, okay. We already Hey, we have a webinar coming up this week. We've been having a lot of fun with these quick shot right webinars, right? These these 25 to 30 minute webinars seem to be just hitting really well, the paces. Right, the conversations, right, and we have one coming up on August 9 at 2pm, which is tomorrow, by the way to management of dealers journey with connection. So just talking about the effects of tolling and how dealers can manage that better. And yeah, our friends, you're going to help us get that done in 30 minutes or less. You're gonna show up we all start with we

Kyle Mountsier: 2:26

also have a new show. We have a new show with a gentleman if you don't know him, his name is Daniel go there. This dude, he comes in Hi. So we are we've launched the wheelhouse it'll be debuting today at 1pm

Paul Daly: 2:42

on all the platforms and I didn't even know that was today. I'm so excited.

Kyle Mountsier: 2:46

Oh my goodness, it's unbelievable. This show, you're gonna want to check it out. If you can't catch it at 1pm. Eastern, you can catch it wherever your podcasts are found. It's called the soju wheelhouse. Make sure and jump on that because it is all right.

Paul Daly: 3:02

So basically a bunch of people caught on I show up to this thing with our hats backwards already. And we have to bring out the fire extinguisher because Daniel can can heat up a little bit so you don't have to hose him off every once in a while. Alright, let's get into some news gets him so we have to mention a soda con. Sorry for all the announcements. Sorry. There's just a lot. There's a lot going on around here. All right, we're about to release more than cars episode we're about to film another one. We just filmed one or talks for five. It's it's busy, but we are having a soda con we want you to join us in September, we've started the best part of the whole event, which is ordering the swag. The swag bags gonna be off the chain. In this year. We have all kinds of good stuff for you.

Kyle Mountsier: 3:44

Speakers, you know what I mean? Come for this. Look at that alliteration. Oh,

Paul Daly: 3:51

yeah, there's nothing to report with it as All right. Let's get into some news were all sideways on Tuesday already. Amid the industry's move toward electric vehicles, GM is pledging to increase its workforce by 2024. The commitment emerges in the backdrop of contract discussions, obviously with the UAW and all these apprehensions about like our EVs going to require less workers, which is you know, kind of raises the temperature in contract negotiations. Well, GM manufacturing chief Gerald Johnson said on Friday, he doesn't agree that they'll need less workers for evey production despite Ford statements last year, not helpful that EVs would require 40% Less worker so it sounds like that's a statement that got shareholders really excited. The stock price probably went up when they said that and now it's contract negotiation times. I was like, Well, I

Kyle Mountsier: 4:42

was so we're saving this money so that uh, we get out of people we need to hire. And so you know, just don't worry about Ford and we're gonna hire some people. We're gonna make it easier for everybody. You know, like, and over here, well, over here, over here. Hear No Look over here.

Paul Daly: 5:01

No more no less, no less. No more no Willie, more people, less people, more money, less work more people less money.

Kyle Mountsier: 5:07

Kudos to GM. I mean, you know, I think pressing into a workforce saying you're gonna hire more people is is always good, you know, like

Paul Daly: 5:16

more jobs. Well, that means they're going to be produced they're planning on producing more cars to why not? Let's go they should. Alright, that's platform. That's just our little update on the soap opera. Yeah More people shifted this a good story. The first time in more than a decade the US auto industry has seen a significant rise in minority owned dealerships was the Lantus and General Motors both leading the charge. So in 2022, there were 110 New minority owned stores, reflecting a growing emphasis on diversity in the auto sector, since the lenses added 32. And GM added 26. And minority dealer numbers have really been recovering since the Oh 809 recession, which hit them specifically hard when they dropped from 1800 in 2005, to just 875 in 2011. Yeah, that's that is that is full on draw hard

Kyle Mountsier: 6:17

to recover from something like that, you know, we were at I can't wait for name out this year last year, we're at name at you are at it two years ago. And I love seeing these, these OEMs that stand up in that room and are just proud about the work that they have done that they are doing and that they're committing to doing and GM instant Lantis. Like they they showed up for the name out event and I have an I have a feeling they're going to show up again. Oh, yeah. They're committed to this work. And the fact that like, we've got a quote here from Damon Lester, who's a good friend and family of a SOTU and previous president of named mad now the vice chair of the organization said, as leadership continues to stay stable, meaning the presidents and CEOs of those entities have not switch hands or time and so things like that, we do tend to fare well when that happens. So the longevity, the understanding at the executive level, that it's an important thing to see minority dealer growth. And this is this is my favorite part is they're seeing like these dealerships be extremely successful. Right, because they're there in places that make sense based on the community, the leaders are dialed in, they want to succeed. So to to start scientists and GM, like keep doing what you're doing, you know.

Paul Daly: 7:38

So GM has started the minority dealer initiative and Knight back in 1972. As before, both you and I were around the company highlighted, basically, that the accomplishments in this isn't just like a social action, like these dealers are performing better than a lot of other dealers, and they want to continue to attract highly qualified candidates. And a funny thing happens like yeah, like you said, you and I had been around the name out of it. And there's something that happens when somebody is hungry, and there's a community that comes around them to support them. I think that's why they're seeing these just like, outpaced performance numbers, because you want it so bad. And when you want it really bad thing is even if you're new to the party, even if you're an inexperienced, you don't have like the legacy of generational dealership experience. It's fun to watch them actually crush it. I mean, look at David Lester. If it was an outside deal, I'd

Kyle Mountsier: 8:33

never been in the retail side of the business and doing great and you see I mean, we interviewed so many last year at at NEMA that are like first time dealers are got their shot and are just taking off acquiring stores growing their dealerships.

Paul Daly: 8:51

It doesn't Damien Mills, the mike Terry's and Julie Herrera's, like, yep, getting it done, man. Get it done. It's fun story to report on I tried to grab Damon, because I picked him early. I was like, Hey, you want to come on the show and talk about this. But he's about to get on a plane. So hey, go well, we'll have next time we'll have next well speaking of attracting new people, segue or repelling people.

Kyle Mountsier: 9:15

There's a community in Arizona called culdesac Tempe that is attempting to attract a new kind of owner. They're pioneering a car free community or close to it. It's now open and it offers a very unique urban style experience. Basically, it is designed centered around the idea that everything necessary to live work, socialize without needing a vehicle is right there. So it's got gyms, restaurants, co working spaces. It all is built around sustainable living lifestyles that are all in the sustainable kind of like progressive lifestyle and the desire to connect the neighborhood and not just make it super transient like they want people to walk they want people to be engaged with their community go to meals with with people around. It's interesting because they do have access to things like E bikes, and then discounts on lift rides, and some car rentals as well. Like if you got to get out, if you got to move a little bit further, they've got that. So it's not a completely car free community. But the majority is car free. And it's all apartment based. The apartments range anywhere from 1300 to 3200, from a one bedroom to a three bedroom. So it's not like super low cost of living. But you know, it's a cool engagement. I call it I call it this, I call it this, you know, advertising like in Nashville, but she ain't what I know.

Paul Daly: 10:48

Oh, I have so many questions. That's the first of all, to me personally, it sounds like a nightmare. I love my car. I love driving around. I love going places. I love the experience of getting in my car and go somewhere. Everybody's not the same. I totally get it. It'd be fun to vacation in a place like this. Sure. Right. Oh, where you don't need to talk. Also, other question. I looked at the pictures. I didn't see a lot of children. You know what I mean? So that's a pro or con.

Kyle Mountsier: 11:13

No, it's absolutely like a young working, you know, couple are working single. Yeah, that's, I mean, it's it's urban life, right? I mean, you go downtown Nashville, like good luck finding, you know, a 38 to 42 year old couple with their kids in a stroller, right? Yeah, it's just not. It's not the mode. But

Paul Daly: 11:34

sure you get the benefits, you get the benefit of not being around the noise and the traffic is probably much quieter. It's probably much safer, frankly. But one thing's for sure. It's not much cooler. I did a little search on the the forecast in Tempe, Arizona for the next five days. And it's like 1071081 10 112 113 Who wants to be outside anyway?

Kyle Mountsier: 11:59

Let's look John Foley's like basically, this is the Benjamin Button town right? He said it's a retirement community.

Paul Daly: 12:06

future retirees can be Hey, we're a little bit

Kyle Mountsier: 12:09

old. Out there in Tempe old souls.

Paul Daly: 12:11

I bet if we visited we'd be like, This is really nice, but I still want my car. Well, like obviously we're a little biased. We love the cars. We love it a lot about we hope you move around today. We hope you get some stuff done care about the people that are in your charge. And you know what? You should join us at a soda content. You mentioned that I think we did.

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