Simplicity, Megawatts, and Messi

Paul Daly: 0:27It feels so good to have you back my friend. It is Monday, August 21. Today we got three things one might be too soon but simplicity. megawatts and sorry Kyle but messy now messy. Messy. It's a conversation about brand though.

‍Kyle Mountsier: 0:51

It is a conversation. It's absolutely.

Paul Daly: 0:54

It's a conversation about brands through and through. We're going to talk about it. But hey, we're so excited to be here with you this morning. Fresh Monday, fresh week. We got that like week before the last week like there's this is just the third week of the month as always, like, you're just locked in, right?

Kyle Mountsier: 1:09

I'm pumped about this week personally, there's there's something about vacation and coming back from vacation. I was I was telling my daughter yesterday, she was like Daddy, are you excited to get back to work? We're driving on the way home from church. And she and I was like I absolutely am. And she goes well, why? And I said, Well, you know, daddy goes on a run every single morning. Well, normally my runs are just kind of like what's going to happen for that day. But when you're on vacation runs become this like grand dream expansive thing that just like gets you there's no to do list at the other end of it. There's no to do it like it like opens up and expands your thinking and I'm ready to roll it.

Paul Daly: 1:49

You run it outside to like by the beach or whatever, wherever the

Kyle Mountsier: 1:53

beach and just gorgeous weather and the sunrise and the whole nine yards. It was great.

Paul Daly: 1:58

I'm jealous. I'm jealous.

Kyle Mountsier: 1:59

I'm jealous for all the friends that let me go eat including the live stream folks. You know, I'm saying yeah,

Paul Daly: 2:04

we had a lot of fun. We have a special thanks to taka puto and Steve Greenfield and Liza Borchers. And Michael Cirillo, it took for people to fill in for you cocky, believe that.

Kyle Mountsier: 2:14

I know, I get it. I feel that you did the same thing. It was it's good. Gotta do it. Gotta

Paul Daly: 2:20

do it. Hey, we're super excited today to announce our CO presenting sponsors for a soda con 2023 Throw them up on the screen. A cars and stream companies have kind of banded together with us to present a soda con 2023. To you, we want to thank both companies profusely knowing that we're all going to be part of what may be the most epic automotive event ever happened. That's a high bill. And maybe it won't. But I guarantee you that people are going to leave this event ready to operate better inspire, to market better, with more connections to answer the questions and all the little trip ups that happened during regular business, which is the real value of an event. Now, I mean, we'll learn a lot, there's gonna be workshops, and there's going to be, you know, panels and discussions and questions and all those things. But man, never forget all that stuff,

Kyle Mountsier: 3:13

the connections, man, the connections, the energy, the feeling of being part of an industry that is just moving and shaking and seeing other people doing similar and great things across the country just encouraging and energizing you to do the same in your stores in your companies. That's what it's all about. Like that's why these events, that's why any automotive event is encouraging is because the community that gets drafted around it. And I'm particularly excited about the way that energy vibes when people hit when the automotive industry hits Baltimore, absolutely. We're gonna announce

Paul Daly: 3:47

a bunch of other partners this week, because we have podcast stages and recharge lounges. And we have a trade show floor. It's going to be amazing. We have meals and parties and all the things that help us to collaborate much, much better. But again, special thank you to cars and stream for just making this thing happen. And hey, if you're in the podcast or the livestream, shoot them a little note and be like, hey, I want to see you there. Thanks for Thanks for helping our people that have so to do more of what they do. I guess that's probably Oh, no, we have speaking to do we do I don't. Yeah, something like that. We've been doing a lot more webinars lately, and a lot more education, which has been fun because we I really like you and I spent a lot of time in dealerships still. We're both very much practitioners when it comes to what's going on in the front lines of automotive. That's we talked about it. So that was kind of like from the front lines up the way we report the way we think about things. And so we have a webinar coming up on Wednesday. Is it Wednesday, Wednesday, Wednesday, talking about a Kyle.

Kyle Mountsier: 4:41

Hey, you gotta go we're going to be talking about five things. Everything every dealer should be doing in GA four, which has been a large topic of conversation for the last month and a half since Universal Analytics has been sunset by Google. And so yeah, check it out. If you can come or not make sure and register because you can always Just watch it back and check out all of these practical tips because we're going to be looking inside a real J for instance, giving the practical tools you can go to a cio.com Scroll down just a little bit and register right there.

Paul Daly: 5:12

I love it. And George Jones on the livestream wants to make sure we don't forget to talk about the free tacos. We, you know, we we said, we're not going to have any conference chicken at a soda con, if you've been to a conference, you know what conference chicken is, sometimes it's okay. But now we can't do it that way. So since we're having a soda con, it's going to overlap on a Tuesday, we have to have Taco Tuesday, Tuesday. Tuesday. All right, let's talk about some news today. So GM is working toward keeping things simple as it unveils plans to reshape the engineering part of its workforce. The initiative is part of a broader strategy seeking to align the automakers resources, what's with its evolving vision for the future, they intend to cut about 200 engineering position positions, but companies will have the opportunity to move into other positions within the company. So Mary Barra introduced what they're calling, quote, winning with simplicity, that's the name of their strategy. I like the clear messaging, they aim to decrease design and engineering expenses, and simplify the manufacturing project, they're actually trying to cut half of their available trim models, and shave 2 billion in cost reductions by the end of 2024. With another billion they've already identified also that they already want to cut. And so it sounds like lying to me, let's get simple. Let's cut this. I don't know if there'll be down like 1000 I probably Yeah,

Kyle Mountsier: 6:36

this is like, we're gonna call this plan the winning by copying Tesla plan. So yeah, yeah, no,

Paul Daly: 6:46

I don't think Tesla's ever cut trims? No,

Kyle Mountsier: 6:49

but they don't have a lot. So that's No, this is smart. Because look, when you go to GMs website, or really any any US manufacturers website and try and figure out which things go with which and which colors go with which and which combinations, there's like 100,000 combinations that you can possibly get of any of a GM vehicle. And so that's, it's not just going to simplify manufacturing, which is going to reduce costs and streamline and create efficiencies internally, it's going to actually clear things up for consumers when shopping. That's, that's a big thing. That's huge for me, because when you're looking to maintain brand, brand equity with your customers, and help them understand exactly how they moved from vehicle to vehicle, especially as they grow in their vehicle ownership, like growing in the size of their vehicle, potentially with their family, you they start to learn exactly what they get with exactly what trims and it's a lot easier to shop. And so making it easier to shop makes it easier to purchase. And that's going to be better for the consumer, the dealer and the OEM. And so I know that this is a story all about cost cutting internally, but I think it's actually going to do wonders for them externally with the consumer. But that's good

Paul Daly: 8:03

news, too, because they also plan on reducing their sales and marketing expenditures by 800 million, with cuts in other areas. So I mean, you think how those things play together, right? If you have a simpler product offered offering, you have to spend less time explaining it. Right. And explaining things in these days takes money, right to get people's attention. So I don't know maybe they are thinking a little bit that way. And then they got a couple couple, two, three smart people over there. I think. Speaking of cutting expenses or not,

Kyle Mountsier: 8:33

not expensive at all.

Paul Daly: 8:36

Right late last week we didn't talk about last week, it's because he had a lot of other stuff but Lamborghini unveiled their first Evie concept. I don't know if it's the Lonza door is probably the door, lens door Lonza door to door like Savannah tomato, I'll call it the Lonza door, which is a fusion of supercar aesthetics, and SUVs functionality, which is like you know, you've seen Lamborghini moving this direction. So as the band's first foray into the fully Eevee realm, the Lonzo promises staggering power. We'll talk about that in a second, and some Eco conscious interiors, and a commitment to a sustainable future. So basically, they're calling this a two plus two concept, which is a way to say it's got four seats in it fancy combining elements of a supercar and an SUV. Listen to this. So it's got an electric motor on each axle. When you put the power together. It produces one megawatt of power and 1300 horsepower equivalent to the dolly. I don't know quite how to measure megawatt megawatt. I think it's in less than a gigawatt

Kyle Mountsier: 9:42

and all available at go, right because it's an electric motor.

Paul Daly: 9:47

There's like a button you press right. And so the if you look at the design, they've taken design cues from the Rialto sports car and the URIs, which is the new SUV thing with the great with the great advertising that we do knocked about and so it's got a Y shaped body so it's got like these wheels that flare in the back and the cockpit is like they try to make it feel like you're in a cockpit basically. And the start button has like this little red switch that you have to like flip up, press the button that makes you feel like you're in an F 16 I didn't see any radio in there so I don't know how you control that but I think the five the last thing on your mind when you're on the car

Kyle Mountsier: 10:24

that's the last thing that's on your mind yeah, this thing is definitely futuristic the photos and the videos and exactly where they you know how they've got a position it's certainly concept car ish so I understand why there's maybe no radio or anything like that. But it's not so far from concept barred because they do plan a release in 2028 And so that's a while yeah, so that's a hot a hot minute away it's interesting because they still say that their that their full lineup will be some way electric by 2024. So you know Lamborghini not every man's car. But always something to look at because you watch everyone always looks at the high lines to start to look in draft on design draft on technology draft on on you know available hardware and software and so I'm sure there'll be a lot of people kind of looking at and vehicles starting to look like the Lamborghini

Paul Daly: 11:22

will speak in drafting. I didn't know if it was too soon for this, but I cleared it at the beginning of the show, Kyle said it's not too soon. I feel like I should I should introduce the story because you're gonna have so much commentary. i So okay, well so the next 10 minutes for me sounds good. Good. Great. Have a cup of coffee. So in what might be too soon moment but it's not for Kyle. Soccer phenomenon. Lionel Messi, I can say his name right now has transformed Major League League Soccer MLS. He transformed the whole landscape as he scored his 10th goal in seven games. He kicked the winning goal against sorry to say it Kyle your favorite your booster national sc on Saturday night to win the leagues Cup tournament on

Kyle Mountsier: 12:08

that there's well we'll get to it. He didn't get the winning goal.

Paul Daly: 12:11

But he kicked the last goal though right?

Kyle Mountsier: 12:14

He kicked he kicked a goal

Paul Daly: 12:18

I love so much. So his influence has doubled Apple TV subscriptions Apple TV Plus subscription since that's where you watch it MLS his jersey the pink inner Miami jersey is a top seller and ticket prices to go see him is like you know making Taylor Swift Fans jealous 17 100% increase since he started and inter Miami's Instagram followers now surpass those of the NFL, the NHL and MLB. And so they got a couple of things. All right, cow give us give us the real story because you were at the game. So here's the thrust in yellow and black when this happened.

Kyle Mountsier: 12:54

Golden black, but go back to go back to when the tickets were released. And it was crazy because season ticket holder members typically that so like the tickets that I had purchased for the league's cup all the way through, I'm a season ticket holder member were$20. Like that's what they that's what the ticket prices were set at. So that's what I was able to buy the map. On the first release of open tickets. The lowest price ticket was$320. When the full release for non season, ticket holder members came out, the lowest ticket price was $710. And so you look at that and you start to compare those 30,109 Tickets available at a Nashville SC soccer specific stadium to things like what the Super Bowl starts out as now there was only two days for everybody to get their travel plans in order and get everything right to be there. But some tickets were going well north of $1,500 for this match. Here's what's wild though, is this is what everybody isn't explaining this is they had a major leagues cup run. But this is where like getting the right team together getting the brand on point mate pulling all the people together. Actually, the whole move of Leonardo Messi came with four other players that are top notch players in the MLS and abroad that have brought them massive success winning every single game since he's been on now. This is where I get where I get a little bit like messed up because here's the thing. We like Nashville SC had every opportunity to win that game. And I'm pumped because we held them to the lease goals ever scored. And the only goal that was scored by Lionel Messi during the run of play was an absolutely sublime thread of a needle through just a sliver of hope. Going through three defenders and just getting past the hand of our goal. deeper on something that no other player in the world could accomplish. Right? Now, it also went to penalty kicks. And the penalty kicks went all the way through every single player to the end when the goalkeepers were shooting against each other, which is just unseen, unheard. And so it was, it was just one of those matches where the energy, the way that the stadium felt, the PAC Stadium, the way the win game went all the way down to the wire. It was one of the most epic sporting events I've ever been to. And I've been to some amazing

Paul Daly: 15:34

I'm so glad you got to go to that it was you know, this this tie into the story. Really, I said the beginning it's a it's a story about brands. Now, you know, it's Cody in the comments actually just put a really insightful comment said this messy deal is going to change the sports contracts. It's changed sports contracts as we know them forever. And he's right. The reason Messi has so much leverage is because he spent time building brand. He's not just a great soccer player, he does all types of thing. So people get to understand his personality. And when you take that leverage, and you move it, he single handedly has changed the entire League's brand in the shape of the world. And that generates a tension which generates money. And the way we're tying that all the way back down to you, local dealer or industry partner, is the fact that you in a way in a microwave every day can start building your brand, which means letting people understand who you are, how you think, why you love the sport that you play. Right and you become the champion. Messi was the guy that had that. This is what I remember, right? He's the guy that like saying, like, I don't fall like never go down. Right. Was that messy? Yep. Right. I remember it like I don't. I'm just learning about soccer in these last six months, especially being close to Kyle, and I'm getting excited about it. It's actually it's catching on. But I remember years ago, I saw that commercial. And I was like, he's my favorite soccer player. Yeah, I don't like soccer, but he's my favorite soccer player. Why? Because we had a shared belief and brand is about expressing your beliefs and connecting with other people so

Kyle Mountsier: 17:04

well and you can take it anywhere you can take brand anywhere and this especially when thinking about the movement of how business is going to be transacted in the auto retail world from EVs to future transportation, tell him if you take if you make brand about more than what you sell, or more than what you do, but about who you are and why you do it. Brand is transferable anywhere so it can go to any country, anything anywhere. And that's how to win,

Paul Daly: 17:33

any community, any family, any individual, any make model, any drive train ICER electric, all of those things, get out there, build your brand today, care about some people and we will see you right back here tomorrow.

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