The Ace Sunk, Ford Out of Russia, and Selling with Social

SPEAKERS

Kyle Mountsier, Paul Daly

Paul Daly  00:33

Good morning, troublemakers. It is Tuesday. It's Wednesday. It's Tuesday. It's Tuesday, March 2, Kyle is flying around in his office. We have a lot of stuff talking about cleaning dealers investing in things and acquisitions and distinct ship that people really want to ship sinking

Kyle Mountsier  00:52

ship. This is he didn't know he was coming out with a tongue twister this morning, buddy, but it happened. So apparently

Paul Daly  00:59

I lost. I lost the battle. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. That was Glen Lundy, in person right there. We really came across a fun stat this morning. And here it is. That if you have a podcast, and you have 29 listens on your show, 29 listens. You're in the top 50% of all podcasts everywhere. If you have 87 listens. You are in the top 25% of all podcasts. And if you have 308 listens, you are in the top 10% of all podcasts. So I would say we are on the march to the 10% from the 25%. So Right. It's cool. I mean, this has been like three months, three months. We're closing in on the top 10%. Nathan out you are doing great. I don't know what your podcast is Nathan, but you are doing great. It's not total. Listen, by the way, if you have 300 episodes, and you have 87 listens, you are not in the top 25% of podcast. So so that got us encourage this morning because this community is growing. And this community has already shown that it is in at least the top 20% of podcasts everywhere. So do us a favor. If you listen to the podcast or you check out the live stream, go on Apple Music or Apple podcasts and rate the podcast and leave a review. And that will actually help them show the podcast to more people. Can you rate podcasts on Spotify? Can you do that?

Kyle Mountsier  02:29

Thanks. So I think so. So I don't know Spotify that well. I'm sorry. Apologize. Wait a minute. What did we say? What did you say? Did you say March 1 or something goofy.

Paul Daly  02:42

Now I said March 2, but I said Tuesday I literally just Yes, Larry. We're disrupting the calendar. This is the story of my life. All right. All right. We know what day it is now. And we've established that so I think we can move on with the rest of this show. Let's

Kyle Mountsier  02:57

roll let's roll. We got a lot to talk about today. It's flying around automotive like crazy. We we've got acquisitions and New Dealer funds and crazy so I want to start with actually it's like the last article in our show notes is the Felicity ace, which is the name of if you didn't know the transport carrier, the boat that caught fire, what like week and a half ago, right? So they got the fire calm. Everybody

Paul Daly  03:24

heard about right, a lot of Porsches and BMWs. And Bentley's are on like, as if we didn't have a

Kyle Mountsier  03:28

nice Lamborghinis. Right.

Paul Daly  03:31

That's why I got that note that mine is canceled. Just kidding. It's like,

Kyle Mountsier  03:36

man, call your wife let her know it's not. It's gonna be so mad. No, but so it so they started they began towing it and all the sudden it starts to take on water. And by goes $438 million worth of goods 401 million of which were cars. I actually got a note from a dealer this morning that a dealer down the road from them, a Porsche dealer had 11 of their inbound units on that. On that thing, it was half of their proceeds of their perspective, new car deliveries this month, and like new high and Porsches,

Paul Daly  04:14

how many cars were on that thing? Do you remember? A lot? I don't remember.

Kyle Mountsier  04:19

1 million. Let's just let's, let's say that they averaged 100 100 grand because they were high end cars, right? I mean, was 400 cars at least? That's a well

Paul Daly  04:30

that. That is I mean, I know. I know. There's a lot of questions on how much was damaged on it, but now it's at the bottom of the ocean. So and

Kyle Mountsier  04:38

you've got like numbered cars on that on those cars, right? I mean, you're talking Yeah, I mean,

04:43

at least Lambo

Kyle Mountsier  04:44

X of X of X is is what was a reality for a lot of people on that on that

Paul Daly  04:50

wonder if anybody will ever go again. You know what I mean? Like some collectors,

Kyle Mountsier  04:55

like some collectors like this right?

Paul Daly  04:59

like we know more about space kind of than we do about the depths of the ocean. Strange, right? Isn't a strange thing. We yesterday we had an awesome clubhouse room. If you don't know, clubhouse rooms, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday or Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, every week and yesterday's room every Tuesday, we have minority motors hosted by either Damon Lester or Perry Watson the third. Yesterday's room was like a consulting session on it

Kyle Mountsier  05:25

was unbelievable. Yeah, even like, I think everyone in that room acquired some level of knowledge from someone else. And not just like, theoretical, maybe this will work type stuff. But like, No, we did this. We started here. We ended here. We're still going on this. This is the next step. Right? I mean, it was very practical tactical, I loved one of the things that I loved was Patrick Brown, the CEO of Viva auto group out in Texas, was he mentioned how he's gotten his whole entire sales staff on a, on a program, he calls it the three to one program, whole entire sales staff to make sure that he's engaging with the community on social media. So basically, what they do is every single person has to have three stories a day on Instagram, or Facebook, two posts a day on Instagram, or Facebook, and one live a day. And that's not just like, oh, we think you should do this. It's in their pay plan. It's like, that's so critical. It's so critical that we're engaging with our community in real life. And he said, he's not encouraging them to just do stories, or like, hey, we just got these cars on a truck, right? It's no, he's encouraging them to actually, hey, at the softball game with my kid, hey, doing this in the community. So he's actually like, pushing them to community engagement through social and doing the ground game really? Well.

Paul Daly  06:52

A lot of dealers, I mean, I think it was such a lively room. Because sir, first of all, there are a lot of dealers there, and a lot of people who have been dealers or consult dealers. And the bottom line is, I think a lot of people, there isn't a Nygma around like, what do I post organically on social media? How do I get my team involved in doing it? Who should be responsible for it? Right? These are all questions that came up, I just posted the link to the article that we generated from from the room. So if you don't have time to listen to it, but you just want to read some of the points in the tips. You can check the article in the link. It's also in the show notes, so that you can get some tips, but we had experts from people who are just getting started or like Perry, who's asking questions, what should I be doing to you know, like, Nathaniel correctly, who is runs a whole marketing team and production team that started out of just one person in a dealer group that has now expanded it, there's just a lot of good information for dealers that are at all stages of the game. You know, dealers like Patrick, who's executing to a high level made it apart part of, you know, this pay plan. So if you have questions on brand marketing, social media, organic content, that room is a treasure trove right now. So shownotes, you can read the article, you can go check out the show replay played at 1.5 speed or 2x speed if you don't have the time for the whole thing. And I have a little fun today's room, another fun room pitch tank by auto genius. We have three more companies that are going to pitch their product to a roomful of dealers and really smart people in automotive that can try to ask meaningful questions, so you can make decisions on what might be a good fit for your store. So yeah, some good things going on help and dealers knows listeners, we, this just popped this morning, we've been following a little bit about automotive dealers, pulling operations and pulling inventory or not sending inventory to Russia, as you know, a part of the ongoing events that are unfolding there. And the sanctions, Ford made a decision yesterday that they're going to suspend operations in Russia. You know, they actually had about 22,000 vehicles a year produced there, but they're produced by an affiliate. So how it works is Ford actually owns a stake in manufacturing and manufacturing company in Russia that men administer vehicles. They said we're done with that we're going to pull out and kind of hope and support for the the best possible end of the scenario. And they also made 1000 $100,000 donation to the Ukraine relief fund. So GM announced that earlier other automakers for just came to the table and said, Well, this is how we're going to try to contribute. So a little bit of news on how the auto industry is trying to do whatever it can to influence a good outcome in the Russia Ukraine conflict.

Kyle Mountsier  09:18

Yeah, no, I love it. And then not just not just saying, Hey, we're pulling out but we're also making a donation to Ukrainian families that need support right now. Right? It's, it's kind of like all hands on deck. I'm actually super intrigued by this whole conflict and kind of the social media war that's going on as well. Right. And it's pushing these companies to do something about it. Right? Where whereas like, typically, you know, I don't know 20 years ago, a conflict arises and it's very like the the media drives, the perception, the news, all that type of stuff. And social media is now driving the engagement with it right? Because now, a company like Ford or GM, like I said, Ford's CEO this morning on LinkedIn right posts, the posts about this is how we feel about it. Like there's a statement, that leadership is pushing back on it, all that type of stuff. It's really interesting how social media is really playing a big part in the overall, you know, engagement. And it's not just the, you know, the fighting or what's going on. And I think that's a unique variable that companies or even companies like businesses are having to deal with, right? Because everyone's kind of expecting you to have a say, right? Whether you're a local dealership, local business, or global business, like you having a say on social is actually a perceived piece of who your business is, right? So deciding not to say something or deciding to say something, are both elements of how people perceive your business. So be mindful of that. I think like thinking back to the social media piece is like, what what are you doing on social right now? I think we're even having to ask that question. As automotive say that, what are we doing on social right now? How are we responding? Whether we're responding, you know, like, actually doing something or not, is actually an impact on how people perceive your brand.

Paul Daly  11:11

There? That's that's a great point. I mean, and even thinking about brand, you know, Ukraine has has done an amazing job at communicating their brand, right, not to dilute you know, it down to brand, but brand is just the feeling people have when they consider you. Right, and they've done a great job of communicating and eliciting a feeling and people that say, Hey, like, we need to we need to protect vulnerable. The vulnerable, honestly, is what Joe's crazy.

Kyle Mountsier  11:35

I was I found that Ukrainian Twitter account like the official one, it's fire, whoever's running, it is probably like ex Wendy's employee. Okay. Second, understand Twitter. Yeah, they understand Twitter. Second, is I saw in that there was like one thread that I read, it was like, you know, the question was, do you have anything better to do right now? Right, like, like, someone was asking them a question, why are they on Twitter? Right. And so I'm not trying to draw like the political parallel here. I'm trying to say, like, brand is being where people are at. Right. And so Ukraine is saying that's an important place. If if, if someone who's involved in a in a massive conflict, like worldwide recognized conflict, has enough time to dedicate someone to having a voice of the brand on Twitter, like, does your business have that same time, dedication and importance placed on that type of stuff?

Paul Daly  12:33

Oh, that's so true. You know, I want to sit on this for a second. You know, we don't usually go like super philosophical or political. But this is an important issue, because it's easy. Like my wife and I were talking about this last night, like, canceled culture. I was like, Is this just like global canceled culture? Well, the difference is that we agree on this injustice. Right. We agree that vulnerable should be protected. We agree that aggressors, unprovoked aggressors, right, should really be stopped. And the difference is that it's what we all agree on. Kancil culture happens when, like small groups of people think something is an injustice to the point where it needs to be really leveraged and destroyed. Right? And so we make the we go smaller and smaller and smaller to it's like, well, you like Red Hats, like people with Red Hats are ridiculous. Like, we should just ruin your life. Right? So this is different than that. This is different than that. And my heart is actually broken. Because when we were at Vegas, the last automotive State of the Union event in Vegas, a several several dealers that came over that were from Russia, came up and they were like, Oh, look, this is the Russian Paul J daily, right. And I have a picture. I wish we had the throw up. And I met I met these guys, and they were awesome. And they were kind. And guess what? There are a lot of great Russian members of the automotive industry there that are not behind what's going on in the aggression. Ukraine, actually, there are a lot of Russians who are very much opposed to what is going on.

Kyle Mountsier  13:57

So it's at least 2000 of them downtown getting arrested because they are

Paul Daly  14:01

arrested. Right? Right. I mean, there are a lot I have actually have friends on both sides of that of that war right now. And I think that it's important to remember like, not to vilify in mass to realize, like, we can, we can still support the people in our industry and the people who want the best, right and to realize and just take a lesson from that, like, it's never black and white. And so, not clear times, not not clean cut by any means. But we hope through this community through our actions as the automotive industry, we can protect the vulnerable, we can support the people that that are literally a part of our community as automotive dealers and, and, and send our our support and our prayers and you know, in case of OEMs, like our sanctions and our decisions, and just really hope and pray for the best and stick together and try to learn from this and like everything right like when dealers band together, no crisis can win in this industry anyway and do what we can. So sorry to get a little philosophical on a Wednesday for you But I mean, it's on all of our hearts and all of our minds. I wake up thinking about it still. So yeah, it's good to know that like that's why we're in this fight together. So not just the news. There's a little commentary for you, but um, we know we know that you're our people so we're cool with that right?

Kyle Mountsier  15:14

Yeah All right. What

Paul Daly  15:15

else um you know, we were talking about Ford and speaking of Ford segway

Kyle Mountsier  15:23

had a sneak sneak

Paul Daly  15:26

I know try to try to like change the energy first word Ford announced and then we heard like little rumors of this and some other companies before it announced they are 100% going to treat EV and N ice vehicles as completely separate divisions. I mean, separate names, separate leadership structures, separate P and L's right again a verification like the EDI business is look if you

Kyle Mountsier  15:51

here's the thing we email like a week ago, the the GIF on Ford was like rollercoaster, right? Because it's like at the earnings call, they're like, yeah, maybe we might do this then a week later CEO comes out is like not definitely not happening. And then a week after that Wall Street Journal is like yep, they said it's happening. So I don't know which way is up. But I do think that it is relevant that that splitting out those business structures they are in my opinion, like the way I perceive them, they are actually separate businesses, right? Like you just think about the intentionality that it takes to do internal combustion verse, verse software verse. Evie, right. There's an intentional customer base, there's an intention and marketing focus, you know, the, the deliverability, the order capacity, all of that type of stuff. And what I really love about it is that in and I read another article where it was like, but we still realize this Ford in all of those business structures, the dealer is the best, the best possible way for us to implement those structures in the community. Right. And that's what I love about Ford right now. They're like, Yep, we're pressing in the Eevee yet or pressing into Subscriptions. Without a doubt we're gonna separate these business entities so we can communicate on on on a global scale the right way, but the dealership is still the best place for us to execute that on a local strategy big Yeah,

Paul Daly  17:15

they get that is a big deal and what we'll see what what's next but you know, for today, that's what it is. I think it's gonna stick like they're not going back on that and it makes a lot of sense. So as we kind of wrap up today's show because we went a little long apologize for that if you know your workout is over after 17 minutes. It was 17 minutes for that I've worked out today. We hope that you're really gearing up for I don't know what's wrong with my road caster it's out. Oh, there it is. So a little shopping today production wise, but look, we're gearing up heavy for nada if you can't be there, stay tuned to this sign up for the email list of DeSoto comm we're rolling heavy, we're gonna produce it so you can be there even if you're not there, but we'll be your guys

‍