Latest / Inside Integration / Episode 118: You Can’t Be Important to Everybody

Transcript

Episode 118: You Can’t Be Important to Everybody · Inside Integration

0:00
Welcome to the Inside Innovation podcast.
0:01
My name is Chris and I'm joined again by my partner Jason.
0:04
What's up, everybody? We are we, we are together
0:07
again. Feels like nowadays with with
0:10
both of these new gigs, you know, each one of us travels for
0:14
a for a shit ton one week and then kind of reconvene before
0:18
heading back out into the into the world.
0:22
Back into the Wilds. Back into the Wilds.
0:25
But it is, it is great to be here with you, Sir.
0:28
Yeah, it's fun. It seems like we talk every
0:30
week. I know that we do on a podcast
0:32
every week, but we don't actually talk every week.
0:35
Sure, it was nice to. Yeah, it is nice to see you and
0:39
it was nice to exchange some photographs with you over the
0:43
week. And I don't mean anything
0:45
sleazy, No. So get your mind out of the
0:47
gutter. Tasteful, tasteful nudes.
0:50
Mike DeMarco. Boudoir.
0:53
Dirty mind. Mike's just cruising along like
0:55
no, it didn't caught me. Wow yeah.
1:00
And and I didn't I didn't see Mike last week.
1:03
Maybe maybe soon because the the travel, the travel to the
1:06
Pacific Northwest is is really it's really booking up hard.
1:09
There's not going to be. I might as well apply for like
1:11
dual citizenship of like the Cascades because it's.
1:14
Well, just rent an apartment in Boise and you'll be good.
1:18
You know, I got to be honest, I got so yeah, I was in Boise last
1:21
week just seeing dealers and, and trying to kind of get the
1:25
word out there for, for the company I work for now, which we
1:28
won't plug because they'd have to pay me to do that.
1:30
And, you know, really it's, it's, it's pretty amazing, man.
1:34
Boise is a pretty great place. You know, just like naturally
1:38
beautiful. It was, you know, it was 75° one
1:42
day and the next day it snowed, which was cool.
1:47
Welcome to the foothills, my friend.
1:49
The high desert. We don't know what's going to go
1:51
on. It was pretty dope thinking
1:53
everything was OK and in my plane getting backed out to get
1:55
de iced. That was that was fun.
1:58
Yeah, it was, it was it was one of those things too.
2:01
Like I had a there's there's nowhere it really goes.
2:03
I don't think there's any direct flights from from John Wayne
2:06
straight to Boise. So everything is like you're
2:09
going through Denver, you're going through San Francisco or
2:11
whatever. So I had two really close
2:12
connections either way and on my way out there, I got stuck in
2:16
they they pushed us out of the gate and I got stuck in the
2:18
penalty box because, you know, reasons, who knows who knows
2:22
why. So like, I was sweating that one
2:23
out two. 2 minutes for roughing. It was they, they, they had us
2:27
sitting there. They turned off the engines.
2:28
It was like 25 minutes where we were sitting in this box and my,
2:31
my connection time was like 40 minutes.
2:33
And that was that was, well, that's exactly I was, I was
2:41
freaking out. I was absolutely freaking out.
2:42
I'm looking at the looking at the arrival time, seeing if it's
2:45
changing, you know, all that, all that.
2:46
Like when you're late and you're, you know, trying to
2:48
shave a couple minutes off of that GPS by just pounding that
2:51
accelerator. It was kind of kind of like
2:53
that. And yeah, coming back was the
2:55
same thing. Like didn't didn't anticipate
2:57
having to get de iced. So yeah, almost, almost missed 2
3:01
connecting. That was that would have been
3:02
fun. But yeah, man, great trip.
3:05
Boise is awesome. And it can kind of be summed up,
3:08
if you're a Californian that goes to Boise, you want to keep
3:11
that to yourself. They really are not.
3:14
Super not. Big fans, not big fans.
3:19
Left coast right there along the bottom of the water.
3:23
Not big fans of Gavin Newsom out there, I noticed.
3:26
I mean, who is we're not even really that big fans either.
3:30
But yeah, I did notice and it and it isn't surprisingly
3:34
enough, you know, why should we be unique?
3:36
It's not just Californians, like they really just don't like the
3:38
coast. Like it's, it's a coast thing.
3:40
Like they don't like people from Seattle coming out there.
3:43
They don't like people from Portland coming out there.
3:45
But anyway, so kind of summed it up nicely when I returned a
3:48
rental car and the lady's like, you know, how'd you enjoy your
3:51
stay in Boise? And stupid me, I decided to
3:53
engage with her and I was like, it's beautiful.
3:54
It's it's so nice. And, you know, you guys have a
3:57
really great thing going here. And she was like, all right,
3:59
well, don't tell anybody. Yeah, she's like you shut your
4:02
mouth. OK, I'm just gonna just gonna
4:06
put my head down and walk to the plane now.
4:07
She. Makes you take the omerta like
4:09
right at the airport, yeah. Like, jeez, all right, fine.
4:12
OK, I'll keep it here. OK, I'll.
4:14
I'll. All right.
4:15
I won't bring anybody else with me.
4:17
Gee whiz. So to spite that bitch tell you
4:22
we're. Going to let all forty of our
4:24
listeners hear all about Boise, and three or four of them
4:27
probably live in that town, so yeah.
4:29
Exactly. Yeah, Tell them.
4:30
Tell them. I say yeah.
4:31
Tell that Lady specifically that I say yeah.
4:33
That'd be good. But no, it's, it's a, it's a
4:35
great spot, but what's what you been up to last week?
4:39
Man, well, I was in your backyard, so I waited for you to
4:42
leave so I could get down there without having to see you in
4:44
person. Came in and.
4:46
Stayed with my family while I wasn't around.
4:48
Thanks. I didn't do that at all.
4:49
No. I was too busy for that.
4:52
Too busy having fun, yeah? Good.
4:55
I mean, yes and no. Like, you know, I've certainly
4:58
traveled for a living before and, you know, booked
5:01
appointments and back to backs and drive in betweens and all
5:04
that stuff. But I think something that gets
5:07
lost in some of the visits that, you know, some people get into
5:11
or manufacturers get into where they think, oh, we can see four
5:14
or five guys in a day. No, that's, that's I heard your,
5:19
your, your subtle laughter when I said four or five guys in a
5:24
day in a town like San Diego or a city like Los Angeles, yes,
5:29
sure, that there are plenty of dealers that you can see and
5:34
they're all relatively close together as the crow flies.
5:37
But unless you're actually a crow flying you, it might take.
5:41
It's a bit. Different 40 minutes to go 8
5:43
miles like you don't know certainly the. 5 is a real
5:47
mistress buddy. And it's the only game in town
5:51
too, in a lot of places. So, you know, luckily I didn't
5:56
get snagged into too many snarfels.
5:59
I was able to meet with and the membership that I was there to
6:02
meet with and got to catch up with the local sales Rep force
6:09
out there. So our, you know, friend of the
6:11
show, Sean Sorenson, got to got to hang out with him a little
6:14
bit, got to spend some time with the folks at Morris Tate and by
6:18
design. So I'll love to all those folks
6:21
that, you know, gave me an hour or so to let me darken their
6:24
door, which was, you know, really nice.
6:28
And to see the level of investment that the firms have
6:34
made in the market, especially in Southern California, when you
6:37
think about what the overhead for investments like that cost,
6:43
never mind electricity, never mind, you know, taxes or the
6:47
city or any of that other fun stuff.
6:48
I mean, I mean, hats off to all of them.
6:53
That's all I'll say. It's really impressive.
6:56
It's something that's tough to get off the ground and it's it
6:58
gets harder and harder every day.
7:00
But yeah, you know, it's, it's funny you mention the, you know,
7:03
the the stress of trying to meet Ford dealers when, when I got,
7:06
and maybe this is a specifically Boise thing.
7:09
I think Gerald set me up for. I think we saw six dealers one
7:12
day and I was like from the from 7:00 AM to, yeah, rolling in
7:21
with Donuts, rolling in with lunch, grabbing guys for dinner.
7:24
And yeah, this is this is kind of a new for for me who's sort
7:29
of never really been in a sales role before and kind of did
7:31
marketing before that and and whatever like the, you know, the
7:35
grind of seeing people having. Great sales job you pussy right?
7:42
Well, I mean, it's, it's cushy if you're just, if you're, if
7:45
you're just there to see people, but like, if you're actually
7:47
there to like listen to them and like, you know, make notes and
7:50
try and help with problems and stuff.
7:52
It's, it's, it's, it's a stress, dude.
7:54
It's definitely keeping all these new people that you meet
7:56
straight and making sure everybody's notes are, you know,
8:00
making sure that you're following up on stuff.
8:02
I mean, that's that's the thing, man, I, I, you know, I, I got
8:05
back, Jeez, I got back Thursday late Friday was kind of all day
8:10
sorting that stuff out. And today, you know, today is as
8:12
well. And then you got like the Monday
8:14
after your trip, like you got team meetings and you got all
8:16
those other stuff you got to do. And then, you know, you still
8:18
need to kind of sort that and organize it and, and just make
8:22
sure that you're not dropping the ball right.
8:24
Like, you know, you're, you're out there and you've met some
8:26
people and they're everybody I met was awesome.
8:29
And, you know, just trying to follow up on that and, you know,
8:33
be, be a good partner. It's it's a lot, dude.
8:38
It really illustrates the value of the Rep vendor, dealer
8:42
partnership like you were you mentioned before in our four and
8:47
a half second pre show meeting. Yes, otherwise known as the time
8:53
between me taking a whiz and opening up the mics.
8:56
Right. Yeah, pretty, pretty much that.
8:57
That time where we didn't actually even talk.
9:00
Yeah, 'cause usually there's a therapy component to this thing
9:03
and this is just straight into it.
9:05
Man, I mean, yeah, we don't think we even heated up the
9:07
spoon for this one. We just got got right into it.
9:13
Yeah, just like craziness. But yeah, I mean, you were
9:16
talking about brand loyalty and how people get hung on to a
9:21
brand and how hard it is to flip people.
9:23
And then you illustrate how hard a lot of vendors and reps should
9:29
be working anyways. If they're not working this
9:31
hard, then you out there as a, you know, potential, you know
9:36
the dealer audience may that may listen to this, you know, you
9:39
know who the good reps are. You know who the people that are
9:42
hustling are, You know who the people that are following up are
9:44
to make your life better. I'm hoping to find out that that
9:47
that level of this admiration directly corresponds to how
9:52
stressed out that person is and and how much they really try to
9:56
help you. Know it takes years off your
9:58
life trying to set up those meetings.
10:01
I will tell you right now like oh we're going to we're going to
10:04
go do what or we're going to go see people huh?
10:06
Oh shit. OK let me get out my outlook
10:10
here. Let me get some e-mail going.
10:12
When would you want to do this? Oh, it's Friday and you want to
10:15
do this Monday next week? Oh, we, we can't do that.
10:21
Right. And then the conversation that
10:22
goes into, you know, like breaking it to your wife with
10:24
like, you know, a full kids sports schedule and everything
10:27
else that's going on, like, yeah, I'm just not.
10:29
I'll, I'll see you. It's April.
10:31
I'll see you in June. So good luck if you ever wanted
10:36
to know what it was like if I just drop dead tomorrow.
10:38
May is your month and. Like, but but good news is I'm
10:42
not really dead. I'm coming back.
10:43
Coming back. Coming back to be a burden when
10:46
I return. Yeah, I'll be tired, I'll be
10:49
ornery, I'll be hungry. I'll, I'll, I'll whatever I'll
10:52
say with any other rhyming words there, you know, like it's a
10:56
here we are two old guys griping about our day jobs.
10:59
We're. Just yelling the clouds, baby.
11:01
I got, I literally got back off on this trip and and turned
11:04
around and went camping with my two kids over the weekend.
11:07
So it's really been like I saw my wife for probably 45 minutes
11:10
until, you know, until last night when we slept in the same
11:13
bed for the first time in nine days or whatever it's been.
11:15
Oh, you're like, hey, stranger, what's what's going on?
11:17
Pretty. Much like what are you doing in
11:19
my house? Making ziti?
11:22
Yeah, to my wife's credit, man, you know.
11:26
Mamma Mia. Big Italian, you know, meatballs
11:31
and ziti dinner. Yes, that's exactly what I
11:33
needed after coming off the road and eating weird food for
11:37
however many days. Yes, thank you.
11:41
She doesn't. Listen, so she will, she will,
11:43
she won't ever appreciate this praise.
11:45
Just know it's out there. Of course, I used to, I, I, I
11:49
used to get the request. What would you like when you get
11:51
home from this road trip or this CD or whatever?
11:54
And I'm like white rice, beans, like salad.
11:59
Yeah. I need to I've done things.
12:03
Anything but steak. Right.
12:05
I don't. I don't need another steak.
12:07
I don't need another slice of pizza.
12:08
I mean, I always need another slice of pizza, but I don't need
12:11
one right now, right? And something to drink that
12:14
doesn't have any alcohol syrup in it?
12:16
Or alcohol? Exactly.
12:18
Yeah, nothing sugary, definitely not an old fashioned no, no
12:22
thank you. No.
12:23
Oh, how about a smoked old fashioned?
12:25
How about? You know, let's let's go down
12:30
that road real quick. Like what is I don't need my
12:33
drink to be smoked. And that's the thing, like, yo,
12:36
you should get that smoked. Like no, I'm just going to drink
12:38
this and enjoy it. Yeah, when is my?
12:41
Yeah, cocktails are bad enough. When do they start smoking
12:44
cigarettes? Like what are we doing here?
12:45
Right. We just we kicked the smokers
12:47
out of a restaurant and we returned.
12:49
Smoke trucks. There's a layer of oil over
12:52
here. Cocktail A.
12:55
Flaming Homer. Right.
12:57
Well, yeah, the flaming MO, it's good.
12:59
It's it's the best. But yeah, to circle back to my,
13:02
I don't know how we got sorry, but I was thinking about the
13:06
level of investment that I saw in the ret firms and how kind of
13:13
a pretty gnarly high wire act that actually is.
13:18
You know, financially when it comes to being a Rep firm.
13:21
You know, I think it gets maybe overstated or maybe gets
13:26
misrepresented about, Oh my God, you know, these reps make all
13:29
this money and they're getting X percentage of however many
13:33
$1,000,000 and would not just be wonderful.
13:35
And, and then you start to think about like, well, reps got to
13:40
buy gas for the Rep wagon reps got to feed the people that work
13:44
with them or that or she, you know, we have some female agency
13:49
owners out there as well. So and got to feed themselves,
13:53
you know, got to keep the lights on, got to bookkeep, got to, got
13:56
to, got to, got to. And then now you're going to add
13:59
in this layer of here's a stage that we built for the products
14:03
that we represent for the next 30 days at least with some of
14:09
those handshake contracts and some of the auto renewals and
14:11
stuff like the winds of fortune could blow in a different,
14:16
sorry, different direction dramatically.
14:18
Well, 'cause you never know like that is and that is a big part
14:21
of this thing is right. Like you're a lot of times if
14:23
you're, you know, and again, like nobody wants to hear the,
14:25
the woes of a Rep firm, but basically, you know, you're,
14:29
you're out here, you're putting all this out in, in the interest
14:31
of selling a ton more of a product for a certain percentage
14:35
or whatever. But you know, some Rep firms
14:37
don't put anything into it. They just sign lines and keep on
14:40
signing them. Not that I know anybody like
14:43
that ever, but you know, it's but all of that and anything you
14:48
put into it is all kind of hinged on it's a 30 day
14:51
contract. Like that company.
14:53
If you've got brand X and you're and you've built this entire
14:57
thing around it and samples and set up your, you know, set up
15:01
your space as a demo space that dealers could come into and see
15:03
it. And and you go through all this
15:05
legwork and you build up this market like that manufacturer
15:08
could just dump your ass like 30 days done.
15:11
You know, like, and if that's a big, that's a big manufacturer,
15:16
you're you're in some deep shit, man.
15:18
We've been in a, you know, we've been in a situation where when
15:21
the manufacturer comes in, they sign a Rep firm, everybody's
15:24
excited. You get everybody trained and
15:26
then, you know, that manufacturer kind of gets you to
15:30
start populating their CRM with your contacts and you kind of go
15:33
through this and you know, a lot of a lot of quote UN quote, your
15:38
performance is based on whether you're.
15:40
Feeling. Data and and then they just, you
15:44
know, turn around and ditch you and that information belongs to
15:46
them. And what do you do?
15:48
Well, you know, you just you, you drag their name through the
15:51
mud for for all time, but you know, it is, that's, that's the
15:56
game, baby. That's how it is works.
15:58
And not all manufacturers like that.
16:00
There's there are definitely a few that are out there.
16:02
And honestly, like some Rep firms have been around the block
16:04
enough to look at that and say like, there's no effing way
16:07
we're doing that, buddy. We're not, we're not going to
16:09
get burned on that one again. So yeah, it's.
16:13
It's tricky. It's mindful.
16:14
You see the game, you see the game changing and elevating.
16:18
You know, again, obviously Southern California is a
16:21
different world compared to totally other, other parts of
16:24
the country. But even still in the Northeast,
16:28
in Florida, you know, New York, metro Chicago, you know, some of
16:32
these big major metros, these firms have got established
16:36
places of business that are experience centers or they've
16:39
made a crazy investment like our good friend Mr. Sorenson, his
16:43
office is. You.
16:45
Saw that? When you were out.
16:48
Here, did you like not to say that, you know, by design or
16:52
Morris Tate don't have amazing facilities when you walk into
16:57
them and you're like, holy crap. Like everything, like the levels
17:01
of investment is mind blowing across the board.
17:04
Across the board. The, the, the, the, the Lutron
17:08
gods or whatever that are that are powering the, the unified
17:12
solution. I mean, an office park in John
17:17
Wayne or, you know, behind the airport with, you know, gallery
17:20
style and big just video wall products in there.
17:23
And, you know, it's hard to even tell what that place is for.
17:29
And you know, like you, you walk in there, you're like, what is
17:31
this place even? Like there's nothing that is
17:33
discernible as being a, you know, a sales item or a well
17:38
and. That's that's the name of the
17:39
game is that technology needs to blend into your environment,
17:43
right? So like you walk into this place
17:44
and, and again, like, you know, we've, we've talked about in a
17:47
show, we had Sean on the show talking about it, but like this
17:49
specific 1 you walk in and it's like, OK, well, what are, what
17:53
are we doing here? OK, well, let's, let's show you
17:56
how these things, you know, interact.
17:59
Let's let me pour you a glass of whiskey and we can walk around
18:00
this place and, and take a look and I'll show you what linear
18:04
lighting can do and we'll show you this.
18:05
And, and here's how all this stuff complements your design
18:08
and the way that it's set up, especially in, you know, Orange
18:12
County, like it is, that's appealing to this local
18:15
demographic. You know, day days are gone
18:18
where somebody's walking into a showroom and it's just, you
18:21
know, from left to right, smaller box speakers to bigger
18:24
box speakers in the middle. Like that is not, you know,
18:28
that's not appropriate for your typical market.
18:31
You know that that's you got to know who you're who you're
18:34
selling to and. So, so true.
18:36
Same same thing with Morris Tate, same thing with by design.
18:39
Like you walk into Morris Tate and it's like nice little
18:42
offices at the front and you walk into the back and you're
18:44
like, is this a high end home like that?
18:48
You know, they kind of took a page, I would say kind of out of
18:51
the Sonance design studio sort of approach where it like the
18:56
bathroom is nicer than most of the bathrooms that you've ever
18:59
been in, you know, good, good job, DK, you know.
19:02
And there's furniture, right? And and there's A and there's a
19:04
high tech mirror in that bathroom.
19:06
Right. And then there's no, there's no
19:07
camera and a nice kitchen. Yeah, there's all, all, all of
19:11
those things in there. And then you go to by design and
19:14
the floors are all polished and painted.
19:17
Absolutely. It's all like a, a, like a
19:19
building in Gardena where you on the outside of it, you're like,
19:21
you wouldn't know, is this a school?
19:23
Like what? What's going on here?
19:25
And you walk onto the inside of it and you're like, whoa, you.
19:29
Know that was. What the lighting and the bar
19:31
and like just this giant open space the.
19:33
Training facility and all the all the things that are that
19:36
kind of contribute to it that is that that's 100% tailoring to
19:41
the clientele here in Southern California and and the idea is
19:45
to to show that technology can just be an enhancement to what
19:51
you have you know like it's it's an enhancement it's not big ass
19:55
box speakers it's not you know things that are very obvious but
19:59
here's how this stuff works I mean one of one of my favorite
20:02
things about by design space is that they have those the the
20:07
windows that are really video displays and.
20:11
You would never know, like you walk in, it's like, wow, this is
20:15
man, that really looks like a view out of window.
20:17
And it is not. This is something that we can
20:20
you know, we can put these in your home and they will look
20:23
like windows on the side of your house that is five feet away
20:26
from your neighbor's house and doesn't have any windows on it.
20:28
That's that's really cool. You know, those are these are
20:31
cool things to show. Yeah, I agree.
20:33
I mean, again, I don't know how I got off onto this tangent
20:36
either. I was just thinking about
20:38
partnerships and levels of investment and, you know,
20:41
sharing with everybody that you know, if you get to Southern
20:45
California and you work with these partner brands or you,
20:48
you're in Southern California and you, you're a dealer, what
20:52
have you. Whatever part of the country
20:53
you're in, you should be leveraging the reps as much as
20:57
you can, whether it's they've got a space to demo in, they've
21:02
got demo product, they've got a Rep or a vendor coming to town,
21:07
whatever that is. If you want to step out of the
21:11
shadows and not be staying in a van or Chuck in a truck or I
21:15
heard quite, I heard quite a few of the colloquialisms for, you
21:21
know, the beloved crunk slammer out there.
21:25
You're, you're maturing, you want to grow your business, you
21:27
want to, you want to be, you know, you want to be a big shot,
21:30
whatever, you know, whatever that is.
21:32
I think Billy Joel wrote a song about it.
21:33
He sure did, buddy. He sure did.
21:38
You know, these, I mean, those are the tools that are in your
21:40
market to to grow with. And you know, I, I realized that
21:44
the, the big boys in your neighborhood probably take up a
21:46
lot of the reps attention. But I will say that persistence
21:49
will pay off, especially if you have sales in your pocket.
21:53
You want to get reps attention. You want to get their love and
21:56
support forever. Pick a brand that they're
21:58
selling, ask them for demos and close deals.
22:02
And, and, and loyalty, I mean, I will say loyalty goes a long
22:05
way. Like I for sure I'll, I'll spend
22:08
a ton of time and, and on a manufacturer's side, like, like
22:10
I am now, I'll spend a ton of time with a dealer who is who,
22:14
you know, who is lawyer loyal and doesn't try to play games,
22:17
you know, don't try to play me off against somebody else.
22:20
And this guy said this and he's giving me this deal.
22:22
Like, OK, well, if this isn't the solution for you, then I'm
22:24
sorry, but you know, whatever, I'll spend my time.
22:27
I don't have time for games and and the drama is just a dumb
22:31
part of this business that hey, it it, it's there.
22:33
But like, you know, I'm not going to whatever.
22:36
If you know, if you're a manufacturer and you've got
22:39
three people on, you know, it's you and two other guys, but
22:41
you're like super enthused and you really think that this stuff
22:44
can help you. I will spend all the time in the
22:45
world like no problem. I will, I will do whatever.
22:48
I will do whatever it takes. I will go out to whatever.
22:51
You Can Dance. Hey, I, I really will, you know,
22:55
'cause that's, that's the kind of partners, that's the kind of
22:57
partner that I want and I. Feel like that's.
22:59
The kind of partner that a manufacturer would want, you
23:01
know, like that's what you want, you know, so.
23:04
Agreed. Yeah, it was, it was a lot of
23:06
that and saw, you know, I saw a ton of great dealers in, you
23:09
know, as many as many as Gerald could jam into my.
23:14
Into your eyeballs. You know, and and we saw them
23:17
and it was it was great. And they were, everybody was had
23:21
never heard of us before. And now they have.
23:23
And that's, that's the name of the game, you know, here it is
23:27
so. What's the next travel docket
23:29
then? Like I know what mine is.
23:30
Mine's southern. Mine's Arizona.
23:32
Southern Arizona in May. Well, I mean, that's a good time
23:36
because they're Southern Arizona's about to be wiped off
23:38
the face of the earth this summer.
23:40
I'm pretty sure that's how that's.
23:41
Just going to melt like turn into glass because of the sun or
23:45
yeah, there's there's. There's no snowpack this year.
23:49
The the Colorado River does not reach that part of of the most
23:52
arid and hot state in the country.
23:54
And you know, Phoenix is basically a a front to the
23:58
creator. It should not.
24:01
It should not exist and. Hey, you know why don't?
24:04
We build a city on the surface of the sun and see how it goes.
24:08
And that's that's Phoenix. Nothing against Phoenix or
24:11
anybody in it, but it's it's going to be a rough one this
24:14
year. So going there in May is good.
24:16
You might just get to say your goodbyes and see you later.
24:19
I remember doing a Sony line show at the Penske Auto Museum
24:23
in a white. What was it town town and
24:29
country like the minivan? Sure, because of that with the
24:32
Stow and go because he could put a bunch of 75 inch TV's in the.
24:35
Back flat floor to ask. Ask me how I know.
24:43
I remember loading up said minivan and trying to back it
24:47
out of the parking lot and the IT was 100 and 21122° on the
24:54
sign outside and the asphalt that they had recently poured in
24:59
the parking lot to resurface it had not completely set.
25:03
So I was actually, there's still tire marks in the Penn Street
25:07
parking lot in Scottsdale, I think for my white town and
25:11
country minivan, so. Yeah, that's when like you walk
25:15
outside and what you hear, that's the only sounds that you
25:18
hear because everyone is dead. The only sounds that you hear
25:20
are like the faint, you know, cicada noise and sizzling
25:24
because everything at that moment, any, any moisture in
25:28
anything that's outside is evaporating as as you stand.
25:32
Or boiling within the inside about to just combust.
25:37
Exactly. It's fantastic, but.
25:39
It's it's just great. And yeah, so.
25:41
So what's your next trip then? What's your story?
25:44
My next one is man, I got honestly, I have a lot back in
25:50
back up in the Pacific Northwest.
25:52
Like I said, I'm going to spend be spending a lot of time up
25:54
there. Hold on a minute.
25:57
Let me see here. I didn't mean you know to just.
25:58
Pull out the calendar. But yeah, well, it's fine.
26:01
I'm doing I'm doing line shows this this week.
26:03
So here's this podcast. We'll if you're attending, if
26:07
you hear it and you're like, oh, I want to go to the Sony line
26:09
show. When is that?
26:10
You missed it. Well, the the Socal, the Socal
26:13
Tech Summit is this week. So that's that's the thing.
26:16
And then, man, the following week, I got nothing the
26:21
following week, which is great. And then after that, it's like
26:23
San Francisco back in the Pacific Northwest, Denver.
26:28
And what's the other one? I got one more that's on the
26:31
calendar that I need to get in. And then, yeah, there's an
26:33
Arizona trip in there too. So that's basically my tour of
26:36
the West. Are we going to get like a ball
26:39
game in or something? What are we doing here?
26:41
I'm working on it, man. I'm working on it.
26:42
Any, you know, any, anything we do here might have to go.
26:47
So there'll be, I'm going to be. Speakeasy now at T-Mobile, Did
26:51
you know that? I did not know that.
26:53
I just want the Dory fry thing. What is the thing with the fries
26:58
in the ferry? Boat.
27:00
I haven't seen that one, even though apparently it's much much
27:04
much talked about, but I haven't actually seen that fairy fry
27:07
thing with my own eyes I did see.
27:09
My understanding of it and, and you can correct me if I'm wrong,
27:12
but what I've heard about this mythical creature is it's
27:16
basically it's a, you know, it's a Washington Seaways, Marine
27:21
Highway, whatever. Yeah, it's a ferry.
27:23
Right. So it's it's about 18 inches to
27:25
two feet wide and it is loaded with like carne asada fries or,
27:30
or something else. Wonderful.
27:31
It's, it's from Ivar's I think. So it's got to be clams and fish
27:35
and shrimp and stuff like that anyway.
27:37
It's it's fried goods on a boat at that you can order at the
27:40
stadium. It's probably about 30 bucks,
27:42
but it's. For sure it is.
27:44
It's it's it looked amazing when I saw it.
27:46
Oh, Speaking of, and not to get too derailed, I got to eat at a
27:51
Culver's in Boise. You're excited about that?
27:54
You sent me a a message. Just a single word, Culver's
27:57
with an. Explanation point.
28:00
So you know Southern California has no shortage of great
28:04
hamburger places, right? Like in and out and whatever.
28:06
Oh, I went to the hat before I left.
28:08
Oh the hat. Oh God.
28:09
That's a pastrami place, buddy. That's.
28:11
I know. Which not to get off the off the
28:14
deep end here, but Lake Forest that one.
28:16
Is of course, yeah, the one right by the airport.
28:18
I the, that one, I used to work a quarter mile from there, so
28:22
the, the, the old Oliver Experience Center was a quarter
28:25
mile from there. So at least one day a week I was
28:27
getting pastrami chili fries or whatever nasty shit, which is
28:31
why I'm £300 now. But.
28:35
Just why? Your cholesterol is 800, so no
28:37
big deal. Easily 800, so pretty sure it
28:40
was 800 back then. She's only gotten worse.
28:42
I'm 60% cholesterol by mass right now, but but yeah.
28:47
So Culver's is apparently like a Midwest chain that I've heard of
28:50
and they have smash. You can get smash burgers and
28:55
you can order cheese curds as your side.
28:57
And yeah, I scarfed. I did that twice coming from the
29:02
office. Yeah, I, it was between me and
29:04
the airport each time. So I, I justified it by saying
29:06
like, this is great. I'll just pull in here, have
29:08
have lunch and then keep on going.
29:10
And oh baby, it's, it's so much better than any of the burger
29:14
stuff. That's like people, people rave
29:16
about what a burger and people rave about going to Five Guys
29:19
and. Garbage.
29:20
Garbage. Whatever, this is just a whole
29:23
different level, buddy. It's it's oh so good.
29:27
I know. I've eaten that.
29:29
I'm familiar with the Kurds. Western goodness.
29:31
Yeah, the Kurds. To to hear to hear somebody from
29:35
Boise try to try to articulate the word marinara when they're
29:39
asking if you want that, you know, on the side is just chef's
29:43
kiss. It just is made my whole trip
29:46
like, is this what you mean? Yes.
29:48
OK, Well. Would you like that Manana?
29:52
What pretty much I'd like it. Right now it's.
29:54
Kind of how it went. And, and I'm sure, you know, I'm
29:57
sure only because, you know, I'm, I'm so cultured.
30:00
That's the only reason that I knew what she was trying to say.
30:02
But yeah. It's hilarious.
30:04
That's so. Cute.
30:04
Oh my God, just just kill me. Just bury me with a Culver.
30:08
So okay, well, I guess we've we've unlocked Chris Barlowe
30:13
trash bone. It's it's bro, it's CD diners.
30:18
Yeah, CD diners, you know you. You find me.
30:21
You find me a CD diner with a greasy breakfast.
30:23
I'll be your best friend for life.
30:25
I'll be with you. I'll be.
30:26
Anybody right now, just the hat, you know, any place that has
30:30
some kind of pastrami and they put they put it on everything,
30:33
right? Like you, you can order a Reuben
30:35
that's primarily pastrami, or you could get it on fries or.
30:38
I I violated the code, I did the roast beef with the with the
30:42
gravy the. Roast beef is good there too
30:44
buddy. It's just, you know, it's just
30:47
hard to eat. That's the problem, right?
30:48
Like you go in there for like, for like pick up and you just
30:52
basically get like the thing that they hand you is basically
30:55
a wet baby in a, in a, in a wrapper.
31:00
It's fully dipped and it's, yeah, it is.
31:02
It's the size of a baby and it's soaking wet and you eat this.
31:05
And there you go. I did not do that.
31:06
I actually went inside like a human being.
31:09
I tried not to, you know, I tried not to wear it because
31:12
otherwise, for sure, I'd, I'd have a, a hat stained or a hat
31:16
autographed. Excuse me, stained is a is a bad
31:18
word hat autographed attire in my collection, but I don't have
31:22
that. Here, here's the pro tip.
31:23
When you do that and you're, you know, and you're between stops
31:25
or whatever, you and you've got the rental car, you do that and
31:29
you sit yourself in the back seat like royalty and you eat
31:32
over the other back seat. And that makes it, that makes it
31:36
much easier to control the stuff that goes in your lap.
31:40
But at the same time, you don't have to deal with other people,
31:43
which is nice because that you're still in your little
31:45
hermetic bubble, you know, trying to impress from all the
31:48
dealer visits you've done. And it's not your car, nor is it
31:52
your pants. So.
31:54
Committing a crime in a rental car?
31:59
It's just all you're doing. They deserve it.
32:01
I got man. I got knocked.
32:02
I returned my rental car and the gas station was a little bit
32:05
further from the airport. It wasn't crazy far, but they
32:08
knocked me a refuel charge for 1/10 of a gallon of gas, so I
32:14
returned it. So I I took the thing out with
32:16
whatever it was, 12.1 gallons and I returned it with 12
32:19
gallons on the dot and they knocked me for that 10th of a
32:22
gallon of gas those. I did that.
32:24
I mean, sorry, I just got a flashback of the gas pump.
32:30
Wow, 10th of a gallon, huh? I mean, you bastards, like
32:34
really? Are you serious?
32:36
So now I need to, so just to give you an idea of the, the,
32:39
the, you know, the iterations that I have to go through now is
32:42
I have to recall my concur expense report and update the
32:46
thing with the extra whatever. And yeah, it's probably, you
32:49
know, 20 minutes worth of work. But like, come on, man, what the
32:52
fuck? I'm not going to name and shame
32:53
them yet. We're going to see what happens.
32:55
But this is, this is the same company that tried to say that I
32:57
chipped their windshield the last time I rented from them.
33:00
So we'll, we'll see. You know, I wrote a letter back
33:03
with with lines in it, like I know that the windshield wasn't
33:07
shipped when I returned it because I was looking through
33:09
that very same windshield for four hours on my way to return
33:13
it and there was no chip, so. And you guys used to have OJ
33:16
Simpson advertise for you. So let's talk Turkey here.
33:20
Different, different company. But see, OK, well now see we've
33:23
we've narrowed it down a little bit.
33:26
Right. You're eliminating things, and
33:29
there's only two. There's only.
33:30
Two rental. There's only two in Boise Yeah,
33:33
I mean, God, you got to or you got to rent one from from Cody
33:36
or something. You got to call the guy.
33:38
It's. Just some dude you're just
33:41
renting his his family sedan for.
33:44
Oh no, it's like a Ford Aerostar or something like that.
33:47
Bro I would pay actually to rent a Ford Aerostar.
33:49
You remember those things? They were between the Ford
33:52
Aerostar and the Chevy Extro van.
33:55
These are two vehicles that could drag race with the best of
33:58
them. Those things were fast.
34:01
Well, yeah, when 190 horsepower is all the power you've ever
34:05
experienced, they're fast. Yeah, they're fine.
34:09
Hey, an empty Astro van with that V8 that they somehow wedged
34:14
in there was that thing was amazing.
34:17
Well, the the the Astro van, I thought you said ash.
34:20
I was thinking ashtray, but that's just I mean the right
34:23
era. I.
34:23
Believe the I believe the Astro van had 17 ashtrays because
34:27
that's one. It was like airline seats.
34:29
There was one in the back, in the in the captain's chairs.
34:32
Sure. Well, the kids need ashtrays.
34:35
The kids need ashtrays too. I mean, got to start smoking
34:38
sometime. Right.
34:39
Knock those butts out of there and put your candy wrappers in
34:41
it because, you know, kids with their fingers and ashtrays, that
34:43
was a thing when we were children.
34:44
So, yeah, you know, it was and, and that old let me fire up the
34:51
Wayback Machine real quick, But, you know, driving with that Ant
34:53
who chain smoked and you're in the back seat and the window's
34:55
open and that cherry goes out the front window and comes right
34:58
in the back and lands in your lap.
35:00
That is a that is a formative memory.
35:03
Yeah, burn your burn a hole in your Buster Browns when you're
35:06
not breaking. Learning all about fire safety
35:08
from your aunt's smoldering cherry.
35:12
Thanks. Man, this podcast is a wild
35:17
ride, Mr. Toad. This is what happens when we're
35:20
away from each other for so long and just on the road and dealing
35:23
with the public. But.
35:24
That's yeah. But the the elevated masses,
35:28
because, you know, they're, they're definitely not unwashed.
35:31
I had some really good meetings with some with some great
35:33
people. I got to see some cool places.
35:36
I got to see some amazing businesses like the investments
35:39
again that people are making in their spaces, making in their,
35:43
you know, the way that they go to market, really, really
35:45
impressive. So, you know, I'm excited about
35:49
this role. I'm excited about 2026, even
35:52
though it's, you know, the world is burning down around us and.
35:55
We're halfway through it. Oh, you need to shut your.
36:00
Quarter, quarter closed last week, Chief.
36:02
What's going on? Yeah, you need to shut up.
36:04
But anyways, yeah, I'm again, I'm I'm looking forward to to
36:10
the next travels and maybe I'll get to to see some of y'all out
36:14
there. Yeah, buddy, absolutely.
36:16
And yeah, you know, hopefully we'll see some folks in person.
36:19
Oh, I need to. Before I forget, I need to give
36:21
it a shout out to our our, our, our number one fans, the the,
36:25
the Hopper family. Oh, you mean two of my favorite
36:28
people on the whole planet? And, and now they're two of my
36:31
favorite as well, Sir, just to say thank you for making that
36:33
intro because just the, the, the, the mayor and, and, and the
36:38
mayor of. The mayor and Queen, What are
36:41
you talking about? Yeah, she's running that shit
36:43
over there. The King and Queen of AV and
36:45
Boise are The Hoppers and and as as well as their unacknowledged
36:49
son Cooper. Just getting a shout out by
36:52
name, just the best people. I, I mean, they're just, they're
36:56
so great and they're so great for the, you know, for the
36:58
local, the local dealers out there and everything and just
37:02
everybody holds them in high regard and for good reason,
37:04
because they're just awesome. And yeah, they, they, they
37:08
hosted, they hosted me and a bunch of dealers.
37:10
You know, they let me put on my little dog and pony show in in
37:13
their house and it, it just, it went great.
37:17
They could not have been better. So big, big shout out to them
37:19
and they, you know, they're probably those three people that
37:21
I named are probably a solid 10% of our listening audience.
37:25
Awesome. Hey, well, yeah, we we have all
37:29
the love for the Hopper family and Cole, apparently.
37:32
So, you know, there's Cooper's that.
37:34
Oh, Cooper. Don't know he's he just whoa,
37:37
you. You put some respect on his
37:38
name. He's I, I.
37:39
Misspoke. I misspoke.
37:41
I misspoke. But no, it awesome.
37:45
It's so great. And yeah, I mean, I think we've,
37:49
I think we've been been around a horn here.
37:50
Enough. Let's let's throw some plugs.
37:53
Chib or jabbered enough, right? If if, if you didn't like our
37:57
our talk from the road and inside stuff that you know
38:00
nobody, nobody knows. Anything you guys shut this off
38:03
a while ago? Yeah, you probably shut off a
38:04
while ago, but if you're still here, drop us an e-mail
38:06
inside.integration@gmail.com. Hit us up on our Instagram at at
38:11
Inside under score Integration and make sure that you you
38:15
subscribe, you steal your friends and parents phones and
38:18
subscribe on their phones and everything else.
38:19
And thanks for joining us. We'll talk to you soon.
38:24
Absolutely. Take care everybody.
38:26
Bye bye.