Latest / Auto Collabs / Avoid the Digital Retailing Trap with Bobby Gaudreau of Activator

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Avoid the Digital Retailing Trap with Bobby Gaudreau of Activator · Auto Collabs

• 0:00
  Speaking of crunch enhancers [laughs] [upbeat music] This is AutoCollabs. Did you know that a crunch enhancer is a non-nutritive cereal varnish that they put over the flake to keep the milk from penetrating?
• 0:16
  [laughs] Did you know that one time my uncle told me that my great-great-grandfather- [laughs]... who used to work for, like, P&G or something, actually helped with the candy coating on the M&M? Well, they got it wrong.
• 0:32
  The crunch protector. Yeah. You know. Uh, no, they got it right. Melts in your mouth, not in your hand. Not in your hand. He came up, he came up with that marketing slogan. I wanna meet that person. Crazy. Crazy stuff.
• 0:40
  Yeah. By Michael's great, great, great grandfather. I- I take that all the way to every podcast. Uh, like, that would be my claim to fame, you know?
• 0:45
  Some, like, people are like, "I met Elvis once," and, like, that's become their whole talking thing. Yours needs to be that. Yeah, yeah.
• 0:51
  [laughs] My great-great-aunt told me once his grandfather- I get on every podcast and just tell them I met you one time. [laughs] Wow, that's something like it's otter.
• 1:00
  Well, listen, speaking of, speaking of somebody that does- I make my own booze. [laughs] Speaking of someone that we met one time. Hey. [laughs] Good year. You can tell this is the first one after the new year.
• 1:12
  We've never done this before. This is a new thing for us. We never podcast. I know. [laughs] But, but today's guest is a repeat guest, Bobby Goudreau. Um, he's a runner. I'm gonna ask him about that. Naturally.
• 1:22
  But he's also one of those people that lives in the Northeast. We- we know a lot about Bobby 'cause he's a repeat guest.
• 1:28
  [laughs] But, but, but he's, he's also always somebody that, like, has this ability to be like, "Doesn't that just make sense that we would do it this way and not this way?" Right.
• 1:36
  So that's why I like when he's on because I need those people in my life. Kyle, Kyle and you and Bobby get along well, I can tell. We, we have some good chats.
• 1:44
  Except Bobby's got more, like, I don't know, probably more social barriers in between him and saying what he actually thinks. [laughs] You tend to just say it. [laughs] I typically just come out with it. That's better.
• 1:54
  Yeah. Kyle, Kyle always asks nice intellectual questions, and I'm sitting here like, "Don't crack a fart joke. Don't crack a fart joke." [laughs] You know? Like that, that's how my brain works.
• 2:03
  Like, I was instantly like- [laughs]... he's a runner, but if he were a rower- [laughs]... do you think his coach is like, "Good row. Good row." Well- Oh, geez...
• 2:12
  hey, we hope that you enjoy fart, fart jokes with Bobby Goudreau. That's not happening. That's not... Just, let's just get into the interview. Get into it. [upbeat music] Bobby, it's so good to be with you again.
• 2:25
  Thanks for giving us some more time today on AutoCollabs. Yeah. Thank... Good to see you guys again. Great to be here. All right.
• 2:30
  So last time we spoke, we talked a bit about running, which got Kyle all excited, like he always does. [laughs] Naturally.
• 2:37
  Between that time and this time, though, I heard you've, [laughs] you've done some serious running. [laughs] Yeah. Um, I did in, uh, August, I did a 50-mile race, um, in- [laughs] Yeah, in- Wow...
• 2:51
  Brit- in British, in British Columbia, so. In a car? No. Oh, wait, wait, wait. Um- On feet? Yeah. Uh- You said you were gonna do this on the last episode. Yeah. Yeah. I may... Yeah, I may...
• 3:01
  I had been tr- I had been training for it for a while, so it was this, it was called the Squamish 50. Oh.
• 3:06
  So I was actually originally signed up for the 50, f- so I turned 50 this year, so I turned 50 in September, so this is, like, my entrance into being 50. So it was- 50 and 50. Yeah, yeah.
• 3:18
  So I ran f- I ran 50 miles on a Saturday, and I was supposed to run 50K on Sunday, but about halfway through the 50 miles- [laughs]... I was like, "I think I'm just gonna finish this."
• 3:28
  [laughs] Have you been listening to way too much David Goggins? I can tell that already. [laughs] Yeah.
• 3:33
  You got, you got a Spotify Premium subscription, you started listening to Goggins, and you're like, "I'm gonna do 50 miles and a 50K in the same weekend." [laughs] It is funny, actually.
• 3:42
  When I was driving back a few days later and I was actually listening to a different podcast that David Goggins was, was, was on, c- coincidentally, you mentioned him. Naturally. I knew it. It found its way to you.
• 3:52
  [laughs] That's amazing. Well, all of that energy and all that motivation to run something like that obviously is indicative of someone who is motivated and driven. [laughs] Um, let me just ask you to the other side.
• 4:04
  [laughs] Yeah. What have you been working on on the professional side of your life? 'Cause we know you've been running 50 and 50. [laughs] Yeah, no.
• 4:12
  I mean, on the, on the, on the professional side and on the work side, I mean, we've, we've, we've, since the last time we've talked, it's, things have been kinda progressing, you know, uh, quite quickly and we've made a lot of, we've kinda made a lot of strides.
• 4:23
  So we've, you know, we've kind of officially launched kind of a, you know, a true CDP where we're very much focused on data quality. We're very much focused on marketing activation.
• 4:34
  Um, we're running about six different journeys. We're starting to execute marketing through different channels now, so we're starting to do stuff on websites with identity resolution.
• 4:42
  We just launched our first customers with our, um, with, uh, digital, so we're actually now extending everything out into, into digital. Um, and then we're gonna be starting to do some betas pretty soon.
• 4:54
  We're pulling in, um, CRM as well. So we were very, very focused on kinda getting it buttoned up on DMS, and now we're gonna start pulling in CRM data pretty soon as well.
• 5:02
  So a lotta stuff that as we lead into NADA that we're excited to kinda keep rolling out and announce as we head into NADA, so. So what we're really hoping is that no one was playing a drinking game or bingo- [laughs]...
• 5:13
  with that first, uh, with that first montage because you hit on- [laughs]...
• 5:18
  some of the terms that I think our industry has just almost become, like, it's a part of the vernacular over the last year, but still is, like, we're a far cry from really understanding, I think, personally, as an industry, what all of those things actually mean to business outcomes, performance.
• 5:38
  Like, what it actually has, has done and is gonna do for business.
• 5:44
  Um, you know, I think the first time you and I actually talked about, uh, y- you all, like, leveraging Salesforce and thinking about a CDP in, in a different way, um, was a little over a year ago at Brian Pash's MRC.
• 5:59
  Yep. And, and, and then was still fairly early talks on, like, what is a-CDP. You know, Clairvoy had been talking about identity resolution for a few years. Some others had been.
• 6:12
  But what's, what's been the journey you think of, like, automotive kind of discovering and fighting through the early stages of what a CDP is, can do, and should be over this last year, setting the stage for, like, people thinking about how to approach it around NADA?
• 6:31
  Y- yeah. No, I mean, I think it's a, that's a, [laughs] that's a good que- so that's a good loaded question. I mean, I think- That, he, he loaded 13 rounds in that one. [laughs] He's like, "Hold on. I'm not done yet.
• 6:41
  Hold on. One, two, three. All right. Hot weapon, you take it." [laughs] No. Let me, let me go on a q- let me go on a quick run and kinda get my thoughts organized. Yeah. Well, quick run for you is open for debate, right?
• 6:53
  [laughs] We'll see you tomorrow. No. Yeah, right. [laughs] Um, no, I mean, I, I, I mean, I, as a, kind of as, you know, as a level set, right? And I mean, we've all been in this space for a while.
• 7:02
  And this is, like, a little bit...
• 7:04
  I'm being a little bit trite and I'm being a little bit tongue in cheek, but I'm also being, I think, factual, that it just, it feels like retail automotive is always a couple years behind everything else, right?
• 7:14
  For sure. Whether it's websites or CRM or, you know, digital retail with, you know, omni-channel.
• 7:20
  And so CDPs, while CDPs is a relatively, you know, new-ish term for us, I mean, in B2B, B2C technology software sales, it's the fastest growing segment outside of automotive.
• 7:34
  I mean, I think this year it's finishing as, like, a five to $8 billion industry, and by 2028, it's gonna be close to a $30 billion industry worldwide, right? Mm-hmm. Yep. And, uh, you know, when we started...
• 7:49
  So, so to kind of, you know, part of your question there, Kyle, was like, how did we start on this journey? We kind of fell into it by accident, right?
• 7:56
  So w- you know, we had some standalone products, whether those were some email retention tools. You know, we had a pretty strong standalone equity mining tool.
• 8:06
  Our investors were like, "We don't wanna be in that business. We don't wanna be in that standalone business anymore, so figure something out." And so- [laughs]... we kind of looked, uh, you know, over the fence.
• 8:16
  We brought in some outside consultants to help us take a look at things, and their recommendation was, "You guys," and I've s- I, I have mentioned this before, but it's always worth repeating, is you guys, meaning kind of Dominion and Deal Act- or Deal Activator, Activator Dealer Solutions, "You guys have done a really good job over the last 20 years of figuring out how to extract data out of a DMS and organize that and create audiences, but it's kinda stuck behind some old technology when it comes to executing that from a marketing standpoint.
• 8:46
  You know, A, A for effort, right? Like, you did what you were supposed to do at the time, but it's just not keeping up. And then you guys should also introduce this thing called the CDP." And we're like, "W- we..."
• 8:55
  Like, four or five years ago, what's a CDP? And, you know, and I'll give a lot of credit to Brian Pash.
• 9:00
  I mean, Brian tells the story about, you know, um, he was meeting, I think it was John Clavidacher, who had left cars.com, and then, you know, went outside of automotive and was introduced to CDPs in, I think, you know, the consumer packaged goods world.
• 9:14
  And he- Yeah, that is what it was. Yeah... this would be so helpful in this industry.
• 9:18
  And so, you know, I think, uh, uh, some of the initial [laughs] things that first came out with some of the research papers, it all looked good, but, you know, w- internally, we kinda said, "Well, man, this picture that these guys are painting is Shangri-La," right?
• 9:31
  Like, there's so many things here. Of course, it all makes sense. [laughs] But just- That, that word wasn't on the bingo card, by the way.
• 9:38
  [laughs] No, that'll be our new, that'll be the new, that'll be the new- And if it was, you win. If it was- Somebody, somebody bet- You got a bingo. You're done... somebody, he bet somebody before he'd come on the show.
• 9:48
  He's like, "Watch me use this word."
• 9:50
  [laughs] The, the way that, like, even as we, even internally, right, where we're, you know, where we're explaining to some folks in kinda other departments, "Here's what we're doing," I'll start by saying this.
• 10:02
  The recommendation that we had from an outside consultant when it came to marketing automation systems was, "You need to, you need to introduce a marketing automation system as it's defined in the world outside of automotive," right?
• 10:13
  It's gotta do certain things. It doesn't mean that it's a, it can just deliver email. It doesn't mean that it can follow some sequences. It's gotta have, be able to ingest data. It's gotta be able to understand signals.
• 10:25
  It's gotta be able to understand data, like how would HubSpot or how would Marketo or how would, you know, how would m- M- Marketing Cloud or, or Salesforce's Pardot define it? It's the same thing with a CDP, right?
• 10:37
  Like, a CDP means something, right? And it, it, what it, it's, it's a piece of technology that's made for marketers, that's designed to help a company [laughs] ingest all of the data, right?
• 10:49
  Like, not just some of the data, not just- Mm-hmm... like, this cool data over here. All of the data, right?
• 10:55
  So that means, so what we've done at Activator is to just kinda organize this, is we're thinking about thi- things in three bands. So the first band is the one that's closest to the dealer.
• 11:08
  So this is, like, all the operational stuff. It's website, it's CRM, and it's a DMS. Got it. Then there's the second band, and we were kinda putting those into segments, right?
• 11:18
  This is all of the cool first party data stuff, right? These are the things that are iframed into a dealer's website, or they're extensions of the dealer's ecosystem, right?
• 11:28
  So it's chat, it's telephony, it's digital retail, it's video, it's all the payment tools. It's all the stuff that... And then when you look at those, we've got six segments. [laughs] Double click into that.
• 11:40
  Each segment probably has four or five companies that dominate probably, you know, 80 to 100% of the marketplace that we wanna ultimately be able to partner with.
• 11:51
  And then that third band, that third band, that's the stuff that's kinda outside of the ecosystem.
• 11:56
  So that would be the marketplace sites, cars, gurus, et cetera, the OEM websites, and then other, you know, garage data from Amazon or other really important first part- party data that you could ingest into the system.
• 12:09
  Yeah. So we, that's how we think about the world. Um, but then [laughs] now in, in that Shangri-La, right, that second band- It's been times. [laughs] That's where the, you know, that's where the juice is, right?
• 12:21
  That's the point of a CDP is to be able to collect all the information and all that first party data in that, in that second band is what's gonna really help to unify and just build a stronger profile.
• 12:33
  But [laughs] the assumption is-That there's all these APIs that exist and that, and that just, that it's not- No... it's all- That it's not there. Yeah. Yeah. So c- l- here's, here's...
• 12:44
  I'll give you another hard one if you're okay with it. I'm, I'm good. How do we, how do we actually ensure that the CDP doesn't become like the digital retailing of 2018? Here's what I mean by that.
• 13:00
  Is, one, buzzword, right? How do we ensure over, uh, the time that it's not a buzzword? Yeah, I have that. It's on my website. It doesn't work. Yeah, I have that. I do the CDP thing. It works.
• 13:09
  I don't know if it works, 50% of marketing, that whole thing, right? Yeah.
• 13:12
  But two, and I think actually m- closer to what you're saying here is, you know, back when we installed digital retailing, it wa- i- in looking historically now, you go, "Oh, it's a payment calculator, it's a trade tool, it's a finance application, and it's a scheduled test drive tool."
• 13:31
  Exactly. All of which I had on my website previously, but now I have together. Yep. How do we not make a CDP just be like, oh, it's an audience builder in Facebook Marketplace, it's Mailchimp for dealers- [laughs]...
• 13:45
  and it's a text solution that we had with text to drive for my service, uh, scheduler, right? Yeah. Like, how do we not just come up with like, oh wait, we were kind of doing this before.
• 13:55
  It's kind of in one platform, but we didn't really get much difference out of it. How do we escape that as an industry? Y- no.
• 14:02
  I mean, I think that's, that, that, that's the, that's the $64,000 [laughs] that's the $64,000 question, and I think there's, it's...
• 14:10
  I think we start with it is just educating what, what are these things suppo- what are, what are the outcomes that you're trying to achieve from this, right? And so if we go back to what, you know, what's the...
• 14:18
  why does, w- why is the CDP space outside of Automive growing so fast, right? It's because you've got these other bus- let's, I just use New Balance as the example. I used to live in Boston.
• 14:29
  There's a lot of shoe companies there, and so New Balance, New Balance had a CRM, right? They had a marketing automation system.
• 14:36
  They probably had a mass- or they have a massive team of people, you know, posting content and running all of their digital channels, right? What they didn't have was the CDP.
• 14:45
  The CDP just, it doesn't replace any of those things. It complements it, right? And so from our standpoint, you know, what we're seeing out there is there are... Uh, uh, here's one of the things I like to say.
• 14:58
  We're majoring on the majors [laughs] and minoring on the minors. [laughs] Where a lot of people out there are majoring on the minors, right?
• 15:06
  And they're, and they're focused first on all the cool outside stuff, and I'm doing first party data, first party data, first party data. But then there's nothing for it to dock into.
• 15:16
  I was at, um, a conference this fall and there were two c- there was a dealership and a company, they were talking. They were 10 months into it, their 12 months of their first year of launching this CDP.
• 15:28
  And 10 months into it- Yeah... they really hadn't even launched any campaigns yet because they hadn't figured out how to clean up the customer data. And- Oh, absolutely. Yeah...
• 15:36
  I, I think a lot of people are skipping over that. And, you know, we're hearing about data lakes and data this and data that. Like, w- we're starting to say avoid the data swamp, right?
• 15:45
  Like, this is just gonna turn into- That's great. That's a great term. That's great.
• 15:49
  [laughs] We did a s- we had a sales kickoff two weeks ago, or three weeks ago in Columbus, Ohio, and just with our internal sales team, and that was the whole deck, is the data swamp.
• 15:58
  Like, how do you- If you aren't bringing a s- a small data swamp to NADA and putting it in the middle of your booth, you're doing it wrong. I'm just telling you right now, Bobby.
• 16:05
  You can just bring the whole ghillie suit. Right. It's like the da- the data swamp thing, right? [growls] [laughs] All right? And be cool. But- You just solved all your marketing problems. It's perfect.
• 16:14
  You're like, "Oh, it's Michael Cirillo in there." Right. Right. Is that Michael Cirillo wearing a ghillie suit drenched- Yes... in Dippity Do gel? [laughs] You little clown donkey.
• 16:25
  But in fact- I'm, I'm thinking about the, I'm thinking about, like, 38 years from now, Bobby- Yep... when I'm- Specifically. Very specifically... we're, we're all sitting in flying cars, right?
• 16:34
  'Cause, like, The Jetsons is a thing. Oh. And, uh, and we're watching a documentary about the conversations we were having before the world became The Matrix.
• 16:47
  And they will feature snippets of you talking on an AutoCollabs podcast. [laughs] And I'm like, "What?" Identity res- like, all of the things, like, it, it's kind of funny to me.
• 16:58
  I, I'm interested in all of your take, actually, on this. I know a lot of other industries, we, we tend to look at other industries at how advanced they are. Yep.
• 17:08
  But then we have conversations like this and I'm like, I don't know. I think there's so much advancement and innovation happening right inside the auto industry that, that- I think you're right...
• 17:16
  we, we've somehow, like, accepted that happens more in other spaces.
• 17:20
  And I'm listening to this and I'm like, okay, so you figured out how to piece the bits and the bobs and the doodads and the gadgets and gizmos and gizzards.
• 17:26
  And now all of a sudden we have this advanced thing that is going to change the way we transact forevermore in this industry.
• 17:35
  Y- yeah, no, I mean, I think the, the, I mean, this is, I think, my 20th something year in this space. And I mean, the advancements, it's, you know, and it's not linear, right?
• 17:43
  Like, what's happened over the last four or five years is greater than probably what happened the 10 or 15 years prior to that. Right. And, you know, I'm gonna take the red pill now, by the way. But the, the, the, um...
• 17:54
  [laughs] I wanted to go to your Matrix joke. But the- [laughs]...
• 17:57
  the, um, but the whole point on the, on the CDP is, is if you're, if, if anyone's installing a CDP, it's really there's two outcomes that you're keeping score on.
• 18:07
  It's how are you managing the data and how are you executing on marketing? And so when you look at the, the stack that is in place, right, that's now the new buzzword. What's your stack? What's your marketing stack?
• 18:17
  But it makes- Mm-hmm... everyone understands what that means. And are, are, are all the pieces there in a position to be able to actually do something with it?
• 18:26
  And I think, you know, to go back to their question, how do we avoid, you know, kind of digital retail that sounds great, but then everyone fell on their face.
• 18:33
  And part of that was, is it just, in many cases, it just the dealership's processes weren't set up right or it wasn't strong enough... of a change management in terms of some of the stuff that did it good enough, right?
• 18:46
  I really believe, and not just because I've, you know, I'm working for a company that's now doing CDP, that if this isn't s- if this is deployed correctly and you've got the right things in place, this can be an absolute game changer.
• 18:59
  Be- uh, because, to your point, Michael, taking, taking advantage of all these other really good innovations.
• 19:06
  Like, all of those cool things [laughs] that are in that second band that I keep talking about, tho- that's why CDPs exist, right?
• 19:13
  Because those are just, without the CDP, those are just silos of information and silos of data. And silos don't have, that doesn't have to be a bad thing. Like, that's just, that's is what it is.
• 19:23
  It's a silo of information. The CDP can, can actually ingest it. But [laughs] if it doesn't dock back to
• 19:32
  information in the DMS, which is ultimately where someone is gonna be, you know, keeping track of all their financial records, all the RDRs [laughs] and all the ROs, um, and if it can't execute on marketing, it, it's, you're, you're gonna have another, you know, you're just gonna have another expensive thing, you know- Another bunch of things, right...
• 19:51
  yeah. Yep. Do you, do you think this leads to a future where all of us make money but don't know how we're making it anymore? 'Cause, like [laughs]
• 20:01
  The CDP did the marketing, and the marketing made the transaction- I mean, that doesn't sound like the worst future I can imagine... and then we all sit at home and be like, "I'm rich." I'm in. Let's go.
• 20:10
  Count, Count, is that what the Jetsons is like? That's fine with me. No, I, I, I hope it's actually the, I hope that it's the, I hope that it's the opposite.
• 20:19
  And, and again, it's, you know, the, you know, what, what we're starting to see now with, you know, we've, with...
• 20:26
  And part of it is because we've got access to all of this cool technology, and we've spent so much time building the infrastructure, and now we can just go so much faster, is our ability to have, we've got a, you know, what we're creating is a customer profile, and we've got this customer profile report.
• 20:41
  And it really is either sh- kind of shining a blacklight on the things that are working and aren't working, how we're, you know, we can defend all the stuff that we're cleaning up, and we can defend all of the incremental lift that we're bringing in, whether that was incremental from an engagement standpoint or that was incremental because that person ultimately, you know, came into the dealership to do some kind of a transaction.
• 21:03
  So I think as the, the, f- as you kind of go down the funnel, this has a opportunity to really put a lens on things that we hadn't seen, that we haven't been able to see before. 'Cause it's been [laughs] a swamp of data.
• 21:16
  Yeah. Yeah. Unreal. Okay, let, let me ask you this as we wind down. Y- you're gonna be at NADA. Tell us a little bit about that. Yeah. So we'll, we'll, we're gonna be at NADA.
• 21:25
  We've, we, uh, you know, we're gonna be, um, making a couple of announcements on some of the new products that we're, that we're rolling out, and we're gonna be sharing a couple of incentives that are gonna be coming out a little bit closer to the, to the show.
• 21:37
  And, you know, I think for, for many of us, this is, you know, we're in double digits on times that we've come to NADA, so we're very much looking forward to that. Nice. You heard it here first, folks.
• 21:46
  Bobby can be trusted. Not a single leak of what's coming at NADA. [laughs] Not a single leak. That, not a single leak. Nope. This guy. This guy. But we're gonna be... That's fine. It's fine. It's fine.
• 22:00
  Bobby, how can those listening and watching get in touch with you and connect before the show? Um, so y- my, my email address, um, is, you can either use Robert or Bobby.
• 22:10
  So robert.gaudreau, G-A-U-D-R-E-A-U, if you guys see it on the screen, @activator.ai. Um, and my cell phone number is on everything too, which is, uh, 617-833-9735. And then you can just go to activator.ai.
• 22:26
  Um, and we've got all sorts of ways that you can contact us that way as, as well. Boom. The man gave it all to us. There it is. Nice. [laughs] Bobby, thanks for joining us.
• 22:34
  Uh- Thanks so much for joining us on Autocollabs. Yeah. Thanks for joining us on Autocollabs today, man. It's been a pleasure. [upbeat music] We dropped the...
• 22:43
  [laughs] We're into this episode and we talk about running 50 kilometers and 50 miles, and then he starts talking about CDPs.
• 22:49
  I was like, "If he says web speed, Kyle's gonna leave this podcast and go, like, move to Vermont- Just go give the man a hug... so he can be closer." [laughs] Just go give the man a hug. One of those ice commercials.
• 22:57
  We're just gonna see Kyle lift off, like rockets underneath him. Like, vroom. [laughs] Yeah, absolutely. If we were, if we were close. Well, I, you know what?
• 23:04
  I personally, I'm really excited about the ques- like, the question that I have had in my mind, and, and I think he did a beautiful job addressing it, is, like, what happens when we turn around and we go, "Oh, we had these 18 things previously, and now we just brought them all into one thing"?
• 23:22
  And his, the, uh, I... He almost didn't, like, complete the sentence, but he said it.
• 23:27
  In the middle of it is, is if we ask ourself the question, what's the outcome that we want out of this, before we start, that's the win.
• 23:35
  And if you listen to Melissa Cartagena or Gary Ledoux and some of the best marketers out there, every conversation that I have with them about this is they started by asking, "What's the outcome that we want for our consumers, for our business out of this?"
• 23:50
  Yeah. Instead of, like, "What's the new shiny thing that I can try and make work?" Mm-hmm. Right? It's what's the outcome that I work, uh, want, and how do I get the things tied together that bring me that outcome?
• 24:00
  And I think that's a question that we can ask of any tech at this point. Mm. We just gotta be like, I hope people are paying attention.
• 24:06
  'Cause y- you remember when the whole buzz was, "Look how fast everything's moving," and, and it was like, "Why? 'Cause you can Google stuff?" And, and just in the time period- Yeah... from the...
• 24:17
  Like, I think about if this podcast were 160 years ago, it would be about how you don't have to boil turnips anymore. You can fry them in a skillet. Like, that was the most advanced thing. Mind-boggling. Yeah.
• 24:31
  We're talking about- [laughs]... a world in which computers will m- more rapidly understand the needs of a customer so you can... I, I don't know.
• 24:43
  [laughs] Like, so that you can do nothing and, [laughs] and like- No, be freed up to have real conversations, human conversations. Actually, I think- Freed up to do the work that requires a soul. Yeah.
• 24:51
  And, and- I, I think that the, that the, the thing that will be the most attractive about employees will not be their ability to work with the tech, because so much of that will be solved. Yeah.
• 25:01
  It will be their ability to work individually with humans on a one-on-one relationship, and those people will get paid the most over the next five to seven years. Yes. Yes. That's, that's good news.
• 25:09
  Emotional intelligence is, like, the thing- Come on... that we need to be talking about. Because- It's... Yep... I, I love how you said that. That is, the last 30 years, we built up a bank of people whose
• 25:21
  professional value is tied up in how well they can use tech themselves. Mm-hmm. And we are now, guys, like, we're leaving that now. Yep. That is, like, going away. Agree. And I love how you said that.
• 25:33
  That's the work that requires a soul. Uh, well, we hope you enjoyed this episode with Bobby Gaudreau. Gaudreau. Uh, thanks so much for joining us here on Autocollabs. We'll see you guys at NADA.
• 25:44
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• 25:58
  If you love this podcast, please leave us a review and share it with a friend. Thanks again for listening. We'll see you next time.
• 26:05
  [upbeat music] Welcome to Autocollabs. [laughs] Welcome to Autocollabs. [laughs] Why are we recording? Are we rolling yet?
• 26:24
  Not yet.