Latest / Auto Collabs / From Vendor To Dealer with Andrew Diffenderfer

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From Vendor To Dealer with Andrew Diffenderfer · Auto Collabs

• 0:00
  So the other day [upbeat music] This is Auto Collapse... I got in the mail this right here. It's a, it's a card. I have a story here.
• 0:16
  This is, this is, uh- Explain it for the people- It's a $100-... who are just listening. Oh... you know, like Visa card. Oh, good I'm covering the numbers 'cause I actually wanna use it.
• 0:22
  Shoot, I was just getting my screenshot ready. And I just... Yeah, I know. I just wanna explain to the people. Like, so we set up this, uh, you know, the home security system. Mm-hmm.
• 0:35
  And then they were like, "Oh, we're gonna install this, but it's basically free 'cause you get a $100 gift card." I was like, "This is go- this is awesome.
• 0:42
  I'm gonna do it" Uh, there- there's a subscription on the other end of this, I can tell. No, it's not a subscription.
• 0:46
  [laughs] Now, I did it to s- because I wanted to be able to tell this story at some point, 'cause I got this in the mail yesterday. [laughs] Y'all, I had to mail in- Ooh... for that rebate.
• 1:00
  Like, I had to write things down- Yeah, because they're like-... on a piece of paper... "We're gonna make it hard for you to get the rebate."
• 1:05
  [laughs] He's gonna get a CD subscription delivered back to him from- Columbia House incoming... Columbia House. You're getting Pearl Jam, Nirvana. [laughs] Uh, who else? That's exactly what Shania Twain. Shania Twain.
• 1:17
  Oh, where, where country. You remember like- He's, he's gonna get- And the great news is, is I'm gonna have to ship it back just like all the Netflix DVDs that they were doing too. [laughs] You know what?
• 1:25
  The best part about this intro to this interview is I bet that Andrew Diffenderfer, AKA Diff, had a Columbia House subscription in his day. He was the guy- I bet he did... with the 200- Absolutely.
• 1:38
  You are exactly right... CD folder with all the CDs that you'd hit the road trip and you'd be like, "What am I gonna listen to? I got my 200 favorites right here." He's in his van. He's like- He's that guy.
• 1:48
  [mimics CD skipping] He might still have it. Yep, not that one. [laughs] He might still have it. I saw a TikTok the other day, or no, it was a Instagram reel, and the guy was driving.
• 1:56
  He's like, "People are worried about distracting driving." He's like, "This was me in 1997." [laughs] And he's got, he's like looking down- A binder...
• 2:02
  trying to flip through his CDs [laughs] trying to figure out which one- Right... then like trying to get the disc in the player. I was like, "Ah, touche, touche." But either way- "No, it's in disc five.
• 2:13
  It's in disc five" Right. [laughs] Oh man, multi-disc CD changers were a game changer. The safest ones- Not-... were in the trunk. Remember those? [laughs] Yeah. Wow. What, what- I do remember...
• 2:24
  who put, came up with that idea? "Let's put them in the trunk." You gotta preload your favorite six, and then they're just in there. [laughs] Diffenderfer did. Diff did. Diff did. Diffenderfer did. And so can you.
• 2:34
  Uh, we hope you [laughs] enjoy our conversation with Andrew, uh, the founder of Foundation Direct. Uh, one of the smartest, hard- most hardworking guys in the industry.
• 2:43
  Um, really has a long path through, uh, serving in OEMs and then retail, all this stuff. Um, always insightful, and it's fun. He's like an old friend, which is why we can give him this intro, right?
• 2:52
  We've had many interviews with Diff- Yeah... but maybe it's your first time. So, uh, we know you're gonna, uh, enjoy meeting him, just like we enjoy having conversation with him.
• 2:59
  [upbeat music] Hey, Andrew, thank you so much for giving us some time. It's awesome to have you again on the show. Thank you. Thank you. It's always good to see you all. Thanks for having me.
• 3:12
  He said, "Andrew," and I was like, "Who- when did we invite- I know... Andrew to the show?" He, every- [laughs] It's Diff. Well, like, it's Diff, right? That's why the name's on the screen. But, you know- Yeah...
• 3:19
  a lot of people are gonna meet you for the first time. You, you guys are growing like a weed. And, um, so if, if we've all heard correctly, you have now traversed the gap between vendor and dealer. Am I right?
• 3:35
  That is correct. Technically, yes. You are correct in that statement. Yeah, technically, that is correct, with the one and only Mr. Brian Benstock. Yes, it's been a real, real while.
• 3:43
  [laughs] So you went full send, right? [laughs] Yeah. I mean, [laughs] if you're gonna play, play on the deep end of the pool, right? Um, you know, it's a, it's a really, um...
• 3:52
  A, I'm very humbled and thankful for the opportunity. Um, many people know Brian and I, or don't know Brian and I started working together in 2010. Um, and really just formed a,
• 4:03
  um, he's been a huge impact on my life, um, from just a personal perspective, a mentor, and to be, um, partnered with him doing what I love.
• 4:13
  Um, you know, I started my career in a Honda dealership in central Pennsylvania at Antrim Way Honda. Um, ironically, one of our other good friends, Liza Borshiz, was the district sales manager of that store. Oh, no way.
• 4:25
  [laughs] So like... Yeah, so- It's all coming together. Okay. It's all coming together, right? And, you know, um, Brian told me one day, he's like, "Someday we're gonna have a dealership together."
• 4:33
  And I was like, "Man, that'd be awesome." And I'm, I, you know, I love Honda.
• 4:36
  Um, so to be in there and really having the opportunity to see what we as vendors, partners, technology companies can do for a, a dealership, um, firsthand, and then feed that back into, to my company, Foundation, to really serve dealers, I think, you know, I, I, I believe that our number one job as a, as a partner, vendor, whatever it is, is to build meaningful and lasting relationships with those that we serve, period.
• 5:02
  At the end of the day, like, you can create a slide deck.
• 5:06
  And when you have, when you can see those efforts translate into changing, you know, the way people do things with their family and, you know, having a better service experience, it's, it's really cool.
• 5:16
  So it's full circle, so thank you for acknowledging it. I, I love... Okay, so I'm like, as you're saying this, I'm like, "Oh, yeah. Okay." So checking in, like, vendors really having the ability to, like, dig deep.
• 5:27
  You know, back, like, the originator of this, you probably remember this 'cause you've been in the industry a, a hot minute, but the originator of this was dealer.com. Mm-hmm.
• 5:37
  Like, their home offices were across the street from a dealer. Yes. And all of their train- all of their training had to happen through dealer.com.
• 5:44
  And then, like, one of the most recent ones is Techion bought a dealership because they were like, "Hey- Gotta know... best place to practice, right in the dealership." Now it's like Foundation Direct.
• 5:53
  But now, indirect partnership, you know, it's not Foundation Direct buying a dealership or anything, but obviously a leading partner.
• 5:59
  You get the ability, the insights to go, "Oh, okay, so that's how that's impacting day to day," right?
• 6:07
  Like, what-Me or the connected because, because you are a data and ads company, like it, it, you, you have a purview into all these other partners that dealers are using, and so it requires you to kind of have the understanding on the impact, not just on like the digital analytics, but the, the offline analytics too, right?
• 6:27
  [coughs] What, ha- have there been kinda like key things like initial learnings, you're like, "Oh, shoot, hadn't thought of that in a hot minute"? You know, it, y- yeah, 100%, right? I mean, w- we sync every morning.
• 6:40
  My day starts with going over yesterday's business at the dealership. I think it's kind of like a good way to get your head back in the game and remember why we're doing what we're doing.
• 6:50
  Um, Brian is, as you know, he's as, as good at this as anybody. Um, he continues to just push it.
• 6:58
  You know, I think we finished 77th in the nation last month, um, which is, which is out of Honda dealers, which is pretty cool. Um- Wow... and yeah, there's a, there's a ton of that, right?
• 7:08
  Because, you know, um, what you spend on per car sold from a marketing expense becomes a real number, right?
• 7:13
  And when you're sitting down, um, you know, it's, it's interesting how the world's- You're like, "Oh, that was my pocket." [laughs] Oh, well.
• 7:21
  Are you, are you sure we needed those new chairs in the customer waiting lounge? [laughs] I, I kinda like the old ones. Don't get bed socks started on customer employee lounges.
• 7:30
  So, um, and you know, it, it's just been, there's so much. I think when you step back and look at the industry that we serve, right? I mean, you guys are getting ready to put to- put on a great event for the industry.
• 7:44
  But when you, when you go into the dealership, and I'm up there a good bit,
• 7:48
  when you go into the dealership and you walk around and you start looking at like, "Why isn't there, why don't we have enough paper towels in there? Like, why is there a fingerprint on that door?"
• 7:57
  And you really begin to remember like everything [laughs] that goes into a store, like, "Why didn't somebody get the weeds cleaned up the, after we had the mulch put in the flower beds?" Mm-hmm.
• 8:06
  And you look at the impact- It's a good language. Yeah, right. Y- when you look at the impact, y- right, it's like, holy cow, man, these, these things are... Dealerships are very complex. And I think- Yeah...
• 8:17
  we often in the industry focus on the pain points, right? But there's a lot that dealerships do really, really, really well.
• 8:27
  And y- let's talk about the business side of it for a second, is usually dealerships, because of the, the money that they contribute to the community, are a large part of the tax base. They're also a large employer.
• 8:38
  So, like, you f- you kind of forget, like the local dealerships that serve your community, they are very integrated in what happens in that community.
• 8:46
  And I think, you know, it's, it's interesting for me having worked with Paragon for so long, you know, White Plains is j- is in Westchester, but it's, they're very different markets that have very different needs.
• 8:57
  Um, and it's just fascinating to me.
• 8:59
  You know, I think, I think one of the things that always attracted me to this industry is that the owner of, Greg Weaver of Anthem Way Honda, where I started my career, he said, "The beauty of a dealership is that you have seven businesses in one."
• 9:11
  Mm. He's like, "I can teach you business of seven businesses in one, in one business if you wanna learn it." And I mean, you think about it, you got finance, right?
• 9:20
  You got used, you got new, you got parts, you got fixed, you got a body shop. I mean, those are all businesses that I would love to have, but when you get a dealership, you get all of those. Mm-hmm.
• 9:30
  And it's just fascinating. I think this industry is the... I believe it's the best industry that anyone can be involved with. I think you can learn the most.
• 9:37
  I think it, I think nothing has prepared me or prepared me for life better than working in dealerships because I feel like I had a, I feel like I had a head start when I even went to grad school because I was like, "Oh, I've, I've worked with this in parts obsolescence."
• 9:50
  And you're like, "Why do you know what that means?" And then they take that one step further and, you know, with Foundation's partnership with NCM and now kind of standardizing digital measurement for NCM,
• 10:03
  um, and helping dealers understand how their data can unlock profitability in a dealership is just really cool. Like it's, it's, I mean, it's the best of all worlds.
• 10:11
  So yesterday, Paul and I, you know, we, we've, we're, uh, we're shooting this More Than Cars, uh, series of sort of, right? Um, and in the lead we're like the largest retail industry in the country.
• 10:23
  And I was like, "Man, I just wanna make sure we back that up," right? Gonna fact check that. We've been saying it for a long time. Fact check that. So I went to a few sites and I found like three confirmations.
• 10:31
  There was like, it was either four or five on the total industry list in, in, in the US. But in just retail, there was no one else that hit the top 10, right? New car dealers were what? Number five?
• 10:42
  New car dealers were number five, like four or five, depending on the site that you looked at. And that, that's the reason is because like we have multiple retail industries injected into a single industry.
• 10:55
  And I, like, the reason I'm tying that back is you said, like back to the, you know, paint on the walls and mulch in the front.
• 11:04
  So often as just anybody, like a consultant or a dealer or a fixed ops manager or a service manager, like the phrase starts like this: If that dealer would just... [clicks tongue] Right? [laughs] Whatever the just is.
• 11:19
  And you're like, "No." You just said just. You don't understand. There's no just in dealer world. No. There's like 83 justs in each company. It's like a contractor. Every, every hour.
• 11:30
  "Hey, could you just move that window half an inch?" Bro, yeah. [laughs] Well said. Well said. Yeah. Yeah, so it's, it's, it's been really cool. Very humbling.
• 11:39
  Love it and, and so thankful for it, so more to come, you know? Yeah. What's the... You know, uh, at the end there you said like the, you know, you guys have recently formed a partnership with NCM- Mm-hmm...
• 11:51
  and are working to standardize the, the model of looking at d- uh, at digital analytics, and there's a lot of talk around standardization, right?
• 11:59
  We've got talk around standardization of APIs with the STAR Standard, standardization of GA4 events with the ASC Standards Council, NCM being a massive trainer and 20 group representative across the industry looking to standardize digital metrics.Where have you seen, like, the biggest gaps and, and the things that maybe as an industry we're asking for, but become very, very difficult as we plug in all of these inputs?
• 12:26
  You know, that's, that's a really great question because I think- Thank you. [laughs]... we were talking, we were, we were ta- we were talking about buzzwords, and standardization is one of those buzzwords now.
• 12:35
  Like, everybody, you know, it's like, "I wanna standardize this." And I think, um, I love...
• 12:41
  I think COVID, and thanks a lot to you guys too from starting just what you do, I think there's a lot more collaboration in our space versus competition, which I think is the most powerful thing that we need as an industry.
• 12:53
  Because, again, sitting on multiple different areas of this fence, there you go, collaboration, right? It always wins. Um, is that
• 13:03
  when you begin to look at these things, I think the old sentiment was, "Let me tell you how much I know so that you, you trust me that I'm smart."
• 13:13
  [laughs] And that I'm a, I'm gonna, I'm just gonna word, just hit you with all these, these stats, right? Or at least confuse you enough that you believe- I know things... I must know more than you.
• 13:22
  I, yeah, like, let me just go deep on the, let me talk about schema.org. I mean, like, we all went down this stuff and how sites should be built and what organic means. Now people are sort of like, "Yeah, I get it.
• 13:32
  I need a website. I know that there's four major traffic-driving sources," or whatever it may be.
• 13:37
  What I've found is that where we've been very, um, successful in talking to our dealers, you know, we're gonna have about 600 dealerships on this composite platform by the end of the year,
• 13:49
  and where it's been really helpful is learning from the NCM moderators. Like, today we're gonna talk about fixed coverage.
• 13:56
  They pick one topic, they look at who's the best at it, and then they, they collaborate in the room to figure out a way to bring everyone up to that level.
• 14:06
  And that is not easily done if you're not measuring everything the same way. A financial statement manag- measures everything. Gross profit is gross profit.
• 14:15
  Like, you can't, you can't be like, "Well, my version of gross profit's this and yours is that."
• 14:20
  And we had a little bit of that from the measurement perspective in the space because it was sort of like, well, it's Google Analytics and we gotta do it.
• 14:26
  I think it's great now as we can sit down and be like, "Hey, Paul, here's the deal, man.
• 14:30
  Like, you run a very profitable dealership, but the guy who's not as profitable as you, he has a 31% service appointment booking rate. Like, what if you had your profitability plus a 31% service booking rate?
• 14:43
  Like, that's one plus one equals three." So that's where this standardization has become very, very impactful. Um, also is, you know, we were talking about a marketing person at a dealership.
• 14:55
  People aren't sitting there trying to understand if their chat conversion stopped firing in their Google Analytics 4 account because that talks to their ads account. In the weeds, they don't care about it.
• 15:05
  But what will happen is if the website provider shows that there was a decrease in leads because that tool stopped working, the dealership gets fired up.
• 15:14
  So we've really been able to collaborate with website providers and partners that, that work on these websites say, "Hey, man, the chat thing went away. Did you change something in the code? Did you do an update?
• 15:24
  Did you refresh? Let's get this fixed on behalf of the dealers." That's been, like, really exciting. Um, and just, I'm, I, you know, I think it's, um, it's been inspiring for me too, 'cause I'm learning, you know?
• 15:35
  From, from looking at this, you know, you would think, well, if you standardize the data, there's only so much that's gonna be different. And man, like, we're working with some groups, you know, they're mixed brands.
• 15:45
  They're, like, these general manager groups. You have a Steve's JR store, a Honda store, a Toyota store, a Ford store all in one group, and just the cool things that come out of that's been pretty powerful.
• 15:54
  You're like, "Well, these guys call it used and these guys call it pre-owned," and you wouldn't believe the number of complexities that adds to a data model. [laughs] Spaces and hyphens are very important in our world.
• 16:06
  [laughs] Michael. I, I was gonna ask you about indoor skydiving, but I don't know if we're there yet. [laughs] Well- It's like I've been waiting- Now-... to have my question written out.
• 16:18
  He's like, "I've been waiting for this my whole life." You know, so I have a story for that, as Diff always. I always have a story for something. [laughs] So my- I love it...
• 16:25
  my father-in-law is an avid skydiver and 73 years old- 'Cause your wife is a pilot... is, my wife's a pilot. Avia- [laughs] Yeah. Right. Yeah. He's like, "Where's the door that I can jump out of?"
• 16:36
  She's like, "It doesn't work that way." Um, um, and it's funny, when we had our second son, Kai, um, my father-in-law said, "Hey, man, like, I'm getting, you know, I'm getting ready to get ready for skydive season.
• 16:51
  Would you wanna hop in a wind tunnel with me so I can practice?" [laughs] Basically, like, hang on to you for my formation flying.
• 16:56
  I said, "Yeah, I think, I think I could probably, I think I can probably figure this out." So he taught me how to skydive at indoor skydiving over here in Lem, and I, you know, they have levels.
• 17:08
  And we just bought an hour of tunnel time, and we, him and I would just go over there for, like, 20 minutes a week and just fly around. And, you know, as we get older, not that I'm getting older, it's fun for me.
• 17:22
  The thing that is really- You are. Technically- Yeah. No... I think you're getting older. No, no, I'm not. Every- I'm, I'm doing the, I'm, I'm doing the Ben Stock thing. I'm trying to reverse age. Yeah.
• 17:30
  Um- When you talk about it a lot, it just kind of verifies the fact that you're getting older. You're getting older.
• 17:35
  [laughs] I, my, you know, my father-in-law, uh, uh, my father-in-law actually told me, he said, "You know, life's like a roll of toilet paper.
• 17:40
  You put it on, you think it's gonna last forever, and the closer to the end you get, the faster it goes, brother." [laughs] I go, "Yeah, that's pretty, that's pretty, pretty fair comment." That is the best- Yeah.
• 17:49
  I was like-... I've ever heard that... I was like, "Yeah, you're not kidding." I like that. It's like, quick, man. Brian just better be, like, have the bigger biceps, so. Yeah, yeah.
• 17:55
  So, um- I might be older, but look at this... so Michael, to tie this back, what I love about indoor skydiving, other than the fact that Glenn Lundy let me hop into a, a tunnel down in, you know- I saw that. I, I-...
• 18:06
  I think Atlanta... I think that's how I found out about it. How was that, dude? I, I roll into this place- It was-... and Diff's, Diff's doing this. He's upside down, is doing this thing.
• 18:13
  I was like, "Wait, wait, how did... Wait, wait, what?" He's like, "Excuse me, I brought my own goggles." How does he do that? He's like-Yeah. [laughs] I'll throw my helmet- As you want... guys, hold on.
• 18:21
  I gotta get my skydiving shoes on here. He's like, "Ooh," he's got the spandex on, he's ready to go. It's so funny. Underneath his shirt right there, yeah.
• 18:28
  But it, it forces this layer of, um, awareness that I just, you don't have when you're walking forwards, backwards, side to side, 'cause you literally can move diagonally, back, forward.
• 18:39
  And, you know, it applies a lot to business. Like, you gotta be dynamic, right? And, um, just the awareness that it taught me was, like, was really, really, really, really fun.
• 18:48
  And, you know, our, aviation's in our family, so- It could take a s- and you're, like, three inches off, you know? Unless you're going downstairs, you're probably gonna make it, right?
• 18:56
  But, like, at the slightest move in the middle of an air tunnel will, things can maybe not go s- go as planned, right? [laughs] You know, they, they have a lot of control.
• 19:06
  It's funny, if you drive down the road and put your hand out the window at 40 miles an hour and you do this, you know- Yeah... you feel the difference. You do it at 70 miles an hour, you gotta be careful.
• 19:13
  You hit a bug like that, it's a different deal. And, you know- [laughs]... I think when you're in, you know, head-down freefall, I think y- the max speed you can get is, like, 120, like, something like that.
• 19:23
  But those wind tunnels- Wow... they control that variable by the speed they push up. So as you progress to, like, sit fly, for example, which is very difficult to do, they won't let you sit until you get on your back.
• 19:36
  Back flying is very difficult, 'cause it basically, they train you to fly forwards, up, down, sideways, around, and then they're basically like, "No, get on your back and learn all that in reverse."
• 19:44
  And you're ki- it's just an awkward... They start you, like, in a chair position. But it's fun, and if you have a tunnel, I'd highly recommend that you go do it. And just, like, and put the time in and have some fun.
• 19:55
  It's, y- you will, it's a good, it's a good fun thing to do. [laughs] So there you go, Michael. That's my long story on indoor skydiving. I'm still waiting for Cirillo in spandex. I c- I just need that in my life.
• 20:06
  [laughs] And, and a shaved beard. Cirillo, Cirillo's either frozen or really angry. [laughs] I think he's just doing a great job of faking it. It's pretty good. I'm tr- I'm- No, I think he's frozen...
• 20:17
  waiting for the eyeballs. Kyle, Kyle got us yesterday, though. Kyle faked a freeze and we all- He did... jumped in. Had you for a hot minute. No, I think he's really frozen. It's all good. He's not breathing.
• 20:24
  He's really frozen. What, uh, what's, what's, like, what's the thing that you're working on in the business right now, um, particularly, like, in mapping vendors to dealership, right?
• 20:36
  With the new Honda store and things like that. And, and what you're working on as you're seeing, like, oh, we have to tie all of this thing together from technology into a store. How is that, how's that going?
• 20:47
  You know, that's a, that's such a good question. And I could go, we could h- we could talk hours about this.
• 20:52
  But, you know, um, when I was at Google, the gentleman who kind of taught, like, I worked out of the PartnerPlex and stuff, and he said, "Big and simple will always beat small and complex." And I think
• 21:05
  seeing the detail that we have of data right now, it's so complex, and I'm working on simplification and, um, making things easier to process. Like, why do we all love iPhones, right?
• 21:19
  By the way, Friday 15th, iPhone 15 Pro, get it ordered. Titanium. Not that I just ordered mine, but throwing it out there. [laughs] Um, is, you know, the, the, the simplicity of things to do highly, the simplicity...
• 21:32
  If you make it simple to do highly complex things, it provides value, in my opinion, right? Mm-hmm. So as I'm going through the dealership I'm like, [scoffs] why do I have to log into nine platforms?
• 21:46
  Like, what, like- Tell me about it... I'm, I hit r- right? I'm literally, like, talking to everyone in the dealership. I'm saying to, you know, our general salesman, "Hey Chris," uh, "Hey Harris, here's the deal.
• 21:55
  What are you looking at in this platform more than five times a day? Okay, write that down," right? "What would be helpful out of this platform that you can't get to? Okay, write that down."
• 22:04
  So this simplification, because when you do that, you get more time back to go sell more cars or service more cars or talk to more customers, because you're not spending time trying to find something in the tool.
• 22:16
  Um, so that's been a big, big, big piece.
• 22:19
  Man, I think if, if, if anybody listening to, to right now in this interview doesn't take back, go to each of your people and ask them w- what are they doing to look at a system five times or more a day, and how many of those can you potentially move over, eliminate or, or increase the speed and efficiency of that employee, like, that's a massive takeaway.
• 22:41
  And I think any own... And, and it doesn't matter.
• 22:44
  If you're at a company and you have a technology that someone uses, go ask them whether or not they're logging in five times a day and what are they looking at in that thing, and is that necessary and does it work for them?
• 22:56
  So I'd, like, that's a, that's a perfect way to wrap this up. Uh, Diff, you're, you're always like, we've, like, hit I think 83 things at this point, uh, in this, in this conversation.
• 23:06
  And we're so excited that, that Foundation Direct is partnering with ASOTU CON on the swag, on some thought leadership. Gonna have Jessie Naspo there, and, and she's amazing. Uh, the, the scarf looks so legit.
• 23:19
  If you're coming to ASOTU CON, you get a scarf with the logos and the whole nine yards on it. Uh, it's, as always, it's been a pleasure, and thanks for joining us, Diff. Hey, thank you guys. Keep doing what you do.
• 23:28
  You're doing such great things for the industry, and thanks for always letting us be along for the ride. So appreciate all you do, and let's keep doing good things together. Absolutely.
• 23:39
  [upbeat music] I love how often we have seen dealers venturing into technology in this time period, right? A lot of dealers, dealer groups starting to build tech products.
• 23:51
  Diff is a story that's going kind of the other way, right? Right. Build a tech product, now is actually a partner in a dealership.
• 23:59
  And that collaboration and what we're just seeing in the industry going forward and backward is really showing itself to be effective in helping us progress faster and, you know, it's, it's cool.
• 24:10
  You know what it underscores for me? How as a human species, we have no clue about anything all of the time. Because- I think that occurs to me just about every morning when I wake up. [laughs] Yes.
• 24:21
  Like-Be- because here's the thing, right? You remember eight months ago when everyone was like, "Every dealership will be out of business in the next seven years." And it's like, okay, and everybody's bowels quiver.
• 24:34
  And then we shortly after that on the show talked to Damon Lester, and he's like, "I plan on buying more dealerships." Like- [laughs] I plan on buying more...
• 24:41
  he's an accountant who's planning on buy- And then we're like, "Oh, wait a minute."
• 24:45
  And then, you know, fast-forward to today and we're not really talking about that anymore, and you've got, like, Asbury Auto Group who's buying all of the dealerships right now it seems.
• 24:55
  Uh, and they're obviously seeing something that they wanna double, triple, quadruple down on. And then to your point, you got Diff like, "Nah, I think now would be a good time to enter the, the retail game." Yeah.
• 25:05
  And so I just feel like we don't know anything most of the time, and everyone needs to calm down, and Diff is leading the way. Yeah, and I love, like- He's pretty chill...
• 25:14
  you, you listen and he's like, "Yeah, we just have these regular check-ins. Every single day we look at all the business. I go into my team members, say, 'Are you using the things that we have, we, we built for you?'"
• 25:23
  Like, that's the regular things of business that keep business open. And I think even just in auto, a lot of times we look at, like, grand ideas, big things. What are we gonna do next?
• 25:35
  What's, what's everyone on, one on the horizon? And it's like, no, customers want you to do really well today for them, you know? And that's what that underscores to me, that, that- And if you-...
• 25:45
  like, if you do the, the, the right things really well today for, for people, whether it be your customers or your employees, you're gonna succeed.
• 25:53
  Uh, well, hey, we look, we hope that you enjoyed this conversation as we did, uh, with our friend Diff. On behalf of myself, Michael Cirillo, and Paul Jay Daly, we'll see you next time here on Auto Collabs.
• 26:04
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• 26:18
  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.
• 26:26
  [upbeat music] Welcome to Auto Collabs. Welcome to Auto Collabs. [laughs] Are we recording yet? Are we rolling yet? Not yet.