Latest / Auto Collabs / Why Dealerships Need to Stop Working in Silos with Dan Gaughan

Transcript

Why Dealerships Need to Stop Working in Silos with Dan Gaughan · Auto Collabs

• 0:00
  [upbeat music] What are the areas that tend to cause friction in the sales process? The number one place is trade valuation.
• 0:08
  No one has ever said to me or any dealer that I've ever talked to, "Hey, man, that's more than I expected for my trade-in." What can we do to make that experience less friction and more consistent?
• 0:18
  [upbeat music] This is Auto Collabs. Yo, do you know why I'm wearing sunglasses? Why are you wearing sunglasses inside? Because it's sunny on the West Coast where we're going for a soda convo. Oh. Oh, my goodness.
• 0:34
  I've been sleeping with these things on. I'm excited. That's wild. You know, you know what Syracuse looks like after Thanksgiving. It's, it's oppressive. I'll never need these sunglasses until May. Oppressive.
• 0:44
  [laughs] That's what it is. It's oppressive. [laughs] Granted, granted, it, it was oppressive in Nashville and Dallas this summer where, where it was 9,000 degrees outside, so, you know.
• 0:55
  You wish you didn't need sunglasses. [laughs] I wish. You know what's so strange though? I was just on the West Coast. I was in San Diego, and it was like
• 1:03
  72 degrees out, and everyone's wearing shorts and sweating and holding hand fans, and I'm putting a coat on- Yeah. Yeah, you acclimated... because I've become so acclimatized to Texas. Yeah. You acclimated.
• 1:12
  They get that all year round. Crazy. Well, look, today's guest, Dan Goggin, GM at AutoHub, it has nothing to do with the West Coast except for the fact that he's cool. He's a cool cat. He's cool.
• 1:23
  Uh, and we've met him a couple times, but, uh, I can't wait for you to enjoy this conversation with Dan. Have at it, fam. [upbeat music] Dan, thank you so much for joining us today on Auto Collabs.
• 1:36
  It's great to be here, spend a few minutes together. Yeah, it's, it's exciting to be here. I appreciate you guys having me. All right, so I... [laughs] Everybody's not watching this. A lot of people are listening to it.
• 1:45
  [laughs] And so I have to, like, just call out the elephant in the room right now, is that you are [laughs] you're wearing a very nice, and I'm sure it wasn't cheap, Taylor Swift, The Eras Tour hoodie.
• 1:55
  [laughs] What an icebreaker- Why-... for a podcast. Why that hoodie? Yeah, great question. Why this show? Why? There's a lot of why questions.
• 2:02
  Kyler, Ty- [laughs] Kylie even brought up Taylor Swift earlier in the week, uh, which is odd. So this is two things now. [laughs] Yeah. Listen, I...
• 2:09
  It's, it's probably hard to get through a week without hearing something about Taylor Swift, uh- Yeah, during football season... especially during football season. Absolutely. Right. Yeah. Um, no, listen, I...
• 2:17
  Listen, I took a lot of heat from our dealer partner that was on a previous podcast about showing up to, uh, the, the, the previous podcast in a, in a polo shirt.
• 2:26
  So I was like, "I'll, I'll rock the hoodie and the hat," but I, I was like, "My favorite hoodie is my Taylor Swift hoodie," and it's...
• 2:32
  I've got five kids, and I make no bones about it that my two daughters are my favorites.
• 2:36
  [laughs] And, uh, we went to, we went to see, uh, we went to see Taylor in Philly and, uh, so this, this is by far my favorite sweatshirt.
• 2:45
  And I've also got a T-shirt on underneath of my- underneath of the button-up that says, uh, um, "I'm awesome like my daughters" that my daughters got me. Oh, my gosh. Yeah. What an awesome...
• 2:53
  Uh, tell, tell, tell us, how much does a Taylor Swift hoodie cost at the Eras Tour? I think this was 75, 80 bucks, which isn't that bad. I feel like you- In the grand scheme of things... what? Yeah.
• 3:03
  I feel like you stole that. You're great. Man. Yeah. Well, I am from Baltimore. I thought, I thought we were going 150. Right. Yes. [laughs] Well- He's like, "I did buy it outside the stadium, though."
• 3:11
  [laughs] I, I'm just gonna- We bought this at Res-... I'm gonna give my reason- Sorry, go ahead... real quick for the...
• 3:15
  I'm gonna give my reason for bringing up Taylor Swift, 'cause I'm not a massive Taylor Swift fan, okay? Just personally, I g- but I have mad respect. Mm-hmm. Watched her docuseries on the entire Eras Tour.
• 3:27
  Just insanity what she's able to do, how she's able to have composure to the way she treats her people.
• 3:33
  Also, the reason that I had this conversation is I know that one of the most iconic stops on the Eras Tour was actually in Nashville where I live- Hmm... where they held the concert for three hours.
• 3:46
  She finally said, "I'm going on." It rained, poured down rain for the entire three and a half hour concert, whatever it is, uh, till like 1:30 in the morning.
• 3:54
  And then I was on a plane with some people that were at that show the next day, uh, and just got to talk to them. Like, just there's not many people in the world that can level up at that, at, at that rate, you know?
• 4:05
  No, there's not. So. No, there's not. No. Yeah. It's very true. All right, we've had enough Taylor Swift- Yeah, we have... for one week. We have. Okay. I, I have anyway, for one. [laughs] I have for one.
• 4:13
  Um, Dan, you've, you have a very interesting career in auto because I think not many people have seen the industry from as many perspectives- Hmm... as you have. So give us...
• 4:23
  You've, you've seen OEM side experience, that you've experienced dealer side, you've experienced tech side. Give us a little purview.
• 4:30
  Uh, give us, you know, what is your background in the industry, why did you start in the industry, and how did you get here? Give us like the, the one to two minute version. Man, I'm gonna make myself really old.
• 4:39
  I started in the industry, uh, in 1998, um, because- Not that old...
• 4:45
  I mailed out a, I mailed out 100 resumes, um, coming out of college, uh, 'cause there was no internet, uh, there was no monster.com or anything like that, and landed an interview with what was then Toyota Motor Credit.
• 4:59
  And, uh, went to work for Toyota Motor Credit as a, as a credit analyst and, uh, started doing floor plan audits and then moved out to California to, uh, to work at the, at the headquarters in Torrance with Toyota and came back to Baltimore, where I'm from, as, as a regional guy here at, at the regional office and did variable, uh, after I had done about six years, seven years in, in fixed ops.
• 5:22
  And I really learned a lot about the business on the fixed ops side and- Oh, yes...
• 5:27
  you know, I think, you know, what, what I learned there was I was in and out of hundreds of dealerships, so I got to meet so many different GMs and GSMs and fixed ops people and I learned a ton.
• 5:40
  And there were a handful of people that took me under their wing as their factory rep and said, "Hey, l- let us show you how we really run the business, how, how things work on the retail side."
• 5:50
  Um, and that served me well. I was given an opportunity to, to go, uh, be the GSM at a Toyota store in Philadelphia and, uh, that was incredible. I learned a ton.
• 6:00
  I, I was there for about four and a half, five years and came back down to Baltimore and ran a couple, uh, Toyota stores here and, um, went through NADA General Managers Academy- Oh, that's great...
• 6:11
  uh, during that period and, um- Yeah... again, it's all about- It's extensive... the people that you get to meet. And then what, what caused the move to the SaaS side? Yeah.
• 6:19
  So, you know, retail, retail is tough, and it's one of the reasons why- Sure... I have the perspective I do, like, and I have a tremendous amount of respect for anyone and everyone that does it.
• 6:29
  Um- And empathy when you've lived it. Man. You understand what they feel like. Yes. Absolutely. Yeah.
• 6:34
  And, um, so, uh, a good, a good friend of mine, Mark Ochnoval, he and I went to NADA Academy together, and he had just started this little company back then called Automotive Mastermind. Automotive Mastermind. Yeah.
• 6:45
  [laughs] So, uh, I went to work for them and, uh, we grew that thing to, you know, several thousand partners and got acquired twice.
• 6:54
  And, uh, you know, it was a- again, a tremendous learning experience and, and it's, it's served me well already here at AutoHub, um, getting the opportunity to now take another company that, you know, is just blossoming in the space and, uh, we've got really great people.
• 7:11
  And, um, but that was the reason, right? It was just an opportunity to go see it from the other side.
• 7:16
  And I, I think what I've come to realize is, you guys mentioned it, when you have empathy and understanding for what the dealers are dealing with, both with the OEMs and the customers and the vendors- Mm-hmm...
• 7:31
  then you have a different perspective. And I, I say it all the time, like, there's very few problems a dealer has that I don't know someone that has, that has a solution to help them solve that problem. Yeah. Mm-hmm.
• 7:43
  It may be AutoHub, it may be something else.
• 7:45
  But because we've been around the industry so much and we can understand what they're struggling with, you build those relationships and you learn from them, and you say, "Hey, listen, it's really not something that we do, but let me connect you with Susie over here because they've got a great product and service that I think can help you."
• 8:02
  That's right. And- What do you think, uh, w- what do you think, because you've kind of been in the OEM, OEM finance side, you've been in the dealer seat, you've been in the, the, the software seat,
• 8:12
  why do we continually have this almost inability... And it's not, it's not everyone. I'm not, I'm not calling the entire industry out.
• 8:19
  But I would say by and large, as a stereotype, we have this inability to see across to the other side of the table, the dealer looking at the vendor going, "Why would you call me? What would you do this for?
• 8:29
  Why can't you produce this?" The vendor going, "Why, why can't you just see it our way so that you do it?" The OEM going, "Why can't we just retain?
• 8:36
  Why can't the, the vendor par- the, the vendor partner support this thing that Carvana does?"
• 8:40
  Like, wh- where does that come from in the society of retail auto, where we have this kind of like three-headed dragon that also has this customer sitting out here that we forget to talk about a lot? Hmm. Why?
• 8:51
  You know, you've been in each of those roles, so you get to see that. When you looked across the ta- table at others, like where, where's that gap? Why is there such a deficiency?
• 9:00
  I, I don't know that it's just in automotive. For me personally, you know, I think it's just society. We talk more than we listen. And we don't listen to comprehend, we listen to respond.
• 9:12
  And I think if we really genuinely listen to each other and, and understood that our perspective isn't the only perspective. Yeah. And we don't have to agree. I love disagreeing with people.
• 9:24
  [laughs] Well, you've convinced me. And as long as you do it professionally and respectfully- [laughs]... what, what's wrong with that, right? So I, I, I just think people come to the table, in general,
• 9:34
  looking to prove their point or be right more than get aligned- Hmm... and understand what is going on. Listen, if you're trying to sell somebody something, if they don't know or believe they have the problem
• 9:49
  or don't wanna solve it, there's no value to your solution. Mm-hmm. Yeah. So, you know, communication seems to be one of your passions. Hmm. You know, you just say, you just highlighted it.
• 10:04
  This is your perspective on how people come to the table. This is what happens when people are, like, committed to this or not committed to that.
• 10:12
  In this era, when I feel like everyone has an idea on how things should go, and honestly, every dealer has a, an opinion, every industry partner has an opinion. They often contradict one another.
• 10:26
  Um, but there's often, like, that middle overlap part where- Hmm... which is the real good stuff, right? Which is the stuff where most of the growth is going to happen, right?
• 10:35
  Like, if one side is zero and one side is 100, it's like all the growth's happening between, like, 30 and 70 right now. How do you get people to talk about the 30 to 70 range- Hmm...
• 10:45
  and not hang out and die on this is the only way to do it? Because I feel like the temperature is we have a lot of that going on. And honestly, we have a lot of that going on- Oh, yeah...
• 10:53
  from the industry partner side often because they, there's almost the stakes are so high they have to build value in a product and say, "This is the only way to do it."
• 11:02
  Because you care about communication, because you're an industry partner, because you have empathy for what dealers are going through, how do you think we keep the conversation and the growth in that 30 to 70 range in the middle?
• 11:14
  So this is gonna sound a little bit like, like I'm, I'm, uh, talk- you know, speaking up to, to you guys about... But events and, and s- and situations like you guys put on at a So- ASOTUCon, right?
• 11:26
  Like, where it's generally gen- genuinely thought leadership forward and it is really about what's happening in the industry, where is it going, wh- and, and getting people together in those venues where it's not a, an opportunity to go sell, right?
• 11:41
  Mm-hmm. It's an opportunity to go learn, and then take what we learn and try to make the product or, or our service to our customers, if I'm the dealer, better. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Right? Like, uh, the... It's tough, right?
• 11:54
  At the end of the day, like, one of the reasons that I, I, that I love working where I do today is that we're not here to get sold tomorrow. That's not the goal. The goal isn't to grow the business to go get sold.
• 12:06
  The goal is to grow the business and, and grow the people. I, I was having a team meeting yesterday with, with my senior leadership team, and I asked them, I said, "What's, what's, what's your number one responsibility?"
• 12:18
  You know, they said, "Oh, revenue and retention." No. Your people If you take care of your people, the rest of it will take care of itself. And it, and it, and, and... But there's a lot of pressure on both ends. Sure.
• 12:32
  It's pr- Absolutely... it's the number one reason why I left the retail side. I mean, the pressure was crazy. I mean, I was 70 pounds heavier than I am today when I was running CarView. Good night. Whoa. Yeah. Wow.
• 12:42
  That's a deal. 70 pounds. What's your secret? [laughs] Coffee and chewing gum. I- Coffee... I went on a coffee and chewing gum diet, man. Like, it was...
• 12:50
  Like, it, you know, so, um- Instead of cigarettes and Red Bull, right? Yeah. Yeah. [laughs] Trade them in for the coffee and chewing gum. Exactly. But it's, it's stressful, man. And, and so- Yeah...
• 12:58
  there's a lot of pressure, and there's a lot of pressure on this side, too. Don't get me wrong. Um- There sure is... but the, that's, that's the piece.
• 13:05
  When, and I read this the other day, you know, there, if you have high performers, you don't need to put pressure on them.
• 13:12
  They're already putting enough pressure on themselves, or put more pressure on themselves than, than I could ever put on them. Any external. Yeah, for sure. So I, I, that's a...
• 13:21
  If you could solve that problem, you own the world. I, I don't know how you really bridge that gap. But I, to me, it's more about having real conversation to learn, and know that co- competitiveness is great.
• 13:34
  I love having competitors in the market. Keeps us honest, keeps us moving forward, and gives the dealers options. Mm-hmm. Yep. So what...
• 13:42
  S- so now I wanna, 'cause I'm really interested to how this drafts into what you're building now, because it's clear you are l- like, listening to learn from the industry.
• 13:53
  And, you know, trends grow and die, uh, you know, products come and go. Ideas, i- ideas are, are, are meant to be fleeting, right?
• 14:03
  But what, how does that, how does that begin to build what you're building right now, and how you're s- thinking about how that retail engagement, the understanding of the dealer, provides solutions? Hmm. Yeah.
• 14:15
  Listen, there's, there's a couple things that no matter what's going on in the industry or what's, uh, new or sexy or fun, I gotta have inventory to sell. I need to service cars to retain customers.
• 14:28
  And I need customers as a dealer coming to visit me, right? And so those three things are consistent.
• 14:34
  So when we look at those, you know, we're not really in the, the, the service business, like the fixed op side of the service business. But we really wanna focus in on the other two, right?
• 14:44
  What's the experience that that client has when they engage with you? And what are the areas that tend to cause friction in the sales process? The number one place is trade valuation, right?
• 14:56
  Like, and, and, and the finance office- Yeah... might be 1A, right? Uh, or the time that it takes, so we could all debate, like, what the... Right?
• 15:04
  But no one has ever said to me or any dealer that I've ever talked to, "Hey, man, that's more than I expected for my trade." [laughs] Right? So- That's great... you know- That's a great point...
• 15:16
  what, what can we do to make that experience less friction and more consistent? I think that's the thing. Like, when I talk to dealers, it's process consistency.
• 15:27
  And it's not because I just want the process to be consistent. I want the experience for the customer to be consistent.
• 15:34
  And so if a customer comes into our service drive and they receive evaluation or we talk to them, this is how we greet them. This is the, this is how we, how we value their vehicle. This is how we present that valuation.
• 15:45
  They visit our website, that should match. If they come into our showroom, that should match. Tommy brings his car in for service, gets evaluation on his car, but it happens to be his wife Susie's car.
• 15:56
  Susie comes in two days later and gets a completely different valuation. Yeah. That's a terrible experience. Yeah. Right? And so- It really is...
• 16:04
  how do we make it consistent and less friction, a- and full of le- less friction for the customer? That's what we're focused on here. Uh, we wanna- Yeah... help our dealers just be consistent and, and efficient.
• 16:15
  The dealers, like, let's talk outside, like, your specific solution for a second. Sure. I wanna talk about what you're actually doing.
• 16:23
  What are the key traits for the dealers that are doing this well across service to sales, across departments? What... 'Cause because you seem to think a lot about communication. You seem to think a lot about leadership.
• 16:37
  And then you also have the layer of, like, software dealership operations. What are the common traits in the dealers that are solving this problem well?
• 16:45
  The ones that I talk to that have this really kind of figured out, they focus on their people. They train. They consistently train.
• 16:54
  They, they go through the process of getting their teams to truly understand what they're supposed to do and why that matters. Okay. And, and- Push, push down on that a little bit. Yeah.
• 17:04
  Um, because training is a very broad thing, right? Sure. You train. Yeah. 'Cause what, what types of things and what types of training are they putting who through? Yeah.
• 17:14
  So- Like, who on their team are going through what kinds of training? I love this. So, so there's a dealer group here in the, in the Baltimore/Washington area.
• 17:21
  Um, I was talking to one of their top people, and they started a program where they bring college new hires in any department.
• 17:27
  So whether, whether they're, they wanna work in service, maybe even marketing, sales, whatever. Predominantly sales, right?
• 17:33
  Rather than the typical, "Hey, we're gonna run you through a three-day crash course and then throw you out on the floor with Tommy, who's been here for seven years, and he's gonna show you all the ways to not do it," right?
• 17:43
  They spend six weeks with these folks going through every department. That's great. They write service. They work in parts. They, they, they're- Come on there... they're on the lot, right?
• 17:52
  Like, so they understand all of these things, right? And, and they understand why they all matter to making the whole thing work, first and foremost.
• 18:04
  Then, to your point, like, specifically, what is the process that we expect? And as a leader, my job is to create an environment where you're gonna hold me just as accountable as I'm gonna hold you. Mm-hmm.
• 18:17
  Here's the process that you should... This is what you should go through, and this is what you should expect from the sales team or the sales manager, finance team, all, all of the...
• 18:25
  These are the processes and expectations, and we coach and train on that consistently. And when we see a break in any direction, down the food chain or up, it's called out and it's worked through. Yeah.
• 18:39
  This, this idea that, you know, "I'm in charge, so you just do what I tell you and I'm gonna d-", that's old school, man. And, and most people don't wanna build a career there. And so I think that's the second part.
• 18:51
  Are we, are we building a bench of future leaders in the organization, right? I mean, 'cause most people don't get into the retail car business to be in it for life. Mm-hmm.
• 19:03
  The number of people I've met in, in 30 years, "Oh, I, I ju- I just started selling cars to make some money for little while." Yeah. "I see an open-" Oh, gosh, that's the majority of the stories. Yeah. The vast majority.
• 19:12
  I, I tried to get out 10 times in the first year. [laughs] Are you kidding me? That's quicksand. Here I am, right?
• 19:16
  [laughs] So I just wanna map this story of success real quick for everybody that if you're not mapping this already, um, because I'm just gonna point to you, Dan, as like a story of success within your career. Like,
• 19:30
  you have drafted from the success of seeing all the sides of, of the broader retail auto industry, and you're pointing to a thesis that says, if you wanna be successful in your dealerships, in your company, then allow people to see from the other side.
• 19:46
  Get them in service, get them in accounting, get them in the BDC, get them in the, the acquisition department, get them in the sales department.
• 19:52
  No matter who, where they are gonna end up at the end of their four, six, 10-week training, whatever it is, allow them to see all of those places.
• 20:00
  And probably in the future, every year, every two years, give them a piece of that back again.
• 20:05
  Because that understanding, that mentality, the, the, the knowledge graph that you're building around your dealership allows that.
• 20:13
  So, so that when someone comes from service and hands me a customer that says, "Hey, I might be interested in trading my vehicle", I not only understand that they just did something for me, but I get the opportunity to do it back for them in my reintroduction back in the service department.
• 20:26
  And that matrix of, of the, the, the life cycle of any client-customer relationship within a business requires cross-departmental functionality, right?
• 20:37
  And you've s- you've seen it from the industry and you're encouraging that down. So I'm...
• 20:41
  I, I hope you just keep giving that to the industry because I think it's a purview that you have more broadly at a 30,000-foot view- Mm.
• 20:48
  -that many of us miss, you know, because we're just like, we're looking at the tree in front of us and we need to chop more s- uh, we need to chop down more sales, right?
• 20:56
  So we hire more salespeople, we put on the, on, on the floor, right? I had a, I had a- I just... I, I don't know how to like... There's not a question there. Yes. I just, I'm encouraging you- You mapped it.
• 21:04
  You mapped it really great -to post on LinkedIn once a week- [laughs] -that thesis, okay? Cool? Sounds good. [laughs] So let's... Go ahead. I, I, I had a, a...
• 21:13
  I've, I've met, had a lot of great mentors in my, in my career and life, and, uh, one used to tell me all the time, like, "If you're constantly in the business, you're gonna miss it." Yeah.
• 21:23
  And we spend most of our lives in the business and not on the business, right? Mm-hmm.
• 21:30
  As a leader, as a GM, as a GSM, whatever it is, we're the GPS that's telling you there's an accident three miles ahead and so you need to detour now. It's a good illustration.
• 21:39
  If you're in it all day long, you're just driving till you get to the accident, then you're like, "Oh, crap, now I gotta turn around and go back." That's a good illustration.
• 21:45
  Yeah, like back in the day, you were just driving. You had a paper map that was not- Right... dynamic, it was static, and you found out the problem when you were right in the middle of it.
• 21:54
  But everybody really now is familiar with the fact that like, no, the GPS is understanding.
• 21:58
  It's taking in the inputs and the signals and the data, and it's calculating and it's giving you your best real-time direction, which is a leader who's working on the business, not in the business does for everyone who's working in the bus- I love this one.
• 22:11
  Yeah. That's a really good one. Okay.
• 22:12
  Uh, we're, we're kind of getting toward the end of our time today but, you know, we had a, a, a few weeks ago, you know, Kyle and I were doing reads for AutoHub 'cause you all were so kind to sponsor our show.
• 22:22
  And so we have a little bit of a, like a, a purview on what you're doing, and I love the initial value proposition.
• 22:27
  Like, hey, like, how do we communicate from one department to the other person, to the customer who's, like, sitting right over there?
• 22:35
  Uh, give u- give us a little bit, um, of a, a summary of what you're so passionate about, what you're working on now- [laughs] -and, and what exactly you're doing to solve it. Yeah. I, I, I'd say it like this.
• 22:44
  I, I feel like we're, we make complicated things simple. Hey. Acquiring cars out of the service drive is, is complicated, right? Like, it's hard. Acquiring vehicles is hard in today's marketplace, right?
• 22:57
  Everyone- Very competitive... is looking for inventory. Yeah. Right? And, and the sexy thing to talk about is service drive acq- acquisition. Every dealer's talking about it. And, you know, our feeling is this:
• 23:07
  if you've got 50 ROs a day, to your point, I don't know which one of those folks, and I might have a bunch of data that tells me who should be interested in trading or selling their car, but we're gonna identify for you the five or six that are hand-raisers that say, "Hey, man, I am interested in selling or trading my car today."
• 23:26
  Mm-hmm. And so instead of being over here talking to three people that aren't, let's talk to the people that are. Mm-hmm. Right?
• 23:33
  And to your point, then if they happen to not make that decision today, or the, the, the other group of people that are passive about it today,
• 23:42
  we can follow up with them and continue to talk to them about the opportunity to trade their vehicle, right?
• 23:47
  But if they go to your website, they're gonna get the same valuation based upon the same book values and the same controls that every dealer puts in, and that's a big differentiator for us. You...
• 23:57
  The dealer is in full control of how they evaluate every car down to the trim level, right? That's right.
• 24:03
  And then when the customer comes in the showroom, that process is also driven by an AutoHub process which enforces your customized process.
• 24:12
  It's c- fully customized to the dealer, say, "This is what we expect you to do, Mr. Salesperson," and so they have to go through the same steps. So that everything is- Well, it's keeping it simple. Yeah.
• 24:21
  I mean, it's simple. It's, it's har- it's simple to say, it's hard in execution because we are dealing with c- consumers and people, right? Like, as a, as a team. [laughs] It's hard. It's never gonna be simple.
• 24:34
  Never gonna be easy. Yep. Yeah. Yeah. So we wanna try to help make complicated things simple.
• 24:40
  And I think in a lot of times we, we overcomplicate things in life because that allows us the opportunity to say, "That's why I didn't succeed." When we make it really simple, man, like, if you don't succeed, okay.
• 24:54
  Did you learn, and did you fix it? Mm-hmm. But when it's so complicated, I don't even know how I failed or why I failed. Hey, man, if I didn't get it done, great. Here's what I need to do next. Right? [laughs] Man.
• 25:06
  I mean, there is no doubt in my mind that people with a mindset like you, who are paying attention to the macros in the business and not so, so neck-deep in the technology that you can't see what's actually going on.
• 25:21
  It's actually really encouraging to hear you talk about it in this way, because everybody needs this kind of partner, the partner who is saying, "How do we all win together?
• 25:29
  How do we win the people game by leveraging technology and good solutions to stay in that middle 30 to 70-" [laughs] "... and, and come up with things-" Never gonna be me. Yeah, yeah. "...
• 25:38
  that actually move the ball forward." Dan, thank you so much for joining us and sharing your insight, your passion, your wisdom with us today on Auto Collabs. Thank you, guys, for having me. I appreciate it.
• 25:46
  [upbeat music] Okay, I gotta get this out of my face. [laughs] Something, something that I, I think about often, right? C- 'cause, like, in, you know, the three of us as entrepreneurs.
• 26:02
  I had seven things that could've come out of your face just now- [laughs]... that weren't whatever- I, I chose safe. I'm choosing safety... you're about to say. I'm choosing safety. Just as note.
• 26:09
  It's like- I ran down 'em in my head real fast, and I tried not to laugh, and then I started laughing. I'm so sorry. [laughs] Hey, well, thanks for joining us on the... [laughs] Ba, ba, ba, ba, ba, ba.
• 26:23
  Yippity bapity bippy bip. Um, I'm thinking about, like, experience, lived experience that gives you a full circle look at, at a business or an operation, or in this case, in his case, an industry, right?
• 26:34
  Being able to move from different types of roles, different companies inside of an industry. It gives you this well-roundedness that you're not gonna get living just in the day-to-day task of a specific role- For sure.
• 26:47
  Yep... in a specific company. And, and that contributes to a word that I know we, we think a lot about, which is resourcefulness.
• 26:55
  It's like until you experience something new from a different angle, you don't get to discover what's possible. That's right.
• 27:01
  And then it's in that discovery you get clarity about the bigger picture and so on and so forth. Yeah. I had to get that out of my face. I was...
• 27:07
  When I was speaking at NCM, I was on a panel with a few, uh, people talking about AI building, and Brandon Beaver, who works for Beaver, uh, Toyota Beaver Mazda, uh, in Jo- in Georgia.
• 27:16
  He's building their ecosystem, uh, the data model ecosystem of AI. That's just, uh, a wrapper for... He said, "Hey, look, there's all these people at the stores with," what he's calling institutional knowledge.
• 27:29
  But, and a lot of times we would say, like, institutional knowledge can be the drain of progress.
• 27:34
  But what he said is like, "Look, if we have the right institutional knowledge," and that could be across auto, it could be across your store.
• 27:41
  If you have the right institutional knowledge, it's the context for progress, right? Mm-hmm.
• 27:46
  As long as you don't let it hold you back and say, "My institutional knowledge requires me to stay the same," my institutional knowledge actually provides the impetus for change. Mm-hmm.
• 27:55
  And, and that's what, that's what Dan was talking about.
• 27:57
  This institutional knowledge, maybe it be at your individual store, at a company that you're helping grow, allows you to, to look forward and say, "This is the thing that we should head to, because I understand what has happened," right?
• 28:09
  And I think that's so key. So true. So true. Well, listen, on behalf of Michael Cirillo, Kyle Mountser, and myself, Paul Jay Daly, thank you as always for joining us today on Auto Collabs.
• 28:20
  [upbeat music] Welcome to Auto Collabs. Welcome to Auto Collabs. [laughs] Why are we recording? Are we rolling yet? Not yet.