Latest / Auto Collabs / The EV Professor with Alex Lawrence

Transcript

The EV Professor with Alex Lawrence · Auto Collabs

• 0:02
  But- [laughs] I turned the hat forward, okay? [upbeat music] This is Auto Collabs. When you're doing Auto Collabs, you gotta have a hat. It's gotta be fancy.
• 0:19
  No, Kyle, if you're just listening, he had his hat backwards when we hit the record button, and he all of a sudden had this look like he just forgot to put on underwear and he flipped his hat around.
• 0:27
  [laughs] I feel like I need something wintery. Oh, would you... Now, okay, so Michael just put on- You can't wear a Carhartt beanie in Texas … hold on. That's not allowed. Well, well, no, no, no. Put...
• 0:37
  Well, if it's gonna be in Texas, the, the Carhartt one makes the most sense in my opinion. It does make the most sense. You know, it's not, not a Burton one. I like that. Like, where you skiing and, and- Yeah, that's...
• 0:45
  He's wearing it more California though, just kinda like sitting on top. It's letting you know. Like it's, like, like you want it to keep you warm, but you don't really need it, you know?
• 0:53
  But he really just likes Coldplay, right? [laughs] So, so let's settle something really quickly- Yeah … because Kyle called it a beanie. Yeah. Right? I've called it a beanie before, or a ski hat.
• 1:08
  What do you call those in Canada? A toque. A toque? Yeah. A toque? I don't even know how to spell it. No. Honestly. I knew, I knew it was something. T-O-Q-U-E, a toque.
• 1:17
  That sounds like a very Canadian spelling of a toque. Yeah. Um, I've heard it called a toboggan. Have you ever heard that? Well, a toboggan is a s- uh, no, a aluminum- Is the sled. I know.
• 1:27
  It was some Midwest s- person that was like, "Oh, no, that's a toboggan." I need names. I gotta go into the- I didn't expect you to say that … we can never trust them book. I know. Yeah.
• 1:35
  You can't trust someone that calls a hat a toboggan. But- That doesn't- Yeah, I, I... Hey, it just sounds like a- It sounds like, um- … Midwesterner... you know, there's all sorts of weird things like this.
• 1:43
  I mean, speaking of- [laughs] How are you gonna get into today's guest? Speaking of winter. Navigate that real quick.
• 1:49
  Actually, I can see today's guest, like, rocking a ski hat or a beanie or a toque or whatever you wanna call it. Yes.
• 1:56
  And I was gonna say- California style … I have to ask him how his vehicles fare in the winter, because that's always a question we get. Yeah. It, it is- When talking to EVs … when it comes to EVs, for sure.
• 2:06
  And, and, you know, Alex is just, I don't know, he's just kind of like a cool guy. You can just see it from his media and the energy of the brand that, like, it's not just an EV play.
• 2:16
  He's also a professor, so we'll figure out that. And, um, he's just got, kinda got a, a vibe and an energy to him, so he could wear a hat like that, Michael.
• 2:24
  So unintentional, but well placement, well-placed, uh, toque today. Uh, well, we hope you enjoy this conversation that we're about to have with our guest today, founder of EV Cars and EV Auto, Alex.
• 2:37
  I just- Lawrence … don't wanna say his last name. [laughs] [upbeat music] Hey, Alex. Thank you so much for joining us today. Uh, this is, this is a real treat.
• 2:49
  It's kind of outside our usual circle of guests, so it's got us all excited. Yeah, thanks, guys. Good, good to be here. Thanks for having me. Uh, I have to compliment you first.
• 2:57
  If you're just listening to this, um, I'm gonna describe it for you. Alex is wearing a beautiful white hat. Fla- it's not quite flat brim. It's got a curved brim.
• 3:05
  Nice looking hat, and it's got bright pink stylized letters, EV on it. Tell us about the hat. Yeah, I mean, our- we're proud of our merch.
• 3:14
  So, you know, EV, EV Auto's the brand, the business, and, uh, the logo feels like something that people are okay to support even if they're not, like, huge EV people sometimes, just 'cause it's kinda cool looking.
• 3:26
  It's kinda different. Um, but yeah, we spent quite a bit of time, you know, building something that we think is wearable, and the hats are, are a good example of that.
• 3:34
  We've got probably a half a dozen different color combos and styles and stuff, and they, they go fast, man. Close to our hearts. They're popular. So close to our hearts. Yeah. Yeah.
• 3:41
  Like, I knew you were our people the moment I laid eyes on you. [laughs] That's exactly it. [laughs] That's it. So you've, you've had, like, a, a rich history, not all in auto.
• 3:55
  What created, uh, y- well, I guess, like, give us the, give us the bullet points, uh, and maybe we'll dig into them a s- in a second.
• 4:03
  Give us the bullet points outside of auto and then what was the reason for jumping into the EV auto retailing space? Yeah, so I mean, my first real business was detailing cars, actually. So I've always loved cars.
• 4:14
  Um- I knew I liked him. Ah, see, now you and Paul. Okay, Paul. I knew it. Michael and I will see ourselves out now. [laughs] I already know what your favorite smells in the whole world are. I already know. Go ahead.
• 4:24
  It's funny- Go ahead … 'cause I, I just made that connection in a podcast interview a couple weeks ago. I'm like, "Wait a minute, my first, like, real business," you know. It was called Perfection on Wheels Detailing.
• 4:33
  Pretty creative name too, right? Oh, almost. Yeah.
• 4:35
  And, uh, I printed out flyers on my dad's computer, and I went to the neighborhood on the east bench above where I lived and just went door to door and was just like, "Hey, I'll, I'll detail your car," to the rich people, you know?
• 4:45
  Mm-hmm. And so, so I've always loved cars. Um, you know, I put every dime I had into my first car, like way too much money into it. That's all I spent my money on. Um, you know, but I'm not a car guy.
• 4:55
  There's a difference here. I should tell you this. I love cars, but this is a quick story. I, I had this insane stereo in my car and, and you know that sound dampening material that's, like, got a sticky back?
• 5:05
  Dynamat, yeah. Yeah, Dynamat. Thank you. So I, I ripped everything out of my car, all the way down to the metal, and Dynamatted the whole thing. The whole thing.
• 5:11
  [laughs] And then put the whole car back and had, like, two handfuls of bolts left over- [laughs] … like, I had no idea where they went. I just cut the weight of this vehicle- Yeah … by another six pounds. [laughs] Yeah.
• 5:21
  Because I didn't know, you know? I'm not, so I'm not good at fixing cars or working on cars, any of that stuff. Did it rattle more after you put the Dynamat in? No, it was great. Okay.
• 5:30
  [laughs] It totally worked, but there was definitely some stuff missing that I have no idea where it went. [laughs] And so I just kinda checked those. So, um, yeah, so lifelong entrepreneur.
• 5:38
  Um, you know, my first half of my career I was just opportunistic, got involved in some franchises, food franchises. Didn't have any particular affinity for them or experience, no family connection, nothing like that.
• 5:50
  Um, but they were successful as a young guy, and so I just kept doing that, right? You just kind of parlay one into the next.
• 5:57
  Um, went to college, had an okay experience, but didn't love it.Um, stayed with franchising until we had sold enough of the franchises to recognize, hey, I can, I can do other things now. I have a choice.
• 6:11
  And I've always been a very early adopter, tech geek, gadgets, hardware, software. Um, and so chose, uh, tech and built one of the very first third-party apps for Twitter.
• 6:23
  Um, started an agency that built websites for small businesses back when, when they were, a lot of small businesses didn't have websites, and so both of those grew really fast.
• 6:33
  Um, you know, went back to school during that period of time, got another degree. Um, started teaching a little bit just 'cause I love that environment.
• 6:42
  I love, you know, being around that stuff even though I didn't have a great educational experience historically. Um, built some, some tech businesses that ended up being pretty, pretty decent sized with some friends.
• 6:54
  Um, ran another one. Um, still, you know, enjoying cars all along the way.
• 6:59
  Um, eventually got a PhD from Oklahoma State and, uh, became a, a tenured college professor at Weber State, where we've got some, some connectivity there, some, some alum and, uh, family alum in the house.
• 7:12
  Um, still kind of starting and investing in businesses along the way. Weber's really supportive of me being an entrepreneur and a professor, which is super cool. It's amazing. He doesn't look a day over 93.
• 7:21
  [laughs] I'll be 50. I'll be 50 next year, and so, I mean, uh, which is another funny story. A friend of mine's interviewing at this startup event, and he's like, "And here's Alex.
• 7:31
  Alex is 50 years old, and he started a business." I'm like, "Dude, I'm not 90." [laughs] You know, I made it sound like, you know- You'd never believe- Right?... that. You'd never know- How old this guy is...
• 7:41
  if he can do it, you can do it, too. You know? So- He started a business at his- Yeah... ripe old age. Yep. Seriously, I was, like, kind of flattered, kind of embarrassed.
• 7:50
  But, um, so, so the car business, um, you know, never intended to own a car dealership or be a car dealer.
• 7:57
  Um, saw an opportunity with my co-founder, uh, four years ago, a little longer than that, in, uh, four years in December next month, uh, to, to create a marketplace, we were thinking, for other people to buy and sell used electric vehicles because we were s- kind of, uh, whining about how difficult that was.
• 8:15
  Um, and so, uh, acquired evcars.com and evtrucks.com and a bunch of other good domains, um, and started building this marketplace.
• 8:24
  But with my previous experience building software and, and other stuff, um, you know, I was either the customer myself, like deeply ingrained as the customer myself, or I was heavily involved with who my customer would be.
• 8:37
  And in this case, the paying customer for the marketplace would be car dealers. That's who would pay to list their cars. And so, uh, my, my co-founder had an old dealer's license. We dusted it off.
• 8:49
  [laughs] And then, you know- Wait, what state was this in? Yeah, in Utah. Um- How long, how long are they good for? They're, as long as you renew it and take the test every year, you know, and can keep your- Oh, okay.
• 8:59
  ... plot in your church. Oh, okay. So he was maintaining it. I didn't know if it was just like- Yeah... no, once you have one. In New York it's, like, every 30 minutes you need to renew it. No. Yeah.
• 9:06
  [laughs] Give it to somebody else. Yeah. No, it's not like the taxi coin or whatever, you know. It's not that high of a- Yeah, right, exactly... you know, valued item.
• 9:13
  But, um, bought a car at an auction, bought a Tesla at an auction, sold it on the local classifieds, made a few bucks.
• 9:20
  Um, you know, and, and replicated that several times as we were building the software marketplace until it, at one point about two years ago, it was like, wait a minute,
• 9:28
  we've got this pretty awesome business over here, and, and it feels like we're being disrespectful not to give it more attention.
• 9:35
  So anyway, that was a, a long answer to the last 35 years in a relatively- I mean, 35 years in four minutes is pretty good. Yeah, yeah. That wasn't too bad. That wasn't too bad.
• 9:43
  I love that, uh, uh, I love, like, entrepreneurialism feels like creating a space for people to buy and, and, and service or buy and sell cars because, like,
• 9:55
  historically, people from maybe out- people inside the auto, uh, auto industry look at people outside of the auto, uh, auto industry as like, we have to g- we have to get you to come over here.
• 10:05
  But there's, there's this kind of, like, new attraction into auto from a tech or entrepreneur side of things.
• 10:14
  It's, it's like people outside of auto are looking at it going, "Hey, there's an opportunity there that I could potentially take advantage of.
• 10:21
  I may never have done anything in that business sector, but it's exciting for me." Um, what are those things that, that created excitement for you about the industry, like, right now?
• 10:32
  What, what were, what were the trigger things that said, this is exciting, outside of just the pain of shopping? Yeah. I mean, uh, EVs are so fun.
• 10:41
  I mean, uh, you know, I, I think y- you know, certainly there's, uh- What's fun? An envi- Yeah. What, why, when you say that, right? 'Cause a lot of people may be listening have never driven one- Yeah...
• 10:50
  and they hear mixed signals about, like, it's good, it's bad, it's easy, it's difficult. Like, why are EVs so fun? And, and listen, they're not for everybody.
• 10:58
  I'm, I think I'm kinda countered as some of the big proponents of this industry. But they're fun because they're, uh, they're like super computers on wheels that are faster than a Ferrari.
• 11:07
  And so it's, it's, you know, you get to just, just- That's a good value prop. Yeah. It's a super computer on wheels that's faster than a Ferrari. Yeah, I mean, a- and, and, and I still love Ferraris. That's the thing.
• 11:18
  You don't have to choose. You don't have to be on team A or team B. It doesn't have to be polarizing. And so, um, you know, they're, the, the most obvious, obviously, is the acceleration.
• 11:27
  You know, I mean, there's, I, I was listening to, um, a, a podcast, a CEO of a very large, um, chain. He's like, "I'll never... My daily driver is an EV and it never won't be, and it's, it's for one reason.
• 11:39
  It's the acceleration." You just can't... I- if you love cars and you love going fast, once you experience that, it's kind of, it's, it's addicting, you know? Mm-hmm.
• 11:46
  I love, actually, uh, the, if, if people haven't been, they, you've got a beta site up for EV cars.
• 11:52
  I was looking around it, and, like, if you scroll down enough, there's this little section that says just how fast do you wanna go? [laughs] Yeah. And you've got these filters that are like- Yeah... under five seconds.
• 12:01
  No, it's beautiful.Then the last filter is just slow, right? [laughs] Yeah. And it's- And then- I mean, it- And then it bounce- and then it bounces them out to Carvana. Right. [laughs] That's great.
• 12:15
  Just yesterday I gave... So, so we keep a, a company, we've got a Model S Plaid that we actually just got wrapped in a pretty ridiculous way. It's got Elon's face on the side of it.
• 12:24
  [laughs] And very, very kind of polarizing to get attention, you know. I'll have to show you guys a picture of it. It actually turned out pretty dope. But I just gave a family of five, we have a, a road right next to us.
• 12:34
  It's long, straight, and empty. I mean, it couldn't be more perfect. Sounds great. And I, and all five of them jumped in, and I, and I, and I hit it, you know- Right... and they all freak out.
• 12:43
  We've all got- Try to touch the dashboard when I say three... you know. Yeah, I do. I say, "Put your head against the headrest," you know. And that happens all the time. So, so but not just the speed.
• 12:51
  I mean, I also, um, the self-driving is, uh, I think every car I get into that doesn't have it now feels like the dumbest car ever made.
• 12:58
  [laughs] So, you know, I just have to, oh my gosh, I gotta steer, I gotta- I gotta drive this thing. I gotta tell you my experience with this. So my wife says- Yeah... "I want sh- I, I want a Tesla."
• 13:07
  So I'm like, "Are you sure? Did I just hear you say you want an F-150?" She's like, "Yes, as long as it's a Tesla." So we buy this Tesla.
• 13:15
  [laughs] I'm on a business trip in San Antonio with, with one of my partners, and he's like, "Have you put on the full self-driving yet?" I'm like, "No, I haven't yet." He's like, "Dude, just let's try it."
• 13:25
  So I go in, I tap the thing, I swipe, and now I've got full self-driving. I immediately notice how much more information it's visualizing, right? And we are freaked out.
• 13:37
  The first three and a half minutes of this ride of self-driving, we're going through town. Mm-hmm. I look at him, he looks at me, we're clenched onto our seatbelts like this.
• 13:44
  [laughs] Alex, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not kidding you when I say 15 minutes later, I realize I haven't looked at the road in about 10 minutes. Oh, boy.
• 13:58
  Like, that's how quickly I, I was like, I had my feet up, like- My experience was not like that. I don't know what road you were on. [laughs] Well, we were on the 35 freeway. Okay.
• 14:06
  And then I realized- I was on I-4 in Florida... I was sitting... No, I was sitting, guys, like I, I was sitting like this and we were just having conversation. So it's not like I was looking down or anything.
• 14:15
  In, in, in fact- [laughs]... I think the car actually signals you to look back up, but- Hard cut to Michael Cirillo just out. But I was. I was like sitting like this, and I realized I wasn't paying attention to...
• 14:25
  Like, that's how quickly we both got comfortable with this self-driving.
• 14:29
  And then the second thing I will say, to your point about speed, when my wife and I first took delivery of this vehicle and the guy's like, "Go find an open road and just floor it for a minute," we, anybody who's driven an EV, especially a Tesla,
• 14:43
  are the few living people on this planet that knows what resurrection feels like- [laughs]... because our souls left our body- [laughs]... and reentered our body. Oh, it's funny. I've never heard that before. Yeah.
• 14:55
  Like, I felt a ghost leave my bo- Like, it freaked me out how much power that thing has. It's nuts. Well, and, you know, it's not just... It's also, there's so many new ones coming out all the time.
• 15:06
  And so, so it feels like Christmas Eve for cars. You know, every month or two there's something new coming out that I get to see. It's the Cybertruck right now. It's the Hummer SUV that we just picked up.
• 15:16
  I've got a Fisker that we have. And, you know, there just seems like there's a lot of new stuff.
• 15:21
  And if you're, if you're into tech and you're into gadgets and you're into software and hardware and cars, it's like this perfect combination of all of it.
• 15:28
  And again, I just, it's our tagline too, "We make buying cars fun again." It's just, it's just fun, you know?
• 15:34
  And so I don't know how else to say it other than that, even though I still like driving a car too, and I still like engine noise too. So I'm like this weird person- No, I, I feel that...
• 15:43
  that likes, you know, all of that. So anyway. Do you have to combat a lot of skepticism, though? Like, maybe that people are interested, but then they go, "But Utah winters," like, what is that gonna look like?
• 15:51
  'Cause I know we hear a lot about that. Do, are you seeing a lot of that as well? Yeah, I mean, the crazy thing, these cars really...
• 15:57
  I mean, I would say the Model S Plaid is probably the, the most incredible car ever built, if you think about it objectively from all the checkpoints.
• 16:06
  So, so you've got all the hypercar, supercar stats in terms of horsepower and acceleration and, and top speed and all those kinds of things, right?
• 16:15
  But then you also say, "Fits four sets of golf clubs and five adults," um, at all those performance rates, and gets incredible, efficient, energy efficiency and doesn't require, you know, $700 oil changes and, and all these things that, that a lot of the super fast, super high-performance cars, so there's that.
• 16:34
  But then you go over here into, like, the safety. Super safe, um, you know, really quiet, really comfortable. But then you, you look at, um, uh, performance in, in weather.
• 16:44
  They're s- because they're so heavy and because the weight is so evenly distributed with the battery being the full base of the body and being all-wheel drive, and in often cases multi-motor all-wheel drive, they literally are the best cars in the snow you can ask for.
• 16:58
  Uh- Probably for starting. I would say stopping, because they're heavy, might be a little squirrely. You know, I've driven now and have hardcore Utah winters for, you know, five, six years straight, my whole family. Yep.
• 17:11
  And I've never driven a better car in the snow, objectively. There you go. Like, they just- Wow... they don't get stuck. They don't have problems. They get around easy.
• 17:18
  I mean, I've just never driven a better car in the snow. And, and- So-... and so- Let's talk- There you have it...
• 17:23
  let's talk about, I wanna make sure we talk about the business, um, because we don't have a ton of time left.
• 17:28
  So you're building this, and, and I think a lot of our audience will be introduced to you on this podcast for the first time, and, like, we love to connect dealers with resources and things that are, you know, like connect all the dots.
• 17:39
  So tell us about the business side of what you're building, um, and why you think it's a good place for dealers to, you know, potentially list inventory. Yeah. So, well, let me be clear.
• 17:49
  So EVcars.com is not the business anymore. So EVcars.com is actually cl- now closed to dealers. We've changed. And so- Oh...
• 17:58
  uh, EVcars.com is, uh, is closed beta and is not gonna be, uh, servicing dealer inventory anymore. It's only gonna be private sellers that can post their s- their inventory for sale.
• 18:06
  And it's gonna be completely free, no upsells, no credit card. If you want a CARFAX, you know, you can get one, and, and it'll be at a fair price to offer on your listing.
• 18:15
  But it's only gonna be a private seller, uh, marketplace relaunched. So there's a massive pivot there, and the reason is because EVauto exists.
• 18:23
  EVauto is, is my soon-to-be chain-Of national, uh, car dealerships that sell only electric vehicles, uh, all brands exclusively used.
• 18:33
  And so I don't know if that changes the nature of your question, but it definitely is a- Oh, it helps out. Yeah. It, it cleared up a lot in that last 60 seconds. [laughs] Yeah. Sorry.
• 18:42
  I mean, it, it, we haven't said yet, actually this is the first time I've said publicly, uh, what EVcars new, um, you know, destination is gonna be. And so EVauto, I've been real public about that.
• 18:53
  You know, we've built, I would argue, you know, maybe... Well, not the...
• 18:58
  One of the very best experiences for buying an electric vehicle in America, and one of the few places where you can try a bunch of different brands and, and talk to people that are real experts.
• 19:06
  And I think it's an interesting discussion about the car industry and why there's so much information out there about how terrible it is, and s- sales are bad, and dealers don't wanna carry them.
• 19:15
  And I understand all those things, and I've got some opinions on that, but, but I, I think my, my business is a little different than maybe, um, you know- Gotcha. So, so basically EVcars, private party listing site.
• 19:26
  EVauto, chain of used car, used EV dealerships across the country. That's right. Yep. How, how many... Do you have any open right now? Do you have several open in multiple states? Yeah, no, it's a, it's a good question.
• 19:38
  Give us the data. Yeah. So, so like I said, dealership's been, uh, in business for four years in December. We acquired a piece of ground, a empty piece of ground last year.
• 19:48
  Designed and built the brand and the building and, and opened in July of last year. Uh, excuse me, of this year. And, uh, have had just record-breaking sales and profits. We've been profitable for four years straight.
• 20:01
  Um, and uh, and we're real close to announcing our second location, um, and are in talks for others. And so- Fantastic... yeah. That's awesome. We got some other people we gotta introduce you to. Lots.
• 20:13
  They may or may not be listening to this, but we got some people we gotta introduce- I know you guys know people... you may know them all. [laughs] Yeah, you guys know lots of people, so I'm down. I- No, that's so cool.
• 20:21
  I'm, I'm excited to see what happens. We're gonna have to like...
• 20:24
  I, I think it's gonna be one of these things where we're just gonna have to have you back every six months on the pod just to give us the update because this is just gonna be a rapidly moving thing. Mm-hmm.
• 20:33
  But, uh, this one, we've run out of time. We've gotten... I feel like there's so many more things that we have to ask you- It's easy...
• 20:39
  uh, a- about your history and how that's played into this, but we'll get to that at some point. Uh, so Alex, on behalf of all of us, we really appreciate you joining us here on Auto Labs. Yeah, fun to meet you guys.
• 20:50
  Thanks for having me. [upbeat music] Okay. On a scale of one to 10, how- Five. Oh. [sighs] Sorry. [laughs] How likely is Kyle to be successful in life? You didn't let me finish the question. Unbelievable.
• 21:07
  [laughs] I was like, "I could've teed that one up even better." No, but on a scale of one to 10, how cool is Alex Lawrence? Dude, he's beautiful. Cool dude. [laughs] Just real cool dude.
• 21:16
  Like, he's got so much random history, and he's entering this auto industry in kind of a roundabout way, but got his real head about him.
• 21:25
  And I wish everybody could have heard all of the side conversations we had afterwards, 'cause you're like, you get in and you're like, "Oh, you're really thinking- Yeah... about this thing."
• 21:34
  I think- I see what you're doing... he's tying it, he's tying his, like, the expertise with the EVs and the education needed and, you know, just the kind of the business savvy.
• 21:42
  But his, his attention to brand and customer experience is definitely- Yeah... on playing on a different level.
• 21:48
  And I know a lot of people talk about, like, can you scale that level of customer experience and brand as you, you know, scale into more locations, and that's the big question.
• 21:57
  But I think that always comes down to how well you can systematize it, 'cause you look at places like Zappos, who did an amazing job at customer service, and they were able to scale it because they put it into a system and they built a culture around it.
• 22:08
  So, I mean, I'm always cheering for the people that do it that way. One of the things that stood out to me is, you know, relatively new in this aspect of business, right? New as a dealer. Mm-hmm.
• 22:18
  We got, we got a bit of his story. But how quickly also in that timeframe he's pivoted and he's adjusting his strategy, and that his- Yeah... demeanor and cadence around it was like, "Yeah, big deal."
• 22:30
  [laughs] Where when you contrast that against, you know, what we typically see, uh, in a traditional setting, it's like, "We have to pivot. We-" [laughs] The beanie came back on that one. It did. It did.
• 22:43
  I was reading- Needed some handles. But you know what I mean? [laughs] It's like, "Oh, my gosh, pivoting. I don't wanna..." It'll turn into Seinfeld. "I don't even like pivoting."
• 22:51
  [laughs] He was just like- That's really good. He was just like, "Pivoting." "What's the deal with this pivoting?" [laughs] "Why would you pivot? I don't even wanna pi-" You know, but it's like, he was just like,
• 23:01
  "Yeah, because why not? I saw an opening." Mm-hmm. That's what pivoting is. Saw a gap. Seeing an opening. Saw a need. Yep. And he's going after it.
• 23:07
  And I, I just loved kinda how nonchalant he was, whereas, you know, a lot of the industry tends to kinda lean into pivot as a bad thing. But it's like, no, we're, we're moving a couch up a stairwell. It's gonna be okay.
• 23:21
  Pivot. Kyle and- Moving a couch up a stairwell. Kyle and I have done that for- There you go... a year in Extravaganza last year. I remember it. Done that. Done that. Very directly.
• 23:28
  [laughs] Well, hey, on behalf of Paul J. Daly, Michael Cirillo, and myself, Kyle Mounts here, we hope you enjoyed this conversation, and thanks for joining us on Auto Labs.
• 23:38
  Sign up for our free and fun to read daily email for a free shot of relevant news in automotive, retail, media, and pop culture. You can get it now at asotu.com. That's A-S-O-T-U.com.
• 23:51
  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.
• 23:57
  [upbeat music] Welcome to Auto Labs. [laughs] Welcome to Auto Labs. [laughs] Why are we recording? [laughs] Are we rolling yet?
• 24:16
  Not yet.