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What I Do Is Not Who I Am with Troy Duhon · Auto Collabs

0:00
One of the reasons I love doing these shows [upbeat music] This is Auto Collabs... is that we get to meet dealers from all across the country that are quasi-- like, they're, like, curated. You know?
0:14
I thought you were gonna say because you just loved hanging out with me and Cirillo. No, that- I-- that's what I thought. I thought... that's why I come to work every day. But I like your sentiment too. Oh. It's good.
0:22
Yeah, that's why I come to work. But- I like your sentiment... but to-today's dealer, Troy Duhan, um, is, like, the epitome of someone who understands that business is a means to something more meaningful.
0:35
And, like, you look at his, his website, his not-for-profits, and even from, like, a bird's-eye view, you can see that this man understands the power of people coming together and the power of building a profitable business that generates money that can then be used to serve people, right?
0:51
And it, like, this is just this big cyclical thing.
0:54
So, um, I really-- I, I don't fully know what to expect because people that have this kind of, I don't know, like, aura around them usually are pretty surprising when you meet them in person or virtually.
1:06
I think we should go meet him. Okay. All right. [upbeat music] Okay, Troy.
1:12
Um, we were-- Before we started and hit record on this podcast, we were talking about I don't even-- like, this whole barrage of things- [laughs]... and all I could think of is we should have hit record 20 minutes ago.
1:22
Um- Right... but we're really excited. Thank you for giving us some of your time here today. You bet. All right. So I don't fully know where to start after- [laughs]... the conversation- After the last 20 minutes...
1:32
we just had. All right. All right... because we just covered such a barrage of deep, heartfelt, uh, topics that surrounded your entry into the car business that maybe you could just give us, uh- Yeah, I'll do that...
1:44
the summary again. [laughs] Easy. So I'm like a lot of guys who started in the car business 'cause his daddy was in the car business. So I was a porter who washed cars at 13, and when I turned 18, I started selling cars.
1:56
I went to world-famous Louisiana State University, LSU. I sold cars in the summer to pay for it and got in the business and was quite successful at a very young age.
2:08
But during that process, my daddy, who was in the car business, got out of the car business. My father became an alcoholic, and unfortunately, my mother filed divorce.
2:18
And my daddy loved my mother, but he also loved to drink. 'Cause back in the '60s and '70s, they would drink on the showroom floor like it was norm, like it was- Yeah... their way of life.
2:27
You had to do something between smoking cigarettes. It was like the water cooler. When, when I- You know? When I was in the car business- [laughs]...
2:31
you could go to the, you could go to the, uh, car wash lane and get-- and pick your drug of choice, right? But back in the '60s and '70s, they drank like fish. Long story short is my mother filed divorce.
2:42
My dad's used car manager convinced him to take my mother to church. So he took my dad to church, and he didn't take my dad to a Catholic or Baptist church. They took my dad to a Pentecostal church, and he's- Louisiana.
2:53
Yeah. He said, "These people crazy." Like, they're dancing and singing and running in the aisles and- [laughs] But what, what my daddy saw was happy people.
3:02
And when you're a drink-- when you drink like that, you're depressing. You're trying to numb the pain.
3:07
You're trying to suppress your depression or your, or your pain or your failures, so you keep suppressing it, and you start with alcohol. He went to church, went and saw.
3:16
Third time he went back, my mother said, "Sweetheart, I saw your dad do something I'd never seen him do." I said, "Mama, what did Daddy do?"
3:23
And she said, "Your daddy went to the altar, and he started crying, and your daddy cried for an hour, which proved to me, your mother, that he was really repenting, and he really had redemption in his heart."
3:35
The next day, my dad told me that he woke up, and for the first time he could remember, he didn't crave rum and Coke, which was- Hmm... his drink of choice.
3:44
So in his mind, this God thing- I've heard that story twice in the last 20 minutes, and I still got goosebumps- [laughs]... the second time.
3:51
[laughs] So, I mean, guys who struggle with addiction know what I'm talking about. We live in a world that when I'm addicted to something, I crave it. So for the first time, my dad didn't go to N- Alcoholics Anonymous.
4:03
He didn't do the 12 steps. Mm-hmm. He woke up, and he didn't crave rum and Coke. So in his mind, guys, this God thing must be real because I don't crave rum and Coke. Long story short- Yeah...
4:13
got out of the car business and became a Pentecostal preacher. [laughs] Unbelievable. Preacher. So I- Love it. So think of being a car guy raised in a house with a car guy who's a Pentecostal preacher now, right?
4:26
So they classified me as a PK. You know what a PK is? You're a PK. That's, that's me. P-H-C, yeah. Preacher's kid. Preacher's kid. Yeah, but I became a BK. You know what a BK is? Oh, no. [laughs] A bad kid, right? Oh.
4:39
Oh, yeah, yeah. You were one of those PKs. I was a- I understand... BK. So- Yeah... I got in the car business and was very successful at a young age.
4:47
My daddy taught me a lot, and I was a hustler and, you know, bought my first dealership on my own at 30 years old. That was Toyota of New Orleans. Whoa. According to- Toyota store too. Yeah.
4:59
I, it was a crazy story, but according to Toyota, I was the youngest Toyota dealer in the world. I signed my franchise agreement at 30 years old. My money- Wow... my money, 100% of the store. So I was one of those guys.
5:13
I was a guy that hustled, and I was a guy that worked 9:00 to 9:00, six days a week, and I just hustled. And I'm, I'm growing the career. I'm buying more stores. And then 2005, Katrina hits. And my- Yeah...
5:29
I, I'm born and raised in Louisiana. I've seen enough hurricanes in my life. Uh- Right... my dad went through Camille, went through Betsy. Actually sold 16 cars the day after Hurricane Camille, he told me.
5:39
[laughs] 16 cars. I want you to think what it takes to sell 16 cars in one day, right? [laughs] So Hurricane Katrina comes. It's a massive storm. And, like, literally, my family would always refuse to evacuate.
5:54
But my wife said, "No, sweetheart, we gotta evacuate." We evacuated. The levees break. The water comes in. Everything I had, guys, went underwater.Everything All the stores, everything?
6:06
Well, one store survived, which is crazy, right? One store was built on a ridge in Metairie, Louisiana. It was by a canal, so it survived. I lost 1,200 cars. The day- Whoa... the day before Katrina, I had 500 employees.
6:21
A week and a half later, I had 200 employees. I can remember looking at CNN- Man... as they're showing the city, and the helicopter's flying over by the dome.
6:33
It's coming into the east where my dealership was located- Mm... and I look down and I can't see the cars. And I'm thinking to myself- Wow... "Oh my God, they stole all the cars." And I look again, I'm like, "Holy crap."
6:47
Just cars. "No, no, no. They're under water." Under water. Unbelievable. And I'm thinking to myself, "What is going to happen? Am I gonna get paid? Is insurance gonna pay me? Is it flooded water? Is it rising water?
7:00
Is it wind blown water?" Right. Or is this the end, right? I, I, I thought I... They took all- That's career ending... listen, guys in the car business know where I'm going with this.
7:06
They took all my loans and they put them in special assets, so now I'm a BOG. I went from a 800 Beacon to a 500 Beacon overnight. I mean- Whoa. Unbelievable... and then all of a sudden my dad looks at me
7:21
and he said, "Son, let me tell you something." And he, and I'm cry- I'm cry- I'm literally crying looking at the TV.
7:27
I don't know that there's ever been- That's really- I don't think there's ever been more anticipation on this podcast, because I'm dying to know what your dad said. [laughs] Listen, I'm- I'm like a kid in a candy...
7:35
Like, "Tell me the story." I'm, I'm, I'm c- no. I'm crying, and if you saw your child crying, you're gonna try to console him. And he looks out- Your grown adult child crying. Yeah, exactly.
7:43
And he said, "Son, let me tell you something. You see..." And he makes me... He points at the TV. "You see that brick and mortar? The dealerships, they come and go. You see those franchises? They come and go, too.
7:54
You go back and take care of your employees, 'cause those are the only ones that'll ensure that you make it." And you know what? He was so right. Man. I went back. We opened up a food bank with our church.
8:05
We were running 1,200 cars a day. And I remember telling my wife, "If God gets me through this..." 'Cause remember, I had 35 million in insurance receivables. That's what... I mean, you had...
8:20
People were looking for me from [laughs] I mean, I had people evacuating cars throughout the country. I had to go track these cars down. It was crazy. And, and I told- Wow...
8:30
my wife, "If God gets me through this, the rest of my career will be to give back." Yeah. And that is what birthed Giving Hope, which is now the foundation. We have 35 rooftops in eight different states now.
8:44
We, we feed about 5 to 6,000 people a day. We operate food banks, two in New Orleans, one in Kansas City, one in Monterey, California, one in Hawaii, and we opened up in Escondido.
8:57
Uh, the cool thing is, through the foundation we partner with, like, Toyota and Allied Bank and Capital One Bank and Chrysler and Kia and Ford, and we actually build orphanages around the globe.
9:13
So we've now built- Come on, now. [laughs] We now have built orphanages in Hyderabad, India, Gambia, Africa, Honduras, Dominican Republic, Moscow, Russia, which was crazy, Lepo, Brazil.
9:27
Uh, Ukraine, I just came back from Ukraine four months ago, five months ago. That was crazy. Um, so the cool thing is we're an automobile dealership, right?
9:38
And my, my wife would tell you this, selling cars may be what Troy does, but that's not who he is. So we look at- That's like the false front... right.
9:46
Like, selling cars is like the false front to this, like- Yeah, so we look at, we look at a dealership being a community advocate, you know?
9:54
And I think you'll find that it, when dealerships embrace their local community and they give back, you don't have to do the extreme of what I do, but if you give back, you'd be surprised how much your employees and your customers appreciate you doing that.
10:08
So that's kinda what birthed Giving Hope, was the whole Katrina, was the whole concept of giving back.
10:14
When you're on, you know, when you, when you think you're not gonna make it, you think you're going bankrupt, then all of a sudden a light at the end of the tunnel pops open, and then you see a whole new dimension and you see a whole new perspective.
10:26
'Cause I was like everybody listening to this podcast. I was the overachiever car salesman. I was the lot lizard. I told my sales staff I was a lot lizard, half of them didn't know what the hell that meant.
10:36
I said, "Let me tell you something." I know what it means. [laughs] Yeah. Yeah. I was a lot lizard, right?
10:39
So bottom line is, I think that when car dealers realize that there's more to selling cars, that you can truly be a consumer advocate or a community advocate and make the world a better place, you'd be surprised.
10:52
And that's kinda what we've done. So that's kind of the- [laughs] That's kind of the story, right? Cirillo, our, our third- It's so much more than cars... our third- It's so much more than cars... oh, you said it.
11:01
You can say that twice. Our, our third, uh, little member of the Three Musketeers here, Michael Cirillo, is gonna be so mad that he missed this one. So mad. [laughs] But- I'm gonna rub it in his face- Oh, [laughs]...
11:10
that he's not hanging out with us right now. We have one question. What do you think about digital retailing? I'm just kidding. [laughs] I, uh... No, let me answer that. Let me answer that. [laughs] So, so remember this.
11:20
Consumers wanna buy from a dealer that is making the world a better place. So I- Duh...
11:27
I have trained my sales staff that when you shoot a video and you present a car through a video, why not link the Giving Hope website so they can see that we're more than just selling cars? Every- More than cars...
11:40
car we sell, every re- every, every tool we turn, every wrench we turn is to help feed somebody. Okay.
11:48
I don't, I don't even know how to continue this conversation, because I just wanna come down there and hang out with you. I know. We're like, "Bring the, bring the cameras. We're coming."
11:55
You've literally just in, in five minutes have, like, just proven that the, the thesis that we have about dealers at large and about what this industry could be and should be-...
12:09
actually exists to an extent beyond what I knew it did five minutes ago. It's a center point for community, it's a center point for, uh, national support, it's a c- center point for international support.
12:21
Like, dealers have- Hope... the resources. I mean, we've, we've covered this, and Troy, you may or may not know this, but, uh, automotive is actually the largest retail organization in the United States.
12:35
The only larger profit centers in the US are healthcare organizations. From a, from an entire... Like, what contributes to the gross domestic product of the US? Like, there's been studies. Why wouldn't
12:51
the reconciliation of a nation come through auto dealers? Like, and that's what you're- I, I... Listen, I could- Why wouldn't it? Well put, Kyle. Well put.
13:02
I, and you know, when dealers understand that, yes, selling cars may be what I do, but that's truly not who I am, and you think about human rights, we feed people, we offer, you know, housing, we create, we work with sex trafficking.
13:15
We have a drug rehabilitation center. The Giving Hope Retreat Center is a 60-acre drug facility here in Lacombe, Louisiana. We take the heroin addicts, the crack addicts. We take the tough decisions.
13:27
When dealers realize that you can go in the community and, and share with your community, and when your employees see it and you can, and your customers see it, they wanna...
13:38
They don't just become a customer, they become an advocate, and that's really what you want.
13:42
You want someone who's in the marketplace bragging on their car purchase because they bought from a dealer who feeds homeless people. That's what you want.
13:49
And when you try to attract a Gen Z or millennial employee, remember, they're into human rights. That's right. They're, they're in, they're into human rights.
13:58
That's-- They wanna know that what are you doing to make this world a better place? That's so true.
14:03
Uh, I, I think a lot of dealers may, especially, like, smaller dealers, like you said, you said, and you don't h- I think you said this as you were kind of finishing.
14:11
Like, you don't have to go do all these grand things, but even I think some dealers may have this mental block that's like, "Well, where do I even start?"
14:20
And I'm guessing you have the resources to potentially, like, help other dealers be a part of what you're doing. How, how does that- I, I could guarantee- How does that work?...
14:29
you that regardless of the size of the dealership, whether you're in LA or you're in Paola, Missouri, right? Right. There's going to be a homeless shelter and there's gonna be a food bank. Right.
14:42
And when you go out as the owner or the general manager or the operating partner, and you inspire your staff to go serve on a, on a day where, where you just take half your staff or...
14:54
And the rest of the community sees that, you have just changed the culture of your dealership.
14:59
And the greatest joy you're gonna do is not making money for your staff, 'cause that is important, but when you change the culture by what they live by, you change them as an individual, and they'll never forget you for that.
15:13
Uh, I am rarely speechless. [laughs] That's... I don't have any more to say, Paul. What else are we gonna say in this one? What are you, what are you hopeful for? Like, what's the next...
15:24
I think, like, that's, that's my thought is, like, where's your, what is your vision for this? I, I, I see, you know, you've kind of said, like- I, I, I get that... the grand vision for the de- for the industry.
15:34
But what's, what's your vision for where you take this next, like, with the dealerships, with the, with the giving? Um- All right. So Giving, so Giving Hope is the, is the foundation. So- Yep...
15:43
you can go to Giving Hope NOLA, N-O-L-A.org, and you can see everything we do. We run about 13 million a year through the nonprofit, right? So my kids understand that the legacy isn't the 35 rooftops.
15:56
The legacy is the foundation. So at some point before the good Lord takes me off this earth, a lot of those resources are gonna be moved into the foundation, right? So each one of my stores has an operating partner.
16:08
Those partners have the ability to buy out my estate when I die. My vision is to allow a lot of my assets to go to Giving Hope, so it stands the test of time for the next 100 years. Beautiful.
16:21
And then the partners who buy out the estate, I have hopefully taught them and I've touched their heart that they do have the culture of giving back, so that they pass that culture to their kids and their grandkids.
16:35
Yeah. You know, okay, there's this, there's a thing in there that I want to make sure everyone catches, and I think that this is something that, like, I'm working on with my family.
16:46
I know Paul is with his, and I think we can instill this. Like, there's been this kind of like, "Oh, you're a PhD," right? "Papa had a dealership, so you got it.
16:56
You know, you're, y- you're just fine and you're living on papa's riches," or whatever it is. And, and there's almost this, uh... It's almost like a, a bad term in our industry.
17:05
But I think that this, like, apprenticing into the family business, right, and passing this care on, and maybe it doesn't happen in the family business. Maybe there's not the passion from the next generation.
17:16
But passing who I am, not what I do, onto the next generation is something that we should see as aspirational for our industry. Because it, it does, it, it drives it to next generations.
17:29
Instead of just going, like, "Ah, as the, as the generation retires, there's no way that my, my next generation could carry this on," but that the assets, the legacy could carry it on, whether in the business or not.
17:42
Um, instead of just, like, going, "Ah, it's gonna be big conglomerates and just to each his own and we'll sell these off and it just won't be a problem," there's this heart set that we're moving into the next generation, not just the assets of a dealership.
17:56
That's right. Right? And that's, I, I kinda caught that in there reading between the lines.
18:01
It's the wisdom that you wanna leave your children that they can make it when you're not going, but there has to be what we call profit for the pur- purpose for the profit.
18:11
Yes, dealerships the last three years, not '23, but prior to that made a lot of money. Record money.But the bottom line is what is the purpose for the profit? What is the thing that stands the test of time?
18:24
Where is the legacy? See, most of us are on these treadmills, and we're running a race to collect and create wealth, when in fact, maybe I should be on a different treadmill, 'cause I'm trying to create a legacy.
18:37
See, I can leave my son a trust fund or I can give him wisdom. Which one does he really need? Ah. We know which one Solomon picked. That's right. Right?
18:48
I, I think he- My, my oldest son, who's now in the car business with me, came in as a lawyer. I said, "You're gonna go to law school and you're gonna learn law, okay?
18:56
And your daddy's gonna create the assets and you're gonna be the lawyer who protects the assets." I took him on a trip to India, our first mission trip. He was scared to death to go. He was 16 years old at the time.
19:06
India's a crazy place. And we went there and I said, "Son, you're gonna be okay. Your dad's gonna protect you." "No, Daddy, they're, they're gonna... You're a rich white dude, and they're gonna confiscate you."
19:14
I said, "No, they're not gonna confiscate you, Dad. I got this." So he comes with me. On the third day, 'cause he had never seen anything like it, little three and four-year-old kids.
19:23
There are more infant orphans in India than the rest of the world combined. [laughs] He saw little three-year-old kids running on the street by themselves.
19:31
He came to me with tears in his eyes and he said, "You know what, Daddy? Now I know why you brought me here. I never knew people lived like this." And I said, "Son, I'm glad you saw that."
19:39
He goes, "Daddy, I promise you, you may be dead and gone, but I'll continue to do this." Gee whiz. Let's go. Troy, it's like, talk about cutting right to the heart of the matter.
19:53
And it is so easy to get distracted with all of the headlines and all of the ongoings and back and forth with manuf- manufacturers and digital retailing and all that. But to tether, truly tether,
20:07
what we do every day with why we do it is, I think, a gift that you're giving this industry, and a gift that you're obviously giving your children, your family, uh, the people that Giving Hope serves.
20:18
And, um, man, you get... You have two people right now, and our company, ASOTU, who will do everything we can to shoulder up next to you in this. Like, I'm truly inspired right now. I appreciate that. Yeah, absolutely.
20:29
Absolutely. Well, Troy, uh, yeah, we can't wait to continue this conversation. Uh, there's probably gonna be, like, 30 cameras that show up [laughs] at your stores one day.
20:39
Uh, but, uh, with that, we really appreciate you joining us on Autocollabs, and we can't wait to just continue this conversation in other ways.
20:46
The, the, the, the call to action I would wanna tell your audience is- Thanks, dude... you don't have to do it to the magnitude I do.
20:52
But what if you took one day and you took your son or your daughter or your wife or your husband or even your parents, and you went to the local food bank and you just served?
21:03
See, the blessing you think is the person you're serving, a lot of times- Yeah... the blessing is a transformation in your own heart. And that's what more of Americans need to understand. We need tr- Yeah...
21:12
this country's never gonna change until we have a transformation of our own individual hearts. Is it too late t- for someone to enter the presidential primary? [laughs] Oh. You're like, "No, that would ruin it."
21:25
That would ruin the whole thing. "That would ruin it all." Right. No. All right. No, I got, I got, I got too many skeletons. Remember, I was a PK who became a- [laughs] No, you were a BK. Yeah.
21:33
[laughs] Yeah, I'm sure everyone else that's running is squeaky clean. Troy, thank you so much for joining us today on Autocollabs. I enjoyed it. Thank you, men. Guys, appreciate it.
21:43
[upbeat music] There's not much in our industry that is shocking or surprising to me anymore.
21:53
[laughs] But when a guy sits there and says, "No, the whole dealership thing, that's just the front for-" Right..."an entire operation that I actually care about over here.
22:08
Like, that's what I'm injecting into my employees." Operation's the right word. "That's what I'm injecting into my employees. That's why... That's where they're l- living, like, their life.
22:17
That's what w- I'm really doing with my legacy. That's what I'm really leaving. And this is what I'm leaving to the partners that I have in my dealerships, because that's what I want them to be all about.
22:28
Those are the lives that I wanna be impacted." It, it takes a- That's a whole other different meaning... yeah. Uh, it, it takes a...
22:34
Yes, and it, and it's a different type of mindset, like a strategist, to think of it that way. Because, I mean, the, the, the same could be said for a lot of different facets of each of our day-to-day lives.
22:48
But when we don't place them right, when we don't categorize them right, it's like, "Oh, I'm just going to a... I'm, I'm just going to my J-O-B." No you're not. Yep. You're providing- Mm... a means to an end.
22:58
That's right. What does that mean? Oh, and then you start to uncover the implications of each of your actions. It, it takes somebody with Troy's mind, a strategist's mind, to be like, "No, I, I open a dealership.
23:10
Yes, that's definitely a thing. But it supports this over here. The reason I do this is because it's a vehicle for this." And to be able to understand that requires so much clarity, so much focus, so much understanding.
23:22
It's unbelievable. It, it... Yeah, it's super, it's superhuman. He's playing the, he's playing... I think he's one of the truest examples that I've come across in a while. Actually, I do have the book right here.
23:32
Look at this. Wow, came prepared. Not really. Um, Infinite Game by Simon Sinek, talking about there's, there's no winning and losing. There's just, like, did we make progress toward it today?
23:44
And Troy, he's literally thinking, like, about 100 years from now. Oh, yeah. Isn't that crazy? Yeah. Like, he's thinking, "What is the impact of my car dealership 100 years from now on this world?" Wow.
23:55
When I'm not even here. Look, if that doesn't get you fired up- [laughs]... to get after it today, then I don't know what does.
24:01
So on behalf of myself, Paul Jay Daly, and Michael Cirillo, thanks for joining us here on Autocollabs.
24:08
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24:21
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24:27
[upbeat music] Welcome to Autocollabs. Welcome to Autocollabs. [laughs] Why are we recording?
24:44
Are we rolling yet? Not yet.