Latest / Auto Collabs / Attacking Experience with Michael Wood

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Attacking Experience with Michael Wood · Auto Collabs

• 0:00
  At time of recording. Oh, boy. [upbeat music] This is Auto Collabs. There is no longer
• 0:14
  thick sheets of ice where Jeep Wrangler 4x4s- [laughs]... are sliding down my street. Those are- It is finally gone. [laughs] [trumpet noise] Yes. Yeah, that's exactly it. Is that, is that the ice song? [laughs] Okay.
• 0:30
  I don't know. Dude, that is the ice song. That's, actually, I heard that playing in my head. [laughs] I don't know why. But that's what I heard, uh, playing in my head, like, as I saw the Jeep Wrangler 4x4- Oh, no...
• 0:41
  uh, just rolling, just sliding down the hill yesterday. So wasn't Texas supposed to get ice storms, too, in the last, like, two weeks? This is what I love about Texas. Just this weekend, they're like, "Okay,"
• 0:54
  like all the schools, "Just, just be on alert, it might rain tonight." And I'm like, "It might rain tonight." [laughs] It might rain. "Give me a break." So it- Put on your rain tires. Yeah. You know?
• 1:07
  Seriously, [laughs] put on your rain tires. [laughs] It doesn't even make sense. It doesn't make sense. [laughs] Which also is why it doesn't make sense that we're just gonna go right into a podcast episode.
• 1:18
  Today we've got Michael Wood, uh, general manager, Jag Land Rover, fancy dealership. Waiting for this. I've seen, I've seen him on, like, episodes of The Wheelhouse. Right. And, like, we haven't met.
• 1:28
  Like, why can't we have him? Yeah, if you... By the way, if you're listening to this, we have a podcast show called The Wheelhouse, um, with D- Daniel Govier, and it is awesome.
• 1:36
  And lots of dealers are guests, and they get, speak their mind. And I heard Michael Wood on this now, I think, like, twice. And every time I see him I'm like, "This guy's got it together." Definitely got it together.
• 1:44
  Like, so now we get to talk to him and meet him for the first time. Michael, have you ever met Michael? I haven't. Oh, good. Great. Grand. Super. Michael, meet Michael. Well, yeah. We'll see. Yeah. We'll see.
• 1:55
  That's if you can make your way to the call. [laughs] Uh, but r- regardless of who makes it there, we hope that you enjoy this conversation with Michael Wood.
• 2:04
  [upbeat music] Hey, Michael, it's so good to be spending a few minutes with you here today. Thanks for giving us some of your time. Thanks for having me. I appreciate it.
• 2:15
  All right, so, um, I'm really excited for this conversation because I have seen you in a lot of other content and interviews, and every time I see you, I'm like, "Man, he's got it. He's, like, he's got it together."
• 2:26
  Like, he understands what's going on. So, like, this is one of those times where I'm like, we don't really know each other, but we kind of know each other.
• 2:32
  Um, so I d- I don't even know, just tell us a little bit about how you got into the position you're in right now. 'Cause I don't know that answer. Sure. Sure.
• 2:39
  I mean, I, I graduated from the University of Louisville with a degree in, uh, political science and economics. And after that, I always had an affinity for sales. I love people.
• 2:47
  I love being around people and just interacting. I think that comes from my background, my father being a Marine, and we moved around a lot.
• 2:53
  So I got to live in a bunch of different localities, and if you don't get to learn to introduce yourself to people quickly, you're not gonna make friends when you're the new guy.
• 3:01
  So that's kind of where I think I f- I got that ability from. Um, I originally got into, like, you know, marketing sales.
• 3:08
  And then, um, I got into timeshare sales here in Virginia Beach for a little bit, which was- [laughs] There's the-... absolutely ridiculous... there's the meat grinder right there. Oh, my goodness. Okay, that's legit.
• 3:16
  Wait. [laughs] Because just so you know, I grew up in, I grew up in Richmond in my elementary school years. And w- my family was- [laughs]... like, known, known for weathering the storm of a timeshare sale- Absolutely...
• 3:32
  for the free gift. No question. Like, we had it down. The parents were like, "You don't say anything. We're not buying anything. But we will go on dirt bikes on the sand after this." Yep. "Sound good?"
• 3:43
  [laughs] And when I give you the signal, that's when you start acting up and saying you have to go to the bathroom. Right. And you say you feel like you're gonna throw up. Right.
• 3:50
  [laughs] You have to have an exit strategy, 100%. Yeah. You'll get there all day. A little exit strategy. And we all know salespeople are the easiest to close. But, uh- [laughs]...
• 3:57
  at that time I ended up meeting my now wife. And, um, she was living in New York City, so I moved up to New York City and got into orthopedic surgical sales.
• 4:05
  Um, and being a southern guy, I didn't really enjoy living in Manhattan. So I came back down here. And a good friend of mine, my best friend, his brother was actually in the auto industry. And I kept looking at him.
• 4:16
  I was like, "Man, he's got a nice car, he's got a nice house. You know, he's doing all the nice things." I was like, "Maybe I'm missing out on something." So I got into the industry, uh, July 23rd, 2012.
• 4:26
  Um, first full month, I think I sold somewhere around 15 cars and had the largest paycheck I ever thought I'd see in my life. And I was absolutely- Wow... hooked.
• 4:34
  And, uh, so I've been with Checkered Flag the entire time. Started out as a sales associate, uh, went into finance, went to the desk, finance director, GSM. And then in, um,
• 4:45
  2021 we made an acquisition of a Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram store. And, uh, the dealer and the executive team asked me to go over there, be the general manager and help convert that store to our processes.
• 4:55
  And then, uh, about seven months later, I landed where I am currently, uh, which is at our Jag Land Rover and Volkswagen campus. You know- So, m- so here's my big question, though.
• 5:05
  Is, is the suit, tie, and little pocket flag because you're at the JLR dealership or because it's Checkered Flag? Like, are you that on brand or what way, how, how does that show?
• 5:16
  So i- it is often that I have to find myself dressing for the occasion. So it depends on which manufacturer's coming in to visit. Right.
• 5:23
  Case in point today, I have a conversation with, uh, Jag Land Rover on Microsoft Teams, so I'm gonna look the part for sure.
• 5:30
  Um, we're actually gonna be moving into what we're calling the modern luxury uniform here at Jag Land Rover, Land Rover, excuse me. Wow. Which will get rid of the tie. It'll be, like, a T-shirt under the suit.
• 5:39
  Kind of very Miami slash Louis Vuitton style look. Ah. Uh, trying to edge a little bit- Modern luxury... into the future. Exactly. Modern luxury. That's what customers are looking for.
• 5:46
  When, when they really catch up- No-no show socks. Exactly. You gotta have pants that are just- Yep... higher than the ankle. And once- I've gotta lose about 30 pounds to look good in it. [laughs] Right.
• 5:55
  And once they get really dialed into the look, that's when the black baseball hats come outExactly. I'm not there yet. I was gonna order one- I'm not there yet... and put it on, like, for you guys just during the thing.
• 6:03
  A little bit. [laughs] I was like, "Nah, I'll mess up my hair." [laughs] Yeah, right. You gotta have the hair. You know, I just, it just referred, you said checkered flag, and years ago, man, I don't...
• 6:13
  I, um, trying to remember, like, was it pre-COVID? I think it was pre-COVID. I, there was, um, uh... What, what is, um, the Rykus Group? What is it? Mike Anderson. Yeah.
• 6:23
  Mike Anderson was doing a Rykus Group event in Richmond. Um, he asked me to kinda come speak, and I did. And we visited a Checkered Flag store. Okay. It was a big one. It was a big one. Yeah.
• 6:34
  It had, like- I, I- The Rykus Group were-... I actually remember that, and I think the Walzer Group was there, and you came and visited. Yes. And I was actually in attendance there.
• 6:40
  I did a, uh, PowerPoint presentation on the effects of single-point contact and- Yes... and the advocacy for profitability. That's, that... We were... Yes. Uh, 'cause I'm like- That's hilarious.
• 6:48
  I didn't realize that was you... that was me, yes. Oh, okay. That is so funny that this is all coming together. What a world.
• 6:53
  [laughs] It's all like, I'm like putting the pieces, my brain's like, "No, you know, you've been with him at some point." That's it. Yeah.
• 6:59
  I was r- All, all I can remember about the Checkered Flag visit was the intensity of the service bay. It was unbelievable. Yes. It was, like, decked out- You got to see our-... themed out... our pride and joy.
• 7:09
  I mean, that's our Toyota store. It's our flagship store. You know, they do about 5,500 repair orders a month out of there. [laughs] And it's got a beautiful racing theme to it. Yes.
• 7:18
  Um, it w- we did that in conjunction with Toyota some years ago when we did some remodeling. And I mean, that thing is a beast. And, you know, the service manager there, Michella, she runs a wonderful operation.
• 7:30
  I remember. It made an impact. It definitely did. That was a while ago. Yeah. [laughs] What a different life that seems like. So wait, what, what year was that? That, that- I think that was 2019, I think, yeah. 2019.
• 7:38
  So how long have you guys been doing the, the single point of contact selling, then? So we- When did that start?
• 7:43
  We transitioned in the fall of 2015 with our Hyundai/Volkswagen division, 'cause at that time they were on the same campus.
• 7:49
  Um, and then about three to four months later we transitioned the, uh, Toyota store and the Honda store. And then within about a year, year and a half I'd say, we, we went total platform as far as used cars went.
• 8:01
  And then we are now fully, as of January 1 this year, all operations are negotiation free. Uh, Land Rover and Porsche were the last ones to move into that, and we did that as of January 1st. So we're super excited.
• 8:12
  What a huge deal. That's, that's- It was Thursday, November 7th, 2019. I just had to search it on my calendar. [laughs] Look at that. [laughs] And here we are. That's amazing. I love it. And here we are. I love it.
• 8:24
  So what, what is the... What do you actually oversee right now? You just mentioned a number of different brands and looking at the part. Sure. Like, what does your actually role entail?
• 8:31
  So I'm the general manager of the Jag Land Rover store, as well as the Volkswagen store. So I handle, you know, obviously all ser- fixed operations and all variable operations for both stores. Gotcha. Understood.
• 8:41
  Understood. Yeah. So what are, what are your aspirations this year? A lot of people getting into 2024 with kind of, like, audible mentality, right? Like, "All right. Let's see which way this is gonna run."
• 8:50
  But obviously one of your brands being highline, one of your brands being, uh, not highline, how are you approaching that as a GM? Like, is there a disparity between the two? A- absolutely.
• 8:59
  I mean, there's two completely different approaches, 'cause we're working with two different economies.
• 9:02
  I mean, when you're looking at a Range Rover customer whose average income is $547,000 and then you try to f- you know, parse that against a Volkswagen customer, you know, you, you have to have two different experiences.
• 9:13
  But I'd say that they're not gonna be that different. You know, for me in 2024, what I'm looking for is an all-out attack on experience.
• 9:20
  I believe that, you know, we're in an existential crisis when it comes to the dealer franchise model, and it's self-inflicted. But we can also fix it.
• 9:27
  And, and it's gonna come from obviously fixing the two main touch points, which are fixed operations, when you come in to service your vehicle, and then variable operations, when you come in to purchase one.
• 9:37
  It goes without saying that those need to be on point. But I'm talking about the in between.
• 9:41
  You know, when we're not actually trying to extract a sale from somebody, when we're just adding ownership to the, to their overall exper- or excuse me, adding value to their overall ownership experience.
• 9:50
  You know, we just did a Defender event down at the Outer Banks in October where we invited 15 Defender owners down. We brought the Land Rover Experience Team in from the Biltmore.
• 10:00
  You know, I set up with Far Niente Winery to do a virtual wine tasting with their head sommelier. And, you know, yes, it was an expensive vent, an event, excuse me, but everybody loved it. Everybody had a great time.
• 10:11
  I didn't ask them for anything. It was a lifetime event. I didn't try to sell them anything. Exactly.
• 10:15
  You know, I want repeat and recidivi- resi- excuse me, repeat recidivism business, and that is only gonna occur when we can continue to over-deliver from what they expect from us. And that's where I think we need to win.
• 10:26
  We need to add more touch points into the consumer's ownership where we're not trying to extract anything from them. All right. Let me- And yes, it will cost money...
• 10:33
  let me, let me, let me just ask for another texture, because you just mentioned, uh, a very expensive event, right? That is for the $537,000 a year average. Yep. How do I translate that for a Volkswagen customer?
• 10:46
  It's a great question. And, you know, for us what we're gonna do is we're gonna get more involved with the Volkswagen Tidewater Club. Um, you know, we've got some really cool vintage cars in our showroom.
• 10:55
  You know, in the Volkswagen side we've got a 23-window Samba, um, bus. We've got a Karmann Ghia. We've got two antique Beetles.
• 11:03
  So I think we're gonna lean more into that and inviting more guests to come over to the dealership. You know, some coffee and cars type things. Honestly, I, I'm really interested to see what my team brings to me.
• 11:12
  You know, we, we live in this idea meritocracy at my campus, so the ideas don't flow down, they flow up and down.
• 11:18
  So I'm really interested to see what my sales management staff comes up with and what my product specialists come up with as far as what they believe is gonna really have an impact on the consumer. Yeah.
• 11:27
  You know, it's, it's... The reality is, is, like, every brand has... Subaru does it best. We'll all just, like, start- [laughs]... and end and agree with that, with, like, the user persona or the driver persona.
• 11:39
  But every, every brand has some level of, like, driver persona within it. Sometimes it's attached to a particular model. Sometimes it's attached to the overall brand.
• 11:49
  But, like, the Defender clearly has highline, luxurious vacation, you know, probably, you know, probably people that love wine already, right? Understand what a somm is.And you've leaned into that.
• 12:04
  There's probably that persona within Volkswagen, right? Like, it's Beetle lovers. They just, they just, they eat it up, they go to town, they're looking at...
• 12:12
  They've got Instagram, you know, Volkswagen Bugs rolling across their, their profile all day. And I'm sure that exists in... I can't think of a brand that that doesn't exist in. I, I would, I would 100% agree.
• 12:24
  And I think that was one of the smartest things that JLR did this year by, you know, bifurcating into the house of brands.
• 12:29
  Because to your point, a Range Rover customer is different from a Defender customer, which is different from a Volkswagen customer. And within Volkswagen- Yeah...
• 12:36
  I mean, you've got those people that are just crazy about their Golf Rs. You've got the Jetta enthusiasts. You know, they- Yeah... they create a cult following. And, you know, with the ID.
• 12:45
  Buzz coming out this year and the ID.7, you know, it's time to lean into that stuff so that we can get people excited and put the fun back into buying cars. I remember we used to, you know, I was at Mazda stores.
• 12:57
  We would have, like, Miata days, right? And I'm telling you, you couldn't keep people. It was unbel- [laughs] I mean, Miatas everywhere.
• 13:06
  We'd put them, we'd let them go back and, you know, we had a tech dedicated that we'd put a m- couple Miatas up on a lift, and it was insane. So I, I, I know that that, I, I... What's... How do you- [laughs]
• 13:20
  When you're thinking about the cost of that, right? Because typically when we're looking at marketing expenses or expenses across the departments, like, that one you can't go like, "Oh, that's a sales expense.
• 13:31
  Oh, that's a service expense," or that's like, "Oh, I- I'm gonna calculate that into this month's marketing cost of acquired sale," or anything like that.
• 13:39
  Are you, like, from a just raw accounting level, are you looking at the P&L differently now because of that? Yeah. You know, one of the things I'm measuring, you know, we've only done the one event so far.
• 13:49
  We've got a couple more for Jag Land Rover set up and one set up for VW in the near future. But what I'm looking at is the ability to reduce when it comes to third-party vendors.
• 13:57
  So case in point, you know, I got rid of cars.com, you know, because I want more traffic on my tier three site than I'm, than paying to send people to another site in hopes that they come back to my site.
• 14:07
  And so if I'm gonna, if I continue to grow and I'm able to lower my marketing expenses, then for me, you know, yes, I can't say that that's exact causation, but there's definitely has to be a correlation between the experiences that we're providing with the customer and the reduction in the need for marketing expenditures.
• 14:23
  So we're a little early to be able to kind of, like, analyze that fully. Yeah. But we do get support from Jag Land Rover as well, so it does offset the expense, um, and it makes it very palatable.
• 14:33
  And what's really nice is having the backing of the dealer. You know, when he's...
• 14:36
  You present these wild ideas and you're like, "Yeah, I'm gonna spend money," and then he says, "Do it," you know, it- it's, it's kind of exciting, you know?
• 14:43
  'Cause most of the dealers are like, you know, that mentality that they wanna reduce, reduce, reduce. You know, our dealer has an opposite mentality.
• 14:50
  I can bring him an idea that could add a million dollars to the bottom line, but if it increases the customer's effort to transact, it's a non-starter. Got it. Wow. Wow. That's, I mean...
• 15:00
  [laughs] Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. He said add a million to the bottom line, as in generate a million dollars in profit. Mm-hmm. Right. But if it makes the process longer and more difficult, he's out. He's out.
• 15:11
  Yeah. 100%. That's what he said. Yep. And that's, that's massive because everybo- most people in the industry would be like, "Whatever you have to do to add a million dollars." Yeah.
• 15:21
  "Doesn't really even matter what the customer feels." Well, 'cause that c- that person's playing checkers, they're not playing chess. We're a- Wow...
• 15:27
  60-year-old family owned organization, and so we're not looking for the, the short satisfaction. I don't wanna sell just one car to you, Kyle.
• 15:35
  I wanna sell you, I wanna sell your wife, I wanna sell your kids, I wanna sell your auntie and your uncle.
• 15:39
  I wanna sell everybody in your family because we've created an experience that is diametrically opposed to what's being offered in the marketplace.
• 15:47
  You know, in broken windows, broken business, they say the way you earn a customer over to you is by being demonstrably better.
• 15:52
  Well, that means the experience has to be significantly better than what's out there, and it doesn't have to be the best priced. Customers want a fair price, a transparent process, and an advocate.
• 16:02
  And by taking away some of the things that we've done, like no commission, et cetera, it really creates a level of advo- advocacy for the staff with their consumers. That's one of the things that I, that...
• 16:14
  Like, when I talk to people about, "Hey, what are you doing for experience?"
• 16:18
  And they're like, "I know some people are doing the one price or the one person out there", but the one price thing, like, customers always, "I'm gonna have to have the best price in the market every time, and I'm just gonna lose margin."
• 16:30
  But what I'm hearing from you and from my experience is that that's not, that's not always the case. Like, you don't, it's not, it doesn't continue to be a race to the bottom- Nope...
• 16:40
  as you create this type of experience. Yeah. You, you have to pay to play. You know, in the beginning you're gonna have to be the best price because that's the cost of entry.
• 16:46
  You wanna make sure that you can get the people through the doors, and at that point, you have to deliver that different experience.
• 16:53
  And over time, as you continue to deliver that different experience, it does afford you to increase your front end, um, price points.
• 17:00
  But we're not talking about being the highest price in the market, but we're also not talking about being the lowest.
• 17:05
  There is a value to the cu- customers, and they, they say it loud every day, with being transparent and open.
• 17:12
  I mean, if you take the state of Virginia, I believe, uh, I could be off on 2023 numbers, but I think 7 of the 10 largest used car dealerships were CarMax.
• 17:21
  I mean, I don't know what more of a statement you need than that to say, "Hey, we want- Yeah... to transact differently."
• 17:27
  You know, we've always put the customer into the box that's most profitable for us, instead of asking the hard questions of how do you wanna transact? And then building the profitable box around that. That's the future.
• 17:38
  That's what our industry has to do.
• 17:40
  So you've definitely seen a lot of the pain, and have you, you the dealer, right, the other management team, have been willing to engage the pain and the discomfort of transitioning to, like, single point of contact, right?
• 17:51
  And you've, it has been very intentional.
• 17:53
  We're in a day and age where there are a lot of dealers kind of circling the runway on that, or seriously considering it in a way they never have before because of the, the current climate.What would you say to them?
• 18:07
  Like, what were the biggest hang-ups when you were making the decision to go it, and the biggest pain points, and what did you learn on the other side when you pushed through them?
• 18:15
  So what I will say is that it, it has to start with the dealer. You know, Mr. Schneider came in and he told us, "You know, the ship's been turned around 180 degrees. There is no motor. There are no, uh, oars.
• 18:25
  We're not turning back around. This is the future and this is the path." And there has to be that sort of dedication from the dealer to start with.
• 18:33
  But then once you transition, it's kind of about pointing out things to the custom- I mean, to the, to the customer. I say customer 'cause I, I feel like my employees are my customer.
• 18:40
  But, um, you, you have to point out things, you know? One of the big things when you go to commission-free is, "Oh, I can't make, you know, $2,000 on that deal anymore."
• 18:49
  No, but what were you making per car in the, in the traditional model? And let me show you what you can make per car in this model.
• 18:54
  And if you can sleep a little bit better at night and your per car average stays the same, isn't that a win? Doesn't that, like, doesn't that make you a little bit happy? And that's what we found.
• 19:02
  It's- I mean, our, our averages are quite high when it comes to what we pay per car, but that's because we expect an experience, and we get to deliver that by paying the c- uh, the, uh, product specialists what they're deserved.
• 19:13
  You know, their job is to find the least expensive vehicle that best fits the customer's need at any one of our locations. All right. [laughs] So [laughs] there's so much to chew on there. I've heard those words before.
• 19:24
  Um- I'm sure you have. [laughs] I think you and I know some of the same people, Michael. [laughs] I think we do. [laughs] Good. But that's good- That's good...
• 19:33
  'cause that means the message is getting spread around and that people are, are seeing that...
• 19:37
  I w- what I really hope that comes out of COVID is that we realize that we can get to a point to where pricing no longer matters. 'Cause isn't that what COVID showed us?
• 19:45
  I mean, we went from $2,500 below invoice on Toyota Camrys to $5,000 above. Mm-hmm. And at the same time, demand was always there. So it's never really been about price. It's always been about how we treat the customer.
• 19:59
  And we've always made it about price. We've always said, "Hey, well, you know what? We're not gonna fix who we are. We're just gonna discount our way to a sale." And that is not sustainable.
• 20:07
  Condition the customer to ask the question. Absolutely we do. Expect it. Yep. Ask, et cetera. Um, all right.
• 20:13
  So w- we don't have, we only have a couple minutes left here, but, um, when we think about leading your team into 2024, uh, a lot of leaders we know, like, will ha- will focus a word, a trajectory.
• 20:24
  What is your focus in team leadership, uh, in your stores into 2024? So I, I just finished reading a book by David McCullough, and now I'm moving on to, um, what is it? Unreasonable Hospitality.
• 20:35
  And I, I started reading the insert this morning from Simon Sinek, and I wrote it down because I, I thought it was, it is gonna be my mantra for 2024. Oh. Oh, we lost him right before. Hold on. We lost him.
• 20:45
  The best part. He'll be back. He'll be back. We'll get, we'll both grab the book. [laughs] Yeah, I'm looking for mine right now. [laughs] Here's mine. You said it. We lost you for a second, but we're both- We lost you...
• 20:53
  like, start looking around for our copies of Unreasonable- There's my copy. There, there it is. Yeah. We'll look at ours, but- I don't know where it is...
• 20:57
  but, I mean, right in the intro from, from Simon Sinek, he says something that says, um, "The two cannot be separated. Great service cannot exist without great leadership."
• 21:06
  And for me, I feel like that that makes sure that I'm always looking out for my staff, that I'm making sure that pay plans are fair, that I'm making sure that they're taking their time off.
• 21:14
  When I do the time cards every two weeks, I'm looking at how many hours they're working per week, and is it fair to them? You know, and is it also fair to the dealer? Are they working too little?
• 21:22
  Are they working too much? And often we find, specifically when it comes to service consultants and product specialists, i.e. sales associates, that they're spending their lives here.
• 21:30
  But that's not what we signed up for. Nobody did. You didn't come to this job saying, "Hey, I will give you my life in exchange for an income." You said, "I'll give you 40 to 45 hours a week in exchange for an income."
• 21:42
  And my f- my driving force for 2024 is getting as much productivity and efficiency out of those people in the time that they need to be here, not a minute longer.
• 21:51
  I want them out there with their families doing what they should be doing. I love it. Well, hey, look, you are going to wildly enjoy that book. I've read it a time and a half.
• 22:00
  I've gotta finish the, the second time through. At this point, Paul and I are committed to it.
• 22:06
  Um, and by, by note that that's what you're committed to and the books that you're reading, I know that you're leading an incredible team, and, and the work that you've done I think will be an encouragement to a lot of people.
• 22:16
  So, uh, thank you so much, uh, on behalf of myself and Paul, for joining us here on Auto Collabs today. I appreciate it. Thanks for everything you guys are doing, and thanks for having me.
• 22:28
  Cirillo, you didn't even make it to the call, man. [laughs] You didn't even make it. How'd it, how'd it go, guys? [laughs] How was it? [laughs] Guys, so the funny thing is Michael Cirillo didn't make it to the call.
• 22:40
  So Kyle and I got to talk to Michael Wood all to ourselves. And I gotta say- You know what I'm really concerned about is the people that watch.
• 22:47
  I- in particular, if you're watching our intros and outros, you're like, "But why are they all wearing the same clothes?" Well, because my closet- 'Cause continuity, people. Continuity. [laughs] The, the- Continuity...
• 22:58
  the, the continuity, the steps that we take to have visual continuity are actually pretty fun and humorous. One day maybe we'll make a B-roll of that. [laughs] But, but let's be real.
• 23:09
  If you go in any one of our clothes closets, it's kind of like- It's all the same thing... you're shopping at a retail store where you just have, like, 20 of the same thing on a rack. Yeah. It's the Henry Ford mentality.
• 23:19
  It's like you can have any shirt you want- It's not even as good as a retail store... as long as it's black. Yeah. As long as it's black. I mean, it's the Mark Zuckerberg, it's the Steve Jobs.
• 23:25
  Like, I wear the same thing, so I don't have to think about anything else. It's the same type of innovation that Michael was talking about.
• 23:29
  Actually, and, and this actually is a really good segue into this, because for them as an organization to
• 23:38
  way earlier than anybody else in the country, maybe than, like, save 10 dealer groups, be thinking about one price, single point of contact.
• 23:48
  The things that, like, now in 2024, it's starting to become a normal conversation. Very normal. I've even in the last week gotten three requests for, "Who do you know that does this?" All right.
• 23:59
  "Who do you know that does it well?" They were doing it back then. Like, they've always been pursuing a better customer and, and employee experience. Without a doubt.
• 24:07
  Let me give you a little insight, too, that, um, I didn't share with either of you before the interview. Um, Michael made a comment on one of my LinkedIn posts, and I- it was a post about
• 24:17
  s- pretty much, like, if we had a session at ASOTU Con that was, like, how to be a great parent and a great professional and brought in somebody, a professional, to help us, like, navigate, like, parenting while we're busy and finding balance there.
• 24:30
  Michael's response, his comment to that post was this. Oh, boy. "I don't have kids, but I really wanna go to that session so I understand my team who has kids-" Hmm... "even more." Oh.
• 24:41
  And I was like, "That is exactly-" See, now- "... what we're talking about"... business person, business person. Yes.
• 24:46
  Business person, human person, um, people that loves people more than he loves cars, and fancy enough, that happens to make him a really successful car dealer.
• 24:55
  So, uh, on behalf of Kyle Mounts here, Michael Cirillo, and myself, thank you so much for joining us with this conversation. I hope to see you next time on Auto Collabs.
• 25:04
  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.
• 25:17
  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.
• 25:25
  [upbeat music] Welcome to Auto Collabs. Welcome to Auto Collabs. [laughs] Are we recording yet? Are we rolling yet? Not yet