Latest / Auto Collabs / Solving the "Coming Soon" Problem with Colby Joyner of Liftkit.io

Transcript

Solving the "Coming Soon" Problem with Colby Joyner of Liftkit.io · Auto Collabs

• 0:00
  You know, we, we, the three of us are very busy, right? Multiple companies, multiple things we're doing. Which means we're always looking to start something new. [upbeat music] This is Auto Collabs.
• 0:15
  Because we have so much free time. Always. And, and we were, we were texting early this morning before a lot of people were even up and out. [laughs] You know what's coming. This is so silly. And Michael is sending us
• 0:25
  cover art options- [laughs]... of his face for his Dealer Playbook podcast. And then I drop in, I'm like, "I've been thinking about this." [laughs] Right? And I drop one in.
• 0:35
  And then Kyle's all like, "Oh yeah, I've been thinking about this." [laughs] And he's got a full on homepage built. [laughs] And so I guess this is the official announcement.
• 0:47
  I mean, Michael, Dealer Playbook podcast, an OG podcast in automotive. Um, you know, I'm firing mine back up, Clarity Compressed. Kyle's gonna start a new one called You're Smart, which is so applicable.
• 0:57
  I sent him my version of his cover art. He didn't like it. No. Um- What was that? Cunk five count face? [laughs] Oh, man.
• 1:03
  But, but, you know, I bring that up because our, today's guest is someone who is always starting something. He's the one person that can't sit still.
• 1:12
  Colby Joyner, he's been on the show before, he's been a longtime friend, um, and now he's working for one of Michael's companies, LiftKit, which, you know, Michael couldn't...
• 1:22
  It wasn't planned, but he couldn't be on the, on the episode. But, um, yeah, so we asked Colby, what's it really like working for Michael Cirillo? [laughs] Oh, boy.
• 1:31
  [laughs] Well, I guess, I guess, I hope you get a good episode. We're not, we're not gonna ask him that. We're not gonna ask him that. I know.
• 1:39
  Well, the reason we can say, like, we've already recorded the episode, because Michael's not on it. [laughs] Yeah, that's right. That's right. Spoiler alert. [laughs] Spoiler alert. Have fun Ky- have a fun listen.
• 1:52
  This is our conversation with Colby. [upbeat music] I have a big time question for you. Oh, boy. We've been, we've done a lot of content together. We were just talking about where...
• 2:03
  You, you have some of the most OG ASOTU merch of anyone that we know, including the signed hat from the party- Mm-hmm... including the POAP, which is an NFT that we issued.
• 2:15
  But the question is, can you give us your very best Michael Cirillo impression? Uh... [laughs] Very best. Yeah. Just get- Let's see. Um... C- I'm so curious. I mean, you know, I- What's he gonna say? I know. I'm nervous.
• 2:32
  I know. I think we've just done gotten in trouble. I know how I would st- Always... I know how I would start mine, aside from the fact he's your boss. In the landscape of retail automotive- [laughs] Ah...
• 2:41
  this, this episode of the Dealer Playbook, sponsored by- Ah. Ah. Ah... Autostable Solutions. I thought, I thought, I thought you were gonna come out with, "S- so I'm curious." [laughs] That's a...
• 2:53
  [laughs] That's a good one. I, I would do that one. I was expecting you- I would just hold my hands up like this, go, "Ah." [laughs] Or the kanpai. Kanpai. Kanpai. Kanpai. Kanpai. Kanpai. I love a excuse.
• 3:05
  Well, Colby, it's awesome to have you on the show. Um, you, you are just very well plugged in around the industry. You share our heart for the industry. Um, you're doing some new and exciting things.
• 3:15
  NADA show is right around the corner, so we're excited we get to see you in person. But just tell us about the last, you know, six to 12 months of what's been going on or what you've been observing in the auto industry.
• 3:26
  Let's start there. We'll talk about what you're doing now and all that. But, but I would love to hear your observations on the state of the automotive union. Um, you know, it's, it's funny. The...
• 3:38
  If you were to say the last 12 months, I would probably focus on the first six. If you were gonna say the l- last six months, I'd probably say next question. Uh, you know, it's, it's- [laughs]... been crazy.
• 3:49
  Uh, you know, I, I'm calling this like a rebuild year. You know, '24 is almost up. '25 is gonna be huge. And in, both in my life and both in my career and, and, you know, I think in the industry as a whole,
• 4:05
  what I feel like the industry has been is, you know, for lack of better words, kind of distracted. Um, you know, there was the, the CDK thing that happened in the middle of the year. And then- Gosh.
• 4:15
  It feels like so long ago... you know, that's coming back up. And now you have, you know, other companies that are trying to jump in and replace what CDK was for them.
• 4:22
  And then you had the Tekion CDK thing that was a couple weeks ago with that, you know, the not- Yeah... mentionable stuff. And- Yep...
• 4:28
  y- you know, I feel like there's a lot of, "Hey, look at me" distraction on the outside, and then on the inside they're not looking outside.
• 4:36
  Like, they are plugged in trying to figure out, okay, how do we secure, how do we be more efficient? How do we build in a time that we should be building? Uh, you know, there's a...
• 4:48
  I hate to go on on this, but there was a thing that many years ago my mom told me, "Hey, you're gonna have good days, bad days, good weeks, bad weeks, good months, bad months, good years, bad years, and it's a cycle.
• 4:58
  It's gonna go over and over and over again."
• 5:00
  And I was talking to my son about that recently, and I kind of added to it and I said, "Look, in the good times, you have to build as much as you can on that foundation that you have so that you can weather the bad times when they come.
• 5:12
  If you do not build in the good, then when the bad times come, you're gonna have no walls to surround yourself with to protect yourself." Mm-hmm. Yeah, you know- And so I think right now... Go ahead.
• 5:21
  Man, a- as you say that, I'm thinking about the podcast, the clubhouse rooms, the events, the w- the webinars, the, all of the things that happened over the last, like, we'll call it three to five years,
• 5:35
  talking about that exact thing, right? Like, build the wall, set up the structures, train your people now. Get, get good. Reserve funds so that when...
• 5:44
  Like, all of these things that were in all of this good, in all this craziness, inventory shortage leads to high profitability, you know, all of those things.
• 5:54
  Used car pricing is, is, is leading to profitability, in- increased turns. And everybody, it was all, like, the rage to talk about it, but I think right now we're starting to discover who actually did the work.Right?
• 6:10
  Yeah, that's where they're really gonna- Who's been working and who's trying to be about it right now. That's a really...
• 6:19
  You know, I was reading this morning, um, [lip smack] I have this little kind of like morning readings I do, and they're, and they're about, it's about the book of, uh, Proverbs in the Bible, and it's a book about wisdom.
• 6:30
  And the, the, it's like morning readings about wisdom. And one-- the thing that today was very appropriately, uh, aligned with what you just said, and it said...
• 6:37
  Basically the, the premise is this, that like you only get wisdom from experience, right? You can try to learn it, but you get it by doing, right? And you can't...
• 6:46
  In the same way that like when hard situations come, if you haven't been building the, the, the well of wisdom, you're not gonna have the wisdom you need to deal with the hardest situations, right?
• 6:57
  In the same way you can't, you know, train for the Olympics by working out a lot for two weeks before the game, right?
• 7:03
  And so I think what all, all of you are saying, what we are about to see in the next, in 2025, to Kyle's point, is who's been doing it, who's not been doing it.
• 7:13
  Um, and, and you're right, Colby, like the, the, this is a year to build. It does feel like that in every sense of the word.
• 7:20
  When there's, when there's a sense of abundance and a lack of, like, restraint and constraints like we've been dealing with for the last three and a half, four years, this finally feels like, okay, you know, like the, the runners, like swimming athletes, they'll, they'll swim in like, in like a sweatsuit, right?
• 7:37
  [laughs] And then the, like, [fingers snap] sweatsuit comes off and you feel like you can swim twice as fast as you ever did, right? [laughs] Uh, and that maybe that is what 2025 is. Good observation.
• 7:47
  Yeah, I, I definitely think it's a- Great episode, guys. I mean, what else are we gonna say that's better than that? [laughs] What else are we gonna say? What a mess. Yeah. No, I definitely think that,
• 7:58
  you know, over the last several years, everybody had the ability to just kind of spend at will and say, "Oh, I wanna do this. I wanna try this. I wanna do this. I wanna do this."
• 8:08
  And they did, and they got tons of opportunities. They were working on their processes at that time, so they were maximizing as best as they could at the time those opportunities.
• 8:18
  Uh, but now that spend at will mindset isn't there. You, you can't necessarily do that. You kind of have to go back to a structured, "Hey, we have this much money to spend. How are we gonna benefit from it the best?
• 8:31
  What are we gonna get the best opport- what kind of opportunities are we looking for?" Mm-hmm. It's no longer just, "Hey, fill up the bucket." It's, "Which ones do we need?" Mm-hmm. Yeah.
• 8:39
  And now y- I, I feel like a lot of people are getting far more, uh, detailed and specific on, "Hey, I wanna, I wanna sell more of this specific trim level of Silverado because it does the best for us and we can be the market leader in that."
• 8:55
  Or, "I wanna, you know, focus on, you know, our service department and increase our, our service, our, our, you know, RO count or dollars per RO, you know, with, like, the UVI stuff," you know, in any of these things. So
• 9:08
  I think right now it's being specific. Are, are you, are you seeing a trend where, like... I, I think, like, I'm gonna go back to, like, 2008, 2009. Websites are really starting to get there.
• 9:17
  We're starting to get, like, more and more people are understanding the digital a-advertising ecosystem and, and it's like everybody's like, "At, at some point we'll have the data to know what to do next."
• 9:26
  And then we spent the next 10 years going, "What is this data? Where is this data? How do we find this data? How do we report on it? What does it, what does the reporting look like?" Mm-hmm.
• 9:34
  "How do we match it up and, and do all these things to kind of, like, connect advertising or connect, you know, even inventory purchasing to action?"
• 9:42
  And we're starting to see reporting match actionable insights where people can actually m-m-make movements based on- Mm-hmm...
• 9:50
  what they're seeing in, like, either historical or future-facing data where there's predictive modeling on what might make sense for their business.
• 9:59
  Are you seeing dealers start, and, and even industry partners, start to adjust their thesis on, like, more predictive analytics that, that tell them, like, where to move next?
• 10:10
  Yeah, I, I, I mean, I'm seeing people talk about mixed media modeling, you know, and trying to figure out where's the best place to put funds.
• 10:18
  Um, you know, taking a look at historical data and being able to project out knowing month, day, year, you know, seasonal, this is the way it should be so that there isn't an, a, a reaction or an overreaction to a result.
• 10:33
  You know, that result could be perfectly fine. It may be lower than it was two months ago, but it's 10% higher than it was year over year in the same period.
• 10:42
  You know, I think it's, I think there's a lot more people that are becoming educated about that data and saying, "Hey, it's not just an instinctual like, 'Oh, that looks bad,' or, 'I want more.'"
• 10:54
  It's like, okay, well let's take a look at the past. Let's take a look at what we could see in the future. Um, and does this make sense? Is there growth here or is there not growth?
• 11:01
  And is there not growth because of something? And is that something that we can change? Yeah.
• 11:09
  You've, uh, you've obviously, you've recently made a move and, and into, uh, a, a platform that is managing inventory, uh, for people- Mm-hmm... in, in kind of a unique way.
• 11:19
  And I talk a lot about how merchandising is kind of the first step in marketing, right?
• 11:24
  If you can't get that right, if, if, if you don't know what you have to sell, where you have to sell it, and, and, and merchandise it right, then, like, the rest, you're just wasting dollars on the other end.
• 11:34
  Um, when you think about this like, okay, we understand the data, we understand.
• 11:39
  How do you loop that back into an inventory plan, an inventory strategy that actually allows this new data model, media mix model, understanding your KPIs for business outcomes, how do you loop that back into inventory strategies?
• 11:54
  Uh, and what kind of strategies are you kind of seeing dealers take on?
• 11:58
  Well, I, I think the interesting thing, especially with Livkit and what we're doing, and, you know, and I told you guys kind of at the beginning, like, this isn't a pitch. This is just l- what we're doing.
• 12:08
  But it's, it's the a- the ability to A/B test.Is the ability to say, "Hey, I wanna send a specific customized mapped feed to cars.com versus a mapped feed to Autotrader," with maybe different descriptions, maybe different photos or backgrounds of photos, you know, or maybe different pricing.
• 12:26
  Or, you know, like, to be able to genuinely A/B test it in the, a smaller environment that's outside of your OEM site, you know, where you're spending money out there.
• 12:35
  Like, "Hey, I don't wanna spend $7,000 on cars.com right now because they wanna list every ounce of my inventory. I just want... I know that I can sell the trucks, I just want the Trax's and I want the EVs on cars.com.
• 12:49
  So I'm gonna send them just a specific syndicated feed of just that." Wow.
• 12:53
  And that's what they're gonna put on there, and that's how, that's how I'm gonna sp- So now, sp- instead of spending seven grand, I'm spending 2,500 bucks, but getting the same kind of traction results or better that I can get, you know, by doing it that way.
• 13:05
  I think the being able to specifically A/B test it and send out customized items to know that
• 13:13
  if you go in one place and you put the price or description, or you have all the appropriate information that you need to have on that vehicle with all the photos that you need to have, and it, you know that with the click of a button, it goes everywhere the way it should be, and you have faith and trust in it.
• 13:29
  And if it fails in one spot, you are aware of it, know exactly who to get ahold of and switch it on. You know, we, in this industry, this is interesting. I, I haven't talked about this a lot.
• 13:40
  But we in this industry kind of like, there's a lot of people that will tend to hate on the third parties, right? Mm-hmm. The Autotraders, the Cars.com, the Gurus, the Edmunds, all that type of stuff.
• 13:49
  And for the life of me, I don't really understand why. Because we all shop third party listing aggregators all the time- Every day... in every other industry, right? Every day. Mm-hmm.
• 14:04
  Amazon, Google Flights, Priceline Hotels, Google Hotels. Like, these are third party aggregators.
• 14:10
  And if we only take the hotels, and this is where I'm getting somewhere with this because you brought up something that I don't think we've thought about a lot.
• 14:17
  If you only look at hotels and even flights, these hoteliers and, and airlines have actually started syndicating specific rooms at specific price points to specific listings providers- Mm-hmm...
• 14:35
  because they know they either perform well or the traffic on those is increasing- They know the demographic of the tra- yeah... or decreasing. And, and you actually get like...
• 14:42
  'Cause that's, and that's how you get these different prices, and then that's why you get Google aggregating like, "Here's, here's what you can find on Priceline, Booking.com", all that type of stuff.
• 14:51
  Because different providers, different people, different shopping behaviors, different incentives for even pricing or how the listing looks. And this is like, this is an opportunity to think about that.
• 15:03
  Like by platform, what performs, what am I sending there, how do people shop on that platform? Like, oh, CarGurus is a pricing platform. Autotrader is a whatever platform for us in this area. This is the behavior.
• 15:16
  That's a really, like- Hmm... it, it actually aligns to what that plat- to what those platforms are actually going after, right? Yeah. I mean, think about it. You have... So, and I'm, and mind you, I'm not,
• 15:29
  you know, putting any other company down. Like, you have EVN, right? You have EVN that does the GM, you know, the digital representation. They do Kia, they do Genesis, they do o- other ones.
• 15:41
  When that's pushed out and syndicated out, you have the typical background, digital background of the dealership that's behind it, right? Right. And that gets syndica- syndicated out everywhere.
• 15:50
  So if you go to Autotrader or Cars.com or CarGurus or anywhere that you're gonna do, you know, your search- That's what it is... doesn't it all look the same? Yeah.
• 15:59
  At that point, you're, you're just saying like your, your eye is catching that it's blue and that it may have the lowest price.
• 16:05
  So there, at that point, you're not building any, what they used to call, ether in the excitement of that vehicle. It's just like, "I need to find blue, lowest price. Blue, lowest price." Hmm.
• 16:15
  But now you're able to go and say, "Hey, I want that..." Like, the same vehicle can be out there, but I, instead of that background that is the classic dealership background, it's Christmas time.
• 16:24
  I wanna do that background with lights on the, on the building. Or I wanna do that background if I'm in the forest with, you know, Santa or, you know, the Coca-Cola bears, or, you know, something. It can- Yeah...
• 16:35
  you can be as silly and, uh, whatever as you want. It doesn't really matter what you wanna do. You can just- Well, actually, with all the new- Yeah... generative tools out there, it's gonna be easier- Yeah...
• 16:41
  than ever to generate differentiated backgrounds. [laughs] So as you're scrolling down- Right, like the flexibility... all of a sudden your eye is automatically gonna catch that something's different about this one.
• 16:50
  It still looks good, but something's different. It makes you just take that half a second longer to take a look at it.
• 16:55
  And if you build value props and you build name and brand reputation in that, especially in the local area, you are more likely to get that click on- Yeah...
• 17:03
  that individual, you know, on that SRP where your vehicle is than, you know, if it wasn't changed. Same thing with social. You get it pushed out on social. You have the carousels running or whatever it may be.
• 17:15
  You can be specific about what campaign you wanna run with specific backgrounds for Facebook that have to do with whatever's going on.
• 17:24
  And so I think that allows, uh, in a, in a, in a world where there's, in a digital world where there's, you know, everybody trying to capture the attention and the eyes of the consumer and everybody is saying, "Hey, you just need to be everywhere all at once," yes, you can be everywhere, but you can be very specific about where with what and how it looks.
• 17:44
  So, so that's, that's one application of what you're doing, right?
• 17:50
  Uh, actually it's bringing some flexibility to bring creativity and art and brand into something that has become standardized, you know, by some OEM requirements, et cetera.
• 18:00
  Um, or not requirements, but easy-to-use content, I guess, generated. What are some of the other, what are some of the other pain points in the merchandising process, right, that, that you see an opportunity to improve?
• 18:14
  TheHow, how long it is taking on average for somebody to have a, a trade, um, photoed and put up and have some- Yeah... kind of visual representation of what it is- Yeah... instead of the coming soon. Like- Yeah...
• 18:29
  let's be honest, guys, like why do we still have coming soon photos? I mean, if it's coming soon- It's, it's ridiculous... like it's leaving my screen as fast as I saw it. Yeah. Right? Yeah.
• 18:37
  Coming soon does not a ride- Let me know when you have something to sell, right? Yeah. Yeah. It's like- Put it behind the barn... why put it on there if it's coming soon?
• 18:43
  Like, I'm not gonna buy or even call about something if it's like that. But, you know, on our side- Because it feels better than nothing, I guess. Yeah. Right.
• 18:50
  On our side we have, uh, like we put in and developed a mobile uploader. It's nothing fancy, but it works incredibly well. It's a mobile uploader. You go and take the photos of the vehicle.
• 19:01
  It has the stencils just like all other companies have stencils. Yeah. Not knocking them at all. Yep. But you take the photos of the vehicles with the stencils. You can go and get that car put up.
• 19:11
  It tells you exactly what to take w- right there on your phone. Your used car manager can go and do that as soon as it's traded in.
• 19:17
  You can do it the next morning in a lot walk, knowing from a report that's in LiveKit that says, "Hey, these are the photos. These are the vehicles that don't have photos that are now in stock or in inventory."
• 19:26
  Pull them out in the lot walk. Have, uh, have everybody take a, you know, take their photos around it. And the way that LiveKit works is as soon as they're pushed and uploaded, it will replace the background.
• 19:36
  It'll auto adjust where the vehicle needs to be in that background, and it'll place it on the site before lunch. So it's up. Yeah.
• 19:43
  And maybe they're not your studio quality, fully detailed, pristine, but that's eons better than- You have, yeah, you have this-... the old showman's blanket over the vehicle.
• 19:54
  And the good thing is, is the, because you want the cleanliness, that uniformity on the site with the right- Mm-hmm... background and the cars are spaced right and they're, they're, they're zoomed in right.
• 20:04
  It's not like that weird odd angle or you're just getting a tail light for whatever reason.
• 20:09
  You know, it's like when you get those cars, as soon as they go up, they're up and they look and match everything else that's on your website- Yeah... as soon as possible. There's, there's no more need- Yeah...
• 20:18
  for a coming soon photo. And this is where like- It's a practicality... speed of turn, speed of inventory turn, increased profitability, like all of these things down the line.
• 20:26
  And I think this, this is going back to the whole like what were we doing over the last five years? We were looking at the blocking and tackling of the business, right?
• 20:35
  What are the things right now that we need to set up so that like the hard stuff when it gets to interacting with the customer in person, to, you know, selling when, you know, interest rates are high and pricing is still high and inventory demand is still high.
• 20:49
  Like, you gotta get this blocking and tackling stuff out of the way and it's like, get your cars photoed, get them online, make sure that they- Mm-hmm...
• 20:56
  they stand up straight and put them in the right places for the right people based on the shopping behavior of the platform.
• 21:01
  These are things I think at, in this day and age when, when every interaction starts digital are just table stakes for being in business, you know? Mm-hmm. Yeah. It should be easy, but it hasn't been easy to do that.
• 21:15
  Yeah. It should be, but it hasn't. I mean, I think, I think every great business starts with those, [laughs] those two premises. This should be easy. This should be easy. But it hasn't been. But it hasn't been.
• 21:25
  Welcome to- Until now. Welcome to business. Right. Until now. Welcome to, you know. Yeah. Exactly. Exactly. So let me ask you this.
• 21:30
  Let me, let me just take the conversation a little bit of a different direction 'cause I know you're someone who's always dabbling in new, new technology. Um, you like to get your hands dirty.
• 21:37
  You like to get elbows deep in it before everybody else does. Um, we've kind of like run this course now over the last 18 months.
• 21:44
  The people who, uh, have started dabbling into AI 18 months ago and beyond when the first tools were starting to drop, right? You were one of those, and now here we are. We're hitting this...
• 21:56
  We're gonna hit like a much more mass adoption type curve sometime in 2025. Uh, recent stats show that still only 26% of professionals are using AI tools in their everyday life. What- Wow...
• 22:08
  what are you using and what is your perspective on how dealers can be leveraging AI, dealers or tech companies or whatever, because you're always, you're always kind of ahead of the curve in these things.
• 22:17
  So, you know, we have our AI newsletter now and like we're trying- Yeah... to bring this conversation to the front. Hopefully, a few people will hear this and like try something new.
• 22:25
  See, you need to have that little YouTube subscribe, bing- Bing... button- Right there... that, that goes off right there. [laughs] Um, you know, I... And so I'll, I'll start off with this.
• 22:36
  Outside of automotive, outside of work and all that stuff, um, yeah, I still play around. I'm no Ben Hadley when it comes to like creating an AI for... Of Ben Hadley. [laughs] Um, you know. No one is.
• 22:51
  Let's just put that out there.
• 22:53
  But, um, I did, like I did create and it's, I'm testing it right now with everybody- Real quick, before you say that, I thought you were gonna say, "But I did stay in a Holiday Inn Express last night" But I did stay in- [laughs] So now finish your, finish your actual phrasing here.
• 23:08
  I'm just missing the boat on some of these opportune times for- They're just right there for you. Yeah. They're just, they're just- Like bump, set, click... clean right up. Yeah. Yeah.
• 23:15
  [laughs] Uh, no, I, I did create a, uh, a, a lawn care AI. Oh, no. Okay. See, have you seen this lawn- If you don't know this about Colby, hold on. We gotta give some of the backstory.
• 23:30
  [laughs] This man is the most obsessed lawn care advocate you'll ever meet. And a savant all at the same time. Oh, and he's good at it. He's good. And he's good at it.
• 23:40
  Okay, so you're creating a- And it's, and it's winter, and it sucks that I can't be doing that all right now. Right. But so you're creating... So, right, so you're creating a lawn care AI. Tell us about this.
• 23:47
  No, like I, I already create- It's created, you know, it's just not public because I'm testing to make sure that all the responses and everything the way it should be.
• 23:55
  But it has to do with you jump in and you say, "Hey, I got a problem" and it's like, "Cool. What kind of grass do you have? What season is it? What is this? What is that?"
• 24:02
  And it asks you some questions, and then it will go through, give you step by steps. It'll, it'll email and send out PDFs of how-tos. It'll tell you what to buy- Oh, my goodness...
• 24:12
  how to buy it, exactly what, uh, the amount of product that you may need for it based off of the size of your lawn and that product's specifications.
• 24:22
  [laughs] Come on now So I created this whole thing, and then I also had it to where it does conversational voice.
• 24:29
  And so, like, this, o- over the past, uh, uh, right after Christmas, I was with my dad and said, "Hey, Dad, can you check this out and look at it?"
• 24:36
  And he was doing the button to talk into it to then have it type it and send it out. I was like, "No, just click that button." Yeah, click the other- So he clicked it, and the person was like- The other talk button...
• 24:44
  the person was like, "Oh, hey, Chuck, sounds like you wanna do it on voice now." And- That's amazing... and it just, he carried on a legit, full-on conversation with my lawn care AI.
• 24:57
  [laughs] And he was like, "Well, I have these brown spots in my yard." And he's like, "Yeah, that's, that's bad. You're probably overwatering a little bit. Like, you may wanna check this," blah, blah, blah.
• 25:05
  "You know what? I can send you a whole list of things that you wanna look at. Is that okay?" "Yeah, that's fine." "Okay, cool. That's emailed. Uh, do you have any other questions?"
• 25:13
  And it's just like- What- It's- Amazing So t- so what platforms did you leverage? Just give us a quick list of the platforms. On that one, it's just ChatGPT. I just created a GPT in- Two ease... in ChatGPT.
• 25:23
  The, I think it's like- I didn't realize that can email stuff. Yeah. Well, there's other prompts and things that can get tossed into it. Okay. Yeah, yeah. I, I don't know if you can do that in Zapier within it.
• 25:34
  Yeah, I'm not very connected to this stuff. Yeah, yeah. Oh, okay. Okay. Yeah. No, no, that, well, Zapier, okay. That I do know. Yeah. Amazing.
• 25:38
  'Cause I think the prompt, the prompt sequence and everything is, like, 8,000 words long. Yeah. [laughs] Legit, bro. Colby, that's amazing.
• 25:46
  It's clear that you are thinking about not just the basics, but the expansive nature of technology. [laughs] And, uh, always excited to hear what you're thinking about.
• 25:54
  Uh, and thanks for chatting with us again and telling us a little bit about what you're doing. And thanks for joining us on, here on Auto Collabs. I love chatting with you guys. I appreciate it.
• 26:03
  And, and to let everybody know that if they want to experience some kind of cool, uh, innovative inventory system- Here he goes. Yeah, I know. I'm gonna do it last second. I'll have, like, hey, 50 people message me.
• 26:21
  Send me a DM, and I'll get you on the beta for free. Aw, snap. [upbeat music] Michael, did you know- What did you think of the episode? [laughs] How'd it go?
• 26:36
  [laughs] Actually, you don't know how it went. [laughs] Um, did, did, did you know about Colby's lawn care AI thing? I kn- I know that he loves lawns. That's true.
• 26:50
  My- I know that from his social media posting of his lawn, the founder of, like, a real mower company in South Africa sent him a real mower. Yes.
• 27:02
  [laughs] So, like, he's now officially the first person I've met in real life or that I know in real life that actually got a free product because he posted on social. Wow. Um, I wanna do that. I want that.
• 27:14
  And then the AI thing just makes... I mean, it, obviously. Yeah. Yeah. [laughs] Smart. Yeah.
• 27:21
  I mean, uh, uh, what I love, and, uh, and I think this is anybody that, like, we're obviously all three founders together with a Asotu, but also outside of this.
• 27:32
  And what I love about most of the people that are in startups, whether they're the founder or they're early on or they're, they're also creative, right? Yeah.
• 27:43
  There's no stopping, like, "This new thing I'm making on the side. I tried this this weekend. What do you think about this entrepreneurial activity that I'm doing?"
• 27:54
  I mean, you just look around the halls of, like, Asotu More Than Cars, and, like, people have, like, side gigs, and they're, they're creating on the side, or they're part of nonprofits.
• 28:02
  And, and so I think, like, that energy actually is what provides the energy in the day-to-day to think of, like, what's the new thing that needs to be built?
• 28:13
  What's the thing that didn't, we didn't have before, maybe as an industry or whatever, that now, if we'd have access to, it would just be better? I mean, that- Right?
• 28:22
  I mean, like, that, that literally is quintessentially a great way to summarize why LiftKit exists. Yep. Right?
• 28:29
  [laughs] It was, like, one of those things, and there was some creative energy in, rolling around in Michael's head, and he's always...
• 28:34
  Look, if you don't know this about Michael Cirillo, if he's not, like, building a company, he's rearranging and tearing apart his desk, and then literally- [laughs]... lamenting about it in real time, "What have I done?"
• 28:44
  [laughs] As he's taking wires out. It's happened on so many calls we've been on, but- So many calls. And then building it right back up. But- Yeah. No, but that, that is why LiftKit came to be, Michael, right?
• 28:53
  You saw a thing, and you're like, "I gotta... I can do something about this." But, but enough about me, guys. Let's talk about you. What do you think about me? No, this is funny. [laughs] I'm gonna pa- [laughs]
• 29:02
  What do you think about me? I think that everybody's gonna love your new cover art on your podcast. I think that everybody- Yeah, they are... is gonna continue to love the Auto Collabs episodes.
• 29:11
  We just love sharing stories, uh, in the industry, our stories with you. Thank you for listening. On behalf of myself, Paul Jay Daly, and Ky- and Michael Cirillo, not Kyle. That's me.
• 29:22
  [laughs] Uh, thanks for joining us- Oh, he's speaking about himself in the third person now... on Auto Collabs. See y'all.
• 29:27
  [upbeat music] 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.
• 29:41
  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.
• 29:48
  [upbeat music] Welcome to Auto Collabs. Welcome to Auto Collabs. [laughs] Why are we recording? Are we rolling yet?
• 30:06
  Not yet.