Latest / Auto Collabs / Outsider Coming In with Jeff Gonzales

Transcript

Outsider Coming In with Jeff Gonzales · Auto Collabs

• 0:00
  Here's the thing. [upbeat music] This is Auto Collabs We always love being together because it starts with laughs, ends with laughs.
• 0:12
  [laughs] And, uh, you know, Jeff Gonzales is one of those guys that is always up for a good laugh.
• 0:19
  You know, uh, I remember a story that, uh, that, uh, that I think Michael may not know actually happened, but Paul and I were both there.
• 0:27
  Um, one of Jeff's employees, Andrew, uh, decided after winning the Innovation Cup at DSES- [laughs]...
• 0:34
  to bring that cup to our, uh, night, uh, our, our event party at the end of the Digital Dealer, uh, uh, night- [laughs]... the first night of Digital Dealer last year. And, uh, he, he didn't just bring it.
• 0:47
  It wasn't just, like, tucked under his arm, celebrating it, lifting it over. No.
• 0:52
  They went to Buy Buy Baby and bought a baby carrier, and he brought the cup in a baby carrier to the event, so- And they sourced- Jeff Gonzales and AET are s- [laughs] And they sourced that baby carrier in Las Vegas, by the way.
• 1:07
  That's unbelievable. Wow. Which is maybe- Which is next level... maybe the bigger feat. But they did ask permission. They're like, "Hey, would it, would it be okay if we did this?" I'm like, "You know-" [laughs] "...
• 1:14
  what kind of events we put on, right?" Like, you could do that and totally redeem yourself, right? [laughs] Like, and he did. And they crushed it. Perfect. Oh, man. Perfect.
• 1:22
  Was the carrier more expensive than the cup itself? [laughs] Probably. [laughs] In Vegas, probably. Those things... Look, those things are worth their weight in gold. Yeah, they are. I'll tell you that right now.
• 1:30
  Especially the ones that- Yeah, that's true... the weave in the back so you don't get... I don't know. Well, whatever the fact is, we hope you enjoy this interview with Jeff Gonzales from AET.
• 1:38
  [upbeat music] We've got my friend, Jeff Gonzales, the guy that always seems to have the most creative ways to put videos together of their office using their actually, actual technology- [laughs]...
• 2:01
  that nobody would ever expect out of a technology company. Jeff, thanks, uh, for coming on, uh, on the podcast with us, man. Hey, thanks for having me, guys. I really appreciate it.
• 2:12
  Dude, so one time, and we'll get into the rest of the thing, but I have to go to this. One time, you guys did this, like, competition between employees that were using your technology to place ads.
• 2:26
  And I thought it was- Yep... one of the most creative ways to explain what your platform could do, and even to like... [laughs] Th- there was this element was like, oh, they actually know how to use their stuff. I was...
• 2:39
  What? [laughs] Where did that come from? Like, w- how, how did the brains in, in the office go, "This is a thing we should do to show how our technology works"? Yeah, so it all started with a pie in the face.
• 2:50
  [laughs] So Betsy and I, uh, we have this competition- A pie. Love it...
• 2:54
  where we, we always kind of, like, compete with each oth- with each other a little bit, and the loser some, some, for some reason always gets a pie in the face. And it's not like a, a good pie.
• 3:03
  It's just like, you know, whipped cream on a plate, right?
• 3:05
  [laughs] Um, and so we were thinking about how we could do some content but kind of show off some of our tools and how quickly they, you know, can be used by anybody that's kind of familiar with them.
• 3:14
  So we were like, "Hey, let's just have a, like, a match up and, and, you know, see who can build out the most creative when it comes to, like, vehicle offers or videos or whatever, utilizing the AET platform."
• 3:25
  And we put, like, five minutes on the clock, I think it was, or seven minutes, something like that.
• 3:29
  And whoever made the most unique creative, and then it was judged by a dealer, the loser got hit in the face with a pie, so- [laughs]... Betsy got nailed in the face that time. Uh- Yes... I won that one.
• 3:40
  And, and she's the one who brought it up, thinking that she was gonna crush me on it. [laughs] Because she deals with our, yeah, she deals with our pla- You never, you never bring that up if you think you're gonna lose.
• 3:49
  Yeah. No, totally. [laughs] Totally. Yeah, yeah. 'Cause she, she deals with our platform the most in the operation side, so she's most familiar with it.
• 3:55
  But she doesn't realize that, like, at home, I'm building stuff all the time. [laughs] So it- I love it... it's, it's, it's fun. So, so take us back now. Let's zoom out a little bit because...
• 4:05
  And we'll get back to kind of the AET platform because I think it'd be good to talk about that, just because I don't think it's something that a ton of people know about and our audience might not even know and, um...
• 4:15
  But I wanna zoom back just a little bit on your history in the, the retail automobile business 'cause you're not just a tech guy. You actually came in through the retail side of the business. Uh, is that right? Yeah.
• 4:29
  Yeah, totally. So, uh, just to, uh, you know, clear it up, I'm not a tech guy by any means.
• 4:33
  Like, my team gets frustrated with me at times because I, like, you know, I, I, I'm messing up little pieces of code on the back end that I'm just trying to learn.
• 4:41
  But, um, so my background came, you know, I started at Stevenson Automotive here in Denver, Colorado. It was a seven rooftop, eight brand, I think, group, as the digital marketing manager, uh, for the entire group.
• 4:53
  And at the time, like, you know, we were really doing heavy social, and it wasn't as big in, in... as it, as it was, as, as it is now, right?
• 5:03
  And we got noticed by somebody at Toyota, I believe, and, uh, then I got recruited over to CK Advertising, which was previously Moore & Scary Advertising.
• 5:12
  Um, and if you're familiar with them, they're the guys that did, like, Haystack back in the day. Um- Oh, wow...
• 5:17
  and, uh, anyways, I took over their social product and helped them kind of rebrand it and rebuild it to Imbir Social. And, um, eventually we got up to about 400 dealerships that we were managing.
• 5:28
  I built up a team within. Betsy was part of that, our COO, uh, here at the company at AET. And, uh, that company was eventually sold, right? So it gave us the opportunity to come to AET.
• 5:39
  So there's your, there's your springboard into AET now, Kyle. Yeah. So, so did you... Like, was, was Stevenson your first marketing gig, or were you kind of in the marketing ecosystem before that?
• 5:50
  Or did you kinda- Sure... you know, some of the marketing people, it's like, "I started as a salesperson. That didn't work, so I went to marketing."
• 5:56
  [laughs] How did that, how, how did that kinda come to, come into play?Automotive was, like, actually, like, totally random that I got into it. Uh, I started, um, doing digital marketing up in Breckenridge, Colorado.
• 6:08
  I lived out there as a, you know, I'd call it a ski bum, right? But really I had a great job as a marketing director for a small hotel group up in the mountains.
• 6:17
  And, uh, and, and it's where I got my first taste of social media marketing, 'cause we used to do, like, last minute deals down to Denver, um, for, like, trying to fill our hotel space.
• 6:25
  And, um, that was my first real taste of it. And then I went to a company in Denver where we started doing social advertising, and this was back in the day of, like, Power Editor.
• 6:35
  If you're familiar with Facebook and you've been using Facebook ads for a long time, you'll know what I'm talking about. So it, it was, like, the clunkier first version of Ads Manager on the Facebook side.
• 6:47
  But it gave us our, my first taste into kinda that digital social advertising area. And we ended up getting a car dealership group and it was kind of fun advertising there.
• 6:56
  And the, the company that we were with was kind of, like, you know, it was, it was going nowhere fast, right? And so I, I interviewed for this, this position in auto and, and got it.
• 7:07
  And I, like, I remember sitting in the car one day before I accepted the position of like, "Man, do I really wanna go into auto or do I wanna stay within the agency world?"
• 7:15
  Uh, you know, this, this is kind of a big game changer potentially. And I ended up going with it. And it's, I mean, it's been fantastic ever since.
• 7:22
  Auto's been the most- Actually, let me ask a question about that right there. Yeah. When you were saying, like, "I don't know if I wanna go into auto," what can...
• 7:29
  Do you remember what those feelings and hesitancies were? Yeah. It just, in my mind, it seemed like an industry that's always forward thinking on, like, the products that they produce.
• 7:41
  But, like, I remember talking to the, to the group that I was interviewing with, uh, Stevenson. And at the time, I was like, "Man, these guys are so behind.
• 7:48
  Like, are they gonna really accept my thoughts and how, like, we can do digital instead of everything traditional at the time?" So I was like, "Am I gonna just go in here and everybody's gonna push back against me?"
• 7:59
  It ended up- And what year was that? What year was that? Oh, man. Um, that was probably 2015, 2014, something like that. Okay. Okay.
• 8:10
  So it's, you know, it was, it was quite a while back, and I could be totally off on that. If I had my LinkedIn profile, I could tell you exactly. [laughs] It's like, that's where I store all the stuff. Yeah. Yeah.
• 8:18
  Totally. Right.
• 8:20
  So, so l- and the reason I'm asking these questions is because, you know, Kyle and I talk a lot about needing to get outside automotive professionals to come and, you know, contribute their insights and innovation and experience
• 8:34
  to automotive from outside world. Mm-hmm. And, and you know, like, there's this thought, and I think you're validating it,
• 8:41
  "If I go into automotive with all of this experience, like, is that the end of the road for, like, my growth and development and innovation?"
• 8:50
  Because everyone's constantly going to say, like, "No, this is how you have to do it in automotive." You know? Yeah. Precisely, man. I mean, I think you hit the nail right on the head.
• 8:59
  And, and as you're bringing all of this up, I'm, I'm, like, kind of getting these, like, thoughts, like, you know, coming back to me of, like, yeah, you know, where, what, was my innovation gonna stop there?
• 9:09
  Am I gonna be, like, handcuffed to the way that the dealership life wanted to do it? You know, was, was I gonna be making, you know, I don't, I don't know, magazine spots or, or, you know, images for- Yeah.
• 9:20
  Or- This is how we do it. Yeah. And- We get in front of a camera. We yell at everybody. Totally. We put it in front of cars, and then they're gonna buy. Yeah.
• 9:28
  Put some wacky waving inflatable arm tube men and some giant, you know, uh, you know, gorillas out there that- Take your Power Manager and put it where the sun don't shine. [laughs] Yeah.
• 9:37
  And, and, and, and it ended up turning the right way for me, and they listened and, and, you know, it, it eventually got the attention of others, right? So, um, I, I was totally wrong.
• 9:46
  You know, there were some parts that I, you know, I really had to push on. But I think, um, you know, after, you know, there was so much amount of pressure, they were just like, "Okay, fine. Just go ahead and try it.
• 9:55
  And if it works, you look like the, you know, the good guy here."
• 9:58
  So, um, you know, in auto, I think, um, you know, it's, it's, it's an industry that's always, like, a step behind from, you know, in my opinion, of, like, the advertising stuff. But it's catching up really quickly.
• 10:09
  And, uh- You mean, like, the general, the rest of the retail advertising world? Yeah. Totally. And it's really all the compliances behind it. And, and dealers, you know, th- they're limited budgets.
• 10:19
  They have limited inventory now. It's, it's harder now to get them to try, like, TikTok per se than, you know, it was back in the day of doing Facebook. And it, I joke about this- You know-... all the time...
• 10:28
  I, I'm gonna push back on one thing that you said. Sure. They have limited budgets. That's true. [laughs] That is a self-created limitation. Because we all know- Well-...
• 10:40
  that there are not significant budget constraints right now. It's just a decision to not allocate it. I think that's what it is.
• 10:47
  And I think it's more on, like, our, our industry struggles with, uh, like, research and development kind of dollars. We, we, we're not- Yes... especially at the tier three level.
• 10:59
  There's no like, "Hey, we- we're just gonna try this" knowing that it could totally fail and not faulting someone for the fact that it failed, right? Like- Yeah.
• 11:09
  And not just that, but that we, we, we just, we're like, "Okay, let's do TikTok ads. It's probably gonna blow us up." And 30 days later, we're like, "Nothing happened." [laughs] Right? Yeah. Or like 15 days later.
• 11:22
  [laughs] Seven days later. After the first two posts, right? You're- Nobody's clicked on it. You're getting phone calls. [laughs] Well, I didn't sell many cars. Come on, guys. Right. You know, it's funny.
• 11:31
  Um, you know, I was telling Ryan over at TikTok not too long ago, um, you know, I feel like I'm having some of the same conversations I did back when I was trying to push Facebook, right? Mm.
• 11:41
  'Cause dealers are like, "Oh, you know, nobody's on Facebook. It's all these, you know, young kids." And it's like, come on, buddy. That's a brand new buying demographic. Go after it. Get out there.
• 11:50
  If it fails, like, at least you tried it. You got some, you got some information behind it. But don't just say no. Like, give it a whirl. And it- Mm-hmm...
• 11:57
  and I, I promise you, give it three, four months, something like that, and it will start to show some, it, it will start to, start to show its face. But it's funny, like-It's the same conversation, different platform.
• 12:09
  Mm-hmm. Hmm. So you've actually- Interesting... watched that transition.
• 12:12
  I think that's really relevant knowledge because now it's like we see how fast, how fast that, you know, that young buying demographic becomes the primary buying demographic, right? Totally.
• 12:24
  Like, it feels like just like that, you know? Yep. It just happened.
• 12:28
  And then that young platform is the one where is the most technologically sophisticated, where you can serve up the best ads, and you kind of built the brand loyalty.
• 12:36
  So I think, like, this message is very, very timely for, for where the industry is right now because, like, it just happened, right? It just happened. Yep. The last 10 years- Yep...
• 12:46
  happened like that, and now Facebook is, you know, for, for the grandmas and grandpas. [laughs] It really is. I, I still love my Instagram.
• 12:56
  You know, I was actually re- uh, we were, we were talking about a couple weeks ago how TikTok is now, um, like, the second leading source for search volume behind YouTube and videos. Is that...
• 13:09
  That's where people are going to find out information about purchasing or doing new things or, or whatever it may be.
• 13:16
  So y- you know, when you think about, like, when you think about a social platform giving access to research, which is what a lot of shopping behavior is, is research. The- Mm-hmm...
• 13:28
  like, TikTok is actually growing faster in that perspective- Very fast... than even Facebook or a Snapchat that is much, or an Instagram, that is much more delineated for ash- a- actual social platform.
• 13:41
  But TikTok is recognizing the searchability. And so, uh, I guess are, are you seeing that?
• 13:46
  Because I know your platform is kind of experimenting and working in with, you know, inventory stuff on, on TikTok, but are you seeing people experimenting with this, like,
• 13:56
  transactional advertising and a- as well as, like, the fun side of TikTok and then leaning into also the research orientation of TikTok?
• 14:05
  I- is that, is that something that people are experimenting with both inside and outside of your platform, knowing kind of the social media game like you do? You know, I, I can say on a personal level I do.
• 14:15
  Just, I, like, I fit that mold perfectly, right? Mm-hmm. But, you know, in automotive, I, it's, it's hard to say just yet, right?
• 14:21
  It, we've really only been on, on TikTok's platform for about s- four months now and having folks, uh, utilizing it, and we're seeing a mix of use cases in it with organic and paid ads.
• 14:33
  I can't really speak on the, the research side other than, you know, it's me going on there and looking.
• 14:38
  Like, I just bought a electric specialized bike, so I started following all of these, you know, uh, all of these companies on there to get the information about them.
• 14:46
  I haven't done, like, I haven't heard that a lot in the automotive space. But I can guarantee you, like, just like Facebook, it's coming down the road. It's just, it's, it's catching up to itself right now.
• 14:57
  I mean, I can imagine EVs just being a massive- Totally... massive, massive- Yeah... search, search opportunity on TikTok. Yeah. Massive. Yeah. Really interesting.
• 15:08
  Well, there's, there's a product thing for you guys gotta figure out how to get all [laughs] that research in there for. So to, like, I, I think AET a- as a company obviously solves a problem.
• 15:20
  I'm guessing you maybe in your agency or dealership experience experienced some of the things that you're, n- you're now trying to solve for others.
• 15:29
  So what, what's that kinda, like, core solve that you're looking to, to bring to the industry or you have brought to the industry in, um, in what probably came out of s- uh, you know, experience since you are so experienced in the social media a- advertising e- ecosystem?
• 15:46
  Yeah, totally. Um, so I remember the aha moment when we, when we were doing this, but the core idea behind AET was to empower the dealer.
• 15:55
  And there's a lot of great tools that are available, but we never saw creative, uh, creative tools that empowered a dealer with everything that they needed for automotive. 'Cause automotive advertising isn't easy.
• 16:07
  There's compliances, there's, you know, you know, jelly beans, the vehicle images, right, that have to be perfect. There has to be, you know, the, the disclaimers, and you gotta have font packages.
• 16:16
  And, you know, if you're a designer, you know how to do all that stuff in Canva or Figma or, you know, or, or Adobe products, a- any of these tools that are out there.
• 16:26
  But you have to have a, you know, a certain background.
• 16:28
  So I remember the aha moment when I was at, at CK Advertising, and, you know, we're talking to this dealer, and they're basically telling us how to run their ads at the time, right? Of like, "Hey, this is what we want.
• 16:39
  This is what we want the creative to look like. This is what we want it to say." And I'm sitting there like, "Why don't you just do this yourself, man?" Right. And it was like- You, you do it... well, if we had... Yeah.
• 16:47
  What do you need me for? Like, you're paying us, you know, top dollar for all of this, and, you know, you're, you're just having somebody else do it.
• 16:53
  Like, if the, if only there was a tool available that empowered you to create- [laughs]... and then deploy this. Well, hey, boom, here we are today.
• 17:01
  So AET's platform, you know, the c- the core side of it is on the creative part, right?
• 17:06
  So that's, that's kind of like our staple product that we started with, that we wanted to give to dealers that had everything from, you know, brand creative at a whole embedded directly in the tool.
• 17:17
  So all of those elements that I just talked about, the vehicle images, the font packages, backgrounds, all the different sizes for Facebook advertising, mobile-based ads, banner advertising, all embedded in this creative tool that was so easy to use.
• 17:31
  And that was the key part of it, is I had to make this easy to use. Because if it wasn't, then it's no different than any of those other products that were out there. Mm.
• 17:40
  But then once you had creative, it was like, "All right. Now what do I do with this," right?
• 17:44
  So then we started tapping into the APIs of, like, Facebook and all the other channels that we can deploy ads into, and built in all those strategies that we had been using already for years directly into the computers.
• 17:56
  'Cause all it is is button pressing, right, on the back end when you send, send a Facebook ad, setting up the optimizations, what you want it to do, and then attaching all the different pieces to it.
• 18:04
  Well, the computers can do all of that. So we tapped into all these, uh, different areas, built in the op- same optimizations that an agency would use. But-Let the computers handle it.
• 18:15
  And it allows a user with no experience in creative, no experience in ad deployment to social channels, to come into a tool, be able to get ads out there quickly, efficiently, typically about five to seven days faster than an, an ad agency just 'cause there's no revisions, they're doing it the way they want to.
• 18:33
  Um, makes it pretty sim- uh, simple and seamless. I love when products legit come out of, of a backstory- Right... where, like, all the pain can be so much, so easily tracked. Yeah. Right?
• 18:48
  And from you, you're like from the outside, the outside agency perspective, from the outside automotive perspective, right, all of these little roadblocks.
• 18:56
  From the understanding of how dealers operate, from hearing the questions, and, like, just such a common sense deployment. I mean, that's why, like, you know,
• 19:06
  when, when Canva came on the scene, and if you're not familiar with Canva, C-A-N-V-A, um, it's an on- it's a web-based tool that allows you to create social posts and now video content and motion design and all these things, and they really, like, tried to bring it down to the lowest common denominator, right?
• 19:23
  They said, "Okay, how can the least qualified person possible still produce something that is, is ready for the show," right? Right. And you layer in automotive, right?
• 19:34
  A big part of being ready for the show is, like you mentioned, all the compliance. You know, and that, outside agencies don't understand that about automotive, right? Mm-hmm.
• 19:43
  I've, I've seen people come in, you know, like, come in from outside, and they're like, "Oh, yeah, this, this sucks.
• 19:48
  This is easy," and then you just, like, show them, like, "Oh, by the way, it's gotta keep up with all these things." [laughs] Yeah, right. And all of a sudden the attitude changes pretty quickly.
• 19:58
  [laughs] Oh, and, and it's- And they're like, "Oh, okay" [laughs] And it's not just one size fits all, right? Every brand- Never... is a little bit different. Oh.
• 20:05
  And, you know, ex- ha- the expectations for, like, a luxury brand over, you know, more of a domestic y- your brand is, is, i- or your typical Chevys or whatever, a lot different, man. It's crazy. It's crazy.
• 20:19
  And so, you know, having all of that knowledge, that backend knowledge, and building that directly into the software was key for making this stuff work. So who's...
• 20:28
  W- what's, like, uh, uh, if you had a kind of a dealer persona that is- Mm-hmm... like a power user or a best case scenario for something like this, for a technology like this, who would you see...
• 20:40
  Y- you know, obviously most people can say, like, "Oh, it's great for any dealer," but, like, who are the personas, who are the people that are, that really that you're saying, "Hey, look, this is probably keyed in and dialed in for these types of dealer personas"？ Um, because I think that that's, that's important for a lot.
• 20:56
  It's like, hey, s- some people this might not be right for, but some people this is perfect for. Where, where is that kinda sitting for you all? Yeah, absolutely.
• 21:04
  Um, so, so you said it in, in, in that this tool isn't for everybody, right? Uh, i- it's, it's built for everybody, but you have to be able to, uh, spend the time, right? And it's not a lot of time, but you...
• 21:18
  We, we have just about every type of user on our platform. We have large dealer groups with, you know, teams utilizing it.
• 21:25
  We have mom and pop shops that have one to two rooftops across their brand with one marketing person in-house that's using it.
• 21:32
  I find that our sweet spot is around that, you know, three to five rooftop group where it's like, "Hey, do we really wanna go buy...
• 21:40
  You know, spend a lot of money on an expensive agency or do we, you know, wanna build a team internally, or do we have one person in-house that has the time to take over a tool that can do everyth- you know, everything that we've discussed here?"
• 21:52
  Um, so when it comes down to the persona, like, really it's across the board, but it's, it, like I said, it's not for everybody. But we try to weed that out during our conversations of, like, "Hey, is this tool for you?
• 22:04
  If not, like, you know, you're hap- we're, we're happy to sell it to you, and you can try it out." And that's why we don't lock people into, like, t- long-term contracts or anything 'cause it's not for everybody.
• 22:12
  They might jump in and 90 days in they're like, "Ah, you know, I love the tool. It's easy. I just don't have time for it." Um, and we totally get it, right? But
• 22:22
  across the board I think, you know, the users of our tools love it. They find it, you know, they find it powerful. Um, and if, and if you understand enough about your brand you can use this tool on a monthly basis. Yeah.
• 22:35
  Without a doubt.
• 22:36
  Actually, I, I worked with someone that, uh, had never run a social media ad in their life, and we, we legit deployed a large AIA strategy in less than nine minutes the first time they had ever touched the platform.
• 22:52
  It was pre- Right...
• 22:53
  it's, it's pretty wi- like, you can go from never having deployed on social to launching a, an inventory campaign in nine minutes in the platform that is synchronous with the brand, uh, you know, has brand standards down for the OEM, and targets the right audience.
• 23:11
  So I, I, I, I'm, I, I know that it works, right? It doesn't work for everybody, but it does work. I would be remiss if I didn't ask the question, because you've got such an interesting background behind you- [laughs]...
• 23:22
  and I know that this is like, whoosh, we're just gonna whiplash everybody. If you're n- if you're just listening, he's got, like, like, skateboards on a w- if you, if you're watching, you see my hats, right?
• 23:33
  I've got these, all these hats. [laughs] But Jeff has, like, 90 s- no, I'm just kidding. I can see five skateboards and a, and a, and a, and a helmet there. Um, i- is that...
• 23:43
  It sounds like y- it looks like that's kind of a passion of yours, and there's some creativity focused on that.
• 23:49
  Like, how do you see your, your, like, hobbies playing into the way that you do and experience business life at this point, specifically maybe the hobby of sk- of, of skateboarding there? Yeah. Yeah, it's funny.
• 24:02
  So, uh, i- I'll tell you this, if it wasn't for skateboarding I don't think I'd be here todayAnd, and I'll sh- and I'll t- I'll give you that timeline, 'cause it, it has to do with skateboarding, but a little bit different.
• 24:10
  So, uh, I grew up skateboarding. I listened, you know, I grew up listening to punk rock music. You can probably see those posters. But I love music across the board. But I grew up skateboarding.
• 24:18
  And after college, um, you know, I didn't wanna go into the corporate life, so I was like, "Hey, I'm gonna, I'm gonna move to Colorado and be a ski bum and go snowboard."
• 24:27
  Because, you know, skateboarding was, you know, I've done a lot of that already. And so I lived out in Colorado, or in Breckenridge, Colorado, for five years, snowboarding.
• 24:36
  Like, I kinda told you, I found a great job out there. But, um, it brought me here. And it brought me to an area where, like, it wasn't the norm, right?
• 24:47
  Not everybody goes to, you know, the mountains of Colorado and spends five years of their life.
• 24:52
  You know, everybody's getting jobs and starting families, and I'm just sitting out there, you know, drinking Coors Light beers and snowboarding and having the best time of my life. And I wouldn't trade that for anything.
• 25:01
  And it also allowed me to meet my wife and, and everything as well.
• 25:04
  But it, it brought me to the people that I, that I now work with today, um, and, and brought a lot of inspiration into kind of creativity and trying to be a, you know, thinking differently, right?
• 25:15
  'Cause it's not the norm. Um, but now, like, I've, I'm trying to pass that on to my daughter, who's only three, and I've got her skateboarding, and I got her a first season pass this year to go snowboarding.
• 25:24
  [laughs] Aw, man. We started pulling her around last year on it. [laughs] So I'm trying to pass that down, and hopefully she's, she gets it. And she's, she loves skateboarding already. She loved, uh, snowboarding.
• 25:35
  But, um, yeah, it's, uh, you know, the action sports have always been a passion of mine. And I've, I've, you know, I'm getting older, so it hurts a lot more when I fall.
• 25:44
  [laughs] So I don't, I don't, I try not to fall anymore. But, uh, you know, it's, it's, it's something that, that's been a big part of my life for a long time. Oh, man.
• 25:51
  Well, look, I think that the, the level of creativity and kind of that adventurous spirit really does come through in the work you're doing with the product, in the, the energy you're bringing to the industry.
• 26:06
  So, uh, really excited to hang out a little bit in person at ASOTU CON. Um, just, man, keep, keep us in, heading in that direction.
• 26:14
  I feel like, and I know Kyle does, too, feel like that's healthy for the automotive industry. So thank you so much for spending some time with us today. Yeah, absolutely, guys.
• 26:21
  I'm really looking forward to seeing you guys out in Philly. I'll be sure to wear my Cowboys stuff while I'm out there. [laughs] Just for you, Paul. [laughs] Hey, look, I got something to show you. Check this out.
• 26:30
  [laughs] Look at this. Look at this. It's- Uh... [laughs] If, if you can't see- [laughs]... it's an Eagles jersey with ASOTU CON '22 on it. So that'll be- I love it. I love it... a little Dallas, Dallas V Philly.
• 26:47
  I'll, I'll bring you one. I'll bring you one. [laughs] All right, I love it. I love it. Um- I'll, I'll put it, I'll put it, I'll put it in the closet behind my, like...
• 26:53
  My, my wife's from Cincinnati, so I've got some things up there. I use it to clean up the dog mess, right? [laughs] That's how that works. [laughs] Uh, we'll talk to you soon, Jeff. All right. Take care, guys.
• 27:06
  [upbeat music] I, I'm always impressed, especially to today's standards, what it actually takes to achieve a measure of success. And that's the sense that I get from Jeff.
• 27:16
  I mean, he's had a, a, just a, a long breadth of experience and, and, you know, it took all of that in sequence to get him to where he is today.
• 27:28
  And I really appreciate perspective like that in today's world, where it's like, "Oh, no, you just do the thing, and then you're gonna be valued at a billion dollars." Right.
• 27:35
  [laughs] And how that kinda makes other entrepreneurs and other developers and, and people wanting to really do something.
• 27:40
  But when, you know, I've got his Linked-out, LinkedIn up, and you see just the series of events and how that experience is compounding over the years, um, it, it's just always impressive, and I really appreciate that perspective.
• 27:52
  It is one of the things with this podcast, we've been able to kind of see a lot of the steps that have happened that got the person to the seat that they're in today, um, which is by far one of the most enjoyable parts of doing these, because you really do need to understand the path that someone took to get where they are to get the full context of not only what they're doing, but also, you know, it's our desire to see a lot of, you know, progressive dealers partner up with these progressive industry partners, and understanding how much they, they know or, like, what the path was.
• 28:24
  It really does help in that kind of matchmaking process, because you kinda get a vibe and an energy. And Jeff definitely has...
• 28:30
  Like, if I'm talking about creating content in, in automotive and thinking about it in a progressive and fun and relevant way, it's like his path actually paints to that.
• 28:39
  Even his lifestyle, even the ski bum part, is a big, a big and important part of that story. [laughs] You know, one thing that I love about, uh, about Jeff is he's a practitioner as well as, like, a product guy.
• 28:51
  Hear, hear. So not just a, a past practitioner. But I brought up the story of, of him kinda doing the, "Hey, we've gotta use our actual product, see how fast we can make something happen." I love that.
• 29:01
  And so it's, it's just really cool to see, you know, a lot of times, like, you see a CEO or co-founder or founder really not, uh, continuing to stay in the weeds of their product and understanding how to use it and whether it actually works for someone that's in a dealership and, and trying to create content or push out social posts every single day.
• 29:19
  And for him, it's like, it's, it's a, it's a thing that is necess- it's, it's necessary for him to understand his product, understand the way people are using it, so that he can connect the right end user to the product, uh, to be able to serve the customer.
• 29:32
  So we really thank, uh, uh, you, uh, we thank you for listening to this episode of Auto Collabs. I'm stumbling over my words today.
• 29:40
  [laughs] I don't know where they, they all ate, they, they all got swallowed down the back of my throat. But, uh, we, we had a ton of fun hanging out with Jeff Gonzalez. So for myself, Kyle Mountsier.
• 29:49
  Michael Cirillo, Paul Jay Daly, we will see you next time. 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.
• 30:03
  That's A-S-O-T-U.com. 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.
• 30:14
  [upbeat music] Welcome to Auto Collabs. Welcome to Auto Collabs. [laughs] Are we recording yet? Are we rolling yet? Not yet.