Latest / Auto Collabs / Shooting 3/4 Shots of Malibus with Peter Duffy

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Shooting 3/4 Shots of Malibus with Peter Duffy · Auto Collabs

• 0:00
  You know, best practices. Let's go down the best practice list for podcasts. [upbeat music] This is Auto Collabs.
• 0:11
  Number one- You don't talk about the drink you're drinking on the podcast and then take a swig of it right after. No, I was gonna say- Um, hold on...
• 0:17
  make sure that Kyle is chewing something when you hit record, number one. That's the- That means you can get the first word in. This is happening live. Second rule of podcasting: Don't- I need to lie down...
• 0:27
  try and purchase pre-sale Foo Fighters tickets, 'cause they're coming online right now. Right now. Get them, get them, get them, get them. Um, this- Tickets are about to become available. Sit tight.
• 0:37
  Oh, I've never sat so tight. Whoop. Wow. Don't the, don't the Foo Fighters come to Canada? They do, actually. Uh, the Foo Fighters- You're acting like you've never had the opportunity before... speaking of Foo Fighters.
• 0:49
  No, but it's been... I haven't been to a show since 2008. Avril Lavigne. [laughs] No, Foo Fighters. [laughs] And actual- Opening for Avril Lavigne... for Avril Lavigne. [laughs] And, um, Nickelback. And- [laughs]
• 1:05
  Nickelback played the same eight songs. It was great. I thought they were the same band for a while. No, I never did. [laughs] I never did. The Foo Fighters and Nickelback. Lay them over.
• 1:13
  Dave Grohl's gonna- Do the old, do the old- Dave Grohl's gonna come kill me... uh, you know, iMusic layover. Everybody, "It's the same song." Chord progressions are exactly the same. No, they're very, very different.
• 1:21
  Same song. Very different. Very different. Hey, look, it's funny that we're talking about rock and roll at the beginning of this show, because today's guest, uh, kind of feels rock and roll to me.
• 1:29
  I don't know if he feels rock and roll. Little bit rock and roll. Little bit does feel a little bit rock and roll.
• 1:31
  And what I know about this crew and, and Dealer Image Pro and Peter Duffy is, like, they're a little bit rock and roll. They're a little bit avant-garde. Kind of don't care what you think. [laughs] Little... Yeah.
• 1:39
  Like, they don't really care what you think.
• 1:41
  They're gonna come with, uh, with all the heat, with all the energy of what the thing, and if you don't know that and wanna, like, get a little sniff into what they're actually about, you can go search them on YouTube, find, find their little video, and you'll be like, "Oh, about to get into a thing," right?
• 1:56
  And I mean, they- Michael can't handle himself after you said that. Well, no, I find it... [laughs] And if you don't know who they are, they, they had this dude, right? Like, they had... They, they got this guy. Yeah.
• 2:05
  The cow- Yeah. He's got the cowboy hat on. He is, yeah. Cowboy hat on. He's got the cowboy hat. Right? He's got the- Does Pete have that sitting there for this intro? No.
• 2:11
  Or do you just have a cowboy hat- It's, it's on the wall... in your hat now 'cause you live in Texas? It's new. It's T- it's Texas. It's Texas on the wall.
• 2:15
  It's right next to m- the mountie hat is right on the other side. It's like cowboy hat, mountie hat, which is- Oh, that would be contraband. [laughs] Oh. And so- Oh, that's good. Grabbing that.
• 2:25
  [laughs] And, and- Oh, it's property of the Queen. [laughs] For some reason, he now wears boots to sleep. Yeah. It's crazy. I don't know what happened. Well, all of that said- Only, only boots to sleep...
• 2:34
  we really, really hope that you enjoy this interview and, and conversation with Peter Duffy of Dealer Image Pro. [upbeat music] All right. We are hanging out with, in long form, Peter A. Duffy Jr.
• 2:51
  [laughs] He, I think, for some reason, must have intentionally put that as his title, if you're watching the video podcast. Peter, thanks for joining us on Auto Collabs today, man. Thanks. Thank you, Kyle. All right.
• 3:01
  So my first question for the people that are just listening, behind you you've got a massive rock on the wall. Uh, it's not an actual rock, it's a picture of a rock.
• 3:12
  Is, does that signify- Kind of like, more of like a mountain man... anything in your life? D- any, the- Just for the people on the audio, it's actually a mountain. [laughs] That is true. It's actually a mountain.
• 3:19
  It's, uh, it's actually a very famous mountain, I'm pretty sure. It's a famous mountain, and I know that.
• 3:23
  If you don't know what mountain it is, it's Half Dome from Yosemite, which is arguably one of the most featured, uh, rocks in the world, really. Yeah. Yeah. So- Was that on an Apple screensaver at some point?
• 3:35
  [laughs] Uh, it is, actually. So this is from a specific, um, location up there, and so it's pretty easy to get to. Uh, but, uh, you know, you can drive up there and everything. But, yeah. Um, I- Are you a rock climber?
• 3:47
  I, I believe that was the iOS Yosemite- [laughs] I'm sure it-... uh, background. There we go. I'm sure it is. I'm sure it was. All right. So the real question- Yes... is, like- Right...
• 3:57
  did you just buy it because it was the iOS Yosemite, or- No... is there a special meaning to you? I actually know- Like, have you climbed it?
• 4:03
  Have you- I have not climbed Half Dome, but I've done a couple of other, uh, bigger mountains.
• 4:07
  In fact, there's one in the far, far back there on the left called Cathedral, um, which is pretty amazing, and that's, like, the first, uh, mountain climb that I've ever, um, actually led the climb, uh, where I placed the gear and then someone else was coming up and, you know, getting through it.
• 4:22
  Um, but yeah, I think the, uh, my entire life has been a series of climbing mountains, just like I suppose anyone else's. [laughs] But, um, I often use those terms when I'm talking to our team. You know?
• 4:34
  Like, if we don't quit, or if we quit, we're for sure not going to the top. So don't quit, no matter what. Even if we're second or third up at the top of the mountain, at least we got to the top. Don't worry about it.
• 4:44
  Gotcha. So we, we use those often. I just, I just had to, I just had to guess that, like, a guy with a mountain picture in his background had some stories around the mountain picture.
• 4:51
  I took the picture too, so, like, it's kinda good, right? Wait a second. Wait. Yeah. See... And I built the camera. I'm a professional photographer, Kyle. What are you talking about?
• 5:00
  And the helicopter I was flying in, I built that too. [laughs] And I was piloting it at the same time. Okay, for- You thought some of the, you thought I hung a picture on my wall that someone else took? Are you serious?
• 5:10
  Oh, that sounds- That's all of my pictures. Well- Yeah, yeah... so. Zero pictures back there. [laughs] Um, no, I'm a professional photographer. That's how we got to where we are with Dealer Image Pro, man.
• 5:21
  This is not a joke, right? So we're not just a little company that built an app and tried to sell it to auto dealers. Mm-hmm.
• 5:26
  We're the guys that actually did it on the ground with the keys and the boxes of keys in the cold and the hot, and the running around and hurting hands. Yeah, but I've, I've met, I've met those guys. Yeah.
• 5:35
  And I used to run around them a lot with a lot of those guys in my reconditioning days. Yeah. And many of those were not professional photographers. [laughs] So put that- Right.
• 5:44
  Taking pictures of Half Dome in Yosemite- Fair enough... from an epic position. Fair enough. Right?
• 5:49
  [laughs] I think, I think, um, I think you're probably right, Paul, and I think that is why they are still lot photographers and I'm not. [laughs] Oh. Deep. There it is. Deep. Adam.It is what it is, dude. Okay.
• 6:02
  Well, tell, tell us this story. We always like to ask people- Yeah... how they made their way into automotive.
• 6:06
  Obviously, you made your way onto a lot with a camera, probably having a passion for photography before you started snapping three-quarter shots of Malibus. Um, how, how did- [laughs] How did you, how did you...
• 6:18
  And [laughs] So how did you end up in- That's sick. [laughs] I hate Malibus. Nathan, hold on. Nathan, write that down. Snapping three-quarter shots of Malibus. Malibus. That's the title, all right? Boom.
• 6:28
  [laughs] Shit on Malibus, buddy. No, but how did, how did you end up into the auto industry to begin with? How much time do you got? [laughs] Oh, we have like 15- No, give us-... minutes left. Yeah.
• 6:37
  But we wanna talk about other stuff too. So long story short, uh, I'm a licensed mortician, so right out of high school- [laughs] Obviously, right? Uh, yeah. I know. That makes total sense. The obvious path.
• 6:46
  Licensed mortician, rock climber, professional photographer. I got it all, buddy. Bo-ro. I jump out of airplanes. Um, no.
• 6:53
  So g- I, uh, I was a mortician earlier on and, um, I had an opportunity to go to Japan and work, uh, in Japan at a Japanese mortuary for about a year.
• 7:03
  And, um, when I went, uh, I'd kind of picked up videography, you know, Hi8, MiniDV stuff, shooting my friends' bands, a lot of jackass stuff, us, you know, jumping in bushes and stuff like that, ha- doing stupid stuff.
• 7:16
  And then, um, a little bit later, I, when I got to Japan, I picked up a still camera.
• 7:21
  And then after Japan, I backpacked around the world for like three or four months and, um, came back with all these really great pictures, and I'm, you know, flowers and butterflies and the Great Wall of China type shit, right?
• 7:33
  And so I get, um, back and I start selling them in, uh, bed and breakfasts and things like this, and I'm like, "Oh, okay.
• 7:42
  Maybe, maybe I can be a photographer instead of a mortician all the time," and, you know, this kind of stuff.
• 7:48
  And so I came out to California to be a Californ- a, a photographer and, um, and it worked out okay at first, but, uh, I went to school and got kicked out of school for not having enough money to finish.
• 8:00
  And, um, when I got through that part, I was like, "Well, I'm not going back to Connecticut. I'm not going back to New England. I'm staying here. I came to California to be a photographer. That's what I'm doing."
• 8:11
  And so, you know, wading my way through the portraits and the weddings and all this kind of stuff, I found, um, one dealer, uh, had me take portraits of them.
• 8:21
  Or no, I did it for a school, uh, assignment actually, where I took p- portraits of them in front of a bunch of Ferraris. It was the Calabasas Ferrari dealership at the time in, in LA.
• 8:30
  And, um, it came out really cool, and I was like, "Oh, okay. I kind of see where this is going." And the general manager had me go photograph, um, the Concorso d'Eleganza. Have you ever been there, in Monterey?
• 8:43
  Yeah, Concorso d'Eleganza. Concorso d'Eleganza. Yeah. Very, very prestigious car show. Like, if you ever thought you knew how much money there was in the world, you don't know until you go to this thing.
• 8:49
  [laughs] You ever wanna feel super- The w-... small. The women with the babushkas. Yeah. The, yeah, you've heard of Z, right? Yeah. Lines of Ferraris, post and pre-World War II cars, you know, this kind of thing. Oh.
• 8:59
  And so I photographed them. I mean, we're talking $6 million Audis and Ferraris- Crazy... that are, like, really old, you know what I mean? And really well done.
• 9:08
  And so I came back from there and I gave all the pictures to him and he goes, "Hey, these, we're gonna use this for the AutoGroup magazine," this kind of thing. And I was like, "Great. This is cool."
• 9:16
  And I kind of walked out of there and I was like, "Oh, cars I love, photography I love." And then it was like, "Oh, I see what's going on here." Now we're- And so the two came together...
• 9:27
  gonna find a Chevy Malibu on a lot. [laughs] So then, no, it, it turns out, so now I'm scanning Craigslist, right? For weddings and portraits just to stay fed, and I'm embalming bodies on the side.
• 9:38
  I know that sounds sick. [laughs] But, right? It's like- I had to pay the rent, I had to pay the rent, right? I had to pay the car payment. What do you want from me? So- Ferraris, flowers, and bodies, you know?
• 9:49
  And bodies just falling from the sky. That's like his tagline.
• 9:52
  [laughs] So, um, then this dealership in Southern California, and this is 2009 by the way, built a studio, 'cause you remember eBay Motors was gonna be like the next big thing. It was gonna- The thing. Yeah...
• 10:03
  be the Cars.com- Yeah... or the AutoTrader. And so there was this one general manager, Steve Chapman, who was like really forward-thinking at the time, and he goes, "I'm gonna build a studio.
• 10:11
  I'm gonna have professional pictures. I'm gonna put them out." And so I ans- I didn't even answer the Craigslist ad. I just went right to the dealership. I was like, "I'm your man." And they're like, "Cool.
• 10:19
  Shoot two, two cars and figure it out." And, um, I knew they'd built the studio but didn't have enough light in there and stuff, 'cause of my knowledge of, of photography.
• 10:27
  And, uh, I went back to my garage and got every light I had, came back down there, shot the two cars. They loved it, and I agreed on this whopping price that you would never get today per car.
• 10:38
  [laughs] And so then I'm photographing 60, 70 cars at 75 bucks a piece or something at the time. And it was- Good night. [laughs] Yeah, which doesn't happen now.
• 10:46
  I think there's kids are out there doing it for 15 or 20 bucks nowadays, right? Right. And so, and inflation goes up, which is crazy. But anyway. [laughs] So you have me doing this, and then I kind of duplicated that.
• 10:59
  They gave me another store, et cetera, et cetera. I saw the writing on the wall. And I've been an entrepreneur my whole life.
• 11:04
  But you get to that point, it was like, "Cool, now we have 35, 40 dealers, 25, 26 photographers." It's a good business, like, you know, but it's also a landscaping business, right?
• 11:14
  Like, I mow your lawn, you pay me the money. Yep. There's no scalability. There wasn't any kind of- Not more people. Yeah... easy. Right? Yep. So in 2016, you'll love this part, we're moving into some new offices.
• 11:27
  I have these really good friends of mine that own a bunch of Domino's Pizzas, super business-minded, and we're smoking some weed and we're wa- moving into our new offices. It's a very northern California story.
• 11:36
  [laughs] Remember, he's in northern California, everybody. We smoked- He's in northern California... No, no, no. So one of them- He's not in Wisconsin And we're like, "We have an idea for these commercials."
• 11:44
  [laughs] You can bleep it or whatever, but, you know, we gotta have a little spice in this- No, we can just leave it... can't we? It's not a, it's not a bad word. So- It's the story. [laughs] Oh, no. Did we lose it?
• 11:55
  Hello? Yeah, I got it. Oh. All right. Uh-ohHere's the part where the entrepreneur gets interrupted by a phone call and then it messes up his earbuds.
• 12:11
  And Michael and Kyle and I are sitting here staring at Peter and we can no longer hear him, so he's putting his earbuds back in. His he- earbuds are strange and- Next Now the narrators- We are- Oh.
• 12:23
  Hey, we're back everybody. Thanks for staying with us through that segment. [laughs] We just narrated our way through that. We just worked, worked it out. I left you on a cliffhanger with the weed, right? See?
• 12:31
  It's perfect. Yeah. It was perfect, though it wasn't intentional. [laughs] Um, so my friends go, "Hey, you need to scale."
• 12:40
  And we're getting calls from different parts of the country, but I can't go do photos in Missouri, right, like for, w- at this time, 35 bucks a piece or $30 a piece. And, uh, I was like, "Okay."
• 12:51
  I was like, "But I need to get them to do the proper compositions."
• 12:55
  And like, in that moment I was like, "Oh, if I could give them a wireframe guide and teach them where to stand and take these pictures in sequence, and then send them to me, we can edit and put these online and box them up and publish them for the dealership."
• 13:10
  That's good. And I was like, "Okay, I'm doing it." And, and we invented wireframe guides, even though everyone else does it, by the way. So we got the patent on that, did the whole thing, and we went right for...
• 13:21
  This is 2016. So then I accidentally sold eight dealerships by just chance. They were already existing clients of ours, but they wanted more coverage.
• 13:31
  And then I was like, "Oh, in-house gets them faster time to market," and started like... It all started to kind of come together. And so then fast-forward to today and we have, uh, I don't know, hundreds and hundreds.
• 13:42
  I'm not gonna throw out numbers, but it's hundreds and hundreds of dealers in five countries. So it's a pretty- That's awesome... pretty fun story. Yeah. What kind of, uh... So you
• 13:55
  have captured people in peak moments of their life at weddings and such, and you've also- Sure... seen them at the end of their life- Mm-hmm... as a mortician.
• 14:10
  What sort of philosophical beliefs have you thought through about life in general, and how has that contributed to the leader that you are today? I think, um, you're just not that important.
• 14:29
  You're on a blue ball flying through space, right? You're only important to the people that really love you, your friends, your family, and that sort of thing. Um, and when you have a team that trusts you, right?
• 14:44
  So having, uh, a being a leader means being able to have a relationship, right?
• 14:50
  Like, they have to trust me and I have to trust them, but I actually have to trust them first, and then also to show them that I'm a little bit vulnerable, so I have to make sure that I know when I'm wrong.
• 15:02
  I say it out loud so they go, "Peter admits he's wrong. We can admit when we're wrong as well or when we're incorrect and we can kind of fix things faster." Um, but overall, um, I think people don't take enough risk.
• 15:18
  Um, and I was probably, like, scared to take risks too. I'm, I'm afraid of losing the things that I've acquired in my life, whether that's monies or things or whatever. But I kind of don't really care about that now.
• 15:32
  I'm kind of like w- when you get into your 45s, you kind of care less about what people think about what you wear, you know, that kind of thing, as opposed to being in high school when it's so important.
• 15:43
  And, um, I think that now I just, I'm in it for the glory. I don't care about the money. Like, so if I do right or my team does right
• 15:54
  by the dealership and we deliver what we said we were gonna do for results, um, and they know that, um, we have a ridiculous retention rate. Like, people stay with the dealersh- for, for a long time.
• 16:06
  We have clients that have been with us since we used to shoot cars, which we don't do anymore. Um, so it's pretty, pretty great to be a part of that.
• 16:17
  And, um, you could take it all away and I'm, I'm smart enough to build it again. And I have the team behind me to be able to do it. So do you, so do you still like... Are, do, are you still a photographer at heart?
• 16:29
  Like, are, are you still carrying a camera on vacation and stuff like that? There's literally a multimedia guy right here [laughs] doing it right now, and there's another camera right here. And we have- [laughs]...
• 16:39
  we have all the same gear. So you guys have seen these, uh, cowboy videos that we do, right? The, the cow- Yeah. Oh, yeah Yeah... the cowboy. So we, we produce those entirely in-house. The only thing I, I...
• 16:52
  The only thing is I'm directing at that point usually. Uh, but Louie and I, uh, usually write them and, uh, we have the same cowboy guy and he's a pretty, pretty great comedian.
• 17:01
  But my best friend is a cinematographer out of New York City, so we just, like, assemble the team. We have a blast. And those things are, I don't know, $150,000 commercial we do for 50. You know what I mean? Yeah.
• 17:12
  'Cause we know how to do it, right? Yeah. Whose idea- Yeah... whose idea was it to have the cowboy walking around NADA talking into a banana like he was on a cellphone? Uh, a, a little bit of all of us.
• 17:23
  He'll be at Digital Dealer too. We do- we're not gonna get him for a So2 but, but, uh, or a SodaCon. But, um, he'll be there at Digital Dealer. I thought it would be a little much for SodaCon, plus it's our first time.
• 17:33
  We wanted to get to know you guys. [laughs] It's a smaller thing. You know, everybody will be like, "Okay, yeah. Here's a bracelet-" Yeah... banana guy. Yeah.
• 17:39
  And then tell, tell me about- And then, and then, and then it's over, right? So the commercials, let's talk about the commercials for, for a minute, like getting to know you- I'm glad you asked... a little bit here.
• 17:45
  I, I've kind of understand a little bit more about your personality and, like, when you put, uh, something like those commercials into the world, it definitely could, uh, be attention getting for sure, but it could also be polarizing.
• 17:57
  Some people- Sure... could really appreciate it. Some people could not like the way dealers are portrayed or some of the elements.
• 18:03
  So, like, what has the response been to them and how have you, how have you kind of handled both sides of it?I would say 90% has been, um, astronomically wonderful. Um, and then I would say- That's a good ratio...
• 18:18
  we have a good, we have a, we have one or two here or there, even existing clients that might be, um, you know, not so happy about the profaneness of it all.
• 18:27
  Like, I wish you wouldn't do that, but not so much that I don't want your products. [laughs] We dialed it back in the second one in a, in a more clever way. We got better at it, just like anything, I guess. Of course.
• 18:37
  Um, but you, but you need to crack a few eggs to make an omelet. What do you want from me? It's true. Like, we're, you know, like, I think that, that video went straight to the top of Lithia.
• 18:46
  It went straight to the top of Sonic. It went straight to the top of Group One. And we- Mm... actually almost do Group One almost exclusively now.
• 18:54
  So it's gotten a lot of attention in a way that, um, you know, the, uh, the man soap, uh, Sasquatch or Dr. Squatch or whatever it is, right? That's what we were aiming for. Yeah.
• 19:04
  Oh, that Dollar Shave Club, the Sasquatch. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, you know. So, um, we'll continue to do that.
• 19:11
  In fact, we're probably gonna have that, uh, that, uh, guy on Retainer here shortly, and he's gonna do a lot more for us. Um- Oh, that's amazing... but yeah, it's fun. That's great. Yeah. Pretty cool.
• 19:20
  It's a great, it's definitely a... You know, when I think about brand development in general, like, distinct and memorable are at the top of the list for what you want in a brand. Sure.
• 19:31
  And, and oftentimes that's confused with fashionable or fancy or refined. Right. But if, if it's refined or fancy and not distinct or memorable, then you just disappear really quickly.
• 19:42
  Well, there's two things happening there, too. Like, one, we know how to have fun, clearly, right?
• 19:47
  Um, but when we, when you get to our website, it's very clean and very serious, because what we're doing for you is very serious. How we get your attention or we wanna show you that we are fun people to work with, right?
• 20:00
  Um, without, like, you know, uh, going too far, but making sure that the, when we need to be professional, we are, right? But other than that, we like to have fun like you guys, right? It's funny.
• 20:12
  I think, I think, like, as I, as I reflect back to the ASOTU journey over the last couple of years, um, it really is trying to find that balance.
• 20:20
  Um, because very quickly people can say, "Oh, you're just about fun," right? When if you have the substance- Wah. [laughs] If you have the substance- Yeah... though, right? And people don't know that- Yes.
• 20:31
  Right, right, right... they will, they will move on, right? True story. They will move on with...
• 20:36
  And then, then you get labeled as, you know, you just, "Well, you're a lot of fun to be around, but I actually need to grow my business," [laughs] right? And so- Sure...
• 20:43
  find, finding that right balance and the contrast of being able to, right, you're a photographer, contrast is, like, the most important thing, understanding that you need both sides in order to make a compelling image or to make a compelling story.
• 20:55
  Um- 100%. I, I see that in, in your guys. More than cars, for example, right? Like, you're out there peeling off the plastic with the lady and having a lot of fun with her. Mm-hmm.
• 21:06
  But then when we sat down with, um, the general manager and this other- Yeah... uh, this other fellow, this, uh, uh, sales guy, um- Yeah... with the dreads. Amariae is his name. Yeah.
• 21:17
  I mean, dude, it was just like, you know what I mean? Yeah. Like, you got that feeling from, from people. Like, I, I got it, and, like- Yeah... that's not easy for me.
• 21:26
  So you hit a nerve, and, like, so you can, you can do both, I think. And, um, and if you do both well, then you got a little magic, right? Little magic. Well, I do. I think that's a great way- Little magic...
• 21:39
  great, uh... I think that's a great way to end it. Um- Yeah... a little, a little bit of magic. Peter, I think that that encapsulates this conversation. Um, thank you so much for spending some time with us.
• 21:50
  Looking forward to hanging out at ASOTU CON in person. That's gonna be amazing. But on behalf of- Thank you...
• 21:54
  uh, all, all of us here, uh, Kyle, Michael, myself and the ASOTU crew, thanks for giving us some of your time. I will see you guys in a few weeks. Thank you so much for your time.
• 22:05
  [upbeat music] Okay, coming back into this, I think [laughs] what we ended the intro on, talking about Cirillo in cowboy boots, and just, like, that [laughs] mentality just felt so on brand for this episode.
• 22:20
  [laughs] Absolutely. Yeah. It was like, yeah, I mean, just the fact that, like, photos, flowers, and dead bodies, you know, were- Unbelievable... kind of the themes of everything.
• 22:29
  It's like, of course, that runs together to creating an automotive-centric- Of course it's a mortician... SaaS company, you know? Rock climbing, ph- photographing mortician,
• 22:38
  you know, in search of used vehicles to photograph. I, I, I felt all sorts of sacrilege thinking the question, which was, did rock climbing somehow influence your desire to become a mortician?
• 22:52
  'Cause from a marketer's perspective, that is a fantastic- Boom... lead gate. Absolutely. [laughs] It's a lead gate. [laughs] That's unbelievable.
• 23:02
  I don't- Well, I, I- I kind of feel like being a mortician would either make you a more astute rock climber or a more nervous rock climber. Yeah, I'd be the latter. Right. Yeah, me too.
• 23:10
  You know, this, this- That's why I think- His story is really, really native to a lot of auto, where basically you begin doing a thing because you know it's the better way, and so many dealerships, you know, and dealer groups and employees at dealers do this.
• 23:24
  It's like, "Hey, I know this is the better way. This has to get done." And then out of that becomes tech or process or something new that then much more, many more people in the industry begin to adopt.
• 23:37
  And so I love this story because it continues to point back to that thread and theme of entrepreneurialism. We say that dealers are entrepreneurs, and I think that that's, like, what we key in on.
• 23:49
  When we mean they're entrepreneurs, they're like the, the McKelvey, right? So we had- So we had to... this didn't exist, so we had to- So we had to... X, right?
• 23:58
  Um, yeah, I think that that's the, that, that's, like, the key in for me on this one.
• 24:03
  Well, and stringing it all together from our conversation that we had with Melissa, which has still left me in a contemplative state, I'm like, oh, you know what? How, I, I...
• 24:13
  Each of our inroads into the vertical of automotive seem less accidental and more like, yeah, because there's space in this industry for all industries. All industries. This is like seven degrees of Kevin Bacon.
• 24:29
  Of course he was a mortician, rock climber, photographer who, what did he say, flowers, butterflies, and the Great Wall of China-ed his way into- [laughs]... automotive, 'cause, like, that's all roads.
• 24:41
  Seven degrees of automotive. All roads lead into automotive. Lead to automotive. That's great. All lead- [laughs] all roads lead to automotive. That'll be the next podcast we start. Hey. Oh, well, this one's gotta end.
• 24:50
  Hey, well, we hope you enjoyed this ep- No, it's, I'm taking it. I'm taking it. [laughs] All roads lead to Cirillo. We hope you enjoyed this episode of Auto Collabs.
• 25:01
  [laughs] On behalf of Paul Jay Daly, Kyle Mountsier, and myself, Michael Cirillo, we'll catch you on the next episode.
• 25:07
  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.
• 25:20
  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.
• 25:26
  [upbeat music] Welcome to Auto Collabs. Welcome to Auto Collabs. [laughs] Why are we recording? Are we rolling yet?
• 25:45
  Not yet.