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Your background informs your now.

That’s what Colby Joyner has experienced, going from the auto industry to the Air Force, to being an air traffic controller, to a massage therapist and then back into the auto industry both on the dealer and partner sides. It’s allowed him to see things in a different light and helped him as he organizes and automates processes.

What we talk about in this episode:0:00 Intro with Michael Cirillo, Paul J Daly and Kyle Mountsier.

5:50 Colby started selling cars when he was 18, then went off, did a whole lot of other things and found his way back to the industry years later.

14:54 Situational change increases resiliency.

18:08 Learning the stories of your team makes you a better team member and a better team as a whole.

“The more that you get deeper than surface level on this on this, you know, I'm the GSM, or I'm a sales manager, or I'm a finance manager, if you go below that, right, and you get to know people and actually become friendly with them and understand who they are, you're able to learn a lot more about life and everything outside of automotive, which makes you better in automotive. And that's the interesting thing about automotive is it's where this hodgepodge of people, you know, that come from so many different and various backgrounds, and the more that you communicate, the better that we all are.”

27:27 Currently, Colby is working on Konect.ai, an automation that working in the background without the dealer having to check it or interact with it. It works in concert with the team, freeing them up to focus on the human side of business.

“And so if you were able to automate portions of that process, you free up the human being to be a human being, and engage in relationship style sales. And so our job is to create that lift of engagement, that lift of opportunities coming into the store, and being able to actually speak with a salesperson one on one. And that's where you're gonna get that, that higher brand and or dealer loyalty, when you get that situated.”

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Connect with Colby Joyner on LinkedInLearn more about Konect.ai

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Ron Duan.

What does a kid from Kyle Mountsier’s freshman tennis team have to do with the Social Dilemma documentary? Apparently a lot, if you ask Dr. Nicole Lipkin. She spends time with Paul, Kyle and Michael talking them through the mental health issues facing our world, or if we’re being honest, the issues we all are facing. Nothing’s off the table, from mental agility, to social comparison, to the emotional contagions.

What we talk about in this episode:0:00 Intro with Michael Cirillo, Paul J Daly and Kyle Mountsier.

9:29 Dr. Nicole Lipkin understands group dynamics, meaning that she studies how people relate to each other, and she’s found that if we understand our own internal workings, it will help us relate to those around us.

“And so when I'm doing this work, it's not about like, follow these five steps to be a really great leader or have a really great team or have a great culture. It's about getting what's going inside here. Get what's going inside your team a little bit, understand a little bit about human dynamics and group dynamics, so we can all maneuver a little bit better. And when we group together, it's awesome, man, when we step on each other's feet, the world's not over. If we could learn to groove a little bit better, and know that like, it's all about being flexible and open and getting it and understanding our own internal workings like we wouldn't be fighting so much.”

13:33 For some reason, we’ve minimized mental health, but Dr. Nicole Lipkin recognizes that mental health is what gives us our ability to do everything else.

“We minimize the mental stuff. Because we don't see it. It's not tangible. Like we think about mental health, we think about mental wellness, we, you know, we think about the guy on the side of the street, freaking out screaming, talking to himself. We don't think about us on our every day, you know, our everyday work in life, but the reality is, mental health and mental wellness and flexibility, mental flexibility and agility. Like, that's how you're productive. That's how you wake up in the morning and get motivated to get out of bed.”

26:53 What is an emotional contagion?

“You smile, I smile, you frown, I frown, we mimic one another. And it can happen in our electronic communication, it can happen in our face to face communication. This is one of the reasons why you know we are having global contagion right now from the pandemic like this is one of the reasons why we're seeing a rise in road rage, a rise in domestic violence, crazy fights on airplanes, like all of that stuff.”

30:10 Dr. Nicole Lipkin talked about finding your identity, and recognizing that it might not be the same for everyone. For some people, it’s 18 hour work days. For others it’s looking forward to a vacation. We need to be wary of social comparison and saying that one is better than the other.

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Parts guy. Service Advisor. Parts and Service Director. Fixed Ops Director. General Manager.

These are all parts of Brian Singh’s retail automotive experience. He’s used all that knowledge to bridge the gap between different departments and help them overcome their pain points. Now, he leads evrdrive, a customer experience that he hopes will change the way people buy cars.

What we talk about in this episode:0:00 Intro with Michael Cirillo, Paul J Daly and Kyle Mountsier.

3:23 Brian traces his journey from a parts guy to General Manager.

10:55 As Brian got promoted, he started bridging the gap of Fixed Ops vs. Variable Ops. Because it’s not about picking sides as a boss, it’s about the customer.

“And so I think it's realizing it's not about picking sides, there's no enemy or hero in this. It's all about the customer. And it's all about those pain points that exist within that, if we can drop the ego out of the way, and not think that our particular job is more important than anyone else's and realize that there's a customer on the other end of it. I think when you're able to continually remind your employees and folks of that, they start to realize, okay, let me pump the brakes a little bit.”

19:05 evrdrive is a new initiative that Brian leads. It’s all about creating customer experience centers that look different from the traditional showroom.

23:55 In the end, Brian is all about making the automotive retail experience as normal as any other shopping experience.

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We're several episodes into Auto Collabs, and Paul J Daly, Kyle Mountsier and Michael Cirillo met in Philadelphia to do some recording.Here's what we talk about in today's quick episode:- Beard Regimen- What we've learned so far from our guests- What's the most important conversation happening in automotive?- Love people more than you love cars⭐️ Love the podcast? Please leave us a review here — even one sentence helps! Consider including your LinkedIn or Instagram handle so we can thank you personally! 

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On the go.

Where Matt Lasher goes, the insights follow. So when you have the chance to interview him, you take it, even if it means recording in a car on the way to NYC. Paul J Daly and Matt talk about the trends they’re seeing for the industry plus how marketing has changed for West Herr.

What we talk about in this episode:0:00 Intro with Michael Cirillo, Paul J Daly and Kyle Mountsier.4:36 Don’t believe the headlines. The sky isn’t falling for the automotive industry, according to Matt. Large groups like West Herr are doing well and getting stronger.9:25 West Herr currently has 10,000 sold orders waiting on delivery. Matt doesn’t think that the current inventory shortage is going to be the new normal. Instead, he believes eventually incentives and rebates will come back.13:29 Paul and Matt spend some time chatting about EV chargers and all of the energy that they consume, potentially posing challenges as EV adoption becomes more widespread.18:03 As West Herr grows, the way it markets itself changes. Matt says in some ways they’re operating more like a single rooftop and in others, thinking about how they can restructure and diversify.

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Carter Myers Automotive has been around for 98 years, meaning they lived through the Spanish Flu of 1918.

Liza Borches hasn’t seen all of that, but as the 3rd generation President and CEO of CMA, she knows the stories of the company. She knows the joys and the pains. And she has led the organization through growth and culture shift, overcoming her own ideas about retail auto and even some misogyny from those in her organization. Michael Cirillo, Paul J Daly, and Kyle Mountsier ask her about an opportunity at General Mills, Honda’s 3 Joys, and why groups are asking CMA to acquire them.

What we talk about in this episode:0:00 Intro with Michael Cirillo, Paul J Daly and Kyle Mountsier.

7:59 Coming out of college, Liza didn’t want to work for the family business. She took a job with American Honda because it sounded like fun to live in Southern California. But that job showed her a whole new side of retail automotive.

“I started really seeing the difference that those leaders and dealership associates were making in their communities, I saw a different side of the business than I had grown up with. I grew up just seeing my dad working 24/7 some challenging times with our business almost going under a lot of stress and to be honest, he just wasn't around. So I just needed to see a different perspective on the business. And then I got to come home and see it through the lens that my dad was able to share with me more as an adult than versus when I was a kid.”

14:04 For Carter Myers Automotive, company culture is about influencing the whole person, not just that person at work.

“Tom Doll shared at the Subaru meeting a couple of weeks ago, and he said, ''We don't just want to be good business people. We want to be good people in business.” And I think at CMA, that's something that we've always focused on. We don't want to just create and pour into and invest in our team to be good business people. We also want to help them be good people in business. And I think that reflects back to encouraging our team to bring their whole self to work, not just their work self, and how do we help them grow both personally and professionally, that it has to be investing in them as a human being and not just an as an a team member of CMA.”

19:43 Liza’s grandfather gave the company its fiscal responsibility, her father gave it an aggressive growth desire, and Liza herself brought the company its soul. She learned how to build a great culture at a single store and then began scaling it to the other stores in the group with the help of some amazing general managers.

27:15 Michael Cirillo makes an observation that in some ways, the automotive industry is really one big family business. Liza adds to that by talking about the fear of failing in a family business, but how, if you aren’t afraid to be yourself and bring your own ideas to the table, you can add a whole new perspective.

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Connect with Liza Borches on LinkedInRead the story of Carter Myers Automotive

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Glenn Pasch has seen a lot. Now he works directly with dealerships to build structure and processes. He views the world as a puzzle to be solved for the customer’s sake, and believes that as you ask the right questions and design the right roles, everything will click into place. The more guardrails you have, the faster you can run, and the better you can perform.

What we talk about in this episode:

0:00 Intro with Michael Cirillo, Paul J Daly and Kyle Mountsier.

3:48 According to Glenn, asking the right questions makes you a better leader.

“I think that a lot of people get stuck in the classroom. So think of it that way. You're stuck in listening to a podcast, or you read a book and you get stuck with a bunch of ideas that are written down. And if you're not asking the right questions of okay, well, what do I do with this information or this data, then it just sits there. And then, you know, people get frustrated that nothing's changing. And so I think that the essence of a good leader is not to tell people what to do. It's to ask them the question, so they end up finding the path I want them to go on. But they find the path themselves. And so my best trait, or I think one of the best traits of good leaders is asking questions that you may already know the answer to, but it's not my idea. It's yours.”

9:44 Retail automotive is a personality driven business. But we can fall into the false belief that a great personality outweighs structure. Glenn understands personality on top of structure lets a person execute more quickly.

20:42 Glenn talks about building job descriptions and duties so that someone else can fulfill that role if needed, especially when they’re promoted. He says that too often we write job descriptions based around a person currently in the position.

23:48 Kyle compares this type of collaboration and structure to jazz music, and how all the musicians have to understand each other and where they are in the song. It’s intricate, but it's next-level music. It’s the same in the dealership where there is structure and understanding.

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Brian Kramer is in a whole new ballgame. After spending years on the dealership side, he has joined Cars.com as their EVP and GM of Accu-Trade. Michael Cirillo, Paul J Daly and Kyle Mountsier talk to Brian about this transition, and the issues that he’s now experienced on both sides. They also touch on haircuts, lead fatigue and pitch slapping.

What we talk about in this episode:0:00 Intro with Michael, Paul and Kyle

10:05 The schedule of the industry partner and the dealer, and their priorities, don’t always line up. Brian realized this when he was on the other side of phone calls he had been receiving as a dealer.

13:57 Brian thinks that vendors need to stop “pitch slapping” dealers by piling new widgets and tools.

21:52 Brian also sees a need for dealers to stop “pitch slapping” consumers by trying to sell them something when they really aren’t interested.

25:40 Ultimately, Cars.com, like Automotive State of the Union, is for the dealer. Brian talks about how Alex Vetter has centered Cars around arming the rebels and pushing back.

“I'll tell you, there's a lot of people there that are working in the same direction, to really transform this industry, I mean, Alex Vetter has put this north star out there of really empowering dealers for all the disruption that's happening to be like a safe haven to be able to sit there and just be arming them with as many tools as possible to hang with any disrupter that comes into the space, and make it easier and simpler so that they don't have to do an insane amount of work to do it.” 

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If you give Scott Simons your phone number, he will text you at least once a year.

Everything is about relationships for Scott, and he has a lot of them. His college roommate from Sri Lanka, Grant Cardone and the other 6000 contacts in his phone. Relationship is the way that Scott sells cars, and the way he teaches his team to sell. It’s like having 233 people on your marketing team. Paul J Daly and Kyle Mountsier spend time learning about this system and hearing how much Scott cares for people.

What we talk about in this episode:0:00 Intro with Michael Cirillo, Paul J Daly and Kyle Mountsier

6:04 Scott talks about how a formative life experience made him want to own a car dealership.

“And I remember one day, I saw a guy with really nice clothes drive a really nice car, and I said, What's that guy do? And they're like, he sells cars. And I'm like, damn, I'd like to drive a nice car like that, or wear nice clothes like that. Okay, so then they're like, then I started finding out that the, you know, to enter the auto industry, you know, pretty much you anybody can enter, and anybody could go sell cars. So I said, Damn, it sounds like me. So anyway, I went to college, got my master's degree, and said, I'd like to own a car dealership one day.”

12:43 Transactional vs relational. Scott and his team track relational sales, meaning sales not made from traditional leads, but by the personal brand of team members. Almost 50% of cars they sell are relational sales.

“I want to build relationships to where when we first started tracking your relationships sales, relationships sales means that Kyle brought Paul in and bought a vehicle, he brought in that lead. So we started tracking transactional versus relationship. And if you're transactional, we want to turn you into a relationship where you don't shop with anybody else. So we first started tracking that. And before we started training, we were 5% relational. Now we're 45%. So that means almost one out of every two cars we sell is generated through social media, by the sales rep, not by the dealer. My goal is to get it close to 100%. Not even have to advertise at all. That's my goal.”

14:06 Scott goes in-depth on relational sales and explains how a normal day works, and how every employee is a part of it. The process is so smooth, they usually have the cars sold on social media before they get on the dealership website.

25:40 It wasn’t always this way. Scott tells a story about one of the darkest seasons in his life, and what it took to make him who he is today.

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Not only is David Long a strategic operator, he is proving that it’s possible to both lift and empower others while providing the structure and accountability required to grow. Also, he has the best hugs, according to Michael Cirillo. Michael, Paul J Daly and Kyle Mountsier listen to David’s insights on building up the culture of an organization, and keeping it laser focused on its goals.

What we cover in this episode:0:00 Intro

6:38 David talks about how a conversation with his daughter was the starting point for the Pandemic of Positivity. Kyle and David reminisce about the early days and getting it off the ground.

14:40 Every week, David hosts a weekly Zoom call where he brings in speakers to talk to his team, and this has been having ripple effects to the friends and family of his employees.

“I got a screenshot Friday from somebody that works in our accounting office and it was a message from her daughter, who doesn't even work with us. And the speaker that we had, which happened to be a Navy Seal, the speaker that we had on Wednesday, because I send out the recording as well. “It not only impacted me but it impacted my family.” And this is her screenshot sharing with me the impact that Navy SEAL had on the circle of influence in her life. So, you know, maybe it's not for everybody, but I think there's people in the recesses of their own mind that may say they don't like it, but are listening to it afterwards, or joining. And they pick one thing out, and they go home and share it at home, with their, with their loved ones. And that, for me, is what it's all about.”

21:34 At Hansel Auto Group, there are clearly defined goals and structure. Every team knows where they’re headed and what hill is next to be taken. David thinks that people prefer systems of accountability.

“Every department is laser focused on their top three, right? There's not 30 things that we're running around trying to do. There's, there's three and then there's one hill that we're willing to die on in the next 30 days. Right? Each department has their own hill. And once we take a hill, we're not giving that hill back. We're finding the next hill while we keep that plot of land. Does that make sense? Make no mistake, in the world of great culture, and love and warm embraces, we don't get what we want. We get what we tolerate, right? Make no mistake, that there is still structure. There's discipline, there's accountability. And I actually think that people would prefer to live and work in that environment than to live and work in the environment where it's the flavor of the week, flavor of the day.”

25:21 David has opened 59 buy centers, and talks about how he hires outside of automotive to fill those positions. Give him an hour with a barista who wants to learn, and he’ll have them making offers in 3 minutes without needing a VIN number. 

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