July 7, 2025 • 55 mins
Bridget Ruehl is the new face of a changing industry. As a woman, she is the shining star of the next generation of automotive leaders. She became a graduate of the NADA Academy while being charged with running the operations at her father’s underperforming dealership. Her success has been hard fought, working her way up the automotive leadership ladder in an industry dominated by men. In 2012, she took over operations at LCDJR. In less than 7 years, she grew new car sales more than 800% and took a dealership with a non-existent Ram business to the 23rd ranked Ram dealer in the Great Lakes Region. The success of her dealership brought attention. Bridget earned the respect of her dealer network peers to serve a 2- year term as the CDJR Representative in a hyper-competitive Cincinnati Metro Market. She was also selected to be a founding member of DEAC’s Next-Gen Leadership Club where she was then chosen to serve on NADA’s Regulatory and Legislative Affairs Committees.
Bridget continues to be a trailblazer for increasing the number of women in automotive leadership positions. Her passion to encourage women in their ability to go anywhere and do anything motivated her to start “Off Road Divas”, an off-road club for all women she founded in 2016. She is most proud of taking a dealership with a negative net worth to one of the fastest growing dealerships in her region that allowed her to negotiate her first buy/sell and solidify her father’s retirement. In 2020, she applied for candidacy in General Motor’s WRN Program. While working towards her GM candidacy, she was presented with an opportunity from another manufacturer and purchased her first dealership in 2022. Bridget is now vetted in GM’s WRN Program and hopes to purchase a second franchise that would create a more diverse portfolio for her consumers. When not thinking about cars, she enjoys traveling, biking, and spending quality time with her family. She attributes her success to God’s favor and being relentless in her your pursuits. Bridget is honored to represent the less than 2% of women owning a Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram Franchise globally and hopes to become a greater resource for women interested in careers in automotive.
Bridget continues to be a trailblazer for increasing the number of women in automotive leadership positions. Her passion to encourage women in their ability to go anywhere and do anything motivated her to start “Off Road Divas”, an off-road club for all women she founded in 2016. She is most proud of taking a dealership with a negative net worth to one of the fastest growing dealerships in her region that allowed her to negotiate her first buy/sell and solidify her father’s retirement. In 2020, she applied for candidacy in General Motor’s WRN Program. While working towards her GM candidacy, she was presented with an opportunity from another manufacturer and purchased her first dealership in 2022. Bridget is now vetted in GM’s WRN Program and hopes to purchase a second franchise that would create a more diverse portfolio for her consumers. When not thinking about cars, she enjoys traveling, biking, and spending quality time with her family. She attributes her success to God’s favor and being relentless in her your pursuits. Bridget is honored to represent the less than 2% of women owning a Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram Franchise globally and hopes to become a greater resource for women interested in careers in automotive.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Columbus in Central Ohio have a rich history of companies
being headquartered here, everything from technology, manufacturing, retail, insurance, and more.
But what about the leaders behind these companies? What makes
them tick? How do they get their start? This is
where you get to meet the captain of the ship.
Welcome to CEOs You Should Know and iHeartMedia Columbus Podcast.
Welcome back to another episode of CEOs You Should Know.
(00:23):
This is an iHeartMedia Columbus podcast. I'm your host, Boxer
and this week some I think quite a few would
probably call her a trailblazer in the world of the
auto industry. I want to welcome Bridget Reinberger with us. Bridget,
good to have you with us as a guest this
week on the podcast. Thanks for joining us.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Thank you so much for having me on. Excited to
be here.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
Well, I'm excited to hear your story because from what
I've read alone, it's truly inspiring. We're going to weave
through your journey of how you got to where you are,
but we should also let people know that you course
are in your world and this is something I wanted
to know too. Do they I noticed a lot of
people when you own a dealership or a group. You're
(01:05):
you're called a principle, Is that right? So you're an
owner dealer principal? Are you the president? How does that work?
Speaker 2 (01:12):
Owner dealer principal? Dealer principle is certainly a OEM term,
a manufacturer term.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
So if that is your aspirations to be a dealer
one day, then that dealer principal term is a big deal.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
That's a big deal. And you oversee the Bridge Auto Group,
which we're going to get into, and of course that's
why you're here. Tell us about Bridge Auto Group, this
umbrella and what it oversees.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
Absolutely. So, the Bridge Auto Group was formed last year.
It consists of three dealerships in three different metropolitan areas.
My first dealership that I owned one hundred percent of
is located in Washington Court House. It is Gordon Chrysler
Dodge geep Ram and that's named after my father, Gordon,
(02:00):
who blazed the way for me as a female in
this industry.
Speaker 1 (02:04):
So, God, your dad, your dad was huge in the
auto industry. You grew up in.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
This absolutely so. I grew up in Columbus and my
father had a gas station on Frank Road years ago. Wow,
Frank Road, and there was a dealer, Al Spitzer, who
used to deal in my dad's gas station, and he
would always talk to him about getting in the car business,
and you should come sell cars for me, And that
(02:34):
actually ended up manifesting, And so my dad began his
career in the auto industry with the Spitzer organization selling cars.
And from the very first month that he entered the business,
he sold like thirty five cars. So he's a legend
when it comes to sales. Wow.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
Okay, so growing up you grew up in Columbus, right, yes, yeah,
So growing up you when was your first memory or
moment that you knew Wow, I'm digging what dad is doing.
I want to learn more about this.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
So initially that I was very proud of him, but
I really didn't see myself like working in the in
the car industry. I wanted to do interior design, but
I was struggling to make ends meet in the interior
design world. And so I really got in the business
from a proposition that my father made me after school. Wow,
(03:31):
and he said, you're not making anything doing that. I'm
telling you you should try selling cars. I'll tell you
what bridge If you will just give it a whirl,
commit six months, whatever, and give it all you got,
whatever you can save up, I'm gonna match, and I'm
gonna help you buy your first house. And that's literally
(03:53):
the way that I entered into the car business. What
a great.
Speaker 1 (03:58):
Story, by the way, you had no desire whatsoever, but
this was. This whole thing started with a conversation with
your dad.
Speaker 2 (04:07):
A proposition, A proposition, a proposition, and so I said, okay,
why not? Why not?
Speaker 1 (04:15):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (04:16):
So I applied at and my father had worked for
George Buyers, Oh yeah for twenty eight years here in
the Columbus market and has sold everyone in their mother vehicles.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:28):
So I'm in a different market. I'm in Cincinnati. So
I'm like, I'm going to give it a whirl. So
I started a career in car sales, did extremely well.
Was shocked how much I enjoyed it, how much I
enjoyed just meeting all the different people and helping them
with their transportation needs. And I was told it's going
(04:50):
to take about a year, and at that year mark,
you'll start seeing repeat business. Okay, And that's exactly what
I saw. And then I'm competitive. So there was the
competitive aspect to it, and so I really enjoyed that
to the point to where I wouldn't take my off
days or anything like that. And so then it became
(05:12):
this little fun thing between my dad and I. How
many cars you sell? So I would actually try to
compete with my dad in a different market selling and
so I did that did really well. In fact, it
took about three years and I was promoted to doing
f and I so.
Speaker 1 (05:31):
Then I a bridge and forgive me what's FNI?
Speaker 2 (05:34):
What's finance business Manager? So after someone purchases a car
and you have to do all the paperwork and then
they go into the office, it gave me an opportunity
to get to know the customer on a deeper level. Yeah,
find out, hey, what are your driving habits? And then
help them Typically, vehicle is the second largest investment that
(05:57):
customer or people make their home home, and then it's
the car.
Speaker 1 (06:01):
Okay, yeah, and I can see that.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
So then it gave me an opportunity to help them
protect that investment okay, by getting to to just say, hey,
what are your driving habits? Where do you live? Do
you park in a garage, and then offer them the
opportunity to ensure that their investment was going to be protected.
Speaker 1 (06:21):
Yeah, Bridget Reinberger is with us, and Bridget I just
realized something that we didn't get the chance to talk
before this podcast today. So Bridge Auto Group is Bridge
just short for your name then, or.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
It is in it is in one capacity and another capacity.
There is a program I'm getting ready to launch. So
I'm happy to have this platform to do it.
Speaker 1 (06:44):
Yeah, we'd you want to talk about it now if
you don't mind, Yeah, yes, sure.
Speaker 2 (06:47):
So there it's called Bridge my Credit and it will
be up and running by August the first. And so
it gives me an opportun tunity to offer a concierge
approach to helping people with their transportation needs, whether it
be a vehicle purchase or vehicle servicing, and to help
(07:11):
people with challenge credit find that solution. And that's a
bridge they need to take, right.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
So it is in one way short for my name,
but it is about taking a bridge to the best
deal that's out there, to the best customer service that's
out there, to the best financing options that are out there.
So that was that's what it was.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
Yeah, and that launches in August. You said August first,
all right, it's called bridge my credit. Absolutely all right,
very brilliant bridget I like that. So here you are,
You're you're moving up the ladder with your first dealership
as a salesperson. Where were you at where? I know?
(07:58):
Off the podcast before we started taping, we talked about
radio a little bit, and you've you've got this background
that I have that Ken, our salesperson has of doing that.
Where in this mix were you and radio?
Speaker 2 (08:12):
So I initially spent for four and a half years
in the car business, and then I realized I love
the business. I'm like, this is my people, but I
love the auto business. I love the auto business. But
I did not like the downtime of sitting in a
car dealership waiting for customers to come in, okay, And
(08:34):
so I'm like, I felt like I wanted to help
dealers on a greater scale sell more cars and better
take care of customers. So I was like, how could
I do something like that? And I'm like, I need
to help them. I need to help them drive traffic
to their dealerships. And so there was Auto Trader, which
(08:57):
is now owned by COPS, that was not digital digital.
Once upon a time, it was just the magazine that.
Speaker 1 (09:05):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
So when I left the car business, I went to
Auto Trader and it was not owned by Cox at
the time, sover in Covington, Kentucky, and I spent one
year to date so helping dealers with their used car
advertising Bridgiet.
Speaker 1 (09:22):
Can I stop you for a second? Is that is
that where it was based? The Auto Trader was Kentucky? Yes,
I had no but it was a national.
Speaker 2 (09:29):
Thing right Park Hills.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
So wow, yep, okay, yeah, I didn't know that.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
So I did that and then then I realized, I
think I'm looking for something on like a larger scale.
So during that year, I mean it was interesting. So
in the Cincinnati market, I had all the buy here,
pay heres, and quite frankly, in one day I had
(09:58):
gone in a little, a little store and it was
a buy here, pay here a lot and if there
were snow on the ground, these guys are like, we're
not running. So I would get the keys. And there
were three different stores that I had to get the keys,
wipe the snow off the cars for like one hundred
(10:19):
and fifty dollars AD. And I'm like, there's got to
be a way for me to make a greater impact.
So radio had intrigued me, so I applied it at
Clear Channel in the Cincinnati market. I was hired selling
a classic rock demographic. There we had eight stations and
a television station, and quickly Clear Channel realized we need
(10:44):
her talking talking to auto dealers. So because I just understood,
I understood being raised by a crazy car guy, how
hectic the business is. It's not rocket science. It's not
for the faint of heart though sure, and so it's hectic.
And so these guys are being pulled a million in
one different ways. And so if I could go in
(11:06):
and just try to understand their business and figure out
how to tell their story for them on paper, write
their commercial and understand if they have any co op
available and how to assist in that, then I might
be able to make an impact and make a good
living for myself. And so that in fact is what
I did. And so they had they made a position
(11:30):
for me selling radio across eight stations in a television station.
So I was the radio girl to sell advertising to
car dealers in the Cincinnati market. So I made a
lot of you know, great friends, learned about a lot
of different areas of the car industry, that I was
(11:52):
not aware of at that time, and it was fun.
Speaker 1 (11:55):
You know what, when you tell us your story, Bridget,
it reminds me of how far we've come since then
because you you are basically this You are this liaison
to the auto groups, to the auto dealerships, like you
speak their language, and you're also helping a clear channel
at the same time, you know, make a lot of
(12:16):
money and through advertising, and I think about how far
we've come, like in this company, it's now iHeart iHeartMedia.
But there is someone literally in that position that you
probably helped create. Little did you know back in the
day who oversees the auto portion of it. So I
find that interesting.
Speaker 2 (12:35):
Thank you. I will tell you that my season of
selling radio, it's all a journey, right, but boy has
it helped prepare me for my role as a female
dealer principle in this.
Speaker 1 (12:51):
Realistry doing the radio sales.
Speaker 2 (12:54):
Yes, okay, because I was handed the phone book. By
the way, So some people are hired in radio and
they get a a list, a billing list.
Speaker 1 (13:02):
Not you didn't have that.
Speaker 2 (13:03):
Nope, I did not have that. And as a matter
of fact, I had to go on seven interviews before
I was initially hired, and before I was hired, Chuck
Frederick was my boss at the time, well he was
soon to be my boss, he said. I called him
and he was like, what can I help you. I said,
I am still actively pursuing a position with clear channel
(13:27):
and he goes, all right, Bridget, He goes, here's what
I want you to do. I want you to prepare
two presentations, one on and he knew I had sold cars,
one on hy w EBN for Joseph Chevrolet and the
other on why Bridget Elkins at the time for WEBN.
I want to see how quick you can get these
(13:47):
done and then get back with me. So I said, okay, thanks.
So I did my best, and forty eight hours later
I called him back and I came up with the
top five reasons WB and cannot ignore the Bridget factor.
And so I was in Fountain Square with the w
EBN T shirt on a snorkel in my mouth. I was,
(14:10):
I put a hurdle on. I mean, and there were
five big like reasons.
Speaker 1 (14:15):
But do you have a picture of this somewhere?
Speaker 2 (14:17):
Do I have the actual presentation?
Speaker 1 (14:20):
I love it. You have to send that to me.
Speaker 2 (14:22):
So it just it really so immediately from just the
challenges of trying to get hired, challenge me to just
think broader, like to think broad. Yeah, and then my
role as as an AE, I mean I had to
I had to be an investigator. I had to figure
out who had a need. Then I had to sell
(14:46):
and I had to convince to meet with me. Then
I had to do research. I had to be a
researcher and I had to research their market, their competition.
Then I had to go in radio and I had
to sell my boss to fight for them to get
them competitive rates.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
Yeah, okay.
Speaker 2 (15:04):
Then I had to sell the traffic team because I
wanted their results to work. So where are these spots
gonna run? You know? Then I had to play the
game and no promotions, so that absolutely so that I
could just bring as much benefit as possible to all
my clients. And so there was a lot to balance,
(15:26):
and so it was a good lesson in multitasking, which
is what I do on a daily basis.
Speaker 1 (15:32):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (15:33):
As a dealer principal three new small CJR.
Speaker 1 (15:37):
Stores Bridget and Bridget, Weinberger is with us. Bridget is
the principal owner of Bridge Auto Group. Bridget when it
comes to this would have been with the mid late
nineties that you were in Cincinnati Clear Channel, Yes, sir,
okay so, and especially back then it correct me from
(16:00):
I feel like radio and auto groups and auto dealerships
there was a great and there still is, but there's
a great marriage where every Saturday we were out at
a dealership somewhere resolutely, absolutely so. And I bet I
was thinking too during that time. That was that was
(16:20):
a huge heyday, especially you know for Cincinnati Clear Channel.
Jay Core was based there. You probably saw what Randy
Michaels quite a bit.
Speaker 2 (16:28):
Randy Michaels is a friend. He's a friend, dear friend.
He and mister Pat Berry, who's no longer with this too.
My Pat was probably my best business mentor friend.
Speaker 1 (16:39):
Yeah. Boy, you you worked with some real legends there.
So you you obviously cut a new cloth for you know,
ja cor Clear Channel doing what you do. How long
were you at clear Channel four?
Speaker 2 (16:53):
I was clear for about five years and that is
where I met my ex husband and father of my
two amazing sons, Kate and Cleat and older. They so
my oldest is Caate. He's in New York. He is
twenty two. Yeah, and then my younger son is now
(17:14):
in college in Orlando and he's nineteen.
Speaker 1 (17:16):
Cleat, Okay, wow, you don't look old old enough to
have a twenty two year old and a nineteen.
Speaker 2 (17:22):
You are too kind, too kind, So.
Speaker 1 (17:26):
When did you decide? Okay, I've kind of hit the
ceiling here, time to move on and what was next?
Speaker 2 (17:32):
So I Lovedrettio, I absolutely loved Doretio, but I did
as I mentioned, I met my ex husband and he
was the GM of seven hundred WLW at the time,
and so clear Channel was going through more transitions and
so he then he got a promotion to director of
sales for all the stations. So it was a conflict
(17:55):
of interest. So he didn't want me to work. I
wanted to work, but so I ended up he had
the higher position there, so I ended up, And then
we were pregnant with Caid, and so I ended up
going to an agency at that time just because of
(18:16):
the conflict of interest, where I decided to try to
help auto dealers with their full marketing plans. So I
did that. I left and did that and had about
three groups that I was working with and where I'm
an only I'm an only child and my dad was
(18:36):
still with the buyers organization and I'm in Cincinnati. My
mom was like, we're moving to Cincinnati because I want
to be around my grandkids. So when that came about,
I started trying to help my dad find a dealership
to work for because I had so many dealers, such
a large dealer network of friends, and an opportun tunity
(19:00):
presented itself for my father to buy half of a dealership,
a CDJR. Store in two thousand and seven, right before
the market plummeted, right before GM filed bankruptcy, you know,
it was Chrysler filed bankruptcy. And this is this is
where it really my life really just started to take
(19:23):
path because my dad took his whole life savings and
invested it in at the time, a Chrysler store in Lebanon, Ohio. Yeah,
and it was only by the grace of God that
we are where we are now didn't lose everything at
that time. I mean, holy moly, Fifth Third Bank had
(19:45):
the floor planning. My dad buys half of a store.
Fifth Third says, Hey, guess what, we don't want to
be in dealer floor planning anymore. We're going to get out.
So there's my dad with his life savings. The store
had no floor plan. I literally have a picture of
the dealership with two cars setting on it. While my dad,
who is such a worker bee he worked, worked, was like,
(20:07):
I'm going to make this thing.
Speaker 1 (20:08):
Work and make it work.
Speaker 2 (20:09):
And we were really fortunate. So my dad had a
partner who was not really involved, and so it's like, well,
who are you guys, You don't have a big car
group last name, sure, but very thankful Ally Bank took
a gamble and gave us a floor line, a three
million dollar floor line at the time.
Speaker 1 (20:30):
Bridgie, Can I stop you for a second, just someone
who's not in the business, but obviously very curious when
you say a floor plan, yes, does that mean? Are
you talking? Is that language for like inventory? For what
what do you mean by that?
Speaker 2 (20:43):
Absolutely, your floor plan line as a car dealer is
like your mortgage on your home. Oh okay, So ideally
you want to have your new cars floored lined and
you want to own all your used cars. But depending
on you know, if you're a part of a group,
how deep your pockets are, whether that I mean in
a perfect world that is the case, right, So the
three largest expenses in a dealership are your floor plan line, personnel,
(21:07):
and advertising. Okay, so your floor line is everything. So
dealers that if you get in trouble or something horrible
happened and you lost your franchise, is probably because you
got in a bad situation out of trust with your bank.
So you better keep your floor plan line intact and
pay your cars off on time. It's the mortgage on
(21:27):
your inventory.
Speaker 1 (21:28):
Okay, yep, yeah, that's interesting. So in a perfect world
or at least secret sauce, if you want to run
a good dealership, the goal is always to own the
pre owned right the used cars.
Speaker 2 (21:41):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (21:42):
Okay. Wow, So you get in with your dad. He
owns half of this dealership. It was tough times at
the time. We saw the fallout with you know, in
different companies filing for bankruptcy. What happened next?
Speaker 2 (21:57):
So what happened next was my dad. He doesn't even
check an email on a computer, but he goes to
work every day. He works his guts out. He wants
to find customers and help them, you know, purchase their
next vehicle. So he's like, you gotta help. You got
to get in here and help me. And so I'm like, okay,
So I really I was thrusted into car dealership management
(22:25):
like overnight because of my dad, you know, buying half
of this dealership.
Speaker 1 (22:31):
Wait, I just realized something, bridget this came full circle
again with your dad?
Speaker 2 (22:36):
Yes again, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (22:39):
He gets you back into the car business.
Speaker 2 (22:41):
You bet he certainly did.
Speaker 1 (22:45):
I love that. So you get thrusted back into it.
You're now in management. What was your first position?
Speaker 2 (22:52):
So people would say, what's your title? I really didn't
have one, so I made up a I just made
something up and I was like, I think it was
customer specialist or.
Speaker 1 (23:02):
Something like that. Knowing you, you probably did everything I was.
Speaker 2 (23:06):
I was attempting to. I was trying to when I
say forged by fire, I have been forged by fire
in this business. So in a weird way, my dad
and I first, I'm really second generation, but in some
ways we were first generation together. Yeause we I mean
we got to walk side by side and figure figure
(23:27):
this thing out. But I did know if anyone deserved
an opportunity to be a dealer principal, it was my dad.
Speaker 1 (23:35):
I love that. How how were those first couple of
years after the market just bottomed out?
Speaker 2 (23:41):
They so they were crazy and to add insult to injury.
My dad did have a business partner who wasn't very involved,
and yeah, probably wasn't the best relationship, and so that
was another thing that was set forth to navigate. So
I was basically when I got in the business, he
(24:03):
wasn't involved. I was just helping my dad. We were
increasing sales enough to when the market plummeted, they did
not I think in the Cincinnati market, which is much
more saturated than the Columbus market. They closed more than
half of the Chrysler stores, more than half of the
General Motor stores, and my dad had increased sales enough
(24:25):
to make that cut. So we were, you know, we
were alive. We had the opportunity. The factory was aware
that my dad and his business partner didn't have the
best relationship. It's never the manufacturer's job to referee a
shareholders' dispute. So we just put our heads down and
focused on selling cars and probably not doing everything that
(24:48):
we should have been doing. The manufacturer Lebanon was forecasted
to grow, so the manufacturer came in and said, hey,
we appreciate everything that's going on, but Gordon, like, we
know you and your partner don't get along that well,
and we think you should be selling more cars. So
we're gonna we think maybe you guys need to sell,
and we're going to start the process to terminate you
(25:11):
as dealers, thinking that they can just push you out right.
And so immediately when this is what I'm saying, forged
by fire, I'm like, oh my gosh, there's got to
be associations. Who's going to help you know, this can't happen.
Then my dad's put his whole life savings in here.
So I reached out to the local association. So NADA
(25:32):
kind of governs the auto industry on a national scale.
Then you have your state associations, and in the state
of Ohio, I got to tell you, Oada, we have
one of the best state associations that exist in the
United States.
Speaker 1 (25:45):
And I'm Ohio Dealers.
Speaker 2 (25:48):
Ohio Dealers absolutely. So there's approximately eighteen thousand new car
franchise dealers across the United States. Okay, and so Ohio,
Texas to name two. They've got great dealers associations. So
they were there to protect dealers because it's a the
dealer network is it's a strong group. Okay, they we
(26:12):
the amount of money dealers pay into the communities with
all of our taxes. I mean it's great. I mean
we for just school systems, I mean everything and so and.
Speaker 1 (26:24):
That's and that's just I don't want to call it basic.
That's obviously very important. But I'm so glad you brought
that up bridge it because yes, you're right, there's there's
the tax base, but all of the other things that
a dealership does for the community, sponsoring scoreboards for the
local high school or whatever it might be. You are
(26:46):
the a dealership is truly the fabric of a community.
Speaker 2 (26:50):
It really is. It really is. And I think manufacturers
have been trying to cut dealers out for quite some time.
But you know what, like that that doesn't work because people,
I mean there might be some people who want to
jump online and buy a car, people like going to
their local dealer. They want to know. They want to
know that when they pull off the lot and there's
(27:12):
an issue with that car, they got a friend that
they can pull back in, or they can pick up
the phone and call and say, hey, I was on
my way to visit my daughter in college and my
car's broke down on the side of the road. What
am I supposed to do, and they have a friend.
The manufacturer's never going to do that for customers. They're
never going to say, hey, come in, we'll sponsor your
(27:33):
son's baseball team. There's a need in the community. Let's
open up and just feed everyone on Thanksgiving, let's feed
twenty five hundred miles.
Speaker 1 (27:41):
And since we're on the subject, Bridget, I'll add this
to it. At least I'm speaking on myself, on behalf
of myself. The technology is great, and I know you
got to go with technology AI whatever. We can get
to that in a sec. But there is something about
individual people. When your car breaks down, and that is
your go to dealership where you get it serviced. They
(28:03):
know the car, you know Dan behind the customer service desk.
It's comfort food. But in the world of auto and
I think that's a big deal. I go back to
mine all the time because of that. And I own
a Christler pacificate just so you know.
Speaker 2 (28:20):
I like that. But it's I bet you're due for
a new one.
Speaker 1 (28:24):
Is look at you already. I'll tell you what. My
wife loves that PACIFICA. They do a great job designing that.
Speaker 2 (28:32):
My parents won't drive anything but a PACIFICA. By the way,
both my mom and my dad.
Speaker 1 (28:36):
Can I just say, bridget it's the most amazing mini
van ever, the way they designed it. I just want
to high five the engineers, like you guys thought of everything.
Speaker 2 (28:46):
And the reality is you cannot beat the practicality of
a van.
Speaker 1 (28:50):
No, no, but my goodness, vans have come a long ways,
haven't they come?
Speaker 2 (28:55):
A long way?
Speaker 1 (28:56):
They really have. But anyway back to my point of
at your dealerships, I know you know this already, but
every individual that has their title, that has their job,
they're all important, and people like me as a customer,
we lean on every one of them because if someone's
not nice, we'll remember that and maybe we won't want
(29:18):
to go back, or you feel like you were wrong,
you'll never want to go back to that dealership. But
my goodness, if you find a dealership and a service
department that takes care of you, maybe even one time,
goes the extra mile or gives you a lift to
your job, or I don't know, maybe they were hungry
and you got them coffee or a donut or lunch.
(29:39):
I'm telling you, they'll never forget that.
Speaker 2 (29:41):
It's so true. And the reality is the radio industry
loved car dealers because they spend a ton in advertising, right,
But the reality for car dealers is this, if we
were retaining our customers, there wouldn't be such a need
to advertising, right there, truly wouldn't be. And in a
(30:03):
car dealership, sales should sell the first car, but the
service department should sell every car after that. And so
when a customer buys a car from you for the
first time, like, that's just the beginning. It is at
that point when you then get to shine and show
that customer how you're going to take care of them
with all their needs after the purchase.
Speaker 1 (30:26):
Yeah, bridget just out of curiosity. This is something I've
always wanted to know. I know there's certain guidelines you
have to follow being a dealership, but with the manufacturer,
but are you are you allowed to have creative freedom
on like the service department. Let's say I buy a
brand new Chrysler PACIFICA from you. Are you allowed to
(30:50):
put together certain packages of your own? You don't have
to copycat other dealerships or can you kind of as
long as you're following certain guidelines, can you do that?
Speaker 2 (31:00):
There's always going to be some guidelines depending on your OEM,
depending on the manufacturer that you have to follow. But no,
there's a huge landscape for doing your own thing, having
your own retention programs, you know, your own warranties. There's
always every manufacturer's got there after market warranty, but some
dealers go with their own because they think it supersedes
(31:22):
the benefits of the OEM, the OEMs extended warranty program,
et cetera.
Speaker 1 (31:28):
Okay, bridget my apologies. I know we got off well
mainly me got off on attangent. But so you're talking
to the ODA about your dealership with your dad. They
want to push you out. What happened?
Speaker 2 (31:42):
So what happened was they scheduled this meeting. It was
a bunch of execs and at the at the current time,
my dad still had a partner who wasn't very involved,
but he was still on a dealer agreement. So they
call this and the local rep tells me, listen, you're underperforming.
(32:05):
So there's this little term called MSR and it's minimum
sales responsibility and so the manufacturer can use that to
their advantage. And that's the that's the the importance of
having the state associations to make certain that dealers are
protected or they can use it to their advantage, right,
(32:26):
And so if you want to be in the factory's
good graces as a dealer, you need to hit your
minimum sales responsibility requirements. And that's what that term means.
And so at the time we were, they claimed and
I believe that they had inflated what we should have
been doing at the time because they just thought, oh,
(32:48):
we'll make these guys go away and sell it. Put
another dealer in here we think is going to do
a better job. So we were supposedly my dad is
partner at like thirty six percent MSR. This was in
twenty twelve, okay, And so I put this whole presentation together.
But an effort to do that, I'm like, I know
very little. I've got to educate myself really quick to
(33:10):
help my dad save his franchise. So I reached out
to my local association, which was GCADA, a gentleman by
the name of a Charlie Howard. He was like, bridget
there's a school that you can go to, it's called
the NADA Academy, that can teach you how to run
a dealership. NCM also offers something like that you need
(33:32):
to reach out to both of them and find out,
you know what I mean, how to how to get
yourself up to speed if you really want to do this,
and you guys can do it. So I did that.
So I had no dealership. Financial statement is six pages long.
I had no idea how to read a financial statement,
nor did my father and his partner wasn't involved. So
(33:52):
I hired INCM and so they started coming in and
teaching me how to read a financial statement, enrolled myself
in NADA Academy, started going through. The academy, had a meeting,
rolled out a little plan the NCM helped me build
and said listen. And the day we went to the
first meeting, they're like, we're just gonna say it, some
(34:13):
big wig at Chrysler, you're thirty six percent msr uh.
You know, Gordon, if you're going to be the dealer principal,
who's going to run your operation? And my dad points
to me and goes, she is, And another gentleman said,
on what a cord? What's your experience? And then they
said we're aware, And the partner was sitting there saying nothing.
(34:36):
You guys don't even get along. Look it's time to sell.
And so I spoke up at the time and I said, listen, Gordon,
like he's in charge of sales, like he is moving
metal for you guys. He had no idea that there was,
you know, any dissatisfaction. He's aware now, and you said,
put a plan together and bring it, you know, bring
(35:00):
it to the table. And that is exactly what we've done.
Here are you saying now that we don't get our
opportunity our day in court? And so they looked at
each other laughed, and they said, what's that in your hand?
And I said it's it's it's our plan, and he said, well,
hand it to me. And I said, there was supposed
to be a projector in this room. Where's the projector?
He goes, you got a couple copies and I counted
(35:21):
twelve people around this boardroom table and I said that's
not fair. I don't have twelve copies. And then he owes,
go ahead, amuse me, John, get them a projector in here.
So a projector was brought in. We rolled out this
plan and they said, listen, there's got to be improvement.
(35:44):
There has to be improvement, and you got to meet
with us every three months.
Speaker 1 (35:48):
Were car sales just not that great? What was their
big beef?
Speaker 2 (35:52):
Well, they were so the market had been awful after
you know, cash for all of that. So now in
twelve the market was turning around. And so we had
had probably, I don't know, sold fifty more cars in
twelve than we did in eleven. But the market was
growing at a faster pace than that, not the speed
that they were claiming we should have been growing at.
(36:14):
So we accepted the challenge, said, okay, I'm going to
meet with you every three months. And they're like, there's
got to be improvement. Okay, we hear you. I said,
I wish this were a sprint, but it's not. This
is going to be more like a marathon. But give
us an opportunity. So in twenty twelve, our particular dealership
was selling three hundred and thirty four new cars a year.
(36:38):
So our projection said the following year we would finish
at like four four thirty. It wasn't much of an increase,
but it wasn't increase enough to where all of my
sources Education State Association was like, you're moving in the
right direction for the OEM. So then got through that
(37:01):
year and I continued to meet with them. So when
I rolled out our plan for twenty fourteen, my projection
said that we were going to sell eight hundred new
cars that year in a meeting, and they all laughed
and they're like, well, that's great, how do you plan
to do that? So these presentations were step by step.
Speaker 1 (37:21):
And how many I'm sorry, bridget how many had you
been selling at before that point?
Speaker 2 (37:26):
Roughly three hundred new cars a year the first year.
That wasn't a whole year. It wasn't a whole year.
It was about six months. We increased sales to four
hundred because that happened midway through that year. Sure, midway
through the year. So we did finish one hundred and
twenty ahead thirteen than we did twelve. But fourteen I
said we're going to finish at eight hundred, and they
(37:48):
laughed because they didn't. They're like whatever, And we finished
at eight hundred and forty four, and so wow, we
went from eight forty four. Then to the following year,
I said eleven hundred, finished it right, approximately eleven fifty,
and then from eleven fifty these are just new units
to fourteen hundred and fifty all.
Speaker 1 (38:09):
New units all Indy unitars.
Speaker 2 (38:11):
Wow, and so so it was. It was amazing. Anyone
can go into business that's already running and oh this
is fun and let's sell cars. But to build something
like that. I have the opportunity to build something like
that with your father. It was pretty spectacic.
Speaker 1 (38:31):
Bridget, How did you do it? I keep thinking about
what you mentioned your year when you set that goal
of wanting to do what eight hundred and you told
them that, and what did you say? Three hundred some
that you had sold that year?
Speaker 2 (38:45):
Yes, I got to mention we had a non existent
ram business that we grew to be twenty third rank
GRAM dealer Great Lakes Region, top fifty in the country.
So the first thing that I had to do was
just educate myself. Educate myself and then be aware, Okay,
what is the market doing and whatever the market is doing,
we need to be doing. And then ten mile radius.
(39:08):
We have state franchise laws in Ohio for dealerships, So
in my market, what are people doing, who's superseding us?
How are they doing it? And there was another female
in the Lebanon market at a Ford store who was
doing really well, and I'm like, if she can do it.
I can do it. Her name was Lisa Krider.
Speaker 1 (39:29):
And but at the same level too, she was.
Speaker 2 (39:32):
The GM of the Ford store in the market. Okay,
nothing but respect for her, and so I'm like, I know,
my dad can sell cars. I just got to understand
the market, understand where we're missing the mark, and then
build a plan. It's people plan process, It's really what
it is. And so just came to understand that, like,
(39:58):
why would people there's a zoo of one places for
people to buy a car, why would they drive to
eleven in Ohio between Cincinnati Dayton to purchase a car.
So I'm a big fan of pick a medium and
dominated on the advertising front, right, and I was a
fan of radio, and so radio was my number one
(40:19):
venue to build that brand there. And then digital was
on the rise, and so digital was coming into and
so we got on the digital game ahead. I was
very involved in the marketing and we just took care
of every customer. I personally didn't want to miss an opportunity,
So I was wearing multiple hats I wanted. I was
(40:41):
the BDC, like I answered every single if we're going
to start spending this money in the market, I answered
every single Internet lead that came in, and then just
getting a CRM being able to track what you're doing,
and then metrics just saying okay, this is our plan,
and then trying to hold people accountable and move a
(41:03):
business forward.
Speaker 1 (41:04):
So bridget, just to fast forward a little bit, you're
now you now have visibility in Washington Courthouse, also in
London as of recent fast forwarding to the landscape. Now,
I mean, I think about your stories from back in
the radio days. That was before the Google's SEO and
(41:25):
no one knew what SEO was anything like that, right,
So now in twenty twenty five, where is an auto
dealer group like yourself. Where are you getting most of
your leads? Now? Is it the Internet? Is it social media?
Is it digital? Where is it?
Speaker 2 (41:39):
So when you compare from then to now, here's a
really important fact. Prior when my dad and I had
our dealership in Lebanon, the average consumer visited two point
five dealerships before they made a purchase decision. Okay, in
today's world, the average customer visits zero dealerships I've read
(42:03):
this before they make their purchase. I mean, there's a
zillion one places for them to shop or service their car,
and so what are you going to do, you know
what I mean, to drive traffic to your stores. It
has gotten extremely difficult for smaller dealers to make it
(42:24):
in a in a hyper competitive auto world. As I
mentioned before, the three largest expenses in a dealership floor
plan expense. If you're a big dealer group I mean,
and you're versus an independent dealer, yeah, you're not going
to be able to compete with that floor plan interest
rate that that big dealer is getting. So you've got
to love on your customers. You got to take care
(42:45):
of your customers in a different in a different way.
And so I think the reason prior that my dad
and I had such successes is we we ran the
store small town. We were visible. We worked in our
dealership every single day. That's not something that a customer
(43:05):
can necessarily get. When you go into a really successful
large dealer groups store, you just might not get that.
You might never I mean employees might never meet the
dealer principle. They might see the dealer principal two times
a year. So I had aspirations of owning my own store.
My dad and I sold our old dealership in nineteen
(43:29):
and Gordon was my first store. And so it's when
you're used to being number one at the top of
the scoreboard, and then now it's a new season. This
is a brand new season. So you lived, your kids,
grew up in this dealership, you build this thing, and
then now you're on your own and you have aspirations
(43:50):
as to being a female dealer operator. By the way,
I mentioned there was eighteen thousand new car franchises in
the United States, so approximately twenty eight hundred dj R
franchises and across those eighteen thousand, less than six percent
of those dealerships have a female dealer principal dealer owner.
(44:13):
And out of the Stilanta stores, I believe when I
when I bought Gordon, I believe I was number fifty
one out of twenty eight hundred dealers to be one
hundred percent owned by you know, a female. So big
challenges different. I'm looking at a whole different landscape of challenges,
(44:35):
but excited about the opportunity to have I have three small,
outlying underperforming dealerships that that we wanted. It's three different
markets to serve new customers in, you know, in different
zip codes, different areas to get to know to figure
(44:57):
out their needs and figure out, you know, how you
can help.
Speaker 1 (45:01):
Well, I and you, Bridgett. I was going to tell
you one thing I thought you were really smart with
is and I don't know if it was London Washington
court House, maybe it was both of them. You have
embraced two big areas where there where agriculture is king.
And I've noticed you've you've put your arms around that community,
that agriculture community, which is brilliant, by the way, brilliant.
Speaker 2 (45:25):
Well, they're really important. I mean, our agg family is
it's super important. It's super important to.
Speaker 1 (45:32):
Number one industry, isn't it in Ohio? So yeah, and I.
Speaker 2 (45:35):
Do have three stores surrounded by a lot of agriculture,
and so we try to offer support. Especially my stores
are business Link, so we do the commercial side of
Chrysler with we can tell the forty five hundreds, the
fifty five hundreds, and we can service those vehicles. So
not every CDJR franchise is business link, right, and so
(45:58):
my stores are. And it's really important to understand any
business customer, including agriculture, and so when their vehicles are
down and they're on their farms, I mean we've got
to keep them moving. So having the mindset that we've
got to be the dealer to keep our customer moving
(46:20):
when that vehicle needs serviced is really important. So we're
just out there trying to communicate that and let people
know we see what you do, this is what we do.
We want to be a you know, we want to
be family in this. We want to be teammates. We're
here to help you.
Speaker 1 (46:37):
Bridget I know we got to wrap up, but what's
the future of Bridge Auto Group? Where are we going
from here?
Speaker 2 (46:44):
I guess we shall see. So the newest acquisition is
the one up North, so I just closed on that,
like towards the end of the year. I just had
the grand opening at London. Gordon's been around now for
a year and a half London. I think huge, huge
(47:05):
things are on the horizon. We know different than when
we were in Lebanon running that store. Small town, but
I believe that we're going to be a player in
the Columbus market. We just want to get our message
out there, let customers know there's a We're going to
take a concier approach to their sales needs, their service needs,
(47:25):
and there's a new kid in town.
Speaker 1 (47:28):
I love it. Bridgie congratulations. I really enjoyed the stories,
very inspiring, and especially do you think the auto industry
has changed where for so many decades it's can I
just say it, It appears to have been a man's
This is a man's industry. So I would have to
imagine there was one point that may have been tough
(47:50):
for you, but clearly a lot of people have been
given you the respect you deserve.
Speaker 2 (47:55):
Thank you. I think we are seeing more and more women.
Women in general are pretty good at multitasking, and as
we talked earlier on the program, you know's there's a
lot of multitasking required on a daily basis under the
roof of a car dealership. I mean we've got multiple
(48:15):
generations working under one roof, right, and and so I
think there's there's great opportunity for anyone, whether you're a woman,
whether you're not even seeing more push like technicians with
trade schools versus just these four year colleges. I mean,
(48:36):
you can make a great living working at a car dealership.
There's so many different things that you can do and
become a technician. You can work a forty hour work week,
be good at your your trade, and get paid for
seventy seventy five hours a week, not education out there
to let our youth know all the all the things
(48:57):
that working in a a in a cardialership have to offer.
Speaker 1 (49:01):
Bridget It's so funny you say that, because I was.
I was at a bonfire last weekend and my neighbor
is a part of a group where he oversees the
used car section, and we were joking about all the
stereotypes in the auto industry, the used car salesman, if
you will, and he said, yeah, He's like, I know,
(49:23):
I've heard of them all my life. But I'm the
one laughing all the way to the bank because I
get to determine how much I want to make. And
if you're with a good group, you're you're destined to
do well as long as you know, work hard. But
it's almost like it's a it's a best kept secret,
like people have People make fun of people in the
auto industry all the time, but little do they know.
You can make great money.
Speaker 2 (49:44):
Absolutely you can. And in regards to just the market
in general, just from a purchased lease standpoint, I mean
a lot has gone Back in the day they had
those open ended leases that those were not a good
thing those moved out what in was it the nineteen hundreds,
(50:04):
but it did leave a very bad residue, and in
an economy like our current economy. The one thing I
can say about leasing, and not that we're doing a
tremendous amount of leasing, but there a car is a
depreciating asset. So you can purchase what appreciates and lease
(50:26):
what depreciates if you're a candidate for leasing, But the
only guarantee that you're going to have of what your
car is going to be worth is probably through a lease.
Because people say, oh, I want to own my car,
but you don't own that car even if you've purchased it,
(50:47):
until you make the last payment. So when you lease
a vehicle, there's no little magic man with a ball
forecasting the future. But the reality is, if you choose
to lease a car, regardless of what is going on
in our economy right now, you do have a guarantee.
(51:08):
It's the residual number of what that lease states. Your
residual value is that car is going to be worth that?
So either drive a car under factory warranty and if
it's worth that when your twenty four month lease or
thirty six month leases up then okay, then buy it
(51:29):
then or say it's depreciated. What's not going to hurt
you any I mean you're driving a more expensive vehicle
for a lesser payment and then just trade it in
and go back to something else. And most manufactures, most
OEMs want, they want to retain their customer base. Yeah,
so they should be offering retention programs like with their
leases to keep that consumer loyal.
Speaker 1 (51:51):
Well, bridget whether it's a lease or just owning a car.
I know there's a difference, but are should we be
maybe looking more into instead of keeping our car like
my mom and dad, grandma grandpa did for twenty thirty years,
should we consider turning it in every so often, five
ten years or something.
Speaker 2 (52:12):
So Again, a car is a depreciating asset. So I
think it's gonna boil down to what you If you're
if you are the type you know you're gonna take
that car and you're gonna drive it to the wheels
fall off of it. Yeah, then there's absolutely nothing wrong
with that. Okay, But if you are the person who
is like, eh, you get bored, You're gonna want a
(52:35):
new car. You're gonna want your I mean, people's needs
change families.
Speaker 1 (52:38):
I get it.
Speaker 2 (52:39):
Yeah, you know then, I mean I think that's why
you got to get to know your customer and best
to understand their needs so you can help them find
the right solution and the right solution I believe in
this industry is helping the customer find the right car
for the right price or lease payment. Yeah, at the
best rate.
Speaker 1 (53:00):
Bridget I know, I've gone over with you, but you
just have so many so much information and so much knowledge.
With the EV vehicles, We're what's what's the future of
all this? Is it kool aid right now? Not that
they're ever going to go away, but we we see
more of a push now with our current administration government
to kind of wipe out some of those subsidies that
(53:20):
we've seen for a few decades now, Tesla probably being
one of the biggest beneficiary of that. Where are we
going with all this?
Speaker 2 (53:28):
So that remains to be seen. But I do think
there was a big victory legislative victory I think just
for the just for Americans across twelve states was that
two weeks ago. And the reason I call it a
victory is that legislation is going to allow Americans to
(53:50):
drive what they want, whether that be EV, whether that
be combustion it. Evs are not a bad thing, but
anything too quick poses a lot of problems. And so
we were going down a we were going down the
wrong path in my personal opinion. Sure, and so hybrids
(54:13):
those are a great solution, but it's a new technology
and things take time. Right, So I will tell you
the average American doesn't want to wait in a line
at a gas station, let alone be stuck on the
side of the road because they can't charge their vehicles.
There's a lot of things to get worked out. I mean,
there are a lot of things not taken into consideration.
(54:34):
I mean, the average vehicle has four hundred and fifty
parts on it. The average EV has less than twenty
parts on it. Wow, So going to a full EV mandate,
there was a lot with that. I think we're on
a better path now. And I think that path is
let Americans drive what they want to drive.
Speaker 1 (54:55):
Yeah, and EV. Let the market decide.
Speaker 2 (54:57):
Let the market decide, Let customers side.
Speaker 1 (55:00):
Yeah, Well, said Bridget, I'm so glad that you're here
for more info on Bridge Auto Group. Where can we
go to see the dealerships? Website lutely so.
Speaker 2 (55:10):
Websites are Gordon cdjr dot com, London cdjr dot com
or Bridge cdjr dot com.
Speaker 1 (55:19):
All right, Bridget, thanks so much for your time. This
has been an amazing episode. Appreciate it absolutely.
Speaker 2 (55:25):
I'm also on LinkedIn. If any one has any questions
or wants to talk about anything, I'm always.
Speaker 1 (55:30):
Available perfect So just look for what Bridget Reinberger. Is
that right?
Speaker 2 (55:34):
It's actually Bridget Weinberger.
Speaker 1 (55:36):
Rule, Bridget Reinberger Richelle on r u e h l okay,
Bridget Reinberger Rule. Thank you, thank you for letting me know.
Speaker 2 (55:42):
That I appreciate it at thanks for having me on CEOs.
Speaker 1 (55:45):
You should know is hosted and produced by Brandon Boxer,
a production of iHeartMedia, Columbus
Columbus in Central Ohio have a rich history of companies
being headquartered here, everything from technology, manufacturing, retail, insurance, and more.
But what about the leaders behind these companies? What makes
them tick? How do they get their start? This is
where you get to meet the captain of the ship.
Welcome to CEOs You Should Know and iHeartMedia Columbus Podcast.
Welcome back to another episode of CEOs You Should Know.
(00:23):
This is an iHeartMedia Columbus podcast. I'm your host, Boxer
and this week some I think quite a few would
probably call her a trailblazer in the world of the
auto industry. I want to welcome Bridget Reinberger with us. Bridget,
good to have you with us as a guest this
week on the podcast. Thanks for joining us.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Thank you so much for having me on. Excited to
be here.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
Well, I'm excited to hear your story because from what
I've read alone, it's truly inspiring. We're going to weave
through your journey of how you got to where you are,
but we should also let people know that you course
are in your world and this is something I wanted
to know too. Do they I noticed a lot of
people when you own a dealership or a group. You're
(01:05):
you're called a principle, Is that right? So you're an
owner dealer principal? Are you the president? How does that work?
Speaker 2 (01:12):
Owner dealer principal? Dealer principle is certainly a OEM term,
a manufacturer term.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
So if that is your aspirations to be a dealer
one day, then that dealer principal term is a big deal.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
That's a big deal. And you oversee the Bridge Auto Group,
which we're going to get into, and of course that's
why you're here. Tell us about Bridge Auto Group, this
umbrella and what it oversees.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
Absolutely. So, the Bridge Auto Group was formed last year.
It consists of three dealerships in three different metropolitan areas.
My first dealership that I owned one hundred percent of
is located in Washington Court House. It is Gordon Chrysler
Dodge geep Ram and that's named after my father, Gordon,
(02:00):
who blazed the way for me as a female in
this industry.
Speaker 1 (02:04):
So, God, your dad, your dad was huge in the
auto industry. You grew up in.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
This absolutely so. I grew up in Columbus and my
father had a gas station on Frank Road years ago. Wow,
Frank Road, and there was a dealer, Al Spitzer, who
used to deal in my dad's gas station, and he
would always talk to him about getting in the car business,
and you should come sell cars for me, And that
(02:34):
actually ended up manifesting, And so my dad began his
career in the auto industry with the Spitzer organization selling cars.
And from the very first month that he entered the business,
he sold like thirty five cars. So he's a legend
when it comes to sales. Wow.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
Okay, so growing up you grew up in Columbus, right, yes, yeah,
So growing up you when was your first memory or
moment that you knew Wow, I'm digging what dad is doing.
I want to learn more about this.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
So initially that I was very proud of him, but
I really didn't see myself like working in the in
the car industry. I wanted to do interior design, but
I was struggling to make ends meet in the interior
design world. And so I really got in the business
from a proposition that my father made me after school. Wow,
(03:31):
and he said, you're not making anything doing that. I'm
telling you you should try selling cars. I'll tell you
what bridge If you will just give it a whirl,
commit six months, whatever, and give it all you got,
whatever you can save up, I'm gonna match, and I'm
gonna help you buy your first house. And that's literally
(03:53):
the way that I entered into the car business. What
a great.
Speaker 1 (03:58):
Story, by the way, you had no desire whatsoever, but
this was. This whole thing started with a conversation with
your dad.
Speaker 2 (04:07):
A proposition, A proposition, a proposition, and so I said, okay,
why not? Why not?
Speaker 1 (04:15):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (04:16):
So I applied at and my father had worked for
George Buyers, Oh yeah for twenty eight years here in
the Columbus market and has sold everyone in their mother vehicles.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:28):
So I'm in a different market. I'm in Cincinnati. So
I'm like, I'm going to give it a whirl. So
I started a career in car sales, did extremely well.
Was shocked how much I enjoyed it, how much I
enjoyed just meeting all the different people and helping them
with their transportation needs. And I was told it's going
(04:50):
to take about a year, and at that year mark,
you'll start seeing repeat business. Okay, And that's exactly what
I saw. And then I'm competitive. So there was the
competitive aspect to it, and so I really enjoyed that
to the point to where I wouldn't take my off
days or anything like that. And so then it became
(05:12):
this little fun thing between my dad and I. How
many cars you sell? So I would actually try to
compete with my dad in a different market selling and
so I did that did really well. In fact, it
took about three years and I was promoted to doing
f and I so.
Speaker 1 (05:31):
Then I a bridge and forgive me what's FNI?
Speaker 2 (05:34):
What's finance business Manager? So after someone purchases a car
and you have to do all the paperwork and then
they go into the office, it gave me an opportunity
to get to know the customer on a deeper level. Yeah,
find out, hey, what are your driving habits? And then
help them Typically, vehicle is the second largest investment that
(05:57):
customer or people make their home home, and then it's
the car.
Speaker 1 (06:01):
Okay, yeah, and I can see that.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
So then it gave me an opportunity to help them
protect that investment okay, by getting to to just say, hey,
what are your driving habits? Where do you live? Do
you park in a garage, and then offer them the
opportunity to ensure that their investment was going to be protected.
Speaker 1 (06:21):
Yeah, Bridget Reinberger is with us, and Bridget I just
realized something that we didn't get the chance to talk
before this podcast today. So Bridge Auto Group is Bridge
just short for your name then, or.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
It is in it is in one capacity and another capacity.
There is a program I'm getting ready to launch. So
I'm happy to have this platform to do it.
Speaker 1 (06:44):
Yeah, we'd you want to talk about it now if
you don't mind, Yeah, yes, sure.
Speaker 2 (06:47):
So there it's called Bridge my Credit and it will
be up and running by August the first. And so
it gives me an opportun tunity to offer a concierge
approach to helping people with their transportation needs, whether it
be a vehicle purchase or vehicle servicing, and to help
(07:11):
people with challenge credit find that solution. And that's a
bridge they need to take, right.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
So it is in one way short for my name,
but it is about taking a bridge to the best
deal that's out there, to the best customer service that's
out there, to the best financing options that are out there.
So that was that's what it was.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
Yeah, and that launches in August. You said August first,
all right, it's called bridge my credit. Absolutely all right,
very brilliant bridget I like that. So here you are,
You're you're moving up the ladder with your first dealership
as a salesperson. Where were you at where? I know?
(07:58):
Off the podcast before we started taping, we talked about
radio a little bit, and you've you've got this background
that I have that Ken, our salesperson has of doing that.
Where in this mix were you and radio?
Speaker 2 (08:12):
So I initially spent for four and a half years
in the car business, and then I realized I love
the business. I'm like, this is my people, but I
love the auto business. I love the auto business. But
I did not like the downtime of sitting in a
car dealership waiting for customers to come in, okay, And
(08:34):
so I'm like, I felt like I wanted to help
dealers on a greater scale sell more cars and better
take care of customers. So I was like, how could
I do something like that? And I'm like, I need
to help them. I need to help them drive traffic
to their dealerships. And so there was Auto Trader, which
(08:57):
is now owned by COPS, that was not digital digital.
Once upon a time, it was just the magazine that.
Speaker 1 (09:05):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
So when I left the car business, I went to
Auto Trader and it was not owned by Cox at
the time, sover in Covington, Kentucky, and I spent one
year to date so helping dealers with their used car
advertising Bridgiet.
Speaker 1 (09:22):
Can I stop you for a second? Is that is
that where it was based? The Auto Trader was Kentucky? Yes,
I had no but it was a national.
Speaker 2 (09:29):
Thing right Park Hills.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
So wow, yep, okay, yeah, I didn't know that.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
So I did that and then then I realized, I
think I'm looking for something on like a larger scale.
So during that year, I mean it was interesting. So
in the Cincinnati market, I had all the buy here,
pay heres, and quite frankly, in one day I had
(09:58):
gone in a little, a little store and it was
a buy here, pay here a lot and if there
were snow on the ground, these guys are like, we're
not running. So I would get the keys. And there
were three different stores that I had to get the keys,
wipe the snow off the cars for like one hundred
(10:19):
and fifty dollars AD. And I'm like, there's got to
be a way for me to make a greater impact.
So radio had intrigued me, so I applied it at
Clear Channel in the Cincinnati market. I was hired selling
a classic rock demographic. There we had eight stations and
a television station, and quickly Clear Channel realized we need
(10:44):
her talking talking to auto dealers. So because I just understood,
I understood being raised by a crazy car guy, how
hectic the business is. It's not rocket science. It's not
for the faint of heart though sure, and so it's hectic.
And so these guys are being pulled a million in
one different ways. And so if I could go in
(11:06):
and just try to understand their business and figure out
how to tell their story for them on paper, write
their commercial and understand if they have any co op
available and how to assist in that, then I might
be able to make an impact and make a good
living for myself. And so that in fact is what
I did. And so they had they made a position
(11:30):
for me selling radio across eight stations in a television station.
So I was the radio girl to sell advertising to
car dealers in the Cincinnati market. So I made a
lot of you know, great friends, learned about a lot
of different areas of the car industry, that I was
(11:52):
not aware of at that time, and it was fun.
Speaker 1 (11:55):
You know what, when you tell us your story, Bridget,
it reminds me of how far we've come since then
because you you are basically this You are this liaison
to the auto groups, to the auto dealerships, like you
speak their language, and you're also helping a clear channel
at the same time, you know, make a lot of
(12:16):
money and through advertising, and I think about how far
we've come, like in this company, it's now iHeart iHeartMedia.
But there is someone literally in that position that you
probably helped create. Little did you know back in the
day who oversees the auto portion of it. So I
find that interesting.
Speaker 2 (12:35):
Thank you. I will tell you that my season of
selling radio, it's all a journey, right, but boy has
it helped prepare me for my role as a female
dealer principle in this.
Speaker 1 (12:51):
Realistry doing the radio sales.
Speaker 2 (12:54):
Yes, okay, because I was handed the phone book. By
the way, So some people are hired in radio and
they get a a list, a billing list.
Speaker 1 (13:02):
Not you didn't have that.
Speaker 2 (13:03):
Nope, I did not have that. And as a matter
of fact, I had to go on seven interviews before
I was initially hired, and before I was hired, Chuck
Frederick was my boss at the time, well he was
soon to be my boss, he said. I called him
and he was like, what can I help you. I said,
I am still actively pursuing a position with clear channel
(13:27):
and he goes, all right, Bridget, He goes, here's what
I want you to do. I want you to prepare
two presentations, one on and he knew I had sold cars,
one on hy w EBN for Joseph Chevrolet and the
other on why Bridget Elkins at the time for WEBN.
I want to see how quick you can get these
(13:47):
done and then get back with me. So I said, okay, thanks.
So I did my best, and forty eight hours later
I called him back and I came up with the
top five reasons WB and cannot ignore the Bridget factor.
And so I was in Fountain Square with the w
EBN T shirt on a snorkel in my mouth. I was,
(14:10):
I put a hurdle on. I mean, and there were
five big like reasons.
Speaker 1 (14:15):
But do you have a picture of this somewhere?
Speaker 2 (14:17):
Do I have the actual presentation?
Speaker 1 (14:20):
I love it. You have to send that to me.
Speaker 2 (14:22):
So it just it really so immediately from just the
challenges of trying to get hired, challenge me to just
think broader, like to think broad. Yeah, and then my
role as as an AE, I mean I had to
I had to be an investigator. I had to figure
out who had a need. Then I had to sell
(14:46):
and I had to convince to meet with me. Then
I had to do research. I had to be a
researcher and I had to research their market, their competition.
Then I had to go in radio and I had
to sell my boss to fight for them to get
them competitive rates.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
Yeah, okay.
Speaker 2 (15:04):
Then I had to sell the traffic team because I
wanted their results to work. So where are these spots
gonna run? You know? Then I had to play the
game and no promotions, so that absolutely so that I
could just bring as much benefit as possible to all
my clients. And so there was a lot to balance,
(15:26):
and so it was a good lesson in multitasking, which
is what I do on a daily basis.
Speaker 1 (15:32):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (15:33):
As a dealer principal three new small CJR.
Speaker 1 (15:37):
Stores Bridget and Bridget, Weinberger is with us. Bridget is
the principal owner of Bridge Auto Group. Bridget when it
comes to this would have been with the mid late
nineties that you were in Cincinnati Clear Channel, Yes, sir,
okay so, and especially back then it correct me from
(16:00):
I feel like radio and auto groups and auto dealerships
there was a great and there still is, but there's
a great marriage where every Saturday we were out at
a dealership somewhere resolutely, absolutely so. And I bet I
was thinking too during that time. That was that was
(16:20):
a huge heyday, especially you know for Cincinnati Clear Channel.
Jay Core was based there. You probably saw what Randy
Michaels quite a bit.
Speaker 2 (16:28):
Randy Michaels is a friend. He's a friend, dear friend.
He and mister Pat Berry, who's no longer with this too.
My Pat was probably my best business mentor friend.
Speaker 1 (16:39):
Yeah. Boy, you you worked with some real legends there.
So you you obviously cut a new cloth for you know,
ja cor Clear Channel doing what you do. How long
were you at clear Channel four?
Speaker 2 (16:53):
I was clear for about five years and that is
where I met my ex husband and father of my
two amazing sons, Kate and Cleat and older. They so
my oldest is Caate. He's in New York. He is
twenty two. Yeah, and then my younger son is now
(17:14):
in college in Orlando and he's nineteen.
Speaker 1 (17:16):
Cleat, Okay, wow, you don't look old old enough to
have a twenty two year old and a nineteen.
Speaker 2 (17:22):
You are too kind, too kind, So.
Speaker 1 (17:26):
When did you decide? Okay, I've kind of hit the
ceiling here, time to move on and what was next?
Speaker 2 (17:32):
So I Lovedrettio, I absolutely loved Doretio, but I did
as I mentioned, I met my ex husband and he
was the GM of seven hundred WLW at the time,
and so clear Channel was going through more transitions and
so he then he got a promotion to director of
sales for all the stations. So it was a conflict
(17:55):
of interest. So he didn't want me to work. I
wanted to work, but so I ended up he had
the higher position there, so I ended up, And then
we were pregnant with Caid, and so I ended up
going to an agency at that time just because of
(18:16):
the conflict of interest, where I decided to try to
help auto dealers with their full marketing plans. So I
did that. I left and did that and had about
three groups that I was working with and where I'm
an only I'm an only child and my dad was
(18:36):
still with the buyers organization and I'm in Cincinnati. My
mom was like, we're moving to Cincinnati because I want
to be around my grandkids. So when that came about,
I started trying to help my dad find a dealership
to work for because I had so many dealers, such
a large dealer network of friends, and an opportun tunity
(19:00):
presented itself for my father to buy half of a dealership,
a CDJR. Store in two thousand and seven, right before
the market plummeted, right before GM filed bankruptcy, you know,
it was Chrysler filed bankruptcy. And this is this is
where it really my life really just started to take
(19:23):
path because my dad took his whole life savings and
invested it in at the time, a Chrysler store in Lebanon, Ohio. Yeah,
and it was only by the grace of God that
we are where we are now didn't lose everything at
that time. I mean, holy moly, Fifth Third Bank had
(19:45):
the floor planning. My dad buys half of a store.
Fifth Third says, Hey, guess what, we don't want to
be in dealer floor planning anymore. We're going to get out.
So there's my dad with his life savings. The store
had no floor plan. I literally have a picture of
the dealership with two cars setting on it. While my dad,
who is such a worker bee he worked, worked, was like,
(20:07):
I'm going to make this thing.
Speaker 1 (20:08):
Work and make it work.
Speaker 2 (20:09):
And we were really fortunate. So my dad had a
partner who was not really involved, and so it's like, well,
who are you guys, You don't have a big car
group last name, sure, but very thankful Ally Bank took
a gamble and gave us a floor line, a three
million dollar floor line at the time.
Speaker 1 (20:30):
Bridgie, Can I stop you for a second, just someone
who's not in the business, but obviously very curious when
you say a floor plan, yes, does that mean? Are
you talking? Is that language for like inventory? For what
what do you mean by that?
Speaker 2 (20:43):
Absolutely, your floor plan line as a car dealer is
like your mortgage on your home. Oh okay, So ideally
you want to have your new cars floored lined and
you want to own all your used cars. But depending
on you know, if you're a part of a group,
how deep your pockets are, whether that I mean in
a perfect world that is the case, right, So the
three largest expenses in a dealership are your floor plan line, personnel,
(21:07):
and advertising. Okay, so your floor line is everything. So
dealers that if you get in trouble or something horrible
happened and you lost your franchise, is probably because you
got in a bad situation out of trust with your bank.
So you better keep your floor plan line intact and
pay your cars off on time. It's the mortgage on
(21:27):
your inventory.
Speaker 1 (21:28):
Okay, yep, yeah, that's interesting. So in a perfect world
or at least secret sauce, if you want to run
a good dealership, the goal is always to own the
pre owned right the used cars.
Speaker 2 (21:41):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (21:42):
Okay. Wow, So you get in with your dad. He
owns half of this dealership. It was tough times at
the time. We saw the fallout with you know, in
different companies filing for bankruptcy. What happened next?
Speaker 2 (21:57):
So what happened next was my dad. He doesn't even
check an email on a computer, but he goes to
work every day. He works his guts out. He wants
to find customers and help them, you know, purchase their
next vehicle. So he's like, you gotta help. You got
to get in here and help me. And so I'm like, okay,
So I really I was thrusted into car dealership management
(22:25):
like overnight because of my dad, you know, buying half
of this dealership.
Speaker 1 (22:31):
Wait, I just realized something, bridget this came full circle
again with your dad?
Speaker 2 (22:36):
Yes again, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (22:39):
He gets you back into the car business.
Speaker 2 (22:41):
You bet he certainly did.
Speaker 1 (22:45):
I love that. So you get thrusted back into it.
You're now in management. What was your first position?
Speaker 2 (22:52):
So people would say, what's your title? I really didn't
have one, so I made up a I just made
something up and I was like, I think it was
customer specialist or.
Speaker 1 (23:02):
Something like that. Knowing you, you probably did everything I was.
Speaker 2 (23:06):
I was attempting to. I was trying to when I
say forged by fire, I have been forged by fire
in this business. So in a weird way, my dad
and I first, I'm really second generation, but in some
ways we were first generation together. Yeause we I mean
we got to walk side by side and figure figure
(23:27):
this thing out. But I did know if anyone deserved
an opportunity to be a dealer principal, it was my dad.
Speaker 1 (23:35):
I love that. How how were those first couple of
years after the market just bottomed out?
Speaker 2 (23:41):
They so they were crazy and to add insult to injury.
My dad did have a business partner who wasn't very involved,
and yeah, probably wasn't the best relationship, and so that
was another thing that was set forth to navigate. So
I was basically when I got in the business, he
(24:03):
wasn't involved. I was just helping my dad. We were
increasing sales enough to when the market plummeted, they did
not I think in the Cincinnati market, which is much
more saturated than the Columbus market. They closed more than
half of the Chrysler stores, more than half of the
General Motor stores, and my dad had increased sales enough
(24:25):
to make that cut. So we were, you know, we
were alive. We had the opportunity. The factory was aware
that my dad and his business partner didn't have the
best relationship. It's never the manufacturer's job to referee a
shareholders' dispute. So we just put our heads down and
focused on selling cars and probably not doing everything that
(24:48):
we should have been doing. The manufacturer Lebanon was forecasted
to grow, so the manufacturer came in and said, hey,
we appreciate everything that's going on, but Gordon, like, we
know you and your partner don't get along that well,
and we think you should be selling more cars. So
we're gonna we think maybe you guys need to sell,
and we're going to start the process to terminate you
(25:11):
as dealers, thinking that they can just push you out right.
And so immediately when this is what I'm saying, forged
by fire, I'm like, oh my gosh, there's got to
be associations. Who's going to help you know, this can't happen.
Then my dad's put his whole life savings in here.
So I reached out to the local association. So NADA
(25:32):
kind of governs the auto industry on a national scale.
Then you have your state associations, and in the state
of Ohio, I got to tell you, Oada, we have
one of the best state associations that exist in the
United States.
Speaker 1 (25:45):
And I'm Ohio Dealers.
Speaker 2 (25:48):
Ohio Dealers absolutely. So there's approximately eighteen thousand new car
franchise dealers across the United States. Okay, and so Ohio,
Texas to name two. They've got great dealers associations. So
they were there to protect dealers because it's a the
dealer network is it's a strong group. Okay, they we
(26:12):
the amount of money dealers pay into the communities with
all of our taxes. I mean it's great. I mean
we for just school systems, I mean everything and so and.
Speaker 1 (26:24):
That's and that's just I don't want to call it basic.
That's obviously very important. But I'm so glad you brought
that up bridge it because yes, you're right, there's there's
the tax base, but all of the other things that
a dealership does for the community, sponsoring scoreboards for the
local high school or whatever it might be. You are
(26:46):
the a dealership is truly the fabric of a community.
Speaker 2 (26:50):
It really is. It really is. And I think manufacturers
have been trying to cut dealers out for quite some time.
But you know what, like that that doesn't work because people,
I mean there might be some people who want to
jump online and buy a car, people like going to
their local dealer. They want to know. They want to
know that when they pull off the lot and there's
(27:12):
an issue with that car, they got a friend that
they can pull back in, or they can pick up
the phone and call and say, hey, I was on
my way to visit my daughter in college and my
car's broke down on the side of the road. What
am I supposed to do, and they have a friend.
The manufacturer's never going to do that for customers. They're
never going to say, hey, come in, we'll sponsor your
(27:33):
son's baseball team. There's a need in the community. Let's
open up and just feed everyone on Thanksgiving, let's feed
twenty five hundred miles.
Speaker 1 (27:41):
And since we're on the subject, Bridget, I'll add this
to it. At least I'm speaking on myself, on behalf
of myself. The technology is great, and I know you
got to go with technology AI whatever. We can get
to that in a sec. But there is something about
individual people. When your car breaks down, and that is
your go to dealership where you get it serviced. They
(28:03):
know the car, you know Dan behind the customer service desk.
It's comfort food. But in the world of auto and
I think that's a big deal. I go back to
mine all the time because of that. And I own
a Christler pacificate just so you know.
Speaker 2 (28:20):
I like that. But it's I bet you're due for
a new one.
Speaker 1 (28:24):
Is look at you already. I'll tell you what. My
wife loves that PACIFICA. They do a great job designing that.
Speaker 2 (28:32):
My parents won't drive anything but a PACIFICA. By the way,
both my mom and my dad.
Speaker 1 (28:36):
Can I just say, bridget it's the most amazing mini
van ever, the way they designed it. I just want
to high five the engineers, like you guys thought of everything.
Speaker 2 (28:46):
And the reality is you cannot beat the practicality of
a van.
Speaker 1 (28:50):
No, no, but my goodness, vans have come a long ways,
haven't they come?
Speaker 2 (28:55):
A long way?
Speaker 1 (28:56):
They really have. But anyway back to my point of
at your dealerships, I know you know this already, but
every individual that has their title, that has their job,
they're all important, and people like me as a customer,
we lean on every one of them because if someone's
not nice, we'll remember that and maybe we won't want
(29:18):
to go back, or you feel like you were wrong,
you'll never want to go back to that dealership. But
my goodness, if you find a dealership and a service
department that takes care of you, maybe even one time,
goes the extra mile or gives you a lift to
your job, or I don't know, maybe they were hungry
and you got them coffee or a donut or lunch.
(29:39):
I'm telling you, they'll never forget that.
Speaker 2 (29:41):
It's so true. And the reality is the radio industry
loved car dealers because they spend a ton in advertising, right,
But the reality for car dealers is this, if we
were retaining our customers, there wouldn't be such a need
to advertising, right there, truly wouldn't be. And in a
(30:03):
car dealership, sales should sell the first car, but the
service department should sell every car after that. And so
when a customer buys a car from you for the
first time, like, that's just the beginning. It is at
that point when you then get to shine and show
that customer how you're going to take care of them
with all their needs after the purchase.
Speaker 1 (30:26):
Yeah, bridget just out of curiosity. This is something I've
always wanted to know. I know there's certain guidelines you
have to follow being a dealership, but with the manufacturer,
but are you are you allowed to have creative freedom
on like the service department. Let's say I buy a
brand new Chrysler PACIFICA from you. Are you allowed to
(30:50):
put together certain packages of your own? You don't have
to copycat other dealerships or can you kind of as
long as you're following certain guidelines, can you do that?
Speaker 2 (31:00):
There's always going to be some guidelines depending on your OEM,
depending on the manufacturer that you have to follow. But no,
there's a huge landscape for doing your own thing, having
your own retention programs, you know, your own warranties. There's
always every manufacturer's got there after market warranty, but some
dealers go with their own because they think it supersedes
(31:22):
the benefits of the OEM, the OEMs extended warranty program,
et cetera.
Speaker 1 (31:28):
Okay, bridget my apologies. I know we got off well
mainly me got off on attangent. But so you're talking
to the ODA about your dealership with your dad. They
want to push you out. What happened?
Speaker 2 (31:42):
So what happened was they scheduled this meeting. It was
a bunch of execs and at the at the current time,
my dad still had a partner who wasn't very involved,
but he was still on a dealer agreement. So they
call this and the local rep tells me, listen, you're underperforming.
(32:05):
So there's this little term called MSR and it's minimum
sales responsibility and so the manufacturer can use that to
their advantage. And that's the that's the the importance of
having the state associations to make certain that dealers are
protected or they can use it to their advantage, right,
(32:26):
And so if you want to be in the factory's
good graces as a dealer, you need to hit your
minimum sales responsibility requirements. And that's what that term means.
And so at the time we were, they claimed and
I believe that they had inflated what we should have
been doing at the time because they just thought, oh,
(32:48):
we'll make these guys go away and sell it. Put
another dealer in here we think is going to do
a better job. So we were supposedly my dad is
partner at like thirty six percent MSR. This was in
twenty twelve, okay, And so I put this whole presentation together.
But an effort to do that, I'm like, I know
very little. I've got to educate myself really quick to
(33:10):
help my dad save his franchise. So I reached out
to my local association, which was GCADA, a gentleman by
the name of a Charlie Howard. He was like, bridget
there's a school that you can go to, it's called
the NADA Academy, that can teach you how to run
a dealership. NCM also offers something like that you need
(33:32):
to reach out to both of them and find out,
you know what I mean, how to how to get
yourself up to speed if you really want to do this,
and you guys can do it. So I did that.
So I had no dealership. Financial statement is six pages long.
I had no idea how to read a financial statement,
nor did my father and his partner wasn't involved. So
(33:52):
I hired INCM and so they started coming in and
teaching me how to read a financial statement, enrolled myself
in NADA Academy, started going through. The academy, had a meeting,
rolled out a little plan the NCM helped me build
and said listen. And the day we went to the
first meeting, they're like, we're just gonna say it, some
(34:13):
big wig at Chrysler, you're thirty six percent msr uh.
You know, Gordon, if you're going to be the dealer principal,
who's going to run your operation? And my dad points
to me and goes, she is, And another gentleman said,
on what a cord? What's your experience? And then they
said we're aware, And the partner was sitting there saying nothing.
(34:36):
You guys don't even get along. Look it's time to sell.
And so I spoke up at the time and I said, listen, Gordon,
like he's in charge of sales, like he is moving
metal for you guys. He had no idea that there was,
you know, any dissatisfaction. He's aware now, and you said,
put a plan together and bring it, you know, bring
(35:00):
it to the table. And that is exactly what we've done.
Here are you saying now that we don't get our
opportunity our day in court? And so they looked at
each other laughed, and they said, what's that in your hand?
And I said it's it's it's our plan, and he said, well,
hand it to me. And I said, there was supposed
to be a projector in this room. Where's the projector?
He goes, you got a couple copies and I counted
(35:21):
twelve people around this boardroom table and I said that's
not fair. I don't have twelve copies. And then he owes,
go ahead, amuse me, John, get them a projector in here.
So a projector was brought in. We rolled out this
plan and they said, listen, there's got to be improvement.
(35:44):
There has to be improvement, and you got to meet
with us every three months.
Speaker 1 (35:48):
Were car sales just not that great? What was their
big beef?
Speaker 2 (35:52):
Well, they were so the market had been awful after
you know, cash for all of that. So now in
twelve the market was turning around. And so we had
had probably, I don't know, sold fifty more cars in
twelve than we did in eleven. But the market was
growing at a faster pace than that, not the speed
that they were claiming we should have been growing at.
(36:14):
So we accepted the challenge, said, okay, I'm going to
meet with you every three months. And they're like, there's
got to be improvement. Okay, we hear you. I said,
I wish this were a sprint, but it's not. This
is going to be more like a marathon. But give
us an opportunity. So in twenty twelve, our particular dealership
was selling three hundred and thirty four new cars a year.
(36:38):
So our projection said the following year we would finish
at like four four thirty. It wasn't much of an increase,
but it wasn't increase enough to where all of my
sources Education State Association was like, you're moving in the
right direction for the OEM. So then got through that
(37:01):
year and I continued to meet with them. So when
I rolled out our plan for twenty fourteen, my projection
said that we were going to sell eight hundred new
cars that year in a meeting, and they all laughed
and they're like, well, that's great, how do you plan
to do that? So these presentations were step by step.
Speaker 1 (37:21):
And how many I'm sorry, bridget how many had you
been selling at before that point?
Speaker 2 (37:26):
Roughly three hundred new cars a year the first year.
That wasn't a whole year. It wasn't a whole year.
It was about six months. We increased sales to four
hundred because that happened midway through that year. Sure, midway
through the year. So we did finish one hundred and
twenty ahead thirteen than we did twelve. But fourteen I
said we're going to finish at eight hundred, and they
(37:48):
laughed because they didn't. They're like whatever, And we finished
at eight hundred and forty four, and so wow, we
went from eight forty four. Then to the following year,
I said eleven hundred, finished it right, approximately eleven fifty,
and then from eleven fifty these are just new units
to fourteen hundred and fifty all.
Speaker 1 (38:09):
New units all Indy unitars.
Speaker 2 (38:11):
Wow, and so so it was. It was amazing. Anyone
can go into business that's already running and oh this
is fun and let's sell cars. But to build something
like that. I have the opportunity to build something like
that with your father. It was pretty spectacic.
Speaker 1 (38:31):
Bridget, How did you do it? I keep thinking about
what you mentioned your year when you set that goal
of wanting to do what eight hundred and you told
them that, and what did you say? Three hundred some
that you had sold that year?
Speaker 2 (38:45):
Yes, I got to mention we had a non existent
ram business that we grew to be twenty third rank
GRAM dealer Great Lakes Region, top fifty in the country.
So the first thing that I had to do was
just educate myself. Educate myself and then be aware, Okay,
what is the market doing and whatever the market is doing,
we need to be doing. And then ten mile radius.
(39:08):
We have state franchise laws in Ohio for dealerships, So
in my market, what are people doing, who's superseding us?
How are they doing it? And there was another female
in the Lebanon market at a Ford store who was
doing really well, and I'm like, if she can do it.
I can do it. Her name was Lisa Krider.
Speaker 1 (39:29):
And but at the same level too, she was.
Speaker 2 (39:32):
The GM of the Ford store in the market. Okay,
nothing but respect for her, and so I'm like, I know,
my dad can sell cars. I just got to understand
the market, understand where we're missing the mark, and then
build a plan. It's people plan process, It's really what
it is. And so just came to understand that, like,
(39:58):
why would people there's a zoo of one places for
people to buy a car, why would they drive to
eleven in Ohio between Cincinnati Dayton to purchase a car.
So I'm a big fan of pick a medium and
dominated on the advertising front, right, and I was a
fan of radio, and so radio was my number one
(40:19):
venue to build that brand there. And then digital was
on the rise, and so digital was coming into and
so we got on the digital game ahead. I was
very involved in the marketing and we just took care
of every customer. I personally didn't want to miss an opportunity,
So I was wearing multiple hats I wanted. I was
(40:41):
the BDC, like I answered every single if we're going
to start spending this money in the market, I answered
every single Internet lead that came in, and then just
getting a CRM being able to track what you're doing,
and then metrics just saying okay, this is our plan,
and then trying to hold people accountable and move a
(41:03):
business forward.
Speaker 1 (41:04):
So bridget, just to fast forward a little bit, you're
now you now have visibility in Washington Courthouse, also in
London as of recent fast forwarding to the landscape. Now,
I mean, I think about your stories from back in
the radio days. That was before the Google's SEO and
(41:25):
no one knew what SEO was anything like that, right,
So now in twenty twenty five, where is an auto
dealer group like yourself. Where are you getting most of
your leads? Now? Is it the Internet? Is it social media?
Is it digital? Where is it?
Speaker 2 (41:39):
So when you compare from then to now, here's a
really important fact. Prior when my dad and I had
our dealership in Lebanon, the average consumer visited two point
five dealerships before they made a purchase decision. Okay, in
today's world, the average customer visits zero dealerships I've read
(42:03):
this before they make their purchase. I mean, there's a
zillion one places for them to shop or service their car,
and so what are you going to do, you know
what I mean, to drive traffic to your stores. It
has gotten extremely difficult for smaller dealers to make it
(42:24):
in a in a hyper competitive auto world. As I
mentioned before, the three largest expenses in a dealership floor
plan expense. If you're a big dealer group I mean,
and you're versus an independent dealer, yeah, you're not going
to be able to compete with that floor plan interest
rate that that big dealer is getting. So you've got
to love on your customers. You got to take care
(42:45):
of your customers in a different in a different way.
And so I think the reason prior that my dad
and I had such successes is we we ran the
store small town. We were visible. We worked in our
dealership every single day. That's not something that a customer
(43:05):
can necessarily get. When you go into a really successful
large dealer groups store, you just might not get that.
You might never I mean employees might never meet the
dealer principle. They might see the dealer principal two times
a year. So I had aspirations of owning my own store.
My dad and I sold our old dealership in nineteen
(43:29):
and Gordon was my first store. And so it's when
you're used to being number one at the top of
the scoreboard, and then now it's a new season. This
is a brand new season. So you lived, your kids,
grew up in this dealership, you build this thing, and
then now you're on your own and you have aspirations
(43:50):
as to being a female dealer operator. By the way,
I mentioned there was eighteen thousand new car franchises in
the United States, so approximately twenty eight hundred dj R
franchises and across those eighteen thousand, less than six percent
of those dealerships have a female dealer principal dealer owner.
(44:13):
And out of the Stilanta stores, I believe when I
when I bought Gordon, I believe I was number fifty
one out of twenty eight hundred dealers to be one
hundred percent owned by you know, a female. So big
challenges different. I'm looking at a whole different landscape of challenges,
(44:35):
but excited about the opportunity to have I have three small,
outlying underperforming dealerships that that we wanted. It's three different
markets to serve new customers in, you know, in different
zip codes, different areas to get to know to figure
(44:57):
out their needs and figure out, you know, how you
can help.
Speaker 1 (45:01):
Well, I and you, Bridgett. I was going to tell
you one thing I thought you were really smart with
is and I don't know if it was London Washington
court House, maybe it was both of them. You have
embraced two big areas where there where agriculture is king.
And I've noticed you've you've put your arms around that community,
that agriculture community, which is brilliant, by the way, brilliant.
Speaker 2 (45:25):
Well, they're really important. I mean, our agg family is
it's super important. It's super important to.
Speaker 1 (45:32):
Number one industry, isn't it in Ohio? So yeah, and I.
Speaker 2 (45:35):
Do have three stores surrounded by a lot of agriculture,
and so we try to offer support. Especially my stores
are business Link, so we do the commercial side of
Chrysler with we can tell the forty five hundreds, the
fifty five hundreds, and we can service those vehicles. So
not every CDJR franchise is business link, right, and so
(45:58):
my stores are. And it's really important to understand any
business customer, including agriculture, and so when their vehicles are
down and they're on their farms, I mean we've got
to keep them moving. So having the mindset that we've
got to be the dealer to keep our customer moving
(46:20):
when that vehicle needs serviced is really important. So we're
just out there trying to communicate that and let people
know we see what you do, this is what we do.
We want to be a you know, we want to
be family in this. We want to be teammates. We're
here to help you.
Speaker 1 (46:37):
Bridget I know we got to wrap up, but what's
the future of Bridge Auto Group? Where are we going
from here?
Speaker 2 (46:44):
I guess we shall see. So the newest acquisition is
the one up North, so I just closed on that,
like towards the end of the year. I just had
the grand opening at London. Gordon's been around now for
a year and a half London. I think huge, huge
(47:05):
things are on the horizon. We know different than when
we were in Lebanon running that store. Small town, but
I believe that we're going to be a player in
the Columbus market. We just want to get our message
out there, let customers know there's a We're going to
take a concier approach to their sales needs, their service needs,
(47:25):
and there's a new kid in town.
Speaker 1 (47:28):
I love it. Bridgie congratulations. I really enjoyed the stories,
very inspiring, and especially do you think the auto industry
has changed where for so many decades it's can I
just say it, It appears to have been a man's
This is a man's industry. So I would have to
imagine there was one point that may have been tough
(47:50):
for you, but clearly a lot of people have been
given you the respect you deserve.
Speaker 2 (47:55):
Thank you. I think we are seeing more and more women.
Women in general are pretty good at multitasking, and as
we talked earlier on the program, you know's there's a
lot of multitasking required on a daily basis under the
roof of a car dealership. I mean we've got multiple
(48:15):
generations working under one roof, right, and and so I
think there's there's great opportunity for anyone, whether you're a woman,
whether you're not even seeing more push like technicians with
trade schools versus just these four year colleges. I mean,
(48:36):
you can make a great living working at a car dealership.
There's so many different things that you can do and
become a technician. You can work a forty hour work week,
be good at your your trade, and get paid for
seventy seventy five hours a week, not education out there
to let our youth know all the all the things
(48:57):
that working in a a in a cardialership have to offer.
Speaker 1 (49:01):
Bridget It's so funny you say that, because I was.
I was at a bonfire last weekend and my neighbor
is a part of a group where he oversees the
used car section, and we were joking about all the
stereotypes in the auto industry, the used car salesman, if
you will, and he said, yeah, He's like, I know,
(49:23):
I've heard of them all my life. But I'm the
one laughing all the way to the bank because I
get to determine how much I want to make. And
if you're with a good group, you're you're destined to
do well as long as you know, work hard. But
it's almost like it's a it's a best kept secret,
like people have People make fun of people in the
auto industry all the time, but little do they know.
You can make great money.
Speaker 2 (49:44):
Absolutely you can. And in regards to just the market
in general, just from a purchased lease standpoint, I mean
a lot has gone Back in the day they had
those open ended leases that those were not a good
thing those moved out what in was it the nineteen hundreds,
(50:04):
but it did leave a very bad residue, and in
an economy like our current economy. The one thing I
can say about leasing, and not that we're doing a
tremendous amount of leasing, but there a car is a
depreciating asset. So you can purchase what appreciates and lease
(50:26):
what depreciates if you're a candidate for leasing, But the
only guarantee that you're going to have of what your
car is going to be worth is probably through a lease.
Because people say, oh, I want to own my car,
but you don't own that car even if you've purchased it,
(50:47):
until you make the last payment. So when you lease
a vehicle, there's no little magic man with a ball
forecasting the future. But the reality is, if you choose
to lease a car, regardless of what is going on
in our economy right now, you do have a guarantee.
(51:08):
It's the residual number of what that lease states. Your
residual value is that car is going to be worth that?
So either drive a car under factory warranty and if
it's worth that when your twenty four month lease or
thirty six month leases up then okay, then buy it
(51:29):
then or say it's depreciated. What's not going to hurt
you any I mean you're driving a more expensive vehicle
for a lesser payment and then just trade it in
and go back to something else. And most manufactures, most
OEMs want, they want to retain their customer base. Yeah,
so they should be offering retention programs like with their
leases to keep that consumer loyal.
Speaker 1 (51:51):
Well, bridget whether it's a lease or just owning a car.
I know there's a difference, but are should we be
maybe looking more into instead of keeping our car like
my mom and dad, grandma grandpa did for twenty thirty years,
should we consider turning it in every so often, five
ten years or something.
Speaker 2 (52:12):
So Again, a car is a depreciating asset. So I
think it's gonna boil down to what you If you're
if you are the type you know you're gonna take
that car and you're gonna drive it to the wheels
fall off of it. Yeah, then there's absolutely nothing wrong
with that. Okay, But if you are the person who
is like, eh, you get bored, You're gonna want a
(52:35):
new car. You're gonna want your I mean, people's needs
change families.
Speaker 1 (52:38):
I get it.
Speaker 2 (52:39):
Yeah, you know then, I mean I think that's why
you got to get to know your customer and best
to understand their needs so you can help them find
the right solution and the right solution I believe in
this industry is helping the customer find the right car
for the right price or lease payment. Yeah, at the
best rate.
Speaker 1 (53:00):
Bridget I know, I've gone over with you, but you
just have so many so much information and so much knowledge.
With the EV vehicles, We're what's what's the future of
all this? Is it kool aid right now? Not that
they're ever going to go away, but we we see
more of a push now with our current administration government
to kind of wipe out some of those subsidies that
(53:20):
we've seen for a few decades now, Tesla probably being
one of the biggest beneficiary of that. Where are we
going with all this?
Speaker 2 (53:28):
So that remains to be seen. But I do think
there was a big victory legislative victory I think just
for the just for Americans across twelve states was that
two weeks ago. And the reason I call it a
victory is that legislation is going to allow Americans to
(53:50):
drive what they want, whether that be EV, whether that
be combustion it. Evs are not a bad thing, but
anything too quick poses a lot of problems. And so
we were going down a we were going down the
wrong path in my personal opinion. Sure, and so hybrids
(54:13):
those are a great solution, but it's a new technology
and things take time. Right, So I will tell you
the average American doesn't want to wait in a line
at a gas station, let alone be stuck on the
side of the road because they can't charge their vehicles.
There's a lot of things to get worked out. I mean,
there are a lot of things not taken into consideration.
(54:34):
I mean, the average vehicle has four hundred and fifty
parts on it. The average EV has less than twenty
parts on it. Wow, So going to a full EV mandate,
there was a lot with that. I think we're on
a better path now. And I think that path is
let Americans drive what they want to drive.
Speaker 1 (54:55):
Yeah, and EV. Let the market decide.
Speaker 2 (54:57):
Let the market decide, Let customers side.
Speaker 1 (55:00):
Yeah, Well, said Bridget, I'm so glad that you're here
for more info on Bridge Auto Group. Where can we
go to see the dealerships? Website lutely so.
Speaker 2 (55:10):
Websites are Gordon cdjr dot com, London cdjr dot com
or Bridge cdjr dot com.
Speaker 1 (55:19):
All right, Bridget, thanks so much for your time. This
has been an amazing episode. Appreciate it absolutely.
Speaker 2 (55:25):
I'm also on LinkedIn. If any one has any questions
or wants to talk about anything, I'm always.
Speaker 1 (55:30):
Available perfect So just look for what Bridget Reinberger. Is
that right?
Speaker 2 (55:34):
It's actually Bridget Weinberger.
Speaker 1 (55:36):
Rule, Bridget Reinberger Richelle on r u e h l okay,
Bridget Reinberger Rule. Thank you, thank you for letting me know.
Speaker 2 (55:42):
That I appreciate it at thanks for having me on CEOs.
Speaker 1 (55:45):
You should know is hosted and produced by Brandon Boxer,
a production of iHeartMedia, Columbus
Popular Podcasts
United States of Kennedy
United States of Kennedy is a podcast about our cultural fascination with the Kennedy dynasty. Every week, hosts Lyra Smith and George Civeris go into one aspect of the Kennedy story.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com