March 20, 2025 • 29 mins
In this episode, my guest is Nick Askew, CEO of Space Auto— a guy who went from composing music to selling cars to building game-changing tech for dealerships. Yeah, you read that right. His journey proves that creativity, sales, and innovation are more connected than we think—and that fresh thinking might be exactly what the auto biz needs right now.
Nick and I dive into the good stuff—big ideas, bold perspectives, and the kind of convo that makes you stop and go, “Huh… never looked at it that way before.” Plus, the man’s got a row of guitars behind him, so you already know he’s cool. This is one of those conversations that will change the way you think about sales, tech, and the future of automotive.
Bottom line? This episode will challenge the way you think about sales, business, and the future of automotive.
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FlexDealer Need Better Quality Leads? FLX helps car dealers generate better quality leads through localized organic search and highly-targeted digital ads that convert. Not only that, they work tirelessly to ensure car dealers integrate marketing and operations for a robust and functional growth strategy.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
MC (00:00):
This episode is brought to you by FlexDealer.
Hey auto industry.
Welcome to this episode of theDealer Playbook Podcast.
I am joined by my pal, fellow,fellow commonwealther and fellow
(00:24):
Texan, nick Askew.
He's the chief executiveofficer at Space Auto, which
we're going to talk about injust a minute.
Nick, thanks so much forjoining me on the pod.
Nick (00:34):
Matt, I'm just so happy to be here and back talking to you
again.
It's been a little while andand yeah, we just found out
today that we're within a shortdrive of each other and never
even stopped for a drink.
MC (00:49):
I'm starting to think that DFW is the actual center of
America.
Nick (00:54):
It's tough to feel that way.
MC (00:58):
I can't help but notice a row of guitars in the background
.
That's the first thing that myeye is drawn to.
For those that are justlistening to audio.
He has very ambient lightingand in a row of guitars I've I
feel like I've seen you playingwith a piano yes you play the
(01:19):
piano and guitars.
I've seen you post and guitars.
Nick (01:28):
I've seen you post you playing on social media.
Yeah, so I actually went toschool because I wanted.
My dream was to be a filmcomposer.
I went to school forcomposition, learned how to play
about 14 instruments fluentlyand about halfway through when.
Okay, so let's start planninglife here.
You get a bachelor's degree inmusic composition and then you
go get a job as a musician andso I sold cars.
(01:51):
That's what I did.
MC (01:54):
So I dropped out of college and sold cars, but still play
every day this is interestingbecause I mean, you know paul
daly, you know kyle, yeah, mountsear.
I went to school to be a soundengineer.
I thought that I would compose.
I love playing the piano.
I've got one, two, three, four,five, six, seven, eight guitars
(02:15):
in the room I'm in right nowand I love writing and I love
tinkering and I thought, man,this is going to be the thing.
And then, all of a sudden, hereI am with a marketing and a
tech company in the autoindustry.
Nick (02:28):
We got a lot in common with that, but I tell you what
learning how to compose,learning production value,
learning the artistry of thatthroughout any form of media,
right?
Not only I mean it helped me insales, because what is sales
(02:49):
outside of a performance initself, right?
So I think it gave me a reallygreat understanding of
production value and it helpedme along the way.
I always draw parallels backfrom music and production and
everything back into sales andcreativity.
MC (03:08):
I think that there's a lot of people that it activates a
very similar part of the brainand improvisation and
performance when it comes to,when it comes to sales, but, and
technology and just creation ingeneral, you know you've got me
thinking about something nowthat I think is really
interesting in composition,especially as you bring up the
(03:31):
improvisation, this idea of inorder to be good at improvising,
or sales, means that you haveto be able to recognize cues,
like people are dropping hintsconstantly through a sales
process, and your job as thecomposer is to find a place of
(03:53):
resolve and for those that arenot musicians may not know what
we're talking about but like aresolve is really making sure
that whatever chords you'replaying come back to their
starting point, so that youdon't feel like you're left
hanging.
And I think about that as you'resaying this in sales, this idea
that has heightened yourability or your awareness to
(04:15):
pick up on cues and then makesure that there is a resolve.
Do you think this is similar tohow football players I hear
about football players playing,or like doing ballet.
It's like learning a creativething that that like ties into
what they actually do for aliving, that enhances the thing
(04:36):
they do for a living.
Nick (04:37):
I think it's exactly the same right, you've, you've got
improvisation, which teaches youhow to, like you, you say, pick
up on those cues, but instantly, when you're doing it in music,
you can't miss a beat.
You can't improvise threeseconds later and go oh yeah, I
should have done that.
It has to be done with finesseand you actually have to start
(04:59):
anticipating these things.
So I think, with footballplayers and dancing, and you
know, you can draw parallelsfrom a lot of those different
creative approaches.
But I think, just in general,the more that you expose
yourself in business to thingsthat are outside of your very
(05:21):
tunnel vision area of focus, ifI'm focused on building
technology and selling cars andcreating AI models and that's
all I focus on, how can I drawinspiration from anything else
in life to be able to bring itto that?
I think that's incrediblyimportant for whatever industry
(05:43):
that you're in is having theseother things to draw inspiration
from and learn from in yourlife to be able to take it to,
ultimately, the biggest projectthat you're working on, and I
think it's just a healthy partof having a well-rounded life.
MC (05:59):
Isn't that interesting.
I mean, we see this a lot inother industries.
You look at, like Tom Cruise,for example, who says I watch at
least a movie a day.
People go really, you watch amovie a day.
He's like I really try to watcha movie a day and some of them
I think people don't realize howdiverse they are of a movie he
(06:19):
watches is like he will watch ablack and white, you know
obscure French film thatinspires.
You know that was filmed in1947.
That inspires a fight sequencein the next Mission Impossible.
In the same way, I was havingthis conversation with my 15
year old, who happened upon aclip of Snoop Dogg talking about
(06:46):
how some classical song fromthe 50s that he used to listen
to inspired one of his hitstoday, and my son was baffled
Nick, that he's like, but he's arapper.
How can he listen to classicalmusic?
And it's exactly what you'resaying, I think, which is, but
(07:07):
he drew inspiration from likethese are.
Actually, you don't think ofrappers as being these well
versed musicians and yet hereyou have a guy like snoop dogg
who's highly successful at hiscraft, drawing inspiration from
jazz and from classical musicand all sorts of things.
Nick (07:24):
Oh yeah, and look if there's people all over any
industry.
Brian May, right, guitarist forQueen, right.
Did you know that he has a PhDin astrophysics?
Brian May is a guitarist forQueen.
But I mean, you just end uphaving these really high
performing individuals.
(07:46):
You got Jeff Goldblum, who is,you know, actor, right, but also
really accomplished jazzmusician, right.
I think those parts of the braincan continue to just get
activated and inspired by thediverse type of information that
you, that you intake and thatyou know.
(08:06):
And it's with everything, withthe people, that you meet the
relationships that you build,the diversity of the information
that you intake, and it justbuilds a, it helps with that.
Creative thinking allows you tosee things in a way that you
would have never anticipatedseeing them before.
And if that is Snoop Dogglistening to classical music,
(08:29):
that makes sense.
People don't think that rappersand people making that kind of
music have this intenseintelligence, but let's also not
forget that he's an incrediblebusiness person.
He's an incredible artist,incredible performer.
Let's not underestimate thewide breadth of intelligence
(08:53):
that these people have.
MC (08:54):
It's interesting too when I think about it, because there's
a narrative in our industrythat's lasted for quite some
time and I would love nothingmore than to see it die by the
wayside which is oh, you'venever sold cars, therefore you
can't speak about anything thatsold car, or you haven't been a
general manager, so you don'thave any insights that could
(09:15):
possibly help a general manager.
And yet here we are, like theway I see it is.
Oh wait, so what you're sayingis somebody else who didn't
perform the incredibly teachablething can't have commentary
about the teachable thing, likethere is nothing special, so
(09:36):
special about this.
In the same breath ooh, I'mallowed one controversial mind
wave a day and I think I'm goingto use it on this.
And then, in the same token, wego to these conferences and say
we should get voices fromoutside the industry to inspire
(09:57):
us to do the thing.
That we're telling people inthe industry who have never done
the thing, that they shouldn'thave the right to talk about
doing the thing.
It's like what are you sayinghere?
Nick (10:06):
There's a little bit of a paradox in that thinking yes,
and I would love to see us getaway from that as an industry.
And, okay, play devil'sadvocate for a second on that.
MC (10:16):
Oh, I like it.
Nick (10:18):
I've been in that role, okay, right, I've sold cars,
been an internet sales manager,been an F&I manager, sat on the
desk, been a marketing directorin operations for 40 Store
Rooftop.
Each one of those things hashelped me understand the
(10:39):
problems that I want to solve asa partner, vendor or whatever
we're going to call ourselves.
And today we're not a vendor,we're a partner.
But I will say that thevalidity of that is that, yes,
taking people, let's drawinspiration from people outside
(11:02):
of the industry.
But there are some extremelynuanced things that dealers love
to see, to be able to speaktheir language.
Because dealers on the flip sideand here's where I'm going to,
I will agree with you on that isthat dealers on the flip side
aren't always the best atcommunicating the things that
(11:26):
they need to accomplish outsideof their own field of view,
because they are stuck at thedealership every day.
They're working on the P&L,they're working on increasing
gross profit, customer lifetimevalue, increasing CSI score.
I mean they have that tunnelvision.
So it's like how can you tellme how to run my business when
(11:46):
I'm in here every day?
So there has to be thiscollaboration of yes, let's
listen to the things fromoutside the industry and see
what we can pull back into it.
But I do ultimately respect thedealers that and respect the
notion, notion of yeah, andunless you've you truly
(12:09):
understand our business, it'shard for you to tell me what to
do.
But it's up to the dealers totake inspiration from the many
successful industries out therethat are taking care of
customers and doing things rightand implement those within
automotive right, and you knowwhat it is to your point.
MC (12:30):
It's reversible, right?
Yeah, you used a very powerfulword I'm going to use it at the
end of this statement which is,you know you could argue,
developing a very challengingstatus quo CRM tech unifying
platform.
Very challenging status quo CRMtech unifying platform.
Well, you've never built a CRM.
So who are you to tell me whatit takes to do?
(12:51):
You know what I mean so in thatregard.
But the linchpin, I think, is avery powerful word, which is
collaboration.
That's why, that's why ourindustry must be a great
collaboration.
I mean, it's why we do thisshow, it's why a Sodu does what
it does, it's why youparticipate in the way that you
do.
Is that, ultimately, thealigning of thinking around a
(13:19):
problem from different points ofview solves the problem much
more effectively than, like yousaid, having tunnel vision.
Nick (13:28):
Oh yeah, there's something magical that happens when you
it's the grindstone of differingopinions, right, and what ends
up coming out at the end issomewhere way closer to the
right answer.
You know, everyone's got strongpoints of view, and nobody wants
to be in an echo chamber,especially you know.
And what works for points ofview and nobody wants to be in
an echo chamber, especially youknow and what works for one
(13:49):
dealer doesn't work for the nextdealer, doesn't work for the
next dealer, and that's thegreat thing about any any
industry is those differences inin our opinions and those
differences in the way that wedo business.
I mean, that's why 20 groupsexists, it's why you know it's
for us to all collaborate andwork on, you know, bettering the
(14:10):
industry together.
And you know you're exactlyright, it's why we do these
kinds of things.
It's there's room for all of us.
Even in the vendor space, inthe dealer space, there is, too,
there's plenty of business togo around, and there's a lot
that we can learn from eachother too.
Ultimately, we all have thesame goal, which is to make the
industry a better place.
MC (14:34):
Hey, does your marketing agency suck?
Listen before we hop back intothis episode.
I know you know me as the hostof the Dealer Playbook, but did
you also know that I'm the CEOof FlexDealer, an agency that's
helping dealers capture betterquality leads from local SEO and
hyper-targeted ads that convert?
So if you want to sell morecars and finally have a partner
that's in it with you, thatdoesn't suck visit FlexDealercom
(14:56):
.
Let's hop back into thisepisode, Isn't that interesting?
I love that you bring it aroundto that point because I think
truly.
I mean, maybe there's some youknow, but for the most part,
(15:18):
we're all here because thisindustry has blessed our lives
and we want to see it improve.
We want to leave it better forthe next generation than maybe
what we inherited.
I think that's kind of whateverybody wants to do and I love
you know, as I'm listening toyou talk about this and describe
, you know differences in theway that we think, and I love
the word you use the grindstoneof differing opinions.
That we arrive at this point,which is Contention, which is
(15:41):
often what people resort to, isso vastly different than
conflict.
Conflict, to me, is thegrindstone of differing opinions
.
There's a conflict because ouropinions differ, but that
doesn't mean I have to becontentious about it.
It doesn't mean I have tocontend against you and and make
(16:03):
you an enemy.
You said the echo chamberearlier just because you might
think about it different than Ido.
In fact, you and I might havejust discovered that we have
slightly differing opinions onthings and yet here we are,
collaborating around it andarriving at a place that we're
like oh yeah, that makes a lotof sense.
(16:25):
We find consensus and I thinkour industry just needs to hear
like collaboration also doesn'tmean void of conflict.
It actually means best workdone when we have healthy
conflict, right?
Nick (16:44):
Disagreements.
They push people to justifytheir positions with logic,
right.
You know, if we have thatdisagreement, you have to then
justify that with logic, dataand reasoning.
That you might not.
It becomes way more than anopinion, opinion.
It becomes an actualdata-backed position and it
(17:06):
creates a culture wheredecisions are based on facts,
right.
And where you disagree and Imight disagree honestly eight
out of ten times, which I justmade up you end up, most of the
time we agree on the coreprinciples of it.
It's just how to get.
There is the thing that wedisagree on.
(17:27):
And it also does, going back tothe beginning of our
conversation, foster thatcreativity.
You know, if you challengeconceptual thinking, right, and
you have these constructivedisagreements right, you have
these constructive disagreementsright, you actually end up
coming with the ideas that thensolve the problems holistically
(17:47):
from if you're able to do thatin a non-contentious way, like
you said.
And finally, it builds trust, Ithink organizations, whether
it's dealers, whether it'scorporation, any corporation in
general.
You know, if open disagreementshandled respectfully, it makes
people feel safe expressingtheir different opinions and
(18:09):
like the amount of transparencythat builds for us and our team
when people come to me and sayyou know what, nick, I'd like to
agree with you, but then we'dboth be wrong.
You know, it's a beautifulthing and it just it prepares us
for those challenges that we'realways going to have in life.
There's always going to be acontrarian, there's always going
(18:31):
to be someone with a differentopinion, but if you can do it in
a respectful way, it just itmakes you so more resilient and
so and so much more innovative.
MC (18:42):
I mean heck.
My wife and I rarely initiallysee things from the same point
of view, but to your point, Ithink it's one of the things
that makes our relationship sospecial.
We're not sitting here fighting.
There's no need to fight orcontend.
It could be anything.
It's how do we raise the kids,how do we handle that issue with
the kids, Each of usapproaching our family with the
(19:09):
different biases that we wereraised with and whatever other
factors might be included, andyet here we have a tremendous
relationship in which our lovedeepens by the day.
I love that you say healthyconflict and it's bearing on
creativity and it is kind of afull circle moment.
I think that I want to emphasizehere I'm looking at the notes
(19:31):
I'm taking as you're speaking westarted with this idea of
taking inspiration from outsideour tunnel vision, from outside
our tunnel vision, and we'vearrived at differing opinions
and why those are so importantto progress and growth.
And I think, gosh, isn't adiffering opinion the same as
(19:54):
taking inspiration from outsideof your tunnel vision?
If we shift our paradigm, it'sthe exact same thing.
And I can't help but think.
You know, like you say,disagreement.
I think of what you guys aredoing at Space Auto, the
innovation there, the creativity, the different approach to
unifying a dealer's tech andcustomer relationships, and all
(20:17):
the different things that you'reworking on fundamentally from
an outsider's view.
Different things that you'reworking on fundamentally from an
outsider's view stem fromdisagreeing with the status quo
position that has been taken,and I'm not saying against other
companies or people in theindustry, but a fundamental
disagreement of the position ofthe status quo and what can we
do to challenge it?
Nick (20:37):
And I appreciate that, because that was a big problem
when we were first starting thecompany.
Right, and we had to.
You know, we had to build thisin sections because, you know,
unless we were just to go raisehundreds of millions of dollars
of capital and, you know, flipit on overnight and go, hey, we
did the thing, we built thecompany Everyone wishes they
could have.
You know, we have to lean intothat and but it all starts with
(21:26):
the you starts with the problemand the solution for us is that
it was a great, the fundamentalthing that we're here to solve,
right, and a lot of othercompanies and going back into
this cross-industry learningthis is nothing new, right?
If you take a look at thingslike best buy right, right, and
everyone always throws out theAmazon.
It was like we want to be theAmazon of car dealers, right?
(21:47):
Well, actually, think aboutthings like Best Buy, right,
best Buy offer the direct toconsumer approach.
Right, I can go online order mycurbside delivery, can do all
that.
But if I still want to go, putmy hands and measure the fridge
(22:07):
or look at the tv and look atthe quality of it, uh, I still
have the ability to go and dothose things.
So you draw inspiration andthis is cross-industry learning.
You know the automotive industryborrowed and you know, has
borrowed and should continue toborrow things from fresh eyes
(22:29):
and from other industries.
You know so and I think thatyou know for us and what we do
and for any company out thereand any dealership out there is,
you know it's great to look at.
You know not what yourcompetitors doing or what you're
.
You know even us.
We look at our competitors andgo.
You know they're doing somefantastic things.
(22:52):
We're just solving the problemin a different way and
challenging the status quo.
MC (22:56):
You know, but right, you know you have a position, you're
you like.
I think that's what a lot ofpeople don't understand about
the business landscapeespecially.
I think the lines get blurredwith a sports analogy.
Exactly what you just said,nick, which is to compete, in my
mind implies that we areplaying the same game and hoping
(23:28):
to achieve the same outcome.
Now, at face value, if theoutcome is to grow revenue, yeah
, I guess we're kind of playingthe same game, but, but I think
a marathon runners, they arecompeting because they all have
the exact same objective, whichis to run as fast as they can
and somebody needs to cross thefinish line first.
But in business it's like yourposition, doing what you're
(23:52):
doing, to your point of beingdifferent at a different
approach.
It's like somebody playinglacrosse against somebody who
wants to play soccer or footballor curling.
It's like we're not evenplaying the same game, like we
might have some similarities inthat we are athletes and we are
(24:14):
Do you know what?
I don't know if this is makingsense, but I'm like first, if
we're going to be calledcompetitors with one another,
then first we must ascertainthat we are playing the exact
same game and desire the exactsame outcome from the game.
Nick (24:27):
Yeah, and that is it.
One of our core valuesinternally is actually that
there is room for all of usbecause we're not all solving
the same problem.
You know, I mean that's veryimportant to us.
As well as that, you know,we're solving the problem that
(24:48):
we think is going to help expandthe industry, and even I love
what you said earlier.
There's actually a.
There's a old teaching that Iwon't get into, but it's
basically it's around a.
You know, leaving the, the worldin a better place that you
found it and and we can't, asindividuals, always be the one
(25:14):
catalyst that completely changesan industry overnight.
But if we can help leave theindustry in a little bit better
place than we found it and wecan even influence I would love
to influence other people in themarket that we would, or some
people would call yourcompetitors or our competitors
(25:38):
to increase their features orchange their thinking, to be
more customer-centric or tocritically analyze the way that
they do things, to take someinspiration from that.
I think that if we can inspireeven other vendors or other
dealers to change the way thatthey do business, that's still
(26:04):
also a success.
So it's again, we might not beplaying the same game.
You might be playing curlingCanada reference and I might be
playing football or soccer thething that's actually a ball you
play with your foot, as opposedto the egg that you throw.
Just lost all my Americanaudience there.
(26:24):
But yeah, that's the thing is.
Yeah, we might, we absolutelycould be playing different games
altogether, but that doesn'tmean that the collaboration and
the inspiration that we can drawfrom each other doesn't
ultimately drive the industry ina positive direction, and
that's what we all want to do.
MC (26:46):
What a perfect place to land .
This is why I love having theseconversations.
I love the idea of being ableto examine an object from
multiple different angles, whichrequires more than one party
most often.
And so here we are examininghow do we solve problems, how do
(27:07):
we create a community ofcollaboration, how do we leave
the industry a little bit betterthan the way we found it?
Well, it requires conversation,it requires collaboration, it
requires a desire, which I thinkis so powerful, and this idea
of being able to inspire othersto enhance the way that they do
(27:30):
business I just think it's socool.
The big paradigm shift for mewas that those who I previously
thought were my competitors,based on what you've just said,
um, are now my business partners, and I just think that is a
(27:52):
very interesting position to bein.
So what I think is reallyinteresting to what you just
said, nick, is that and this isa big paradigm shift for those
that are listening or payingattention, which is, people that
I previously thought werecompetitors of mine and maybe
that they thought were mycompetitor, are now business
(28:14):
partners of mine.
We own a business together.
How interesting when you cometogether and collaborate.
So, listen, I couldn't be moregrateful that you've been able
to share some time with me today.
As we wind down, how can thoselistening and watching get in
touch with you and connect?
Nick (28:29):
They can feel free to reach out to me directly, nick,
at spaceauto.
There's no com.
We're so automotive, that's ourdomain.
Visit us on our website,spaceauto, and be happy to have
any conversation and help in anyway that I can, because, you
know, just want to leave youwith this.
As you know, one thing that Ireally wanted to say today is
(28:51):
you know, true measure ofsuccess for me isn't what we
build, what we leave behind.
So just challenge the limitsand set a higher standard for
those who follow.
So if anyone just wants toreach out to have that
conversation, I'm alwaysavailable.
MC (29:08):
Well, man, nick ask you.
Thanks so much for joining meon the dealer playbook podcast.
Thank you, hey.
Thanks for listening to thedealer playbook podcast.
If you enjoyed tuning in,please subscribe, share and hit
that like button.
You can also join us and theDPB community on social media.
Check back next week for a newdealer playbook episode.
Thanks so much for joining.
This episode is brought to you by FlexDealer.
Hey auto industry.
Welcome to this episode of theDealer Playbook Podcast.
I am joined by my pal, fellow,fellow commonwealther and fellow
(00:24):
Texan, nick Askew.
He's the chief executiveofficer at Space Auto, which
we're going to talk about injust a minute.
Nick, thanks so much forjoining me on the pod.
Nick (00:34):
Matt, I'm just so happy to be here and back talking to you
again.
It's been a little while andand yeah, we just found out
today that we're within a shortdrive of each other and never
even stopped for a drink.
MC (00:49):
I'm starting to think that DFW is the actual center of
America.
Nick (00:54):
It's tough to feel that way.
MC (00:58):
I can't help but notice a row of guitars in the background
.
That's the first thing that myeye is drawn to.
For those that are justlistening to audio.
He has very ambient lightingand in a row of guitars I've I
feel like I've seen you playingwith a piano yes you play the
(01:19):
piano and guitars.
I've seen you post and guitars.
Nick (01:28):
I've seen you post you playing on social media.
Yeah, so I actually went toschool because I wanted.
My dream was to be a filmcomposer.
I went to school forcomposition, learned how to play
about 14 instruments fluentlyand about halfway through when.
Okay, so let's start planninglife here.
You get a bachelor's degree inmusic composition and then you
go get a job as a musician andso I sold cars.
(01:51):
That's what I did.
MC (01:54):
So I dropped out of college and sold cars, but still play
every day this is interestingbecause I mean, you know paul
daly, you know kyle, yeah, mountsear.
I went to school to be a soundengineer.
I thought that I would compose.
I love playing the piano.
I've got one, two, three, four,five, six, seven, eight guitars
(02:15):
in the room I'm in right nowand I love writing and I love
tinkering and I thought, man,this is going to be the thing.
And then, all of a sudden, hereI am with a marketing and a
tech company in the autoindustry.
Nick (02:28):
We got a lot in common with that, but I tell you what
learning how to compose,learning production value,
learning the artistry of thatthroughout any form of media,
right?
Not only I mean it helped me insales, because what is sales
(02:49):
outside of a performance initself, right?
So I think it gave me a reallygreat understanding of
production value and it helpedme along the way.
I always draw parallels backfrom music and production and
everything back into sales andcreativity.
MC (03:08):
I think that there's a lot of people that it activates a
very similar part of the brainand improvisation and
performance when it comes to,when it comes to sales, but, and
technology and just creation ingeneral, you know you've got me
thinking about something nowthat I think is really
interesting in composition,especially as you bring up the
(03:31):
improvisation, this idea of inorder to be good at improvising,
or sales, means that you haveto be able to recognize cues,
like people are dropping hintsconstantly through a sales
process, and your job as thecomposer is to find a place of
(03:53):
resolve and for those that arenot musicians may not know what
we're talking about but like aresolve is really making sure
that whatever chords you'replaying come back to their
starting point, so that youdon't feel like you're left
hanging.
And I think about that as you'resaying this in sales, this idea
that has heightened yourability or your awareness to
(04:15):
pick up on cues and then makesure that there is a resolve.
Do you think this is similar tohow football players I hear
about football players playing,or like doing ballet.
It's like learning a creativething that that like ties into
what they actually do for aliving, that enhances the thing
(04:36):
they do for a living.
Nick (04:37):
I think it's exactly the same right, you've, you've got
improvisation, which teaches youhow to, like you, you say, pick
up on those cues, but instantly, when you're doing it in music,
you can't miss a beat.
You can't improvise threeseconds later and go oh yeah, I
should have done that.
It has to be done with finesseand you actually have to start
(04:59):
anticipating these things.
So I think, with footballplayers and dancing, and you
know, you can draw parallelsfrom a lot of those different
creative approaches.
But I think, just in general,the more that you expose
yourself in business to thingsthat are outside of your very
(05:21):
tunnel vision area of focus, ifI'm focused on building
technology and selling cars andcreating AI models and that's
all I focus on, how can I drawinspiration from anything else
in life to be able to bring itto that?
I think that's incrediblyimportant for whatever industry
(05:43):
that you're in is having theseother things to draw inspiration
from and learn from in yourlife to be able to take it to,
ultimately, the biggest projectthat you're working on, and I
think it's just a healthy partof having a well-rounded life.
MC (05:59):
Isn't that interesting.
I mean, we see this a lot inother industries.
You look at, like Tom Cruise,for example, who says I watch at
least a movie a day.
People go really, you watch amovie a day.
He's like I really try to watcha movie a day and some of them
I think people don't realize howdiverse they are of a movie he
(06:19):
watches is like he will watch ablack and white, you know
obscure French film thatinspires.
You know that was filmed in1947.
That inspires a fight sequencein the next Mission Impossible.
In the same way, I was havingthis conversation with my 15
year old, who happened upon aclip of Snoop Dogg talking about
(06:46):
how some classical song fromthe 50s that he used to listen
to inspired one of his hitstoday, and my son was baffled
Nick, that he's like, but he's arapper.
How can he listen to classicalmusic?
And it's exactly what you'resaying, I think, which is, but
(07:07):
he drew inspiration from likethese are.
Actually, you don't think ofrappers as being these well
versed musicians and yet hereyou have a guy like snoop dogg
who's highly successful at hiscraft, drawing inspiration from
jazz and from classical musicand all sorts of things.
Nick (07:24):
Oh yeah, and look if there's people all over any
industry.
Brian May, right, guitarist forQueen, right.
Did you know that he has a PhDin astrophysics?
Brian May is a guitarist forQueen.
But I mean, you just end uphaving these really high
performing individuals.
(07:46):
You got Jeff Goldblum, who is,you know, actor, right, but also
really accomplished jazzmusician, right.
I think those parts of the braincan continue to just get
activated and inspired by thediverse type of information that
you, that you intake and thatyou know.
(08:06):
And it's with everything, withthe people, that you meet the
relationships that you build,the diversity of the information
that you intake, and it justbuilds a, it helps with that.
Creative thinking allows you tosee things in a way that you
would have never anticipatedseeing them before.
And if that is Snoop Dogglistening to classical music,
(08:29):
that makes sense.
People don't think that rappersand people making that kind of
music have this intenseintelligence, but let's also not
forget that he's an incrediblebusiness person.
He's an incredible artist,incredible performer.
Let's not underestimate thewide breadth of intelligence
(08:53):
that these people have.
MC (08:54):
It's interesting too when I think about it, because there's
a narrative in our industrythat's lasted for quite some
time and I would love nothingmore than to see it die by the
wayside which is oh, you'venever sold cars, therefore you
can't speak about anything thatsold car, or you haven't been a
general manager, so you don'thave any insights that could
(09:15):
possibly help a general manager.
And yet here we are, like theway I see it is.
Oh wait, so what you're sayingis somebody else who didn't
perform the incredibly teachablething can't have commentary
about the teachable thing, likethere is nothing special, so
(09:36):
special about this.
In the same breath ooh, I'mallowed one controversial mind
wave a day and I think I'm goingto use it on this.
And then, in the same token, wego to these conferences and say
we should get voices fromoutside the industry to inspire
(09:57):
us to do the thing.
That we're telling people inthe industry who have never done
the thing, that they shouldn'thave the right to talk about
doing the thing.
It's like what are you sayinghere?
Nick (10:06):
There's a little bit of a paradox in that thinking yes,
and I would love to see us getaway from that as an industry.
And, okay, play devil'sadvocate for a second on that.
MC (10:16):
Oh, I like it.
Nick (10:18):
I've been in that role, okay, right, I've sold cars,
been an internet sales manager,been an F&I manager, sat on the
desk, been a marketing directorin operations for 40 Store
Rooftop.
Each one of those things hashelped me understand the
(10:39):
problems that I want to solve asa partner, vendor or whatever
we're going to call ourselves.
And today we're not a vendor,we're a partner.
But I will say that thevalidity of that is that, yes,
taking people, let's drawinspiration from people outside
(11:02):
of the industry.
But there are some extremelynuanced things that dealers love
to see, to be able to speaktheir language.
Because dealers on the flip sideand here's where I'm going to,
I will agree with you on that isthat dealers on the flip side
aren't always the best atcommunicating the things that
(11:26):
they need to accomplish outsideof their own field of view,
because they are stuck at thedealership every day.
They're working on the P&L,they're working on increasing
gross profit, customer lifetimevalue, increasing CSI score.
I mean they have that tunnelvision.
So it's like how can you tellme how to run my business when
(11:46):
I'm in here every day?
So there has to be thiscollaboration of yes, let's
listen to the things fromoutside the industry and see
what we can pull back into it.
But I do ultimately respect thedealers that and respect the
notion, notion of yeah, andunless you've you truly
(12:09):
understand our business, it'shard for you to tell me what to
do.
But it's up to the dealers totake inspiration from the many
successful industries out therethat are taking care of
customers and doing things rightand implement those within
automotive right, and you knowwhat it is to your point.
MC (12:30):
It's reversible, right?
Yeah, you used a very powerfulword I'm going to use it at the
end of this statement which is,you know you could argue,
developing a very challengingstatus quo CRM tech unifying
platform.
Very challenging status quo CRMtech unifying platform.
Well, you've never built a CRM.
So who are you to tell me whatit takes to do?
(12:51):
You know what I mean so in thatregard.
But the linchpin, I think, is avery powerful word, which is
collaboration.
That's why, that's why ourindustry must be a great
collaboration.
I mean, it's why we do thisshow, it's why a Sodu does what
it does, it's why youparticipate in the way that you
do.
Is that, ultimately, thealigning of thinking around a
(13:19):
problem from different points ofview solves the problem much
more effectively than, like yousaid, having tunnel vision.
Nick (13:28):
Oh yeah, there's something magical that happens when you
it's the grindstone of differingopinions, right, and what ends
up coming out at the end issomewhere way closer to the
right answer.
You know, everyone's got strongpoints of view, and nobody wants
to be in an echo chamber,especially you know.
And what works for points ofview and nobody wants to be in
an echo chamber, especially youknow and what works for one
(13:49):
dealer doesn't work for the nextdealer, doesn't work for the
next dealer, and that's thegreat thing about any any
industry is those differences inin our opinions and those
differences in the way that wedo business.
I mean, that's why 20 groupsexists, it's why you know it's
for us to all collaborate andwork on, you know, bettering the
(14:10):
industry together.
And you know you're exactlyright, it's why we do these
kinds of things.
It's there's room for all of us.
Even in the vendor space, inthe dealer space, there is, too,
there's plenty of business togo around, and there's a lot
that we can learn from eachother too.
Ultimately, we all have thesame goal, which is to make the
industry a better place.
MC (14:34):
Hey, does your marketing agency suck?
Listen before we hop back intothis episode.
I know you know me as the hostof the Dealer Playbook, but did
you also know that I'm the CEOof FlexDealer, an agency that's
helping dealers capture betterquality leads from local SEO and
hyper-targeted ads that convert?
So if you want to sell morecars and finally have a partner
that's in it with you, thatdoesn't suck visit FlexDealercom
(14:56):
.
Let's hop back into thisepisode, Isn't that interesting?
I love that you bring it aroundto that point because I think
truly.
I mean, maybe there's some youknow, but for the most part,
(15:18):
we're all here because thisindustry has blessed our lives
and we want to see it improve.
We want to leave it better forthe next generation than maybe
what we inherited.
I think that's kind of whateverybody wants to do and I love
you know, as I'm listening toyou talk about this and describe
, you know differences in theway that we think, and I love
the word you use the grindstoneof differing opinions.
That we arrive at this point,which is Contention, which is
(15:41):
often what people resort to, isso vastly different than
conflict.
Conflict, to me, is thegrindstone of differing opinions
.
There's a conflict because ouropinions differ, but that
doesn't mean I have to becontentious about it.
It doesn't mean I have tocontend against you and and make
(16:03):
you an enemy.
You said the echo chamberearlier just because you might
think about it different than Ido.
In fact, you and I might havejust discovered that we have
slightly differing opinions onthings and yet here we are,
collaborating around it andarriving at a place that we're
like oh yeah, that makes a lotof sense.
(16:25):
We find consensus and I thinkour industry just needs to hear
like collaboration also doesn'tmean void of conflict.
It actually means best workdone when we have healthy
conflict, right?
Nick (16:44):
Disagreements.
They push people to justifytheir positions with logic,
right.
You know, if we have thatdisagreement, you have to then
justify that with logic, dataand reasoning.
That you might not.
It becomes way more than anopinion, opinion.
It becomes an actualdata-backed position and it
(17:06):
creates a culture wheredecisions are based on facts,
right.
And where you disagree and Imight disagree honestly eight
out of ten times, which I justmade up you end up, most of the
time we agree on the coreprinciples of it.
It's just how to get.
There is the thing that wedisagree on.
(17:27):
And it also does, going back tothe beginning of our
conversation, foster thatcreativity.
You know, if you challengeconceptual thinking, right, and
you have these constructivedisagreements right, you have
these constructive disagreementsright, you actually end up
coming with the ideas that thensolve the problems holistically
(17:47):
from if you're able to do thatin a non-contentious way, like
you said.
And finally, it builds trust, Ithink organizations, whether
it's dealers, whether it'scorporation, any corporation in
general.
You know, if open disagreementshandled respectfully, it makes
people feel safe expressingtheir different opinions and
(18:09):
like the amount of transparencythat builds for us and our team
when people come to me and sayyou know what, nick, I'd like to
agree with you, but then we'dboth be wrong.
You know, it's a beautifulthing and it just it prepares us
for those challenges that we'realways going to have in life.
There's always going to be acontrarian, there's always going
(18:31):
to be someone with a differentopinion, but if you can do it in
a respectful way, it just itmakes you so more resilient and
so and so much more innovative.
MC (18:42):
I mean heck.
My wife and I rarely initiallysee things from the same point
of view, but to your point, Ithink it's one of the things
that makes our relationship sospecial.
We're not sitting here fighting.
There's no need to fight orcontend.
It could be anything.
It's how do we raise the kids,how do we handle that issue with
the kids, Each of usapproaching our family with the
(19:09):
different biases that we wereraised with and whatever other
factors might be included, andyet here we have a tremendous
relationship in which our lovedeepens by the day.
I love that you say healthyconflict and it's bearing on
creativity and it is kind of afull circle moment.
I think that I want to emphasizehere I'm looking at the notes
(19:31):
I'm taking as you're speaking westarted with this idea of
taking inspiration from outsideour tunnel vision, from outside
our tunnel vision, and we'vearrived at differing opinions
and why those are so importantto progress and growth.
And I think, gosh, isn't adiffering opinion the same as
(19:54):
taking inspiration from outsideof your tunnel vision?
If we shift our paradigm, it'sthe exact same thing.
And I can't help but think.
You know, like you say,disagreement.
I think of what you guys aredoing at Space Auto, the
innovation there, the creativity, the different approach to
unifying a dealer's tech andcustomer relationships, and all
(20:17):
the different things that you'reworking on fundamentally from
an outsider's view.
Different things that you'reworking on fundamentally from an
outsider's view stem fromdisagreeing with the status quo
position that has been taken,and I'm not saying against other
companies or people in theindustry, but a fundamental
disagreement of the position ofthe status quo and what can we
do to challenge it?
Nick (20:37):
And I appreciate that, because that was a big problem
when we were first starting thecompany.
Right, and we had to.
You know, we had to build thisin sections because, you know,
unless we were just to go raisehundreds of millions of dollars
of capital and, you know, flipit on overnight and go, hey, we
did the thing, we built thecompany Everyone wishes they
could have.
You know, we have to lean intothat and but it all starts with
(21:26):
the you starts with the problemand the solution for us is that
it was a great, the fundamentalthing that we're here to solve,
right, and a lot of othercompanies and going back into
this cross-industry learningthis is nothing new, right?
If you take a look at thingslike best buy right, right, and
everyone always throws out theAmazon.
It was like we want to be theAmazon of car dealers, right?
(21:47):
Well, actually, think aboutthings like Best Buy, right,
best Buy offer the direct toconsumer approach.
Right, I can go online order mycurbside delivery, can do all
that.
But if I still want to go, putmy hands and measure the fridge
(22:07):
or look at the tv and look atthe quality of it, uh, I still
have the ability to go and dothose things.
So you draw inspiration andthis is cross-industry learning.
You know the automotive industryborrowed and you know, has
borrowed and should continue toborrow things from fresh eyes
(22:29):
and from other industries.
You know so and I think thatyou know for us and what we do
and for any company out thereand any dealership out there is,
you know it's great to look at.
You know not what yourcompetitors doing or what you're
.
You know even us.
We look at our competitors andgo.
You know they're doing somefantastic things.
(22:52):
We're just solving the problemin a different way and
challenging the status quo.
MC (22:56):
You know, but right, you know you have a position, you're
you like.
I think that's what a lot ofpeople don't understand about
the business landscapeespecially.
I think the lines get blurredwith a sports analogy.
Exactly what you just said,nick, which is to compete, in my
mind implies that we areplaying the same game and hoping
(23:28):
to achieve the same outcome.
Now, at face value, if theoutcome is to grow revenue, yeah
, I guess we're kind of playingthe same game, but, but I think
a marathon runners, they arecompeting because they all have
the exact same objective, whichis to run as fast as they can
and somebody needs to cross thefinish line first.
But in business it's like yourposition, doing what you're
(23:52):
doing, to your point of beingdifferent at a different
approach.
It's like somebody playinglacrosse against somebody who
wants to play soccer or footballor curling.
It's like we're not evenplaying the same game, like we
might have some similarities inthat we are athletes and we are
(24:14):
Do you know what?
I don't know if this is makingsense, but I'm like first, if
we're going to be calledcompetitors with one another,
then first we must ascertainthat we are playing the exact
same game and desire the exactsame outcome from the game.
Nick (24:27):
Yeah, and that is it.
One of our core valuesinternally is actually that
there is room for all of usbecause we're not all solving
the same problem.
You know, I mean that's veryimportant to us.
As well as that, you know,we're solving the problem that
(24:48):
we think is going to help expandthe industry, and even I love
what you said earlier.
There's actually a.
There's a old teaching that Iwon't get into, but it's
basically it's around a.
You know, leaving the, the worldin a better place that you
found it and and we can't, asindividuals, always be the one
(25:14):
catalyst that completely changesan industry overnight.
But if we can help leave theindustry in a little bit better
place than we found it and wecan even influence I would love
to influence other people in themarket that we would, or some
people would call yourcompetitors or our competitors
(25:38):
to increase their features orchange their thinking, to be
more customer-centric or tocritically analyze the way that
they do things, to take someinspiration from that.
I think that if we can inspireeven other vendors or other
dealers to change the way thatthey do business, that's still
(26:04):
also a success.
So it's again, we might not beplaying the same game.
You might be playing curlingCanada reference and I might be
playing football or soccer thething that's actually a ball you
play with your foot, as opposedto the egg that you throw.
Just lost all my Americanaudience there.
(26:24):
But yeah, that's the thing is.
Yeah, we might, we absolutelycould be playing different games
altogether, but that doesn'tmean that the collaboration and
the inspiration that we can drawfrom each other doesn't
ultimately drive the industry ina positive direction, and
that's what we all want to do.
MC (26:46):
What a perfect place to land .
This is why I love having theseconversations.
I love the idea of being ableto examine an object from
multiple different angles, whichrequires more than one party
most often.
And so here we are examininghow do we solve problems, how do
(27:07):
we create a community ofcollaboration, how do we leave
the industry a little bit betterthan the way we found it?
Well, it requires conversation,it requires collaboration, it
requires a desire, which I thinkis so powerful, and this idea
of being able to inspire othersto enhance the way that they do
(27:30):
business I just think it's socool.
The big paradigm shift for mewas that those who I previously
thought were my competitors,based on what you've just said,
um, are now my business partners, and I just think that is a
(27:52):
very interesting position to bein.
So what I think is reallyinteresting to what you just
said, nick, is that and this isa big paradigm shift for those
that are listening or payingattention, which is, people that
I previously thought werecompetitors of mine and maybe
that they thought were mycompetitor, are now business
(28:14):
partners of mine.
We own a business together.
How interesting when you cometogether and collaborate.
So, listen, I couldn't be moregrateful that you've been able
to share some time with me today.
As we wind down, how can thoselistening and watching get in
touch with you and connect?
Nick (28:29):
They can feel free to reach out to me directly, nick,
at spaceauto.
There's no com.
We're so automotive, that's ourdomain.
Visit us on our website,spaceauto, and be happy to have
any conversation and help in anyway that I can, because, you
know, just want to leave youwith this.
As you know, one thing that Ireally wanted to say today is
(28:51):
you know, true measure ofsuccess for me isn't what we
build, what we leave behind.
So just challenge the limitsand set a higher standard for
those who follow.
So if anyone just wants toreach out to have that
conversation, I'm alwaysavailable.
MC (29:08):
Well, man, nick ask you.
Thanks so much for joining meon the dealer playbook podcast.
Thank you, hey.
Thanks for listening to thedealer playbook podcast.
If you enjoyed tuning in,please subscribe, share and hit
that like button.
You can also join us and theDPB community on social media.
Check back next week for a newdealer playbook episode.
Thanks so much for joining.
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