April 24, 2025 • 21 mins
In this episode I’m hanging out in person with my good friend Kyle Mountsier—COO at ASOTU (Automotive State of the Union), we talk about everything from AI implementation in dealerships to the real reason human connection is the most valuable currency in retail auto.
We’re recording this one in person from New York City, floor-sitting style (yep, you read that right)—and it’s one of the most candid, dynamic convos I’ve had.
We dive into:
- How to responsibly integrate AI into your dealership without breaking trust or compliance.
- Why most dealers are thinking about AI all wrong—and what to do instead.
- The importance of internal GPT models and why uploading your P&Ls might be the smartest move you make this year.
- The shift from hours worked → problems solved, and what that means for your business.
- Why connection is the real ROI (and always has been).
- A sneak peek at ASOTUCON and why it’s more than just another auto event—it’s where the others gather.
There’s a lot of noise out there about AI, digital retail, and operational efficiency—but very few voices are cutting through with the clarity, care, and conviction that Kyle brings to the table.
If you’ve ever wondered how to blend emerging tech with real human moments in the dealership, this conversation will give you clarity (and maybe even a few goosebumps).
Grab your ASOTUCON tickets here: https://www.asotucon.com/
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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, welcome to this episode ofthe Dealer Playbook Podcast.
You're probably wondering, ifyou're watching this, what the
(00:21):
heck are they sitting on thefloor?
The answer is yes, I'm herewith Kyle Mountseer.
He is the Chief OperatingOfficer at Automotive State of
the Union.
More than cars, hey man, hey,what's going on?
What's up?
Dude Just sitting here.
Look at this Big backdrop.
How epic it's dope.
I love any time I get to dothese in person because the
dynamic changes like you sittingon the floor.
kyle (00:46):
I feel like if I'm in my office doing a podcast, you have
to be a certain way.
You know it's like I have tobecause they can only see the
right thing.
MC (00:49):
You know, and like sit up straight and yeah, we're like
you know what we were talkingabout how we're getting old and
our lower backs hurt.
I'm like I need to sit downsomewhere now.
So bad, oh man.
Um, we're here in new york city.
We're at the new york autoforum, power NADA.
There's a room full of cardealers over there.
(01:09):
We're talking about tariffs andthey're talking about all these
things that are happening attime of recording.
I don't want to talk to youabout any of that stuff.
That's fine, things thatintrigue me about you.
You're like.
Enough about me, let's talkabout you.
What do you think about me?
Predominantly about tech.
I mean, when it comes totechnology and tech use or
(01:30):
integration in our space, you'reone of the first names that
come to my mind and I want totalk to you about the landscape
and retail automotive.
Right now.
There's so much technology outthere.
We're talking about largelanguage models.
Now we're talking about how canwe deploy that inside of our
dealership ecosystem?
Everybody's got an AI solution,but you'll message me.
(01:50):
It'll be like 9.30 at night.
You'll message me and be likejust trained another GPT to do
the da-ba-ba-ba-ba.
Yeah, from your vantage point,how should dealers be thinking
about artificial intelligenceuse in their day-to-day
operation and what are maybesome cool things you've
discovered that could be reallycool for them.
kyle (02:08):
Well, the first thing that I would say is be a bit careful
, right, like, be mindful thatyou you can't just throw
anything at it.
Right, I was uh, it was.
It was actually funny I was mywife and I.
She's gotten into GPT and shedoesn't have a paid account yet
and she's like uploading photosof our kids and like having it
transformed.
I was like you know what that'smaybe not like, cause we don't
put our kids on social and stufflike that.
It was like anything that youwouldn't want if you wouldn't
(02:31):
want to upload it and put it onsocial media.
You don't just want to throw itinto a GPT, right, right,
because, especially when itcomes to customer data or or
even your business data at thispoint, like, you want to make
sure that you have, likeprotocols for how your company
is downloading, accessing,uploading data to be utilized by
(02:55):
these models.
Um, you know that, obviously, ifyou have paid accounts, there
are, you know, securities aroundthat, right, um, outside of
understanding the care that ittakes to use big tech like this,
integrated into everything,right, literally everything from
like how should I landscape thefront of the dealership to how
(03:17):
do I coach and train someone,that you're struggling with.
You know, you know there'sthere's a lot of like it's it's
trained on.
So much data around justpersonal behavior, so why
wouldn't you start thinkingabout oh, I've got personnel
challenges.
This is what I've been dealingwith.
This is why I've been dealingwith it.
This is how they're interactingwith the rest of the team.
(03:37):
How do I, how do I engage thatperson in a better way?
Um, to tech things, to tofiguring out, to figuring out
data, to moving data around andbeing able to understand it.
I think, like that's the firstplace that you want to start,
because that actually gives youthe education on how to use it
(03:58):
in business interactions.
Right, what questions to askwhen you're on the phone with
that prospective vendor partner,when you're, uh, you know, when
you're looking at that newtechnology?
Because, um, you know, thereare new models, new ai things
coming out literally everysingle day on the internet, and
(04:19):
so you can't just consume it,you have to be an active
participant isn't it interestingtoo, I mean.
MC (04:25):
So it brings up a compliancy issue as well.
I know I mean at a soducomthere's a lot of always a lot of
talk around compliance and thelegality of that and we'll talk
about con in a minute.
But the caution that you'rebringing up, yeah, it's very
real.
Um, and then on the flip side,like you said, being intentional
with it, the data analysisthing is really interesting to
(04:48):
me.
I'm maybe slower to the punchthan some, though I think I'm
still in the early adopter group.
Um, the new projects that youcan build inside a gpt and
upload your own files, like whywouldn't, why wouldn't we, at
this stage in the game, beuploading years worth of data?
(05:08):
Absolutely, you know, andasking it I mean at a minimum.
kyle (05:14):
Yeah, all of like create a gpt that's only owned
internally.
Create, like it's a new 20 costthat you need to have for every
single employee on an on anenterprise team's plan so that
they have access to somethingthat has guardrails around it.
And then you should create aGPT that can only be used by
that team, which has all of youremployee documentations, all of
(05:35):
your SOPs, all of your manuals,everything that they would need
to know, and make sure that itcan answer questions about your
organization on how things aredone Right, and make sure that
it can answer questions aboutyour organization on how things
are done Right.
And then you should beuploading your statements and
your P&L, everything like that,all of your anything that you
(05:55):
have as far as analytics intoanother GPT that only your
leadership team has access to,that they can see trends, watch
for trends, understand what mayor may not be coming, pin that
up against.
Okay, if tariffs are going todo this, what should my business
be doing to react to?
How do I?
When we saw the last downturn inthe market, what happened best?
(06:17):
Oh, we were selling more ofthese vehicles than these
vehicles.
That's what you need to stockyour used car inventory with.
It can make those broadanalysis If you have anyone on
your team.
Actually, just literallyyesterday, at time of recording,
gpt came out with their new 1million context window, which is
still smaller than Gemini's 2million context window, which
(06:40):
context just means like thenumber of units that it can
consume and understand and spitout data with.
But when you think about a 1million context window and its
ability to understand broad datasets and then spit you back
things, if you have someone thatcan utilize the API to like,
deliver and return informationon your team, if you're a
growing group or something likethat with a tech team, you
(07:01):
should be looking into utilizingthe API and not just the
dashboard, because the insightsthat you can gain with that much
context and that much abilityto process large data is
something you would need a datascience that's on your team for.
MC (07:14):
Right.
How do you reconcile againstthe very legitimate fear that
people have in it replacingtheir jobs?
Hey, does your marketing agencysuck?
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
(07:36):
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.
Let's hop back into thisepisode.
kyle (07:53):
Yeah, I guess if you have that fear, it's because you
haven't used it.
I don't have that fear foranything that I do, even
anything that I function with in, because you still need someone
.
It's.
It's like, for instance, youhave, um, you know, we've been
talking about cdps for the lastfew years.
(08:14):
Yeah, and a cdp is only as goodas the person that asks it for
a segment Right, right, yep, andthe same.
The same is true with AI.
Like, until AGI happens, whichthey've said 2025, I'm now
feeling that there's no way thatthat's going to happen Until an
(08:37):
agent is creating net newtheses on its own, without the
need for prompting.
Right, we will need humaninteraction to get out of this
tool what we want.
Right To request of it activity, um, and, and the people that
are using it the most are goingto be the ones that that win
(08:59):
with it.
Right, like you're, the pace ofyour business will pick up.
The pace of your analysis ofthat business will pick up.
Your ability to make movesquicker with your team.
Will will be wild.
Right, we've been doing some,like you know, internally at a
soda.
We've actually been.
I have a project built allaround how our team works
(09:22):
together and what team is doingwhat, and just even in like, oh,
we should hand this portion ofthis project to this person
because of the expertise, theskills that they may or may not
have, and that's something thatsometimes you just wouldn't even
see, that because you're so inthe weeds.
MC (09:38):
Yeah, it's really interesting.
Sometimes you just wouldn'teven see that because you're so
in the weeds.
Yeah, it's really interesting.
I mean it does highlight thehuman element of technology,
which is that, especially inretail auto people, our inherent
desire is to have the approvaland or comfort or trust of
another human being.
Right, and so, even like toyour point, the cusp of using
(10:03):
the technology just gets us to aplace where we can have human
interaction faster or moreeffectively.
Yes, and I think that's reallyan important aspect, especially
for those that are listening orwatching and they're really
legitimately concerned about man.
This is going to take over whatI do.
Concerned about man, this isgoing to take over what I do.
I would say use it more, likeyou said, and go all in and
(10:24):
learning how to interact withother human beings.
I was just in Canada visitingmy family and we had this
conversation about how humaninteraction is actually
dwindling One's ability tointeract with another human
(10:44):
being is, and so leaning intothat and, like you said,
leveraging the technology tohelp you understand people more
effectively, I mean the cuesthat you'd be able to pick up on
from that, versus having tofigure it all out with your own
instinct or or whatever is, ismind-boggling to me.
kyle (10:58):
Yeah, Well, and also not just that.
But if you can be diligentenough and the and this is any
person's problem time managementbut if you can be diligent
enough to, when you are workingin the technology, be very
specific about what you need andwant out of it, it will
expedite that portion of yourday and free up the times that
(11:19):
you have to spend ininterpersonal connection, Right?
So if you can think abouttechnology in any of its cases
as freeing up your capacity inyour day to interact in
interpersonal situations, it'sreally kind of like a
life-giving thing instead of atime, instead of a time sucker,
of a time sucker, a life suckthat's probably the thing that
(11:42):
worries people most about.
MC (11:43):
It is, I feel like we're coming out of an era where you
got paid predicated on, or yourvalue was predicated upon, the
hours it took to diagnose and todo the fix, and now we're
moving into an era where it'sgoing to be like volume of fix,
like volume of human interaction, volume of you know plumber,
(12:06):
you know, doesn't make theirmoney off of diagnosing the
problem anymore that it's justlike fix, fix, fix.
How many problem?
How many fixes can I deploy ina day?
All my values can be on that ina dealership.
It's how many inner human orinterpersonal fixes can I do not
how long it takes them to-.
kyle (12:25):
Okay, so go to the plumber .
Actually, I think it's a greatrepresentation.
A couple of weeks ago, paul wastelling me he used GPT and
photos of his dishwasher to fixit.
Right.
When solving the problembecomes ubiquitous, yes, right,
whatever the problem may be,right, whether it's your
(12:45):
dishwasher or a math problem ora business results.
When that becomes ubiquitous,what's the differentiator?
The persona, right.
And the persona is how you keepretention.
Because if everybody can fix it, if everybody can do it, if
everybody can solve it, thepersona behind that fix becomes
all that more important.
(13:05):
And I've been saying for yearsthe single greatest value
proposition of the automotiveindustry, of the retail
automotive industry, is itspeople.
It's people and we actually getthe opportunity to go.
Oh, it's ubiquitous to sell acar quickly.
It's ubiquitous to sell a carat a price point that makes
sense for a customer.
It's fast, easy, online.
Whatever the value prop may be,that is now table stakes.
(13:28):
Yeah, you now change the tablestakes to like yeah, but my
people can X, right.
MC (13:36):
This is the part of the show where I break the fourth wall
and I stare at you.
Who is watching this right now?
And I have to admit as much asthe Italian in me doesn't want
to admit somebody else is right.
Gary Vaynerchuk was right allthese years, no-transcript.
(14:45):
And then you have all thesebeach body coaches and it's like
well, how is there room for allof them?
kyle (14:51):
it's like you said it's a connection.
It's a connection to someoneand, yeah, I think people will
be starved for connections.
It's similar to coming out ofthe pandemic, right, we became
starved for connection.
All of a sudden, you see peopleheaded back to malls.
You see people headed back totheme parks.
You see people headed back tocoffee shops.
Starbucks begins rebrandingtheir ability to have people in
(15:14):
the shop because people becomestarved for connection.
We're going to continue to bestarved for connection because
the basic human desire is humanconnection, right, right.
And we forget that.
We've run to social media.
We're like, no, we don't needand we don't need face-to-face
connection.
We forget that we go back.
Actually, we've been talking alot about podcasts.
We're sitting here doing thisin person.
(15:35):
We've been talking about makingmore of our podcasts move back
to in person, because people arecraving what it feels like to
be in person and the more weallow AI to creep in, people
will go back and crave what doesit feel like to be in person?
MC (15:51):
This won't make any sense at all and somehow I like the way
it sounds in my head.
But it's like connection is thenew commerce, even though it
was the commerce all along.
But it's like people have kindof gone so far away of like, no,
it's digital retail, it's buythe thing online without human
interaction.
It's like no, it's actuallyalways been about connection,
but especially now for the newgeneration coming up, it's it's
(16:14):
the new connection.
kyle (16:15):
If you don't know a Gen Zer and you think that
connection isn't the thing,you're crazy.
I mean these kids.
I'm telling you, these kids aretaking trips together to
vacations like it's 1993 again.
Yeah, I'm telling you, it'slike Jersey Shore.
It's like these kids, you know,it's like these kids are there.
(16:38):
They have figured out thatbeing together is good.
MC (16:42):
Yeah, I want to talk to you about a Soyou-kun because,
speaking of being together, yeah, being together oh, you're so
good at the segues, oh, I need.
Every time he does a segue andI'm talking to Nathan now off
camera here it's like every timehe does a segue, I'm like I
wish I had segues.
He's got segues for days.
(17:03):
That needs to be on a shirt.
Speaking of that, speaking ofconnection and a Soducon I mean
those listening.
I want to just pause here for aminute.
I want to talk to you about aSoducon, but I want to just
point out how we just created athroughput from technology to
human connection and how thatbuilds your business.
And something that alwaysstands out to me about a SoduCon
(17:23):
is it's the only event thatI've been to that creates
throughputs like that.
Yeah, it's where there's likeaha moments going on in the room
.
I want to talk to you.
Obviously, you've beenresponsible for putting these
things together, you and Paul,since day one.
A Sotocon's coming up.
What can those that arethinking about attending, or
(17:44):
those that are attending, whatcan they expect from this?
What do you think they'll learn?
Or what are you excited about?
We'll?
kyle (17:51):
expect to find the others.
When I say the others, likeother people that you all of a
sudden recognize like man.
There's way more people thatbelieve a certain thing that I,
that I couldn't put my finger onright, that I couldn't like
really articulate, and now thatI'm with these people, I can
articulate.
You know, we wear the shirts,love people more than they love
(18:11):
cars, for a reason and like I'ma nerd, I mean, and we can go on
AI, we could go on.
It doesn't matter, you give mea nerd topic and I'm going, but
when it comes to this, it's know, ai in the finance office, or
building an analytics techplatform, or robotics, or
(18:41):
whatever it may be that, if youknow, if you can begin and end
with why, which you know, pauland myself big, you know Simon
Sinek fans, and we've I've beentalking about that since 2009,
when I first saw the the hisvideo Um, but there's a real
core belief there, and so whathappens is you can actually
(19:04):
better explain your position,you can better explain the
personas around that position,and then you can come back with
a real thesis to the store as towhy, and not just what.
You're not just like pluggingin a new idea because you heard
it and it was just off a whim,or you're not plugging in some
new technology because it's likewell, someone told me it made
them 20 extra dollars last month.
(19:24):
You know it's like no, becauseif we do this we can connect to
people, or we can connect toeach other, or we can be better
employees or better, bettercommunity servants or whatever
it may be better communityservants or whatever it may be.
And that will, speaking of theGen Z, that any new generation,
that just if you haven't beenfollowing any new generation
that comes into the buying power, right, so that 21, 22 year old
(19:48):
age, any new generation thatenters the buying power, they
are the influential generationwhen it comes to technology and
human interaction.
Right, every like 50 year oldgeneration would like to believe
they are, but they alwaysassume the position right.
You go back to millennials, yougo back to baby boomers.
The position is always assumedon that.
So if you think about that GenZer, you know they are value
(20:12):
vision driven, and so when yougo back to your stores and
you're talking to those newhires about why you're plugging
in the new CRM or why you'replugging in the new digital
retailing, you get to explain itfrom a position of why instead
of a position of what, anddemanding, and instead you'll be
inspiring.
That position is felt andcommunicated throughout the
(20:34):
event, so that you don't have tolike come up with it out of
thin air for yourself.
Yeah, powerful.
MC (20:42):
It's going to be May 13th to the 16th.
That's it Coming up Baltimore,maryland.
You have to be there, go toasotuconcom where you can
register, you can get ticketsand you want to do them now.
I mean, hotel is selling outfast, tickets are selling out
fast.
You got to be in the room whereit all comes together, where
connection happens.
Kyle man, thanks so much forjoining me on the pod.
(21:03):
They're always fun.
Hey, thanks for listening tothe dealer 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, welcome to this episode ofthe Dealer Playbook Podcast.
You're probably wondering, ifyou're watching this, what the
(00:21):
heck are they sitting on thefloor?
The answer is yes, I'm herewith Kyle Mountseer.
He is the Chief OperatingOfficer at Automotive State of
the Union.
More than cars, hey man, hey,what's going on?
What's up?
Dude Just sitting here.
Look at this Big backdrop.
How epic it's dope.
I love any time I get to dothese in person because the
dynamic changes like you sittingon the floor.
kyle (00:46):
I feel like if I'm in my office doing a podcast, you have
to be a certain way.
You know it's like I have tobecause they can only see the
right thing.
MC (00:49):
You know, and like sit up straight and yeah, we're like
you know what we were talkingabout how we're getting old and
our lower backs hurt.
I'm like I need to sit downsomewhere now.
So bad, oh man.
Um, we're here in new york city.
We're at the new york autoforum, power NADA.
There's a room full of cardealers over there.
(01:09):
We're talking about tariffs andthey're talking about all these
things that are happening attime of recording.
I don't want to talk to youabout any of that stuff.
That's fine, things thatintrigue me about you.
You're like.
Enough about me, let's talkabout you.
What do you think about me?
Predominantly about tech.
I mean, when it comes totechnology and tech use or
(01:30):
integration in our space, you'reone of the first names that
come to my mind and I want totalk to you about the landscape
and retail automotive.
Right now.
There's so much technology outthere.
We're talking about largelanguage models.
Now we're talking about how canwe deploy that inside of our
dealership ecosystem?
Everybody's got an AI solution,but you'll message me.
(01:50):
It'll be like 9.30 at night.
You'll message me and be likejust trained another GPT to do
the da-ba-ba-ba-ba.
Yeah, from your vantage point,how should dealers be thinking
about artificial intelligenceuse in their day-to-day
operation and what are maybesome cool things you've
discovered that could be reallycool for them.
kyle (02:08):
Well, the first thing that I would say is be a bit careful
, right, like, be mindful thatyou you can't just throw
anything at it.
Right, I was uh, it was.
It was actually funny I was mywife and I.
She's gotten into GPT and shedoesn't have a paid account yet
and she's like uploading photosof our kids and like having it
transformed.
I was like you know what that'smaybe not like, cause we don't
put our kids on social and stufflike that.
It was like anything that youwouldn't want if you wouldn't
(02:31):
want to upload it and put it onsocial media.
You don't just want to throw itinto a GPT, right, right,
because, especially when itcomes to customer data or or
even your business data at thispoint, like, you want to make
sure that you have, likeprotocols for how your company
is downloading, accessing,uploading data to be utilized by
(02:55):
these models.
Um, you know that, obviously, ifyou have paid accounts, there
are, you know, securities aroundthat, right, um, outside of
understanding the care that ittakes to use big tech like this,
integrated into everything,right, literally everything from
like how should I landscape thefront of the dealership to how
(03:17):
do I coach and train someone,that you're struggling with.
You know, you know there'sthere's a lot of like it's it's
trained on.
So much data around justpersonal behavior, so why
wouldn't you start thinkingabout oh, I've got personnel
challenges.
This is what I've been dealingwith.
This is why I've been dealingwith it.
This is how they're interactingwith the rest of the team.
(03:37):
How do I, how do I engage thatperson in a better way?
Um, to tech things, to tofiguring out, to figuring out
data, to moving data around andbeing able to understand it.
I think, like that's the firstplace that you want to start,
because that actually gives youthe education on how to use it
(03:58):
in business interactions.
Right, what questions to askwhen you're on the phone with
that prospective vendor partner,when you're, uh, you know, when
you're looking at that newtechnology?
Because, um, you know, thereare new models, new ai things
coming out literally everysingle day on the internet, and
(04:19):
so you can't just consume it,you have to be an active
participant isn't it interestingtoo, I mean.
MC (04:25):
So it brings up a compliancy issue as well.
I know I mean at a soducomthere's a lot of always a lot of
talk around compliance and thelegality of that and we'll talk
about con in a minute.
But the caution that you'rebringing up, yeah, it's very
real.
Um, and then on the flip side,like you said, being intentional
with it, the data analysisthing is really interesting to
(04:48):
me.
I'm maybe slower to the punchthan some, though I think I'm
still in the early adopter group.
Um, the new projects that youcan build inside a gpt and
upload your own files, like whywouldn't, why wouldn't we, at
this stage in the game, beuploading years worth of data?
(05:08):
Absolutely, you know, andasking it I mean at a minimum.
kyle (05:14):
Yeah, all of like create a gpt that's only owned
internally.
Create, like it's a new 20 costthat you need to have for every
single employee on an on anenterprise team's plan so that
they have access to somethingthat has guardrails around it.
And then you should create aGPT that can only be used by
that team, which has all of youremployee documentations, all of
(05:35):
your SOPs, all of your manuals,everything that they would need
to know, and make sure that itcan answer questions about your
organization on how things aredone Right, and make sure that
it can answer questions aboutyour organization on how things
are done Right.
And then you should beuploading your statements and
your P&L, everything like that,all of your anything that you
(05:55):
have as far as analytics intoanother GPT that only your
leadership team has access to,that they can see trends, watch
for trends, understand what mayor may not be coming, pin that
up against.
Okay, if tariffs are going todo this, what should my business
be doing to react to?
How do I?
When we saw the last downturn inthe market, what happened best?
(06:17):
Oh, we were selling more ofthese vehicles than these
vehicles.
That's what you need to stockyour used car inventory with.
It can make those broadanalysis If you have anyone on
your team.
Actually, just literallyyesterday, at time of recording,
gpt came out with their new 1million context window, which is
still smaller than Gemini's 2million context window, which
(06:40):
context just means like thenumber of units that it can
consume and understand and spitout data with.
But when you think about a 1million context window and its
ability to understand broad datasets and then spit you back
things, if you have someone thatcan utilize the API to like,
deliver and return informationon your team, if you're a
growing group or something likethat with a tech team, you
(07:01):
should be looking into utilizingthe API and not just the
dashboard, because the insightsthat you can gain with that much
context and that much abilityto process large data is
something you would need a datascience that's on your team for.
MC (07:14):
Right.
How do you reconcile againstthe very legitimate fear that
people have in it replacingtheir jobs?
Hey, does your marketing agencysuck?
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
(07:36):
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.
Let's hop back into thisepisode.
kyle (07:53):
Yeah, I guess if you have that fear, it's because you
haven't used it.
I don't have that fear foranything that I do, even
anything that I function with in, because you still need someone
.
It's.
It's like, for instance, youhave, um, you know, we've been
talking about cdps for the lastfew years.
(08:14):
Yeah, and a cdp is only as goodas the person that asks it for
a segment Right, right, yep, andthe same.
The same is true with AI.
Like, until AGI happens, whichthey've said 2025, I'm now
feeling that there's no way thatthat's going to happen Until an
(08:37):
agent is creating net newtheses on its own, without the
need for prompting.
Right, we will need humaninteraction to get out of this
tool what we want.
Right To request of it activity, um, and, and the people that
are using it the most are goingto be the ones that that win
(08:59):
with it.
Right, like you're, the pace ofyour business will pick up.
The pace of your analysis ofthat business will pick up.
Your ability to make movesquicker with your team.
Will will be wild.
Right, we've been doing some,like you know, internally at a
soda.
We've actually been.
I have a project built allaround how our team works
(09:22):
together and what team is doingwhat, and just even in like, oh,
we should hand this portion ofthis project to this person
because of the expertise, theskills that they may or may not
have, and that's something thatsometimes you just wouldn't even
see, that because you're so inthe weeds.
MC (09:38):
Yeah, it's really interesting.
Sometimes you just wouldn'teven see that because you're so
in the weeds.
Yeah, it's really interesting.
I mean it does highlight thehuman element of technology,
which is that, especially inretail auto people, our inherent
desire is to have the approvaland or comfort or trust of
another human being.
Right, and so, even like toyour point, the cusp of using
(10:03):
the technology just gets us to aplace where we can have human
interaction faster or moreeffectively.
Yes, and I think that's reallyan important aspect, especially
for those that are listening orwatching and they're really
legitimately concerned about man.
This is going to take over whatI do.
Concerned about man, this isgoing to take over what I do.
I would say use it more, likeyou said, and go all in and
(10:24):
learning how to interact withother human beings.
I was just in Canada visitingmy family and we had this
conversation about how humaninteraction is actually
dwindling One's ability tointeract with another human
(10:44):
being is, and so leaning intothat and, like you said,
leveraging the technology tohelp you understand people more
effectively, I mean the cuesthat you'd be able to pick up on
from that, versus having tofigure it all out with your own
instinct or or whatever is, ismind-boggling to me.
kyle (10:58):
Yeah, Well, and also not just that.
But if you can be diligentenough and the and this is any
person's problem time managementbut if you can be diligent
enough to, when you are workingin the technology, be very
specific about what you need andwant out of it, it will
expedite that portion of yourday and free up the times that
(11:19):
you have to spend ininterpersonal connection, Right?
So if you can think abouttechnology in any of its cases
as freeing up your capacity inyour day to interact in
interpersonal situations, it'sreally kind of like a
life-giving thing instead of atime, instead of a time sucker,
of a time sucker, a life suckthat's probably the thing that
(11:42):
worries people most about.
MC (11:43):
It is, I feel like we're coming out of an era where you
got paid predicated on, or yourvalue was predicated upon, the
hours it took to diagnose and todo the fix, and now we're
moving into an era where it'sgoing to be like volume of fix,
like volume of human interaction, volume of you know plumber,
(12:06):
you know, doesn't make theirmoney off of diagnosing the
problem anymore that it's justlike fix, fix, fix.
How many problem?
How many fixes can I deploy ina day?
All my values can be on that ina dealership.
It's how many inner human orinterpersonal fixes can I do not
how long it takes them to-.
kyle (12:25):
Okay, so go to the plumber .
Actually, I think it's a greatrepresentation.
A couple of weeks ago, paul wastelling me he used GPT and
photos of his dishwasher to fixit.
Right.
When solving the problembecomes ubiquitous, yes, right,
whatever the problem may be,right, whether it's your
(12:45):
dishwasher or a math problem ora business results.
When that becomes ubiquitous,what's the differentiator?
The persona, right.
And the persona is how you keepretention.
Because if everybody can fix it, if everybody can do it, if
everybody can solve it, thepersona behind that fix becomes
all that more important.
(13:05):
And I've been saying for yearsthe single greatest value
proposition of the automotiveindustry, of the retail
automotive industry, is itspeople.
It's people and we actually getthe opportunity to go.
Oh, it's ubiquitous to sell acar quickly.
It's ubiquitous to sell a carat a price point that makes
sense for a customer.
It's fast, easy, online.
Whatever the value prop may be,that is now table stakes.
(13:28):
Yeah, you now change the tablestakes to like yeah, but my
people can X, right.
MC (13:36):
This is the part of the show where I break the fourth wall
and I stare at you.
Who is watching this right now?
And I have to admit as much asthe Italian in me doesn't want
to admit somebody else is right.
Gary Vaynerchuk was right allthese years, no-transcript.
(14:45):
And then you have all thesebeach body coaches and it's like
well, how is there room for allof them?
kyle (14:51):
it's like you said it's a connection.
It's a connection to someoneand, yeah, I think people will
be starved for connections.
It's similar to coming out ofthe pandemic, right, we became
starved for connection.
All of a sudden, you see peopleheaded back to malls.
You see people headed back totheme parks.
You see people headed back tocoffee shops.
Starbucks begins rebrandingtheir ability to have people in
(15:14):
the shop because people becomestarved for connection.
We're going to continue to bestarved for connection because
the basic human desire is humanconnection, right, right.
And we forget that.
We've run to social media.
We're like, no, we don't needand we don't need face-to-face
connection.
We forget that we go back.
Actually, we've been talking alot about podcasts.
We're sitting here doing thisin person.
(15:35):
We've been talking about makingmore of our podcasts move back
to in person, because people arecraving what it feels like to
be in person and the more weallow AI to creep in, people
will go back and crave what doesit feel like to be in person?
MC (15:51):
This won't make any sense at all and somehow I like the way
it sounds in my head.
But it's like connection is thenew commerce, even though it
was the commerce all along.
But it's like people have kindof gone so far away of like, no,
it's digital retail, it's buythe thing online without human
interaction.
It's like no, it's actuallyalways been about connection,
but especially now for the newgeneration coming up, it's it's
(16:14):
the new connection.
kyle (16:15):
If you don't know a Gen Zer and you think that
connection isn't the thing,you're crazy.
I mean these kids.
I'm telling you, these kids aretaking trips together to
vacations like it's 1993 again.
Yeah, I'm telling you, it'slike Jersey Shore.
It's like these kids, you know,it's like these kids are there.
(16:38):
They have figured out thatbeing together is good.
MC (16:42):
Yeah, I want to talk to you about a Soyou-kun because,
speaking of being together, yeah, being together oh, you're so
good at the segues, oh, I need.
Every time he does a segue andI'm talking to Nathan now off
camera here it's like every timehe does a segue, I'm like I
wish I had segues.
He's got segues for days.
(17:03):
That needs to be on a shirt.
Speaking of that, speaking ofconnection and a Soducon I mean
those listening.
I want to just pause here for aminute.
I want to talk to you about aSoducon, but I want to just
point out how we just created athroughput from technology to
human connection and how thatbuilds your business.
And something that alwaysstands out to me about a SoduCon
(17:23):
is it's the only event thatI've been to that creates
throughputs like that.
Yeah, it's where there's likeaha moments going on in the room
.
I want to talk to you.
Obviously, you've beenresponsible for putting these
things together, you and Paul,since day one.
A Sotocon's coming up.
What can those that arethinking about attending, or
(17:44):
those that are attending, whatcan they expect from this?
What do you think they'll learn?
Or what are you excited about?
We'll?
kyle (17:51):
expect to find the others.
When I say the others, likeother people that you all of a
sudden recognize like man.
There's way more people thatbelieve a certain thing that I,
that I couldn't put my finger onright, that I couldn't like
really articulate, and now thatI'm with these people, I can
articulate.
You know, we wear the shirts,love people more than they love
(18:11):
cars, for a reason and like I'ma nerd, I mean, and we can go on
AI, we could go on.
It doesn't matter, you give mea nerd topic and I'm going, but
when it comes to this, it's know, ai in the finance office, or
building an analytics techplatform, or robotics, or
(18:41):
whatever it may be that, if youknow, if you can begin and end
with why, which you know, pauland myself big, you know Simon
Sinek fans, and we've I've beentalking about that since 2009,
when I first saw the the hisvideo Um, but there's a real
core belief there, and so whathappens is you can actually
(19:04):
better explain your position,you can better explain the
personas around that position,and then you can come back with
a real thesis to the store as towhy, and not just what.
You're not just like pluggingin a new idea because you heard
it and it was just off a whim,or you're not plugging in some
new technology because it's likewell, someone told me it made
them 20 extra dollars last month.
(19:24):
You know it's like no, becauseif we do this we can connect to
people, or we can connect toeach other, or we can be better
employees or better, bettercommunity servants or whatever
it may be better communityservants or whatever it may be.
And that will, speaking of theGen Z, that any new generation,
that just if you haven't beenfollowing any new generation
that comes into the buying power, right, so that 21, 22 year old
(19:48):
age, any new generation thatenters the buying power, they
are the influential generationwhen it comes to technology and
human interaction.
Right, every like 50 year oldgeneration would like to believe
they are, but they alwaysassume the position right.
You go back to millennials, yougo back to baby boomers.
The position is always assumedon that.
So if you think about that GenZer, you know they are value
(20:12):
vision driven, and so when yougo back to your stores and
you're talking to those newhires about why you're plugging
in the new CRM or why you'replugging in the new digital
retailing, you get to explain itfrom a position of why instead
of a position of what, anddemanding, and instead you'll be
inspiring.
That position is felt andcommunicated throughout the
(20:34):
event, so that you don't have tolike come up with it out of
thin air for yourself.
Yeah, powerful.
MC (20:42):
It's going to be May 13th to the 16th.
That's it Coming up Baltimore,maryland.
You have to be there, go toasotuconcom where you can
register, you can get ticketsand you want to do them now.
I mean, hotel is selling outfast, tickets are selling out
fast.
You got to be in the room whereit all comes together, where
connection happens.
Kyle man, thanks so much forjoining me on the pod.
(21:03):
They're always fun.
Hey, thanks for listening tothe dealer 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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