May 1, 2025 • 26 mins
Cindy Allen brings the soul of a musician and the mind of a technologist to one of the auto industry's most quietly transformative companies.
On this episode of Auto Collabs, the crew chops it up with Cindy Allen, CEO of StoneEagle, whose journey through auto, tech, and travel is anything but ordinary. From launching one of the industry's first web-based rating engines to leading a data-driven mission rooted in human connection, Cindy proves that growth and soul can coexist—if you focus on the "and." With infectious energy and a jazz-like approach to business, she shares how her early musical training, a stint in the travel industry, and front-line dealership experience shaped her leadership philosophy.
Whether it's bringing floppy disks to early adopter dealers, decoding data myths, or navigating the complexities of family business dynamics, Cindy keeps it real with insight and humor. The conversation dives deep into the resilience of dealers, the real story told by performance metrics, and the need for curiosity-fueled innovation in today’s fast-moving industry. This one’s got strategy, soul, and a little Italian opera on the side.
Timestamps:
0:00 – Intro
The crew riffs on the name “StoneEagle” and sets the tone for the episode.
3:02 – From Front Desk to the C-Suite
Cindy talks about how answering phones turned into building a tech-first F&I company.
6:33 – Teaching Dealers the Internet
Floppy disks, AOL, and convincing early adopters—it was the wild west of dealership tech.
10:21 – Falling in Love with the Industry
How resilient people, mentors, and agency culture pulled Cindy in for the long haul.
15:28 – The Power of “And”
Cindy explains how StoneEagle balances scale with soul—and why you have to be intentional about it.
18:43 – What the Data Really Says
Forget the headlines. Cindy unpacks key insights from industry-wide F&I data trends.
22:28 – Travel Secrets and Amex Lore
The hosts push for insider perks from Cindy’s time at American Express. She doesn’t crack.
25:46 – Closing Thoughts
Musicianship, leadership, and why staying curious will always be in style.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Unknown (00:00):
I don't think there are many company names out there
(00:03):
that are more.
This is Auto Collabsauthoritative
Paul J Daly (00:13):
than Stern,
Michael Cirillo (00:14):
evil. That's what I picked up. I'm like
somewhere.
Kyle Mountsier (00:18):
It's somewhere in between government contractor
1993 you know,
Paul J Daly (00:25):
metal band, metal band, yeah, right. We're already
thinking in the same way, yeah.
Or a character in mighty birds,Angry Birds, Angry Birds, yes.
Kyle Mountsier (00:33):
Stone Eagle, stony gold launch, stone Eagle,
yes.
Paul J Daly (00:38):
Or code word, could be a code word, oh,
Kyle Mountsier (00:41):
it's a project name, right? Project stone
Eagle, right? Matt Damon playedthe role, you know,
Paul J Daly (00:49):
co starring, co starring, Allen. Who? Cindy
Allen. Cindy Allen, that's whatI was getting at CEO. I think.
Is this the first time we're allmeeting her? Yes, yeah, I can't
wait. She has no idea what she'sin for. It's good thing. We,
they can't see an intro beforewe do the recording, because
they might never show up.
They're gonna call PR and like,who booked this for me tell them
(01:12):
they're fired.
Kyle Mountsier (01:16):
Great. That's great. We, we really hope that
you enjoy as much as we domeeting new people. And we hope
you enjoyed getting to meetCindy Allen, enjoy this
conversation.
Paul J Daly (01:29):
Cindy is always so much fun when we have a guest on
the show that Michael or Kyle ormyself don't have any experience
or relationship with, because weask all more fun questions, and
I can tell just by your answer,just by your energy, like coming
into this call, that we're infor an amazing episode. So thank
(01:49):
you for daring to get on theshow with us today,
Kyle Mountsier (01:54):
Paul, I don't know if you know this. I don't
know if you know this, but Cindyand I actually planned something
for this, we're about to sing aduet. It's, it's German. She
doesn't look
Paul J Daly (02:07):
like you planned this. I'm looking at her face if
you're just listening to thepodcast. No, we
Cindy Allen (02:12):
didn't plan it. But I actually sing in like, seven
different languages, so I don'tknow what I'm saying when I sing
in the other Hold on one ofthem, I can sing happy birthday
in Italian, that's the only onethat actually know what I'm
saying. Michael, he's doing theItalian hand gestures. Requiem,
you want to do that one?
Kyle Mountsier (02:28):
Yes, I can do Brahms. Requiem, let's
Paul J Daly (02:30):
do it. This is where Mike pulls out a pitch
pipe.
Kyle Mountsier (02:34):
I know, I know about you, because you answer
these wonderful questions fromus that you're a classically
you're a classically trainedvocalist, correct like myself.
You didn't know that. I know,right? So, so you How did you go
from? Because I know how I wentfrom I'm going to be a musician
(02:57):
all of my life to that's notgoing to happen. How did that
happen for you.
Cindy Allen (03:02):
So I was doing a lot with music, and I met the
man of my dreams and all thatdidn't matter, and went down a
pathway where now we've beenmarried for a gazillion years,
and he's been our my partner inlife and in business. And so I
decided to answer the phone atStone Eagle after we got
(03:24):
married, and I never got toleave while. I did leave for a
little while, but I was just,I've been in it ever since. And,
you know, auto one of thosethings. You get into it, and
there's so many cool people. Andit's just, it can be so much fun
that, you know, you just stayhere
Paul J Daly (03:43):
without a doubt. So you started in stone Eagle when
it was a pretty small company,right?
Cindy Allen (03:51):
Oh, yeah, there were. We had about 13 people in
the business of family. We werefamily owned. Family started. My
husband and his brothers andfather started the business. And
so somebody went on maternityleave, the lady at the front
desk, and they asked me to comeanswer the phone. And so I
started at the front desk, andtoday I have the privilege of
(04:11):
serving the organization as theCEO. So yeah, what a
Kyle Mountsier (04:15):
trip. Oh my goodness,
Paul J Daly (04:17):
just that's fun.
You've heard of them all.
Cindy Allen (04:22):
I phenomenal journey. I, you know, I think
the coolest thing was getting introuble at the front desk,
because, you know, you're justsitting there waiting for the
phone ring. And this was in the90s, right? So I'm reading a
book, or I was actually doing mynails one day when my friend
(04:43):
there's no, like,
Kyle Mountsier (04:43):
scrolling Facebook. So listen
Cindy Allen (04:48):
to this. I'm sitting there doing my nails. He
comes in. He's like, I do notpay you to paint your nails. And
okay, what do you want me to dowhile I'm waiting on the phone
to ring? He said, I don't know.
I. Figure out how to make us oneof those www things. Okay, so
that just dated myselfsignificantly. I was gonna say I
was at another meeting todaywhen somebody introduced himself
(05:08):
and they said, I've been herefor x gazillions of years. I was
like, I am not telling you howlong I have been. Totally
screwed that up now. But thatstarted my journey from, you
know, sitting at the front deskand just waiting on things to
happen, to pursuing makingthings happen. And so we I found
a book, and I found a littlepiece of software, and about a
(05:33):
month later, had the firstwebsite developed and and he
basically said, if you thinkyou're so smart, figure out how
to connect all of our insurancesystems to the internet as well.
And again, that no man or womanstands alone, right? So
contacted IBM, we found theright partners, and we went on
the journey of becoming, youknow, the first technology
(05:54):
company in the insuranceindustry, in auto that started
connecting our bigadministration systems to the
internet, and it was bleedingedge. Nobody trusted it. Nobody
they were
Paul J Daly (06:07):
like, aren't you afraid they're gonna they're
gonna lose everything. You gottabe kidding me.
Kyle Mountsier (06:13):
Dealers didn't even have websites at that
Cindy Allen (06:16):
point. No. And when we started connecting our
systems the internet. Like oneof the first things we did was
they used to have to open booksto get to the rating for F and I
products, right. First things wedid was create an online engine
where all you put the bin in andbam, it gave you the rates for
everything. And when
Kyle Mountsier (06:34):
I started, no Cindy, when I started in the
business, in 2009 10 and 11, thesome F and I managers were still
opening up the book, flippingthe pages going down the table.
It was
Cindy Allen (06:48):
so far in front that you had it was so painful
to try to teach people about it.
But I was bringing, gosh, youguys are so young, you probably
don't know what this is. I wasbringing floppy discs with me to
the dealership.
Paul J Daly (07:04):
Maybe Kyle doesn't know. No, hold on. Here's the
real differentiator. Watch this,Cindy, were your floppy discs
actually floppy? Yes, I hadfloppy. Floppy disks, like five
and three and a half. I had bothof them. Okay, he went, No one
must have gone to some nerdpreschool,
Cindy Allen (07:30):
like install AOL, and then somehow to sign on to
the internet first, and then Itaught them how to sign on to
our site, and then they wouldwrite down their user ID and
password and stick it to thebottom of their keyboard,
because the only thing they weregoing to do was stone needle
stuff online, because we werethe only thing there, right? But
(07:50):
it was like pulling teeth, butit was a ton of fun. And, you
know, gosh, I had the privilegeof sitting in a lot of
dealerships, and you there'snothing like being feet on the
ground to, like, actually learnwhat's happening and figure out
what kind of challenges peopleare facing, so you can can
figure out how to solve them,right? So
Michael Cirillo (08:09):
do you ever feel like you look back at that
time period, and if you were tofast forward it to today, where
you're just like, we would havenever been able to do that
today, like you look at all thecompliancy issues, and you know
it was like the Wild West backthen. That's
Cindy Allen (08:23):
a good point. It is a good point. And you know, the
reason why our business is sostable is because it was the
wild west in a lot of differentways. And so even for years to
come, you had with technology ingeneral, you had organizations
that were just super resilient.
Dealers are great example, wherethey do whatever it takes to
make business progress, right?
(08:44):
So I don't, hey, it doesn'tmatter that that field is
supposed to be used for that.
I'm going to shove this otherthing in it because I need to
get something accomplished. Andso I'm just going to, you know,
use, use these systems however Iwant to. And what, what we have
always focused on is, okay, Letyou be you. You go be wild. Do
all your wild things in in yourdealership, or in whatever
(09:05):
practice you're in, if you're aTPA or product provider, and
then we help kind of normalizeall that so people can, you know
what we learned? As I sat in allthose dealerships, I was
thinking, man, if we're askingthem to constantly change first
of all, it's going to throw themoff their game, and it's going
to be hard for them to have thatsales conversation. We should
support that instead of tryingto change that. And so we came
(09:28):
to them instead of asking themto come to us and adhere to
strict policies on where theyput data and how they do it. And
that's what we do. We we helpshape data to be standardized,
and we take that from the wildwest that sometimes happens and
inside a dealership and helpstandardize it. So it's still
(09:48):
kind of the Wild West and a lotof ways out there, but yeah,
good point actually there, andthat's it was. There was no, no
standards, and from a complianceperspective, yes. Oh, my
goodness,
Michael Cirillo (10:03):
I have to ask this because I'm so curious. I
mean, our company stemmed from afamily business. The dynamics of
a family business are sointeresting, right? And just
looking at your journey as weget to know you a little bit
better, at what point did yourealize that you loved this
business?
Cindy Allen (10:21):
Gosh, it was very early on, and a lot of it had to
do with how creative andresilient the whole industry
was. But you know, my I saiduncles and aunts and we have
multiple generations frommultiple families, not just
ours, in the business, and JayGillette, who's one of what I
(10:43):
consider the godfathers of f andI took me under his wing and was
knocked down the door to help meget into a lot of these
dealerships. And that, you know,having somebody who was trusted
introduced me to them, and thenthey trusted me. And you get to
know the kind of heart and soulof the folks in the business.
(11:04):
That's that's when I fell inlove with it, you know, to have
interactions with people, notnot just the business, you know.
So that's why I love your that'swhy I love your slogan, because
that's all about, all about thepeople. Our core purpose is
making lives better. And fromthe day you're going
Paul J Daly (11:24):
to meet so many of you're going to meet so many
really soon in this community,you really are friends and
family that you didn't even knowyou had.
Cindy Allen (11:33):
Well, we, you know from the beginning, like as I
sat there teaching people how tosign in, are the people that I
you know, like the Jay gillettesof the world, the agents that
were out in the field would pickup these giant stacks of green
bar paper. Do you guys know whatthat is? Yeah. Okay, yeah. So
they were printed, and take itaway, and some port intern would
(11:56):
type it into Excel or and thenthey build these charts and
graphs and graphs and everythingcome back like, 60 days later
and say, Oh, here's how youperformed in living color
instead of just in data. And Iwas like, that's crazy. There's
got to be a better way. Thatpoor intern, this poor, you
know, agent,
Paul J Daly (12:13):
they're back there just rethinking their life
decisions to that point
Cindy Allen (12:20):
and just thinking, gosh, there's got to be a better
way to help them. And that'swhere our, actually, our metrics
product, was born from that kindof process of going man, that
just, there's got to be a betterway for them to get so much more
accomplished. I mean, they're sotalented. Are, you know, most
people in the agency world, orthey're, you know, they're great
(12:42):
at helping somebody in the F andI office just kind of get better
and better and better at whatthey do. And wouldn't be great
if they just got to spend theirtime doing that instead of
picking up paper and coming backlater on to go through scale
data.
Kyle Mountsier (12:55):
You know what? I think we're all musicians here,
so I'm just going to call itlike I see it. I think musicians
make the greatest entrepreneursand business change, people,
especially those that haveplayed in a band or like a
(13:17):
garage band or a jazz band orsomething like that. And you
mentioned Cindy that that youlove jazz, because, like, if you
think about jazz, right, itactually is very akin to what
you just said. You know, you'relike, I don't know, maybe you're
back there on the drums andyou're right, and all of a
(13:39):
sudden, like, you just look overand it feels like the pianist
needs a little something, maybethey need to go off over here,
and you can just tell, and soyou're like, the pianist takes
that and just like moves withit. And I think that that's what
musicians can kind of see in theworld, right? Because they can
(14:03):
see, like, Yeah, I think thatthere's something missing from
like, the way that that personis interacting with their job or
their role, or things like that.
And what you're calling outthere, it's not actually natural
for most people to take that astheir first step, to kind of
walk into a room and go, I seean opportunity over there
that's, you know, that's like,it's adjacent, but similar to
(14:25):
what we're doing now. And I candraft on that, pull that in and
make that person almost shinemore, right? Give them the
freedom to do what they dobetter, because I've given them
access. And so I think, likethat allows you to be
continually be, to continuallybe entrepreneurial, and not get
stuck in one place. And I'mguessing, you know you, you, you
(14:45):
left and did some things outsideof auto, but have now come back
and and, and been at Sony egonow for a little while. And, and
the pace of change right now inour industry is is hard for
anyone to kind of keep. Up with,but let alone, you know, a
company that does have somelegacy attached to it, right?
And so how do you now that youkind of, like, know what that
(15:10):
felt like early on? How do youtake that and and inject that
into today and yet, like, stayresilient as a company that's
grown, but also stay flexibleand, like, move like a jazz
band, right?
Cindy Allen (15:28):
Yeah, I It's the and. And one of the things that
I always say, we've grownsignificantly over the years.
We've had the privilege ofacquiring some other businesses
and things like that. And, and,you know, people tell you, Well,
you can't be a cool, Souloriented, family oriented
business and be large and growand have a massive footprint.
(15:52):
And I would say it's the and ifwe concentrate on the and of
being both very rooted in who weare from a DNA perspective, and
focus on growth. We canaccomplish it, but we have to
focus on the end, like we haveto purposely do,
Paul J Daly (16:08):
right? It's never going to happen organically.
When you start scaling to thatsize. It's going to naturally
migrate the other way,
Cindy Allen (16:15):
exactly. Well, the urgent always out, you know,
outweighs the strategic. Youknow, in the moment, in the heat
of the moment. And so unlessyou're really focused on making
sure you have that balance. Andso from a keeping up
perspective, it's sort of thesame thing we're rooted in that,
you know, direct relationshipwith end the end user, the end
(16:37):
consumer, and all the the, youknow, sort of steps in the
distribution cycle in between,kind of like you have to be out
there. You have to be touchingwhat's happening in the industry
to kind of keep it top of mind,and so you can keep moving
forward. So it's a, it's aprinciple for us as an
organization to, like, continueto be curious, continue to be
(16:59):
innovative, and kind of don'tsettle for Well, it's because
we've always done it that way.
If it's stupid and it's broken,let's figure out how to fix it,
and if we see any kind of way touse what's happening in a lot of
it is supporting otherorganizations and other teams
that come up with phenomenalideas. Our customers are
brilliant in so many ways, andthey come up with great ideas
(17:23):
and partner with us to helpsolve them. And that's
phenomenal. So again, back topeople, right? Like, yeah, like,
not just who you know, but howyou treat the people that you
Michael Cirillo (17:34):
do know. Okay, I've got two questions here. The
first one is for my own selfishambitions as a vocalist and a
leader, and I promise I'll getus back here. But I have to
know, do you ever notice, like,what are your thoughts on the
the passive aggressive singingguidance, you know, like
(17:56):
someone's not pulling theirweight. Because, like, I noticed
sometimes vocalists, they tendto do this. What are your
thoughts?
Cindy Allen (18:04):
You know, that's something I've never thought
about. Actually, now
Michael Cirillo (18:09):
we're gonna now you're gonna notice if you do.
I'm just kidding. I'm justkidding. I'm just kidding. What
I really want to know. I mean,obviously a company such as
yours, someone who integrated soearly on with technology, and
now, moving into this fast pacedenvironment like you and you and
Kyle have just brought up, whatare you seeing now from a data
(18:30):
perspective, how have thingschanged? What are some of the
insights that you're getting outof the data that you guys can
see across the industry that youthink is just really important
for our industry to know.
Cindy Allen (18:43):
Man, I think you know, the first thing that I get
from our data is that it's notthe same as what people feel is
actually happening history. Andso there's a period of time, and
let's take COVID, for instance,where it's like, oh my goodness,
the sky is falling. But when welooked at data, yes, there was a
(19:04):
couple of months that werereally, really hard, and the
bounce back from that was sophenomenal. And today, you know,
we had this giant spike in thatpent up demand from a buying
perspective. And then it kind offeels like, Oh man, it's not
great in phases. And I just lookat data, I'm like, that's
(19:24):
actually not what's actuallyhappening right now. And so
that's my favorite thing, is tosay, you know, disconnect from
what you feel is happening, andactually trust information
that's actually showing you thetruth of what's going in on in
the business, and at a bigpicture level in the industry.
And so, you know, for us, we'reseeing what we think is a new
(19:47):
norm that's so much higher froma from a performance
perspective, in the F and Ioffice, then, then, then we've
ever had and things like,remember the. Days where we
would take a hit on a new car,and just like we would lose
money on the car because wewould try to make it up in other
areas. And that was just kind ofthe norm. When you looked at
(20:08):
front gross the differencesbetween new and used, but just
kind of on average, it was verylow. We just accepted that, and
it's totally different now, andafter the interest rate
craziness and and a lot ofthings changed there. We kind of
settled. And I was had theprivilege of talking with one of
our partners, who is an OEM, andwas kind of poking around at
(20:30):
that and and their thinking was,hey, one day, it'll probably go
back down. But man, we're seeingwhen we look at the data, the
data is telling us we're doing agreat job as an industry,
maintaining front grosses thatare that are positive, and
they're actually significantlymore than they were pre, pre,
you know, the norm, that was thenorm the last time there was
(20:50):
norm, right, which was in 2019,and so we're seeing things like
that happen that are really,really, you know, they're
awesome. They reflect theresiliency of this industry and
the creative ways that we tackleproblems, and we just don't back
down, and we we keep pushing.
And that's dealerships are, arethe engine that runs that, you
know, yes,
Kyle Mountsier (21:11):
I think, I think the the theme actually goes back
to, like you being thereceptionist that goes, yeah,
let me take that and try it. AndI think if, if others can go,
Oh, so you're telling me that,like, it's not as bad as the
news media is telling us.
Paul J Daly (21:30):
And like, if every day, yeah, probably
Kyle Mountsier (21:32):
fine. And you know, the F and I penetration
rates and the the front endgrosses as an industry are good,
so why don't I expect that as anorganization? Then, then dealers
can, can, can continue to playjazz with their team.
Paul J Daly (21:51):
Listen, listen before, before we wrap this up,
I'm gonna, gonna tell you andlet you in on the real reason we
wanted you on the show today.
And yeah, you this is going tobe great. You're going to love
it. I hope, I hope you have somereal hard hitting information
for us, because you were, youmoved to travel for a while the
travel industry, right? You werethe CEO of a company called GDS
x, which was acquired by concur,which a lot of people who travel
(22:13):
understand what Concur is, thatwas acquired by SAP, which I'm
not even sure what SAP does,right is, are they? Are they the
company that's like, we don'tmake the products you use, we
make the products you usebetter. Is that SAP?
Cindy Allen (22:28):
That's a great question. I don't
Paul J Daly (22:31):
know. All I know is, they bought it, okay? But
after that, you served as theCMO for American Express, global
business travel, and as businesstravelers, we need you to tell
us one secret about the AmericanExpress system that we probably
don't know that's going to getus into everywhere we want to
(22:53):
get into. Oh
Cindy Allen (22:54):
my goodness. And there are some secrets that you
just can't share. No
Paul J Daly (23:02):
offline, aka, sounds like we need to have a
coffee at a soda. Yeah.
Kyle Mountsier (23:08):
She was like, but trust me, I get in every
day, so
Paul J Daly (23:13):
you're saying there's a chance aliens are
real. It's been so much funhaving this conversation. I knew
it was going to be amazing likethis. Looking forward to
spending little time in person,and as always, thank you for
giving us some time and joiningus today on Auto Collabs. It's
Cindy Allen (23:29):
great to spend time with you guys too.
Kyle Mountsier (23:35):
What an incredible story, guys, a hero's
journey. You know?
Paul J Daly (23:39):
I mean, it really ties back to
Kyle Mountsier (23:42):
the project stone Eagle.
Michael Cirillo (23:45):
I, you know, I wish I would
Paul J Daly (23:46):
have asked CEO of a tech company and everything in
between the American Express
Michael Cirillo (23:51):
stuff with such a cheery disposition for working
in a family business. You know,right,
Paul J Daly (23:56):
what do you mean for working in a family
business? As someone who'sworked at a family
Michael Cirillo (24:02):
I'm just saying, like, there's days right
where you're like, I'm gonna rip
Unknown (24:06):
I hate my family so much. Yeah, and
Michael Cirillo (24:09):
then and then later, you're like, Okay, Dad,
what time's dinner?
Paul J Daly (24:14):
Yeah, gonna go play catch. Well,
Kyle Mountsier (24:16):
I think you know, it
is any of these businesses thatspan time like this across an
industry that has kind of likegrown up alongside tech not been
built in to the tech industry.
It is a challenge to constantlystay ahead and stay innovative,
and so the fact that shechallenges herself and
challenges her team to figureout how they can support dealers
(24:39):
with the tech and the and thethings that they're building,
and not just sit on thesidelines or let their size or
whatever, just kind of let itcoast, is really encouraging to
me. And I think it, it speaks tothe, you know, I was a
receptionist. Someone asked if Icould do this, and I went for
it. I tried it, you know,
Michael Cirillo (24:58):
I just got to say this. And maybe we can
factor this into the next timewe do it in ASOTU CON, we always
have such great neck networkingevent the first night, right?
And good good vibes and goodconversations. Let's not gloss
over that. Cindy, the CEO ofstone Eagle, is a classically
trained vocalist.
Unknown (25:17):
Come on. I mean, her and Kyle. Can make that duet?
Can we
Michael Cirillo (25:20):
not book her?
We'd be like Cindy, come andsing, come Come be the VOC, come
be the end.
Kyle Mountsier (25:25):
There's so many great musicians in auto we've
talked about this on a podcast.
Michael Cirillo (25:33):
It's gonna happen, guys. Anyways, listen.
We hope you enjoyed this episodewith Cindy Allen. She's the CEO
of stone Eagle. What a pleasanttreat to get to know her today,
on behalf of Paul J Daly. KyleMountsier, myself. Michael
Cirillo, thanks for joining uson Auto Collabs.
Unknown (25:47):
Sign up for our free and fun to read Daly email for a
free shot of relevant news andautomotive retail media and pop
culture. You can get itnow@asotu.com That's asotu.com
if you love this podcast, pleaseleave us a review and share it
with a friend. Thanks again forlistening. We'll see you next
time.
(26:18):
Welcome to autoca. Lastrecording you.
I don't think there are many company names out there
(00:03):
that are more.
This is Auto Collabsauthoritative
Paul J Daly (00:13):
than Stern,
Michael Cirillo (00:14):
evil. That's what I picked up. I'm like
somewhere.
Kyle Mountsier (00:18):
It's somewhere in between government contractor
1993 you know,
Paul J Daly (00:25):
metal band, metal band, yeah, right. We're already
thinking in the same way, yeah.
Or a character in mighty birds,Angry Birds, Angry Birds, yes.
Kyle Mountsier (00:33):
Stone Eagle, stony gold launch, stone Eagle,
yes.
Paul J Daly (00:38):
Or code word, could be a code word, oh,
Kyle Mountsier (00:41):
it's a project name, right? Project stone
Eagle, right? Matt Damon playedthe role, you know,
Paul J Daly (00:49):
co starring, co starring, Allen. Who? Cindy
Allen. Cindy Allen, that's whatI was getting at CEO. I think.
Is this the first time we're allmeeting her? Yes, yeah, I can't
wait. She has no idea what she'sin for. It's good thing. We,
they can't see an intro beforewe do the recording, because
they might never show up.
They're gonna call PR and like,who booked this for me tell them
(01:12):
they're fired.
Kyle Mountsier (01:16):
Great. That's great. We, we really hope that
you enjoy as much as we domeeting new people. And we hope
you enjoyed getting to meetCindy Allen, enjoy this
conversation.
Paul J Daly (01:29):
Cindy is always so much fun when we have a guest on
the show that Michael or Kyle ormyself don't have any experience
or relationship with, because weask all more fun questions, and
I can tell just by your answer,just by your energy, like coming
into this call, that we're infor an amazing episode. So thank
(01:49):
you for daring to get on theshow with us today,
Kyle Mountsier (01:54):
Paul, I don't know if you know this. I don't
know if you know this, but Cindyand I actually planned something
for this, we're about to sing aduet. It's, it's German. She
doesn't look
Paul J Daly (02:07):
like you planned this. I'm looking at her face if
you're just listening to thepodcast. No, we
Cindy Allen (02:12):
didn't plan it. But I actually sing in like, seven
different languages, so I don'tknow what I'm saying when I sing
in the other Hold on one ofthem, I can sing happy birthday
in Italian, that's the only onethat actually know what I'm
saying. Michael, he's doing theItalian hand gestures. Requiem,
you want to do that one?
Kyle Mountsier (02:28):
Yes, I can do Brahms. Requiem, let's
Paul J Daly (02:30):
do it. This is where Mike pulls out a pitch
pipe.
Kyle Mountsier (02:34):
I know, I know about you, because you answer
these wonderful questions fromus that you're a classically
you're a classically trainedvocalist, correct like myself.
You didn't know that. I know,right? So, so you How did you go
from? Because I know how I wentfrom I'm going to be a musician
(02:57):
all of my life to that's notgoing to happen. How did that
happen for you.
Cindy Allen (03:02):
So I was doing a lot with music, and I met the
man of my dreams and all thatdidn't matter, and went down a
pathway where now we've beenmarried for a gazillion years,
and he's been our my partner inlife and in business. And so I
decided to answer the phone atStone Eagle after we got
(03:24):
married, and I never got toleave while. I did leave for a
little while, but I was just,I've been in it ever since. And,
you know, auto one of thosethings. You get into it, and
there's so many cool people. Andit's just, it can be so much fun
that, you know, you just stayhere
Paul J Daly (03:43):
without a doubt. So you started in stone Eagle when
it was a pretty small company,right?
Cindy Allen (03:51):
Oh, yeah, there were. We had about 13 people in
the business of family. We werefamily owned. Family started. My
husband and his brothers andfather started the business. And
so somebody went on maternityleave, the lady at the front
desk, and they asked me to comeanswer the phone. And so I
started at the front desk, andtoday I have the privilege of
(04:11):
serving the organization as theCEO. So yeah, what a
Kyle Mountsier (04:15):
trip. Oh my goodness,
Paul J Daly (04:17):
just that's fun.
You've heard of them all.
Cindy Allen (04:22):
I phenomenal journey. I, you know, I think
the coolest thing was getting introuble at the front desk,
because, you know, you're justsitting there waiting for the
phone ring. And this was in the90s, right? So I'm reading a
book, or I was actually doing mynails one day when my friend
(04:43):
there's no, like,
Kyle Mountsier (04:43):
scrolling Facebook. So listen
Cindy Allen (04:48):
to this. I'm sitting there doing my nails. He
comes in. He's like, I do notpay you to paint your nails. And
okay, what do you want me to dowhile I'm waiting on the phone
to ring? He said, I don't know.
I. Figure out how to make us oneof those www things. Okay, so
that just dated myselfsignificantly. I was gonna say I
was at another meeting todaywhen somebody introduced himself
(05:08):
and they said, I've been herefor x gazillions of years. I was
like, I am not telling you howlong I have been. Totally
screwed that up now. But thatstarted my journey from, you
know, sitting at the front deskand just waiting on things to
happen, to pursuing makingthings happen. And so we I found
a book, and I found a littlepiece of software, and about a
(05:33):
month later, had the firstwebsite developed and and he
basically said, if you thinkyou're so smart, figure out how
to connect all of our insurancesystems to the internet as well.
And again, that no man or womanstands alone, right? So
contacted IBM, we found theright partners, and we went on
the journey of becoming, youknow, the first technology
(05:54):
company in the insuranceindustry, in auto that started
connecting our bigadministration systems to the
internet, and it was bleedingedge. Nobody trusted it. Nobody
they were
Paul J Daly (06:07):
like, aren't you afraid they're gonna they're
gonna lose everything. You gottabe kidding me.
Kyle Mountsier (06:13):
Dealers didn't even have websites at that
Cindy Allen (06:16):
point. No. And when we started connecting our
systems the internet. Like oneof the first things we did was
they used to have to open booksto get to the rating for F and I
products, right. First things wedid was create an online engine
where all you put the bin in andbam, it gave you the rates for
everything. And when
Kyle Mountsier (06:34):
I started, no Cindy, when I started in the
business, in 2009 10 and 11, thesome F and I managers were still
opening up the book, flippingthe pages going down the table.
It was
Cindy Allen (06:48):
so far in front that you had it was so painful
to try to teach people about it.
But I was bringing, gosh, youguys are so young, you probably
don't know what this is. I wasbringing floppy discs with me to
the dealership.
Paul J Daly (07:04):
Maybe Kyle doesn't know. No, hold on. Here's the
real differentiator. Watch this,Cindy, were your floppy discs
actually floppy? Yes, I hadfloppy. Floppy disks, like five
and three and a half. I had bothof them. Okay, he went, No one
must have gone to some nerdpreschool,
Cindy Allen (07:30):
like install AOL, and then somehow to sign on to
the internet first, and then Itaught them how to sign on to
our site, and then they wouldwrite down their user ID and
password and stick it to thebottom of their keyboard,
because the only thing they weregoing to do was stone needle
stuff online, because we werethe only thing there, right? But
(07:50):
it was like pulling teeth, butit was a ton of fun. And, you
know, gosh, I had the privilegeof sitting in a lot of
dealerships, and you there'snothing like being feet on the
ground to, like, actually learnwhat's happening and figure out
what kind of challenges peopleare facing, so you can can
figure out how to solve them,right? So
Michael Cirillo (08:09):
do you ever feel like you look back at that
time period, and if you were tofast forward it to today, where
you're just like, we would havenever been able to do that
today, like you look at all thecompliancy issues, and you know
it was like the Wild West backthen. That's
Cindy Allen (08:23):
a good point. It is a good point. And you know, the
reason why our business is sostable is because it was the
wild west in a lot of differentways. And so even for years to
come, you had with technology ingeneral, you had organizations
that were just super resilient.
Dealers are great example, wherethey do whatever it takes to
make business progress, right?
(08:44):
So I don't, hey, it doesn'tmatter that that field is
supposed to be used for that.
I'm going to shove this otherthing in it because I need to
get something accomplished. Andso I'm just going to, you know,
use, use these systems however Iwant to. And what, what we have
always focused on is, okay, Letyou be you. You go be wild. Do
all your wild things in in yourdealership, or in whatever
(09:05):
practice you're in, if you're aTPA or product provider, and
then we help kind of normalizeall that so people can, you know
what we learned? As I sat in allthose dealerships, I was
thinking, man, if we're askingthem to constantly change first
of all, it's going to throw themoff their game, and it's going
to be hard for them to have thatsales conversation. We should
support that instead of tryingto change that. And so we came
(09:28):
to them instead of asking themto come to us and adhere to
strict policies on where theyput data and how they do it. And
that's what we do. We we helpshape data to be standardized,
and we take that from the wildwest that sometimes happens and
inside a dealership and helpstandardize it. So it's still
(09:48):
kind of the Wild West and a lotof ways out there, but yeah,
good point actually there, andthat's it was. There was no, no
standards, and from a complianceperspective, yes. Oh, my
goodness,
Michael Cirillo (10:03):
I have to ask this because I'm so curious. I
mean, our company stemmed from afamily business. The dynamics of
a family business are sointeresting, right? And just
looking at your journey as weget to know you a little bit
better, at what point did yourealize that you loved this
business?
Cindy Allen (10:21):
Gosh, it was very early on, and a lot of it had to
do with how creative andresilient the whole industry
was. But you know, my I saiduncles and aunts and we have
multiple generations frommultiple families, not just
ours, in the business, and JayGillette, who's one of what I
(10:43):
consider the godfathers of f andI took me under his wing and was
knocked down the door to help meget into a lot of these
dealerships. And that, you know,having somebody who was trusted
introduced me to them, and thenthey trusted me. And you get to
know the kind of heart and soulof the folks in the business.
(11:04):
That's that's when I fell inlove with it, you know, to have
interactions with people, notnot just the business, you know.
So that's why I love your that'swhy I love your slogan, because
that's all about, all about thepeople. Our core purpose is
making lives better. And fromthe day you're going
Paul J Daly (11:24):
to meet so many of you're going to meet so many
really soon in this community,you really are friends and
family that you didn't even knowyou had.
Cindy Allen (11:33):
Well, we, you know from the beginning, like as I
sat there teaching people how tosign in, are the people that I
you know, like the Jay gillettesof the world, the agents that
were out in the field would pickup these giant stacks of green
bar paper. Do you guys know whatthat is? Yeah. Okay, yeah. So
they were printed, and take itaway, and some port intern would
(11:56):
type it into Excel or and thenthey build these charts and
graphs and graphs and everythingcome back like, 60 days later
and say, Oh, here's how youperformed in living color
instead of just in data. And Iwas like, that's crazy. There's
got to be a better way. Thatpoor intern, this poor, you
know, agent,
Paul J Daly (12:13):
they're back there just rethinking their life
decisions to that point
Cindy Allen (12:20):
and just thinking, gosh, there's got to be a better
way to help them. And that'swhere our, actually, our metrics
product, was born from that kindof process of going man, that
just, there's got to be a betterway for them to get so much more
accomplished. I mean, they're sotalented. Are, you know, most
people in the agency world, orthey're, you know, they're great
(12:42):
at helping somebody in the F andI office just kind of get better
and better and better at whatthey do. And wouldn't be great
if they just got to spend theirtime doing that instead of
picking up paper and coming backlater on to go through scale
data.
Kyle Mountsier (12:55):
You know what? I think we're all musicians here,
so I'm just going to call itlike I see it. I think musicians
make the greatest entrepreneursand business change, people,
especially those that haveplayed in a band or like a
(13:17):
garage band or a jazz band orsomething like that. And you
mentioned Cindy that that youlove jazz, because, like, if you
think about jazz, right, itactually is very akin to what
you just said. You know, you'relike, I don't know, maybe you're
back there on the drums andyou're right, and all of a
(13:39):
sudden, like, you just look overand it feels like the pianist
needs a little something, maybethey need to go off over here,
and you can just tell, and soyou're like, the pianist takes
that and just like moves withit. And I think that that's what
musicians can kind of see in theworld, right? Because they can
(14:03):
see, like, Yeah, I think thatthere's something missing from
like, the way that that personis interacting with their job or
their role, or things like that.
And what you're calling outthere, it's not actually natural
for most people to take that astheir first step, to kind of
walk into a room and go, I seean opportunity over there
that's, you know, that's like,it's adjacent, but similar to
(14:25):
what we're doing now. And I candraft on that, pull that in and
make that person almost shinemore, right? Give them the
freedom to do what they dobetter, because I've given them
access. And so I think, likethat allows you to be
continually be, to continuallybe entrepreneurial, and not get
stuck in one place. And I'mguessing, you know you, you, you
(14:45):
left and did some things outsideof auto, but have now come back
and and, and been at Sony egonow for a little while. And, and
the pace of change right now inour industry is is hard for
anyone to kind of keep. Up with,but let alone, you know, a
company that does have somelegacy attached to it, right?
And so how do you now that youkind of, like, know what that
(15:10):
felt like early on? How do youtake that and and inject that
into today and yet, like, stayresilient as a company that's
grown, but also stay flexibleand, like, move like a jazz
band, right?
Cindy Allen (15:28):
Yeah, I It's the and. And one of the things that
I always say, we've grownsignificantly over the years.
We've had the privilege ofacquiring some other businesses
and things like that. And, and,you know, people tell you, Well,
you can't be a cool, Souloriented, family oriented
business and be large and growand have a massive footprint.
(15:52):
And I would say it's the and ifwe concentrate on the and of
being both very rooted in who weare from a DNA perspective, and
focus on growth. We canaccomplish it, but we have to
focus on the end, like we haveto purposely do,
Paul J Daly (16:08):
right? It's never going to happen organically.
When you start scaling to thatsize. It's going to naturally
migrate the other way,
Cindy Allen (16:15):
exactly. Well, the urgent always out, you know,
outweighs the strategic. Youknow, in the moment, in the heat
of the moment. And so unlessyou're really focused on making
sure you have that balance. Andso from a keeping up
perspective, it's sort of thesame thing we're rooted in that,
you know, direct relationshipwith end the end user, the end
(16:37):
consumer, and all the the, youknow, sort of steps in the
distribution cycle in between,kind of like you have to be out
there. You have to be touchingwhat's happening in the industry
to kind of keep it top of mind,and so you can keep moving
forward. So it's a, it's aprinciple for us as an
organization to, like, continueto be curious, continue to be
(16:59):
innovative, and kind of don'tsettle for Well, it's because
we've always done it that way.
If it's stupid and it's broken,let's figure out how to fix it,
and if we see any kind of way touse what's happening in a lot of
it is supporting otherorganizations and other teams
that come up with phenomenalideas. Our customers are
brilliant in so many ways, andthey come up with great ideas
(17:23):
and partner with us to helpsolve them. And that's
phenomenal. So again, back topeople, right? Like, yeah, like,
not just who you know, but howyou treat the people that you
Michael Cirillo (17:34):
do know. Okay, I've got two questions here. The
first one is for my own selfishambitions as a vocalist and a
leader, and I promise I'll getus back here. But I have to
know, do you ever notice, like,what are your thoughts on the
the passive aggressive singingguidance, you know, like
(17:56):
someone's not pulling theirweight. Because, like, I noticed
sometimes vocalists, they tendto do this. What are your
thoughts?
Cindy Allen (18:04):
You know, that's something I've never thought
about. Actually, now
Michael Cirillo (18:09):
we're gonna now you're gonna notice if you do.
I'm just kidding. I'm justkidding. I'm just kidding. What
I really want to know. I mean,obviously a company such as
yours, someone who integrated soearly on with technology, and
now, moving into this fast pacedenvironment like you and you and
Kyle have just brought up, whatare you seeing now from a data
(18:30):
perspective, how have thingschanged? What are some of the
insights that you're getting outof the data that you guys can
see across the industry that youthink is just really important
for our industry to know.
Cindy Allen (18:43):
Man, I think you know, the first thing that I get
from our data is that it's notthe same as what people feel is
actually happening history. Andso there's a period of time, and
let's take COVID, for instance,where it's like, oh my goodness,
the sky is falling. But when welooked at data, yes, there was a
(19:04):
couple of months that werereally, really hard, and the
bounce back from that was sophenomenal. And today, you know,
we had this giant spike in thatpent up demand from a buying
perspective. And then it kind offeels like, Oh man, it's not
great in phases. And I just lookat data, I'm like, that's
(19:24):
actually not what's actuallyhappening right now. And so
that's my favorite thing, is tosay, you know, disconnect from
what you feel is happening, andactually trust information
that's actually showing you thetruth of what's going in on in
the business, and at a bigpicture level in the industry.
And so, you know, for us, we'reseeing what we think is a new
(19:47):
norm that's so much higher froma from a performance
perspective, in the F and Ioffice, then, then, then we've
ever had and things like,remember the. Days where we
would take a hit on a new car,and just like we would lose
money on the car because wewould try to make it up in other
areas. And that was just kind ofthe norm. When you looked at
(20:08):
front gross the differencesbetween new and used, but just
kind of on average, it was verylow. We just accepted that, and
it's totally different now, andafter the interest rate
craziness and and a lot ofthings changed there. We kind of
settled. And I was had theprivilege of talking with one of
our partners, who is an OEM, andwas kind of poking around at
(20:30):
that and and their thinking was,hey, one day, it'll probably go
back down. But man, we're seeingwhen we look at the data, the
data is telling us we're doing agreat job as an industry,
maintaining front grosses thatare that are positive, and
they're actually significantlymore than they were pre, pre,
you know, the norm, that was thenorm the last time there was
(20:50):
norm, right, which was in 2019,and so we're seeing things like
that happen that are really,really, you know, they're
awesome. They reflect theresiliency of this industry and
the creative ways that we tackleproblems, and we just don't back
down, and we we keep pushing.
And that's dealerships are, arethe engine that runs that, you
know, yes,
Kyle Mountsier (21:11):
I think, I think the the theme actually goes back
to, like you being thereceptionist that goes, yeah,
let me take that and try it. AndI think if, if others can go,
Oh, so you're telling me that,like, it's not as bad as the
news media is telling us.
Paul J Daly (21:30):
And like, if every day, yeah, probably
Kyle Mountsier (21:32):
fine. And you know, the F and I penetration
rates and the the front endgrosses as an industry are good,
so why don't I expect that as anorganization? Then, then dealers
can, can, can continue to playjazz with their team.
Paul J Daly (21:51):
Listen, listen before, before we wrap this up,
I'm gonna, gonna tell you andlet you in on the real reason we
wanted you on the show today.
And yeah, you this is going tobe great. You're going to love
it. I hope, I hope you have somereal hard hitting information
for us, because you were, youmoved to travel for a while the
travel industry, right? You werethe CEO of a company called GDS
x, which was acquired by concur,which a lot of people who travel
(22:13):
understand what Concur is, thatwas acquired by SAP, which I'm
not even sure what SAP does,right is, are they? Are they the
company that's like, we don'tmake the products you use, we
make the products you usebetter. Is that SAP?
Cindy Allen (22:28):
That's a great question. I don't
Paul J Daly (22:31):
know. All I know is, they bought it, okay? But
after that, you served as theCMO for American Express, global
business travel, and as businesstravelers, we need you to tell
us one secret about the AmericanExpress system that we probably
don't know that's going to getus into everywhere we want to
(22:53):
get into. Oh
Cindy Allen (22:54):
my goodness. And there are some secrets that you
just can't share. No
Paul J Daly (23:02):
offline, aka, sounds like we need to have a
coffee at a soda. Yeah.
Kyle Mountsier (23:08):
She was like, but trust me, I get in every
day, so
Paul J Daly (23:13):
you're saying there's a chance aliens are
real. It's been so much funhaving this conversation. I knew
it was going to be amazing likethis. Looking forward to
spending little time in person,and as always, thank you for
giving us some time and joiningus today on Auto Collabs. It's
Cindy Allen (23:29):
great to spend time with you guys too.
Kyle Mountsier (23:35):
What an incredible story, guys, a hero's
journey. You know?
Paul J Daly (23:39):
I mean, it really ties back to
Kyle Mountsier (23:42):
the project stone Eagle.
Michael Cirillo (23:45):
I, you know, I wish I would
Paul J Daly (23:46):
have asked CEO of a tech company and everything in
between the American Express
Michael Cirillo (23:51):
stuff with such a cheery disposition for working
in a family business. You know,right,
Paul J Daly (23:56):
what do you mean for working in a family
business? As someone who'sworked at a family
Michael Cirillo (24:02):
I'm just saying, like, there's days right
where you're like, I'm gonna rip
Unknown (24:06):
I hate my family so much. Yeah, and
Michael Cirillo (24:09):
then and then later, you're like, Okay, Dad,
what time's dinner?
Paul J Daly (24:14):
Yeah, gonna go play catch. Well,
Kyle Mountsier (24:16):
I think you know, it
is any of these businesses thatspan time like this across an
industry that has kind of likegrown up alongside tech not been
built in to the tech industry.
It is a challenge to constantlystay ahead and stay innovative,
and so the fact that shechallenges herself and
challenges her team to figureout how they can support dealers
(24:39):
with the tech and the and thethings that they're building,
and not just sit on thesidelines or let their size or
whatever, just kind of let itcoast, is really encouraging to
me. And I think it, it speaks tothe, you know, I was a
receptionist. Someone asked if Icould do this, and I went for
it. I tried it, you know,
Michael Cirillo (24:58):
I just got to say this. And maybe we can
factor this into the next timewe do it in ASOTU CON, we always
have such great neck networkingevent the first night, right?
And good good vibes and goodconversations. Let's not gloss
over that. Cindy, the CEO ofstone Eagle, is a classically
trained vocalist.
Unknown (25:17):
Come on. I mean, her and Kyle. Can make that duet?
Can we
Michael Cirillo (25:20):
not book her?
We'd be like Cindy, come andsing, come Come be the VOC, come
be the end.
Kyle Mountsier (25:25):
There's so many great musicians in auto we've
talked about this on a podcast.
Michael Cirillo (25:33):
It's gonna happen, guys. Anyways, listen.
We hope you enjoyed this episodewith Cindy Allen. She's the CEO
of stone Eagle. What a pleasanttreat to get to know her today,
on behalf of Paul J Daly. KyleMountsier, myself. Michael
Cirillo, thanks for joining uson Auto Collabs.
Unknown (25:47):
Sign up for our free and fun to read Daly email for a
free shot of relevant news andautomotive retail media and pop
culture. You can get itnow@asotu.com That's asotu.com
if you love this podcast, pleaseleave us a review and share it
with a friend. Thanks again forlistening. We'll see you next
time.
(26:18):
Welcome to autoca. Lastrecording you.
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I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
Ridiculous History
History is beautiful, brutal and, often, ridiculous. Join Ben Bowlin and Noel Brown as they dive into some of the weirdest stories from across the span of human civilization in Ridiculous History, a podcast by iHeartRadio.