Ep.46 - The Cost of Chasing Trends

Summary

In this episode of Crossroad Conversations, the Lewis Brothers discuss the complexities of chasing trends in business, particularly in the automotive industry. They explore how to differentiate between real trends and distractions, the hidden costs associated with trend chasing, and the importance of maintaining brand identity while adapting to new market demands. The conversation also touches on customer experience, the significance of the Lewis Guarantee, and the cultural implications of implementing new strategies. Through their insights, they emphasize the need for careful consideration and strategic planning when navigating trends in business.


Takeaways

Understanding the difference between trends and distractions is crucial for business success.
Every decision to chase a trend comes with hidden costs that must be evaluated.
Cultural costs can impact employee morale and productivity when implementing new trends.
The Lewis Guarantee exemplifies how to adapt to trends while maintaining brand integrity.
Customer experience should always be prioritized in any business strategy.
It's important to vet new ideas thoroughly before implementation.
A/B testing can help determine the effectiveness of new strategies.
Maintaining a balance between traditional and digital marketing is essential.
Engaging with customers and building trust is key to long-term success.
Being open to new ideas can foster a culture of innovation within a business.


Titles

Navigating Business Trends: Insights from the Lewis Brothers
The Hidden Costs of Chasing Trends in Business


Sound bites

"It's not when, it's if something happens."
"You have to have a couple hundred ideas."
"You need to really vet it."


Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Crossroad Conversations
03:06 The Cost of Chasing Trends
06:00 Identifying Real Trends vs. Distractions
09:07 The Hidden Costs of Trend Chasing
11:45 Cultural and Brand Costs of Trends
14:55 Adapting to Trends Without Losing Identity
17:59 The Importance of Customer Experience
21:04 Mythbusters: Car Sales Myths
23:53 The Lewis Guarantee: A Case Study
26:53 Final Thoughts and FAQs

Feel the dynamic energy of the Lewis Brothers as they deliver real stories and lessons that keep local businesses on their toes, and share how experiences in the community inspire them to keep on driving.

Check out all our great episodes at CrossroadConversationsPodcast.com!

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
A lot of times people think in this whole industry
we're not doing it, to be like,oh, I hope they don't come back
or, oh, they don't come back.
No, we are weathered.
We're set up in a wholesituation, whether it's parks,
service or sales, that we'regoing to take care of you.
It's not when it's if somethinghappens.
It's not if it's when, becausewe know it's going to happen.

(00:20):
But we want to be here to takecare of you and we're going to
walk you through the process.
Whether a vehicle's totaled,whether you're an accident,
whether it catches on fire,whether you're you go through
financial problems, whether it'sa downsizing of a vehicle,
getting a bigger vehicle,getting a truck, it's a whole
process hey everyone, welcome tocrossroad conversations with

(00:41):
the lewis brothers, where we aimto share real stories about
running a successful familybusiness, working through
adversity and pouring back intothe community that keeps our
door open.

Speaker 2 (00:50):
We're your hosts, matt Shelby and Taylor, and we
bring you relevant localbusiness advice and automotive
insights that are sure to changethe way you look at running a
business and maybe even throw ina plug for you to do business
with us.
Welcome back to CrossroadConversations with the Lewis
Brother.
Hey, today we're diving into atopic that every business leader

(01:12):
runs into, whether you're inthe automotive business or
you're selling tacos.
I like that comparison.
What's the cost of chasingtrends?
And we'll dive into that today.
You know, should you jump onthe trend or is it just a shiny
distraction?

Speaker 3 (01:27):
I don't know it's tricky because you get like
don't look into the light, likethe bug to a zapper.
It's like it's shiny and itbrings you in.
So yeah, we'll break that down.
What?

Speaker 2 (01:38):
I really like I'm thinking this will come up
during our discussion is, youknow, slowing down, because the
brain's always like on thatbandwagon, jump on that trend,
and then how do you control andrun it through the filters of
what should we do?

Speaker 3 (01:52):
so this could be a great episode today, yeah, and
so we're going to break it downto three different core topics
number one, how to tell thedifference between a real trend
okay and a waste of time.
Number two, what it actuallycosts your business to chase
every single new thing.
And number three, how to adaptwhen losing your core identity,
you're completely past whatmakes sense to you.

(02:13):
So we're going to break it downthree different ways.

Speaker 1 (02:16):
Plus we've got a new Mythbusters.

Speaker 3 (02:18):
Mythbusters.
Okay, we didn't talk about this, but we're going to kind of
want to do the goggles on like373 versus 456 versus 488.
I like that.
We're not going that far.
The higher is the lower.
But when we put that in there.
I was like yep, I'll doMythbusters.

Speaker 1 (02:35):
Let's do it Absolutely, so we'll answer some
fun questions whenever thatcomes up.

Speaker 2 (02:39):
So, whether you're running a dealership, a boutique
or a food truck, this episodeis for anyone trying to grow
their business without losingtheir mind, chasing the next big
thing.
Hey, in case you missed ourepisode last week episode 45,
the art of intentionaldiscomfort you know how leaders
push themselves and their teamsto grow, so if you want to learn

(03:01):
more about that and see all thedetails, go to any of our pages
and check out last week'sepisode to teach you how to grow
yourself and your team.

Speaker 1 (03:12):
Absolutely.
Always check us out atlewissuperstorecom to see the
freshest vehicle trades andeverything else.
I'm going to throw the what did?
We drive over to the CDJR side,and you know what I love?
Because we've got big trucks,we've got small trucks, we've
got Mavericks, but I think we'vegot the best selection of the
hybrid off-road truck, which isthe Jeep Gladiator.

Speaker 2 (03:35):
The Gladiator, and I'm glad you bring up that
subject.
We were just talking about itat the manager meeting the other
day.
We have over 40 Gladiators instock and, like, like you said,
it's kind of that in between,you've got off-road capability.
You still pull a small traileror throw some stuff in the back.
Plus, if you are a trueoff-roader, it gives you a
longer wheelbase what if theyhave no clue and have never

(03:56):
heard of what?

Speaker 3 (03:57):
what is a gladiator?

Speaker 2 (03:58):
so you take a four-door wrangler.
That's a great question.
You take a four-door wranglerand the back section, right
behind the back seat, you put abed on it.
So it's a Jeep truck, jeeptruck.
So you got five feet of bedspace behind the back seat.
They're all the same Jeep stuff.

Speaker 1 (04:14):
I like that.

Speaker 2 (04:14):
You get a longer wheelbase, which gives you
better ride quality, betteroff-road performance as far as
articulation and stuff.
And we got a couple of whatthey call buzz models in the
automotive terms.
That's where they put specialpackages together.
Right now we have the high tideedition.
Now, with the high tide, youget a painted to match top
Sounds like a dream.
You get painted to match fenderflares.

(04:36):
You get the off-road tires fromthe factory.
They're BFG KM3s, truck stuff,truck stuff.
You get the wide Dana 44 frontand rear axles.
You get a locking reardifferential.
You get leather interior,heated seats, heated steering
wheel all for low $40,000.
So that's sub $45,000.

(04:57):
You get all of that stuff andwe've got $40,000 to choose from
.
What a bargain.

Speaker 1 (05:02):
Make sure you come and check those out out, because
we have a lot to choose from wedo.

Speaker 3 (05:06):
We got a selection like hula grubs with fishing, oh
yeah, and all the colors, allthe colors.
All right, trend versusdistraction how to tell the
difference?
And I'm gonna preface this withsaying some people are very
click, like think of your amazonshopping cart or your shopping
history or your wish list, thatwhatever comes across that you

(05:27):
see you're like oh, I like that,oh, I like that, oh, what about
that?
Oh, what about that?
Right, and you're very quick tojump on that.
And we're going to go throughwhen you should, when you
shouldn't, and what we'velearned the other side can be
slow to react.
It's like just a trend, just atrend, just a trend.
And sometimes you can do thatuntil you've completely trended

(05:49):
out of the top of theconversation or trended out of
relevancy within business with,internally, your employees, and
then the consumers, customers.
It's like, well, you didn'ttrend any of that stuff, so
you're not trending at all, andI think we're probably closer to
you.
Know, old school dad, let itstew, like okay, if it is to be,

(06:10):
let's, you know, let it come tofruition.
It's like hang on, we need tojump on something so we're not
completely left in the dust.

Speaker 2 (06:17):
I think that's a great subject there and it's
funny because I was justthinking that, as you were
saying it, if you ask which one,we're naturally on the side of
it's slow roll this.
Think about it.
What dad would say is let itstew.
That just means let it processfor a while and don't react.
And you know, in themanufacturer, we're in the

(06:37):
automotive business, so we getto see all the different types
of manufacturers and some ofthem are first to market in this
and then some othermanufacturers are first to
market in this and then someother manufacturers are last to
market at it.
They finally integrate it.
So we get a you know, a frontseat perspective on when that
gains market share or when thatwas too early because the market
wasn't ready for it.

(06:58):
And as we've progressed andwe've talked about it in here,
we're like, okay, we've been wayover here on waiting too long
and slow to implement because wewant to make sure it's right.
But what opportunities have wemissed by not acting fast enough
?
So now we discuss that moretogether and go okay, when
should we go ahead and react andstart pushing the envelope to

(07:19):
follow this trend?

Speaker 3 (07:20):
I think that's really good to have a three-piece
bounce off trend.
I think that's really good tohave a three-piece bounce off.
Uh, you know.
So if we go to meetings or 20groups or see a new software,
like it's okay to remember, wetalk about the idea sessions
it's okay to have a couplehundred ideas, and as long as
you realize that, hey, if weleave here and we didn't gain
anything from those, we at leastvetted the idea and so it got

(07:42):
our idea wheel spinning and then.
So then when you saw somethingbecause what we see often is a
new software or a new something,somebody chasing something, and
our managers bring them to usand they're like, hey, what
about this?
Almost every single one of thosecomes at a high cost, but even
a higher cost of the training,the new implementation and the
headache that comes with all ofthat right.

(08:05):
And so you have to be supercareful that you go to a 20
group and from all these otherdealers, uh, like-minded, like
business, and they're like hey,I'm doing this, hey, I'm doing
this, hey, I'm doing this, andthat you don't just try to hop
on all of those, because youlose core values there and you
lose what you're actually doing.
And when a new product comes out, it's kind of like people say,
which, this is an age-old myth,I don't want to buy the first

(08:27):
year of that model in a vehiclebecause I want to let the bugs
work out, like in softwaregenerally.
They'll kind of get it launchedand then they'll let some
actual people test it.
In the automotive industry theyspend millions of miles testing
before they put it out there.
But it's like, how do you staytrendy without being the guinea

(08:48):
pig?
And like, think about this.
I'll ask you guys in theautomotive retail space when
they said, hey, we need to beable to do the entire
transaction on.
You know, that was somethingreally had been coming, coming,
coming, but there was nomotivation to it.
And then covid hit hit it waslike shot from home.
So what's your guys' thoughtsand feelings?
What do you see?
Is that relevant?

Speaker 2 (09:10):
One of the things that you can do and we've talked
about it in different spaces,we do this with advertising is
an A-B test.
So an A-B test for everybodythat doesn't know that you can
simultaneously run two differentthings at once.
It's easier to do withadvertising because you're not
affecting a process orinternally.
So you run two adssimultaneously, maybe different

(09:31):
verbiage or different offers,and you try to figure out A
versus B, which one gets thebest reaction.
So I think when we talk aboutduring COVID, what they call
digital retailing in our market,of where somebody could do the
entire transaction online, wepiloted that.
We had software running in theback, we got all the tools.

(09:52):
So that was our B test runningout there.
Our A test is we kept the stuffin the dealership the same.
So we didn't meet witheverybody and say, hey, we're
closing the front doors, it's byappointment only.
We're only selling cars throughdigital retailing, because
that's the buzzword right nowand all the experts are saying

(10:14):
car buying is going 100% onlineand the dealership will size
down or relocate, and we said,well, let's not quite jump on
that bandwagon yet, but let'snot miss it if there is
opportunity.
So we were running in that case, both of them simultaneously.

Speaker 3 (10:31):
That's really good.
So showing hey, let's try kindof two processes.
You know in the social space,people who for a living we don't
do this, but people for aliving that make viral videos,
they do that and they have whatthey call a ghost platform that
they use within Facebook.
They can run a ghost video andthey'll take the same video and

(10:54):
they'll just change the editjust a little bit by like the
thumbnail or by the title or bythe captions on it, and they'll
run about three or four andthey'll spend like $10 or $15.
Or buy the captions on it andthey'll run about three or four
and they'll spend like $10 or$15, and then the ghost platform
, it'll see which one is goingto generate the best and then
they go with that.
Taylor, why do you think thatthe online retail beginning to

(11:16):
end Amazon Shopping Art?
Why do you think that didn'twork?
Or did it work?

Speaker 1 (11:20):
No, no, it didn't, and it was very crucial for us
to be able to run both thingsbecause we're not one in the
business is going to say, hey,no, we only do it this way.
This way doesn't work, becausewe would rather have a different
setup to be able to get what.
We saw that everybody that wascoming to it there's ones that
went all the way through.
They put all the um, all theresources, everything in there

(11:44):
and got to the end and said,whoop, hold on.
I still got to check, see, lookthe car, everything else.
And we've even seen that goingof Tesla's platform, that they
have more showrooms now thanthey used to, because people
love the experience to be ableto go through and do that.
But they still have to see,touch and feel.
This is not a small 20 hundreddollar 150 item off of amazon,

(12:09):
that one you've owned before ortwo that you can look at.
A whole lot of reviews you canlike on a vehicle, look at
reviews that way.
But everyone still we seepeople because of that come in
fully educated.
They know everything about thevehicle and the only reason
they're coming in one is to lookat the vehicle, but they've

(12:31):
watched more YouTube videos andthey know what to do with.
Yeah, they're coming tofact-check the person to make
sure they're gonna really takecare, really take care of them
throughout the whole situationand, whenever a problem does
come up, that they actually helpyou.
So it's more so, flip thatcustomer from coming in to
validate everything.
They already know, everything.

Speaker 3 (12:52):
They know, everything about the vehicle I think
that's a really good point.
So one we didn't just say yes,we're 100 retail, like you were
talking about, or no, we're notat all.
We said, sure, like, let's trythat, let's offer.
It's still running in thebackground a little bit with 4d
commerce.
You know on model e vehicleslightning machi that you can do

(13:13):
that, but we've seen the takerate like less than 0.001
percentage.
But what we did realize, thinkabout this like generally amazon
purchases I say amazon becausethat's generally just sure it
already has your address saved,you know when it's going to
arrive, is it in stock, and sowe'll just always relate to that
.
But if you've bought somethingoutside of Amazon and it's been

(13:34):
more expensive and somethingwent wrong, you thought, shoot,
I never really checked onsupport.
How do I get support?
Is there a phone call?
Is there chat?
Is this real?
And it'll kick in the teethevery time.
You know you just click likehey, it's shiny, it looks nice,
it looks new, it's a good price.

(13:55):
They hit me with an instagramad and they're like dad gum it.
So I think customers thinkthrough that logically after
they've done their average of 19hours online research and
they're like I need to go makesure that this is real, like
what does 300 horsepower feellike?
Or what does 18 speakers soundlike?
Or does it actually fit in mygarage?

(14:15):
Like there was still thattangible feel.
But we said, hey, we can helpyou.
You can submit your credit apponline.
We can give a trade valueonline.
We can give you figures overthe phone, we can text them to
you.
So we found that hybrid fit.
So we weren't just like alltrained or no trend.

Speaker 2 (14:29):
I think that's an important part that both y'all
talked about.
There is like it's it's notblack and white of hey.
We tried digital retailing.
It didn't work.
Shut all that off.
What we found is it was a greatresource for the customer.
We're selling high ticket items.
The customer still wanted totouch, see, smell, feel the
vehicle, but they got farther inthe process.

(14:51):
So what it allowed us to do isto identify additional resources
or tools we needed to provideonline before they got to the
dealership.
So it wasn't necessarily likehey, it failed, hey, it didn't
do exactly what we thought itwas going to do, but it gave us
a great insight on what weneeded to improve on to provide
for our customer.

(15:12):
And just for some stats for youguys, here's what we're talking
about.
If you roll back the tape, let'scall it five, six years.
The average consumer went tothree to four dealerships before
they bought a vehicle.
Now NADA says they go to lessthan two.
It's like 1.6 or 1.7dealerships before they buy.

(15:32):
What changed?
The resources online, the toolsonline.
People value their time andthey want to get all their
shopping done before they cometo the dealership and, like
y'all said, then when they're atthe dealership.
They're just verifyingeverything they saw is correct.
Yeah, and how does thatactually feel?
How does it actually drive?
How does it actually sound?
Yeah, that that's really goodthere.

(15:54):
So that's go ahead.

Speaker 1 (15:55):
You know a wit and you relate this back to like
ebay.
This is the crazy thing ofhuman nature.
You can go online and see alisting and you see actual
pictures.
See actual pictures.
But where I saw a whole lot ofpeople that we do the hybrid
with, they call us fromdifferent states.

(16:15):
There's something differentabout getting someone on the
phone that's real and thengetting actual videos.
So you get videos of theproduct, you get videos of the
process and it's's think of it.
Whenever you're buyingsomething online, you're buying
something out of state, you getan actual video from somebody
like oh okay, those picturesaren't generated, this isn't
fake, they put it in together.
There's validation.
There's validation so thathybrid model is so important to

(16:38):
be able to take both of them andknow you can split them up from
there, yeah, so so that's anexample of a trend that we said
yes, right, let me show you kindof.

Speaker 3 (16:48):
So there's a three question framework that we kind
of roughly and loosely use, butthese are the things we would
ask to help us give direction towhere to go with this.
So, number one does this alignwith our long-term strategy?
Does this align with ourlong-term strategy as a business
?
Can we realistically execute itwell?
Do we have the people?

(17:09):
Do we have the process?
Will they believe us?
Will the consumers actually buyinto this, whatever, whoever it
affects?
And then, number three will itserve our customers or just our
ego?
And so if you're a trendychasing person, what's nothing
wrong with that, that's yourpersonality.
You'll quickly run over yourego and become something that

(17:30):
you really didn't plan on beingI.

Speaker 2 (17:33):
I love that you bring up those three questions
because if you peel back ourcore, we we align with this and
I'll just walk everybody throughthis so you don't think it's
just like, oh, it'd be so niceto have two other brothers in
the business and it'd make it somuch easier.
Let's be really honest here.
We opened up talking about wewere really good at slow playing

(17:54):
things and thinking about it.
We were taught that by ourfamily.
The other thing we've beenreally good at is we all have
pretty thick skin and we'll calleach other out or or call it
like it is.
Yeah, so what we have to I knowmyself and y'all as well, we
have to be slow about is, whenone of us brings up an idea, to

(18:15):
not just karate, chop each other.
That's stupid.

Speaker 3 (18:18):
Why would you do that ?
Because that's happened.

Speaker 2 (18:20):
We're laughing because it's even if we don't
say anything.
The look on the face, thenon-verbal, is like that's
stupid.

Speaker 1 (18:25):
Shut up, yeah and it naturally happens.
I can normally read it and it'sokay.
Sometimes it's just a bettingprocess I'm gonna call you
stupid.

Speaker 3 (18:35):
He's like hey, I got back from a meeting and they
were talking about this and thisit's like hang on, hang on,
didn't?

Speaker 1 (18:42):
think that sounded good.
Anyways, let's move on to thenext one.
I'm sorry, how's the coffee?

Speaker 3 (18:48):
So you kind of have to have both there.
So that's a good point of like.

Speaker 2 (18:52):
It is.
So what I'm saying there iseven if you and I've had to
retrain myself because I'vegotten that look from my dad
before is when somebody'sbringing an idea to you, absorb
it and actively listen.
It doesn't mean you have to sayyes, Actively listen and allow
it to go through the process.
So then, once that happens,that's one of the three

(19:13):
questions.
The next one I like to talkabout there are very few
decisions and I know this soundslike a broken record on this
podcast about pausing but thereare very few decisions that you
have to make in the actualmoment.
Now I'm not saying don't slowplay and wait 30 days, 60 days a
year, but let's introduce theidea, let's talk about it in

(19:34):
that small group we talked aboutand then we go.
Who does it affect?
First internally?
What else would have to be inthere?
Nothing makes me cringe morethan when I see leaders that
come up with an idea and justthrow it on people's desk,
whether it's the office or otherpeople.
Put this in place, do this.
You need buying from the teamfirst, if you ever have a chance

(19:55):
, a fighting chance at gettingit to work, and then you need to
think about these questions youtalked about.
Who will it affect?
What will the outcome be, andis this a positive or negative?
Or what land mines might wecome across?

Speaker 3 (20:07):
and it's one of those things based on that and you
say, you know, give it the gameplan.
Realize, we talk about in ourvideo production stuff from a
level one to a level five, likewhat type of equipment is needed
?
Can it be executed with yourphone?
Shouldn't it be ended withincap cut or instagram and just
shot out just to be in front ofphone?
Shouldn't it be edited withinCapCut or Instagram and just
shot out Just to be in front ofpeople?
Those simple and easy thingsthat are a little trend.

(20:32):
Don't overthink those thingsbecause you'll overthink
yourself into not doing anything.
Sometimes we're like I got thismaster plan, I'm going to
storyboard it, I'm going to dothis and at the end of the day,
you did what you knew how to doand what you naturally were good
at, and you didn't do anythingthat told the world that you
were here or what was going on.

(20:54):
So you have to be careful there.
Of what level of decision whoall does it affect?
I think that it's important tosee that if it's a large
software, don't toss it onsomebody's desk, like you said,
and said hey, go ahead and signup and let's go I think software
is a great example, because allbusinesses deal with software.

Speaker 2 (21:10):
I was having this conversation with our controller
just yesterday and we weretalking about like our major
pieces of software, which in ourbusiness is our CRM and our DMS
, and one thing I shared withher.
I said we've always gone by.
The rule is if it's a majorpiece of software that employees
have to use, not running in thebackground but employees have

(21:30):
to use, if it's not asignificant upgrade, we're not
going to do it.
If it's just a little bitbetter, we're not going to drag
everybody else through the mudjust because it's the new trendy
thing, you know, because thenthere will be more fallout and
the benefit really won't bethere, yep.
So I think that's veryimportant, that you look a
couple steps down and who all itaffects yeah, that's it.

Speaker 3 (21:52):
You know you're not switching cell phone providers
every time that they offer islike's like I'm Verizon, I'm
T-Mobile, I'm AT&T, I'm BoostMobile, whatever it is.
It's like good night, but youjust understand that, right?
Those are three good questionsthat we ask of a framework of
understanding trend versusdistraction how to tell the
difference when to when, not toDon't miss it, but also don't

(22:15):
jump straight into it.

Speaker 2 (22:17):
That's true for sure.
I think it's Mythbusters time.
All right, let's go.
I'm going to Mythbusterssegment.
Okay, so this segment is carsalesmen are always trying to
rip you off.
You know the classic all carsalespersons are out to scam you
.
You've seen the movies, heardthe jokes, maybe even heard a
weird uncle tell you to wearcamouflage in the dealership.

(22:40):
Lord, have mercy.

Speaker 3 (22:42):
I mean, it's Arkansas .

Speaker 1 (22:43):
What?
Yeah, it's like a call time.

Speaker 2 (22:46):
But you know, here's the truth bomb.
So sure, there was a time whenhigh-pressure, fast-talking
plaid-suit sales guys were real,but today the internet's
changed that.

Speaker 3 (23:00):
Like the movie Used Cars.

Speaker 2 (23:01):
Like the movie Used Cars.

Speaker 3 (23:04):
That's generally what people think that sales people
are going to rip you off if theythink of that.

Speaker 2 (23:10):
They do, but that's not the truth.

Speaker 3 (23:13):
It couldn't be further from the truth.

Speaker 2 (23:15):
We adapt, just like anybody else is adapting.
You know there was a time whenthere might have been higher
pressure, faster thinking, butmost of the buyers these days
just like we were just talkingabout do their research online,
and that's researching thevehicle, researching the
dealership, looking at reviews,figuring out who they want to
buy from so that they make surethat they are connecting with

(23:37):
the correct person to help themthrough their buying process.

Speaker 3 (23:40):
You know, I think in the wild, just in understanding
the difference in theMythbusters.
Think of Clark Griswold.

Speaker 2 (23:46):
Okay.

Speaker 3 (23:47):
Okay when he National Lampoons.

Speaker 1 (23:51):
It seems.

Speaker 3 (23:53):
No, when he gets the new family truckster, oh yeah.

Speaker 1 (23:56):
We're thinking about Wally World Vacation, vacation.

Speaker 3 (24:00):
And he orders the new family truckster and it comes
in and it's the wrong one.
And he says I'll just take mycar back and his car came by,
his trading comes by on aforklift and it's smashed flat
on the pancake.
And I know working with someguys jokingly, but not so much
jokingly from.

(24:20):
They were from generationsbefore sure in classic old
school, if a customer made youmad, you'd throw their keys on
the roof of the building, and soI can't give them the keys to
my car and it's like, oh, wecan't find them yeah right and
then they would say, hey, wetook your used car, your trade
in and we parked it out back andthey're like where's my car?
I need to go right, because theywere playing the games.
It's like we can't find it.

(24:41):
It's long before google reviewsor anything else.
And it was just.
You know, they couldn'tresearch so didn't know what the
next dealer had or what tulsahad or what little rock had, so
they just played the games.
Today's world is way tootransparent and, to be to be
honest, not that they didn'thave conscience, but it taylor,
you know it at the desk thatgenerally the sales people are

(25:03):
way more on the side of thecustomer, advocate heavily.
They're heavy customeradvocates, which is good.
That's what we teach them.
It's just like, hey, they're nothere just for a car, they're
here for the confidence of youtime we're going to be here
during and after the sale totake care of them and generally
we have to say, hey, make surethat that you're on both sides,
that we're getting a fair offerfor everyone, because generally

(25:25):
it's a complete opposite ofthrowing your keys on the road
for crushing your car orwhatever bad treating you think.

Speaker 2 (25:33):
I think we can easily say that myth is busted and you
you know whether you've watchedit in the movies or you heard a
great uncle say that.
I would just say, hey, reset,find yourself a good dealership
maybe ours, okay and then walkthrough the process and see how
it feels and it looks differentbecause of all the transparency.
You know the real game now.

(25:53):
It's building trust, offeringreal value and keeping the
customer for life, and we talkabout that.

Speaker 3 (26:00):
You can't keep a customer for life if you don't
take care of them in the firstcouple steps that's funny, the
things we always says hey, ifyou want to sell the customer,
make sure they know you like youand trust you.
That's it.

Speaker 1 (26:10):
They know you like interest because we don't sell
vehicles, we don't do services.
Now that a lot of times peoplethink in this, in this whole
industry, we're not doing it tobe like, oh, I hope they don't
come back or oh, they don't comeback.
No, we are weathered.
We're set up in a wholesituation, whether it's parts,
service or sales, that we'regoing to take care of you.
It's not when it's if somethinghappened, or it's not if it's

(26:33):
when, because we know it's goingto happen.
But we want to be here to takecare of you and we're going to
walk you through the process.
Whether a vehicle's totaled,whether you're in an accident,
whether it catches on fire,whether you go through financial
problems, whether it's adownsizing of a vehicle, getting
a bigger vehicle, getting atruck, it's a whole process of
working through it.
So that's something veryimportant and that really goes

(26:56):
back to the part of why we'vebeen in business for 79 years,
you know really the twist thereis the facts don't lie.

Speaker 2 (27:02):
Yes, and you know, if people were really trying to
rip you off and to play thosegames that you had in your head,
you wouldn't be in businessvery long, especially not 79
years.
No, you know, yeah.
So, yeah, the myth that everydealership is a shark tank
busted.
It's busted.

(27:22):
I'm gonna say that one's bustedfor sure.
All right.
Now back into our topics ofchasing trends, the hidden cost
of trend chasing.
So then we start talking aboutthat.
You know, every yes in a trendis no to something else.
So what are you willing to giveup in order to do this?
And I think that's a greatexercise that you go through of

(27:44):
like okay, maybe somebody bringsus the idea, boss, I think we
should do this.
Okay, what are we willing togive up to do that?
And we've seen businesses thathave not given anything up and
then all of a sudden, theexpense monster is just eating
their lunch and it's with stuffthat they signed I'm talking
about software now, stuff theysigned up for five years ago, 10
years ago, and it's in thebackground just automatically

(28:07):
billing every single month, andthey're not even using it
anymore.
So I think that you do have togo through that and you have to
look at the hidden cost of whatam I willing to give up?
Where's the return going to behere?
And there are times that youinvest not knowing if there's
going to be a return.
But that's a short-term examplethat you're going through and

(28:27):
you're keeping your thumb on it.
It's not a set it forget it.

Speaker 3 (28:30):
Most definitely.
So a couple different thingsthat you talked about a little
bit earlier.
If it directly affects someoneon the front side of the
business, whether it's employeesor customers, you need to
really vet it.
Yeah, you know how long they'vebeen doing it.
What's the proven track record?
Give me some references ofpeople actually using it so you
can call and talk to them hey,what were you on before?
What did you switch to orwhat'd you switch from?

(28:52):
Would you switch to what do youlike, what do you not like?
We did that when we built thiswhole thing.
We went to 100 different placesand asked those questions so
we'd get real deal, not thesalesperson.
The other thing is if it'sbehind scenes you talked about
the a and b a lot of times.
When we do switch software,whether it be review, handling
or communication with customers,those things that are just
software that work in thebackground of you know, home net

(29:15):
or anything that hostssometimes we'll run those
simultaneously if possible,because we've done it sometimes
and it clogs the system bad.
They're like who's giving usthe price on this car, like it
starts with us and then it goesout and then you have another.
So we've had an issue with that, but if you can run one at the
very end and run a new one atthe beginning, with letting them

(29:36):
overlap yes then you can reallysee the metrics and what's
working and what's not working.

Speaker 2 (29:40):
Now, it won't always work that way, and in fact I
would tell everybody out therethat's listening, especially in
the software world at least havea 30-day, if not a 60-day,
overlap.
Yeah, okay, because I'm justtelling you we've been through
800 gazillion presentations andwe're a sucker.

(30:01):
We like sales, we love a goodpresentation and but there's
always more layers to it,especially when you're talking
about data and things connectingtogether.
It's never going to go perfectand it's going to take you work
and time to get that smoothedout.
Even on our HR onboarding,which nobody sees on the website
, we've had multiple systems runin the background before just

(30:23):
to make sure we have a smoothprocess when it's connecting to
payroll or drug and drivingtests, onboarding or personality
tests.
We've ran multiple softwaresthat you're going to have that
overlap for a little while justto make sure that the process is
smooth.
I think that's really importantthere.
So that really talks about thefinancial cost.
I want to get into this nextsubject and get y'all's take on

(30:45):
it Cultural cost.
It's okay, cultural cost, andat first you're like what?
What are you talking about?
Cultural cost is it's withinyour organization, when you have
to pull everybody through newtraining or adapting in a new
process.
At what type cost is that andthen, is it worth it?

Speaker 3 (31:05):
yeah, I think it's.
You have to really, really,really vet it, and that's not
just.
You can easily get yourselfsold right.
So you need some other peoplethat are not biased, that
haven't been sold by thesalesperson, to say, hey, what's
your thoughts here?
Like, what's your downside toour vehicle check-in software?
You know, thinking in service,what's the downside to that?
And they're like I can't dothis, can't do this.
To this.
It's like, okay, what do youlove about it?

(31:26):
I can do this, I can do this.
Okay, will you take a look atthis other software and tell me
your thoughts?
Is it?
You know?
First you extract that stuff soyou know, before they get
emotionally attached to the nextone.
I think it's important We'vetalked about getting buy-in,
because if you have that buy-in,then you're going to have the
catalyst.
Not so much hesitant about that, because if you just set it up

(31:48):
and you're like hey went out todinner, this is not us, but hey
went out to dinner with thesales rep, signed us up for this
new thing, we're switching allthis stuff over.
And they're like I had gum it.
Taylor got sold again.
Shelby signed us up forsomething new again and they're
going to use it to the minimum.

Speaker 1 (32:03):
They are.
They're going to use it to theminimum Enough to keep you just
from Disappear or keep you offtheir back.

Speaker 3 (32:08):
One thing that I really love is if you do, and
you say we like presentations,we do and we like going to shows
or things where you get to seethe newest tech so you can stay
relevant and don't miss out on.
The trend is you can take allthe notes and ask all the hard
questions and, before you doanything, go back to your
current provider and challengethem.

(32:28):
Sure, hey, can you give me thisstats that the new one has and
say, hey, I'm looking at this,validating this, because they
might be just giving you 20% ofactually what the software can
do.
Or they're just checking thebox to say, hey, I did my
performance review with LewisAutomotive.
They're good, they didn't haveany questions, da-da-da-da-da.
And you're like wait, hang on.

(32:49):
You couldn't show me the VPNdata and you couldn't show me a
vehicle display page and displaypage.
And you couldn't show me, uh,roi, on this, this and this and
this new software, becausethey're selling it to me.
I have nothing to lose.
They pitch you every sure youknow.
So that's one of the thingsthat I love.
Before I ever switch even if Idon't switch I go back and hold
my current provider accountableno, that's and also price check

(33:10):
on.

Speaker 1 (33:10):
That's a good point yes, going through there, you
hit the nail on the head ofgoing through your team, because
our industry people are soopinionated whenever they get
into there.
And if you don't have them onyour team, the other thing we
love doing, whenever we get tothe point of almost bringing
someone on the last check, ishey, I want you to pitch this to
my team, I want you to pitchthis to my team, and you sit

(33:34):
back and you're not directing it, you're not persuading what you
like at all.
We ultimately have the decisionand we get to decide what we
want to do, but trust us thatyou want your teams by.

Speaker 2 (33:49):
You want your teams we've had some that have failed
oh yeah, we've had it that farthat we were already at the
contract status with them okay.
And I let them come in and ifthey drowned I let them drown.
Y'all been in that meetingbefore I let them drown.
I'm going now.
I'm wanting to bail them outbecause I know I'm getting ready
to have to start all over again.

(34:10):
It makes me feel silly, Likehow did I miss that?

Speaker 3 (34:13):
But you put your ego aside and realize, hey, if they
can't pitch it properly, how arethey going to execute properly?

Speaker 2 (34:19):
Absolutely.
I think that's really important.
So all that's kind of aroundthe cultural costs, meaning you
know what kind of downtime, whatare your employees going to
think?
Are they going to have thebuy-in?
Let's talk about brand cost aswell.
So brand cost is is it going toincrease your brand value?
Even if you're a franchisebrand, like we, are still at the

(34:40):
next level, which is then us.
Where are you going to buy aFord?
Where are you going to buy aJeep?
Well, I want to buy it fromLewis Lewis is our brand.
Is this going to add to thevalue of our brand or is it
going to diminish the value ofour brand?

Speaker 1 (34:54):
Yeah, whenever you jump into that quickly, I don't
think you've had time to be ableto really see down the scope of
things.
Of it, it's going to allow thisto happen, or it's this is
what's going to be falling downthe tracks, or they support this
different group.
A lot of times it's whateverthey're connected to, because
we're very streamlined in thisand we keep our blinders on from

(35:17):
the outside world a lot oftimes in our industry that we
don't let it affect us as much.
But sometimes you'll becomepartners with something that you
didn't know, that they'resupporting this or that, because
you didn't take the time tothoroughly research and vet them
out well, think about this oflike you talked about appearing
inconsistent or always changing.

Speaker 3 (35:38):
Think about something you get attached to or just
used to in your normal routine.
Well, let's go in the grocerystore and you found a yogurt
that you like, or you findsomething else that you like.
You know it's this place thathas this, and then, when they
change it up, it puts you backin research mode, right and so,
whether it's window tint, andyou say, hey, I'm a 3M dealer

(35:58):
and here's what I do.
But then Lumor comes across andthey're like, hey, we've got
this greatest thing.
It actually has more solarcapabilities to keep it out, and
it's 20% less.
And you switch to it.
So the customer's like, hey, Ibrought my buddy in the referral
that we all want.
The stat says 90% of people arewilling to refer, but only 11%
of people ask, and so they bringthem in.
They're like, hey, they've gotthree and it's the best.

(36:19):
These guys do a great job.
It's 100 bucks for two windows.
It's like actually worth alittle more.
You know, they're there and theguy's like he feels silly, sure
, and he's like, what the heck?
And then they come in again.
Now you're with tiger paulwindow tent.
You're just like what in theworld?
Or your bedliner, you need toswitch to this, to this, to to
this, to this, to this, to this,to this.
They're like can I count onthese people?
Exactly Right, are they justalways chasing the wave?

(36:39):
And once again, we talked aboutour levels of videos.
It's the same thing of level,of how much you affect people.
It's okay to have a seasonalmenu you know, no one's mad at a
restaurant for having aseasonal menu but they have
their staples.
That's right.
And it's kind of the directivefrom the beginning is like hey,
have you ever been here before?

(37:00):
Here's kind of how we dobusiness and you'll see this
change.
So if you can pre-set them upfor that.
But I think in software ortrends now we're talking trends
and software and trends and hardstaple things- yes but if it's
just trends on stuff that yousee on the internet, that
doesn't overly affect people butit keeps you being recognized
and it doesn't alter who you'reabout or what you do think be

(37:23):
all about it.

Speaker 2 (37:24):
So I think, with your point there, we go through
those first three and you seesomething that's trending on the
internet that really doesn'taffect the culture.
Yeah, you know, because you'rerunning it independently out
here, the financial cost iswithin realm of like okay, I'm
willing to gamble on this, andthen it's not negatively
affecting your brand.
If you can say okay on allthree of those, give it a shot.

(37:47):
You need to have some of thosegoing, and if 10 out of 11 fail,
so be it.
You found one that was good andthen you try to fail on the
next 10 because you know the11th one is going to help you
out.

Speaker 3 (37:58):
You know, I think a really good point there of if
it's not overly affecting.
Those three questions line up.
If someone brings you something, you got to be careful that you
don't vet super hard.
If it's something that's alevel one, that's not that, it's
not expensive at all, andthey're like, hey, we should do
this, you've got to give themsome yeses or they'll stop

(38:19):
bringing you stuff.
They'll think, man, they don'tlisten to anything I do, they
won't spend money on anythingand you're just trying to keep
everything afloat so you can payfor them and keep buying the
cars and operating the business.
But you've got to give themsome wins.
You do, and sometimes you'vegot to let them trip and fall.
It's like, hey, you got it, youhave it.
Sounds like you have the idea,sounds like a good design.
Get with the team, let's workon this.

(38:40):
You pilot it and it'll be likethat was a lot harder than I
thought to do all of that.
And so then they'll be.
They'll think through theirnext thing that they pitch to
you.
But you can't say, no, that'sexpensive.
No, that's not going to go tomarket well, no, we don't have
the products to support it.
No, we can't deliver fastenough If it's a level one and
it's not that intense.

(39:00):
Absolutely, matt, that's agreat idea.
Hey, can you help me pilot that?
Sure, because if you just whackthem all, then the culture is
going to be like man.
These guys do whatever theywant.
They don't listen to anybody.

Speaker 2 (39:12):
I think that's important.
One great example there we cantalk about is our purchasing of
vehicles off the street.
So you've heard us talk aboutthis.
We buy vehicles or RVs, boats,motorcycles off the street and
the power of momentum that'swhat I'm going to call it here
of saying yes to buying thingseven if they don't fit your

(39:33):
business model.
So our crew knows that even ifit's an 18-wheeler or let's call
it a Lamborghini or a Ferrari,maybe a bulldozer, does it fit
our business model, but we haveresources to cash it, even if it
doesn't make a dollar.
We're going to say yes, writethe check for it and cash it.
And you're like why would youdo that, matt?

(39:53):
That just costs you time and nomoney.
It builds the momentum andwithin your culture, they will
buy anything and it encouragesthem to call on the next
vehicles and the next three.
They won't be bulldozers,they'll be F-150s.

Speaker 3 (40:07):
You can be yes people and not no people.
That's right.
And so then they know you.
So the person you've sold it to, who's the heavy equipment guy
or the 18 wheeler guy?
Like man, this guy Matt'salways sending me stuff Right,
and when he says it he actuallydoes it.
And then your salesperson islike they actually do it, they
don't just say it, and there wasno dollar attached to it, you

(40:28):
made it work.
And so then it converts toF-150s.
And then they're like hey, canyou give me an Audi?
Like absolutely give me an Audi, absolutely, yep, can you give
me?

Speaker 1 (40:35):
this Yep Absolutely rolling into there.
Hey, I got a frequently askedquestion.
All right, transition, we'regetting in the middle of it, but
be ready.
Okay, if the three of you hadto complete a reality show, who
wins, who gets voted off firstand who causes the most drama?
Oh Lord, what kind of realityshow, do you want?

(40:58):
I need a what reality show,like a game show.
I mean, I watch a lot of.

Speaker 2 (41:03):
Deal or no deal, high ultra events, but that's not
reality.

Speaker 1 (41:07):
I would have to be on it.

Speaker 3 (41:09):
Like a survivor but not like that naked thing.
I do like the outdoorsy stylething, Otherwise I'm not
watching it.

Speaker 1 (41:15):
Thinking like Drew Carey style thing, otherwise I'm
not watching it.
I'm thinking like Drew Carey,or something.
I don't know what that is.

Speaker 2 (41:18):
I don't remember the name of the one where they had
the different teams and theydropped them off in helicopters.
It's like Alone, yeah,something like that Team Alone,
team Alone, where they had tosurvive.
So I think we need some morecontext.

Speaker 3 (41:31):
Okay so who wins, who gets voted off first and who
will cause the most drama?
What in the crag is going on?
I love this.

Speaker 2 (41:40):
I am very thankful to say that.
I think we're all going to tieon the who causes the most drama
?
Yeah, it's probably, I don'tknow.
We're pretty good about notcausing drama.

Speaker 1 (41:49):
We've got a lot of drama around us, it's probably
me, and then I'm going to getvoted off first because I'm just
going to sit over to the sideand say this is ridiculous.
These two are going to rununtil their hearts explode of
going through.
If it's a competition, it wouldbe entertaining that.

Speaker 3 (42:06):
Oh, no doubt about it .

Speaker 2 (42:07):
Matt's going to think through everything.
I'm not going to say jackShabby's just going to run.

Speaker 3 (42:12):
I'm just going to go, matt's going to think and
Taylor's just going to findsomebody to talk, to have you
ever seen the movie BeverlyHills Ninja?

Speaker 1 (42:19):
Whenever the people are really getting involved
that's going to be me involved.

Speaker 3 (42:23):
So I think that's what it is.
Matt's going to think about it.
I'm just going to be doingsomething and Taylor's going to
be finding somebody to talk to.

Speaker 2 (42:30):
And we're all going to drive you nuts about our
process together.

Speaker 3 (42:32):
Oh yeah, it's like no , no, matt, just start doing
some stuff.
What are you doing?

Speaker 2 (42:37):
It's like Taylor, stop talking to people.
What are you doing?
We've got things to do.
What is that guy?

Speaker 3 (42:40):
Let's go, come on.
So that would be kind of how itwould work.

Speaker 2 (42:45):
Here's the problem is that if we're in a team
atmosphere, if it's not justindividual and let's say we, the
other people bless their heart,they're with us on the team,
they're probably going to giveup.
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (42:59):
We're very competitive people.
I'm going to say that Like ifwe're teamed up together.

Speaker 1 (43:03):
I don't know that many other people are going to
win.
Yeah, there's clearexpectations of one team.
They were going to win nomatter what.

Speaker 3 (43:08):
Where did this question come from?
I love it.

Speaker 1 (43:11):
It's coming hot, so so fun question there.
But hey, rolling into adaptingwith trends without losing
yourself or your business,that's so, so true, and so
something you really want tostay dear to there.
But you don't have to ignoretrends, you just have to have a
filter.
Like I'm not saying stiff arm.

(43:31):
Every trend that comes in, letit come through.
Have filters, have ones thatdon't cloud your mind so you
brush them off fast that make nosense at all, but then you put
the other ones in there to workthrough.
So, talking about the trends,you adapt successfully.
So let's talk about socialmedia or whatever you're going

(43:52):
to roll into there.
I just teed you up for socialmedia.

Speaker 2 (43:56):
You did it, I had a great one.
I had a great one.

Speaker 1 (43:58):
I had a great one.
So talk about trends.
You adapt successfully.

Speaker 2 (44:01):
One I want to talk about and this is real world
that everybody in here can talkabout.
I want to talk about our LewisGuarantee Because it was a trend
in the automotive business.
So what's the Lewis Guarantee?
So the Lewis Guarantee is wherewe give the customer a warranty
above and beyond what themanufacturer is.
Now, even in our industry, itwas a trend that other companies

(44:22):
were doing powertrain for life,engines for life, transmissions
for life, all these differentsegments and it was a trend and
a buzzword.
We slow played that.
I'm just going to say we slowplayed it.
Why did we slow play it?
Not because we didn't thinkthat it was relevant, not
because we didn't think that weneeded to be a part of it.

(44:43):
We wanted to make sure that thiskind of goes back to the last
part there, that what was itgoing to do to our brand, not
just from the get-go of the wowfactor, but five years, seven
years, even 10 years, because wegive a 10-year 120 powertrain.

(45:04):
What was it going to do to ourbrand?
Was it going to add value orwas it going to diminish it?
No, we weren't in theshort-term gain there.
We were in.
How do we build customers forlife and how do we build
longevity and repeat customers.
So you guys will remember thiswhen we're talking to all the
different insurance companiesabout okay, we've got to do
something here.
Is it engines for life?
Is it power frames for life?
What is it?
What we identified is thatcustomers had been burned by

(45:28):
this lifetime word, because notonly was it actually not real,
because when we read all theinsurance contracts, legally in
the fine print on the bottom,you have to define what lifetime
means.

Speaker 3 (45:42):
so there was a lot of hoops and things you jump and
the end did not create a happycustomer.

Speaker 2 (45:48):
No, because five years down the road or so
they're like, no, that actuallyexpired.
So then how do you think thatword traveled really fast?
And and then internally in yourculture they knew that too, the
other piece to it.
So we wanted to give somebodytangible.
You know, on a new vehicle, 10years is tangible.
120,000 miles is tangible.

(46:08):
On a pre-owned vehicle, fiveyears is tangible.
60,000 miles is tangible.
You know, key things on theused.
We made it start day one ofownership and most, just so our
listeners understand over there,when do most other certified or
programs start that otherdealerships have on use,
purchase of new, the day that itwent into service at zero miles

(46:32):
.

Speaker 3 (46:32):
So there's a brand new car.
So who can calculate that as aconcern?
I don't know, but it doesn'ttranslate well is what we found
out so we said let's give themto day one of ownership.

Speaker 2 (46:41):
Yeah, okay, the.
The next pitfall that we foundis that other dealerships
thought it was a great idea andI got to be honest, initially I
thought it was too.
Is that the only way that thewarranty stayed valid is if you
came back for a yearlyinspection and did exactly what
that a yearly inspection said?
So short term, you get a bunchof people back in the dealership

(47:03):
.
Long term, you frustrate theheck out of a lot of people
because they feel like they haveto jump through all these hoops
to get something that youpromised them.
Or life happens and people move.
Now they've got to travel 15hours to come get the inspection
done at their original dealer.
That does not equal a happycustomer.
So our Lewis guarantee, wherewe double the factory warranty

(47:27):
is valid in all 50 states,requires no annual inspection
and it's real deal and you canactually tangibly quantify it.

Speaker 3 (47:37):
Yeah, and I think that's the thing of
understanding that, okay, thatwas a trend and there was a lot
of effort.
It was not, yep, let's do it,let's go ahead, and we didn't
just take one or two or threepeople's advice.
Once again, we heavilyresearched it, but that was a
level five.
If scale one is like simple andeasy and level five is as
difficult and it affects a lotof people, it was a level five

(47:58):
and so it took years, yeah, ofus and we actually, and then,
once we were ready to launch, welaunched it and then, with like
90, 100 days, we said, hey, weneed to make a change on that.
We did and so we didn't make achange.

Speaker 2 (48:09):
But we realized that it was pretty monumental and it
needed to make sense there thatit really was that that example
there we looked at at 360, andeven all the effort and the
thinking and the studying we did.
We still missed the mark insome other areas, but we adapted
fast, which was key to it.

Speaker 3 (48:26):
Yeah, and that's one of those things.
You've talked everybody intogetting in the submarine and
then, when something goes wrong,you better figure it out,
otherwise you're going toimplode.
So, taylor, you said socialmedia.
I'm just going to give youbasic, simple facts from one
page.
Now, if you don't know this, ourmedia team on the other side
helps us out.
We're not waning at this by anymeans, right?
We have never made four cents,let alone any doll hairs, from

(48:49):
anything social media.
And we have 45 accounts I don'tknow if you guys know this.
Forty-five accounts, fromInstagram to TikTok, to what's X
is now threads or whatever theheck.
There's threads, there'sTwitter, there's X.
I don't even know them all.
Right, but there's 45 differentones that we're connected to,

(49:10):
and I just have one of those 45pulled up Okay, in the last 90
days, 2 million views from ourFacebook page of one channel.
Okay, so when you think that'sjust a trendy something, that's
and we don't do a lot of skitsand like it's very rare, right,
but we post all of our realstuff that we actually do, we're

(49:33):
a part of two million views inthe last 90 days from one of
those 45 pages.
So, before you just write offthat trend, and I'm not talking
that you have to do the littleaurora farmer on the front of it
I'm gonna get taylor.

Speaker 2 (49:52):
Yeah, you know the paddleboard we're showing our
gonna be back there battling.
You know like we think aboutthat.
But some.

Speaker 3 (49:57):
What happens is see, you just heard it, because
Matt's going to over-engineer it.
Taylor's just going to be like,yeah, yeah, put me up there.
And I'm like no, guys, weactually have to do it.
We've got to do it and don'toverthink it, and we don't have
to get the bulldozer as part ofthis, just do it.
And so you've got to find thatright of like simple and easy,

(50:21):
because 2 million, that's on oneof 45 channels now.
Do all of them have that metric?
No, but there's some prettygood merits that 2 million
eyeballs outside of thisdealership.
On our busiest day, there willalways be more eyeballs outside
to say, hey, do I know?
I can trust these people.
Are they real?
Right, and it's not some hiredactors that are just doing the
dog and pony show.
It's real.
And it's that are just doingthe dog and pony show.
It's real.
And it's fun and sharing thecake days and the wins with the

(50:44):
team.
So before you just write offthe trend, you probably should
double check that.

Speaker 2 (50:49):
I love the topic of this because, taylor, I'm going
to go back just so the audienceremembers.
It says adapting with trendswithout losing yourself or the
business.
So take Shelby's stats rightthere of the 2 million views and
you're like dang, let's moresocial, more social, more social
.
And you forget to work on thebusiness and you forget that the

(51:11):
business is the engine thatcreates the opportunity and the
content for the social.

Speaker 3 (51:17):
And so what we realized, to branch off of that,
is that none of us are socialstars right Of the create, of
the produce and of the pushCorrect, I can't even tell you
all 45 accounts or what evenchannels they're on, but what we
realized is we could hire that.

Speaker 2 (51:33):
We could hire that.
And what we do realize is ourengine over here.
It's got great production.
It's good.
Let's just get it on the track.
It is, and we're good atcontinuing to fill that fuel
tank so it doesn't run out ofgas.
Yeah, you know, it's like nowyou go out and you find amazing
people like we have to take thatand then get it to the world.
Yeah, but you don't forgetabout the engine that's

(51:55):
producing it.

Speaker 3 (51:55):
No, no, no, they keep the main thing, the main thing.
And then just like hey, let'sget some around to watch that
and produce it and push it.
And then you'd be like hey, yousaid videos, like I don't know
which one you're talking about.
It's like oh, what you guys doin your king days yeah, we
always do that.
It's like no, you didn't seethis.
Like there's one.
That's funny.
The only trending video I thinkthat we've ever had or posted

(52:15):
was when we were movingdealerships and during christmas
time we wear christmas suits.
It's a mandation, uh, and I wasunloading uh shop manuals from
like the 60s, from the secondstory.
Someone needed the forklift soI grabbed the tractor and it was
way overweight and the wholetractor about flipped over.
It did, and so the whole idea isokay, let's get glad you were

(52:39):
on it, not in a boy yeah,absolutely well, I had my osha
gear on with my christmas opalsuit and so that one got I don't
know one one 1.5 million viewsof like, but we there's more
every day as it's trending funthings.

Speaker 1 (52:53):
It's just people having fun, so getting the
people, so you don't forget themain thing there is and I love
bringing talking the last partabout this but bringing people
outside of necessarily ourindustry.
Talk to them because so manypeople in business get so
closed-minded on it has toexactly do with what trade, what

(53:13):
business I'm in.
It doesn't pertain to me, itdoesn't matter.
But there's so many good trendsthat are going on that are like
cake day.
I had talked to so many people.
I talked to a customer lasttime.
He's like what are y'all doing?
And I was like it's cake day.
We're celebrating anniversariesand birthdays.
He's like that's really cool,it's like we invented the move.

Speaker 3 (53:34):
That's really cool.

Speaker 1 (53:40):
It's like you do what and it's so easy.
You can do that in a scale offive people or a thousand people
, it doesn't matter, and it's sofun to be able to talk to
people because you get to tellthem about that.
But then also they're like hey,have you ever thought about
doing this?
Whenever you're, you thoughtyou have studied everything.
You thought you've studiedeverything, and they say
something so simple.

Speaker 3 (53:55):
You're like oh, that's it.
Yeah, that makes sense.
That's level one.
I can implement that today thatmakes sense.

Speaker 1 (54:01):
It's so easy.
So love going into that,adapting along with the trends
without losing yourself forbusiness so important to stay
involved with.
Whenever you're growing thebusiness, don't stiff arm it.
Be open to opportunities andhelp your team continue to grow
around I'll tell you.

Speaker 2 (54:20):
Another great example , uh and we can hit on this
really quick, but I think itrelates to a bunch of businesses
is the world of advertising andmarketing.
If we go back to when theinternet really started going
and then social media startedgoing and then paid ad, if you
talk to any industry expert outthere that was in that field,
they're like traditional mediais going away.

(54:41):
There will come a day whenthere will be no radio, no TV,
no billboard, no this or that.
It'll all be online.
And while the majority of ourad budget has shifted, that it's
digitally and it's online.
It's not that we movedeverything and it's online.

(55:03):
It's not that we movedeverything.
There is still a valid part ofwe still have TV ads Now.
They're very specific when theycome on.
They're on things like sportsor weather that people aren't
being able to binge watch onNetflix.
Our billboards take those, forexample, because you can't shut
those off.
You're still driving down theroad.
And both of those, what they dois they become sticky and

(55:25):
they're just brand awareness.
So then, when our digitalmarketing takes place, we've
already planted who we are andwhat we do.

Speaker 3 (55:35):
That's exactly what we were talking about with the
ability to buy the whole caronline.
Sit at home in your underwearon the couch.
We didn't just say all in,cancel all the newspaper, cancel
all the billboards, cancel allthe radio, cancel all the TV.
We're spending our whole budgetonline, which a lot of people
do.
They're just wholeheartedlyinto this.
We're like let's do both.

(55:56):
I'm like like in Monday,yesterday morning meeting, I was
explaining to people like whenshould you send figures on the
customer's vehicle on a trade in?
When should you send those to acustomer?
And I said I need you guys tobe like masters and grandmasters
and I'm going to tell you bothand you're going to be so
confused.
But when you really get thisindustry to serve people at the

(56:17):
highest level, you're going tovalidate when and where is the
right time for each consumer.
Do you know this person?
Do you know the details so youcan say, yeah, I want to have a
little bit on newspaper or Iwant to have a little TV, but
then I really want tohyper-focus majority of my
budget over in this area, like,yeah, I want to give some people
figures over the phone.
It's 2025.

(56:37):
We should be able to do that,they can already see what their
car's worth is, interest rate isand what you're selling it for.
So why shouldn't you know if wejust say, ah, you need to come
in for us to do that, so wecould throw your keys on the
roof and crush your trade likereally like that's so backwards.
So you have to be adaptable andunderstand, but it doesn't have
to be all or nothing.

Speaker 1 (56:57):
I think it's good Fine tune in the middle of that
so great segment, going over allof that.

Speaker 3 (57:03):
All right, now FAQ transition for all three.
What's your favorite car of alltime or your dream car?
I don't know.

Speaker 2 (57:15):
Okay, I'll go first.

Speaker 3 (57:18):
Go ahead.

Speaker 1 (57:18):
Okay, I'll go first.

Speaker 2 (57:19):
Now, this isn't going to be any crazy exotic Ferrari
or Lamborghini.

Speaker 3 (57:27):
It's your car, pick it however you want.

Speaker 2 (57:29):
So my probably dream or favorite car of all time is
an original, not a kit like anoriginal AC Shelby Copa.

Speaker 3 (57:39):
You're talking about open, open wheel, open top yes
especially now the original.
You're talking about aluminumframe, aluminum body, like a 427
.
Yes, okay all in you're talkingabout a million dollar car.

Speaker 2 (57:55):
Did yeah it's three to five million now, especially
if you found one of the reallyrare ones that he had that was
supercharged.

Speaker 3 (58:03):
I think there was only two of those.

Speaker 2 (58:04):
Maybe you're $7 million to $9 million now, but I
always liked those cars becausethey were just lightweight,
high horsepower, handledphenomenally and they were just
a true enthusiast driver car.
You better not get in a car ifyou can't respect and know how
to drive the car.

Speaker 3 (58:22):
I think if you haven't seen the movie Ford vs
Ferrari, oh, I love that part.
Wasn't it?
Les Miles puts the guy overFord.

Speaker 1 (58:34):
No, it's Carroll Shelby puts him in there.
He puts him in the Ford GT thatthey're building.

Speaker 3 (58:40):
When he's trying to cut the program back and he's
like get in the car and he'scrying.

Speaker 2 (58:43):
He said, I had no idea.

Speaker 3 (58:44):
I had no idea Because it's just true, American feel
the wheels, all that.
That's a good car.

Speaker 1 (58:53):
I love that car.
I love that they've done,obviously, recreations back
Draft Factory 5 now that putmodern that just paid tribute to
that car.

Speaker 3 (59:02):
That you could actually drive the car.
Yes, you would be silly todrive one of those cars.

Speaker 1 (59:06):
Yes, I would probably say just iconic.
You get that old vibe, but it'snew technology, but it's not
too.
New is whenever they broughtback the Ford GT.
Okay, just the Ford GT and theclassic colors of either red and
white or white with blue.
I think the red and white yousee less of.

Speaker 2 (59:27):
Like what year are you thinking?
Are you thinking like 05-06?
Yes, or are you thinking of thenewer ones?

Speaker 1 (59:31):
Well, I love the newer ones, but I don't think
they're as nostalgic.
They are amazing vehicles, sure, amazing vehicles, but they're
a different type of vehicle thanthe 0506 are.
The 0506 is a tribute of theolder version supercar yeah,
amazing 24-hour Le Mans.
Yes of that.
So love that car andnostalgicness of it.

Speaker 3 (59:54):
That's pretty cool.
Yeah, those are amazing cars.
That's one of those cars that,man.
If you could go back in time.
If you could go back in time,that's a $145,000 to $180,000
car when you're new in 05 or 06,which was not a great time in
the automotive industry and cashwas a tricky thing and that was
the most expensive car by fivetimes or four times we had five

(01:00:16):
of those.

Speaker 2 (01:00:17):
We had five of them on the showroom, one at a time,
and I can remember selling threeof the five for not much profit
.

Speaker 3 (01:00:24):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:00:24):
Because they were needing to move and we needed
the cash.

Speaker 3 (01:00:27):
Because they were expensive and they were burning
cash quickly, and now that's afour times or five times that.
So that's crazy.
How about yours?
I'm going to say a Pinto.
I'm a muscle car fan.
I love both of those cars.

(01:00:47):
Um, I've kind of always, uh,liked old classic.
I don't have any I don't knowwhat I would do with that, but
uh, maybe a 68, uh, gt, 500, kr,yeah, yeah super cool, iconic
car.
They came from ford then went touh, carol shelby.
He put his own touches on it.
You know, sure, get you a bigblock car that has some style
and stuff.
You know you make nests to it.

Speaker 1 (01:01:08):
You know of a motion going there and I always laugh
talking about this.
I told some others today Irecently went to a collection
and saw a boss 429.
I'd never seen a boss 429 inperson.
They're less than 498 or moreever made, obviously.
But old cars like that thathave history, that knowing
family members that ownedanything else like that, that

(01:01:31):
that was huge, so that that'scool to go back and yeah, no
doubt, like we didn't grow up inthose areas no but we've seen
those've seen versions of thosecars or a remix of those cars
many times and so you kind ofget attached.

Speaker 3 (01:01:44):
But then if you really ask people outside of it,
it's like Dad, because he usedto buy and sell and fix up Boss
429s and all the things.
The GT500s and those are oldcars, they're cantankerous,
those things.
You couldn't really drive them.

Speaker 2 (01:01:59):
They had a four speed and they, you know you need an
overdrive and so I was like Idon't know hey, I'm gonna throw
one more out there and I knowI've already gone, but I just
want to say this because I thinkthis is really cool.
We don't have this time anymore, but the other car that'd be
really neat and we saw one in acollection is the polemic
superbird.
All right, so so that vehicle.
In 1970, you know, you hadrichard petty driving that thing

(01:02:21):
in nascar and that was backthen where the true saying is
they won on sunday, they sold onmonday.
Oh yeah, that car was on thenascar track in true form that
then the consumer could buy andthis thing was as aerodynamic as
you could get back in the day.
The headlights were flat, ithad a nose and it had a wing in

(01:02:42):
the back that was probably twoand a half three feet off the
bench.
Yeah, it was above the roof soit was really really cool car,
really fast, very aerodynamicand, you know, won multiple
nascar races that then you couldfind on monday.
I just I think that's reallycool.
Yeah, you know something'sracing, then you can go buy it.
Yeah, that connection.

Speaker 3 (01:03:03):
That's one they would say back when cars were cars.
That's right, I don't know.
You know the new cars arepretty cool and amazing.
So, all right, that's a coolFAQ.
Thank you so much, you guys, fortuning in this week and every
single week about the cost ofchasing trends, what's cool,
what's not cool, what we havefound not right, wrong or
indifferent, just based on a 79year track record of what works,

(01:03:24):
what doesn't work, how to jumpinto it and the things that make
sense.
So make sure you follow usalong.
Subscribe, like, follow, share.
Let us know in the commentswhat the heck do you want to
hear about?
What was cool, what didn't work?
Hey, don't ever mention thisagain.
Or hey, we'd love to see so andso on the podcast.
Right, give us some feedback onone of our social channels at
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Hey, don't ever mention thisagain.
Or hey, we'd love to seeso-and-so on the podcast.
Right, give us some feedback onone of our social channels at
crossroadconversationspodcastcom.

(01:03:45):
And, as always, check out ourinventory at lewissuperstorecom
and we'll see you next time, heythanks for joining us today and
we hope you enjoyed thisepisode.

Speaker 2 (01:03:53):
Make sure to give it a like, share it with your
friends and family.
Visit our website and send ussome questions.
We want to know what you'd liketo hear, who you'd like to hear
from and what you want to see,or maybe even some questions for
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