The First Pencil

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Let’s talk about the scary stuff—aka uncertainty. If you’ve been in the car business for more than a minute, you’ve seen your share of storms. We’ve weathered recessions, inventory shortages, interest rate hikes—you name it. And we’ll get through this round too. But seriously... can someone hit pause on the madness?

Now, here’s something that’s been on Kathi’s radar lately: dealers who desperat...

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Marketing budgets are getting tighter, but the pressure to bring in leads hasn’t let up. In this episode, we break down how dealerships can stretch their marketing dollars further, cut the fluff, and focus on what actually drives traffic and sales. Whether you’re a GM, GSM, or marketing manager, you’ll pick up real-world tips to boost ROI without blowing the budget.

Lily Ray on Twitter

The ...

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What happens when beloved brands make moves that contradict their core identity? In this episode, we dive into Southwest Airlines’ quiet removal of its “First Bag Flies Free” policy and Elon Musk’s increasingly controversial influence on Tesla. From customer trust to brand erosion, we unpack how decisions at the top can ripple through brand equity—and what it really costs when companies stop h...

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We are back from hiatus and Mike’s got a new job!

Kathi shares a story to introduce today’s topic around customer experience.

Mike tells us how one simple relationship turned into four car deals and counting.

He also shares a pretty epic real-time 5 star review story from a dealership non-customer.

Here’s the link to the CD player Kathi got

Becoming Katherine Graham documentary on Amazon Prime

...

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This week, we circle back to a subject that is near and dear to us: Google My Business, aka Google Business Profiles. These profiles are super helpful in local SEO/search and adding photos regularly is a best practice. SearchLab has just completed a car dealer study and let’s just say, the industry is losing out on some powerful marketing by ignoring even the simple, easy tactics.

We also discu...

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Instagram's recent decision to remove the ability to search by #hashtags marks the end of an era for social media users. In this episode, we reflect on the impact of losing this once-powerful discovery tool. We also explore a growing trend among tech companies — prioritizing features no one asked for, while phasing out the ones that users rely on most.

Music:

Frankie Goes to Hollywood’s cha...

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How does a manufacturer create and sustain a vehicle brand that customers love? 

Kathi and Mike discuss manufacturer brands and re-branding (ie: Jaguar + more) and how others have fared in the past (from a dealer and dealership management perspective). 

Music:

The Pogues: FairyTale of New York w/Kirsty MacColl

American Murder: Lacy Peterson (documentary)

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Kathi and Mike are happy that more dealers are talking about the power of video, even if it’s nearly 15 years after we began urging dealers to welcome it.

Mike’s blog post: Sales Management by C.P.A. 

The Jam: About a Young Idea

“Modern music, emphasis on Mod. The Who kissed by Motown with a dash of the Clash.”

The Jam: Beat Surrender

The Style Council: Long Hot Summers documentary

Mystify: Michael ...

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Kathi returns from a great Used Car Week conference and shares a few tidbits.

Then, we spend most of our time discussing this trend of companies forcing their staff to share and promote their employer on their personal social media feeds…without compensation.

Ed Zitron’s Web Summit Remarks: Ed Zitron - Why Are All Tech Products Now Shit?

Duran Duran: Duran Duran - EVIL WOMAN (Live from Madison Sq...

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Kathi and Mike take a detour from our regular topics to call out hate. Neither of us can stand what we witnessed at Madison Square Garden over the weekend and we feel we must speak up. Both of us were shocked to see a so-called automotive influencer on the stage spewing hate, whether or not he says he wasn’t does not change what we witnessed. 

We’ve crossed a line, folks and it’s time to get ba...

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Both of us are sad. The open web is no longer and while it’s not just his doing, Google’s Head of Search, Prabhakar Raghavan was certainly the catalyst to its demise. Organic traffic as we know it is gone. Yes, posts and information from actual experts has been replaced by SEO spam, spam bots and the “AI Overview” that is wrong 44% of the time on financial queries.

Ed Zitron wrote about Mr. Rag...

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Kathi and Mike discuss the latest issues with Threads’ AI moderation, which has gone “CRACKERS” and rings the same bell as the experience Kathi continues to have with Facebook/Meta ads. We are tired of billionaire tech-bros. 

Social Selling is still a great way to generate your own leads.

Classic Cars of Beverly Hillbillies

George Barris: Car designer to the stars and to TV! Beverly Hillbillies, ...

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What did we do before social media to build a customer-centric culture? How did we get potential buyers to know about how unique the dealership was...and why customers should buy from us?

Mike shares a real-life experience (that’s totally doable today) of surprising and delighting a customer so much that her coworkers became customers!

Kathi shares the secret to her customer-first cult...

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We promised you an update in the ongoing Facebook ads issues that Kathi (and others) are having and while it’s utterly disappointing, you won’t be disappointed in the story/update. If you’re having ad issues, we’d love to hear from you.

Then, the Wordpress framework runs over 40% of the world's websites (including Kruse Control's and others that Kruse Control manages). WPEngine (a web...

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Not only are some dealers failing customers but they are failing themselves. The things we are witnessing now - the behaviors and lack of oversight - can only lead to trouble.

We went a little long on this episode but it’s a subject that is near and dear to us as car people. 

Music segment:

Everything But The Girl - lead singers bday

“Take Me” 

Stevie Nicks on SNL 

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Kathi shares her experience fresh from evacuating the horse rescue after the Airport Fire got too close for comfort.

Then, we talk about the concerning data around car loan delinquencies, how we got here and what might be in store for banks, dealers and customers.

Music segment:

The Doors anniversary of getting kicked off Ed Sullivan The Doors - Light My Fire - Ed Sullivan Show 1967 (HD Remastere...

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This week, Kathi and Mike cover the ground-shift that has happened and is happening with two of the largest companies on earth, Google and Facebook. Both platforms are under pressure to grow even bigger and all of us users are being left out in the cold, including millions of small business websites that have seen their traffic reduced by up to 94%.

Podcasts mentioned:
Adam Conover’s Factua...

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Carrying the subject matter over from last week’s pod, Kathi and Mike cite examples where appreciation, recognition and specific training can go a long way for service advisors, who are the “salespeople in the service dept.” 

Music segment:

August 27th Anniversary of the B52s second album, “Wild Planet”
Private Idaho

Radiohead Perform "Creep" Live on September 14, 1993 | Late Night ...

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In this special episode, Kathi goes solo in a conversation with her long-time friend, Laurie Down, an amazing customer service manager (who is currently working as a successful Service Advisor). 

If you’re in the car biz, especially in Fixed Ops, you’ll enjoy hearing Laurie's real-time stories that reveal her credo that guides her approach to customers and why it's essential...