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[upbeat music] This is a SO2 Unscripted, and I'm your host, Errol Beaumarthe. What's up, beautiful people? Welcome back to Unscripted. I am Errol Beaumarthe, your host. It's day two of SoTa con.
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We're continuing in the year of the human, and so we're gonna continue having some great conversations. And guess what? You get to be a part of it. So do me a favor and help me welcome up our next guest.
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That is right, make some noise for none other than John Ellis. John, come on up, man. No problem. How are you? I'm well, thank you. Good, good. Good to be here. Good to meet you as well. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, excited.
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All right. So right off the bat, I'm gonna give you the first fun question. Is this your first SoTa con? It is not. We were at the very first one in that dealership, uh, I think it was four years ago. Yes.
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So I'm real excited to be here and see it evolve. It's incredible. That's good. Well, welcome back. Thank you. Glad to have you back. Welcome home, as I say, right? Yeah, yeah.
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You, you're here with your tribe, with your people. Yes, sir. Um, so for those that are out there that don't know you, just take a moment, tell us a little bit about yourself, and then we'll get into it. Yeah.
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First, uh, been in the industry for about 28 years. Uh, retired from Cox Automotive in 2022 to start this venture. Okay. Before that, I was with ADP and Gulf States Toyota.
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So I've been in the industry in many different facets: fixed ops, variable, inventory management, and finished in EVs with Cox Automotive. Okay. So, uh, been an interesting ride. Glad to be doing this on my own now.
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Yeah, I like it. I love it, and I love how you said, uh, the, all parts of the journey, right? Even, even going into the electrification side of things. So- Exactly... well, tell us about this journey.
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What are you excited about? What is it right now? Your feet hit the floor this morning, you got out of bed, what pumped you up? So the collaboration, the calm and easy, comfortable conversations we're having here. Yeah.
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We've met so many new dealers. We've got so many demos for our product. This is a place where you can really get energized, but also connected in a way that, you know, is, is unique, is...
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That you don't see this at other conferences. This is Thursday. You would think this'd be a closing day. This is a beginning day. Yeah. We're excited for this day. I love that. Yeah.
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So speaking of beginnings, take us back, right? Because you mentioned 28 years in the business. Mm-hmm. Done a little bit of everything. What made you decide to start and go out on your own?
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What was that transition for you? That's a great, uh, question. Now, you're sitting in big boardrooms and big major dealer groups in our country- Yeah... during the COVID debacle. I...
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There was a writing on the wall that I don't think was realized early enough. And so thinking through that, meeting and talking to dealers through that COVID downturn to now the, what you would say post-COVID era,
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we knew there was gonna be a different way of thinking about the business to weather the supply constraint storm that was caused by the manufacturing shutdowns for two years.
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How can we help dealers think about their business different? We started doing that in kind of consulting fashion, but quickly realized we needed to scale this, and you can't scale the intelligence without software. Yes.
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Okay. And that's when we got into the software business. Okay, gotcha. And so getting into that software business, what was the... I like to talk about expectation- Mm... versus experience, right? Oh.
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So what did I expect versus what did I experience? Tell us about that journey. What were some things going into it? Because like you said, you identified, "Hey, we've gotta make a, we've gotta make a pivot here."
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Once you made that pivot, what did you expect versus what you experienced? Yeah, I expect everybody to understand what we thought they already knew. [laughs] Yeah. This is the problem we want, we need to solve. Yeah.
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And it didn't work out that way. We built a great product. It was working. Uh, you'll meet JR in a minute. In his dealerships is where we built it. So we built it in a group- Yes...
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to make sure that it was tested and it worked, but we couldn't translate that to the industry.
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So the first two years, we were just building and building and building, but we didn't listen enough to the dealers to say- Mm... "I don't understand what you're building, and I don't know how it fits." Okay.
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So the second two years was all about slowing down, listening to dealers, understanding how it fit the processes that they have today and would help them encourage them to change some of those processes in a seamless way, not in a rough way.
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Yeah. And that took a couple years. So yeah, we thought we were gonna run into the industry and break walls and barriers down, and it didn't work out that way. Yeah, thought you were coming with the sledgehammer.
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Instead, you had to get the little chisel, right? Just- Yes, sir, 100%. And sometimes the tape still gets the job done, you know? Yeah. You just gotta know like, "Okay, this isn't a sledgehammer
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thing," right?
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Yeah, 100%. So I know you mentioned JR. I want... Let, let's bring him in. Yeah, absolutely. Let's, let's talk a little bit more so we can hear from his perspective since he was kind of s- at the start of it all.
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JR, how are you? Welcome. Good. How about you? Good. I'm doing great. Good to meet you. Welcome. All right. So, so you were there, right? You, you were there when it started.
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Tell me about your expectation versus what you experienced. Well, it started with some manual spreadsheets, you know? Okay. And, uh, John had, uh, you know, brought some knowledge to my team. He feeds it...
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He was feeding into us on a weekly basis about things that we could look at to be more efficient in our, uh, used car market. I mean, we were, we were high performing for what we thought.
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We just didn't realize where, how far we could go. Yeah.
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So we started off with the spreadsheets and, uh, you know, John, I think, called me up one night, and he was like, "I think there's something here that we could take to a, a bigger audience that needs this type of thing."
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And he said, "You know, I'd... I consulted with some dealers during COVID, and I saw the missteps that they made and the opportunities that they left on the table."
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And I said, "Yeah, I, I, I definitely see it," because I've realized the efficiencies that we have found through fine-tuning our game, and we felt like we could take that to a bigger dealer body. Yeah.
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So how do we go from spreadsheet to where we are today? Tell me about a little bit more about that journey. Yeah. So, um, JR, uh,
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you know, ba- seeing it built in spreadsheets, we knew we had to not only be able to take the, uh, dealer missteps out of it, meaning fat-fingering the spreadsheets and then manipulating the data to make it feel good to them- Yeah...
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bring it to an enterprise level. He's got three stores, so the bigger groups can see it at that level. So we brought on a, a small team of developers, some college students. Yeah, we were boot- bootstrapped. Yeah.
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And we built it into a PHP program where the spreadsheets were still the visual, but it was all in, uh, programming, uh, code so that you couldn't manipulate the screens that you were seeing.
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You had to work with what the data was telling you- Yes... which makes adoption really bit... You know, more, um, consistent- Yes... because now it can't fake it. Right.
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Then- Once we saw that, hey, we got a proof of concept and it's working, we had about 10 or 15 rooftops that were using it, and we were getting some revenue, which we know you need, we got a bigger development team and said, "Let's take this to the enterprise level."
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So the UX changed, everything, uh, morphed into something bigger that you could take to, like, a 20 and 30 and 40 store group for visibility and exposure to, to their entire organization, not just to a store, from the stores up.
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But, uh, that's when, um, w- we thought we were great. We have everything you need. Look how beautiful it is. It works. I got proof.
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Um, and then we started realizing pretty quickly that we forgot to listen to the, all the dealer body. You know, we had one good case study, a couple others started trickling in.
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But to scale software and how expensive it is to build, you really need to be able to, um, fit a broader need- Yeah...
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across the industry, and that's what the spreadsheet started, but then of course, the dealers helped us complete. And I think we're just getting started. I mean, AI is changing everything, you know? Absolutely. Yeah.
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So how do you fill in the gap, right? You, you've identified, and what I love that I hear you saying, is that each step of the way, you had the realization that, hey, what we're doing, it needs a pivot. Mm.
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Or it needs a different direction, or we need to elevate- Mm-hmm... and change. So as we're sitting today, what's, what's the next step? Like, what it, what gaps are you filling? What problems are you solving?
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Especially, like you mentioned with AI, what's the next step for you? So- What's the next pivot? So JR says it all the time: You took me off the inventory rollercoaster. Okay.
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So great months, slow months, because keeping a managed base of inventory is our number one, uh, platform design. Uh, not only, the allocation quantity first. Yeah. Second is quality.
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Shelves have to be full to sell your shelves. Yeah. So once we make sure the dealers are consistently allocated without risk, so we keep the risk away from it. Too leveraged over, too underleveraged cau- is very costly.
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Age and water, or slower sales, however you see it on both sides of the spectrum. Our AI and our patented algorithm study the store, study the market, and study the sales forecast of the dealer. Not the pace.
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That's too late. That's legacy. Okay. And once we study all that, we teach the dealer how to buy on a weekly basis by source management as well, where to buy best to keep their c- vehicles, uh, their store level.
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Once that happens, the retail should take care of itself, right? Because the outcomes are really driven by the inventory you buy. That makes sense.
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And so once that happens, our, our, you know, our elevation went to a vehicle intelligence platform, where now we started studying seasonalities, make, model, trim, color, price, ch- uh, all the things you could do in a vehicle, to predict a future of acquisition.
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So I don't wanna buy for today. I go to the auction, I'm buying 'cause I need 40 cars today. But the, what you're really gonna be selling those probably in two to four weeks. Right.
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What does the next two and four weeks look like in a seasonal pattern? Like, are we going into the summer months? Are we going into the winter months? Let's don't make those mistakes.
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And by the way, tax season has different odometer and mileage specifications and sales volume than out of tax season.
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We study all that, and we bubble it up to give preferred vehicle buy list by season in a digital format, so you can put it inside other platforms where you go buy the cars.
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So we bring a layer of intelligence that legacy tools don't offer. I love that. JR, let me hear from you.
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So once you got off the rollercoaster, what did you find yourself doing with that time and, and having that ease of stress off your plate?
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Well, I think it allowed us, before I think we were taking a shotgun approach to everything. Okay.
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Uh, like John said, uh, you know, we would come into the, coming out of January, February, which it's, uh, you know, it's, we get rough winters, but then we know tax time's coming, so we go out and, uh, buy a load of vehicles, and then deplete too quickly, and then not fully be able to take advantage of the tax season.
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And I think now we have it, you know, we have it dialed in that it's kind of like the old Warren Buffett saying that we get scared when other people get greedy, and we get greedy when other people are scared, because we trust our data.
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We know where we're going and how we're gonna get there. I love that. I love that. Being able to trust the process, trust the technology, trust the partnership.
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You know, that's the other thing that I hear, uh, is that it's, it's about the people, the partnership, and the process, right? And I think that's a big...
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Um, speaking of people, I know there's someone else that's, that's involved. Yeah, I'd love to bring in Rob Dell. Yeah. Uh, Rob, Rob has been a, a, a customer as of late. Okay.
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So think about someone who's- Thank you, JR... think about someone who's a high performer already. Welcome, Rob. How are you? Good, man. You? Good. Doing great. Doing great. Everybody knows Rob.
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Yeah, everybody knows Rob. Rob was over there talking on the sidelines. We had to pull, we had to pull Rob in over here. [laughs] 'Cause they're stealing his secrets. Right.
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[laughs] So I'd love to hear his story with you, because Rob is a high performer already. Okay.
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So that's, you know, it's like, we don't, it, you don't have to m- be in need of saving to have Agile Auto come in and help you grow. Absolutely. The intelligence can take you to the next level.
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So Rob, uh, you know, is teaching us as much as we're, uh, teaching him about how to take dealers of his level even a level higher. I love that. So yeah, Rob, tell us more about that synergy.
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Tell us about what brought you to Agile and how that happened. Well, it was funny. So I watched it from a distance, knew who John was, but we never met, right? Okay.
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And that happens in this industry a lot with technology. Like, you can see people, you can connect, but when you meet somebody in person, so we were at an event together, and you didn't even approach me, right? No.
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And I was like, "I gotta go talk to him," right? Wow. [laughs] I was a little scared of him because he's such a high performer. [laughs] Yeah, yeah. [laughs] So I was like, "Hey, let's have a conversation." "Oh, great."
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Like, and you know, here we go. And you know, I heard you guys talking about spreadsheets, and I was like, "Let me show you all my spreadsheets- Mm... 'cause I can drown you with a spreadsheet," right? Yeah.
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And the perfect marriage there was is I understand the spreadsheet, the data, because I build it, I track it, and it just, I live and breathe by it. That's how my brain works. I'm super analytical. Yeah.
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But I couldn't communicate it to a lot of the other team members because of the visual- visualization of it, right? Mm. And that's what the platform had.
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So it was like, let's just have a conversation and see how this works, and that's how it all started, was, I mean, literally a conversation of me wanting to know more, and there we are. Yeah.
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So it was a great start so far. And, and I love, you know what I hear from both of you guys that I think is, is really powerful, and I want everybody else out there to, to recognize it as well, it's- Self-actualization.
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Mm-hmm. Self-awareness, right? Right. You understanding that, like, I live this, I breathe this, I know this, but I, I don't... I- there's a gap between me being able to communicate it, right? Right.
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You recognizing, "Hey, I've gone this far-" Mm-hmm. "... but I've gotta make a transition. I've gotta make a change,"
right? Right.
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Eliminating and, and then calling in the reinforcements, the help, the people that you feel like, "Hey, I, I, I know I've got this much, but I need the other piece," right?
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And I think that's what this industry is all about, is being able to find those pieces that help you connect the parts that you are able to identify, if you're able to be honest.
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'Cause like you even mentioned earlier about the spreadsheets. We know about, you know, like, "Oh, no," [laughs] "I did 300 cars," Right... when you did 30. Like, you- [laughs] Right, right, right. You know?
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And so the, the gross profits aren't showing what the spreadsheet's showing, right? Right. You know? Mm-hmm. Um, but I think that's a great thing and a great quality that I really wanna highlight.
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So tell me about what you discovered. Now that you are able to find someone that c- is helping you, you know, realize and communicate your vision, what's been exciting about it? What's been, like, the next thing?
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Well, and John knows, I'm very selective of who I give certain pieces of information to on my own team, right? Yeah. Now, think about that. It's not that I don't trust them, but I want them to digest it a certain way.
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Yes. So, like, number one, we would say, hey, we knew a lot of things about our inventory, 'cause I track all the trends. I track gross return on investment, all these different things.
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But on a spreadsheet, you lose stuff, right? Mm-hmm. So when you can have that data feed in a different way, and I remember we talked about this, I don't think we do well with Dodge Rams.
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You know, Ram products on our lot just, that's my opinion, and I could be right or I could be wrong. Yeah. As soon as I open up the tool, man, Rams are one of my highest performers. [laughs] How many do I have in stock?
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Zero. Yeah. Why? There's an opportunity, right? Like, so I think that's the whole point is you gotta condense all of this. I mean, like, look, I... You know how many transactions I've tracked.
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I mean, it's, for the last four or five years- It's incredible... it's tens of thousands, right? I can't, I can't digest it even though I understand it. Yes.
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So when you put it in that format, then my team will look at it, and they'll say, "Hey, we see this." Now they're seeing something I don't see. We might say we have another software, but this one says that.
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Well, then, it's teaching them to understand where that data's coming from also. Yes. And that's how you impact change and y- ultimately educate everybody. That's ultimately the goal, right? Mm-hmm.
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Education is gonna produce a better result for the whole team, so it's, it's pretty cool.
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Yeah, and, and what I hear from out of that as well that I love is, uh, not only do you increase the education, I think you also increase the commitment, right? Right. Because you're increasing their input.
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And kind of as you mentioned, once they're able to understand it, once they see, and now they are more engaged and involved- Right... and that commitment level of ownership- Right... increases, right?
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Because it's like, "No, no, I, I see this now." Right. "I can, I can understand it." Uh, y- think about, like, s- I know where I have you right now in sports. Like, I know where the three-point line is, right? Yeah.
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[laughs] So I know whether it's a three-pointer or a two-pointer. But if I don't know where the line is, right? Right. And I don't know the definitions of the game, then I end up lost.
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Well, and it's funny that you say commit 'cause essentially is what I did is make it exclusive to certain members of the team- Yeah...
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which then makes them commit even quicker, and then the empowerment is the buy-in that keeps it rolling. Make sense? That's so great. Yeah. So. It's, I love that. I love, that's great.
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So before we get out of here, gentlemen, first off, thank you both for your time. Sure. I love to ask about golden nuggets, right?
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You both have, uh, y- you know, sh- displayed and talked about things of learning, being open, trusting your team, surrounding yourself with the right people.
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But for those out there that are, that are watching, what are some things that you would take away?
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Like, if you had to give somebody a bit of advice and say, "This is what, this is the golden nugget you need," what would you say? I'll go first, but he has better ones than I do.
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[laughs] I'm gonna keep the same word I used on stage yesterday because it's what, it's what helped us so much. Stay curious. Yeah. You have to listen to the people you're serving first. It's not about selling.
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It's not about building.
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Anybody can build and sell, but if you're not c- curious enough to understand how it's fitting into someone else's world to satisfy their need, make their life easier, or, and Rob's point, you know, Rob probably didn't need Agile because he's so analytical.
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But it, he needed Agile to get the right information to the right departments and people to execute- Yeah... in a simpler way 'cause not everybody can look at a spreadsheet like Rob and understand it and execute. Yeah.
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My wife would tell you, uh, it would make her fall asleep. Yeah. She can't figure it out.
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So this translates his knowledge, his strategy, and his information to his people so they can go execute his plan, not ours, not Agile's, the plan that he put inside of Agile. Yeah. Agile just reveals the truth.
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So stay curious so you can find the Robs and say, "I don't need you. I have all the data I need," but wait a minute, there's a need deeper in your organization that I think would help you move the needle.
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That would be my takeaway. I love that.
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Yeah, and I mean, I don't know how to put it into one nugget word, but it's, like, look, it, you have to understand your business model and your strategy, and you have to be yourself, and you have to get better at, at yourself, and that's really what it comes down to.
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We could have a dealership across the street from each other, have the same inventory, and we're gonna transact. We're gonna be, have different levels of succe- success.
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So we have to just be able to digest all the data through technology to make informed decisions based on our strategy, period. 100%. And he's the best at it. I love that. Get it, yeah. I love that.
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I hope you guys see that. Synergy, right? Trust, people, communication, making the vision plain. These are all some of the things that were here and what we discussed and talked about.
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Gentlemen, I can't thank you enough for your time. Appreciate you joining us here on Unscripted. For you out there, we're here. We're continuing to go up.
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This is the year of the human at So2Con 2026, and we will see you on the next one. Take care. Thank you for listening to Unscripted.
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At So2, we're obsessed with uniting people around one big idea: that thriving people are the only path to a thriving and profitable industry.
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If that resonates with you, then head over to morethancars.com, join our email list, and explore our full list of podcasts.