Dan Moore: Stop Buying Your Way Out Of Operational Inefficiencies

By: Michael Cirillo   |   05 Apr 2022
Dan Moore Vistadash

Dan Moore is the President of Vistadash, an automotive analytics company that helps dealers understand what metrics are contributing to actual growth. Dan is also a best-selling author and Ted-X speaker who has a unique set of skills that can help any organization understand and deploy strategies that will achieve defined outcomes. 

What we discuss in this episode:

  • Without defined outcomes, it's easy to mistake tactics for strategy. A bunch of tactics, widgets, and gadgets are elements of a strategy but do not make up the strategy itself. The sooner that dealers understand that every supplier has its own outcomes to achieve, the sooner dealers can understand how a supplier's services will help map or detract from their desired targets.
  • History in retail automotive shows that most dealers try and buy their way out of operational inefficiencies. It's easily recognized by the number of suppliers that dealerships usually work with in order to achieve small gains that might be possible without them. 
  • There is a lot of noise getting in the way. A lot of hype. 
  • It's okay to start small when developing a strategy. Dan Moore explains that it can be as simple as some sticky notes and markers and making a list of all the friction points that currently exist in the business. Some might be operational, departmental, or human resources, for example. Once dealers have a clear picture of their current circumstances, then it's possible to move on to defining the desired outcome — the goal that they hope to achieve and by what deadline.
  • It's easy in this day and age to see the perceived success of others and to subconsciously start living their life. That never leads to fulfillment and happiness because you've unknowingly abandoned your definition of success. Enjoying your career in retail automotive is about more than just defining success, though. It's about accepting what you've defined. 
  • Because we see what others are doing, and haven't taken a hard look in the mirror, we're often left with a void in our own happiness. That's often what leads us to think we need to keep up with others' achievements instead of taking the time to define and work toward our own. 
  • Listen to the full episode featuring Dan Moore for even more insights!

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Thanks, Dan Moore

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FULL TRANSCRIPT:

[00:00:00] Michael: Alright, DPB gang. You better pull out a pen and a notepad, or as the kids say. An iPad or as the kids say you write stuff. No, I'm just kidding, but you're going to want to pay close attention. I'm sitting down with my pal, Dan Moore, he's the president of Vista dash and a few weeks ago, him and I had a really interesting conversation and sadly, you'll never get to hear it, but I'm fortunate that I get to have these conversations.

[00:00:28] There was something that he said that I want to do. Some attention too. I want to shine a spotlight on because I think it is so bang on, especially as we move into the advent of web three and the metaverse and all of the things that are going to come along with that and all of the thought processes that are like, oh, wait, drop everything you're doing now and go all in on mat.

[00:00:50] I can already see how that's going to spiral out of control for so many in the industry. And so I thought it would be cool to have Dan on the show too. Go deeper into what he said, which is that the scariest metric he's able to see through his platform. Vista dash is how dealers are buying, trying to buy their way out of operational inefficiencies.

[00:01:12] So of course joining me, Dan Moore, thanks so much for joining me here on the dealer playbook podcast.

[00:01:17] Dan: Oh man, I'm excited to pick this one up. Just the little tweak linear. I, when we had this discussion, it was quite funny. I was like, okay. I know what comes next. So not a

[00:01:26] Michael: break dancer, but it made me start break.

[00:01:28] I was like, oh, here we go. But but this is intriguing, especially in an industry that gravitates to certain buzz topics. I can remember an ADA a few years ago it was big data. It was like, oh, everybody's all about big data. I can't remember where it went from there.

[00:01:42] And then it was attribution. No, it's all about attribution. And what does that even mean? And conversion rate optimization, and nobody knows what that means probably still to this day and digital retail and web three and metaverse and all of these things. But I come back to I'm a foundational guy.

[00:02:01] I'm like but have you poured a solid foundation? Why do you really care? How many stories the building is? If you built it on the sand kind of a thing, and that's what your comment made me believe. And so I want to turn this over to you right out of the gates. What do you mean by buying your way out of operational inefficiency and second to that.

[00:02:21] Ha, how do you pick up on that? How do you see that?

[00:02:24] Dan: Yeah, so a having been in retail long time, selling cars, running a dealership, guilty of the same cinema, about to talk about. And for a lot watching, we can relate to this word of, I just need more leads. And when you think about that for a second, you're like, I need more leads.

[00:02:38] Why? Because they're trying to keep people busy, but am I giving them the right dizzy? Am I solving a problem or am I just creating more opportunities to cherry pick? Because I'm not investing in my people to give them the training and holding them accountable to performance more or less. We just got a lot going on, trying to find people right now, all the challenges that we face.

[00:02:56] Or how fast, before it's easier just to throw money at, Hey, let's get more opportunities in the door so that we don't have to necessarily look in the mirror and address ourselves. And that's really the bigger picture to it. But it's like anything and he brought it up. You run up all the buzzword monopoly, you've got AI, big data, attribution, digital retailing.

[00:03:16] We can go on and on and have a great drink at Moneyball.

[00:03:20] Yeah.

[00:03:21] Dan: Yeah, that was 10 years ago too. But heck if we just went back to Twitter and pulled up all of our tweets and we laughed about this one from a decade to two decades, I feel like we've just, it's like the movies right now.

[00:03:31] What are we doing? We're just remaking the same movies we made. Nothing's really new. We just are saying it maybe just a slight different or we put new characters in the movie. So here we are again. And I think at the end of the day, the next push, obviously having come back from an ADA and seeing.

[00:03:46] What's the next buzzword monopoly digital retailing metaverse Amazon throw all your money on Amazon. Let's start measuring that and then call me later. So again, we see that Vista in the sense of, we look at the activity that's going on, how many emails, how many chats what are we doing to work the lead?

[00:04:04] And then you also look at close ratios, you look at the sheer number of leads against the sheer number of people, and you start backing into the math, but wait a minute here, this doesn't quite add up no different than, operational inefficiencies that we have to start thinking about two is service, right?

[00:04:16] When you think about the number of new patients. That haven't been sold let's, 20, 20, 20, 21. And what that deficit might be this year, add all that together. What's that doing the warranty work? How's that going to create some operational challenges in the service lane? Not to mention from a marketing and, client acquisition standpoint, what are the things that we are faced with and what are we doing to overcome those?

[00:04:37] So it really comes down to. Looking at the mirror and having a sound strategy executing on that strategy by bringing in the tactics to help you support that strategy. And that's ultimately the biggest point.

[00:04:49] Michael: It's interesting. This is a very timely conversation. Even for me, I feel like I've passed through so many iterations of business leadership.

[00:05:01] And we're in a phase, even in our company where. Vision that has been so clear in my mind for years, I'm realizing now with some age and experience and putting my shoulder to the wheel, so to speak that I perhaps have not articulated well enough for the people on my team. That vision for them to even understand how the strategy that you're talking about, even maps to anything that makes sense.

[00:05:28] And it's funny because to me that's a foundational thing. It's like, how well can I communicate and convey the vision or the direction of where we're going and to your point, the dealerships or dealer groups that. Do that well, tend to be the ones that grow at what seems like a rapid pace and those that don't just continually, they're perpetually struggling.

[00:05:49] And then they're you look at them and you're like, dude, you're in small town, Alabama. Why do you have a $50,000 a month marketing budget?

[00:05:58] Dan: And that's it. It's the tactics versus strategy. Again it's one of those interesting thought processes of, Hey, we do these things, but the question is there just tactics, paid search, social, Amazon, all these they're all tactics.

[00:06:15] It's not strategy. The strategy is what are you trying to accomplish for your brand, your dealership? And then what are the tactics that you need to use?

[00:06:22] The ones I just listed to execute against the strategy. Or go like strategy and we just start throwing tactics and then we wonder why we're not getting outcomes.

[00:06:32] So we started blaming, our providers. Oh they don't, they're just a poopy, paid search company. Let's get the next one. And the next thing you've gone through six. They're not hitting the mark for you because you haven't given them guidance as to what your strategy is.

[00:06:43] You're just asking them to execute tactics. Can you create a Toyota use Toyota campaign? How about a Toyota model campaign? There's no strategy other than just the execution of. And we're seeing that more. So with limited inventory, right? You have to be a little bit more strategic. The tactics aren't working, you have to switch those tactics to support the new strategy.

[00:07:02] Michael: It makes me think of an experience we've had with one of our clients, because you're right. As a marketing agency, it's like tactic city. You sit down with your client partners and it's we want to do that. Hold on a minute. This sounds like more than just running an ad campaign. What are you expecting?

[00:07:15] How deep do you want to go? No, we want to increase our oil change business. Okay. Time out. Pause. What's let's talk about that for a minute because that's not going to happen overnight. And, or are you just looking for a pump and dump and the more you explore, the more you realize it's an act of desperation.

[00:07:32] It's a pump and dump, do you have

[00:07:33] Dan: the people, but the question comes is w how, what are your hours of operation? How many bays do you have to do it? How many can you handle in a day? And how many people do you have doing it? I can't answer those. Okay, great. You could throw 10 grand at this campaign, and I'm going to tell you, you just lit it on fire and you're going to hate me tomorrow.

[00:07:54] Michael: Yeah, a hundred

[00:07:55] Dan: percent,

[00:07:56] but that's the fundamental challenges I think we face in the industry is that there's a lot of people talking and they're talking about all this amazing hype and technology and like fancy bells and whistles. It's like somebody who has to be the unfavorite person that just says, Hey guys, let's call

[00:08:09] timeout on all this fancy land. We got to go back to the foundation and make sure our house is in order before we bring on any new fancy witness, any new, hot, new little item, or switch to a new fancy, whatever it might be and understand what are we doing, what is our goal? And then one of the tactics or pieces that we need to be successful after we understand our own operations internally.

[00:08:32] Michael: It's the clarity that can only come while. Moving, and dealerships have been moving some of them for a hundred pushing a hundred years, these dealerships, most dealerships that I know have enough historical data of operations personnel, et cetera, that they should be looking at that and saying, historically, what have we needed to pull off successful?

[00:08:57] Business initiatives. And in those moments, when we didn't have successful business initiatives, where did it fall apart? And so now here we are, again, we want to do another business initiative. What are the key elements to your point that we're actually going to need in order to pull this off successfully?

[00:09:13] Dan: Yeah. And are we investing in long-term and short-term, for example, we just take fixed offs. , if you really haven't invested in. And you've got all these fundamental flaws because the independents are taking you on because they have historical, they've invested in SEO and all the different things to basically own the market.

[00:09:29] Then the question becomes right now why the right is good? Are we double Downing and investing in our weak points so that when the table. We're in a really good position, to take on that new strategy of how we do business. And I think that's the important part. And a lot of people just aren't talking about it because it's not a, it's not a fun conversation because unfortunately it requires all of us to look in the mirror and go, who do we want to be when we grow up?

[00:09:52] And am I really representing my best image of what I want to be. Ooh, maybe not. Okay. We kinda got to rip the bandaid off and get to work because again, there's going to be, are we going to crash? No, but there's going to be again, another change in other cycle and other season, and we have to continue to evolve around those things.

[00:10:09] Easily put, it's drag racing, everybody's got a fast car. The reality is we're just setting it up for the track. We're about to race on, and we're trying to make adjustments to get a second here, a half a second here to optimize it, our best performance. And that's really how we should be approaching our new.

[00:10:25] Michael: I love how you separate strategy and tactics, because you realize that most people that think they're deploying a strategy today are just managing tactics. Correct. And that really shines an interesting light on the whole ecosystem of how auto retail automotive currently works. It's just a compounding of tactics that don't map to anything.

[00:10:48] And

[00:10:48] I

[00:10:48] even as it pertains to the various buzz topics that we've mentioned. Whether it's attribution or whatever, until you have a solid strategy and you're able to clearly articulate the purpose and what you are aiming to achieve. These tactics are always going to be compared against zero.

[00:11:07] It's a race to the bottom. It's what is Kevin? O'Leary say he says to zero with a bullet. Everything's going to look like failure. And I chuckle about it because I'm like, oh, business owner wakes up on the wrong side of bed or had an argument with their spouse. Who do they take it out on the website company, the marketing agent.

[00:11:23] Fundamentally it's like my coffee, suck this morning. Go fight. Go find a new website company.

[00:11:28] Dan: And we're fundamentally going backwards too. Think about this for a second. And you're a website guy, so this one's going to get your hair to stand up. It's going to get you all fired up.

[00:11:37] Because if I told you that I'm taking your customers off your website and putting them into a different ecosystem, you're going to lose your everlasting mind. We talked about this for a long time landing pages, framings. We were like the antifreeze, world of automotive for the longest time.

[00:11:53] And then Dr. Came and suddenly now we're back to framings. We got VPs and SRPs and everything. It's a framing of the Dr. Tools. So now we've lost visibility. We have no marketing tracking. We have all these blind spots not to mention if we're really looking at the customer experience, a little bumpy as you start to dig into it and I'm going, but nobody's calling us out.

[00:12:16] This is amazing. Hold on a second. Okay.

[00:12:18] Michael: Actually, interesting story. Because we really strive to have client partners and actual trying to explore what partnership really looks like. We are a website people, but we're also their marketing firm. And we're looking at that whole picture at what elements are getting in the way.

[00:12:36] So in the context of the website, you brought up. We actually approached a company. We said, Hey look, your little gadget. And gizmo is actually misplaced in the customer journey. And now it's cannibalizing the entire experience. People think they're searching for a vehicle, right? They're actually starting the process of a trade appraisal.

[00:12:56] Their retort was our data shows that more people than you think actually like starting with the trade. And I said compared to what though, what data are you comparing that against? Because if everything's in a vacuum, of course.

[00:13:11] Dan: And if it's

[00:13:14] Michael: well, and if you're only comparing. If you're do that and gadget and gizmo cannibalizes the entire experience, then guess what?

[00:13:22] You're also soaking up all of the data. It's just not reliable enough and easy to position as if you're the hero of the story, but we're not pulling back to your point and looking at the entire customer purchase experience. Our team is able to see, because we know the channel that brought in the traffic and where they're coming from and at what phase and,

[00:13:44] Dan: oh, that's interesting because if you think about it, most websites basically, or most CRMs classify everything as a website lead, right?

[00:13:51] Michael: No, we look at, and our

[00:13:53] Dan: website is the hero, but in reality, our website is our virtual law. That's like saying. We, we would get mad. I remember, managers as managers, we'd always get mad if someone put, oh, it was a walk-in. It was like, okay, so you're too weak to ask.

[00:14:03] I'm confused. So now the website is the same thing. If you're too weak to ask, because we already know it came from Google, came from Facebook, it came from an email where we know, but we're not advancing the conversation and giving multitouch credit. Which is another problem in a blind spot in some cases.

[00:14:19] Yeah, it's so interesting. And I think that's the bigger thing is even for us, at Vista, we try to have a general conversation with not just the dealer, but the vendor partners, as well as, Hey, this is what we're seeing. What do you think? And then going and having that open dialogue to try and figure out if we can solve the problem, better, serve the deal or collectively, because in the end, if we work together, then the dealer wins and that's really where we need to make this fundamental shift and stop with the walled gardens of like how am I gonna help you?

[00:14:49] It's starting to break down these walls and communicate because again, that's what leads to the strategy conversation as well as again, we stopped doing tactics and we start understanding strategy. As we collectively have a conscious.

[00:15:02] Michael: I love it every as it's always funny, because as the web got quote unquote web guy, like you've said, whenever I'm asked on a show, I haven't seen change in this industry in the last 15 years.

[00:15:15] It's Ooh, the website guy's coming on. He's going to share a juicy detail about how to get more conversions.

[00:15:24] Yeah, that, and that's my message. It's not, it's just see things for what they are and I'm just, maybe I'm a realist. And I think a lot of people take realism for pessimism because I say exactly what you just

[00:15:35] Dan: said. No, let's have some fun. There's a lot of people touting speed. Yeah, and I'm laughing. I'm going, how are you measuring speed. And what is your effectiveness of speeding? Because the reality is you're not in an OEM program, so you're not mandated to have all these plugins on your website, which fundamentally will slow it down. So that's great. You're fast now, but the second you get consumed into the program, which is where you're heading.

[00:15:53] Guess what your speed is not gonna be so cool. So you're gonna to change your marketing pitch. Sorry. I love it. It's

[00:15:58] Michael: mike, we're going to cancel our live chat provider because it's, I had a hundred bucks a month. I found a dollar a month and we can get Facebook messenger for fry. And I'm like, and it's going to slow your site down by about 25 points right out of the gates,

[00:16:12] Dan: because someone's going to put it, number one, go to.

[00:16:15] Michael: Yeah. A hundred percent.

[00:16:16] Dan: Yeah. So there's all these things that it's like. It's just so funny how we at the end of the day, I would say automotive and some of the best marketers are really good at

[00:16:22] Michael: marketing stuff.

[00:16:26] The promise pieces real strong

[00:16:30] Dan: and it changes. It's like politics.

[00:16:31] Michael: Yeah, it's you know what there's a lot, like you said, every gadget and gizmo right now as a tactic, but it, there's no way to understand how it maps to a larger strategy, especially if dealer or business owner can articulate that strategy. We are putting this piece in place for. Yeah. A hundred

[00:16:49] Dan: percent like, have you gone on it's so funny, I've gone into the Carvana just to go, Hey, let me go through the experience.

[00:16:56] And it's interesting when you think about dealers, are fighting this battle in CarMax, Carvana, so on and so forth. However, the franchise dealers are at a loss because again, they're mandated. So Carvana has a seamless integration. If I get along and I book out my car and it gets says, my car is worth X is I'm looking at.

[00:17:14] It's already calculating my positive equity against the car and telling me what I'm really buying. I'm like, wow, this is pretty slick. This is great user experience. I'm not having to think you're telling, you're guiding me through the journey that I'm dictating, but giving me information without me even asking that's relevant to my behavior pattern or what I need to know the problem is that we can't provide that to the franchise dealer.

[00:17:36] There, especially for these dealer groups. I feel for it because one OEM is going to say, these are, this is your mandated stack that you and the other one would say this is your mandated. They, when it comes to the Dr, you can have this one we ever on homegrown, and you've got this one. So now we're all the consumers going to these different rooftops in the group going, wait, I'm so confused.

[00:17:54] I'm just joining me here. What just happened? Because it's not an easy, smooth experience. So there's a lot of challenges and I think we've got, some roads ahead of us and hopefully some big voices will come out and try and level the playing field so that there's a freedom of speech. With basically OEM or brand guidelines.

[00:18:10] I don't know why we've over-complicated and runaway on this freight train. It's pretty simple. Here's our color coding. Here's our logo. There's just a standard that anybody can do. It's marketing one-on-one. You know this as a brand, what's your brand standard. Give me your colors, give me a logo.

[00:18:24] I'm gonna make everything look like that. And that should be the sign-off. For the most part, everything else is fundamentally.

[00:18:32] Michael: Yeah. It's you know, for me, I want to touch back on something you were talking about earlier as it pertains to strategy, and really from your experience, from my experience, I know that having a well-thought-out documented strategy is in and of itself a solution that will solve many of the challenges we've brought up on this chat, but it's also the least set.

[00:18:57] It's the least quick. It requires, thought it requires planning. It requires frustration. It requires so many different things. What do you say to the dealer? That's yeah, I hear that. I feel like it's unsexy. I know I've got to do it, but where do I start? Where do I start chewing into this?

[00:19:14] Dan: Yeah, I think the fundamental piece is getting your leadership team together first and foremost, just having an open conversation.

[00:19:21] About topics you can talk about, the brand and the dealership, the inventory, the people, the processes, and go a plus and minus what's working in your mind. What's working, what's not working. Where's the rub and friction. What keeps you up at night? When you start putting up these points?

[00:19:36] Yeah, simple as getting some Sharpies and stickies and sticking stuff on the wall, which has got a cute in its own way. You can put these things up and say, okay. And then what you start to see, would you have your leadership team as the themes? The groupings of things are the same. And then all of a sudden you take those groupings and you go, okay.

[00:19:55] This is a, this is one that has come up several times. This is something you need to focus on. And if you just start taking the bite of the common themes, you start solutioning and backing your way into those strategies and those pieces that will manifest into the bigger strategy. But again, I think for those that are fighting, it's take it at the smallest level and accomplish a task.

[00:20:14] What is something we need to solve for today? What is a pain point that we're having and unpack that with your team what's working, what's not working, but you also have to add the openness and willingness to say, just because it's the way we've always done it. Done. It doesn't mean it's right. And just because it's working doesn't mean we can't break it and make it better.

[00:20:34] We got to stop resting on. It's worth. But the reality is do you have enough data and enough conviction to say that it's working at as, at its optimum? Can you squeeze more out of it? Is there a better way? Can you optimize from a cost, maybe reduction standpoint maybe it took you a lot of people to do execute X now with technology, you could bridge some of that and have a hybrid to where you're lowering some of your costs.

[00:20:59] So it's really just breaking away at it and focusing on things that motivate you and your team, maybe it's about. Tightening up the bottom line, maybe it's about selling more cars, whatever the excitement is amongst the group, focus on that as your outcome goal, but drive the strategies that focus on that and figure out where the things that are working well and the things that are, and work off of that.

[00:21:22] But be very honest.

[00:21:23] Michael: This, that what you just said also reminds me of something that you said in our call, like I'm a big defined success kind of guy. Like it's not stop chasing the perception of what you see out there. And define success for yourself. And we were talking about this and you very quickly added in a very critical piece where I was like, yes, you said, but then you also need to accept what you've done.

[00:21:50] A hundred percent and you make me think what you're just saying here about starting at a very simple, basic level, defining what that outcome is to your point, but then. Accept it because your dealership and your operation, isn't going to look the same. I know you get the OEM reports and they pit you all against each other,

[00:22:10] the

[00:22:10] Dan: 20 group.

[00:22:11] And you do all stuff. But at the end of the day if we're getting into and one of the popular words that everybody's into biohacking right now, right? Trying to optimize your body. We both agree that we are not the same. We are not made up the same. Our genetics are not the same.

[00:22:21] We're not gonna respond to food. So stop thinking as a dealership that you're going to respond like a different other dealership. There's some common themes and commonalities, but at the end of the day, your people are what make you unique. So your processes and how you operate or what make you unique.

[00:22:39] Because again, you're speaking to your people and your teams and your culture and your business. Which means you can't just take whatever Johnny down the road's doing and plug it right into your dealership. Cause it may not work well because they've got a different set of people in a different set of processes that align with maybe a strategy they might have in place.

[00:22:57] And that's what you're missing is they have a strategy. You don't. So there's these things of, Hey, you got to set some goals. You've got to focus on it. Success is defined by you. If you let everybody else define success, you're going to bang your head against the wall of frustration because you're never going to see.

[00:23:11] And so you've got to define what does success look like for you guys? And as you achieve those levels of success, fine, move the goal out, goalpost out a little bit. But most importantly, what, and I was talking to somebody yesterday and it was such a great conversation that got me to think too, is.

[00:23:29] Let's also make sure that we celebrate our successes and take a minute because not everybody is hit that level of success. Not everybody has felt the reward of success. And in some cases, leadership has never appreciated all of those that put forth the effort to get to that success. So we've gotta be mindful of those things.

[00:23:49] That's what leads to retention. That leads to an amazing culture of. Everybody knows what the mission is and everybody celebrates in the success of the mission.

[00:23:58] Michael: Yeah, that's so interesting. I was having a conversation, maybe it almost sounds like we're having a similar conversation. An individual that I know here that's becoming a fast friend, he's the COO of a very successful multi-city law firm here in the United States.

[00:24:16] And him and I were talking and. He said, so let me get this straight. You have a tech and marketing company you're all provided for your privately funded. Debt-free like not starving some growth. I said, yeah. He says, yeah, no, we call that freedom at work. That's called freedom. But to your point. If we only compare against the context of someone else's circumstances without, under, or actually the perception of someone else's circumstances, without understanding the context, we will almost always feel like a failure because especially in the internet world, we're like, oh man, I'm not Snapchat.

[00:24:53] I'm not tick-tock, I'm not Facebook. I didn't get my billion dollar valuation like tacky on and six months or whatever, without understanding everything it took to get there. Then, yeah, you're going to look like a failure, but if you start comparing it to what you've defined and what you've accepted, that's called freedom.

[00:25:11] Dan: Agreed. And that's it. There's so much noise that we've forgot what we're really doing things for it because sooner or later the noise takes over and you realize, and wake up one day that, Hey, all these goals that I'm chasing are not my goal. And you're like, wait a minute. I may have missed the exit here.

[00:25:30] Michael: Why am I unhappy? Maybe? Cause you lived somebody else's

[00:25:33] Dan: life. Yeah. Why is my family not wanting to hang out with me anymore? Because you never know. There's all these different variables. That's what I'm saying. This is never a fun conversation because this, there's no, this isn't warm, fuzzy or sexy.

[00:25:46] This is just straight to the point. Real. And it challenges all of us to look in the mirror. So it's not a popular topic, which is why, if you think about then we're on every channel, how many of these conversations are happening? Very few it's razzle-dazzle let's get the pompoms out. Let's sell the big hype.

[00:26:03] Talking about things that are sexy and fun, because again, we don't want to talk about these types of things, however, We'll all start talking about it real quick. When the table flips over on it.

[00:26:13] Michael: I can't remember who said it. I'm sure a lot of people have said it, but it's like adversity is actually what produces the urgency required to.

[00:26:22] Move forward. It's not this, these soft cushy times. And

[00:26:26] I

[00:26:26] you hear what a lot of people are talking about on say clubhouse or on social in general. And Hey, I had guys, I'm going to show you how to make a million dollars with this three simple three step fi and everything seems so immediate, no effort required.

[00:26:43] And I. Either I'm getting older or people are starting to understand that all of that hype amounts to nothing. Cause it never worked. And if and if it required a disclaimer, like it always does like results, not typical, less than 0.0 0 0 3 5 7. Like your percent, your chances of having your 0.03 Bitcoin is more valuable than the chances of.

[00:27:06] Famed funnel working or whatever. And I feel like people are starting to wake up to this and realize crap. It is going to take more work. It is going to take more time. It is going to whatever. And despite the fact that, Dan Moore and Michael Sorello exist on the planet at the same time, that's completely irrelevant because one of us has lived longer than the other has.

[00:27:25] Variance has more so on and so forth. But I feel like we've conditioned ourselves to believe that by merely existing at the same time that we should have the same timeline and it just doesn't work that way. Oh, a

[00:27:35] Dan: hundred percent. Think about I love something. I think I saw a poster from grant Cornell and the other day, and I loved it.

[00:27:40] He actually put down his timeline, broke it all down, and I was laughing going, Hey. Because this is what everybody needs to see right here. It didn't happen overnight. There's decades into this, of what he's a mass. It didn't happen overnight. He had fails trials and tribulations. Like it didn't happen over night.

[00:28:01] Nothing does, there's so much behind the scenes. And again, I think I always loved the the image of the iceberg. You see this, you don't see all of this and that's it. If you I have a mantra of I'll do all my best work behind the curtain. Cause I don't need validation for putting in the work

[00:28:21] because if I'm doing it for that, I'm not doing it for the right reasons.

[00:28:23] Michael: But you don't want to be a celebrity.

[00:28:26] Dan: No. Why'd

[00:28:27] Michael: you go and talk at TEDx then down?

[00:28:31] Dan: You know what it was it was a wonderful thing that fell into my lap because again, I put in the work and someone knocked on the door and I said, why wouldn't I say yes, but that's my whole point is I don't have to go. And this is the point that kind of speaks to that. Is that the way Dan operates the way Michael operates, the way people on social media operate, we're all not the same. So to sit there and say that it can't be done because I don't follow the playbook of what someone else wrote on the, how to be a social master ninja.

[00:28:57] Okay, great. Why didn't have to be on social media, get a Ted talk. So I'm saying that for the personality and the things that you have to do with this person says that's not true, right? You have the capabilities of writing your own narrative, your own story, and pushing. Reality. Hey, it might take you an extra year to get to that step that it took them less because maybe, coincidence or maybe not.

[00:29:15] Maybe you get there faster. Those are, they're still trying to get to the Ted talk and you're already there because you chose a different path. There's no right or wrong equation. The reality is at the end of the day, are you in charge of you and quite simply put every day? It's you against you? Who's got.

[00:29:34] Michael: And obviously those that are watching this will, we'll see my level of tongue in cheek, as I say that, because I know you authentically lean into I'm going to do. I'm not going to 99.9, 5% of what happens with no cameras with no social, with no whatever, because you've defined and accepted what you want.

[00:29:58] It's just sad. How many individuals and I can say this because I used to be in that. R two occupied feeling resentment and anger towards somebody who's doing something that they've accepted, they want to do. And you might like the appeal of it or the idea of it, but you don't actually want it for yourself.

[00:30:19] And you just haven't accepted that yet. And more so importantly to that, I think all of that contributes to the void that. As human beings can tend to feel, which leads us to buying or wanting to buy or thinking. We can buy our way out of our own inefficiencies. Oh,

[00:30:39] Dan: you'll get caught sooner or later. Trust me.

[00:30:41] And to your point, I'll let you in on the little dirty secret, cause people are like, okay, you're comfortable in your own skin. Absolutely. It doesn't mean I'm still on a student of the game. Meaning I watch people's behaviors, their patterns, how they interact with people in real life online. Because a, I think I missed my calling.

[00:30:56] I think I should've gone into psychology because I'm really fascinated with how everybody thinks and navigates life. But I will say that yes, at the end of the day, when you really put the study and you're like, that's not my cup of tea, but I'm okay. Hey, good on them. Ooh, I like that. I want that.

[00:31:12] Okay, great. Then let's prioritize. Is that something that's relevant for me? Is that a path I want to go down and I'm willing to go down. And do things that maybe aren't my normal comfort level or whatever. So again, it's just it's conversation and adjustment. Don't have it to your point.

[00:31:26] If you're having resentment about something, you need to go look in the mirror and go, okay. So clearly I'm not happy about me right now. What is it? Oh, I don't have whatever it is. Some monetary thing or I didn't go do whatever. Okay, great. Do you want to write and what's the path to get there for you?

[00:31:46] Michael: It makes so much sense, man. I love this conversation. It's so crucial a conversation to have, and I believe in an ongoing fashion, especially as we seek to and need to hold ourselves to. Account moving into this next phase of the world, whatever's going to happen. The hype, the understanding, the hype, understanding ourselves, having greater self-awareness so that we can operate at.

[00:32:13] Or as close to peak efficiency as possible, that's going to be the key, those that double down on themselves and invest in themselves. Like they're the ones that are going to rise. It's always been that way. I think it's going to continue to be that way, despite what some might think about new and emerging technology and all those sorts of things.

[00:32:29] But I want to just turn this over to you one last time. How come those listening, get in touch and learn more about.

[00:32:36] Dan: I have online, obviously I'm on most of the social platforms, more of Dan, you can email me, Dan, and this is nash.com. Messaged me on any of the appropriate social links. I'm easy to get ahold of, that you've known me for a long time.

[00:32:48] It's not a hard thing to to get a hold of me. And again, if there's something I can help out with somebody, you got a question thought or whatever, but I just challenge everybody watching, hey, dare to be curious, ask questions, be inquisitive. Don't just assume don't judge. I'm curious.

[00:33:03] I think you'll get more out of everything and it applies to everything that we do. Not just marketing, not just being in the dealership, but I think as humans, we have to strive to be more curious and inquisitive people that we interact with and yet ourselves, and be curious in ourselves and really trying to push ourselves to get outside of our company.

[00:33:22] Love,

[00:33:22] Michael: man. Thanks so much for joining me on the dealer playbook. Absolutely.

[00:33:38] I'm Michael Chirillo and you've been listening to the dealer playbook podcast. If you haven't yet, please click the subscribe button wherever you're listening. Right now, leave a rating or review and share it with a colleague. Thanks for listening.