Paul Daly & Kyle Mountsier: The Rebirth Of The Automotive Conference
Paul Daly and Kyle Mountsier (ASOTU) join the pod to talk about some really exciting projects they have in the works, one of which is an exciting new podcast called Auto Collabs hosted by Paul, Kyle, and Michael Cirillo. They are on an adventure to bring the rebirth of the automotive conference coming September 2022 in Philadelphia.
What we discuss in this episode:
- Paul and Kyle share how they ended up collaborating and how that venture ended up becoming a beacon in the retail automobile industry. Their goal is to create a community and space where purposeful conversations can happen — conversations that move the industry forward.
- Michael, Paul, and Kyle met in Philly to record the all-new Auto Collabs podcast episodes. Despite all hosting their shows, it was important for the trio to share fresh perspectives rooted in meaningful conversations with their list of amazing guests.
- Creating content aims to help the industry move into a new era of collaboration. Historically, vendors have stuck together, and dealers have stuck together. We believe the real magic and growth happen when everyone communicates about important issues outside of the silos.
- Paul and Kyle share some exciting details about the upcoming ASOTU CON or the "rebirth" of the automotive conference. Michael was fortunate to see some behind-the-scenes details of how exciting the event will be.
Listen to the full episode for more insights and context from Kyle Mountsier and Paul Daly.
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Thanks, Paul and Kyle!
If you enjoyed this episode featuring Paul and Kyle, support us by clicking the links!
- Connect with Paul Daly on LinkedIn
- Connect with Kyle Mountsier on LinkedIn
- Get Tickets: ASOTU CON
- Auto Collabs Podcast featuring Paul Daly, Kyle Mountsier, and Michael Cirillo
Connect with Michael Cirillo
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FULL TRANSCRIPT:
[00:00:00] Michael: All right, gang. Welcome to this episode of the dealer playbook podcast. So delighted to be joined by my buddies, my pals. I feel like I just saw them yesterday. Kyle Mount here, and Paul Daley, what is going on? Welcome to the show. Oh, it's good to be here. crazy. Hanging out. I'm glad to have you. Uh, so we did, we did a thing.
[00:00:27] We did a crazy thing. and we were talking about this actually yesterday in Philadelphia. We, we not west Philadelphia with the cadence, just Philadelphia. And, uh, we were talking about how the, the industry has so many people in it. So many opinions, so many voices, but every now and again, there are those that somehow.
[00:00:53] Gravitate towards one another. It's like our thought processes start getting aligned somehow. And, and then it just takes, I don't know, a stroke of luck or something. Uh, in this case, Kyle gets all the credit for kind of. Unifying all of us and being like, Hey, you're doing a thing that I'm doing a thing and we're kind of doing a thing.
[00:01:11] I wanna just get some history on the two of you. How did this all come together? The, the, the, uh, so do the emails. You're doing a conference. I wanna talk about that in a bit. How did this all come together?
[00:01:25] Paul Daly: So I think, go ahead. You first, babe, lean in. Go ahead. Finish in.
[00:01:30] Michael: No,
[00:01:30] Paul Daly: no, you
[00:01:33] Michael: first, babe. Babe, if we
[00:01:35] Paul Daly: can get through five minutes without me crying, because I'm laughing so hard, this is gonna be a really good thing for us.
[00:01:43] Kyle Mountsier: Well, it's interesting because if you really think about it, Literally how we connected is the proof point to the thesis of everything that we talk about. That's so true. I don't know if, I don't know if you know this, but the reason why Paul and I are connected. So we were connected on social media, through LinkedIn and stuff like that, but just super, oh, now we're connected.
[00:02:05] And so we're social media friends. Well, Go to about seven or eight months after we were initially connected because I, some, one of us, I can't remember who hit the connect button and the other one said, yes, I was scrolling LinkedIn. And Paul had a post about an automotive marketing coffee thing that him, uh, and drew were putting on and drew Delaware.
[00:02:32] And there, I hit like, I clicked through and joined this coffee talks thing happened every couple days. Well, fast forward, like seven or eight months. And we're talking about, well, how did we first connect? Ah, I think it was over this coffee talk thing was really well. We go back and find this post. And the post still to this day has four engagements on the post.
[00:02:56] Now, if you know Paul or you know, myself, or, you know, Michael Cirilo, if any post on LinkedIn gets four posts, we probably said something inappropriate and that's just not normal, normally the mode. And so, you know, the thesis is like, Hey, you never know when the right content, the right message, the right, whatever gets put out on any media platform.
[00:03:17] To connect to the right person to your business or your ecosystem or anything like that. So that was how, that's our little dating story story. You know what, I starting this
[00:03:28] Michael: though. I I've had both of you on before individually. We've talked about this concept to varying degrees. I think it was you Paul, last time we were talking about when you were doing some stuff with Gary V part of his, his program, his mentorship program.
[00:03:44] And one of the things that came up was low engagement on social. And you're like, dude, I don't have any followers. Like it's not gonna land. And he's like, we can talk about your ego if that's what you wanna spend time talking about. Yeah. And, and I, it hearing that from you co it brings this whole concept full circle.
[00:04:00] So many people approach social or the concept of biz dev or demand gen from, uh, what I see as what I get like, oh, it didn't get any views. It didn't get any this, or nobody commented. I didn't get enough. Thumbs. But you never know, this is, this is proof from the pudding that Gary V understands, but who did that reach?
[00:04:21] Who did that impact? That didn't take the time to click a like button, but it still had an impact on him. And now all of a sudden here, here we are.
[00:04:30] Paul Daly: Yeah,
[00:04:31] Kyle Mountsier: there's we use later
[00:04:33] Paul Daly: the, you know, we create content. The three of us do lots of people do. Uh, we talk about LinkedIn because we spend a lot of our time there, but you know, it doesn't matter the platform, but you know, if you're in the auto industry, LinkedIn is, is a pretty great place to be.
[00:04:46] These days, we create content to. We've used this, we've used this concept of a beacon and we used that metaphor and that illustration saying, I'm going to put like a light. I think, of the, that pyramid in Vegas that has that light. I don't know what it's called, but the light straight up in this, the luck.
[00:05:06] Yes. And it's almost like that. And when you put content out, it shows other people where you are. It shows other people what you believe. And so that mentality that we all have, and it doesn't matter how many views, you know, it doesn't matter how many likes it doesn't matter any of that, because that is how we find each other in this day and age.
[00:05:25] Sure. You can go to conferences, you can't meet everybody. Sure. You can go places. You can't talk to everybody. You can't understand. That's why we, we try to be transparent. I try to be as transparent as possible. And I know both of you do as well. You read through our post and you realize like, oh, I think that's really how they.
[00:05:40] Right. And there's an element of like, I'm gonna put it out there because it attracts the other people that feel the same way you do. So like every good community. And now I'm officially saying that that is the buzzword of the next, the next four years, right. It was brand for the last four or five years.
[00:05:56] It's community now. Right. That will get diluted and everyone will use it. And just think by saying it, you can have it. But the reality is every community like real legit community starts because people come together around a shared need or a shared belief are usually a little bit of both. And all of this go to go back to your question.
[00:06:14] All of this got started because there was a shared belief and there was a shared need. And then little by little, we realized that beacon started drawing a lot more people. Closer to it. And then, you know, like the smaller communities find each other and now you have a larger community and then they all start moving.
[00:06:32] And I think we're seeing that in retail automotive in real time right now.
[00:06:37] Michael: Yeah. I love the visual too. Like this concept of a beacon it's it's like the war, the war cry, you know, like there would be peop whatever you want to call 'em Watchmen on the tower or on the Hills. And they would light their.
[00:06:49] Their flame. And then you'd see one down the way and they'd light theirs and it would send a signal. And that's the, really, the visual I love is we're all coming together in a collaborative way to light a signal and send a signal out to the industry that changes here. We welcome it. Collaboration not, you know, it was co cooperation.
[00:07:11] How everybody was like, let's soften the term competi. It's like, dude, shut. So is it
[00:07:15] Paul Daly: Cooper competition? Is somebody actually throw them out there? You have that on a recording?
[00:07:20] Michael: I don't believe in, no, I don't believe in competition. I believe in
[00:07:24] Paul Daly: cooption it's like, it's like frenemies.
[00:07:26] Michael: Is that like frenemies?
[00:07:27] Yeah. Frenemies. And this industry is not immune to that where everybody thinks, oh, somebody's doing kind of the same thing. Therefore they must be competing. What I love about this ecosystem is. We welcome it. We want everybody to be a part of this. This is not a push people out. If it's to be a welcome, everyone in.
[00:07:49] So that that's led to, you know, Kyle reached out to me, he's like, I see you're kind of doing something similar and this is cool. And so a conversation started there. You guys are starting to have conversations. You start to formalize something, you guys reach out to me and say, he short, I could rest my arm on his head.
[00:08:05] You know, exactly. We should reach out to him. First shot. Was that the, that was
[00:08:09] Paul Daly: a direct quote too. I, I actually, I thought you were taller than me until I met you.
[00:08:14] Michael: I thought he, he just didn't spirit. I don't
[00:08:16] Paul Daly: know. What's the no, no. Hey, Hey, look at this. Your head is actually closer to the top of the frame than mine.
[00:08:21] He must be taller than.
[00:08:23] Michael: Yeah, we're all actually just bust people are disappointed when they meet us in person. Cuz they're like, you're just a bust. Like Moza like, you weren't supposed to have things. I thought I was just pushing you, sitting there on a robotic chair. Um, and I love, I love this. I love coming together with you guys.
[00:08:42] I mean, we had a blast yesterday. I really. I hope people that get to listen to our new collaboration, enjoy it, are edified by it, but also realize, man, you can have so much fun and be total goofballs while still doing something productive. And, and I don't know about the two of you, but boy did I need a day like that yesterday.
[00:09:01] It edified me. It sent me back into my part of neck of the woods, just so much more inspired and thinking bigger. And, and I think that's the power of. We're trying to have happen here. And so for those listening, you know, each of us individually have our shows, obviously you're listening to this or you're watching it.
[00:09:20] Um, you've, you've heard Paul's podcast. You've heard Kyle's podcast that he's starting back up tomorrow and, um, and, uh, and. Then we come together and we, we explore like, what can we do together? How can we collaborate? And then you guys were talking to me just a few weeks ago about this concept of we wanna start a podcast.
[00:09:42] And I'm like, funny. I wanted to talk to you guys about the same thing. Next thing you know, I'm in Philly with the two of you overlooking the city, recording a new podcast. I thought
[00:09:51] Paul Daly: in the penthouse, by the
[00:09:53] Kyle Mountsier: way, in a penthouse, I love what you said about this. Like it restored and rejuvenated me cuz I felt the same.
[00:10:00] And I think that the best, the best thing that you do is continue to press into what brings like that innate joy and the energy around what you're doing. Like Paul and I doing the daily podcast. The reason why we do a daily podcast is not because we're like, man, everybody in the world needs a daily podcast.
[00:10:21] It's because for four months he and I sat on a Google meet. Eight to nine every single day. And it was like, yo, what happened? Y yesterday, do you see this news? Do you see that? Hey, I'm thinking this, I'm thinking that I saw this LinkedIn post and we were like, you know, it would be crazy. We could like record this thing, you know, , it's like, so it was an easy walk to go there.
[00:10:44] And I think, you know, the three of us have had lunch meetings over, over zoom and, and text message conversations. And I think what's cool about the best content or the best collaborations. It's, it's, it's an easy walk to the next step, whether that be a technology collaboration or a content collaboration or a business partnership.
[00:11:02] The next step is typically a very easy.
[00:11:05] Michael: Tell me a little bit more specifically for those that may not be familiar with a Sodo, a S O T U. Dot com you've got a newsletter. You've got events that you're working on. How did that, so you go from the daily podcast and meeting together and saying, Hey, we should record this too.
[00:11:24] Now having a really robust daily output of media and fun and the newsletter and everything. And I wanna talk about the event coming up here in September in just a minute, but how did that all come together? Was it just like you said, an extension of the conversation.
[00:11:41] Paul Daly: No. Yes and no, a so do, by the way, stands for automotive state of the union.
[00:11:47] And that was just way too long, like to type in, to like a website. And so we, we abbreviated it and we were, we're fortunate enough to actually get the domain. And then we're like, people will just know it's a, so do we'll have no idea what it means for a while, so that that's fine with us. You know, it was a soda started as an extension of, um, you know what I was just doing.
[00:12:08] Like both of you were working in the auto industry, trying to make our way through a pandemic when it started not knowing what to do. And, you know, everyone seemed to feel better when they were on zoom calls with other dealers and vendors across the country, even though no one knew what was going on and, you know, several states were locked down.
[00:12:26] And so I just thought, how can I scale that? Mentality, so thought, okay, we'll call it something official. So people will think it's a thing, you know, that's , if we call it automotive state of the union to make it look presidential, which is literally we did. Yeah. We were like, make it look like a state of the union address.
[00:12:43] I told the designer and people just started saying yes, and there was just this huge appetite for the industry to just be together. In one place, you know, any, it was NAD had just happened and then everything started getting canceled. And so thousands and thousands of people showed up to the first live stream and then just kept getting together, just trying to rally people around Kyle and I met in the midst, uh, or, you know, like as the pandemic was kind of opening up and we, you know, we started realize like we wanted to do something cuz our heart was the same for the industry.
[00:13:12] And then it became very, very clear quickly. that a soda was what we were supposed to do together. This was how we were going to make our mark on the automotive industry and invite as many people together as we could. So we started, you know, we turned it into an official company. We incorporated, we got seven investors to raise a seed round, uh, which were all, uh, auto dealer.
[00:13:33] So we're the only dealer owned media company. And we had, we're having these conversations in the morning and then I just hit record one day. And we were like, let's just have more conversation around. I literally just hit record. If you go back and listen to the beginning episode, we were having this conversation, like Kyle just said it and I was like, I'm just gonna hit record.
[00:13:52] And I just hit record and we do it every day to give people a bite size, something. Sometimes they're gonna walk away with a little piece of information they can use. Sometimes they'll walk away maybe with just like a little hope. Because people come to work in all different states. And at the very least, if people can walk away with a, like, like a smile and a laugh, uh, we think we did it, but all of it, all of it is to just give everyone that one next thing that they might need to lean in further to, you know, what we all believe is the best industry in the country
[00:14:25] Michael: and the world.
[00:14:26] I, I need to know though, at some point when you were conceptualizing the podcast and you were like, man, we should do an intro. We should do the intro. Be maybe it'll be like this. Tell me, Kyle, you were like, Hey, here's what we should do. Both. Let's sing both off tune, but be like, Subscribe to so.com
[00:14:45] Kyle Mountsier: that've been part of it.
[00:14:47] That
[00:14:47] Michael: was exactly no. Oh shoot. That was us yesterday with that was
[00:14:50] Paul Daly: us yesterday. And if you happen to listen to the NF episode, zero, zero, you may hear that take .
[00:14:57] Michael: So let's talk about podcast real quick. We've talked a lot about auto. Um, collabs without really naming it, this new podcast that we're working on auto collabs, what's the thought process behind that?
[00:15:07] What do you hope to, to be able to achieve between the three of us? Um, Stooges?
[00:15:13] Kyle Mountsier: Well, yeah, I think that, you know, when, when I look at even just the first, you know, set of guests that we've got planned and recording and, and, and moving forward, it's not like. You've never seen these people speaking in automotive or outside of automotive, you may have heard multiple podcasts or multiple live streams or been to conferences with them on, I think that what we, what our intention is, is to bring a, a particular spirit of the conversation.
[00:15:41] We might have, you know, some background stories and things like that, but really the spirit of the conversation is gonna be allowing collaboration. What needs to happen. in the automotive industry for retail automotive to not just survive but thrive. And so that's gonna be from technology to retail mindset, to culture and people.
[00:16:00] And so there's actually gonna be like dialed in particular commentary around what people are seeing or doing or practitioning in and am in among dealerships, whether that be industry partners or dealers, um, so that we can get our thoughts around you. Actually doing something we're gonna be actually intentional about asking industry partners, what they do.
[00:16:23] You know, you hear a lot of, uh, you hear a lot of podcasts and it's like, no pitch stone, right? It's like, no, we want to be intentional about connecting dealers and industry partners and OEMs to make sure that everybody really understands, like how can we pitch in. To solve what we think is the, the, the kind of holy grail of what we need to solve, which is experience.
[00:16:43] So employee and dealer and, and customer experience. And if we can solve for that, then we've like, we've made sure that retail automotive is, is, will thrive. And so those, those are that's the context in which the conversation is gonna happen. Um, so you might have heard some of these people before, but we're gonna contextualize and, and dial that in.
[00:17:03] And then we. One of the really, I'm just excited about this. I think we figured it out this out two days ago was just that, you know, for us, we'd love to provide some commentary around that. So we'll, we'll wrap every episode with just, Hey, here's just a few minutes of thoughts of, you know, our context on that conversation because, um, we got some thoughts too, you know, got some taps, this thoughts
[00:17:26] Michael: in that old nogging , you know what I love about it too is the, the point of this is not.
[00:17:33] To, to, to really teach the individual. Right? Like who are we? I really, I love the fact that we're, we're all fellow students, including those yeah. That we have on the show. They are. They are avid learners. They love the journey of learning, but hopefully as the listener participates with us and they're listening in it's inspiring thought processes for them to say, ah, I'm inspired by that little piece.
[00:17:59] I want to go and try that out. Or I want to go and do something there. What's what's your take, Paul?
[00:18:04] Paul Daly: I, I love when I get to hear other people's questions, because a lot of times those questions that other people ask. Open it up for me. Like we're all musicians here and I love it when someone starts the music, because for me that is more of an unlocked than me just starting something from scratch.
[00:18:23] And some I I'm much, I'm a much better reactive thinker than a proactive thinker. It's just how I'm wired. So when other people get to, to ask the textured questions, oftentimes that's what opens me up to my fresh thinking. Like I need something to start my thought process going. So to be able to provide that.
[00:18:42] To other people, for me, it's just a real personal way that I learn and I enjoy, and I kind of unpack context by different perspectives. And, and I don't think there's anything like that in, in retail auto. I mean, there's stuff like that in a, all a bunch of different industries, but I don't see that. And I think that there's a lot of white space for it.
[00:19:00] And I think that even when, like there's an audience, a group of people that align around certain questions, Around a certain topic. It helps that group mentality solve problems faster. I think because it just helps focus the thinking for a short period of time and like, oh, maybe we can now find the right place for this.
[00:19:18] Or maybe we can now, you know, make a correction here or maybe we can now develop the gap that we've just uncovered in that. So, um, I think again, in the spirit of collaboration, which is why we named it auto collabs, and Kyle just said, you know, what we're really trying to solve is the customer experience.
[00:19:35] there are gaps. There are blind spots. And you know, I think yesterday you'll hear this. If you listen to episode zero, zero, Kyle really astutely said, we never talk about the consumer as a part of the, the solution that we need. We talk about dealers in industry partners all the time. Then we kind of loop in OEMs on that.
[00:19:58] Which is important, right? We need to be working together. And then, you know, when Kyle said, we need to bring the consumer into the conversation a lot more, because that is gonna highlight more gaps and that's gonna help us develop better solutions and work together. So, um, really the spirit of collaboration, like you hear the word collab all the time, and it's a big thing on social media.
[00:20:17] We'm gonna do a collab, don't do collab, but for really like real collaboration means all of our thoughts and questions together, you know, synthesized a better solution than any of us ever could have on our.
[00:20:28] Michael: You know how many people message me. I'm sure you guys got this. You know, we posted a few photos on, on the socials.
[00:20:34] How many people message you saying I've got a beard. I could get a black hat.
[00:20:39] Paul Daly: Was that like that it was like, so
[00:20:42] Kyle Mountsier: do I have to invest in, in
[00:20:44] Paul Daly: beard black hats and black shirt shirts? Yeah. That kinda on our life of own. I think Lori halter
[00:20:50] Kyle Mountsier: called it a, she called it an outfit and I was like, oh,
[00:20:54] Paul Daly: oh, we have an outfit.
[00:20:56] Michael: I'd prefer uniform. I think we should dispel the myth. When you walk into my closet. You see my wife's three quarters of the space and it's beautiful and it's colorful and there's so many different, you know, dresses and pan and all these sorts of things workout. You look to my side, it's three pair of black jeans and like six black t-shirts and no variation.
[00:21:22] Like you will know one unit card,
[00:21:25] Kyle Mountsier: this tall of black t-shirts. And I have like this, the three t-shirts that I use to wear it, to mow the lawn. Right. And that's that's over here. Right? So , that's
[00:21:36] Paul Daly: perhaps the best way that, well, let's be honest. I have a lot more than that in my side of the closet. But they're still like, but,
[00:21:45] Kyle Mountsier: but there's still good.
[00:21:46] Black. It's good. A blue hat right back here, guys. Maybe one day I'll show up to this and everyone will be confused.
[00:21:52] Michael: Right. I wouldn know. I mean, people will know when it's laundry day when I'm wearing like a blue shirt's like crap. That was the bottom of the, that was the back of
[00:22:02] Paul Daly: shirt. The blue shirt that I got from that trade show that one
[00:22:06] Michael: time.
[00:22:07] Right. That's like, totally it. So like, it's usually the workout shirt, but I guess it'll be the one I wear today. Um,
[00:22:13] Paul Daly: my kids, my kids' bedtime clothing is like an anthology of automotive and your
[00:22:17] Michael: t-shirts , you know, it's true.
[00:22:20] Paul Daly: So true. Oh, my daughter comes in. It's really soft. All
[00:22:25] Michael: my pajamas are in the wash.
[00:22:27] What do, can I wear one of your shirts? I'm like, there you go. It's like some old, it's like a company that doesn't even exist, but their t-shirt has held on stands of the test of time
[00:22:37] Kyle Mountsier: dealer. Amazing DMS. Right. That's right. I think get a shirt on me. Right? Perfect.
[00:22:43] Michael: Exactly like exactly. Oh man. It was so much fun.
[00:22:47] Uh, being able to hang out, I'm excited. I'm really, really excited. For everybody to, to get their ears and eyes on this auto collab podcast. Of course, we're gonna link up to it in the show notes. Uh, stay tuned for that when it goes live and, um, you know, just excited to, um, uh, be able to participate with the two of you.
[00:23:06] Let's talk about a, so do con you guys, can I just, by the way, can I just say you two are phenomenal at like, just building anticipation? Because it's like, Hey, stay tuned. This is just like a social post. And it'll say, stay tuned ellipses. And everyone's like, something's coming down the pipe, some's coming down a pipe.
[00:23:33] And then you launch a, a URL. But the, the URL is just a. Like a type kit form, like who wants to it's like crappies landing page ever. I'm like, I don't even know what this is. Is it a pub crawl I want in I'm like, I don't even know what we're doing. We could be, why is my email
[00:23:49] Kyle Mountsier: going in this thing already?
[00:23:53] Michael: and people do it. And so, I mean, that is, that is truly unique. But now that the site is up a, so do con.com, tell me how this all came together and what those attendees can expect.
[00:24:08] Paul Daly: Well, historically, Kyle and I have been like, we should do an event and it's 30 days from now attached to another event and we're like, we can do it.
[00:24:16] And we do this time. We've always wanted to do a standalone event, cuz we've always done Bolton events. And we wanted to, to flip the whole script on automotive events, which is why we're calling this the rebirth of the automotive conference. We're not saying the other ones are bad. We're just saying the format needs an interrupt.
[00:24:33] Right. The format needs a reset. And, you know, we get to go to things that are outside of automotive and pay attention to a lot of, you know, marketing and culture things outside of auto. So we're like, we need to bring those things into automotive. And we knew the only way we could do that was to do a standalone event.
[00:24:48] So we. We have this amazing venue in Philly. That's right in the middle of all the major ballparks it's designed to like, you know, to, to heighten the senses it's designed to be communal and conversational. It's got energy built into it. It's it's only six minutes from the airport. It's like the perfect spot.
[00:25:07] And we, we knew that spot was the right spot. And we said, let's design a conference that is about. Conversation and not about one way, you know, advice on how you should do this or how you're doing this wrong or how you're doing that wrong because dealers wanna hear what other dealers are doing. Savvy industry partners wanna know what other industry partners are doing.
[00:25:28] They wanna know how they can adjust their products and their services and their thought process. So we said, let's wrap it all into one. And if we don't pick a date and do it, it'll never happen. So we said, let's do it in September. That was four months away, which to us felt like an eternity . But in reality, this is probably an event Kyle, that usually takes a year in a.
[00:25:50] At
[00:25:50] Kyle Mountsier: least, yeah. For especially a first shot, like we have no systems and structures. We don't have the spreadsheet like we're building while flying. Uh, which is, which is actually really fun because what it forces us to do is think outside the box. Like there's no formula that we're going after. And I think that that's really important to us and it it'll be interest.
[00:26:11] As we come out of this one, not to get too far ahead of ourselves, but we're gonna constantly push ourselves on that thinking outside the box. Like how can we, how can we be flexible within what we're given right now? Um, and, and also, honestly, what's been really neat about it is because we are so close to it.
[00:26:28] We're paying a lot of attention to what's happening real time in automotive and in retail. Uh, so the conversations will not like there's no. There's there's no conversation. That's been like prefilled on a form that says, I want to talk about this in seven months from now. It's true. I didn't even think about that.
[00:26:46] Yeah. Yeah. So it's just gonna be like really hyper relevant content. We actually, I don't think we have an official title for any of our panels. We know the panels, we know the general thing, but we still are dialing in those like official titles because we know. Dealers need what's right now, industry partners need what's right now because the dynamics of retail right now are every day, there's something different.
[00:27:10] You know, we get news one day of like inventory coming back. Inventory's not coming back, you know, and so adjusting and shifting like that is what we're trying to work on, um, with all of the content. Uh, and then, and then we're excited to bring some outside of the industry. Thinkers, you know, we've, we've announced that Jim Kel will be there.
[00:27:29] Dave Meltzer will be there. Uh, Claude silver, Nicole lip, Dr. Nicole Lipkin. Uh, I won't go through the di tribe of all of them, but we're definitely focusing on making sure that it's not just automotive thinkers because we as retail businesses need to think about retail business as a whole,
[00:27:46] Michael: right? The, the thought that came into my mind yesterday, getting a sneak peek into the venue and some of the plan.
[00:27:54] I got incredibly excited. Obviously you had mentioned it earlier. We all go to a ton of conferences. I mean, think of all the conferences we've been to over. I mean, you've been in the industry, Kyle since oh nine. You know, we got a 20 year old grandpa in the industry here. Uh, Paul, uh, and like, we've been to a lot of stuff walking into that space yesterday.
[00:28:15] I had two thoughts. First thought, was this the space you were talking about? The energy, the space is a charact. of the event. Yeah. The energy exp like you walk in and you're right. You can feel a shift in energy. I got excited immediately about witnessing others' experience, just walking in and the plans that you guys have for how they're introduced into this environment.
[00:28:41] I want, I wanna watch everybody's faces as they, they walk in. The second thought that came to my mind is, ah, finally something I could bring my wife. That was the second thought. I was like, I want my wife to experience this, cuz this is a side of automotive and don't get me wrong. She's been to others and I'm not knocking the others.
[00:29:00] They have their space, they found their lane. They're just not fun for the wife to come and attend. And I want her to experience the relationships, the collaborations, the, I want her to experience first time seeing. Uh, Paul's license plate that says fam dam on it. it does. You know what I mean? Like, because I'm like, here's fam not just for his family.
[00:29:28] I'm I'm like, ah, I feel like I'm at home. I feel like it's a family reunion. I want. I, I, you know, my kids need uncle Kyle and uncle Paul in their life. You know what I mean? Like that's the feeling surrounding this ecosystem, which, which I think is tremendous and not a small feat in the industry, but let me ask you this just as we wind down, um, I see secure spot in Philly.
[00:29:55] At prices, even your penny pinching grandma would get excited about. So tell us how can, how can those listening learn more about a so du con and get, get their tickets? Yeah, well, they
[00:30:08] Kyle Mountsier: could, you know, go ahead. We did, we wanted it to be really approachable from a cost perspective. And so, uh, so yeah, you can go to a SOTU con a S O T.
[00:30:19] cn.com. Uh, and you can get tickets right now. Dealer tickets are only 399 bucks. So if you're an employee at a dealership or dealer group, uh, you can get tickets for only 399 bucks, which is crazy because we see some like, One to four o'clock in the afternoon events hosted for 399 bucks. And so you get more than that.
[00:30:41] Uh, the, the welcome reception all the way through, uh, the second full, you know, all the way through Tuesday. So it starts Sunday night and then, uh, through Tuesday lunch. And so that's, I think we counted six meals that are all meals are included happy hour. A a concert from one of Nashville's absolute best party bands on Monday night.
[00:31:03] So we're gonna keep the energy there and exciting. We're doing things like a silent disco and karaoke, and we've got a DJ coming. Like we're doing that crazy stuff plus all of the content. Um, we're starting it in a dealership, so that's. 3 99 industry partners are only 5 99. Now we don't have many industry partner tickets left because we prioritized all of our collaborators.
[00:31:25] Um, so definitely if you're an industry partner and you want to come jump over there, uh, dealers as well though, cuz we have a, we do have a lock on how many people we can have there. Uh, and then. You know, being in Philly like right now, I was looking if I like, if I bought a ticket, got my flight and got my, got my hotel rooms, I think I'd be in and out of that place, including Ubers for under 1100 bucks.
[00:31:51] Um, wow. And so that's, that's pretty nuts thinking about just what a typical event costs.
[00:31:58] Michael: I, first of all, like here's what I love. I don't know whether this, obviously it sounds like it was intentional. First of all. I think you guys are crazy, cuz that's so inexpensive, but with the amount of value that you're throwing in, uh, that's a different, that'll be in our text message conversation later.
[00:32:16] Kyle Mountsier: that's in the BI dev conversation. That's in the BI like lemme mentor you on how to do
[00:32:20] Michael: business. I know I have nothing to do with your business outside of a podcast, but I didn't know you were running a, not for profit. Yeah. . Um, that, that it, it's just insane to me. However, what I love about it is it's a Testament to everything we've been talking about, the conversations you've been like right back to the concept of the beacon, sending out the signal, welcoming everyone in there's nothing.
[00:32:44] Maybe it's the marketer in me. There's nothing that drives me more nuts than going to a website. That's like, Come one, come all. And by the way, here's our tiered pricing. Uh, we don't want, we want you all here, but we don't, but we do, but we kind of don't at the same time, if you can't afford it, you guys are making this so achievable.
[00:33:01] Um, and just for those listening, what I would say is don't, don't sit on this. Don't think about it. A so do con.com Ford slash tickets. Uh, you'll see the pricing right there. It's very transparent. The meals. Um, how don't, I don't know how you guys are doing
[00:33:17] Paul Daly: this. Listen, they have, they have a cheese steak place.
[00:33:19] Geno's cheese steaks in the venue, and we're gonna open it up.
[00:33:25] Michael: I don't know how you're doing this. you, you gotta go check it out. A, so du con.com/tickets, we'll link to it in the show notes. For those of you that are listening or watching. Um, I I'm excited about this I'm I, and by the way, here's my little sneak peek.
[00:33:39] I don't know if I'm allowed to share this. We're we're a month and a bit out from this deal. And yesterday the event coordinator was already talking and reminding these two goons about fire code limits. so she, so. This, this is gonna be legit. Like this is gonna be legit. And, and so you need to definitely get involved in this.
[00:34:01] I'm excited to be able to participate and observe and learn, uh, a, so do con.com/tickets, boys. Thanks so much for joining me on the dealer playbook podcast,
[00:34:11] Paul Daly: our pleasure,
[00:34:12] Kyle Mountsier: boom. Our
[00:34:12] Paul Daly: pleasure.
