The Entrepreneurial Spirit: Chris Martinez on Building and Growing
This podcast episode features an enlightening dialogue between Adam Marburger and Chris Martinez, centering on the theme of human resilience and the entrepreneurial spirit inherent in building personal and professional success. The discussion underscores the significance of authentic human connections and the vital inner work that precedes external achievements. Chris expounds upon his extensive experiences within the automotive industry, illustrating his journey from humble beginnings to a position of influential leadership and innovation. He shares valuable insights into the transformative role of technology, particularly artificial intelligence, in enhancing operational efficiency and driving sales growth for car dealerships. Ultimately, this episode serves as a testament to the power of perseverance and the relentless pursuit of excellence in the ever-evolving landscape of business. The podcast episode features a profound conversation between Adam Marburger and Chris Martinez, who delves into the realm of entrepreneurship, resilience, and the transformative power of personal experiences in shaping professional journeys. Martinez, a seasoned veteran in the automotive industry, shares insights from his extensive career, reflecting on the serendipitous circumstances that led him to discover the car business. He emphasizes the importance of learning from others and acknowledges the influence of those who have paved the way for his success, epitomizing the adage, 'standing on the shoulders of giants.' Throughout the discussion, Martinez articulates his belief that entrepreneurship resembles a perpetual sport, where the pursuit of excellence drives individuals to continually strive for more, irrespective of past accomplishments. This episode serves as a testament to the notion that true success is often rooted in the experiences, lessons, and growth that accompany entrepreneurial endeavors.
Takeaways:
- In our discourse, we emphasize the significance of authentic human connections in entrepreneurship, transcending mere transactional interactions.
- The podcast underlines the notion that true success is predicated on a foundation of internal growth and resilience, fostering both personal and professional development.
- Our guest Chris Martinez elucidates how his extensive experience in the automotive industry has shaped his approach to business innovation and strategy.
- Listeners are encouraged to embrace technology, particularly artificial intelligence, as a catalyst for operational efficiency and enhanced decision-making in their ventures.
- The conversation illustrates the transformative impact of AI in streamlining processes, facilitating rapid implementation, and ultimately driving sales growth for car dealerships.
- We assert that the evolution of technology necessitates an adaptive mindset among entrepreneurs, underscoring the importance of continuous learning and agility in business.
Companies mentioned in this episode:
- CarMax
- Toyota
- Grant Cardone
- Pure Cars
- Amazon Autos
- Carvana
Transcript
This is Adam Marburger.
Speaker A:And this is humans that build real conversations with real people, not just about what they built in the world, but what had to be built inside them first.
Speaker A:No hype, no shortcuts.
Speaker A:Just humans doing the work.
Speaker A:Humans that build.
Speaker A:Real people.
Speaker A:Real work.
Speaker A:Welcome to another episode of Humans that Build.
Speaker A:Today's episode is going to be absolutely fantastic.
Speaker A:I've got an individual I've known for a long time has done business in multiple verticals doing a lot of things.
Speaker A:And this show's designed really to share stories from individuals that are making an impact, share stories from those that have had setbacks.
Speaker A:They can actually help others, and that's why we do this.
Speaker A:So welcome to Humans that Build, my friend, Chris Martinez.
Speaker A:How the heck are you doing, Adam?
Speaker B:Thank you for having me on, man.
Speaker B:No, I appreciate it.
Speaker B:I'm doing really good.
Speaker B:You know, life is good.
Speaker B:You know, I just had my 21st anniversary today.
Speaker B:It's been good.
Speaker B:Life is good.
Speaker B:You know, I can't say anything.
Speaker B:You know, I've been fortunate enough throughout my career to just work with a lot of really good people that, you know.
Speaker B:You know, there's a quote that they say, you know, if I've been able to see further, it's because I've been standing on the shoulders of giants.
Speaker B:And, and it's true.
Speaker B:I think there's, there's a lot of truth in that.
Speaker B:You know, the people that I've, I've worked with throughout my career, I've worked, learned from and, and grown as a result of working with some of these people.
Speaker B:And, and I always like the, the fact that, you know, people like yourself that, you know, I, I connect with that.
Speaker B:When I see people doing really good things, like, it just pushes me to do, to do more.
Speaker B:You know, I always feel like I'm just not doing enough.
Speaker A:Yeah, I think a lot of us entrepreneurs have that, you know, I don't, I don't know if it's a negative thing to, to feel like we always need to do more.
Speaker A:I don't know about you, but I, I, I view entrepreneurship at some level as a sport.
Speaker A:It's like, I don't, there's no real end game.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:Am I going to exit some of my companies for big numbers?
Speaker A:Hopefully, yeah, I want to do that.
Speaker A:But there's.
Speaker A:Then, then there's going to be the next mountain.
Speaker A:I'm gonna, It's.
Speaker A:I don't see myself ever stopping.
Speaker A:I don't.
Speaker A:Do you have that same thought 100.
Speaker B:Like, I don't know.
Speaker B:I'LL tell you, when I sold my company three and a half years ago, I thought, you know, because, I mean, it wasn't enough where like, it wasn't like fu.
Speaker B:Money where you could literally go, you know, sit on an island and, you know, hang out.
Speaker B:It was still just enough to get you scared, like you don't want to lose it.
Speaker B:Right?
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:And so I thought, you know, I'm going to just park it, invest it, and then I'm just going to go run a store and I'll be a general manager, have fun, sell cars and do that.
Speaker B:But then after two years, I kept seeing what was happening in, in the industry and, you know, technology wise, and I just said, you know what?
Speaker B:I think I can go, you know, do it a little bit more effective.
Speaker B:And, you know, I, I think I can be nimble enough that I can try to do it a second time.
Speaker B:So I think, you know, my goal was to just kind of retire and just, you know, sell cars and have.
Speaker B:Have fun.
Speaker B:But, you know, that inner part of you had to took over and said, hey, look, you're not done yet.
Speaker B:You know, let's.
Speaker B:Let's try to do this one more time.
Speaker B:So that's kind of, I don't know that that ever happens or it goes away.
Speaker A:Yeah, yeah, I love that.
Speaker A:So what I would like to do, I want to go back in time here for a minute.
Speaker A:I want to establish this so the audience understands the caliber of executive, especially in retail.
Speaker A:I mean, you've ran some big stores, you've got big references.
Speaker A:It's not talk, it's legitimate.
Speaker A:You've written books on what you've done in your career before you got into where you are now.
Speaker A:Let's go back.
Speaker A:Like, how did, how did the car business, which is a business that finds us somehow, right?
Speaker A:Like everybody's got their own special little story.
Speaker A:And I don't just interview car people.
Speaker A:I do get a lot of automotive people in here because I believe this.
Speaker A:Kris, I don't know if you'll disagree with this or not.
Speaker A:I believe new car franchise car dealers are the most entrepreneurial humans on the planet.
Speaker A:They just carry a high level of business acumen and I just love working with them.
Speaker A:And I like interviewing people in the car business because they've got just a lot of brilliant strategies to share.
Speaker A:So what's your path?
Speaker A:What's your story to getting sucked into the machine, my friend?
Speaker B:Well, you know, I agree with you.
Speaker B:You know, I've met a lot of great entrepreneurs that were car dealers and you Know, some of the big things that I've seen them do in life, it's.
Speaker B:It's pretty impressive and incredible.
Speaker B:You know, you think about like, someone like Brett McCombs who.
Speaker B:But, you know, NFL teams and basketball teams, NBA teams, like, it's, It's.
Speaker B:It's pretty amazing when you see them or even.
Speaker B:What was the other guy that recently passed.
Speaker B:Owned the, the.
Speaker B:The.
Speaker B:Were they the Saints?
Speaker B:Is that Tom Benson?
Speaker B:Yeah, Tom Benson.
Speaker B:So you think about these, these entrepreneurs and at the level and the heights that they've been able to.
Speaker B:To achieve is impressive.
Speaker B:Right?
Speaker B: me, you know, I'm, you know,: Speaker B:By accident, really.
Speaker B:I was actually.
Speaker B:I moved to Las Vegas.
Speaker B:I'm from El Paso.
Speaker B:I moved to Las Vegas.
Speaker B:The goal was, hey, let me go work with my uncle.
Speaker B:And, you know, he was in construction.
Speaker B:They were.
Speaker B:There's a lot of growth in Vegas happening at the time.
Speaker B:And I said, you know what?
Speaker B:I'm going to go work with.
Speaker B:Go work for him and, you know, see if I can make more money than what I was making in El Paso.
Speaker B:And then my.
Speaker B:My twin brother was working at a.
Speaker B:He's a property manager there, and he says, you know, why don't you just, you know, go work for this company called CarMax.
Speaker B:It's like a, you know, I don't know, they've been trying to recruit me for like a couple months now.
Speaker B:And I said, what is it, like a lip.
Speaker B:The lip balm thing?
Speaker B:And.
Speaker B:And he said, no, no, it's like a car dealership, I think, and I never heard of it.
Speaker B:And they were building a location in Las Vegas.
Speaker B:And I said, you know what?
Speaker B:I'm gonna go try it out because I really didn't want to do construction.
Speaker B:I've done construction in the past, and it just wasn't something I felt like that was going to be me for the rest of my life.
Speaker B:And so I went and I walked in the.
Speaker B:That they had a job fair at the Doubletree Hotel, and they hadn't even opened the store yet.
Speaker B:And I walked in and I told the guy who greeted me, and I said, hey, look, you guys were trying to recruit my twin brother.
Speaker B:I'm the next best thing, I think you got to hire me.
Speaker B:And so sure enough, they got me an interview.
Speaker B:They had me sell the pen and do all that.
Speaker B:And they hired me.
Speaker B:And I thank God I found that business because I worked there for six years, and had I not started at that, that part of my life, I don't know that I would have been as successful in automotive because that's where I really learned process and implementation.
Speaker B:KPIs all the things that you need to learn.
Speaker B:And more importantly, they're the only company that I know of in automotive that would cross train you in every department like I was.
Speaker B:I wanted to be a general manager.
Speaker B:So they had me, you know, do six month rotation and service, six months in the business office, six months in purchasing and acquisitions and trying to go through their options.
Speaker B:And I had to spend a couple of months in Atlanta because I needed to learn finance and how the lenders scored the, the actual paper and trying to see how the rehash deals, how they, how people call in to rehash.
Speaker B:And that was all new.
Speaker B:Had I not had all that, that training, there's no way I would have been as successful as I have been because I literally, once I left there, I essentially just applied everything I've learned there and I've been able to grow every store that I've been a part of and I've had had an opportunity to work with some really good people that, that believed in, you know, what I knew and how I could apply things and, and they, they let me, you know, kind of take charge in a lot of areas and I've been able to grow as a result of it.
Speaker A:You, you then wrote a couple books.
Speaker A:So what, what led to the first one?
Speaker A:I mean, what was your motivation behind it?
Speaker B:Well, you know, When I left CarMax, I went to a Toyota store and initially when I left there, I went to this Toyota store and they, you know, I knew I felt like I could get a job there.
Speaker B:But you know, they were, you know, these, these salespeople were making way more than I was as a sales manager at CarMax.
Speaker B:And what they did was they basically told me that I wasn't a real car guy, that I had to sell cars.
Speaker B:And so I said, okay.
Speaker B:But when they, when I found out half those salespeople were making over 100 grand a year, and I wasn't making that at CarMax, I said, I'm in.
Speaker B:And so I started selling a lot of cars.
Speaker B:You know, sold 30 cars a month, did well, the general manager of that store became a buying partner at a store in Austin and he took me with him.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker B:And they were selling 100 new and 50 used cars a month.
Speaker B:And from there we took that store in Austin from 150 cars a month to over a thousand cars a month.
Speaker B:It took us four years to do it.
Speaker B:But because of how we grew it.
Speaker B:And it took, you know, I. I saw the.
Speaker B:The struggles, all the.
Speaker B:The different things, the.
Speaker B:The challenges we had at 400 cars a month, at 700 cars to 900 cars.
Speaker B:All of those little things that I knew were, like, really big things for people to understand that was like, hey, there's a really good story here.
Speaker B:I'm gonna write a book about it.
Speaker B:And so I wrote a book, my first book.
Speaker B:And when I first wrote it, I said, well, there really is two books here, because the other book is really how to train salespeople and really do a better job of training them and psychology behind it and things like that.
Speaker B:So that one book turned into two books, and so I published both of them.
Speaker B:And the first one was, you know, driving Sales what it takes to sell a thousand cars a month.
Speaker B:And that one I've done really well with.
Speaker B:And then the other one I did was called the drive to 30.
Speaker B:Because.
Speaker B:Because, you know, that was always like, you know, who's going to be that 30 car guy or, you know, 30 car salesperson?
Speaker B:And I showed him how I did, because I've done it.
Speaker B:I've sold over 30 cars a month.
Speaker B:But then, you know, there's other levels to that, too.
Speaker B:And so at every level, you grow.
Speaker B:But I was showing them how you can get to those levels.
Speaker B:And that's how I really just started writing.
Speaker B:And it really was just about, you know, I always felt like if I had to do it again, I could go back to this.
Speaker B:And so it was almost like a real.
Speaker B:A playbook that I could go back to and see, okay, what was my thought process at the time.
Speaker B:And.
Speaker B:And that's kind of how I. I started.
Speaker A:Yeah, I love it.
Speaker A:And then you.
Speaker A:You found your way.
Speaker A:Technology, too.
Speaker A:I mean, you know, you've got AI stuff.
Speaker A:You've got.
Speaker A:Tell me kind of like what.
Speaker A:Tell me the transition.
Speaker A:Tell me a little bit about kind of, what are you doing now?
Speaker A:And how are you solving problems today?
Speaker B: you know, well, I started in: Speaker B:There was no.
Speaker B:You know, when I first got there, the big thing that OEM told me is, hey, there's 20,000 units in operation.
Speaker B:And I said, okay, that's.
Speaker B:And they're only selling 150 cars a month.
Speaker B:And I was like, well, it's a pretty big.
Speaker B:Why are we not tapping into that information, getting our sales teams to reach out to them?
Speaker B:And so there was no easy way to do it.
Speaker B:You know, I tried getting those Data mining tools, but it really wasn't what I wanted.
Speaker B:So I said, you know, I'm gonna go build my own.
Speaker B:I told the owner, I said, hey, look, I'm gonna build this.
Speaker B:I. I'm gonna.
Speaker B:I'll invest my own money.
Speaker B:If you want to back it, great.
Speaker B:But I really feel like if I do this, were ultimately going to sell more cars.
Speaker B:And so I was doing it to solve my problem.
Speaker B:And so, sure enough, we did.
Speaker B:We started selling more cars.
Speaker B:It was easier to get the data.
Speaker B:Anytime I had an idea, we would do it.
Speaker B:And part of it was, you know, some integrations we did.
Speaker B:Facebook at the time wasn't as big as it is today, but they started allowing you to advertise there.
Speaker B:And so I started going pretty heavily in advertising and on Facebook to the store.
Speaker B:And so, you know, we.
Speaker B:We built a data hygiene tool that could manipulate the data and create different audience and segment so that we can, one, give lists to our sales team, and then two, how we can market with that list using social media and stuff like that.
Speaker B:And as a result, we worry about sell a lot of cars.
Speaker B:You know, it got to a point that Facebook wanted to know why we were spending so much money, because we were the only dealer spending that kind of money.
Speaker B:And so they had us go to their corporate office and say, okay, tell me what you're doing.
Speaker B:And so I went in there.
Speaker B:What's funny is, at the time, they were doing a Facebook automotive division.
Speaker B:That was their new thing, right?
Speaker B:Doing, we're going to do Facebook automotive.
Speaker B:And so they interviewed us, those three people at the time.
Speaker B:And then at one point, I think they ended up growing like 300 employees there.
Speaker B:But when I.
Speaker B:When they interviewed me and had me go through what was happening, they were just interested.
Speaker B:And so, you know, when you start seeing some of those things, you knew you were doing some things right?
Speaker B:And we.
Speaker B: t tool and come to a point in: Speaker B:I gotta go and try to sell this tool.
Speaker B:I think we're at a point now that we can get there.
Speaker B:And.
Speaker B:But that means I have to leave the store and, you know, maybe I leave for a period, grow it to a certain point, and then we get some other operator to do it.
Speaker B:And then I come back to the store or something like this.
Speaker B:And he said, okay, let's do it.
Speaker B:So I ended up doing that for a couple months.
Speaker B:And then I got a hold of a gentleman named Grant Cardone, a Friend of mine introduced me to him.
Speaker A:Yep.
Speaker B:And we ended up partnering with him and White labeled the tool to take it to market.
Speaker B:Went to nada, did all that.
Speaker B:His partner at the time, though, was going a different direction.
Speaker B:So, you know, we weren't aligned in, in the direction that they were trying to go versus what we were trying to go.
Speaker B:So we ended up, you know, going separate ways on that deal because, you know, Grant, great guy, but we just, it wasn't something his partner at the time, we just, we just weren't lying.
Speaker B:So during that time, I had a 90 day out on that agreement.
Speaker B:So some.
Speaker B:A gentleman reached out to me that owned four stores, or he actually owns like 15 stores, but he wanted me to help him with four of his stores in Tulsa.
Speaker B:And he asked me, hey, Chris, I read your book, would love for you to, you know, do what you did there over here.
Speaker B:And I said, you know what I told my partner, I said, hey, look, why don't we put this on hold?
Speaker B:We, we'll come up with something, but let's just, let's just put it on hold for now.
Speaker B:I'll go run these stores and I promise you we'll have a plan.
Speaker B:And so sure enough, we got to the.
Speaker B:I started renting those stores.
Speaker B:And then Covid happened a year later.
Speaker B:And during COVID I said, well, the only way I can get the data faster than anybody is with my old software.
Speaker B:So I, at the time, one of my partners that was furloughed at the company he was at, and I told him, hey, why don't you come on board with us?
Speaker B:We'll give you equity in the company and we'll do some pretty big things.
Speaker B:And so he took a chance on what we had built.
Speaker B:We had him run the company, we built the sales team around him, and he did really well.
Speaker B:We ended up putting it in like 350 locations, ended up selling it to Pure Cars, know, a couple years later, did well.
Speaker B:And then, you know, after a few years of working at the Oklahoma location, and once we sold the company, you know, things happen where, you know, the appreciation didn't feel like it was, you know, as it was in the beginning.
Speaker B:And so when we sold the company, I ended up moving back to Texas, my wife wanted to move back to San Antonio.
Speaker B:So I ended up coming back running a Mercedes Benz store out here and, and did real well.
Speaker B:And now I'm, you know, two years at the Mercedes store.
Speaker B:I, you know, felt I had an itch to, you know, start trying to help myself sell more Cars and realize I could help a lot of dealers sell more cars with the new technology that was out in the marketplace with AI and stuff.
Speaker B:And, and now I'm doing it.
Speaker B:We got, you know, 50 locations now, and we're doing really well.
Speaker B:We're growing.
Speaker B:All of our dealers are performing at a level they weren't performing at prior.
Speaker B:And it's a lot of fun.
Speaker B:It's seeing these dealers grow.
Speaker B:And I've been able to consult and give them strategy that they normally wouldn't look at with the technology that I have.
Speaker B:A lot of this stuff I used to do manually and take me a couple of days.
Speaker B:I could do that in several hours with some data tools and it's pretty amazing.
Speaker B:So, yeah.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:Are you, you know, what are some of your biggest challenges in what you do?
Speaker A:You know, when you started this new thing, you know, what, what surprised you?
Speaker B:You know, from the first time I built my software, we built it and we had, I want to say, like 10 developers.
Speaker B:I think it grew to like 20.
Speaker B:It was, it was a lot.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:But what surprised me was with all the technology today, you could really build a lot of the stuff with three really good devs on your team.
Speaker B:You can literally take over.
Speaker B:Like, it's just, it's a whole different level now.
Speaker B:Like what would normally take two, three years to build.
Speaker B:You can do it in a couple weeks, maybe a couple months.
Speaker B:And the time for like, with an idea iteration and practical application, I mean, you're talking days.
Speaker B:I mean you can literally do some pretty amazing things pretty quickly.
Speaker B:And it's, it's getting scary, Scary.
Speaker B:Like they just released Fable 5.
Speaker B:I'm not sure if you're familiar with it.
Speaker B:And so Fable 5 was this new system from Anthropic, which is their Mythos platform.
Speaker B:And they literally.
Speaker B:And one of the guys from Palo Alto just was on a podcast recently and he basically said that something they take over large legacy type infrastructure and then they convert it to more modernized infrastructure.
Speaker B:And it generally takes five to six years to convert all this old tech into this newer tech.
Speaker B:But with this Mythos platform, the Fable 5, they can literally do all of that in about five to six weeks.
Speaker B:So something that normally would take five to six years takes five to six weeks.
Speaker B:And switching out legacy platforms and putting it into something more AI native and something that can help you perform at a higher level can be done in five to six weeks.
Speaker B:And it is true.
Speaker B:Like, I've been using it now.
Speaker B:They came back.
Speaker B:So for two weeks it was shut down.
Speaker B:Government said it hacked nsa.
Speaker B:There's so many bad things.
Speaker B:Like there's a real security threat because how quickly it can do things.
Speaker B:And so it was shut down, but they just put in some new parameters and sure, the government that it's safe and they just re released it.
Speaker B:And then I knew it was going to be released again simply because they're doing another ip, they're doing an ipo and no one's gonna, you know, their best product not gonna be on the market prior to their ipo.
Speaker B:They want more value for it.
Speaker B:And it's, it's amazing.
Speaker B:Like some of the things even that I was building six months ago, what I can build today is scary, like fast.
Speaker B:Like it's, it's, it's unheard of how quickly you can generate things and idea to market, to testing, to really real world application.
Speaker B:You're talking days, not months, weeks.
Speaker B:You're talking a day or two.
Speaker A:I want to nerd out on AI for a minute with you, but before we do that, let's brag on your company a little bit.
Speaker A:Because I mean here, ever since I met you, everything you do, you do well.
Speaker A:It seems like you hit the ball out of the park on every deal, right?
Speaker A:And I met you in person for the first time in San Francisco at the same booth with Grant.
Speaker A:And you led me to get to meet Grant.
Speaker A:I got a picture with him, so.
Speaker A:Thank you, Chris.
Speaker A:And then I got to have dinner.
Speaker A:No, it was actually lunch with you and Lisa Copeland one day.
Speaker A:So it's been nice over the years.
Speaker A:Hey, for those listening, you're watching your networks, everything.
Speaker A:I mean, you never know where the next deal is going to be, you know, so, so with that being said, I think you would agree with that, Chris.
Speaker A:I mean, you were nodding your head.
Speaker A:So what, what are some of the biggest problems that you're solving with your products and services today with car dealers?
Speaker B:Well, so for me, I looked at it like, how do I operate in a dealer's current system today?
Speaker B:I'm not trying to have them reinvent the wheel.
Speaker B:I'm not trying to have them change a process because anytime you have someone, you might as well just give up because they're just not going to change, right?
Speaker B:So you have to literally, you know, work in their blind spots or in, in their current process that you can just kind of plug certain systems in place so that it can help them move faster in their environment or just help them overall sell and service more cars.
Speaker B:And that's what we've done, I've developed, I think we've got like 12 different tools that we can plug into a dealer and literally help them sell an extra 10 to 40 cars a month.
Speaker B:But unlike legacy platforms where everything's, you know, you know, two, three grand per tool, like, so if I have 12 tools that in a current marketplace, they would probably spend 15 grand a month for each one of a total combined, they'd probably spend like 15, 20 grand.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:Well, now, because I built them and I built them at a, at a point where the cost is not as high as it used to be, and I don't have to use a lot of people to facilitate a lot of this stuff, I literally can sell the same product that, that manufacture or these legacy Companies sell for 15, 20 grand.
Speaker B:I can sell them for 2, 3 grand, $1,000, 500 bucks.
Speaker B:Like, there's some tools now that I almost give away to dealers because they don't really cost me anything outside of just, hey, I did some Sun Dev work that probably would have taken me two years to build previously, but it takes me a week to build it now.
Speaker B:Why not just give that value to the dealer as a value add?
Speaker B:And so now I just.
Speaker B:Anytime a dealer signs on with me, I'm basically just any new product or any new iteration that I'm doing, I'm just giving it to them and they're getting the benefits of it because they took a chance on me and my company.
Speaker B:So I'm giving that value for them.
Speaker B:And so it's some of those things that some of my stores have all my products, some of them just have a couple of them, and they all start with one product.
Speaker B:And it's always like a crawl, walk, run type of thing.
Speaker B:They'll start with one, they'll see how it looks.
Speaker B:Okay, it's working.
Speaker B:It's not working.
Speaker B:What do we need to, what kind of process do we need to tighten to make sure that, that it's, we're performing at a high level.
Speaker B:And then it's, let me layer in these extra products to take advantage of how, how much, how many more cars I can sell.
Speaker B:Because on the low end, they're going to sell, you know, five to ten cars a month.
Speaker B:But if I layer in everything, they could really sell 50, 60 more cars a month just with execution and making sure that all the products are in place.
Speaker B:And then not only that, like, from a data perspective, the expense that they can save, it's substantial.
Speaker B:So not only by showing them a way that the technology they're currently using today, we can cut in half, essentially.
Speaker B:Or a quarter of it.
Speaker B:It's only going to cost them a fourth of what it used to cost.
Speaker B:Now I can also show how much more money they can make and sell more and be more efficient.
Speaker A:So what, what, what is your ideal client?
Speaker A:I mean, are you, you, do you work with independents?
Speaker A:Is it only new car, franchise?
Speaker A:Do they have to have a certain number of volume?
Speaker B:No, I, I have, it's, it's from the spectrum.
Speaker B:I've got independents and I've got franchise dealers and, you know, it's, it's amazing some of these independents that are operating at a level that want to do more and it's cool because they understand, like where AI is and how they can really just apply some of the things that, the tools that we have and really amplifies them.
Speaker B:Because for me, it's not meant to replace people, it's, it's meant to make really good people even better.
Speaker B:Like today, I couldn't operate without AI.
Speaker B:Like, I probably have, I don't know, 20 different AI bots just working right now as we speak.
Speaker B:I don't know if you're familiar with cloudbot.
Speaker B:There's a lot of different technologies that you can use today that can make your life a little easier.
Speaker A:Yeah, I mean, we're.
Speaker A:AI is a big buzz right now.
Speaker A:It's like, I mean, we're past the buzz.
Speaker A:I mean, there's obviously the front lines, the early adopters, and I think now everybody's paying attention.
Speaker A:A lot of people are using it as their Google search engine.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:But there's a lot of people that are creating some incredible documents and processes and those things help, but it does so much more than that.
Speaker A:Where does this, where's AI in five years?
Speaker A:I mean, if we can go five years in the future, how scary is this going to get?
Speaker B:Well, I think it's going to be, it's going to be.
Speaker B:We're going to be living in some interesting time to say these robots start hitting the market, man.
Speaker B:The fact that you can train it to do certain tasks, I don't know that, you know, what the next five, 10 years, what's the dealership going to look like?
Speaker B:They already have robots and parts departments or like being a parts runner for the techs.
Speaker B:What does that look like, you know, when they can just buy a robot for 20 grand and, you know, start replacing certain things?
Speaker B:Because now not only is the robot can it do small tasks, but it's also got the technology of all of these AI engines to, if you ask it questions, you ask it to do something.
Speaker B:It'll just go and do it for you.
Speaker B:Yeah, it's going to be, it's going to be interesting for sure.
Speaker A:Yeah, I've shaped my head.
Speaker A:I, you know, I'd love to know.
Speaker A:I mean, the future of, of automotive is.
Speaker A:There's definite, there's vulnerability there.
Speaker A:I mean, there's, you know, you know, the Amazon autos of the world coming out.
Speaker A:I mean, Carvana.
Speaker A:I saw an article today, the things that, you know, the Carmax Carvana is doing.
Speaker A:I mean, it's interesting world.
Speaker A:So let me, let me.
Speaker A:We'll lay on the plane.
Speaker A:I know today you're very short on time today and I appreciate you taking the time to.
Speaker A:Come on, Chris, what is your, what is your plan with this?
Speaker A:I mean, do you see you holding on to this baby forever or you think you're gonna, you know, package it up and sell it to a conglomerate or what are your future plans with it?
Speaker B:You know, I'm gonna keep going as long as I feel like I can manage it.
Speaker B:You know, that was what my whole goal.
Speaker B:Like I did last time.
Speaker B:I thought, you know, maybe get to a point where I could get someone that's more seasoned in technology because, you know, I operationally, I run car dealerships, tech company.
Speaker B:You know, we've done it once with one of my partners.
Speaker B:He did a great job.
Speaker B:He navigated, he was boots on the ground.
Speaker B:I was there just as support.
Speaker B:But, you know, I think I can get it to a point and then maybe you know, sell it off and do something or really just get someone else that could come in and take it to a different level.
Speaker B:But I really think that all technology is essentially on notice because with these vibe coding apps, every dealer at some point is just going to have like some technology or some guy that, or girl that's going to just be building apps for the team and at some point you just won't even.
Speaker B:There's just a lot of technology that I don't, you know, the cost of entry now is not a big dev team.
Speaker B:You know, you can build apps now without, without a big budget, you know, something that probably would have cost you 100 grand, you know, a year ago.
Speaker B:You can get it done and you know, for a hundred dollars, I mean, it's, it's that scary.
Speaker A:It's insane.
Speaker A:Last question for you, then I'm going to let you go, my friend.
Speaker A:You know, for somebody out there that's just lukewarm on AI, but you know, they're, they, they know they need to utilize it what direction, what advice would you give them to just start getting plugged in a little bit and educated?
Speaker B:Just jump in there.
Speaker B:I mean, ask questions.
Speaker B:I think, you know, I. I bounce it off of multiple different platforms.
Speaker B:I'm talking to Grok.
Speaker B:I'm talking to ChatGPT every day, Claude.
Speaker B:I'm in all of them every day.
Speaker B:You know, I'm a cybertruck.
Speaker B:So, you know, when, as I'm driving, I'm having really deep conversations on how to, you know, do certain things and map things out and.
Speaker B:And it gives you a lot of great information and.
Speaker B:And information and.
Speaker B:And the ability to learn at levels that you've never been able to learn before.
Speaker B:I don't.
Speaker B:I don't even know, you know, from a school standpoint, like, what does schools look like in five years?
Speaker B:You know, that I think that's where the real disruption may come into place because, you know, do you really even need a lot of this.
Speaker B:This stuff that, you know, knowledge is at the tips of your finger now that you know everything.
Speaker B:I mean, it's gonna be interesting.
Speaker A:It's very well.
Speaker A:It's very well.
Speaker A:Well, Chris, I thank you for your time, man.
Speaker A:I thank you for your friendship.
Speaker A:I greatly appreciate you.
Speaker A:I'm gonna have you stand by just two seconds.
Speaker A:And for those listening and for those that are eventually watching, we appreciate the support.
Speaker A:We appreciate your kind words.
Speaker A:Every week I try to bring somebody fresh, somebody new, somebody that can provide value.
Speaker A:And today, Chris shared a lot of little nuggets, and for that, I'm thankful.
Speaker A:So thanks for watching another episode of Humans that Build.
Speaker A:We will see y' all next week.
Speaker A:Humans that Build.
Speaker A:Real people, real work.
Speaker A:See you next time.
