The Rebirth of the Automotive Conference With Paul J Daly and Kyle Mountsier

Paul J. Daly is the Founder and CEO of Automotive State of The Union (ASOTU), which offers automotive news, industry insights, and information for dealers and industry partners. He has been part of the automotive industry for 20 years, from selling his first startup to writing his NADA (National Automobile Dealers Association) Academy trusted book, The Automotive Manifesto. When the pandemic hit, Paul started the first ASOTU live stream event and has since become the only dealer-owned media publisher.

Kyle Mountsier is a Partner and COO at ASOTU, the Founder of Auto Genius, and the Co-founder of Contagious Auto. He has been in the automotive industry since 2009, with more than a decade on the dealership frontlines. His unique ability to connect people and processes makes him a trusted adviser among dealer principals, GMs, marketing directors, and auto industry vendors. Through his work with ASOTU, Auto Genius, and Contagious Auto, Kyle has taught thousands of people in the industry through workshops and keynotes.

Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:

• Paul J Daly and Kyle Mountsier share their vision for The Rebirth of the Automotive Conference
• How ASOTU and Auto Genius contribute to building a community in the automotive space
• The importance of people, processes, and technology in the automotive industry
• Kyle and Paul explain Contagious Auto and ASOTU’s mission
• Who is speaking at The Rebirth of the Automotive Conference?

In this episode…

Although the automotive industry has evolved a lot over the years, some processes remain unchanged. For instance, some dealers and vendors use old methods to communicate with customers and partners, which often limits success.

For this reason, there is a need to learn best practices specific for this industry. According to Paul J Daly and Kyle Mountsier, the solution is to bring professionals together in one community where they can connect and learn from each other. By joining communities such as Auto Genius and Automotive State of the Union, you can discover optimum technology and work with other professionals to anticipate industry trends.

In this episode of the InsideAuto podcast, Ilana Shabtay interviews Paul J Daly and Kyle Mountsier from Automotive State of The Union (ASOTU), to talk about the rebirth of the automotive space. They also discuss ASOTU’s mission and the importance of people, processes, and technology in the automotive industry.

Resources Mentioned in this episode

• AutoLeadStar
• Ilana Shabtay on LinkedIn
• Paul J Daly on LinkedIn
• Kyle Mountsier on LinkedIn
• ASOTU
• The Rebirth of the Automotive Conference
• The Rebirth of the Automotive Conference Speakers
• “People, Process, & Technology: The Bright Future of Automotive With Kyle Mountsier”
• Auto Genius
• Automotive News
• Steve Greenfield on LinkedIn
• Benjamin Hadley on LinkedIn
• Brian Kramer on LinkedIn
• Contagious Auto
• Nelson Automotive Group
• Digital Dealer
• David Meltzer on LinkedIn
• Car Guy Coffee
• 12 South Band

Sponsor for this episode…

This episode is brought to you by AutoLeadStar, a company that helps car dealerships engage quality customers on the web and convert them into car buyers.

Co-founded by Aharon Horwitz, Yishai Goldstein, and Eliav Moshe, AutoLeadStar’s state-of-the-art software automates a dealership’s entire marketing funnel and provides around-the-clock service for dealers.

AutoLeadStar’s innovative technology helps dealerships automate ads, connect with customers, and discover ROI and performance metrics. 

Visit their website at www.autoleadstar.com to learn more about their around-the-clock marketing service.

Episode Transcript

Intro 0:03

Welcome to InsideAuto Podcast where we feature everyone and anyone you’d want to talk to in and out of the automotive industry.

Ilana Shabtay 0:14

Ilana Shabtay here, host of InsideAuto Podcast where we interview top dealers, GMs, marketers, entrepreneurs, and thought leaders in and out of the automotive industry. Before we introduce today’s guests, this episode is sponsored by AutoLeadStar.com. AutoLeadStar is automotive’s first and leading CDXP, Customer Data and Experience Platform. Top dealers invest in CDXPs to unify dealership data sources automatically create one to one customized journeys and create omni channel shopping experiences all connected in one platform. Today, we have automotives finest duo on the InsideAuto Podcast. Welcome Paul Daly and Kyle Mountsier. I know you like that term.

Paul J Daly 0:57

That’s good. That’s a new one.

Kyle Mountsier 0:59

That one into everything we do on the spine is duo

Ilana Shabtay 1:03

And for those who aren’t watching, basically twins, so into our YouTube channel to see it. But yes, I have coined that and I think I think it works. What do you think?

Paul J Daly 1:16

Sticks? It feels good. It feels right.

Ilana Shabtay 1:19

Paul is founder and CEO at ASOTU on with state of the union. He’s been part of the automotive industry for 20 years from selling his first startup to writing his na da dealer Academy trusted book The automotive manifesto. His career displays a commitment to the industry that borders obsession. We’re going to talk about that today. When COVID When COVID Hit Paul, he started the first automotive State of the Union live stream event. And since then it’s become the only dealer owned media publisher. So congratulations on that. We also have here Kyle Mountsier, who is partner and COO at ASOTU. Kyle has been in the automotive industry since 2009. With more than a decade on the dealership frontlines. His unique ability to connect people and processes makes him a trusted adviser among dealer principals, GMs marketing directors and artists auto industry vendors through his work at ASOTU. Founder at Auto Genius, here we go, and Co-founder at Contagious Auto. He has taught 1000s of these taught like 1000s of people in the industry through workshops and keynotes. And so really excited to hear about all those different brands on this podcast. And for those of you who are veterans of the InsideAuto Podcast, Kyle has been on InsideAuto before when he was at on the retail side at Nelson. So thanks for joining us again. Yeah, glad to be here. Love I tripped up on your bios, because they’re so impressive and just kept going.

Paul J Daly 2:49

I was like it was the second part of that

Kyle Mountsier 2:50

they just kept going. It just kept going. I think that’s more of a thing.

Ilana Shabtay 2:55

We got Auto Genius, Contagious Auto. Uh, so too, there’s a lot of A’s I quit, can’t keep up. But what’s most exciting is you guys are on a mission to reinvent automotive conferences. Right, we got a so to con coming up September 11, to 13th and Philly. Correct. You got? We’re going to talk a lot about the vision for the conference. And I also want to talk about just like in general, how this actually connects to the overall mission that people like us are really focusing on right now with, with automotive like, what are we trying to change? What are the challenges? What are our predictions, I love talking about this on InsideAuto Podcast. So let’s start just with the vision and just get people familiar with the conference coming up. And we’ll take it from there.

Paul J Daly 3:40

Without a doubt. So the we were calling it The Rebirth of the Automotive Conference, it’s so easy to get in like a rut and the way things are done and I think systemically as an industry, we’re being faced with the fact that that’s no longer going to cut it. And it’s been kind of ripping the band aid off slowly over the last decade, right? Because we haven’t had to pull it off. Right, it felt like the band that came off it then something economically change, we put the band aid back on, right and we kept doing things the same way. And now I think we’d all agree we are in a season and in a time when we’re never going back. Right like we’ve gone over the curve, right EVs have brought automotive back into a pop culture level of conversation legislation, you know, starting to pay more attention. You know, there’s different new entrants into it. So like the whole thing is shifting. And I think all of us agree and all the people who are really paying attention are making moves because they know it’s never going back to the old way, say all that to say, why would we ever expect that the way automotive activates together as far as dealers and industry partners and OEMs Why would we expect that that is going to stay or should stay the way that it’s been for so long? So that really is the premise by which Kyle and I moved into a soda con and said, like, we can’t do it the old way, the whole industry is different, the mentality is different. The way we need to orient and think about things and work together is different than ever. So we need to put on a conference that reflects all of that stuff wrapped up, like half of it is, well, more than half of it is very functional. And we’re going to it’s going to be much more conversational than one directional. And a lot of it too, is also kind of a flag in the sand to say, this is the way that works, everybody. And we know we can’t have everybody at our conference, we can only have 600 This one, right. But we need all the other auto conferences and people to get the we need them to learn best practices and see what works too, because it’s going to take all of us as an industry to get through this.

Kyle Mountsier 5:45

Even zoom out like, just real quick, because, you know, we were throwing this conference, and that’s big, kind of a big flag in the ground that we’re dropping, and, you know, the naming it The Rebirth of the Automotive Conference has certain just, you know, like attention from a lot of people on what does that actually mean. And I think if we zoom out to what a so do automotive State of the Union is on a broader scale, is actually redefining the way that we communicate and build community around conversations. And so this is like, you know, like, we want to do that 12 months out of the year. So whether that be live streams, or podcasts or a daily email, or clubhouse rooms or anything where people are, you know, both consuming and then gaining insights and then creating activity off of media, or conversations, we want to make sure that we’re crafting it in reimagined, innovative, exciting ways, similar to way, the way the rest of the industry is experiencing, you know, retail right now. So like if retails being reimagined, and every way that we communicate should be reimagined as well. So the way the industry partners and dealers understand each other communicate, you know, be relational, the way that all of those communicate with OEMs should be reimagined. And what we’re saying is like, now we’ve got a 48 hour timeline to visibly show what that should look like to potentially give like that gift to, you know, the way that podcasts are done, the way that the way that media is written all of that type of stuff. This is just a microcosm of that packed into 48 hours of energy and intentionality and conversation.

Ilana Shabtay 7:32

Yeah, I was I was gonna say, for those of you who aren’t subscribed to the co2 newsletter, I think that’s a really good way to kind of consume the rebirth of the way that we should be consuming automotive news right now. It’s a daily email, and it, it’s a different way to again, consume, like, if you look at a soda newsletter, and you look at Automotive News’ newsletter, they’re going to be very different. And I think the industry will kind of move into that direction with a lot of other media as well. So thank you for leading the way. You talked a little bit about community, and just how vendors and dealers and OEMs should be communicating. Can you talk a little bit more about how a so two is contributing to that? And then also, if there is overlap, how Auto Genius is also contributing to that? Because I know that’s also community within the community.

Paul J Daly 8:24

Yeah, the community is going to quickly become the buzzword, if it isn’t already. Yeah, I don’t think it’s there yet.

Ilana Shabtay 8:31

It’s a community tick shot. I mean, I don’t know. No, no, no, it’s

Paul J Daly 8:35

that it’s at the starting block right now. Yeah. Yeah, you’re drinking. I’m drinking water, coffee, morning coffee, right?

Ilana Shabtay 8:41

I understand. People are gonna start saying it last minute, for sure. I was brand

Paul J Daly 8:46

It was brand for the last three to five years, right. And all of a sudden, but what we want to iterate when we say, like putting community at the center of the strategy is the differentiator, I think, in success in any company, across the board and automotive, and maybe any company, but there’s so much focus on it, because everyone’s beginning to realize the power that you don’t need everybody. You do need though, a group of people who believe in the same things and understand how to approach things the same way like I would consider our morning, our morning email or our daily newsletter. I would consider that like an approach angle, right? More than the way you need to do it. We’re saying like, you need to approach the news. And we believe that approaching automotive with a wide lens of Yes, automotive industry news, right? And we rely on Automotive News’ publications so much for that because they do a great job with that. But we also bring in retail and pop culture because we think all of that sets the consumer expectation and what we’re actually doing all the things that we’re doing in technology and Kyle with Auto Genius, and us with us so to like what we’re actually trying to do is get everybody together. To solve the customer experience, and we can’t do that, if we don’t understand the customer mentality, which is why our approach angle is the way it is. So when we talked about building the community around the ASOTU, it’s just bringing in all the other people that say, oh, yeah, I agree with that as the approach angle we should be paying attention to. Because if we take a different angle, we’re not going to see all the things that we need to see to land this plane. And so that that is really the approach in the building community and why it’s so important. And I’ll let Kyle talk about Auto Genius and kind of the role that that’s playing a very influential role within automotive marketing and beyond.

Kyle Mountsier 10:36

Yeah, and before I talk a little bit about Auto Genius’, is, you know, what I think is we were actually talking to Steve Greenfield about this. And even he, you know, I’m gonna plug this like 18 times a day, because I read his automotive ventures, and you know, the Intel report, and if you aren’t getting that, get that I know, everyone’s like, No, you gotta tell people to sign up for your own thing. I’m like, no, no, go read Steve Greenfield’s, please, please, please, it’s so good. But he just talked about how customer expectations are set on the rest of retail. And the problem that a lot of times we get into as we get into this silo, and all we think about is like what we can see right in front of us. And really what we what we become as consumers instead of actors. And what we’re hoping to do through like, the daily email and the podcast is go, Okay, here’s some auto stuff, here’s some retail stuff, here’s some cultural stuff. And now that you’re thinking about all of those that might actually recontextualize, what you’re going to do today at the store, and how you’re going to envision the next four to five years in your brand build or your process build. Because you’re seeing like, Oh, I saw that. And I saw that. And I saw that. And, oh, there’s there’s actually like a through line to that in how my business operates. And that’s the difference between just consuming news and consuming media or consuming conversations and acting on them. You know, so to kind of like, bring that to the Auto Genius side, you know, myself and Ben Hadley and Kevin Germain kind of created this community of automotive marketers. And right now, it’s community of about 100 of the top auto marketers in the country, people that are doing things that that half of the country isn’t even thinking it’s on the horizon from a data or marketing perspective. And, you know, there’s a lot of crossover between the asoto and Auto Genius community, because it is a mindset that says, hey, look, there’s something out there over the horizon. And we might just be the first there to it. And we’re okay with potentially even looking wrong, in some ways, because we’re pushing the boundaries so hard. I think about, you know, Brian Kramer being in the metaverse and doing a transaction, he pushed the boundaries so far, that even he said, No, we can’t keep doing it that way. Because it’s not ready for us. You know, and I think that’s what some of the Auto Genius community is doing. And that’s why, you know, even at our event, the Auto Genius community has got to be activated in some of the conversations because seat like I said this a few weeks ago on a podcast that, that every Horizon has a now that that you’ve got to you’ve got to see the horizon, you got to go after it. But you also have to pull that back and recognize that there’s something that you can do about it right now. And that’s the kind of community that we’re building is as a community that keeps looking over the horizon, but keeps the boots on the ground and the hands in the dirt and what to do right now about that horizon that we’re seeing.

Ilana Shabtay 13:37

Yeah, and you’ve talked a lot about the people and the process and technology and what you’ve implemented, at least the last time you were on, instead of a podcast again, for those who listened, it was about a year and a half ago already, which Wow. Or no, even more, I think, maybe maybe even close to two years. But when you were at Nelson, we talked a lot about having, of course, the best people and having them trained, having processes around that. And then implementing the best technology so that you can actually be dynamic and react to the market. And I think that’s also part of this whole message, which is, yes, take consume your news and bring it in some kind of context as to how you’re going to act that day. But also make sure you have the people process and technology to actually respond and do something about it. So that’s, that’s what that’s kind of my angle and how I see that. And I’m very happy to be part of this community as well, because I also think, okay, if this is how dealers are now consuming news, how can we then support them better? So I absolutely love what you guys are doing, and thanks for opening up the community to people like me. Real quick.

Kyle Mountsier 14:43

I know you really like had a question on the tip of your tongue. But a lot of people might look at Paul and I especially from an associate perspective and be like, Oh, it’s a marketing and technology thing that they’re talking about? Because that’s where a lot of like our historical time time has been spent, you know Paul with congruent myself with Nelson. And you know when we started Contagious doing marketing training and and so yeah, we have a bent like a natural bent toward the way to market or build build brand or or a you know a simulator assume technology. But what what’s crazy like 75% of our content is actually not marketing and technology at all. It’s people culture process, you know, internal brand and unique selling propositions. For Yeah, the community that our core things to, like, you can’t go do marketing and technology without having all of that in place. Like just shut down the budgets, right? Shut down the, like the tech stack. Because if you don’t have this in place, then all of that ceases to make sense. And they don’t connect.

Ilana Shabtay 15:51

Yeah. 100% you actually mentioned Contagious. Can you talk about that? That brand as well, just so that we all have it in our minds. We know what a Soto is, we know what Otto Dini says, Now let’s go to Contagious for a moment wrap that up.

Paul J Daly 16:06

Contagious is like, I don’t even know how to like I’m trying to think of a metaphor for it. So when pile A or B Company is a professional therapy company, yeah. Which is it always ends up no matter what we go. For. We ended up we ended up we ended up dealing with very personal issues. But here’s the deal, Kyle and I, when we got together, we met for the first time at Digital Dealer in Tampa. And we had met online, you know, through like different rooms, and we were part of a marketing group during the pandemic. But we met first for the first time Digital Dealer, Tampa, when they was like the first one back not this past one, but a year ago, and realized very quickly after we spent a little bit of time together kind of saw each other in the live element, right, like doing doing our thing on the stage and interacting with other people and having conversations. We were like we went home from that trip. And we were like texting on the on the way home being like we have to do something together. And at the time, we thought we were going to make the impact in automotive. By beginning a company that starts marketing training. We believe that like brand is so important to dealerships, that marketing departments kind of hold the heart of culture, and brand for automotive and really were the critical point in changing not only the consumer experience, but the employee experience. And so we were going to build out standards for marketing across the board, and build out a training company, and what Contagious then we realized really quickly after doing a soda event together, I was gonna put one on in Vegas and Kyle, we were working together with Contagious and he just threw in, like, just like, I’ll help with that. And he helped with it. And really quickly we realized, we need to like really lean into a CIO, too, and make that a formal company so Contagious, what that turned out to be, as we put some of that stuff on the backburner, and maybe we’ll get to it actually, through a sort of, you know, with through training and things like that. But what we do now with Contagious is it’s a small consultancy, and we have one other staff member, and we just get very focused and intentional, intentional attention to just a few dealer groups, dealers and dealer groups across the country. And so that’s kind of like where we keep our hands in the dirt working in the stores and being on site. And you know, having an idea of what it’s like so that’s what Contagious is right now. It’s kind of like, I don’t know, that’s kind of like what we do to actually make a living. That asoto is what we do, to like, actually grow something in the for the future.

Kyle Mountsier 18:26

We all need that. It’s it’s funny, because just this last weekend, I was texting Paul, about the you know, this is about a year from when we started really putting the ideas on paper on what we wanted to do with Contagious. And it was really interesting, because, you know, we both kind of wrote out like, Hey, here’s our vision, this is what we want to make sure we’re doing this is what we want to like, this is what we believe doing together is really good. And I wrote this paragraph in this kind of like, essay ish thing to Paul. And what’s really funny is like, if we would have just maybe slowed down just a little bit, we might have done a sudo quicker. But it may not have been as good because we may have missed some things. But I wrote this, I said, it’s clear to me that God has given me unique gifts and communication and collaboration. Because of this, I feel called to make both a national, local, national and global impact on both the culture and perceptions surrounding the automotive industry. This will look like crafting spaces where new ideas are shared and executed both on a micro and macro level. Which just like if you read that out of context of Contagious, you’re like, Oh, that’s a so do.

Ilana Shabtay 19:30

You stick to your mission. So I think that’s great. And actually, again, referring back to that podcast, but I’ve heard you speak about this before. Your mission is to make automotive the, you know, the sexy industry that when people go to whatever the it is they want to study they’re like, Okay, I’m studying this because I want to go into the automotive industry and it’s freaking hard to get in, you know. So, I absolutely love that. And I think that we can part of, you know, the changing the comps and the stigmas and the A brand of automotive is also making sure that, you know we can attract really amazing talent and doing that is doing that by by putting out things like a so to Contagious Auto dealers. I mean, I think we’re on the right track. I say we but you know,

Paul J Daly 20:15

you’re part of it, you are part of it. I know without a doubt, that’s the cool thing about a soda is like everybody can be a part of it. Like for real. And that’s the best thing about any great community that you’re a part of, we all have different interests in life, right? And people, you know, Seth Godin is just like, hey, you can find the other people that like to wear red hats, and then you can go on a bus trip somewhere while wearing your red hats, right? And he kind of like brings it down to that base level. But it really is the truth about how we find the others that believe how we do and so it was one of those things like where the the gate is super wide, right? It’s like you’re you’re a dealer, you can come in, you’re a lot Porter you can come in, you’re a tech vendor, that’s super smart. You can come in, you’re Steve Greenfield that’s just from another planet level intelligent, he can come in or you’re an OEM, we actually really want to incorporate you in the conversation, and we want to hear what you’re thinking and we want to work together. So that’s my favorite part of it. So too, is that you can be a part of it. Right? And you are a part of it. You know, what’s interesting,

Kyle Mountsier 21:11

it’s an it like goes one level deeper to the customer side can be a part of a So do we have people on our email list that are not in the automotive industry that tell us? I read it every day, you know, and people that like, are not in the auto industry that have asked me personally about? Well, I would wear that shirt? Well, I would be I Yeah, that sounds like a thing that the auto industry needs, like, how can I support that these are conversations that I’m having on a daily basis. So it’s interesting, because like Paul said earlier, automotive is now a part of pop culture, it is a front and center thing. It is on every news source on a daily basis, both you know, pop culture news, as well as like, markets news. And so people are attenuated to having these conversations and I think they’re actually more and more willing to have the conversations alongside of those people. So Dave Meltzer is coming to our, our event and going to be speaking and if you don’t know Dave Meltzer, you can look him up. But he is just the right kind of business savvy, personal savvy, and has like, his pedigree is very long. And he’s well known in the especially in the sports world, but he was having some conversations with people that are totally outside of auto, and dropped a couple of names of people that were like, Hmm, I might actually want to come to a conference like that. And so this is not, this is not a thing that we’re just insulated from the world on anymore.

Ilana Shabtay 22:46

Yeah. And also, I think it’s really important to actually bring consumers and non auto shoppers into the conversation. So I think part of the rebirth is also should we do some, I mean, now, I’m really thinking about the next maybe next year. You know, let’s do a panel with the people in market and see what they’re saying and bring on dealers that that would be really interesting, super interesting,

Paul J Daly 23:09

You know, we have toyed with the idea of, you know, maybe someday a soda will have, like, like a consumer offering. Right, like, like, build out the consumer community a little bit. And that would probably be much more attuned to, like, you know, reviews and, you know, like, tips on how you know, Evie education, and you know, all the things that we say, like a dealer should do this. It’s really important. So we’ll probably, at some point, start doing some of that, just to keep our finger on the pulse of you know, I would shoot, I think it’s worth doing that just so we could get the feedback, right, yeah, comments, and the surveys and all the stuff that comes with this consumer arm than I do. So I like your idea of involving consumers in the conferences and like that, that has been a part of our at least our thinking that we need to stay extremely in touch with consumers. And that would be super cool. If we had them at our events, they would probably be that would probably be the most watched content, you know, producing. Yeah, like 80 dealers in

Kyle Mountsier 24:13

the room just like, Yeah.

Ilana Shabtay 24:17

Where’s your market? No, but it’s just interesting because when we think about conferences, I’m I’m just going through those those sessions. All the sessions are pretty similar at this point, and everyone’s talking about today’s shoppers, but you know, I’m guilty of it, too. Today’s shoppers are expecting XY and Z 85% of shoppers are on mobile. But like The Rebirth of the Automotive Conference, let’s bring those shoppers in. Let’s have them be part of the conversation. So I think that that, there we go, there we go. Appreciate it. Thank you.

Paul J Daly 24:46

Well, we can reach something of like, Who can we interview that’s going to be there. It’s like, well, we have the event staff. Here we go. We call them in the band, the band J and right. We should talk to them. collaborate me guy, let them all up. Kyle and I are never in an Uber ride where we don’t start asking questions about where they get their car all the time. And honestly, the answers are always surprising. Everyone, always surprising.

Ilana Shabtay 25:18

No, we would be even interesting if you can pull it off because, you know, it’s only we’re only a month away Can you believe it? But if you can even bring, you know, you have the event staff walking around and you literally ask them onstage you are on the spot. What do you know about EVs? What do you know about this and just get get the like, get the audience just thinking and bring it into real life? Anyway, we could talk about maybe a little Yeah, maybe that will happen.

Paul J Daly 25:42

Maybe we’ll deploy Fred and Lou, because, you know, Fred, Car Guy Coffee guys, they’re coming to do them interview the crew, we should just throw them into downtown Philly and just start asking people.

Ilana Shabtay 25:56

Hilarious. But we’ll just actually

Paul J Daly 25:58

We’ll just get them go right into South Philly. We’ll give them the two microphones and send somebody with an iPhone and be like, hey, ask people about background content? I think we might do they would crush it. Oh, my goodness.

Ilana Shabtay 26:12

Okay, well, before we wrap

Kyle Mountsier 26:14

while we’re reimagine the rebirth

Ilana Shabtay 26:18

before I just changed the entire content of the show. So this is what you should expect.

Paul J Daly 26:23

It’s recorded now, you know that synthesized on the show? Oh, you’re gonna be like, that was my

Ilana Shabtay 26:31

Yeah, no, no, but before we sign off, let’s drop some names of the speakers that have been released so far. And then we can maybe regroup in a couple months and we could do an episode we talk about it talk about the impact and what we should expect from the next type of conference, but let’s just get some names out there so people can be aware tickets, I’m sure they’re gonna be sold out pretty soon. Who’s speaking?

Paul J Daly 26:52

All right, let’s start with the non automotive people. Then we’ll get we’ll get to the non we’ll get to the automotive people, non automotive people. The waiter probably just don’t have the names yet. We need to place over

Ilana Shabtay 27:06

There on deck right now.

Paul J Daly 27:08

So in our, in our effort to bring non automotive into automotive right, get the outside thinking inside we’re bringing a bunch of non automotive speakers that have quite a bit of experience doing a lot of different things that first and foremost, Jim McKelvey is our featured keynote speaker, the author of the innovation stack New York Times best seller. He also is the co founder of the payments company Square he founded square with Jack Dorsey. He’s also I’ve we just found out the chairman of the St. Louis Federal Reserve, so he has a thing or two going on with the understanding the economy, he’s got to be with us live Claude silver, the Chief Heart Officer of VaynerMedia Gary Vaynerchuk second in command, legendary music video producer Darren Doan, with over a billion views on YouTube. Dave Meltzer, like Kyle mentioned, Dr. Nicole Lipkin, who was with us in our very first show, too, and speaks and consults with OEMs and publicly traded companies. So there’s a lot of outside automotive stuff. And I’m going to let Kyle hit some dealers and some industry partners. But I am excited also to say, I don’t know Jason Stein is a name that anyone who has been in automotive for more than a few years know, the legend that Jason Stein is he was the publisher of Automotive News for a long time. And now he has, you know, a really successful podcast. He’s, you know, leading up the team at motor minds, and he’s coming in to do some hosting and just being in the room, one of the most insightful people in automotive. So that’s, that’s kind of my swing. Kyle, you got a whole list of people to pick from I mean, we have what how many total 767 73 speakers

Kyle Mountsier 28:35

in total, because we’re just packing in these panel, fireside chats, and so you know, 48 hours, 73 speakers. We didn’t come here to but if you know what we’re saying so, yeah, so some incredible marketers like Matt Lasher of West Toronto Auto Group, Nathan Hollaback Hollenbeck of Digi Digi, Mike Cavanaugh, the VP of operations of lithium and driveway really excited about having his insights because even just as a soda, we talk a lot about what driveway is doing on a national level, and so excited to have him in the conversation. You know, Steve Greenfield will be there. Also excited to have Tom doll, the CEO of Subaru of America, you know, every single dealer that that we talked to, that’s a Subaru dealer that’s already coming is like, Oh, I’m even more excited now. Just because his grace and presence and ability to communicate with and among dealers is really strong. You know, and then all of our investors Brian Benstock, Brian Kramer, Daymond Lester, David Long, Liza Borges, Patrick Abad, Scott Simon’s just high level operators that are thinking progressively, but we activated in through a few conversations there. You know, a couple of the really neat things that we’re going to be doing we’re going to do pitch tank Live, which is something that started on clubhouse and has continued for over a year and a half now, that dealers will be able to pitch vendors, sorry, vendors pitch dealers in three minute quick, quick bursts.

Ilana Shabtay 30:06

The more interesting ones that I said. But the first sounds way more interesting. Let’s flip this switch this.

Kyle Mountsier 30:14

So you know, what’s crazy is half an hour, half an hour after. Yeah, pitch tank, we are doing dealers pitching vendors. So we’re actually synthesizing some ideas that will be that will be presented to vendors and industry partners and other dealers. And the and the goal is to kind of like create solutions, or at least begin conversations to create solutions that hopefully have not been created so far. Yet in auto, like we’re being you know, between myself and a few other people, we really know the auto tech landscape. And so we’re being very poignant and making sure that it’s not things that are currently solved. And knowing that the only way to solve it is for industry partners and dealers to get together and start solving things in the room. So that’s gonna be

Paul J Daly 30:58

you’re going through the things in the names and I’m like, Oh my gosh, like we’re gonna, it’s like, Alex Vetters gonna be there. Chip Perry talk about two people have steered the auto industry. I’m Erica Tiffany wells. Somebody is lighting things on fire right now. You know, there’s a there’s a woman named Patrice Banks who has an all women’s Service Center in Philadelphia. And she was actually just on Tim Farley’s podcast. She’s legit. She’s hardcore. There in Philly. So she’s gonna be there. So we’re just literally is like nothing the auto industry has ever seen. And did you talk about the party?

Kyle Mountsier 31:36

Didn’t didn’t talk.

Paul J Daly 31:37

So Monday night, Monday night.

Ilana Shabtay 31:40

If we’re rebirthing the automotive conference, let’s just start right,

Paul J Daly 31:43

right, we’re and we were like, we want to convert a little bit. We got a little control freak in us. So we’re like, we’re controlling everything. We’re doing all the meals. So all the meals are included, and even the evening entertainment. And we’re flipping the whole venue from conference mode to entertainment mode, because the venue actually is a sports entertainment venue. And we’re gonna have a silent DJ, karaoke DJ

Kyle Mountsier 32:03

Silent DJ.

Paul J Daly 32:04

Silent DJ, he just looks like he’s busy but not doing anything. silent disco, which has a DJ, right silent disco. That’s hilarious, a live DJ karaoke. And we’re bringing in Nashville’s hottest party band called 12 South and they’re going to do an open air concert and we’re inviting every single person that works at a dealership in the country. So if they’re in Philly probably gonna have a higher concentration because they can drive in, but it’s free. If you’re a technician, a lot, Porter, a BDC rep, a manager, whatever. If you work at a dealership, you can come to this party for free because like we were talking in the beginning, like how are people going to fall in love with the industry if they don’t realize there are a lot of other people that are also in love with the industry. So it’s going to be all together. I don’t even know what to expect. I expect to be tired on Tuesday. There you go.

Ilana Shabtay 32:50

Well, I’m excited. I will confirm to be there as well. So I’m really excited. Very, very excited looking forward. Thank you so much for your time today and we will have to do a follow up because we’ve gotten everyone way too excited. We need to send in a month come back talk about it. Thank you both so much, Paul and Kyle from ASOTU and Auto Genius and Contagious Auto, all you guys represent. But thank you so much for joining me today. Insideautopodcast.com, that’s where you get all the information. Thank you.

Outro 33:19

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