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When we first started, that's the idea.
Like, we're curious, we want answers to things that we have problems with in our day-to-day dealership life.
So I was like, hey, all dealers have these same questions.
We all want to know, know one of us is as smart as all of us put together.
Hello, and welcome to the Indo-Pendon Dealer Podcast, brought to you by Buckeye, dealership consulting.
Luke, change is in the air, buddy. Change is in the air.
That it is. And Jeff, you use that dealership consulting instead of, you know, dealer risk or whatever it is.
Oh, did I? You changed what I was supposed to change.
You changed backwards for some reason, but change is definitely in the air.
And hopefully everyone that listened to last week's episode saw that there was a little difference, Jeff.
It was a little different. Yeah, I would say, you know, probably a slightly better production value,
probably slightly better presentation. And when I say slightly, I mean drastically.
We have the two masterminds that are responsible for this change on the podcast today.
So we'd like to welcome Reagan and Kelly. Ladies, say hello. Introduce yourself to the podcast.
Hello, I'm Reagan. This is Kelly. We have an agency called Berry Creative.
She's a car dealer. I'm a marketer. I'm learning how to be a car dealer.
She's learning marketing, but together we've kind of partnered to help car dealers.
And I think that's why we're so excited for this podcast is it's a very exciting space.
And with combined kind of our combined expertise, we're hoping to kind of help and
challenge the industry along with you guys because I see you guys as kind of like the
educational template for these dealers. Well, we're wonderfully glad to hear that because
we just talk and if it's educational, we're glad. And Kelly, you're kind of,
I mean, you're kind of new to the podcast, but old to the podcast. Who are you?
My name is Kelly Bryan. I'm married to Caleb Bryan. So I...
Ah, that guy. That guy.
Yeah. He may have heard of him before. He's been on here once or twice.
So we have the AutoPave. I'm the CFO of the AutoPave. So I've been in the car business
since 2019. And so it was really interesting for me to jump into advertising because
when I came at it from accounting and finance and budgeting, and I was like,
why are you paying so much for this? And then Caleb, with all of his expertise in marketing,
has really cut our costs. And so it was interesting to see and see how other people
are applying it. So I'm just learning a lot. And I'm also applying a lot of the knowledge
of the dealers because you guys probably know better than anyone. Advice is not one size fits all.
It depends on what everyone has going on at their dealership. So it's interesting to see how you
can create this platform to give dealers who don't necessarily have access to the big guys who give
great advice, advice on what they can do to move forward if they're not profitable,
or they want to grow, or all the things so that they can do it well.
Yeah. Jeff, years ago when we started this, we started this six years ago. And the product
seven years ago almost, the product we originally started out with, it hasn't changed a lot, Jeff.
We hope that we have brought you all value. But Jeff, can I talk about your original idea
when it came to the podcast and how we were going to approach helping dealers? Because
dealers helping dealers, that's what you're talking about.
Yeah. Obviously, this is a hobby for Luke and I. It's not a business. It's not a professional
endeavor, slightly more professional for Luke now that he's unemployed. But when we first started,
that's the idea. We're curious. We want answers to things that we have problems with in our
day-to-day dealership life. So I was like, hey, all dealers have these same questions. We all
want to know, no one of us is as smart as all of us put together. So if we can find the best people
with the best answers and bring them here, then we can all get answers to these questions. We can
all be better. We can all lift our communal knowledge of how to be a better dealer, run a better
business, sell more cars, be more profitable, have less headaches and stress, and ultimately
live a better life. So obviously Luke and I can take that so far with the production value.
And that's what we ran into is because I'm still running a business day-to-day. I haven't freed
myself of it. Luke has got a wife to take care of who's super needy. So he just didn't have the
time to dedicate what we needed to to really increase the production value. And that's where
Barry Creative has come in to help us as a podcast is just to make sure we're bringing
more value to the dealers, better education, better topics, more thought through episodes
with things that'll be more impactful and then also helping our reach. Because we all know
you go to convention, you go to these events, it's the same two to three hundred dealers, right?
Guess what? There's 70,000 independent dealers in the United States or some number like that.
Something like that. And we're barely scratching the surface of that. So if we can use social
media and more media channels to reach out to that next level of dealers who might want
education, they might want to know how to get better. They just don't know where to
find it. They literally don't know that a community exists and they definitely don't
know that a podcast exists that could educate them. So I think that's kind of our goal going into
phase two or phase three of the podcast. Yeah. And Reagan and Kelly, what are you looking
forward? What do you think you can do that's going to make this better for dealers out there?
I'll make one comment. You said a word in its community and community led anything
is the way to go because even marketers, this is the secret about marketers,
we go into communities. You could be the best marketer ever, but it's these small communities
where we're sharing insights and tips. That's how we really get the best data. So what you guys
are doing, you're on the right path to really help dealers because you really do need a community
that's more data, that's more insights. And I think with us, things are evolving.
Things are changing, especially in the space. There's all the, there's these AI tools
and tech out there and things that are happening that people need to talk about and share
insights about. And that's what you guys can do is you're always on the cutting edge of what's
happening. And so for us with the branding, I mean, the podcast, our goal is to help
evolve with the industry. And I think that's what you guys will be able to do.
Yeah. Kelly, with your knowledge of being in a dealership a lot, I mean, how do you see this
helping dealers? Because you're one of the biggest markets for buy here, buy here, pay here in the
country. What have you seen has already done for dealers? And what do you think you can do now?
Well, I just think it's interesting because there's like a lot of different topics that you
guys put on the podcast. And I'm going to be honest, sometimes I sit there and take notes
and I take it back to dealership. I'm like, Hey guys, for budget, did you guys think about
this? Did you think about this? You know, what is interesting for me, because I think like for
our dealership, I'm in it every single day, I run the financials, I see, you know, the
challenges we're facing today, the challenges you face at auction, the challenges that you face
with your EBIT, like all the different things that are happening. Like I feel it in my day to
day life, you know, and I also feel all the good things like I've felt the positive
impact from BlitzPay. And I've felt how the guys at Buckeye will run through a brick wall for
you and just are always there to help you, you know. So for me, like it actually means something
to me. It's not just like a content idea. It's like, Hey, this is something that can truly help
people. And I'm like case number one for Hey, these are the things I'm struggling with, you know,
and I hear all the other dealers were calling being like, Hey, what about this? I'm struggling
with that and trying to get advice, you know, from us, it's it helps to understand that
like, Hey, we're not like different. It's not, we're not the only ones not profitable this year,
you know, and what are we doing? We're cash flowing and how do you help other people get to
the same level on the same point? You know, so that's what's interesting to me is I live it every
day. Yeah. Luke, what do you think this next phase is going to bring? Like what do we hope
to accomplish as a podcast, as far as value to dealers? Like what are some of the ideas,
concepts that we're going to put into play that those that are still listening to this
can look forward to over the next 12, 24 months? Well, I think everybody has turned it on and
still listening to Jeff because, you know, that's what they do. But we, you and I have not had the
time to, to bring forth education like we wanted to, we, you know, it's 30 minutes a week or so
that we're trying to educate a dealer. Our goal is to have more time to do that and bring on
guests that, that are truly experts and can help dealers right away. I want to be on the road more
helping dealers in their dealership. I want to, I want to maybe have a training module that helps
dealers when they need it. So I think putting all this together, putting it in one place and,
and being on social media is something that I'm terrible at doing. It gets,
gets dealers that are outside our current spectrum of influence and bring those people in
because there's so many dealers out there that need help. I see even the good dealers they'll call me
and they need help. So if the good, you know, the people who we look at and say are great
dealers need help, they know where to come. We've got to find those people that are
are struggling and that don't get to make it to the convention because their business is so
hard and bring them into the fold and, and give them the best independent education in,
in the country. That's what I, that's what I see that I want to bring forth.
Makes a lot of sense. I see like us being able to, yeah, reach outside of our circle
and get, get folks that could bring value that we haven't heard from before,
vendors that are maybe new and upcoming, you know, maybe some more on,
on location type interviews. I mean, I'd love to see inside of some people's dealerships and walk
their service drive and walk through their sales floor and see what physical tools or
presentation or processes they have going on, you know, the real nuts and bolts of stuff that
sometimes you can only get when you visit a dealership and we can't all just go
roll into, you know, Steve's dealership and snoop around and see what he's doing differently.
So that, that'll be a lot of fun if we can do some more of that stuff
and more tactical, you know, where we can bring you more facts and figures and stuff that's maybe
a little more vetted out and thought through and researched. So we can give you guys some more
tactical actionable items too. Yeah. And that brings up a good point. A lot of times there's
dealers out there that we call and be like, Hey, do you want to be on the podcast? Like,
Oh my gosh, like, I'd love to be on the podcast. And then there's, there's ones that call
me like, Oh my gosh, I'm scared what I need to do. Or I can't use zoom. I don't understand
how to do it. So, so there were some times where we try to get people on that we just couldn't.
But luckily we have a way now that someone other than Jeff and I try to, to get those
dealers or get those vendors. And, you know, it's, it's Reagan and Kelly. If there's
dealers out there that want to be on the podcast, how do they do that now?
So they'll be able to go to your website. We're working on that together, but they'll be able
to go to your website and go to a forum and just fill out a form inquiry where we can go ahead
and get them scheduled on the podcast. So it'll be very easy website form. And then they'll be
able, we'll be able to schedule with them. That's great. And vendors that may want to
advertise because that again, we have to have advertising to bring you a better product.
Same thing. Website sponsorship form. You'll fill out some information and then we'll schedule an
interview with them and you guys to establish a relationship and see the potential. But
same thing. Very easy. We like easy and simple. So it'll just be a form submission on the website,
which that's going to have a refresh look too.
Yeah. Cause the last website Jeff wasn't working on, I don't think.
Someone may not have renewed the domain hosting and that some person might have been me.
And those are things that are hopefully not going to fall through the cracks now, but
to that point, yes, we want to bring a better product. And that does mean vendors that you
might not have heard about, or vendors that you have heard about that you don't know about,
or you haven't really given them a chance because you didn't really understand their
product or what they did. So that's part of the unique angle we can do is say, hey,
here's this great vendor that we vetted, either we use them personally or we know them personally,
they're going to be a decent fit if you fall into X, Y and Z category with them.
So, so obviously submit those things to wrap this up ladies. Let's talk about what you guys
can provide to dealers outside. Like if I'm a dealer and I'm listening and I don't have my
own podcast, how is Barry creative going to help me in my dealership? Because you guys
are one of those vendors that might be new and upcoming, that are taking a more aggressive or more
a new angle at an old service that dealers could benefit from inside of the walls of their own
dealership, right? Yeah. So we are, I say that we're a lead generation company. We just help with
leads for dealers via SEO and different advertising strategies. We also do social
content creation. If you don't know, I'll mention this on the podcast. If you don't
know, but your your Instagram content can be indexed by Google. So we're actually training sales
people on how to create their own videos to sell more cars. So our aggressive approach is to kind
of train people and teach them how to get more sales, even with what they have in house.
And then along with that, we're adapting a lot of AI tools. So that's a big buzzword right now
in the space to figure out how can we get more leads out of finding those holes in the
current systems that are out there and the campaigns that are out there that AI can identify that
previously we weren't able to. So I think our thing is is we want to stay cutting edge as well,
but also there's a big education part of what we're trying to bring to the space of helping
dealers understand their campaigns, their transparency, and even the training to their
sales team of how can you push your own team to, you know, if you're getting 80 cars a
month, how can we push your own teams and make that 100 cars a month with what you already
have in house? So that's our approach. And I work with car dealers before I met Kelly,
but what really brought us together is what I'm learning about the space is not every car
dealership is the same. So not every approach can work for everybody. So with her insight
and knowledge, it's really opened my eyes as a marketer. I've kind of had to put my ego away
and go, okay, these are things that I need to know about the industry that can help me as
a marketer because marketers have egos. They want to do everything their way. Their marketers,
they know everything, but she has also brought so much insight to me that's like every single
dealership needs an extremely tailored strategy. And there's all these variables that really
affect the campaigns. So if we can be really good at understanding your dealership,
then we can provide better campaigns, essentially. Well, I'm glad car dealers don't have
egos, Jeff. Yeah, none at all. That's good. I'm just thinking about how that interacts when you
have a dealer vendor like Kelly interacting with Reagan, a marketer who is now learning dealer,
and then you throw in someone like Luke who has ego, who wins in that situation?
Like the person that's selling more and doing more, the person that thinks they know more in this
we're going to find out. Awesome. Okay, cool. Well, let's wrap this up. Short and sweet.
Look forward to more content. And again, just to remind you guys, if you have an idea, a concept,
a topic you want us to bring you in more depth, submit it on the website,
or send an email to info at theindependentdealer.com. You can get ahold of us there and submit any
kind of topics or ideas. Any closing remarks? Ladies or Luke? Let's go. Let's do it. We're excited.
Okay. Talk to you guys next week.
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