Car Guy Coffee & Vincue presents “Behind the Cue” feat. Michael Hopkins

Hello, and welcome to Behind the Queue, brought to you by Car Guy Coffee and VINQ. We aim to bring you key insights of what's happening with

the great people behind the great innovations that are brought to you by members of Team VINQ. Let's brew what's going on car Guys and cargiles. It's lu

Ramirez, the Car Guy and is feelin Art Subprime Hero and we are brewing solutions on the Car Guy Coffee podcast, bringing you the first edition type of brew of behind the Q. That's right, and we have the very first

leading the way with us is the one that really has made sure to even establish the really make sure that we solidify this relationship that has been the supporting of the Carguy Coffee Podcast from VINQ. We have been able to be with

this brother who actually bruis a little something special himself, and we are very excited to be able to have him in here. But Fred pumped up about

this. There's a lot that's going on. We have Eric Hall already up

in here saying avengers are up inside of the room. Heck, yeah,

but you know what we need to do, Yeah, you know what we need to do. We need to tag a car guy and tag a car

gal and share share, share, share, share share. We need to

get this out there, make sure everybody knows what's going on behind the queue.

This is going to be a look at all the leadership and all the people that are at Venque right now. It's an amazing company that's growing really

fast, but only because they started with a great foundation, great people leading the way, trying to make a big difference for you dealers. It's built

by dealers for you dealers. I'm telling you that's something that we've been talking

about since day one. These are people that we've been friends with since the

moment we met. So I'm excited to have this show, to get this

thing going, to really get this new series rocking and rolling behind the queue.

Let's go when we got the first guest of the show for it too, And I'm excited to have this man here. Like Lou said, he's

set this whole thing up. This guy is the man behind the scenes,

and I'm excited to see what he's got to say about what's going on behind the that's right, what's going on, Nate. We're excited that you're in

here. Mister himself incredible creative that's in here watching the show. Excited that

you're here, Nate. But let's go ahead and get him out there.

We are gonna have to get him unleashed. Punright, go ahead and drop

it. Buttom all right, the one, the only, only, My

God, what's up, guys? What is up? How are you today?

What's very good? Thank you for unleashing me. I appreciate that.

That's what we're here. That's right. Take the chains off, baby,

but we're excited for you. Are you at the home base of vin Q

today, or where are you jumping in from. I'm Theglactic headquarters of n

Q, downtown Kansas City. Those of you that were at Unleash, we

had about one hundred and fifty people up in this teeny little room'll tell the fire department was way over, but we had a really good time up here.

Heck yeah, And that's Leash event everybody. Is something you're definitely gonna

have to put onto your calendar for next year. We're gonna get to talking

more about that. But there is so much that is brilling right now with

VINK, with Automotive right now, there's such an incredible buzz that's inside of the air and so much education, so much information, and so much is transforming you. Guys have just literally we launched a new website Revenue Michael.

Yeah, we just launched a last Sunday. It was an entire team effort.

We worked with a great agency, came up with some really good messaging.

It's really good creative, and then as we tend to do a thank you, we brought everything else in the house. So we decided to build

it ourselves. We decided to do all the graphics. It was a huge

effort. We wanted to get out in front of eight and eight and we

did that and it looks great. I think the biggest thing about the new

website is we're what if you know about Vinq, you know that we've consolidated eight different platforms that you might be using inside your dealership all into one system.

So we have a hard time going out and talking about that. But

I think our new messaging, the way that we're talking about on the new site really kind of shows that talks about plan by managing South that he does everything that touches your inventory. That's right. I love that. I love

what you're talking about. I love what Eric Hall, I love what Eric

nicely. I love what Eric Hall's talking about. Right here, another bald

bearded rock star. We're having a moment, Eric, We're having a moment.

This is our time. Thank god we were. It's not in the

nineties would have been that's right. Yeah, that's something different, not as

fun in the nineties for that style, but it is very cool right now.

It's if you don't have a bald head with a beard, I don't know what's going on. I feel really out of place right now. Who

has like neither beard? I got the bald face. Yeah, you could

get there, but I don't know. I'm scared really funny shaped heads.

So that's why I have hair. Anyhow, we love vin Q and Soda

We right, folks. I love that you said that. It's an amazing

thing. THINKQ is out there, really really out there, just showing the

love to dealers and making a big difference. What I've noticed about what's going

on at Vinq is that you guys got a great product. Like you said,

you guys have brought five things and made it into one platform for people, for dealers out there to be able to need to have all the needs in one spot, not to have to search for it, try to make things integrate. None of that matters. It's all right here for them.

But it's the people. The reason why Lou and I aligned with a lot

of these different companies out here, I shouldn't say a lot, a handful of these companies out here is because of that. Then the product is dope,

great product. But when you get inside and you get to meet the

people on this product, the people who put their heart and soul into what they do top and it goes all the way to everyone. Anybody who's doing

anything in that and your business now is really great people trying to make a change. I'm honored to have you guys part of what we're doing. Hey

man, I appreciate that. And obviously we saw the exact same thing in

you. Like I said, we met three years ago. It's the first

time you guys have met anyone from BINQ. We got in on the podcast

pretty right away, and that took a short hiatus, came back. You

guys are still partnership is still strong and it's still great to see you guys.

And I think what you're talking about in the industry and challenging dealers, think a little bit differently about not just how they're running their dealership, how they're treating their customers, how they're putting themselves out in the digital marketplace, and aligns with everything that we're talking about right here. I thank you so

love having you guys around, love sharing these combos. I know, I

love I designed that shirt. You know what I love about this shirt.

So for those who work out, when you sweat, the vinqu really pops.

It's like bam. So it's like a sweat before you're really doing the

job, before you actually VINQ. That's why that's how I look at it.

Get the job that the sleeves and get some sweat going. Let's go.

So yeah, these are cool. Actually to the point where I copied

because this was tone on tone. I did a few shirts ourselves that way

because of this shirt right here inspired me. So it's awesome. I love

it. It's very trendy, very in And you see these hats all over

the market right now. If you guys look around social media wearing them,

you'll see owners wearing them. You'll see all kinds of places. I want

to say that Lou and I were one of the first ones rocking them consistently social They started a trend, not girls, but what I like. You're

watching right now and you want that hat? You could see us at NADA.

We're gonna have plenty of them, come on, get them. I'm

telling you you ain't cool unless you got the V on your forehead. Let's

go ya. That's yeah, that's right. We got Eric up in here,

so you're here, superstars. Good morning from a Z. Guys.

Excited to see you up and here. Eric, another solutionary out there doing

things. Do get a little bit of love over here for Danny Z.

And Danny's gonna be visiting us over at the both that we will be at for the weekend. We'll be hanging out over at the Drive Centric booth and

we are going to be getting interviews from so many incredible people, including Danny Z. And we're pumped up to be able to see him out there and

he's gonna be dropping some knowledge. Yes side of that, he's gonna be

our very first interview on Sunday, folks, if you guys want to come see it live, We're gonna be like you said for zero zero one West, it's gonna be the dressing, but we're gonna be on stage with him.

It's gonna be great information. Danny never disappoints, right, much like

Minutes, like Angela, anybody who comes on the show we've ever interviewed, never disappointed. But Danny has so much passion for what he does, and

man, he just has it in a classic way. And I love It's

nine am six standard Tunnel Vegas time. Make sure you guys come by the

booth or you're going to see it live on it. It'll be streamed everywhere

watching for it. Yeah. Yeah, he's the dealer in dealers by dealers

for dealers, Like he's a guy, right, and he's actually in addition to that, he's speaking twice at NADA this year. He's talking about vehicle

life cycle management, which is kind of how we're positioning what Big Q does.

You can catch him Thursday twelve pm and Saturday again at one pm, two different options. You can check out the website to get Lakes does.

That's all and that is what's brewing over at NADA this year. And there's

so much that you get out of having an organization or having a tool that fixes problems. We're all about a motive. It's begin by a car guy

war car guys mag car and that How has that been such an important factor of the innovation that's come out of vin being able to have devised inside of the house. That's our origin story, right. I think he really came

out of a place. At least for Danny. He was sitting in his

dealership and he was really frustrated trying to work with his vendors, trying to figure out where am I going to send these marketing dollars across their party marketplaces all this kind of stuff, and he literally could not get all of the data in one place to take a look and make smart decisions about what to buy, where to sell it, where to source cars from. And so

out of that frustration hanging the phones, getting on liver the vendors and stuff couldn't get anywhere, I found Chris Hope, who had just started building the market pricing part of Vinq, and that's literally went from there. I think

the most important part of that story and that part of our model is that we respond so quickly to the industry. Right. We just went through three

of the most dynamic, challenging, awful years and automotive ever and one of the big conversations that came out of that was getting off of auction independence right for auction defendants, and so we were the first ones out there talking about private party acquisition, one of the very first tools out there to really help you manage it, private Party Acquisition CRM, and that was really amazing.

We got really great workout of that, and it's still a huge part of our platform. But what that story is really just about responding to the challenges

in the market. And if you're not a car guy, if you're not

working at the dealership, if you don't have those connections, you're gonna be behind the curve on it. You just are because you don't know. Right.

So our big conversation this year at the Boots you come, See you Live is our Dealer Trade Network. So we're now opening up. We've expanded

on vehicle Buying center. Right, we started with private party acquisition. Yeah,

you can still do auction this year. This is exciting. I guess

I'm the first one, so I'm announcing it first. Come on. We

are releasing our dealer to dealer Trade network. So now instead of having to

go to the auction, instead of taking your cars the auction, you list them inside of the trade network and you interact and buy and sell with other vanky dealers live inside of Vinq. You get the appraisal, you get the

inspection. Everything happens because we've already got the data right dealer to dealer.

Wow, that's great news. That's some great news everybody. For dealers that

are on the platform, it just keeps getting better. That's the thing that

I love about Vinq is that every time we're like, this is the tool that it fits this thing and it's great, then there's a wait, there's more bo wait not a little more hold on, we have a little add to it. And you all have been doing some incredible integrations with so many

other partners inside of the East. And this is what we love about is

that as much as it's co dealers buy dealers and it, there's something that's different about the way that Danny operates as an operator, as a car guy, and as a creator himself. And that's by collaboration. You are really

leading the way and being able to fuse together all of these great collaborations that make you better, because why recreate something if somebody's already doing it. Excellent.

Instead, let's just team up with some excellent people. Well recently twenty

three has been a huge year for you and all your collaborations. Go ahead

and give us a little bit of a rundown. You've got lot pop up

in there. You have so great with you will go ahead and break us

down on some of the behind integrating all these people. You can't do it

all right, It's exactly like you said, there are folks out there doing parts of this really well, and why create the real Why spend time doing that? Plus you want people on your side, right, you want people

on your team hashtag Team Vinq. That's what we talked about all the time.

You guys were the very first members of Team Vinq. And so we

do partner with a lot of industry folks because we like to bring that knowledge and that perspective and that experience in have those conversations. But the integration is

a huge part too, because we know there are those critical systems in your dealership that dealers love, and the whole idea is how do we just how do we help you do that better? That's it, That's all we want

to do. So in the last year, some of our really big ones

Drive Centric, We've done a time of great integration with in and out of their CRM, so we can get a lot better visibility into BDP views, into leads and to traffic. All that kind of stuff makes better pricing decisions,

right, But if you've got a lot of traffic, you don't need to drop the price, right. Plat a kind of role. Whereas if

you've got some inventory that's not getting a lot of looks, how do we go spend money on ads? How do we increase visibility? So drive Centric

has been a great partner for us. This year, we've kicked off a

bunch of ownerships of transportation companies. A lot of them had to do with

the trade, the dealer trade network, you've got to ship your car now, auto logistics, auto collor exchange. Those guys have been awesome work with.

So now if you're first seeing vehicles from other dealers, you can get transportation arranged directly inside of Q which is awesome. We've got lot pop.

Of course, we supply them with data, they supply us back. We're

closer with the performance managers. So a lot going on there. It's got

so many so oh, we just announced Vintel. We just announced a new

partnership with Vintel. So if you're using Vintel o d D two or OBD

two, the little plugins and you get those reports are now inside of vinqu appraisals. So it's just another layer of data and information about a vehicle in

order to put the right number on it. And it's not just putting the

right number on it, but then turning that into how do I merchandise this and create value appropriately? I love that, sotally. We got three or

four other ones. We're announcing a partnership with you boost this at any DA.

Lots of stuff going on, man, that's very exciting. A list

of all of them? Oh that was the list? Was that was a

list, y'all and he and I'm telling you that's like almost name drop.

You know what I mean? You know me and you know this that with

no big deal, no big deal, me and Taylor Swift, no hanging out. But what's it supposed to be fun? Right? It's supposed to

be easy? No. I love But it takes a collaboration of companies to

make the industry better. But the idea is that your company could be a

huge part of it by adding to more other companies. When everyone can have

this transformation of understanding that it's not us against each other. It's us helping

the dealer, right, it's us. It's us finding ways to make it

more productive for them to be able to help their customer base, which is us, right, which all of us. So it's a te binky rising

tide, right, That's what we keep talking about. How do we help

everyone help the dealer with because that's what we're trying to do. If we

can't do that, what's the point. What are we doing? What are

we doing? What are we even doing here? Yeah? All that's jumping

up in here, and he's trying to help you all out with your next T shirt design. All that is need one where to go? Oh sorry,

brother, that's my bad. Need one of the hidden messges thirds that

shows Invincible rest Or got you. I'll send that to Rizzo and they're like,

invincible you would have to put the vin solution in dark. I know

what he's talking about. I like the idea, but he's great idea and

Eric, Eric, there's a reason why Eric's watching this show. Yeah,

we're all friends, but at the end of the day, he believes in this product too, because he knows Eric is a very well trained car guy.

He's been in a d DA dealer school. He's graduated from that.

He was I think he was like, he's like president. He was a

man in that class. But he's the man everywhere he goes. And not

because he's cocky, got no, because he puts work in. He goes

wherever he goes. He's putting work in. He's learning about that product and

he's actually using the product, so he knows that this product is invincibles.

Four man, let's get you on stage and share something. He needs to

be there. In fact, Eric will be speaking at the drive Center.

Don't you know He's going to be there, so he'll be speaking there.

But I love Eric. Eric is a is a good dude, just a

good dude and surprisingly good answer. Yes, yes, I was like,

what he's going to go for it? He's not here getting down. I

think he's doing a bye bye bye and everything. I was like, what

is happening with this guy? All right? So now excited to see you

Eric and Ada. It's going to be a great time. But folks,

speaking of that the booth, what's the booth number where they need to come and check that out? Forty one West. We are so excited. We

are on the main drag. Got to get a lot of credit to Danny,

a lot of credit to Rizzo getting us right in the mix. They're

going to be right in the middle of the may hall. I don't remember

who all were around, but it would be really easy to find us.

We've got it set up. I can't give away too much. Angela told

me to keep someone under wraps, but in a set up kind of like, we want to want you to feel like you're walking into an Apple store, right, want you to feel nice and warm, welcome. Our performance

managers are going to be there. We've got a nice genius bar setup.

So if you're an existing customer, come ask questions, bring challenges, try and stump them whatever that is. Come say hi. We've got an entire

part of the booth dedicated just working with our existing customers. We've got a

nice little stick each set up. Danny's been given part of his presentation.

Our performance managers are gonna be talking about some of the different areas of inqu that they really like and appreciate. Obviously, we have the sales demost going

on, all that kind of stuff. Speaking specifically to our existing dealers.

If you bring another dealer with you for a demo. We're giving out poker

chips. I don't remember what I think it's fifty dollars poker chip you're gonna

get for bringing a friend over to the boots. Definitely make it worth your

while to come check us out. Yeah, I love it. Yeah,

I love it. I love it. I love it. And that's awesome,

folks. You couldn't leak too much, but he leaked a lot.

So come on, baby, let's go just enough to make you go or I can check that out. I can't wait to see it, folks.

Vinq's booths are always top notched, their energy is always great. They always

have comfortable places to sit, cold drinks, and of course some of the best swag in the industry. So you guys need to go check them out.

But more importantly, their product can really change the way that you get your vehicles in the way that you sell your vehicles. It's huge vehicle management.

Inventory management is a massive thing, and when they're out there making partnerships with people to help that, you can make your management like next level into almost less work. It's weird, right, you don't see that to us,

right? It takes more work in a lot of cases, so dealers

kind of get what don't want it. This is a different situation here.

You've got to educate. But once you're educated, it's click of buttons and

people can do what they need to do. And there's extra income coming in

because of it. So folks don't checking out. This's gonna be hot.

Forty one West and it is. That's the big haul, y'all. And

that's in the big spots. And I know exactly wherever's go check it out

on the map already, and I can't wait to check them out because that's going to be bad ass. I promise that could be a fun weekend.

Yes, So with everything that is going on, we got to talk a little bit about the fun because as much as it's fun to be inside of the expo area, it's also fun to get out and go. Babe,

there's a lot that's doing a lot of big things happening. I'm pumped up

to see some ELC maybe a little, but where is it that you're gonna find yourself rooming around during the after hour fun time? Listen. Angela Rizzo's

our cruise director. She's got a full itinerary. My plan is to just

hop in whatever vandwagon is heading and follow. I know, I've got like

a handful of tickets sitting out there. Our friends over in a so too,

they've got a big list of all the stuff too. Who knows,

right, that's about me. The best part about Vegas is not making a

plan. You just go and you let Vegas happen to you and you just

see how it goes. I don't disagree with you. I don't disagree with

you, brother, because those nights can be it's wherever you're at that moment.

It's such a big place, and there's so many things going on in those nights that you're like, this sounds like fun. Go with the people

that you want to be around. Go with the If you're looking for new

cl go with the clients that you want to build relationships with. Go if

you're looking for vendors, go with the vendors that you want to build relationship and learn about their business a little bit more. That's the place I'm telling

you some of the best learning opportunities is after parties. I'm telling you you'll

learn about what's going on. Swear to God you do, and you might

end up at a Joe's crabsh act in the mall with for the other people, eat food out of all the plastic bags like garbage bags, and just having fun. Man having fun. Yeah, figuring out who's going to be

the late one tomorrow. That's awesome. That's me. I'll be the late

one. I'm always the late one. That's really nice. You might appreciate

you saying that. He says, a lot of horsepower on the stream here

right, because you're here, my friend. Thank you. So in that

so kind of alluded a little bit to you being a little bit of a brewer yourself. So tell us about the cool concoctions that you have become a

pro at putting into a bottle. Yeah. So, last couple of years,

me and a couple of friends got together. We had one body who

makes really good whiskey, really good. He got into it, started making

it in his garage over an open fire and all that kind of stuff.

It was very dangerous, but it was good juice. And so we got

together, raised little bit of money, opened up a distillery west Bottom's Whiskey hashtag Westbotm's Whiskey Coat at Westbom's Whiskey co Go give us a follow. We've

got a handful of different whiskeys, including twenty twenty America's best blended whiskey in the country. So it's a blend of ride bourbon with a little bit of

sherry in that makes in Kansas City style whiskey. It's awesome, man,

It's not not bad for a side hustle, right, Okay, Danny says, at work with it. See, I believe that there was a vote.

There was a vote. That's that is. That's pretty awesome to know.

And I gotta try that now. I cannot wait for I can't wait

exactly here. I appreciate he gave us the He told us the dates pretty

early. I was excited. I put that in my calendars that we're there.

So definitely wish we were at the first one. I look forward to

coming to the second one. I know that it's going to be a lot

of energy and I can't wait to Yeah, get some of that inside me because it's gonna be great. Let's go. You guys will love it.

It was so good. We had such a great time. Had over sixty

dealers there for our very first one. It was amazing. Sixty dealers twenty

twenty five partners, some really great thought leaders guys. Glenn Lundy was,

There'sanell del Delgado. We had a guy named Donnie Campbell. You don't know

him. He's the guy that inspired Jason SACas is Ted Lasso, he's the

actual basketball coach. Yeah, yeah, it was, man, it was

a great event. I walked away feeling very proud of that. I should

especially yeah, doing your first one man, and I love it, And that's something that's just a staple, and I think that more dealer partners need to look at doing more educational opportunities for their dealers like that, getting them together to share their best practices. It's unbelievable. And then the partners that

you talked about, like they came there and they got to see what the dealers are struggling with and be able to create better solutions for them too in other ways. So it's a win win, win, win win. I

love it. Yeah, it's not an interfest. I mean, like the

partners that we bring in you guys this year, they're at the table like they're working through workshops, they're working on challenges together, eating together. It's

not done. And got to listen to me pitch it's a hey, let's

solve some problems together. And you want to talk about you want to talk

about something more, we can do that. But otherwise it's about learning.

It's about education, growing, that's right, keep growing leashed and when we recognize, folks that we are not chained up, we are not box stuff, and we are not put inside of corners. Instead of being behind the

curve, we can get behind the queue and start landing our shots where it is that we aim them. And the design of this show is to be

able to make sure that you always know what's ruling inside of the industry.

And today we have this incredible, incredible human Michael, You're an incredible human.

We love your heart. We love that smile. Look at that smile,

y'all. It's like blowing over there. It's making a sound. I

love it. But brother, you, we appreciate it. We appreciate it.

What is hard about having a good cup of coffee and a conversation out of that? There it is, cue the coffee, There we go.

The industry is better because of people like Michael that take on the challenges that we each see and says, hey, we're going to brew a solution to it and then they team up with other incredible people inside the industry and they forge away OVID that helps business be better for everybody. And inside of that,

folks, we remember to operate a solutionary with great As you see these things, well, put it inside of your calendar. Make it sure that

inside of your planner that you are making time to go over to the VINQ booth. What's going on, Colleen? We see you there. What's so

Colleen? Michael Rock excited to hear Michael? Is there anything else you'd like

to say before we get ready to forget focus and fly on out of here.

Many one West, come find us at NADA. Amazing stuff going on

and put on your calendar is vanqu Leased twenty twenty four, September ninth.

You heard it here first. This is the first time we're saying it's September

ninth, folks, calendar, put it on, then put it in the planet right telling you folks, it's a great place to be There's it's just like you said, it's not a vendor fest, it's an education fest.

It's a problem solving solutionary mixing all the above. Vin queuing, let's get

it going and let's make this industry better, ter type of place to be, and I'm excited to go. I can't wait, and I can't wait

to be in Kansas City. It's been decades since I've been there, so

looking forward to getting me an old fashioned in the town. That's right,

that's right. So much for tuning in with us today. We are excited

to get behind the queue with the one, the only Mike im when here is the Car Guy and I'm Fred Lennard's subprime hero. You've been doing solutions

on The Car Guy can do the podcast. Thank you so much. We

will see you at NADA. He ruined solutions everybody. Michael, We'll see

you soon. Brother. We're out.

Car Guy Coffee & Vincue presents “Behind the Cue” feat. Michael Hopkins

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