John, reckon you could beat Carwell's Matt Watson in a drag race?
Probably not with any of your stock, James, but I'll give it a go.
Well, John, it's funny you should say that.
Right now, Carwell is offering dealers the chance to win one of 20 spaces for a day on the track with Matt.
All you need to do is source stock in Carwell's daily online auctions in September.
So you're saying just by buying a couple of picantos, you could win a day on the track with Matt Watson?
That's right, John. Every vehicle bought and collected via Carwell's auctions in September counts as one entry.
So the more you buy, the more chances you get to race against Matt Watson himself.
You can sign up today, John, at carwell.co.uk slash partners slash win.
Terms and conditions apply.
Welcome back to the Cardiola podcast where we pick our favourite stories of the week and ask an industry guest to choose which were the best.
I'm John Ray and joining me this week from two floors underneath me in what can only be described as a hotel in Leicester is James Baggett.
James, how are you doing?
Fine thanks, John. Yeah, fine thanks.
I am in quite possibly the strangest hotel room I've ever stayed in.
I think it can only be described as a honeymoon suite.
It's got far too many mirrors from my bathroom.
Honestly, I had a little bit of a problem in my first room, which is like the air comms leaking.
So they moved me, they upgraded me.
Actually it was quite a nice room for.
I said, I don't know, we've got you an even nicer one.
And I came in here and it had very, very soft lighting.
There's lots of lever everywhere and everything is like a reflective surface.
I mean, even the bathroom door is mirrored.
It's very strange, very strange.
But yeah, we're up here because we've been on the road this week.
We've been out seeing some dealers, which has been fun.
I saved one of the visits for our stories,
but we spent quite a bit of time yesterday at top 555.
Which is a super car dealer for part of our selling super cars series,
the video series on YouTube, which was great day yesterday, wasn't it?
There were lovely, lovely chaps.
Really nice business, been running there for 25 years.
Fantastic story the owner's got.
I just thought the way he's kind of built that business.
He said left school without any GCSEs and just really kind of fought for it
to for nail all the way in 25 years later.
There he is sat there with very, very expensive car sat around him.
He has an AMG one, which is 2.8 million pound Mercedes in the showroom.
So yeah, he's done all right for himself, isn't he?
So yeah, I'm looking forward to putting that one together.
But I've got a new favorite thing, John.
Okay, what's that?
Sausage making.
Oh God.
We're actually going to talk about this.
So part of the other reason John and I are on the road is
because my better half had bought us a joint birthday present,
actually not John, which was a sausage making course in Leicester.
So last night we spent the evening making sausages
and never have I enjoyed so much innuendo in all my life.
Did you get a video?
No video, but there are some pictures.
I mean, James, we've done some, in the 13 years that I've been working here,
we've done some very strange things.
I mean, what have we done?
We've been to Tokyo and filmed Boris Johnson driving in Mitsubishi Outlander.
Well, we've tried to race a Mazda CX-5 with a canoe,
but I think probably standing in a pie making factory in Melbourne,
watching you try and stuff a kilo of pork mince into an intestine,
at that moment I thought, no, this is the weirdest thing we've done.
I mean, you know, I mean, when it comes to work,
colleagues, John, I mean, I'm glad you were there with me.
Let's put it that way.
We're very swiftly on from this whole link.
I mean, I should say as well, we've each got a kilo of sausages in our hotel mini fridges,
which I don't think is what they've been used for before,
or probably will ever be again.
Part of the hotel choice was,
has he got a mini fridge that we can put a kilo of sausages in?
Yeah.
Anyway, I'm going to introduce our guest now.
Hopefully some more civilised and normal conversation.
So I'll guess this week I'm thrilled to say is James Wilson,
CEO of Motorway.
James, lovely to see you.
Hello. It's great to be back.
I'm not sure how to follow up on sausage making and the honeymoon suite.
It's a combination that makes the mind boggle a little bit.
I feel slightly uncomfortable.
Oh, I am sorry.
Very nice to see you, James.
I'm looking very much looking forward to the podcast live next week.
You are our esteemed sponsors.
It's taking place on Wednesday next week.
We've got lots of people coming along.
We've got a really good panel on the podcast
and really interesting people.
What are you looking forward to?
Yeah, first of all, really looking forward to the day.
I mean, we just wanted it last year,
and what I loved about it is, yes,
the podcast, of course, is amazing.
You have some fantastic guests,
but the networking, actually,
catching up with people across the industry,
talking to dealers, getting their feedback,
and just connecting.
Part of the reason we're sponsoring this
and we sponsor other events like this
is because we do believe getting people together
is incredibly powerful, and we see that time and again.
So, yeah, really looking forward to it
and listening to your speakers.
You look great.
Yeah, we've got some great people.
People can get tickets online still, can't they?
There is a tab at the top of the page now.
You can go to the dealer magazine website.
You click podcast live, and you can book a ticket.
So, hopefully, we'll see some people there next week.
But, James, let's talk about Mosway.
I've got lots of questions.
Some of them have been put to me by some of your customers, too,
so we'll get on to those.
But, I mean, what's new with Mosway?
I mean, you've had some amazing growth
over the last couple of years.
I've noticed in the last couple of weeks
you've been well over 2,000 cars a day,
having you in the auctions.
What else is new?
Yeah, as you say, this is a very busy time for us
as it is for dealers through September and October in particular.
And really pleased with the number of cars
we were able to offer to our dealers.
So, as you said, I think it was last week
we had our biggest ever daily sale
with 2,277 cars for sale.
And that's continued, and we expect that to continue.
And that means we're offering great range to our dealers,
which is a really important part of our proposition to them.
I mean, the other part of the area we've been focusing on
is making it easier and quicker for dealers
to get the cars once they've won them in the day auction.
And, as of last week,
our pay solution, which I've talked about in this podcast in the past,
we now completed 7.5 billion pounds worth
of tractor's actions through pay,
which is a ginormous volume
and shows how that's been taken up by our dealers
because it's so much easier to make the payments.
It's quicker, it's easier.
We've managed all of the admin on behalf of those dealers.
Earlier this year, it was January, we launched stock funding.
So, those dealers who have a relationship with Next Gear Capital
can use their stock funding to fund the purchase
so they can just, at a click of a button,
pull down that cash and pay for the vehicle
and that will be automatically updated on their Next Gear account.
And what I'm excited to say, actually,
is that we will be launching with early capital in October.
So, that'll be our second stock funding partner.
And what we've seen with Next Gear is we've got hundreds of dealers using that.
It's been very, very popular.
And we know that there are hundreds of dealers with early capital
who also use motorway.
So, overall, we're continuing to provide that range of stock for dealers
and simplify the purchases they make through motorway
because we know that's really important.
They want great stock.
They want it fast onto their forecourt so they can retail it.
Yeah, there's a lot of dealers out there that use stock funding
and if they weren't able to use it on your platform,
they couldn't buy from you.
So, I mean, that's a massive step.
Are you looking to push that into any of the other stock funding partners?
Well, at this stage, do you want to get early capital up and running in October?
But, of course, we continue to take on board dealer feedback
and we know that other stock providers out there.
So, certainly something we'll consider.
What's the market out there like at the moment?
I mean, some of the feedback I'm getting from dealers
that it is incredibly competitive,
that they're struggling to get hold of stock,
their margins are being really squeezed.
What's motorway seeing?
I think, overall, it's a solid market is what I'd say.
It's stable and I think you've been reporting on that
for the last few weeks in terms of pricing.
There's definitely lots of demand.
So, we've seen record numbers of dealers bidding on our platform,
record numbers of bids.
So, there's definitely significant demand for stock at the moment.
But yeah, overall, a solid market.
And as I said, we're seeing growth
and we're seeing good dealer engagement.
How big do you think these auctions are going to get?
I mean, I know it's only a few months ago,
it feels like that you were talking about topping 1,500
and topping 1,000, you're now well over 2,000.
How big do you think these motorway auctions are going to get
on a daily basis?
Well, I think a lot bigger, I hope, for our business.
But I think when you step back
and you think about the volumes you're doing,
yes, they're very, very substantial.
But as a portion of the total market,
they're still relatively small.
So, there's lots and lots of headroom for us to grow.
But what's important is we keep delivering for our dealers.
So, we haven't got a right to grow.
We've got to deliver for our dealers consistently
day in, day out, a great experience.
So, that means lots more relevant stock for them
and making it as easy and as quick as possible
for them to purchase through our platform.
And we've got to make sure we're cutting through
with private consumers who want to sell their cars
and make sure we're making it clear to them
why it's a great workplace for them to sell their car
and make more money than if they went through alternative channels.
So, I think the short answer is there's lots of headroom
and that's what we're aiming to capitalise on.
Tell those people listening.
I mean, I've seen a little bit myself
when we produced a video all about motorway.
I saw what goes on behind the scenes of motorway.
But tell those people listening and watching on YouTube.
What goes into the process of getting one of these cars listed?
Because it's not as simple as just somebody sat at home
putting the details in on their phone and pressing Go Live, is it?
No. I mean, it's that we...
There are many, many steps that you have to go through end to end.
And our strategy is to make sure each of those steps
is as easy as possible, whether that's for a dealer or for a seller.
So, from a seller's perspective,
the process they go through is they use our app to get an initial valuation.
They'll then profile the vehicle using our app,
taking photos, adding information about the condition of the vehicle.
That will then be submitted.
We will then review that vehicle and the condition of the vehicle.
And if there is additional damage, we will reprice that vehicle.
And then it will go into our daily auction.
The daily auction now runs from 4.30 to 3.30 the next day.
So we've extended very recently,
actually extended the length of the auction in direct feedback.
Sorry, in response to direct feedback from dealers who said,
look, I'm still in the office from 4.30.
I want to be able to bid.
Okay, we'll extend the auction to support you, make it easier for you.
So the auction runs, dealer's bid, a dealer wins the vehicle,
at which point we need to collect the documentation from the seller,
V5C driving license and bank account details,
and we verify this seller.
And we have a bunch of systems that run in the background,
some automated, some manual checks to ensure that that's all done,
at which point the dealer then starts to arrange collection
from with the seller or they can use Motorway Move,
our transport service to do that.
Then at the point of collection, the dealer or the Motorway Move driver
will inspect the vehicle and confirm the price,
at which point dealers using Motorway Pay can pay for the vehicle
and the transaction is complete.
That's kind of the end-to-end process.
And there are multiple steps that happen,
as you can hear, as you've heard, to do that.
And we're constantly focused on how do we make them better and better.
Tell people listening also about the dropout rate of those consumers
because I want to get on to some of the feedback I've had from dealers
and I'll ask you those questions.
But one of the things, I think it's important for people to understand
is how difficult it is for platforms like you
to actually get people to list their cars.
So I mean, we have what we call a funnel.
So we have lots of dealers will start the process of getting an initial evaluation.
Some of them are just looking to understand pricing
and what they could make from their vehicle.
Others have higher intent and they want to move through the entire process.
And that's frankly true across the entire funnel.
And I suspect this may come up from the feedback you've got from dealers,
but one of the challenges is making sure that sellers
are committed to the process.
And so when we are going through the process of revaluing their vehicle
to account for that additional damage that I mentioned,
we will communicate very clearly that our expectation is that they will continue with a sale
if the vehicle hits the reserve price or above.
Now that being said, there are a number of sellers that will drop out at that point,
even if they've got that price because they change their minds,
their circumstances change, there may be competitive offers.
So that does happen and I know that's frustrating for dealers.
We have a team that's dedicated to make sure that we're following up with sellers
to make sure they're confirming as quickly as possible,
because I think what dealers want to have is certainty.
They want to know, I've got the car, I haven't got the car,
because that enables them to then go back and say,
I haven't got that car, I can build on a different car,
get that into my full court and get it sold.
So we work really, really hard to ensure that we are getting commitments
and we have messaging through our app and through the customer support teams
that work directly with sellers to get that point across
and then teams to ensure that we are following up with sellers to get them to commit
to the sale so that dealers have that certainty.
Yeah, I mean, one of the points that was raised to me,
and I mean, I've experienced it this week on the car I bid on,
I bid on a Hyundai i10, one was the winning bid, was over reserve,
then get a message from Motorway saying,
well, the customer wants £121 more.
Well, you know, at that point, once you've worked in fees
and the slim margin I was working on anyway,
it makes the deal not worth going ahead with.
So I had to say to the Motorway team,
you have to cancel that one, I was right.
That is frustrating.
You know, you've won a deal that you think is over reserve,
that customer has listed their car at a price that is already well above cap
and then even still they're coming back and pushing for more.
What can Motorway do to put a stop to that sort of behaviour?
Well, I mean, I don't have the perfect answer for you now.
What I can say and reassure dealers is that we are aware of the issue
and we're working on a number of different ways of solving it.
Part of it is around that communication and education of the seller
that they're getting a great deal.
Your frustrations, I've given them a great deal
and they've still dropped out.
I think we can do more to educate sellers
on the quality of the bid that they've got
but there are also some other areas we're looking at
to improve the commitment we get from sellers
because I know this is an issue
and by the way, it's frustrating for us as well.
You're going to pay for the transaction.
We're very motivated, dealers sometimes wonder
but we are very motivated to get that sale to go through
and so it is one of the areas we're focusing on
to make sure we can support our dealers
and frankly also support our business.
It's important for us.
We're as motivated as dealers to solve this problem
but it's not a straightforward fix
because part of the proposition to sellers
is that it's a free service.
They are not completely committed
and that gives them the chance to go through this process
and get to the auction,
get a great prize, be convinced by that
and then they continue through the process.
So it is a tricky balancing act that we're trying to manage
but we're very aware of the challenge
and we are working on it
and dealers will see more stuff on that coming out.
How many people who do evaluation on your site
actually go ahead with listing it?
What is it?
5 in 10, 7 in 10,
what's the percentage of people who actually go through with the process?
I don't have that number off the top of my head
but we do see there's a significant number
who are just going through the evaluation process
at the top of the funnel.
What we find is that there is quite a long process
that a seller will go through.
So they'll start there and they'll come to us to check the price
and then they'll come back
and then work their way through the funnel,
work their way through the process that I described,
getting to the sale because people are doing their research,
trying to work out where's the best place for me to sell my car.
Our goal is to make that as short as possible.
We've convinced them up front that Motoway is the best place
for them to sell their car because they're going to get a great price.
And that's a big, again, another focus area for us.
But typically, as I say, we see initial valuation
and they come back and go all the way through.
Isn't this process though pushing up prices just continuously?
Because let's face it, Motoway,
it's a very competitive market out there, isn't it?
For people when they come to sell a car,
they've got you, there's obviously car wow,
there's we buy any car,
there's the option of taking it to a dealer.
When these customers are trying to sell their cars,
there's lots of options.
So the only way you can really get it listed on your site
is surely giving them the best possible price.
But then for the dealers,
that means that the prices keep getting pushed up.
What would you say to people who think that way?
I don't really see it that way
because what we're doing is we're connecting,
if you go back to what we do at Motoway,
what we're doing is connecting supply and demand more efficiently.
And there are dealers out there who want to buy that car
for a given price.
And in the past,
they weren't able to get access to that stock
and make that transaction happen.
With Motoway, we're enabling them to see that stock,
which they wouldn't have seen
because traditionally they were just using public exchange
and they're buying that, buying that vehicle.
And so there are dealers out there who want to buy those,
buy those cars at that price
and think they can make money
and do make money margin for their customer base.
So that's what we're really doing.
We're actually democratizing access to that stock.
In the past, the really big dealers would have access to that
more so than smaller dealers because they've got more footfall.
And now we're actually balancing this off
and actually democratizing it so that every dealer,
irrespective of size,
irrespective of business model
can get access to that stock
and bid on it at a level that means
that they can make a margin for their dealership
given that they know what their customers are prepared to pay.
It's a great way of looking at it
because you hear a lot, if you're out there
and I'm sure you get it all the time
when you're out there chatting to dealers,
they say, I can't buy from Motoway
because the margins are too slim, et cetera, et cetera.
And the margins are slim on Motoway
but you've just perfectly explained it there.
We wouldn't have access to those cars
in other parts of the country
if there wasn't a platform like yours.
What do you say to those dealers though
who just say that I can't make money?
I'm taking an example this week.
I looked at a car and after tax, VAT and fees,
there was probably £600, £700 in it
if you work back from retail price and auto trailer.
That is a very, very slim margin
to be putting a warranty on one of those used cars.
What would you say to dealers out there
who's just looking at it and say, I can't make it work?
I think our goal is to make sure
there's enough stock available
that there is stock
where they can make it work.
And that's why what's really important to us
is not just growing,
it's growing that volume of stock
and the range of stock
so that dealers of all shapes and sizes
can find stock that is suitable
for their specific dealership
so they can make money.
And as we grow, those opportunities
should increase for those dealers.
So it may be today you can't make money
on that car but there may be another car
tomorrow in our auction where you can.
Dealers to continue to use our platform
to find those opportunities
and let's be clear, if it wasn't working
we wouldn't have the scale right now.
The dealers are buying, they are finding ways
finding stock that's profitable for them
and supporting the growth of their dealerships.
That's why we've been successful
but we remain very, very focused
on ensuring that we are listening to dealers' feedback
as we just talked about
and constantly trying to improve
the efficiency of the marketplace
so they get access to that stock
and once they've got it, what's really important
as well is that they can get hold of that stock
once they've won it fast
and get it onto the full court quickly
because days to sell is as important
as margin per car, as we all know.
So there are two things we really are focused on.
It's getting that profitable stock to dealers
and getting it to them quickly
and easily.
You know I use the platform regularly.
I bought three cars from Motorway this week.
I like the fact
it's there in my hand
wherever I am, every single day.
I also like the fact that you've extended those times.
It does mean that you can look at it
what is it, an hour after the auction's ended
it starts again.
It's a great way of doing it
and someone said to me, I think it was at one of your events
it was a case of
you need to get your bids in first
because if your bid is the same level as somebody else
it's the first bid wins it, isn't it?
I never realised that
until someone told me so.
That was a handy tip.
What are you going to do
about the
way that the customers describe their cars?
Often, it's a frustration I feel
a lot of the time, you go out there and see the car
it's not as described.
It's all very well when you go out
and pick it up yourself because you can have that discussion
but when you're using something like Motorway Move
it's harder to have that
discussion remotely
when it comes to chipping the customer.
What steps are you making to make sure
that those cars are more actually described?
For example, have you thought about
a video walk around of a car
something that we can
really interrogate and watch ourselves
and make our own assessment?
Two ways we're thinking about this
first of all how we get sellers
to provide the information
and video is an obvious
opportunity for us
and we have started to explore that
but also
making sure that we're really clear to sellers
the importance of
providing a comprehensive
assessment of the vehicle
because at the end of the day
if they don't there's going to be an inspection
whether it's through Motorway Move or through the dealer themselves
at the point of collection
and they will create
a challenge for them and potentially
a repricing of that vehicle
so there's more I think we can do
just in pure education terms
in the Motorway App for Sellers
we've started to do that
and there are certain types of technology we can use to try and spot
spot damage as well
so there's a whole range of different options
that we're exploring
but that's really really important to us on that side
on the seller side of our business
then when it comes to collection
the reason why we launched Motorway Collect
our appraisal app
was to make it easier
for dealers
to understand
where additional damage has been added
if it has been added
the kind of reports you can get
from
other service providers
where you just get reports
completely independent from that original listing
you've seen on Motorway
with Motorway Collect you can see
the original profile
and you can see any additional damage that's been added
and the feedback from dealers
is that helps in making
an assessment now there's still more we can do there
and that's also
an area of opportunity for us
to get in additional bits of information
that dealers would like to see
and indeed things like video at that point as well
so we know that we're not done
and I think that's the message
I would communicate to dealers
we get it, we're not perfect
we've made a lot of progress
and we continue to invest
to make this as easy as possible
but we also hear the feedback
and we are working on it in the background
and they will see those improvements coming in the future
I'm a big fan of that
and they can
show you any additional problems
that they've found in the vehicle
and you can compare it like for like with the original listing
that's really really useful
have you thought about offering that to dealers
so like dealers like myself
we go out and collect the cars
it would be brilliant for me to be able to use that
it's really interesting you say that
we have considered it
and
at this point
I can't say more than that
there's a whole range of options
and I think actually that's the interesting thing
the interesting kind of actually is a challenge
we have lots of opportunities where we can improve
and one of the things we have to be thoughtful about
is where is the best
investment
of our team's efforts
and time to solve these problems
so
that is something that we've considered
and we need to work out what is that the right place
to invest our time and effort
or is it upstream with the sellers
these ideas are good ideas
they are things we've considered
they're in the mix
that's as much as I can say
I'll take that as a positive
what do you see when it comes to
electric vehicles on the platform
I just think anecdotally
when I look at the buy it now
after the auction is finished
I often see a lot of electric cars falling into those
and I just sort of assume that's because
dealers aren't buying them as much
as they would be other vehicles
what's the truth
what do you actually see
no it's interesting you say that
so electric vehicles are still a very small share
of the vehicles that we have on the platform
it's growing but it's sub 5%
so it's small
and you'll see that I think today we've got
what 1300 cars or something for sale
30ish EVs
but actually the conversion is pretty good
I would say it's at least a parity
certainly more recently
with ice
so actually although it's a small volume
they're converting
pretty well
but I still think it's early
it's still very very early
for used EVs
and again there's opportunity for us to support that
and that's another good example
of another opportunity for us
how can we support the profile of those vehicles
things like battery health
is there a way we can support dealers on that
which we haven't invested in yet
but that's something we're considering
and again it's a trade off
is that the right place to focus on
versus the kind of ice
and ice business when it's so much bigger
James I just want to go back
to the valuations because
I'd just like to have an understanding
of how
motorway values these vehicles
because there seems to me that
there's an also a trade of retail price
there's a cap value but then there's also a motorway price
which is very
different to the ones that we see
when we're valuing vehicles
how do you as a business
get to that valuation
is it pushed by the customer
or is it pushed by yourself
or is it a negotiation
give those people listening and understanding of how it works
so the process is we
have a
proprietary pricing
algorithm that we've built based on
the hundreds of thousands of cars that we've sold
through our platform so we've sold over half a million cars now
through motorway
which gives us a
really good database of
the pricing through motorway
which nobody else has access to
nobody else has that data or what a trade doesn't have it
no one else in the industry has it
and we use that and we do also take
feet of third party
pricing so we look at cap as well
as an input and we will
set a initial valuation
based on that pricing algorithm
and then
we will
assuming the car is in good condition
we then look at the state of the vehicle
the condition of the vehicle
as submitted by the seller and we will make adjustments
for that and again we're using data that we've
built up over time
from our
from the vehicles that we've sold
and that's it there isn't a negotiation
that's happening it is a
motorway led price
and then of course
dealers can choose to bid at the level
they want to relative to that price
an important point
that we make to
sellers is this is a guide price
and
our expectation is if the
dealer bids above that price
you will accept it because dealers
have made a commitment of their cash
to that sale
and we expect
you to accept that price
but we also give them we also
are trying to also
indicate that there will be instances
where dealers bid below that price
and that can still be a good price
at the end of the day the market
will determine the best price for that vehicle
and by the way we still
see a significant number of sellers
except below the reserve price
as dealers see it on
on our pro platform so
that's how we do it that's the process we go through
and we spend a lot of time
and we have a team dedicated to do this
understanding pricing
and looking at it in a very segmented way so it's not just
a blanket rule
we are looking at it by segments to make sure
that we're getting it accurate
and
it's hard it's really hard to price an individual
car what's most important is what
the market says that for the value
of that vehicle is when it goes into the
when it goes into the auction
I sent a good friend of mine
Motorway's way this week
he had had a party exchange price
for his vehicle and he actually got
1500 quid more for it on Motorway
and it never even considered it
he hadn't really heard of it so he obviously
hadn't seen you at first, I don't know where he's been living
but he was absolutely
over the moon as you can imagine
1500 quid more he's buying an electric car now
and that pays for his charging point
so he was absolutely over the moon
and I think it was because his car
was a popular one you know it was
it was a popular car do you take in
to account popularity
obviously AutoTrader has a retail rating
a lot of the time when we're buying cars
we look at that in detail
when we're buying our vehicle
and I know other dealers do too
do you take into do you have your own
inbuilt Motorway retail rating
well the way our algorithm
is constantly updating so it's constantly
taking data on which
on the selling prices
of vehicles and pulling that through
so yes it is constantly updating to reflect
the real time
market prices that are being
achieved for those vehicles
that's how we do it we don't have a
rating that we can expose to dealers
but the algorithm itself the way it's set up
is effectively doing that
yeah clever very clever
it's great to hear that
your friend got that deal
but it's also there's a dealer
on the other side of that
transaction who's purchased it
at that price and it can
still make a good margin as well
and turn that vehicle so that's a nice example
of where yes
of course dealers want the lowest
possible prices but
that's when it's working really really nicely
we're matching supply and demand
effectively the sellers got a great price
the dealers got a price that they are comfortable with
they can make margin and turn that vehicle
yeah absolutely
just before we move on to our story
just one last question for you
you're very close to the use car market
it's been an interesting year
what do you think is going to happen next
what are your predictions for the use car market
for
it's difficult to say
if I look at the macroeconomic
environment
it's
I think a good year would be a solid
a solid year next year
I hope that's the outcome it's going to be
I'm a little bit nervous about the macroeconomic
environment if I'm honest
obviously there's a lot going on at the moment
and we'll see how that plays out in the coming
in the coming months
but
I don't see it being
like it has been in previous years that we all experience
where it's been big swings
I don't anticipate that at all so
if you go into the head
I'd say it's going to be another solid year
yeah it's going to be interesting
especially with the budget
not too far away and find out what happens
you know next with the economy
I think and we've talked about this before
but I think
it just going back to the fundamentals
as a dealer and like making sure you're doing those
brilliant basics that everyone talks about
I think just remains really really critical
so it's working really hard
to find the stock that works for your dealership
pricing it effectively
making sure you've got a really good customer
experience when someone's
on your site or comes into
your dealership
and then looking at after sales and other
areas to add
additional revenue streams
which some of the dealers that you've been reporting on recently
have been using to bolster their revenue
and their margin so I think it's
consistently doing that stuff
which is not sexy, it's not a big headline
but that's how you're going to
build a great business over time
yeah absolutely
James thank you very much for coming on
chatting us today, I look forward to continuing our conversation
podcast live
next week and I do appreciate you
taking some of those tough questions
thank you very much
but John we should probably do some stories
and James if you'd like to ask James
anything about the fat content
of
pork shoulder
he's ready to answer that
25%
we interrupt this broadcast
for some breaking news
John I don't want to panic you
but the Cardio podcast live is coming round
really rather fast
yes I know that James because I own
a calendar but clearly you've been
not paying attention
day John if I hadn't been paying attention
how would I know that it's on the September
the 24th in Abandon
that we've got the Polestar boss Matt Galvin
Vicki Hart from Waylands
and Alex Bradley from Small Cars Direct
on with us
well technically it's closer to
Didcot but I'll let that one go
anyway I bet you've forgotten how people can book tickets
no John because on my script right here
it says head to
cardinamagazine.co.uk
slash podcast and people
listening to this can book tickets with
the special discount code PICCANTO
for 10% off
there's a social barbecue after the
recording and plenty of time
for a social catch up with other
like minded dealers
we look forward to seeing you there
this
is a paid partnership in association
with Dealerway
John guess what
oh god you've bought more ducks haven't you
no ducks John wrong there
I've actually got a new habit
I've signed up for Dealerway alongside
more than two and a half thousand
other rated and vetted car dealers
to sell my trade part exchanges
the site is designed for
dealers to sell their pie exchanges for more money
quickly and easily
there's no sellers fees and buying
a car cost just £99
one of the cheapest around
and when I haven't got the time to list
the car myself I can even watch out them the details
and they do it all for me
that sounds awfully familiar
so are you selling all your stock there now
not exactly John
but if I do have a sudden influx
of Kia PICCANTOS
I know where to send them
dealers can find out more at dealerway.co.uk
we'll be right back
now John I'm really enjoying
how easy it is to pay sellers on car well
I presume you'd rather not pay them at all
no that is true but
now I can do it with car well wallet
you can pay sellers finance houses
and more instantly
literally in one click
it's secure easy to use
and gets rid of all the pesky
finance back and forth
it's a total game John
that does sound pretty good
if you want to find out more
dealers can log on to carwell.co.uk
slash partners slash car well
dash wallet
now back to the podcast
so James and I
are going to run through our favourite stories of the week
and at the end James gets to decide
which one of us chose the best ones
and who is the winner
oh no I won last week
yes right so I'm going to start
and I'm going to start with
I'm not going to start with JLR because you're going to cover that
inevitably James
I'm going to talk about the FCA
so the FCA has and of course
this is about the car finance scandal
in inverted commas
so the FCA is teaming up
with influencers
we've written influencers here but I think the term is
thinfluencers
on the likes of tiktok
and instagrams
financial influencers James
you are one of those
am I
I don't think anyone would
want my financial advice to be
completely honest with you
but they're teaming up with influencers
to highlight the dangers
of all these car finance claim
adverts and using third party
companies to go chasing car finance
companies for some form of
compensation and I mean we've all
seen this it is all over
the place it's in Google ads
it's on I assume it's in TV ads
but I don't really watch anything
on terrestrial television so I'm
not entirely sure I've had it come up on youtube
I mean it's all over the place
isn't it and also you've
seen like I keep seeing
relatively popular
motoring youtubey people like
me and Alex Kirsten
you know they've both been paid by
different claims management firms
to tout this sort of stuff
so it is everywhere and it has been everywhere
for quite a while now
and I think the FCA has suddenly woken up
and realised this that they can't just
you know mention it occasionally
in like a common select meeting
or something like that they need to
actually get it out to people who
the FCA is for example
and put it in their sorts of language
so they're doing
a one million pound campaign
which well it sounds like
a lot of money I don't know if it will be enough
to be honest to counteract all this sort of stuff
because the horse is sort of bolted in a way
but anyway I do kind
of welcome them
at least trying so at the minute it's just
one guy on instagram that I can see
is a guy called Cameron Kaza
Smith who as far as I can work
out is a bit like sort of
Martin Lewis
it's all written in the story
Kaza
like Kaza
I think is sort of like
Martin Lewis for people that
would use the word side hustle
where we might
perhaps use the word second business
James
I think it's targeting a slightly different demographic
than us but anyway
they are putting the word out to
basically stop using claims management firms
just sit tight
and wait for the FCA to
launch the whole redress scheme
that is sort of part of the problem
is that there's not actually
all these claims management firms are here
you can go on put in your reg
it says your road millions of pounds
and then you sit and wait
and they probably send you lots of marketing
activity for the next six months
to say that they're
working really hard on your claim
whereas the FCA
they've got no news at the minute
there's nothing to actually do
so I guess at least they are doing
something in the interim
what did you think James
I think it's interesting
that they've come out with this campaign
but the more I think about it
the more I think about how the FCA is going to deal with this redress scheme
and I know we sort of covered it before
but I mean it is such a headache for them
and I can't help thinking
that it's just going to be bowled down to something very very simple
which will obviously cost the
the banks and finance companies quite a lot of money
but something as simple as
did you have finance during these years
yes or no if it was yes
you'd do this amount of money
because if they don't do something as simple as that
it will be so
incredibly complicated
I don't think anybody will ever get any money
so I genuinely think it will come down
to something as simple as that
you just have to prove
actually you might not even have to prove
that you didn't
have financed during those years
and then you'll get the money
from the affected businesses
because not all of the businesses were doing the things
that they shouldn't have been doing
you know
so I think it will have to be a simple job
which is in some respects quite good
because if loads of people suddenly get
950 quid in their bank accounts
more often than not
they end up putting it down as a deposit on a new car
so
that's very true
James other James what do you think of this
yeah I mean I agree both of you
I think first of all it's good that they're doing this
you know we want to try and avoid
although you're right that the horse was bolted
to some extent a full kind of PPI
claimed process
industry popping up
if we can
probably need to do more than this
in my experience of educating
people about new propositions and new processes
they have to go through
you could imagine this becoming
incredibly complicated
and by the way very costly
for the FCA to manage if I just think about it
operationally they're going to have to have a whole claims
management process that's going to have to flow
through to all the different companies
they're going to have to push back information
so the simpler they can make it
the better
I think the financial service
the financial
the financing companies will probably
want some proof James
otherwise it's an open
checkbook
but I think they have to keep it super simple
the thing that for me as I read this article
this week was just
when is all this going to happen
when's it going to start
we got the result
from the
Supreme Court
there's no deadline
for when this is now going to start becoming
operationalised and being
accessible by consumers
industry we just want that transparency
and clarity
and then I think the different companies that are affected
can prepare accordingly
but at the moment unless I've missed this
that doesn't seem to be forthcoming
no I mean
I'll quote our story
it says the FCA says compensation
could begin next year
it's going to take
not very solid
James
can you move this on
and you have rightly predicted John
the story that I'm going to go with which is JLR
I feel bad
talking about it again on the podcast
but it is such a
difficult situation that manufacturer is in
I just think we need to cover again
I spoke to a number of people
this week for a story on the website
I spoke to cyber security
experts
one renowned author of our cyber security
I spoke to professor David Bailey
who is
a professor of business studies
in Birmingham
who focuses on the automotive industry about this
and also John while we're around the road
we popped into a dealer didn't we
we popped into a JLR dealer
in Northampton because on the way up here
we were just chatting about it
just thinking yes it's very
very bad for JLR so I mean the headline
story is the fact that they have
Paul's production until
Wednesday of next week
but everybody that I'm speaking to
is very very unlikely
they're going to be starting it next week
if I was to hazard a guess
and I put my neck on the line here
I can't see them restarting
production maybe
for the rest of this year
I genuinely believe that John
I think they are in such
a difficult situation
there are so many different
computer systems
involved in those production lines
most of them are run by robots
which are obviously run by computer
systems
when those cyber security experts
I spoke to said every day that goes on
proves that this hack is even
deeper than it
first thought so
the fact it's dragged on
this far we're 19 days in now
with no production they're already saying
they can't start until the 24th
it's going to be incredibly difficult just to restart it
I mean just think about the restarting
of that production line you've got thousands
of JLRs, sound production lines
and JLR factories around the world
all with completely different specifications
you have to clear all of those lines
you have to start up again
afresh
obviously I'm no manufacturing expert
John but I can't see that
being easy
but I mean park that to one side
park JLRs, head offices
problems to one side
I want to know what this meant to the dealers
there are dealers out there who have had
a rough time over the last
last few years
I was reminded by one of our listeners
who listened to last week's podcast
that you remember like not long ago
we were talking about a past crisis with this manufacturer
this manufacturer
couldn't get parts out to dealers
you had customers with their cars
sat in dealerships not being fixed
for months on end
which meant that a lot of these dealers
had to buy back those cars
because the customers were so cheased of
so they've already taken a hit
and this is really kicking them while they're down
so going back to that
dealer visit we went
we popped into Northampton JLR
it's run by Sittner
huge site just off the M40
on the A43 junction there
beautiful site
it was quiet John wasn't it
it was very quiet
there was a huge row outside
the dealership of unregistered cars
lots of Range Rovers sat there
you do expect to find a dealership
but they were all
kind of PDI'd and ready weren't they
everything was ready apart from the number plates
which is
we know
that's the problem
we popped into the dealership
there was a few people in there but nowhere near
what you'd need to keep the
lights on in terms of revenue
there was a couple of people having their
cars looked at
but we spoke to one of the salesmen
and just said
if I wanted to buy a car when could I get it
and his answer was I don't know
he said specking it
would be quite difficult ordering it
is a possible but I can't tell you
when it's going to be made or when you might get it
he said if you want to use one there's plenty
out there and we can deal with those
these dealerships operate that
by a different system
but I said so what about servicing
if I've got a car that's got a problem
can you fix it he said depends what the problem is
he said we've got the parts from the shelf
we can help you
if we need to order the parts in
it's going to be a struggle
it was at that point having to look around
this huge business
that must need huge sums of money
on a daily basis to keep the lights on
I was thinking there's going to be
some JLR dealers out there
who are in serious trouble very soon
if this carries on
and it just shows you the severity
of this issue it's not just the manufacturer
they're in really difficult circumstances
it is
that big dealer network they've got
these big gin palaces they've spent millions on
and I really
feel for that supplier network
there's been a lot of stories come up this week
but they describe JLR as the hub business
with all these
suppliers relying on it
and they've been told by some of these
workers to go on universal credit
I mean it needs government action
now I think it needs a furlough scheme
or something
it is a very very worrying situation
John I honestly can't think of a bigger
story for years than
this JLR hack
and it's multifaceted as you say
we were driving along yesterday weren't we
and saw a tramp-stag in front of us
and I was looking at that and thought
well as you do
but I was thinking when was the last
time apart from Covid
that you saw a car manufacturer grind
to a halt in quite this
way
with previous hacks with Honda
or however previously had them
it was kind of a few days a week
wasn't it and then they sort of got things back up
and running again
I think this has been the longest since
reason I mentioned tramp-stag
is since like British Leyland or something
when it was just constantly
stopped starting with strikes
it's just an unprecedented
I'm bringing that word back
situation and I guess
cars and that perhaps that's a different system
I don't even think it's
a different system I reckon
it's a bit like well Arnold Clark had their big
hack what you soon realize
after you know X number of
hours of it being down is right
what can we actually just do with
a pen and paper here and probably
you can sell used cars
with a pen and paper just like
you would sell them James if your system went down
what you can't do is start making
Range Rovers you know that's
the line isn't it and I did all
I saw another story as well not in our publication
but in esteemed other publication
suggesting that
JLR had lost track
of a lot of new
cars that were produced in the
time between this
you know being made and then the hack happening
I think it was into the thousands
they reckoned it just disappeared
well not disappeared obviously because they were on lorries somewhere
but they'd you know in
whatever distribution system that
they have presumed that they come out the factory
they sit in Solihull
or whatever in an enormous
yard or they go to Southampton and sit by the port
ready to go out that of course
has all gone into disarray I should say
JLR issued a statement saying that was nonsense
and they know exactly where every single car is
but that sounds
slightly implausible
based on everything else is all
I would suggest so yes a
giant giant nightmare
we talked about when
we were in the dealership earlier this week
it takes us we have to log into
12 different systems to sell a car
at the Clever Car Collection
12 different systems to sell a car
and that is us selling
sub 10,000 pounds used cars
I mean can you imagine the systems
that they have to log into and being locked out of them
at a JLR dealership is
it's absolutely devastating and I know
it's I just
really feel for them I really feel for everybody affected
especially those in head office because
I mean the stress that must be
involved in trying to get this sorted
and knowing that it doesn't matter how much money
you throw at it
it's not going to fix it because
they're locked out
and if they pay the ransom
will they even be given
that's if they are being
they are being you know
yes we don't know doing
but if they are being blackmailed and they do pay the ransom
they might still not get access to the system
I don't know it's worrying
James what do you think?
Yeah I mean my first reaction to this
is massive sympathy
the JLR, the dealers and their suppliers
I mean this is a criminal enterprise
that's taken down all of them
and it's
I mean I think lots of other businesses
look at it and go thank god it's not us
because it could very easily
be another business
and by the way this enterprise has gone after
M&S Co-op
a whole bunch of businesses
and it's
it's terrible, absolutely terrible
given the impact it's having
I think the
if they get it back up and running in three weeks
they will have done very well
I'm not an IT security expert
but my understanding is
what happens when these
hackers get into your system
is they work
from one system to the next
to the next to the next
fully encrypt them
with the data
so the story about not being able to track the cars
may not have been correct
but it doesn't surprise me
it wouldn't have surprised me if it was correct
because where's the data
we can't get into the system
so it's
fundamentally breaking your IT
infrastructure
and my understanding from M&S
was that when they
have this issue
they had to rebuild the technology stack
because they couldn't encrypt
decrypt their systems
and that takes a long time
I think it took them three to four months
to get back fully online
for everything so that was
I think they were faster on deliveries but click and collect took longer
and this is not
they're not a manufacturing business
with all of the complexity of the supply chain
so if they get it back
I think it was the 26th
next Wednesday
that will be an amazing achievement
I'm not credit for that
but I could also see a world
where it does take them a lot longer
maybe partial, they get partial systems recovery
and then it takes a number of weeks
to get everything back up and running
but yeah it's
it's horrific to be honest with you
and I think a lot of
it's just
as an exact leading tech business
one of the things
you have to do is you have to have the detection systems
you have to have the testing systems
actually getting people to try and penetrate the systems
and then you need the
the training of your teams
so that they don't fall prey to these
kind of
hackers but then you need plan B
if it goes down and part of that
is how you
set up your architecture so you've got air gaps
between the different systems
but it's easy to say that
after the event
it's really really challenging for the general
and let's say the dealers and suppliers
so a huge sympathy
I hope
they can get up and running in the next couple of weeks
I fear it might take them longer
but I don't know I don't have all the details about
what's what's happened
by the way I would be amazed if they're not being subject
to extortion as well
yeah
I mean James you know
in a tech business
it's not about throwing money at this is it
I don't think you know JLR has got
deep pockets when it comes to
support it's got from the Tata Group
but even then
it's not about throwing money at it
it takes time
if you've got to do what I described
which is rebuild your data
and your systems
effectively from scratch
that takes time
you can throw them up to some extent
you can throw money at it but it will take time to do that
and this is just based on looking at other examples
as I say you can take M&S as a good example
where they effectively
told the markets
that's what they had to do
and it took them three or four months
so again I don't know the details of JLR
I'm not in their company
but
it's quite an undertaking if they have to go down
that path
I can't imagine a scenario where
if they did the M&S thing
of saying right we'll start one
M&S started well we've got to get food
into supermarkets first let's do that
don't worry about deliveries
you can collect all that sort of stuff
I can't imagine in a setup
such as JLR what would you not
prioritise because if you're
making the cars in the factory
they've got to go somewhere all the parts are going to come in
there's lots of different
it's all just in time isn't it
the whole entire thing almost has to turn on
as one unit all at once
and I suppose it hasn't stopped
since Covid and perhaps even then
didn't stop in quite the same way that it has now
so I move us on
well I mean please do
I mean the more I talk about it
and again the more it stresses me out
I know
well I'll move on to
another very stressed individual
I imagine which is
Cardila or former Cardila I suppose
Kevin Mackey
who has not had a very nice
18 months 24 months
it's a situation that's fumbled on for a while
21
oh my god right well
anyway Kevin Mackey for those who have forgotten
or haven't heard of him before
had a very successful
Renault dealer up in
Scotland
had been going for it it was a family business
Mackey Motors had been going for quite a long
time decades
and then one day in 2021
as you say James
he alleges RCI
pulled the plug effectively
so if you're mainly a franchise
Cardi or as he is I don't know
had any other franchises apart from Renault
or perhaps he had a Nissan one as well
RCI
is Renault and Nissan's
joint bank
and
a little bit like the JLR situation
a lot of things all tied in together
so
Renault, Nissan, Bank
and Renault pulled the plug effectively
on his business and they
I think there's
it's difficult to talk about because it's going through
a legal case so he's taking
the three of those
three companies to court
over what happened because
in effect they turned his company off
overnight because they withdrew
funding which as anyone would know
is well it's an immediate stop
isn't it as I understand it
they pulled his new car
franchise
I believe they pulled the
servicing
authorized repairer situation
so almost overnight
he didn't have a Renault dealer anymore
which is quite hard
to come back from when you employ
the number of people that a franchise dealer
employs they're all working
commission etc etc
and we've covered this case quite a lot
Kevin's been talking to
one of our staff writers Jack Williams
extensively over
the period about all this but of course
it goes a bit quiet because things are
going through legal matters blah blah blah
I can't keep talking while that sort of stuff's happening
but it's come back into the news
because he's appeared on
GB news which
I admit it's not an outlet I particularly like
but it has given him some
great coverage of this matter
so he's been talking to none other
than Nigel Farage
about the situation
of course well they describe it as
GB news described it as him being debanked
which in a way he was but I think
that marginalizes
the issue really because it's not really
about the bank necessarily it's about
the entire
being pulled from under him across lots
of different situations you know it's not just
that he's had his bank account frozen
or they've said you can't bank with this
anymore they've said all of those
cars on your forecourt you're going to need
to find funding from someone else and that's a very
different situation
to you know being told you need to move your savings
somewhere else so
he's been on there and
he had quite a bit of publicity from
that which is a good thing
and since then he's
had his I'm trying to find the right
story he's had his
case brought up by his local
MP
in some sort of commons hearing as well
who was
quite outspoken in the situation
described it as a
I'm trying to pronounce this in a
Scottish no I'm not going to do that
described it as a
I want to use the f-bomb so I've described it
as a cluster fankle up
which is another term
I'm familiar with
I did love that that term John
and I think I slightly worried about
what AI thinks of me
because in my last few searches
to chat GBT I've got
can you give me the Volkswagen Up 2013
spec
who's Cameron Kazasmith
and what does cluster fankle mean
but you're right
what was the answer
was a Scottish way of saying
cluster the rude word
but without saying the rude word
which I was quite impressed he did
in the House of Commons
without saying the rude word
well yeah true
I mean presumably you are allowed to say the rude word in there but anyway
sorry John
so hopefully
that will
it seems a very complicated matter
we want to get into all of the ins and outs of it
but there's been a lot
of finger pointing between
I mean I'll quote the MP
my constituent has been to the Financial Conduct Authority
who told them to go to the police
who then told them to go back to the FCA
who then told them to go to
Citizens Advice
you could not make this up
I mean yeah
no one seems to know really
what to do in that sort of situation
so hopefully
Kevin will get some answers
it's hard to comment
on this one John as it is
going through the course
but I mean one thing I have to say
is I do admire Kevin Mackie's
persistence on this
he's certainly not letting
it lie and I can
completely understand why
I do feel for him
I mean we obviously don't know all of the facts
in this case but
he's certainly trying hard to keep this one going
and to get some justice
and I do hope like you say
he gets some answers as well
do you want me to move on?
James I mean I don't really
it's been quite hard for him
it's kind of difficult to comment on this one
because I mean first of all I can understand
why he's fighting
for his livelihood
it's just difficult to comment
when you don't know the other side of the story
I don't know what's precipitated this
and so it's just harder
to come to a point of view on it really
it sounds terrible but
I don't know the
we don't know the other party's
perspective on it so
hard to comment on that one
John have I got time to wedge one more
please wedge, wedge away
wedge away, I'd just like to talk
there's a number of car dealer results come out this week
there's quite a few of them coming
it's obviously getting towards the end of September
where it's the point that you have to
get them in with companies house
and it's an interesting time for us because we get
real insight into how people
perform last year and the one I just want to
highlight is
Toyota specialist Stephen Eagles
results I mean he is a
fantastic operator
he turned over a record
1.09
billion in
2024 when pre-tax
profits up slightly to 15
million pounds
despite very tough market conditions
he said they sold
and just remember this is a guy that only represents
Toyota and Lexus
albeit at 30 sites
the largest Toyota dealer
in Europe
he sold 55,000 vehicles
I mean it's just
an absolutely staggering result
and they paid themselves
8.27 million pounds
in very well deserved dividends as a result
but congratulations to
Steven Eagle an amazing business
we did an interview
with him on the Cardiola magazine
YouTube channel there's a podcast out there
about inspiring leaders
and he is certainly one of those
and for those people interested I would say go and check that out
because he's got an amazing story
how he started that business
with Toyota's help back in the day
and has built it into an absolute
juggernaut so congratulations to him
yes and obviously
has their trust
as a manufacturer doesn't he
well in the last two years
he swept up a lot of Marshall
Toyota sites which were X motor
line weren't they
so yes he's obviously a preferred
partner of theirs
I mean he's talked about eggs in one basket though
it's very Toyota centric
isn't it but it obviously works
that's my word
June done
lovely I won't ask for James
to comment on that because
of this hotel very soon James
so I can
so James
before I ask for your verdict are there any
stories you think we've missed this week
I think we've got a good coverage
nothing for me to add
I mean there are other stories but
conscious of time so
you need to get your sausages
out of the hotel rooms
that is a real danger
we'll leave them behind
not now James
so I'm going to have to ask you
who chose the best stories
or what was your favourite story
it's hard to call it a favourite but I do
think the JLR story is
the one that stands out because of the
impact it's having and the importance
of that
for not just JLR but
as we talked about dealer suppliers
the whole industry so
definitely that one stands out for me
and hopefully
they manage to get themselves back online
and it doesn't take too long so fingers crossed
and all the best to them
and the dealer suppliers are impacted
I will take that win
thank you very much James
what's up at the scores in the series
John?
I'm going to say 14
I'm going to write it down on this Novitel
little pad here
I didn't get one of those
must be exclusive to the lovely sweet
you're in
all that's left for me to say
is thank you to James for coming on today
it's been lovely to chat to you
and chat about Motorway and of course we will see you
next week on Wednesday and
if anyone listening wants to come see you as well
and have a good chat just go and buy a ticket
to Cardila podcast live
with a complimentary barbecue
very nice to see you
thank you very much
lovely
and thank you as well to James
for regaling us with tales
of ground pork
we'll be back next week
with another episode and of course there probably will be
an interim episode as well
from podcast live
so make sure you're subscribed take me notified when that goes live
if you want to check out the stories you mentioned today
take a look in the show notes below
or head to cardilamagazine.co.uk
thanks for listening and goodbye
About this episode
FCA's collaboration with influencers to address car finance claims takes center stage, while JLR's ongoing production shutdown raises concerns for dealers and suppliers. The episode features a humorous yet insightful discussion with James Wilson, CEO of Motorway, who shares updates on their auction platform and the challenges dealers face in a competitive market. The hosts also recount their quirky experiences, including sausage making, adding a light-hearted touch to the serious industry topics. Tune in for a blend of industry insights and entertaining anecdotes.