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“I Want to Build It Even Bigger!”: The Dealer Turning Tragedy into Momentum — and Lessons Every Dealer Can Use | Whitney Yates Woods, President at Yates Buick GMC
“I Want to Build It Even Bigger!”: The Dealer Turning Tragedy into Momentum — and Lessons Every Dealer Can Use | Whitney Yates Woods, President at Yates Buick GMC
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About this episode
Whitney Yates Woods shares her inspiring journey of taking over Yates Buick GMC after her father's unexpected passing. Faced with the challenge of leading a dealership with no prior management experience, she embraced the opportunity, focusing on growth and innovation. Whitney discusses her strategic pivot towards social media, building a brand, and the importance of community engagement. She highlights the challenges of transforming the dealership's culture and operations, ultimately doubling sales volume while emphasizing the significance of succession planning and mentorship in the automotive industry.
Topics:
leadership transition
social media strategy
dealership growth
succession planning
community engagement
service department improvements
female empowerment
brand building
marketing strategies
used car sales
Cars:
Renault Master
Today I’m joined by Whitney Yates Woods, Dealer Principal at Yates Buick GMC & Yates Mitsubishi. We discuss how the loss of her father pulled her from a successful real estate career into leading a single-point dealership, her bold leap into social media to drive sales, the decision to build a new store for a struggling brand, and much more.
This episode is brought to you by:
1. CDK Global - - Managing inventory doesn’t have to be a grind. Backed by over 50 years of CDK know-how and powered by next-gen AI tools, you’ll price with confidence, merchandise like a pro, and move cars off the lot faster — all while boosting your bottom line. Learn more about the CDK Vehicle Inventory Suite @ https://www.cdkglobal.com/cdk-vehicle-inventory-suite
2. Lotlinx - Get the best possible market advantage on every vehicle transaction. Optimize operations and boost profits using artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning. Learn more @ https://lotlinx.com
3. CDG Dealer Consulting – The right tech can make or break your dealership—so don’t guess, and don’t go it alone. Backed by insights from 500+ dealerships, CDG Dealer Consulting audits your tech stack, recommends the right products and vendors, and secures guaranteed best pricing. Our team then guides rollout and integration, helping you avoid costly mistakes and hit the ground running. Discover dealership tech that actually works @ http://www.cdgdealerconsulting.com
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Topics:
00:26 How the social media journey started
01:44 Taking over family business challenges
03:25 Key lessons from early challenges
06:41 Improving sales and service how?
16:51 Best brand building strategies?
20:05 Most creative marketing tactic?
23:51 Effective social marketing secrets?
26:12 Best customer engagement ideas?
33:56 Biggest future goals and challenges?
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"...ut then we're going to be, you know, we've got to master tech. We've got to this and that."
How the social media journey started
Taking over family business challenges
Key lessons from early challenges
Improving sales and service how?
Best brand building strategies?
Most creative marketing tactic?
Effective social marketing secrets?
Best customer engagement ideas?
Biggest future goals and challenges?
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When he passed away, it was actually at his funeral.
A friend of my dad's was like,
what are you gonna do?
And I said, I don't know,
I think we might sell the store.
And he was like, why?
You should do it.
And I went to bed that night and woke up the next morning
and called my mom and brother and I was like,
hey guys, I wanna do it.
And they're like, okay.
I've never done it before.
Today I'm joined by Whitney Yates Woods,
president at Yates Buick GMC.
When Whitney's father passed, she had a choice.
Walk away or take the wheel.
She chose the harder path
and it's why I'm speaking with her today.
She's turned that single point store into a platform,
rising as a social media star
while expanding the group beyond anything
her father could have imagined.
A big thank you to our sponsors
for making today's episode possible.
Lotlinks, CDK Global, and CDG Dealer Consulting.
And now let's get into the show.
Whitney Yates Woods on the CDG podcast, Whitney, welcome.
Thank you.
Happy to be here.
Happy to have you on.
It's my favorite types of episodes
where it's a fully organic appearance
where I just happen to see someone
doing really well on social.
And I'm like, man, we need to get you on.
You're crushing the game here with content.
And so we wanna explore your playbooks,
see what's going on.
Cool.
I like it.
Before I ask you about yourself and your background,
when did you decide as Dealer Principal GM of Two Stories,
when did you decide to get really intentional
about putting yourself out there
and creating content on Instagram
and just curious kind of what your strategy has been?
So it was kind of a little bit of a journey.
I originally started with I need to hire an influencer
or someone to do it for me.
I just wasn't confident in my ability to go on camera
and go for it.
So I did.
I hired a gal that spoke Spanish
and she did some Spanish-speaking commercials
and some social media stuff for me.
And it just never really took off.
She was fabulous.
But there's something about being the brand
and being yourself.
And I had a friend that does PR
and she's like, you are the brand.
Why don't you just get on there and do it?
And I'm like, once you start doing it,
it's not scary anymore.
Now I love it.
I'm constantly thinking of things that I can do
to make a video.
So it kind of kicked me out.
Yeah, you get the buck.
I'm telling you, dealers are the original influencers.
When you think back to like TV ads, billboards,
you always think of a dealer.
Dealers are always there.
Like the goofy Halloween commercials
and they've been making these funny commercials
for a long time.
So now it's just different, social.
Yeah, we'll talk more about that.
I am curious, in 21, your dad passed away
and you got thrown into the business.
Can you tell us a little bit about that experience,
that journey, take us maybe a little bit before that
and leading up to that point?
What happened?
Absolutely.
Yeah, so I had worked at the store as a receptionist.
I helped my dad with marketing.
I did a little bit of customer service,
a little bit of things here and there,
but nothing serious, no management, no leadership.
And then I went into residential real estate
and I sold houses for 13 years and loved my career
and everything was great.
And then he got really sick.
He was sick for two and a half months.
And during that time, I had time to think about
what are we going to do with the store as a family?
And I have a brother and a mother.
They were totally on board.
And when he passed away, it was actually at his funeral.
A friend of my dad's was like,
what are you going to do?
And I said, I don't know.
I think we might sell the store.
And he was like, why?
You should do it.
And I went to bed that night and woke up the next morning
and called my mom and brother and I was like,
hey guys, I want to do it.
And they're like, okay, I've never done it before.
And you know, my mom was really confident in my ability
and she was like, I think it's great.
I think you're perfect.
I think you're going to do awesome.
Let's do it.
So then we had to go get approval.
I wasn't on the dealer agreement.
I wasn't anywhere to be seen.
No one knew me.
So that was quite the process.
Wow.
Okay.
So first of all, like I'm, that's incredible story.
But just how you, you know, he kind of inspired you
and you actually did it and you're executing very well.
We'll talk about that.
What was, what was that like, like that learning curve tactically?
How do you actually just do that?
Right.
For someone who you're not,
it's not like you were even working in the store.
So I want to understand like, what do you do first?
Right.
Your first day, what are you actually doing when you're in that store
and getting like, how do you bridge that learning curve?
That and also all the employees that worked here.
You know, I think everybody was nervous.
People liked working here.
Yeah.
They're like, who are you?
What do you know about this industry?
Right.
Yeah.
Absolutely.
So I came in, I was just very confident and fake it till you make it.
I wasn't ready.
I was scared to death, but I also knew that I was doing it for my dad
and my mom and my brother.
And we have a small family and I knew I could do it.
I, I just really had faith in myself and I walked in here.
And actually the first thing I did was help my mom clean out my dad's office.
So it was unexpected death and, and that was hard.
And then I wanted to make it my own because I wanted General Motors to come in here
and interview me and be confident that this girl knows her stuff and she can do it.
And so that was actually the first thing I did.
So we cleaned out the office.
I made it my own.
I started just meeting people and being around.
I knew everybody.
I'd always been around the store.
I just never worked here.
And I enrolled in an ADA, the Academy immediately.
And luckily at that time it was COVID.
So it was online.
So I was able to just get in right away and start.
Yeah.
So that was, that was helpful.
But honestly, it was helpful.
But I think if I took the Academy today, it would be much different.
The experience, everything was so foreign to me at the time that I was kind of just lost a little bit in that, in those classes.
Now, what can you tell me about?
I'm curious.
Like, I know there's unfortunate unexpected death as you mentioned.
Was there any succession planning in place?
Nope.
We had nothing.
And I know it's stupid.
We should have.
I guess, you know, he was still working.
He loved this business.
He started this store from the ground up.
He was a used car salesman and worked his way all the way to owning a dealership.
And this was like his baby.
So we didn't really, I guess we just thought he was going to live forever.
That's dumb to think, but at the time we just didn't think about it.
Yeah.
Well, no, I asked because I'm sure there's other people listening that don't have succession planning in place.
And I've spoken about it on the platform, but it's definitely, you know, that's crazy.
It's really, really.
Don't have it.
You need to get it.
Yeah.
All right.
So tell us a little bit about your, it's been a couple of years now.
I'll let you kind of tell us exactly how long it's been.
But just, I want to understand, right?
Well, how this ramp up period has been like for you.
You know, you've taken these two stores.
What was performance then?
What is it now?
Really?
What have you done over the last couple of years?
What I think is interesting about you as an operator is you've come in with very fresh eyes.
And as I've mentioned before on the podcast, you know, there's a guy on my old companies where I used to say, you know, the new person is the most important for the first six months because they're seeing everything for the first time.
They're bringing a fresh perspective.
And so I want to understand from you, right?
Having now been in the game for a couple of years.
Tell us a little bit about that journey leading up to today, right?
What did you come into?
Where are you at today?
Where are your stores at today?
So I came in and to be honest with you, we were underperforming in retail sales index or our sales and.
Is that Buick or Mitsu or both?
Buick GMC Mitsubishi is under construction right now.
We're building it.
We're opening January.
Understood.
Yeah.
Okay.
So Buick was underperforming.
Got it.
Buick and GMC were under retail sales index.
And the big thing for me is that the OEM wasn't going to let a store that was underperforming just have this new dealer principle come in and get approved.
So my giant push from the moment I walked in was we have to be meeting or exceeding RSI as quickly as possible so that I can show the OEM that I am capable and that I should take over.
So that was my, it was like switching from the gross mindset to the volume mindset immediately.
And I had advice.
I had a really good friend in the business, a female dealer.
That's actually one of my competitors that totally helped me because she had gone through this same exact.
I mean, her dad had passed you and she had gone through this and she was like, you need to get your store, you know, meeting or exceeding RSI so that they see that you're, you're capable.
And so that was the big push from day one when I walked in and I did have people in place that were managing the store and I decided I wasn't going to make any changes for one year.
I wanted to get to know everybody and like you said, that six month bird's eye view of what's happening as someone that has not been in the industry and see what, where I need to go from there.
Okay.
Now, tactically, like what was cash flow like?
Were you profitable then?
Was there cash in the bank to like sustain operations?
Even if you were pushing for volume potentially unprofitably?
So I was very fortunate and my dad did run a very good operation.
We were cash in the bank.
We, he made money.
He just didn't, I don't think RSI was as important to him.
He was 70 years old and he's been doing this a long time and he wasn't as interested in using the manufacturer as I am.
And rightfully so, you know, he had a long, long haul at this career.
So he, you know, he did, he did a great job and he had a great use car operation and we always have.
So I was very, very fortunate to step into a dealership that was profitable and things were going okay.
But getting people to switch mindsets from max gross on every deal to let's lose six grand on the front to sell a car is very hard to do.
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And that's a very bold move.
I mean, what happened to your volume once you started changing pricing and really optimizing for volume?
To what extent did that impact your sales?
We probably do double the amount of new cars that we used to do.
What are you doing now with volume roughly?
I think we sold 112 GMCs and 33 Buicks last month.
And then we still have our used cars.
But yeah, so we do like 250-ish a month.
Has anything been eye-opening or I should say that differently?
What has been the most eye-opening for you in this experience, right?
I haven't taken over this dealership, pushed it for growth, put yourself in as the dealer principal,
proved by the manufacturer, doubling volume.
I'm curious to know like what has really surprised you of anything?
I think the biggest thing for me is I'm not surprised that I did it, but I was not prepared.
I was not ready.
I was not experienced.
And I think the most eye-opening about this experience is that I really feel like anybody could do anything if you want to.
You don't have to be ready.
I agree with that.
You don't have to be ready to have kids.
You don't have to be ready to get married.
You don't have to be ready to do all these things in life.
But if you want them and you jump in, you're going to be ready.
You're going to find the skills and maybe it doesn't work out and that's okay too.
But you can try.
Yeah, I really do agree with you that it's a mindset thing and that does impact.
And I do find many cases with big decisions, at least in my life.
It sounds counterintuitive, but sometimes I think about big decisions like less than I do about small decisions.
True.
Kind of like just, you know, kind of did that a couple of times in my life when, you know, choosing an education, choosing a house.
So I don't know what that says about me, but sometimes you just got to, you know, dive right in.
Yeah, dive in and just do it.
I think there's a fine line between a risk taker and a gambler.
So I don't want to fall, I don't want to fall into the latter bucket.
But definitely, yeah, you know, you have to have some, you know, I guess call it gut feeling at certain points and dive right in and believe that you'll make, you know, you'll make something good out of it.
Absolutely.
Life is short.
You got to just take the chance.
Yeah, well, tell me more about your, so tell me more about present day.
You've doubled volume, so understood.
Now you did that extremely unprofitably early on.
Has the profitability gap been bridged by now?
Are we now doing similar volume more profitably?
Yes, we are.
And we, I mean, we do rely a lot on back in profit and the market in Phoenix is sort of like that.
So I'm competing against my fellow dealers that are in the major metro and, you know, I've got to do, I've got to keep in line with what their pricing is.
So, yeah, but no, we're doing it and we're making money and we've remained profitable since COVID and it's been a good strategy.
The volume, it's a whole wheel, right?
So you, the more cars you sell, the more service you do, that's the thing that I really changed.
We were losing money in service.
We were always in the red had been for several years and thankfully I joined a 20 group and they saved my life.
And they were like, what are you doing with your service department?
I honestly, you know how it is.
I don't know if I'm assuming you know how it is.
If you're on the sales side, you're kind of all in on sales and you don't pay as much attention to service and parts.
So I hired people to help me.
I hired an advisor to come in and look at my service department, look at my parts department, tell me what changes I need to make.
I told everybody this guy is great.
I've had nothing but positive reviews from him from other dealers and we're going to do what he says.
And I did it and we make money in service now.
And so we have great absorption and that was something that we have not had.
And I didn't tackle that for a couple of years.
So I would say like the start of year three is when I dove all in on service.
First I was kind of trying to figure out my life.
But yeah, it's a whole wagon wheel.
So you sell more cars, you service more cars, you make more money.
It's volume drives.
What is your absorption today?
It's like 84%, 85%.
And what's driven that?
What changes do you make in service to get to that?
So we had a lot of used car situations.
We were buying so many used cars a month that the auto auction came down here to see where I was if I was okay.
Because the fees were so high.
But we were kind of just moving things around and then reselling them later.
And I was paying out a lot of money to various different positions that I didn't need.
I didn't have good dispatching.
I didn't have good management over there.
That was a huge thing.
I hired an excellent manager and he really helped turn things around and he really understands like NADA guidelines and things like that.
I invested in training for my employees and for my manager.
Everything has changed pretty much over there.
Where did you find as someone from, you know, not without a very well entrenched network and industry, where did you find as manager?
So I put out an ad and I interviewed probably 9, 10 people and I did not like any of them.
And I actually interviewed him first and my controller suggested, she's like, why don't we interview him again?
He was the most favorite.
And so I did and I'm like, wow, I was really wrong.
I love the guy.
He was terminated from somewhere else.
I don't think you'll care that I say that.
He was very honest about it, but I didn't care to know the story.
Like you didn't steal.
That's fine. I don't need to know what happened.
You know, you could you could go somewhere else and have a thriving career.
It doesn't matter to me.
I don't I don't like to have people's past follow them into the new job.
So he came in and I mean, he did exactly what he said he was going to do.
So yeah, I got him from editor that let him go.
That's remarkable.
And and what has he changed?
Like, could you speak to any specifics that have changed in the departments that,
you know, that you attribute to him process?
And he was a technician.
So he really understands the training aspect.
He gets these guys.
I mean, he's always coming to me like, hey, they need to go to this.
This is as much money, but then we're going to be, you know, we've got to master tech.
We've got to this and that.
He really understands the technician job more than any other manager.
I think a lot of the managers come from advising.
And that's kind of your traditional path, right?
Your rock solid advisor works their way up and becomes the service manager.
But he was a technician.
So he has just a totally different perspective and understands the time and the money that
we're putting into these tax and the pay and making it in line and all of those things.
So he's just been really good for the department, very process driven.
That's amazing.
I have to ask you like, how did you even think about joining a 20 group?
Who advised you on that?
I feel like people from outside industry don't even know about that.
I think it was my dealer academy teachers.
You know, they're always pushing for that.
But they were right.
And I joined a women's group first, just women.
And I thought that was going to be really good for me.
And I went to one meeting and was like, I kind of want the perspective of male and female
dealers.
So I asked an ADA to find me another group and they found me one that is actually awesome.
There's like four female dealers in the group, I think, and then the rest of them are male.
But I mean, even having four female dealers is huge.
So they picked that one for me because they knew that I could have both both perspectives.
Talk to us more about just growing the business demand generation back to social, right?
I'm curious to know your overall marketing strategy.
Can you give us like, what are you doing today from a marketing perspective?
What's driving direct sales?
Talk to us a little bit about because I think one thing I appreciate about scrolling your
Instagram feed is your creativity.
I was a very, you know, I'd like to think of a very creative operator as well.
I was probably weaker on the logistic side, meaning it just wasn't as interesting to me.
That's something I prefer to, you know, find a compliment or like delegate to someone else.
Right.
And I stuck more to creativity.
So I'm curious, by the way, another another good example of this actually is Rita Case.
She's very creative.
What they've done down there in Florida, you know, just watch your time dealer of the year.
Yeah.
And just like the amenities down, you know, they have like the free car washes.
I mean, just like all these different things that enhance the experience.
But I am curious, talk to us from a marketing perspective and not just social.
What are you doing today?
How are you driving business generating demand?
Okay.
So day one, I decided that we were going to create a brand.
We're going to build Yeats as a brand, not just in our area in Goodyear, but all over the valley of the sun, if you will.
So I hired a PR company and we had never had that before.
And I didn't realize the value of PR at the time.
And at first I was like, this is kind of a lot.
I don't know if this is a good idea, but I went with it and we still have the same company today.
And she does a lot of free advertising with articles, writing articles about mom cars,
writing articles about women in auto, writing articles about Mitsubishi.
You know, whatever it might be, Buick's kind of rebrand and growth strategy, stuff like that.
And so that actually gets a lot of traction.
And then we scaled back on TV and radio.
We were doing a lot of radio stuff.
I mean, we've done everything, the mailers in the mail.
So we kind of cut the budget for that type of marketing and really dove into the social media and the free marketing.
And then we do some paid social as well.
So let's let's wait one second before you go on a couple of things.
There's I recently had Murgado, Mario Murgado on the podcast, large group based in Miami and across the country.
And he really leaned into the Hispanic community and market.
That's just he literally says that's the markets to go after and they appeal to most and that's their niche.
You're saying that you've you've actually gone after women.
And one of your strategies has been by way of PR and articles.
Does that actually drive sales, though?
Like how are you able to target that locally to drive local demand for your for your business?
Right.
And it is hard to track unless people come in here and say, I'm here because I saw XYZ.
You know, it's it's not something that's as easy to track.
You get the numbers on who read it and how many people and what the dollar amount would have been on something like that.
But it is hard to track.
However, we do hear all the time like, oh, I saw your social even when I'm out in Phoenix.
People are like, oh, my gosh, you're that girl from from the dealership.
I follow you.
I follow the dealership.
I love your Tik Tok or whatever it might be.
So we do have a lot of reviews, if you will.
But I started a partnership with a girl that was in the WNBA, which she took off.
So that was amazing for me.
But I people were like thinking I was nuts.
Even people that worked here, they're like, what?
You're going to let some basketball player girl drive one of our hummers and you're going to try to market with her.
Do people watch that?
I'm like, yeah, they watch it.
Are you nuts?
Like this is the best idea and it turned out to be good.
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And are these are these all your ideas?
Are you like the creative spirit in dealership?
So I do have a really good marketing manager, Rusty, who is in here a minute ago helping me with setting all this up.
And he will, we have a note like on iPhone.
This is how simple it is.
This is how simple it is.
It's an iPhone note and one of my friends is on it because she's creative and funny.
I'm on it and a couple employees from the dealership are on it and we write down stuff like, oh, this would be a funny idea for a skit.
And I even like desk manager and be like, this happened today.
This would be so funny in a skit.
It's a lot of it's like real life.
Like we made hot dogs once in the showroom and that whole skit came because one of the holiday weekends.
I was like looking on the cameras and the BBC and they were making hot dogs and a hot machine.
I was like, wait, what are they doing?
That'd be so funny if we made that into a skit.
Stuff like that silly.
Yeah, yeah.
No, but it's incredible that you've cultivated that culture because that is that's the best type of content, right?
When it's organic and everyone is contributing.
I also got to give you some feedback.
You seem to do a very good job at finding specialists for specific roles, which is that's not like an entry level skill set.
So I'm pretty impressed, meaning every time I ask you about something, you're telling me like, oh, I found this person.
I hired that person.
Where did you get that?
How did you build that skill?
Again, that's something that you even like, you know, early stage entrepreneurs and stuff like they're not delegation and finding a specialist, you know, in order to get you to work on the business and not in the business is not.
It's typically like a stage two or three type of skill set that I consider in companies.
And I'm curious, like, were you a business owner previously?
Did you have any experience in building teams or anything?
I know you were real estate.
To me, that doesn't imply that you had a team.
Maybe you did.
But like, where did you, how did you even know that?
Like, if I need to, you know, if I need this, I might have to find a PR firm or need a consultant for service or like, who taught you that?
Or how did you get that?
Possibly my parents.
I'm not really sure where I got it from.
So I wasn't on a real estate team.
I was just a, I worked.
Yeah.
And I didn't have any employees.
That's the very big change from my previous life.
And I think I read a lot and I read a lot of business articles.
I listened to a lot of business podcasts.
I follow like my idol is Sarah Blakely, the founder of Spanx.
And I've listened to so many podcasts that she's done.
I'm not kidding you.
And she talks a lot about how it was just her in her apartment, like fulfilling these orders and how she had to scale her business to the next level if it ever grew.
And so I think that I, I know my talents and my skillset.
I know there's one of me.
I know I'm a mom of two kids.
I know I'm the wife.
I know I have other things that I'm going to want to do in life.
So I need to find really good people to surround myself with.
And I'm so thankful that I have had the opportunity to find these people because they drive the team.
It's not me.
It's everybody that works here.
And we do have so much fun.
Like really, I mean, when they're not here, like a couple of them, one of them turned 40 and they all left me for a weekend.
And I was like, that's really sad without you guys.
Like we really do have fun together.
That's good.
Talk to me more in more detail about your social marketing strategy.
Like what type of content are you creating?
What has been successfully generating sales?
Okay.
So we do have paid content.
I think about 13% of our content is paid, which I want to get up to like 30%.
I've been reading some data that says that's like the key area that works well.
But all of our viral stuff that we've been able to do has been really just organic.
We did hire Russell Swift to come down.
But what is it though?
But yeah, but what are you doing?
Are you doing skits?
Are you kind of showcasing in-store experiences?
Like what is the content that's working?
So I think both.
We do skits and we kind of had a little storyline for a while there.
And we still do funny skits.
But I think one of my big things about the skits is we have to make sure that they relate to what we're selling and bring people into the store.
So we've really been working on that lately.
And even like we have one on TikTok that had 250,000 views and it was just explaining the new GM key card.
It's kind of like the Tesla card to turn on the car for the seer.
That one went crazy.
And really all it was, it was a light hearted.
Oh, I'm going to show you.
Oh, it really does work.
Good job, GM, you know, and took off.
So I think showcasing our vehicles, showcasing our service department and our employees.
So we have female service advisors.
I like to put them in the video so people know, hey, you could come down here and you could work with Ashley or you could work with Chris or whatever it may be.
Just kind of showcasing our personality as a storm and letting people know that when you come to Yates, you're going to work with us.
What has been some of the best performing content for you?
Has it been like educational like the Buick GMC one?
Has it been funny?
Can you like pinpoint a specific theme that's worked really well generating business?
I think funny, but also people like to see the product.
They love when we do the used cars we just got this week, the new stuff on the lot.
We will sell so many of that.
Before, before we conditioning or after?
No, after.
So we do a lot of those.
And then a lot of the new like, hey, do you like this color car?
People will write in and be like, hey, I want that color.
I want that one.
If we talk about colors for some reason, it's very popular, Conway Save.
So, so one of my bad ideas that think really I did not pursue was to build the big brother of reconditioning and to actually put cameras all over my reconditioning center where a customer can see the vehicle from the moment of acquisition all the way through getting at the frontline,
literally see like the recount process.
Again, I know it's a terrible idea.
I did not pursue it.
And everyone listening can is right now thinking of the 50,000 ways why this is, you know, this would never work.
But it was an idea nonetheless.
And I think it's unique and it's different.
And it creates sort of that experience.
It's kind of like seeing your baby get, you know, come back to life or something.
I think it's pretty cool.
And the customer knows then what you did to the vehicle.
Hey, we really did put all of this stuff on it and how we're selling it.
That's not a bad idea.
I think that there are certain things where, you know, showing how the how the sausage is made is maybe not in the benefit of everyone.
Not to say that, like the customer, you don't disclose the bumper was painted cool.
No one cares.
But at the end of the day, they're a customer, right?
Where the dealer, you know, you see that bumper, maybe, you know, scratched and like it just, you know what I mean?
It's just it's like, it's like seeing a house that's like not properly staged or like, you know, bad pictures of a car.
At the end of the day, I'm the consumer.
Like, give me the finished product.
I want something amazing.
Well, that's why we put dirty cars on the website.
You know, it's like they have to be clean and look good.
Yeah, it's true.
Yeah.
What is your, yeah, what is your merchandising strategy?
Do you, like you said, you don't post dirty.
So I'm assuming you're not posting any coming soon or anything like that.
Or are you just putting listings without images?
How are you doing that?
So we actually used to have, we were, we were old school.
We had like a guy with a camera that would take pictures of all of our inventory.
This is, this is the volume thing, right?
Like we, we didn't have as many cars.
Well, I've earned a lot of inventory by selling a lot of vehicles.
So now we're getting cars dropped off every day and that does not work anymore.
So then we hired a company to take the pictures and then I realized I could use AI.
So we use, I forget what program it is, but where they actually give us the image of the vehicle and the inside tour.
And it's all clean and nice and it's from the manufacturer.
What do you do for used?
We still, we have a company that still takes the pictures of the used cars, but hopefully after they're clean, that's what they're supposed to do.
Yeah, absolutely.
So tell me more about just overall with your, your day to day operations today.
Do you like, what are you focused on?
What's occupying the majority of your brain space?
Currently, I'm more worried about the future and growth.
I was able to get the Mitsubishi store, which I know some people Mitsubishi, whatever, but it was a big feat in Arizona.
There were a couple of dealers that wanted to get the point and there was only one available.
So I worked on that pretty hard for a while and now it's being built.
So we're dealing with, you know, today I'm picking out the floor color for the sidewalks and stuff like that.
Just those types of things.
But I'm focused on growth mode and I was focused on growing probably about two years in.
I actually tried to buy another point in Arizona and that didn't work out.
But I've been looking at opportunities and trying to grow the store and the automotive group, if you will, from a single point to a multi-point family owned store.
Ask bluntly like, why? What's driving you?
You know, I love it. And I don't know why. I just, I feel like this is where I was supposed to be all along.
I've had many careers. I was a school teacher for one year. I worked at Nordstrom.
I did college advising for high school students and then I sold real estate for 13 years.
And I think all of that, all of those different experiences have like morphed me into the person I am now.
And I finally feel like I'm in the position and an industry that I was always meant to be in.
I just maybe didn't realize it at the time.
And I want my, I have two children and I want them to look at me and say,
my mom did that and I'm really proud of her and whether or not they want to do it too, I want them to have the option.
And I want the legacy to continue that my dad worked so hard for.
You know, he didn't have any money. He was broke. He didn't come from a car dealership family.
He was a used car dealer or used car salesman.
And when he met my mom, he told her he wanted to own a dealership and she was like, cool.
And it started as a used car point and then he got GMC somehow with like $20,000.
I'm not even kidding and, and built it into what it is.
And I just, I want to continue it. I want to build it even bigger.
And it's really hard to do nowadays, but you know,
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Tell me, I'm curious your decision to go Mitsubishi.
You know, I speak with lots of dealers that are selling Mitsubishi,
you know, their new car sales have slowed.
It's turned into, you know, it's really a used car store, some say.
And it's always been to a certain extent, but maybe a little bit more nowadays.
Why did you decide to do that?
So I originally got a notice from them saying that there was an open point
that was in neighboring city.
And I called and I was like, hey, I have land.
I already owned the land next door of the dealership.
And I was like, I could build a point if it made sense.
So we went through everything.
And I really feel we can make it work with the used cars.
And I also feel that my experience with a very reputable OEM,
that's already doing really well, Buick GMC.
I can translate that to the new car sales and still make a go at it.
I do obviously follow that the sales have slowed from Mitsubishi.
But I have faith in the brand.
And I think that we're really going to go on a good little run.
And I'm excited about it.
And I plan to sell a whole bunch of used cars out of there.
And having two points and two used car hubs, if you will,
I think will really help us with our used car game as well.
Wow.
Okay.
And then the land, is that just coincidental that you had land
right next to the other dealership?
So the month that my dad died, it came up for sale.
And he had been wanting to buy it.
And we were able to get it for a great price.
And I was going to hold on to it.
And I had reached out to every OEM on LinkedIn.
And you know, you'd be surprised.
You reach out to a CEO and they write back.
I talked to a lot of them.
And I mean, I was finding out that they hadn't put new points anywhere
since 2018 or 2019.
I mean, it was just really going to be hard to do.
So when I got this opportunity, I went for it.
Would you consider partnering?
Or are you looking to grow the solo family?
What's your thoughts?
So we, I've been very fortunate that we don't have any partners except for family.
And it's a small family like I told you.
Which was my assumption, by the way.
It would have to be the real right fit because I know how hard that can be,
especially with, you know, dominant personalities and things like that.
It would have to be somebody that was the right fit or,
or a financial backing that was the right fit.
And I also know that growing in major Metro markets,
you probably are going to need some financial help because these dealerships are not cheap.
So I'm open to it.
Well, that's interesting.
And I do agree with you.
Yeah.
I mean, there's always opportunity, but it's, it is a big decision.
So, so what's next for, I mean, I know you're opening the Mitsu store.
What's next for the Buick GMC store?
I mean, any, any other plans?
Like I said, you've been growing sales and profits improved, right?
You're doing a great job on social, really putting yourself out there, right?
And anything keeping you up at night about the brands, about the stores,
like any thoughts going through your head?
Everything keeps you up at night.
I'm always thinking about this place.
It's definitely, that's, that's part of owning a business, right?
You're always worried about the next thing.
Or, you know, the, there's been so many wrenches in the road.
When I started it was COVID, then it's tariffs, then it's, you know, part strike
or port issues or there's always going to be issues.
And we just have to keep figuring out a way to pivot through the issues.
For Buick GMC, I'd like to grow it even more.
We have so much potential where we're at.
This, this area that we were in was all farmland.
And now we have Starbucks on every corner.
So I'm in the primo spot to like make it happen.
I think we could be one of the top, top volume dealer.
I mean, we're probably like top four right now,
but I think we could be number one in Arizona and that's the goal.
And I'm never going to stop trying for that.
We have all the people now.
We have all the, the population.
We don't really have any excuses.
We just need to keep working at it and make it happen.
What's your tech stack like?
We use dealer track.
We had, we had CDK when I came in and I, I didn't want to pay all that money.
So I switched just to dealer track, which everyone hated me, but then CDK went down
and everybody loved me.
We switched one month before the big boom of the cyber attack.
So we got very lucky.
We have dealer track.
We have rapid recon that we use all the time for that.
Obviously the auto.
That's great.
So I am curious, like if there's anyone listening to this,
or if there's someone in the industry that you could get connected to,
is there anyone, is there like a wish list person you'd like to connect to in this industry?
Yes.
Who?
I think it's obvious.
Female, Mary Barra.
She's the coolest.
Mary.
All right.
What do you want?
When my dad died, I wrote an email and she responded within like two minutes and it was really her.
And she was like, wow, I'm so sorry for your loss.
You sound like you're going to do great and I have no doubt that you can do it.
And it was just so reassuring.
I hadn't even talked to my reps yet with General Motors.
I just went straight and wrote her email and she responded.
And it was, what a woman.
I mean, she has a huge job and she's responding to some dealer's daughter in Arizona that just lost her dad that's telling her she wants to do this.
I mean, it was really cool.
But I've never had the opportunity to meet her.
So I would love to.
Yeah.
I like how you just like skip level all the reps and stuff and go to know because I'll tell you why I'll tell you why because I'm the same way.
A couple of months ago, I emailed my school, my alma mater for, you know, to, I just wanted to say thank you to there's a scholarship I got at the time and there's someone donated.
And I just, it just came to mind, you know, I was going through like a moment of gratitude and I was like, I just have to say thank you.
So it's completely like, you know, just out of, so anyways, I asked them, hey, can you remind me like the name of this individual that contributed to this scholarship or whatever.
And they gave me this whole list.
Like there's a process.
I'm like, get the hell out of here.
So I started doing some reverse engineering and ended up finding them and it was like completely just like, go take me through this stupid process.
Like, let me just reach out to the person.
They, by the way, they were thrilled.
They were thrilled.
They were happy.
So.
And yeah, but like the whole like, you know, you know, we're rebels, you know, we like to kind of.
And they're not going to find out you were trying to find them because they're the person that's supposed to give them the message is not going to.
So you got to give them yourself.
I did that with that.
Like I was telling you the WMBA thing, I didn't go through agents or anything like that.
I went straight to DMs and was like, Hey, do you want to do this with me?
And it worked.
And I think that that there is a lesson in that I've done it with the OEMs asking about new dealerships, did it with Mary, worked for you.
Hey, maybe that's part of it.
Just being a go-getter and going out there and talking to these people yourself.
Amazing.
Well, Whitney, this has been super fun to have you on.
You're doing some great things.
I'm really curious to see how you're going to spin up your second point.
It's exciting from taking over a store that was, you know, underperforming, but also very abruptly to growing it, improving sales, and now even expanding.
You've done a great job.
So we'll be following you.
Hey, I didn't ask you how did you come across Cardioship guy for in the first place?
I am curious about that.
I feel like I started following you immediately.
I wrote you a message two years ago.
I don't remember what the date was.
Did you really?
Yeah.
And you wrote back and you were like, I said something like, oh, I think I should go on your pod.
I have stories to tell.
And then I got nervous.
I was like, I don't know if I really have stories to tell.
That was dumb.
Then you wrote back and you're like, let's do it.
And I never, I never responded.
Oh, wow.
Look at that.
Yeah.
And then the message.
That's so funny.
The next time.
Amazing.
Well, two years later, here we are.
Yeah.
I've always been a fan.
I listened to all of them.
So, and I love, I get a lot of advice.
Hey, like a lot of, I've learned a lot about the market from your, from your stuff.
So thank you.
You're cool.
Incredible work.
Whitney Yateswood Yates Buick GMC soon to be Mitsu.
Thanks so much for coming on.
It's been super fun.
Thanks for having me.
I appreciate it.
All right.
Hope you enjoyed that episode.
Please give the podcast a rating.
Consider subscribing to the show and check the show notes for links to what we talked
about.
Thanks for tuning in.
I'll see you guys next time.
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