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NCM Event Conversations feat. Chad Graves
NCM Event Conversations feat. Chad Graves
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About this episode
Hosts kick off the NCM client and friends event in Kansas City, welcoming Chad Graves and setting the tone for conversations with dealers and vendors. The discussion centers on NCM’s V20 group—bringing dealers together to share best practices, get messaging feedback, and reduce organizational friction. Speakers highlight education over selling, people-first relationship building, and listening to dealer problems (including a group with 23 stores). The episode also touches on Shark Tank-style competition, where they’ve placed second multiple times.
Topics:
ncm events
kansas city
v20 group
dealer networking
dealer onboarding
ai dealer protection
messaging feedback
people-first selling
listening to dealer problems
shark tank competition
NCM Event Conversations feat. Chad Graves
In this special Series NCM Event Conversations we grabbed a few of our favorite guest to talk about their experiences and whats happening in our Industry. In this interview Lou Ramirez and Fred Lennartz speak with Chad Graves of Reunion Marketing at the NCM Associates Clients and Friends Workshop in Kansas City, discussing why the event remains valuable after moving from Lexington and highlighting the industry connections built through David Cain’s network.
NCM Fixed Ops Summit, an experience built for leaders ready to elevate performance, profitability, and the customer journey through modern systems and by utilizing AI-driven innovation.
📲Stream it. Share it. Let's Brew.
Don’t forget to share and subscribe!
carguycoffee.com
certifiedsolutionaries.com
In this special Series NCM Event Conversations we grabbed a few of our favorite guest to talk about their experiences and whats happening in our Industry. In this interview Lou Ramirez and Fred Lennartz speak with Chad Graves of Reunion Marketing at the NCM Associates Clients and Friends Workshop in Kansas City, discussing why the event remains valuable after moving from Lexington and highlighting the industry connections built through David Cain’s network.
NCM Fixed Ops Summit, an experience built for leaders ready to elevate performance, profitability, and the customer journey through modern systems and by utilizing AI-driven innovation.
📲Stream it. Share it. Let's Brew.
Don’t forget to share and subscribe!
carguycoffee.com
certifiedsolutionaries.com
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Technical
Too Afraid to Ask
Concept
V20 group
"“And what's been consistent about this V20 group is we do have representation from the dealership world coming and telling us what to do to get our message to connect.”"
A “V20 group” is basically a regular meeting group. People share what they’re working on and get feedback from others—here, including people from dealerships—so their message and plans work better.
A “V20 group” is a recurring peer group format where participants meet regularly and get structured feedback from different stakeholders. In this context, it’s described as having dealership-world representation to help the group refine messaging and improve how their ideas land.
Select text to request an explanation
Hello and welcome to the CarGuy Coffee Podcast.
You are listening to the interbrews at the NCM client and friends event.
Enjoy these conversations.
Let's brew!
What's going on, CarGuy's and CarGuy's?
It's Lou Ramirez, the CarGuy.
And Sprelinart, subprime hero.
And we are brewing solutions.
Excited to be reunited and it feels so good.
Excited over here with reunion marketing.
The one, the only, Chad Chris.
Welcome to the party.
Welcome to the party.
It's always a pleasure to be out with you guys, man.
It's great to hang out.
It's been a little while.
It's been a while.
So pumped to be on the show as always.
Heck yeah.
We're excited to enjoy another brew with you and have some fun.
Over at this event, we're in Kansas City.
Really our first time doing an event inside of Kansas City.
What is it that made you have to be part of this event?
I know, but let's tell some of them out there.
Yeah, man.
Honestly, this event, when it was in Lexington,
has been one of the greatest for us.
We've made some really great long lasting partnerships
through the cane network and working with David himself,
some of those 20 groups.
And so even though it changed locations this year,
it's got a lot of the same feel,
a lot of the same great people here in attendance.
And I tell you, I'm excited to be here.
It's also my first time in Kansas City.
So, you know, it's cool to see the city.
And I'm looking forward to Arrowhead Stadium later.
That should be fun.
Oh, that's right.
The after party, that's going to be really cool.
I've never been to Arrowhead,
so it's going to be neat to be able to go walk into that building
because that place has made some legends, right?
And it's pretty neat.
I'm a big fan of sports.
So when you talk about that,
so that's definitely one of those stops
you got to put on your bucket list.
Excited about all that.
I'm excited that you're here at this event.
The ones in Lexington were off the chain.
I got to admit the-
You guys hometown.
Yeah, that's where it's at.
I love Kentucky.
We're true blue Kentucky guys.
We also got David Keynes, also a Kentucky guy,
and so many others inside this room right now.
Kentucky's pulled some really good car guys
and car gals out of it.
That being said, Lexington is dope.
I do love going to that event.
I love that I could just drive there.
But coming out of Kansas City is a first for me too.
But I'm excited that we're here.
It's raining today, but man, the architecture,
the way the streets are built,
the fountains that I've seen around here,
very next level.
So I'm excited to be here.
I'm excited about the people.
NCM's hosting a really great event here.
I know David's passing the baton on to them.
And I think he's doing a great job doing it.
He's the classiest guy we've ever met, right?
And the way-
And when you feel who he feels,
you get what we're saying.
It's always top notch.
It's always next level.
It's always class.
So I'm excited to be here with all the class
that's going on here.
Love that.
Speaking of class,
there is an extra level of class
that we get the chance to be a part of.
We get the chance to be part of the V20 group.
So that gives us an extra day to be amongst people
that we definitely honor inside of the industry
that are doing great things.
Tell a little bit about the V20 group
for those people that don't know what it is
that we actually were the part of helping to found.
Yeah, absolutely, man.
The V20 thing is such a great concept, right?
We're here and NCM is so big on their 20 groups
and getting dealers to come together,
look at information, share best practices.
And Dave Spanicki, one of the co-founders
of our union and I, he was really sitting there
and look with you guys, a couple others, I think,
and we were like, why aren't we doing something like this?
We all work with dealers across the country
who have different successes, different failures,
different opportunities to grow.
And we were like, vendors have that same stuff, right?
Like you guys see the same thing.
I hear different things.
And so the opportunity to come together in a space
where we can be open, collaborate as vendors,
all with the main goal of how do we better support
our human partners?
And that's inevitably what it should come back to.
But we had a hell of a day yesterday, right?
We were sat there for eight hours, had some great sessions,
great speaking from everything from onboarding,
how to make that experience better, all the way down to AI
and how do we make sure that we're protecting our dealers,
being the best we can with that stuff.
And so honestly, it was a great session yesterday.
And I think it's one of those things that
when you can come together with good peers, that's really,
I think it's a great win for everybody.
Huge win for everybody.
And it was also something that was just so personable for us.
We all had the chance to be inside of that room
in similar different scenarios,
attached to maybe different other events,
but being able to be inside of that room
and learn from each other, but to really be cut on,
to really just be able to say, listen, we all suck at this
and we want to be better at it.
How can we learn from it?
And the one thing that's incredibly curated
from that particular event, much like what happened
at what you all might know as a 20 group,
when you go to your 20 group meeting,
you have representatives from different vendors,
different brands, different industries that come in,
guest speak and speak to you.
When we get the chance to have somebody
represent from the dealership and guest speak to us
and tell us, this is why your message has fallen flat.
This is why things are falling apart a few months into it.
And these are the things to look out for that helps us.
And what's been consistent about this V20 group
is we do have representation from the dealership world
coming and telling us what to do to get our message to connect.
Because at the end of the day, even if our solution
is the perfect thing for the dealer,
the absolute best thing that can possibly help them,
we could fall on deaf ears if it doesn't make it
through the right ears to convey it to who it is
that's actually making the decision or writing the check.
What has it been like over the course of being
inside of the V20 group?
Because yesterday was amazing and that was a big cherry on top
and that's that, hey, keep coming back to the party,
keep coming back to the other party.
But what has it been that you've enjoyed most
about being able to have representation from dealerships
to come tell us how to do our business?
Absolutely. For me, with what I do with Reunion,
I'm always working with some of our bigger partners
and working with different dealerships.
But it's always through the lens of what are they doing
and what is Reunion doing and how do those things work together
or not, right? How do we eliminate that friction?
But when you get to bring somebody into the V20 setting,
now all of a sudden they're addressing usually a problem
that they're feeling across their organization
that maybe has nothing to do with marketing
or nothing to do with training,
but we're still feeling those same things
and you're able to really take little bits and pieces
from a first person that you aren't trying
to get their business.
You're not trying to protect a relationship
and you can really just use both ears.
And so like I just say, right?
I'm not worried about talking.
I'm worried about listening.
And I think when you can really focus on listening
and understanding the dealer's problems,
because Curtis killed it yesterday.
He did a great job presenting.
He's got 23 stores.
So you know if he's struggling with some of those things
and really with his vendor partners,
you know almost every dealership is.
So it's like, we can really focus in on how do I apply this
back to my clients?
How do I apply this back to the people I'm talking to?
Did you hit that?
Did you hit that?
Listen, like you said, he listened twice, right?
He's speaking just a little bit,
but he's being on top of listening
to what is actually being said inside of the room
by the people that we're trying to get the attention of.
Now, speaking of getting attention, Fred,
we've had the opportunity to get a little bit of the attention
of some of the people inside of the room here at this event,
which has been fun.
And a lot of people are starting to get a little bit
more attention about having the opportunity
to come speak their story out here.
Now, Chad has a whole lot of stories that he can tell,
which I'm sure,
and we can have some car guy confession sessions.
But Fred, what have you seen as being something
that the reunion team is consistently doing
inside of these events?
Because they're always,
always, always making things happen
and don't always have the time for this, Mike.
No, we talked about the three E's
of an extra experience today on stage.
I was a blessing to be able to share that with the audience,
but that's what they do.
They literally come here to educate, encourage,
and empower everyone that walks through their sessions,
through to their booth,
has a conversation with you during or even at dinner.
You're always looking for ways to educate,
encourage, and empower people.
And that's a powerful thing.
It makes you unforgettable, right?
And reunion does that top notch.
It starts with the people.
And I got to admit,
you guys have a really good crew of people.
You guys really come in here and really make a difference.
A lot of people come in here and they're learning.
It's okay, your first couple of visits,
you're here to just pick up what's going down, right?
But once you pick up what's going down,
go out and share.
And you guys have done that so well.
You guys went from being learners to being educators
and educating people is powerful.
So when you can do that, that's big.
And that's what I've noticed about you guys.
You guys are here to do that.
We got, obviously, you got Dave speaking.
He's going to be talking about some,
we got the panel right in front of me,
Google versus AI engines,
which will dominate your market.
That's a really crucial thing today
to talk about what's the difference,
what works, what doesn't work,
how should I be actually doing it
so that I can dominate my market?
So that's education.
That's what he's here to do.
Not to sell it.
It doesn't matter what the tool does.
He knows how to fix that.
So he's going to show you how to do that.
And it just costs you the time it takes you to be here.
That's it.
And that's amazing.
And I love that.
So you guys always do that top notch.
And you guys are everywhere.
You're much like Lou and I.
You're omnipresent, right?
If there's something going on, odds are,
reunions there, right?
John to be there, some combinations.
So I would say you guys drop big three E's for us
all the time.
And I appreciate that.
Yeah, that's what it's all about.
We started our career on the dealership side.
And so when it was coming to events in that role,
it was how do you learn?
How do you learn?
How do I take this back, implement it in stores?
And we just tried to keep that same methodology, right?
It's how do we take the education we learn?
How do we take what we're seeing across the board now?
And then if it helps somebody along the way,
that's really what it's all about, man.
That's Robert here.
Awesome, man.
It's the truth.
The one thing that I could say is that those types of
experiences will make you unforgettable, which in turn,
the byproduct is a lot of clients.
The byproduct is growing your business faster than you guys
ever have up to this point in a year before, right?
Congratulations on all those things.
Being in the B20 group, I get a little inside information.
That should be spilling, but I'm telling you,
it's not because they're bragging about making more money.
They get to help more people.
And when you're helping more people, the money will come.
So I just want you all to realize that that's what they do,
and that's what makes you all special.
If you were to give one tip to a vendor out there, say, hey,
this is what you should do to be able to grow your business,
what would you give them?
Man, I honestly think it goes back to basics.
It's the same thing that we were just talking about.
Come here with an open mind.
Talk to the people that you do know,
because I think a lot of us, the automotive industry,
is people first all the time.
And so for me, it's, OK, who am I talking to
that might be a really great candidate for you guys?
And maybe who are you guys talking to
that maybe is struggling a little bit getting foot traffic
and getting marketing into their dealership?
You can have these conversations.
It doesn't have to be hard sales pitches going at it.
It's, no, let's have good conversations.
It might not work out today, but it might be six months from now.
And you got to think long term, right?
So I think come here, be ready to engage,
have good conversations, be willing to help,
and that'll take care of itself.
I love that.
I love that.
It is what's taken care of.
All the people in here is that they come in here.
They do get active.
They do literally engage with each other.
But you all are consistently uniting people
that are trying to make a difference.
And even providing a solution,
if it doesn't mean that you're the solution to them,
here's still something that you can do to keep whoever it is
that's providing what we provide.
Accountable and making things better.
The idea is still that we improve each other,
which is what we're trying to do for the entire industry.
Remember, there's so much technology.
There's so much that is right now happening
and most relevant that will be irrelevant
in not too many years to come.
It's so important that you continuously get yourself better
and reach out and find out new solutions.
And you get with people that are constantly
going to the places where the solutions are being hatched.
They're literally being created on the stage.
Now, we had the chance for some fun during the Shark Tank.
You had a great experience during some of the Shark Tank.
You got a little bit of history on it.
It's a little funny.
It's a little heart-wrenching in different ways.
Tell us a little bit about your Shark Tank experiences.
Hello, Source Object.
No, I'm kidding.
It's all right.
It's all right.
I'm, I think, two or three times second place.
Let's go, Silver Metal!
Let's go!
Come on, let's go!
Take the Silver as it is what it is.
I like to have a good joke with David about it
I'm a little biased, but it's fun.
I get to pick on Steve Russell, a good friend of ours now
at the DriveCentric crew.
It was really the first time I met him.
He beat us.
I had this flawless CO presentation.
He was awesome.
All about tracking.
I was really, I loved it.
And then Steve gets up there and he talks about sending GIFs to the CRM.
And I'm still today.
I'm like, that's what we lost to.
We lost the GIFs and GIFs, whatever you call them.
It's like, I don't even know what to call them, right?
And Steve is, but that's Steve.
And so we have fun poking about it now.
And it's great because I've fostered a great relationship with him.
Of course, yeah.
And me and David like to poke about it.
And, but yeah, man, we're going to, we're going to retire from Shark Tank.
I gave it three tries, came home with a couple of Silvers.
And at the end of the day, it could be worse, right?
It's still a great product for the end.
Could have not placed, because, yeah, that's it.
I'm glad you're here.
It's what we want.
I tell you, anytime you can get a room of 100 dealers that are engaged.
Yes.
They are at least listening and learning about your product and giving real feedback.
And because I had a couple of people be like, Hey man, you did great, but you should think this.
And that's product information that we took back.
There's a couple, I'll give a shout out to Ryan Corner from the Cumberland Automotive
Group out of Tennessee.
I had a meeting in one of those second places and he's still a great partner today.
Somebody we work with, get a lot of feedback from.
He's a heck of a dude.
Heck yeah.
Because you put yourself out there.
There's a lot of great products and there's a lot of people who are just,
even though they know it's dominant, it's a dominant product that they're not going to
go up and do that because it takes some gumption, man.
It takes a little cojones as I said earlier today, right?
Weavles to jump on the stage and you did it, man.
It is.
And you did it multiple times.
Second place.
And I've been second place a lot in my life.
It's okay.
And there's nothing wrong with that because it's about, did you do your best?
And I know you did, right?
And you said you came with a flawless demonstration and I guarantee that it was.
And I'm sure that a lot of people loved it, but Steve is just different.
Steve is one of those guys you don't forget.
He's wild to beat.
So when he could have probably talked about butterflies and it would have probably done
some good.
That's how Steve is.
But at the end of the day, your product is phenomenal.
Coming in second place, how many times shows you that you guys are always at the top, right?
And you guys are always going to stay there and we appreciate you guys for doing that reunion.
This is a reunion going on right now.
So their marketing is bright on time right now for it.
So I love it, brother.
I love it.
Appreciate you guys.
We are so pumped to be brewing with each and every one of you.
Thankful that you're listening to some of the stories of some incredible people inside of this
industry.
Chad is going to be buzzing around this area the entire day and we're excited to be
catching up with him.
Thank you for taking some time for us to be able to just capture a little bit of the brew.
And we definitely got to get you on for a five liner.
I know that Chad has a great story to tell, but you all have a great story to tell too.
Remember, this industry affords us all great opportunities.
So go do something great.
Put something inside of your cup that'll charge you up, get you excited to be who it is you're
supposed to be while reunion marketing continues to make sure that people are connected all
throughout this industry and in different ways and taking us to the next level.
We honor you.
We appreciate you being part of the party.
Car guys and car gals, you've been brewing solutions at the NCM Associates Clients and
Friends Workshop here in Kansas City with the one, the only, Chad Gray's.
And we will see you soon, everybody.
After we forgive, focus, lie, that's right.
On 3123 forget, focus, lie, and keep growing, keep growing.
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