Car guys, what’s going on good morning, this is lou ramirez, the car guy.

This is fred lynn, arts of sub prime hero, and we are in the cafe, which is really solutionary, that you’re definitely going to want to get set up and get ready to take.
Some notes, because there is a lot that she is bringing to the brew, but until you get to see miss shannon everhart who’s joining us today go ahead and get you some car guys and car gals.
This group has been brought by think ad group.

You can get information by going to thinkpad, group.
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Get you some language right, i’m a i’m a hip-hop kid right.

So i have hip-hop culture in inside of me, but it comes with the language right, so it doesn’t matter what it is that you’re, a part of that culture, has a certain language, there’s so many different things that we can say in the car business that most Customers would look at us and be like man.
What what do you mean? I’m one like it up.
I don’t even understand what that means.

Oh, it’s because that’s our language, but that’s in our culture.

When you’re trying to change a culture, you have to change the language.

What does that mean? That means, because you got, did you mean that? But it’s it’s so imperative that you do so that you do make sure to correct those things.

If you, if you hear somebody inside of your dealership, that is speaking outside of what it is that you’re trying to actually aim at and create in your environment, yes touch it touch it the right way, attack it kill it, pull it out and make sure hey.
We don’t operate like that anymore.
This is how we’re speaking and let’s start doing, that you’ll notice that some people it’s going to maybe skate a little bit.

It’s going to rough them up a bit.
You know it’s going to make them change, but it’s a mindset.
Adjustment that has to happen, you know and, as you guys can see, you know all you all watching this right now you can see the passion that shannon has it’s.

It’s early she’s drinking her diet, coke she’s, trying to get herself going, but yet that passion is never gone.
She wakes up with that, and i can tell like i’ve seen her in the morning.
I’ve also seen her at the tail end of the night of having a good time right and we, you know, we’ve seen how you are and the whole time the thing about ben is.

She brings energy.
I think that if there was one trait about shannon, you know obviously she’s very smart, and we all know that already she’s got a lot of great things going on for her, but it’s her passion, it’s that energy, that she has so contagious.
It’s unreal.

So you put in a process you put in things like you know the way she does things the culture that she’s putting in there and that she believes in and then you have her as a leader up front trying to push that culture and make it something.
That’s part of the whole community, it’s she’s unstoppable, and that’s why we have you on the show and shannon you’re you’ve always been something.
When we see you, you always bring energy to us.

You know i feel like lou and i we like to be the same type of person as you are, so i think we all fit in that same room from day, one guys we really have.
You know it’s.
It’s really weird.

You know we get in those groups, but there’s certain people i kind of attracted to you know not necessarily attracted to, but you know what i mean people in general like you go to them, because you feel like there’s something there that that’s very similar to what You have, and you want to be around it, because, when you put together a bunch of people that are on that same type of level, it amplifies it like boom.
All of a sudden.
It’s like, oh, my god, and we have always have such a good time and – and you know, and your passion alone, though, will take you so far, and i love that about you.

Shannon your passion is, you guys are fuel for me, so i hope uh.
You know we’re just kind of it, absolutely that’s what happens back and forth yeah.
It continues like a tesla right.

It continues to recycle that energy and amplify it yeah.
That’s that’s exciting.
We we definitely honor that, but folks, hopefully you understood what she was pointing out.

There in in in just i’m not saying you need to change the titles of what it is that your people are in your store, we’re not necessarily saying that she did that inside of her business, so that the people that are doing the job could understand the Value that the business has for them doing their job, which is imperative to be able to get the absolute most out of people right.
If that the little kid in little league doesn’t think that his team is behind him or his coach thinks that he can do it he’s not really going to swing with his best effort and whole heart at the t.
The ball that’s sitting on the t right, but when you get mom and dad and you get the team and you get up like yeah, let’s go, let’s go, let’s go, let’s go, you know pumping them up, they.

They start to have faith in what it is that they didn’t even know that they could do until they did it, and she brings that to the table and without question always brings it at the top level of her energy.
Whether the the the day was great starting off whether it was a hectic uh start to a to an event, she forgives focuses on what she has to do and then she starts flying right.
She starts doing it and, if you’re not going with her well, then you just ain’t going, but it’s so contagious, it’s so hot! It’s it’s so easy to jump on that airplane and take that ride.

With her i mean it really is like you feel like hey.
Let’s do this because you just know that that ride is going to be so much fun and it’s going to be enjoyable, you’re, going to feel like that you’re part of the team you’re going to feel like you know that you’re you mean something to her.
You know so man great great stuff.

You know i want my next question, how honorable that work is and how difficult it is to get it done so yeah.
I i’m passionate about it because i’m a frontline employee too, just like you guys, are um, and so i i want to grow as a leader um, but i also know that the work that the other frontline employees are doing too um.
So i think, with that appreciation, i’m very passionate about trying to bring esp to the entire process where how can we make this more enjoyable? What systems and processes can we put in place to make it more simple, and then we all win right, prosperous, but – and i do mean that we do make uh, you know a profit and that we can pay our bills and that we can grow the business.

We can add important sophistications on like new technology, whatever it may be, um.
We also mean that you know everybody is able to have a full, and you know a rich and fulfilled life too, connect to those experiences so yeah.
I i’m passionate about it, because i’ve seen this concept of esp that we at gravitational marketing um, it’s our it’s, what the flag that we wave every single day and it’s because we see that it’s possible.

I mean you guys doing this show this is your esp yeah, you know just to be a little bit a part of it.
Even if you know we were just a little seedling of bringing this to life today.
That just makes us super happy to be a part of the whole journey.

It really is that’s what i talk about all the time when i just get that one person that this help like i get that one message like it could be a bad week.
For me, or and there’s really no bad weeks for me, but if i it could be technically a bad week for me and then i get a message from one person that says man that video you did today really got me pumped up boom.
It motivates me so much more.

I’m like all of a sudden he’s like i just took another sip of coffee.
I’m gon na go harder now, yeah, you know.
So no, it’s it’s really nice and it’s really refreshing to have people.

You know and meet people like you out there, knowing that there’s a lot of people that are on that same wavelength, that lou and i are on, and we want to share these stories with everybody.
You know, and speaking of that you know we’ve, you know, we’ve asked you your why we’ve also talked about you know the culture of the bdc, how you change that and the whole mentality of that and that’s all such great stuff, and so that’s going to lead To my to my next question, you know, i know that you’re a florida girl, you grew up in florida, your whole life right, so you know that’s awesome.
You know, i know, that’s you.

I was.
I also know that in high school and i’m maybe in college – i’m not sure, but you were, you were a cheerleader and you were a very good cheerleader.
I wish i was in college, especially at florida.

State is where you went right.
I wish i was a florida state cheerleader, but i was definitely not but um.
I will toot my own high school horn here and say that i was a national championship.

Cheerleader back in the day i mean there’s, no doubt you know, and i could tell you this.
You know in in high school, my high school sweetheart.
She was a cheerleader.

She was really good too.
She was, it was that energy there’s something it’s not necessarily somebody who’s that it’s great to be athletic, because i mean don’t get me wrong them.

Cheerleaders are amazing athletes y’all, you all do some crazy stuff out there i mean trust me.

I love watching the competitions.
I think there’s some really cool stuff that goes down now.
What they’re doing yeah the level is getting better and better every year, it’s unreal, but even back, then you know you and i are very similar in age.

You know graduated the i’m not going to say it but yeah, but we’re going to we’re going to move.
But that being said, you know it was.
It was a good culture, but that energy that you learned that that building people up and that’s it started young with you.

You know that was always inside of you about doing all that type of stuff.
So i want to talk a little bit about your history.
You know we i just kind of touched on that.

I know and we i also mentioned that you went to school at florida state university, not a big fan, i’m a hurricanes fan, but that’s okay as long as you’re, not a gator.
No, i definitely hate the gators.
I hate the gators worse in florida reflect the hurricanes.

I never really feel too bad about the florida state because you see there was a bunch of games where we beat you guys, because you missed field goals and i loved it anyway um.
But that being said, uh lace is out.
Lace is out, finkle come on.

Let’s go so the uh, so that being said, i know that when you um there was a time that you started in this.
You started in advertising in automotive right, then you went off and you did some other stuff and then you came back to automotive.

What? What made you come back to the automotive world? What made you say you know what it’s time for me to get back to the automotive world and do i know you’ve been doing it for almost nine years now so back to the automotive world, oh yeah, so i’ve been yeah.

I’ve been with gravitational marketing now for eight years um, but uh i’ll just go ahead and say it 2001 is when i started in automotive advertising so yeah it was my very first job out of college and believe it or not.

I worked for my boss, now travis miller, um jimmy b, actually so um those are the owners of gravitational marketing um.
So in our early years we work together.

We kind of all uh cut our teeth in this business kind of, at the same time, always on the advertising side.
I left the agency and did some branding um type of uh advertising, but i will tell you my experience in branding versus what i’m doing now.
Gravitational marketing is two totally different worlds: um, we believe very strongly at gravitational marketing in results.

In fact, just a fun fact actually is not one of the 125 or so clients that we get to work with across the country.

None of them are on a contract.
So um we’re doing work that is 100 based on results at gravitational marketing.

If we’re not making our dealers happy if we’re not bringing very specifically if we’re not generating those authentic leads from the 98 for our our dealer clients every single month, there’s nothing holding them to us, there’s no contract.

My my previous experience in branding was more about.
Like the fancy photo shoots and the expensive budgets um, you know uh doing talent, searches for models, i mean just a bunch of didn’t, sell one more sandwich didn’t sell.

One more home didn’t convert real, i mean because we weren’t even tracking it everything that i’m doing now and i’ll never do marketing any other way, and i have of course, as we all do.
We have friends that are like hey.
Can you help me because you’re in that business, i know you guys get hit up all the time um, so i do too get hit up.

You know for marketing questions and it is always going to be a recommendation for direct response for every dollar.
You spend you can see how that dollar resulted into uh next next steps in business, for you or not, so that you can make decisions on where to spend your money next month next week.

So um.

That, for me, is, is a big.
You know big deal in my career experiences is to really believe and uh, be a proponent of direct response.
Marketing really and that’s what we’re doing digital marketing awesome.

That is cool and it’s neat and you’re right, because you know you, the thing is shannon you became, who you are today because of all the experiences that you’ve been through.
You’ve been able to see the good, the bad figure out.
What you what’s going to be.

The best type of brew to put in your cup make sure hey.
I don’t want none of this anymore.
I want this, you made a good blend for you and then you found hey.

This is where i want to be you teamed up with good people yeah.
I mean you know jimmy and travis, both amazing energy.
I love them both.

You know.
I’ve had i’ve had the opportunity to meet them on this show really really, hopefully, we’ll have them on the show one day, because they have a great story, and i love i want to talk about their story because they both are very unique people, and you know Just just like you shannon, you know, the the the thing about life is that we all every experience you have every conversation you have – and i know you agree with me shannon – is that there’s something to learn from it, whether it’s good or bad, there’s something to Learn if you learn – and you figure out what that is – and you use those things your life becomes easier and you start to find it almost like it’s the matrix going on you’re like okay, i’m starting to figure this out yeah, you know being a little bit More mature, i should say, mature.
We we definitely experienced a lot of things in our lives.

We’ve been through stuff, you know, you’ve, you’ve had other jobs, you’ve seen what those companies ran like you’ve.
Seen with the company you currently and you’ve helped.
You know become that culture there, and you see that this makes more sense to do it this way, especially in today’s world.

Now the world has changed too we’ve seen the way the world is the way the car business is shifted in a lot of places.

There used to be a time where there’s very few dealers who did it the way we do it now, it’s almost becoming where, if you’re not doing it, this way, you’re going to probably fall apart and at least something similar to what we’re doing, and so i Love your story, i think that you uh, you have a lot to offer to this to this business and i think that you’re just really just starting.
I know that it’s eight years, but i know that you’re ten years from now, you’re going to look back and you’re going to see how far you’ve come and with the energy that you have i’m looking forward to watching this journey too.

So we’re going to the number eight i’m not going anywhere.
I got more friends to make that’s right.
Well, this is my industry.

I know that um, you know.
I guess i guess you guys.
You know in the trenches of the industry would look at me or or my agency, as you know, being a vendor in the industry, and i get that that’s true.

You know, i guess you have to claim a category at some point, but i very much believe myself to be a car girl um.
I feel like one i mean honestly, you may have never been on a lot and sold one to a person, but the way you are and the way you embrace the culture and the way that you try to coach people with the way you it’s such a Refreshing thing like sometimes you have to have somebody who has a different view on something, but is but obviously understands what’s going on in that market and can just hit this with hit it with you.
You know you’re, like oh, my gosh.

That makes so much sense.
I just you know it’s like having the left brain right, brain people, you know when you can have somebody with that other side of the brain, helping you out with something it’s like.
Oh, i didn’t think about it that way and it had to work.

You know when you do that, and you do that in spades.
It’s amazing.
What you’ve always been able to make sure to highlight is the experience and what the what the experience is like from the customer’s view, rather than making sure that it just suits what it is that our particular goals are.

You have been great and instrumental in teaching that to car guys who can get distracted by what has to get done rather than who it is you’re helping.
You know what i mean and because of that uh you bring a great element to making people think differently than what they’ve always known, and that’s something that i’ve honored and always been eager to hear more of right, because it’s not always what the older school.
I guess car business flow would be it’s not so much making sure that you’re doing what’s best for the customer, it’s making sure you’re doing what’s best for your pocket and that isn’t necessarily what always jives with people who at heart want what’s best for people and That’s what you want and that’s what you’ve been able to make sure that you pour into everybody that you speak with, or at least get them to understand, hey.

This is what i’m really about and if you’re not about the customer or that experience some of what i’m saying you may not really understand.

So if you don’t adjust your understanding of culture, that you’re not going to get the language that i’m speaking and that’s something that you’ve always done and again honor that so excited to keep growing from it.
Because there’s many things that that i know to do and like i’ll have a shannon everhart.

You know, knowing that you were right there in the room and like oh, you know, got that got that from shannon.
That’s where that came from you know and and be encouraged to know that that you’re doing things in many many dealerships all over the place – and i know you know this – i know that you’re, you know happening uh because of the things you’re pouring out absolutely but Uh, that’s that’s why we want to celebrate you and you are cargo.

You drive a car right.

True you you, you teach more people how to be better right.

Just like anybody else out there would, you know, even though i’m a car girl, i probably i definitely am in the 98, so i think um, that’s where some of the passion comes too.
I like cars, i i want to be.

You know.
I want to feel good about my own shopping experience, so i picture myself as the customer a lot.

That’s that’s the key.

You have to put your yourself in their shoes for a moment understand what they’re going through.

You know.
Sometimes it’s hard because sometimes you’ll deal with people and they just they don’t want to lay their cards out on the table.

So it’s hard to really understand where they’re coming from you know.
You we’ve never walked a mile in their shoes and it’s true, but when you can put the shoes on and figure out where they’re coming from it makes it that much easier because you want to give them what they want.
You know you don’t want to sit there and get.

Did you? Is that what you want, sir? You know.
That’s why question asking is very important.
That’s why you know what you train on, when, with your with your a teams and stuff they’re, the questions that you guys line up.

It’s there’s a certain reason for those questions.
You know and you it’s it’s to investigate.
So this way you can better serve your people, and you know even for your dealers too, that are watching the show or um if you know a dealer that maybe some of this stuff would jive with it’s really it’s all about choices and i think um for The dealers that i work with the first choice that they made was that they wanted to talk to the 98 they wanted to put all of their energy and their resources and their time and their training into taking care of that much bigger swath of the population.

The the 98, who would love a nicer, newer car, but don’t think because of their credit, because they’re driving uh they’re stuck in a lease or a loan right now or they don’t have that down payment or they don’t want monthly payments, etcetera right and keeping them Out of the shopping experience um, so the first choice: that of the deal that i’m working with is to serve that audience and to make sure that that audience knows that they are there for them.
They are all dealers for the people and then the second.
I think choice is well.

Everything comes down to choices, even in the moment is how do you guys want to be seen? How do you want um? What do you want your culture to stand for and then committing to that, and then there’s these micro choices throughout the day that our teams are the members of our team have to make.

We have to trust how to make that those little micro choices.
You know when, like anybody, that’s on the phone any of my dialers, they have to decide whether or not to persist and ask for the appointment or let that customer just kind of fly right out of their their control um.

And so it’s all these little micro choices, but if we can um help with processes and systems to help make those micro choices easier for them to make, they feel more confident making them um, maybe even making some taking some risks here and there.

Then you can actually see your business start to grow and you see the people growing within it and you’re helping lots of people and it just kind of compounds on itself and it’s a lot of fun.
It really is, and that’s exactly right for the people for the people, that’s speaking before the people uh, i do want to say happy birthday today.

You may not see this later, but we are going to celebrate the birthday of the original dealer for the people.

Happy birthday, tony yes, sir happy birthday to you birthday to you.
You know we have to.

We should do a video after this and send it and put it on facebook for him.
But anyway, that being said, everybody mojito, that’s it that’s it! You wouldn’t believe how many people have chewed up that name um over time.
It’s pretty funny, but a long time ago the tony mojito yeah that’s mike gon na drink huh, i like the mojitos.

Yes, he does .
You .

About Richie Bello

Richie Bello has a vast knowledge of the automotive industry, so most of his services are faced towards automotive dealerships. He couples all his skills with the power of the internet to render even remote services to clients in need of a little brushing

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