Boom, hey car, guys and car gals welcome to the car guy coffee podcast.
This is lou ramirez, the car guy.
This is fred linard’s subprime hero and we are here with richie bellow and he is brewing solutions on the car guy, coffee, podcast, okay, richie.
Welcome to the show, well, i got ta say this guys i uh we got your show on one of our sites, uh one of our team members.
This is really a good show.
We rate it as this is the best show out there in the automotive space.
Really, really it’s very educational, it’s very motivated and the good thing about the show is that you guys are always doing live daily, so that’s great because it motivated it’s positive motivation and that’s it.
You know you guys, you know, what’s really good about you guys, you guys don’t talk about yourself.
What you guys do is talk about solutions.
That’s what’s really important.
It’s about you, get it giving people solution, it don’t matter who we are or whatever we know what we do.
It’s about, bringing that solution to the table to help our friends that are car guys like us, because the car business is not an easy business.
You know, but having people like you guys it’s great and thank you again for having me and i’m very grateful that i got the opportunity to meet both of you wow.
I love it.
Thank you so much that is welcome off the show very good he’s.
Just he put made his speechless.
You made me blush a little bit there yeah seriously to say.
Thank you.
Thank you richie.
You know it’s always nice to hear those kind of words when you say those words.
I know that you know a lot of people you’ve been in this business a long time so for that to come out of your mouth really it means something.
So it’s that’s really nice of you to say.
We do appreciate that.
I did see that you sent me the link and i went and checked it out and i saw that you said we were the best in the automotive i literally was like.
I showed everybody.
Look at this, we made it mama.
I made it right.
So no, but you know it’s enough about us yeah.
We appreciate it the show’s all about you right dave how good he is at that man he’s good at that.
He flipped it.
He just scripted on us.
He took the host and then we took the guess right.
This is why you got ta, listen how this guy talks stuff that works no doubt about it yo, but before we get the show going, you know what time it is to drop know what it is.
You got to do.
First, yes, first everybody on three: we are going to do what it is that we do to keep growing and that’s forgive focus fly so richie bello on the car guy, coffee podcast, welcome to the show, let’s go ahead and forgive focus fly on three one.
Two three forgive focus fly and keep growing, keep going, this time.
Yes, that is our intro right there, and i always love watching that richie here soon, you’ll be seeing yourself forget, focus flying on that thing.
I know we like to we like to update those every once, while, as you can see, we’ve had a great lineup of people come on our show every each one of those people had a week with us to where we got share their story.
Talk about.
What’s hot with them right now and that’s exactly what we’re getting ready to do with richie, that’s right! Richie! Thank you for coming on the show again, man welcome! So let’s make this happen.
So yes, so before we go any further folks, we just want to remind you that this brew has been brought to you by think as a group, and you can get information by going to think ad group.
com.
You can also check out mr riccibello, wherever it is that you can type in the name: richie bellow, because this individual, that you are about to jump into a five liner with knows so many ins and outs intricately inside of the digital automotive world, that you’re probably Going to want to go ahead and get your pen out get get some notes ready to understand what it is that you can do to up tick or up shift and uplift.
Your particular area of the car business and he’s just dropping it out here for free for all of you to consume.
So let’s get ready to brew some solutions and have some fun together.
You ready richie, absolutely five liners all right, so you know we asked five questions every time we have one of our guests on the show.
It’s always awesome lou and i actually on our very first episode, interviewed each other and we that was our first like little show and we did pipeliners on each other.
So this is the very first question.
We ask everybody: everybody has a purpose in life.
Everybody wakes up and something drives them something that makes them say.
You know what i’m gon na get up that five minutes earlier.
I’m gon na i’m gon na do that extra rep, i’m gon na make that extra phone call.
It’s your! Why so richie? What is your, why? What drives you? What drives me is to give back to a community, that’s the veterans and that’s why i start the business and all that, and i want to make a lot of money.
But it’s not about me, making the money – and you know, having fancy stuff for material things.
It’s really about giving back to the united states veterans and the reason that i arrive at.
That is because they have a very hard time when they come back from deployment to even get a job to be able to support their families.
They’re not their mind, is not together.
It takes about two to three years.
So that’s what drives me only only what drives me just to donate.
Oh wow, that’s it’s a great cause.
You know lou and i had the blessing to be able to um get nominated for the 22 push-up challenge for a veteran suicide right now and it’s a sad story.
You know talking with you recently richie getting to know you you’ve talked about this before.
It is a great great thing to honor and a great great thing to bring up and bring awareness to these veterans.
They come back from that when they get back from overseas.
They are it’s traumatic, it’s very different for them, it’s hard for them to understand and grasp normal life again.
So absolutely what you do is very, very good.
It’s something that more people need to do so we we did have you know we did push-ups every day for 22 days, um and every day we nominated other people.
So what it was mostly was for was to be able to get awareness out there, because i could tell you it did it brought a lot of awareness out there? I’ve had a lot of people jump on and they did the push-ups.
They spread it out.
More people are talking about it.
A lot of people didn’t know.
A lot of people didn’t know the issues that our veterans are having.
You know lou and i both are veterans but we’re both very fortunate to not have to be in a situation like, and that is a transition that that takes some time to work on, but it’s it’s uh.
It’s also not waiting.
Uh to the bill.
Collectors aren’t waiting for you to get that figured out right, the uh, the the no the normal society, the rent is still coming, and you know things that still have to keep going on.
So people like richie or or you know diamonds in the rough.
You know that are able to actually find kind of the niche for these people to make that connection, and that’s that’s such a valuable source um.
Absolutely.
What would i mean my again, my last two months in in the military before i was in the car business like because i was on a terminal leave and that’s when i really jumped into the car business.
But before that i was two months of just traveling.
The nation and saluting and folding flags and presenting them to people uh that was that is something that marked me forever, but always kept me committed to the cause and the value of uh.
What’s inside of that that casket, you know what i mean: that’s a person that laid down their life for me, you know what i mean for you right for for all of us.
You know what i mean and uh the emotion that you have handing a flag to a complete stranger.
You know what i mean, and and and but in taking on all that emotion that they have in that moment, you know what i mean, that is, that that rocks your very core um, but also you know out of that.
You find such an immense joy uh for life itself.
You know what i mean that you have it right now and you’re capable of doing great and magnificent things uh.
So you know that that’s where i mean.
Ultimately, i would be anchored to in honor every time.
I’m doing a push-up, it’s not to get the shares into the likes.
What a testament that the internet or social media has been to the power to get a message out there to speak about something for a cause.
Absolutely how hard it is.
It’s easy to get bad news out there, but look what we did with good news of people being aware of a bad situation, but we found a way to bring great light in it right and that’s what spread? That’s what you know.
Richie is great at doing and that’s what we know we’re trying to imagine she’s a master at.
I love it.
So yeah we’re you’re in the cafe with this man.
I don’t know.
I got okay hit your chest for me.
One time, that’s right! So rich! You know richie, you know your purpose and your in your.
Why is a great why you know? I know that, with your experience in life you’re experiencing a lot of stuff, you’ve, seen and and done a multitude of things and to see that and to know that that is something that’s troubling is great.
That tells me that you’re a problem solver, that’s exactly what we are.
We’re solutionary salute to you.
So our second question lou what you got for him: okay, richie, my fellow cubano right.
No, you know a lot a lot of family in the area.
The the very first thing that we said when we launched this this entire podcast uh was uh.
You know what how we want to start.
This, i said, give me a little bit of that cuban horn right banana.
That’s exactly how we started this um, so my brother um, you know um.
I want to know what was it that brought you into the car business.
What got you connected to the car business that you’re such a uh such a great juggernaut in you know what i mean? There’s nobody like richie out there just to be.
You know you know it.
I know it.
You know: there’s nobody really like richie out there and that’s why we value and honor you so much.
But what is it that got you into the car business? How did that this? And i’m glad you brought that up, because what got me into it is the same thing that got me into my business to give back.
What got me into it is that i felt that back when i started the consumers were not getting a fair deal.
Everybody was hitting people high, they were getting trade upside down all the time.
So i said i got ta, make a difference and help these consumers out to go through the process without feeling like they go into an oral surgeon and giving people a fair deal.
I’m gon na make money right, obviously, but that’s what i wanted to do.
I wanted to give back to the consumers, and i said to myself one day: i’m gon na have a solution for these people to get a good deal where they’re, not so in trouble.
Every time they’re unhappy with the trade and they got ta trade in they got ta, wait four or five years or something like that.
Give the consumer the right deal.
That’s what really turned me on and then working in a dealership.
I saw that a dealership has a hundred employees, so then i really started thinking.
We need solutions for these dealerships because when a dealership goes out of business, there’s a hundred people out of a job right.
Okay, so something has to happen so then what happened was i went to another company, another company, that was a big solution company, which was our open company, and i learned there at a very young age how to spend solutions because here’s the thing we all focus On the problem, if we eliminate the problem and focus on the solution faster, there’s a problem just forget about that just focus on the solution, and if we look, i’m not just saying that if we look at math itself, the solution is greater than the problem.
All the time, so there’s really a solution for about anything you can come up with right.
All you got to do is focus and put that energy on the solution and that’s uh.
That’s what makes it uh so different with somebody that actually brews and grows.
So the the car business was very good at being able to try to play its hand right right kind of tried to keep people literally in the dark.
It was the art of keeping a person in a in the dark until they can leave inside of an automobile that is, is bad culture to live in.
That’s why i mean, and i’ll just be real.
That’s why i believe that the car business itself suffered.
So many uh dark things in the personal lives of many of its veterans from the past, because the the concept of business was to highlight or to create more darkness.
He could continue to keep the customer out of the way for the money, then that affected marriages that affected uh the relationships with children that affected so many things.
If we’re just being real, can we be real? You know it affected a lot of things.
You know um because the culture was in hey, you go.
Take care of your family man.
Hey go home, go hang out with your family uh.
I promise you you’re gon na have a way better week.
If you get to the chance to just go, get your head right and have a good time with your family that wasn’t the culture.
It’s yeah, you’re, not going to make it to the birthday party, because you’re a little bit shy of your goal.
Or are you serious, don’t you have two appointments for the end of the night? No, you know you need to be here right, that kind of culture kept, because we were so focused on just dark stuff right.
Turning on the light then says: hey look.
The customers completely see us, we are now transparent.
There is nothing to hide, because at the end of the day, we are the sellers.
They are the buyers, no matter what they want to buy.
So if we can just have a nice clean presentation for them to buy from they’re gon na buy it just get in their way, you know what i mean: they’re gon na they’re gon na.
Do it it’s gon na happen right, there’s no need to hide them, and you have brought together solutions and have kept looking for that.
As an advocate for people to say, hey turn the freaking light on in this room man, you know what i mean: let’s let everybody see what’s going on and we can come up with a fair deal and everybody can make money, go home and be happy.
Let’s turn on the light, and you know what happens when you turn on light things grow.
If you shut right off, they stop growing.
That plant isn’t going to grow in the dark.
You know it.
You need to turn the light on, so you need to open a window, give it some light.
You know, but and that’s what you’re doing is opening the light.
Yes for customers, but that’s what’s happening with this funny cool contraption.
It’s happening, whether you like it or not, folks car guys, clark, house and all your solutions, and it’s funny that you should say that, because this is what really happens, some people walk through life saying, but i’ve done all the right things right and no.
I have no luck.
The real wealth that you get is your health okay, so you don’t get don’t think by you doing this you’re going to get any extra money or anything like that.
No, that’s not the way it works, but you get a lot of wealth with your health.
When you have wealth with your health, you can really overcome a lot of things.
Then you can work hard and make whatever you want to make and chase that opportunity and grab it because now you’re healthy, there’s, nothing! That’s going to hurt you because you are healthy and that’s how you get it right.
It’s a philosophy and it’s a thought pattern and it’s a mindset and once you put that on there everything you can see you can figure out, because that light, how they give you back more light is by your health.
That’s yeah, your health is everything i mean because you can have everything in the world, but you have bad health.
Life is over.
You have to get sunlight and you’re right.
Everything, but healthy comes in a multitude of ways.
You know, there’s mental health there’s so many things that matter.
You know and richie.
I’m sure you know that with friends – and you know, like i said, with your experience in life, you definitely know and seen people who’ve had where they didn’t take care of their mental or their physical, and they can you know, and they could they probably had things Great until that all happened to them and then they started falling apart and they got even more in the dumps.
You know much like how a veteran comes back from war.
You know they’re just in this bad place in a dark place right but yeah.
What’s the solution to darkness, like turn on the light, that’s right, you got ta search for that light and just let it glow just keep giving back and help anybody.
You know it doesn’t matter because, look, let’s face it.
I help a lot of people right right and i don’t do it for anything back.
You know what i do it because there’s a judgment day, all right, it’s a day that when we leave here we’re gon na go somewhere and all you’ve done.
That’s when you’re gon na get raided okay, so it doesn’t matter you’re, not doing it to get anything back, you’re just doing it because of the human race.
You know what oh be kind, because you don’t know if that person is having a bad day.
They’ll always be kind, the more kind you are, the more kind things are going to happen to you not because nobody’s giving it to you, because your mindset is your peace of mind, that’s all right, richie and, and that actually leads us very, very similar to what I was going to ask you in my third question.
You know i one thing i like to ask people is, you know, there’s a thing: we all have principles in life.
We all have things that we have values, you know core values and that’s where i’m going with this and the core values in life are very important like for me.
I you know, do a lot of discipline through my life, you know.
Obviously i was in the military, so we had core values in the military um.
I do.
Martial arts martial arts has core values.
Also, you know at my dealership.
We have.
We came up with the idea to do core value, so i believe in that also number one for a lot of people can be a multitude of things right if you were to pick the most important core value to have to be successful in life, not just Business, but in life, what would you say that one core value needs to be? My core value would be to do the right thing by my family.
Okay, i must do really the right thing by my family, always be there, no matter what they need.
I have to be there and it don’t matter at what time it is.
It doesn’t matter now we all have brothers and sisters and siblings and daughters and sons.
You know, even if you you see you, your brother doesn’t agree with you or whatever.
When he’s in need, that’s when you all come together, they say with this unity, this power.
Well, no, i say with his unity, there’s success.
Wow united will be successful if we’re not united, we’ll never be successful, because i don’t believe in unity, this power.
No, i believe in unity.
Success.
Yes, and it’s you know it’s kind of it’s very you know that’s what i love about america and i hate to get to america.
I don’t mean to be that way because, but i am very patriotic.
I love my country.
I know that it’s not perfect, but nothing is but it’s as close to perfect, as you can get out there in the world when it comes to a country.
So to me, i’m very proud to be that you know, and one of our biggest sayings for america is united.
We stand right and so and it’s so true and it needs to be thought even deeper than it’s ever been um.
We all are: americans, everybody, no matter what color, no matter what you are, no matter how old you are, even if you were born in another country but you’re here.
You now are citizen you’re, an american, and you need to be treated that way, and i you know so.
I think that what you’re saying about that? I love it.
That’s that’s a good way of thinking.
Richie we do united.
There comes they’re cut with coming with united, that’s that’s successful and i and i absolutely man great answer to that.
That was a great answer he is bubbling over here.
United is our first name.
Oh, my goodness, yeah good point i understand.
Yes, it is our core identity, um rich, you said so many things there that just gets my heart jumping yeah and i think of of of the the number one best-selling book of all time, the bible and it – and i think, of what’s locked in it’s really Not locked in there it’s wide open for anybody to take a hold of and grab, but there is one only one commandment inside of the ten commandments.
So if we had to funnel this down into one thing, the ten commandments would say: honor your mother and father and your days would be many, the only one that comes with a reward: okay, thou shalt not steal just because you shouldn’t okay, but if you honor Your mother and father your days will be many.
Yes, that is part of honoring, your your family.
You know what i mean if you honor your brother and your sister, that’s honoring, your father, that’s honoring! You know the ones that have come before you um and you you doing.
That is being a core thing.
That, of course, has made you connected to us, because we we, we gelled more together as a distant family, cousins getting to know each other type of relationship.
More than it’s been a professional one, you know i mean it’s kind of cool, we love everything that we’re doing and we respect each other’s uh game.
If you will, you know what i mean and what we have to the table you, you appreciate what we have at heart, because you hear what we’re saying from the heart, not necessarily the car guy isms in us.
You know, because we don’t have a whole lot of teach you how to do the 10 steps on our show.
You know what i mean: that’s, not us we’re more talking about things of the heart to get your mindset right to put tools into action right.
You do that and then you jump over get yourself into a spot where you’re saying hey we’re going to help the community, because that that’s what we’re supposed to do we’re going to turn the light on, because that’s what we’re supposed to do inside of the industry.
We’re going to actually invest ourselves into other people and teach them how to be successful at this, because this is actually what i want to see happen inside of a culture and in order to create a culture like our first name, the united states.
You have to bring together, you have to unify and unity.
Speaking of the bible, god said that they can accomplish anything because they are unified.
When we were trying to build a tower to reach heaven, he said we could do it because we were unified right.
It could happen because of our unity.
The power is there we have if we can motivate ourselves with the right motives.
We can accomplish anything that we want.
That’s the kind of power that we have, one one can chase a thousand two can chase ten thousand right.
That kind of unity is what makes us a strong nation, a nation of nations right.
That is what makes us a great country with all of our differences, we’re able to throw it in the pot and everybody eat it up, and we take this together and we we march on with life together right and that’s what we’ve been doing as as as People, but in the car business man, if there’s anything that literally drives this entire country, it’s the automotive industry um.
It is so it is so key to have your carriage, okay and uh richie’s, finding a way to brew solutions to making sure that people do it.
Um and inside of the right culture, that’s why um it’s just an honor to run with you uh, but you again, you’ve made a lot of key connections there and i will ramble all night on the things that i get inspired about, but yeah once again, this Is our show and we’ll say we could do what we want, what we want as long as you got the time we’re going to sit here and just talk about how awesome you know: richie bello the reason i developed shop – smart, because i’m actually tired of dealers Spending a ton of money to give to google all right, so we’ve got an automated system with artificial intelligence.
So now it’s pro lead.
I’m tired, because you know true.
Car is great.
A true car is overrated and over expensive okay.
So these dealers, it’s costing them so much money to get leads.
What we do is we give a hundred leads at fifty dollars a lead, that’s it and the story and they always blame the legion right.
So we int, we brought now trainers that i’m going to give out six hours of training at no cost to a dealership and it’s guaranteed and if they don’t follow through it, it’s all guaranteed that if i got ta send out a trainer to help that dealership.
I will so it’s about making the difference.
It’s not about making the money.
It’s really about making the difference, because bottom line is we’re only here temporary right when we leave.
We want people to remember us right.
So that’s what it’s about.
It’s bottom line is they’re going to sell the cars, because i’ve integrated trainers into that right.
So now different than any other lead general true car thing.
I don’t charge a penny to a dealership to be on that site all their inventory down there.
The directories on there kelly blue books on it doesn’t matter because bottom line is dealers need help too, because you know why i help dealers.
I really don’t care about dealers.
I care about the employees that are there that, if those dealers are not doing good, you got so many people in the local economy out of a job.
That’s why i take my time to develop solutions.
That’s what it’s about! Help those customers in the local economy, because you got amazon, that’s not a local economy.
You got ta the only thing we have that’s a local economy.
Right now is one thing: it’s the dealer sector who can’t afford to lose any deals.
I was around in no way, you know helping deals and doing i mean it was terrible.
You know what that’s the only thing that matters not about the deal.
It’s about that employees, the average dealership, i think, naba, says: there’s 78 employees in the dealership.
Right now, hey what we got to help those dealers stay in business for those employees.
That’s not true.
So true, that’s wow! Yeah! You bring in some deep stuff here.
Man – and i think, that’s information that more people need to hear and everybody say it again and again right repeat that, because it is important to make that connection and realize the value you know we you guys are hearing this yeah.
Listen to this.
You know what i mean: listen figure out the solutions reach out to richie.
You know reach out to to people that have the solutions that are going to help.
You save your the economy, that is your business man richie, i’m like smashed floored by the the gravity of how big you’ve really just made that yeah, that’s huge.
That is pretty huge man.
That’s gon na be pretty way beyond making that one unit happen because again the customer is going to buy what they want.
Margin is going to be margin.
If it’s going to be carvana or um correct, you know broom or the chevy store.
You know that customer is going to get a car in some time frame.
You know it’s going to happen.
There’s no doubt so.
It’s uh, it’s key that that all of these 50 to 100 other people that get paid off of that one transaction are present in order to help that out.
You know what i mean the system is in line for that man.
You know we saw a lot of things happening.
We saw the rental business wanted to sell cars.
This happened over a year and a half ago you got hurst.
Enterprise enables okay.
Now, dealers, your competitor, is not your local dealer, your competitor, these companies that are not in the local economy, and you want to know something.
I’m not just saying that you can dial ihs and as a dealer by their registrations, go back to three months.
The registrations are up be surprised.
What they’re penetrating in the market they’re buying leads they’re buying leads.
My company will not sell them leads because i started shops watch for dealers.
Only i get reached out by these companies.
They’ll buy unlimited leads.
You know why, because they’re pumping cars in so that used car lot, that has 30 people working for them.
Office managers, sales, people that new car lot – that has 78 they’re chipping away at it.
And now here’s what’s happening, the consumer is they’re building a behavior to a consumer.
We all know that we’re creatures of habit right.
So if you have a habit, it’s very hard to give up with time people are going to start buying cars from these companies because it’s all online everything’s online.
So you know what, with time we’re going to really go out slowly, it’s going to take a decade! 8, 10.
12 years.
Meanwhile, the local economy is going to hurt more because those people that are working in your local dealers are the ones that spend the money locally.
Yes and that’s what is going on in the market right now, you had amazon first now.
This is happening, and this is hitting our sector.
Your competitor is no more your local dealership, your competitors, your rental companies, out of selling cars online selling it online and delivering it to your home with this corona virus, not releasing it at the sale.
No, you know straight straight to your house yeah and it’s true you’re you’re right.
You know and nev in their business.
They that’s, they found a little niche that worked for them and they already had delivery people because you know when they were selling them.
They were taking either the auctions or other dealers anyway, you know, so they already had all those in place.
All they had to do was make slight adjustments on their website.
Yeah, the infrastructure was there, it was there, it was there all along they just inventory.
You want it and he’s right, you know so man, that’s a that’s! That’s great information to pass on to you car people out there car guys and car guys if you’re, not hearing this open your ears and repeat, rewind and listen to this again because it’s it’s a you know, there’s so many yeah, there’s so many things that go Into this car business, there’s so many reasons why things are happening.
The way they are currently the way they’re going to be in the future, but here’s the thing: if you pay attention to what’s going on, you can get ahead of the game.
You could be ready for it.
You could be set up to be successful: , [ Applause, ], , [ Applause, ].
You .
