You yo what’s up everybody, i hope that you are ready.
This is lou ramirez, the car guy freylin art subprime hero and we are brewing solutions on the car guy coffee, podcast.
Oh man go ahead and get your brew ready, take a sip and uh.
Let’s get ready to enjoy the ride, we got a very, very, very special guest.
That’s in the cafe with us today and uh we’re so pumped up.
We actually got a couple guests.
Um, we’re gon na get a word from our sponsor here shortly uh, but before we do go ahead and tag tag, tag get ready for this, give focus and flying once again, remember all the incredible people that have been to the cafe brewing solutions.
You know it.
Here’s a little glimpse of that characters.
Our guest is on this video.
I believe i’m not mistaken, he’s on youtube.
Yes, he is both of our guests.
– hopefully, you’ve been sharing it all around.
Please do make sure that you get a couple of solutions to jump in here with you um and with us i’m pumped up, i mean i’m sorry, i got ta get the stretches on folks.
You know i’m just ready to laugh.
You know our show is a lot of fun.
You know.
The first thing we want to do is obviously bring up our sponsors.
You know response.
First, one.
We have elite five partners, man, they are a great group of people, michael ahmet and his uh, his company.
After doing some amazing stuff, so go make sure you go to www.
elite partners.
com check them out.
They got a lot of cool videos, they got some testimonials, they have everything you need to get going to get you excited about their business and then, of course, the man.
The myth, the legend we do have somebody here from the think, aggregate www.
thinkcadgroup.
com man, you got to think before you add group.
That’s right! All right! Welcome justin! What’s up this morning as we get ready to announce our next guest.
What’s up justin, hey guys, i was just out the in the daytime just stood morning.
Take my little walk around the neighborhood and i was just thinking about the ads that were going to brew solutions with to you with um.
Actually, i have a confession to make: what’s that, what’s that well, since justin, who is myself, his beard is itching me like crazy, i’m not justin what what what it is.
You sure that’s not just holy beard: , [ Applause, ].
You know there’s only so much a guy can take.
Thank god, thank god that that halloween is in the fall, because i could have never swept through this.
Oh boom boom, as fred says dude.
It’s sexy, [, Laughter, ], hey that video you did with the for the elite.
Uh f5 partners, man, it was the flip – was good, but it’s the smirk afterwards that gets everybody dude.
I don’t think there’s a person who watched that video that didn’t go! Oh dude! That’s a good one.
That was really good.
No i’m glad to have you here this morning.
You know: we’ve had you on the show before, but we’ve never had you exclusive as the guy on the show.
You know we appreciate you for being here.
Um, we’re excited to have you here, you’re a great person.
You definitely always every time i talk to you every time i watch a video of yours.
I always leave with a bigger smile than i’ve started with and it’s it’s there’s something uncanny about that.
How you can do that to people and you’ve been doing it since day? One i’ve always said that i said man.
If he wasn’t doing what he does, he should be a stand-up comedian.
He’s got that personality where people would just be drawn into like okay, this guy he’s got something so we’re excited to have you here man good morning, good morning, good morning, world.
Good morning, everybody jason good morning, paul yeah.
Thank you for joining the cafe uh.
We are excited about the solutions that we’re brewing speaking of solutions.
Uh, you can go ahead and get you some of the brew that we have out there.
If you go to car dot com uh, we are sipping on some of the best again folks.
This is not base model coffee.
If you got a car guy, you got a car gal.
You want to get a give a good gift to give them a good cup of car guy called it will seriously upshift and uplift their day.
Uh send them a little message.
Write on the bag do something you know get people pumped up.
We are going to release some discounts on some of the holiday specials that we have going on so pay attention to some of that.
But again we got some great things going on speaking of next level stuff.
We also have jason from next sale that you can get information for just tell them that you heard about us talking about next sale and i promise you he’s going to hook you up.
Like you wouldn’t believe – and this is also not just going for the dealers – for you – sales people out there – they want a serious solution, but don’t want to wait for your dealer to make a decision.
You can make a decision today to find out how to get your next sale by uh, actually going uh and and just messaging us or messaging jason directly yeah about your next sale.
Ladies, it’s important because we know once you get done with this one, you got to get ready for the next one, that’s right so and then that’s the next one yeah.
We got the next guest on the show today, michael right, he is uh coming in by way of justin cyril, which is actually how we got connected together right through the think tank, absolutely absolutely the think tank.
I i love the think tank yeah me too brother me too.
What yeah back back in back in march was the first back before st patrick’s day.
I believe was around that time: um and um yeah.
It was right around there yeah right right that everything shut down, of course um.
This is a weird time right.
I mean we’re all all worldwide going through the same thing.
You know and no doubt it’s it’s weird, but um.
You know before kovid i was, you know, talking right along um and then when kogan hit well, i had to pivot and i knew it i had to pivot because i’m in digital marketing world and what’s the first thing that gets cut because of the beat counters They always cut marketing because they, the big companies and medium companies, look at it as an expense but they’re cutting their nose off the spike their face because what’s bringing their money is the sales guys, but their phone isn’t ranking anymore because you cut the marketing.
So you know it was a vicious cycle for a number of uh for a number of months, um and being around like-minded people that made all the difference that saved my business.
No doubt about it, you saved your business too.
You know as much as as much as everybody getting together and doing what we did really helped, but it really it starts inside you.
You know it’s do.
We need outside, sometimes energy, to get us focused a little bit more to keep us courageous and keep us motivated.
Yes, it helps.
Accountability is really beautiful.
To have people who support you and everything you do is really amazing, but humiliation.
You can have all that and there we’ve seen it and still not get to get things done and still not grow still, not vivid still not do those things.
So it’s kudos to you, michael for doing those things.
You’re, a great person – and you know having you on the show to me – is it’s: it’s.
I’m excited to have you here for one, but you know i always felt like you were part of the show anyway.
You know like to me, as like car guy coffee, think tank.
All these all this stuff, mike larkin, is an entity of that, and so we’re so glad to have you here, i’m so glad to be able to share your story with other people, and i’m really excited to get to know you even just a little bit more Than i already do, you know you’ve been one of those guys that even you know no matter how busy you are you reach out to us, no matter how how much you got going on you reach out to us if we put a post out you’re, always Making a comment, i love that, and i appreciate that, like more than you know, mike you’re probably – and i don’t want to use the word fan because we’re friends right you’re but you’re, one of the biggest fans we have you’re what you’re out there you every time We do something you’re, always making sure you comment.
If we’re, if we’re doing a live stream and you’re around, i know you’re there i see i mean i appreciate that you know, and i mean that, and i mean i mean that so much it means so much to me as a guy who is trying to Pivot and grow, and do these things during this time to have somebody that does what you do and acts the way you do means a lot.
It shows that you know we’re reaching out to the right people and that we know that people are being affected by it same way as how you’re doing by you doing what you do, and you know you do this because you do it not just for us.
You do it for everybody that you love, and i see that and and you’re doing it at such a great and high level, with so much good enthusiasm that it’s just so contagious.
I think other people are feeding off that too.
So i think you’re affecting people more than you know, even though you probably do know you are, but it’s deeper than you think so.
Thank you so much appreciate you for being here this morning.
Michael, i’m excited to do this five liner with you, michael, let’s gon na, do it have some fun man.
I know all about it, but before we do – and i know you’ve already done this before – but before we do anything – we always do our 3s right.
You know absolutely all right, so i’m gon na have a little break that down for us.
You know the deal michael, there’s there’s a lot that gets in our way.
There’s a lot that gets on our shoulders.
There’s a lot of weight that we take on and we carry that we’re not supposed to uh, just like the weight of big decisions, uh, just like the weight of fear.
Just like the weight of anything else in our life, we have to wipe that off our shoulders and we have to forgive and uh.
You don’t you’ve been a great example of being that kind of a solutionary once again, while you’re flying with us uh.
But then you have to focus right.
You have to focus on who you want to help.
You want to focus on what it is that you want to get done.
You have to focus on what you got to get done today to move your business forward and if your business is like your business, you help other businesses get where they’re trying to go right.
You help to lay a track for them.
You have to stay laser focused on helping uh the people that you’re dedicated to helping and then once you’re focused on where it is, you want to go, you set sail and boom.
You fly.
You fly to higher levels than you’ve ever dreamed and once you’re the people that you’re trying to fly with go there with you and you’re flying next to then boom we’re all grown, we’re all going to different heights.
So, let’s get excited to uh to forgive, focus and fly together, car guys and car gals if you’re in the car do it one-handed.
But if you’re with us right now on three one, two: three forgive focus, fly and all right.
Here we go so excited, yes, sir, that was good, but seriously.
This is correct.
This solution, right here is, is somebody that is finding a way to be successful in a tumultuous time, because he’s so focused on helping other people get the data, get the marketing tools that are needed to get there his heart.
Is there he’s a pro at it? A great i mean just consider him like a master mechanic in his field right um, and this is a bridge that car guys are starting to have to learn how to do.
There was a lot of money that was spent in marketing that uh car guys just wrote the check they didn’t even waste it.
It was always they didn’t know we’re getting out of it right, but uh now they’re having to actually learn the tools or be convinced that some of the tools that they just keep bleeding money for don’t actually produce for them.
You know what i mean, and so i’m just so thankful that we have somebody like you.
That’s helping to connect the dots of all of the things that dealers are needing uh to kind of get a grip on um, and sometimes it takes you a little while to sit there and just chew on it.
You know it these.
Some of these big data decisions are not easy.
You know decisions to make moves on uh, you got ta sit there and give it the focus, and so many times the dealers want a couple of questions answered and then they they’re ready to roll on right.
Sometimes there’s some real value.
You need to look at and see, and i’m just so thankful that you’re here to do that and uh man welcome to the cafe again and i feel like we’re.
We we’re talking to you all the time.
Um and we’ve never seen most of these people – it’s incredible uh, but again just a testament to what digital uh marketing what media can do or the connection of people.
I mean it’s incredible: it’s actually not the future, it’s the current! So it’s the now! But yes, so, michael, we got five questions for you this morning and these five questions they’re a lot of fun.
I want to get to know you a little bit more.
The very first question i’m going to ask you is your: why your purpose? You know we all wake up every day.
We all need something to energize us.
We need something in our head to make us say you know what i’m going to keep rocking.
What is that for you that? That’s that’s the most important question.
The number one question uh and i get that from um, my one of my influencers on on linkedin and and across the internet um simon, uh, cynic, yep yeah and the first time i saw his first ted talk, uh back in 2009.
It’s what’s your, why? I was blown away.
I was like what and since then um i’ve always used this symbol.
It’s it’s an irish symbol, but it was my dad, my late father’s favorite symbol and it’s it’s having to do with relationships.
So it’s called the clattering and if you wear the clattering with your heart facing outwards, it means your heart is open.
It means you’re single when you’re wearing it the other way with the crown facing out.
It means your heart is taken, so that’s the meaning of it, but i had to kind of pivot back then on on my.
Why – and this is the perfect symbol for a business to know their.
Why so we are uh, we love what we’re able to do for our clients, we’re loyal to our staff and clients and um.
We strive to um to to build or establish lifelong friendships every single day that fit right into what we’re able to do and we’re building the tools like a mechanic, um and and every you know, everything has to run seamlessly for it to work.
But we’ve learned along the way that that tool doesn’t go with that part, and it’s not going to run correctly.
We’ve had our lessons on that as well um to get it to a point where now, 20 years, 22 years into this um, we’ve got a fine-tuned machine that we’re learning our my staff hasn’t learned this yet, but when to say no, it’s not about the the Money all the time.
It’s hey.
We have a system in a process, that’s proven to work and you want to go a different direction.
I don’t know because of your ego or because you want to change something, that’s fine, but we’re not the right company.
For you.
We’re going to do it and then we’re going to do it in a way.
That’s going to be successful in a strategic way.
That’s proven to be successful rather than you dictating to us how we should use our tools to help you i love it.
You know.
I mean that’s, not a match.
Here’s my number contact me when you go to somebody else.
That’s going to burn you, but that’s our.
Why is is is um.
We love what we’re able to do.
We um are loyal and we seek friendships every single day.
I’m not everybody’s cup of tea or boo, hey, that’s just life um.
We understand you know yes, um every hey, justin, everybody doesn’t like you or me.
Being you that’s right.
Everyone, everyone’s boat floats differently, strokes for different folks.
There you go right so and that’s okay and that’s what’s beautiful about what we do.
Is that it’s no matter what you do in your career, whatever it is.
You you’re not gon na make everyone happy when you put out a post, not everyone’s gon na think it’s a positive post, they’re gon na think.
Well, there’s you shouldn’t have done it this way, there’s always hate for something that you do and that’s.
Okay.
Folks, one there’s two things you could do with the hate out there, one you can take it in and take heat of it and go.
You know what i’ll make some adjustments or two you can just use it and as motivation to be like i’m gon na just i want more people to think you know what i’m gon na make them more aggravated.
You know what i mean, so it’s it’s a it’s a fun world to be in, and it’s a fun time to be in with all this stuff and it’s you know to have somebody like you out there doing what you do and having the attitude that you Have it makes it a lot more fun to understand these types of things so yeah that? Why is a great? Why i see what you’re doing i love what your company is doing? I love what and your company is you.
You know what i mean and that’s what i like about it, that that’s that whole entity of that style of life.
When i think of you and your company, i think of that.
As one thing you know, it’s like a brand one brand right and you do a really good job with that.
You found your why and much like when you talk about that.
The reason why i start with the y is because a simon saying that’s the very reason why it is my first question, because i do believe it all starts with the.
Why and when you get a y out.
You know the rest of it falls into place because if you have that purpose, you have that reason in which you do you have i’m sure you even have more reasons in your life, but that was just your your own business and with your father left that Legacy and then you’re moving it on you’re carrying it on to your company using the logo, using that as a way to show that hey look we’re here for relationships.
We’re here for love, we’re here to be open to you right, and i love that about you.
Um – and i know that i’m not gon na tell we’ve been we’ve known that about you.
Since the day we met you so kudos to you so excited to have you i’m consistent man, i’m consistent baby.
You know you are.
I love that word uh, the that’s again folks.
The key that you’re going to keep hearing out of many people in the social media world is going to be that word, consistency applying a consistent method to the way that you approach your digital presence and your product presentation um in that.
Of course, we want to make sure that we we do highlight so many things that are key about the consistency that there is with somebody that’s going to succeed that has to pivot um.
I was telling the guys yesterday, as we were going through our great news meeting and just being thankful, um and saying guys next year, there’s going to be challenges and guess what the year after that there’s going to be challenges and every single year you go through.
There’s going to be a marking challenge uh, maybe for that year, some bigger than others right.
Coco is a pretty big one right.
This is a paradigm shifting occasion, but the thing is: is that so many of the solutions for this shift were available for dealers and and right free cobit.
These are not in new inventions.
These are not brand new ideas.
These are just uh now people realizing that hey, we actually are going to need that tool.
We’re actually going to need that boat.
We’re actually going to need that thing that gets us to the next side in our address to um how to reach a customer kobe.
Just pushed some things in gear: it made some people just really just wash their hands.
Yes, you know it’s as simple as that inside of what it made it do, but it was always a good idea to have sanitizer and wash your hands while we ran out of toilet paper.
I don’t know you know what i mean in in some spots, but it’s like that right now i mean these shelves are getting in with toilet paper.
Again i don’t get it as a solution as toilet paper is, it was always there.
It was always right there and available for people.
They just didn’t know that they needed it so bad, which is what’s happening right now.
I believe inside of the actual uh the market, where people are starting to say, wow some of these tools.
We actually might need to listen to why well, because our margin is shrinking, our customer is buying differently.
So if our customer is buying differently – even if just say 25 of your customer clientele, get woke right and realize that they can buy in a different way and they don’t have to go through your process.
Take 25 percent of your clientele that shifted their the way that they buy and it sprinkle that across the many other dealers that are adjusting to it right just can consider that i mean, and i i love breaking it down to the mathematics, because the math is Never going to lie.
The info is never going to lead you astray.
If you look exactly at uh, the seeds that go in is only going to bear so much fruit and sometimes there’s supernatural fruit that comes out of um, just a small handful of seeds, but no matter what, if you’re, not sowing seeds you’re, not growing anything.
The thing that grew most businesses, the thing that’s grown us right – the major expense that we have is marketing us showing us without paying for ads, there’s other ways to do it, but you’re spending the money to market yourself, you’re spending, the the uh the time the Equipment all of that stuff to get yourself out there.
Otherwise nobody knows who you are right and then why, when all of a sudden everybody’s trying to figure out how to buy you say you know what let me stop telling you to buy from me.
What what? What sense does that make you know what i mean and i don’t i never understood that shift, because you have to put money into the slot machine in order to get money out.
So you know you never know when it’s really going to hit, but you ain’t going to get nothing out if you don’t keep putting it in exactly that’s just that’s just my two cents that let’s lose two cents there’s a couple more hashtag.
I’ll be honest with you, i don’t know if you guys don’t have noticed, but in the past month i’ve never seen so many carvana commercials as this month, they’re constantly uh and i’m like.
Where are the other? You know car companies doing tv ads.
You know they’ve come completely off.
They cut that out of their budget because they can’t calculating that roi has become so hard that they’ve just taken it out of the budget, and this is what corvanna.
If anybody has seen the most recent, i’m so glad that you said that uh, the most recent carvana commercial, i was telling tiffany this.
I said: that’s exactly what most car guys said is why they won’t be able to make it.
Why? Because they can’t appraise the trade, but they just did a whole entire commercial off of how they’ll show up with a check in hand for your car and drive it away from your house.
Man.
Doesn’t that sound good to somebody hanging out at home, going through covid needing some money waiting on a stimulus check? I got a clear car sitting right there.
I can turn that into cash right.
No doubt about it.
Are you kidding me that they’ve done it? So now they’re doing it and they’re advertising exactly where you where card deals, their next level is for them to do it and the other thing people complain about.
They don’t really have a good subprime department, you know and guess what we know the guys.
We know to develop that part of it, the training matter.
We’ve had them on our show on the show they are no longer with carvana.
They are now doing their own thing, they’re starting some new stuff, but you know nicholas and chris, you know they’re great people, they came on our show they.
You know they helped develop a lot of stuff.
They actually had their own.
You know own way of doing things.
I love those guys, but they definitely they left carvana because they wanted to start doing stuff with subprime, which is crazy, right and um.
They reached out to me, for you know the name subprime hero, so they reached out to me and lou and they were like hey, you know, so they they basically learn a lot of stuff from us and then they still reach out, which i love about it.
They still reach out to me and ask me ideas if he has something new, he says what do you think about it? I love that i get to have an opinion on things like that with at that you know that whole silicon valley feel because that’s what they are, these guys are like stanford graduates.
You know really smart.
You know like people that know stuff and they’re doing some really cool stuff, and the thing is as smart as they are: we’re we’re geniuses in our career fields, you’re a genius in your career field.
So when they reach out to us, they know that we have that information that they’re looking for that information that they don’t have right, and i love to be able to do that, and we like to do that, and you know that’s what the whole digital world Is we’ve been able to do that and we’ve been able to market ourselves – and you know michael – is a genius at all that type of stuff.
So it’s so folks, all you guys out there who are looking for that type of help.
Make sure you reach out to michael make sure you reach out to him asap because he’s gon na do everything he can to help.
You think.
That’s right! That’s right! Well, what do you i mean? What’s that i mean because this is a uh and i don’t want to get so caught up inside of the five liner that i don’t have enjoy the genius that we have with us right um, because these are key things that are going on right.
There’s a lot of stuff dealers, don’t know that’s wrapped inside of your head right and guess what there’s only so much of it.
They need to know yeah.
They need to have somebody like you to trust.
The the wise man once told me a confused mind.
Never buys yeah, that’s right, 100, sure, that’s 100, sure and and the thing i believe – and i have that theory too, is that you got to keep it simple.
You know that, and if you don’t it over complicates it’s like using big words, and you assume that somebody knows what you’re talking about yeah, they don’t so when you use those words they’re gon na, they may agree with you, but at the end they’ll be like.
I don’t want to buy it.
What is that yeah? I don’t even know what i’m buying.
I don’t know what a flux capacitor is.
You know what what’s going on here, never go back to 2020.
That’s it right.
I don’t think anybody will they will go to the future of it or go to the past, no matter what part of the world they’re in you know, it’s a unique it’s a unique year this year, you know 2020 has been a um a year that i Have been able to find a lot of gratitude in you know, i’ve also had a lot of things that were crazy.
You know it’s, but i look at how amazing um my network has become over this year.
How yeah it’s almost was forced onto you.
You know, and it’s it’s not a bad thing.
You know a lot of people may not like that.
A lot of people like oh, i just tried to stay off social media.
Well, guess what we all had opportunity to learn what real social media was.
We all got to understand how to use it.
These zoom meetings, these stream yard meetings these all these meetings, google meetings, whatever you were using, are using.
You became better at you became more proficient at so in the future you’re going to be able to make it better, which in turn also made all these companies better too.
You know like companies like zoom, they couldn’t host so many people they upgraded their systems.
They made it to where people could have bigger meetings, have more consistent meetings, so there were so many solutions that came involved from this now.
We’re able to reach across the whole world talk to so many people with the click of a button and it’s common to you now, it’s not it’s not foreign anymore.
You know, i think the biggest thing that all of us get into is that we don’t want to do things that seem foreign right.
Oh man, that’s just weird, but now that you’ve done it and all of us pretty much have done if you’re in the business world you haven’t done a zoo meeting.
I don’t know what you’re doing, but you know the zoo meetings have become huge and they’re they’re.
So much fun, i’ve been you know.
I’ve been part of a lot of ones where i just came in and watched and listened to people talk right.
I’ve also been able to be lucky enough to be a guest speaker on them.
Um we’ve also hosted our own when we first started doing our podcast.
It was on zoom, you know we didn’t know about.
You know what we currently use stream yard shout out to stream yard.
They do they do a heck of a job.
I love it and they’re constantly upgrading their stuff too.
You mean duck head right, duck head.
Yes, that’s what he keeps calling.
I love it.
You know when i first when i first it would mess me up the first time i started.
What was the name of that website again the duck in my head? You know, we all know back in the 80s and 90s duck head was a clothing line.
Folks, i know i used to wear the crap out of that duck head stuff man.
You had the little duck head shorts that you know khaki shores with the duncan logo.
That was like wearing a polo shirt back in the 90s.
You know it was so cool to have that duck head right there, so [ Laughter, ].
It was right around the same time as iou and all those other mods, but yeah um man.
No, but for real, have we even got the second one? No, we haven’t gotten a good.
I love this.
We always do this when we have that we have fun with, because we will ask one question and then it’s like 30 minutes later we’re still on the first question: [ Laughter, ], it’s it’s uh one! Is there a second question: yeah there’s all about that.
We got a few to get through right, um, but uh.
As far as i mean connecting your, why to what you’re doing now to how uh you can help other people and how you are finding a way to help other people uh.
My my main question to you is is mainly for uh the listener that the listener or the watcher, that is, an entrepreneur that is wanting uh to step into uh learning, learning new things, um and and being able to advance themselves forward um.
What would you say is the keys that they would have to start doing in i mean i guess the one key they would have to start doing when approaching social media or not social media, but big data.
Right now i don’t mean social media, because data is incorporated in all of that right.
Um social media is just a piece of it uh, but uh.
What would you say? People need to focus on right now, offline and online.
I i always um are i’m always preaching get your reputation in order, because offline is just as important as online if you don’t have a good reputation offline? What makes you think that you’re going to have a good reputation online a year or two into this into your business? You have enough customers.
If you survive the first two years or three years, you have enough customers.
That will say good things about you.
Yes, so reach back and say really appreciate your patronage really help.
You know we just want your feedback on how your experience was with us.
It’s the language you use, you know and and change your language change your business.
Yes, that’s so true, i mean culture.
The the key component for culture is a good language right time in any culture.
There is a specific language uh i was, i don’t forget who it was.
I was listening to um, but they were talking about how everybody has an accent.
Everybody has an accent um, even our friend melanie borden melanie.
You have an accent too right.
She she would yell out there.
I don’t have an accent.
Everybody has an accent: yeah, okay, you got that jersey accent, but it’s a, but it’s an educated jersey, episode yeah, but he has it.
We all have an accent, and usually it’s noticed by the person that doesn’t speak like you right and because of that we all have a way of doing life uh, but having that language, that is understandable, is what creates your culture.
What creates your culture, of course, is, then what promotes your brand and is what builds your reputation? So if the culture of your store is a horrible culture? Well, guess what your reputation is going to be reflect you’re, going to see that, in your reviews, you’re going to see that in your in your employees, you’re going to see that in their lives, yep right.
All of all of those things are going to permeate based off of the culture, the type of language that you have there and uh.
That’s why it’s so important that everybody is somewhat speaking the same language.
Everybody is understanding each other to create that culture and knows what they’re talking about when they do it and cares um.
You do a great job at making sure that people understand how you care, even if they don’t even know what you’re talking about right.
Even if they don’t.
They don’t get some of the stuff that you’re pointing out right, because you can drop just three four sentences and it’s a whole lot of actual info that probably most people haven’t got yet they haven’t heard, and – and so it’s like some of the people with the Big words right we’re not in our, we would nod our heads like yeah, michael maybe i need to know this.
Maybe i need to know what you’re talking about right, um and that that’s right.
Why it’s so important that you listen to people that know something you don’t know um.
You know what it’s it’s so funny.
You brought that up because when i first first um brought into the the car industry um, there were certain words that are jargon for the car industry.
Oh yeah, and i hear fred when you do your walk around.
You say ups a lot and people that don’t know what an up is they go.
What’s an up, you got to learn the language of the people that you’re talking to, and i learned to love this when i was oh 15 and my we got a bunch of kids that went over to ireland and played irish football and irish football is kind Of like rugby soccer uh american football um there’s a goal, but there’s a uh.
You know a goal post.
So if you give it chipped it over the ball, it’s one point: if you can’t get into the net it’s three, so it’s a cool game, but when we were going over there, it’s like these kids baseball.
They were going to kick our ass, but but we were big boned.
You know the american kids walked over there and we were a foot taller.
You know and – and you know 14 pounds heavier than the kids, so we would kick their ass, but each each town, the american people very good yeah, each time that we went to they had kids, saying wow, you talk funny and it was in ireland.
So, of course, we talked funny, of course right, but you know but um me, and i can’t i i’ll, never forget chris f um.
We we started chatting up these two girls and the two girls are saying: well we’re gon na go down to the corner, uh store here and bring us some bring us back, some [ __ ], but uh.
Where do you guys be here and chris? And i looked at each other on [ __ ].
No, you go get your [ __ ] um, we’re gon na go in and play um [ Laughter ] in their culture.
[ __ ] are cigarettes yep! That’s exactly right! Yeah! I didn’t know.
Oh right, it’s different words different right, different language, yeah, and i love that you know it’s trying to figure out what language you’re speaking.
So i can give it back to you and it’s usually the only way that you can ever get your message across to them.
Is if you yeah their language, that’s fact: no, you have to get their languages right or we learn someone’s language before we go to their country, just let it be known to all those startups out there all right.
You know you get an investor or whatever you’re doing and trying to go your own business, whether you’re marketing through tv, radio, print ads or even if it’s internet ads or even if it’s word of mouth or if your best friend says hey, go check out.
That company 87 are going online first to check you out before they ever contact you yeah.
So when i have that statistic in front of me, 87 are going to check on the internet.
Where do they go well? Google is now a verb yeah.
You know.
Google um they go to google.
So if you’re, not on google, with your six to ten five star reviews, you aren’t trusted and that’s the simple fact of the matter is: why we’re strategically going after the reputation marketing, not management, you don’t make any money managing anything.
You make money marketing, so we take those five-star reviews and we make them into videos that rank that’s the secret sauce that rank.
Yes, that is the secret, so all all 80 87.
You know, percent of the eyeballs are going to the the page and they’re.
Seeing a big fat five-star video so that stops the shopping.
You know where else you’re gon na go well.
You can go to your competitor in the next city over, but they look like everybody else and you have to stand head and shoulders above your competition or you know what you risk the point of being a commodity best price wins.
I don’t care about.
You know.
I mean you’ve got to treat me nice because i’m a customer best price wins, which is a lot of how the car market has has competed or put themselves in competition to do right.
Everybody buys the other thing to sell their product, the cheapest um and there and then get awards for that here.
Here’s the award you’ve sold the most cheapest cars on way to lose gross buddy good job, i’m out of money, all right, hey! You know we’re going up next month.
You know what i mean.
Congratulations, yeah! So real! That’s it’s true, though you know, and it’s what’s so crazy about it.
You know the culture of the world has really changed around a lot um.
But you know i’m excited about the future.
I think that there’s a lot of things that happen during this year that really open people’s eyes up, not just business but in the world when it comes to people and all those types of things um, it’s it’s.
It’s key, you know, we all are human beings, we all are one human race and i think that we all need to love each other as much as we possibly can.
You know, i think, it’s crazy, that we divide ourselves by our color by our religions by our um.
You know by by our you know, and a lot of stuff there’s so many reasons why people divide sports teams.
Even so it’s it’s crazy.
How we can we force ourselves to divide, though we should all become one, and we should all unite.
You know and – and i think that that’s coming and i think that people are starting to see that, and i think it’s really a beautiful thing to see how every generation, the the culture divide is becoming less how every generation um the division of anything, is becoming Less and i like that um i like that a lot actually, so i’m real excited about that.
I’m you know, i’m i’m a person who’s derived from two different cultures.
You know i’m from the united american culture and then, of course, the korean culture.
You know – and i i was raised by two amazing people who taught me the ways in both ways and i feel very fortunate that i’ve been able to have my eyes open to a lot of things which opens me to so many things and different ideas and Different people – and i don’t look at people as okay, okay, this is that person’s gon na be this way because they look like this right.
That has nothing to do with it, trust and believe that um.
But you know my my question for you.
My third question: i’m gon na, have for you, michael today, it’s it’s.
It’s gon na be a little bit, bringing it back to the past a little bit all right.
So before you got into what you do now, i i’ve done some research on you.
Of course, you know i’ve known you for a while now um.
What did you do before you got into this digital marketing? Great question: um, just out of college, couldn’t find a job, so i got my buddies and we started painting houses.
When i started going okay, i didn’t graduate college to paint houses um what so, so? What um so so, of course, graduating with a political science degree.
Where are you going to go? Well, i moved down to dc um worked on capitol hill as an intern, hated it um, and and so i kept my part-time job, which became a full-time job which was bartending um, and i learned a lot about psychology.
That’s a heck of a cool job to learn that really does and not to mention it makes sense.
Now it’s all starting to make sense to me now.
I know where you got this personality from this quick wit.
All right keep going sorry, murphy’s irish pub great story about murphy’s irish pub.
Is it it’s a tourist trap, it’s right in the middle of old town, alexandria, which is right across the river from dc and and murphy’s at the time they said: hey, larkin, you’re, going to be doing the sunday um nfl ticket, oh man, okay, great big tips, Um, i choose the new england patriots, i’m going with home team.
They said no, no, no hold your horses you’re going to have to let the people during the summer vote on it like vote on it.
I’m like i’m not going gon na, be here till four o’clock in the morning cleaning up at the bar only to mess it up at eight o’clock in the morning, the next day watching a team that i don’t like well larkin, that’s just the way it is.
Okay, so everybody that summer, that had a patriots, hat or a red, sox, hat or celtics jersey would get the form hey fill that out.
For me, that’s smart right! So, the day before the the final count, i was counting out the votes, i’m like, oh, my god, i’m down by seven, and that was the year.
Joe montana was the first year that he played for the chiefs and the chiefs were winning by seven.
I’m like damn so that day, a busload of of nuns came in from customs.
They needed a beer they’re like hey, we need a beer, they came in for lunch and all of a sudden, i was back in in the kitchen area, snapping off pencils in half and trying to sharpen them.
So every one of the nuns got a ballot and – and you know, sister, regina or whatever she got my face.
She goes.
What are you doing, sir uh? I’m just filling out the ballot for our uh football.
We don’t like football sister just put in new england and we won by uh six votes or seven votes.
Let me tell you a story guys that is [ Laughter ] they sucked at the time.
But you know that was when they were horrible.
But hey.
You know, i know because they’re at that time, i don’t even remember i didn’t even know there was a team there, i’m messing with you, i’m a dolphin fan coming from a dolphin fan, i’m a dolphins fan and, of course i can’t stand the patriots.
I have respect for them, but they’ve been in except for this year.
I don’t mind playing them this year.
This year’s been this i’ll play him all year this year, let’s keep going dan moreno killed me man in the 80s and the 90s.
He dominated you guys and but as soon as he retired, you guys said smash back we’re taking over this division, smack smack smack and then you guys have just dominated it ever since and that division it’s a unique division.
You know you with the bills.
You know, of course, the bills and the jets you know those guys they they’re never there and then the dolphins, so you guys have always had and don’t take this the wrong way.
But in the last 20 years you guys have had a watered-down division.
It’s been very few that the dolphins were good very few, that the jets were good and very few that the bills were good.
The bills haven’t been good since 91, through 94 right, and so it’s it’s definitely something funny to me, but i i you know a lot of respect for the patriots, what a great what a great club, what what a tradition they have could be.
If you don’t want it, oh man, it’s not the same right now for sure, but but you know that’s the thing like you know, you see what tom brady really was and we all were curious.
We were like hey what is tom brady going to be when he leaves there he’s still a heck of a quarterback he’s still really good.
He still throws way through two picks last night, just saying, but and and they didn’t win.
So i watched that i watched the whole game.
He did bring them back to have a chance to win, but they just didn’t pull it off and their defense is kind of was kind of letting that other team all day just get all up in them.
But it was a, it was a fun game to watch tom brady is a unique great athlete.
You know i shouldn’t say an athlete he’s just a great quarterback because he’s not the most athletic.
Looking guy, i mean you’ve all seen him run, my goodness, the guys.
I i swear that my son, when he was six years old, had better form than him.
I was like all right, but anyway, yeah he’s mister he’s mr plastic.
Well, that’s plastic! Fantastic! I think it’s cool that you were a bartender.
I think it’s cool that you got to have that part.
Let me ask you this question, though.
After you did the bartending, what did you do? Um? Well, we segued into um restaurant management and um.
You know therefore i was in you know.
I was responsible for everybody, you know, and that was different.
I had to do the cooking when the cook was called in with a hangover, so i’m flipping burgers or you know, um basting um ribs, because i work in a barbecue place.
Um right on you know or make the salads the salad girl called in sick.
I can’t wait all of a sudden i’m having to do the bartending and the salads good times.
Um very busy place in arlington virginia very, very busy place.
Um great experience, um mayhem, but you know controlled chaos is what i called it lou and i have been to arlington recently yeah, it’s a cool little town man.
It’s really growing a lot.
They got a lot of big buildings there now, but good good little good little town, though, towards towards the bridge where you go and go into georgetown that up the hill is is where i worked um it’s a this building is square.
It’s a cube, it’s crazy, but um it was called red, hot and blue.
It was memphis barbecue get yourself.
Some of that.
Oh yes, alex alex is one alex just wanted to know.
If you had one of those bad uh, those bar jokes, you got a good one.
Oh my god, uh put me on a spot he’s like.
Actually there was a bunch of nuns that walked in a bar.
You know going back to what you said: uh fred was you know it’s all coming together.
I live in hartford connecticut, where it’s a hundred miles from boston and a hundred miles from new york city and we’re the red sox, yankees, dmv or dmz yeah.
I could imagine so my next door neighbor that i grew up with likes the yankees and i’m a lifelong red sox fan and we’re never gon na change.
No, no! I still don’t like a roger brother, but i’m not gon na go to the yankees.
No, no! But um a joke right off the top of my head uh.
You know: hey how’s it going norm, uh, it’s a doggy dog world and i’m wearing milk bone underwear, [, Laughter, ], all right, so number, three, all right! So actually you just did the three.
I thought that was number three sorry.
I want to keep it going, but , you .
