Visionary Dealer: Winning in a Saturated Market With 9 Dealerships!

It's been a number of years since we've been in a position where we've had the inventories to really do what we know we're capable of. We're just kind of seeing it come back a little bit right now, particularly for our Toyota and Honda store that have been really challenged inventory wise in the last few years. So we think there's going to be a kind of a big rebound for us and kind of a resurgence. We still are in a place at our Toyota store in particular. I think our turn rate is 86% so we're selling almost every single car that we get in. Today, I'm excited to speak with Patrick Coleman, third generation dealer and president of Jim Coleman automotive group of powerhouse in the DC Metro. We dive into how his team thrives with nine dealerships in an extremely crowded market and uncover a secret weapon behind our use car acquisition strategy. A big thank you to our sponsors for making today's episode possible. CDK global car dealership guy recruiting and Velasso. And now let's get into the show. Patrick Coleman on the CDG podcast.

我们已经有好几年没能拥有足够的库存来实现我们知道自己能够做到的事情了。现在库存情况稍微有些好转，特别是对于我们过去几年在库存方面受到极大挑战的丰田和本田门店。所以我们认为会有一个大的反弹和复苏。尤其是我们的丰田门店，我们的周转率是86%，几乎每辆进店的车都能卖掉。今天，我很高兴能和帕特里克·科尔曼对话，他是吉姆·科尔曼汽车集团的第三代经销商兼总裁，该集团在华盛顿特区大都会地区非常有影响力。我们将深入探讨他的团队在竞争异常激烈的市场中如何通过九家经销店蓬勃发展，并揭示我们二手车收购策略背后的秘密武器。非常感谢今天节目的赞助商，CDK Global、Car Dealership Guy Recruiting和Velasso。现在让我们进入节目，听听帕特里克·科尔曼在CDG播客上的分享。

Patrick, welcome. Very nice to meet you. Thanks for having me on. Appreciate it. Yeah, I mean, pumped about this conversation. How's it? How's it going in the dealership? I've I've passed your dealership quite a few times on my trips down to DC or that general area. How's the house business? How days? It's good. It's good. It's, you know, kind of peak of summer. We're leading right into Labor Day weekend coming up. So business is good. Traffic is up a lot. A lot to be excited about inventories. I've kind of improved a little bit. So we're in a little a little better position now that we've been, you know, probably throughout other points in the year. So we're there's a lot a lot to be to be excited about us. We're going into to the Labor Day weekend. From my mistake and you are our third gen dealer at Coleman all group, is that sure? Yep. Yep. Third generation started with my grandfather. I'll just give a little background real quick. So my my grandfather, actually, he was not in the car business originally by profession, he was using the attorney and sometimes kind of around the post World War II era, he decided to do a career change and look into some other possible professions and look into a few possible things and ended up landing in car sales and started off originally selling Chrysler's about. I don't know how I remember the name of the dealership, but soon transitioned into selling Cadillacs. At that time, there were dealerships in DC proper and we use selling Cadillacs at capital Cadillac in in downtown DC. kind of moved up from there. Eventually they opened a satellite operation in Bethesda and the sales manager there for a couple of years became a partner, a GM. And then in 1968, he bought out the dealership and renamed it Coleman Cadillac. Tell us a little bit more about your upbringing and business. What was it like?

帕特里克，欢迎你。非常高兴见到你。感谢你的邀请，真的很感激。是啊，我对这次谈话感到很兴奋。最近你们的车行情况如何？我在去华盛顿特区或周边地区旅行时，已经多次经过你们的车行。生意怎么样？最近怎样？ 生意不错，挺好的，现在是夏季的顶峰，我们正朝着即将到来的劳动节周末迈进。所以生意很好，客流量上升了不少，有很多值得兴奋的事情，库存情况也有所改善。现在的状况比之前一年里的其他时间要好一些。所以我们对即将到来的劳动节周末感到非常兴奋。 如果我没记错的话，你是第三代经营者，科尔曼车行集团的第三代，是吧？ 是的，是的，第三代经营者，我们家族生意始于我的祖父。我简单介绍一下背景吧。其实，我的祖父一开始并不是汽车行业的，他原本是个律师，大约在二战后，他决定转行，考虑了一些其他职业，最终选择了汽车销售。他最初卖的是克莱斯勒的汽车，但很快转向了销售凯迪拉克。那时，华盛顿市区有一些车行，他在市中心的首都凯迪拉克店卖车。后来逐渐晋升，他们在贝塞斯达开了一个分店，他在那里做了几年的销售经理，后来成了合伙人和总经理。1968年，他买下了车行并重新命名为科尔曼凯迪拉克。 能再跟我们聊聊你的成长经历和在车行的生活吗？是怎样的？

Sure. Yeah. So I started, uh, started out pretty young age, like many got up and coming car dealer, uh, your neck next gen. I started washing cars when I was 11. You know, I think I think a lot of people go and work at the dealership and work there in some, some capacity, but I was kind of doing it almost to like an obsessive degree. Like I was coming in and working with a ridiculous amount of hours at a very young age, um, and was getting very kind of in entrenched in the culture of the car wash, uh, which there was, you know, quite a bit of, you know, it's, it's almost it, it's own, well, it has its own culture to a certain degree down there. But yeah, I was, I was working lots of hours at that time and then kind of started moving through different departments, uh, and ended up going to college, graduated college or just prior to when I was graduating college, um, some of my buddies were starting to get job offers and were planning to go out with the workforce and secure jobs and that type of thing. And it was kind of the first moment that I had kind of given strong consideration about, you know, what am I, what am I going to do? I had to go work for the family business and, and whatnot. And I ended up actually going, um, I went to the university of Miami and I ended up going to the career department or whatever and sat down with one of their counselors for a little bit. I was like, Hey, what, what do you think? I'm planning to go into the car business. It's family business

当然，好啊。我，从很小的时候就开始了，就像很多正在崛起的汽车经销商一样，我是你的下一代经销商。我从11岁开始洗车。我认为很多人都会去汽车经销店工作，以某种身份在那工作，但我几乎是以一种近乎痴迷的程度在做这件事。我很小的年纪就开始工作，工作的时间长得惊人，并且深深融入了洗车这个文化中。洗车场确实有自己独特的文化。但在那段时间里，我工作了很多小时，然后开始在不同部门之间移动，最终上了大学，大学毕业了。就在我即将毕业之前，我的一些朋友开始收到工作邀请，并计划进入职场，找到工作。这是我第一次认真考虑我该做什么。我不得不去为家族企业工作之类的事情。最后我去了迈阿密大学，并去了那里的职业部门或什么的，和他们的一位顾问坐下来聊了一会儿。我问：“嘿，你怎么看？我打算进入汽车行业，这是家族企业。”

In my, is this what I should be doing? And that was like the first time I ever had that conversation out loud with someone who wasn't in my family. Uh, and she was like, yeah, this, this seems pretty obvious. You should probably go work at the family business. It's going to be good. I, I did that, got home, talked to my dad said, Hey, where, where should I get my start? And he said, you know, I've got a general manager at one of our stores, our Toyota store, I want you to go meet with him. I said, okay, yeah, I'll go meet with him. Um, and I went in and had what felt to me like it in interview, uh, kind of on my, my first day there and we talked about what, what position am I going to do? And he's like, all right, we got to start you in sales. He's like, but before we're going to start in sales, but before you can move into any other position, you've got to sell 200 cars. And I'm like, okay, what is, what's the significance of 200 cars? He's like, well, I feel that one, if you sell 200 cars that'll give you enough exposure to those transactions, but also just customers in general, to kind of be familiar with all the different scenarios you might experience. Um, so that's how I got my start selling cars. I sold cars for it ended up being 11 months. I hit the 200 number. They got another one. Muff went by and a position opened as internet manager. I was an internet, I moved in that internet manager role for a year.

我当时在想，这真的是我应该做的吗？那是我第一次与非家人讨论这个问题。她说，是的，这看起来很明显，你应该去家族企业工作，这是个不错的选择。我回到家后，跟我爸爸说，“爸，我应该从哪里开始？”他说，“我们在一家丰田店有一个总经理，我希望你去见见他。”我说，好，我去见他。感觉那天像是面试的第一天，我们讨论了我会做什么职位。他说，“我们需要先让你从销售做起。在你能换岗位之前，必须先卖出200辆车。”我问，“为什么是200辆车？”他说，“一方面，你卖200辆车可以让你接触到足够多的交易，另一方面，你也能熟悉各种客户和情况。”于是我开始销售汽车，卖了11个月，达到了200辆的目标。又过了一个月，有个互联网经理的职位空出来了，我就调到了那个岗位，并做了一年。

I was a sales manager for three years, GSM, but two years, a GM for three years. Uh, and then I took over multiple rooftops in 2018, uh, because kind of like a VP type position. And then in 2022, I took over as a president of our group. So tell me a little bit about, I want to do a quick overview before we dive into the nuts and bolts of the business about just leadership. From my understanding, it's you and your brother. Um, and you are currently, so you're the president of the dealership. Just tell us, give us a little overview of how is, how is your deal a group brand, how many stores? Sure. Um, so my brother is actually eight years younger than me. So just to mention that real quick, so his, he's kind of coming up in the business and, um, just took, took on a position of being a, a general manager, his first position up being a GM this year. Um, and he's doing a great job, but we've got, um, seven rooftops, nine franchises, all of them are in Maryland, uh, four of them are in Bethesda, Maryland. We have one in Silver Spring. We have two in Clarksville, Maryland, and then we have one in Ellicott city, Maryland. Got it. Okay. Is your, is your brother going to make it? Is he cut out for it? I think so. I think so. I think he's, I think he's got what it takes. Um, it's, it's, uh, you know, it's kind of funny because his background in the car business is a little different than mine. I, I started in sales, uh, when I started full time and kind of worked all throughout the sales department in different roles. And when he came to start in the business, I said, okay, you know, I don't, I don't have a ton of fixed experience. Why don't we start you in fixed?

我当了三年的销售经理（GSM），然后做了两年的总经理（GM），再后来又做了三年的总经理。嗯，在2018年，我接管了多个店面，类似副总裁的职位。然后在2022年，我成为了我们集团的总裁。先说一点总的情况，然后再深入探讨业务的具体细节。从我的理解来看，领导团队是你和你弟弟，你现在是经销商集团的总裁。能不能给我们简单介绍一下你们的品牌，和你们有多少家店？ 当然，我的弟弟比我小八岁，这点我先提一下。他才刚开始涉足这个行业，今年刚担任总经理（GM），他的表现非常出色。我们有七家店，九个品牌，全部都在马里兰州，其中四个在贝塞斯达，一个在银泉市，两个在克拉克斯维尔，还有一个在埃利科特城。 明白了。你觉得你弟弟能胜任吗？他适合这个工作吗？我觉得可以，他具备必要的条件。会有些有趣的是，他在汽车行业的背景和我不同。我是从销售工作开始的，并在销售部门的不同岗位上工作过。他刚进入这个行业时，我说，我在固定工作上没有太多经验，要不你先从固定工作开始？

So we actually started as a technician. I was attacked for a little while service advisor, service manager. Um, and then it gets a little tricky in how you transition from service to being a GM. So we actually brought him up from being a service manager to be a use car manager. There were some uncomfortable moments there at first, but he, he prevailed and he's now a GM. He's doing a really good job. That's, uh, yeah, that's definitely an unconventional path. You usually hear like, you know, people come up when they, you know, to GM's typically come up through sales or variable in general. Uh, so to, to commission, well, I can see why you then brought him into sales to get exposed to that, uh, as he trains up, that makes sense. Kind of inevitably at some point you, you need to make that transition.

我们其实一开始是作为一个技术员。我那时也担任了一段时间的服务顾问和服务经理。嗯，然后从服务岗位过渡到总经理的过程就有点复杂了。所以我们把他从服务经理提升为二手车经理。起初有一些不太舒服的时刻，但他挺过来了，现在他已经是个总经理了，并且干得非常好。嗯，这是一个相当不寻常的路径。通常你听到的是，人们成为总经理之前一般是从销售或其他可变部门晋升上来的。所以，把他带入销售部门，让他接触这个领域也是有道理的，作为培训的一部分。在某个时刻，你不可避免地需要完成这种过渡。

If you have a, you know, a mostly fixed background and you intend to come in and be a GM, like there, there does need to be kind of some variable exposure. And it's a kind of a tricky transition to do, but, um, it, it worked out pretty, pretty well. So far, I've had pohann call on the pot. I've had orzmann on the pot, you know, major dealer groups in your, in your region. I've had Eastern's motors on the pod. How do you differentiate yourself in such a crowded, you know, Maryland, DC market? Sure. Uh, well, it's definitely crowded and definitely, you know, get that, that feeling. There's a lot of us and a lot of us are generational businesses that have been here for many years.

如果你的背景基本上是固定的，而你打算成为一名总经理，那么需要有一定的变数去适应。这个过渡有点棘手，但，到目前为止，效果还算不错。我已经接到过Pohann的电话，我也联系过Orzmann，还有你所在地区的大型经销集团，以及Eastern's Motors。那么，你如何在这样一个竞争激烈的马里兰-DC市场中脱颖而出呢？嗯，这里确实竞争激烈，而且你会有那种感觉。我们这里有很多公司，而且许多都是经营多年的家族企业。

You know, I will say in kind of the last year or two, a lot of the names and faces have changed a little bit because we've had a number of kind of considerably considerable size by cells that have taken place. Um, and we've got the publics have entered our market, uh, to a degree that we've never seen before. Yeah. Yeah. We're the big kids transaction. We had that, um, triple R was another one. Um, couple of years ago, we had priority, which was in Northern Virginia, which was a big one. Um, so the landscape has kind of changed a lot. Um, and you know, there are certain challenges related to that, but I, I, when I communicate with my team, I think that's actually a great opportunity for us to differentiate ourselves, uh, and to really distinguish ourselves because a lot of our immediate kind of neighboring competitors aren't those same, uh, kind of family on dealerships that they once were.

你知道，在过去一两年里，许多名字和面孔发生了一些变化，因为我们进行了几次相当大规模的买卖交易。嗯，还有很多公众企业进入了我们的市场，达到了一种前所未见的程度。是的，是的，我们有一个重要的交易。我们有过一次三重R交易，几年前我们在北弗吉尼亚还有一个叫Priority的大交易。所以市场格局发生了很大变化。当然，这其中也有一些挑战，但当我与团队沟通时，我认为这实际上是一个很好的机会，可以让我们与众不同，真正区别开来，因为我们周围的许多直接竞争对手已经不再是过去那些家族经营的经销商了。

Um, so that kind of has given us an opportunity to kind of double down on what we were already doing in the first place, which is, um, just try to take care of our customers and to be a very family oriented organization, kind of build these relationships and, uh, just to kind of continue to connect it, our community in that way. Um, maybe another point to add on that is, you know, some of those names that you, uh, you mentioned, um, some of the ones that have remained that our family owned have had some pretty aggressive growth strategies. Um, so we've seen kind of some of those other family businesses around here have expanded into other markets. And that's, that's another area that we have felt as an opportunity for us is we've stayed primarily locally in recent years.

嗯，所以这实际上给了我们一个机会，去加倍努力做我们本来就在做的事情，也就是，嗯，尽力照顾我们的顾客，成为一个非常注重家庭的组织，建立这些关系，并且，嗯，继续以这种方式与我们的社区联系。嗯，可能还要补充的一点是，你提到的一些名字，其中一些仍然是家族企业的，他们有一些相当激进的增长策略。所以，我们看到一些其他家族企业在这里扩展到其他市场。这也是我们认为的一个机会，我们近年来主要还是立足于本地。

Um, and our main focus and our main efforts are to kind of optimize what it is we have at the moment to make sure we're, um, the new 10 care of our customers. The best we can. So how are you really doing that? I think a couple of things come to mind. Number one is a great problem to have that many dealers in your position have had over the last couple of years is what do we do with the capital? Right. Now it's interesting because. Right. Dealership business. The last couple of years have been very profitable and many, many operations have reinvested by acquiring dealerships. So we've seen consolidation just, you know, skyrocket. You just mentioned, you know, as well as the publics who have, you know, gobbled up other operations throughout the country.

嗯，我们目前的主要关注点和主要努力方向是优化我们现有的资源，确保我们尽最大努力照顾好我们的客户。那么，你们实际上是如何做到这一点的？我想到几件事情。第一是，过去几年里有很多像我们这样的经销商都会遇到一个很好的问题，就是我们应该如何利用这些资本。现在很有趣，因为过去几年经销业务非常有利可图，许多企业通过收购经销商来进行再投资。所以我们看到行业内的整合在迅速上升。你刚才提到的那些公司，以及一些在全国范围内吞并了其他业务的上市公司，也都是这样做的。

So if you're not expanding your footprint as aggressively as your local competition, how are you, you know, redeploying capital? Like are you taking it outside of the business? Are you optimizing your current facilities? Like what are you doing? Well, I should kind of maybe take a step back to to mention some of the reasons why that has been our strategy in these recent years. I took over as president two, two years ago and up until then I was running multiple rooftops in Montgomery County, Maryland. But we had a, we had three rooftops that were in another part of Maryland that would kind of almost run as if they were their own entities and they weren't really, you know, they would port it upward to my, to my dad who was a majority shareholder, but they weren't really integrated into the business in the same way from a process standpoint, from a synergy standpoint. Um, so that's kind of been where a lot of my focus has been in these, these last couple of years is like, okay, let's, let's get these ones to operate in the same fashion as some of our other stores do and make sure the employees there feel like they're part of our broader organization, make sure that our processes are the same. They are customers are having kind of a similar experience. So that was kind of an issue of one. Um, in terms of redeploying capital, we leave some cash in the business, but mostly, mostly we take the cash out of the business, uh, and, and just invested in kind of traditional ways. We haven't, you haven't necessarily bought big, big properties or, or, or made those big investments and other dealerships yet, not, not to say that we won't, we, we just haven't quite gotten there yet.

那么，如果你没有像本地竞争对手那样积极扩展业务版图，你是如何重新部署资本的？你是把资金拿到业务外进行投资吗？还是在优化现有的设施？你到底在做什么？ 嗯，也许我应该先稍微回顾一下，解释一下为什么这几年我们采取了这种策略。我是在两年前接任总裁职务的，在那之前，我负责管理马里兰州蒙哥马利县的多家店铺。然而，我们在马里兰州的另一个地区还有三家店铺，它们几乎是像独立运营的实体一样运作的，从流程和协同性的角度来看，它们并没有真正融入我们的业务，它们会向我父亲汇报，他是主要股东，但在业务中并没有充分整合。 因此，这也是我过去几年中关注的重点之一。我们希望能让这些店铺像我们其他店铺一样运作，确保那里的员工感觉自己是我们大组织的一部分，确保我们的流程一致，并让我们的客户有类似的体验。 关于资本重新部署的问题，我们确实在业务中留了一部分现金，但大部分现金我们是拿出来，进行一些传统方式的投资。我们还没有购置大规模的物业或在其他经销店进行大笔投资，这并不意味着我们永远不会这样做，只是我们还没到那个阶段。

This episode is brought to you by CDK Global, who will once again be streaming its annual industry conference CDK Connect 2024 on October 22nd. This year's virtual Connect Conference will feature CDK's latest product innovations, a keynote from CEO Brian McDonald and live breakout sessions focused across all operations of the dealership. You can register for CDK Connect at the link in our show notes below or by visiting CDK.com slash connect. That's C O N N E C T CDK.com slash connect. You look, you say you've been integrating, I guess you had some stores that were somewhat disintegrated. You're integrating the stores under kind of one structure, one process, you know, one umbrella.

本集节目由CDK Global赞助。CDK Global将于10月22日再次线上直播其年度行业会议CDK Connect 2024。今年的虚拟Connect会议将展示CDK的最新产品创新，并由CEO布莱恩·麦克唐纳进行主题演讲，还将有针对经销商各运营环节的实时分组讨论会。你可以通过我们下方节目的链接或者访问CDK.com/connect进行注册。CDK的拼写是C O N N E C T，欢迎访问CDK.com/connect。 你提到你们一直在进行整合，我猜你们有一些门店之前有些分散。你们正在将这些门店整合到一个结构、一个流程、一个统一的架构下。

Most reinvestment has gone outside of the business or at least, you know, it or it hasn't gone to necessarily acquisitions. Are you thinking about acquisitions? Is that something that's been peaking your interest for the next, you know, two years or so? Or is that so not on our eyes? Yeah, well, I shouldn't say that we've stayed away from acquisitions entirely. We we took on an open point Nissan dealership in 2020. And actually we launched that operation as a dual operation with our Infinity dealership. And that was the that was the first one in the country at the time.

大部分再投资都没有进入业务内部，或者至少没有用于收购。你们在考虑收购吗？这在未来两年内是否是你们感兴趣的事情？还是说根本没考虑过？嗯，我不能说我们完全避开了收购。我们在2020年接手了一家尼桑经销店，并且我们实际上将这一经销店与我们的英菲尼迪经销店联合运营。这在当时是全国首例。

And Infinity Nissan under water roof. Just prior to that, we had done a substantial renovation of our Infinity dealership, doubled the size of it. And we had the room and space and the manufacturer cooperated with that. So we did that. And then we actually added open point Nissan dealership in 2021 as well. You know, our neighboring town and in Silver Spring. And then we did buy another Nissan dealership in 2023 as well. So we've added we've added a couple of franchises to the portfolio. When the last few few years, we have it stayed away from expansion entirely. However, I will say that, you know, those those have been educational both for myself and for our team.

英菲尼迪和尼桑位于水边屋。就在那之前，我们对我们的英菲尼迪经销店进行了大规模的翻新，面积增加了一倍。我们有足够的空间，制造商也配合了，所以我们完成了翻新。然后我们在2021年新增了一个尼桑经销点，就在我们邻近的小镇银泉。2023年，我们又买了另一家尼桑经销店。因此，近年来我们在汽车经销品牌上进行了几次扩展。但是，我会说，这些扩展对于我自己和我们的团队来说都是一次很有意义的学习经历。

Tell tell tell us more about that. Nissan Nissan's in the hot seat right now. So what's that been like for you? Yeah, well, it's actually worked out really well here. Bethesda, the dual operation. I mean, that was a single point in Infinity dealership by itself. And being able to bring in an extra franchise and have it there. That has has that's been helpful to have during what would have otherwise been some fairly challenging times. The same could be said for our Nissan dealership out in Silver Spring. It's a great market for it. We already had the property there and had a facility.

请告诉我们更多关于那件事吧。现在日产正处于风口浪尖。那么对你来说，这段时间过得怎么样？嗯，其实在这里进展非常顺利。Bethesda 本来是唯一的一家 Infiniti 经销店。能够引入一个额外的品牌并将其安置在那儿，这在原本相当艰难的时期里起到了很大的作用。我们在 Silver Spring 的日产经销店也同样如此。那里的市场非常不错，而且我们已经在那里拥有了物业和设施。

So it was kind of a natural, a natural thing for us to do. And the one that we actually acquired. Yeah, I think that's just been educational from a standpoint of understanding the resources that that requires from both myself and my my team in terms of timing and how much time we put into it, just kind of going into a new operation and turning it turning it around. It's been it's been an educational process for us.

所以这对我们来说是一件很自然的事情。而且我们实际上也确实收购了它。我认为从理解所需资源的角度来看，这对我和我的团队来说都是一次教育体验，包括时间安排和我们投入了多少时间。我们进入一个新的业务并将其扭转过来，这是一个学习的过程。

What's been the toughest part with that store? Well, I think we go into a new store and you have, you know, a complete new team in there that is accustomed to doing things in a certain fashion. And that, you know, that dealership is not my primary location where I work at. It's probably 40 minutes away. So whereas you might be able to quickly establish a new culture in a location where you're investing a lot of your time per slayers or going in day to day. This is one that that that hasn't been as much the case.

那家店最难的部分是什么？嗯，我觉得我们进入一家新店的时候，会发现有一整个全新的团队，他们习惯于以某种特定的方式做事。而且，那家店也不是我主要工作的地点，它大概有40分钟的车程。所以，在一个你投入大量时间，或者每天都去的地方，你可能很快就能建立一种新文化。而在这家店，这种情况并不多见。

So I think it's helping that team understand what it is that we do and who we are and kind of what our DNA is as an organization. And and finding the right the right players on the team that that will kind of carry out that mission. I'm curious. Like what was the first or what were the first two, three things you look for during that acquisition, right? You come in or even before when you're assessing the acquisition, right? What goes to your mind? You're looking at a dealership. Like what are these key questions you're asking yourself?

所以我认为，这有助于团队了解我们在做什么，我们是谁，以及我们的组织基因是什么。同时，也要找到合适的团队成员来执行这个使命。我很好奇，收购时你首先关注的两三件事是什么？你刚接手，甚至在评估收购之前，你会考虑什么问题？你在看一家经销商时，心里在问自己哪些关键问题？

I think the first question is, is this something we actually want and want to pursue? Is this something we want to do? For us, that made sense geographically because it was it's actually close to a couple of our other dealerships. So that was one of the reasons that was attracted to us. We also felt it would give us an opportunity to gain more market share with that brand since we already had two of them. But but going in like literally walking into that day and and, you know, introducing myself to the team and that, I mean, that was the first time I had ever actually been at the facility on the property. And I think most of that is just is just taking in kind of the environment and who's there and what it's like.

我认为第一个问题是，这是我们真正想要和追求的东西吗？这是我们想做的事情吗？对我们来说，这在地理位置上是合理的，因为它实际上离我们另外几家经销店很近。这是吸引我们的原因之一。我们还觉得，这会给我们提供一个机会，让我们能够在这一品牌上获得更多的市场份额，因为我们已经有两个了。但但进驻的那天，真的走进去，向团队做自我介绍时，那是我第一次来到这个设施和地块上。我认为大部分时间都是在了解周围的环境，了解在那里的人员和情况。

And I already had exposure to the fight. Yeah, the people kind of had to get understanding of it. But also the limitations of the facility, the, you know, kind of improvements that need to be made areas that have been neglected. I'm all of these are kind of things that. We're speaking to me what I want to. Yeah, I can totally understand. So tell me, tell me more about, I want to get more into the intricacies of how you actually operate your business. So we spoke about differentiation. Let's first touch on you said that community feel which you find is a or like family business, a potential differentiator.

我已经接触过这场斗争了。是的，人们可能需要了解这一点。但也要了解设施的局限性，那些需要改进和已经被忽视的地方。这些都是我想要表达的观点。我完全可以理解。告诉我更多吧，我想更深入了解你究竟是如何运作你的业务的。我们前面讨论了差异化。我们先谈谈你提到的社区感，这种感觉你认为是一种或类似家庭式经营的潜在差异化因素。

And I think you can make the argument both ways. I could argue that it's a differentiator for a positive. I could argue that it's a it's a drawback. I'm curious to know what have you actually done or what do you do when you say, you know, whether it's family oriented community, what do you really do? Is it like philanthropy or is there a different way you actually operate? Your process? Go ahead. Well, I think sure philanthropy is part of it being connected with important things in the community. That's important. I think what I'm more getting at is, you know, my dad and I, my brother, we work at these facilities. We're invested in the people that we hire and bring on the values that are important to us are communicated to our team consistently each and every day. My team has an opportunity to understand what's important and me consistently.

我认为这个问题可以从两方面来讨论。我可以说这是一个积极的差异化因素，也可以说这是一个缺点。我很好奇你实际上做了什么，或者你说的“以家庭为导向的社区”到底是怎么运作的？是慈善活动还是其他的运营方式？请讲吧。 好的，我认为慈善活动当然是其中的一部分，与社区中重要事务保持联系也很重要。但我想说的是，我和我父亲、兄弟一起在这些设施中工作。我们对所雇佣人员投入了很多。我们会向团队传达我们重视的价值观，并每天持续地进行沟通。我的团队有机会了解什么对我很重要，并能持续地理解这一点。

And what has been important to our organization for the last 50 years. You know, we started as a Cadillac dealership. That was our our first operation. And, you know, when you start kind of in the luxury business, it already to certain degrees in your DNA to be taking care of customers to a level that might be different from a volume operation. Um, so that's something we've kind of tried to carry forth from each generation to the next. You know, I really do believe that that has that has an impact when you're, you know, where my office is is literally on the shore floor of the Toyota dealership. Um, so inevitably, like I'm walking by, I'm seeing our team having conversations with our team, um, our leadership team, we're meeting once a week.

过去50年来，我们组织一直重视什么。你知道，我们最开始是作为凯迪拉克的经销商。这是我们的第一个业务。你知道，当你一开始就在奢侈品行业工作时，照顾顾客的方式就已经在某种程度上深植在你的DNA中，这可能与大众化业务不同。所以，这也是我们试图一代代传承下去的东西。我确实相信，这种方式是有影响的，因为我的办公室实际上就在丰田经销店的展厅里。因此，我不可避免地会经过，经常看到我们的团队，和他们聊天。我们的领导团队每周也会开一次会。

And much of that call is kind of talking about values, talking about the type of business we are talking about the type of communication we have with one another as a team. You know, I'm sure the argument could be made made that maybe these things are achievable in a public organization. But I think, you know, when your name is, is on the building and you, you have had longstanding relationships with the faces and customers that are coming in, there is something unique about that. And if every dealership kind of had that, if every remaining dealership was a family business, it might be a different scenario, but as though becoming fewer and fewer of us, uh, found it to the point I was saying earlier, I think it's, it's an opportunity to kind of double down on distinguishing ourselves for some of those roots.

我们在很多会议上会讨论价值观、讨论我们所做的生意及团队之间的沟通方式。我相信，有人可能会认为这些目标在一个公开的组织中也能实现。但我认为，当你的名字挂在公司大楼上，并且你与进来的客户保持长期关系时，这里面有一些独特的东西。如果每个经销商都有这种特质，如果剩下的每一个经销商都是家族企业，情况也许会有所不同。但随着这种家族企业越来越少，正如我前面所说的，我认为这是一个机会，可以加倍努力，以我们的根基来区分自己。

So I want to fast forward now to the operations of the dealership more, right? We spoke about you being a family on business. We spoke about different differentiation. Are you, is there anything else you're doing that is unique? Again, you're clearly successful. Um, given by just your, your longevity and I'm your reviews are phenomenal. So you're definitely doing a good job there. I'm reading them as you're speaking. Um, so nice job. But are you doing anything else, like really progressive or differentiated from the marketplace? Would you say? One thing that's kind of a huge for us in the last couple of years has been vehicle acquisition pre-owned vehicle acquisition, uh, with kind of the scarcity of use cars out there and, and some of the challenges that we have had trying to source them.

好的，那现在我想快速转到探讨经销商的运营方面，对吗？我们谈了你们的家族企业，我们谈了差异化。你们有没有做些什么独特的东西？显然，你们是非常成功的，从你们的业务持久性和评论中就可以看出，你们确实干得不错。我一边听你说，一边读你们的评论，确实很赞。那么，你们有没有做些什么其他的，真的很前卫或与市场有些区别的事情？你会怎么说呢？ 对我们来说，过去几年的一个很大的事情是车辆收购，特别是二手车的收购。由于二手车市场的稀缺性和我们在寻找这些车时遇到的一些挑战，这方面变得尤为重要。

Um, that's kind of become a very big priority for us. Um, so much so we're actually was connected with someone who was, um, launching a startup that was kind of in this space and, and I actually invested in it and that company is called Lasso. Uh, and we were one of the first dealers to, to side up and, and get going with Lasso. Um, and that's just been a, another strong tool for us to get out there and source it. And tour. Yeah. I mean, may last was a partner of the pod. Nate's been on the pod to CEO. So I'm very, very familiar. Tell me more about that. Like, is that you're, are you acquiring lots of used cars from there right now? Or what, what have you been doing?

嗯，这已经成为我们非常重要的一个优先事项了。嗯，到这种程度，我们实际上已经与一个在这个领域创业的人联系上了，我还投资了那家公司，那家公司叫做Lasso。我们是最早加入并开始使用Lasso的经销商之一，这成为了我们获取资源和进行巡展的一个强有力的工具。是的，Lasso曾是我们的一个合作伙伴，Nate（首席执行官）也曾上过我们的节目，所以我很熟悉。告诉我更多关于这方面的信息吧，比如说你们现在从那里购入了很多二手车吗？你们具体在做些什么？

Yeah, we've had a lot of success with it. So kind of the way that it works, the concept behind it, uh, is that it is a, um, kind of a, an auction based system where a customer will list a car online and participating dealers will have an ability to go in, um, look at all the critical information about that car and then can subsequently put it in a bid for it. Uh, and you know, whoever gets this is in top bid has an opportunity to buy it. And, uh, you know, last I spoke with, with, uh, Nate, I think we had purchased over five million dollars worth of, uh, cars from them since it, since it started, um, slowed down a little bit this summer. I think that might be just indicative of some of the challenges we've had buying cars in general. Um, but I think here to date where we've between the two dealerships when we launched it at our pilot and that we bought was 50, 55 cars.

是的，我们在这方面取得了很多成功。这项系统的工作原理是这样的，它是一个基于拍卖的系统。客户可以在网上列出他们的汽车，参与的经销商可以查看关于那辆车的所有重要信息，然后出价竞拍。最终出价最高的人有机会购买这辆车。上次我和内特（Nate）聊过，我记得自这系统启动以来，我们已经从中购买了价值超过五百万美元的汽车。今年夏天略有放缓，我想这可能反映了我们在总体上购买汽车时遇到的一些挑战。但截止目前，我们通过这项试点计划在两个经销店之间总共购买了50到55辆汽车。

Yeah. So it's not a saying that again. None of that. That's very meaningful. What's your ratio of new to use at your deal group? How many new cars to use cars? It's about two to one, two to one, two new one use. Yep. Try trying to grow it, but trying to grow the use side more. The, the use side for sure. Yep. Then the, the, all right, that is pretty progressive. So that's, um, that's a definitely good strategy. Are you doing anything else on the use acquisition side? I mean, clearly trade ins. Are you buying from auctions? I mean, what, where else are you sourcing?

好的。所以不用再说更多了。这已经非常有意义了。你们的销售团队里，新车和二手车的比例是多少？新车和二手车大概是二比一，两辆新车对一辆二手车。是的，我们在尽力增长二手车的比例，确实是更关注二手车方面。对，这方向很有前景，是一个很好的策略。你们在二手车收购方面还有做其它努力吗？比如说，除了以旧换新，你们还从拍卖会购买吗？你们还从其他渠道收购吗？

I'm the most important thing that we've done with that was a few years ago, we didn't have any type of formal acquisition team that was dedicated to doing this. Uh, and at two of our locations, we built out actual acquisition teams. Um, and their sole responsibility is to go out, try to source inventory, whether it be from the public, whether it be from a source like Lasso or some of the other partners that we have, um, but prior to that, you know, we, we didn't really have any organized or formal way for sourcing cars beyond our use car managers doing it or our wholesale guys doing it. Uh, we, we kind of made efforts to incentivize our salespeople. We, you know, tried to work it into pay plans for our sales managers and just inevitably there, I don't know if it's something psychologically different for a sales person. I've helped, you know, wanting to go buy a car versus we're selling one, but we didn't have a whole lot of success with it.

几年前，我们做的一件最重要的事情是建立了正式的收购团队。在此之前，我们没有专门负责这项工作的团队。我们在两个地点组建了实际的收购团队，他们的唯一职责就是出去寻找库存，无论是从公众手中，还是从像Lasso这样的合作伙伴那里获取。在那之前，我们实际上并没有组织化或正式的方法来获取汽车，除了由二手车经理或批发人员进行尝试。我们曾努力通过激励销售人员和在销售经理的薪酬计划中加入相关内容来推动这一工作，但最终效果并不理想。我不知道是否因为销售人员在买车和卖车时的心理状态有所不同，总之，我们在这方面没有取得太大成功。

So we moved someone that was in kind of a assistant use car type, assistant use car manager type role into a dedicated acquisition role, uh, customer facing in the store, uh, one of our locations and it works so well there that we ended up, um, doing, doing that at another location as well. And they're, they're both kind of just sourcing cars for those areas. You know, I love this trend of, I love this trend of people that are driving value that are, you know, taking equity stakes. Like, so I'll give you an example. Like you see, you know, online creators who are launching, you know, different brands, right? Where they have actual equity stakes or dealers who I've seen dealers, angel invest and just generally tech invest in the last, you know, five years more than, than ever.

我们把一个在类似助理二手车经理角色的人，调到了一个专门负责采购的岗位，在我们其中一个门店面对客户。这个尝试非常成功，所以我们在另一个门店也做了同样的安排。他们都在为这些区域寻找车辆。我非常喜欢这种趋势，就是那些带来价值的人开始持有股权。例如，你可以看到一些在线创作者推出自己的品牌，并实际拥有这些品牌的股权，或者一些汽车经销商在过去五年中，比以往任何时候都多地进行天使投资和科技投资。

I mean, it's, it's become almost, you know, even when I was raising money at my last company left and right, people were like, Hey, you want to be introduced to, you know, this dealer group, that dealer group, they have a family office and, you know, they do venture investing. So it's become, you know, people, again, the dealers are driving the value, right? And so it's, I think it's a great way to align those incentives. Um, and, you know, have, have upside in what you're driving. I think it's awesome. Uh, do you, have you invested, like, do you gender, do you invest in auto tech in general? Or is this kind of like a one off opportunity for you? Yeah. That was a first, that was the first one so far.

我的意思是，现在这种情况几乎已经变得司空见惯了。即使在我上一个公司筹集资金的时候，也有人不断跟我说，"嘿，你想要介绍给这个经销商集团或那个经销商集团吗？他们有家族办公室，也进行风险投资。" 所以现在情况已经变成这样，经销商在推动价值增长。我认为这是一个对齐激励的好方式，并且可以在你推动的事情中获得收益，我觉得这很棒。你有没有投资过，比如说你通常会投资汽车科技吗？还是这次只是一个单独的机会？是的，这是我至今为止首次投资。

Uh, I've been invested in a couple other, uh, VC type ventures for non, non automotive. I've got a really good buddy of mine that launched a sunscreen company that I invested in about two years ago. Uh, it's actually, it's doing really well. It's called basket to give him a shout out. Um, the plug, the plug. Yeah. I gotta give him the, give the plug. Um, so yeah, that would speed God well. Then apart from that, just, you know, some local stuff. Um, yeah, but to, but to your point, I mean, I think there's naturally a part of, you know, being a dealer when you get some exposure to these types of, uh, concepts, you're a little bit resistant because you're like, well, maybe, you know, maybe we could come up with something like that. Or maybe, you know, do we really want to participate in that?

呃，我最近还投了一些其他的风险投资项目，不是汽车行业的。我有一个很好的朋友，大约两年前他创办了一家防晒霜公司，我也投资了。那个公司现在做得挺好的，叫做Basket，顺便帮他宣传一下，哈哈。对，就是要帮他宣传一下。除了这个，还参与了一些本地的项目。嗯，不过说到这个话题，我觉得作为一个经销商，接触到这些类型的概念时，自然会有点抵触，心里可能会想，我们自己是不是也能搞出类似的东西，或者我们真的要参与到这些项目中去吗？

Cause maybe it's a, you know, it will be some sort of competitor to ours. But, you know, my view of that is these things are taking place inevitably, whether we're a part of them or whether we're supporting them. It's, it's worked out pretty well for us. It's just another, another avenue to get us some pre-end cars. You mentioned you have, uh, you mentioned you have nine franchises. What are they again? Yep. So we have a Cadillac Toyota Infinity, three Nissan stores, Honda and Jaguar, Lam and Robert. One of the craziest things about the car dealers from Guy platform is our direct access to literally thousands of dealership and automotive employees. So naturally, I often hear this question, CDG, can you use your network to help me fill an open role at my company?

因为也许它会成为我们的某种竞争对手。但我的看法是，无论我们是否参与或支持，这些事情都是不可避免地发生的。这对我们来说效果相当不错。这只是另一种途径来获取一些先行车。你提到你有九个特许经营店。它们是什么？对，我们有凯迪拉克、丰田、英菲尼迪、三家日产店、本田和捷豹，还有兰博和罗伯特。关于Guy平台上汽车经销商最疯狂的事情之一是我们可以直接接触到成千上万的经销商和汽车行业员工。所以自然地，我经常听到这个问题：“CDG，你能利用你的网络帮我填补公司里的空缺职位吗？”

Well, now I can building on a success of my free industry job board. I'm proud to launch CDG recruiting and more hands on white glove, automotive recruiting service, whether you're looking to fill roles in dealership management, C suite, FNI, fixed ops, auto tech, SaaS, we take the hassle out of hiring by doing the heavy lifting for you. And here's the best part. We've that and screen thousands of candidates. So you don't have to. And with our placement guarantee, hiring through CDG recruiting is a hundred percent worry free. Our team has decades of experience and has successfully placed over a thousand roles in the automotive industry. So if you're ready to find your next rock star employee, try CDG recruiting today by visiting CDG recruiting.com or clicking the link in the show. That's below. Again, that's CDG recruiting.com. What is your general take on the market right now? As your steering these, you know, dealerships forward. I mean, how do you, what's your general feeling on what is, you know, where our market is currently at, where it's headed?

好的，现在我可以在我免费的行业工作板的成功基础上更进一步。 我很自豪地推出CDG招聘和更高端的白手套汽车招聘服务。无论您是要填补经销店管理层、高管、财务与保险、固定运营、汽车技术、SaaS等职位，我们都会为您做繁重的工作，消除招聘的麻烦。而且最棒的是，我们已经筛选了成千上万的候选人，让您不必费心。并且有我们的安置保证，通过CDG招聘雇佣员工是百分百无忧的。我们的团队有数十年的经验，在汽车行业成功安置了超过一千个职位。所以，如果您准备好寻找下一个出色的员工，请访问CDGrecruiting.com或点击下方的链接，试试CDG招聘。再次强调，网址是CDGrecruiting.com。 您现在对市场有什么总体的看法？在您引导这些经销店前进时，您对我们目前市场的状况及其未来发展有什么总体感觉？

Sure. So I mean, we're super optimistic in the DC market, especially. It's been, you know, it's no secret. It's been a number of years since we've been in a position where we've had cut off the inventories to really do what we know we're capable of. We're just, we're just kind of seeing it come back a little bit right now, particularly for our Toyota and Honda store that have been really challenged inventory wise in the last few years. So we think there's, there's going to be a kind of a big rebound for us and kind of a resurgence. We still are in a place at our Toyota store in particular. I think our turn rate is 86%. So we're selling almost every single car that we get in. Can you explain that for anyone that doesn't understand? When you say 86%, what does that actually mean?

当然。我的意思是，我们对DC市场非常乐观。这不是秘密，已经有好几年我们处在库存不足的状态，无法发挥我们真正的能力。而现在，我们看到情况有些回升，特别是对我们的丰田和本田店，这些年来库存方面一直很困难。我们认为，这将会带来我们业务的大反弹和复苏。特别是在我们的丰田店，我们的销售周转率是86%。也就是说，我们几乎卖出了我们获得的每一辆车。 你可以解释一下，对于那些不理解的人，当你说86%的时候，这实际上是什么意思吗？

If you have 100 cars that you were allocated during that month that are available to you, 86 of them, you would have sold basically leaving 14 of them on the crown at at month end. And this actually was something that was not really ever very closely monitored from a manufacturer standpoint of these recent years and or prior to these recent years. And now it's really top of mind for every manufacturer. If you, if we get our reports in the morning, it's typically one of the things that's included at the top of that report is where you are relative to the other dealers in your district and turn rate. So that's the other work or the number one dealer and turn rate in our district and have been for some time.

如果你在这个月分配了100辆车，其中86辆基本上已经售出，月底时还剩下14辆。这实际上是最近几年，甚至更早之前，生产厂家并没有非常密切监控的事情。而现在，它真的成为每个厂家非常关注的焦点。如果我们早上收到报告，通常在报告的开头就会包括你在该地区的其他经销商中的排名和周转率。所以，从某种意义上说，我们是该地区周转率排名第一的经销商，并且这一地位已经保持了一段时间。

Yeah, I was going to say, like, what is that emblematic of? Are you just, you know, pricing aggressively or your turn rate being super high? Like what is that emblematic of? No, I think there's just a substantial demand in our market in particular. In fact, did you look at some of the what we call pump and pump out for this? Actually, a lot of there's a lot of registrations in our market are actually coming from dealers outside of our market that are selling cars into our market that we have been unable to provide at this stage or that a customer is unwilling to wait for. There's been a lot of population growth in some of the suburban areas around DC, but that is that being one of them.

是的，我正想说，这代表了什么？你们是定价很有竞争力，还是你的周转率非常高呢？这代表了什么？不，我认为主要是因为我们市场的需求特别强劲。事实上，你有没有看看我们所谓的“进出库”情况？其实，很多我们市场的注册车辆是由外地的经销商卖进来的，因为我们目前无法提供这些车辆，或者客户不愿意等待。此外，华盛顿特区周边一些郊区的人口增长很快，这也是一个原因。

There's been a lot of folks moving out to the suburbs from DC proper in recent years as some of the crime rates have kind of increased more downtown. So I think there's just, there's just a lot of demand that we've, we've been doing our best to fulfill it. But at the same time, it's a process to kind of get, get, get back, but we'll have adequate inventory to be able to provide for that demand. You're in an interesting part part on the bell curve because you have some of these brands that are just crushing. I mean, you mentioned Toyota, that's the obvious one. And then on the other end, of course, you know, Land Rover, again, you know, doing phenomenally, but on the other hand, you mentioned, you know, we spoke about Nissan earlier, which they're going through some challenges.

近年来，随着华盛顿特区市中心某些地区的犯罪率有所增加，许多人开始搬到郊区。因此，需求量很大，而我们一直尽力满足这些需求。虽然这是一个渐进的过程，但我们会有足够的库存来满足这些需求。而你处在一个有趣的位置，因为有些品牌表现得非常好，比如你提到的丰田，这是显而易见的例子。另一方面，像路虎这样的品牌也表现出色。然而，正如我们之前提到的，日产目前正在经历一些挑战。

Alright. So what brands are you most bullish on over the next two years? And I, and I don't want you to answer for today is obvious. We all know what's working today, but like next two years, right? What do you, where do you, where do you see lots of upside? I mean, Toyota comes to mind first and, and probably most so because that is the store that I kind of had my roots in. And I'm familiar with what we're capable of in terms of sale. Sales volume. And I'm familiar to the levels that we have been at in recent years. And I just think there's a ton of runway for us to kind of restore to the levels that we were at pre COVID and it's just taken us a little longer to get there.

好的。那么在接下来的两年里，你最看好哪些品牌？我不想让你回答当下的情况，因为大家都知道现在哪些品牌表现很好。我的意思是未来两年内，你认为哪些品牌有很大的上升空间？我首先想到的是丰田，可能也是最看好的，因为我在这个品牌下成长，我熟悉我们的销售能力和过去几年的销售水平。我觉得我们有很大的潜力恢复到疫情前的水平，只是需要一点时间达到那里。

I think Jaguar Land Rover is another one that we're super excited about because that's been a brand where we've had customers waiting for Range Rover's and Range Rover Sport borders, you know, for three, six, eight months a year. And we're finally getting to a place now where we can, you know, we've shortened the delivery time a little bit and even have some cars in stock. So those, those brands were excited about Honda were excited about as well. But you mentioned Nissan were excited about Nissan.

我认为捷豹路虎是我们非常兴奋的一个品牌，因为一直以来都有客户在等待揽胜和揽胜运动版的订单，有时需要等三个月、六个月甚至一年的时间。而现在我们终于到了一个阶段，可以缩短一些交货时间，甚至还会有一些现货。所以我们对这些品牌很兴奋。我们也对本田感到兴奋。而你提到的日产，我们对日产同样充满期待。

There's some new products that are coming down the pike and it's been a while since we've had some new product. We just had the new QX 80 hit the ground this week, which I took out the, it's mentioned, Infinity and, you know, tremendous vehicle there. So I think we'll have some, some new interest to that brand once again. It's been a little while. Um, so I, I can't say there's any of our brands that, that we're not bullish or excited about in some way, even out, out mentioned Cadillac because, yeah, what do you, what do you think about them? Domestic brands and Cadillac.

有一些新产品即将问世，我们已经有一段时间没有推出新产品了。这个星期我们刚刚推出了新的QX 80，这是我提到的Infinity，一辆非常棒的车。所以我认为这将重新唤起人们对这个品牌的兴趣，毕竟已经有一段时间了。我可以说，没有任何一个品牌是我们不看好或不感兴趣的，甚至包括提到的凯迪拉克。你怎么看待这些国内品牌和凯迪拉克？

Yeah. So Cadlax, it's, it's been a little tricky one. I didn't mention it before, but the EV adoption in our, in our market has been astronomical in the last couple of years. And you look at registration reports over the course of the last five years. Uh, I think Tesla just three years ago had like two or three percent market share and I recently looked at a registration report and they had actually surpassed Honda in our market and they were like 10, 10 or 11% market share. So huge, huge market. You sales new registrations.

是的。关于Cadlax，我之前没提到过，但最近几年我们市场上电动车的普及非常迅速。在过去五年的注册报告中，特斯拉三年前的市场份额大概只有2%到3%，而我最近看到的一份注册报告显示，他们已经超过了本田，在我们的市场中拥有大约10%到11%的市场份额。所以，市场非常巨大，新车注册量也相当可观。

Correct. Yep. New, new registrations in our market to kind of circle back to Cadillac when Lyric first came to market. We had a tremendous amount of interest in it. We had a lot of orders that we were fulfilling. Um, the, I, I feel like when some of the non Tesla manufacturers come out with a new vehicle, there's always like an initial spark of interest and that it seems to steadily decline a little bit. Um, so that's one of the challenges we've been kind of, or headwinds we've been working against there.

正确。是的，在我们的市场中提到新的注册，回到凯迪拉克，当 Lyric 刚上市时，我们收到了大量的兴趣和订单。嗯，我觉得，当一些非特斯拉的制造商推出新车型时，通常会引起初步的兴趣高峰，但这种兴趣似乎会逐渐减少一些。所以这是我们一直在面对的一个挑战或者说逆风。

Uh, but we're super excited about the, the new escalates being completely redesigned, uh, 20, 25s coming out in a couple months. And, uh, also the escalate IQ is, is coming out, which I, I got a chance to see in person. So there's some, there's some exciting products coming down. What's your take on, I mean, your, your market is clearly done very well with EVs. As you just mentioned, the market share Tesla, especially it's clear that there's demand. What's your take on EVs and investing for your brand? Sure. Well, the manufacturers to some degree have, have, um, put out mandates or, or made it a requirement, some of our facility requirements to have, um, you know, whether it be charging stations or, um, you know, where, where are the charging stations are?

呃，我们非常激动，因为全新设计的2025款Escalade将在几个月后发布。而且，Escalade IQ也即将面世，我有机会亲眼见到过。所以有一些令人兴奋的新产品即将问世。您怎么看呢？您的市场在电动车方面表现得非常出色，正如您提到的，尤其是特斯拉的市场份额，这显然表明了需求。那么，您对电动车及投资您的品牌有什么看法？当然了，一些制造商在某种程度上已经提出了要求，比如我们的某些设施需要配备充电站等。

So we've completed those investments and projects at most of our stores, but they can be super challenging and nuanced to figure out because you're, you're working with, uh, you know, working with the counties and municipalities to try to get approvals and, you know, there's all sorts of other, other businesses and entities out there that are doing the exact same thing at the same time. Um, but they're, they are pretty capital intensive and they're also require a fair amount of business interruption, depending on where they are. I'm curious. Is there any, you know, you're the new generation, right?

所以，我们已经完成了大多数门店的这些投资和项目，但要搞清楚这些事是非常具有挑战性和复杂性的。因为你知道，你要和县政府和市政当局合作来获取批准，而且同时还有很多其他企业和机构也在做同样的事情。嗯，这些项目需要大量的资金投入，而且根据项目所在地的不同，也需要不少的业务中断。我很好奇，你作为新一代，有什么看法呢？

There's lots of succession planning and, and actually happening in the car business today. I'm super interested in it. Cause it, to me, it's an opportunity for just lots of change. I mean, I'm exhibit A of how media is being consumed, right? Um, my, my audience is, ranges, you know, all over the map from first generation dealers to third generation and, you know, all between. But I find that the second third gen dealers are more heavily engaged with my content. Again, it's not a surprise, right? Your younger generation, you grew up with internet to some extent, like this is just native to you. So my question to you is, what's that like?

现在汽车行业里，有很多继任计划正在进行中。这让我非常感兴趣，因为在我看来，这是一个带来许多变革的机会。我就是一个例子，说明了媒体的消费方式是如何变化的。我的受众范围很广，从第一代经销商到第三代经销商都有。但是我发现第二代和第三代经销商对我的内容更加感兴趣。这其实也不奇怪，对吧？年轻一代，从某种程度上说，就是在互联网环境下成长的，这对你们来说很自然。所以，我想问问你的感受是怎样的？

We know, you're thinking about the future of the business, you know, future proofing your business and also your, your father, I don't know how progressive or old school he may be, but just you guys kind of thinking through that. Have you got, is there your smile? I mean, is there any, are there any specific things that you staunchly disagree about that you think, hey, the business should go in this direction. Maybe your father thinks otherwise kind of give us a sneak peek, right?

我们知道你在考虑企业的未来，你知道，为企业做长远打算。同时，你的父亲，我不清楚他是思想开放还是比较传统，但你们俩肯定会一起思考这些问题。那么，你们之间是否有特别强烈的分歧，比如你觉得企业应该朝某个方向发展，而你父亲则有不同的看法？给我们透露一点吧？

If I was a fly on the wall into that conversation, what's it like? What are you guys talking about behind the scenes? As it relates to media, you mean, or as it, as it relates to your business and future of the business and how you're thinking about it and operating and investing, right? Are there any, are there any major angles or opportunities or just a direction for the company where the two of you maybe don't see eye to eye, right? You maybe bring a new, a new type of perspective to the table that maybe your father or someone else disagrees with.

如果我能旁听你们的对话，那会是怎样的情景？你们在幕后都谈些啥呢？是关于媒体方面的吗？还是关于你们的业务、业务的未来以及你们如何考虑、运作和投资的呢？有没有什么重点方向或机会是你们之间出现分歧的？比如你可能带来一种新的视角，而你父亲或其他人可能不同意的。

I'm just curious to know kind of what, what are those conversations that are happening behind closed doors? I think, sure, I'll try to give you some, some window into what some of us skills to be typically there are there adversarial. That no, my, my dad has given me a lot of latitude to, to make some of these types of decisions. I think, you know, he, he's always mindful of our personnel expense. And as the business evolves, as the business changes, there's a lot of positions that may not at one time have been essential or departments that may not have required as much depth as they now do.

我只是好奇，想了解一下那些幕后讨论的内容。我觉得，我可以尽量为你提供一些见解。通常情况下，这些讨论有时会有些对立的。这种情况下我爸给了我很大的自由去做决策。我认为他总是关注人事成本。随着业务的发展和变化，有很多岗位可能曾经并非必不可少，或部门可能曾不需要那么多人员，现在则变得越来越重要。

An example of that would be our HR department. We've needed to, to, you know, to build out more personnel to accommodate, not necessarily more staff because we haven't necessarily grown in that respect, but more so just to make sure that we're providing one is expected from a modern organization for our teams and for our staff. Um, so that's always kind of a, are we talking kombucha and yoga sessions? Exactly. I am a yokey. I am a yokey. Yeah. There's, there's an element. There's an element of that that's, um, that, that are, you know, that is cultural based that, that, you know, perhaps in a previous generation, the HR director had a very formalized role in onboarding and paperwork and things like that.

一个例子就是我们的HR部门。我们需要增加人手，这并不是因为员工数量增加了，而是为了确保我们能提供现代组织应有的服务，满足我们团队和员工的期望。因此，这一直是一个问题。我们是不是在谈论康普茶和瑜伽课程？没错。我是一名瑜伽爱好者。这确实是其中的一部分，涉及到文化层面的东西。可能在上一代中，HR总监的角色更多是正式化的，如新人入职和处理文书工作等。

But, you know, I, our, our HR director now or the person that we've added added. There's, there's definitely, she's thinking very much outside the box. Uh, interacting with our team members quite a bit. We're literally even little things like going out to the dealerships, our leadership team, executive team going out and hosting cookouts at the dealership for the team, you know, bringing swag handouts, things to give them like, yeah, a lot of this has got to the intangibles. Um, but that's, that's just a glimpse into one, one thing that, that he and I talk about.

但是，你知道的，我，我们现在的HR总监，或者说我们新加入的这个人，她确实在跳出常规思维。呃，跟我们的团队成员互动相当多。我们甚至做了一些小事，比如去汽车经销店，我们的领导团队和高管团队也会去，并在经销店为团队举办烧烤，送些小礼品之类的东西。是啊，很多事情确实是涉及到那些无形的东西。但这只是我们他和我谈到的一件事的一个小例子。

Um, but also maybe if I could just mention is, you know, if you have someone who has, has worked their entire, uh, career and achieved a tremendous amount and we're at a time right now where a lot of his, his, um, contemporaries or buddies are actually getting, getting out of the business. Well, who have, have left the business. Um, and then some of my contemporaries are aggressively expanding. So there is kind of this, uh, in terms of our conversation, a lot of it is, is strategy oriented in terms of, I've done all of this.

嗯，但我也想提一下，如果你遇到一个人在他的整个职业生涯中都取得了巨大成就，而现在正值很多他的同事或朋友退出这个行业的时候。一些我的同时代人正在积极扩展业务。所以在我们的对话中，很多都是围绕策略展开的，像是“我已经做到了这些”。

Do it, are we at a place right now where I want to leverage a lot of what we've done to then go out and, and pay record multiples, um, for a dealership that isn't you know, put within close proximity. So there's some conversations about, about those type of things, just high level strategy, but you know, I've only been in my role, like I said, for, for two and a half years now. So, um, it's a, uh, the relationship is always evolving and, um, I'm very, I'm very grateful to have him because he's a, you know, super strong guy and wise and is he actively involved in the day today? Um, he is not involved from a sense, like a managerial sense or up, you know, operational oversight, but he is involved in a sense that we are always aware of his presence.

做这件事，到底我们现在是不是处在一个我想利用我们已经做过的大量工作的阶段，然后出去并且以创纪录的价格购买一家经销店，而那家经销店不在附近。所以，我们会有一些关于这种事情的对话，只是高层策略上的讨论。可是你知道的，我才上任两年半。所以，呃，这种关系一直在演变。我非常感激有他，因为他是一个非常坚强和睿智的人。至于他是否每天都在积极参与？他并不是从管理层面或者运营监督的角度参与，但我们总是能够感受到他的存在。

Um, and you know, he, and he's very, he's very interested in how we're doing, how performing, how our months go. Um, so that's, you know, whether it be how our weekend was or how particular model was moving or that type of thing. Before we close up, um, just on a personal level, I'm curious, you know, anything in particular that's exciting to you nowadays can be correlated, can be non-correlated. You mentioned that, you know, you're a yogi, like to do yoga, which I didn't know about you. I found out pretty cool, just curious to know on a personal level, like, you know, what's on your mind nowadays, what's exciting to you?

嗯，你知道的，他非常关心我们的表现和进展，关心我们这个月过得怎么样。无论是我们的周末过得如何，还是某个特定型号的销售情况之类的，他都会关心。在结束之前，我个人很好奇，你最近有什么特别让你兴奋的事情吗？可以是相关的，也可以是无关的。你提到你是个瑜伽爱好者，我之前不知道，但觉得挺酷的。只是想知道，最近有什么在你心头？什么事情让你感到兴奋呢？

Well, if I imagine one other thing related to you, you were talking about media, uh, we, we have put quite a bit of efforts into media of our own in the last couple of years that we've built up our TikTok following to maybe 110,000 followers now on TikTok. Okay. Um, and a lot of that content that we put out, we have a, what we refer to as a creative director, um, who is basically a guy who's a videographer, um, but also a producer, um, and music, you know, music maker on the side. Oh, yeah. You have strong, strong results here. I see 4 million views, 4.7. It's good. Yeah. So we've given, he and I will collaborate about some potential concepts that we're going to put out, but I also give him a lot of latitude to, um, have to create some of that content. You have to.

好吧，如果我想象跟你相关的另一件事，你之前提到过媒体。呃，我们在过去几年里在媒体上下了不少功夫，现在我们的TikTok粉丝已经达到了大约11万人。好的，嗯，我们发布了很多内容，我们有一位我们称之为创意总监的人，他其实是个摄像师，但也担任制作人，同时还兼职制作音乐。嗯，你们在这方面取得了很好的成绩，我看到有400万次观看，4.7的评分，很不错。是的，所以我们会一起讨论一些潜在的创意概念，但我也给了他很大的创作自由。你必须这样做。

And he, and a lot of it, you'll see, if you look is, um, we'll just kind of go out and have him prompt two interviews with some of our team members and ask them random questions. One of the common ones that we've gotten a lot of viewership and engagement on is what is your dream car? Tried to patent this, but apparently it didn't, didn't work. Um, but yeah. So we get a lot, a lot of interest in that. Our, our employees will answer those questions about what their dream car is. And we've got people from all over the world that are super engaged and you're kind of blown up in the comments about that.

他会随机采访我们团队的一些成员，提一些随意的问题。如果你留心看的话，会发现他经常这样做。一个常见的问题是：你梦想中的汽车是什么？我们试图为这个问题申请专利，但显然并没有成功。不过，这个问题确实引起了很多关注和互动。我们的员工会回答关于他们梦想中的汽车的问题，世界各地的人们都非常感兴趣，评论区也因此变得非常热闹。

Are you, are you a pretty creative person? Like what's your, what's your sweet spot? Are you more Excel spreadsheets or you more marketing sales? Like how do you, who are you? Yeah. No, I feel like I'm a creative person. I don't, I, I'd rather not sit around and pour over financial statements or Excel spreadsheets throughout the day. I like, you know, um, thinking and thinking of new concepts and.

你是一个有创意的人吗？你的优势领域是什么？你是擅长 Excel 表格还是更擅长市场销售？你怎么看自己？嗯，我觉得我是一个有创意的人。我不太喜欢整天坐在那儿研究财务报表或 Excel 表格。我更喜欢思考和想出新的概念和想法。

For a car guy, I'm somewhat introverted. So I, you know, spent, spent a lot of time, uh, thinking and then trying to not think and be present. That's, uh, one of the other things where the how is that good for you? You know, the stereotype is that, you know, quote, quote car guys are, you know, very extroverted, very eccentric, right? That's like, you know, the stereotype you watch whenever movies and stuff people see or just people with people think like the car guy, very alpha, aggressive. You know, I find it not to be the case, right? Just people all over the map. Some of the sharpest car guys that are super kind of reserved, thoughtful, um, or just, you know, more quiet, but how has that been for you? kind of as you've worked up the ranks, um, in your, in the group and just given, you know, your, I'm curious, like, is your father similar to you, a different?

对于一个喜欢汽车的人来说，我性格有点内向。所以，我，你知道，花了很多时间，嗯，思考，然后试着不去思考，专注于当下。这是，嗯，另一件事，就是有人会问，这对你有什么好处？你知道，刻板印象是，所谓的“汽车男”都非常外向，非常古怪，对吧？这就像是你在看电影和其他人们看到的或认为的那样，汽车男是很强势、很有攻击性。但我发现事实并非如此，人们的性格是多种多样的。一些最聪明的汽车迷其实是非常内敛、深思熟虑，或者只是比较安静。那么对你来说，这样的性格在你在团队中逐步上升的过程中是怎样的呢？我很好奇，你的父亲和你相似吗，还是不同？

Uh, he's a little bit different. He's probably more, more extroverted, more, well, I guess I'll answer your, your first question first. Yeah. I mean, when I first came into the business, um, I think being a salesperson, it came naturally to me in the sense that I was, I was a good listener. Um, I felt I had an ability then to put customers at ease naturally. Um, but yeah, naturally, I'm a pretty empathetic or even an empath type person and can kind of feel, you know, other people's emotions not to get too much into the woo, woo, woo here. Um, so yeah, I'm probably not the stereotypical person in terms of my personality type.

呃，他有点不同。他可能更加外向，嗯，我想我还是先回答你的第一个问题吧。是的，当我刚进入这个行业时，做销售对我来说很自然，因为我是个很好的倾听者。我感觉自己有一种能力可以让客户自然地感到轻松。另外，我本身是个很有同理心的人，甚至有点像共情者，可以感受到别人的情绪，不想让这听起来太玄乎。所以，我的个性可能和典型的销售人员有点不一样。

And I think that's actually served me very well over time and in connecting with my team, understanding kind of meeting them where they are. Um, and some, some of my conversations with them, um, you know, but I am super competitive too. Um, you know, I like, I like playing sports and things like that. So I kind of go both ways. I think as I've moved up in the organization, I used to love to walk around the dealership, interact with our team. And I've kind of realized over time that like I need to take that space to digest, think through things, um, be a little bit more cerebral.

我认为这其实对我长期来说非常有帮助，能够与我的团队更好地连接，理解他们的处境。有些时候，我会跟他们进行交流。但我也很有竞争意识，我喜欢运动之类的活动，所以我两方面都兼顾着。随着我在公司中职位的提升，我以前喜欢在经销店走动，与团队互动，但我渐渐意识到，我需要留出一些时间来消化、思考，变得更加理性。

And then once I've kind of done that, that processing that I can go, go back out and have that social energy to connect with, with whether it be the customers or the team, but my dad, he's, he's, uh, he's old, he's an old school car guy, super competitive, aggressive, um, sweet guy to them. He's a sweet guy, nice guy. Um, but we're a little different. We'll have to get them on the pot sometime. Patrick Coleman.

然后，一旦我完成了这些处理，我就能重新振作起来，重新拥有社交的精力去与客户或团队成员互动。而我的爸爸，他是一个老派的汽车爱好者，超级有竞争力，非常强势，但对他们来说，他是个好人，一个和善的人。不过，我们有点不一样。有机会得让他来参加这个节目。Patrick Coleman。

It's been fun. Any, any, any closing thoughts? Oh, just thanks so much for having me on. I really appreciate who showed up. Yeah. I like the pictures in the background. So good stuff. That might tell you something about the creative side is the, uh, the gallery wall there in the background. Yeah. I see. What's that image on the bottom right, uh, the waves. I, I definitely know the name of that are seen that many times. Trying to. Is that what, like, what's the symbolism to that?

这段话表达的是一段对话的结束，双方对彼此表示感谢和欣赏，还讨论了一下背景图片的内容。翻译如下： “很开心能和你聊这么久。呃，有什么结束感想吗？” “哦，非常感谢你邀请我。我很感激大家的出席。嗯，我喜欢背景里的那些图片，真不错。背景墙上的画可能能反映出我的创意一面。” “是啊。我看到了右下角那幅画，是波浪的那幅。我肯定知道那幅画的名字，见过很多次。它有什么象征意义吗？”

Yeah. The link, the great wave of, uh, can a guy walk in sub kind of a Japanese image. It doesn't necessarily have any, uh, special significance, but to, to me. Um, however, it, you know, it kind of gives you those Zen, Zen vibes. I think that's, I love it. You're the man. Good stuff. All right. Patrick, appreciate you coming on, man. Thanks for coming on and, uh, we'll be Dutch. All right. Hope you enjoyed that episode. Please give the podcast a rating. Consider subscribing to the show and check the show notes for links to what we talked about. Thanks for tuning in. I'll see you guys next time.

好的。链接，那幅巨浪的画，可以说是一个日本风格的图像。它不一定有什么特别的意义，但对我来说，有一种禅宗的感觉。我很喜欢，你真是太棒了。好吧，帕特里克，谢谢你来参加节目。希望你喜欢这一集。请给播客评分，考虑订阅这个节目，并查看节目备注中的相关链接。感谢收听，下次再见。