Making Millions in the Luxury Car Dealership Business | Car Dealership Guy Podcast
发布时间 2024-03-12 09:00:32 来源
If I can't be the biggest car dealer, could I be the best car dealer? You know, you got to push yourself at something, right? If you're not going to win the Cy Young Award, maybe you can win a gold glove. You could be an all star. Most people would think a 12-year career as an MLB all-star pitcher would be a hard act to follow. But for this luxury car dealer, it was only the beginning.
如果我做不到成为最大的汽车经销商，那我能成为最好的汽车经销商吗？你知道，你得在某个地方努力，对吧？如果你得不到塞杨奖，也许你可以得金手套奖。你可以成为全明星。大多数人会认为作为一个12年的MLB全明星投手是一个难以超越的成就。但对于这位豪华汽车经销商来说，那只是个开始。
Today I'm speaking with C.J. Wilson, owner and general manager of Porsche, Audi, and BMW Fresno. Three luxury dealerships serving the Central Valley of California. We discuss selling a Lamborghini for Bitcoin in 2023, making millions in the luxury car dealership business, buying an F-16 fighter jet with his crypto money and much more. Don't forget to click subscribe so you never miss an episode. What's up everyone? This is Car dealership Guy. You're listening to the Car dealership Guy podcast, which is my effort to give you access to the most transparent insights into the car market.
今天我和C.J. Wilson交谈，他是加州中部地区波尔斯、奥迪和宝马弗雷斯诺的业主兼总经理。这三家豪华汽车经销商为加利福尼亚中央谷地区提供服务。我们讨论了在2023年用比特币出售兰博基尼、在豪华汽车经销商业务中赚取数百万美元、用加密货币购买F-16战斗机等话题。别忘了点击订阅按钮，这样你就不会错过任何一集了。大家好啊！我是汽车经销商小伙子。你正在收听汽车经销商小伙子的播客，这是我努力为您提供对汽车市场最透明的见解的努力。
But before we get into the show, this episode is brought to you by Autofyne. Autofyne helps progressive dealers like you sell smarter, not harder, on your dealership website and now in your showroom too. Autofyne solves the everyday problems dealers actually face, like bottlenecks at the sales desk, customer distrust, and decision overload. And their all new showroom solution includes deal estimation, desking, lender routing, and an F&I menu.
在我们开始节目之前，本集由Autofyne赞助。Autofyne帮助像您这样的进步性经销商更加智能地销售汽车，在您的经销商网站以及展厅中。Autofyne解决了经销商们实际面临的日常问题，如销售台处的瓶颈、客户的不信任以及决策过载。他们全新的展厅解决方案包括交易估算、价格设定、贷款路由和F&I菜单。
All of this in one powerful platform that bridges the gap between the CRM and the DMS. Dealerships with Autofyne can manage the floor more efficiently, fast track the yes, and make better lender decisions, enabling them to sell cars faster with higher satisfaction and more profit. In fact, deals with Autofyne take an average of 28 minutes from customer check into loan approval and dealers are making $411 more backend PVR per deal. Go to autofy.com slash CDG to learn more. That's autofy.com slash CDG and start selling smarter today.
在一个功能强大的平台上，它弥合了CRM和DMS之间的鸿沟。有了Autofyne，汽车经销商可以更有效地管理库存，快速通过审批，并做出更好的借款人决策，让他们能够更快地以更高的满意度和更多的利润销售汽车。事实上，使用Autofyne的交易平均从客户签到到贷款批准只需28分钟，经销商每笔交易都能多赚411美元。访问autofy.com/CDG了解更多信息。这就是autofy.com/CDG，立即开始更智能地销售吧。
This episode is also brought to you by Cars Commerce. The platform is simplified everything about buying and selling cars, including the quote-unquote follow up. Let me explain. Dealers, fast and effective follow up is crucial for converting leads into customers. But here's the problem. 40% of shoppers report that they are not getting timely or helpful responses from dealerships. This is a huge problem because your own team could be leading four out of every 10 sales opportunities on the table.
本集还由Cars Commerce为您带来。该平台简化了购买和销售汽车的一切，包括所谓的跟进。让我解释一下。对于经销商来说，快速有效的跟进对于将潜在客户转化为实际客户至关重要。但问题来了。有40%的购物者报告说他们没有及时或有帮助的回应来自经销商。这是一个巨大的问题，因为您的团队可能会让10个销售机会中的4个流失。
Cars Commerce makes it simple to measure and improve your follow up performance. A Cars.com experience report tracks the percentage of leads your team is responding to, and how customers rate those responses. While dealer inspires retailing technology enables your team to quickly text follow ups with personalized financing options to make the most out of every opportunity. To learn more about how you can measure and improve your team's follow up performance, go to cars.com or stop inks slash experience or click the link in the show notes below.
汽车商城使衡量和改进您的跟进业绩变得简单。Cars.com体验报告跟踪您的团队回复潜在客户的比例以及客户对这些回复的评价。同时，经销商激励零售技术使您的团队能够快速通过个性化融资选项发送跟进短信，从而充分利用每一个机会。要了解如何衡量和改进您的团队的跟进表现，请访问cars.com网站，或前往inks/experience，或点击下方节目说明中的链接。
Is there any other appropriate way to start this podcast other than, of course, we research your background and your story and Bitcoin? I didn't think that I would ever start a podcast about Bitcoin, but Bitcoin is nearly at or was recently, I think it eclipsed all time highs. I'm sure you know better than me. But for those that don't know, you are pretty involved to say the least with Bitcoin. Give us a story here. How did you get into Bitcoin?
除了当然是研究你的背景和故事以及比特币之外，是否有其他合适的方式来开始这个播客？我从未想过会开始一个关于比特币的播客，但比特币几乎接近或最近已经达到了历史最高水平。我肯定你比我更了解。但是对于那些不了解的人来说，你与比特币的关系可以说是非常密切的。给我们讲一个故事吧。你是如何涉足比特币领域的？
Actually through cars, if you can believe that. Some dude rolls into my dealership in 2017, 2018, something like that, dressed crazy, just wearing all kinds of wacky clothes. At this point, I'm at McLaren Scottsdale. I'm like, dude, I got asked, you're pretty young to come in here and look at one of these cars. What do you do? And he goes, oh, I trade crypto. And I was like, okay, I think I've heard about this. And then I started asking him questions. And he said something to me that kind of changed my whole perception because I had heard about Bitcoin earlier. And I was like, oh, internet money? What's that? That doesn't make any sense. Who needs internet money? And he basically said, oh, well, there's only 21 million Bitcoin. And I was like, wait, what do you mean there's only 21 million? I thought they make it on a computer. And he goes, yeah, but there's a limit.
实际上是通过汽车，如果你能相信的话。有个家伙在2017年、2018年左右开着车进了我的经销店，穿着疯狂，穿着各种古怪的衣服。当时，我在麦克拉伦斯科茨代尔。我说，伙计，你这么年轻就来看这种车，你是干什么的？他说，哦，我交易加密货币。我说，哦，我想我听过这个。然后我开始问他问题。他对我说了一些话，改变了我的整体看法，因为我早就听说比特币了。我说，哦，网络货币？那是什么？谁需要网络货币？他基本上说，哦，比特币只有2100万。我说，等等，你说只有2100万？我以为它是在电脑上创造的。他说，是的，但是有一个限制。
And I was like, this changes everything. And then I kind of went down the rabbit hole. And then I started buying and selling cars for Bitcoin on the side, you know, like someone would come in and that would say that's a whole network of people that are wealthy crypto guys that want to, you know, buy a Lambo or whatever, if the meme is real. I did, in fact, last year, sell a Lambo and was paid in crypto for it. So of course, we have to pay the car off in Fiat. So it's part of the interchange thing. But yeah, it's kind of funny how that works. So so how much Bitcoin do you own? I mean, I write somewhere like over 10 million or where we at? Now you never tell anybody. That's the secret, huh? That's definitely that's part of it. You definitely. But I've been in it for a while. I wish I had more. I definitely have seven figures of Bitcoin. I don't have eight figures of Bitcoin. I wish I did. Well, it depends on what the price ends up at this year. You know, maybe I will. Maybe I can say that.
然后我就觉得，这改变了一切。然后我就陷入了这个兔子洞。然后我开始在旁边用比特币买卖汽车，你知道，有人过来说着一整群想要买兰博或其他东西的有钱加密货币家伙。实际上，去年我卖了一辆兰博，收到了加密货币作为付款。当然，我们必须用法定货币支付汽车款项。所以这就属于互换的一部分。但是，真的很有趣。你有多少比特币？我是说，我记得你有超过1000万吧，或者现在我们在哪里？现在永远都不要告诉任何人。这是秘密，对吧？这绝对是其中的一部分。但我一直在这个市场上。我希望自己有更多。我绝对拥有七位数的比特币，但没有八位数的。我希望有八位数的。取决于今年比特币价格最终会涨到多少。也许我会。也许我可以这么说。
When you approached your team about this and you said, Hey, we're going to start working with Bitcoin. Like, what was the reaction? I mean, I imagine, you know, in a dealership setting, like people probably looked at you some question marks. What was that like? I literally came out with them and I was like, okay, if you have questions, you can read this book. If you don't get it after this book, then you can come ask me questions. There's been a lot of really good information put out there for free. Podcasts are probably the number one medium for Bitcoin along with X or Twitter or whatever. And I put people, I said, Hey, listen to this guy, talk about it, watch this, whatever. But I mean, I go to conferences and I speak about Bitcoin. I go to DC and lobby about Bitcoin. So I mean, it's something I really care about. And I think actually, ironically, being in the Porsche brand helps me a lot because it's sort of the cars take care of themselves. I don't really have to work too hard to convince somebody to buy a 911, for instance.
当你向你的团队提起这件事并说：“嘿，我们要开始使用比特币了。”，他们的反应是怎样的？我想象，在经销商的设置中，人们可能会对你抱有一些疑问。那时候情况是怎样的？我当时就直接告诉他们，我说：“好的，如果你们有问题，可以读这本书。如果读完后还是有问题，再来问我。”这些免费的信息发布得很多。播客可能是比特币的主要媒介之一，再加上X或Twitter之类的。我给人们推荐说：“听听这个人谈谈，看看这个视频什么的。”我去参加各种会议，演讲关于比特币。我还会去华盛顿游说有关比特币的事情。所以我真的很关心这个。而且讽刺的是，我在保时捷品牌工作其实对我帮助很大，因为这种汽车实际上卖自己。我不需要费太多力气去说服某人购买911，比如说。
So then I can kind of dream and draft little ideas along the way. And that's where it gives me time to do stuff like this or little pet projects or whatever. And I would definitely say that Bitcoin's a big part of my personality, especially online. I'm definitely a poster on Twitter and stuff like that going after people. And it just gives you a lot of confidence because you realize that you don't need the system necessarily to operate. And being able to do like a transaction on a weekend, for instance, for a car, where a guy shows up, I wire, you know, I have to wait until Monday to wire him, I can, you know, grab his phone and go boop on his QR code and send him, you know, Ferrari money and he can send me Ferrari money, we can do that same kind of thing. So.
因此，我可以做一些梦想和构思一些小点子。这样就给了我一些时间做类似这样的事情或者一些小的个人项目之类的。我可以肯定地说比特币是我个性的一部分，尤其是在线上。我肯定会在 Twitter 上发帖，有时也会对人发起攻击之类的。这确实给了我很多信心，因为我意识到并不一定需要依赖整个系统来运作。比如，周末时能够进行一笔交易，比如有个人过来，我可以用手机扫他的二维码，发送给他费用，他也可以发送给我费用，这样我们就可以完成同样的事情。
There you have it. Ladies and gentlemen, dealer principle of Audi BMW and Porsche of Fresno. I love to hear it. All right. CJ, take us way back. Right. Let's get started like early on, because you have you've had a very interesting career to say the least. You are a professional baseball player. Can you start us off there and kind of, you know, bring us up chronologically? Yeah. So my desire to get into the car dealership side of things, I think, is really just watching other people live the American dream and seeing how you have these people, whether it's Roger Penske or anybody like individually that's kind of started this large thing. And I went the same way that some of those guys did was I got into cars through, you know, just being a car collector and a racer. And then that got me into the connected side of things where I realized there's a lucrative car business to be done. It's not just spending cars and individually buying and selling cars and stuff like that.
这就是我的经历。女士们先生们，弗雷斯诺奥迪宝马保时捷经销商负责人。我很高兴能听到这个消息。好的。CJ，让我们回到过去。对。让我们从早年开始吧，因为你的职业生涯可谓丰富多彩。你是一名职业棒球运动员。你可以从这里开始，然后按时间顺序带领我们了解一下吗？是的。我想要进入汽车经销商这个领域，主要是因为看到别人实现了美国梦，看到这些人，比如罗杰·彭斯基或其他个人，他们开始了这个大事业。我和一些人一样，通过收集汽车和参加赛车活动，进入了汽车行业。然后我意识到，与汽车相关的生意可以带来丰厚的回报。这不仅仅是在交易汽车，也包括购买和销售汽车等方面。
So it was really through racing and spending money on racing and realizing, wow, this is definitely a money toilet. If I continue to race and don't have anything to kind of fill that back up again, then my post baseball career is going to end in poverty. And I don't want that because racing is a very clear addiction. So I knew a couple people met a couple people started doing some investigations on how to become a car dealer. And then I bought my first car dealership in May of 2012, which is a Mazda store in Countryside, Illinois. And were you still a professional baseball player at the time? Oh, yeah. No, this was like middle of my, I just signed a contract with the Angels, a five year contract. And I was like, okay, well, you know, my future's secure. Now, let me come up with some investments and some other things on the side.
所以我真的是通过参加赛车比赛、花钱在赛车上并意识到，哇，这绝对是个金钱的黑洞。如果我继续参加比赛而没有其他方式来填补那个漏洞，那么我退役后的生活将贫穷无助。我不想这样，因为赛车是一个非常明显的瘾。所以我认识了一些人，开始进行一些调查，了解如何成为一名汽车经销商。然后我在2012年5月购买了我的第一家汽车经销店，位于伊利诺伊州的乡村镇，销售马自达汽车。那时你还是一名职业棒球运动员吗？哦，是的。不，这是在我中途，我刚和天使队签了一份为期五年的合同。我想，好吧，你知道，我的未来是安全的。现在，让我考虑一些投资和其他一些事情。
So I, I started a residential real estate project. I started some other things and, you know, I was investing on the side while I was still playing. Because I knew at some point I was going to get hurt enough times that I would have to call it quits, you know, that was kind of the thing for me. I had five arm surgeries. And you know, I was like, at some point, the arm's going to fall off, it's not going to work. I'm going to need to sit behind a desk. That's just where it is. Yeah, then stuff from true.
所以我开始了一个住宅房地产项目。我还开始了一些其他事情，你知道，在我仍在打球的时候我也在进行投资。因为我知道总有一天我会受伤多到必须退出，这对我来说是必然的。我做了五次手臂手术。你知道，我心里明白，总有一天，手臂会掉下来，不能用了。我将需要坐在办公桌后。这就是现实。是的，这是真实的。
So how does an outsider, right? I mean, you weren't a dealer. Your father wasn't a dealer. How did you, how did you get the opportunity to, you know, get into the dealership business? And what would tell us about your, your first acquisition? It's actually a really funny story. It all came through racing. So I, I met a lot of people through racing specifically through Mazda. So Mazda has this very inclusive culture where if you race Mazda's, you could basically just go right to the CEO and, and like they'll shake your hand. They're like, Hey, thank you for racing me out as on the weekend. Like we're really happy about that. You know, this was like peak zoom zoom, right? This is when that was their tagline and they were really into pushing that type of stuff. Mazda had a couple racing series, one of them was called MX five cup.
所以作为一个局外人，对吧？我的意思是，你不是个经销商。你父亲也不是个经销商。你是怎么样，怎么样有机会进入经销商业务的？可以跟我们讲讲你的第一个收购经历吗？其实，这是一个非常有趣的故事。一切都源于赛车。我通过赛车认识了很多人，尤其是通过马自达。马自达有这种非常包容的文化，如果你驾驶马自达参加比赛，基本上你可以直接见到CEO，他们会和你握手，说："嘿，谢谢你周末为我们赛车，我们对此感到非常高兴。"你知道的，这时是马自达高潮期的zoom zoom，这是他们的口号，他们非常热衷于推动这种类型的事情。马自达有几个赛车系列，其中一个叫做MX-5杯。
And so I started racing in that series and, and then I started a racing team. And so just by sheer volume, I got noticed by Mazda and I said, you know, I'd really like to get a dealership one day and they're like, Oh, that's great. You'd be great for it. You know, we'd love to have you in the family, whatever. And then one of the guys that I would race with and against, depending on what series it was in the off season, him and his wife got divorced. And they had nine car dealerships between the two of them. He took four, she took four and I bought the orphan. Yeah.
我就在那个系列赛中开始了比赛，然后我开始了一支赛车队。因为数量庞大，马自达注意到了我，我说，你知道吗，我真的很想有一天拥有一个经销商，他们说，哦，太好了。你会很适合的。我们很乐意让你加入我们的家族。然后，有一个我在赛车中时而和他竞争时而与他合作的家伙和他的妻子离婚了。他们两个合起来有九家汽车经销商。他拿了四家，她拿了四家，我买下了那一家孤儿。是的。
So I bought Mazda countryside and, you know, it was really funny because they were already a good dealership. So it was easy, it was easy for me to basically hop in there as an absentee owner, learn how to read the statements, see what works, you know, work with a team that's already in place. I didn't have to, I didn't have an open point or anything like that. So it was, it was better because it was already kind of a river in motion, if that makes sense. Wow. So I mean, truly like, you know, our opportunity, you met the opportunity, you seized opportunity. And, and so again, this is still, we're talking early 2010s, correct? Yeah, 2012. Yeah. So tell us a little bit of the economics of that deal.
所以我买了马自达乡村，你知道，这真的很有趣，因为他们已经是一家很好的经销商。所以对我来说很容易，我作为一个缺席的业主，进去看看报表，看看哪些方法有效，与已经就位的团队合作。我不需要开拓市场或者任何其他事情。所以，因为事情已经在发展中，这样做起来更好，如果你能理解我的意思的话。哇。所以我真的觉得，你知道我们的机会，你看到了机会，抓住了机会。还有，我们现在还是在说2010年代初期，对吗？是的，2012年。所以告诉我们一下这笔交易的经济状况。
Like when you got into the business initially, right, how'd you do it, you know, financially? So being a baseball player and having a big contract helped, right? Because then I was able to save up and I was getting big paychecks at that point. I was, you know, I had signed a five-year deal with the Angels for 77 and a half million bucks, which was really nice and lucrative. Unless you're living in California, then obviously it's 53 tax. So the goal for me was to figure out, okay, I have to do something when I'm done with baseball. I already like racing. And I think the car dealership thing is something that I could be good at. And if I see these other guys that meet these other dealers through racing, and I'm like, I mean, they just seem like regular guys, I could be one of them. And you have to kind of set a goal for yourself to say, I want to be at a certain level, right?
就像刚开始进入这个行业时一样，你是如何做到的，你知道，财务上怎么做到的？所以作为一名棒球运动员并且有高额合同是有帮助的，对吧？因为那时我能够存钱，我那时拿着大额支票。我签了一份与天使队为期五年7775万美元的合同，这真的非常不错和有利可图。除非你住在加利福尼亚，那当然要交53%的税。所以我的目标是要弄清楚，好的，当我结束棒球生涯后，我要做点什么。我已经喜欢赛车了。我想汽车经销商这件事是我可能擅长的事情。如果我看到这些通过赛车认识的其他经销商，我觉得他们就是普通人，我也可以成为其中之一。你必须为自己确立一个目标，说，我想达到某个水平，对吧？
So the finance, the finances of it, it's a Mazda store. So it's a lower multiple, obviously. It's in countryside Illinois. So it's like a suburban area. It's not a major metro. The volume of the store selling about 900 new cars a year, something like that. And that market, the guy that sold me the store had him another Mazda store. So it was like he had two Mazda stores in the market. And then I basically took the South one and he kept the North one. It was Richard Fisher from Auto Barn. So we became kind of buddies. And then he would kind of say, Hey, this is what you need to look out for on the statements. Watch out for these guys. Watch out for this.
因此，其财务状况是一个马自达商店。因此，显而易见，它的倍数较低。它位于伊利诺伊州的一个乡村地区。因此，它就像是一个郊区地区。它不是一个主要的大都市。该商店每年大约销售约900辆新车。那个卖给我这家商店的人在市场上还有另一家马自达商店。所以他在市场上有两家马自达商店。然后我基本上接手了南部的那家，而他保留了北部的商店。那个人是Auto Barn的Richard Fisher。所以我们成为了朋友。然后他会告诉我，嘿，你需要留意财务报表上的这些事项。注意这些人。注意这个。
And he kind of coached me after selling me the store a little bit. But economically, the store was $3 million or something like that. It wasn't terribly expensive in the realm of like car dealership deals today. And the store did well in the sense that it made money and it was profitable. It probably could have made more money. But I think what happened was the first lesson that I got in the car business was if you structure the pay plan on volume, that's what you're going to get. And my GM of that store was so incentivized on volume that the used car business wasn't where it needed to be.
他在卖给我店铺后有点像教练一样指导我一下。但从经济上看，店铺值300万美元左右。在今天的汽车经销交易中，并不算是非常昂贵的。店铺表现不错，赚了钱，盈利了。可能还能赚更多钱。但我认为我在汽车行业学到的第一课是，如果你按销量来设计工资方案，那就是你会得到的结果。那家店的总经理就是被销量激励，因此二手车业务不如理想。
And as a result of that, the profitability of the store wasn't where it needed to be. So his whole goal was market share and just lifting market share as high as possible. So in order to do that, he went heavy on like sports marketing. And we had a bunch of, you know, over the course of a couple of years, I met a lot of really cool people because we're giving cars to all these random like, you know, Chicago Blackhawks and Chicago Bears and stuff like that. And when the Blackhawks won the Stanley Cup, my GM was literally in the parade holding the damn thing because he had spent so much money on sports advertising.
因此，店铺的盈利能力未达到预期水平。所以他的整个目标是市场份额，尽可能提高市场份额。为了达到这个目标，他大力投入体育营销。在过去几年中，我们认识了很多很酷的人，因为我们为所有这些随机的芝加哥黑鹰队和芝加哥熊队之类的球员提供了汽车。当黑鹰队赢得斯坦利杯时，我的总经理真的在游行中拿着那个杯子，因为他在体育广告上投入了如此之多的钱。
So if I go to the United Center now, I still get tickets. You know, they're still like, Oh, Mr. Wilson, good to see you, you know, because of how much money I spent. And in hindsight, it was not necessary to go that far. But, you know, they felt like it was at the time. And that's what they did. I didn't really realize that until I got here and dealt with the controller that I have now, who was much more dialed in to the way the businesses are supposed to run that I really understood how much more we could have done at the Mazda stores back in the day.
所以如果我现在去美联中心，我还是可以买到票。你知道，他们还会像以前一样，"威尔逊先生，很高兴见到您，"因为我花了那么多钱。事后看来，其实没有必要走那么远。但是，你知道，那时候他们觉得是必要的。那就是他们所做的事情。直到我来到这里，和现在这位财务主管打交道时，我才真正意识到应该如何正确经营企业，才明白在过去的马自达店我们本可以做得更多。
Like when you say more at the Mazda store back in the back, what were those opportunities? Well, I think, I think, you know, the used car business has always been the same in the sense that if you wholesale too many cars too quickly, and you don't try to retail them, and you don't recon them the right way, then you're missing out on dollars on the finance department, parts department, all these other things that are directly to the bottom line of the owner, it doesn't pay the GM who's incentivized on a new car unit basis. You know, and that's how he was basically paid.
就像你在马自达店后面说得更多时，那些机会是什么呢？嗯，我认为，我认为，你知道，二手车业务在某种程度上一直都是一样的，如果你太快批发太多汽车，而不努力零售，也不以正确的方式整备它们，那么你就会错失金融部门、零部件部门等与业主底线直接相关的收入，这不划算给GM，他的激励是基于新车销售单位。您知道，这基本上是他的薪酬方式。
So I think that's he was like, Hey, this doesn't help me at all. I don't care. And I'm just going to go for this. And I didn't know enough at the time to kind of get him back on the rails. You know, it wasn't really until 2017 or 18 when I'm like completely done with baseball, and here full time in Fresno that I understood exactly kind of like how the how an optimal dealership has really run, if that makes sense. What was the like for you to like run your own business and a dealership at it?
所以我觉得他就像是，嘿，这对我一点帮助也没有。我不在乎。我只是会去做这个。当时我并不了解足够多以帮他找到方向。直到2017或18年，当我彻底放弃棒球，全职在弗雷斯诺时，我才完全理解一个优秀汽车经销商是如何经营的，如果这样说有意义的话。对于你来说，经营自己的企业和汽车经销商是怎样的体验呢？
Like we're not talking about a corner store. I mean, we're talking about, you know, multiple departments, right? I assume, you know, your, this is, you know, I mean, your first retail business, what was that like, you know, just entering that world for you? It was definitely a lot of thinking and a lot less swimming, I guess, if that makes sense. You know, I felt like I was very busy with baseball for the first couple of years. And so Mazda was so happy with our unit expansion, because that's the only thing that a lot of these companies care about is that they don't care about profits or anything. They just want units.
就好像我们不是在谈论一个街角小店。我的意思是，我们在谈论，你知道的，多个部门，对吧？我想，你知道的，这是你的第一家零售生意，对于你来说，进入那个世界是什么感觉？对我来说，那绝对是更多的思考，少一点悠游，我想，如果这样说有道理的话。你知道的，我觉得我在最初的几年里非常忙碌于棒球。所以马自达对我们的单位扩张感到非常满意，因为这是许多这些公司唯一在乎的事情，他们并不关心利润或其他任何事情，他们只关心产量。
So as our unit count kept going up and our share will keep kept coming up, they're like, hey, this other Mazda store might be for sale, you should go buy them. And so that's what we did. We ended up with, at one point, we had four Mazda stores. And two of them were good and two of them were terrible. And I eventually sold off the two that were good and literally gave the keys back on it too, that were terrible, because they just the franchises were black holes. And you couldn't get people there, you couldn't get clients there. And what markets were these in?
随着我们的销售量不断增加，我们的市场份额也在不断提高，他们就像是在说：“嘿，这家其他的马自达店也许会出售，你应该去收购。”于是我们就这样做了。有一段时间，我们拥有了四家马自达店。其中两家经营得很好，而另外两家则非常糟糕。最终，我把那两家经营不错的店铺卖掉了，而那两家经营糟糕的店铺我直接把钥匙还给了他们，因为这些特许经营店就像黑洞一样，你无法吸引人们来这里，也无法吸引客户来这里。这些店铺位于哪些市场？
These were well, one of them was in Chicago and Lake Villa up north, and then the other one was in Ventura, California. So I was really excited to have a store in California, because I lived in California. But, you know, I didn't have any sort of mentor, any sort of leadership. I had no idea, like exactly what pace I should be acquiring stores. So I didn't really meet a lot of these other dealers that had multiple brands. But my goal was always to get into the German stuff, because I felt like that was going to be really the best fit for me. Running the Mazda store was difficult, because Honda always had better programs. Toyota always had bigger, you know, bigger lots, more inventory to compete with. So there was always like this little stepchild's, you know, syndrome with being a Mazda dealer. And the only way you can make like really maximize profit is if you're doing really well with used cars through an F&I.
这两家店很不错，一家在芝加哥和北部的Lake Villa，另一家在加利福尼亚的文图拉。我非常激动在加利福尼亚有一家店，因为我住在加利福尼亚。但我没有导师，也没有领导。我不知道应该以什么样的速度收购更多的店铺。所以我并没有真正接触到很多拥有多个品牌的经销商。但我的目标一直是进入德国车市场，因为我觉得那会是最适合我的。经营马自达店很困难，因为本田总是有更好的计划。丰田总是有更大的地盘，更多的库存来竞争。所以成为马自达经销商总是像个弃儿一样。你要真正最大化利润的唯一办法就是通过二手车和金融保险做得很好。
And our guys didn't really do a good job with that. So management wise, it was really me managing through the statements and asking a lot of questions and getting unsatisfactory answers, and then eventually finding out that those were unsatisfactory answers. I didn't know, you know, I didn't go to NADA or anything like that. I was not educated. So for me, it was just basically my graduate school, you can call it was getting put together a little bit by Mazda on buying some shorty stores. Learning from experience. Yeah, yeah, and taking bruises and stuff, which frankly, that's how I learned in baseball too.
我们的团队在这方面做得并不好。管理方面，真的是我在通过报表进行管理，问了很多问题，得到不令人满意的答案，最终发现这些答案并不令人满意。我并不知道，我没有去过NADA或类似的地方。我并没有受过教育。对我来说，基本上可以说是我在马自达购买一些小店时的研究生学校，通过一点点的经验来学习。是的，是的，还有从中吸取经验教训。坦率地说，这也是我在棒球中学习的方式。
You know, my first year as a rookie, I went one and seven with like a 6.9 ERA. So I was not lighting the world on fire as a prospect. It took time to kind of figure out the speed of the game, you know, and the car business really is like the double Dutch jump rope. You have to like watch them do it, you know, and then you kind of hop in, and then you kind of like figure it out, you know, and there's a little bit of you can hear some stuff and you can see some stuff and you see the people playing it, you ask them some questions. And that's kind of how that's kind of how I learned. I got I got whipped in the face pretty hard by the rope, you know, and in the neck before I found my feet.
你知道吗，我作为新人的第一年，我赢了一场，输了七场，防御率达到了6.9。所以作为一名前途有望的球员，我并没有表现出色。我花了一些时间来逐渐适应比赛的速度，你懂的，而汽车行业真的就像是双人跳绳一样。你得先观察他们怎么做，然后才能加入，然后才能理解，你知道的，有些是靠听，有些是靠看，看到别人在玩，你就向他们询问一些问题。这就是我学习的方式。在找到自己的立足点之前，我被绳子拍在脸上和脖子上好几次。
And I would say probably 2016 is when I really took off. And that's that's when I got like I would I would qualify myself as full time since May of 2016 into the car business. This episode is brought to you by my very own car dealership guy industry job board. I hear it every day. CDG, why aren't you charging money for this? My answer? Because I can.
我想说，大概2016年是我真正起飞的时候。那是我可以说我自己从2016年5月开始进入汽车行业全职的时候。本集由我自己的汽车经销商行业招聘网站带来。我每天都听到人们问CDG，为什么不收费？我的回答是因为我可以。
CDG jobs.com. My industry job board connecting the best talent and automotive with the best companies will remain absolutely free for CDG listeners to post and fill available roles at their companies. This free job board is for anyone in automotive vendors, dealers, lenders, manufacturers, auto tech, everyone already over 100 companies have posted open positions, including lithium motors, recurrent credit acceptance, Veros credit, cars commerce, shift digital plug, full path, Westlake trade pending, you got the point.
CDG Jobs.com。我的行业求职板连接着最优秀的人才和汽车行业最好的公司，将继续为CDG听众免费提供发布和填补公司可用职位的机会。这个免费的求职板适用于汽车供应商、经销商、贷款机构、制造商、汽车技术等专业人士，目前已有超过100家公司发布了开放职位，包括锂电动力汽车、金融公司、Veros信贷、汽车交易、数字化插件等。希望你明白了。
The best part is that when these companies hire through CDG jobs.com, they are hiring the most informed candidates in the marketplace. So don't hesitate. You can add your open roles today by visiting CDG jobs.com or clicking the link in the show notes below that CDG jobs.com. All right, look, so we'll talk a lot about your wins, but tell us a little bit about the losses, right? You say you got whipped in the face. I think we hear all the time about the success stories, the billion dollar transactions.
最好的部分是，当这些公司通过CDG jobs.com招聘时，他们正在雇佣市场上最了解情况的候选人。 所以请不要犹豫。 您可以访问CDG jobs.com或点击下面的链接来添加您的空缺职位。 好了，那么我们会谈论很多关于您的成功，但是告诉我们一点有关失败的事情，对吧？ 你说你被打败了。 我想我们经常听到成功故事，十亿美元的交易。
What were some of those big slaps in the face for you along the way? Oh, dude, that's a great question. And nobody ever asked that because people just want to see the after picture. Well, this is the before picture still, right? Most of my hair, I don't have any gray hair yet. I'm still the before picture from the car business, and I'm 12 years into it. But I think I really have only been doing it about eight years full time.
你在这个过程中遇到了什么让你大吃一惊的事情？哦，伙计，这是一个很棒的问题。没有人会问这个，因为大家只想看到成功之后的样子。但是现在这仍然是之前的样子，对吧？我的大部分头发都没有白发，我还是从事汽车业之前的样子，我已经做了12年了。但我觉得我真正完全投入做这件事只有大约8年的时间。
Okay, let me hit you with I'll give you like a quick bullet point, and then you can go from there. So have you heard of CNC motors? No, I haven't. So this dude went to jail for stealing a bunch of money, used cars. He and I bought the McLaren Scottsdale store together in 2016. And then by the time 2016 was over, I had uncovered the fact that he was embezzling money, and I had to fire him as a partner, sue him. It was a whole thing. And because he was playing title bingo, you know, like he takes the he takes the paperwork, right?
好的，让我简要地告诉你一下，然后你再继续。你听说过CNC motors吗？没有，我没有听说过。这个家伙因为盗取了大笔钱财而去了监狱，是用来买二手车的。他和我在2016年一起买了麦克拉伦斯科茨代尔店。然后到了2016年结束的时候，我发现他在挪用资金，我不得不解除他的合伙人资格，起诉他。整个过程都非常复杂。因为他在玩转让证书轮盘游戏，你知道，他拿着文件。。。
And then he was like taking cars on consignment, selling them, taking the money, not paying the car off, buying more cars and trying to like Ponzi this whole thing. And I was playing baseball and stuff. So I didn't have, you know, and I had arm surgery and all this other shit. So I didn't really have the the wherewithal, but then I got hurt. And so then I was in the store every day. And they were they started submitting me like fake documents from his business office at his use card department.
然后他开始接受委托销售汽车，将它们卖掉，拿走钱不还清汽车贷款，然后再购买更多汽车，尝试像庞氏骗局一样操作整个事情。而我当时正在打棒球。所以我没有，你知道，我还偲膊伤过，做过手术等等。所以我真的没有那种能力，但后来我受伤了。所以我每天都在商店里。他们开始给我提交他办公室虚假文件的复印件。
So what happened was, you know, I uncovered it, I did some forensic accounting on my own, I went to the bank one day, and like 10 people got fired from the bank. The bank was getting paid off to keep it secret. And it was a whole thing. It was gnarly. So it was about it was about $1.8 million overall. Eventually I sold the business because it was just kind of had taint on it and I couldn't, you know, couldn't shake it. I had some reputational issues as a result of that.
所以发生的事情是，你知道的，我揭发了它，我自己进行了一些法务会计，有一天我去了银行，就像有十个人被银行解雇了。银行被贿赂来保守秘密。这是一整个事件。很恶劣。总体上大约是180万美元。最终我卖掉了企业，因为它有点蒙上了污点，我无法摆脱。由于那件事，我在声誉上有些问题。
And, you know, that I had picked a bad partner. So then I was just kind of in the dog house completely with McLaren. I was forced to sell the store basically by the CEO of North America at the time. And so to that point, like him and I still aren't going to be buddies at any point. But I felt like I got kind of railroaded. And even though I had taken the store from a doing nothing kind of thing to selling, we were top 10 in the country at that point.
并且你知道，我选了个糟糕的合作伙伴。所以那时我完全处于被麦克拉伦抛弃的状态。我基本上是被北美地区的CEO逼着卖掉了店铺。所以到那时，我和他之间还是不可能成为朋友。但我觉得自己有点被“出卖”了。虽然我把店铺从一无是处发展到销售，那时我们在全国排名前十。
And I actually operated that store with zero flooring for about 12 months. So you imagine running a McLaren store with no flooring, how wild that is. That was pretty fun. So that was one. Another one was, yeah, like I would say, like looking back on the accounting from the sports marketing expenses that we had when we had three Chicago Land Stores at Mazda. And we were like literally, you know, we it was the CJ Wilson Mazda post game show on the White Sox radio.
我实际上在没有地板的情况下经营那家商店大约12个月。所以你可以想象经营一家没有地板的迈凯伦商店有多疯狂。那真的很有趣。这是其中一个经历。另一个是，回顾我们在芝加哥地区三家马自达商店运营时的体育营销支出的会计记录。我们当时实际上是在白袜队的收音机上播出 CJ威尔逊马自达的赛后节目。
And then we had like guys driving CX-5s and CX-9s everywhere. At one point, they had 50 demo cars. At one point, they had 50 demo cars. And it was like Black Hawks guys, Bears guys, whatever, because my GM just loves sports. And yeah, and for anyone that doesn't, that anyone has listened, that's not in the car business and not familiar with the term demo, you know, a car that you're driving that, you know, with the dealer plate.
然后我们到处都是开着CX-5和CX-9的家伙。有一次，他们有50辆展示车。而且那些开CX-5和CX-9的家伙，有些是黑鹰队的，有些是熊队的，不管什么队，因为我的总经理就是热爱体育。对于那些不了解汽车行业术语的人，你知道，展示车就是指你开着带有经销商号牌的车。
And so you know, this is not a car that's sold. It's 50 cars that are on your balance sheet being driven by people. That's a lot appreciated by people that treat them in general, like rental cars, you know, they weren't treating very well in Chicago in the winter, you know, like it was a disaster. So explain this to me, right? And like with all due respect, you are at the time your own amazas store, right? You have money. Fine. How do you get a McLaren store? Like, how did you do that?
所以你知道，这并不是一辆出售的汽车。这是50辆汽车在你的资产负债表上，由人们驾驶。人们非常欣赏这些车，通常像租车一样对待它们，你知道，在芝加哥冬天的时候，它们并没有被很好地对待，就像是灾难一样。所以，请解释一下，对吧？恕我直言，你们当时自己都是一个了不起的商店，对吧？你有钱。好的。那你如何办到开设麦拿伦车店呢？你是怎么做到的？
I bought the McLaren store for $700,000. That's it. That's all it costs because the store wasn't doing anything. It was run by these guys called the auto gallery at the time out of L.A. competition. I mean, $700,000. That's just crazy. Nobody wanted it, because they just like, Oh, this is a this is a weird brand, whatever. I had already I was a McLaren guy. I had a P one already. I probably owned five or six McLarens previously, you know, and I was buying all my stuff from Park place in Dallas, which, you know, eventually sold a now that's Avondale Motors or whatever it is. But so Ken Schnitzer's, you know, group, that was the one that was where I was buying as Barry.
我花了$700,000买下了麦凯伦商店。就是这样。这就是全部费用，因为这家商店没什么收入。当时是由洛杉矶的一家叫做"汽车画廊"的公司经营。我是说，$700,000，那太疯狂了。没有人想要它，因为他们觉得，哦，这是一个奇怪的品牌，反正。我是麦凯伦的粉丝。我已经拥有了一辆P1。我之前可能买过五六辆麦凯伦，你知道。以前我都是从达拉斯的Park Place购买我的东西，后来被出售给了Avondale Motors。所以Ken Schnitzer的团队，那是我买东西的地方。
Yeah, that's very, yeah, now it's called Avondale. But yeah, so I had really good relationships with the salespeople. And as a result of that, like the factory and everything, because I was I was qualified to be one of the 100 people in America that got a P one. So then McLaren people liked me and I was like, Hey, I'm going to try to buy this store. And they're like, dude, that'd be awesome. They suck. You could do anything with that. And we went from selling like, I think they sold 30 cars the 12 months before I got there and then 60 cars the 12 months after I got there.
是的，那里确实是这样的，现在叫做阿文代尔。我和销售人员的关系非常好。由于这个原因，工厂和一切都很好，因为我有资格成为美国100名获得P1的人之一。所以麦克拉伦的人喜欢我，我就说，嘿，我要尝试买下这家店。他们说，伙计，那太棒了。他们很糟糕，你可以做任何事情。在我到达那里之前，他们在12个月内卖了30辆车，而在我到达那里之后的12个月内卖了60辆车。
So, you know, and for people that don't know, like a big Ferrari store in America sells like 85 cars, you know, so it's kind of comparable to that. So a store that sells 30 isn't doing anything in a store that's on 60 is doing a lot more. Because once you break break out of that, let's call it like the the doldrums of, you know, paying your monthly bills, you break that financial gravity because rent stays the same, you know, the rent factor is the rent factor. And you know, once you start making money, then it's like the revenue versus the profit, there's like this magic point where it just shoots straight up, you know, a lot of people experience that during the COVID highlight times, obviously.
所以，你知道的，对于不了解的人来说，美国的一家大法拉利商店卖85辆车，你知道，所以这种情况有点类似。所以一家销售30辆车的商店没什么动静，而一家销售60辆车的商店则做得更多。因为一旦你摆脱了，我们可以称之为，你知道，支付每月账单的沉闷状态，你就打破了财务重力，因为租金始终不变，你知道，租金因素不变。而且一旦开始赚钱，收入和利润之间有一个魔法点，它会突然飙升，很多人在COVID高峰期都经历过这种情况，显然是这样。
Yeah, and what are these like, what does a McLaren store go for today on average? Do you know, it's like there's there was only 15 McLaren stores or 20 McLaren stores when they first launched. And then now I think there's like 35. So I don't know how many have been transacted. I know a lot of people have failed trying to do McLaren. I know that like the Beverly Hills store sold for like an undisclosed sum, but I think it was somewhere in like the five to $10 million range. It wasn't that expensive. I mean, I sold mine for a couple million bucks and, you know, you know, definitely made money on the process. But I think overall, it was one of those things where it was just small enough that I got in and I was just grimy enough that I was willing to do it myself. And you know, these big groups didn't want that.
是的，那这些像什么，麦克拉伦店今天平均价是多少？你知道吗，当他们刚刚推出时只有15家或20家麦克拉伦店。现在我想有35家了。所以我不知道有多少已经交易过。我知道很多人在试图做麦克拉伦时失败了。我知道比佛利山店卖出时价格保密，但我认为大概在五到十百万美元之间。并不是很昂贵。我的店我卖了几百万美元，毫无疑问在过程中赚钱了。但总的来说，这是一个小足够让我进去，并且我足够有勇气自己去做的事情。而且你知道，这些大集团并不想要那样。
And locally in Scottsdale, you had the Penske group, which had everything else. So it was, you know, the Death Star of Lambo Bentley Bugatti Ferrari Porsche everything. And then CJ's little tiny store over here. And then about nine or 10 months later, I ended up with the Fresno points, you know, because that was for sale because I was trying to buy Lambo McLaren Newport Beach from those guys. And that went sideways because I was really good at reading statements. And I uncovered some some let's call it rusty numbers, or perhaps overly warm numbers in certain categories. And I viewed it as theft. And I called it as such. And as a result of that, the seller got apoplectic with me and turned purple and then stormed out. And then that was the end of the deal. And turned out I was right. And anyways, it ended up selling to somebody else. Yeah, but then I ended up in Fresno. Yeah, and that's the next transition I want to get into. But before we get into that, right? Like you, where did you build this competency for looking through financial statements? I mean, it's like, you'd think if I was listening to this with no context, I think you were like some, you know, consultant from McKinsey or some like, you know, big four auditor. And here you are, you know, kind of stringing your way along with looking through statements and getting, you know, really good at it. Like, like, how did you get that skill set? Where did that come from?
在斯科茨代尔当地，你有彭斯克集团，他们拥有其他所有东西。所以，你知道，这里是兰博、宾利、布加迪、法拉利、保时捷等一切的“死星”。然后是CJ的小小店铺。大约九到十个月后，我最终得到了弗雷斯诺地区的经销权，因为那里有一家出售的店铺，我当时正试图从那里购买兰博·麦凯伦新港店的店铺。但是事情搞砸了，因为我非常擅长阅读财务报表，我揭露出了一些让我觉得不妥的数字，或者说在某些方面数字看起来有点猫腻。我视之为盗窃，并且直言不讳地称之为如此。作为结果，卖方对我感到极度激动，脸色发紫，然后怒气冲冲地离开了。然后那笔交易就此终止了。结果证明我是对的。总之，最终店铺卖给了其他人。是的，然后我最终来到了弗雷斯诺。是的，我想继续谈谈接下来的转变。但在我们进入那个话题之前，你，你是在哪里培养了这种查看财务报表的能力呢？我是说，如果我没有背景信息听到这个故事，会以为你是来自麦肯锡之类的咨询师或者大四审计员。而事实上，你只是一直在看财务报表，并且变得很擅长。你是怎么得到这种技能的？它是从哪里来的？
Well, remember, that's all I could do with those Mazda stores for that first couple of years, right? All I could do was read the statements. And when once we started getting multiple stores, you could reference them against each other to say, Oh, well, Orland Park is doing this. Why are they, why are they at $1,800 on F and I? And then country sides only at $1,400. Like, why are we missing out on $400 per car? You know, and you start asking questions. And once you kind of get that dial, then you start looking at service and you're looking at service retention.
嗯，记住，那些马自达店在开始几年里我能做的就只有这些，对吧？我能做的就是阅读报表。一旦我们开始有了多家店铺，你就可以将它们互相对比，比如说，哦，奥兰多公园正在做这个。为什么他们在财务和保险上是1800美元？而乡村地区只有1400美元。为什么我们每辆车会少了400美元？你知道，你开始提出问题。一旦你掌握了这个窍门，你就开始关注客户服务和客户保留率。
But, you know, there's all these like NADA guides and stuff like that, these things that they say, Oh, you know, you want to have this, this percentage of your, your overall cost being covered by this or that or whatever. And so you just kind of like mentally absorb that and you just don't forget it. Plus, you know, I had car payments to make, right? I had, I had stuff I wanted to do.
但是你知道的，有很多像NADA指南之类的东西，它们会说，哦，你想要这个，你的总成本的这个百分比应该由这个或那个来覆盖。所以你就会在脑海中吸收这些信息，然后就不会忘记。另外，你知道的，我有车贷要还，对吧？我有一些事情想要做。
I wanted, I had ambition. I wanted to grow. So I would say yes to every single deal in terms of like, people would offer me stuff. And I got tons and tons and tons of people offering me things, other dealerships, because I'd say, Oh, yeah, I'm a buyer. I'm a buyer and brokers will just give it to you. They're just like, Oh, yeah, well, there's this Mercedes store for sale in Nashville or, you know, what I was making that up. But you can see the, you end up seeing stuff all the time. I got offered a domestic store recently. And I was looking at it and I was like, Oh, yucks, like this is, this is not sustainable. You know, you can kind of tell because after doing it for a certain period of time, you get better at it.
我想要，我有野心。我想要成长。所以我会接受每一个交易，就像人们会给我提供东西。我得到了很多很多人给我提供东西的机会，因为我会说，哦，是的，我是一个买家。经纪人会直接把东西给你。他们就像，哦，是的，那里有一家在纳什维尔出售的梅赛德斯店，你知道，我编造了那个情况。但你会经常看到这些东西。最近我被提供了一家国内店铺。我看了看，我想，哦，呃，这是不可持续的。你可以从中看出端倪，因为做了一段时间后，你会变得更加擅长。
But also what helps is looking backwards all the way. And so for me, I still have copies of like all my stuff from Mazda back in the days, all my stuff from McLaren. So I can go back and think of a situation and say, it kind of feels like this, you know, and that could be tech efficiency or inefficiency or whatever. And, you know, there's just a lot of different crumbs that fall out of the that shake out of the bread basket of being a car dealer.
但也有助于回顾过往的一切。所以对我来说，我仍然保留着马自达早期和麦克拉伦的所有资料副本。这样我可以回顾过往的情况，想象一下感觉如何，可能是技术的高效或低效等等。作为一个汽车经销商，会有很多不同的线索，从中可以得出很多想法。
And at the end of the year, I thought it was all chunks. I thought it's like, Oh, you're going to make 30 grand selling this McLaren 15 grand selling this Porsche. And that's how you make your money. But it's not it's really not giving $5 away on this, not giving $100 away on that. It's it's it's accumulating the little crumbs to make the meatball at the end of the year. That's that's what I learned how to do painfully from 2016 to 2019. With lots of experience. And I love them. I mean, I love that number one you've pattern matched along the way, right? You just a lot of pattern matching.
在年底的时候，我以为一切都很顺利。我以为会是这样的，哦，你卖这辆麦克拉伦就能赚3万美元，卖这辆保时捷就能赚1.5万美元。就是这样你才能赚到钱。但实际上并不是这样，真正的赚钱是不停地在这里损失5美元，在那里损失100美元。就是不停地累积这些小碎片，最终在年底做成大肉丸。这是我在2016年到2019年痛苦地学到的。通过很多实践经验。我喜欢它们。我是说，我喜欢第一，你一路上都在模式匹配，对吧？做了很多模式匹配。
And like you said, like you kind of built the breadcrumbs to understand, you know, what's what? Well, there's misconceptions along the way. You have a lot of misconceptions. Like what? Well, like, I didn't think I was going to be operating these stores when I retired from baseball. I thought I was just going to be like doing track days, racing cars, I'd be at sea bring this weekend, you know, doing this Porsche thing or whatever.
就像你说的那样，你已经构建了理解的线索，你知道什么是什么？嗯，途中有误解。你有很多误解。比如？嗯，比如，我没想到我退役后会经营这些商店。我原本以为我会只是参加赛车比赛，开跑车，可能这个周末我会在海边，做保时捷的事情什么的。
That's what I thought. And Porsche was like, Oh, that's fine. You'll be the GM. And I was like, I literally know nothing guys. I don't know anything about this. And they're like, Oh, we'll teach you it's fine. And so Porsche sent in a consultant and he came and visited three whole times. And over the course of like 12 months, and then I learned how to be the GM of the store. And then that's just that's how it happened. Literally. My goodness.
这就是我想的。保时捷说，哦，没关系，你会成为总经理。我当时想，我真的什么都不懂啊。我对这一切一无所知。他们说，没问题，我们会教你。然后保时捷派了一位顾问过来，他来过三次，持续了大约12个月，我学会了如何成为店铺的总经理。就是这样，简直不敢相信。
So so so let's take into that for a second. Right. Like what what are some of the key lessons you've learned about running a dealership? Like give me some of the fundamentals to being successful at this because you've just been through a gauntlet, right? It's clear. I mean, and I love it. I mean, I live for this stuff. This is great. So just get like dig into that a little bit.
让我们花点时间来探讨一下这个问题。对了。你对于经营汽车经销商这件事学到了哪些关键教训？给我谈谈如何成功经营的基本要点，因为你刚刚经历了一场考验，对吧？显然。我喜欢这个。我为这些事情而活着。这太棒了。所以，请详细探讨一下吧。
Okay, so the first thing is the factory is not your friend. That's the number one lesson that I learned. And that, you know, that's that's a great one. That was, you know, that being said, you still have certain reps, whether it's sales or fixed ops or whatever with different brands that are going to be better than others. And you have to understand that it's a long game. And one of my buddy Chris, did my buddies Chris, he's a furry guy out in the East Coast. I'm not going to say what stories that but he'll if he watches this, he'll know it's him. And he would say, he's a New Jersey guy. So he would say something like, Hey, I'm going to be with this brand longer than you're going to be with this brand.
好的，那么第一件事是工厂不是你的朋友。这是我学到的第一课。你知道，这是一个很重要的教训。话虽如此，你还是会有一些销售或固定业务代表，无论是哪个品牌，有些会比其他的更好。你必须明白这是一个长期游戏。我有一个朋友克里斯，他是东海岸的一个和蔼的家伙。我不会说什么故事，但他如果看到这个视频，他会知道是他。他会说，他是新泽西人。所以他会说，嘿，我会和这个品牌在一起的时间比你更长。
And he would like say that to the rep, knowing that if the rep wasn't good, he would just get blown out at some point or leave or do something else. And so, you know, for me, I think having a little bit of that attitude like, Hey, this is my life savings tied up in this, I have to get it right. If I have if I have to be here till 11 o'clock at night to figure out how to get to the bottom of this problem, I'm going to do it every single night until I solve this. And you know, that intentional brain damage or study or whatever you want to call it, that was better than being in a 20 group for me. Because it was like, those were hard lessons, they filled out the picture really completely on what what it looks like, you know, to do these different things. And along those way, along along that route, you know, I figured out how to sort of spot different situations through pattern pattern recognition, excuse me. And I figured out that like, you know, not everybody in the car business is a good person.
他想要告诉销售代表，如果代表不专业，那么他迟早会被淘汰或离开，或者转行做其他事情。所以，对我来说，我觉得有一点这样的态度很重要，就是，嘿，我的一生的积蓄都投入在这里了，我必须搞对。如果我要一直待到晚上11点才能解决这个问题，我就会每天都这么做，直到问题解决。这种刻意的心灵伤害或学习，或者无论你想怎么称呼它，对我来说比参加一个20人小组更好。因为这些是艰苦的教训，真正完整地展示了各种做事情的样子。在这个过程中，我学会了通过模式识别来辨别不同情况。我发现并且认识到，并不是汽车行业的每个人都是好人。
This is a very low barrier entry to work at a car dealership. This is like not the guy that ran my Mazda stores used to say, and we don't lose a lot of guys to NASA, you know what I'm saying? And it's true, like, there's a lot of people that don't have the pedigree to go get jobs in, you know, law enforcement or the medical field or whatever, they end up as a car dealer or as a employee at a car dealership because they like the hustle, they like the, they like a little bit of the schmoozy stuff, they like the personality aspect, but they're kind of like casino people, you know, and it's, I would say that like 80% of the people at the casino, you don't really want to hang out with it like on a Tuesday. That's not really like your kind of people.
在车行工作是一个非常低门槛的入口。就像我曾经在梅自达（Mazda）店工作的那个家伙说的，我们不会把很多人输送到NASA去，你懂我的意思吧？而事实就是如此，很多人并没有足够的背景去从事执法或医疗等行业的工作，他们最终会成为一家汽车经销商的销售员或员工，因为他们喜欢奔波忙碌，喜欢一点点油腔滑调，喜欢与人沟通的方面。但他们有点像赌场里的人，我得说，大概有80%的赌场人，你在周二真的不太愿意和他们呆在一起。那不是你的菜。
This is not my kind of people. And so I just realized, hey, it's okay for me to be me and I don't have to turn into anybody else. I don't have to be like anybody else. I was successful as a baseball player because I had my game plan and it was maybe a little bit weird at times, but I knew how to work with the tools that I had. And the car, the car business is very much the same for me. It might be different for other people, but I run it the same way that I'd be running a Nordstrom's or, you know, a Rolex boutique or something like that. I try to go after the clients, develop lifelong relationships, and that's what hooks me as a client. So I figure that's what's going to hook the high quality clients that I'm looking for with these brands.
这不是我的圈子。所以我意识到，嘿，我可以做自己，我不必变成别人。我不必像别人一样。我在棒球运动员身份上成功是因为我有自己的比赛计划，有时可能有点古怪，但我知道如何利用我拥有的工具。汽车行业对我来说也是如此。也许对其他人来说有所不同，但我经营方式与经营诺德斯特龙或劳力士精品店一样。我努力接近客户，建立终身关系，这就是我作为客户的诱因。所以我想这也会吸引我寻找的这些品牌的高质量客户。
These are like life for brands, people that get an M3 every couple years, they're hardcore aficionados of BMW. You're not going to get them to drive an infinity. It's just not going to happen. They don't, they want that German engineering. That's what they want. They want this certain feel to the steering wheel. That's how that's what they equate their success to be. It's the carrot that they chase. It's why they work hard. Porsche is the exact same. Ferrari is the exact same. I think people, they lose sight of that. And they, when they just get into the numbers, and they lose the personality and the passion, and that's kind of the thing that I really try to maintain and wear as much as possible as my passion for this and my passion for cars and driving and all that stuff. That's what keeps me on the rails.
这就像品牌的生活，那些每隔几年就换一辆M3的人，他们是宝马的铁杆爱好者。你不可能让他们开一辆英菲尼迪。这根本不可能。他们想要那种德国工程。这就是他们想要的。他们想要那种特定的方向盘感觉。这是他们将成功与之联系起来的方式。这就是他们追逐的胡萝卜。这就是为什么他们努力工作。保时捷也是一样。法拉利也是一样。我觉得人们会忽略这一点。当他们只看数字的时候，就会忽略掉个性和激情，而我尽可能地保持对这一点的激情，对汽车和驾驶的激情。这就是让我徘徊在正轨上的原因。
Whereas I think a lot of people, you know, the big dealership groups or whatever, they're going to run formulas, and they just have a GM there to implement the formula. You know, whereas I'm more of a growth mindset person that's looking to say, how can I grow the revenue in every department? Like, what does it take to grow parts? What does it take to grow use cars? And then I'm just focusing on the growth. And then I hire the more bean counter-type people to clean up my mess, you know, if that makes sense. Because you can't really be, you have to be, you have to be managing the bottom line, and you can be growing revenue. But you can't really be doing both at the same time as a dealer. At least as a GM slash owner, it's impossible for me to do both of those at the same time.
相比于很多人，你知道的那些大经销商集团或者其他机构，他们会运用一些公式，并且只需要一个总经理来执行这些公式。而我更多是一种增长型思维的人，试图找出如何在每一个部门增加收入。比如，如何增加零部件的销售？如何增加二手车的销售？然后我只专注于增长。然后我会雇佣更多会计类型的人来清理我的混乱，如果这样说的话有道理的话。因为你不能只管理底线，你必须要增加收入。但你不能在同一时间做这两件事情作为一个车商。至少对我来说，作为一个总经理/业主，同时做这两件事是不可能的。
So I want to get into any other lessons you have on running your store. But before that, wait, you run your stores, all three stores, are you the GM of all three of them? So I was the GM of the Porsche and Audi store, like both of those brands until about a month ago, when I hired, I graduated my GSM up to GM for Audi. But effectively, we're, you know, we're all, it's all on one campus. So the BMW store runs more autonomously, and I'm more factory relations as a role, you know, and I jokingly have a business card that says use car manager, because we've just, you know, because I go out there and I find like these, I'm like barn find M3s and stuff like that. But I don't have to do as much on the day-to-day operations of BMW, although I'm very invested in it.
所以我想参加你们关于经营店铺的其他课程。但在此之前，等等，你经营你的店铺，所有三家店铺，你是所有三家店铺的总经理吗？所以我曾经是保时捷和奥迪店的总经理，负责这两个品牌，直到大约一个月前，当我提拔我毕业的GSM升任奥迪的总经理。但实际上，我们都是在一个校园里。宝马店的运作更为独立，我在厂家关系方面扮演更重要的角色，我开玩笑说我有一张写着二手车经理的名片，因为我会去发现像是被遗忘的M3等车型。但我对宝马的日常运营任务没有那么多参与，尽管我对此非常投入。
But I am 100% hands-on with Audi and Porsche, and like legit where I, I spec every single car for Porsche for seven years. So yeah, so tell me like what are like, just give me a couple other, you know, these are key fundamentals. I mean, I love the first one, right? The factory is not your friend. What else right to being a successful operator? Yeah, you just can't trust, you can't trust the, the first impression you get off people, you have to let them, whether it's an employee, an interview, a potential employee, or a customer even, you have to let it play out. So I don't give anybody any, any room, any benefit at all. I start everybody at zero. Some people say, oh, I trust everybody until they, until they burn me. I'm the opposite. I don't trust anybody. And I let them all just build up 1% at a time, you know, and see if they're solid. And I think having a long-term mindset in that regard helps a lot more because if you have a short-term mindset, then you're going to burn a lot of people and you're going to get burned by a lot of people. And it's just going to be a lot of hot pokers in the ass. And I don't want that. So I'm trying to build a long-term relationship with as many people as possible.
我绝对是百分之百亲身参与奥迪和保时捷，确实我为保时捷的每一辆车进行配置已经七年了。告诉我，另外还有像这些关键基本原则是什么？我很喜欢第一个，工厂并非你的朋友。那么作为一个成功的运营者还需要什么？是的，你不能相信人们给你的第一印象，无论是员工、面试者，还是潜在雇员，甚至是顾客，你都必须等待事情的发展。因此我不会给任何人任何优惠，我会从零开始。有些人说，直到被背叛之前我相信每个人。但我恰好相反，我不信任任何人，我让每个人都逐步建立信任，看他们是否可靠。我认为在这方面保持长远的思维有助于更多的成功，因为如果你有短期的思维，那么你会伤害很多人，也会被很多人伤害。这只会给你带来更多的麻烦。我不想要这样，所以我努力与尽可能多的人建立长期关系。
So I'd rather develop somebody from scratch and have them, you know, perform my way, then, you know, try to go head-hunt for some all-star and bring them in from somewhere else. It just doesn't, that just doesn't make sense to me. So before we get into how you acquired a current store, as you're speaking, you're like the living manifestation of the saying like, when one sense isn't working, the other one is working so much well. And what I was listening very closely to what you were saying, you were saying, all I could do is review financial statements. So I got really freaking good at it at the time. And it's just like, it's almost like obvious. It's like, oh, right, right? Like you weren't able to be at the stores at the time. You weren't there day to day. You got really good at learning these dealerships from a financial statement. And it's a super powerful skill to have in any business, frankly.
所以我宁愿从零开始培养一个人，让他们按照我的方式工作，而不是试图挖来一些明星从其他地方引进。这对我来说没有意义。在谈到你如何获得现有店铺之前，你就像是那句话的活生生体现，就是说一个感觉没有起作用时，另一个却起作用得很好。当我听到你说的话时，我非常仔细地倾听着，你说，我所能做的就是审查财务报表。所以在那个时候，我真的变得非常了解。这几乎是显而易见的。那对吧？就像你当时不能去店里，不能每天都在那里。你通过财务报表真的变得非常擅长了解这些经销商。这是任何企业都应该具备的超强技能。
Yeah, exactly. And I think that's where people will come to me and ask me questions about stuff. And I, you know, I've had a chance to meet some really successful people through racing that have nothing in car collecting, that have nothing to do with the car business, right? I met the guy, I met Jimmy John from Jimmy John's, right? And he said, he said that like all of his success was just running a cash ledger and understanding the pennies. And he had this thing, and this is the most diabolical thing I've ever heard in my life. Okay, so this will be great. He's this big, like huge guy, like gigantic person. And he's got a lot of personality. And he's like one of those, I don't know, like John Candy on Red Bull vodka, like that's the vibe. Okay, so you have to picture this. I'm going to kind of do it in personation here. And he's just like, you know what I realized is like, if you sit by the, by the clock, and you talk to them before they clock in, you might, they might not clock in for five more minutes. And then you might say five minutes a day. And I was like, okay, so in my head, I'm thinking that's five minutes, it's a 12th of an hour. If you're paying somebody, you know, like that's a dollar, you're saving $1 if you pay somebody 12 bucks, right? Like this is literally this guy's mindset is managing to a dollar, like saving a dollar by like just talking to people so that they don't clock in early. And I just, I was like, well, okay, this is how you become a billionaire, I guess, like you literally, you start something on that small of a level. And if you control that, then it's, it's kind of like chess, like you, you control one square and you know how to get to that square from every piece, you get the checker board behind you, some kind of visualizing it.
是的，没错。我觉得人们会来找我问问题，我也遇到了一些非常成功的人，他们与汽车收藏毫无关联，跟汽车行业也没有关系。我见过那位，见过吉米约翰，就是吉米约翰三明治的那位。他说他的成功全靠精打细算，懂得节省每分每秒。他有一个想法，听起来真是邪恶至极。这真是绝妙的。这位是个体型巨大的人，个性也很张扬。有点像是“红牛伏特加版”的约翰·坎迪。你得想象一下。我要试着模仿一下他说的话。他说：你知道吗，如果你在员工们上岗前跟他们聊一会儿，他们可能会晚上班五分钟。这样一天就能省下五分钟。我当时在想，五分钟等于一个小时的十二分之一。如果你付给某人工资，这就是一个美元的节省。他的思维就是这样，为了省下一个美元，他会花时间跟人聊天，让他们不会过早打卡上班。我当时就想，原来这就是成为亿万富翁的方法吗？你从这么小的细节开始，把控住了，就像下象棋一样，你只要控制住一个格子，知道如何从每一个棋子走到那个格子，就像是在棋盘上思考。
So, you know, if you have your night at certain parts on the board on the chessboard, you're going to control a lot of a lot of the motion. And so if you, if they can't sneak shit by you on the financial statement, you know what I mean, then you're going to be able to dive deep into other stuff and then analyze things. So I feel like if I was ever to like, let's say sell out and do something for somebody else, I'd be better with like the business strategy side of things and looking at like what's actually doable from the financial statement, say, okay, how far can this business actually go versus like these crazy projections that the factories give us all the time like, oh, everyone's going to sell 15% more cars. And like, you know, these just super pie in the sky things. I don't believe in that at all. So how do you, how do you set your store goals then, right? Like, how do you, and we're, we're about to get into that into your latest three stores. But when you say you don't believe in it, how do you set your goals? I think you have to look at the total addressable market that you're in, right? And if you're in a place like Los Angeles or Miami or like a huge metro like Dallas, you have to understand what's the total market? How many buyers are there for your, for your brand or your type of brand? You're like, what's the cross sell look like? And if you're in a market that's super heavy luxury, and you're in a luxury, you know, you're selling Rolls Royces in a Rolls Royce market, then you should be one of the top stores in the country. But if you're selling Rolls Royces in a Subaru market, then you're just, then you have to really cast a wide net in order to bring more people in.
如果你在国际象棋棋盘上的某些部分有了你的骑士，你将能够控制很多行动。因此，如果他们不能在财务报表上瞒过你，你懂我说的吧，那么你就能深入分析其他事物。所以我觉得，如果我要像出卖自己做某事给别人，我会更善于处理商业策略方面的事情，从财务报表上看，确定这个企业实际上能走多远，而不是像工厂经常给我们的那些疯狂的预测，比如说，所有人都会卖出15%更多的汽车。这些都是痴心妄想。我一点也不相信这些。那么你又是如何设定自己的目标呢？你会如何，我们马上要进入你最新的三家店。但是当你说你不相信这些时，你又是如何设定你的目标的呢？我觉得你必须看看你所在的总可寻地址市场，对吗？如果你在洛杉矶、迈阿密或像达拉斯这样的大城市，你必须了解总市场规模是多少？你的品牌或你的类型的品牌有多少买家？你的交叉销售看起来是怎样的？如果你在一个极度豪华的市场，你在一个奢侈品市场中销售劳斯莱斯，那么你应该是全国排名前列的店铺之一。但如果你在一个子龙市场销售劳斯莱斯，那么你就必须广泛招行以吸引更多人。
So it's really kind of an elasticity to the size of your, of your projected market versus like what you can get from your hometown. And Fresno, where I'm at, it's pretty like geographically big, but we don't have a lot of people here. I think we maybe have maybe two million people total between where Bakersfield south of us runs out of, you know, responsibility and where maybe Stockton or something runs out of responsibility north of us. So it's kind of like this agricultural corridor where the people that are here have really good money, but we just don't have a ton of those people, you know, so our market for a brand like BMW is different than it would be if we were in north Los Angeles or San Diego or something and just we're never going to be able to get those numbers because we just don't have as many people that are like making $100,000 a year. We have people that are making millions of dollars a year, but we don't, and we have, and then we have people that are like barely above the poverty line that are working on farms. There's like a big spread there, you know, in this particular market. So obviously I'm just trying to sell those guys 9-11 turbos, you know, that's the goal. You mentioned being a billionaire. Do you aspire to be a billionaire? Well, I mean, it would be better than not being one. I guess I think I'd be pretty good at it, but it's just one of those things that in America, you can have your eyes set really high and really far away and really long down the road because the political climate is pretty stable regardless of what you see on Twitter or CNN. You know, the political climate for America is going to stay pretty similar for the next 10 to 20 years. You know, there's going to be like a lot of both sides arguing with each other. So you can kind of figure out a way to go far, I guess, the way I look at it. And I could probably make more money doing something else, but I don't think I would like it. I think this is really what I'm meant to be doing at this point in my life. All right.
因此，你所预期市场的规模与家乡市场的规模之间存在一种弹性。我所在的弗雷斯诺地理上很大，但人口并不多。我想大概总共可能有两百万人，包括我们南边的贝克斯菲尔德方向和北边的斯托克顿或者其他地方的责任范围。所以我们这里的市场对于像宝马这样的品牌来说，与我们如果在洛杉矶北部或圣地亚哥的情况是不同的，我们永远也无法达到那种规模，因为我们没有那么多年收入十万美元以上的人。这里有些人年收入数百万，但我们也有些人年收入勉强超过贫困线，他们在农场工作。这个市场中存在很大的差异。显然，我只是想向这些人销售911涡轮，这是目标。你提到成为亿万富翁，你渴望成为亿万富翁吗？嗯，那总比不成为亿万富翁要好。我想我会做得相当不错，但这只是在美国，你的目标可以设得非常高、非常远，以及遥远的未来，因为不管你在推特或者CNN上看到什么，政治氛围在美国基本上会保持稳定，接下来的10到20年都会如此。会有双方互相辩论的情况很多。所以我可以想办法走得更远，我可能做其他事情赚更多钱，但我觉得我不会喜欢那样的生活。我认为这是我目前生命中应该做的事情。好。
So, Audi, Fresno, Porsche, Fresno, BMW, Fresno. Do you have any other ownership in any other dealerships? I'm working on a partnership right now with another dealer that recently acquired some stores. So I'm going to be a minority owner of four more brands, but brands that I don't have yet. And I mean, ideally down the road, I do enough for Porsche that they get me an open point somewhere, you know, have have passion will travel, you know, that's the way I look at it. But I really think out of everything that I have right now, BMW and Porsche make the most sense to me. Audi is still a little bit of a mystery on how it's how an Audi store is successful because everything changes so much on a month to month basis. And the direction of the company is so geared towards this EV thing that I still feel is not necessarily, I think the EV thing is still an issue, you know. So in terms of just, well, Audi wants to go like 70 or 80% electric vehicles. And I just don't, I don't think our market supports that. I don't think our market supports that at all. So I think some of the people working for Audi forget that the reason why people are like Audi lifers is because of the niche cars that they make. And the niche cars, if they cancel those niche cars, then those people will end up as BMW or Porsche or Mercedes owners, you know, if they if those brands make those cars instead. And I think that's a big risk politically, you know, to make.
所以，奥迪、弗雷斯诺、保时捷、弗雷斯诺、宝马、弗雷斯诺。你还在其他经销商拥有任何其他所有权吗？我目前正在与另一家最近收购了一些店铺的经销商合作。所以我将成为另外四个品牌的少数所有者，但这些是我还没有的品牌。而且我是说，理想情况下，我为保时捷做得足够多，他们可以给我开个地方，你懂的，有激情就会奔走，这就是我的看法。但是我真的认为，在我现在拥有的所有东西中，宝马和保时捷对我来说意义最大。奥迪仍然是一个谜，关于如何经营一家奥迪经销商是成功的，因为一切每个月都在变化。并且公司的方向非常朝着这个电动车的方向发展，我仍然觉得这不一定是什么好事，你知道。所以就像，奥迪想要电动车占70%或80%。但我不认为我们的市场支持这一点。我认为我们的市场根本不支持这一点。所以我认为一些为奥迪工作的人忘记了人们为什么喜欢奥迪的原因，就是因为他们生产的小众车型。如果他们取消了这些小众车型，那么这些人最终会成为宝马、保时捷或奔驰的车主，你知道，如果这些品牌开始生产这些车型的话。而且我认为从政治上来说，这是一个很大的风险。
So tell us how did you acquire, how did you get these stores, right? Again, very prestigious stores. I mean, everyone wants a poor store. How did you get how did you make this happen? Well, good old fashioned graft and lending, I guess. The the when the deal broke down on the Orange County stores, because I was trying to buy the McLaren Lambo stores down there in 2016 or 17. Somebody approached me and said, Hey, dude, like, if you're willing to pay this much, maybe go do this. There's this guy in Fresno that's got these stores for sale. And I was like, Okay, so I met with BMW Financial Services, and they agreed to help bankroll me on on doing it on doing what's on the acquisition financing. Got it. Yeah. Okay. For BMW. Yeah. And so at first, they said that they would do X percent of the whole enchilada. And then they kind of waited till the 11th hour, and then they yoint that.
请告诉我们，你是如何取得这些门店的？这些门店非常知名。我是说，每个人都想要一家门店。你是如何做到的？嗯，我想是老实劳动和借贷吧。当奥兰治县的门店交易搁浅时，因为我在2016年或17年试图购买那里的麦克拉伦兰博门店，有人接近我说：“嘿，伙计，如果你愿意支付这么多，或许可以去做这件事。在弗雷斯诺有个人正在出售这些门店。”我当时就说：“好吧，我就去看看。”我与宝马金融服务公司会面，他们同意帮助我资助这项收购贷款。明白了吧。是的，为了宝马。一开始，他们说他们会承担整个项目的X％。然后他们等到最后一刻，然后他们就这样没了。
And then they said, no, they're only going to do a certain percentage of BMW. So I had to pull in money from the outside, which was basically, I was able to get seller financing to help close the gap. And because I was pot committed at that point. And I realized that this is this is really what I wanted to do. But I was in the middle of this massive real estate project in LA, that I designed this house. And it was for sale is under construction and new construction in Beverly Hills. I eventually sold it to Z. And it ended up an architectural digest. And so I'm very proud of that. That's one of my like bucket list things that I've done. Well, it was like a 10,000 square foot house in Beverly Hills. It did really so I basically 1031 exchanged. And I had the owner that sold me these stores, Al Monge's ab, he agreed to, you know, to do seller financing until until I was able to pay him off from the proceeds of that, the sale of that house.
然后他们说，不，他们只打算做宝马的一定比例。所以我不得不从外部筹集资金，基本上我得到了卖方融资来帮助填补差距。因为那时我已经在其中投入了很多资金。我意识到这真的是我想做的事情。但我当时正处于洛杉矶一个大型房地产项目的中心，我设计了这栋房子。它正在建造中，是位于比佛利山的新建筑。最终我把它卖给了Z。它登上了《Architectural Digest》。所以我对此感到非常自豪。这是我完成的愿望清单中的其中一件事。嗯，这是比佛利山一栋占地1万平方英尺的房子。它真的做得很好，所以我基本上进行了1031交换。卖给我这些店面的房主Al Monge's ab同意进行卖方融资，直到我能够用那栋房子的销售收益来偿还他。
And so that kind of like, I kind of like, I don't even know how I did it, to be honest with you. It was very, it was very like, there was some ghostbuster shit. That's all I can say. It seems like that. Look, but but but this was just a BMW store. So what are the portions store come from an Audi store? No, the same guy owned all three stores. So that's what drew me here. And realistically, the profitability of the stores wasn't that high. I think the total campus on his books, what he claimed was making about $2 million a year. So it wasn't really, it wasn't like super duper crazy. But the thing is, obviously, I moved into these facilities that are non-compliant. And so now I have to build three new facilities. That's the, that's the upshot of that. So, so I was going to ask you, why did he sell? Is it because he had to like, you know, have all this CapEx investment that he didn't want to make? No, he was just a, he's an absentee owner. And he made all of his money by really buying low and selling high on dealerships themselves, not necessarily on the general operation over long periods of time. I don't think he ever held a store for more than five or six years. And he's like 70. So, you know, he worked his way through the process.
所以就像那样，我有点像，说实在的，我甚至不知道我是怎么做到的。那很，那有点像捉鬼的东西。这就是我能说的。看起来是这样的。但但但这仅仅是一家宝马专卖店。那为什么可以从奥迪店得到利润呢？不，同一个人拥有这三家店。所以这就是吸引我来这里的原因。实际上，这些店的盈利并不是很高。我认为他的账本上总共约有年收入200万美元。所以并不是非常疯狂的。但问题是，显然，我搬进了这些违规的设施。所以现在我必须建造三个新的设施。这就是这件事的结果。所以，我想问你，为什么他卖掉了？是因为他需要投资大量资本支出吗？不，他只是一个缺席的业主。他通过以较低价格买入并以较高价格卖出经销店而获利，而不是通过长时间经营的通用操作。我认为他从来没有保持一家店超过五六年。他已经70岁了。所以，你知道他是通过这个过程工作的。
And when he was probably 40 or something like that, he got his first dealership and then kind of like leveled up each time, you know, and rode those economic waves. You know, he had at one point, he had a bunch of stores up in Washington state, and he lived there. So this was the only store he had in SoCal, even though he was from San Diego originally. And so he kind of like moved north and then just left everything behind. And did he run a process when he sold these stores? Or did he just like, why did he choose you? I think I overpaid for the stores. I, you know, like, like, that's a good reason. That's the answer. Yeah, I think I was, I was like, not negotiating with them. I was like, yeah, I just want these stores.
当他大概四十岁左右的时候，他开办了自己的第一家经销店，然后像是每次都向上一级迈进，顺应着经济浪潮。你知道，有一段时间他在华盛顿州开了很多家店，而且还住在那里。所以这是他在南加州唯一的一家店，尽管他原来来自圣地亚哥。然后他向北移动，把所有事情都留在了身后。那在卖店的时候，他进行了一个流程吗？或者他只是为什么选了你？我想我为这些店支付得过多了。我，你知道，就像，那是一个很好的理由，那就是答案。是的，我想我当时没跟他们讨价还价，我就说，是的，我就想要这些店。
I don't care what you're selling for. I don't care what they make now. I know what I can do with them. Because I had seen what I did with the McLaren brand in 12 months. And I was like, Oh man, Porsche Audi BMW together, I could, you know, I could dominate with this. This is great. This is way more, there's way more addressable market versus $400,000 supercar people, you know, there's very few of those people in any market. And so this was just, this felt like a lot easier, a lot more accessible. But it was, it was a big month. It was a big number for me at the time. But it would turn up to be a good get. What was the number? What did I pay for it? Yeah. I paid, I paid like mid twenties for the stores all in. So three brands, three brands. Yeah, yeah. I mean, and what year was this? 2017, 2016, 2017. Wow, you bought a great time, huh? And so like, roughly speaking, what do you think they're worth today? Two or three times as much, you know, somewhere between that. But the thing is, like, as I move into this new campus, I've got to spend all that and more to build three new facilities for Audi Porsche and BMW. Now the good thing is that keeps me on this like growth cycle, where then I get to charge more rent, my family gets more money, you know, like we get to kind of like grow the net worth. It really has to be a long term process with the car business. Like it just, you know, I'm seven years in here. And you know, I think I will finally have fun in year 10, like year 10, I'll be like, okay, now it's fun. You know, now I'm a my stores are built. The factory can't do anything. They can't be mean to me because I got my new now I can like, I get more allocations. You know, I get the stuff I want. I'm going to double the size of the service department, you know, which is really going to help us out. And, you know, I didn't really think that I was as big of a deal as it turned out to be. It's really a big deal for us. And it'll be way better.
我不在意你们在卖什么。我也不在意他们现在生产什么。我知道我能用它们做什么。因为我已经看到我在12个月内如何打造麦克拉伦品牌。我就像，哦，保时捷奥迪宝马在一起，我可以，你懂的，我可以统治这一切。这太棒了。这里有更多潜在的市场，而不仅仅是那些购买40万美元超级跑车的人，你知道，任何市场上这样的人非常少。所以这感觉就像更容易，更可接近。但这是一个大月份。那对我来说是一个大数字。但最终证明是一笔不错的交易。那个数字是多少？我付了，总价大约是2万多美元。所以三个品牌。是的，是的。那这是哪一年？是2017年，2016年或2017年。哇，你是在一个好时机买的，对吧？所以，大致上来说，你觉得他们今天价值多少？大约是两三倍吧，介于其中。但问题是，随着我进入这个新校园，我需要花掉所有这些以及更多来为奥迪保时捷和宝马建造三个新设施。好处是这让我保持在增长周期，然后我可以收取更多的租金，我家庭可以得到更多钱，你知道，我们能够让净值增长。在汽车业务中，这真的必须是一个长期过程。你知道，我在这里已经七年了。我想在第10年的时候终于开始有乐趣，我会说，好了，现在好玩了。你知道，现在我的店铺已经建好了。工厂无法对我再有所作为，他们无法对我无礼因为我有新的，现在我可以，我得到更多配额，你知道，我得到我想要的东西。我会把服务部门的规模扩大一倍，这真的会帮助我们。你知道，我开始没有意识到我并不像自己想象中的那么重要。这对我们来说真的很重要。它将会更好。
I want to I want to I want to double just dig in on something. Can you explain like the real estate aspect for anyone that's not familiar with operations of a dealership, right? You mentioned, you know, I can pay myself more rent. Can you explain that to listeners that are not familiar with how dealerships work? Okay, so the best part of being a car dealer when you own the land is you get to have control number one over the cost, right? Because you set the rent. So that's number one. If you have a landlord, you don't set the rent and you have to put money into keeping someone else's building up to scale. So that's that's like a loss right out of the gate.
我想要我想要我想要双倍地深入某件事情。你能向那些不熟悉经销商运营的人解释房地产方面吗？你提到了，我可以支付更多租金给自己。你能向不熟悉经销商运作方式的听众解释吗？好的，拥有土地的汽车经销商最好的部分是你能控制成本，因为你设定租金。这是第一点。如果你有一个房东，你就不能设定租金，而且你必须为维护另一个人的建筑投入资金。这就像一开始就是损失。
Now a lot of a lot of big dealer groups will need they'll look at it to say, oh, well, I can sell the dealership for a multiple of what it makes in a year. Whereas the the dirt effectively is just, you know, appraised value, right? That's kind of the thing. So I look at it like the best part of the the best part of it is you have to pay rent anyways. You'll have to pay rent to somebody. You might as well pay it to yourself. And if you can buy it for cents on the dollar, because you're basically getting a construction loan or something like that, then you're doing a traditional mortgage on it, then you're effectively delaying the 100% ownership of that parcel.
现在很多大经销商集团都会认为他们可以以年收入的多倍出售经销商。但实际上，土地只是评估价值，对吧？这就是情况。我觉得最好的地方是你无论如何都要支付租金。你总得向某人支付租金。不如支付给自己。如果你能以几分之一的价格购买它，因为你基本上获得了一笔建筑贷款之类的贷款，然后用传统抵押贷款购买它，你实际上延迟了对该地块的百分之百所有权。
But you're starting the clock somewhere and you get to set the rent factor. So if it costs you $100,000 a month for your mortgage, you charge yourself $115,000 a month in rent. And you have a different corporation or your family trust owns something and the business is basically paying that. So the business effectively pays all the bills. And it's just up to you to lay bills in front of the business like train tracks. And then you just kind of take the wealth train forward with each of those steps, which is acquiring the land, getting the construction loan, all that stuff.
但是你可以从某个地方开始计时，并且可以设置租金因素。所以如果你每个月的按揭费用是10万美元，你可以每个月向自己收取11.5万美元的租金。你可以设立一个不同的公司或者家庭信托拥有一些资产，而企业基本上是在支付这笔租金。因此企业事实上支付了所有费用。你只需要把账单摆在企业面前，就像铁轨一样。然后你只需随着每个步骤，如收购土地、申请建设贷款等，来推动财富列车向前发展。
And the benefit of new construction is you're effectively going to be in the facility when it's brand new, number one, number two, you're going to be in it when you have the, I don't know, I guess the lowest cost, because typically someone is going to buy a building and or build a building and it's going to be cheaper than the replacement cost of finding another substitute building. So the other thing that's very interesting is that car dealerships, unless they have an exemption from a competitor, they have a 10 mile radius of protection in places like California.
新建建筑的好处是，首先，您将有效地在设施全新时开始使用，其次，您将在最低成本时使用，因为通常情况下，某人购买或建造建筑物的成本会低于寻找其他替代建筑的替换成本。另一个非常有趣的事情是，汽车经销商在加利福尼亚等地方，除非他们得到了竞争对手的豁免，否则享有10英里半径的保护范围。
So if you put your store in the right place, then that protects you 10 miles in every direction. And you know, it's going to be very hard for someone else to move into that as the same in the same brand in your area. So I think that's where that's where like, I have to kind of come to grips with that. But you can't sell the land for more than it's worth, but you can take loans that allow you to pay less for it. That's kind of the way I look at it.
所以，如果你把你的店铺放在合适的地方，那么就可以在每个方向保护你10英里。你知道，对于其他人来说，在你的区域以相同品牌移进去会非常困难。所以我认为这是我必须接受的现实。但你不能高价出售土地，但你可以贷款使你支付更少。这就是我的看法。
So you kind of start off at a lower price point and you kind of average your way into it monthly. And I mean, the biggest thing that came to my mind is just tax. I mean, you pay yourself friend the tax on the real estate significantly lower than the corporate tax on a dealership. Right. And you can take depreciation on a brand new building at a much more accelerated rate than you can that it's an old building.
所以你可以从一个较低的价格点开始，然后每月逐步增加。我的意思是，我想到的最重要的事情就是税费了。我的意思是，你给自己付的朋友房地产税比汽车经销商企业税要低得多。而且你可以对全新建筑进行更快速地折旧，比起一座旧建筑来说。
Because the way it works is if you have a 10 year old building that somebody has already claimed a bunch of depreciation on, you can't really read, you can't really keep going on that and go to negative, you know, until you have to spend on it. So it's like getting it in with the construction side allows you to run depreciation at a much deeper rate for the first five years of operating in that new building, which basically helps you pay off the building, you know, that you just spent five years building or three years building or whatever.
因为这种工作方式是这样的：如果你有一栋已经被某人大量折旧过的十年建筑，你实际上无法继续往下减值，直到你不得不在上面花钱。因此，将其与建筑方面结合使你可以在新建筑的前五年以更深的速度进行折旧，这基本上有助于你偿还这栋刚刚花了五年或三年建造的建筑。
So there's like this, I think wealthy people and car dealerships are, you know, in general like a good model for this. If you're able to manage the layers of complexity, there's so much stuff that just plinkos out at the bottom, you know, as dessert. And that's the way a lot of these guys make really good money, whether it's reinsurance or F&I products or, you know, something like that, those little layers, you know, adding a layer to the bottom of it. Oh, yeah, by the way, I own the land. By the way, I took a, you know, I borrowed against the land to go buy another dealership and then, you know, it's the kind of the way people do it.
所以我觉得，富人和汽车经销商这样的模式一般来说是个好样本。如果你能够管理复杂的层次，底部自然会有很多东西涌现，就像甜点一样。这就是很多人赚大钱的方式，无论是再保险、金融与保险产品或者其他一些小层面的东西，都是不断在底层加上一层。哦对了，顺便说一句，我拥有这块土地。顺便说一句，我用这块土地抵押去买了另外一个经销商，这就是人们做事的方式。
Tell me, tell me about. So just your all of your stores combined today. What do you guys, what do you guys do a year in units revenue? Just give us a little overview about your scale. About 2000 total units, new and used, you know, something like that. And then, I don't know, $160 million, $170 million in gross revenue, something like that. Roundabout on the high line.
告诉我，告诉我你们今天所有店铺的情况。你们每年的销售额是多少单位？简单概括一下你们的规模。大约总共有2000个单位，包括新车和二手车什么的。然后，大概是1.6亿美元到1.7亿美元的总收入，类似这样。大致在这个范围内。
What's your net margin on that? Is it 5%? Is it higher? Well, it depends on the brand, right? So like Portia has 10% front end margin on the car. The Audi one is more like six and a half, and then BMW is like six and a half, but then BMW and Audi both have back end margin. That's better. It's like 7% or whatever. Portia has back end margin. That's about two and a half percent. So that's kind of like the total total you get about 12 and a half or 13%.
你们对这个有净利润率是多少？是5%吗？还是更高？嗯，这取决于品牌，对吧？比如保时捷汽车的前端利润率是10%。奥迪大约是6.5%，而宝马也是6.5%，但宝马和奥迪都有后端利润。这更好些，大约是7%或者更高。保时捷也有后端利润，约为2.5%。所以总体来说，你能得到大约12.5%到13%的利润。
Now what you're able to retain off that is like, you know, anybody's guess. But I would say that like a good BMW store could basically average selling everything at invoice and still make pretty good money if their service department's running well, because the amount of bonus money you get from a BMW store just in sheer volume is really good, especially in quarter four when a lot of people are coming in for like SUV lease returns and stuff like that.
现在你能从中保留多少，这其实只能凭猜测。但我会说，如果BMW专卖店在服务部门运营良好的情况下，基本上可以将所有商品以进价平均销售，仍然能赚取不错的利润，因为从BMW专卖店获取的纯利润金额是相当可观的，尤其是在第四季度，当很多人前来处理SUV租赁归还等事务时。
And what do you mean by bonus money? Yeah. So the dealerships get paid by the factory to sell a certain amount of cars. And so when you're exceeding your targets or you're hitting your targets or whatever, or just the general below the line margin on the car, so they'll have these metrics that you have to hit. You have to get 90% email capture. Everybody has to be trained. And these things, they're very easy to do. Those things are generally worth one or two percent each on the matrix of all the steps that you need to get. So you don't automatically get it. You could miss it if you blow it. But if you just if you care about it, you chase that stuff. And it's easier to collect money from the factory than it is from customers sometimes. So that's just the way you have to balance it out.
你说的奖金是什么意思？是的。所以经销商得到工厂的支付来销售一定数量的汽车。当你超过了目标或者达到了目标，或者只是汽车的总体边际线以下，他们会有这些指标你必须达到。你必须达到90%的电子邮件获取率。每个人都必须接受培训。这些事情很容易做到。这些事情通常在你需要完成的所有步骤矩阵中每个价值1或2个百分点。所以你不会自动得到它。如果你搞砸了可能会错过。但是如果你在乎，你会追求这些事。有时从工厂收集钱比从客户那里更容易。所以这就是你必须要平衡的方式。
All right. So just to clarify, explain those the back-end side, right? Explain this when you say when you say back-end margin and discontext, what do you mean by that? The back-end margin in this context, I'm talking about the factory money you get paid for selling the car below the invoice. So that's very lucrative with the German brands, whether that's BMW, Audi, Mercedes, Porsche, not so much because they give you more of it as front-end gross margin. The funny effect of that is it just means you're paying the salespeople more, right? Because you're paying them on the profit of the cars. So on a per unit basis, Porsche salespeople make the most.
好的。那么为了澄清一下，你是在解释那些后台方面的内容，对吧？当你说后端边际和环境时，你指的是什么？在这个环境中，我所说的后端边际，是指你以低于发票价卖出汽车而获得的工厂利润。这对德国品牌非常有利，无论是宝马、奥迪、奔驰还是保时捷，因为他们更多地将利润作为前端毛利。这种有趣的效果就是，你只是给销售人员更多的报酬，对吧？因为你是按汽车的利润来支付给他们的。所以从每辆车的基础上来看，保时捷的销售人员赚得最多。
Yes, but my rebuttal to that would be a salesperson knows what the market was going to pay for them, right? And what they're worth. And so this is why I struggle with these, you know, with packs and stuff like that in dealerships. Because at the end of the day, they're just going to have a higher percentage of a lot of smaller number if they're not getting to their market rate of what they're worth. At least that's how I view it. Do you agree with that?
是的，但我的反驳是销售员知道市场愿意为他们付出多少钱，对吧？而他们的价值也是如此。所以这就是为什么我对这些包装和一些在经销商那里的事情感到困惑。因为在一天结束的时候，如果他们没有达到其价值的市场率，他们只会得到更多的一小部分。至少我是这样看的。你同意吗？
Yeah, I think the big challenge was during the COVID times when cars were going for over sticker, you had people that were maxing out on cars that, you know, like their maximum commission at our stores, $3,500. And you know, guys were maxing out on like an Audi Q5 because they were able to convince some guy to pay five grand over. So now all of a sudden that car is like a nine grand car. So, you know, we pay pretty well because in this market, I want to be the Yankees. You know, I want to be the Dodgers. I want to sign show Hey, Otani for too much money. And then I want to sign y'all mamoto. And then I want to trade for glass now like I want the all stars all to be on my campus, you know. So I know for a fact that in our market, we overpay everybody versus what they would be paying if they, you know, if they went to the Mercedes store or the Lexa store or something like that. And that's intentional, right? Like it's these are people that are already in my market. And if they hear that I'm going to pay more, they're going to come work for me, you know, they might have to wear a tie every day, but they're going to come work for me, you know, and they're going to have more fun as a result of that. And they're probably going to make more money because I'm going to force them to buy Bitcoin every once in a while.
是的，我的确认为在疫情期间面临的最大挑战是汽车售价高于指导价，有人购买了车辆，达到了我们店铺的最高佣金上限，3500美元。你知道，有人因为成功说服某人支付5000美元的溢价而在奥迪Q5上将佣金提升到了极限。所以，突然之间，这辆车的价值变成了九千美元。所以，我们支付得很好，因为在这个市场上，我想成为洋基队。你知道，我想成为道奇队。我想花很多钱签下大谷翔大和大的合同，然后我还想签约你们紧急情况。然后，我想交易富尔默，我想让所有明星球员都在我的团队里。我知道，在我们这个市场，我们付给每个人的报酬都比他们去梅赛德斯店或者雷克萨店支付的要多。而且这是故意的，对吧？这些人已经在我市场里了。如果他们听说我会支付更多，他们就会来找我工作，即使他们可能得每天都戴着领带。但他们会为此而来，而且他们可能会因此过得更开心。他们可能会赚更多的钱，因为我会强迫他们不时买点比特币。
But you know, some dealers, you have to look at total compensation, right? So you could say that somebody, I don't know, a good salesperson makes $10,000 a month or 15,000 or 20,000, whatever it is. In Fresno, it's like $300 a foot for a house. So if you buy a 2000 square foot house, like in a really good neighborhood at $600,000, like that's it. Whereas at that same house in Los Angeles will be $1,000 a foot, it'll be $2,000, $2 million. So it's three times more money, basically for the house. So you have to make $20,000 or $30,000 to feel like you're killing it as a salesperson in LA. Whereas in Fresno, you can be like a home owner at 23 years old, because you're making 150 grand a year, you know? And so it's a little bit different scale. So you have to kind of pay in that regard as well.
但是你知道，有些经销商，你需要看全面的薪酬，对吧？所以你可以说某人，一个优秀的销售人员每个月赚1万、1.5万或2万美元，无论是多少。在弗雷斯诺，一个房子大约是每平方英尺300美元。所以如果你在一个真的好社区里，花60万美元买了一个2000平方英尺的房子，就是这样了。而在洛杉矶，同样的房子每平方英尺要1000美元，就是200万。所以基本上房子价格是三倍的差异。所以在洛杉矶，你需要赚2万或3万美元才会觉得自己是杀手级销售人员。而在弗雷斯诺，你可以在23岁就成为业主，因为你每年挣15万美元，你知道的。所以这在一定程度上也是有所差异的。所以你也必须在这方面考虑。
But I would love if all of my salespeople made $200,000 a year or more, because they'd all be driving 9-11s, you know, they're going to be driving, you know, R8s and M5s and stuff like that. And they're going to be driving heavy stuff. People are going to see them around town. And like I'm looking for, I'm looking to craft this sort of like James Bond attitude with my salespeople, that I want them to have this like ownership over their whole persona.
但是我希望我的所有销售人员每年都能赚到20万美元或更多，因为这样他们就都可以开9-11，你知道的，他们会开，你知道的，R8和M5之类的车。他们会开豪车。人们会看到他们在城里四处活动。我希望我的销售人员能拥有像詹姆斯·邦德一样的态度，我希望他们对自己的整个形象有这种所有权感。
That's like, you know, and they become this, they're proud, right? And they're representing something that matters. And so they're willing to go a little bit further for it. That makes sense. I love it. So tell me like, give me like genuinely what part of that do you think really drives the business interest forwards? And what part of it is just like, this is the vision you have for the store, it's just what you want to do. You could say it's, you know, it's just your personality kind of manifesting in real life or whatever, but it's your choice. Like, tell me about that.
这就像是，你知道的，他们变得这样，他们为此感到自豑，对吧？他们代表着一些重要的东西。因此，他们愿意为此再努力一点。这很有道理。我喜欢这个想法。所以告诉我，真诚地告诉我，你认为其中哪一部分真正推动了业务的发展？而哪一部分只是你对于店铺的愿景，是你想要做的。你可以说，这只是你的个性在现实生活中显现，或是其他的什么，但这是你的选择。谈谈这个吧。
That's a really kind of piercing question because you're getting into the heart of a very delicate matter, which is that, you know, your car got my friend. Well, yeah, it's great. Well, a lot of people do things the same way because that's how they learn and that's how they're taught. And that's sort of how it is. But my experience comes from all the way outside the car business, you know, playing majorly exports and working at Nordstrom's. So it's like, that's kind of my my experiences, those things.
这是一个相当尖锐的问题，因为你触及了一个非常微妙的问题的核心，那就是，你的车撞到了我的朋友。是的，这很好。很多人都以相同的方式做事，因为这是他们学习和被教导的方式。我的经验来自于汽车行业之外，比如在顶级体育品牌公司工作和在诺德斯特龙百货公司工作。所以，这就是我的经历，这些事情。
And I feel like if I can't be the biggest car dealer, could I be the best car dealer? You know, you got to push yourself at something, right? If you're not going to win the Cy Young Award, maybe you can win a gold glove. You could be an all-star, you know, like, you can have a highlight real play that was like amazing. And so I view it as a sort of bucket list thing to say, how far can I get, you know, in this business as a self-made person, like you said, that didn't have a dad in the business or something like that?
我觉得如果我不能成为最大的汽车经销商，那我能成为最好的汽车经销商吗？你知道吗，你得在某件事上努力，对吧？如果你不能赢得赛揚奖，也许你可以获得金手套奖。你可以成为全明星，你知道的，你可以有一个令人惊奇的精彩表现。所以我把它看作是一个“人生目标清单”，想说，作为一个自力更生的人，就像你说的那样，在这个行业里我能走多远呢？没有人帮忙，没有在这个行业里有亲人。
Genuinely all my money, right? Like on the table, bed it on black, let's go, spin the wheel. And can I build the parachute after jumping out of the plane? Can I learn after committing, you know, and that's kind of where we're at. But I think truly, if you bring young, young salespeople in that are hungry, that have a little bit of personality and a little bit of structure, you could dangle things in front of them and create incentives for them.
真的，全都是我的钱对吧？就像在赌桌上把钱下注在黑色上，让我们开始，让轮子旋转。然后，我能在跳伞后建造降落伞吗？我能在承诺后学习，你懂的，这就是我们的现状。但我想，如果你能引进一些渴望成功、富有个性并具有一定结构的年轻销售人员，你可以向他们展示诱因，并创造激励机制。
And they will absolutely run through walls. And they will absolutely do the best they can. And you'll get the most out of them. And so it's that incentive alignment, what works for me financially, what works for them. Then what kind of environment do I want to show up to? Do I want people to be quitting all the time? Or do I want a team that like, you know, a bunch of Spartans that are going to be banging the shields and ready to go when it's time to hit numbers, you know?
他们绝对会拼尽全力、拼尽全力冲破一切障碍。他们绝对会尽力而为。你会从他们身上得到最大的价值。所以，这就是激励对齐，适合我经济上的收益，也适合他们。然后我想要什么样的工作环境？我想让人们一直离开吗？还是我想要一个团队，像斯巴达人一样敲击盾牌，准备好在达到目标时出击呢？
You know what I've realized, I've realized that people are seeking meaning. I posted the Brian Benstock podcast other day. And you see some of these comments. I mean, it feels like there's a lack of meaning for people nowadays in just in life and business. And when people see someone that is, you know, all in on something, they just gravitate to that. It doesn't matter what it is in many cases.
我意识到了一件事，就是人们在寻找意义。前几天我发布了Brian Benstock的播客，看到了一些评论。感觉现在人们在生活和工作中都缺乏意义。当人们看到有人全心投入做某件事情时，他们会被吸引过去，不管那件事情是什么。
But I think people are just, you know, seeking meaning nowadays more than ever. I feel like I feel like there's a part of our generation that's just lost. Just just the internet and how everything's changed so much. There's people are really looking for that. So that's my that's my opinion. I think I think this is this is really parallel to what I feel, which is that if you don't stand for something really, really important, you know what I mean, then it's going to be hard to stand tall, you know?
但我认为人们现在比以往任何时候都更加寻求意义。我觉得我们这一代有一部分人是迷失的。就是因为互联网以及一切的变化如此巨大。人们真的在寻找那个重要的东西。这是我的看法。我认为这与我的感觉是非常相似的，那就是如果你不为一些非常重要的事情站出来，你知道我的意思吗？那么站得高就会很难。
And if you want to have pride as a man, especially, right, then you got to feel like you're like the job that you're doing is creating a difference. It's making it's making an impact. For me, I'm trying to impact the community locally. I'm trying to impact my family positively. And I like to think of all the people like to use Bitcoin as an example. Like I was getting my salespeople into Bitcoin when it was like 7000, 8000, you know, some of those guys bought a full Bitcoin for 10 or 12 grand.
如果你想作为一个男人感到自豪，尤其是对吧，那么你必须觉得你所做的工作正在产生差异。它正在产生影响。对我来说，我试图在本地社区产生影响。我试图对我的家庭产生积极影响。我喜欢想到所有那些像比特币这样的人。比如我在比特币价格为7000、8000时就让我的销售人员买入比特币，有些人花了1万或1.2万美元买了一整个比特币。
And those guys today are like texting me like, bro, I've got two now, you know what I mean? And it's cool because it's not like it might not be life-changing money to have $100,000 in your retirement account or something like that for a sales guy. But that's that's $100,000 that that guy has because he did something to improve himself and had discipline at a key time and took a risk. He stood for something and he tried it and it worked.
今天那些人给我发短信，说“兄弟，我现在有两个了，你知道我是什么意思吧？”其实挺酷的，因为对于一个销售人员来说，在退休账户里有10万美元可能不会改变生活。但是这10万美元是那个人因为做了一些事情来提升自己，保持纪律，在一个关键时刻承担风险而得到的。他坚守自己的信念，尝试了一下，并且取得了成功。
And now he's got this confidence. It's like a shield, right? So for me, you know, everything I do is on purpose. You know, I haven't like forced come my way through this. This is like all brain damage and battle scars. And the and I don't see that changing everything I've done ever in my life has always been because I've said, yes, I've said, when do we go? And what do I have to do to be good at it? You know, that's it. Like if you're going to get a chance, imagine like someone's going to put you on a talent show, on a cooking show, on a, you know, dancing with the stars, whatever, are you ready for prime time, you know, and as a baseball player, you're forced into that paradigm every day because people watch you take batting practice, right? People watch you play catch people watch you throw, they watch you run.
现在他有了这种自信。这就像是一面盾牌，对吧？所以对于我来说，你知道，我做的每件事都是有目的的。你知道，我没有强迫自己走过这条路。这都是大脑创伤和战斗伤疤。我不觉得这会改变，我做的每件事都总是因为我说过“是”，我说过“我们什么时候去？”以及“我需要做什么才能做得好？”。你知道，就是这样。比如，如果你有机会，想象一下有人要把你放在一个才艺表演节目上，烹饪节目上，或者是和明星一起跳舞，无论是什么，你准备好了吗？你知道，作为一名棒球运动员，你每天都被迫进入这种范式，因为人们会看着你进行击球练习，观看你打捉练习，观看你投球，观看你跑步。
They watch how you stand in the dugout, they take photos of you, they send it to you, you know what I mean? On Twitter, there's instant feedback. Like if you're not doing well, people crush you, absolutely crush you, you know, like going to New York pitching warming up to pitching in CC, Sebastian Yankee Stadium, like that's the real shit, you know what I mean? Like, oh, I'm going up against like Audi Bakersfield for who can have the better month. Like that's nothing. That doesn't, it's like, it doesn't matter, you know what I mean? But I, and listen, this isn't war, like we're not at war, like no one's getting shot at work, you know, this is like not real fighting, but it's like, okay, if you, like I said, if you can't be the biggest, maybe you can be the best, you know, can we be pound for pound better than this store, that store, that store?
他们观察你站在地下室里的姿态，拍照并发给你，你知道我是什么意思吗？在Twitter上，有即时反馈。比如如果你表现不好，人们会对你大加批评，简直是严厉批评，你知道吧，就像在纽约的CC塞巴斯蒂安洋基体育场的投球热身状态一样，那才是真实的事情，你知道吗？就像，哦，我要和奥迪贝克斯菲尔德竞争，看谁这个月表现更好一样。那是无关紧要的。并不重要，你懂我说的吧？但是，听着，这不是战争，我们不在战场上，没有人会在工作中受到伤害，这不是真正的战斗，但是，如果你不能成为最大的，或许你可以成为最好的，你知道吗，我们能否比这个店、那个店、那个店更强，以小胜利大？
And you just pick targets, you just make, you just get antagonistic and you're like, screw these guys, there are enemy now, we're going to take them down, we're going to pass them, we're going to have a higher CSI or sell more, you know, more exclusive options per copy or something like that. And, you know, that's, that's kind of how you win. Am I a blunt car guy if I don't ask you what's your net worth? If you ask me what my net worth is, it's going to change a lot based on how you value the stores, it's tied up to that a lot. And then obviously this, this whole Bitcoin thing, you know, that you may or may not have heard about, that's going to change.
然后你就挑选目标，你只需制造敌意，然后你就像，去这些家伙，他们现在是敌人，我们要打倒他们，我们要超越他们，我们要有更高的 CSI，或者卖更多，更独家的选项。你知道，这就是你赢的方式。如果我不问你身家几何我就是一个直率的车行家吗？如果你问我我的身家几何，这会受很多因素影响，很大程度上取决于你如何评估这些店铺，这与那有很大关系。而且显然，这整个比特币的事情，你可能听说过，可能也没有，那会有所改变。
But my goal is to get to the point where I don't worry about it anymore and I can just get whatever I want and I'm nowhere near that if that makes sense. Really? So what, so I mean, my estimate in my head was around 100 million. No, not yet. Okay, approaching. But tell me what do you want that you can't currently buy or get? I mean, I don't know how we don't have time in the podcast, I could just keep going, you know, like, come on. I joke all the time with people that if Bitcoin hits a million dollars, I'm going to buy an F 16, you know, like, and that'll be my great, you know, that'll be my toy. But no, I don't have a jet. I don't, I don't fly. I don't, I don't have anything like that. I don't have any of these like toys, you know, I have a lot of cool cars.
但我的目标是达到一个地步，我不再担心这些，我只是得到想要的，但我离这个目标还很远，如果有意义的话。真的吗？那么，我的估计在一亿左右。不，还没有。好的，接近了。但告诉我，你想要什么你现在买不到或得不到的？我的意思是，我不知道我们在播客里没有时间，我可以继续谈下去，你知道，就像，得了吧。我经常和人开玩笑说，如果比特币涨到一百万美元，我就会买一架F 16，你知道，那将是我的大玩具。但不，我没有喷气机。我没有飞行。我没有类似的玩具。我有很多酷炫的车。
But the cars are just, you know, in some ways they're, they're, they're fun and they're, my kids all love them. So we go for drives and stuff and I have the Porsche Dakar. So I'll go drive in the dirt and the snow and the mud, all that. And the kids love it. They absolutely love it. My wife loves it. But dude, I spent a ton of money on like weird stuff, you know, buying McLarens and Ferraris and stuff like that in my 20s. Like, no, I definitely blew a lot of that money and didn't invest early enough. But you know, I did some stuff that worked out really well. And this Porsche dealership is a really good example of that. But living in California, you can't pay yourself that much because you just get nuked in Texas. So you just try to figure out ways to defer that, you know, and put it in other buckets. And so that's kind of like where the land thing goes. But once the land thing like, yeah, once the dealerships are complete, the land's going to be worth, you know, more than the dealerships at that point, potentially 13 acres of car dealerships, like that'll be worth something someday.
但汽车在某种程度上是很有趣的，我的孩子们都喜欢它们。所以我们经常一家人出去兜风，我有一辆保时捷大卡。我会开到泥泞、雪地和泥泞中去开。孩子们都喜欢这样，他们非常喜欢。我妻子也很喜欢。但老兄，我在20多岁的时候花了大笔钱去买一些奇怪的东西，比如麦克拉伦和法拉利之类的。我当然是把大部分钱都花掉了，没有早点投资。但我也做了一些运气不错的事情。这家保时捷经销商就是一个很好的例子。但是在加利福尼亚生活，你付给自己的薪水不能太高，因为你会被德州税务突袭。所以你只能想办法推迟支付，把钱放在其他地方。这就是土地投资的意义所在。但一旦土地投资回报，是的，一旦经销商落成，土地的价值会超过经销商，13英亩的汽车经销点，将来肯定会值一大笔钱。
So, you know, wow, CJ Wilson. All right. So before we wrap up hottest cars in a luxury market right now, coldest cars. What are they? Well, with Porsche, it's always what hasn't hit yet, you know, it's always the cars that haven't hit yet. And then the like the 911 ST still is not on the ground yet in America. So that's the hottest car everybody wants that you got all these, you know, guys that wear Richard Mill watches that are pissed off that they can't get this car. And so they're willing to pay, you know, 200,000 is it Richard Mill? I thought it was Richard Millie. Am I just an amateur for thinking that? I say Richard Mill, but you know, it's like, right. That's the funny thing.
哦，你知道的，哇，CJ威尔逊。好的。在我们概括当前豪华市场上最热门的汽车之前，最冷门的汽车是什么呢？对于保时捷来说，总是那些还没有问世的车型，你知道的，总是那些还没有问世的车型。像911 ST在美国还没有上市，所以这是所有人都想要的最热门的车型，你知道所有那些戴着理查德•米勒手表的家伙都很生气，因为他们无法获得这款车。所以他们愿意付出200,000，是理查德•米勒吗？我还以为是Richard Millie。我是不是只是个业余者？我说的是Richard Mill，但你知道，这很有趣。
Like Charles, Charles Leclerc, you know, like though, it's like, I don't know, it's French or something Swiss. So it's a French pronunciation. But yeah, I don't know. I think like, I think the hottest car is 911 based product. It's just easy. It's it's, you know, used use GT3s are still 40, 50,000 dollars over sticker GT3 RS's are still 100,000 over sticker. So that's easy. I think the coldest thing right now is probably sadly the G wagging four by four, the new one. The coldest thing. Wow. It's it's, you know, they're really cool, but they're $360,000. And they had a bunch of recalls and problems with the axles and stuff like that. So, you know, that's that's pretty cold right now. It's you can't get one and the ones that the ones have been on stop sale.
就像查尔斯·莱克莱尔克一样，你知道，尽管，就像虽然，我不知道，这是法国的还是瑞士的。所以它是法语发音。但是是的，我不知道。我觉得最热门的车应该是基于911的产品。这很容易。你知道，使用GT3仍然比标价高4、5万美元，GT3 RS则比标价高100,000美元。所以这很容易。我认为目前最不受欢迎的可能是可惜了的G级四驱车，新款的。最不受欢迎的。哇。虽然它们非常酷，但价格高达36万美元。而且他们有大量召回和轴问题之类的问题。所以，你知道，现在情况非常冷。你无法得到一个，而已经停止销售的那些也是。
The BMW M product is really good. You know, everyone's waiting for the new M5. I'm anticipating the new M5 wagon. I'm a big wagon guy. So Audi RS six wagon, M5 wagon, E 63 wagon. Those are really sexy for me right now. The SL 63 is not hot. That is also very not hot. Those are those are kind of there right now is like your slowest seller just absolute disaster.
宝马M系列产品真的很不错。你知道的，大家都在等待新款M5。我期待新款M5旅行车。我很喜欢旅行车。奥迪RS6旅行车、M5旅行车、E63旅行车。目前对于我来说这些真的很性感。SL63不受欢迎。那也很不受欢迎。那些现在就像你的销量最低，简直就是灾难。
I mean, honestly, the Q8 e-tron the Q8 e-tron is the is the hardest car to sell and the BMW XM. Those are the two cars that are the hardest to sell. Or three cars, I guess. Yeah, the XM the XM electric the XM hybrid. Yeah, because it's like $170,000. 150 to $170,000. That's a lot of people have a little bit of hesitation to buy BMWs over a certain price point. And I think once you get over like 135, you get a lot of alligator arms, people are not willing to cut the check that that's just there they're a little bit scared of that. So I think part of this this whole thing with electric vehicles is BMW is crushing it with the I for the I for and Audi for the Q for those are great cars. They're they're at the right price point.
老实说，Q8 e-tron和BMW XM是最难销售的车型。这两款车是最难销售的。或者说是三款车吧。是的，XM电动版和XM混动版。因为价格在17万美元左右。许多人对购买超过某个价格点的BMW有一点犹豫。我认为一旦超过135万美元，许多人都会犹豫不定，不愿意付这笔支票，因为他们对此有一些恐惧。我认为电动汽车的部分成功归功于BMW的i系列和奥迪的Q系列，这两款车是很棒的，它们价格适中。
You know, you can get good monthly payments on them. So people are leasing them and driving around town. But this this like no one has really figured out a hundred thousand dollar range EV and how to make those hot sellers. They're just it just doesn't exist. Like Mercedes can't do it right now. BMW is not doing it right now. Unless you get these crazy incentives and you're blowing cars out and it's $20,000 off or whatever. And that's just that's to me that's not the luxury car business. And I think this I think I think they've all gambled really hard on this EV thing. And I think a lot of them have, you know, are going to take big else on the EV thing in the next five years if they haven't taken huge else already.
你知道吗，你可以在它们上面得到不错的月付款。所以人们正在租赁它们并在城里开着。但像一百万美元范围的电动汽车，似乎没有人真正搞清楚如何让它们成为热卖产品。它们似乎就是不存在。像目前梅赛德斯无法做到，宝马也做不到。除非你得到这些疯狂的激励措施，把这些汽车甩出去并且打个二万美元的折扣或者其他。对我而言，那不是奢侈汽车行业。我认为他们都赌得很大，押在这个电动汽车上。我认为很多人会在接下来的五年里，在电动汽车上赔大钱，如果他们没有已经亏损惨重。
Yeah, they are. I mean, the price cuts are every day I get new messages about new price cuts every single day. I love seeing your stuff on Instagram with that. You know, you're like posting a chart and you're like the Nissan Arias $6,000 cheaper. And it's, you know, if price is the only motivator for you to buy something, that's not luxury. You know, and that's the problem. That's that's an economics issue. Because when the price changes in your psychology and your desire for a change, then that's not necessarily like that's that's economy buyers, you know, and that's what I did with Mazda. And that's I don't necessarily want to go back to that if that makes sense.
是的，他们是。我的意思是，每天都有价格下调，我每天都会收到关于新的价格下调的新消息。我喜欢在Instagram上看到你的东西。你知道，你会发布一个图表，说日产阿里亚要便宜6000美元。如果价格是你购买东西的唯一动机，那不是豪华的购买。你知道，这是个问题。这是一个经济问题。因为当价格改变时，你的心理和欲望也会改变，那不一定是经济买家，你知道，这就是我和马自达做的。如果有意义的话，我并不一定想回到那种情况。
I like the luxury space. I get to talk to customers for like 45 minutes. We just shoot the shit. We just talk about everything. Talk about speeding tickets and like, you know, sunglasses and watches and like whatever, you know, the new restaurant in town. It's a it's a lot more personal touch with that. And I think it's it's tough with it's tough with those volume brands where you have to crank stuff out. And I was told I was told recently by another Porsche dealer that the Porsche business is not the real car business. And I understand what he meant. You know, the Toyota business is the real car business that Chrysler and Dodge that's the real car business.
我喜欢奢华的空间。在那里我可以和客户聊上大约45分钟。我们随便聊聊。我们谈论一切。谈论超速罚单，像太阳镜和手表之类的东西，还有城里新开的餐厅。这种互动更加个性化。我觉得在大批量的品牌中，这样做很难。最近我从另一家保时捷经销商那里得知，保时捷生意并不是真正的汽车生意。我明白他的意思。丰田的生意才是真正的汽车生意，克莱斯勒和道奇是真正的汽车生意。
I like living in Dreamland. I like staying here. You know, I like this. This is fun. But the Porsche thing is, you know, you know, I got I got my I got my key man. I'm good. That's all I care about. I can tell.
我喜欢住在梦幻之地。我喜欢待在这里。你知道，我喜欢这里。这很有趣。但保时捷的事情是，你知道的，我拿到了，我拿到了我的钥匙。我很满意。这就是我关心的。我可以告诉。
The last question I want to ask you just about, you know, if you were if you had no access to the news right now, right, just judging by the traffic at your stores, would you be able to tell what would you think about the economy? I mean, would you even tell that maybe there's a blimping economy, anything like that? Or is it like, you know, just booming, booming times, business is better than ever? What's it like right now in your stores?
我想问您最后一个问题，就是如果您现在无法接触新闻，只通过您店铺的交通量，您能否判断经济状况？我是说，您能否感觉到可能有波动的经济情况之类的？还是说，您感觉目前经济繁荣，生意比以往任何时候都要好？您店铺的情况现在是怎样的？
I wouldn't say I wouldn't say business is better than ever. But I think you can always get better at your business, right? I'm still young enough with enough Swiss cheese holes in things that I can still fill in gaps and make things better as we go. So I'm still optimizing the process. We still have a ton of foot traffic. We still have a ton of leads. We still have a ton of interest. But I honestly, I for me, with these brands, our traffic is in our real sales volume and the real sales calls. It's directly related to our inventory. The only thing that matters is do we have cars on the ground that people want and have we photoed those cars well enough to prove how nice they are and that the fact that they're actually real.
我不会说业务比以往任何时候都好。但我认为你总是可以在经营中变得更好，对吧？我还足够年轻，在很多事情上存在很多不足，我还可以填补缺口，不断改进。所以我还在优化流程。我们仍然有大量的客流量，大量的潜在客户，还有大量的兴趣。但老实说，对我来说，对于这些品牌来说，我们的客流量和真实销售量以及真正的销售电话是直接相关的。唯一重要的事情是我们是否有人们想要的汽车，我们是否已经拍摄了这些汽车足够好，证明它们有多好，并且它们实际上是真实存在的。
If we have 15 Q7s on the lot, we'll sell five to 10 Q7s in a month. If we have two, we will sell zero. You know, that's just the way it is. It doesn't matter what the prices are. None of that stuff matters. Explain that. Why is that? I mean, you're not the only out of dealer in America, right? As an example. So why do you say that? You're just going to sell more if you have more inventory.
如果我们有15辆Q7在库存中，我们一个月会卖出5到10辆Q7。如果我们只有两辆，我们将卖出零辆。你知道，事情就是这样。价格是多少并不重要，这些都不重要。为什么呢？我的意思是，你在美国并不是唯一一家经销商对吧？举个例子。那为什么你会这么说？如果库存更多，你就会卖得更多。
It's because people do want selection in the luxury business. You know, imagine you go to a restaurant and it's $100 a person and you have no idea what type of food they have. You know, you just sit down there and they just start handing you stuff and then you just give them money. Like you don't know, you're not even you can't even order anything, right?
这是因为人们在奢侈品行业确实想要选择。你知道，想象一下，你去一家餐厅，每人100美元，你完全不知道他们有什么种类的食物。你只是坐下来，他们就开始给你端菜，然后你交钱。你不知道，甚至连点菜的机会都没有，对吧？
So that's not luxury. That's like socialism or whatever. I don't know. Some sort of like, I don't know, S&M bar in Berlin. But the thing is that with Audi, people do need to see it. They don't have as much imagination as the Porsche person because they're not window shopping on the configurator as much. So they need to see the physical car. They need to see a copy brown on the inside. They need to see, you know, galaxy blue in person. They need to see Vakuni abasian person.
They don't know what that is. They know what Daytonais. You know, they know, they know what, you know, mythos black or something like that. But if they don't have a real accurate representation of what that car looks like, they can't make the decision based on a rendering in their head. They have to physically be able to see it and you will get way more leads because if you don't have it, they go next and they look at the other dealers and the other dealers sell them, you know, and because Audi has no penalty for cross sale.
这样并不算是奢侈。这更像是社会主义或其他什么东西。我不知道。就像柏林的某种酒吧，我也不知道，可能是S&M酒吧。但问题是，对于奥迪车，人们确实需要看到实物。他们的想象力没有保时捷车主丰富，因为他们不像保时捷车主那样经常在配置器上购物。所以他们需要看到实体车辆。他们需要看到内饰是复制的棕色。他们需要亲眼看到银河蓝。他们需要亲眼看到瓦库尼亚灰。
他们不知道那是什么。他们知道什么是拜坦纳黑。你知道，他们知道什么是神话黑之类的。但如果他们没有一个真实准确的车辆外观展示，他们无法根据他们脑海中的渲染做出决定。他们必须亲自看到才能做出决定，你会获得更多潜在客户，因为如果你没有这个，他们就会继续找下一个，看看其他经销商，其他经销商会卖给他们，因为奥迪没有跨销售的惩罚。
Like I could sell all of my inventory directly to into San Diego and Audi would be like, dude, great job. You hit your numbers. That's all they care about. Porsche is completely the opposite. They're like, yo, don't do that, you know. So some stores, you can get away with that. But the moral of the story is if you have inventory, people will see it from all over the place because if the guy next to you does not, then his customers will all buy it from you. There's no loyalty at all for the Audi client. It's all about the deal and when can I get the car? And that's just the reality of it.
就好像我可以直接把我的所有库存都卖给圣地亚哥和奥迪会说，哥们，干得好。你完成了你的任务。这是他们关心的全部。保时捷完全相反。他们会说，嘿，不要那样。有些店可能能够逃脱惩罚。但故事的寓意是，如果你有库存，人们会从各个地方看到它，因为如果你旁边的人没有库存，那么他的客户就会全部从你这里购买。对于奥迪的客户来说，没有任何忠诚度。一切都在于交易以及什么时候能拿到车。这就是现实。
The BMW people, much more relationship based. They want to custom order their own car. They want to order this car with these special wheels or whatever. Porsche, it's their dream car. They can wait a little bit longer to get exactly the way they want it. And Audi people are like here and now, and that's the thing. And so it's a much different process. And if you don't provide them with those options, then they'll shop you and they'll go somewhere else. So you have to have it. You have to deal with it for it. It's so funny. Like as someone who's bought an Audi before a new one, it's like so true what you're saying. You're that guy, man. You're shopping. You're shopping. You're looking at it. I was like, give me the right price. Give me this. I don't even care. I probably drove it like X amount of times until we traded it in for the minivan anyways. So that's how the cookie crumbles. I do want to share a story though, before I was a car dealer. This is like very formative for me. And it has to do with Audi. So it's perfect.
宝马车主更注重人际关系。他们想要定制自己的汽车。他们想要用这些特别的轮毂或其他东西定制这辆车。保时捷，是他们的梦想车型。他们可以等待更长的时间，以确保车子完全符合他们的要求。奥迪车主则更注重眼下的享受。如果你不能为他们提供这些选择，他们会去别处购物。所以你必须拥有这些选项。你必须为此做准备。很有趣，就像我之前买过一辆奥迪一样，你所说的一点也不假。你就是那个人，正在寻找。你在搜索。你看上去很挑剔。我想要适合的价格。给我这个。我甚至可能开了X次车，直到最后换成了迷你客车。这就是事情的发展。在成为汽车经销商之前，我想分享一个对我的发展很重要的故事。这个故事跟奥迪有关。所以完美。
So I was living in Dallas and I had a 993 911 turbo at the time. So in 1996 turbo, I'm 26 years old. I drive to the Audi dealership because they have an RS4 on the lot. RS4 8400 RPM V8 out of the Audi R8. It's a manual. It's a really cool car. Compets with like the M3, right? I go in there and I say, hey, I want to test drive this car to make sure I like it. If I like it, I'm going to buy it. And at the time I'm playing for the Texas Rangers. And they're like, no, no, no, we don't allow test drives on cars like that. It's too fast. You're just here for a joy ride. I pointed at the parking lot. It's like, see that thing out there? That's got that's more than you making a year pal. Like that, that car is my fast car. I need a daily driver, but I want it to be fun. And I like the fact that it's as all wheel drive because in Texas, you have wacky weather. And anyways, the guy completely blew me off and was just like, yeah, just drive an A4 and it's like twice as fast as that. And if you like to A4, then just get it.
所以我当时住在达拉斯，拥有一辆993款911涡轮车。那是1996年，我26岁。我开车去了奥迪经销商那里，因为他们那有一辆RS4。RS4装备着来自奥迪R8的V8引擎，可达8400转/分钟。这是一辆手动挡，非常酷。和宝马M3是竞争对手，对吧？我走进去说，嘿，我想试驾这辆车，确保我喜欢它。如果我喜欢，我就会买下它。那时我是在为德州游骑兵队效力。他们说，不不不，我们不允许像这样的车辆试驾。它太快了，你只是来这儿兜风的。我指着停车场说，看那边的那辆车？那比你一年的收入还多，伙计。那是我快车。我需要一辆日常驾驶车，但我希望它也有趣。我喜欢它全轮驱动，因为在德克萨斯，天气变化无常。不管怎样，那家伙完全不理我，只是说，开辆A4吧，比那辆车快两倍。如果你喜欢A4，就直接买了吧。
I'm like, yeah, no. So I literally called from the showroom floor the store in Plano, which was like 15 miles north. I'm like, Hey, you guys have any RS4s? Oh, you got a red one? Oh, can I test drive it before I buy it? They're like, yeah, sure. And I'm like, okay, hey, Tom, thanks for your help, man. I'm going to go get this car from boardwalk. I'll see you later. And I literally drove up to boardwalk Audi and bought the car after test driving it, obviously. And it was really funny because it it it it number one, it demonstrates that even like a passionate person like me is going to get offended and go somewhere else if you don't treat them well at number one. But number two, you know that there is another Audi dealer somewhere else, right? It's not like Ferrari where like, if you if you have a good relationship with your Ferrari store, you you won't do anything to jeopardize that.
我当时就是这样，是的，不行。所以我直接从陈列室的地板上打电话给了位于普莱诺的商店，那里离这里大约15英里。我问：“嗨，你们有RS4吗？哦，你们有一辆红色的？哦，我可以在购买之前试驾一下吗？”他们说：“是的，当然可以。”我说：“好的，嘿，汤姆，谢谢你的帮助，伙计。我要去板车购车了。再见。”然后我就真的跑到板车奥迪，试驾过后购买了这辆车。显然，这是非常有趣的，因为它展示了，即使像我这样充满激情的人，如果你不好好对待他们，他们也会受到冒犯并去别的地方。但是，第二，你们知道还有另一家奥迪经销商在别的地方，对吧？它不像法拉利，如果你与你的法拉利店有良好的关系，你不会做任何事情来危害那种关系。
I mean, unless you're insane. But like if, you know, if you have an if you're if you want a particular Audi, if you want a Q7 and you want a black on black Q7, you'll look at Mission Viejo, Bakersfield, you know, I don't know, Sand Elizabeth, but like anywhere you'll go anywhere to get that car because it's just an Audi in the way that people shop, you know, if they're looking for those kind of cars, they might they might be a little bit different if they're trying to earn their allocation for an RS6 or something like that. But at the end of the day, people are just going to call around and get the best deal.
我是说，除非你疯了。但是，如果你有一个特定的奥迪车型，比如你想要一辆全黑的Q7，你可能会去Mission Viejo、Bakersfield，甚至圣伊丽莎白，总之，你会到处寻找这辆车，因为对于人们来说，只要是奥迪，他们会欣然购买，当然，如果他们在寻找像RS6这样的车型时，情况可能会有点不同。但最终，人们只会四处打电话，寻求最好的交易。
So in a way, Audi is is a little bit tougher than BMW in that sense because the customers are less loyal. And so that's the scary part is you have less loyal customers generally. And then now you're bringing in EVs and EVs, EV people are way less, just way less loyal altogether. So, you know, I think that's that's the challenge that that we're all up against in the luxury space because the luxury, you know, market still has a big EV presence until hydrogen or something else comes out. So, you know, I just think that that's the that's the weirdest, greatest area right now for me in the horizon.
以某种方式来说，奥迪在这方面可能比宝马稍微更坚韧一些，因为客户的忠诚度较低。所以这就是令人担忧的地方，通常你拥有的是较少忠诚的客户。而现在你又推出了电动车，电动车的用户普遍来说更不忠诚。所以，我认为这是奢侈品市场所面临的挑战，因为奢侈品市场仍然有很大比例的电动车，直到氢能或其他什么东西出现。所以，我只是觉得这是我目前在未来所面对的最怪异、最伟大的领域。
You know, I can look at like Porscheville and then like it's sunny and I know exactly what's going to happen when I get there. And I think it would be me and W and Audi is like a little bit lumpier, you know, what's happening with the EVs and all that stuff and what's happening with inventory. So that's that's why it's nice to have three brands and not just be all in on one brand because I do have I can offset diversification. Yeah, it's it's nice even in the space to have a little bit of diversification.
你知道，我可以看看保时捷镇，然后就好像是晴天，我知道到了那里后会发生什么。我觉得我和W还有奥迪有点复杂，你知道电动汽车和库存等方面会发生什么。所以拥有三个品牌而不只是只专注于一个品牌是很好的，因为我可以进行分散投资。是的，在这个领域里多少有点分散投资是很好的。
Wrap us up with just like what's your general outlook for, you know, next five years for the luxury auto market? Like when you think about it as a whole and I understand your Audi's a little murky to you, but as a whole, I mean, do you see this as like a secular incline for the luxury market as a whole? Like where are we going from here? I think it's going to get really cannibalized in the luxury market specifically because the people that are good actors and good dealers are so much better, so much better for the client. And, you know, those clients, which are in that space, they know how to make money and they're going to keep making money in up down sideways Dow Jones markets. They don't care. The housing market's not affecting the guy buying the 911 turbo as much as it is affecting the guy buying a base level car.
你对未来五年奢侈汽车市场的整体前景有什么看法？虽然我知道你对奥迪有些模糊，但就整体而言，你认为奢侈市场会像此前那样逐步增长吗？我们未来的方向是什么？我认为在奢侈市场上会发生很大的竞争，因为那些优秀的从业者和经销商对客户来说更加优秀。而那些客户，处于这个领域的人，他们知道如何赚钱，他们会继续在牛市、熊市或横盘市场中赚钱。他们并不在乎房地产市场对购买911 turbo的人的影响，与购买基本车型的人的影响相比要小。
And so if you've cultivated really good relationships and you have a really good process, the luxury space is going to be bountiful because the guys that are land owners, business owners, Bitcoin, HODLers, software engineers, whatever, these sort of all column like protected classes in a way, they're going to be able to keep going as that wealth gap spreads because the wealth gap is going to keep spreading. And the people that do really well, they're still going to want to Rolls Royce or a Lambo or Ferrari or Porsche, they're still going to want that.
因此，如果你已经培养了非常好的关系并且有一个很好的流程，奢侈品市场将会非常丰富，因为土地所有者、企业主、比特币持有者、软件工程师等等，这些身份都有一定的保护作用，他们将能够继续走在财富差距扩大的道路上，因为这个财富差距会继续扩大。而那些做得很好的人，他们仍然会想要劳斯莱斯、兰博基尼、法拉利或保时捷，他们仍然会追求这些。
The, you know, I think the 30 to $50,000 car range is like absolute anarchy for the next five years. I think it's going to be absolute anarchy because you're going to see people with like trying to justify buying a Tesla, you know, a Kia, a Toyota, a Q3, you know, like how do you make your decision? And it's just going to be who treats them the best and who makes them feel special. And I think once again, it gets into the soft skills of selling, not necessarily just running the business from a statement.
我认为在接下来的五年里，30到50,000美元的汽车价格范围将是一片混乱。我认为这将是一片混乱，因为你会看到很多人在尝试找理由购买特斯拉，起亚，丰田，Q3之类的车型，你知道，你该如何做决定呢？最终选择取决于谁最好地对待他们，谁让他们感受到特别。我认为这再次涉及销售中的软技能，而不仅仅是从业务报表上看。
And I think that's where the dealership groups that have overpaid for stores are going to have to start cutting stuff loose at some point. And so there's going to be some people like me that are nimble and that are kind of coming up that might end up with a nice dealership acquisition at some point at a depressed price, but kind of rebrand it and reface it and that'll be better. But I think it's very hard for the really, really, really big companies to grow because there's kind of nowhere to go.
我认为过高支付店铺的经销商集团最终可能不得不开始削减一些东西。因此，像我这样的灵活机动的人可能会在某个时候以折价收购一家不错的经销店，然后重新打造品牌，换个新面貌。但我认为对于那些非常庞大的公司来说，要实现增长非常困难，因为他们似乎已经无处可去。
That's why they're buying stuff in Canada or buying stuff in the UK or whatever else, you know. And so just disciplined purchasers and disciplined operators are going to have cash on the table ready to go. And they're going to win. And I just hope to be one of those people. So I'm just going to be saving up and trying to stack my Bitcoin. So it's worth something so I can collateralize it and, you know, buy somebody out and do that. That's that's my goal.
这就是为什么他们会在加拿大买东西，或者在英国买东西，或者其他什么地方。所以只有纪律严明的购买者和运营者才会准备好资金。他们会获胜。我希望自己能成为那些人之一。所以我会开始储蓄，并努力积累比特币。这样它就有价值了，我可以用它作抵押，购买某人的股权。这是我的目标。
You know, and I think partnerships are definitely on the ticket. What a freaking way. Well, CJ, this has been awesome. Dude, thanks so much for coming on. Really? It was an absolute pleasure. Thanks, Josie. 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.
你知道，我认为合作伙伴关系绝对是重头戏。简直太棒了。嗯，CJ，这真是太棒了。哥们，非常感谢你的参与。真的吗？这是绝对的乐事。谢谢，Josie。好了。希望你喜欢这一集。请给这个播客评分。考虑订阅节目，并查看节目说明中我们谈论的内容的链接。谢谢收听。下次见。