¶ Intro / Opening
Every every single industry needs a preacher
This is Auto Collabs.
And we know that guy we found ours we found ours is His name is Tim Cox. And not that he's now granted the mental prayer, a serious prayer, but he's also a preacher from an encouragement, intentionality, culture, familial aspect of the way, like, every single person should approach day to day work in and throughout auto. The automotive industry, Tim Cox is, is almost the heartbeat, soul and passion of the way that should operate within automotive.
The first time that I heard him speak was maybe just a few months ago at time of recording this. And we were in Napa, and he got up and he spoke and the whole room was in tears. Really? Like I've never seen a room full Yeah, like we were all crying like, like motivated, inspired, impassioned, impassioned, but like tears visibly streaming now, how many people were there? There might have been maybe 200 people in the room day. auto folks? Yeah, look like we're talking bottom
lip quivering. What did you talk about? I don't remember. But I remember how he made me feel.
That's how it goes. That's how it goes.
I hear Maya Angelou has a thing about that. Yeah, exactly.
I don't know you should call
him that. Something, something, something feel more than something. Something speak very good. I think that's articulate, you know,
I'm being around him. You realize his humility is genuine. And the success that he's had, is really the way it follows him from places he's been to place. He's been to where he's at a CarNow. You know, it's because he cares about the team and building a strong team. And watching people succeed and grow, you realize that that is the secret sauce. Like it's not the common denominator, like I'm a technical genius, right? He's actually a human genius, right? He understands the human side of
business. And so I'm excited for everyone to hear this interview with Tim Cox.
There are very few people that when you get into a conversation with them, it always, always always ends in a smile no matter what. And Tim Cox is absolutely one of those people. For me, Tim, thank you so much for joining us on the show today, man.
Thank you for having me. This is exciting stuff. Not only am I learning, unfortunately, I don't have a a cool color, mood light in the back. But hopefully I'll get a I'm gonna get a link sent to me on my cell phone device and I will call up a little company called Amazon. And I will get those shipped directly to here at CarNow central in the ATL. And the next time you will see Tim Cox online you will see some cool blue not
live when this is live. That's right.
I have a new microphone and I'm playing with it right now. Good to see you boys. How are you? Oh, man,
this is good. So it always goes a little sideways, you're already smiling. If you're on the other side of the thing, if you if you're not watching the video, he's hanging, he's holding up his Celsius, which is apparently an energy drink with nothing in it, but everything in it, you need to have a whole bunch of energy. And there's your advertisement. We don't have an advertisement for Auto Collabs yet, but
if maybe you will get one answer, maybe you'll get one now sponsored by Celsius. It's not right. It's not okay.
So I want to I want to say this. So, you know, Tim, for me personally, you've been a mentor along my journey the last year and a half since
we met for the first time. And this is what I love about Tim is, is you always have this ability to be present in the room with what you need it to be, but you're willing to have the conversations that are necessary outside of, you know, general public and, and and I kind of I wanted to lead with that because I think that it's important for people to know that that you are someone that is both a visible personality, which I think a lot of people in automotive See you on stages and
and out and about and you have a charismatic nature about you. But you are a leader that is in the trenches, not just with your people, but with a lot of others across the automotive industry. And I just wanted to take the moment to acknowledge and thank you for that and like tell automotive that that's the
reality of who you are. So if people didn't know that already, which I think they did, they will but I want to go back because A lot of you you've been CarNow is is what is seven, eight year old company now, is that right?
Well, yeah, we well it depends on when you deemed us a company I left the dealership. There was only four of us at the time the four founding members of CarNow I left my dealership here in Atlanta, December 1 of 14. So if you know that's our official date, then that's our official date. It was me living in my car and, and showing demos and getting people to sign up for CarNow, you know, we hired Is that how you name? No, actually, that was my partner Andy.
I'm living in my car now living Yeah, it
just. And ironically, even the URL. I won't even tell you you know, you know, a few months before we launched, you know, we were actually I was carrying a bag going into dealership. And by the way, the first several dealerships, the Jeff Smith group signed up first demo ever did seven stores on the spot. And we knew we had something when they didn't let me get halfway through the demo. Obviously, with all the rich content. Nobody was doing that to communication or chat at that
time. I knew we were onto something when they said not only we can sign up, can we invest? I'm like, Hey, Andy, we might be onto something here. So but we went the first 6 7 8
¶ CarNow went the first 6 months without a URL and the first 7 years without any marketing personnel. Tim talks about how if you do the work and pour into the people around you, good things will happen.
months without even a URL like without, you know, there was no CarNow.com.
Did you have did you have? We are calling ourselves CarNow.
And you know, we tried to buy the URL, you know, months prior, and they wanted some ungodly amount. And it just worked out, you know, anybody that spends any time with me, I think everything is divinely appointed. And just so happened, like there was this window where they just dropped the price, I mean, to a fraction of what it was, and we snagged it up for sure. So good stuff.
So you went for three, this is an interesting part of the story, which I think is which is interesting to me that you went, what, three or four months, you said without the actual URL of the company, which was longer than that, that was longer than most people would be like, if you're gonna have a company, you better have a website, right? Yeah, forget
you start with the website. And then, interestingly enough, you actually went another what, almost almost eight years, seven years without hiring marketing personnel.
Yeah, you're right. You're uncovering all our dirt. Yeah, that's true. That's true.
We just it was dirt. That's amazing. That's impressive. Yeah.
Yeah, that's just, it's just worth it. You know, it's like I tell my kids all the time I had my son who I'm very proud of was just in town as well as my daughter but she she does live here that's what I told him I said to be successful today. Most people they want a job they don't want to work and if you work and if you if you pour into your people around you, I mean good things happen. But yeah, you know, we grew to 5000 plus dealers with not one person in person and a marketing partner
is zero marketing. The marketing was going out and preaching the gospel of CarNow and, and pouring into your team. And you know, the law of attraction. Something's going on there. They're not perfect, but something's happening. And then again, the law of duplication, you know, being able to duplicate that process over and over and over and over again, do we fall down? Yes. Do we mess up? Yes. Do we screw up? Yes.
But it's how you and in fact, some of our best relationships are come from our biggest screw ups and how you handle that stuff. But yeah, that's I appreciate you. You know, it's some of that stuff's a little embarrassing, but it worked out. But ya
know, I'm here, I want to deny that because, you know, most people, oh, that's cool story. But that's actually, that's something that I think we can take away in business, whether it be from a dealer perspective, or an industry partner, that there that the growth mentality of any sort of business is dedic is directly relational, to the type of work that's put in and you lead with a relational strategy, and you didn't and you duplicated that throughout throughout the
company. And I think that you know, not that you didn't have a marketing budget, you weren't not that you weren't going to events and being a part of everything that Automotive is doing and that type of thing, but that you did it with an intentionality that was that was led by people first and not just like, ad dollars thrown at
walls, right? Or, you know, a marketing team that was just creating content on content, but you did it with like, Hey, we're going to just be in the dirt and we're gonna be a part of the community that we're a part of, which is automotive right
now 100% And I think the key is and I think we you know, listening to different people and there's a few companies out there I think that have the same culture but we I don't like the I is the only time I don't like the word I said, we don't like the word.
You know, I we did this collectively, you know, having a partner who now has become one of my best friends and all the world you know, Andy Park, very brilliant guy been in software space before you know one thing that he says that I think any company or any organization can really learn from that feeds and I think about almost daily as Look, I don't have to be right now, but one of us has to be
right. So pulling your Inner Inner Circle close. To you, and and figuring things out, you know, the things that that are facing automotive right now, you know, the inventory situation, how do you, you know, how do you put a piece of technology together? You know, for particular dealer groups to acquire vehicle, you know, how do we do this? You know, again, I don't have to be right, but one of us has to be right. And fortunately, we've been right,
what do you what do you mean by that? unpack that for me, when you say one of us has to be right.
¶ With success can come an ego that says you'll always be successful. Tim reminds us to be humble, and make sure that we aren't riding on our past coattails.
What I mean by that is, you know, unfortunately, especially when success comes, you know, I talked about it with Patrick Abad earlier today on our on our podcast. And, you know, he put it this way, we are not as good as our financial financial statements say we are
right now. Right? Because because of what's happening in the market, and sometimes even with companies like ours, you achieve X amount of success, you get the awards, they tell you, you're the fastest or one of the fastest, all this stuff, we start reading our own press clippings. And unfortunately, and look, I was guilty of this. When I when I was in the dealership, we start going into board meetings or conference
rooms. And no matter what said in that conference room, we've already come out with our ideas, like like, we're there. We're not ever going to say it, but we're the smartest person in the room. Right? If the whole world, you know, world hunger and all the drama, if they would just listen to me, you know, everything would be fine it you know, just just a little bit, a little bit of that on the internet, do
we have international medical experts politically?
So I think it's a mindset of look, I have my ideas from the conversations that I've had. And look, we've been right a lot, the ideas that I thought that I brought to the table, so So being creating that culture, creating that environment within your organization, I think you guys have that with what you guys are building, but coming together with ideas, and then hearing other ideas on what you think the solution is, and then collectively coming up with a
solution. And and whoever's idea is not so much as important as us getting it right. So that's where we talk about when he says, Look, I don't have to be right, like my idea doesn't have to be right on it. But one of us in our circle needs to be right. And
that's I mean, there's so much to take away from that it reminds me of a story centered in Atlanta, tell Chick fil A story. There's a I don't remember exactly who sent her where I read it. But they were talking about the way Chick fil A makes decisions at the at the corporate level. And at the highest echelon of the company. They said we can disagree in in the boardroom, we can passionately disagree. But when we leave that boardroom, we only have one way we're going to do
it. And that's whatever way we agree on so that it reminds Yeah, and I think they have a bit of a
little bit. And, you know, and especially, you know, I had the privilege to meet and do some ministry stuff with Dan Cathy for a little bit with my local church. And he is what you get. And I think and that unpacks another you got a lot of people that are better Sunday
school leaders. And what I mean by that is what you see, on stage, what you see on podcasts, what you see out in the public is not necessarily what you get when you talk to their employees, the people that call them boss, I think I think you know, it's easy to say put on your Sunday go to meetings and say all the right words and
podcasts like this. And you know, you know, I think having a heart of you know, there have been multiple times where it look, I mean, I could flex I'm one of the founders of this company is a very successful company. But there's been
¶ Tim builds on the idea of humility by talking about integrity, and making sure you're the same person no matter where you are or who you're interacting with.
there's been several occasions where I have handled a situation wrong, where my tone and my delivery was absolutely wrong to an entry level employee and being able to really think about you know, you idiot, I mean, what did you just do and being able to call that individual say, Hey, listen, I just wanted to know I I handled it the wrong way should have handled it different and just forgive me and let's let's get better
together and move on. But but having that type of mentality, I think understanding it's okay to have to do things like this. But even when you screw up I think a lot of times there's more value built and trust built into a leader when they do mess up if they handle it the right way, you know, and move forward and it strengthens that bond with your team member with your as we call it family member here are now
there's like, there's so many ways to take what you just said. You know, one of the things that just came to mind was you know, as far as saying and being one thing And then actually, when you get down to it actually the under the hood is different than what what the exterior looked like. I think there is a moving to like talking about automotive tech, specifically, you know, trade shows, lots of demos, lots of words and phrases being thrown
around these days, right? When you look a little bit beneath the surface, you realize like, oh, they just had on their Sunday best, it's not actually doing that. What is your take on the overarching automotive landscape in tech specifically? Like, where do you think it needs a little correction? And where do you think it should be going when it comes to how they're talking about their products? And what they're actually doing?
When you say they, you know, we're throwing up?
Let's go, no, no, no, no,
no, I know, I know what you mean. But what I was gonna say when you say they, you're also including us, and I'm including us when we say what I'm about to say. And first of all, I would probably argue, you know, there's been a lot of disruption in this space, there's been a lot of acquisition in the space. And historically, acquisition and innovation, maybe not go hand in hand. But there are some, some some some companies that are doing some some phenomenal
things. And I think the next six months, six months to a year, we're really going to see autumn automotive move. You know, in the next year, I would argue probably, you know, quicker than it's moved than last five to six, even with the rush to digital retailing that we saw in
in the spring of 2020. But you're right, there's a lot of people that say and obviously because that's our business, we have a list of okay, this company says they can do this, let's go can they actually do that, and you're in you're absolutely spot on. So I do believe, with what I have seen
and where we're at. And some announcements that some companies wink wink pretty close to myself are going to be making before the end of the year that are that are really exciting, are really going to move the needle.
And that that I'll be your stop you that's why they didn't need a mark.
As Buckler as we say, we say to techie buckle up buttercup. But anyway, in lead, follow or get out of my way. I really believe that, you know, where the industry is moving. I you know, the person, this is what I'll say, with you know, everybody's talking about buying online. And you know, everybody that even finishes the deal. And I've even said that, you know,
¶ Right now, about 70% of people who buy online still want to go to the dealership. A lot of that is because the technology isn't smooth yet. But that is changing, and Tim believes that in the next year, the online purchasing process will have a whole new look and feel.
even people that go through our entire process of buying a car online, 70 plus percent, depending on the case, particular case studies still want to go to the dealership, it's because exactly what you said, the technology is not there, to make it an Amazon type experience to make it a click, click, click, click, you know, let me get a lot of the things done. So are those numbers
skewed? Because what technology companies are saying they can actually do, and what they can actually do is is is, you know, really show, you know, showing itself and the percentage of people that still want to come in, I would argue yes. And I would argue in the next year, that technology is going to be so and so easy and fluid and frictionless that, that that those numbers are going to change. And they're going to
change very, very quickly. I try believe that just as, as much as I believe I'm talking to you right now. Because we've again, a lot of people have said they can do X, Y and Z, but you get there, they can do X but not maybe y and so on and so forth. Once that is seamless, once it totally flows, once they're DMS, agnostic, once all that stuff happens, it truly changes the
game. And those numbers are gonna, they're gonna fluctuate greatly, you know, the Nirvana is the world can't do it room can't do it, you know, so So once that tech is out there, I think it's gonna change the landscape, and it's gonna change it quickly.
That's how that's how I'm gonna just call it like I see it, that's a really bold statement, because I probably would have said that about two years ago, I'd have been like, you know, what, probably by the end of the year, we're gonna be able to figure it out. But there's been a lot of barriers in the way in both connectivity, as well as tech, understanding the process, all
of that type of stuff. But I do agree with you, that that the speed of technology, not just change, but also adoption is going to become very, very, very fast paced over the next year in automotive. And I think that there are some, you know, there are some factors contributing to that, especially things like the way OEMs are pressing dealers to engage with customers. And I think that that's, that's probably going to start to break the barrier of like that speed of, of collaboration and
connection. That's been so hard to come by for so long. In your conversations, specifically, because this is Auto Collabs. Right? What are those conversations looking like in all of these connected platforms that have to come to the table because when you think about a retail automobile transaction, it's not as simple as as as buying a widget on it. Like I just bought a crib for our baby last night on Amazon, right? That's a simple transaction. It's like, that's the price.
Here's the dollars. That's my bank account done right? There are a lot of partners that have to come together for a single retail transaction and automotive. What are those conversations? Like? Have they have you noticed a shift over the last few years as as to how people are willing to integrate or accept new collaborators or, or be involved with with making this a reality?
I think obviously, you know, we're building a DMS is never going to be on our personal horizon. Right. So I think with any company like ours, you know, you have to have great DMS partners. And, you know, we've had we've had, you know, partnerships. We have partnerships with Reynolds, they
do a great job. They're CDK dealer built, you know, Dan Moore I would look, you know, with some some, you know, disturbance in the bigger companies, I would look, I'd watch very closely what, Dan, just because everything Dan touches does well. Plug for Dan, but I mean, it's just facts, facts, trump feelings. I mean, every he everything he touches, every company he touches does very,
very well. Dan is one of the brightest so so him now, I believe, steering the ship or steering a lot of the ship there, DealerBill, there's going to be some some good things. So you need good DMS partners that you have smooth API integrations
with. And I think it's the responsibility of companies like ours to kind of put the pieces together, I will tell you, the encouraging thing on the OEM front there is one, maybe two, one specifically, OEM that confidentially, we're under NDA that we're working in lockstep with, that is looking at it to where, hey, let's, let's bridge the gap between tier one and tier three, you know, and what does that look like, and oh, by the way, we'll share the deal the data with the dealer, and
the dealer will share the data with us. And we'll move so I really believe once that's out, and that's coming very quickly. OEMs will quickly realize that they don't have to have a particular you know, maybe you know, and I don't want to go down that rabbit hole, but they, you know, mandate in particular, DR provider, but that'll really open up and really give the roadmap of what can be done when people just want to figure it out. You know, I said last year in November, and I didn't say
it, but I quoted it. But you know, Reagan, I think it was Ronald Reagan that said, you know, it's amazing what you can get done when no one cares, who gets the credit. Here's the problem. It's the truth. But here, you know, everybody has picked me pick us like, it's like finding nemo with the seagulls and that I'm, you know, I'm a hillbilly and I'm yeah, my mine, mine, mine, mine. That's what I picture in my head. You know, I did it, I did it. I did
it. I did it. But you know, really, that's why we partner with Darwin, you know what I mean? You know, Darwin, we were building a menu. And you know, we have 5,000x customers, whatever, Darwin, there's a lot
of overlap there. Obviously, Darwin has whatever it is 7500 8,000 What Phil Batista built is, in my opinion, the best, you know, menu system, instead of building mantle's partner, you know what I mean, and that, you know, the particular Oh, you know, bigger dealer groups that have the numbers are not
deniable. So So again, that's the aspect that's that's the i That's why I can be very confident in closed landing the plane of 2022 going taking off in 2023, with the OEM conversations that we are at least having that are confidential, and in the space, what we know, we're building the announcements, we're going to be making the acquisitions that we've made, as far as talent and all this other stuff. That's why I can be pretty confident as it's going to be a very exciting
closed this year. And, you know, next year, it's, you know, you better buckle up because it's coming and it is coming in, and I think it'll come quickly because people respond to it.
Again, I do believe in the latter part of 2023, you know, mid to mid to 2023, depending on the OEM, you know, it's going to change you know, winter is coming anybody that knows me knows I'm an optimist, not a pessimist, but Winter's coming you know, that that those those you know, in 20 in January of 2020 these are JD Powers numbers, not CarNow numbers but in January of 2020 the average deal Gross was 2200 bucks now it's 52 and change 50 to 81.
Right, those depending on inventory and depending on those trucks coming in and what that looks like those numbers you're gonna have we're gonna have to learn how to sell cars again. So with all of this all of this it's not you know, you know CTAs are changing with with quite frankly with GLBA you know that there's so much and I apologize from just being a fire hose but there's so much happening with Graham Leach Biley act that that says, By the way, and I don't hear anybody talking about it,
other than John Acosta. You know, shout out to the guys at Vtech and John Acosta who's really been championing this but you know, none of our competitors and in the space I mean, they better be ready, you know, no longer in You know, Jen, December 9, will you be able to click Unlock price? You can't do it anymore. Right? Click to unlock price. Oh, by the way, Mr. Customer, your data is now being shared with Shift Digital Toyota Motor Credit Car Now, ABC, Toyota, blah, blah,
blah. Would you like to continue? Click? Do you think that's going to skews the numbers? So So these things are changing? And it's going to so you know, we had I had a call this morning about that. And thankfully, you know, I've quoted it a zillion times my favorite proverb and my favorite verse is very simple, the prudent see danger and turn from it, but the simple keep going
and suffer harm. We have to constantly be looking forward, be that lighthouse be on top of that ship, looking to see what's coming. That's what Patrick Abad and Kevin and Deusch all these people do, they that they're cranking, but they're looking out ahead over the over the over the horizon, seeing what's coming, and we're planning accordingly. Those are the dealerships. Those are the companies that will continue to be successful, and they will recession proof their business.
If they continue to do that. Look, you might make something and fix it and it doesn't work. You adjust you look at the game film, you try it again. But to sit and think you know and look at our financial statements and see how pretty everybody thinks are those are the companies that are gonna get run over those are the dealerships are going to get
run over. And those are the people, the salespeople, they're going to scatter and look for the dealerships like Patrick's and Kevin's and all the other and Daniel Go at in Columbus, Ohio and all these amazing leaders. You know, they're going to scramble to go to their dealership, so we better be careful.
Well, I'll tell you what, if you were coming to a podcast with Tim Cox thinking you weren't getting the sermon, you are sorely mistaken, automotives. Man, I so appreciate that. I'll tell you this,
that, hey, he's gonna be at Hank. He's
gonna be at ASOTU CON, he'll probably be at like 33 Other events this fall. And so you should catch him, you should rub elbows with him be around where he's at. Because whether or not it's being a part of car now or just understanding his philosophy and vision for where our industry is, I think that everybody would be do well to do so. So Tim, thank you so much for joining us on Auto Collabs. It has been a pleasure once again.
Thank you, brother. Thank you guys appreciate you.
You know, when they say evangelist, CEO, there's a picture of Tim Cox in the dictionary next to that it is no doubt no wonder why he didn't have to hire a marketing professional for so long. Because he's been out there preaching but also practicing what he preaches, and building a product that follows it up. Right? It's not even leading with the product. It's leading with the ideas and the culture and having the product that backs that up. Which is why I think people just gravitate
towards him. And the Cornell family.
Yeah, every time I hear one of his employees, they always talk about he calls the Cornell family la familia. Yeah. Family, la familia. Yeah, right. You gotta get it right. Yeah, you gotta get that right. And I think that that's the that's the type of way that he approaches a culture. So starting hearing this, I don't have to be right. But somebody
does. That's, that's another piece of humility and approach that that leadership team is taking to say, hey, look, we know that we've got the right smart people in the room, we're good. Let's just find, let's like, take the person that that we know is probably going to be the best in that area or that theme. And we're going to run out of this room. And we're all going to be on the same page. And then we're going to make sure that we tag we attack that as if it was our own idea. And
that type of approach. I think, especially from a team mentality, especially any level of leadership team in any business is an approach that we should all be looking at knowing that hey, look, there are strong people on your team and trusting them to make the right decisions. A lot of the times is your best case scenario and just going hey, look, I'm not the be all be right. But someone does.
Right. Humility is the best word. And it requires a degree of humility for that many people to be able to come into a room and counsel with one another like Counsel S E. L. Yes. Sometimes people think they're the same thing.
But to sit on a council versus counseling with one another, I think requires a tremendous amount of humility, but also means that you're all there knowing that you have to move in, in consensus and in the same direction, being willing to try something and then for everyone in that room to take a level of ownership where you're not like Oh, see, I said yes in the meeting, but Sally screwed up. Yeah, like oh, no, like finding
that hill. I can't remember who said this where So I think I was reading it in a book, or an article somewhere, but it was like you need to be willing to find the hill to die on. And like, go all in on that. And so I love that and it just speaks volumes to the level of ownership. It requires on everyone who's involved part to make an initiative work
well when we get to ASOTU and this is being recorded before the first ASOTU CON. And what's going to be really cool is that you're not going to see the CarNow team out there selling digital retailing, they're going to be selling food and service. Yeah, because it's the nature of the company. And so I love to see that they're putting those those words into actions. And if you're not coming to to ASOTU CON you'll want to because you want to meet
Tim Cox and his whole team. But for this, this has been Auto Collabs and on on
behalf got it on behalf of Cyrillic.
On behalf of Michael Cirillo, Paul J Daly and myself Kyle Mountsier. We'll see you next time.
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