TimTalks: Automotive Leadership and Beyond

Why Sitting in Every Seat Matters with Laurie Halter

• CarNow • Season 2 • Episode 28

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In this episode of “TimTalks: Automotive Leadership and Beyond,” Tim Cox sits down with Laurie Halter, founder and CEO of Charisma! Communications. Laurie shares her journey through the industry—from her early days at Chrome Data to running her own successful agency—and opens up about leadership, culture, and the powerful rise of women in automotive.

From the importance of sitting “in every chair,” to practical ways we can recruit and support more women in the industry, Laurie’s insights are both inspiring and actionable. 

Their conversation also touches on the challenges and opportunities of AI in automotive, and why listening to dealers is the key to creating real solutions.

Connect with Laurie on LinkedIn and learn more about Charisma! Communications.

[00:00 – 01:30] Introductions
Tim opens the episode and welcomes guest Laurie Halter.

[01:30 – 03:35] Laurie’s Story
Laurie recounts how she entered automotive by chance, her early days at Chrome Data, and launching her own agency in 2003.

[03:35 – 05:45] The Value of Experience
Laurie and Tim discuss why the best dealership leaders have “sat in every chair” and how that empathy shapes their approach.

[05:45 – 09:47] Building a Sorority of Support
Laurie shares how top women leaders are mentoring and empowering the next generation, creating momentum for lasting change.

[09:47 – 13:29] Recruiting Women into Automotive
Exploring barriers like rigid schedules, family balance, and the need for better recruitment strategies, Laurie emphasizes flexibility and recognizing leadership potential everywhere.

[13:29 – 20:55] Culture, Mentorship & Leadership Lessons
Tim shares a personal mentorship story from his early days, and they both reflect on the importance of leaders creating one-on-one support.

[20:55 – 24:56] Advice for Women Entering Automotive
Laurie encourages women to be bold, assertive, confident in their ideas, and to reject labels that diminish their role as leaders.

[24:56 – 29:47] Trends & Opportunities
Laurie discusses her recent AI research, the challenges with solutions being built without dealer input, and the opportunity for tools that truly solve dealership needs.

[29:47 – 31:26] Closing Thoughts
Laurie shares how to connect with her on LinkedIn and through Charisma! Communications, and Tim wraps the episode. 



Tim Cox  0:00  
In over three decades, I've learned that truly great car dealerships are only great because of one thing, leadership. So I'm sitting down with the great men and women inspiring automotive on. Tim talks automotive leadership and beyond. Welcome everyone to yet another episode brand new. Tim talks leadership and beyond. I am pretty excited today. There's people in the business that you see and you know from different shows and out and about, and you've got same clients and different people and different vendors, and they're just good humans. And I have one of those good humans. There are a lot of incredible people. You know, lately, we've had a lot of incredible females that are just doing incredible things, which I think is extremely encouraging in the automotive space. That's been so good to me and my family. I have the one and only. Laura ra Hall, let me say that again. We halter. There you go. She is, she is the founder, CEO, Chief, bottle washer of charisma, communications. Lori, so thankful that you get to hang out with us for a few minutes. What's going on?

Laurie Halter  1:18  
I'm so excited to be on the call. You and I have known each other for years and years, and we were just joking before this podcast, like we know each other so well personally. And it's like, wait, what do you do as an actual profession in the space?

Tim Cox  1:30  
Yeah, pretty crazy. Well, I know what you did. I just didn't know the official name of your business because it's everybody's like, just call Lori. So there we go. I like that. Yeah, that's even, I mean, that's even better, right? It's just you're, I think you're the brand, right? Everybody just knows, knows you. So let's just kick off, like, how? Tell me your story. Like, how did you get in? Like, what was your story? Yeah, not like, when you were born, if you want to go back that far, is fine, but, but, like, what, you know, what brought you into automotive? And let's start there.

Laurie Halter  2:03  
Yeah, I think I love talking to people about what brought them in the automotive, because almost no one like expects to be an automotive right? I'm pretty much the same way. So I moved to Portland right after college. I knew I wanted to come back to Oregon, which is where I still live, and I moved without a job. Went to a job fair, and at the job fair there was a little company there called Chrome data. And this was, you know, 1999 and I talked to them there. They were so wonderful. There's a woman there by the name of Phyllis McKenna, who I'm still friends with today. And she I talked to them about what they did. I had no idea what automotive data was at the time, but luckily, they decided to create a position for me within their marketing department. So Chrome day, I went to work for Chrome data in 1999 and this was still at the time where my mom asked me what I did, and I'm like, tried to explain it. She's like, so you work in a dealership, like, no one understood what we were doing there. But I worked there for three years, moved my way up from like marketing assisted to by the time I left three years later as marketing programs manager, they wanted to put me on the fast track for product. And I went to Phyllis one day and said, I just feel this internal longing to start something else. I just can't I feel in my bones like I can't stay here. So she laid me off to get severance, and they became my first client of charisma communications, and I started my agency in 2003 and have not looked back. We've been in automotive ever since. We specialize in B to B selling into the dealership space, and the rest is history.

Tim Cox  3:35  
Wow, wow, wow. And and people may or may not know this, but chrome data was our first when we were building car. Now was our first. We we gathered chrome data as far as model information, trim, that kind of stuff. Oh, I didn't know that. Oh, yeah, that was as we were building car now, in 2013 Yep, we were using Chrome data, and still do to this day, quite frankly, to pull model data so you can compare vehicles within the tool. So that's, that's really

Laurie Halter  4:03  
awesome. Chrome is like the nucleus of everything. Chrome is like the atom of and Eve in the auto. Yeah, I know. So every, almost every single person I know has either started at Chrome, like to work at dealer track when Chrome wasn't fired, like, uses Chrome. I mean, it's truly amazing. Like, there,

Tim Cox  4:22  
yeah, yeah. And you'd be surprised how many, you know, vendors like ours, you know, like, like us, that that, that use Chrome data, yeah, pretty cool, pretty cool. So, so listen, let's get right into it. So you talk about the marketing and helping automotive dealers, I think you helped some vendors too, as well, right?

Laurie Halter  4:42  
Oh, yeah. I mean, we work almost primarily with vendors. So we work, yeah, primarily with vendors selling into dealerships. But due to that relationship, I've been able to create some really lovely friendships with like, dealerships as well, and dealer groups,

Tim Cox  4:53  
yeah, yeah. And what do you see is the, you know, the trend, per se, like, what are you seeing? Obviously, this is a leadership podcast, and one of the reasons we started this podcast was, you know, in my travels, you know, I get to see, you know, clinic Clint Eastwood movie, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. And lately, there's, there's, there's been some good, but, you know, normally there's, you know, there this, in this space, there's a lot of people that go to work to wait. They don't go to work, to work, to quote my friend Kevin Deutsche, here in Atlanta. So what are you seeing in your travels, the dealers that are making a difference. Is it a trend? Is it a marketing aspect? Like, in your Laurie opinion, like, I want your opinion, like, what are you seeing? And then on the other flip side of that, like, what's keeping you up at night? Like, what are you seeing that that scares you a little bit? I guess it's two questions.

Laurie Halter  5:45  
Yeah, I love it. Well. For the beginning leadership, I think what I'm seeing is the best, best dealership owners and leaders are the ones who have sat in every single seat in that dealership, right? I've talked to a number of different dealerships, one in particular, like Darren Wade. I'm just thinking about him the other day. He's from rich Ford in Albuquerque. He has literally been at a dealership since he started, and he's been in sales, he's been in service, he's been in finance. And so I think a lot of times, the best dealers that I know, the best leaders I know, have sat in every single chair, and then what leads into that is they've been care for every single person in every single position, because they've been there and they know the challenges that they faced. So I think the best leaders are the ones who have sat in every chair. You know, I would run away. Even on the vendor side, I'm going to get myself in trouble.

Tim Cox  6:36  
But even on the vendors don't use names. I won't use names. But on the vendor

Laurie Halter  6:41  
side, when I have a tech company come in and they're so excited and they want to tell their story that they're tech heavy, and they're from San Francisco, and they're going to make a big splash in automotive, if they have no automotive experience, I'm like, stop telling that story like that is the wrong story to go to market with. So, you know, I think you've probably seen it too. Tim, it's just it's experience, having the experience of the people who work for you, and really having that like team dynamic, like we're all in this together. I'm going to do my very best to help you in your role, and let's all go win together.

Tim Cox  7:15  
Yeah, that's true. Darren happens to be a client of ours. I know him very well, yeah, great operator. And quite frankly, the these podcasts are never about car now, but that's, that's, you know, that was built while I was at the Lexus store. So I think, you know, understanding when you're building something, it's, it's a pain, and how are you addressing the pain, you know, I want to go right into because when I see you, I see with Brooke, I see with, you know, others, and I see the incredible women that there's, you know, I just, I just left NAMAD, which shout out to the team at NAMAD. I would argue, what this word I'm looking for, one of the most welcoming, I guess, is the word that I'm looking for welcoming conferences. I've been been to,

Speaker 1  8:07  
I've actually heard from several others.

Tim Cox  8:10  
I'm just telling you, look, there's, there's, as you know, when there were, you know, some people are vented out. You know, there's, there's some mainstays. You know, the Brian Pash does a good job. There's a soda, and I'm gonna get in trouble because I don't mention somebody, obviously, Kane, which is, now, you know, my buddy David Kane, so there's, there's a few out there that that do a great job. And if I missed you, please don't yell at me because of my ADD brain, but, but I'm telling you, from, from the day we got there, um, just welcoming and and and dealers were listening. And, you know, somebody woke by, there was they were generally interested. So I we had a great time, and I've got a list of things to follow up on. We had such a good time, but, but unpack. Why do you think it's taken this long to and again, there's still so much room. But the growth of women in automotive, right? We have women in automotive. Will can was, was at, you know, Carrie wise and Ashley, Ashley, that is now, I think, the president. So, you know, we have this amazing humans that just happen to be female, that are doing some great things in automotive. And that just reminds me, I need to have Carrie wise on now that, yes, you know, she's now with, with one of my, one of my, the people that I respect, geo at lot, links as well, her and Carrie, I need, I need to have them on. But what do you think? I mean, it's, it's just not only the in automotive, they're just doing incredible things. You know, what is it? Why? Why has it taken so long? Are you just now got, are you guys just building a sorority now? I almost said fraternity, you know, what are you seeing?

Laurie Halter  9:47  
What I think, I think there is a little bit of a sorority of sorts. And like, what I love, what I'm seeing is this sorority is like, let's give everybody a hand up, because the thing about the women in this space is. I think the reason it's taken this long to get us to where we are, and there's a still long way to go, but I'm so proud of where we are, is when I first started, 20 years ago, there weren't a lot of women in leadership roles at all. So what you have, and I don't mean to demean men, because I've had amazing leadership, men in leadership who have given me a hand up, but I think, as a woman, we are now getting to, you've got the Carrie wises and the, you know, Subie Ghosh, and I'd love to put myself in this category. We're at the top of our game. We're at the top April Simmons. April, Simmons, Brooke Furness. I mean, like we Hannah, listen, we could go on and on, but everyone's kind of at the top of where they can have the most influence in their organizations, and as a result, they're they're taking, taking their hand out, putting their hand out to these younger women, and saying, Let us, like, bring you along. This is a difficult industry to be a woman in, but we've got you, and we're going to teach you and mentor you, and this is how you do it. So I think the answer is, like, we're just finding more and more momentum, because you finally have women in C suite leadership roles who know how hard it is to get to where they are, and want nothing more than to help more women get into those leadership roles.

Tim Cox  11:14  
How do we recruit more? I mean, what do you think needs to be done? Like, yeah, you know what? Because there's not, you know, and there's certain and you can't, you look, there's a look, I'm a guy. There's incredible human that that happened to be gentlemen as well. Yes. But, you know, the success rate of a driven lady is phenomenal. Yes, like is, is phenomenal. You mentioned April, that's, that's another one that, you know, you've got dealer groups that are, that are wanting her input on certain situations. She's up, she's, she was on here, you know, a couple weeks ago. She's a total powerhouse. And you know how she loves to problem solve, right? So, how does she problem solve, right? Lynn Lynn Hudson at the Morgan group, who's a marketing director now, she's done her own, you know, leadership trait, has her own leadership training, training specifically for women that is doing such a good job. But, but what? How do we how do we recruit? Are we missing something on how to get those, those, you know, additional Lori halters, additional Aprils and Carrie white like all the above. What are we missing? What are dealers missing?

Laurie Halter  12:19  
A couple things, and one is really hard to change, because it's, it's very culture based, and it's very like one is we just need to have a little more flexibility, especially within the dealerships. Like women can't go bell to bell if you're if you have kids and you want a family, bell to bell is not like it's, it's just the the way the labor is set up is not conducive to having a family. That makes sense. Yeah, that makes sense. Women, I know, you know, April is a great example. She's got a family. She's got a strong family. So she was able to rise to the top of her dealership group in spite of the setup versus in, you know, in help of the setup. So I think we need to find new and creative ways to help women work around their family, and men, for that matter, to be honest, like men deserve to go home and have dinner with their family, yeah, of course, you know. And then I think the other thing is, like, most of the women I've talked to fell into automotive, they were not recruited. And so I think it's just like, maybe a change in the dynamic of this industry that women are strong drivers. They're strong leaders. Most of the dealers I speak with, if they have a female sales representative, she is crushing it and better in the majority.

Tim Cox  13:29  
Yeah. And how do you, how do you, I mean, you have to do in the world we live in, you know, with HR and everything that we have to tote the line, yeah? Like, I know. I mean, look, at the end of the day, I'm gonna, I'm, if we have a job opening, we're gonna open up to everybody. And if a guy, I don't care what you look like, smell like, who you pray like, I don't just, just get it done,

Speaker 1  13:52  
yeah, yeah. Be a good worker. Like, be a good yeah.

Tim Cox  13:55  
Just Just, just be it. I just think that, you know, in this space for what? And I'm still trying to put my hand on it, on the why that almost every Lori halter, you know, we've said all the, you know, a few names, but, but it's almost in every since situation that they've given an opportunity. They've a door to walk through. They've not walked it down, they've kicked it down, and then they continue to kick doors down. And I just think that, you know, I look for that and when, when we're hiring people of that person again, no matter what they look like, but, but it just seems like they just continue more and more and more. And I would just, I want some, some insight on how to recruit those type people, because they do such an amazing

Laurie Halter  14:44  
job. Yeah, I love this idea, too. And another, let's talk about another amazing female, Kaylee filio, you know of parts edge. I love her story, because this is exactly what you're talking about. Tim, she was found and recruited in a subway. She was working at Subway when she was recruited. It into parts edge. And so it's really along the same lines as what you're talking about. I think look for leadership anyway, anywhere, and the leadership qualities are like that, you're going to get it done. I think for me, I like when I'm I have a team as well. So when I'm hiring, I love someone who's like, I'm going to get it done. No matter what. Like, we will figure this out and get it done. And so I think whether it's male or female, like that whole, can do attitude, yes. And also, let's not discount, like, enthusiasm, right? Like, I'm a big, big attitude person. Like, yeah, you come with the right attitude. I can train you for the job, but I can't train for attitude. If you have a if you have a terrible attitude, and you're poisoning the team. It is time to get rid of those people immediately.

Tim Cox  15:45  
Yeah, I mean, that's, that's, that's the main thing. I mean, you have, you can't, I don't want to say you can't teach it, because I think you can. I think, you know, they wrote in a book a long time ago, and I talk about it in here all the time. Be transformed by the renewing of your mind. I talk about Ben Carson when you know, who ran for president, and he's a, you know, neurosurgeon, and all the great things he did, you know, in fifth grade, they called him Dummy, like they literally call it. Called him Dummy until he, you know, his his surgeon, yeah. And he began, and it was in the key is he's, you know, the keynote that I heard him say is, he said, Listen, I have the same brain. And I just decided that I wasn't going to be dummy anymore, and I found a passion for learning. So I do think you can, you know, people's circumstances in life, things happen to where they are, where they are, but there comes a point that people, including myself. Look the biggest you know, person that's usually in your way. Is you right? If you think is as you know, they also wrote in that same book as a man, think as so. Is he right? Yeah. So, you know, I think that that is so but, but the key is, as a leader, to provide a situation in a fertile ground for people to grow. Unfortunately, when we talk about the good, we have to talk about the bad. Automotive is full of a bunch of incredible people the and I'm not even going to start mentioning names, because then people get mad if I don't mention names, but I'm just there. But also they're they're full of people with Monster egos, with being, being the smartest people in the room, with, if it's not my idea, it's not a good idea, you know. And as long as people Ha, and if that's the, you know, the environment, or the garden, per se, that they're given to grow, then I would encourage those people to find another place to root, find another place to get down, because I tell you, and I tell this story for people that I know. There's a lot of you guys. I get the texts. I get the emails. Thank you for the great feedback. As Tim talks continues to grow. Thank you. This goes out to all, I mean almost 30,000 plus of our users, users of car now and then, obviously, our 17,000 followers on LinkedIn. But that being said, you know, the feedback has been good, but, you know, a lot of it is because of people can relate and they've had that situation to where they haven't had that environment. And I talk about, in fact, I was just texting with Sarah Sweeney at Jake Sweeney automotive. And Jake Sweeney Automotive is the group that hired me as a 17 year old kid, way back in 1989 and ice and I started out doing really well, and then the old guard started putting poison in my ears. Hey, how much money you make in, how many hours you work in you don't have a lie. And my sales manager, the guy's name is Dave. I literally went back to to Jake Sweeney corporate, and I told Sarah this story, and she walked me into one of, one of the guys that had been there back I mean, he was there in the early 80s. Hold on. But it wasn't him. Like I need, I said, I need to find this David guy. I said this guy saw me getting kind of picked on and bullied, and said, Tim, let's take a walk. It was no longer than a 10 minute conversation. Walks me up the hill, points at a house across the street and says, Tim, he said, You don't need to let and this is 37 almost four decades ago, and says you don't need to listen to the noise. You have so much potential kid. He said, you one day can afford a house just like that. I just got chills. I'm just telling you. It was a 10 minute conversation, amazing, if you want to start changing. And I was in a dealer group. I was at NAMAD this week, but the week prior, I poured into this, these, these, the leadership at a at a co my buddy store, Doug Wilson, who is also an incredible human and said, Guys, I'm literally talking about that 44 you know, 40 minutes, 40 years, 40 years ago. I said sales meetings are great, and they are and you can get, you know, people pop up and you can pass out spits. But you really want to change the. Culture, culture of your store. You need to have one on one time. You need to have walks. You need to you need to have a conversation and find out you know what's driving them and how you can facilitate. Because I tell you what the you know, the 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership. The two most are that are. My favorite is the law of attraction. Hey, something's going on there. Why are all these people leaving this dealership and going to this dealership or this company and going to this company? And then, number two, the law of duplication. And one of my proudest things is sometimes, unfortunately, you want to give everybody promotions, but sometimes, like with our company, there's nowhere to move up. And people that have done a great job, they leave because they want to move up. But there's people that are senior vice president of sales, vice president of sales, directors of sales, you know, and those people that were in that started out in sales position, so, so I'm kind of proud of that, not saying that we're, you know, perfect, but I think more people

Laurie Halter  20:55  
think that it goes back to what I was saying about my good friend Phyllis, like we're still friends 30 years later. And when I came to her and said, Look, I this is just not working for me at Chrome, any other manager may have said, okay, then it's time for you to go. She said, How can I help you, not, how can I help your position, not, how can I help the company? How can I help you get to the next level and get to something that you would love doing? So, like, I still see her all the time. I mean, she's, she's one of Is she still Chrome? Uh, yes, she was from Chrome. She's no longer there. She's okay, I'll say 30 years Wow. No, no, she's, she's no longer there. But, I mean, talk about powerful women, even back then, you know, 20 plus years ago, helping me find what I was meant to do, and she cared about me as a person versus me as an employee of the company.

Tim Cox  21:41  
Let me ask you this, what do you think? Obviously, you have your own company. What are some specific tips for that woman that is just breaking into automotive maybe that's an agency business. Maybe that's a vendor, you know, sales person or an account manager. Maybe that's a salesperson or a service advisor. What are some tips that you if you could go back and talk to you know yourself 25 years ago? But what would you give in a room of these women? What would you what advice would you give them?

Laurie Halter  22:16  
I think number one, just be assertive, right? And think like a leader from the very beginning, I meet a lot of women who are new in this who want to kind of stay quiet and think, Well, maybe I don't want to speak out because maybe it's wrong. No. Do you think any of the men at the table are thinking that way? They're not so like, I think use your voice be as bold as you want to. I think this industry really rewards females who are bold and who are assertive. You know, we can't feel like we can be pushed around because you you will be pushed around that attitude. So most of the women I know, and we talk about this a lot, the successful women I know in this industry, were bold from the very beginning. They thought their ideas were important, and they shared them at every turn. And were they always right? No, but what happened is people saw them and thought that one has leader, leadership possibilities, because at least she's sharing, brainstorming and being assertive with her thoughts and opinions. Awesome. Yeah? Really cool. Yeah. The other thing I'll say, and this is going to be a little, this is going to be a little contradictory, so sorry, too. The other thing though, is, I don't like, buy into this whole as females. I love females, I support females. But like, also, you have every right to be in that room. So let's not talk about women as like, let's help women. It's like, No, you're a woman who has every single right to be in this room and at this table. So I'd like to see a little more of that. And I know Carrie white, like, I know wokan, you know women in automotive, they really also support this idea of, like, you're an you're not a female executive, you're an executive, and you got the right to be here.

Tim Cox  23:54  
Yeah, yeah, no, that's, that's 100% true. That's, that's my point, based on the statement Yes, is they every, almost every term, the successful ladies that I've seen are just, they're killing it and doing a lot of better job. And I think if we just as business owners and we just as leaders, would stop thinking of people as women or as, you know, people that don't look like, you know, especially you know, I'm coming straight off a NAMAD, but I'm just telling you some incredible humans. But you know, it's the the old guard. You know, some of the old guard in just the world, not only automotive. I'm just playing for people to give people a shot, and if they don't, if they're not the right person, they're not right person. Not just try to fill a hole, because they're that person right like, if they're the right person, they're the right person. I don't. I literally could care less, you know what I mean? And that's, that's, I think, what we need to get

Laurie Halter  24:46  
again, like most of the women I know, who are where they are, don't want to be thought of there because they're female. No, they're there because they they're rock stars, and they got there on their own accord.

Tim Cox  24:56  
I think that's probably the biggest point that that has been made yet. On this 20 minutes that we've been talking I think that, you know, so not because of I'm a female or I'm this or I'm that, but I got here because I worked my rear end off and because I'm good at what I do, and because when there's a problem, I figure it out like that. Yeah, they're absolutely neat and that, and that's the way it should be. I think more of the message is it's not, unfortunately. So how do we fix it, correct, right? It's not. So how do we fix it? How do we make it better? So, yeah, very cool. What are you what are you seeing, just in automotive like, it, are there any trends are you seeing? Like, is there something that's exciting you that's up and coming? Like, like, talk to me about your world for a minute. Like, what are you excited about?

Laurie Halter  25:42  
Well, we just put out a research report, which is very cool about AI. And, I mean, I know everyone's ai, ai, ai, but I think what's so interesting, and there's this hole in the market, and like, it's gonna be fascinating, someone needs to fill it. During this research, we really found that what is being built a lot of times, and you'll appreciate this from Carnell. What's being built for dealers might not even necessarily be what they need. And so, like, we had a lot of dealers that we were interviewing for the AI research report that was like, they're they're building things that don't even solve our challenges. So what's exciting for me is, can we find a company I don't have time to grow it and build it, but maybe someone does. Can we find someone who can be the middle man between what the dealers need and what's being built? Like, how cool would that be, if it's just like you're actually building based on what the dealerships say they want, and that's that's out there. You know, a lot of product managers handle that, but I just, you know, from an AI perspective, it's just interesting. We've got this opportunity to build these amazing things within automotive, and yet we're not listening to one another,

Tim Cox  26:48  
right, right? That's, you know, I, you know, my partner used to tell me all the time, I don't have to be right, but one of us has to be right, right? So I think that you know what I mean. I mean seriously, I literally, I'm at the stage in my life. You go through stages, right? And I'm at the point in my life, and I've been here for several years like I don't care about being right does not have to be my idea at all. But let's just, you know, and that's how we land the plane. That's why we say no one's smarter than everyone. Let's just get better together. That's literally why we close every every podcast with that, because if people truly believe that, then things get done and things get fault. And quite frankly, that's how Carnell started, because I had an issue, because there was a dealer that moved into town that was selling bad Carfax cars and dirty car and car gurus was saying, hey, they're, they're, you know, and I was selling, I was one of the number one CPO dealers in the southeast. There was a bunch of stores in Florida that were beating me, but we were killing it in Atlanta, and CarGurus was telling them, now, they fixed it. Now, my friends at car gurus, be nice about Carver gurus. No, no, I'm being nice. But this is 13 years ago. They didn't have that. They didn't differentiate between certified and pre owned. And they were telling, you know, they were telling, you know, customers this was a great deal, even though it had two bad carfaxes and three hung fenders and paint work, and I had a CP, so I so I started filming videos, but I needed to get it to customers, so we developed the first SMS that had rich content,

Speaker 1  28:07  
which was amazing. That video in there. And then we when 2013 Wow, you were a lot of your time.

Tim Cox  28:14  
Wow. We were the first essence. We were the first company in any Too bad you can't patent software. I'd be talking, I'd be talking to you from the beach, probably, but in all seriousness, instead of, instead of Atlanta, but, yeah, first to do rich content, Chrome data. That was, you know, models, but, but that was our problem, and we fixed it. How do you get to customers? How do you differentiate yourself? So, so absolutely, you know, we don't have time now, but I like maybe talk to you offline about those issues. What you're hearing, yeah, because we're obviously delivering, you know, some AI tools that we just delivered, yeah, that we just enhanced. But I really believe you're taught you brought AI up. So I'll land on the plane here with AI. I really believe right now, and look, it's going to grow. I'm not pooping AI at all. But we're getting a lot of customers that have, that are coming back, that went to full AI solutions. And here's the reason AI right now, I believe, especially on the customer facing side, is a lot like the EV market. And I've said this for a year, if everybody in this country started driving an EV, we'd have a problem. Yes. Chart, we don't charging stations, power grid Bob, we can go on. It's a fact, everybody today could trade in their car for a hybrid today. So we believe in using and I really believe that's the answer you take, you know, a little bit of AI answer customers questions, blah, blah, blah, boom. Give them something, and then hand it to a person inside the store. And I'm seizing, you know, seeing closing percentage in the 30% but I would love to talk to you. All right,

Laurie Halter  29:38  
we can talk offline, but you're exactly, you're on the right track. It's how can we make this easier? Every dealer we spoke with said, how can we make this a better experience for our customers? That's how we work.

Tim Cox  29:47  
Yep, yeah, awesome. We are going to land the plane. Any final thoughts, my friend?

Laurie Halter  29:52  
No, I would just say I love meeting new people. I love hearing from everyone. So if you're looking for me, probably easiest way is LinkedIn. Look for Lori helter and. I just thank you so much for having me on. I love talking to you.

Tim Cox  30:03  
Tim, awesome, and I love talking to you. We are going to provide and if someone was to get a hold of your company, charisma, communication, how do they in fact, there's a link there, so my buddy Rob will provide that link with the podcast along with your LinkedIn, Rob is amazing, and I'm sure he will do that as he puts this as he puts this podcast together. No pressure, no pressure. It's a link. I promise you, he's done much more difficult things. I'm sure he can do that. Ladies and gentlemen, the one and only Laurie halter, one of my dear friends. She's my buddy. She's always fun to be around, not only fun, she knows her stinking stuff like she's one of the smartest people that I know in automotive and I truly appreciate her friendship and and I want to learn from her. So you should learn from her. Reach out to her, her LinkedIn and her company link is below in the comments, and listen, this has been another amazing 30 minute episode of Tim talks. Please join us next time. Hit the like button if you're listening to us on Spotify or wherever you're getting your podcast. As we continue to grow, we just wanted to serve people. So as I always say, no one is smarter than everyone will just continue to get better together. Hey, listen, we'll see you next time bye, bye.

Unknown Speaker  31:26  
You.