Auto Throws a Punch with Darren Doane

Paul Daly: 0:00Does anybody remember a guy named Matt Pinfield?Unknown: 0:09

This is Auto Collabs

Paul Daly: 0:11

MTV. Gosh,

Kyle Mountsier: 0:15

no couldn't pin the man cuz he asked him.

Paul Daly: 0:19

So he called there and don't today's guests, one of the most prolific directors of our time, Matt Pinfield was a big shot at MTV. He was the guy that everybody listened to, and looked at. And he was right in so many more ways than he even realized that the time because Darren has directed music videos, and when you add them up on YouTube, you get to the B's in views, billions. Wow. So we're talking about blink 182. We're talking about Jason Mraz. Kid Rock, right. Just the Zac Brown Band like that goes on and on. He actually launched the Toyota Tundra for for Toyota with Saatchi and Saatchi. And guess what? They shut down the chute for a day. Because he shot the truck while it was dirty.

Kyle Mountsier: 1:08

Wow.

Paul Daly: 1:09

So if you've seen a truck commercial that has dirt on the truck, and it's working like it's supposed to, it's because Darren was like, Are you people kidding me? What do you mean, we can't shoot the truck? When it's dirty? That's why people buy trucks. Like it's not a secret, right? And like they literally had a whole meltdown over this. Darren Dolan has a term called Doane-ing it

Kyle Mountsier: 1:27

Yeah, it actually wasn't him that said that I actually didn't know that. So it was a, I listened to the whole story, the backstory on it was he had a buddy that was that was on a shoot with him, and basically came up to him and looked over at someone else who was following his rhythm of like, shooting low cinematic, right, that feel that we that you and I get to know him. And he was like, Look, he's over there Doane-ing it. Right. And so like, then it's just kind of come and it's kind of come full circle. And I guess around like music. A lot of people know that that kind of phrase. But one of the things that I love, and I actually through this as I was heading here, because I knew we were going to be recording a ton of content. And we were going to be running hard at everything we're going to do today. This phrase stuck in my head. That was the part that was the first part of a podcast that he did, from his truck. Let no no no doubt, which most podcasters know is like death to a podcast because the audio Trumpcare audio through. And in at the end of that intro it he said, We are not precious here. And that phrase sticks with me. Because what it allows you to do is it frees you up to run and just go. And so that's something that we've taken to today as we're recording this segment, and a lot of other things that I think all of us have done through our legacy so far in automotive, you can call that a legacy, but like what we've already done is just hey, we're not precious. We're just going to go and we're going to start and we're going to press play and see what happens. And I think that that mindset is something that that anybody in business can take and run with.

Paul Daly: 3:11

Absolutely. We can't wait for you to meet. I have no idea what he's gonna say. But I know it's gonna be awesome. The rebel Doane-ing it Darren Doane

Michael Cirillo: 3:19

right here on the fact checker podcast check

Darren Doane: 3:34

Cirillo feels like our Seth Rogen. I don't know why. Oh, that's my

Michael Cirillo: 3:39

gosh.

Kyle Mountsier: 3:41

His dreams just came true.

Paul Daly: 3:43

Is like No, no, no, this is like Seth Rogen and Joe Rogan in one person. That is Michael Cirillo. Joey Sefton.

Michael Cirillo: 3:55

So funny story. This is years ago. And by the way, this is the first time I'd ever heard the reference. So I'm walking through a Brookstone in the Colorado airport. And the staff is following me around the kind of a kiosk and I'm, you know, I'd look and they'd be like, ooh, burritos stocking shelves. And, and so as I'm leaving the store, Sir, sir, sir. You're not Seth Rogen, aren't you? And I left I was wearing like a Newsies kind of cap. And I'm like, bro, you're like, Yeah, we thought you were preparing for roll. I'm like, I'm four and a half feet shorter than Seth Rogen for starters. But I never heard this I posted on Facebook. I'm like, Guys, you'll never guess what happened. And everyone's like, holy crap. You do look like Seth Rogen. I've done hiring interview. I'm not kidding you. I do hiring interviews. I'm like, Okay, any any questions from you? They're like, somebody told you look like Seth Rogen. This has now been going on for years and years and years. I've never

Paul Daly: 4:51

heard that. And Darren just nailed it right out of the gate.

Darren Doane: 4:54

Yeah, and funny enough, I was in the movie Newsies, and he just made a Newsies rep where, you know, yeah. Yeah, that's just I was that's where I met Christian Bale. My first short film was with Christian Bale because I

Paul Daly: 5:06

was, this is how every Darren Doane conversation goes. I was Yeah,

Darren Doane: 5:10

I was because my dad was in the film industry. So he, I'd be, I'd go do a little extra stuff growing up with my dad. I'm 19 years old, and they are making Newsies. I get a call from central casting. And they're like, hey, we need some extras for a movie. And I was like, 19, I was like, I'm a director now. And he goes, I don't do extras. Exactly. He calls back three months later, so I'm even more broke at that point. And he goes, Look, it's pretty funny. He goes, it's 45 days of work. I'll pay you 165 A DAY PLUS meal penalties. I was like, Oh, I'm in and then I used that money in that meeting. Christian Bale on the set and made my first short film, blah, blah, blah. But yeah, I'm in Spot's gang. I'm a featured extra slash dancer in Newsies. So nice.

Paul Daly: 5:55

My girls watch that show all the time. What were in the movie, are you

Darren Doane: 5:59

I'm in spots, gang. So I'd have to show you, you know, widescreen version helps. Literally, if it's if it's the TV version. Or cut out. I was always like the edge cringe my butt. Yeah, I have. Okay, so I have a close up on and we're off and we're off to the races again, I get a close up on and we're off and I get the background. And we're off to the races.

Paul Daly: 6:26

So when was the last time you did any of those dance parts?

Michael Cirillo: 6:31

You talked about how he gets out of bed in the morning.

Darren Doane: 6:33

I mean, you know, I mean, I'm funny. Again, I don't like this whole show. But who

Paul Daly: 6:38

knows, like funny story. So I was hanging out. I was Brando.

Darren Doane: 6:42

I'm an extra one. I got a Brando story. But I got an extra and I'm walking. We're at the Paramount or the universal backlot. And I'm walking and someone yells from one of the fake alleys they say, Hey, you got 20 minutes left if you want to get a massage, and I was like, I was like, Okay, and so I go down and massage tables out. They thought I was a dancer. The dancers got massages all day. So I jumped into a massage. But from that point on, I kid you not, I then have to act as a dancer, or the rest of Newsies. So I can keep getting massages. So I just made my way into like the dance. You know, so

Paul Daly: 7:23

Oh, my gosh, this is not how I expected this interview to start. But you honestly, I never have many expectations other than I have no idea where the conversation is gonna go every time we whether it's just a quick phone call, or we're recording for a podcast. Darren, thank you so much for giving some of your time today. I know you're just kind of got this whole Ty Pennington vibe going on right now the shiplap behind you. And the V neck, which is a new, it's a new look for you, which I really appreciate. But let's bring it back. Bring it back versus we're serious podcast brought to you might need to look today. Today. He's the new Darren Doane you can see about ASOTU CON. Um, let's talk for a second about let's bring back automotive industry. Okay, because our audience is primarily automotive. You have so many relationships with business owners in so many industries across the country, from pharmaceuticals, to filmmaking, to surfing to pro gaming, like the whole gamut. Yeah. What are some of the similarities you're seeing across the board? And you know, maybe ones that you think would probably be relevant to retail auto?

Darren Doane: 8:29

Well, first, I was blown away on the post that you guys had about Best Buy. I and I shared that

Paul Daly: 8:37

tire hiring the best buy employees?

Darren Doane: 8:39

Yeah, no. I mean, Michael, did you see that post they gave on if you saw that post they gave on that, but it was I mean, I thought that was so follow these people. Yeah, I know. And that's why I wanted to cue that up.

Kyle Mountsier: 8:52

Come across. I knew I knew before we started.

Darren Doane: 8:57

I was like, where am I? How do I get here? But no, I think that is I think audio again, I've always what I love about the auto industry. And what I've loved the last couple of years is it's been what I'm noticing is it is becoming one of those industries that it turns out, isn't going anywhere. And the opportunities that continue to grow within automotive because ultimately Automotive is the real estate business. And it turns out when you own real estate, you can pivot, not just pivot, you can flip flop, you can say you know what, we're doing this for the next year or the next six months, or we're doing this or we're doing that and so to me what's happening in automotive is much like we talked about social media and content communication. Every single thing is on the table. And what's great about the DNA about automotive is the DNA Within Automotive is so wacky that they're down for well, they're I mean you think of the old school get I've got a Southern California so for me it was Cal Worthington on cow Worthington come on down. There's a lot. They got balloons and they got giraffes walking around. You know, I grew up in the 70s, my dad worked on a film called used cars, which was to me, it was like a classic growing up used cars. It's just amazing. And but it was wild use, like, the automotive industry is still wild, like the automotive industry in the age that we live in, still has to stop throw like it's, it's, it is still the Wild West. And so now that no one knows what's going on. The people that are going to win in any industry are going to be the ones that are like, let's try it. Like let's, you know, watch my language here. But let's just go let's do this. And in the automotive DNA is it's wild and they're down for anything.

Paul Daly: 11:00

Right disagrees. Kyle disagrees, you

Darren Doane: 11:03

think of Kyle.

Paul Daly: 11:06

Kyle's like forget this.

Kyle Mountsier: 11:08

You know what I think he left the podcast,

Michael Cirillo: 11:10

I left the Logitech I'm out.

Kyle Mountsier: 11:12

I came back because I got this from someone. Just a few years back, she was an employee of mine. And she was like, this is exactly what like being an employee of yours is like, but I think it's actually the automotive industry. If you can't see, it says, it says you don't have to be crazy to work here. We'll train you. And that's like automotive, like I see people come into automotive. And they're like, Okay, I'm gonna be a professional salesperson. And by like two months in, they're like, this place is crazy. And all the sudden, like four months in, they're just one of the gang. And there's this, there's this grit and this energy that happens, whether you're at a store, or you're at an industry event. And like it is, it's a

Darren Doane: 11:56

walk, by the way, and I can't wait, I can't wait here, Michael on this. But I'll just add this, when things are ultimately fueled by a ton of money somewhere. Things can get wild, because at any given point for it to succeed, they can just turn that tap on. And any kind of industry where you can turn the tap on and just kind of get get it can get wild, you can try things and to me that is those things is still what makes automotive just incredibly perfect right now.

Michael Cirillo: 12:26

I was gonna say I love where you went with that. Because I mean, we've interviewed individuals like Damon Lester, who just bought his first store. And that was one of the things like there's so much doom and gloom out there. Like, save everything the walls are falling in. And he's like, I'm an accountant. Like, I'm, I'm into the forensics of money. And I think now's a good time to get into the business. I think, Kyle, if you correct me if I'm wrong, but I think he even said something about like a 20 and 30 year gameplan. So so now you saying this, it just really creates a nice reference point to say no, there's a lot of opportunity here. But then I also started thinking about our own human nature, which like, there's a lot of narrative in the industry about the doom and gloom and oh, this new thing and rapid change, you know, who else said rapid change Henry Ford. And like every 10 year generation after that, like, we have this, this tendency as human beings to be like, well, but if it's happening to me for the first time, it must be the first time the change has ever happened. And it's uncomfortable. It's like, Dude, you're not that special. So calm down. Yeah,

Paul Daly: 13:29

there's you said things. Go ahead and respond to that.

Darren Doane: 13:32

Well, I'll just say it's like, it's like, that short term memory thing. It's like everyone, you know, every summer everyone's like, boy, this is a hot summer. Like, I'm pretty sure last summer was hot, too. It's just weird in a place where there's actually a winter and everyone's like, boy, this winter, and you're like, Oh, I came from Southern California last winter seemed just as cold and I was a lot of snow this year. And so it's

Paul Daly: 14:02

so true. Oh, man. So you said you said things get wild, right. And you and Kyle talking about like the Wild West and kind of the East industry, it's still has testosterone, there's meaning there's just like a lot of energy. And there's a lot of kind of proactive, hunting and gathering and proactive maneuvering and positioning constantly. It's a constant basis, you have quite a bit of involvement in an industry that seems similar to me. And I'll put them together in a second. You have individuals who can play a really tough ground game, right every morning their sales meetings. Every day. They're meeting customers face to face every day. They're dealing with hundreds and 1000s. And across the industry, probably millions of people and service drives coming through and having problems with their cars and dealing with facilities and regulations all day long, right? Just pounding the ground game, face to face, nose to nose, bayonet. The bayonet kind of mentality, right? Obviously, with customer service in mind. But then, and then you start to go up, and you realize the leadership is getting increasingly more sophisticated as time goes on because of technology because of a more connected world. And so you have like the Brian penstocks, who, you know, who will Saturday morning be fired up the sales team, talking about leadership and development, and having grit and doing what it takes to get the job done. Meanwhile, he's traveling Europe, having wine with some of the most sophisticated international business people, he's at the highest levels of conversation, he can keep up with anybody on just about any topic. And I look and you're involved in the metal recycling business, right, which some people would say is scrapping? Right? But those are some of the most sophisticated business people, once you get to know them, and you see them. Why do you think those similarities exist? Like, what do you see between the two of those? Because you know, you know, the recycling business really? Well. You know, Otto, quite a bit better than you did a couple of years ago. Yeah. Like, what do you what do you take from all of that?

Darren Doane: 16:08

I mean, and again, and I, and it's hard to articulate, I'll do my best. But there's something about the people in both industries. Again, it's hard to explain. They can look at 20 acres. And they could say, let's put a lot here. And then we're going to ship in X amount of cars and cars are big. And then there's transportation, and there's like, all ended up you know, and it doesn't faze them are in the recycling industry. It's also kind of construction demo all that they could be like, Hey, let's get rid of these 10 buildings, we should level it. And then we should put the in there driving in these massive machines. Everything is big. When you get around people who deal with physically big items. And things that require transportation and moving and and Earthmovers. There's just something about those types of people, honestly see the world as this massive play box. And they're not afraid to do literally big things. That is the one thing that I see in both industries. They're just, there's nothing small, because you can't think small, even a small print dealership is massive and the logistics involved. Back to the DNA of it. It requires big, we're not scared, like the the average human beings like oh, I want to do something to my house, I gotta go get a permit at the city. And that's gonna take forever. And what if they don't let you know? What if I What if they find out I did the deck, I did it myself. I permit scare people and people in big industry somehow or like get permits to take down entire cities. The average Joe is like, I just got pinged

Paul Daly: 18:01

by randomly is two inches too short. Exactly.

Darren Doane: 18:05

And you guys are like moving entire, like suburbs? Like it's in a reroute, right? Right. It's just like, you know, it's like the mat, like, they've got all the orange cones, they can go wherever they want with their orange cones, shuts down stuff down.

Michael Cirillo: 18:20

It's a game of Sim City to them.

Darren Doane: 18:23

So that's, that's what I see.

Kyle Mountsier: 18:27

I mean, I literally know a dealership that the streets got built around the dealership footprint, right? Because because that was the only way that it was gonna happen. Right? So you have those types of things. You know, when I think about this, like thinking big mentality, when when you talk to, you know, like, this morning, we're having a conversation on an app called clubhouse with a bunch of dealers, and the conversation that someone from cars.com goes, well, you know, when you go to the bank, and you're looking to go from a floor plan of like, one or $2 million, you've got to be ready to if you're going to require this inventory to go to, you know, three to $5 million. Just and that's just the numbers thrown around out or right. It's like a matter of fact, thing that to grow your floor plan expenses just increased by millions of dollars, you know, for a single rooftop franchise. And when you think about that, like the whole of the auto industry is big. But that's a single that's like, the general manager of McDonald's being like our scale is going from three to $5 million. Now, they're not the same footprint. But it's like the franchise mindset is not the same as any other industry that is in a franchise mindset. Right, right. Yeah. Yeah. It's, well, we're

Michael Cirillo: 19:44

the average person's conversation is walking out of a Costco with diapers and tub of peanut butter, wondering how they spent 300 bucks. So it's, like hard for them to wrap their head around how big the influence and how big the opera Trinity actually is

Darren Doane: 20:02

Michael in my grade point, dude, because Because wrapped up in there as well is then also the ability for people to take hits, right because the person walking out of Costco, they kind of take that hit but then they're kind of like man to really take advantage of Costco I need another freezer, but that freezer is going to come snack right? And for them though, but they're kind of working through that, but that's a hit. And then you kind of you buy the freezer and you got more room and you're kind of making the Costco work for you. Now, you're learning to take hits. On the other side, these dudes, when they take hits, it's like, I think we might get paying for 2 million I think we might get paying for 300 I do that. I think OSHA shows up you know, that's like that's a 360,000 I was literally I was visiting a facility recycling facility. And they're always getting paid for oil in the oil and water that the big thing water runoff all that stuff. Okay. They literally so that if but if you went to a an intersection anywhere and took a sample of the city water at any intersection, it's way higher, because cars stopped there and oil leaks. Right. So that's been broken all the time. But I just gotten someone they're like, Yeah, whatever department just showed up, throw a 180 180. They took $180,000 fine in the morning. Moving on. Because if you can take because to live in a world of 180. I mean, let's think about this. How much money you gotta have in your pocket. To not be bummed out to lose 180 bucks, I need about a grand. I got two grand in my pocket. And I can't find 180 out of that. I'm like,

Paul Daly: 21:37

Yeah, it sucks, but I'm fine.

Darren Doane: 21:39

Yeah, I'm okay. So you think of the numbers you got to play with. And I think that understanding that, that's the love I have for people that do big business is they start playing at a game where the multiples aren't just because they're bigger numbers. I love the hits that they take. I love watching my clients, you know, in the morning, we're about to get off and you see me on that phone call and their face just kind of goes down for a second. Take a breath and you go like what happened? It's like, I always say how much did you just lose 500 600. And you're like, I mean, like

Kyle Mountsier: 22:18

it's fun, it's fun. But here's the thing is if you can take like you're saying if you can take the hits like that, then you have the perspective of what you need to do, which is from like, a business perspective, the growth that you need to have. And then what that trickles down to is the people that you get to bring along with you. Right and so, like I talked to so many auto dealers, and they just they eat it up when their people are are making good money and taking care of their families and buy a new houses and getting their first brand new car, they eat it up as a culture. And I think that that's probably also the same in these other industries that like they literally it's like a high for them not to sell a car but a high for them to hear about their employee, getting like buying their first new house as a family that like gets them all excited. You say you see like social media posts. It's like my employee just bought a house. Epic, right? And that's a big that's that's a way that

Darren Doane: 23:17

that's again, that's that big mindset. That's that big mentality. People want people to win. Why not? A lot of other industries do that. You don't see any other industry being like, you know, Steve just got a promotion and look at the new car he bought. No one talks that way. That's what I mean by there's something about the DNA in the auto industry. That is about again, there is a sexiness because we're talking about cars, we're talking about identity, we're talking about brand, that just it just it spills over. And in a world where you would think it would have been banned by now. It should have been canceled. Every car dealership, everyone in auto should have been canceled, like 16 months ago.

Paul Daly: 24:07

That's an interesting thought I mean,

Darren Doane: 24:09

in yet. And yet the industry

Paul Daly: 24:13

was deemed an essential business. Yeah, and allowed to

Darren Doane: 24:17

because it turns out when there's a real fight it turns out when there's a real fight you kind of want those dudes that know how to throw a punch and the auto industry knows how to throw a punch.

Paul Daly: 24:29

Yeah, there's there is definitely we've been talking a lot about this cultural convergence that's happening around automotive right now. Where you have for the first time in a really long time automotive in the center of pop culture conversation because of EVs. So now it's in all the news outlets been you know, you have like an Elon Musk who who made is kind of like a cultural icon and entrepreneurial icon and Tesla's have become a status symbol right and you know, obviously the game is changing and shifting. And the fact that the industry has so much cultural implication now. But if you look a layer behind that, like you backup like three or four years, you realize the auto industry has incredible political leverage, because of the bigness of it, right? The largest retail industry, there's so many dealers and dealer groups that we know that are like, Hey, did you know we are the largest sales tax payer in Wisconsin?

Darren Doane: 25:32

And so swagger in that creates swagger, that there's no getting around that.

Paul Daly: 25:37

But you know, you know, there's there is there is a real and I think it's a divide divergence from the mentality of like, the stigma of auto dealers. And you've seen this, Darren over the last couple of years, as you've met a lot more auto dealers. There is a sophistication and a genuine, like, I don't, I don't even know, it's like a grassroots care for people. And it's the biggest misinterpretation of the auto industry that's out there in the stigma care for not not only the people that work for the dealership, but care for people in the community. And so like, there's like this, not a contradiction, like a counterpoint of like the ability to have the swagger on the one side. And then on the other side is like if you remove that, from culture, from the employment, culture, and firm community, everybody would notice they just don't realize it right now.

Darren Doane: 26:27

Well, and that that goes back to the recycling industry, the new project I'm doing with John Sacco called Repurposed. That's what that's what we're chronicling is that if you were to shut down recycling facilities, everything's done. The automotive industry is done. There. There would be no automotive industry, if you shut down recycling facilities across this country on Petia. He

Kyle Mountsier: 26:47

shared a stat about about EVs. It was on social and he actually shared about like, it was something something was it 70 or 80% of the metals, like surrounding an Eevee battery.

Darren Doane: 27:00

70% Well, first of all, 70% of all metal, all steel in America is recycled is from recycled material. Wow. 70 all

Paul Daly: 27:10

did you say all stole.

Michael Cirillo: 27:12

So what you're saying is we need to invest in steel recycling?

Darren Doane: 27:17

Well, people already have big business things. No, absolutely. No, this is what in much like how auto during the pandemic was like, well, there's no cars like, well, if so, and they went to service, right. And their service, double, triple quadruple the all the work everyone's doing as far as service. But that there are companies I mean, you got companies like John Deere, John Deere has their own foundry that they're bringing scrap in and they're and they're actually making parts here in America with recycled you know, because you that's, that's what you need. You can't you can't service the amount of metal that's needed every single day from a certain kind of metal. That's give me the plate on the back of something to automotive to rebar number, think of all the rebar in this country. It's about oh, the rebar like just that's that still comes from 70% recycled material, right? So all those cars, everything the shredders that are tearing apart cars, all that stuff. I mean, if you don't have the recycling industry, we don't have anything. But that ties but that all ties into this to this big group of people playing a big global game. This is a commodities game and vehicles are just commodities dish and fts. Michael is cars are NF Ts.

Michael Cirillo: 28:49

Oh, they absolutely Oh, yes. Yes.

Darren Doane: 28:53

Yeah, no, no, but you're right. I got

Michael Cirillo: 28:55

my own a gorilla picture.

Paul Daly: 28:58

Yeah, right. Well, that's, that's just collectibles, right? No, no one's taking that as their item to a desert island.

Michael Cirillo: 29:06

Right? So it makes sense, though. Because it's like, It's stuff you don't that on an average day to day you don't think about what you just like, how much rebar is running through not just this country, the world. Like, you know, and, and I think about you know, I have a team member. And she's like, I don't know why I thought about this, but just like, not too much prior to the to the pandemic, I invested in all these glass companies. And all my friends were like, you're an idiot. And then the pandemic happens and everyone needed glass to make the vials to make the shift the end. She's like, my portfolio exploded. What? That's exploded. I was like, dang. Now that's why I'm like I gotta get into battle. Yes,

Darren Doane: 29:54

no, and you and I'll and I'll hook you up with some really great ways to think about that off off. I have to show Michael but it really is like it is. You know, I'll give you one example on take CAS in the Bay Area, every single day at their, at their recycling facility, forget the big contracts with people just talking about what they call average sort of peddlers people that come in every day with a washing machine. They've maybe gone around the neighborhood, there's people that making that make a living, just picking up scrap all day long, and bringing it into recycling facilities. In one facility in the Bay Area, a place like cash recycling,

Paul Daly: 30:35

and that's ca s s s s. sponsor.

Darren Doane: 30:40

If you know, if you were

Paul Daly: 30:42

there, they don't need to, in the course

Darren Doane: 30:45

of five or six hours, you're you're gonna get the equivalent of five, six stories by 3040 yards of just scrap being brought in and appliances every single three to four hours. Wow. Oh, wow. And that's no one. That's no union, that's no organizations. Those are just individual people bringing appliances in scrap in their trucks every single day. If there's not a recycling facility, it's I mean, I remember what 1978 look like. I mean, people just dumped stuff, I mean people in now the speed at which that we are replenishing what we need and what we get. I mean, it is it would be Wally, we would be under stuff. But it goes to, but it goes to that mindset of the auto industry. It's people who see so much bigness and they go, I want a piece of it. I want to be able to control it, I want to manage it. I want to make money off it. I want to help people, I want to bless people, I want to grow from this. It's just a different mindset. It's big. It's heavy. It's shiny, you either love it or you don't. Yeah,

Michael Cirillo: 32:13

this is why I'm like, can we stop talking about how to sell cars? Because there's so much more to this. If I opened my office door and called my nine year old daughter and said what's a car dealers should be like, Dad, don't ask them questions. They saw cars. But to your point, there's there's an undercurrent that where there are moves moving so big. And all we can figure out how to talk about is how to move more metal, or like how to sell. You know, what's your f&i process. And I mean, don't get me wrong. I think all of that stuff matters. That obviously matters in the day to day. But I love how you're tying this this conversation back to in one breath. We're saying car dealers serve as a backbone to so much to community to, you know, Paul, you said politics there's a political aspect here. But if they're the backbone, how can we how can we can say that in one breath, and then in the other breath, have such top level conversations like how to sell more cars, like there's so much more going on here, which is one of the reasons why I love the industry so much.

Darren Doane: 33:19

I mean, think about this, I mean, look, the look, the average catalytic converter, right now we know about

Paul Daly: 33:27

we know knows all the sudden,

Darren Doane: 33:29

we know about the theft and all that stuff. But But forget that for a moment, you could have a piece of junk car sitting somewhere, right that someone would pay you to go scrap right now the Makita couple 100 bucks because of the scrap because in the scrap market, they're gonna get 567 100 bucks for it. So it's a good deal. All that works out. But now the specialty item of accompany like converter reclaim that takes that catalytic converter slices, it cuts, it has been very clear things. Now they're pulling out of that catalytic converter, palladium, right, palladium, diamonds, gold, but more importantly, about 1500 to 2000 bucks now of raw materials, for those that know how to move it on the market.

Paul Daly: 34:15

Who was the guy that was like I bet if we put all this stuff in here, real expensive stuff that will make the air cleaner.

Darren Doane: 34:21

Right? I mean, that's a whole other insane like how brilliant people can be right? But someone did that. And so study on all that stuff. But this comes back to where I think automotive has another look. I think once automotive begins to understand their relationship with the steel industry, with the recycling industry, with the metals industry. I think there's another opportunity there. Well, we

Paul Daly: 34:42

have a couple people on this podcast that might be able to put those things together. You know what I'm saying? And Dave Meltzer would be remissed we'd be remiss if we didn't get Dave Meltzer in on some kind of overlap agreement. Darren, as always, we could just sit here for the day Next two hours and solve the world's problem or at least make an attempt to change the world. You go drink some bourbon and do really good work today. But we're so excited to spend some time with you in person in one place in Philly at ASOTU CON. Thanks for giving us some of your time today. And we cannot wait to make some trouble together in just a few weeks.

Darren Doane: 35:24

I can't wait. So thanks, guys for having me. Michael. Great to meet you. I'm looking forward to I'm just a big fan of your faith at this point. So

Michael Cirillo: 35:32

shucks.

Unknown: 35:35

All right, are we done? Is that are we done?

Paul Daly: 35:38

That's it. We're supposed to take a really professional, look at the camera and stay there for two seconds Ready and go.

Michael Cirillo: 35:49

I don't know about the two of you. But I don't think I've ever had so much fun learning about scrap metal in my entire life.

Paul Daly: 35:58

Everything when you're Darren learning about everything is fun. Absolutely. Because he just he just finds a way to like punk rock it. And then all of a sudden you're like, oh, maybe that is the most punk rock thing I've ever heard of catalytic converters.

Michael Cirillo: 36:12

What are the chances that we would have a Newsies reference? And then he's just randomly like, oh,

Paul Daly: 36:17

I, I need to tell my kids about that ASAP. We're going in and we need to, we need to blow this up on the internet, we need to be like Darren Doane find him in the shot, take a photo tag him.

Michael Cirillo: 36:31

I mean, I have so many thoughts from that, that conversation. But I'm always intrigued by learning about kind of the sub floor to the industry. Like, by and large, you look at conversations in the industry, and it's like how to negotiate a car deal. And you're like, we're still talking about this and, and like to each their own, I'm not knocking it but but to have someone that's clearly thinking about the layer beneath those conversations, like what is actually making the ebbs and flows of this industry, I found incredibly intriguing. It

Kyle Mountsier: 37:00

blows my mind. Actually, I had a another side conversation with Darren, that, like the majority of things like brake pads in manufacturing, are made out of recycled metals. So like this connectivity between different industries that we're able to grab from people that are outside of our industry that are going Hey, zoom out a little bit. There's things that are impacting, like global economies that that Otto has, is really, really fun. And even to see, you know, and this is a little bit of an aside to the interview as well, but to hear from him, his experiences with like, retail or trading his car or selling his car. And I think he, you know, in the interview gave us some of those things where it's like, hey, look, the automotive industry, from my perspective, from the outside looking in, is like this wild, this big business, this large real estate sector that like that, like people should be paying attention to, but it's this unsung hero of just industry in America that we forget about because it almost becomes regular, but no these people are these are impressive people managing large amounts of real estate and inventory that we should be looking to for, for a lot more just in industry in general. His

Paul Daly: 38:28

perspective on like big things, people that like know how to do big things and and you know, it's the normal things of life are and things that may seem big to the typical person to them. And she's like, oh, yeah,

Unknown: 38:40

we could do that. Why not? Well, yeah,

Paul Daly: 38:42

we need to an even think of how that plays down to even like the charitable efforts of auto dealers. Oh, 200,000 backpacks. Yeah. Who are we We're on the phone with the psych. The the chairman or the president of the Philadelphia auto Dealers Association. He's like, Yeah, we give out like 200,000 backpacks. Yeah, we get them manufactured independently. So we get them all in, you know, so that we can actually do more backpacks and we fit the kids up our coats. It was coats actually a week to get the coats made. Like, logistically speaking. That's not an easy thing. No, but the auto dealers are like, yeah, sure, we can do that. Why not? Well, because it can be done. So let's

Michael Cirillo: 39:17

do it. Right. Yeah, I wouldn't be surprised if there's going to be like, some auto groups logo on the spaceship that's going to Mars and a couple of we are going to the moon in a couple of weeks. Really? Yeah. Going, going. Going to the moon again. No big deal. Whatever we got. I'm good. Yeah.

Kyle Mountsier: 39:37

Same time. It's actually the logo was done in Microsoft Paint by an eighth on the thing, right? No, not by eighth grader. Sorry, shots fired. Hey, look, if you enjoyed this conversation with Darren, you're gonna really enjoy meeting him in person and just follow his content because his insights are in credit. Will at all times. For Paul Daly, Michael Cirillo, and myself. This is Auto Collabs. We'll see you next time.

Unknown: 40:06

Sign up for our free and fun to read daily email for free shot of relevant news and automotive, retail media and pop culture. You can get it now@asoto.com That's ASO t u.com. If you love this podcast, please leave us a review and share it with a friend. Thanks again for listening. We'll see you next time Welcome to recording

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