Loyalty is BACK, Toyota Engine Captures Carbon, Small Biz Owners

Paul J Daly: 0:00

Good. Morning, everybody, it's Tuesday, two days until the Leap Year Day, I don't know why I'm excited about that. It's not considered to be a normal day. But today we're talking about loyalty is back Toyota engine that captures carbon and small business owner optimism. People really want to know, I tried to find what a definition of a small business was. It is the most ambiguous definition you can imagine.

‍Kyle Mountsier: 0:38

Smaller than Walmart. Yeah,

Paul J Daly: 0:40

I pretty much. I literally for the last story, I tried to find it. And it's like, depending on what industry you're in, then the total revenue number changes and the employee count changes. Really? Yes. Like it's not universal? No, no. So you can have a small business in one segment where your revenue is $30 million. And in another segment, that could cap out at like 4 million. Wow. And some small business and we like 15 employees and some it's under like, 1000. Before you go to midsize, it depends on the segment. Like that's kind of wild. Like if you're a dog walking business, I'm sure that like, you know, yeah, like, how

Kyle Mountsier: 1:19

do you have 900 employees and you're a small business right? Well, I'd

Paul J Daly: 1:23

be like Lucky You don't even want that walk in Beaver Toyota and tell me that's a small business, right? Yeah, all business. That's not

Kyle Mountsier: 1:29

a small business. There's no way but it's technically a small business. So

Paul J Daly: 1:34

I don't know. I don't even know how to define it. I got to the end. And I'm like, Well, we're just gonna do the story anyway. Yes. Hey, we got 77 days, until the soda con 2024 conversations ramping up partnerships ramping up big time. And like, you're gonna start to see a lot on social look, if you haven't gotten a ticket or if you haven't circled the dates on your calendar, do it right now. May 14 through 17th. With the main days being the 15th and the 16th. We have an insane keynote speaker to wrap up the event, we have a slew of so called a slew over 50 speakers and automotive every one, you're going to be like, I really want to hear what they have to say which by the chance is the most painful part of ASOTU CON it is

Kyle Mountsier: 2:15

the most painful we're going through speakers specifically. Yeah, and it's like you know, we're getting down to like that last few based on the number of slots and the number of places that we have to bring people to the stages and it's like oh, but we want oh no, but that no, but they need to come to it's the

Paul J Daly: 2:30

saddest part of my year I'll probably even put it that because like I know as we you and I have our hands all over like the orchestration of who is on panels together in sessions together we don't just throw people up there been part of those panels? No, this is like we're like who understands what about what where's the chemistry where's the conversation really going to be lively we put these things together meticulously and while doing so I know that I'm gonna miss two thirds of them absolutely gonna be in one place at one time

Kyle Mountsier: 3:01

ah so brutal brutal so much good content yesterday we had actually our highest ticket purchase and room purchase day on record so like it is picking up if you haven't got your tickets you've only got what 17 days to get the early bird pricing there are you know the main hotel block is not a massive block. So if you want to be at the hotel where the event is make sure and grab that soon you can go to ASOTU con.com forward slash hotels and grab your hotel there as well

Paul J Daly: 3:36

so please do that because the rooms are like what are they priced that like $180 We think

Kyle Mountsier: 3:41

it's like 190 with fees

Paul J Daly: 3:43

these are these are rooms that you're paying like four or $500 for in like it at other events so you want to be in other Yeah, they are they're awesome. If you're an industry partner and you want to be part of partnering sponsoring the event, we still have some openings left there they're starting to tick off now like all the sold signs are showing up. However, we also try to craft an experience for you the industry partner where you get to go we do a lot of the heavy lifting especially if you want like a booth or like a conversation room as we have them like we set it all up we get your branding on there the TV the network, drop the power it's all included on there. Your people show up and they're actually fresh

Kyle Mountsier: 4:21

ready to go

Paul J Daly: 4:22

beat before the event even Oh yeah. Which give everybody because you know we've been on both sides of the table about some news today oh, this is a good one owner loyalty is making your comeback. As General Motors and Tesla both lead the pack in the new s&p Global Mobility annual automotive loyalty report. GM captures the overall loyalty to manufacturer while Tesla has the top spot for overall loyalty to make. Tesla also walked away with this was surprising ethnic market loyalty to make that's a Tesla folks. Highest conquest percentage that makes sense that makes total sense Alternative powertrain loyalty to make that makes sense to because there hasn't been really anybody else to be loyal to for a while. But there will be really soon at a Ford F series, Ford F series topspot for light duty trucks GMC Sierra topspot for heavy duty trucks. And so here's the big deal after several years of declines in this, it's an analysis of 12.6 new vehicle registrations. Basically, this is the first time it's been above like back to 2019 level. So pre COVID levels. And yeah, so I mean, that's the thing. Well,

Kyle Mountsier: 5:33

I mean, it makes a lot of sense, because the the conversation actually I remember sitting with Amber Daniel, like two years ago at modern retail conference, and we were looking at some of this data. And the reality was that if nobody had inventory, you had to buy a car. And so you went where the inventory was not where you're not where you were brand loyal. So it makes sense that as inventory comes back, we start to see brand loyalty. It's a great opportunity for dealers to understand, hey, look, you can go back to customers potentially now that like were that that defected to another brand and go, Hey, look, we've got inventory again, come back to the brand. I would be looking that as like recon quest opportunities in your funnel, because there's a good chance those customers didn't actually want to defect. They just had

Paul J Daly: 6:24

to, they needed a car. That's a really good point. It's a really good point. Speaking, speaking of defecting segue, let us turn into like the quintessential defector. They're so polite about it, too. But Toyota has been working on an engine that's actually carbon, get this carbon negative. Wow, not carbon neutral, introducing a new carbon capture technology that actually cleans carbon from the air as you drive. So they've been basically pioneering this carbon capture tech in their gr Corolla racecar. So they're doing it on the racetrack, potentially making and engines, combustion engines, carbon neutral or even carbon negative. Basically, it's a hydrogen powered car that has a special filter system that filters the intake air and removes existing carbon. So we already know the hydrogen powered engine doesn't emit carbon, right, but it actually captures carbon without losing any energy, race track, obviously a great place to try this because they're all dialed into, like how can we get maximum energy to the wheels? So like, this is Toyota naoaki ito Toyota is project general manager says it's, they're optimistic about the future saying, quote, It is very early in development, but we're utilizing motorsports to speed up the development. So this is Toyota.

Kyle Mountsier: 7:42

Well, hey, look, motorsports has always been the place where these big brands start their technology, because it's a dedicated use case with an extremely skilled team. And this is this is exactly what I've been calling for Toyota that to do over the last three years is like watch out for them to come swinging was something that nobody saw coming and to be carbonate. This makes. Get Paul, like, we do this with water. We do this with everything in the world. We'd like to refine the earth materials that we have at our fingertips into better things. And so why not use cars that are everywhere to literally refine the air? Genius?

Paul J Daly: 8:26

I mean, gosh, it's so genius. It seems like science fiction, like nuclear fusion, right? Like it kind of happens, but is it happening in a usual way or a usable way? But hey, that's a new new texture the conversation and you know, maybe that's one of the reasons Toyota has been kind of closet bullish, maybe not so closet bullish on hydrogen. But I don't know I think the the alternative fuels thing is conversation definitely isn't over with EVs. Yep. What are we gonna do? Or how are we getting into this night got

Kyle Mountsier: 8:57

nothing speaking? I'm sorry, speaking

Paul J Daly: 9:00

to the beginning of the show where we alluded to segue that too far to that last one got

Kyle Mountsier: 9:06

way into it. Hey, when it comes to optimism about the economy, you know, it's small business owners like yourselves are leading the way showing resilience in the face of inflation concerns. According to the latest, CNBC SurveyMonkey small business confidence index, good one that lspci I don't know I just made those small business owners are remaining upbeat about the economic outlook is the index has reached its highest level since President Biden took office. So 33 35% express confidence in the Federal Reserve's ability to manage inflation, and 29% believe inflation has peaked. The survey reveals a 5% increase from last year and those rate in the economy as excellent or good, significantly, a robust 18% year over year improvement in economic optimism. Senior Research Scientist at Survey Monkey Sam Gutierrez said we're kind of seeing potential return around the corner in terms of small business optimism, which I'm all about, but I know some small businesses that have been optimistic the entire time. I

Paul J Daly: 10:09

know a lot of them and they all happen to sell the same thing. Cars. I look, that's one of the things that makes the American economy and America, I think so great is the fact that the opportunity lies with so many individuals on a daily basis, like what they are going to make of the situation that they've been given. You know, one of my one of my close friends, Greg, CO. CO senior says, if you talk about a recession long enough, you're gonna find yourself in the middle of one. Right. And that's kind of that mindset. And that mentality, I think, is is why auto dealers are able to regardless of what's happening, find a way through we were talking about I don't think it was on a podcast was just yesterday. And it was literally just about like no matter what happens, no matter what happens. auto dealers, specifically small business owning auto dealers, yep. They keep their head up, and they just there is no, there's no lose in the vocabulary, like we're going to find out how to it might be hard. And this is

Kyle Mountsier: 11:06

what through it. You know, it's interesting, because I was actually talking to someone who was looking at getting into like computer engineering development, things like that. And they said, Well, I'm not sure if I want to do that. I'm seeing all these layoffs. I just said like, I know of multiple small businesses in the automotive sector that are actively hiring. Yep. And and so I had jobs, business, good jobs. I think small businesses are actually the ones that are kind of floating the economy because of the energy that they have toward just like driving for success. And you see the headlines of the Shopify is the Google is the the metas laying these people off. But that's not the case that small businesses right now there is there's a need for hiring, especially in the auto industry. So hey, if you're not an auto industry, check it out. Because especially if you're a tech got some jobs

Paul J Daly: 11:57

on the hunt on the hunt. It's it is one of the things where it's one of the reasons that I don't read the news. I mean, I know that's might sound weird every morning, right? You and I have a zillion windows open, scouring a bunch of news, we get all the emails, and I literally skip the general news, the junk first, I'll end up catching up on it, probably some of it later. But I skip it. And I get to the auto news and I get to the other things because like what does that actually going to do for our day? Besides make you sad for something that doesn't even have your life? I know there's not Well we're glad you spent a few minutes with us here today. We hope we calibrated you a little and just least let you know there's other people thinking the way you think doing things the way you do. So get out there, sell some cars, build some tech and love a few people while you're at it. We'll see you tomorrow.

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