Chip Shortage on Mend, Metal Resources Questioned, & Get You Some Gas

March 7, 2022
This is the time when leaders lead. The news is riddled with talks of conflict, oil prices, and chip shortages. We talk through what it looks like to lead a team when this is what they are experiencing outside of your walls. Also, we are gearing up for NADA Show and hope you join us by following the livestream schedule at ASOTUnada.com.
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Social Platforms & Netflix out of Russia

  • TikTok bans uploads
  • Russia cuts off Twitter & Facebook

Oil at highest since 2008

  • US avg over $4/gal
  • Talks of Banning Russian oil imports

Chip Shortage related inventory issues decline

  • Cuts were lower than expected

Russia/Ukraine conflict could have massive impact on EV Supply

  • Metal resources from both countries
  • Rising cost of Lithium: price 2x in 2022 from year end 2021
  • Russia’s Norilsk Nickel provides 5% of Nickel and 40% of the Palladium and has yet to be sanctioned

SPEAKERS

Kyle Mountsier, Paul Daly


Paul Daly  00:32

Good morning. This is the week. It is Monday, March 7, after 24 months, a pandemic, all kinds of stuff. We're coming back to nada this week. But we have a lot more to talk about. So let's get into the Monday get a little bounce going. Let's do it. people want to know, when they see me, the people really want to know if Kyle they stop and stare when they see you.


Kyle Mountsier  00:55

That's, you know what, you know what's so interesting about that is that, hopefully this week will be exactly what we're doing all week is like, people really want to know, what are they doing over there? And they keep staring at us like we're real goofy, and up to no good now. 


Paul Daly  01:14

True on both accounts, typically speaking. So, look, this is a week that we've been looking forward to for a long time. And it's just ramping up in its intensity on Wednesday, Thursday, 10s of 1000s of automotive industry professionals are going to converge on Las Vegas, is it Nevada, Nevada, what do you say? Nevada, Nevada, Nevada? I think we had we had this debate in my house last night, and I couldn't even remember what I usually said data data, right? I thought you'd be in Nevada cuz your data guy? I don't know. I don't know. But 10,000 Las Vegas, Nevada. Yeah, there we go. We'll give it that we'll call it that all coming together. It's been a really, really long time. And we have decided to go beyond all in pun intended for Vegas. We are bringing a huge production crew, we have plans for multiple live streams every day. So if you're going to be there, look for us, we're going to be out front of the convention center where everyone's coming in in the morning, we're going to make a little bit of a scene we have a bit of an announcement to make on Saturday live and in person, we're gonna have a lot of special guests, dealers that you know, and that you'd really want to meet. So be looking for us as you come in the gates in the mornings, but we have what 12 live streams planned, Kyle, how many?


Kyle Mountsier  02:24

 I think actually 1313 between Thursday and Sunday 13 live streams from speaking engagements to all things us cars on Friday to morning, midday and nightly updates. And then who knows we might live stream just I don't know. Like we could break records this weekend. 


Paul Daly  02:43

I think I think we need the live stream from the stadium. Oh, yeah. Here's the deal. We're bringing a huge production crew, we have bought more audio gear than you could potentially imagine. Like, we have all kinds of stuff. We have zillion microphones, we found ways to connect audio gear to phones. And so we can, you know, bring you the news. If you can't go to NADA, go to ASOTUnada.com and it's going to have the schedule, and it's going to have the list. And this is the one to share right share this page with people get on the email list. Because we are going to try to make you feel like you got all the best parts of nada even though you couldn't go it has never ever been covered like this before. And it's our goal, right to bring it to the people. 


Kyle Mountsier  03:28

Exactly, no. And I love it because especially coming from the dealership side, like you can't go to all these things you can't go every year. Right. And so to be able to bring some of that energy, excitement, even just the news, you know, the understanding, I always thought about, like, all the dealers are getting the email, we're announcing this at nada, we're doing this at na da Right. And, and there's some of that where even if you can't go you're like, I really want to know about that. Yeah, now I'm gonna have to wait till my salesperson calls me two weeks later, I finally get someone on the phone because they're out of nada time, right. And now you might be able to get some of that like, on on tap, like right away. 


Paul Daly  04:07

Yeah, and you can follow hashtag. So to use the hashtag asoto on social platforms, you're gonna try to tag them on everything. So the content shows up, because we're also bringing editors. So we'll be have the live stream content, but we're gonna be shooting and doing interviews all day, every day, and be trying to bust out that content really quick, in an edited fashion. So you can say like, we're going full network mode, during NADA. We're gonna do our best. It's our first time. We're trying to try to bring it to you. As best we can. We're going to be at the auto news retail forum. We have press credentials for that the day before on Thursday. So we're going to cover that show. It's the 40 under 40 We're going to be hanging out with some good friends that you will recognize there will try to bring you all the good stuff. And so now's the time to share the email right if you're on the email list, you're already in the best place to understand get everything ASOTU.com sign up for the email list. Get your friends on it because this is going to be our biggest effort to date. We'll see if it's our best effort today, but it's our biggest effort today. Kyle you're wearing a new T shirt for the people. This guy? 


Kyle Mountsier  05:07

Yeah, look at this guy, if you can see it. So if you can't see it, you need to go to shop.asoto.com and check it out. But it is a shirt that has three different pronunciations. We'll, we'll call it but they're all the same. We just don't really know. You know, if there's a linguist out there that can help us with this. We'd be grateful for it. But there's, we basically got three different ways to pronounce. ASOTU, which is all just ASOTU. And then it's got the little like, if you if you're on if you're on the Twitter, the little shrug guy, right? 


Paul Daly  05:40

Yeah, like is it? Ah, asoto? Is it you? Ah asoto. So we had a heated debate about it. So we decided to make it into a t shirt, and so called rocking that this morning. So it was my birthday last Friday, amazing birthday wishes for everybody from everybody. Thank you, I'm still trying to catch up in my LinkedIn because when someone just clicks that little happy birthday button, it goes right into your DMS. So it's like making your way through that is not an easy thing. But so I went home and we celebrated a birthday with my family. And, you know, my kids made me some birthday gifts, right? And so and the ones that made me birthday gifts were both 12 and 10, respectively. And this is going to show you that my kids understand what's important to me. And for all of you that watch or listen, you're going to understand that this isn't just like on the live stream. Paul, right. Here's what my 10 year old made for my birthday. 


Kyle Mountsier  06:26

Yes, it is. If you're listening, it is a handpainted no crisis can win with a dot dot dots every after every word like like no crisis  can win, right? 


Paul Daly  06:41

Because they know that I believe that and I love that. And then my 12 year old made me this origami, origami black hat. It looks it's not quite a flat brim just because you can't do the origami. And then she made interchangeable labels. So there's my ASOTU Hat No, and then I can pull the ASOTU label out and then here's my contagious hat. No way and then here's my clarity hat with the proper sizing if you're not seeing this on the live stream this is going to be worth it and then last but certainly not least, is my eagles. Eagles look all the same, like I always talk about trying to be the same person on camera off camera on the internet not on the internet. That was for me it was like my kids know it's important so we live this Kyle that even those kids didn't make him oragami hat Yeah, cuz it's not your birthday. But um, you know we today we're gonna talk about some stuff when to start the show off a little 


Kyle Mountsier  07:34

Hold on your second hold on because we because speaking of the no crisis can win. Segue if you saw on Friday, or listening to the podcast, you heard that we got the shirts in and I was wearing the the new no crisis can win shirt. Well, my mom was in town actually. And she saw the boxes in the living room with the with all the shirts. And she was like, I'd like a shirt. And so I'm showing her the shirts and push back and it's no crisis can win. And it's the sad thing. She's like, what's that no crisis can win thing me. And I explained it to her how like, we just believe that it doesn't matter, especially in automotive, it doesn't matter what's coming up, whether it's chip shortage, or Ukraine conflict or COVID, or, or any other market influence. We believe that when dealers band together, no crisis can win, and she looks at me dead in the eye and goes, I want that one. Right? That's right. And I think well, she's not in the automotive industry, right. But that is a universal truth that if we push back on that if we if we band together on that, meaning that it's not just so much when dealers band together, it's actually when people band together when people get together and get on the same page and push together. No crisis can win. And that's it's a universal actual message feeling. 


Paul Daly  08:53

It's a feeling. Yeah, right. It's an empowerment. Well, that that's great to hear that especially come from someone outside the industry, and like to connect with that, because, you know, everything all eyes have been on the Russia, Ukraine conflict, all eyes have been on supply chains. All eyes have been on, you know, all these uncertain things, gas prices, and so we're like, what are we talking about this morning? And we're like, it's all Russia. Like, what good can we talk about, you know, um, you know, so we have some things you know, if you look in the show notes every day, there are links to articles that we've curated that we're talking about. So you know, talking about Netflix and Russia pulling out talking about oil hitting high prices, talking about the chips shortage and a real interesting one, too. There's a there's a nickel, a mining company in Russia. What are they called Nautilus, Nautilus nickel, and they actually their mining operations account for 5% of the world's nickel and get this 40% of the world's palladium. That's 44 Zero. So that's an automotive rights catalytic converters, but a little thing called semiconductor chips need palladium. They're one To the Russian companies that have yet to be sanctioned, the oligarch that runs it hasn't been sanctioned, the company hasn't been sanctioned. And like there's a little bit of a chokehold moment here, it feels like, right.


Kyle Mountsier  10:12

 I mean, it's just, it's almost like up. At this point, I kind of come to expect it right. Over the last two years. I actually I was run out warning. I was running this morning. And the news was the pandemic basically, like started in the US exactly two years ago. And so now, like, when I read the news, when I see something like this, I'm like, yep. That it's almost expected that disruption happens, right? Or that something interesting in global leverage is of note to not just the little thing, right? Every little thing. Right? Right, Ben? 


Paul Daly  10:50

They comment Ben? Oh, that's not the one. Only a matter of time. True. Robert. Ben comments. Lithium needs nickel. Yeah, we did talk about that. A little something called Evie batteries. Batteries, we think we're gonna need more batteries. 


Kyle Mountsier  11:01

Yeah, the the the price of lithium is 2x. In 2022, alone from the year end price in 2021. It's Rex. Like you said, though, like expecting it to happen. 


Paul Daly  11:14

You, you maybe you know this on my wall real big across for me. It says we don't expect it to be easy. And I think that today Well, today we've said like, let's talk about leadership, what leaders do, right? In times like this, because what good can we bring to this news, right to this constant barrage of like these things that you've said today, like, we've come to expect that something is going to happen, and not only expect like little things, but these are, I mean, any of these little pieces of news in and of themselves, like five years ago, would have been seismic, right? On Fire, people running around, right, like that gift. Ah. But now, it's there's an element of becoming, you know, a little battle hardened to the fact that like, hey, No Crisis Can Win. Like, we saw that in one of the most intense things ever happen to United States commerce and the world at stake, but United States, right, we shut down the economy, right? Guess what, the crisis didn't win. What and I would say everyone in our community and probably in the in the industry at large would be like, we're so much stronger than we used to be. 


Kyle Mountsier  12:21

Right? We we we buckled down we batten down the hatches learn from what we could and I mean, I was listening to Brian Kramer on clubhouse this morning going, it was an accelerant for him to totally shift his way of doing business in the showroom, and and on the internet, right to refine the practices to dial in the processes to get the right people on board to execute the change management because people are already used to starting to get used to changing literally every day. So you've got a target rich environment for change management. Yeah, right. Oh, no doubt. And so what leaders do in times like this, what really this is, what I would say is, is a real leader doesn't push it to the side and say it isn't happening. A real leader walks into work today. And goes, guess what, I know that everything that you got over your weekend, whether that was Saturday, and Sunday, or just Sunday, or whatever it was, a real leader walks in and goes, I know that that's a reality for you in your life. Let's connect that to how it works within our business, and how you can be empathetic to those people around you, your co workers and empathetic to the people that you come in contact with today, that our customers across the line, because everyone's dealing with the same news barrage, whether it be in their Twitter feed, their you know, their their linear TV, wherever everyone's dealing with our 


Paul Daly  13:35

family conversations, people send in messages and family text threads all.


Kyle Mountsier  13:40

So real leader is empathetic to the people that that person that that you lead, and you lean into it, instead of pulling back or shoving it to the side, recognizing that everybody is having that human element. And adding the human element to it actually makes it an accelerant for better things without a doubt. 


Paul Daly  14:02

You know what happens when you come in and you say the obvious and you state the thing that people might be coming in, and like they're all buttoned up, it's time to go to work. And I'm going to log into my CRM, and I'm gonna start my thing, or I'm a service advisor. And when I log in, I'm gonna start checking my appointments, and you kind of go into like, autopilot mode, that all those emotions and all those thoughts and feelings that have been building up inside you, those anxieties, they don't go away. Don't write that you just suppress them, and you smash them and leaders, your people are suppressing and smashing it and you can totally choose to be the relief valve this morning. And what would it look like if coming into work for your team meant a lighter load and not a heavier load? What does that do for your business for the way you serve customers for the way your people can depend on you? What does that do? So I mean, we wrestled over like, what do we talk about this positive news this morning? Right? What do we talk about? Because all the news headlines and everything we curate seem to be doom and gloom. Well, this is the difference This is why the automotive industry really does I believe embrace, no crisis can win. That's it.


Kyle Mountsier  15:07

I'm encouraged. And I hope that if you're listening, if you're watching that you're encouraged that the human element of our experiences whether business or relationships does not disappear. When crisis has come in, whether it be Ukraine or chip shortages or nickel shortages or anything like that in the news that you're seeing and your people and the people that are around you, whether you're, whether you're in leadership or not, you have an opportunity to lead today and leading into the humility and the feeling and the embrace of of the human side of business is exactly what everyone needs today. 


Paul Daly  15:44

Without a doubt, well, we're gonna end on that note, we hope this gave you a little bit of steel in your spine on a Monday morning, a little energy and your step NADA. Go to ASOTUnada.com We'll bring it to you all week. See you tomorrow.

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