March Madness Money, Mortgage Rates Climb, Netflix Sharing Party Over

March 18, 2022
We wake up on a Friday morning expecting that our good friend Brian Kramer is poised and ready to complete a vehicle transaction in the metaverse! Tons to talk about around the world of news, including some resilient workers in the Ukraine keeping automotive rolling.
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NIL (Name, Image, & Likeness During March Madness is in play for First Time

  • Dollar Shave Club, Wing Stop, Great Clips, Sheets and Giggles

Mortgage rates top 4% for the first time since 2019

  • Rates climbed ahead of the feds decision to raise benchmark rates .25
  • “Banks borrow from each other at the Fed’s benchmark federal-funds rate, which in turn influences borrowing costs for all manner of consumer and corporate debt.”

Ukraine workers are still producing wiring harnesses next to bomb shelters

  • Audi CEO Markus Duesmann “Many of our suppliers, especially for wiring harnesses, were in Ukraine, or are in Ukraine. They are desperately — even with the people staying there, which is incredible — trying to produce, and doing so always close to a bomb shelter," Duesmann said stoically. "They try to produce, which is an enormous achievement [for] a really proud and brave people there."

Netflix to crack down on account sharing

  • Up to 3 ‘sub accounts’
  • Testing in Costa Rica and Peru ($3 and 2.10)

SPEAKERS

Kyle Mountsier,Paul Daly

 

Paul Daly 00:00

Yo, itis Friday, March 18. Kyle's Apple Watch has all these little tiny red rings onthere not even full red rings. It means that he's not sleeping a lot. I don'tknow the babies, the babies do that to you like the people. We're just joking.Because this is like the life of startup entrepreneur. 101 Kyle's got a biglarge cup of coffee in front of them. It's his favorite coffee mug. I don'tknow. I think his stream might even have just frozen No, no, he's back. He'sback. I have my early mornings are for troublemakers mug, because I need toremind myself so if you didn't realize it, Kyle and his wife, they just had ababy during nada. And last night. The baby decided to change the game a littleon you,

 

Kyle Mountsier 00:51

right?Man? It was it was tough. But we're making it we're gonna get through. We hadwe had like five wonderful nights are like this is gonna be great. And then youknow, the middle of the night last night the two o'clock wake up. Yes, it did.It wasn't happening. Set it down few times. Like came back for feet. It wasjust it was all the things that you know, everything that's in the movieshappened last night.

 

Paul Daly 01:17

That'sall the baby like feet up. You're like Kylie got a few other way. Other way.Maybe the other way. But here you go. I mean, this is this is life. I'm set upright now because of some things that we're working on with our little fosterbaby. I'm at home today. And we are I'm sitting in my 15 year olds bedroom.Like he usually gets up with me in the morning. So he got up I totally hijackedhis room. And I'm like, man, it's got a nice setup out here. But I can't useit. It's like he's got the gaming setup. So like I have the high back gamingchair right now. I feel like I should like play be playing something but not inlike a twitch camera in the back. Yeah. Oh, I got I got all kinds of stuff infront of me. I even have a there's even a power conditioner on the rack. Right,right. I'm not using any of that stuff. I have multiple screens and a keyboardthat clicks makes these like special clicks. I don't know if you know that. Butgamers. No, no, they switch out their key caps. And he's like, Hey, Dad, checkthis up. Could not listen to this one. That's so nice. So nice. I know wherethey all are. Great. So no, it's about the sound. It's about the sounding make.It's crazy. So either way. This is the life of an entrepreneur. I think it'svery automotive. Right? Because automotive industry is always like, we're gonnaget the job done. Sure getting the job done. Like there's no question. And sowe're getting the job done this morning. We have some news for you some somethoughts. But But first want to talk about you know, Kyle, you had a little yougot out a little bit yesterday for the first time I think

 

Kyle Mountsier 02:42

thisbaby I got out I was really excited. I had we had gotten a message from JohnCarr pink ski over at iHeartMedia that he was going to be in town and and I hadnever met him we had kind of communicated online and I don't know one Nashvilleand one actually is a really cool place actually interesting enough the one inNashville is at a place called 1200 Braun and so it is right on Broadway. Andthe location that that is was act is actually a location that I used to work ata dealership. No way Nelson Mazda that that used to sit on that property theytore it down went sky high, which is what they do with everything in Nashville,right. And so it was kind of like surreal to be back talking about automotivein that. And it was really fun. The space is really cool. They've got thisreally neat entrance you can go to my Instagram or the automotive say the unionInstagram right now check out the story. And it's got just this like reallycool red entrance. And then they've got event space and meeting space. Butthere's also really encouraging just to talk to John and and see the passionthat I heart has for automotive and some of the things that that that OEMs arelooking to do with podcasting and with Thought Leadership and with lifestylebrands because OEMs are really leaning into audio as a way to brand build. Soif you Yeah, man I've got we could probably go a whole podcast on it and Imight blow some like NADA type stuff but don't do that. No, but but it wasreally cool to kind of hear that that like OEMs like GM and Hyundai are reallyleaning into this to the to the podcasting to the radio space to brand build ina unique way to leverage personalities and influencers to to essentiallyassociate with cool, right. And so really interesting perspective and to hearactually he told me about this is wild. He told me about a dealer in I believeDallas that has gone to gone to radio, and in his radio show commercials hementioned cupholders five times he said the word cup holders five times in a62nd long spot. And he was an he calls the dealer because he knows the dealerwas like, Why do you keep mentioning cupholders

 

Paul Daly 05:14

withthis? So you have a bet with somebody like I bet you can't say cupholderswithin 60 seconds,

 

Kyle Mountsier 05:18

right?Like what in the world? And he goes, No, no, you don't understand. The majorityof people that I'm after in my community are are single moms or or stay at homemoms that have kids, actually, we sell a lot of vans and a lot of large SUVs tofamilies. And the mom is the primary purchase decision maker. That's like,that's what our market looks like. Yep. And he said, he said, You wouldn'tbelieve but they always come in, they look checking out cupholders where thecupholders are. And so I'm just the person that talks to them as humanspurchasing based on their purchase.

 

Paul Daly 05:59

What aBrilliant guy. Wow. Right, the cupholders. The couple how many horsepower?Nobody cares. cupholders. Right, a cupholders of

 

Kyle Mountsier 06:10

cupholdersfrom me. The three kids in the back and my extra my extra coffee when I stop itat Starbucks and it doesn't get in the way.

 

Paul Daly 06:18

Questionlike will will a sippy cup fit in this cup holder? thing? Right? Oh, that'slike a question. That is that is the question. Right? Is the question when youhave a toddler Willis sippy cup fit in the cup holder? That's amazing. Just hadno idea that it was on the old side of the Nelson Maza. That's pretty awesomepersonnel. It's, um, yeah, to think about, you know, we were talking aboutbrand yesterday. And brand, I think I think every brand needs to operate like afashion brand. Because fashion brands just are able to connect on this levelwhere you identify with the product is reflecting you I say that brand isactually a mirror that reflects your values back at you. And so, so when youthink of like the fashion brands out there, whether it's you know, clothing, oryou know, a bag or sunglasses or something like that, that is an element ofwhen you put that on, and you affiliate with that brand. You're like, oh, thisis I like these because that brand is energetic, and I feel like I'm energeticor that brand is responsible. I feel like I'm responsible. So it's really coolthat when OEMs and anyone in automotive, I think every dealer here too, canunderstand that brand has that reflection back at you. And then leverage, like,we've been talking about media, audio media, like this morning. We're like,hey, like, we're up early. We're doing this podcast. Why? Because you have tokeep creating, you have to keep creating, or your business doesn't go forward.Let's talk about some news. We have some things going on.

 

Kyle Mountsier 07:42

Speakingof brand, stuff, I don't have a we don't have this morning. We apologize,everybody.

 

Paul Daly 07:51

We onlyhave intro Outro Music Today we're running running lean. All the

 

Kyle Mountsier 07:54

perfect.Yeah, so March Madness is started. And all the cool things that are happeningin March Madness, you know, you we've got, we've got Kentucky getting upsetyesterday, which is personally just a massive win because I'm a Duke fan andhave been for since I was a little baby. And so anytime Kentucky gets beat byanyone Life's good. But in the Dallas Cowboy cowboys, right? I'm gonna brandside on the things that we talk about is all the players are now eligible touse nil, which is an image, name, image and likeness. So they can use theirbrand to acquire finances, by brands picking them up to advertise. So, youknow, that

 

Paul Daly 08:39

wasillegal. That was against NCAA rules up until this past year. You know, we havesome people and some friends in the industry, Dave Meltzer is one of them. Andthat change in the rules, right? You have all these college athletes and it'slike, hey, all these colleges are monetizing off these big name players, likethe colleges are using it to raise money, the colleges are using it to boostticket sales and all that. Like why can't the players like take a little take apiece of their own brand, right, and this is the first year so that's just soyou know, it used to be illegal. The rules and regulations were changed thisyear. So this is the first year mark man, March Madness where NIL is a

 

Kyle Mountsier 09:16

realthing. Yep. So So now you've got brands like Dollar Shave Club, Wingstop, greatclips, sheets and giggles all leaning into finding these players that have somesome brand love filiation that people are attracted to, to utilize their theirname their face their brand to advertise to, you know, there's a couplebrackets that are actually using the name image and likeness because if youthink about that, you think back to like bracketology or, you know, all of thebrackets, they don't use any player on them because they actually couldn't. Soit's actually illegal for a player on so I can actually use the player rightbecause you think about you know, NBA Finals. It's all the players are onthere. Yeah, they're getting paid for that stuff. Right? Well, now it's I thinkit's actually exciting from the brand perspective for sure enough to be able toutilize the players that are actually going to be playing that everybody knowsthey walk them through the McDonald's, all stars, all that type of stuff. Andso yeah, I think I think it's a win win for everybody. And goodness sakes, allthe money floating around college athletics, they should really

 

Paul Daly 10:27

Oh, forsure. I ended Dollar Shave Club. I can't remember who it was. But, you know, heactually, like grew some facial hair, like the highlight, like it's perfectplay. And they call they're calling the first influencer, right. They're sogood. I know, Dollar Shave Club is a master class in brand build, though.  no, doubt, no doubt. And so it's good to seethat happening. And you know, a lot of these college athletes too, they're notgoing to go into pro ball. But they're really popular. So they have someleverage right now. So it's good to see them be able to build a littleleverage, because you know, what, if I'm a college player, I'm probably notgoing pro. I'm doing everything I can to build my brand now, because, you know,I have all the Say, say, I go to Duke, right? I'm never gonna go pro. But guesswhat, there are a lot of incredible businessmen and business women that havegraduated and now own companies, or CEOs and executives, that are now incompanies that want to be close to me right now. Because I'm on the team,right? So I'm their guy, or I'm their gal. And once the season's over, mycareer is over. Guess what? Who's Who am I calling for a job? All of thosepeople? Right? So doubt. That's a good, good, great opportunity. We didn't talkabout this. We were going to lead with this story today. But we didn't becauseit didn't happen because you know, complications things happen. But BrianKramer, one of our very own investors is set to sell the first car in themetaverse today. Right. I told my wife about this last night. She's like, Waita minute. someone's buying a car? Sure. someone's buying a car and it's only inthe metaverse. Like, no, no, no, no, no.

 

Kyle Mountsier 11:58

I know.My wife said this same exact thing to like she they're buying a fake car. Yeah,in a fake world. No, no buying a real car in a fake world. But that's kind ofreal.

 

Paul Daly 12:11

I waslike, like the person I was like, you know, you've played the PlayStation four.You put those on? And you know, you walk out what it's like you walk around andthen you go into the store and and Brian Kramer is there. She's like the realBrian Kramer or like a fake Brian Kramer. Literally, this is the conversation.We're having answers. Yes, absolutely. It's no, but he's teed up to do sell thetransaction, the very first vehicle in the metaverse, we're gonna report on it,we're gonna get the video, we're gonna keep you updated. But we thought it wasgonna be this morning's hot news. But you know, but the car business, right?

 

Kyle Mountsier 12:41

You haveto ask all about it. Because it's so interesting. They've done so much toreduce the transaction time reduce friction and early adopters, you always haveto increase friction, increased transaction time. So there's, there's a levelthat both parties are coming to this saying, Hey, we're gonna have to figurethis out. It's not gonna work as seen seamlessly and flawlessly. And so, but Iwas telling my wife, I was like, this isn't going to be a regular thing that everybody'sdoing in the next 60 days. But there has to be someone that tries it out. Thatkind of feels out. What's the possibilities? What are the things that we coulddo with this? And to, to attempt it first big deal?

 

Paul Daly 13:17

I mean,it's I mean, I remember the first pizza you could order on the internet. It wasit was it was Pizza Hut actually was the one were the ones that did it. I thinkit was pizza. Domino's I don't know it was in the movie Sandra Bullock was thestart was called the net? I don't think you remember that. You probably don't.Right? This is real. Look it up the net. Right? It was very scary. And I waslike, Oh my gosh, she just ordered pizza on the on the on the computer, right.But everybody was afraid to put your credit card information. And I was talkingwith Brian yesterday. And he said he was you know, all the work we've beendoing to streamline digital retailing. And the back end processes. He'sliterally just it's like we were installing all the mechanicals and all theplumbing to make this so much easier. Because it's the same, right? That justhappens to be where you finalize and execute the transaction. But all thecompliance, all the connections, all the everything working together, is whereit's at. And like, hey, we'll see where it goes. But I mean, it's a real thing.Right? So what's really going to transact in the metaverse and whether or notyou like it think it's good or bad for society? It, society doesn't care.Technology doesn't care. And so it's happening, we'll let you know what's goingon with that. A couple other of that, well, a couple of things. You know, wesaw mortgage rates peak over 4% for the first time since 2019. So pre pandemic,and you know, a lot a lot of that just has to do with the Fed raising theirbenchmark rate. Another quarter point, if you're not aware of how this works, alittle education here. Really, when Fed raises the interest rate banks whenthey lend you money for a credit card or for house or for a car. Basically,banks borrow money from one another, right? They'll borrow and I know thatmight sound a little strange, but you have these big banks that primarily arein mortgages and they might lend money to your local bank, who is then usesthat money to give you a mortgage and everyone's making a little bit, right andmake a little bit a little percentage on a lot of money. And that's kind of howit works, which is why the Fed rate going up is going to affect all consumerrates, including, you know, mortgages, kind of like the leading indicator, butright after that are car loans, credit card, interest rates, all types offinancing, and, you know, the Fed saying they're gonna continue to raise ratesto curb inflation. But um,

 

Kyle Mountsier 15:25

well,you know, the home rates are gonna outpace it, right? Because they're gonna tryand they're gonna try and be ahead of the path of the Fed,

 

Paul Daly 15:32

becausethey get locked in, right? Because once once you lock in my rate, that's myrate. You know, I'm so happy to say that over the last year, I have refinancemy house, because I thought I was crushing my first home, my first home loanwas probably back in I don't know, 20,2008 2007, something like that. And myinterest rate was 7%. Oh, right. But I remember feeling like a rockstar becauseit was like eight and a half percent year before, right. Our parents like myparents, when they bought their first home, it was 14%. Golly, right. It'sancient history for us. But to think that we can't be back there. It's just wehaven't seen it yet. So when I when I bought my current house, I thought it waskilling it at 4%. I was like, Man, I just stole this thing. Right? Right. But Ilocked it at like two and a quarter percent for the pandemic. And I think thatthat's going to be like, seems so surreal. So if you're, it's gonna be sosurreal, I'm in getting out the same and it's gonna be so surreal to thinklike, I mean, we, you know, we're looking at houses, so I'm like, Ah, man, thisis like could be right there, pull the trigger quick, pull the trigger quick.And so but that's, that's if you know, in the car dealership in the world,right, like, people are gonna be paying more for financing always a sexualpayment affects the consumer mindset, right? Because inflation starting tosqueeze, we talked about this a little bit yesterday, it's starting to squeeze.So trade set price sensitivity is going to just increase. So you know, kind ofthink you said it yesterday, it's like make sure the value proposition ofpurchasing the car the ease of purchasing the car, like we need to do need todo to remove more friction from the process. You know, even if that meanstalking about cupholders.

 

Kyle Mountsier 17:13

It'sgreat. Find your cupholder, find you

 

Paul Daly 17:16

know,where you find you find your cup holder here. Find your next cup holder. So,uh, I think we're running a little long today to two quick things. So VW AudiCEO, Mark is newsmen said, you know, they're obviously having wiring harnessissues is like a big part of the manufacturing. It was being done in theUkraine and automotive news story where like, there are Ukrainian workers stillpumping out wiring harnesses for literally next to bomb shelters. He said, Hesays in this automotive news article, many of our suppliers, especially forwiring harnesses were in Ukraine or are in Ukraine, they're desperately evenwith people staying there, which is incredible. Trying to produce and doing soalways close. And doing so close to a bomb shelter. Right? So they're in theirmaking wirehaired is next to a bomb shelter. I mean, like, talk about somegrit. Like that, just like take all my excuses away. Yeah, you're like,

 

Kyle Mountsier 18:09

Yeah,after I read that, I'm like, Yeah, that should be up at this time. After thebaby. Right.

 

Paul Daly 18:16

I got alittle asleep. Right. Oh, my, let's go. Yeah, so, um, like, I think with that,I think we're gonna leave with that as a little encouragement to the spirit ofthe automotive industry in the spirit of just human achievement and human perseverance.It's Friday. Make sure you get ready for your big weekend. Care about somepeople. Don't make excuses and let's go

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