Welcome to Saturday, Friend!
At times, the emails we send and the episodes we drop can feel like a one-sided conversation. That's about to change.
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Keep Pushing Back,
—Paul, Kyle, Chris & Kristi
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ICYMI
Tenor
Monday — Dealership websites are beating phone calls at service scheduling, and one dealer group's simple fix (pulling the scheduler earlier into the process) took show rates above 93%. We also looked at why "autonomous" is the wrong word to use with a nervous customer, specifics build trust, umbrella terms don't.
Tuesday — Auto credit hit its best availability since 2015. That's not the same as a healthier buyer, it's a wider net catching the same tight margins. We also flagged the Ford tariff refund lawsuit early: if a customer asks whether they're owed anything back, "we're watching this closely" beats silence every time.
Wednesday — GM and VW made completely opposite bets on the same pressure this week, one going wide across every price point, one cutting its lineup in half. Only one of them is in real financial trouble. We also broke down Jim Farley's Gemba walks: presence, not micromanagement, and a version any GM could run this month.
Thursday — TikTok stopped being optional. The dealers winning aren't just running ads, they're building the organic trust that makes the ads convert. We also laid out the checklist worth running before your next AI pitch: one sentence, one dollar figure, system of action or just another dashboard.
Friday — Our favorite story of the week: Ohio's Auto Dealers Association turned a private charity gala into a public concert, specifically because dealers are too humble to talk about what they already give back. Worth asking what your own store's version of that could look like.
ASOTU Unscripted
She left home to become a psychologist. Then one summer changed everything.
Carla Cosenzi never planned to lead her family's dealership group. In this conversation, she shares what brought her back, how she earned credibility from the ground up, and the leadership lessons that emerged during one of the hardest seasons the industry has ever faced. Along the way, she reflects on mentorship, trust, and why the people around you often see your potential before you do.
Catch the conversation and discover the story behind a career that almost never happened.
The Dealer Playbook
The answer wasn't "work harder."
When one veteran salesperson insisted he'd need more inventory, more managers, and fewer coworkers to hit 40 cars a month, Jonathan Dawson reached for a calculator instead. What happened next completely changed the conversation and rewrote that salesperson's expectations of himself.
Watch the episode and steal the exercise you can use with your own team this week.
Atlas Takes the Pitch
Hyundai
Tomorrow, Argentina and Spain will play for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, wrapping up a tournament that has already broken attendance records and apparently decided human athletes needed a robot co-star.
Hyundai, FIFA’s official robotics partner, brought Boston Dynamics’ Atlas onto the field during a Round of 16 halftime show. The humanoid robot performed goal celebrations inspired by Harry Kane, Erling Haaland, Matheus Cunha, and Son Heung-min, then delivered the match ball to the referee with the kind of precision that makes the rest of us look suspiciously uncoordinated.
The moment also marked Atlas’ first public demonstration in a live, real-world setting. Hyundai used one of the biggest stages on Earth to show how robotics can move through a crowded, unpredictable environment and still hit its cue.
The audience was certainly there. This World Cup has drawn 3.6M in-stadium spectators through 56 matches and sits on pace for 6.7M across all 104 games, blowing past every recent tournament.
Well played, Hyundai.
Reuters / FIFA
For dealers, that’s the interesting bit. Hyundai paired new technology with a moment people already cared about. Atlas got the stage. Football supplied the emotion. And millions watched the demo without calling it one.
Well played, Hyundai.
1872: The Ballot Act introduces the secret ballot in elections in Britain; previously, votes were made openly. 🗳️
1968: Intel was incorporated in Mountain View, California. Originally named "Integrated Electronics" and later shortened to “Intel,” the company started with $2.5M in venture funding. 💾
2013: The city of Detroit, Michigan filed for Chapter 9 municipal bankruptcy with approximately $18-20B in debt—the largest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history. 💰
