#42 Why Logic Doesn't Sell (Emotion Does) | Emmanuel Nnah

Sales psychology, entrepreneurship, customer experience, luxury cars, relationship marketing, and business growth—Emmanuel Nnah explains why emotion drives buying decisions and how great businesses create customers for life.

In this episode of Based Business, Parker McCumber interviews Emmanuel Nnah, founder of Car Guys Motors, about building a relationship-first dealership, selling high-end luxury and exotic vehicles, and creating a customer experience that extends far beyond a transaction.

Before launching Car Guys Motors during COVID, Emmanuel worked in broadcasting and technology sales. After obtaining a dealer license and flipping vehicles on the side, he eventually took the leap into entrepreneurship—going nearly a year without paying himself while his wife supported the family.

His biggest insight?

👉 People don't buy with logic—they justify emotional decisions with logic afterward.

💡 In this episode, you'll learn:

• Why emotion drives purchasing decisions
• How to sell without being pushy
• The psychology behind closing deals
• How to build trust with customers
• Why customer lifetime value matters more than single transactions
• How Emmanuel built Car Guys Motors during COVID
• Lessons from going a year without taking a paycheck
• Why relationships outperform traditional sales tactics
• Building a luxury brand through customer experience

🚀 Who this episode is for:

• Entrepreneurs looking to grow their business
• Sales professionals wanting to close more deals
• Business owners focused on customer retention
• Car enthusiasts and luxury vehicle buyers
• Anyone interested in entrepreneurship and business growth

🔗 Connect with Emmanuel Nnah:

🌐 Car Guys Motors
📸 Instagram: @carguysmotors
📍 American Fork, Utah

⏱️ TIMESTAMPS

00:00 Cars and Experience
00:37 Meet Emmanuel Nnah
01:32 Beyond Transactional Sales
02:11 Car Passion Origins
04:07 Chasing the Next Ride
05:23 Emotion Beats Logic
08:31 Urus and Ferrari Temptation
09:48 Skydiving Sales Analogy
12:42 No Pressure Selling
15:25 Starting Car Guys During COVID
18:45 Sacrifice Before Payday
23:32 Breaking Through Entrepreneurial Walls
25:20 Internal Barriers to Selling
26:53 Success and Imposter Syndrome
28:27 Mastermind Lessons
30:20 Networking Through Cars
31:41 Experiences and Family
32:31 Customer Experience Strategy
33:35 Service and Transport Expansion
36:29 Customer Lifetime Value Flywheel
40:41 Friends and Family Referrals
44:28 Building Strong Support Systems
45:49 Hiring for Culture Fit
49:41 Final Thoughts and Where to Find Emmanuel

#sales #entrepreneurship #luxurycars #businessgrowth #salespsychology

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Driving a Lamborghini Ur is totally different than driving a Ford Bronco. Right. But I love the experience of both.

SPEAKER_01 0:08

There will still always be that moment where fear or doubt creeps in. Great salespeople overcome that moment.

SPEAKER_00 0:16

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 0:16

That is when our hunger and aggression will come out.

SPEAKER_00 0:18

And the easiest way to do that is exactly what you're describing. That's you solve the customer problem. There's always, always, always a subsequent problem to be solved. Relationships are a superpower. The beauty of it is the more you get to know somebody, the deeper you're connected with them, the better you can serve your customer. I'm here with Emmanuel, and his superpower is building relationships with clients. Why don't you take a moment, just introduce yourself, tell us who you are and what you do?

SPEAKER_01 0:46

Thanks. Um yeah, Emmanuel Naw. I'm the owner of Car Guys Motors in American Fork, Utah. We specialize in selling high-end luxury and exotic vehicles. So we sell those vehicles, we service those vehicles, we source those vehicles, and we customize those vehicles, ultimately providing an experience and a product to the end user that's complete. An experience that's complete and a product that's complete. And that's what we're all about.

SPEAKER_00 1:11

I like that you emphasize the experience versus the transaction. You know, we were maybe just talking before the show started about the transactional nature of a lot of dealerships. And I think breaking out of that model really differentiates you. I mean, I love to do business with you guys because it's not a transactional thing. It's I've got a friend in the business now.

SPEAKER_01 1:30

Yeah, I appreciate that. I think, um, again, historically, car dealers have been transactional, right? We all know that. We've all experienced that. Um, and if we can, instead of treating clients like transactions, treat them like people that have needs and feelings and wants and traumas from buying cars and trading cars in and then getting ripped off and then buying the car and paying too much and going home and having buyers' remorse. If we can treat these people like, hey, you have a need, I have a solution. If it matches up, great. If it doesn't match up, no problem. Like I support you, go somewhere else. Um, we're able to build long sustaining business.

SPEAKER_00 2:05

Dude, that's awesome. How'd you get into car dealership? Because I know that wasn't originally your background and career.

SPEAKER_01 2:10

No, not at all. I was a broadcast kid who found a little bit of a his way in sales, um, ended up in the tech space for a little while. And since I was young, I've just had an affinity for cars. Like, I don't know why that's been my vice, if that's what you want to call it, but a shiny toy with an engine, like sign me up. A shiny thing with an engine, sign me up. And so even through every aspect of my life that led up to car guys, I was always buying, sourcing, customizing expensive cars, cars that I might not even be able to afford. And so that word kind of got around. People knew me as the car person. And you want to know what's funny, actually, Parker? This is this is actually a really funny story. Even when I was buying expensive cars, hundred thousand dollar cars, when I was making less than that a year in salary, I always wanted to experience those cars with my friends. So I take my friends in my BMW M5 and we'd go do donuts in a parking lot. And I let my friend do the donut in a car that I could like barely afford, truly. I bought an Audi R8. And what did we do? We went and ripped that Audi R8 at the racetrack. And not me drive, like my friend driving. I've always wanted to experience cars with my friends. And so um, when I started the business, it was those same friends that supported me and started buying from me right away.

SPEAKER_00 3:26

I love that you talked about the experience about the cars too, because that's what made me a car enthusiast. I like I enjoy having the cars as a little bit of a side business hustle type thing, you know, make a little bit of money on them. But it was never about that for me. It was always about the different experience. I'm not like a motorhead or anything. Right. I'm not a nerd for the engines or any of that kind of stuff. Right. I'm a I love the different experience that each one offers. Right. Right. Like driving a Lamborghini Uris is totally different than driving a Ford Bronco. Right. But I love the experience of both. So uh a really cool, cool thing that every different car provides something unique. I'm chasing that.

SPEAKER_01 4:07

And I'm and I'm telling you, the more that we get into this car, and especially exotic and luxury cars, I try to teach this story and tell the story when people are buying these cars. Is someone will come and buy their first car for me, Porsche 911, GT3, or Turbo S or even a Career 4S. They'll buy this car and people ask me, Well, how long do they keep it? Well, the average is way less time than you think. And you want to know why? Because they buy that first car and they think now my social group network has expanded, and now one of my good friends has a McLaren. And I wonder what that McLaren is like. So they buy a McLaren. Exactly. And then they the McLaren group, now a couple guys have Ferraris, and they're like, hmm, I wonder what a Ferrari is like. And so we all go through this. That's what happens, right? We all do it. So cars are very experiential for sure.

SPEAKER_00 4:51

I love it. Man, I'm just thinking back because it's like the rose-colored lens now. Yeah, like I got my first GT3RS and I thought that was awesome. It was so cool. The silver one. The silver one. I remember that. Yeah, I remember that. Awesome car. But you're right. You know, you start thinking, well, maybe there's maybe there's a little bit something else. What's that Aston Martin? Yeah. What's that V8 feel like? Uh that's exactly what happened. So every time I I sold a car, we just, you know, roll it into the next one. Right. Really, because I'm always chasing that next experience. Right.

SPEAKER_01 5:23

And you asked me earlier before our show started, what is the secret sauce maybe of the business or what I think makes car guys special. All of this is the framework that we're talking about. Like, so think about it. If cars are experiential, well, experiences are emotional. Yes. Right? Absolutely. A thousand percent. When I go to Disneyland and I ride that ride, that's an emotion that me and my children will remember. When I go and skydive for the first time, there's emotion there. When I go shoot my first nine millimeter all the way up to my 40 cal, like that's an emotional experience for me. I will always remember the first time I shot a 12 gauge, I didn't think it was going to kick like that. And that thing pushed back into my shoulder. And I was like, dang, I got some heat up in here. You know what I mean? I will never forget that personally. And and cars, if we treat them like transactions, we take the emotion out. If we treat the individual like a transaction, we take the in, we take the emotion out. And that's just not fun. And that's why this fear of going to the car dealership, this dread of like, gosh, my engine just died. I need a new car, or hey, all of these things that we feel trauma-wise has happened is because we've taken the emotion and the fun, the potential fun, out of buying a car because we're treating the client like a number, like a transaction that gets us to a goal versus realizing, and in my line of business, it's a little different because we're selling expensive cars. And so the individual that's buying a $250,000, $300,000, $400,000 car. That's not somebody for a need anymore. Exactly. It's no longer a need. It's now I've achieved a milestone or I'm now on this journey of cars and I want to experience these. We tap into that emotion to try to make it A, so that you enjoy it and B so that the product aligns with what you're looking for.

SPEAKER_00 7:02

I love that. I mean, I'm just thinking about this. And it's not something that I'm consciously aware of all the time, but it makes total sense. The experience piece is the secret sauce. For sure. And because the experience is what gets you to overcome the emotional barrier or the logical barrier to somebody becoming a buyer or a customer.

SPEAKER_01 7:20

100%. You nailed it. That's exactly right. I think the only way, because there are logic. Listen, I you and I know each other. And so I know that you've done well on car purchases that you've bought. I also have too, right? Well, the more we get into this space, we realize, okay, I can buy this Lamborghini Aventador SV, I can spend 560 grand on it. And if I hold it and keep the mileage at the same spot, I could probably sell this car and make money. Yeah. So that's logically, sometimes that makes sense, but a lot of times it doesn't. More often than not, the average consumer is not going to make money on their vehicle purchase, you know, barring COVID and the microchip problem. So the point of that is man, if we can help you overcome the logic barrier and tap into the emotional, like, hey, you want this, you've worked hard for it, you've achieved the goal, you've met the milestone. Like, do it. That is that is so fun.

SPEAKER_00 8:16

Well, and and you know, maybe you and I are a little bit more logical buyers because you're doing it for a business. I I do it because I'm I enjoy it, but I don't want to lose money on it, obviously, right? We're married. I'm married to the money. I'm not married to the car. But there's some cars that I maybe get married to. You know, Salt Lake City Ferrari sent me uh, they got that uh 12 cylindry spider in. I'm sure you got that picture too. I did get that picture. Yeah, I message them back. I'm like, send me all the pics. That's yeah, that picture missed me a little bit. It did so I'm I'm I'm thinking all of a sudden to myself, I'm like, well, what can what can what cars can I sell? How do I how do I get into this? Um but then I stop and I think, you know, like I'm never gonna sell that URIS. No. It's such a good daily driver. It's so fun, it's the best spec'd URI in the world. I'm like, maybe I did get married to that car along the way, you know? So there is there is a point where the emotion maybe overpowers the logic.

SPEAKER_01 9:11

For sure. And that's okay.

SPEAKER_00 9:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:13

Right? That really is okay. I mean, I bought my Urus because I saw your URI. I remember coming to your house to pick up your GT3 touring that believe it or not is back at my shop right now.

SPEAKER_00 9:23

Yeah, I saw it, I saw I get posted. Yeah, you saw it posted. I I messaged my wife. I'm like, hey, uh how are you feeling about a HELOC right now?

SPEAKER_01 9:33

But I remember seeing your URS and I did a 360, and you're like, check this out, dude. The spec is all and I'm looking at it and I'm like, geez, this just makes sense that I bought an Earth and I still have my Earth, and I might never sell my Earth either. Like, I love that car. Yeah, it just makes so much sense. And I don't know. I um listen, we know as business owners that regardless of how good your business idea is, you got to be able to sell it.

SPEAKER_00 9:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:58

Right? Like sales runs the world. Mark Cuban said that, right? Sales cures all problems. Um and so I liken sales in our industry to a story that anybody that knows me and the 20 years that I've been selling different products in Utah will know this story. And I say, It's like skydiving. Me and you are gonna go skydiving, we're stoked about it. We pay the money, we get geared up, we're so excited. The plane takes off and we get in the air and they open that door, and all of a sudden, our life flashes before our eyes a little bit. And I say, I got a beautiful wife, I got kids, I got a good business. Like, what am I jumping out of a plane for? Like, this is the same people that on the ground, we were stoked. We were posting TikToks, we were posting Instagram stories, we were so excited. If skydiving companies issued refunds at 20,000 feet in the air, 90% of people would come down. They wouldn't do it. And so, what you need in sales is an individual that says, Hey, this is safe. I know you want to do it, I know you'll be so happy for me in a minute and a half when we hit the ground and push them out of the plane. And then when you push them out of the plane, that's why when you go skydiving for the first time, they try to lie to you and tell you it's about safety and they strap a guy on your back, right? Because they want to make sure you can pull the ripcord, because that's really hard to do. No, it's because you're not jumping out of that plane without help, dude. Unless that guy holds the plane and pushes you out, you're gonna sit your behind down and I'm not jumping, taking you down, dude. I got a beautiful wife. Sales is the same way. These people are excited when they come into car guys, yeah. They're gonna buy a Lamborghini Avented or Hurrican, whatever it is. It might be a BMW M5. They're super excited. They get there, trauma. Like, wait, this is 130 grand. I could do so much more with this money. Am I making the right decision? As salespeople in any industry, right? I come to you and I want to buy podcast time, you know what that would do for my business. Yeah, but before I sign on the dotted line, yeah, you're looking at that $1,000 a month, man. Oh, freak, dude. That's like a Lotus Amira. You know what I mean? And I'm like, all right, I could do other things with that. As a salesperson, I got to get you over that hump. I got to push you out of the plane because when you get down and we unstrap the parachute and you're looking around, you realize that that was freaking awesome. Yeah, absolutely. You know, and so I do that that is my analogy for sales, and it tends to ring true for most people.

SPEAKER_00 12:21

Man, I've never thought about it in the sense of the skydiving analogy, but it's totally true. And I I think about it, how many opportunities did I miss when I was a little bit younger, a little bit more naive, because I was afraid to jump out of that plane. Right.

SPEAKER_01 12:34

Right. Yeah, what could have been? What could have been? What could have been? No, you're you're doing all right now. Yeah, you've landed a few times.

SPEAKER_00 12:41

You're doing just fine. I've maybe taken a polar opposite approach to sales in the last couple of years. You know, when I was uh starting out building the businesses, I was hungry. Yeah. I mean, like literally, I was a starving student. So I'm out there grinding, hustling. I'm taking calls all day, every day. I'm making calls. And now I've kind of gone gone in the direction of no pressure. I'm a no pressure salesman. Yes. Dude, if it's not for you, it's not for you. Yes. That's fine. You'll come back when you when you need it. Yep. When you feel the pain. Yep. You just maybe aren't feeling enough pain right now. It's not my job to exacerbate your pain anymore.

SPEAKER_01 13:16

Nope. Yeah. I I so I've my sales career has been kind of funny. I started, again, I started working really young. I have immigrant parents from Nigeria that loved us but financially couldn't always provide the stuff that we wanted or needed. So I've been working since I was 13, but I'd knocked doors for eight years. I sold tech for nine years. Yeah. And now I've I've been selling cars and running this business. And so I've realized when I started, I was hungry too. I will force feed this broccoli down your throat and you will sign. And I was aggressive and I was hungry, like you said. And then I think you you get older and you realize there are points in the sales process to where you need to turn it on. Because again, oh yeah, I'm pushing you out of the plane. But on the ground, if you don't even want to go skydiving, dude, okay, next. Next. You know, because there are plenty of people that do, you know, but as soon as you've showed me, again, from a sales perspective, this is an analogy metaphor, obviously. As soon as you've showed me interest and we've looked at and understood your pain, and you know this is what you want to do, there will still always be that moment where fear or doubt creeps in. Great salespeople overcome that moment. Oh, yeah. That is when our hunger and aggression will come out. Because I know it's right for you. I'm not trying to get you to buy something you don't need. But as soon as you tell me you need it and we've done an analysis, we've cost seg'd it, and it is what you need, I will get you into that product. That's my job. My job is not to convince you that the pain hurts enough right now.

SPEAKER_00 14:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:48

Right. Like, so I think that's that's maturity in sales.

SPEAKER_00 14:51

I love that. I'm thinking of uh, you know, in my my current strategy, you know, I'll get up on stage, I'll pitch a $50,000 offer or something like that. And maybe, maybe this is a bad plan, maybe it's a good plan. I get up there and I I tell them how uh look, you buying does not change my life one Iodem. Like this is about you getting what you need and the help that you need and the positioning that you need. It's not about paying me money.

SPEAKER_01 15:18

Right.

SPEAKER_00 15:18

Right. Like I love that. And I just go hands off from there.

SPEAKER_01 15:22

Yeah. Because then people buy. Then people buy. Yeah, they just will.

SPEAKER_00 15:25

So let me let me ask about uh the business a little bit, our car guys. So you you kind of just told us a minute ago, you get out of broadcast journalism, you start buying cars. When did you think, oh man, this is gonna be this is gonna be my career, this is gonna be my field? When did you go all in on the dealership aspect as opposed to just being on the hustle? Yeah, good question.

SPEAKER_01 15:46

I had a moment in I again, I'm just gonna be super honest with you. In 2020, COVID hits. I'm managing a sales team and we send everybody home. And so now I've got time, right? Because I'm I'm managing from home, but again, I can do everything I can do at my computer on my phone nowadays. So I'm on the golf course a lot. I've got a lot of time, um, you know, FaceTime calls and what have you, Zoom calls. And I said, you know what'd be awesome? It'd be awesome to have a dealer license, just so I don't have to pay taxes on all these cars and all by. You have thought about this. I've talked to about it. I know that we have talked about this. So um I had a very good neighbor, his name's Doug Souza, love the guy today. Just saw him a couple of days ago as my early partner in car guys. We had dinner with our families and we said, Hey, let's just get a dealer license. You know cars, I know how to start a dealer. My this is my old partner. Let's just get a dealer license and see what happens. We get the dealer license and we say, Hey, let's buy a car to just see if we can make three or four grand on the side. We bought a couple cars, sold them quick, Ford Raptors, and I we bought them because I had personally just bought my first Ford Raptor. So I knew the, you know, you do all the research. You were you're already in the know. I was in the know. We bought the Ford Raptors, sold it in three hours, made five grand. And we're like, hmm, that's pretty fun. Did it again, made six grand in like a day. I'm like, this is interesting. Yeah. And so grand in two days. Right. I'm like, whoa, okay, hold on a minute. Let's hold pump the brakes. We uh sold two cars in our first month, we sold four cars in our second month. By the third month, we had again, these are just people that I know, friends, that are like, oh, you have a deal license now. Will you find me something? Will you find me this? Um, my sister-in-law was like, Hey, will you find me a Tesla model three? And I said, sure. And she paid us to find it. And I thought, there's something here. Oh, yeah. You know, there's something here. And what if I go full time at this? I was working seven to four at Bamboo HR, which is where I was working tech job at. And then I would come home for an hour and a half. 5 30, I'd go into our small little shop, maybe the size of this room. And from 5 30 to like nine, we'd answer phone calls and look at cars. And um, I told my partner in December. So we started August. December, I said, Hey, I'm going full time. I'm just gonna, this is what I've always wanted. I want to be an entrepreneur and no cars, I love cars. And then January went full time, still really slow, didn't make any money, right? Like we were selling cars, but not really making like individual money. Yeah, didn't take anything out of the business until um about July or August of that year. Where I was like, you know what, we're still a full year in. About a full year in before we started taking money. August to August before I made a paycheck there. Um and I would say that I don't think that I realized the potential of what I was doing at that moment. At that moment, it was like, dude, can I make five or six grand a month and live a fun life doing whatever I wanted, 10 grand a month? Like that would be crazy. And now here we are, you know, we're selling 40 to 50 cars a month. Um and just kind of you just kind of get there, you keep it grinding, you know.

SPEAKER_00 18:45

I like the well, I have to say thank you first for sharing the story a little bit, the the vulnerability there. There's a a pattern that I recognize, and I think it's hi important to highlight because a lot of people start a business and they think they're gonna get rich quick. They think if they go in on entrepreneurship, they're just gonna start rolling in the stacks. You said you went a whole year before you got really paid from that that company. And that's a freaking sacrifice. I mean, that's hard on you, that's hard on the family, it's hard on your wife. I went all in on my e-com business for two years before I got paid. Wow. And in those two years, uh, I was a student, so um, I was literally living on student loans.

SPEAKER_01 19:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 19:27

And my uh wife, she was my fiance for most of those two years, uh, was a teacher making 30 grand a year. Yep. And she was like the sugar mama. Yeah, she was if we weren't going out to dinner unless she was paying, you know. 100%. Uh but the the pattern is this: you have to be willing to invest in yourself over a period of time. I I often share a concept called the entrepreneur success formula, and it's that continuous action plus continuous learning equals success.

SPEAKER_01 19:57

For sure.

SPEAKER_00 19:58

The variable there that's not accounted for is time. You have to be willing to put in that action and learn over time to achieve your success. And the greater level of success you want, the more that's going to take. Correct. For me, it was two years. For you, it's a year. I'll recognize, you know, one of the big factors in my success was my wife. Yes. If she didn't provide that safety for me, like not just emotional safety, but like physical safety, the, you know, ability to have a little bit of money. If she didn't provide that, I wouldn't have invested in myself as heavily as I did. And I would never have had the business success. Was that a similar experience for you and your wife?

SPEAKER_01 20:38

I could say exactly what you said word for word and be true for me. I think um behind every great man is a great woman, they say, um, maybe even a greater woman. Like you think about that, I am not taking a paycheck. And again, I worked two jobs for almost six months, right? August to January. I was still working my tech job. Yeah. And when I decided to quit, again, you you realize, like, wait, I've I've been at this company seven years. I have an equity package that I'm walking away from. I have a six-figure, comfortable, you know, salary that I'm walking away from. Everybody knows me here. I was an early employee at that organization that had 10x their growth. Like, it did not make sense to walk away from where I was at. And my wife, who's a real estate agent, who was the backbone of the family financially for that amount of time. And it wasn't just January to August when we took our, because August, the first check that I took was 3,800 bucks. You know what I mean? Like it was $3,800 for the month, is what I took. That was my first paycheck. And subsequently, two months later, I was like, I'm gonna give myself a little raise. It was five grand. And I made the equivalent of $60,000 a year in that business for the next year and a half. You know, so it's not like, oh my gosh, I'm rolling in the dough. Like this is this glamorous entrepreneurial path. You nailed it. My wife was the backbone with kids, with liabilities, with a home. That we owned, she was holding down the fort. And not just financially, emotionally. As men, we we don't talk about this as much, especially as older men, right? We're a little bit more gated and guarded in our emotions. Like there were multiple breakdowns. Like, what did I do? I want to go back. We have no money. Remember when we used to be able to go out to like Roots Chris and like get a steak and spend $150 on dinner? Yeah, now we can barely go to Chick-fil-A.

SPEAKER_00 22:28

Chick-fil-A, dude. I had the same conversation my wife.

SPEAKER_01 22:32

It was like Chick-fil-A was a little nice. That in and out for $340 was like kind of where I was living. That double double. Yeah. And it might have been a single single for a while, you know? But so the emotional support that comes from a stable foundation at home allows you to go and take risks and come back to a safe place where my wife is like, hey, no, I support you. I believe in you. I trust you. And then you said it. If we're going to be successful at anything in life, it comes by sacrifice over time. And the longer or the bigger the success, the longer it may take. You know, rarely do you find the entrepreneur who starts a business today and is a billionaire tomorrow. Like that just doesn't happen. It does not happen. And rarely do you even find the entrepreneur that starts a business today and is making half a million bucks tomorrow. Like those guys and girls grinded. Yeah. They were in the trenches. They were making very little money. They were living in circumstances where the in the normal individuals, like, it's not worth it. They were looking for ways. And I think about my business, and I'm sure the same is true for you. Where at the end of the day, I say this to young kids who ask me, like, hey, what's business advice? Emmanuel, you got this beautiful business, it's thriving. Give me some business advice. Here's what I tell them: I say, entrepreneurship is simply stated, here is a wall. Find a way to get through it. Most individuals say, Well, can I barge my way through it? Now it's too thick. Okay, I'm gonna turn around. Some individuals are like, Well, can I go around it? No, not really. Okay, well, that's two options. I'm done. Successful entrepreneurs, I'm under it, I'm around it, I'm through it, I'm over it, I'm taking it apart brick by brick if I need to. It is simply stated, we have problems that arise and we will just die trying to fix them. And we just fix them. And then we get through that wall, and then guess what? We're cool for a little bit, we got a little money coming in, life is good. Then there's another wall.

SPEAKER_00 24:32

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 24:33

It doesn't stop. And no, it doesn't stop. And the next wall is bigger and thicker and taller and longer, and you're like, well, freak, dude. And then you get through that wall, and and again, it is just this vicious cycle of risk and reward and sacrifice over time. Right?

SPEAKER_00 24:52

I'm a little bit blown away. You're very eloquent. Uh my I was having the thought, you know. Are you familiar with the biblical concept of something begets something? 100%. Okay. Yes, very much. Problems beget problems. Yes. You might make it through that first wall, but there's always another wall. Yes. And even if even sometimes that what that wall isn't uh externally imposed, that wall comes from within you. Right. That's something, you know, my own vulnerable piece right now that I'm dealing with. I built uh my e-com business, 20 million a year in revenue, right? Crushed it. Really good at selling products. My coaching business, still under a million dollars a year. Why? It's not because I suck at business, but there's something in me that I've got to unlock to help me get across that threshold. I have an internal wall right now when it comes to how I sell myself. And I gotta break that wall down.

SPEAKER_01 25:55

Yeah. Yeah. That's a deep. I love that. I love that.

SPEAKER_00 26:00

I mean, you you portrayed that so well that I'm sitting here reassessing my life a little bit. I'm like, oh yeah, these are the walls that I'm hitting. Like selling physical products was always really easy for me. Yeah. Selling myself feels wrong. Yeah. Perhaps a little bit. Yeah. Not wrong in the sense that I I don't think I can help people or that I can't provide value to somebody, but it's it's not the same. It's like braggy, feels braggadocious. And I've always tried to avoid that. And I'm not, I'm not trying to be braggy to put people down or boost myself up. I'm when I enter that space, I'm trying to just show somebody that I can help them and provide value. At the same time, because I feel like there might be a braggadocious element to it, that I hesitate and then it throws off the energy. Yeah. And so I think my wall right now is there's an energy mismatch between how I portray myself and how I can help someone.

SPEAKER_01 26:53

And I think too, Parker, I think what's really interesting is that as we because you're a very successful individual, you really are, and you're brilliant. You are you're brilliant in your own right as I've followed you and watched you. There is an element, the more successful you become, where you realize that you're still not as successful as the some of the guys that you rub shoulders, right? That gets me all the time. Oh, dude, it gets me all the time. And so it's like, dude, I'm doing pretty good in my life. Like I'm doing pretty good. I'm not gonna lie to you. I don't know, okay. Like I'm doing well. But I'm in these circles now where I'm flying on guys' jets and we're going here. And I'm like, wow, your business is doing what? Oh my goodness, it's crazy. So even really successful entrepreneurs, especially as you're selling like an individual product, we have this level of imposter syndrome that's just crazy. Everybody talks about it. And it's not, it's not that we don't know that we can help. It's not that you doubt your own ability. It's just this, you you nailed it. It's just that I don't want to like brag to any degree about who I am, because there are thousands of guys out there doing better. Correct. You know, and so like probably a big aspect of what I'm feeling. That's what we feel. I feel it too, because I know that I can help. And I know that I've overcome these problems and challenges that people are facing that I could be like, hey, yeah, here's how I did this, and and this could help you. And there's no, I'm not trying to safeguard any of this information. But at the same time, as you and your personal brand grows, well, all of a sudden I know Parker McCumber, and he's rubbing shoulders with guys that are doing billions. Yeah. And now you're like, well, I don't. You know what I mean? Like it's so weird.

SPEAKER_00 28:27

I uh it's weird. I was up in Idaho at an event this past weekend. I spent uh, you know, Thursday, Friday, Saturday. I'm hanging out with like Russell Brunson. Yeah. Right. Literally, okay, this is awesome. Awesome story. Uh, he asked me to sign my book for him. I've never asked him to sign a book for me. Yeah. I was like, oh, he asked me first that oh, floodgate's open. I can ask him anything. Love it, love it. Uh, but I've been in his his uh inner circle and in his masterminds for for years now. And I've got a seat at that table. Yeah. In the sense that, like those people all, you know, bring me in, respect me, value me, and I can contribute and add value there. I still always, always, always feel insignificant when I'm in that room.

SPEAKER_01 29:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 29:05

And I think that that's actually probably a good thing in the sense that it keeps me hungry. For sure. It keeps me looking for the next level, trying to grow and get bigger or bigger and better and you know, just continue to learn new things from people. And it's not always a tactic or a strategy that's gonna help me in business. A lot of the things that I learn are how to be a better me.

SPEAKER_01 29:24

Right.

SPEAKER_00 29:24

But being a better you makes you a better entrepreneur, makes you a better husband, father, business person, like everything increases as a result of that. That's a fact. So I'm always gonna try to rub shoulders with people that do a bigger and better than me, even though that might make me feel a little bit uncomfortable sometimes.

SPEAKER_01 29:40

Eventually we get out of our own way. We get out of our own way because that's just a thought. It's a thought that's not justified. It's a thought, and it's you know, I don't consider myself an insecure person at all, like maybe zero on the scale. But there are just those little nagging, like, uh, I don't want to come off pretentious in this group of people that is tripling my $50 million a year business. You know what I mean? Like, so I yeah, I feel that. We all feel that.

SPEAKER_00 30:08

Man, I uh I see your content sometimes hopping on hopping on private jets to Vegas to go play golf for the day and stuff. And I'm like, gosh, if I could just get like that.

SPEAKER_01 30:17

Oh, it's so dumb. It's so dumb. It is for the the people that are thinking about starting a car dealership in the exotic space. I will say one of the coolest things about it is the networking aspect of it, the the ability to learn from and participate in the success with other people. Again, you're giving them something that's been on their vision board for a long time and you're giving them this great experience. And now they trust you and you become part of this family. And so, hey, you're into golf, cool, we're going here. Do you want to come? Hey, you're into food, cool, we're going here. Do you want to come? And that has been a really fun aspect of the business for me, um, which has just been the networking side of it's been really fun. And then it levels up your thinking, right? If if your whole life all you experience is a steak from Outback, great steak. I'm not trashing Outback at well, then that's all you know.

SPEAKER_00 31:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 31:09

Right. And Outback is pretty dang good. That's your sure. And then all of a sudden you go to like a Ruth Chris and you're like, dang, dude, I didn't even know this existed, you know? And you get that butter sizzling plate, and you're like, oh my gosh, this is crazy. And then you start venturing off into food and you're like, oh wow, dude, Ruth Chris is like a chain steak restaurant. I don't know that.

SPEAKER_00 31:25

Fleming's, Donovan's.

SPEAKER_01 31:27

Yeah, Flemings, Donovan's, Christopher's, like all of these places that you try in SDK and you're like, oh my gosh. Um, that's life in a nutshell.

SPEAKER_00 31:35

Oh, yeah. You know, experiences. Back to the experiences. It's all about experience. That's what matters the most to me, I think. For sure. And when I really reverse engineer why I do the things I do, like you get down to your innate why. For me, it's it's always been about my kids. Like I want to be, at first, it was providing an excellent life for them. Check. We're doing good. Then it becomes well, how do I set an example for them of what they could achieve, what they can overcome? How can they find ways to be successful or build something of value, become someone of value? And as I reverse engineer that, I feel like it's it's the different experiences that we can showcase, provide, set them up for. Like if I could go back in time, I would invest in myself, my experiences in development a lot quicker, faster, sooner. Agreed. Because that's what makes you awesome, valuable, agreed, knowledgeable. Agreed. Man. Agreed. Okay, let's talk about strategy a little bit. I I haven't even looked at the clock. Oh, yeah. Okay, I know you got a hard stop in 20 minutes.

SPEAKER_01 32:37

We're good.

SPEAKER_00 32:38

Okay, strategy. We talked about you, we talked about the business a little bit. Experiences are awesome. And actually, probably now I'm gonna answer the question. That experiences should be the strategy. Strategy. Um but what's working? What's not working?

SPEAKER_01 32:53

Um what's working for us in business right now? I think for us, we you know, and and business in general, you you build a little fire. And once you get that fire going, um, you know, I'm um, for better or for worse, a boy scout. And so you build this little fire to your TP or your log cabin, and you put the kindling in there, and then you know, you're an army guy, so you get this, right?

SPEAKER_00 33:17

I was an Eagle Scout too.

SPEAKER_01 33:18

Yeah, okay, of course. So then once you get that little fire going, and this fire you want to be like a bonfire, well, how what what kind of logs do I want to put on? Our strategy has been, okay, A, we're a car dealership. Um, let's sell cars and let's get really good at buying and selling cars. And then for us, it's been how do we own the rest of the client experience in car ownership? Yeah. So we found out our client, after they buy this Aston Martin, before there was an Aston Martin dealer in Utah, they don't know where to go to service it. So we said, okay, can we bring service in-house and deliver the same experience in our service center? And then it was like, well, when our client, if and let's say they don't buy from us, they want to ship a car from Texas and they want to ship that car to Utah, who's their transportation broker and how do they who do they trust? Well, now we're bringing transportation in-house. And so what we're looking at is the entire client experience around our little fire, and each one of those pieces is a log to grow the business. So service, we're about two years into our car guys service center. Shout out, Jason. Shout out my guy Jason Snyder, bro. We're out here for you. He's killing it. And the service center is killing it because again, we've we we're solving a need for this individual. Absolutely. Our transportation company, we're just getting started. It's probably gonna launch here in two weeks. We finally got all of our stuff, and we're starting that because we just sold a car. This is a true story. We just sold a car last month to a client who wanted to ship the car on his own, Lamborghini Hurricon Um Evo, and that car got stolen in transportation. No joke. $270,000 car out of the port of Houston is gone. Can't find it anymore. We bought, we've only had two in six years, like really bad experiences with transportation. We bought a Cadillac Escalade SV 2026, difficult car to find. We spent a premium on it. Took us three and a half weeks to source that car for an individual and a very unique spec transporting it. Guess what? That car got stolen. So, in the space of three to four months, we've now experienced almost half a million dollars worth of transportation theft. So we're saying if it's happening to us, it's happening to more people than just us. How do we bring that in-house and create an integrity-based, like safe transportation, enclosed transportation company where people can trust it? And we know it's CG Premier Logistics, nothing to worry about. You know, and so for us in business, the strategy has been I'm not jumping around trying to do 10 things at once. I'm doubling down on what I know and the client that I know and the demographic that I serve. Yes, sir. And I am solving their problems for them. Because Parker McCumber already trusts me. And so now if Parker McCumber trusts me to sell his vehicles or to buy vehicles from me, and he needs an oil change done on a vehicle, he might come to me. And if he comes to me, he knows he's gonna get the car guy's experience. And then if he sells that vehicle, even if it's not through me and he needs it shipped to New York, well, he knows his car guy has a and we can take care of you in that regard.

SPEAKER_00 36:20

Parker McCumber only sells through car guys.

unknown 36:25

My guy.

SPEAKER_00 36:26

So that's what maybe I traded in for a tax benefit. No, it works. It works. Uh we okay. Let me unpack that a little bit real quick. For the viewers who maybe missed it, you shouldn't have missed it. Pay attention. Okay. You solve a customer problem by selling them a car. But there's another problem. The next problem, it's a subsequent problem. That car needs services. Correct. I really like the model of having uh an increase to your lifetime value of the customer. Exactly. Right. And the easiest way to do that is exactly what you're describing. That's you solve the customer problem. There's always, always, always a subsequent problem to be solved. Like even if you sell a physical product, you uh provide a product to them, they get that product. Well, what does that product now need? What comes with that product? Is there assembly involved? Correct. Do they have to do uh, you know, some kind of maintenance on it? Correct. Right? Like there's something else. So you should find a way to build on that same initial experience. That's what raises the lifetime value of the customer. The other aspect of this that's really interesting to me is you create different businesses that fuel each other. Correct. Right. Because if somebody maybe just I am, I'm in a hurry, I need a service. They uh, you know, Salt Lake City motor cars can't get me in for a month. Jason gets them in next week. Yep. Right. They have a great experience. And then they get into your shop. And when they get into shop, by the way, awesome, awesome dealership now. Your new space is great. Thank you. But they get in there, like you said, they have the car guys' experience. They get to meet the team, they get to look at the showroom. And they, wow, this is this is awesome. But now you've got somebody who's going to come to you when they want to buy or sell a car. Correct. Correct. I mean, because you're the guy now. You said it right. Right. There's a concept I talk about in the service-based industry. If somebody comes to you three times, they develop a psychological connection that you are the person for that thing. So, like I've sold three cars through you. I mean, we've sold way more than three cars before. Well, but we sell three cars a year. Okay. Um, but after three, you're the guy. You're always the guy in my mind for that. Yeah. And it's the same concept in everything. So if you get somebody in for three oil changes, they're always coming to you. Yes. Always. So, how do you incentivize them to come back? You give them an excellent experience, you give them a hookup on their subsequent service, whatever. Yep. Uh, I also like uh the addition of the transportation thing. Dude. Game changer. I think we we talked about that when you were scheming it uh a year or so ago. A year and a half ago, and you talked about that. But that one is huge because it it provides, again, a subsequent value to somebody, even if that that customer, for example, Parker McCumber, I live in Utah, right? If I buy or sell from you, I'm I'm local. I'm just gonna drive up to the dealership. But maybe Parker wants to go do a rally in Florida. Well, now I've got the guy that knows how to move the car for me, and I don't got to worry about the third-party broker and their insurance and their cars getting stolen because it's in-house. Exactly. So your business still supports your business, still supports your customers. Yep. I love the model. I tried to emulate that in this podcast studio, for example, right? Anyone who comes into the podcast studio is a warm client for my coaching because I can teach them how I monetize my podcast, how I how I structured that. And then anyone who's already a coaching client is now a warm lead for the podcast studio because I'm teaching them how to build authority and trust at scale.

SPEAKER_01 39:56

Correct.

SPEAKER_00 39:57

Correct. So they just feed each other, but it's the same model that you've got. That's exactly correct.

SPEAKER_01 40:01

You nailed it. Yeah, you're exactly correct. I think the longer in business, the more you realize this. And and it is, I mean, in its simple state, right? You you build that little fire. Like I said, I'm a metaphor kind of analogy guy. And then you ask yourself, where am I spending money? And can I bring that in-house? Yeah. Right?

SPEAKER_00 40:17

Like that's it. Okay, I say this all the time. Bootstrap everything, monetize everything. Everything. Yes. That's exactly right. Every aspect of my life I'm trying to monetize. That's exactly right. Doesn't matter what it is. Yep.

SPEAKER_01 40:28

Why not?

SPEAKER_00 40:28

Why not?

SPEAKER_01 40:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 40:30

Cars, done. Done. Done. Gen. Podcasting, done. Yeah. My lead gen is now monetized. I get paid to generate leads now. I love it. It's it's great. Okay. Uh, I know we're coming up on time a little bit. I wanted to ask, um, because you brought up the concept of you started your business, and uh, the first strategy was friends and family. Yes. I teach that a lot of my clients sleep on it. They think that that's just it's oh, it's that's too easy, too cliche. It's never gonna work. It's uh, I don't want to pester them. Right. But I think the easiest way to generate your first sales and get some testimonials, and ultimately it's the testimonials and the social proof that helps you grow the business, right, is to go to friends and family. Facts. How do you recommend somebody approach that as far as like, hey, you're selling cars now? How do you let them know, hey, I'm selling cars, this is what I'm doing, I can help you.

SPEAKER_01 41:22

Yeah. Great question. I don't think anybody, friends and family-wise, unless your friends or family are, you know, crossing different states, doesn't really know what you're doing with the advent of social media, right? So when I leave my business, I post it on LinkedIn, you're gonna see it on Facebook, you're gonna see it on Instagram. Nobody to answer that question is necessarily unaware of what you do. Yeah. Have you, up until this point, created a relationship with your friends and family where they trust you now with your new thing? Right. So that's a good point. All of a sudden, it becomes, well, I've been a dick to all of my friends and family for the last five years. Why would they support me in my new venture? That's why it's hard to ask them. But for me, I realized I didn't really have to ask. And again, my my product is a little different because everybody's buying a car. At some point. At some point, right? And I didn't start off selling Lamborghinis and Ferraris. I'm selling Subarus, I'm selling trucks, I'm selling Volkswagens, right? But these are my friends and family who know me, who I've always had a good relationship with, who I would always go out of my way to help. Now realize Emmanuel's in a situation where, hey, he has expertise in this area because we know he owns his own cars, and I would support this guy, right? My family knows that I support them in whatever they do. If they're running a race, I'm at the finish line. You know what I mean? If they are starting a new venture, I might not be able to help you financially. I might be able to help you financially, but if I can help you move into your new studio and lift up a heavy desk because I'm 6'4, 230, I will do that because I want to support you. And so support begets support. Just like problems beget problems, support begets support. If you have not been supportive to your friends and family in their ventures, their hard life traumas and trials, their kids, their my friends know if their kid, this is bad. I shouldn't even say this, but it's the truth. If your kid has a fundraiser that he's doing, Uncle Emmanuel always donates. I could be on my last dollar. And if little Nikki is in a softball camp and she needs a dollar, I would give it to her. That's who I've always been. So for me, it was never hard getting that support. I didn't even have to ask. Now, in unique scenarios where maybe you're not selling cars that everyone needs and everyone's constantly changing in and out of, um, if you have been that person, then there's never a fear of asking because you've always given. Yeah. If you've led and lived in that kind of abundance lifestyle mindset where I will give what I have to the right degree, then when it comes time to ask, you never have to feel uncomfortable. With it. That's a mental hurdle that we have to overcome. In my sales career, I've always had to ask for the business. So I've never felt really stressed out asking for help or the business, right? But um if your friends and family trust you and if you've built a relationship based on that trust and that support, you can expect their support and they will give it to you without question.

SPEAKER_00 44:25

Absolutely beautiful. Don't you think? I do. Well, it goes back to, I mean, you talked about your relationships as a superpower. And then I'm thinking to myself, you know, the experiences nurture the relationships. Correct. Relationships require time and attention. Correct. And the best way to give attention is to give an awesome experience. Yep. That's exactly everything's connected.

SPEAKER_01 44:45

I mean, think about the individual who loses their job, right? Like this is economic turmoil that we live in. Think about, I mean, I know, I know executives who have lost jobs, right? Like things happen in corporate America. Are have you been the executive where on LinkedIn, if I need a job, you're plugging me with your network? Well, then, dude, when you need a job, you're look, there's 50 people that I've helped that I don't have to ask. They see my LinkedIn post and they're like, hey, that guy helped me when I was down. I want to help him. Absolutely. Hey, E, listen, I know, listen, we're looking for a new CRO over here. We're looking for a new CFO over here. I know my buddy owns this company, they're looking to expand. The network is part of life. What we fail to realize is that we need to go through life head up, eyes open, not head down all the time.

SPEAKER_00 45:28

Sometimes it's get off the cell phone.

SPEAKER_01 45:30

Right? Get off the cell phone. Make eye contact with people, shake their hand, see how you can help. At some point, we may need it, and we're not doing it for that reason. But I am a big believer, firm believer in that kind of what goes around comes around. I will help when I'm on top, I will help when I'm on the bottom. And hopefully that's reciprocated somehow, some way.

SPEAKER_00 45:49

You have an awesome team. I do. Do you train them on that? Or is it culture? Or both. That's an hour long podcast.

SPEAKER_01 45:59

That's an hour-long podcast question. Let me give you my thoughts. I am a team freak.

SPEAKER_00 46:04

The reason I had the thought. So I one of the things I do uh very continuously is I help entrepreneurs and business owners develop their teams. Because everybody comes to me and they ask, Well, how do I hire A players? It's not always about hiring A players. No, it's about developing people to be A players. Yes. Now, I had the thought as you were telling me that and your head up, eyes open. How many times have I been in your dealership? I mean, dozens? Dozens, yeah. I cannot remember a single time someone in your dealership picked up, pulled out, looked at their phone in my presence. They always gave me their attention, their undivided attention, and ensured that I was having a great experience. Even when I'm telling Tyler, like, I'm not buying this car from you, man. But I was just thinking to myself, I'm like, well, that's actually really rare. You're talking about head up, eyes open, engaging with people, building the connection. And I'm like, man, your team does that so well. Thank you so much.

SPEAKER_01 47:02

I'm gonna tell them you said that when we get back.

SPEAKER_00 47:05

Um I mean, seriously, all of them. Uh, like I the last time I was in, people that engaged with me, you come down out of your office. I'm talking to Phil, I'm talking to Tyler, I'm talking to Lindsay. Yep. Um, none of them, none of them look at a phone ever. That's awesome. They're just engaged.

SPEAKER_01 47:19

And we don't have a no-phone policy. I think as soon as you put policies in like that, you make it like this. Yeah. I can't look at my phone. Really, the way that I've I will credit with a thousand percent of this Bamboo HR, a great sales leader, sales team, Jeff Adams, um, Jed Smith, individuals that taught me how to hire. So I went through a lot of hiring training at Bamboo HR. So I will not take full credit for this at all. I love that team. I hated leaving. Um, it was the right thing to do. I don't regret it. But I would much rather hire a culture fit work hard, just will grind till the very end with little experience, then I will hire the most experienced person who doesn't fit our culture. So I am, I'm not saying everybody needs to do this, but I'm a personality test guy. I do not hire until you take a personality test. What kind of test? It's 16 personalities. Myers Briggs. Myers Briggs, yep. I want to know, and again, I'm not saying it's 100% accurate, but if it's 80% accurate, I want to know who you are existentially. I want to know how to coach you. I want to know what makes you tick. I want to know those things because then I know how to motivate you and I know how to coach you. And I want to take an individual who wants to be successful with more often than not, like middle of the pack experience, and I want to develop you into a dog. Absolutely. You know, versus hiring someone who maybe has all of this experience, but has a little negativity in them because they're carrying a lot of corporate America baggage. Like, oh, I want to stay. I'm not Southwest. Bro, your bags do not fly free. They do not fly free here, bro. I am not Southwest. I am Delta Airline. I might be spirit airlines. I'm charging you for carry-ons. You know, I mean, like, don't bring those fingers, you know? So I um, yeah, when I hire, I have a phenomenal team. 90% of our success is because of them. Um, and I think it's because we hired team culture fits. Absolutely. Me and Parker want to work together. When Parker's having a tough day, I'll lift him up. When I'm having a tough day, Parker lifts me up.

SPEAKER_00 49:29

I love that. The culture fit is the most important aspect. 100%. You can develop skills, you can coach someone how to do a task. You cannot teach culture and you cannot teach trust in the same way. Correct.

SPEAKER_01 49:40

I agree with that.

SPEAKER_00 49:41

Okay, you've given us a ton of value today. I'm very grateful. Is there anything I could do for you and your people?

SPEAKER_01 49:48

You do so much for us. I'm I'm super grateful for you. I'm thankful for the invite. Um, I don't think you have probably realized or we've done a good job expressing to you how much, even from the early days when we were, we're still nobodies, but when we were really small partners bringing manual Subaru STIs, was it? You know, or all of the cars that you've brought over the years and trusted us to help you with those transactions, you have impacted our business greatly. And so if there's anything we can do for you, we will continue to do it. But thank you for what you've done for us.

SPEAKER_00 50:20

I'm gonna ask you for a whole bunch of things right after the podcast.

SPEAKER_01 50:22

I love it.

SPEAKER_00 50:22

Hey, tell them where they can find you. Uh, how can they get in touch with car guys?

SPEAKER_01 50:26

Um, find us on social media. You can find us on all of your car shopping sites, cars.com, auto trader, all of those sites we're on. Um, Car Guys Motors on Instagram, Car Guys Motors on TikTok. Um, send us a message. We'd love to help you out. Ultimately, um, hoping that you have an awesome experience in a really fun car. That's what we're all about.

SPEAKER_00 50:48

I don't work there, but I'd pretty much guarantee you'd have an awesome experience and find a really fun car.

SPEAKER_01 50:54

Yeah, I appreciate it.

SPEAKER_00 50:55

Uh E, I want to say thank you so much for coming on the show. I got a copy of my book for you. Yes. We're gonna lean in, get an awkward handshake in front of this camera. I love it.