The First Pencil
Kathi Kruse and Mike The Car Guy Correra are best friends, with many many years of retail experience in the car biz. "We decided to get together and talk about the things that are important to us in the auto industry, and hope you’ll come along for the ride. We’ll cover auto industry stuff, dealership profitability, and digital platforms, all with a dose of humor and our love for 80s/90s music. Join us!"
Episodes
123 episodes
New Study Reveals Car Dealers’ SEO Blind Spot: Google Business Profiles
👉Sign up for Kathi’s newsletter here👈This week, we circle back to a subject that is near and dear to us: Google My Business, aka Google Business Profile...
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Season 3
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Episode 33
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54:22
Is Social Media Still a Smart Investment of Your Time?
👉Sign up for Kathi’s newsletter here👈Instagram's recent decision to remove the ability to search by #hashtags marks the end of an era for social media u...
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Season 3
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Episode 32
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49:29
Car Buyers Stick with the Brands They Love
👉Sign up for Kathi’s newsletter here👈How does a manufacturer create and sustain a vehicle brand that customers love? Kathi and Mike discuss ...
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Season 3
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Episode 31
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49:25
Hey, Have You Heard About Video?
👉Sign up for Kathi’s newsletter here👈Kathi and Mike are happy that more dealers are talking about the power of video, even if it’s nearly 15 years after...
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Season 3
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Episode 30
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47:38
Social Media: Whose Feed Is It Anyway?
👉Sign up for Kathi’s newsletter here👈Kathi returns from a great Used Car Week conference and shares a few tidbits.Then, we spend most of our time...
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Season 3
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Episode 29
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49:56
This Had to Be Said About Automotive Influencers
👉Sign up for Kathi’s newsletter here👈Kathi and Mike take a detour from our regular topics to call out hate. Neither of us can stand what we witnessed at...
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Season 3
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Episode 28
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45:43
Prabhakar Raghavan Killed Google Search As We Know It
👉Sign up for Kathi’s newsletter here👈Both of us are sad. The open web is no longer and while it’s not just his doing, Google’s Head of Search, Prabhakar...
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Season 3
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Episode 27
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46:00
AI Mods, Restomods and The Beverly Hillbillies
👉Sign up for Kathi’s newsletter here👈Kathi and Mike discuss the latest issues with Threads’ AI moderation, which has gone “CRACKERS” and rings the same ...
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Season 3
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Episode 26
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41:21
Building a Customer-First Culture in Car Dealerships
👉Sign up for Kathi’s newsletter here👈What did we do before social media to build a customer-centric culture? How did we get potential buyers to know abo...
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Season 3
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Episode 25
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50:04
Facebook Ads Support Black Hole: Where Help Goes to Die
👉Sign up for Kathi’s newsletter here👈We promised you an update in the ongoing Facebook ads issues that Kathi (and others) are having and while it’s utte...
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Season 3
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Episode 24
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42:25
How Car Dealers Are Failing Customers
👉Sign up for Kathi’s newsletter here👈Not only are some dealers failing customers but they are failing themselves. The things we are witnessing now - the...
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Season 3
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Episode 23
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59:54
The Approaching Wildfire of Car Loan Delinquencies
👉Sign up for Kathi’s newsletter here👈Kathi shares her experience fresh from evacuating the horse rescue after the Airport Fire got too close for comfort...
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Season 3
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Episode 22
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45:53
Google and Facebook: Diluted and Polluted
👉Sign up for Kathi’s newsletter here👈This week, Kathi and Mike cover the ground-shift that has happened and is happening with two of the largest compani...
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Season 3
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Episode 21
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48:00
Unsung Heroes: A Case for Service Advisor Appreciation + Training
👉Sign up for Kathi’s newsletter here👈Carrying the subject matter over from last week’s pod, Kathi and Mike cite examples where appreciation, recognition...
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Season 3
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Episode 20
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41:59
She Knows Cars: Insights from a Female Service Advisor w/ Laurie Down
👉Sign up for Kathi’s newsletter here👈In this special episode, Kathi goes solo in a conversation with her long-time friend, Laurie Down, an amazing custo...
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Season 3
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Episode 19
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47:00
We Are Pretty Sure Facebook is Messing With Us
👉Sign up for Kathi’s newsletter here👈We explore the trials and tribulations of attempting to advertise with Facebook. Warning: the endeavor may make you...
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Season 3
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Episode 18
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55:50
From Spam to Showroom: Email's Role in Car Sales and Service
👉Sign up for Kathi’s newsletter here👈Kathi and Mike explore the advantages of email (hint: there are many) but only with a strategic, consistent approac...
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Season 3
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Episode 17
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41:55
Are Dealers Wasting Time on TikTok While Sales Suffer?
👉Sign up for Kathi’s newsletter here👈Do short skirts equal leads? Does hiring actors to pretend they’re employees send the right message to ...
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Season 3
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Episode 16
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55:24
From Klout to Clicks: Navigating the Evolution of Dealership Digital Marketing
👉Sign up for Kathi’s newsletter here👈We miss Klout. Do you remember it? Social media nostalgia: it’s difficult to understand how we got here today,...
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Season 3
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Episode 15
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55:11
When Google Search Fails, What Do We Do?
👉Sign up for Kathi’s newsletter here👈Kathi and Mike share our insights on the latest of several disappointing changes to the Google Business Profile pla...
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Season 3
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Episode 14
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37:06
Are Leads and Sales the Only Metrics?
👉Sign up for Kathi’s newsletter here👈Kathi and Mike talk about the micro-actions we take everyday on social and other platforms that provide value to ot...
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Season 3
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Episode 13
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42:28
The CDK Fallout and Who It’s Falling On
👉Get Kathi’s ebook: “A Beginner’s Guide to AI for Automotive Retail 👈This week, Kathi and Mike cover:The CDK fallout and who it’s ...
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Season 3
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Episode 12
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42:01
The CDK Cyber Attack Debacle Did Not Have to Happen
👉Get Kathi’s ebook: “A Beginner’s Guide to AI for Automotive Retail 👈At our core, we are car people. We are upset to witness what’s happening ...
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Season 3
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Episode 11
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51:55