The Dealership Fixit Podcast

How lucky am I? I saw this book that I knew I had to buy and read and when I messaged the author about coming on my little dealership podcast to talk about it, he said yes! Frank J. O'Connell, who before becoming an author of this book was in leadership at several titan companies you'd know the names of, including Indian Motorcycles. Frank is an avid motorcycle rider and enthusiast of 50 years and logs more miles each year than most legit motorcyclists that I know. Being an absolute top level corporate turnaround guy as well as a motorcycle guy, it was my honor to get a few minutes with him talking about where he sees the opportunity for dealerships to get a little better.  Thanks for taking the time to listen. Find Frank here:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/jumpfirstfrank/  You can buy his book at your favorite local bookstore, or here:  https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1637631073?tag=simonsayscom  https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/jump-first-think-fast-frank-j-oconnell/1141673852    *********************   The Dealership fiXit podcast exists to tap dealers into high performance ideas. 

Heartburn to Heartbeat with Phillip Orange of Houston Motorsports

Phillip Orange from Houston Motorsports joined me to chat about powersports dealership as well as leadership stuff including his 10 pennies philosophy.  Phillip shares that he got into the motorcycle business when he got a chance to work at a dealership in the Houston area. With the help of some great employers to teach him the ropes and at least one great mentor, he has gone on through dealership management and now owner & operator of multiple stores in his native Texas region.  It's obvious that he is motivated through his Faith in God and shares some of that here. That Faith definitely helps center his motivation daily to show up and uplift and promote others to do their best. The end of day self check-in he mentions plus the epic daily "10 pennies" approach are amazing ways to gamify helping any of us to give & get our personal best on a consistent basis. I love it! I have never worked for him but I have been drawn to look and listen to his social media content. He has a great vibe as a leader to follow and that is why I asked him to come on and chat.  Lots of fun conversation in this hour. Phillip, I appreciate you taking the time Sir!   Find Phillip (virtually) in these places:    https://www.houstonyamaha.com/  https://www.facebook.com/phillip.orange.3/  https://www.linkedin.com/in/phillip-orange-71a96a20/  Be sure to check out the other episode with him for a quick 5 minute Heartburn to Heartbeat as well (unique content on those, not a highlight of any episode)   *************************  I appreciate you listening!  Brian Croft  The Dealership fiXit podcast exists to tap dealers into high performance ideas.  Please consider liking, reviewing on your podcast player of choice and share us with anyone you think should check it out.  ************************* 

Michael Masouras of MotoHunt.com joined me to chat about several things but mainly what is going on with the impending FTC rules changes that are looming, which will affect all dealerships with regard to how they can advertise their units for sale.    Michael has the dealers interests at the heart of his business so if you aren't familiar with them, please go look at their website and learn about what they are already doing and can possibly do more of, for your powersports dealership lead generation. Check them out here: Motohunt.com  Contact Michael directly here: michael@motohunt.com    *****  The Dealership fiXit podcast exists to tap dealerships into high performance ideas!  Please support us by rating, reviewing and/or sharing the #dealershipfixit podcast on your podcast player of choice!  Thank you!  Brian Croft  *****

Michael Masouras, CEO of MotoHunt.com joined me for a quick Heartburn to Heartbeat episode today.  Check them out here: Motohunt.com    *****  The Dealership fiXit podcast exists to tap dealerships into high performance ideas!  Please support us by rating, reviewing and/or sharing the #dealershipfixit podcast on your podcast player of choice!  Thank you!  Brian Croft  *****

My friend Jeffrey P. McNulty joins me for a "quick" Gamify Heartburn to Heartbeat segment!  Jeffrey P. McNulty is A Founder, CEO, Retail Turnaround Expert, Retail Educator & Trainer, Leadership Coach, Innovator, Online Course Creator, Mentor, Retail Expert, and Best-Selling Author of "The Ultimate Retail Manual.” Mr. McNulty is currently the Founder & Chief Executive Officer of New Retail Ethos, which assists retail organizations/businesses (regardless of size, scope, or niche) with alleviating and addressing common "Pain Points." He has been labeled a "Hybrid" in the business world as he has over 30 years of experience as a Retail Executive for The Home Depot, Lowes, Barnes & Noble, PetSmart, Shopko, Toys R Us, Publix Supermarkets, and Festival Foods, as well as over 17-years of tenure as a Retail Market Research Analyst. He is also the Founder & CEO of The Ultimate Retail Course. I asked Jeffrey to come back on and share some insights on what is going on with retail in these crazy times. If you like what he shared in here, you should check out his book (manual), course or possibly if you ant to go big - retain his services to get your business on track for massive results in tough times. Find him on LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffreypmcnulty/  NEW RETAIL ETHOS CONSULTING:  www.newretailethos.com  THE ULTIMATE RETAIL COURSE WEBSITE:  www.theultimateretailcourse.com  THE ULTIMATE RETAIL MANUAL: STRATEGIES FOR RETAILERS TO THRIVE & SUCCEED IN THE DIGITAL WORLD:  https://www.amazon.com/Ultimate-Retail-Manual-Strategies-Retailers/dp/1732565414  THE ULTIMATE RETAIL COURSE: BECOME A RETAIL ROCKSTAR!:  https://theultimateretailcourse.thinkific.com/courses/BECOME-A-RETAIL-ROCKSTAR  THE ULTIMATE RETAIL HR COURSE: BECOME AN HR ROCKSTAR:  https://theultimateretailcourse.thinkific.com/courses/BECOME-AN-HR-ROCKSTAR  THE ULTIMATE RETAIL COACHING PROGRAM: EMBRACE YOUR FUTURE TODAY!:  https://theultimateretailcourse.thinkific.com/courses/THE-ULTIMATE-RETAIL-COACHING-PROGRAM  THE ULTIMATE RETAIL BUNDLE: STRATEGY, INSIGHT, & COACHING:  https://theultimateretailcourse.thinkific.com/bundles/THE-ULTIMATE-RETAIL-BUNDLE  THE ULTIMATE RETAIL FOUNDATIONAL COURSE:  https://theultimateretailcourse.thinkific.com/courses/THE-ULTIMATE-RETAIL-FOUNDATIONAL-COURSE  ***** The Dealership fiXit podcast exists to tap dealerships into high performance ideas! Please support us by rating, reviewing and/or sharing the #dealershipfixit podcast on your podcast player of choice! Thank you! Brian Croft *****

It's an honor to welcome back to the show, my friend Jeffrey P. McNulty!  Jeffrey P. McNulty is A Founder, CEO, Retail Turnaround Expert, Retail Educator & Trainer, Leadership Coach, Innovator, Online Course Creator, Mentor, Retail Expert, and Best-Selling Author of "The Ultimate Retail Manual.” Mr. McNulty is currently the Founder & Chief Executive Officer of New Retail Ethos, which assists retail organizations/businesses (regardless of size, scope, or niche) with alleviating and addressing common "Pain Points." He has been labeled a "Hybrid" in the business world as he has over 30 years of experience as a Retail Executive for The Home Depot, Lowes, Barnes & Noble, PetSmart, Shopko, Toys R Us, Publix Supermarkets, and Festival Foods, as well as over 17-years of tenure as a Retail Market Research Analyst. He is also the Founder & CEO of The Ultimate Retail Course. I asked Jeffrey to come back on and share some insights on what is going on with retail in these crazy times. If you like what he shared in here, you should check out his book (manual), course or possibly if you ant to go big - retain his services to get your business on track for massive results in tough times. Find him on LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffreypmcnulty/  NEW RETAIL ETHOS CONSULTING:  www.newretailethos.com  THE ULTIMATE RETAIL COURSE WEBSITE:  www.theultimateretailcourse.com  THE ULTIMATE RETAIL MANUAL: STRATEGIES FOR RETAILERS TO THRIVE & SUCCEED IN THE DIGITAL WORLD:  https://www.amazon.com/Ultimate-Retail-Manual-Strategies-Retailers/dp/1732565414  THE ULTIMATE RETAIL COURSE: BECOME A RETAIL ROCKSTAR!:  https://theultimateretailcourse.thinkific.com/courses/BECOME-A-RETAIL-ROCKSTAR  THE ULTIMATE RETAIL HR COURSE: BECOME AN HR ROCKSTAR:  https://theultimateretailcourse.thinkific.com/courses/BECOME-AN-HR-ROCKSTAR  THE ULTIMATE RETAIL COACHING PROGRAM: EMBRACE YOUR FUTURE TODAY!:  https://theultimateretailcourse.thinkific.com/courses/THE-ULTIMATE-RETAIL-COACHING-PROGRAM  THE ULTIMATE RETAIL BUNDLE: STRATEGY, INSIGHT, & COACHING:  https://theultimateretailcourse.thinkific.com/bundles/THE-ULTIMATE-RETAIL-BUNDLE  THE ULTIMATE RETAIL FOUNDATIONAL COURSE:  https://theultimateretailcourse.thinkific.com/courses/THE-ULTIMATE-RETAIL-FOUNDATIONAL-COURSE  ***** The Dealership fiXit podcast exists to tap dealerships into high performance ideas! Please support us by rating, reviewing and/or sharing the #dealershipfixit podcast on your podcast player of choice! Thank you! Brian Croft *****

Jon (Pierre) Levesque of Ronnie's Cycle Sales of Bennington (Vermont) joined me for a chat about how their dealership has used Facebook groups as way of tapping into a customer base far beyond their local area. I really appreciate him being willing to share this secret for success - but as we all know it takes both knowledge AND action to make a recipe work. As mentioned I really see this as a tool for the dealership to help remove barriers for older riders/racers to reenter the dirtbike category in as safe an environment (mentally and physically) as possible. That means longer term, happier customers. Check out the #oldmenthatusedtorace Old Men That Used To Race Facebook group (with nearly 5K members!!) here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/itsjimsfault #itsjimsfault  Check out Ronnie's Cycle Sales of Bennington here: Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/RonniesBennington/?ref=page_internal Web - https://ronniesbennington.com/ ***** The Dealership fiXit podcast exists to tap dealerships into high performance ideas! Please support us by rating, reviewing and/or sharing the #dealershipfixit podcast on your podcast player of choice! Thank you! Brian Croft *****

Jon Levesque of Ronnie's Cycle Sales of Bennington (Vermont) joined me for a quick 5 Minute Heartburn to Heartbeat #heartburntoheartbeat bonus episode. Watch for a full episode from Jon coming this week! Check out Ronnie's Cycle Sales of Bennington here:  Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/RonniesBennington/?ref=page_internal  Web - https://ronniesbennington.com/  ***** The Dealership fiXit podcast exists to tap dealerships into high performance ideas! Please support us by rating, reviewing and/or sharing the #dealershipfixit podcast on your podcast player of choice! Thank you! Brian Croft *****

Jake Lowry is a family man, pro level mx-er, podcast host, MX school coach and many year powersport dealership guy at Graham KTM/Husqvarna/GasGas/Beta in Senatobia, MS (Memphis, TN metro area). Jake joined me today for a long chat where he shared some of his journey from son of a shop owner, bound for shopdom (lol) to living his dream as a national level pro motocrosser and how he turn that dream into the current blend of what he does WHILE being a busy family man. I have to admit I envy his ability of that much multitask in life.  If you want to get a feel for how a young person who's a professional at racing can transition to life as a professional motorcycle dealership employee, take a listen!  You can check connect with Jake here: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jake231/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jake-lowry-b654a6135/ The Shop: A Moto Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-shop-a-moto-podcast/id1514329977 Graham KTM: https://www.grahamktm.com/ Thanks Jake! ***** The Dealership fiXit podcast exists to tap dealerships into high performance ideas! Please support us by rating, reviewing and/or sharing the #dealershipfixit podcast on your podcast player of choice! Thank you! Brian Croft *****

Primo Marotto from Scott Sports (aka Scott USA) joined me for a full episode to chat about what is happening in the world of goggles.  My first job outside the dealership came from Primo and we chat about that among other things.  If serving dealers has done one thing for me over the years, it's given me the opportunity to meet and befriend the best humans!  #dealership #primomarotto #scottsports #scottusa #scottgoggles #motocross #goggles #defendyourvision #partsdepartment Check out Scott-Sports.com for the latest and greatest in products to "Defend Your Vision"  primo@scottusa.com  ***** The Dealership fiXit podcast exists to tap dealerships into high performance ideas! Please support us by rating, reviewing and/or sharing the #dealershipfixit podcast on your podcast player of choice! Thank you! Brian Croft *****

He might be one of the most contagiously fun people in the business to be around - Primo Marotto from Scott Sports (aka Scott USA) joined me for a quick 5 Minute Heartburn to Heartbeat #heartburntoheartbeat bonus episode. Watch for a full episode from Primo coming this week! Check out Scott-Sports.com for the latest and greatest in products to "Defend Your Vision"  *****  The Dealership fiXit podcast exists to tap dealerships into high performance ideas!  Please support us by rating, reviewing and/or sharing the #dealershipfixit podcast on your podcast player of choice!   Thank you!   Brian Croft  ***** 

Tiffany Miller joined me today to do a quick 5 Minute Heartburn to Heartbeat segment.  She has worked in the trenches at a dealership parts counter to a main distributor to athlete manager at EVS, then to her current role with Motosport.com and her resume business with Moto-resume.com really brings her desire to offer her experience in a way to help others move thru the ranks they dream of.  Watch for a full one hour episode with Tiffany! #heartburntoheartbeat on Dealership fiXit. Link up with Tiffany here:  https://www.moto-resume.com/   https://www.linkedin.com/in/tiffany-miller-720315162/  ***** The Dealership fiXit podcast exists to tap dealerships into high performance ideas!  Please support us by rating, reviewing and/or sharing the #dealershipfixit podcast on your podcast player of choice!   Thank you!   Brian Croft  ***** 

Tiffany Miller joined me today to do a quick 5 Minute Heartburn to Heartbeat segment.  She has worked in the trenches at a dealership parts counter to a main distributor to athlete manager at EVS, then to her current role with Motosport.com as well as her resume business with Moto-resume.com really brings her desire to offer her experience in a way to help others move thru the ranks they dream of.  Also check out her 5 minute Q&A in #heartburntoheartbeat on Dealership fiXit. Link up with Tiffany here:  https://www.moto-resume.com/   https://www.linkedin.com/in/tiffany-miller-720315162/  ***** The Dealership fiXit podcast exists to tap dealerships into high performance ideas!  Please support us by rating, reviewing and/or sharing the #dealershipfixit podcast on your podcast player of choice!   Thank you!   Brian Croft  ***** 

Jake Lowry, a podcast host, MX school coach and many year powersport dealership guy at Graham KTM/Husqvarna/GasGas/Beta in Senatobia, MS (Memphis, TN metro area) joined me today to do a quick 5 Minute Heartburn to Heartbeat segment. Watch for a full episode with Jake sometime soon! #heartburntoheartbeat  You can check connect with Jake here:  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jake231/  LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jake-lowry-b654a6135/  The Shop: A Moto Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-shop-a-moto-podcast/id1514329977  Graham KTM: https://www.grahamktm.com/   Thanks Jake!  ***** The Dealership fiXit podcast exists to tap dealerships into high performance ideas!  Please support us by rating, reviewing and/or sharing the #dealershipfixit podcast on your podcast player of choice!   Thank you!   Brian Croft  ***** 

Hey fiXit friends! Yes, I have been away a bit from giving you fresh content - but I have new episodes in process and more fun conversations planned with powersports industry folks.  Stay tuned! Brian Croft Dealership fiXit  503-724-1185 dealershipfixit@gmail.com

Last weekend I was on a rare sunny Oregon winter day bike ride the with my kids.  They’re currently 10 and 8 years old. I got both of them started riding bikes pretty young so they’re both (surprisingly?) proficient. I’m actually in awe about it when I ride with them. While riding and thinking about how great they are doing - and of course my mind appreciating being in that moment as well as knowing any such experience could be my or our last - It occurred to me that each time we do it, it’s both practice and the performance. We are doing the thing that it took practice to learn at the best we’ve ever been able to do it (potentially) as well as (hopefully) we are refining a skill that we’ll be slightly better the next time we do it. I’m sharing this with my connections on LinkedIn because I tried to tell the kids this and their response was pretty much “yeah, we know Dad” 😂 So my new tombstone quote for the day is: “Do it like it’s both, practice and the performance.“ ~ Brian Croft I hope this helps you BE in the moment and appreciate what you have accomplished as well as where you are headed. Enjoy it! Thanks for listening!

Today on the very first episode back in this year, 2021 - Episode 69 - Michael Masouras from MotoHunt.com talks Google and how dealerships can get more bang for their buck on that behemoth search engine. He worked at Google so he knows his stuff. Listen up! Below are the links regarding tools he discussed that dealers can use today to get an idea on how well they are actually doing in search results. You can contact Michael at michael@motohunt.com for any questions regarding the subject - he says he is glad to help anybody get going with these tools independently of his current project at www.MotoHunt.com Google Performance tests (aka Web Vitals) Test the performance of your inventory and listing pages. This tool allows you to enter a URL (page) from your site and see how well it performs. https://web.dev/measure/ Google My Business Create a storefront for your business in search results https://www.google.com/business/ Sign-up for Google Search Console This free tool by Google itself provides you information about how your site is actually performing in search. You can use it to track actual progress, or issues that are causing your site to not rank as well as you would like it to. https://search.google.com/search-console/about Perform an SEO Audit An SEO audit is a more in-depth analysis of your website that offers you a 360 view of how your site is performing in search across all your pages. These audits are run by third-party companies. There are many free(mium)* tools out there that can perform an SEO audit, here are some of them: https://ahrefs.com/webmaster-tools https://www.semrush.com/siteaudit/ https://sitechecker.pro/ https://moz.com/free-seo-tools Ask your website vendor if/which one they use to audit their sites and give you any results that they have accumulated. ********************* Thanks for checking out the Dealership fiXit podcast!  Dealership fiXit exists to tap dealer into high performance ideas!

Kurt was kind enough to come back on with me and discuss Leadership in Crisis. We are are having some wide ranging effects from this mess that is the COVID-19 Coronavirus of 2020. Kurt and I chat about ways to take control of what you can right now for maximum benefit coming out of this. Find Kurt here on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kurtvonahnen/ His website Mañana No Mas is here: https://manananomas.com/ The dealership fiXit podcast exists to tap dealers into high performance ideas! Please share this with everyone you know in a dealership!   Thank you  :)

Jared joined me again to dig in on ideas for dealers to implement in this very confusing and continually evolving Coronavirus Pandemic.  He recently wrote the referenced article, here on his LinkedIn page: Jared's Article on LinkedIn Jared says it will also be published on DealerNews this coming Monday, March 23, 2020.  If you haven't checked out DealerNews recently, do yourself a favor and hop over there. They were a true staple in my days at dealership (albeit in a paper version!) Jared is NOT new to the ideas of dealerships needing to make big changes to remain relevant to how consumers expect to be able to transact with us. Now, we are seemingly in a true do or die situation in regards to that. Dealers who adapt right now will have a chance and those who are expecting to do what they've always done - I fear they will be gone before the next year goes by. I'm no seer, but I feel like this is one of those pivotal moments and I hope you'll use it to get creative and implement the new. You can find Jared on LinkedIn here Please also go back and check out his other episode when you have some more time to listen. The Dealership fiXit podcast exists to tap dealers into high performance ideas! Please share the episode with anyone you know that should hear it! Thank you!