The Dealer Playbook
The Dealer Playbook is the top-rated podcast for automotive professionals who want to dominate the retail industry.
Hosted by Michael Cirillo, this show delivers expert interviews, proven strategies, and actionable insights to help you sell more cars, lead stronger teams, and grow thriving dealerships.
Whether you work in sales, service, F&I, marketing, or management, you’ll gain the tools and confidence to excel in a rapidly evolving market.
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The Dealer Playbook
What Gratitude Taught Me About Life, Business, and Big Wins
Hey hey, what’s up, DPB Gang? It’s Thanksgiving Day, and I’ve got a little something special for you. First of all, happy Thanksgiving! Can you believe we’ve been on this Dealer Playbook ride together for almost 11 years now? Eleven years! That’s wild. And I just wanna say—I’m so grateful for you. Whether you’ve been here since episode one or you’re jumping in today, you mean the world to me.
Now, let me tell you why you this episode is special to me. This isn’t your typical “here’s what I’m thankful for” chat. Nope. Today, I’m unpacking something that’s become a game-changer for me: gratitude. But wait—don’t roll your eyes yet, okay? I’m not talking about fluffy, feel-good platitudes. I’m talking about how practicing gratitude every day has made me more efficient, more focused, and way more clear on what actually matters.
So grab a coffee, a turkey leg, or whatever you’re doing today, and let’s hang out for a bit.
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This episode is brought to you by FlexDealer. Hey guys, welcome to this episode of MC on the Mic. It is Thanksgiving Day. Happy Thanksgiving. I have a special message that I want to share, just for you. Stay tuned.
Speaker 1:The car business is rapidly changing and modern car dealers are meeting the demand. I'm Michael Cirillo, and together we'll explore the best strategies, ideas and tools to create a thriving life in and out of the business. This is the Dealer Playbook. I mean, at time of recording this it's Thanksgiving day and there's so much to be thankful for. More on that in a minute. But first I want to thank you. How many Thanksgivings have we been through at this point? I mean it is unreal to think about.
Speaker 1:We are headed into our 11th year of the Dealer Playbook and producing this show and, as I reflect over the last almost 11 years, there's some really interesting things that have happened along the way that really enhance my gratitude for you for sticking through it all. I mean for those that are the OG DP beers out there who connect with me and send me messages. I'm always so grateful for that. But I mean gosh, this started as an experiment and kind of blew up from there. There were moments where we started out weekly, and I started out with my co-host, robert. Many of you will remember him. If not, you can go back to gosh episode one of this whole thing and you can hear his voice. He had a deep, deep, raspy, deep new yorker voice. Um, we did that weekly. We tried daily. I don't know if you guys remember the daily show. We did five, five days a week for almost a year and that was exhausting, but you stuck through that with me and so I'm grateful for that. Um, and fast forward to today, where the show's expanding. We have MC on the mic episodes, we're adding more commentary to our website, we're capturing more video and social content and all those sorts of things, and so I'm just really grateful that you've joined me on the ride. But I want to share something with you that I think is so tremendously valuable.
Speaker 1:On an interview recently for my other show, auto collabs, which a lot of you tune into as well, and our guest Bill said that the most successful dealerships in the world are the dealerships who understand efficiency, and you're probably going wait a minute. You were just talking about gratitude. Where does efficiency come into this? Well, I want to share this with you because you'll see how it all comes together. This is my little nugget I want to share with you on this Thanksgiving day.
Speaker 1:The most successful dealerships in the world understand efficiency. Let me unpack that, the word that I I keyed into. Let's see if it's the same one, two, three, understood. No, it wasn't you. You didn't think of understood, you were focused on efficiency. Probably that makes sense. I focused and keyed in on the word he used, which is understand. Of course, understanding is the pinnacle of learning, right? When you understand, when you comprehend something, it becomes this innate, inherent part of your being. You just get it.
Speaker 1:The most successful dealerships in the world understand efficiency, and that got me thinking about how intimate their knowledge of this waterfall effect that happens within an organization has to be for them to understand efficiency, the implications of not being efficient, the implications of being efficient, what to do in order to become more efficient at all levels, what is the opportunity cost, what is the true expense? How much are we spending on inefficiency? So on and so forth. There's so many aspects to it, and so that then got me thinking of a daily practice that I do that I want to share with you, that helps me become more efficient. And you're like tick, tick, tick, cirilla, where's the tie-in that? The clock is ticking and it's this Quite, literally every single day, without fail.
Speaker 1:My day starts with writing a gratitude journal. Every single day. I have this planner template which I can share with you on my iPad, and every morning starts with like, literally we can go and I'm writing what I'm grateful for, and I just sit there in the morning and I think to myself you know, you might do this over your cup of coffee. Some days are longer than others. Um, I just sit, you know, shortly after waking up, doing my get ready for the day routine, the shower, the you know all the things and I sit in the quiet and I write in a gratitude journal.
Speaker 1:I've always really kept a journal. In fact, I've shown you know, joe, our producer, I think, has seen my very first journal that I started writing when I was 11. And it's kind of fun to go through that, incredibly embarrassing. But what I noticed is a common theme to my journal entries is some, in some way or another, an expression of gratitude. And this got me thinking, in conjunction with this terminology of efficiency, the impact that writing a daily gratitude journal has on helping me become more efficient, so I'm going to share some of these with you. I went back really far, but let me get to today's date. I think this is really important to share an inside look into how I write my gratitudes and then to maybe unpack it a little bit so that you can see why I think this makes me more efficient.
Speaker 1:This morning I wrote I am grateful for clarity about what I want in business and in my personal life. Okay, one more time I am grateful for clarity about what I want in business and personal life. Why am I grateful for that? Well, first of all, don't you want to feel clear? Doesn't clarity about what you want ultimately lead to a more defined articulation of your vision, so that your people will understand it? Doesn't clarity lead to knowing what you don't care about anymore and being able to stay more focused, not worried about what people are posting on social media, the best parts of their fake lives that are made to feel you made to, or designed to make you feel like you're not doing enough? Doesn't clarity lead to buy in? Doesn't clarity lead to ownership? Doesn't clarity lead to understanding and enlightenment? Doesn't it clear the path so that you can consume information and education that will ultimately help you get to your end destination. And, by the way, doesn't clarity help you understand what that end destination is?
Speaker 1:I am grateful for clarity about what I want in business and life. It is so clear in my mind and it is so freeing to let go of all of the crap that I didn't even realize at times I was hanging on to Talk about liberation. I feel like the elephant no longer sits on my chest, like I'm suffocating by indecisiveness or whatever it might be. So I wrote that. But here's the tie into why I say that writing a daily gratitude journal helped me get there. Because if I were to go back over time and if I really wanted to open it all up to you I don't think that's, we're not going to do that, but if I did, what you would see is a period of time filled with grace and processing and poking and prodding and examining my own thoughts that have ultimately helped me get to the clarity that I now feel, that have allowed me to get to a place of being where I know tomorrow I will feel even more clear than I do today. And 10 years from now, michael, when we're on episode 3 zillion of the podcast. We'll be even more clear than Michael of today sharing this with you. We'll be even more efficient in my output than I am today. We'll have embraced the perpetual climb and adventure of growth versus being overwhelmed by it.
Speaker 1:Now you might identify with this, but we were in dealerships all the time. I get to travel and go and visit and speak inside of dealerships and consult businesses all the time, and you know what I see. Hey, does your marketing agency suck? Listen, before we hop back into this episode. I know you know me as the host of the Dealer Playbook, but did you also know that I'm the CEO of FlexDealer, an agency that's helping dealers capture better quality leads from local SEO and hyper-targeted ads that convert? So if you want to sell more cars and finally have a partner that's in it with you, that doesn't suck, visit FlexDealercom. Let's hop back into this episode.
Speaker 1:I see a lack of clarity, I see a lack of communication. I see a lack of buy-in. I see a lack of desire focus. I see an abundance of confusion. I see an abundance of frustration and drama. I see an abundance of unarticulated expectations, and each of these things ultimately, in my opinion, stem back to the fact that the day did not start with a routine and that routine did not include gratitude.
Speaker 1:Gratitude, I've learned in my experience. Gratitude, I've learned in my experience opens us up to an abundance mindset. And here we are, at Thanksgiving, celebrating all there is to be grateful for, abundance being one of those things provisions that sustain life being one of those things, gratitude shifts the lens by which we see the world, so that we see in a more abundant, more grace-filled, more hope-filled, more loving and more connected world. Ingratitude leads to a lack mindset, it leads to conflict, it leads to confusion and frustration, it leads to animosity, it leads to envy All of the things that divide us as human beings. But our inherent nature is to be accepted, to be understood, and I guess it's Thanksgiving, I guess it's the comment I heard about efficiency, I guess it's maybe years and years and years of journaling that brought to the forefront just how important it is for me to start my day down the path of efficiency by sitting in silence, processing my thoughts and considering all there is to be grateful for.
Speaker 1:The last nugget that I want to share with you is that it's really, really easy. I've learned over the years to just write. I am grateful for. I'm grateful for that dealer playbook. I'm grateful for Target, you know I'm grateful for ginger shots. I don't know why that's the person's voice that's coming, but you get where I'm going. It's really easy to just say I'm grateful for. You know what adds power to the statement. What adds power is your reason, why, your sentiment behind the gratitude. It's one thing to say I'm grateful for the dealer playbook, but boy oh boy, is it much more powerful when I say I am so grateful for the dealer playbook.
Speaker 1:To know that there are other incredible individuals in the world who desire to have a lasting positive change and impact in our industry, who are working day in and day out for legacy, makes me feel great, because it makes me feel connected, because it makes me feel alive and filled with purpose. You see so much different. I'm so grateful for my wife, who probably didn't know what marrying an entrepreneur would actually mean in application, who's never complained, who's never held it over my head, who never had cutting remarks when I had to miss the first swim lesson or sometimes the first day of school. Who knew that in my heart I desperately did not want to miss those things but had that tough challenge of providing for our family and what the sacrifice of that would be Never held it over my head. I'm grateful for her for many of those reasons, because it empowered me to do and accomplish and set our family on a path as teammates that 10, 12, 15, 20 years ago Michael could have never comprehended. She is as much a part of everything that we've done together, in business, spiritually, in life, with our family, even though she's not the one that sits on camera Right and, by the way, we don't have nobody has the patience for that that women notice so much more.
Speaker 1:I'm sorry you do. You notice when the one hair is off and you meet this is all we got guys, this is all I have to work with. I just I've accepted it. It is what it is, even when Joe tells me to go change my shirt for continuity or for change and all the thing, this is as good as it's going to get. It's this in a different shirt. You know.
Speaker 1:Point being is I'm so grateful when you add why you are grateful for the thing. Over time, my promise to you is you're going to notice shifts towards problem solving, towards efficiency, and if you choose to change the way you start your day. No more doom scrolling, no more whatever. Whatever else has taken up your your, your morning, potentially, and you shift it towards gratitude, to build clarity, to build efficiency. My promise to you is you're going to be experiencing an abundant life that's bigger and bolder and more exciting than today you could have ever imagined is possible. Am I going to cry? No, I'm not. It's been 11 years and you haven't seen me cry yet, so don't just stay buckled up. Okay, guys, it's Thanksgiving. I am so grateful for you, for the blessing that you have been in my life. You have enhanced the experience of working in the retail auto industry for me beyond all measures. The fact that we get to do the show and that you keep tuning in means the world to me.
Speaker 1:Listen, if you have not yet subscribed, if you're new here, thanks for joining in the conversation. Your presence means the world to me and you are an active participant. By the way, welcome to the conversation. You can follow us on our socials. You can check us out on youtube and, of course, subscribe to the audio. Wherever you get your podcasts, whether it's apple or spotify, love that you are a part of the community. Thank you so much if if you found value in this episode, please share it out. Hit the like button. Hit the subscribe. What do the kids say? Smash the like button, turn on notifications, do all the things wherever you're participating and, until next time, keep that playbook open and dominate happy. Hey. Thanks for listening to the dealer playbook podcast. If you enjoyed tuning in, please subscribe, share and hit that like button. You can also join us and the DPB community on social media. Check back next week for a new dealer playbook episode. Thanks so much for joining.
