Inside Automotive with Jim Fitzpatrick, powered by CBT News

Russell Richardson on turning social media into dealership sales

• Jim Fitzpatrick • Season 1 • Episode 90

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Russell Richardson, founder of RFW Training, explains how dealerships can turn social media into a consistent driver of leads, sales, and recruitment. He outlines a shift away from chasing views toward building authentic connections that convert into real business outcomes.

Richardson shares why organic, unscripted content often outperforms highly produced marketing, and how social platforms now act as a long-term follow-up system that keeps dealerships top of mind. He also highlights the growing role of social media in hiring, particularly within fixed operations, and emphasizes the importance of leadership involvement to drive adoption. With a structured, repeatable approach, dealerships can generate measurable results within months while reducing reliance on traditional paid channels.

  •  Why social media is becoming a top lead source for dealerships 
  •  The difference between content for engagement vs. content for sales 
  •  Using authentic, daily posts to build trust and drive conversions 
  •  Leveraging social platforms for recruiting service and sales staff 
  •  The role of leadership in creating accountability and consistency

Inside Automotive with Jim Fitzpatrick is powered by CBT News, your go-to source for the latest news, trends, and insights in retail automotive. Subscribe for more interviews with top industry leaders, dealership innovators, and experts shaping the future of automotive.

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Welcome And Who Russ Is

SPEAKER_00

Welcome to Inside Automotive with Jim Fitzpatrick.

Jim Fitzpatrick

Hey everyone, Jim Fitzpatrick. Thanks so much for joining me on another edition of Inside Automotive right here at cbtnews.com. If you spent any time on automotive social media, chances are you've come across Russell Richardson, also known as Russ Flips Whips. What started as content from the showroom at a Lincoln dealership, uh sh I should say the showroom Florida Lincoln Dealership has now turned into a full-scale serious business. So Russell is now the CEO of RFW, which I'm assuming stands for Russ Flips Whips Training, and uh helping dealerships all over America with their sales teams to better understand how to leverage and really use social media to drive real results for salespeople and for dealers. So, Russ, thanks so much for taking the time out of what looks like a very busy schedule that you've got there, crisscrossing the country and working with dealers. So thanks for taking the time with us.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, yeah, always good to be on the show.

Jim Fitzpatrick

Good. You the last time you were on the show was about a year ago. It has been a whirlwind year for you. Yeah, I think it was right before you broke out on your own from the dealership to teach so many other people how to do what you're doing successfully. And at the same time, you had a uh a new baby. So congrats, congratulations on all of that.

SPEAKER_01

Thank you, thank you.

The Leap From Sales To Training

Jim Fitzpatrick

Yeah, so talk to us about uh about the the transition from going from salesperson to now a trainer that's uh working with uh hundreds of salespeople and and now it's up to you to you know bust the door down and get the business uh that that you need to survive. Talk to us about all that.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, and I recently made a post on this this morning actually about how car sales is one of the greatest industries to potentially prime you for owning your own business. Yeah. You know, you have to learn how to market yourself and get more repeats and referrals and take care of the customer A to Z. You know, if you have a customer and the service department drops the ball, they're probably talking to you as a salesperson because they look at you as their point of contact. And I think, you know, selling cars from 18 to 26 primed me for being a business owner. And what's interesting about my leap, I had zero desire ever to be a trainer. This wasn't like I stayed up late at night planning my exit from the automotive industry, and I was just doing my thing. And I think, you know, sometimes the best businesses are born out of people seeing what you're doing, and they're like, Hey, can you do that for me? And I was like, you know, it was kind of funny. Some dealerships would ask me, Hey, can you come to our stores and promote us? And I was like, Why don't I just teach you how to promote yourself?

Jim Fitzpatrick

Right, right. That's right. That's right. What is it? Uh give a give a man a fish and you fed him for a day, teach him how to fish, you fed him for a lifetime, right? Yeah, that's that's what you're doing. That's that's fantastic. So when when this whole thing started, and and somebody does give you a call and say, Hey, could you come to our dealership and teach our guys? Did you realize that wait a minute, maybe maybe this is because you were making some major traction there. Your your your videos were getting you know hundreds of thousands of views, and I think it finally clicked. It seemed like the perfect timing for you too to step into this realm to say, wait a second, social media is coming together, people are doing things online, TikTok is is is expanding here. And uh so talk to us about that. I mean, the opportunity seemed really ripe for you to jump in.

Case Study Results From Roman Toyota

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, I mean, probably a year and a half ago, if you asked me if I could teach other people to replicate the success I've had, I'd say unlikely. And a dealer group, uh Roman Automotive, specifically speaking, their Toyota location, the general manager Zach Sinch, had you know reached out to me to come train, and I just I kind of said no up front. I was like, I don't do that, I I don't have material. I think what I do is just kind of a I don't want to call it a fluke, but like it's just for me. And through some conversations and him, of course, offering me enough money to just go do it, I did it. And the results were outstanding. Their Roman Toyota page, I believe, has well over a hundred thousand followers. It's a great, I think it's their number three lead source every month. Zach Sinch has a very powerful social media as the general manager, but most impressively, their fixed ops director, Austin Conroy, has grown a following of over 350,000 people, and it's their number one source of recruitment for his market in the Lafayette area. They've res they've recruited mechanics, service advisors, service managers through a social media presence.

Jim Fitzpatrick

Yeah, that is great. 350,000 for a fixed ops director. That's incredible.

SPEAKER_01

The world's most famous fixed ops director.

Jim Fitzpatrick

Yes, I was gonna say for sure. And that only grows, it continues to grow. I mean, the the bigger it gets, the bigger it gets, right? In social media.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, and I think, you know, what I discovered is there are so many talented, great people. I'm not teaching people to be talented or great. They're already that. Yeah. I'm teaching them just how to scale who they are on social media completely for free, too. I mean, I don't, you know, obviously you paid me to come teach, but like there's no like recurring cost to do social media. It's free as long as you have a phone with a camera on it.

Jim Fitzpatrick

Sure. Now I've seen you, I've seen these videos of you training, and you're actually I'm a former trainer myself in the car. You're in a good you're a good trainer. Where did you learn the techniques? Because a lot of people that will get up are maybe good at what they do, but uh and you've sat probably in those sales meetings as a salesman. We're like, this guy's not a trainer, he just could get up and scolds us. But it it takes a certain type of individual and a certain uh art form to know how to train other individuals so that they're actually learning. How did you how did you learn that?

How Russ Builds Better Trainers

SPEAKER_01

Uh, you know, I think it uh comes from you know, probably an unhealthy obsession with getting better. I mean, you could ask anybody on my team, no matter how good our training is, I want to know 10 things and I make them what are 10 things I could have done better. Yeah. I watch my presentations back, I'll go, you know, through the entire room of the 50 people that were part of the training, and then want to tell me how good it is. I say, that's good, man. But I want to get better. Tell me, tell me what could have been better. And I'll make them like don't give me some fluff. Like, what could I have done better? Because I'm I'm just so obsessed with with this, with what I do being as good as possible, being the best version of myself. And I see some trainers out there that make people feel bad about themselves. I like to inspire through enthusiasm, you know, not create pain through, you know, embarrassing people.

Jim Fitzpatrick

Sure, sure. Now, lots of dealers are posting, but not necessarily converting. What's the difference between content that gets views and content that actually drives sales?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, yeah. And I call that chasing virality versus chasing uh value. And I've done that, Jim. So just for let the record show, I've chased views that got me zero sales, and then I learned how to chase, you know, a healthy mix of both. And a lot of car dealers, specifically speaking, dealer principals and general managers are afraid to just talk to the camera. I love to use, I call this the Grant Cardone effect. Grant Cardone probably spends hundreds of thousands of dollars a month to have a camera crew with some of the highest quality stuff, but he also will pull out his phone in the car with his daughter and talk to him. And that builds trust. Just talking to the camera like you talk to your friends. I see a lot of these dealer principals. They're like, today I'd like to talk to you about the customer experience. And it's like, dude, no one cares.

Jim Fitzpatrick

Right.

SPEAKER_01

You know what I mean? Just talk to the camera. And that's the the biggest thing I see converting is people getting to know you, like you, and trust you before they need you. And you're not going to accomplish that by sitting in a studio all day long. People want you want people to come in and ask for you. Yeah. Well, show them what it's really like to deal with you.

Jim Fitzpatrick

That's right. So you're saying be less Jim Fitzpatrick at CBT News and be more rust, flips, whips.

SPEAKER_01

No, but if you want to if you want to sell cars, yes. That's right. That's right.

Views Vs Value And Authenticity

Jim Fitzpatrick

But the react the reality is that authenticity means so much. And that's really what you're you're talking about there. Where somebody just picks it up and goes, hey, here's a thought that maybe you guys, let me get your feedback on this. That means a lot because to your point, you're connecting with those individuals. It always hooks me. You know, when someone I'm flipping through TikTok, I'm a major TikToker, and somebody does talk directly to me or solicits my opinion on something and it's not polished, I usually give it. I'll chime in and say, hey, you know, here's what I'm thinking.

SPEAKER_01

And that's the biggest um concept that I think a lot of people on social media need to understand. You are speaking to one person, not multiple people. So, like, for example, Jim, do you and your wife or your kids sit down and watch TikTok together and scroll? Or are you kind of all on your own phone watching?

Jim Fitzpatrick

The whole the sofa is full of all of us just going, hey, did you see this one? Did you see that one? Right.

SPEAKER_01

So you're speaking to one person. So when you're crafting your content, keep that in mind that you're actually speaking to one person. Hopefully, hundreds of thousands of people see it, but you're really talking to one person at a time.

Jim Fitzpatrick

I love that because you're you're exactly right. You're not talking to this huge audience of it you are, but it's really a conversation, a dialogue between you and that individual.

SPEAKER_01

So, like a big thing is like the words you use. So, like a lot of people are like, they'll make a video like this, like, hey guys, it's Russ, and I want to make this video where I say, get rid of hey guys and say you. Have you ever wondered how much a car dealership really makes on our new cars? Like, have you ever wondered? And then somebody who's watching is like, hey, he's talking to me. I have wondered that.

Jim Fitzpatrick

That's right. That's right, that's right. Yeah, no question. Talk to us about the the work you're doing with uh RFW training. What are you teaching sales teams that are that they're not really getting elsewhere? And I know that there's other people out there and there's, you know, they're they're trying to pick up what they can, but I mean you you bring this kind of in a package deal to go, look, for those of you that want to get into social media and do what I'm doing or what was doing and realizing sales from it, and talk talk to us about that when you come into a dealership. What is it you're actually bringing into them?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, so I'm really bringing in the best principles and processes to put in place so you have structure around social media. And that's a big thing for me is structure and process. You know, how do you hold people accountable if you don't know what you're holding them accountable for? And that's why I'm really big on GMs and GSMs really understanding this because how are you gonna ask somebody to do something you've never done, don't know how to do, and aren't willing to do? Right. So it's really important to me that they are participating in this. And then, you know, my my core focus of what I teach is like, yes, you're gonna sell cars from this, but social media in my mind is the ultimate form of follow-up. You can't text your customers every day, you can't email, you can't call, you can't put billboards, you can't, you know, you're not gonna spend a hundred grand a month on TV and ads, but social media is completely free and people get to see you, even if it's for a second. Maybe they don't watch the whole video, they get to see your face. And this is how you can rely less on third-party advertising and third-party listing. So when people think of a vehicle, they think of you, and we're not buying our customer base back. That's what a lot of car dealers do. They have to buy their customers that have done business with them back because that customer thinks car, they think this website, this thing, that thing, and they don't reach out to you directly. And you know, the amount of dealers that are paying to get repeats and referrals from their previous clients they did business with is disgusting. And if you look at my business, my my business, I don't even know how to get customers other than social media. Like I have zero idea how to do it other than social media. I wouldn't even know where to start.

Process For Dealership Social Media

Jim Fitzpatrick

Which is the new, I mean, that really is, that's where everybody wants to live. Listen, I'm in the media business, and even I recognize that social media is way more important today than even our even our website. Although we get hundreds of thousands of visitors to our website, and maybe it comes through social media, but we will get literally millions of views on our social media posts. So, and everybody is that that's where everybody's at, is is social media. So we understand it, we get it, we we pr provide content for that as well. Let me ask you this what do you do uh with that to to create buy-in from those salespeople who may be hesitant, and I know you you probably get a whole classroom of this, or uncomfortable by putting themselves out there online. I mean, that's probably the biggest, the biggest obstacle, right? Is the people that go, I just don't know if I can do that. I'm gonna be judged, I don't know what people are gonna say about me, I don't know if I can handle the negative comments. What do you say to those individuals?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, I mean, it's tough, you know, and if you're in sales, especially specifically speaking, car sales, you you're building a business within a business, and part of owning a business is marketing. But you know, I always say to people that are apprehensive about getting hate, and you know, because you will, nobody has ever hated on anybody for being average. I mean, just think about it. Has anyone ever been like, dude, you're just so average? You know, people find comfort in averageness. That's right. So when you're doing something extraordinary and putting yourself out there, you just will get hate, and that is your sign that you are doing something that makes people uncomfortable. And usually it's those, you know, higher level things that you're doing that would make somebody want to hate on you. I mean, I don't get a ton of hate, but I get it. That's right, you know, it's whatever.

Jim Fitzpatrick

Yeah, our mutual friend Grant Cardone would come out there all the time and say, Hey, if you're looking for somebody to hate on, hate on me. You know, while he's getting on his jet or, you know, his his incredible home or whatever the case might be. And it's like, you're you're right. You gotta you gotta welcome that. And to your point, it's also a sign of success for those people that are, I can't believe that you said that or you did that or you're wearing that, or whatever the case might be. You you must be doing something right, right? If they're talking about you, right?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, at the end of the day, I look at it like this if I make a video and it gets 500 negative comments and I sell the car that was in the video, you can only sell that car one time anyway.

Jim Fitzpatrick

So that's right, that's right. Um, Benzes and Mow Tys I've had on the show as well, and as you know, he's just selling Mercedes. Don't you know that when when when my wife and I are thinking about buying a new car, and it's a maybe a Mercedes. Do you know I think about him? I'm like, I gotta call that guy. You know what I mean? Out of all the people that I know in the industry, because he's always on my feed, he does a great job out there, and uh lo and behold, it's like you were with Lincoln's. I mean, you were top of mind for people in your marketplace or even out of your marketplace. Let's talk about that for a second. I'm sure you had calls or leads that said, I follow you online, I'm three states away, but I want to buy my vehicle from you. Did you get that?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, we we we had to learn how to do out-of-state leases very fast because it, you know, it blew up for me. I mean, we were routinely doing 10 to 15 out-of-state new Lincoln leases. And look, every dealership's gonna have a different strategy. You know, some dealerships just want to dominate their local market. I looked at a small family on Lincoln dealerships with four other Lincoln dealerships in a 30-mile radius. Oh, wow. We'll sell a car anywhere and be glad to get rid of the inventory that's 180 days, 300 days old. We don't care where you're you're in Alaska, right? Let's make a deal. Right. Um, we have some dealers we work with that, you know, want to dominate their local market, and that's great too. If you're a Honda dealer or a Toyota dealer, you you probably don't need to sell a car six states away. You can sell it locally, and there's all these different strategies. We didn't have that luxury. You know, in Pittsburgh, where we live specifically, the average income was, I believe,$48,000. Okay. Or our average car is like$55,000. I was gonna say a link.

Jim Fitzpatrick

Yeah, yeah, that's tough. That's tough. Let me ask you this question, because this is something that is uh is a is a is a I've got a bone of contention to pick with these dealers that do this, only because I love the industry. I know you do too. But when they get on social media and they beat up other dealers, okay, and they say, hey, I'm a Chevy dealer, and you know, if you go to any other Chevy dealer, here's what they're gonna do. And they go right through the whole thing. They're gonna lie to you, they're gonna do, they're gonna not tell you the price. They're not gonna they're gonna hide this. We don't do that here. They're gonna do this. And the first thing I think of is, dude, you're killing the industry right now. What are you all you're doing is living up and helping these people to live up to the stereotypes that they already have about the industry, right? And what what is your take on that when when they use social media to just talk such crap about their competing dealers? I always think just spend the time talking about how you're gonna take good care of the customer rather than having to beat up on the industry as a whole to say, here's how they're gonna lie to you, they're not gonna do this, we don't do that here. Here's what they let me get your take on that.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, I think it's really important to talk about what you do, and people are smart enough to make the connection. You know, you don't have to call it out. I mean, look, I have uh some other companies that might have some overlap in what I do, and maybe I disagree with what how they approach it. And you know, I could say a million things. I just say what I do. And that's gonna resonate with people. I mean, if you look, you could go through my content. We we have never called out another dealer when I was selling cars, I didn't find it necessary. I want to build value in me, and you're not gonna build value in yourself by stepping on others.

Handling Hate And Expanding Markets

Jim Fitzpatrick

I agree, I agree, and I think it hurts the industry as a whole, because all you're doing is just say, because right away somebody says, Oh, we don't do that here. First thing you think of is you probably do that there, right? Since you since you brought it up, you know what I mean? But it's but it's crazy. Hey, if a dealer's watching and wants to get started and uh or to improve what they're doing today, what's the first step they should take? And I'm I'm probably you're probably gonna say, give me a call, I can help you. But what should they do in this area to to to to to really blow up their social media among their people?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, I mean, actually, I think, you know, before you even give me a call, I think you should just get comfortable putting yourself on camera and making content. I can help people really well go from like level one to you know level 1,000. I struggle because I'm not at your dealership every day, getting people from zero to one. And that is just make just literally recording yourself and the things that are going on. I I can't do that. I can inspire people to get started. I'm very good at that. I can I can get in front of a room full of 50 people, I can get them all fired up, gassed up, understand why we're gonna do this, and they'll go do it. It's up to you as the general managers and the dealer principals to make it part of your culture. I can't do that. So if you can get that done before you even talk to me, like, hey, the best success I've ever had is hey, Russ, I got a group of guys, they're doing it between me and you, they kind of suck. Can you help them get better? Yeah. That's where I come in and drive.

Jim Fitzpatrick

All right, so they're already in it, they just want to improve and they're bringing you in to say, okay, we need to, we need to just round the round the edges here because it's it's a little rough, right?

SPEAKER_01

And yeah, and that's the whole reason you do training is to take something you're doing and accelerate your results. You don't need me. It took me five years to get really good at this. Your guys will get good at it if they stay consistent. We do training to compress the amount of time to where you see the results.

Jim Fitzpatrick

Right. Um, let me ask you this. Uh, do you recommend dealers and GSMs and GMs and sales managers also play a role in in social media?

SPEAKER_01

They have zero idea, most of them, how powerful that their social media presence will be. And if you look at, you know, I look at a bit like a funnel. So your sales team, imagine you have 20 salespeople. Okay. Yeah. And they're all posting. And then you have the owner and the GM who are probably going to work there until the day they die. Sure. Well, these guys are all going to come and go. So how do you get these guys to build, you know, 10,000, 5,000, 300 followers, funnel 10% down to you? And that's exactly what we did at Beyondy Lincoln. Mr. Beyondi, well, he still works there. I left, his name's on the building, he's still there. Yeah. And a bunch of my audience ended up following him, and they're routinely selling cars from people that were on my radar that now found him and I don't work there. And he, you know, I'm still selling cars. And that's because he was smart enough to kind of take my audience and funnel it to him. And he's a good dude, and people want to follow them. Oh, yeah, he's great.

Jim Fitzpatrick

He's great, he's great to watch. He's he's very is a real down-to-earth kind of guy. He's always wearing the hat. He's walking around the lot, he's pointing at different cars and what have you. He's very approachable. He's not your typical uh picture of a dealer principal per se. You know, and uh so so yeah, I love what he's doing there. And that's great to hear that he's able to capitalize on on what you were what you were doing at the store.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, I mean, I I think we I have yet to see a GM, GSM, or owner be unsuccessful at social media because the truth is you already have a following, it's just not online probably yet. Yeah, and you will experience exponential results versus the guy that just started last week and doesn't know anybody.

Jim Fitzpatrick

That's right. That's right. No question about it. So, what's next for Russ Flips Whips training? Any anything that you're working on that you want to announce here at CBT News to thousands of dealers?

SPEAKER_01

Uh, nothing to announce yet. You know, we're just staying the course. It's been about officially a year, and I'm hyper-focused. I don't want to be the guy that has shiny object syndrome and say, oh, I'm gonna go do you know, I want to I want to master my craft, dominate this, and continue to stay tapped into the automotive industry. And just that that is that is the course I'm saying. I'm not gonna, you know, I get real estate agents and insurance, all these people asking me to train.

Positive Messaging Beats Dealer Bashing

Jim Fitzpatrick

I would imagine. That's right. Yeah, you got other industries that are probably calling you to say, come on over.

SPEAKER_01

And and there might be a day and a time for that, but that day and time is not, you know, we we are very small in terms of the impact we've made on the automotive industry. So I got a lot of work to do still.

Jim Fitzpatrick

That's great. Let me ask you this. When they when they call, do they always get Russ walking in the door to train, or now do you now have trainers working with you, or what does that look like?

SPEAKER_01

Um, as of right now, it is just me. Uh, as I said, until I feel like I have perfected this and have a systematic, dummy-proof process on what I do and how I do it, which we're close. I wouldn't hand the reins off. Um, I do have some online stuff that I do have some people fill in for me. Yeah, but I'm doing, you know, and all the in-person appearances are me, all the in-person speaking is me, and I'd say probably 60% of the online stuff I do is me.

Jim Fitzpatrick

Right. All right, here's a softball, and I know you're gonna answer it right for the for the salespeople that are that are listening to us right now, and the managers that are listening to us, um, and the dealers for that matter, how long before somebody that that you tell people, how long before they actually see results? Because uh I'll just let you pick it up there because I already I I think I already know what you're gonna say.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, yeah. Oh, I mean, I'll give you I'll give you two answers. I mean, you gotta fall in love with the process, not the progress, and then the process will fall in love with you and you'll see tremendous progress. But to actually quite literally answer the question, if you were to post every day on social media and follow my strategies, the longest I've ever seen an individual take to see results was it was like four months and three days, and he ended up selling 15 cars from what appeared to be one video, but he had been following up with people for four months, and he had the right video, perfect storm, Ford just announced 0%, I think, on F-150s, and he sold literally 15 cars in his local market. So I think it was well worth it. I did the math, he made about six hundred dollars per video he had made up until that point.

Jim Fitzpatrick

Oh my god, isn't that great? The reason I say that is because so many people jump in and maybe after a week or 10 days or two weeks, like this doesn't work. And you're like, dude, you you didn't even give any time. You know, this is one of those things that takes time before you see any results, but it's key to stay with it. The follow-up question is how many times a day do you recommend the salespeople post?

Getting Started Leadership And Consistency

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, you quite literally can't post too much. Alex Ramosy, who set the world record for most books sold in a day and made$150 million, posts about 737 times a week. I recommend a minimum, which is once per working day, and that's just for your brain to know if I showed up to work in this four walls of this dealership, yeah, I need to post something. So I have a minimum, there's no maximum.

Jim Fitzpatrick

Right, right. And and Gary V said the same thing. He said, unless you're posting a hundred times a day, don't come to Don't come and complain to me. So it's you know, you you just got you gotta post, you gotta get out there and post. And uh so this has been a real treat for me. Congratulations on all your success. As I mentioned, it has been about a year since we spoke to you. Your year has blown up. Congrats on all of that. And you got a new baby to boot. And for dealers that are watching, if you don't have social media in your store yet, wake up, man. It's 2026. This is what sells cars, okay? And uh believe me, I come from uh marketing, I've owned marketing companies, the whole deal. And I would tell everybody don't spend a nickel in marketing until all your people are now on social media doing their marketing for their businesses and for your business. This this is this is a place to start, not stop. And uh I so it it's I I can't I can't tell you enough how uh excited I am for your success and what you're doing for the industry with all of these uh salespeople in different dealerships around the country because we've always said in the business, oh, be being in car sales is like being in your own business, you know, and you don't have to pay for the inventory, you don't have to pay for the the advertising, you don't have to pay for anything, but it's like building your own business. This really takes that to the next level because it really is building your own business.

SPEAKER_01

And what's really interesting, Jim, is this the first ever form of marketing where you can make money. I had a student last month send me a screenshot. He made$2,500 in one week from TikTok and Facebook because you can monetize your platform. And I came up with this term called negative cost of goods sold because you're getting paid to advertise the cars, you're getting paid to sell. If that doesn't sound interesting to you as a car dealer who's probably spending$800 in marketing per car sold, and I got people out here that are making money, it's just it's just it's insane.

Jim Fitzpatrick

That's crazy. That's a whole nother show. That's crazy. But but it's but I do know that that is the case. And by the way, then when you build up this entire following, guess who calls you? Ford calls you and says, hey, we'll pay you X number of dollars. Could you you know cover the new Mustang or could you do the new you know, EV, the latest uh pickup, or F-150? You know, we'd love to get you're now an influence influencer because you've got so many.

Monetization Negative COGS And Wrap

SPEAKER_01

I got a guy in Grafton, West Virginia, town of 4,000 people, verifiable. You can look this up. There's only 4,000 people in town. A company out, you can just go look on his page. I won't shout out the company because they're not paying me to shout them out. But uh$6,000 for one video. This guy didn't make content a year ago, and a brand was like, you have influence, you have followers, we'll give you$6,000 to promote us one time on one video.

Jim Fitzpatrick

Yeah, great.

SPEAKER_01

But where else does this exist? And that's life-changing money, especially for a guy at Grafton, West Virginia.

Jim Fitzpatrick

That's right, that's right. And and opportunities out there, galore. So Russ Flips Whips, uh CEO of Now, now he's the CEO, by the way. Before, you know, he was very approachable. Now I gotta schedule an appointment with him, which is great. But he's uh the CEO of RFW, which is Russ Flips Whips Training. Um, again, dealers, for those that are listening to us, have this conversation. Uh if you don't get Russ, get somebody, okay? You gotta get into this thing. But uh Russ knows exactly how to motivate your team and train them to do just that. So, Russ, thanks so much for joining us. Really appreciate it.

SPEAKER_01

Thanks for having me.

Jim Fitzpatrick

Thanks.

SPEAKER_00

Thanks for watching Inside Automotive with Jim Fitzpatrick.