Why Big Banks Are Losing BILLIONS (And He’s Not) | Kevin Keen

What if you could build an entire business… just from Instagram?

In this episode of the Gold Coast Podcast, Eric Winegard sits down with Kevin Keen (aka “Mr. $500”), owner of Keen Auto Mall in Pompano Beach, Florida. Kevin shares how he built a thriving car dealership using social media as his primary lead source, without relying on traditional advertising platforms.

From selling cars with just $500 down to creating a powerful personal brand that drives daily inbound leads, Kevin breaks down exactly how consistency, personality, and content turned into real revenue.

They also dive into:

How social media is replacing traditional marketing
Why small businesses MUST become the face of their brand
The real state of the auto industry (and why loans are collapsing)
The power of sales skills in entrepreneurship
How Kevin built trust with customers, banks turned away

If you're a business owner, entrepreneur, or are thinking about leveraging social media to grow, this episode is a must-watch.

📍 Keen Auto Mall – Pompano Beach, FL
Call Kevin: 954-532-9699
Website: https://www.keenautomall.com/
Instagram: @keenautomall

🎙 Hosted by Eric Winegard
📍 Filmed in Boca Raton, Florida

Subscribe for more conversations with entrepreneurs, business owners, and industry leaders on The Gold Coast Podcast.

Thank you all for listening in on today's episode of The Gold Coast Podcast!

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Hey guys, welcome to another episode of the Gold Coast Podcast. I'm your host, Eric Weingard, and today we got Kevin Keen, aka Mr. Pie Hunnitt from Keene Automall. A good buddy of mine has a really, really, really cool business and a really cool entrepreneurial journey. Thanks for coming on, dude.

SPEAKER_00 0:18

Yeah, dude. Thanks for having me on.

SPEAKER_01 0:19

Yeah. So we're aka Mr. Py Hunnitt. Where does that come from?

SPEAKER_00 0:23

So it's like been our slogan for about pretty much once we kicked it off on like social media. The home of 500 down was what I started saying in my my Instagram, building up my content. Like, hey, we're the home of the 500 down, buy your favorite cars, Pompano Beach. Call me 954-5-329699. So that same commercial was like, all right, if you come in and get a 500 down car, I might as well be Mr. 500 then. That just kind of like went with it where people kind of you know, just the followers started to grow based on that concept, and also the sales. You know, we're selling a ton of cars like that.

SPEAKER_01 0:57

You told me when we met, what was it probably like a year or two ago? I don't even remember. Probably something like that.

SPEAKER_00 1:02

One of the breakfasts for the popping of chamber.

SPEAKER_01 1:06

Yeah, that's right. Did you uh you told didn't that entire business is the entire thing generated from Instagram every single lead? Wow. Unpack that.

SPEAKER_00 1:16

I'm curious to just social media has been kind of like the key for I think for like a small business. Because they're not just buying the vehicle, the vessel, like the car we're selling. They kind of buy the camera or the face or the person too. So which would be me, you know, I'd show that we're giving you a clean title car, or my competitor may have like be doing this or that. I try to give it better products, better payment options, more flexible terms, a service to the community that a commercial bank can't even do anymore. Like Wall Street banks are like, no, no, no, credit's bad, bad, bad, we're not gonna do it. I'm able to be like, wait a second, on a handshake with good income, like you're a good person, I'm a good person. Like, all right, you can have wheels. So it's just it's a whole like strategy.

SPEAKER_01 2:00

So, how did you build the business? This is fascinating because you know, there'll be entrepreneurs that hear this and listen to this. How did you get business? Because you have about 50,000 followers on Instagram. When you had 500 followers, how are you getting business?

SPEAKER_00 2:15

So it's like almost like the whole like car business, kind of like just I watched this evolution of where, you know, when I was selling cars 15 years ago, I had Instagram and I was at a Hyundai dealership, and I was like posting the pictures like you sold one, you know. Like I don't even think we had video yet. I think it was just photos. When Instagram first came out, it was just like a online like photo bucket pictures. And then you know, never really thought about it, but then I still had the account for a long period of time. So you go into my account, you're gonna see like the evolution of like Keen, me, kind of like going from a car salesman, then going to finance, and then going to all the management positions, and then the sales and the marketing back then was mostly like auto trader and admins and cargers and all that other stuff, and then that still works really good for like the big stores, but for like the smaller stores, you're kind of like finding the right person you want to do business with, and that's where Instagram can really give you the best resume for the customer to like to like leave, like, and trust you. Like they're gonna like, oh man, like that person just bought the car, and like they follow the page, and I've been watching sometimes they'll have someone following the page now for like a year. Either they're not ready to sell their car yet, but if they do, they're like, I'll stop here first because he's cool. Or like my friend bought a car there two years ago, he follows his page, and then that whole algorithm in the local communities is just all the the the targeting when I post a story, the same people continue to comment and like say stuff and the reels and everything.

SPEAKER_01 3:52

Like, that's my boy Kevin Keen right there, right? Yeah, so wow, this so this is because I run a marketing company, obviously, so I'm really fascinated by a business building their business on Instagram. Do you think that if I was a chiropractor, could the same business model approach or or same business model work? Yeah, if they just consume themselves with social media? Now, how much um so it's every client that you're posting, right? Every every transaction, kind of kind of unpack that a little bit. How much how much work does your social media take to accomplish this?

SPEAKER_00 4:29

I mean, I think once you get to my level of just being active, sometimes it's just being active. So if you can post constantly, update stories, keep sharing reels, and updating like what my product is. So if you're a chiropractor and it's like a massage special, or you know, if you had an accident, this is the the adjustment, or whatever we did on this client, and then get the you know, the testimonial on the camera if they're willing to do that with the chiropractor, then when you do the advertising, you sprinkle a few dollars into the meta ads, it'll with the targeting and the keywords, you probably try to put like you know, accident or other chiropractor chiropractic work, back problem, whatever the keywords is to get the same person that may be interested to start looking at the page and looking at you as a source of like a business.

SPEAKER_01 5:15

Okay, so you are pumping a little bit of money behind it. A little okay, cool. Okay, I think you kind of have to, right?

SPEAKER_00 5:20

Yeah, yeah. I mean, organically runs great. If I post a real, it'll still organically get like 15 to 20,000 views within 20 or 30 days. But then if you sprinkle a little bit of money and you see like the hundred thousand, because you know it starts to just kind of continue.

SPEAKER_01 5:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 5:35

But if there's a car that's hot, then you want to spend, you know, twenty or thirty, forty dollars a day to just give it that extra bump.

SPEAKER_01 5:40

Has anybody ever been, you know, not that you're like world famous, but does anybody ever like when they come in and see you, do they like, oh that's my boy Kevin. I've seen you on Instagram, man, all the time.

SPEAKER_00 5:50

All the time, actually.

unknown 5:52

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 5:52

Yeah. I would go to Hooters or like any sports bar, Flanagans, Twin Peaks, and they'd be like, oh yeah, I'd be like, I see you all the time, dude. You're always selling cars. Wow. So for like a local, like a Pompano area where the ads are targeted in this radius, it's always a lot of like people just see me.

SPEAKER_01 6:10

Dude, I love it. I love it. Like, I'm just you know, you're you're young, you got a lot of personality, you're obviously a salesperson, obviously. So obviously you have the confidence to do this. I think most business owners, because I'm here's what I'm thinking. Most business owners should should be doing this. Most business owners, whether you're a dentist or a roofer or an HVAC guy, if you're just constantly posting success stories, and you know, your kind of your book of business, and uh you're good, don't worry about it, and your book of business, um, you know, but then people are also seeing your face, especially if you're likable the way you are. Like that's the one caveat, you know, if you gotta be a little bit likable, but I mean it's it's a perfect case study as to why everybody should be doing it, uh, for sure. You know, I you know, I didn't get onto social media. How old are you? 38, 39, 38, 38. I'm good, I'm good with age. I didn't get onto social media until I was 40 years old. My ex-wife thought she made me think Instagram was like OnlyFans or something. She was she's like, don't go on there. And I was like, Oh, that's a bad place. Like, I okay, I'm not going on. And then I got divorced in I think 2019. I was like, I'm going on Instagram. I'm gonna see what this is all about. See what this is all about, and I got on there and it wasn't what I thought, you know. Um, but you know, but I was I was a late bloomer to it, right? I really was. Um, and you know, it's crazy because I built a business on TikTok before I built this business. I we did I was selling anywhere between 15 grand in a week to like my biggest weeks were like$20,000. I was selling a a real estate course how to how to basically invest into a property in South Florida, convert it into an Airbnb, and I and I turned it into this entire coaching course. And honestly, dude, I just did it by posting shitty TikTok videos. And then after a while, after a couple of months, all of a sudden people would say, Hey Eric, I've been following you for a few months. I'd really like to get involved with one of your programs. Can you help me out? So there is something to I think I think what most business people don't aren't patient for is like that customer journey. And it's like you have to, they might they might see you 20 times before they take action. But it's hard for a business to start an Instagram, be that active, and then after 60 days, they're like, oh see, this doesn't work because they're thinking too short term with it. You know, um, did you find that you had to be patient with it initially? Did it pop off quickly or did it take some time?

SPEAKER_00 8:57

Definitely took a little time, but then I was just like the the whole business model was transformed where it was almost like I was cornered into trying something new. So, like all the other forms of advertising were just kind of like like car gurus and regular subscriptions that had worked for maybe eight years doing this, or at least five years, they were just kind of like just not bringing in the right type of customer anymore. So, how do I relay the message of what I'm doing, which started the 500 down campaign, and just to actively do it, and then you post, and then you see actually, like, oh I got a DM, like someone's actually responding. Okay, yes, the car is available, and then you see DM, DM, DM, DM. All of a sudden all these messages are coming in, so you're like, okay, well, there's a demand, but my clientele isn't on cargures anymore. The clientele is also on social media, they're just not using the other forms anymore.

SPEAKER_01 9:49

Have you thought about like maybe opening this up in another city or uh franchising it? Like, what what's what's the plan for for growth and scale?

SPEAKER_00 9:59

Second location be cool. Just the business model is like complicated, just like it's hard. Like fixing a car, getting preparing, mechanical experience, marketing, sales. It's just like to be the jack of all trades, like me, I'm an owner operator. I could fix a car, take an engine out, build a transmission, like do the whole thing, market, advertise, sale, do finance. Like, I've sat on every seat except paint a car. So I could do the entire industry except for paintwork.

SPEAKER_01 10:24

Except for paint work.

SPEAKER_00 10:25

Except for paint. I've just never painted a car before. So that's uh everything else I've done every aspect of the industry. So for me to be able to operate it at this capacity, like if I see a car wholesale and needs this, that, like I can fix my way out of something where someone else is gonna spend 5,000, I might spend 500. Right. So I have eyes for like the car flip to prepare the car, which is just another advantage I have. Um and then finance, you know, I did I operate finance departments. Audi, Hyundai, just I've been a finance manager for years. I was like 24. So then I have the the like the white-collar traits and the blue-collar traits. I'm just like the slammed hybrid that can do all of it in the business. Being the be the office boy and be like, alright, gloves on, let's get this tune-up done, this car can be sold, about to close the customer, like go change of two tires and make a sale happen with just physical one-hour labor.

SPEAKER_01 11:18

Yeah. Where where did this you obviously you're a hustler, clearly? You're a hustler. Where where did this hustler mentality come from?

SPEAKER_00 11:25

I don't know. I mean, like, my family's mostly like nine to fivers. They don't have like the entrepreneurial, like, yeah, I want to go out there and work 12 hours straight. Well, you know, clock in, have my one-hour lunch break, clock out, you know?

SPEAKER_02 11:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:39

That was my mom, yeah. And I just have it. I don't know. I just, I mean, I think I've always been inspired by maybe just like in the sales, the sales, all my sales jobs. I mean, I'm selling furniture like 18, 19, and then you're talking to the presidents of these companies that were able to move up and without any without a degree. Like just, oh, yeah, I'm the vice president of city furniture. I was working at city furniture. Like working with Keith and Kevin Koenig, which were the founders, and then I'm talking like I think his name was Gary Icola, and like three or four VPs, and we're just like shooting the shit, whatever. And I just that was like, damn, like how the hell did you guys build this furniture thing? It just was like crazy.

unknown 12:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 12:23

Like you guys had Waterbed City in the 80s, and you built this gigantic empire to be like the number one furniture company in Florida, and then I jumped out of furniture because then you know car sales made more money than furniture sales. I just kept kind of jumping into the like whatever was paying higher commission, I guess. But I was always just intrigued by like the story behind the companies I worked at too, though.

SPEAKER_01 12:44

It's interesting because you you know, so it's so it's it's more than just doing a couple Instagram videos, obviously, right? First thing I want to say. I almost think you know how they say everybody should go in the military for a couple years. Yeah, I think everybody should do sales for a couple years. Yeah. Because what it does is is it whether you're in sales long term or not, it's definitely definitely builds character, it builds confidence. If you're eight, you know, you're gonna be tested, right? You're gonna be tested emotionally, you're gonna be tested spiritually, you know, you're gonna be tested uh cognitively. There's a lot of different ways you're gonna be tested, but over the course of time you become more confident, you become a better communicator. You know, a cool story, uh, because a lot of people say, Oh, Eric, you you know, you're a natural-born salesperson. I I yes, I think there's skill, skills, and traits that give you a more advantageous opportunity to be a salesperson, right? Like if you're a mute or you're super introverted, it's gonna be tough to be a salesperson, but I still think that it's a skill that needs to be developed. Um, when I when I started selling at this company in upstate New York, after about six months, I asked my mom to go to a dinner, and we went to this restaurant that I used to work at. So we sat down at this uh restaurant, we had a little dinner, and like a bunch of the employees came up to me. You know, 14 or 15 of them, you know, employees I used to work with, they're like oh, Eric, you know, how's the new job and everything? And and I was just chatting with all of them, and uh, and my mom was just kind of kept looking at me like this, and uh I was like, What the hell's up, my mom right now? And then finally the employees left, and she said to me, she goes, that was unbelievable. And I go, What? She goes, how you just manipulated that conversation, everybody felt involved, you knew when to stop talking, you knew when to communicate. She goes, it was like uh sorcery, and what that made me realize is how much I had grown in my communication just in six months in sales. So yeah, you're probably cool. Pretty cool, right? Yeah, like I wasn't just a natural-born salesperson, like it, like it developed. You know, would you would you suggest young entrepreneurs should hop into sales at some point?

SPEAKER_00 15:06

I think it's probably the biggest fail of an entrepreneur is gonna be if they don't have salesmanship. I think it's the number one attribute that they might be really good at fixing the car, like me. I can fix the car, I can do all the mechanical work. I mean, I may not even be the best mechanic, but if I can close the customer at enough money to get me profitable to do the whole transaction, I'll still figure out a way if I can close the transaction up. And some people are really good at mechanics, but then they're like, I can't really like close the deal or I discount too much where it's no profitability anymore for me to do the transaction. So then they cut themselves short because of their closing abilities. Whereas like a good closer doesn't have to be the big brain, fix the car as fast as possible, do all this and that, twiddle the wrench on their hand, and you know, whatever the magic is, as fast as they can, but if they can close the deal, maybe I close the deal and I pay another mechanic to help me out with the angle that I may not be able to do by myself, but if I can close the deal properly, you know, if it's an Audi or like a Cadillac, for example, and the Cadillac dealership saying the repair is 7,000, I can close the customer at 5,000 to do the same project. And even if I can't handle it, maybe I like get someone else to help me and I outsource a little bit of it if I had to.

SPEAKER_02 16:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:25

But that's something that me being creative as a closer would have this path to just like I'm going to get the business, like whether or not I'm going to do it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:34

The answer is yes. We're gonna do it. Yeah. So I had I got a funny story. My my one friend tried to start this business a few years, like this is like a decade ago, maybe longer than that, probably like 2013 or 14. And he had this really cool product, and he's like, E, my buddy's back home and call me E. He's like, I need you to help me sell this thing, man. I need you to help me get this off the ground. And I go, All right, I'm like, cool, let's go do it. So I took a couple days off work and went and made a bunch of sales for him. I don't know what I did. There were a bunch of little$1,500 sales, but it was, I don't know, we probably sold like six or seven thousand dollars of this thing. And I'm like, awesome, bro. Congrats. He's like, shoot, how do I deliver for all these people? I go, I have no clue.

SPEAKER_00 17:18

No, I'm out of inventory. No, you sold all of them.

SPEAKER_01 17:21

Yeah, like no clue. That's that's your problem. But you know, I I I've always said like you can you you have a better opportunity of making a company if you know how to sell than if you know how to invent or create a product. Because if like you create a product, you know, if you got no one to sell it, if you got no one to pump an Instagram account to 50,000 followers, if you got no one to be the face, you got you know, you don't have a company, you just have an idea. Exactly. Right? Yeah, so tell me, you know, another location. If you were gonna open up another location, if you could, would you do it? Where where would you wanna where would you want to do it?

SPEAKER_00 17:58

Probably like Orlando, just like another territory. Orlando, maybe, you know, Jacksonville, Atlanta, Georgia. It's gotta be around like a big metropolis, like a lot of a lot of uh population, big population.

SPEAKER_01 18:14

So you get people in Pompano, you get people from Miami?

SPEAKER_00 18:17

Yep. Oh, you do Miami, we get people from Palm Beach, we get people from Homestead, we get people from Four Myers sometimes.

SPEAKER_01 18:24

Mr. 500.

SPEAKER_00 18:26

Bring it everybody.

SPEAKER_01 18:26

Mr. Five!

SPEAKER_00 18:28

No problem.

SPEAKER_01 18:30

I love it. Yep. Is there any way to take this, like, is there any I I just I'm fascinated by helping you try to scale some sort of way. That's that's what I'm thinking.

SPEAKER_00 18:40

Um it's tough.

SPEAKER_01 18:41

There's very few use.

SPEAKER_00 18:43

Yeah, you'd have to have another brain owner operator that can kind of because even we had a second location, there's like a mechanical issue on that car at the second location, that they have to bring it back to like home base here, and you're transporting cars back and forth with the troubleshooting and then sending it back there, then the customer wants to buy it 400 miles away, up there's still a problem. If you don't have like the ma if you have tons of money, sure, yeah. You can spend another two to three, four million dollars and build a second one, absolutely. Yeah, but if we're talking about just like a startup, like another startup bringing someone in with like not that much capital, then you gotta kind of be on site and you know, fixing things as you go, not paying pet boys a thousand here, two thousand here, three thousand here, like kind of doing stuff as you go to keep all the the compensation in line. Yeah, you know, because a startup's still like 500 grand. Let's say that's like the minimum for your business for for inventory and I think you can make it with less than a million bucks. It's impossible.

SPEAKER_01 19:41

Wow. Now where does where's where does most of that startup money go?

SPEAKER_00 19:44

Inventory is that inventory, marketing, insurance, licensing, just minimum. That's like the minimum. Because remember, we're lending, so if I give you a car and you have to pay me back over time, you don't break even with the unit for like a year sometimes.

unknown 20:00

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 20:01

We're an in-house lender.

SPEAKER_01 20:03

Wow. So that's the risk. That's the risk.

SPEAKER_00 20:06

That's the risk. You're using your own money, you're putting on the streets, and you gotta like teach them how to teach the next owner operator how to calculate payment to income ratios, debt-to-income ratios, and the finance side of it to make sure they're creating safe loans to be able to dish out money on the street.

SPEAKER_01 20:22

You know what's fascinating about credit scores, dude. My credit score when I was younger, I remember I started making good money. I was making over$100,000. I was probably 24 years old. And I remember I went to I always wanted a BMW. I went to the BMW dealership, and they were like, uh, your credit's like$508, like you're not getting any financing. And I didn't even really know what credit was until my young 20s. Like nobody ever sat me down and and and coached me up on it. Um, but I was making good money. So is that is that kind of your thing? You're just looking for people that have damaged credit, but they're showing a decent amount of income.

SPEAKER_00 21:02

I mean I think at this point it's not even that I'm looking for them, they're looking for me. The customer's looking for me. So when now the you know, like uh your Wall Street banks are now pulling back from this whole market, so you could either get around one way, take Uber Lyft all day,$20 here,$20 here,$15 that way,$10 that way, you're talking$1,500 a month in transportation expense. The counties don't have the bus routes fast enough to get you around that way. If you went through a divorce or something else that drew your credit to this point, yeah, you're gonna be looking for a source of lending. So you could either rent a car in an enterprise for$500 a week and never own the car. Or what I offer is basically rent to own, I guess you could say, or you could own a car with me. It's not gonna be a 2026 Toyota Camry, but it might be a 2013 Toyota Camry you can pay off in two years, get the title and just kind of reset. But the banks have um they're like collapsing with that concept, they can't do it. We've lost more. Subprime lenders in the last two years, they're just going out of business.

SPEAKER_01 22:03

Well, I I read somewhere, I read somewhere or heard on a podcast somewhere that a lot of these loans are defaulting. Is that terrible?

SPEAKER_00 22:09

Yeah, it's crazy. It's like 08 for housing with cars right now. Wow, because of massive repossessions like all over the place. Interesting. Not even just like the 400 credit scores. You're talking the 800 credit scores that bought in the hype in COVID in the big chip shortage that paid$40,000 over sticker on that rover or$80,000 over sticker, and now they're waking up today saying, Well, you know, like my small business isn't doing as good as it was, so I don't want to make a$4,000 car payment, so they just give it back to the bank. The bank's writing, you know, capital on, or Bank of America's writing down like a$100,000 loss on this big unit that they overadvanced and gave all this money out in the COVID times. So even your$800 FICOs are doing voluntary surrenders, because my buddy owns like a you know repossession company, and he's saying like it's not just like the 400 credit scores or the 500 or the 600, we're talking the 800s are like, you know, I owe too much money on this vet. I'm$50,000 upside down, just like in the housing market in 08. My house was 500, now it's 200. I'm done with that thing. You know, let it get foreclosed on. So that's happening with cars. I don't know if it'll spiral out like a big pandemic, like the housing market, but that's just the current automotive market. It is putting the lenders out of business that were giving out the the lower subprime loans, they're like under tremendous pressure. So I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 23:34

So does this does this help or hurt Keen Automo?

SPEAKER_00 23:38

We're getting um it's like kind of like neutral.

SPEAKER_01 23:42

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 23:42

I don't think it's gonna be helpful or be damaging to us. I think there's always been a demand for it even before, but remember, I only went viral like on social media like for the last 18 months, so I can't really calculate what it would have been if I was doing this my entire nine years at the dealership.

SPEAKER_01 24:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 24:04

So, I mean, I'm competing as a first generation dealership owner where there's um Nice Cars Hollywood that's been there, owns their property outright, they've been there since the 80s.

SPEAKER_01 24:13

That's your number one competitor?

SPEAKER_00 24:14

It's probably one of the number one competitors for this.

SPEAKER_01 24:17

Nice Cars Hollywood? Mm-hmm. They don't got Mr. 500.

SPEAKER_00 24:21

They don't have Mr. 500.

SPEAKER_01 24:22

They don't have that person anyway.

SPEAKER_00 24:23

They got some big buildings that they own up. They don't got any rent to pay. Yeah. Yeah. That's my biggest disadvantage is not owning the real estate, being a first generation guy. Your third generation guy has bought the$50,000 property on Federal Highway, now it's worth$4 million. You know, in the 50s, 60s, grandpa had it, and the kid, and this, and that third generation, you're walking in with a four or five million dollar advantage right off the bat. So that's a that's for a small business in my field, it's expensive. Everything's expensive. That's my disadvantage.

SPEAKER_01 24:54

My so this what's so different about my business and your business is you don't need a lot of capital to start this business. I mean, technically, if you know how to make a video or if you know how to I mean, to be candid, I could say, hey, give me 500 bucks right now, and I could record you here and I can edit it in here and make you a social media post, let's say, and you're really just paying me for the service. I didn't need any, there is no barrier to entry there, right? It's why it's why it's a great industry. Yeah. I could see where it would be tough for an aspiring entrepreneur to get into your line of work. So what where did your obviously you love cars? We were joking around before the podcast about cars. Yeah. And I know nothing about cars. I wish I did know more about cars. I blame it on not growing up with a dad. Like, where, like, what age, what what was your first love of cars?

SPEAKER_00 25:48

Uh I mean, my father's not like a car junkie, but he just always said, like, when you had Hot Wheels, that's all you play with, man. That's it. Yeah, you're just playing with Hot Wheels, you like a little fart, a little this, a little that, playing with little Hot Wheels. And then I guess at like 15 I just started taking cars apart.

SPEAKER_01 26:09

Now, how did you know how to take a car apart?

SPEAKER_00 26:11

Not from my father.

SPEAKER_01 26:13

Describe taking a car apart.

SPEAKER_00 26:15

Just like putting in a camshaft. Just a camship. So I'd be the last, the last age of basically learning how to do it without a video to show you how. Take it apart, reassemble. You made a mistake, do it again. Take it apart, reassemble. What do you do wrong? Oh, this is wrong. You're reassembling something five, six times as a kid until you get it right. There's no and you have the book, you have the service man, you have like a nice book that tells you how to do it from the factory. They used to sell those uh um advanced auto parts. You buy the manual. Here's how you rebuild engine. Do this, torque it down, which is like how how strong the bolt has to be, follow this, put this seal here, gasket here, and then if you make mistakes, just do it again.

SPEAKER_01 27:02

Just do it again. You brought up something fascinating. So this is like 2002, 2003. Yeah. Right? You're so right. Like there are times information is almost too accessible today because there are times that people will text message me or email me, and I'm just like, why don't you just ask YouTube, or why don't you just ask ChatGPT? Like, why are we even talking anymore? It's kind of a problem, you know. And there there have been times where someone has emailed me, and I'm just like, oh, I don't feel like answering this email. I'll copy and paste it, I'll throw it into Chat GPT or one of the AI sites, and I'll say, uh, say basically yes to everything and just put it in our company slant. It'll feed it back to me, and I'll email the person back, and then I can tell they're responding to me with a chat GPT response. Yeah, we're it's it's not even us communicating, it's just chat GPT communicating. So this generation is gonna be, you know, my wife is pregnant, which is awesome. She's 13 weeks pregnant. I wasn't supposed to nationally tell anybody, not that this is going national, but I wasn't supposed to announce that, but it's all good. This won't go on for a couple weeks. Yeah, like I'm sitting here thinking about what the kind of world that my child will grow up in. It'll be very uh I mean, just the access to information is is unbelievable. Yeah. Um do you have kids?

SPEAKER_00 28:29

No.

SPEAKER_01 28:30

You have a wife or a girlfriend? Girlfriend. Girlfriend. Is she gonna be your wife anytime soon?

SPEAKER_00 28:36

Undecided. Okay. Not public information. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 28:39

Do you want kids eventually?

SPEAKER_00 28:40

I do want kids. Okay. Once the business hit like the legacy time frame, we're like, alright, you know. I I didn't want kids when I was just having a job, but once I built the business, I was like, yeah, it'd be cool to have like the family, and then I see how having kids may want to have a part in it and like build it together with me like long term. It was like, yeah, it'd be cool, like the legacy thing.

SPEAKER_01 28:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 28:59

Yeah. Like take over the reins while I'm like in Hawaii doing my thing, like, hey, how many cars do you sell today? Alright, cool. Five, ten, all right, great.

SPEAKER_01 29:06

Oh, you just sounds like sounds like you just want an employee, dude.

SPEAKER_00 29:08

No, I want them to take over and just kick that thing. I want something out. Like you can't you keep the whole thing.

SPEAKER_01 29:13

Yeah. Yeah, I never uh like I didn't grow up thinking, oh, I can't wait to be a dad. And even in my 20s. Yeah. But once I got to be about your age, I'm I'm mid-40s now, you know, once I got to be like 38, I was like, I really started to crave it, you know. And I've had baby fever for a long time, so I'm I'm really excited. What's that?

SPEAKER_00 29:36

I like that baby fever.

SPEAKER_01 29:37

I do.

SPEAKER_00 29:37

That's yeah, bad baby fever.

SPEAKER_01 29:39

Yeah? Yeah. Right now? Yeah. Is what you're saying? Okay. Well then put a ring on it, dog. You gotta you gotta go step by step here. How long have you been dating?

SPEAKER_00 29:51

Two years. Okay. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 29:53

Yeah, that's healthy. I mean, I'm not, you know, I don't know your relationship. Okay, what's her name?

SPEAKER_00 29:58

Stephanie.

SPEAKER_01 29:59

Stephanie?

SPEAKER_00 30:00

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_01 30:00

Cool. How long have you known Stephanie?

SPEAKER_00 30:02

So we have like an interesting story that I met her like 12 years ago on a trip when I was in Colombia.

unknown 30:08

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 30:08

At a random bar in Colombia, and then 10 years later we like started communicating, yeah. Wow. Just from um Instagram.

SPEAKER_01 30:16

IG?

SPEAKER_00 30:17

Just from IG.

SPEAKER_01 30:18

She saw your IG.

SPEAKER_00 30:19

She's like, oh hey, what's up? You're uh I was actually traveling in Peru, so she's from Peru.

SPEAKER_01 30:23

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 30:24

So I'm traveling in Peru with like another chick. And then that didn't really go anywhere. But after that trip, I we just reached out. She's like, Oh, you're in my country, that's where I'm from, that's super cool. And then we just traveled together, like met up in Costa Rica, like after ten years of just randomly seeing each other at a bar, and just she's very probably like a year girl, like into business and like all that stuff. So she was she was like pretty cool. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 30:54

Have you met my wife? Has she been in event at an event or anything?

SPEAKER_00 30:58

I think you guys did like a present didn't you guys do the presentation together that one time and probably she was there? I can't remember. I can't remember.

SPEAKER_01 31:03

I don't know. She might have been. She might have been. Yeah, she might have been.

SPEAKER_00 31:06

But I watched like her talking on on like uh Instagram. Yeah, she's the way she presents and like talks about business. She's sharp. Yeah. She's sharp. Similar like stuff. Yeah, she uh Yeah, it's interesting.

SPEAKER_01 31:18

You know what it's funny because I've always been attracted to a oh what's the word I'm looking for? To a professionally minded woman. Just always have been. I've always found it attractive. And and what I'm realizing is that in my past the women I've had the best relationships with were ones that I felt like were kind of my business partners too. Right? And the ones that were not as ambitious, I guess. I could tell our thinking back, our relationship wasn't as good. Now I'm not saying I want my wife to work like a dog as she's going into motherhood, but I don't know. I've always been a I've always been a attracted to it. But now now I'm kind of like now I'm like changing my tune, seeing her get pregnant because she's really struggling physically, and you know, there's no way she could come to work every single day. If she had to, it'd be tough, you know. Um, but so that's fascinating. I I don't know how spiritual you are, but it's fascinating to me that you guys didn't interact like a decade ago. Yeah. And it just kind of laid dormant for ten. Yeah, that's kind of like random. Yeah, because I bet if you guys tried it out ten years ago, you both of you, or maybe you or her weren't ready.

SPEAKER_00 32:40

Different different doing different things in life at the time.

SPEAKER_01 32:42

Yeah, I think I think relationships aren't just about the people. I do think it's about timing.

SPEAKER_00 32:49

Everything's about timing for sure.

SPEAKER_01 32:51

You know? And uh that there's been periods in my life where I was um, you know, I met the right girl, definitely the right girl, or a good candidate, but I wasn't ready. I was still young and immature. Then I matured, and I probably was ready to be a father and and ready to be in a very, very serious relationship, but then I was with the wrong girl. Got married to the wrong girl, and then I met Alexis, which is definitely um the right time for Eric, the right time for Alexis, but also the right person, too. And I think a lot of people, I think what happens to them sometimes in relationships is they're the right person. But man, did they meet at the wrong time. Yeah, for sure. And that's what they're holding on to. You know, so maybe the guy's out cheating around or something, and the girl's like, Oh, I love him. I know he's gonna stop eventually, but this is the wrong time. Jessica, he's gonna be like this for a little while. He probably should go seek elsewhere, you know.

SPEAKER_00 33:59

Yeah, yeah, timing's definitely important, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 34:03

Where were where were you born and raised?

SPEAKER_00 34:05

I was born in San Jose, California. Okay. But I grew up in Parkland, Florida.

SPEAKER_01 34:10

Okay. How long did you live in San Jose?

SPEAKER_00 34:12

It's like a year. My father worked at IBM, and then we he transferred out to Maryland, then from Maryland to South Florida in 91.

SPEAKER_01 34:22

Okay, so and then you grew up in Parkland. Were you there during the that shooting?

SPEAKER_00 34:27

No, it's decade. I don't know. Okay. Okay. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 34:32

I still never physically have stepped foot in Parkland.

SPEAKER_00 34:35

No.

SPEAKER_01 34:36

It's supposed to be a nice city.

SPEAKER_00 34:37

It's like a town. Like it's a small town, really. It's not like a big, big city. Really? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 34:44

Uh what's what's the allure and attraction to it?

SPEAKER_00 34:47

I mean, if you just wanted like a quiet way to raise your, you know, raise family. It's more like a family type of vibe. They got ranches, you got a horse and all that, you get eight, they have acre lots, you can have your horse and stable and stuff. Parkland's known for that. Kind of like Davy. Davy has that type of vibe too with the bigger, the bigger lots. But it's gonna be further away from like if you like going to the city or you like doing things like Las Olas, you know, it's far. You're gonna take like to get to downtown if you like doing all the red like nice restaurants and fine dining, which like I I like that more than just having like a horse or a big property in the middle of nowhere.

SPEAKER_01 35:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 35:24

It's just quiet though. It's it's cool. That's just how where I grew up.

SPEAKER_01 35:28

So where do you where do you and the lady typically spend the weekends? Like what do you guys go do for fun? Where do you hang out?

SPEAKER_00 35:33

Just like, you know, steakhouse, maybe like a mortem, slamming, yeah, different places. Um but you like Las Olas? Yeah, I love Las Oles. Yeah, it's cool. Yeah. Yeah, like we I'm off we I take off Tuesday, Wednesday, basically. For or I try to use that as our two days to do stuff together.

SPEAKER_01 35:52

That's your weekend.

SPEAKER_00 35:52

It's kind of like my weekend. Saturdays are busy with the car dealerships, Sundays are slammed. And then Tuesday, Wednesday is it's not as much foot traffic coming into the store, so I'm able to go out maybe Monday night or like Tuesday night, you know.

SPEAKER_01 36:08

Go Taiwan on Monday night.

SPEAKER_00 36:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 36:11

That's actually kind of a cool schedule. Do you like that schedule or do you prefer like the regular Monday to Friday?

SPEAKER_00 36:18

I've been in retail hours my whole life, so retail has always been busy Saturday, Sunday, city furniture, working at rooms to go, working selling cars. Yeah. I'm just accustomed to weekends being in the money days.

SPEAKER_01 36:31

Do you like football at all?

SPEAKER_00 36:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 36:40

Yeah. You know, that was the only thing I hated about it was missing missing Sunday football, you know? Yeah. Who's your favorite team?

SPEAKER_00 36:46

I still like Dolphins. I mean, I I don't follow it. You're not diehard games, not die hard, but you know, support the local team. There are, don't get me wrong.

SPEAKER_01 36:54

They're like bad, but they're terrible.

SPEAKER_00 36:56

They're terrible like every year.

SPEAKER_01 36:57

Like I love sports. And it's funny because I talk about this a lot now. I I love watching you know, my favorite team. I'm a big Buffalo Bills fan. And sure, I'll pay attention to the offseason, you know, who they get and stuff. It doesn't affect me. Like, I'm on text threads all year long about the team. And I've just lost that love for it. And it's I'm just too busy with this. Like, I have so much going on throughout the day. Like sometimes I wonder. I'm like, all these I'll look at my phone and there'll be, you know, 142 text messages about you know, some rookie that just got drafted by somebody. I just it blows my mind how I don't know how how uh what's I don't want to call it psychotic, but just how emotionally into you know these teams that people are. Maybe they're not running a business. Maybe that's maybe that's what it is. Maybe when you're running a business that becomes your your baby.

SPEAKER_00 37:56

So we're still like uh it's like gladiators, you know, it's like entertainment for the Nasses. Yeah. So I see like sports. Yes. Ton of money involved in it in the advertising and marketing. And for entrepreneurs, if you're like really into your business, it's it's hard to follow like a season.

SPEAKER_01 38:13

Yeah. Did you watch the Super Bowl?

SPEAKER_00 38:15

Just like the last half. It was like a blowout though. It wasn't even worth watching about.

SPEAKER_01 38:19

Well, you didn't even like have like you and your girl didn't set up like, hey, let's let's do Super Bowl Sunday, let's do pizza, let's do whatever.

SPEAKER_00 38:27

We went to Fleming's for like a steak dinner, it was empty, and they just had the volume for the TV there, empty.

SPEAKER_01 38:34

It was just you and your girl.

SPEAKER_00 38:36

There's like another couple behind us, but they put the game on, it's like, yeah, you know, we'll put the sound off. We're like, yeah, it's a Super Bowl night. We'll just have a nice steak and just be chill, quiet. Sometimes I don't need to like party. I mean, I talk enough all day where like a couple hours of just like a little just downtime. Yeah. You know, like everyone, you know, those Super Bowl parties, this and that, and then you go out all night and blah blah blah. But uh, we're just chilled.

SPEAKER_01 39:00

I'm picturing the uh workers at Fleming, is it Fleming's you went to? Yeah. I can just see them like the cook. He had the place all spicin', span clean, everything's all mopped up, and then in walks fucking Mr. Bob Hunted, and they're like, Who's this fucking guy?

SPEAKER_00 39:17

I told him, let's make it quick, we'll get you guys out of here quick. We walked in there like at 8, you know, like I know they gotta be out of there by nine, so let's just this is what we want, this is the bottle we're having.

SPEAKER_01 39:27

So you took it easy on them, intentionally.

SPEAKER_00 39:29

Yeah, I don't like this.

SPEAKER_01 39:30

Yeah. Do you care uh what's your opinion on the whole bad bunny thing, or do you not have an opinion?

SPEAKER_00 39:36

I'm kind of like neutral, you know, like Me too.

SPEAKER_01 39:41

No, that's my that's my whole point.

SPEAKER_00 39:43

I'm like I think the sport is mainly probably like you know, your regular American dominant it's like an American-dominated sport, you know, Budweiser, you know, that's the type of sport. Yeah. I don't think the Latin the Latin Latin American really follows the sport, so it's like a twist, I guess. They don't follow the sport as much as like like your white American. Yeah, yeah. So I don't know what they think.

SPEAKER_01 40:06

Yeah, or the black American. Or the black American. I don't know what they think.

SPEAKER_00 40:09

You know, I'm I'm a half. I'm just like a mutt. I'm half Colombian and I'm half Irish white American. I'm Kevin Keene, but I still got like Latin blood. So my opinion is like, I don't know, dude. I'm just a mutt.

SPEAKER_01 40:22

Yeah. I I think it's just me. I I'm just like, I don't even understand what the big fuss is. Is the big fuss that apparently he was burning an American flag? But I can't confirm that. Like, I don't even know if that's true. Um, and and was he doing it? I don't know. Like, I'm not saying you should do that, but um, you know, maybe yeah, that's what I'm saying. That's what my wife told me. Maybe she's giving me not not during the Super Bowl, but I think he had done it in the past. Oh, okay. Or something. But maybe she's giving me misinformation.

SPEAKER_00 40:54

I don't look into it.

SPEAKER_01 40:56

Yeah. I didn't care. I'm like you. I c I didn't care. Like if people, you know, I know he's a big artist and I know I know his music. I think he's got some cool thumpers for sure. Right. I can't sing a single lyric, but you know, like if I'm hanging out with my buddies or something, sure, it's cool. Yeah. I just don't think it's a big enough deal to like make it a big deal.

SPEAKER_00 41:17

It's just like a twist. It's just sometimes with something so watched to get McDonald's to pay for better Super Bowl ads next year, like let's make it really get a lot of attention.

SPEAKER_01 41:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 41:31

So that broke all records and views, which is all that's gonna matter. Whatever artist is gonna go up, even if it makes a stir and makes a political type of like question, people are gonna watch CNN, Fox, Bloomberg, all that shit's gonna have people watching to read the stories and seeing all the advertising in the background. So I just see anything related to news as a business. Whatever's gonna put a big firework display and put controversy in there, oh my god, we how can we watch the Super Bowl without even most people watching it don't know what they're even singing, you know, and then you have the other side, yeah, but blah blah blah blah blah. Like, yo, like these guys are all watching the TV, and when the when the clip goes from the Super Bowl to the next advertisement, they're all watching that shit too.

SPEAKER_01 42:14

You know, you helped me just answer my own question in my mind. I'm literally sitting here thinking, who cares? Like, like like what like there's way up bigger things to worry about. And uh, you know, I have a soft side too, because I used to be married to a Puerto Rican girl, so you know, I I was very close with her family, and I got entrenched into that community, and they all loved football. So actually, you know, and now this is upstate New York, you know, it's not like they were living on the island of Puerto Rico, but but you know, so there's I've I've seen that world and I've seen that culture, and I just didn't even think anything of it what when he was on it because I had heard of him and and other various Latin American artists. To me, it was more normal than to the average white dude.

SPEAKER_00 43:01

Well, those opinions that, that's opinion that, like, well, yeah, whatever.

SPEAKER_01 43:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 43:06

But the maximum views, they would find the next just like when Mike Tyson fought that other dude. What was it, what was his name?

SPEAKER_01 43:15

Holyfield.

SPEAKER_00 43:16

No, Mike Tyson just fought the young kid on Netflix.

SPEAKER_01 43:19

Oh, oh, oh, Jake Paul. I thought.

SPEAKER_00 43:21

They're gonna throw shit like that because he's gonna have so many views on something like ridiculous that most people wouldn't really anticipate.

SPEAKER_01 43:28

So you know what's you know, you know, you know what's going on here? I'm a big conspiracy theorist. Yeah. Here's what's going on. They're intentionally distracting us from the real stuff that's going on. Of course. That's a hundred percent what's happening. Yeah. You know, and it's like you hear all this, you hear all this crazy stuff. I don't know how how much of a conspiracy theorist are you?

SPEAKER_00 43:50

I can go I can follow the the lead of whatever you're probably about to think. Okay. Believe it to a certain extent.

SPEAKER_01 43:57

Like, okay, use nine eleven. Do you think nine eleven? Was totally legitimate, or is there some f funny business going on?

SPEAKER_00 44:04

Definitely underlying intentions money-wise to get like the thing to happen.

SPEAKER_01 44:11

Like, you think it was a staged terrorist attack by the US government, or was it an actual terrorist event? I don't know. Or both.

SPEAKER_00 44:22

I think it could be both. Okay. Interesting. I think it more like it could be both.

SPEAKER_01 44:26

Interesting.

SPEAKER_00 44:27

Like the whole weapons of mass destruction, like the whole thing that transpired, the whole wild goose chase that happened. It just there's too many, too many hands that benefit financially from Exxon or Chevron that's got a piece of like what happened after this.

SPEAKER_01 44:41

Can I tell you something cool that was? Tell you something cool. So I was in the Navy during this. I I just remembered something. So in so I was in from 1999 to 2003, and I remember vividly, everybody remembers where they were when September 11th happened. And I remember vividly the you know alarms going off, and everybody, you know, we had to report to duty. And uh I remember everybody was kind of freaking out, like, oh boy, what's about to happen? And I remember what my chief said to me. He goes, Oh yeah, we just got reports that we're going into Iraq, Iran, Syria, and he named off like a like a bunch of countries. And I remember that sounded suspicious to me, and I wasn't like a conspiracy theorist back then, but I remember just being like, damn, why do they want to go into like all five of these countries? Don't they just want to go into like the one place where maybe Osama bin Laden is? Yeah. Right? I remember and then yeah, I remember thinking that was a little weird back then, and uh, and then when I got out of the Navy, I started really researching it because some things that I saw in the news that they were talking about here were a little bit inconsistent with you know when I was over there and like things that happened. Like one time they said these Iranian spy planes were flying over US ships, and I was just like, what? Like, what is all I'm like, I'm like, did I not see it? Or like I I would have heard of it, you know? So I was I was not exposed early on, but I was just because of that, I remember that statement that he made. I remember that catapulted me to be very kind of uh inquisitive about what's actually going on. And what I actually believe is going on is I think that I think Republicans and Democrats are all crooked, and I think they're just laughing with each other behind the scenes, to be honest. Of course, you know what I mean. You know, I think I think they're probably this whole bad money thing is probably just another stupid distracting distraction, so we stop worrying about all the other boom boom boom boom boom.

SPEAKER_00 46:54

All right, now do this, do this, do this. Yeah, something's happening, man.

SPEAKER_01 46:58

Yeah, that there's there's some conspiracies so deep we could probably can't even talk about them or else they'll cancel the broadcast. Yeah, beep. Yeah. Any anything else you want to tell about the business at all? Or you know?

SPEAKER_00 47:11

Anything you want to let me know? Trying to grow it. Yeah. The Instagram's been dope.

SPEAKER_01 47:16

How can we light some kerosene on this Instagram? That's what I'm that's what I've been thinking about for 51 minutes is what could we do to light a kerosene on it?

SPEAKER_00 47:25

I don't know. The viral moment? I don't know how the the viral moment, because it's also what I sell has to be a viral moment for like this area. Getting activity from across the states kind of clogs the the phone lines when they start calling in.

SPEAKER_01 47:41

Ah, interesting. So, okay, so you just want to target just the local area.

SPEAKER_00 47:46

So whatever would be the viral moment. I don't know. I mean, I I gave gave away two cars last year. Just on on stages of two different concerts.

SPEAKER_01 47:55

Really? Mm-hmm. Do you now do you boost the posts or do you actually go into the ads manager and run ads?

SPEAKER_00 48:02

Yeah, I'm at it, I'll I'll put some money towards the process.

SPEAKER_01 48:05

No, what I'm saying is Oh, okay. That that's where you could probably ignite because boosting isn't as it's not as targeted as if you actually go into the ads manager and run a targeted campaign there. That that might be something you could do that'll kind of light some kerosene on it. It's pretty simple to do, too. Do me a favor. Um look into that camera with that handsome face, that charismatic smile, and uh tell them if if somebody sees this and they want to learn more about Mr. 500, Akeen Automall, where can they find you?

SPEAKER_00 48:44

So basically, we're located in Pompano Beach. We're home of 500 down, buy here, pay your cars, Pompano Beach. I'm Mr.500, just give me a ring. 954-532-9699. You need a car today, here'd be up.

SPEAKER_01 48:57

Make sure you follow his Instagram. So even if you're not going to buy a car, he's got some really, really cool uh entertaining clips, and he's an entertainer himself. Thanks again for tuning in to the Gold Coast Podcast. I'm your host, Eric Weingard. Make sure you give us a like, follow. We'll see you again.