When Shasta Haddock of the I'm a Car Chick podcast decided to feature a product she genuinely believed in, she reached out to our co-founder Erin Duke. The two-part conversation that came out of it covers far more than software. It's an honest look at what automotive retail actually looks like from the inside, told by someone who has spent 24 years in it.
We've embedded both episodes below. If you work in or around dealerships, we think you'll find a lot to recognise.
Part One: How a Restaurant Manager Became a Dealership GM
Erin's path into automotive is not one anyone would have mapped out in advance. She walked into a Land Rover dealership on her first day, in a corduroy skirt with a genuine desire to learn, and was told by her manager to "smile and act stupid." She did neither, and went on to spend the next 24 years working through every part of a dealership: sales, finance, service advising, service management, parts and service direction, used car management, and eventually GM.
The conversation covers a lot of ground. Erin and Shasta get into what it actually looks like to run four separate businesses under one roof, why having fixed operations experience makes for better general managers, the growing gap between rural and urban dealers, the technician shortage and where it really started, and what it has meant to build a long career in an industry that has not always been straightforward for women to navigate.
It's grounded, specific, and worth your time.
Part Two: Cash for Clunkers, Modern Safety Tech, and How Auto Lot Impact Actually Started
The second episode picks up with the Cash for Clunkers programme of 2009. Erin was on the dealership side of it, which meant physically destroying vehicles that had plenty of life left in them, watching the used car supply dry up, and seeing the longer-term effects play out in the form of consumer debt that many buyers weren't prepared for. It's a part of the industry's recent history that doesn't get talked about honestly very often.
From there, Shasta and Erin get into modern vehicle technology and the real challenge of helping a customer who has driven the same car for fifteen years step into something with lane departure warnings, a backup camera, and no CD player. It's a customer experience conversation worth having.
Then comes the part we found ourselves sharing with everyone who works with us. Erin tells the story of how Auto Lot Impact started: a salesperson at their dealership who kept outselling everyone else despite barely coming in. When they finally asked her what she was doing, the answer was obvious.
She was photographing every vehicle the moment it arrived and posting it to her personal social media. When Danny and Erin tried to replicate that systematically, the process they built eventually became this platform.