The David Spisak Show

David Spisak
  • 5.0 (30)
  • Entrepreneurship
  • Weekly

What happens when you get access to uncommon conversations with people who achieved the highest levels of success? Join David Spisak as he brings you inside the room where success stories are told by the people who lived them so that you can achieve your definition of success at an accelerated pace. 

  1. 1d ago

    Charles Gallaer: What Dealers Should Steal From Carvana

    Charles Gallaer has seen the automotive industry from three sides most people never will: inside a major automaker, behind the desk of a dealership general manager, and across the negotiating table as a dealership attorney. A partner in the automotive group at Arent Fox Schiff, Gallaer has represented buyers and sellers in major multi-dealership transactions and helped secure a $1.185 million jury verdict after a dealership seller abandoned a $16 million deal for a higher offer. That combination of experience gives him a perspective few dealership owners can afford to ignore, especially as artificial intelligence, consolidation, and new competitors begin changing the economics of automotive retail. But this episode isn't simply a warning about technology or legal exposure. It's a conversation about protecting what you've built while making the decisions necessary to keep it growing. And there's a particularly revealing moment when David asks Gallaer what happens to dealerships that refuse to evolve. His answer should give every dealer principal, general manager, and automotive executive something to seriously consider. The question is no longer whether AI and consolidation will change automotive retail. It's whether your dealership is making the right decisions before those changes begin making the decisions for you. Connect with David Spisak to Achieve Exponential Growth: Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidspisak/Website: https://www.davidspisak.comEmail: david@disruptivegrowthsolutions.comPhone: +1 (510) 604-0308Visit https://linktr.ee/davidspisak for all our linksLike this show? Please leave us a rating and review where you're listening right now! 🎧 Subscribe on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-david-spisak-show/id1602552929🔊 Subscribe on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6oPjFeHfnxNXPTHXxNwIsm?si=4fc3f546d07a4679

    Charles Gallaer: What Dealers Should Steal From Carvana

  2. Oct 22

    Bill Cariss: How to Grow Your Dealership Without Hiring More

    Bill Cariss of Holman Ventures is helping shape what comes next in automotive technology. With investments spanning AI, robotics, and emerging technologies, he's seeing firsthand which innovations are gaining traction, where investors are placing their bets, and what dealerships need to prepare for before the industry catches up. What happens when your competitors can grow their service business without adding more employees? That future is already taking shape. Holman Robotics is putting autonomous robots to work moving parts through dealership service departments, and a major publicly traded dealer group has already selected the company as its robotics supplier. But robotics is only part of a much bigger shift. Joining David Spisak at the Presidio Group's Automotive Technology Summit, Bill reveals why the next competitive advantage in automotive may have less to do with adopting more technology and more to do with how intelligently dealers connect their systems, protect their data, and deploy AI. Connect with David Spisak to Achieve Exponential Growth: Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidspisak/Website: https://www.davidspisak.comEmail: david@disruptivegrowthsolutions.comPhone: +1 (510) 604-0308Visit https://linktr.ee/davidspisak for all our linksLike this show? Please leave us a rating and review where you're listening right now! 🎧 Subscribe on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-david-spisak-show/id1602552929🔊 Subscribe on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6oPjFeHfnxNXPTHXxNwIsm?si=4fc3f546d07a4679

    Bill Cariss: How to Grow Your Dealership Without Hiring More

  3. Oct 20

    John Ellis: Buying Used Cars Is About to Get Harder for Dealers

    John Ellis has seen the car business from almost every seat. ADP. Autotrader. Gulf States Toyota. Cox Automotive and Manheim. Over 25 years, he’s worked inside dealer stores across fixed ops, F&I, variable, and wholesale. He’s a US Marine Corps veteran and a former Salesperson of the Year. At 55, he walked away from a successful corporate career to tackle a problem he believes the used car industry can no longer afford to ignore. What happens to dealerships that keep buying and managing used cars the same way they have for decades? John joins David Spisak to talk about the future of used car acquisition, the discipline separating high-performing dealerships from everyone else, and what it really takes to build a business when the odds aren't guaranteed to be in your favor. Connect with David Spisak to Achieve Exponential Growth: Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidspisak/Website: https://www.davidspisak.comEmail: david@disruptivegrowthsolutions.comPhone: +1 (510) 604-0308Visit https://linktr.ee/davidspisak for all our linksLike this show? Please leave us a rating and review where you're listening right now! 🎧 Subscribe on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-david-spisak-show/id1602552929🔊 Subscribe on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6oPjFeHfnxNXPTHXxNwIsm?si=4fc3f546d07a4679

    John Ellis: Buying Used Cars Is About to Get Harder for Dealers

  4. Oct 15

    Brian Kramer: Why AI Search Is Skipping Your Dealership

    Brian Kramer is Executive Vice President at Cars Commerce and former dealership general manager, has spent decades challenging how dealerships operate, adopt technology, and serve customers. Having worked on both sides of automotive retail, he brings a firsthand perspective on what's changing, what's working, and where dealers are falling behind. In this episode of The David Spisak Show, Brian joins David for a candid conversation about a growing problem in automotive retail: dealers are investing in more technology, spending more on advertising, and still losing opportunities they don't even realize exist. And as Carvana, Amazon, and AI-powered search reshape how customers find, evaluate, and purchase vehicles, the traditional dealership playbook is being challenged in ways many operators aren't prepared for. David and Brian dig into: The leads you're losing without knowing: Where dealership pipelines break down and why more advertising isn't always the answer.Why AI might be overlooking your dealership: How seemingly small inconsistencies in your online presence can cost you visibility and opportunities.The expensive mistake dealers are making with AI: Why adding more tools doesn't necessarily create a smarter or more profitable dealership.What Carvana understands about selling cars: Lessons from David and Brian's firsthand visit that could change how you approach the customer experience.The dealership org chart of the future: Which roles deserve priority as technology reshapes automotive retail.The hidden risks inside your technology stack: What dealers should know about disconnected data, vendor access, and AI-related liability.The real question isn't whether AI, Carvana, or changing consumer behavior will disrupt your dealership. It's how much business you could already be losing because your dealership hasn't adapted. Connect with David Spisak to Achieve Exponential Growth: Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidspisak/Website: https://www.davidspisak.comEmail: david@disruptivegrowthsolutions.comPhone: +1 (510) 604-0308Visit https://linktr.ee/davidspisak for all our linksLike this show? Please leave us a rating and review where you're listening right now! 🎧 Subscribe on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-david-spisak-show/id1602552929🔊 Subscribe on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6oPjFeHfnxNXPTHXxNwIsm?si=4fc3f546d07a4679

    Brian Kramer: Why AI Search Is Skipping Your Dealership

  5. Oct 8

    Ron Frey: Most Dealers Will Get AI Wrong

    Plenty of dealers are hoping AI is the magic bullet. Ron Frey says if you think it is, you're wrong. He's earned the right to say it. Ron was a founding partner and COO at TrueCar, Chief Strategy Officer at AutoNation, and Global Chief Strategy Officer at CDK Global. He's delivered 10,000 cars a year sight unseen. Ron says nothing about why that worked has changed since 1985. Including what it means for AI. And that right now feels a lot like 1998, when the internet had everyone confused. Except this time, it's moving much faster. And the dealers who get scared and pull back? He says they'll be proven right. It will be really bad.  We also talk about: The one distinction about technology that decides whether it makes your store better or does the work for you.Why customers bought from him even though they knew he wasn't getting them a better price.The principle that keeps people he worked with 20 years ago calling him first when the stakes are high.Why being right 51% of the time is enough to win.The relay race lesson he ends up having with almost every founder he works with.His advice on what dealers should do right now isn't the exciting answer. It's the one that will matter.  Connect with David Spisak to Achieve Exponential Growth: Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidspisak/Website: https://www.davidspisak.comEmail: david@disruptivegrowthsolutions.comPhone: +1 (510) 604-0308Visit https://linktr.ee/davidspisak for all our linksLike this show? Please leave us a rating and review where you're listening right now! 🎧 Subscribe on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-david-spisak-show/id1602552929🔊 Subscribe on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6oPjFeHfnxNXPTHXxNwIsm?si=4fc3f546d07a4679

    Ron Frey: Most Dealers Will Get AI Wrong

  6. Oct 1

    Danelle Delgado: What Makes Great Salespeople Great

    Danelle Delgado is known worldwide as the Millionaire Maker. She is the CEO of Engage Training and The Internal Alliance, a bestselling author, and a business and results strategist whose training systems are used by entrepreneurs, sales teams, and major dealer groups like Carter Myers Automotive. She has built multiple seven-figure companies, been featured in Forbes, and personally built and tracked more than 3,000 success plans for the people she coaches. Years ago, she had none of that. But what makes this conversation interesting is that her approach to dealership performance doesn’t start with the CRM, the script, the process, or even the car. It starts somewhere else entirely. In this episode, Danelle breaks down what she learned after working inside dealership organizations and why some of the biggest performance problems in automotive can’t be fixed with more technology or another round of traditional sales training. She shares the framework she uses to separate good performers from the people who become indispensable inside an organization, and why trust, confidence, communication, and personal accountability can have a much bigger impact on sales than most teams realize. Learn more about Danelle and Team Engage at davidspisak.com. Connect with David Spisak to Achieve Exponential Growth: Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidspisak/Website: https://www.davidspisak.comEmail: david@disruptivegrowthsolutions.comPhone: +1 (510) 604-0308Visit https://linktr.ee/davidspisak for all our linksLike this show? Please leave us a rating and review where you're listening right now! 🎧 Subscribe on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-david-spisak-show/id1602552929🔊 Subscribe on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6oPjFeHfnxNXPTHXxNwIsm?si=4fc3f546d07a4679

    Danelle Delgado: What Makes Great Salespeople Great

  7. Sep 24

    Peter Cooper: Why Customers Don’t Want to Come to Your Dealership

    Peter Cooper opened his Lexus store in Allentown, Pennsylvania in 1990, in a market that would never let him be the biggest dealer in America. So he chased something harder to copy: becoming people's favorite place to do business. More than 20 years ago, he went one price, single point of contact, no haggling, while the rest of the industry bet the other way. Today his store runs on a culture most dealers only talk about in 20 groups, led in part by a son who has never sold a car. It started with one question from his wife, Karen: "Peter, what's it like for a woman to buy a car from you?" He said it was easy. He spent months defending that answer. Then he rebuilt the entire business. In this conversation with David Spisak, Peter breaks down: Why dealers who negotiated well were only closing 3 out of 10, and why nobody talked about the other 7The $36 move that puts the exact car a shopper wants in their driveway before they spend a dollar, and why he calls Carvana's return model backwardsWhat David found inside a Carvana-owned store in Sacramento: 110 cars sold in a month, 109 to people who never saw or drove themThe labor rate decision from his first days in business that his own team called impossibleWhy a warranty take rate under 40% says nothing about your customers and everything about your processThe hidden cost of using AI to cut the entry-level people who were supposed to become your next managersHow dealers in their 60s are quietly setting their families up for a disaster they won't be around to fixMost dealers are still asking how to squeeze more gross out of this month. Peter stopped asking that decades ago, and built a business customers find almost impossible to walk away from. Connect with David Spisak to Achieve Exponential Growth: Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidspisak/Website: https://www.davidspisak.comEmail: david@disruptivegrowthsolutions.comPhone: +1 (510) 604-0308Visit https://linktr.ee/davidspisak for all our linksLike this show? Please leave us a rating and review where you're listening right now! 🎧 Subscribe on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-david-spisak-show/id1602552929🔊 Subscribe on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6oPjFeHfnxNXPTHXxNwIsm?si=4fc3f546d07a4679

    Peter Cooper: Why Customers Don’t Want to Come to Your Dealership

  8. Sep 17

    Jason Stein: Where the Smart Money Is Moving in Automotive

    Jason Stein has spent three decades inside automotive media, from running Automotive News across Jason Stein spent nearly three decades in automotive media, most of it as publisher of Automotive News and its properties in Detroit, Europe, Canada, and China, before moving to the deal side of the business. He's now Managing Director and Partner at the Presidio Group, an investment bank focused on automotive retail and mobility, and hosts SiriusXM's Cars and Culture, where he's interviewed guests like Jay Leno, Roger Penske, and Mark Wahlberg. In this episode, he talks about where capital is currently flowing in automotive retail, what that signals about where the industry is heading, and why he believes AI adoption is at a genuine tipping point rather than another overhyped trend. He also shares what he's learned building Presidio's Auto Technology Summit, an invite-only event where the majority of attendees are CEOs, CFOs, and founders, and what he's seen happen in that room in the years since it started. If you want to know where the smart money and the smart operators are paying attention right now, before it becomes obvious to everyone else, this is the episode to hit play. Connect with David Spisak to Achieve Exponential Growth: Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidspisak/Website: https://www.davidspisak.comEmail: david@disruptivegrowthsolutions.comPhone: +1 (510) 604-0308Visit https://linktr.ee/davidspisak for all our linksLike this show? Please leave us a rating and review where you're listening right now! 🎧 Subscribe on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-david-spisak-show/id1602552929🔊 Subscribe on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6oPjFeHfnxNXPTHXxNwIsm?si=4fc3f546d07a4679

    Jason Stein: Where the Smart Money Is Moving in Automotive
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About

What happens when you get access to uncommon conversations with people who achieved the highest levels of success? Join David Spisak as he brings you inside the room where success stories are told by the people who lived them so that you can achieve your definition of success at an accelerated pace. 

Information

  • Creator
    David Spisak
  • Years Active
    2021 - 2026
  • Episodes
    291
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2026 The David Spisak Show
  • Show Website
    The David Spisak Show

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