While working hard on the three car deals I had in front of me I overheard those words spoken at the receptionist’s desk and my head shot up! I have been Mike theCarGuy online for just over a year now but no one, outside of my little circle, had ever used that name and I was instantly intrigued. I stood up and walked over to the guest with my hand extended and introduced myself, the young man said “hi, you just posted a really cool picture of my dad’s Saleen Mustang on Instagram and I just wanted to say thank you! Its awesome that you put our car on the Internet!”
Let me back up just a bit here… A while back I began taking and posting pictures with Instagram, as do millions of others, and a sort of fancy myself having somewhat of a keen eye, as do millions of others! One day a really cool Ford pulled onto the lot driven by one of our customers and I realized that many of our customers also have some nice Fords so I began snapping pics of them and using the hashtag #OurCustomersHaveCoolCars . Along the way I have picked up a few Ford fans and followers including my new friend who just happened to find our pictures a few weeks prior to that days visit by searching the dealership name where his dad has his Mustang serviced. My staff helps me greatly with my hobby by letting me know when a nice Ford pulls in and I am always quick to run out and snap a shot, which is what I had just done a few minutes before. While sitting in the customer lounge, enjoying the free Wi-Fi, my ‘fan’ jumped onto his iTouch and when he opened Instagram his father’s gorgeous Mustang was the first picture in his feed.  After showing his dad he ran up front and asked for me by my online name of Mike theCarGuy! This story would be cute if it ended with me meeting a young fan of my really cool pictures however; as I write this I am watching that young mans own uncle walk to our F&I office to complete the contracts on his new Ford purchase!  My new friend has told his entire family how awesome our dealership is and a month after his family Saleen was highlighted his uncle decided to come to us for his car, thus my first car deal from Instagram! Now when my GM see’s me out on the lot lining up that perfect shot he may just hesitate a moment before screaming at me to ‘get the hell back to the sales desk and sell something’…… or not! 

Lets try something just for fun! Take a moment and read the following piece without any preconceived knowledge of who wrote it or what it is from…

Are you feeling the fire?
Are you ready to explode?
Are your dreams and desires
Riding down an open road?

I'm like a runaway a heart without a home
Others can laugh and play
I'll fight for every inch I take I'm desperate to the bone

Be the hunter and the hunted
Keep your target in your sight
Don't be side tracked or shunted
Let pretenders feel your bite

And if you start to slide never show you're weak
Don't feel you've got to hide
Remember what you're fighting for, remember what you seek

If your fire is faded
And you can't feel it no more
If you're tired and overrated
Let me show you to the door

Expect no sympathy there's none to be had
Open your eyes and see
There's no room for the wannabees the has beens or the bad

Stay hungry feel the fire
Stay hungry don't explode
Stay hungry with desire
Stay hungry you're alone

Now, when I tell you that the above motivational words are the lyrics from a Heavy Metal song how many folks will automatically dismiss them as just nonsense because of the medium? How about when I say that the song is by the band Twisted Sister? From experience I know many folks would scoff at Dee and the boys from TS as freaks and never have ever heard the words in their original form simply because they dislike metal as a music style which is a shame because there are many, many great messages in some really great songs that get missed by non-fans. During the amazing 80’s I was a huge metal fan from my favorite singer/songwriter Ronnie James Dio to WASP and nearly all bands in between, the music is awesome yes but the messages of motivation very often got me through some tough times as well. That being said I have some friends that swear to me artists like Jay Z and Tupac are as incredible in their writing abilities and feel they too are not given as much credit as modern day poets that they may indeed deserve simply due to the delivery styles of their message. I am not a hip-hop fan but when I read some of the lyrics I was shown I did have to admit that there were some great songs I may have not heard simply due to me not listening to a particular radio station, which brings me in a long winded way to my point. How many messages do we miss because of the medium used to deliver them?  Not just in music mind you but in all things. Do we sometimes dismiss a point of view or idea that may be awesome because it comes from a source that we may not find to our liking? I have been thinking a LOT about this and I’d like to get some input also, let me know what you think below….