Extended Bio Larry retired from the auto industry in 2021, but before he did, he was credited with helping dealerships achieve record profits and units sold. He has been featured in national and international magazines. He was also featured on the cover of Automotive News Magazine when he was named one of the Top 40 people under the age of 40 in the automotive business in all of the United States and Canada.   Larry has had the opportunity to meet and work with some of the most influential people in the auto industry and was even asked to serve on the National Dealer Council for TrueCar.    He has been married to his wife Shawnonne since 2002 and the couple has 3 children. Larry and his wife have served as Youth Pastors at Word of God Fellowship Church in Raleigh, NC  where they have been members since 1999.   Larry retired from the auto industry at the age of 42, but before his retirement, he earned the respect of many influential people because he specialized in, led and managed several critical departments and key areas that make dealerships thrive.  Including Sales and Finance,  Fixed Operations, marketing and advertising. He even developed and managed BDCs as well as inbound and outbound service department call centers. As a salesperson, Larry broke records for units sold, gross profit and CSI. As an F&I Manager, he was the only person in the history of the company to consistently run 70-80 deals per month and still have over 80% vehicle service contract penetration. And he was the only Finance Manager with back to back 100% government compliance scores as well as having the top rated CSI in the region.    When Larry retired, he held the record with 354 reviews with a PERFECT 5.0 rating on Dealer Rater.     As a Sales Manager, Larry was recognized by Toyota as being one of the top Sales Managers in the country by helping to lead a team that achieved one of the highest percentages of objective in Southeast Toyota history!   As the Director of Business Development, he was responsible for managing a team of over 40 Sales Associates. He designed procedures and schedules to ensure that all customers were tracked and followed-up. He also helped the sales staff research, identify, and develop new clients and sales opportunities.   Larry was also responsible for ensuring that the Sales Associates achieved and maintained company benchmarks with regard to setting appointments and show rate as well as monthly certification tests required by Southeast Toyota Distributors. Larry  designed and implemented digital marketing campaigns, e-blasts and produced as well as edited dealership videos to increase sales. Then he prepared custom made reports showing the effectiveness of his Sales Associates and coached any Sales Associate that may have needed assistance.   Larry was responsible for interviewing, hiring, and training each Sales Associate through processes that he designed to build a productive and profitable sales staff.   Larry is proficient with CDK, Dealer Track, Reynolds and Reynolds, eLeads, Vauto, Xtime and many other dealership based software that he has used throughout his career. Larry also trained all of the Sales Associates on eLeads, the company’s customer relationship management system.   Larry developed employee motivational programs/bonuses designed to reinforce high shown appointment percentages, high volume vehicle sales and retention of employees.   While Larry was the Fixed Operations Marketing Director, he partnered with designated Anderson Automotive Group vendors and advertising consultants to ensure fixed operations marketing activities and projects are accurately tracked, hit critical due dates and are within predetermined advertising budgets.   Larry determined and documented each project’s scope, goals and deliverables.    Larry was also tasked with managing the fixed operations database marketing and segmentation strategies including, but not limited to conquest and retention programs.   He has had to develop a full understanding of each of the Anderson Automotive Group’s dealerships fixed operations competitive landscape, challenges and opportunities and maximize all available opportunities.   Larry and his team provide Net Promoter Score reporting and stats about the dealership and personnel.   He was also responsible for fixed operations digital marketing and served as the Director of Call Center Operations for all of the Anderson Automotive Group’s dealerships.   Larry oversaw the entire operation of the organization’s call center facility. He implemented and reviewed policies and operating structure of the call center. He set standards and guidelines for interaction with customers. He was responsible for monitoring the calls to ensure that the expectations of the customers were met.   Part of Larry’s responsibilities while overseeing the Call Center included scheduling, hiring, training, oversight and improvement of key performance indicators, management of call center software, performance monitoring/quality assurance, and employee development /mentoring.   He ensured that the revenue, profitability, and productivity goals established for the call center based products and services are met daily, monthly, quarterly, and annually.   -----------------------------   Before his time in the auto industry, Larry Pickett's talents provided him with the ability to host 3 different television shows and a radio show at the same time.  All while consulting other television producers and aspiring musicians.  Larry also developed and produced the double disc CD "One Hot Minute: North Carolina Hip-Hop Compilation".   Pickett was a key contributor to helping Chapel Hill, North Carolina based entertainment company Zoom Culture attract national and international attention by helping their flagship television show titled "Hip Hop Nation: Notes from the Underground" gain nationwide airplay and worldwide DVD distribution.   Hip Hop Nation: Notes from the underground, created by Kevin Thomas and Sue Herzog and sponsored by Universal Records aired in over 25 million homes in the United States on various stations across the country.  Hip Hop Nation also aired overseas on MTV Base which is available in the United Kingdom, France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Switzerland, the Republic of Ireland, Kenya and South Africa. The channel was previously available in the Netherlands, Germany and other European countries but was replaced by MTV Dance in some territories from March 2008. All though Hip Hop Nation: Notes from the underground no longer airs on television it can still be found in DVD format worldwide (with a concentration in the USA, Italy and France) through a distribution deal with Xenon Pictures/Universal Music & Video Distribution/Lionsgate   Pickett also created, produced and hosted "LP17" on WNCN (NBC-17) which was the #1 TV music show in the Southeast region of the United States. Lastly, "The Larry Pickett Show" was the highest rated show on Raleigh's Time Warner Cable.  Larry was also an on-air radio talent on WQOK-FM (K97.5) in Raleigh, NC.  The shows he produced/hosted consistently dominated the ratings* in their time slots over shows like the legendary Apollo TV show and other shows including Blind Date, Hot Ticket and Elimidate. (* Nielsen Media Research, DMA 29) more than doubling the ratings of their closest competitors.   The shows retained more than 65% of its Saturday Night Live lead-in, ranking highest among women in the highly coveted 18-34 demographic.   Pickett was known for his "LP Exclusives", because he would get exclusive interviews with the stars.  All of the major record labels relied on Pickett to help them break their new artists in the Carolinas.  Pickett has interviewed many celebrities in his career, ranging from WWE superstars, actors, comedians and literally hundreds of musicians, from Melissa Etheridge and P!nk to Babyface, DMX and Ludacris.   On top of all that, Pickett was an entertainment producer/reporter for NBC covering entertainment stories, concerts and events. His entertainment stories occasionally aired on 13 other NBC owned and operated stations across the country via the FeedRoom platform that allowed NBC stations to share each other's content.   Pickett has been seen on MTV, BET and Fox News Channel. He has also been featured in many national publications including Billboard Magazine, The Source Magazine, Vibe Magazine, Broadcasting & Cable Magazine and XXL Magazine as well as the cover story for Praxis Magazine.   Pickett is originally from Queens, New York but moved to Raleigh, North Carolina after living in Long Beach, California for five years.   When asked about his influence on the North Carolina music and entertainment scene Pickett said "The major labels had to respect our "buying power" when it came to purchasing new music. I will give everyone a little bit of insight on the music industry ...There were times that record label executives were going to bypass Raleigh, NC on their promo tours BUT decided to come anyway because of the influence (reach) that my 3 TV shows had.  In other words if making the trip to the Raleigh meant having the opportunity to be seen on 3 different TV shows then it was worth it to the people signing the checks and making the decisions in NY. The Larry Pickett Show (Time Warner Cable), LP17 (NBC-17) and Hip Hop Nation (National and Global syndication) meant that we had a lot of INFLUENCE on how important decisions were made on how labels would plan their promo tours. That is some inside information that a lot of people do not understand. Shout out to everyone on my staff that helped make the Raleigh music and entertainment scene what it is today. You are all Pioneers!"   Pickett started in television production at an early age. He first learned about TV production when he was in the 6th grade at Buffum Elementary in Long Beach, California. When he was just ten years old, he developed a love for videography. He had a video camera with him everywhere he went in school, and videotaped everything from recess to the school plays.   When he first moved to North Carolina, he attended Ligon Middle School, and then went on to Athens Drive High School in Raleigh. Larry played wide receiver and free safety for the school football team and ran track, but his main concentration was on Television Production for ADTV, the school's closed circuit television station.   Pickett was the first freshman in the school's history to be accepted into "TV3", Athens Drive High School's highest-level television production class, which put on two live broadcasts per day. Larry stayed in TV3 for four straight years and took on the role of Executive Producer his junior and senior year. By the time his senior year rolled around, there was so much talk of him around town that WRAL-TV5 did a series on him called "College Bound". WRAL followed Pickett through his senior year and did an update on him around every three months.   WRAL's education reporter Yvonne Simmons followed Pickett's story from the first month of school during his senior year all the way to graduation day. After he graduated from Athens Drive High School in 1996, he continued to work in the TV production field. He did some work for WRAL-TV on a teen show called "Central Xpress" and worked as one of the official cameramen for the Raleigh Flyers soccer team.  Pickett also filmed the annual North Carolina State gymnastics championships, worked with the News and Observer's annual Holiday Invitational basketball championships as a camera operator, and worked on a TV show that dealt with school issues called "School Talk."   Pickett started his quest to be a television personality at the studios of Community Television in Raleigh. Pickett was working as a cameraman on a live call in TV show on Time Warner Cable, when one day the host didn't show up. Pickett's good friend Ian Yack was the producer of the show and knew that Pickett had experience as a host, so he asked him to fill in. The phone lines lit up, and Pickett was an instant hit.   He was invited to be a co-host on the show, and the show was a success, but the crew parted ways a year and a half later. That is when Larry started his own show called "The Larry Pickett Show" which allowed local musicians in North Carolina to be interviewed by Pickett, perform live and be rated by the live call in audience. Larry retired from the TV business in July 2004. His wife Shawnonne was pregnant with their first child, Larry Jr, and Larry Sr didn't want to risk missing any part of his child's life due to the hectic schedules, traveling and late nights that the entertainment business demands.