Wake up, Buy Here, Pay Here people. It's a beautiful day. Go grab yourself another cup of Joe and say hello to Jim and Michelle Rhodes on the Buy Here, Pay Here morning show. Take it away, you two. Happy Friday. Hey, new glasses. Hey, happy Friday, y'all. So we got... We were just a little late getting started. A couple of things on our setup and just, just to sleep. And you know, I, I just, yeah, I was, I'm ready about the same time that I'm always ready to get up. And he's usually been up for an hour, but he was back in bed. And so I was like, sleep, get a little bit extra sleep. So yeah, you know uh because your day just it just I'm not talking about you specifically but in humanity your day if you don't get a good night's rest oh yeah it's oh man yeah yeah definitely you know focus especially for me it's like it's hard obviously when you're uh fatigued to keep your mind straight yeah so yeah that's uh so this morning we've had quite a bit of stuff we uh Uh, you know, I had a really successful V8 meeting last night, had, uh, that first, uh, first full meeting with group one. And, and, uh, when he says fully means like fully eight people, all seats taken. Yeah. And, uh, so yeah, it was a, it was a good meeting. We're, we're kind of getting into rhythm on that and kind of figuring out what, uh, works and what doesn't work. And, uh, And most things work. That's what happens when you try new stuff. Yeah, for sure. But it's been really valuable. We've gotten some really great feedback. We, you know, soft, whatever. There are seats available, whatever size that you have. And we will just continue to grow until everyone that wants to hang out and connect and compare and all of that. We can accommodate. That's the nice thing about doing this virtually is we can accommodate just as many people as want to participate. Yeah, for sure. We can expand that as, as the demand is there. But, um, I just was telling Michelle, I'm pretty proud of myself on the hashtag peers and beers. Like that's part of the fun of this thing is being able to bring a beverage of your choice to the thing. And so that's kind of fun. You know, we, uh, we're like all hashtaggy and we're, uh, We're kind of believers in, in that because it's, it is, it's a way of being able to communicate, um, in a really interesting, you know, you hear all this stuff about the SEO, you know, all of that. Um, hashtags are just a really nice way of being able to connect you to other bits of content or information that is very similar to yours. So, um, you know, bears and bears and peers and beers peers and beers yep um another one white hat way you know oh yeah um all the kind of all the stuff so hashtag away it's it's all it's all good kind of like it's little threads that connect and some quick updates on next week we have on monday melanie goldman yeah the dealer out of indiana will be joining us and we'll be talking about that it's first time that she's going to be on the show Yeah, and we're going to talk about inventory and recon pipeline. I mean, she's got quite a story. She has really gotten deep into the service element of her business, and so she's learned some stuff. And she's got some things to share about what that experience has been. And I'm looking forward to having the conversation with her, but it sounds like service is something she has in her dealership. And she had like it being done in the dealership, but she's felt a real strong desire to understand it. Yeah. At a deeper level. At a deeper level, which is, I mean, like mad respect for that. Yeah. So we'll learn all this stuff on Monday with her. And then Wednesday we have our, we have a group two meeting and then group three meets on Tuesday. Thursday night? We have to skip Valentine's Day next week, so you're welcome, dealers. You're welcome. Don't forget that significant other for Valentine's Day next week. And then, let's see, what other updates? There's some stuff on the calendar. We'll bring more to you. Dealer Roundup tickets are available. Dealer Roundup is on Thursday morning. Dealer, which is next Thursday morning, and tickets range from $0.00 to $49. So just go ahead. You pick the price. Yep. You can get information on Eventbrite. You can go to the Nation Television web page or Facebook page. You know, there's lots of different ways for you to reach that. So, yeah, if you, if you, great topics. We're going to be talking about inventory pipeline, obviously, Melanie. We're going to be talking about growth strategies and we're going to talk about boosting sales. Yeah, and that boosting sales session, that's coming together. That's a session that, you know, kind of was a last minute session. And yeah, we've got some fun ideas. I think you'll see that name. We're going to call that 10 ways to boost sales in 2024 on a budget. On a budget. On a budget. And the list is growing beyond 10. Yeah. There are a ton of ways that people would like you to spend money with them to help them boost so that they can help you boost their sales. And it can get pretty expensive. And so we're going to give you some practical tips. ideas and talk to some dealers about that. Nathan Sime from Alabama will be part of that conversation. He's going to co-moderate all the sessions with me. He doesn't want to boost sales. Most everybody wants to boost sales. If they get the budget for it. Most businesses and buy here, pay here. It takes more capital to do more sales. We've got to make sure we get the money for it. If those who are in a position to do it want to create more sales, we're going to give you some tips on how to do it without spending a ton of money. That's always good information. So today is more like, what's the news? What's happening out there in the world of buy here, pay here? And we don't really have any high-level auto finance or automotive kind of stuff, but just some things that we wanted to chat about that we've seen and And that deserve a mention. And, you know, we, we're not necessarily going to be having, having a full blown podcast about it, but it's like, it's just some things to, to tickle your gray matter and get you thinking about a few different things. And, and um you know we it gives us an opportunity to to weigh in yeah well yeah and just kind of share what what we're hearing I mean and some of that you know like we're out there learning just like you are I mean we're picking up new stuff all the time and so we we have um a handful of things that have come around um some of them quite specific I think one of the general things that I saw in facebook this week and it happens all the time but I just was more aware of it maybe this week is that You know, one thing that happens and kind of in this whole realm of, you know, vendors being trusted and so on, when you see people raise the name of a vendor and then like in these private Facebook groups, and a lot of the vendors are part of these, some of these groups are, you know, they're private, but they do allow vendors in the audience. And sometimes you can just see the price that folks pay when, you know, a name comes up. And dealers chime in there and give their actual experience with these products. And it's not all rosy. And so it's a good forum to go get the information. You're talking about the dealer principle only? No. The one I'm thinking of at the moment is success. But it happens anywhere. I'm just saying that it's an example of, you know, this whole thing about, you know, on Wednesday we talked about the Tim Bird and Dealer Re stepping in and how their reputation is impeccable. We don't hear anything negative about them. And then you see these threads where people ask, you know, hey, I'm thinking about such and such kind of service. What do you know about so-and-so or what do you know about this company? And so the feedback that comes back on that is rich because I could just tell you that some of the comments that I saw were from dealers that are known, liked, and trusted. And when they kind of put a stinging review, it's like, wow, that hurts. Yeah. Yeah. So it's like it's a pretty good indication of the value that people see in these forums. It really is. I enjoy, you know, we started the Dealers Only Principal Group just for conversations primarily that are conversations you don't really want sales managers, collection managers, team members. you know, all of that to be privy to, because there are a lot of things that it's just like, Hey, you know, I, I, this, this is, we need to know that it's going to be kept confidential. And, but I, I have to say in success, I've really, really enjoyed watching its evolution and, And it really is. It's just a really fun marketplace of ideas, thoughts, questions, and all of that. And it's such a beautiful thing. Tommy's done such a great job with that. Yeah. And there's, there's an, there was a new dealer in there that was just expressing a lot of gratitude. This is gold, right? It really is. So we, you know, it's true. That is a good resource. It scares Michelle and me as coaches to watch people trying to go out there and run their business based on a Facebook dialogue. But it's like, you know, that's everybody's got their own. Yeah. You take, you know, just like us, you take, you take what, what our advice or coaching would be grain of salt, you know, does it fit with you? All of that. But it's, um, It's, I think, across the board. It's just a good idea. Grain of salt. Think it through. Make sure that it aligns with the way that you're doing business and all of that. But it's really been beautiful. I mean, I'll just say it's one thing to go on YouTube and learn how to repair your dishwasher. It's another thing to start a buy here, pay here business based on social media. So it's just something we see. But you know what I love about it is, you know, we talk about how We're like super, super strong advocates for your national conferences and your state conferences and being able to get together with other dealers and talk about stuff. And, you know, one of the things that we've tried to do is to take as much value to the the web to the cloud to, you know, and, and so that people, wherever they are, it can, it can reach them and, you know, wherever they are in their business, wherever they are in the country, you know, all of that, that, that they're able to, to, um, learn whatever. And Facebook groups like this, which I've just, it's, it's been so beautiful and so rich to watch. It's kind of turning into like a conference, uh, cocktail hour in a way where where people just can get in there and ask questions and and and get get the um the input of some really great um operators yeah and um it's just yeah super value let me give some of the topics that kind of circle through that and and this is this can I just mention what you mentioned I'm gonna he knows me so dang well it's funny that she asked like well it's because I'm trying to say no not right now honey not right now it's not a good time Jim found out, and we do not claim to be super techie people. I do okay for my age, but that's enough. um so he got into success and he he was able to just pull up the ones that have the top um traffic on a post and like it's like honey this is really cool as I can see the ones that have have had more people engaged yeah in this conversation and I'll just let you know right now just like secret out of the gate it's not does anyone know a repo agent and Orlando, Florida. That's not it. Yeah. That's the one thing about the Facebook forums. You have to weed through some of that stuff. So among the topics, I just wrote down several that came up and one was just last night. I was in a thread with Eric Malik. I hope I'm saying your name right. Eric out of Texas. And he was asking some, well, important conversation. Like he's asking about some specific things from his DMS about getting certain things related to the RFC and the accounting. And like, it's important. And I was able to kind of, get in a conversation, he asked me back a few things. It's really in this realm that we've talked about plenty in the past about the limitations that software providers bring, which by the way, that's another thread that came up. We had people coming in and saying, hey, I've got a new DMS solution, I've got a new dashboard solution, And there are people creating solutions. And I met with one of them last week and I'm meeting with both of the people that I was in a dialogue with. I'm meeting with both of them this coming week because we want to collaborate. We want to help create solutions for dealers. There are, there's tremendous need. Oh yeah. And it's just, you know, we just continue to say the DMS providers, Because we're so deep inside and because we've been inside the DMS systems with a number of dealers and currently have credentials for a number of them, it's just we have a perspective on kind of where the gaps are, right? And what is really limited. And what I think is kind of cool is that, you know, a lot of, yeah, a lot of softwares have their perspective from their customers. you know, having to get in, integrate all of that. And, and I just, I really, I really appreciate that, you know, we get in there and we're like with the dealer and, and we're talking and we're looking. And so it's kind of cool. It's kind of cool to be able to, to know when a question's being asked about this, it's like this one can, this one can't, this one can, this one can, this one can. And it's, it's, it's, it's it's pretty cool to watch it's like yeah I've I've I've looked at that and we've asked and and and it's like yeah because not a lot of dealers have experience in multiple dms's oh it's true and and they don't know what they don't have like sometimes a lot of them recommend a budget system and they're like okay but you don't realize what you don't have, what you're missing that these other systems are capable of. And so there's workarounds and there's things you can do that might add little layers of complexity and all of that. I mean, but there's, there is. Yeah. So anyway, I just think, let me kind of run through the bullet points of all the different subjects that, you know, we're out there. I mentioned the software thing. There was a dealer, there was pretty interesting thread around a dealer in Florida who's looking to, to, um explore brokering or the sale of a dealership isn't it the same one that had the um trigger trauma story yeah I wasn't going to mention names but there is a dealership in south florida um broward county area that this woman was saying I'm interested in at least socializing the idea of selling yeah and there were quite a few dealers that chimed in and seemed to show genuine interest in acquiring it So, you know, the only thing about it and not trying to sell it for the person I'm just saying, it's an, it's another example of what can happen in Facebook. Right. And so she literally without hiring a broker, she had a lot of brokers approach her, but she, she definitely, uh, was able to socialize the idea that she wanted to sell and had a number of people step in genuine, you know, direct buyers. So that's interesting. And then, uh, Uh, insurance tracking that came up, that was a thread that got a bit of attention, like, and there are some, some, and that's one of the threads where somebody chimed in and said, this, this, we tried this one product and it was very frustrating, you know? And so that's just kind of, that's, that's good information to know that, you know, somebody been there, done that, you know? And then starter in rep was another thread that got a lot of attention. That one's a couple of weeks ago. Um, or I guess, you know, it was started by Jack Carter. Yeah, I wasn't typically going to do names. But yeah, Jack Carter started the thread. Well, Jack doesn't mind if I drop his name. He doesn't. But the thread was quite popular. It was. And we just had a conversation in our VA group last night about start or interrupt because we have a dealer in there who is... And let's be clear about the language because I find this is sometimes... There's manual disable, right? There's if I go into the software and I can, because customers pass due, I can go in and disable the starter, click a button. Next time the car's turned off, it won't start again. So that's manual disable. And then there's starter interrupt, which is really kind of a pre-programmed. So it does it for you, sends a couple of chirps to them about the time that their payment is due. We'll continue chirping to them for a certain point until they just turn it off because they haven't made the payment. And there's a lot to talk about there. And there's part of the reason this threat I think was active is because there's some compliance stuff around that. And we don't need to get off into the actual subject, but it's just an example of, where people can go and talk about the thing and make sure that all these considerations are out there. I can just tell you, we have the client, one of the V8 dealers is also a client of ours. And I know that they're, they have never done anything but start or interrupt pre-programmed, you know, customer makes a payment, they get a code that's good for another 14 days until the next bi-weekly payment. And how, how, how good is their, I mean, they do very stable and they have very good repo rate. Yeah. And they spend less on the collections team, you know, because, so there's a lot of considerations there. They also pay more for the device. So there's just a lot of, a lot of layers to the conversation to figure out what makes sense for any individual dealer out there. But certainly it's, it's something to be aware of from a compliance standpoint. There are some states that have really frowned on and maybe, you know, even made it illegal. Yet, yet fellow buy here, pay here dealers. What is it? Ford? Ford. Ford is, is introducing a new automatic repo system in their vehicles. You stop making payments and that they are developing something. The car will drive itself back to the dealership. That's a ways out. But still it's like, you know, we talk about compliance and you know, some, some States not wanting it, but it's like even the big boys are, are it's, it's like, it's, it's an, it's an option. Yeah. And again, it's just the thread. Like I didn't want to get too deep in any one of the things, but there's, there's a ton to know about that. I'm just saying my, my purpose today was not to go too deep into any one of the topics, but just kind of give the illustration of what's happening and how people are, what people are chatting about. Get plugged in, get plugged in. Yeah. And so it's like, there's a lot of important stuff to think about there. And, and so it was a, it was an interesting dialogue and there's more to talk about there because it is something that, We covered that before. We talked about Starter Interrupt on an episode. It seemed like it was a year ago, but we talked about this idea of our utility company, if we don't make the payment, it'll automatically turn off. We know that. I don't think very many people have friction around that. It's just because they know if this happens... And that'll be regardless of your credit score. So, you know, in this case, we've obviously. It'll lower your credit score if you have to do that. Well, if it goes to collections, it would. But otherwise, the I guess the main thing there was that it's like that's an example of something that people are going to need to figure out and state laws. And this is the other dangerous thing about Facebook threads is that, you know, you're asking questions of people that have legal implications and they're they're They're not attorneys and so they're giving you advice and you're getting different advice and people, you know, it's not that it's wrong in a private thread to share your perspective, but if you're sharing stuff that is illegal in the state that the person is in, we don't know that. Unfortunately, we can't put a disclaimer on every single comment. Can I add one that I saw that I thought was an interesting one to kind of get some feedback about chargeback payments made on credit cards and that when people are paying a payment for credit, someone and they put it on the card and whatever goes, they and just around some of the that it seemed like the majority of people were like, there's not very much that you can do to fight that, which to me is like that's another good thing for us to be able to take to our state and national representatives and say, hey, how can we fix this? Because, yeah, it's it's it's creating some friction. Yeah, and that's been known. I mean, buy your, pay your dealers. And I think it's an example of different practices because I know that there are By your period, we hear it in the thread where they're talking about chargebacks being a problem. And as a result, they can't get certain merchant processing. They can't get they can't get a good rate, you know, because of their chargeback history. And then there are other dealers out there that have almost no chargebacks. Like I remember, I've had a couple of dealerships I've been directly involved in pretty good volume of transactions and no chargebacks at all. Like it's it's a changing world, though. And so there's a lot of stuff to analyze in that. But that leads me into the next question, because a lot of the advice that I heard around that chargeback thing, I hear people offering advice that I think is unlawful. I'm not an attorney. But I'm just, and so that takes me to the other one where people are asking about the biggest red flag. So they're asking about what's your biggest red flag in underwriting and some of the feedback and Tyler Simmons is tuned in this morning if he's not busy working a deal with a tax refund. So he, he could speak to this idea that, you know, you're, when you talk about compliance and especially we had Steve Levine on to talk about the whole thing on that was a tote the note episode where we talked about the subjectivity element. of underwriting. And listen, we're advocates for subjectivity. We think there always needs to be some layer of subjectivity in what we do, but there's very specific rules around that and underwriting. And so it's kind of the thing that I'm hearing. Sometimes the things that you're hearing people talk about from an underwriting perspective are like, that might've worked 10, 20 years ago, but in today's compliance realm, we really need to get to these educational opportunities around compliance. And because we just, again, the Facebook threads just sort of illustrate the need and the lack of information and the need to get information to people. Because again, we're not trying to be attorneys. I don't respond to the threads because I'm not an attorney and I, and I can't save everybody. We pretend that we are every once in a while when we're play acting on the face or in the morning show. It's yeah. It's, it's interesting. I think with the, the whole compliance thing that, you know, you hear, and, and I think it, it, it's, compliance is actually a thread that is woven into every topic. And so like, how does this, and I'm sure that there are times that, that Steve Levine and others that are in the industry are just like cringing. And sometimes, you know, Steve will, will, he probably doesn't watch very often because it just keeps his blood pressure down, but there's, it is compliance. And it's interesting to me how, you know, we're the, that as an industry in whole, that we are really, that there's a big push to let's just make sure that we understand what is, what the powers that be in the state and the national stage consider compliant and not compliant. And it's getting threads into so many layers of our business. And so I just find it interesting, you know, there's, there's a reason why there's a reason why, because there's a lot of operators out there that, that are, are doing things that are destructive or to, to their customers and in whatever way. And it's interesting as, as I, as I watch people's responses and, and, you know, I'll be, I'll be frank. Sometimes sometimes I it's like sometimes we're not going to role play. This is me. We don't have to. Sometimes I just like I'll hear a comment and I'm like. that dealer's an asshole. Sorry. It just, it's like, seriously, that is, that is what, that is what your attitude is about this thing. And I'm like, please don't mention names. I'm not, I'm not, but it's like, it's interesting. And I'm sure that a lot of you see the same thing. It's like, you'll read a comment and you're thinking, okay, are they joking? Yeah. Right. Um, because if they're not joking, um, You, my dear, are the reason why we have the government entities on our backs. And so it's like, ugh. Yeah. Well, we can't save those folks from themselves, as we say. So, you know, it's just part of it. But I would say... Yeah, I think there's just a ton. I mean, obviously, if you're not, if you're listening and you're not a member of those groups and you're in the buy here, pay here space, go find BHPH Success. Yeah. And find BHPH Boardroom, another great resource. If you're a dealer principal, you're welcome to come and join. We got one called Principles Only. Yeah. Well, and, and just a little shout out with the boardroom. The boardroom is done by Amanda and Hugo Sanchez from Butler Sanchez. And it's kind of like where it's their, their, their stream of conversation, you know, people that are, that are part of their, their, their customers, their, their, sorry, their clientele base and others that can add a lot of really good, rich content around their, And there's a lot of rich content around accounting in there. So if you, you know, and RFCs and filing stuff and all of that. So that's a really good one to just kind of keep an eye on. And then dealership principle only. Yeah, or principle only. And by the way. Conversations that you don't want all your team to be privy to. Because we have every dealer sign a confidentiality that they promise confidentiality in that group. Yeah. And so, and we confirm, obviously we're vetting and make sure. So we've actually had, you mentioned earlier that some of the stuff about, we did have a interesting thread over there on pay plans for collectors in particular. There will be others, but yeah, it's just, it's what that environment offers us a chance to do is talk about the stuff that is more sensitive. And so can't have it out there on YouTube, you know? Yeah. And I, do you have other ones? Cause I have something else. And I was just kind of thinking about just something that I observe in all of the Facebook groups and things is, you know, and you mentioned this as part of like the software solution kind of thing, is it really amazes me the power of a positive word for a vendor out there and the power in a negative word for a vendor out there. And I'll tell you where I find that there's even more power is when it's not coming from us vendors. Right. It's coming. It's not coming from us vendors. It's coming from the dealers, the ones that are, that are, and it's just, you know, and it's, it's, I say we're vendors too. So, uh, you know, it's like, I just, when I, when I see vendors, uh, saying hurrah about a software a solution or whatever uh you know whatever it is that a vendor's wear is in this industry I'm like that's fantastic and when I hear a dealer say oh my gosh I had a problem this is not as awesome please stay away all of that that yes grain of salt both ways because you know I mean there's obviously there's dealers out there that it's just like you know, they just, they, they can find no fault and that's, that's cool. But there are also dealers out there that hate because they had a bad experience because they might've done something wrong or whatever, but it's, there's such power in paying attention to what dealers are saying, you know, about the things that are out there for helps or all that. I can go one step further on that. I think sometimes what I see is, is some vendors sort of... they don't give dealers credit for their level of intelligence. I think dealers can sometimes see through some things that are promotional and can say, okay, well, is that person giving me genuine promotion or is somebody in their pocket like that? I think dealers can see through some of that stuff. And so, you know, and sometimes it's like, that's okay because I like the person. And so, you know, whatever. And it's not about that. It's just about like, it's just, it's, it's about being genuine and authentic and you're, And when you're promoting somebody, if that and we talk about all the time, the importance of being agnostic and what the reason we use that word. So that that thing about being agnostic and it's just we just see that when when somebody is promoting somebody. that and and dealers can generally see who's who's in bed with whom it kind of it kind of like it comes circles back to this thing that we were just talking about a few seconds ago about when um you know not a lot of well and it's also it's you have vendor dealer um Not a lot of dealers have had their fingers in a multitude of offerings in a specific thing. It's GPS, it could be DMS, it could be capital, whatever it is. But not a lot of dealers have had their fingers in deeply and looked at stuff. Yeah. And, and it's, it's, it's, I, you know, we find that true as well with, with a lot of vendors that, you know, they, they may not understand all of the, the, the nuances of different, different vendors. you know, like a DMS because they only know as far as that they can get in and, and actually do this stuff. And, and I just, I think that, I think that it's, I think that it's kind of, it's when, when, when you're asked, for a suggestion I mean it's obvious that dealers are are not going to have a lot of experience with a lot of different vendors and so they may just say hey this is one I've used and it's been good and if they have some experience you know please share um but it's it's like especially in the vendor world it's it's I think it's important to because we all know multiple good operators yeah Right. I mean, we do. And so it's like when someone comes to us and they say, hey, who should we? It's like they're going to get two or three suggestions and then they're going to say, who do you like them? It's like, well, we've worked with these ones the most. And so we really like them, but we haven't heard bad things. And, you know, da, da, da, da. But there's a lot of power in being agnostic. There's a lot of power. Did I did I mention the thing about the the I've mentioned it to Jim before that whole agnostic thing? I was I you know, I've I've had experience where I'm looking for a specific provider. And so I go to the people that work with type of providers and I've said, give me three names. And I'll go to multiple. And then where you find where the lines cross, that's where I'm going to go. Because it's an agnostic way of asking for, what do you think? Because like I said, in this industry, there's fantastic offerings. in in in a lot of the the things you might have a favorite and and that's okay but it's like there's is just um I guess I would say that if if you know of multiple then let's just have a conversation about multiple yeah and be agnostic about it and if you're gonna like I think dealers again are smarter than they sometimes get credit for I mean we certainly have a lot of respect for their level of intelligence oh just do what they do right but I would say also that Dealers can ask the hard questions. Like, if you're referring me to so-and-so, why? And so we can follow up with a question of, do you benefit financially from me choosing that one? Like, that's a fair question. So I want to know because I just want to know if that's the one. That's actually been something that when Jim and I first started working together and, you know, we'd have vendors all the time because it's like, hey. Yeah. If you promote us, anyone that comes through those promotions, if you refer us, that we're going to give you a kickback. And that Jim was like, nope, not interested. And I was like, coming from a different business, business world, it's like, why the heck not? And we, you know, we had multiple conversations. It's like, I get it now, now that I've been in the weeds and I've seen the stuff and I've, it's just like, I totally, totally get it. And because it, it, it calls into question sometimes. Yeah. So all I'm really saying is just disclose, like, you know, disclose, like, you know, if we list four people and one of them is, you know, one of the four that we list is a pastime, we have to say, you know, Be aware, Pastime is one of our founding sponsors. They are a founding sponsor. They don't pay us a commission for when you go by, but we just have to disclose. That's the nature of our relationship. We're going to be transparent about the relationship. And even with our founding sponsors, we've made them all aware. We're going to continue to name all the people. And we usually do, and it's probably because of my experience. It's usually around three people. Well, and it's, or so it's like, or as many, or as many as we know that, you know, cause there's, there's, there, there are some place, some people in some parts of this industry, it's like, yeah, there really is no competition. And so, you know, it's like, this is, this is kind of where you want to go, but. No, that's true. But I think even if that were true, we would still try to say what we know about the people behind the product or whatever. But I'm just saying, I think really where I was trying to go overall is, it's just important that people disclose like if they have that sort of relationship behind the scenes that you know and dealers just have to ask the question and and find out you know is that or do you benefit financially from that scenario and um you know sometimes there's compatibility it all makes sense for everybody but I just think people need in fairness we need to be transparent about what what that is And that way dealers can make a better decision for themselves. That's what we're trying to do. If we like a certain product and we think it really is the best in class, like we really, from our perspective, they are the best solution. We still want dealers to make that decision. Here's the top three. We would recommend you talk to all of them before you make that decision. We think they'll confirm. It's kind of like, you know, we love 20 groups. Love them. What a benefit. Um, you know, uh, and, and so when we get talking about that, regardless of whether or not it's Brent Carmichael or it's, um, you know, uh, Bill, uh, Bill Elizondo, whatever, it's like, Hey guys, if you're thinking about doing a 20 group, make sure you check them both out. Cause there's, there's really good, there's good options there for, and some may fit better for others, but it's like good people, good program. Yeah. Yeah. Go, go make a choice. And we generally will say, if we don't know the people behind the product, we'll say, we don't know them. You know, we can't really vouch for them. So referrals are a really big thing that we see in on Facebook and it's such a beautiful thing. Cause you know, it's besides the, do you know anyone who can repo my car in Orlando, Florida? Um, it's, it really is. And there's, it's, um, yeah, it's just a beautiful thing to kind of see and watch, especially when I see dealers weigh in on things. And, um, and I, yeah, I really appreciate that. So kind of moral of the story from today. Get tapped in to different streams in social media because you can have some beautiful, rich conversation and learn a few things. And you know what? And here's another thing is that I really believe you may say, oh, well, other people know better. And so what does my opinion matter or what does my experience matter? It just does. Right. And so feel free to share it. And because your experience may be maybe communicated or have nuances that like someone else is going to go like, oh, I get it. And ding, ding, ding, lights go off. feel free to share and um and get involved and uh and yeah so so oh somebody's asking about next group to join for va they're talking about v8 it depends on how big you're yeah we just had our meeting for group one and that's for medium-sized dealers we have meetings on on wednesday and That must be Tuesday and Thursday. Tuesday and Thursday because we're trying to keep Valentine's Day available. It's not too late to get in those groups to review January data and the February media. And then we have another group that's for the same size that's just getting built. Right, the end of the month. We have at the end of the month. So for their first meeting, we're just kind of delaying it to the end of the month. Yeah, we just have our first dealer sign in that group. Just reach out to us and we can get you whatever information we need. Yeah, we'll get you plugged into the calendar. So, yeah, there's seats and we're happy to get folks over there. I think you're going to find our folks that are members now are going to tell you it's a good value. Oh, yeah. And it's compare and connect with a beer, which is, you know, which is or dinner. It's all it's all there. So I, you know, when we, when we were getting up this morning, I was like, ah, this is going to be a short one. Yeah. And here we are 38 months later. I mean, you know, that's why you get, yeah. Good stuff to talk about. We're not going to run out of stuff to talk about from Facebook for sure. Never. So thank you for everyone for joining in. Anna Maria, I just, I kind of whispered and while Jim was talking, thanks for your feedback too on, you know, Hot Threads. I think, I think it's something that we will visit. We've done it before in the past, but maybe we'll do it a little bit more often because it is kind of a fun conversation. Again, thank you to everybody for joining us. We really appreciate you making us part of your day. And, you know, even if we're kind of quirky and silly and I ask, like, are you serious? You just asked that question. It adds a little laughter. And, you know, or just like, whatever. But I'm learning. Have a great day, everybody. And we will see you on Monday. Melanie Goldberg.
