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. Good morning, everybody. Greetings. Happy Wednesday. Yeah, I am obviously not in the studio. We've been doing this like two separate cameras. So, you know, I guess people are getting more and more used to not seeing this on the same camera or something. But I'm up in Idaho visiting my brother and Jim is holding the fort down and making poor choices for dinner. Yes, I'm aware of that. I just, you know, I'm really just a 10-year-old, you know. I'm a tall 10-year-old is really what it boils down to. So, yeah, when left unsupervised, you don't know how things are going right now. Yeah, I get it. I get it. And it's like, that's when Jim usually goes to social media to show everybody what he's eating. And it's like, neener, neener, neener, baby. Well, yeah, it's just kind of, you know, taking ownership of my childish behaviors. I just, you know, we talk about this thing about, you know, adulthood is kind of overrated. And I, I said, you know, I, I recognize this is a phrase that I'm, I've adopted now. Like I'm, I'm adulthood resistant. Like that's, that's my new thing. Like I'm just, I'm, I don't, I don't want to behave like an adult all the time. So there you go. Cake and ice cream. And, you know, you actually bring out the youthfulness in me. So thank you. Oh, yeah. Good. That's good. Yeah. So also, by the way, when you're away, one of the things that happens is I feel a lot of pressure and I don't know. Has anybody ever been charged with negligent homicide for killing a plant? Like, is that? Now, if I were the police officer, it would be like, hmm. Yeah. Yeah. No, it's a, it's a, it's a tough, I mean, I know you care for the plants when you're here by just look at them and. I talk to them. And care for them. They're people. I mean, I, yeah. They're not people, honey. They're not people. Okay. Yeah, but I mean, they're intelligent. You know, you think of sunflowers moving around, this is sun and all that kind of stuff. And they talk about how plants respond to negative stuff and positive things. I don't know if you've ever seen that thing that they did in an elementary school where they put two plants in boxes that had zero sound from outside except they had a speaker one that was saying negative things one that was saying positive things the one that only heard negative things like you're ugly you're stupid it withered and died. The ones that you said, you're so beautiful and, and saying nice things, it flourished. So I like to talk to my plants. Yeah. And I'm going to start offering them a little bit of beer, I think while you're away and we'll see how they do with that. So. Okay. Okay. So, so on that is I, I remember a long time ago that beer is really good for a lawn. So it might be good for plants. I'm not going to waste a lot of it. Here's a little dropper full. Yeah. We're, we're, we're partying over here, honey. We're going to do our own little experiments while you're away. This is going to be fun. I just, I'm glad this came up. Very nice. Should we get to our topic of the day? Yes. Oh, before we do that, though, I just wanted to let everybody know that we have rescheduled Timothy. for I'm pulling up my calendar for Friday. It's coming Friday. So we had to reschedule them from Monday. Um, something came up on his, on a couple of managers were out. So. Yeah. Hiring. Right. Is the subject. Yes. Yeah. So, so how to, uh, you know, have more success with the hiring. So yeah, I've got several questions for him. So I look forward to meeting him. And, uh, Then for just announcements, we've got our, I've asked our V8 dealers to have their data in by Friday. We're going to try to turn their summary reports around early, especially with the conference coming up. We've got NIADA coming up. Starts on Monday, 17th. I think it is. We're less than two weeks now. So folks, grab that plane ticket if you haven't already. Make sure to get there. We're driving. so you know if you live from salt lake to vegas let us know we'll come pick you up and we're podcasting I think right on tuesday we're opening the expo hall and they yeah yeah I think so yeah so um They are doing a sponsored podcast stage this year. And so we will be doing some shout outs for the sponsors. And it was kind of funny because when I was talking to Richard from NIADA about coming to it, he's like, I know you guys don't pitch. stuff. And it's, but we have the sponsors and like, it's okay. We can do that. We have, I can do that for them. We just don't do it for us. Yeah. Yeah. That's cool. So we'll, and then also I'm moderating a panel on, uh, they called it the exit ramp. So we've got, um, Steve Taylor, the former director of acquisitions with Carmarth. Yeah. We've worked with him. Right. Yeah. He sold his dealership to America's Carmarth. Then we got Colin Cantalakis, who's a long time CPA. We've worked with Colin. Yeah. Um, with, um, Lane Gorman. And then he also works with acquisitions. And then we've got Vicki Davis, who I've still not met. So I look forward to having those on a panel. And I think that panel is set for Thursday. So hopefully folks can be part of that. That would be a good one. Yeah, it sure should be. So, yeah, we hope to see folks. Yeah. On that exit plan thing, for a lot of you dealers that are out there, I know we have a lot of viewers that are newer in the business. It's always a good idea to to understand these elements, because as you're building and growing and developing, you keeping those things in mind is that it goes out with that whole vivid vision thing is like, what do you want to see happen in five years? How do you want to be engaged? And, and this exit plan is, is very tied to also, um, being, uh, uh, absentee dealer, if, You know, if you're going to be gone for a month because I'm going to go do the thing or, you know, whatever. So it's it's good quality information, not just for those that are looking for leaving right now, because everybody does eventually. yeah we're just uh we'll all the things we talk about will help dealers think in terms of optimizing the value of their business and then the scalability you know uh absenteeism part that you're talking about so yeah looking forward to meeting you at niada as well virtually a while back looking forward to shaking hands and getting to know scott some so yeah We better move on to our topic. Okay, topic. Well, the topic is kind of around the expo, but it's around other things. I mean, the stage is the expo at the convention. And, you know, as Jim said in the description, is that it's full. There are a lot of people that will be there. And a lot of, you know, if... Dealers from all different sizes, you're always finding something new. You're wanting to take a look at other options and things that you are currently using. Technology changes and almost every single vendor out there, technology touches them. Or that's part of what they do. So it's always a good idea to keep up to date with what it is that's out there and what's offered, as well as some of the things we're going to talk about, about choosing vendors to work with. Right. And the thing for today, I really wanted to introduce, you know, our listeners to this idea. And kind of the way I wrote the description, Michelle, was like, you know, we're just days away from dealers walking through the expo hall at NIEDA. It's going to be a packed house. You know, they've sold out their booths, I believe. And so dealers will have a chance to, you know, get in there and shop. experience and meet a lot of different vendors. And one of the things that I want dealers to think about as they go through that experience and the way I, you know, kind of had fun thinking about this. Like if you and I were standing at the entrance to the, the expo hall and somebody came over and told us, Hey, I'm going to go look for such and such product. Then I would be saying, you know, we're going to recommend probably just walk them over there and say, we want to make sure you meet. Yeah. Yeah. You're going to want to compare them all, right? But we want you to meet these people and why. So I think that's the big thing is what I want to talk about today was this idea of Why is it that you and I would recommend certain people? And I think for this White Hat Wednesday, I certainly want to put in a mention for our founding sponsors, but I want dealers to understand why. I mean, certainly Jim and Michelle want to see folks get to know our founding sponsors, but let's understand why dealers should... you know, get to know who they are and other vendors of integrity, right? Not just the folks who are our founding sponsors, but I want to talk today about what that means. Like what, what does it mean? What does it say about the pastimes, the LHPH capital, the dealery? What does it say about them? when they step forward and support principled education and some of these other initiatives, what does it say about them? These are folks that have been in the industry for decades. And so I just think it's important. You know, you and I talk a lot about this idea that we want, we always want dealers to, when we refer somebody to a provider, We do the best we can to try to know the people behind the product is the way we always say it. Right. Oh, why is that important? Because I think we want to know who we're doing business with. You know, if we're out there buying, pick any widget, you know, if you're going to go buy a laptop, you know, you just kind of want to know if there's a problem with the laptop. who are these people that I'm doing business with? Are they going to stand behind the product? Absolutely. And you'll see at Expo, there's that whole, the new technology, all of that, that exciting and flashy are fun, but that's not the indicator of the experience that you are going to have. And, and so, you know, it's, it's, it's interesting that, you know, you see some booths that are just like, it's actually, it's attention getting attention. And that's great because, you know, everyone's trying to get someone to come and talk to them. Um, because you know, they're, they're there and they're, they're hoping to have, um, be able to, to, uh, to pick up a few new clients and be able to spread the word about what they're doing. Um, but I think that what we're talking about more is, is, uh, don't, don't underestimate based on what a, what a booth looks like about what the product is. Um, and, and just giving an opportunity to talk to, you know, if you're coming in and, and, um, you know, you're, you're looking for your widget and, uh, and you can look because I think that they usually have things kind of, um, categorized, don't they? In the, in the expo directory. I think so. Yeah. So they've got like seven different people that are selling widgets. Yeah. We would really, really encourage you to go talk to all of them. And, and even if you like the first one that you see is like, that is just amazing. And you go talk to all of them. And, um, and like what Jim was saying is, is even when, when it's not expo and we have a new client and they're asking, you know, Hey, I'm looking for an X cause we put a lot of dealers into business. And so a lot of those foundational pieces that were the ones that are doing the introductions and we almost, almost always refer people to at least three people. Right. Yeah, because because we we believe that not every dealer fits or not every vendor fits the dealer's needs in the way that the dealer needs it. So, you know, we do that. But the another thing of it is, is that we usually refer to people that we know and like the vendor, like the the the founding sponsor, people that we know that have high integrity. And that we know are going to take care of the people that they're working with. Right. So this, you know, this comes about because when I think about referring to, and I really want to just talk specifically for a minute about these three founding sponsors. So what is it about, you know, why would we recommend if you're going to be at the expo hall looking at GPS devices, like you're not real satisfied with your GPS provider for whatever reason, and you want to go meet the other people. We were going to recommend, please go talk to the folks at pastime. Why would we say that you need to get to know them? Well, one, they're one of our founding sponsors. So what does that mean to you, Mr. Dealer? It means that you're talking to a company that's been around for decades. In fact, Michelle, when I first got in the car business, the buy here, pay your business, there were two names at the top of the industry, like GPS providers, the technology. You're going to talk to one of these two people. One of those is gone forever. Pastime is one of those names. They've been around since I was a pup in the buy here, pay here business. And so they know their stuff. And people just, they're widely regarded to have some of the best products on the market, right? So, but products are products. You're going to go compare products. There are other providers that have good products. So now... When you're talking about, because I see these dealers, and by the way, I think I can show it on the screen, Michelle. I wrote an article years ago. Let me just share it quickly so people can get the idea. This is not a new subject for us. If I share, you may have to put it on the screen when I share the tab. But I wrote an article years ago on LinkedIn saying, And this was about GPS. So my point in sharing this, are you able to share it from your side? Yeah. Can you see it? I'm not looking at the StreamYard thing. So the reason this article was significant was because the – You know, it talks about that thing, about technology. And in this case, it was specifically about GPS eventually in the article. But I was really just simply saying, I see dealers out there asking about what's the best, what's the budget, you know, device, for example. And I'm just sitting over there thinking, guys, it's not all about price. You got to look at more than price because are you going to be satisfied that you saved a few bucks on that GPS unit when it's not locating for you? Like there's a lot of stuff to understand. And the first thing I'd want to understand is who I'm doing business with. Like I want to understand the people. So I'm probably never going to know exactly how that hardware works. I'm probably never going to know how that hardware communicates with the network. So what I really need to know is who am I doing business with? And this is why I would say, let's go make sure you meet pastime. Now, are there others? Of course, meet them all. Yes, there are. Yeah. Like I said, if you know you're looking for something, look at all of them. Right. And so this is why. And so, so again, yeah. Are they necessarily the most affordable? Can't say, I don't really get too deep into pricing. I mean, they've got some really great stuff. They've got, you know, the, the wireless options out there now, but it's really not about the product today. I'm saying there are other people who have good products, but I'm simply saying, if you think about the ROI that he is having, a quality product that performs well, that is well supported, right? And that, you know, these people, they back you up. And I know, by the way, in addition to that, these folks are committed to the success of the dealers, right? That's part of what White Hat Way is about. They're also helping us continue the development of a brand that will represent those same dealers as good guys and good gals in the industry, right? That's what White Hat Way is a brand. is building toward and and so these folks are supporting us in creating that brand why because they see the opportunity they see the need and they see that and I can I know you and I can say their decision to step in with us on why it's not about roi Right? So they're not doing that because they're looking to make big multiples on the money that they invest with us. Well, when they say invest with us, they entered into an engagement that provides us a layer of support for a period of time. And as a result, they get that founding sponsorship label. And they're the only three founding sponsors we'll ever have. And so what does that mean? What makes them different, Michelle? What does that say about them as a company? Well, and I actually, I'm going to share my screen here. Those of you who have been to our website, whitehatway.com, we have basically our code. And so these, of what it means to be white, White hat way, what it means to, uh, what white hat way means. And so it's, you know, it's things like the honesty and the transparency and, and they're fair and they're authentic and that they're, um, you know, compassion, goodwill and, honor they're honorable people they are consistent they have integrity they are leaders um and you know it's we were we were before we got on online we were kind of talking about um you know what are the things just for the the highlighted things for just this conference and One of them is the integrity part. How do they speak of their competition? Because you can go to a lot of different booths, and whether or not they speak of their competition, what they speak, what words they use about their competition, and how... they, what, I mean, what their face says as they're saying the words about their competition, because, you know, words are one thing, but when you have a look on your face, like I'm just saying this, cause I have to say this and your eye is rolling or you've got to, you know, whatever, um, that is that, that let's, you know, be, be aware of that's a, that's a form of integrity is, is how you speak, um, of your competition. And I can say, Michelle, there's something, a phrase that I adopted many years ago. It's like, I will never tell somebody else how to run their business, but I will tell them how to earn mine. And what that means for me is that there are two kinds of people that I probably won't ever do business with. One is people who negative sell. If they start negative selling, I'll probably find a way out of the conversation and I'll go do business with somebody else. The other one is if you send me a connection on LinkedIn and as soon as I accept the connection, you send me a pitch, I'm probably not doing business with you. That's just not who I'm in business with. So that's like, that's those are kind of examples. And I think I'd like to play the little short video from Tim Bird. So those are not familiar with Tim Bird, Taylor Bird, his son are from Dealer Re. So they are founding sponsors and we're grateful for their support. But this little short video kind of illustrates, and he's really speaking, I think the same thing that you would hear the other founding sponsor. We just happen to have this video available. White Hat Way to me means dealers of integrity. And those that support them are vendors of integrity. People who support dealers who are trying to do things the right way that don't, you know, that are the exact opposite of the... reputation that used car dealers tend to have of taking advantage that that we show that we are going to go above and beyond and love our customer that's one of the reasons that dealer re's been around for 30 years is because you have to do what you say you're going to do Yeah, one of the words that he says in there that really struck a chord with me is show. You have to show. Action. Right. So it's like this whole thing about words, because what's going to happen? You pass through the exhibit hall and you've got all these people pitching. And our friend from Neo, Scott Shamrell, has a funny story about that. Apparently a movie. Yeah. I'm not familiar with the movie. New meat. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. So dealers walking through there and the salesmanship that kind of can go on in those exhibit halls. So it's, you know, it's what they say, right? It's what those people say in the exhibit hall is one thing, but it's really becomes a question of what do they do? Like, and so this is what I'm trying to say. When you're talking about pastime and you're talking about LHPH Capital and you're talking about dealer rate, I just want to make sure that dealers understand what they do is support education that is meant to help you to have principled education available to you in a virtual context and other things or virtual format. They're doing that. They're supporting that brand building part that we talked about. And like I said, they're folks that are committed to making a difference in this industry. Now, once, no, I'm not saying that at all. I'm just saying, understand when you're talking to pastime, when you're talking to Chris Machika and, and Corinne Kirkendall, and you know, when you're talking to the people at pastime, that's who you're talking to people who are really they're making investments and they're making a commitment to make an industry better during their time in the industry. Same thing with Tim Lawrence and Theo and Trevor and all the people over at LHPH Capital. Same thing. And I've had really wonderful conversations with Terry Baudler, the founder of LHPH Capital. They are interested in Ethical business practices. They are interested in the success of the dealer and the success of the consumer through the dealer. Just make no mistake. That's who you're talking to when you're talking to LHPH Capital. And then Tim and Taylor Bird and all the people at Dealer Re, same thing. They really... they're they've been at this 30 years like this they're doing this white hat way thing because they want to really make a positive difference in this industry and that's what's kind of separate now are you still are you going to decide to do business with them we don't know but we just want you to understand this is something this is who you're talking to when you're when you're talking to those people yeah absolutely absolutely and I you know one of the uh one of the as we were talking through all of the different points is there's a sense that for me and, and not everybody feels the same way because it's, it's, it's it, it, Yeah, people enjoy different personality types and all of that. I really love that the folks at LHPH and Dealer RE and Pastime are... They approach what it is that they are teaching with a sense of humility and honesty and transparency. And that humility part, that's a big deal for me. It just is. And it doesn't have to be a big deal for everybody, but to me it says an awful lot about the... the quality of people that you're working with. Yeah. And I think you're not going to see them oversell. You know, I think, you know, you're, you're probably not going to see them negative sell. Right. And so this is where we want to make sure that. That is like probably one of the biggest boop, boop, boop, boop. Beware if they're negative selling. Yeah, yeah. And, and it's just, just when, when you step in, there are, there are businesses that are, they, they just really approach how they do their business, how they show up for their customer, how they show up for their competition, how they show up for something like this in a way that is like everyone's welcome at the table. Yeah. And it's like we're all friends. Everyone's welcome at the table. And I hope that this happens more and more and more is that we can help lift each other up even if we are in the same industry, if we are in the same sector. And it is. It's about all ships rise. When you work with integrity and you speak of your competition with integrity and you're helping dealers to be better and to give freely. And that's just kind of an, it's like, how can we help? That's one of the reasons why we love our founding sponsors is because they are giving freely to this industry. Yeah. And I say that because I know that these people and these businesses stepped in with zero ROI attached to their investment to quality education and helping to change the way this industry is viewed by those outside of the industry. Yeah. That's, yeah. And to be clear, they're not the only ones. They're just the ones that are our founding sponsors. And so when, if you ask us about GPS, we're going to want you to meet pastime. If you ask us about, you know, any of these others, if you ask us about DMS, we're going to have some names for you, right? Are the people that we know the people we have some understanding of. And so we're able to kind of guide people in that way. And I think, you know, you talked about the integrity thing and, and, and the, you know, leaning in, I, I think one of the things too about White Hat Way is those folks who are founding sponsors, they're playing a long game with us. They know this is not an easy, quick fix, right? That we're stepping into something and playing a long game here, kind of that infinite game thing that we talk about. simon cynic and so we're you know it's not like you're going to build a measure a whole lot of you know the successes that we have I do have one little bit of measure I want to share something on the screen before we wrap up oh my goodness this made me so um yeah can I'm going to take I'm going to just put that on so that hold on I gotta find it right there so it's a little bit Our dealer in, this is a dealer who is in East LA, Whittier, California, and he is doing some posts. By the way, we can also give a shout out to Anna Maria Beck because I'm pretty sure she's the one who's producing these posts for Vic. But the, but it was Vic's idea to throw the white hat way hashtag and he reached out to me, shared a screenshot of this, you know, thing that's going out on social media today. And he just wanted me to know that he was, he was including the white hat way hashtag in his book. And I just think that's, that's so wonderful that you've got this dealer who, you know, came to know us through obviously these, these other tracks and, and, uh, and they, they latched onto what white hat way can mean to them and what it says to their customers. And that simple hashtag, if people follow that hashtag and what they'll learn about what white hat way represents is like this dealer is saying, uh, White hat way is something that we want to stand by. It's something we want to be known by. And so I think in that way, you know, when I tie it back again to our founding sponsors, this is, you know, this is a white hat Wednesday, Michelle. So we're, you know, we're talking about the white hat elements. And so we certainly wanted to. you know, spread the word about why we want you to meet our founding sponsors when you're walking through that expo hall. And if you're not at an IED, reach out to us if you're shopping. And again, not just those, but our three founding sponsors are in the capital business. We haven't talked a lot about LHPH. has a really great capital program for dealers who are looking to step into leasing or to grow their lease your pay here business. They know that business frontwards and backwards. So they just, that's a segment. They're very focused on that and they're able to provide solutions that are, you know, really useful. I think that Terry, Terry Badler was like one of the, I think he kind of like granddaddy this whole kind of, he was one of the original people to start lease here, pay here. In the state of California, for sure. And then he helped create the California Leasing Association. He then helped develop the National Vehicle Leasing Association. I know I'm sharing that part right. And he's still very much involved in that, as is LHPH as a company. And ethics was very much a part of that, like how to offer leasing to consumers in a way that is ethical, because they were getting a lot of pushback in the state of California initially. And it's because dealers were... kind of misrepresenting what they were doing in a lease. And so they had to kind of create some layers of accountability and education. And so that's part of what Terry comes from. So yeah, it's about doing business the right way and playing the long game and making sure that we're not mistreating people. And I think the big thing for me today is it's not all about ROI that can be measured in dollars and cents. There are other things to consider here. And among those things, who are you doing business with? How do they feel about me as a dealer? How do they feel about this industry that we all serve, you know, and that we all make our living in. And so this is kind of what I wanted to be able to bring forward is like, there's, there's more to think about than just the price tag of, of the product, right. There's consider. So I think we covered the parts that I wanted to cover today. I appreciate you, uh, making time from Idaho to be part of the conversation. You are welcome. Very, very welcome. I got a bunch of errands to go run with my brother. And those of you who I, my sister-in-law gave me one of these last month was AL the ALS awareness month, which is basically Lou Gehrig's disease. My brother has Lou Gehrig's disease. And so I have my little thing. I'll be wearing it whilst at the conference and, Um, if any, it's interesting when you start talking about this, if any of you out there have been touched by that and would like to have someone to talk about your experience, please come find me. Um, it's been such a beautiful experience to, to, to spend time with my brother and to be, you know, walking along. Wait, I spend a lot of time with them recently. Um, and, uh, so my, I, I have a lot of compassion. For those that are suffering from Lou Gehrig's disease or ALS and those that are their family members or caregivers as well. And I can say that, you know, your brother is approaching, I spent a good amount of time with your brother recently as well, and he's approaching the whole thing with a lot of dignity. And yeah, just really... Positivity. Yeah. Just tries to keep a smile on his face and it's just... For those of you who are not familiar with what it does, it just takes everything. Physically, yeah. It's a terminal illness, so it's one of those things that... They know more about it. They can ease the, the, you know, the symptoms and the discomfort that comes along with it. I can't stop it. You can't stop the progression. I can't stop it. So, yeah, just so by all means, if you have that in your family, we, we stay high. I'll give you a hug if you need one. I mean, yeah, it's, it's, it's, it's a hard disease to work with. Yeah. Yeah. Experience though. yeah all right let's wrap up there shall we and uh see you um we'll see you when we see you if you're back yeah I may be back for friday's podcast I may not so we'll just kind of see so we'll figure it out but otherwise uh we will know we'll be back here with uh tim evans on uh friday talking about hiring so and just tim will be amongst the speakers I believe at niada right mr Yes, he will be. He's one of the speakers there. Love you, sweetheart. Thank you, everyone, for joining us today. We really, really appreciate all of your support. Just watching, whether it be through the live or recorded. Thank you so much. I hope you guys have a great rest of your week. See you Friday. Thanks.
