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. Hey everybody, good morning. Happy Monday from the other city that never sleeps. Yeah, we're in Vegas this morning. Got in last night, getting settled in to have a work day and then over to the hotel for check-in and then the big... there's an event at four o'clock. So we'll get ourselves checked in. We'll be there as voting members in the four o'clock session. So looking forward to that. For those who are not familiar, there's a kind of a controversial situation with the president-elect. If you're not familiar, you can go back and see the story on our Friday podcast. And then we'll just be there for the vote. We'll probably do a live update after the vote occurs from the hotel itself. And then we got a couple of other things happening. We've got our We've got stuff to distribute. We've got a couple things to pass out. So we've got that happening. We've got something happening with DMS systems that I wanted to pass out. Good morning, FIADA, by the way. And listen, we've got to keep this podcast short this morning because I didn't think to bring my cup of coffee to the desk. You can share mine. Oh, okay. Well, that'll give us another two minutes then. Okay, there you go. So now it's all good. I'm a bit of a caffeinaholic now. Oh, my goodness. We cannot get started until we've had at least two cups. Yeah. And, yeah. It's a serious problem. But I don't know if you call it a problem. They say you're supposed to replace the word problem with opportunity. I have a very serious coffee opportunity. Right, right. See, that's how that works. It's all in the language and the phrasing. So, yeah. We again, Vegas, but we had a really interesting email exchange over the last few days. I don't know if y'all remember, but it was Wednesday. that we put out on the show that we were having some difficulties with the DMS provider to create a report that our V8 members need. And it's not just for V8, but this is the kind of report that every dealer should have on their desk at the beginning of every month. And it is a really good indicator on... understanding where all the dollars are and, you know, how your portfolio has performed over the last month and, you know, set your baseline for the coming month. And so we've, um, we have some DMSs that have been super easy to, to, well, not super easy, easier to, to find that number, but it's not from a specific report. We've had to pull this and pull this and pull this and we can create the thing. And, um, and we were having some, some challenges with another DMS that it's like, it couldn't at all. And, um, couldn't get to the number in a very good way. And so we put out a challenge. We talked about it last Wednesday, but we also put out a challenge via an email. I wouldn't say it was a challenge. Well, not a challenge. It was a request. A request, yes. It was a request, and I framed out a request. And I just, in the interest of, and in the method of- Do you want me to read that? Sure. Well, let me give a little more backstory first. So I sent out a request saying, hey, on behalf of White Hat Way, and I did it as an open email in a transparent way, you know, so that we talk a lot about transparency. So as a method or as a... as a way of practicing what we preach. I just am sending an open, uh, email to all the DMS providers saying, we believe dealers ought to have this. We would request this on behalf of white hat way. We would like it to bear the name white hat way portfolio summary. And, um, we started getting responses right away. Some, uh, Some are acting now to create that report. It was really, really neat to sit back and kind of watch some of the responses that were coming in. And we got a small handful of ones that were like, absolutely, give us access to the spreadsheet. We're on it. Right. And that's really encouraging. And I should mention that I open copied, carbon copied the founding sponsors. And I explained in there, we did that. And here's why we try to keep them in the loop of what we're doing under the name of White Hat Way. And so we did that and made them aware of what we were doing. And like I said, it has been... affirming or you know it's been nice to see some of the the DMS providers respond on behalf of dealers I mean we're doing this in the interest of making life simpler for dealers and making what is a very difficult job just a little bit easier so you want to go ahead and read we have one of the DMS providers respond well do you want me to read the letter you sent okay so it says hello everyone first please forgive the open copy on this format important email since we Talk so much about transparency in White Hat Way, the open email is simply our way of practicing what we preach. To that end, notice that I've also CC'd the founding sponsors of White Hat Way, LHPH Capital, Pastime, and Dealer RE, just to keep them appraised of our efforts. I'm reaching out to all of you simultaneously on behalf of all BHPH and LHPH dealers to make a request. I'm requesting that a White Hat Way portfolio summary report, it's a long name for a report, but it's White Hat Way portfolio summary report be added to your library of standard reports. The spreadsheet linked here shows the proposed layout. And in short, we wish for dealers to have quick access to what I often call a primary principal activity summary. I certainly recognize that some of you have these line items available in your system now. However, in many instances, the individual reports may not be known to the dealer users or may not reconcile to the report for the close of the period. Having all items in a single location that matches closing reports of receivables will be a tremendous value to the dealers and to the accountants and analysts who support them. Please find the embedded video that verbally expresses my request and the purpose behind it. And as I mentioned in the video, Here's the YouTube link to this week's White Hat Wednesday episode where Michelle and I spoke quite specifically about the limitations and frustrations that so many dealers face in trying to identify critical movement in what is almost always the largest asset in the buy here, pay here or LHPH business. As mentioned in the video, we're extending the invitation to each of you as DMS providers to be a guest on a future White Hat Wednesday episode once the report has been created bearing the White Hat way name and be confirmed to balance. That's a key part. balance with other receivable reports available in your existing report library. Please find my calendar booking link below. I'd be happy to meet virtually with any of you from your team to sort out any questions. I'm looking forward to each of you to achieve a really great thing for dealers. Hope to see you next week in Vegas. Yeah, and I didn't mention here, and you can, before you read the response, I'll say that I find that when we don't run a receivables report at the close of the period. Those are what I would call dynamic reports, meaning the numbers are always moving. If you run it in the morning, it'll be different than it is in the afternoon after a few contracts are added, payments collected, et cetera. But if you try to go back and run a receivables report to a prior date, even though some systems offer that, it's been my experience that I can't always trust that information. I think it's more important to have it on a timely basis. But We know all the information is there in every system. We know that principle has to be tracked. I mean, by law, they would have to be tracking the principle balances because the simple interest agreements are common. You know, they're going to have to track those no matter what. So we know the information is there. It's just a question of summarizing it in a clean way. Yeah. So you want to read the response from one of the providers over the weekend, who I don't know personally, but they responded. Let's not say the name, but. You want to read it? It says, Jim, I like the White Hat way. My company has operated with transparency since its founding in 1983. DMS software is not a commodity. Not all DMS software is the same, even if they produce the same report. The industry would benefit greatly from an honest DMS forum, a live product showcase where each DMS provider demonstrates not only reporting but but all of the features in the interest of transparency and education. I would highly encourage direct questions from dealers for a genuine and interactive experience. Would you be willing to facilitate it? And I already responded to say, yes, of course, we'd be interested in facilitating that. I didn't say that provided that it's a virtual forum, you know, that we would happily host and buy your nation television. We'd be happy to. Yeah. And one thing I can say that if we, When we do that, I think it's likely that we will do that. Then we'll just make sure that it's a level playing field and that all providers are held to the same standard, that everybody's able to answer the same questions, and that we're able to provide dealers a really thorough and transparent comparison. Now, that same DMS provider didn't say anything about the report that we're asking for, whether or not they would facilitate doing that or not, but were suggesting that we create some kind of a forum. And so, like Jim said, we've been We talked about this extensively and it's like, yes, that's a good idea for us to do that. And we recognize that there's a lot of DMSs out there. And so we want to be able to give DMSs that are out in the industry, the opportunity to be heard as well. So this may be something that is a multiple episodes kind of thing. And so having a few here and a few there and a few there and something that will be archived for dealers to be able to reference the Whenever they are looking for a new DMS provider or what is it that's out there right now? Not everyone, and we recognize this and we speak about this frequently, not everyone can make it to a conference with an expo. And so not everyone has the ability to go and be able to see and see what it is that's out there and what updates and things like that, that there are. And so we're going to be putting that together. It will be on Buy Here, Pay Here Nation television. And we'll try to get that set up and it'll happen before the end of the year. Absolutely. And so please be watching for that. I think it's going to be a really, really valuable tool for all dealers. Good morning, Karen, to you too. Hi, Karen. Hi, Karen. And as we were speaking about this, I think DMS is a great place to start. And we spoke when we first started the morning show that we wanted to be able to create some kind of a catalog of providers where people can see what it is that they, you know, who they are, what it is that they do, what their features are, and have some kind of a comparison between where they can go and, um, where a dealer can go and just kind of get an idea about all the different DMS providers. And so this is a really great start to doing that. And, um, as like we said, with the DMSs, this is the beginning. And, and we believe that, um, as we get through that, that there's opportunity for a lot of other things to have the same type of forum, whether it be, um, CRMs, payment processors, you know, all of those different things so that dealers have a place that it's very, it's unbiased. Yeah, I think that's the big thing. It's agnostic. If dealers can, dealers need to be able to come to a place and they need to know that there's a platform that is going to be agnostic, trustworthy to, like I say, hold that, maintain a level playing field and give everybody an opportunity to, And I think what this one provider suggested was for everybody to come, what they say, showcase what they do. And I think our format would be a little different than that. It wouldn't be a pitching sort of environment, but there may be one. Short pitch, you know, we talked about letting them submit a video of some kind that we can play and then and have questions answered afterwards. But it's more likely to be, you know, a panel format. But yeah, we will. We've got some ideas on how that can work. But we certainly can can say now that we expect to move forward with it. And you can be assured that it'll be a level playing field. And, you know, that's one of the really beautiful things about what it is that we're creating with White Hat Wake. White Hat Way is a place or a filter in a way for dealers to be able to find other businesses that are transparent and all of the principles that are part of White Hat Way. And in an agnostic way, be able to go through and look at what are the options? How does it play nice with other things? All of the things that dealers really need to understand. And when I say need... You know, we've had the conversation. Don't ever say need. But it's like you really kind of need to know what what what you're going to benefit. You're going to benefit greatly from from this. So so that's what's going to be coming soon. Other updates from me, I would say we have. I had said early on in some of our mentions of the session that I'm moderating that. I thought the session was on Thursday when I mentioned it a couple weeks ago. It's actually tomorrow, Tuesday. So it's at 2.30 local time for those of you that are in Vegas and want to sit in on the exit ramp panel in the Buy Here, Pay Here track. We've got Colin Kanelakis, the well-known CPA, highly experienced CPA with... Elaine Gorman-Trubot will be one of the panelists. Vicki Davis out of Texas who is running the process of running out her portfolio and kind of exiting the business. And then you've got Steve Taylor who sold his business to America's Car Mart. And we've had him on the show a few times. We have. And so those, both Colin and Steve, we've had on the broadcast or some of our live events in the past. So I know them and kind of know their expertise and look forward to being able to have a session, a 45 minutes is going to go fast tomorrow afternoon. We do not yet have the okay. We haven't confirmed that we have the okay to broadcast that live as we've done in the past. We may try to record it if we can't broadcast live and then that way we can share. But again, we want to be respectful of what NAADA plans on doing with what's happening at the sessions. But this is not just for those that are planning an exit sometime in the next few years. This is, we talk frequently about vivid vision and all of that. This is planning now for your exit. It's like deconstructing. What are the pieces that you need to be able to have an elegant and profitable exit to the business? Yeah. And I think even beyond that, many of the things we will talk about in that session will, even if you don't exit, you know, whether you're looking at a succession or the, you know, you're, you're, You're not thinking exit. There are still many things that we're going to introduce in that session that these experts can speak to that will help improve the profitability, the performance and the value of your business. So, you know, even if we don't want to exit, we want our business to be valuable, right? So we want it to be performing well. So this will be, uh, there'll be lots of information around that. And then lastly, I'm going to create an event, uh, today that will be actually, I'm gonna create two. I'm going to create one for our session. tomorrow. And I'm going to create one for this, the vote this afternoon at four o'clock Pacific time. So that for those of you that are in Vegas and able to attend, we want to make sure you know where to find it and know that you, our information is that all members will be eligible to vote. And we want folks to be there. And again, if you're not familiar with the controversy around that, we don't want to keep rehashing it. We don't intend to mention the person's name, but just know that the president-elect has a controversy and there's some question about whether or not You know, that's appropriate representation. And so typically that would be an easy confirmation vote. But this vote this afternoon at four o'clock. Most of the time dealers just like that's only for the states to be able to go through and do that. But there is some there is. it's a little bit murkier than that this year. And, and it really is all about optics. Yeah. Yeah. So again, we don't have to rehash the whole thing. We've told the story, but I would say go back and catch that Friday episode. If you missed it, just be prepared. As often as the case, I get a little emotional on the Friday episode. We talked about, you know, those things that are near and dear to my heart, which is this whole integrity of the white cowboy thing. But yeah, it's, it's like, this is kind of integrity just kind of rocketed to the center of this, conversation around this vote that's going to happen on write-in. Listen, this is not about the people. This is not about the person. This is more about the industry and how we want the industry to be represented and whether we as an industry want to stand up and say, yes, integrity matters, optics matter. And so that's what the vote is mostly about. But again, Be there at 4 o'clock. If you're in Vegas at the Wynn Hotel, join us in that session. Michelle and I will be there casting our vote. Come and say hi. And then I'll also send out an invitation for that event on that session tomorrow afternoon at 2.30. At 2.30. So I think that's really it for me. 2.30, that's like a joke. Yeah, it is a joke. We'll bring that joke back. So I found it funny because I know the joke, but you don't know the joke. We'll bring it back. Yeah, we'll talk about it maybe for your opening or something for the thing. All right, everybody. Hey, thank you so much for joining us on this Monday. We're really grateful for your support and But, you know, make us part of your day. So if you're at the conference in Vegas, please come up and say hello. We would love to meet you or old friends. Come up and say it's good to see you again. So have a great day and we will see you on Wednesday. Look for us. We've got buttons for you. Yeah. All right. We'll talk to you later. Thanks, guys.
