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 White Hat Wednesday. Hey, good morning, everyone, from North Ogden, Utah, in the basement studio. where we do all of our podcasting and a few virtual meetings. So welcome again. It's been an interesting week, huh? Well, it's a half week, but yeah, it has. So we got our first V8 meeting tonight. I also have conversations this week with Brent Carmichael and Steve Burke, where we're kind of starting to break down some pricing stuff. And I'm sure that we already set that as our topic for Friday. So I'm sure some, what we talk about there, we'll be able to come over into that subject on Friday. But yeah, you're doing a special meeting with. It's for VA plus. Yeah. Yeah. So they're kind of, we're really breaking down pricing and, and I have some, some, fun questions lined up for them. Oh my gosh. We were talking about that last night and you were writing them down and I was like, good question. Yeah. Yeah. It'd be a, I really, you know, these folks have lived it. I mean, they've been in it. And so I really look forward to, and I'm, I'm going to ask it on behalf of newcomers. Like if I were brand new to the industry, where would you be advising that I set pricing? Well, and some of the questions you have are just like, it really makes you think about, outside of questions that are typically asked. I hope so. Yeah. Because that's the kind of stuff that circulates in my brain all the time is the stuff that's outside the norm, right? Outside the norm. Yeah. And obviously, the mathematician in me or the numbers nerd, I'm always kind of crunching these numbers. And of course, that's part of what we do with V8. But I'm just thinking, how can we... line up these numbers in a way that will help dealers better make the decisions that they are faced with. Because we just saw a thread on social right on BHP success where people were asking about markup and pricing. And it's all over the place. Yeah. And it's, you know, one of the yeah, one of the questions are the things that you've talked about is like if you go based on that, on some of these like market up a hundred percent and another whatever is if you bought a car for 3 000 that's the exact same model as another car that you bought for 7 000 how does that work yeah that's that's pricing from cost which is what on that facebook thread virtually everybody was giving some formula from cost and then I saw that tommy for example said we'll make some adjustments based on condition or whatever which makes sense but it's like I think the whole idea of pricing from cost is a is pretty simplistic and I feel like we can do better it's easy yeah it's easy to get to it for sure it's like really easy just to you know whoever it is that you've got pricing your vehicles whether it be the dealer or you know inventory manager or whatever it's like boom done Boom, done. I know that the way that we approach it with our clients is it takes a little bit more thinking or you actually have some tools that you've built for that. Yeah, I have because I don't like to think. I like to let the spreadsheet do the math for me. Well, you think a lot while you're creating the spreadsheet. It's like this man gets lost and when he's thinking hard, he does this. One day you'll see me. It's like, what are you thinking about, honey? Yeah. Mostly the Roman Empire. Yeah. We've already established that I think about the Roman Empire more than you do. Because I'm a history nerd. And I enjoy that kind of stuff anyway. So anything else before we... No, I don't think so. I'm just going to do a quick plug. Again, if you all haven't looked at this, the Car Law F&I Legal Deskbook 9th edition is... the answer book for finance and insurance professionals by um the good folks at hudson cook right and so these are you know I they have their own forms don't they in the uh in most dms's yeah a lot of the dms yeah and so I mean yeah so they they uh they kind of know their stuff based on based on your your uh your state and like a lot of the this this is more this is more national Let's just say they were doing F&I and buy here, pay here had been for a long time when I first got in the industry. So, you know, that's, they've been, they've been around a long time and yeah, they're definitely, so yeah, Eric, thanks for the book. And so we, we're happy to refer folks in your direction as amongst the, the best established firms in the country. So our topic today is we're going to review the, the, interview we did, the conversation with Taylor Bird. So Taylor Bird, for those who don't know him, is the son of Tim Bird. Tim is the original founder of Dealer Re. And so they're a reinsurance agent. And really, they're really popular. They're really well known. And, you know, everywhere you go, people have good things to say about them. And so they're, and they serve dealers across the country on reinsurance solutions and work pretty closely with ABP. So. So I just, I want to pre apologize. We got to figure this thing out when we go to a conference, the right kind of microphone, because it just, it's very quiet, but it's because there's so much background noise. And it's funny because you don't hear it. You don't hear the background noise very much on the recording. And, you know, we're talking about all the people and it just looks like there's just three people up on a stage and, you know, no one's there, but it's like, it was loud. Yeah. There were people passing through and obviously you're in expo hall. And so you get the, And the microphones, one of the experts, the technicians there, AV people at NIEDA said your microphones are really made for studio purposes, not for this kind of situation. So we may need to acquire some. Nice tech guy. We had him last year or the year before. Yeah. They helped us get that thing going. But yeah, I just apologize for the ambient noise that you'll hear. You have to listen closely to hear what Taylor has to say. All right. Let me get into here. And we are going to go. right here okay okay all right we are back again yeah welcome to the microphones mr taylor bird with dealer reed thank you for having me yeah it's always good to see you guys we uh we are here in the extra hall 2024 and I think you can see you've been to a lot of these it's pretty pretty active group we got a nice full exhibit hall yeah yeah a lot of attendees this year it's looking good I mean we have had a lot of people come by our booth tonight I would say Probably above average, so I'm not pretty happy with how things are going. Yeah, that's fantastic. So we're aware of your relationship with AVP, the company's assurance. Tell me again the initials. Assured Vehicle Protection. Assured Vehicle Protection, yeah. So we got to know those folks recently. We know you work very closely with them. So with their administration, what you guys do provide a really excellent solution for folks who were looking into, you know, reinsure, which means building some profits. Right. And so talk to us a little bit about what you guys do at Dealery. Sure. So what we do is we help buy here, pay here dealers, set up a insurance company that they own. And through it, they can provide and sell products to their customers instead of purchasing those products from a third party warranty company or instead of having their customers purchase those from an insurance company. And so what that does is it ultimately gives the dealer ultimate control over their customer's ownership experience, is what I like to say, because they ultimately have a call on when things need to get taken care of. And so not only does it do that, but it also obviously creates a huge profit center for them. And the different products, just so I can list it out so people understand, most of our buy here, pay here dealers, they will give a limited warranty Think like a three-month, 3,000-mile powertrain warranty. Hey, our cars come with a warranty, right? Which is big for marketing. And instead of buying that from a third-party warranty company and giving it to the customer, they're buying it from their own reinsurance company. So the cost that was going away previously is really just being expense from the dealership, but it's going to be revenue for their reinsurance company which they own 100 of and ultimately you know at the end of the day once claims have been paid which is probably very few of your vehicles break in the first three months and three thousand miles but some do right that that money that was sitting over there to pay for those claims becomes profit for them on the other side yeah It also allows you a nice little chest of funds so that if you do sell one, every dealer out there is going to have the experience where a week later, the AC goes out or whatever. And so you've got something, a little chest to be able to use. For savings, if you will. For savings. And it's a great opportunity for you to be able to capitalize on that money that you'd be spending anyway. to be able to invest in your dealership, your consumer. We should pause this. Yeah, there's a lot there that I appreciate. Yeah, I think, you know, if I'm listening to this and I'm new to reinsurance, I think Taylor touched on it. I'm glad he chose the three-month warranty because I agree it's an easy one to help dealers start to visualize, you know, how all of these products can work. But a three-month program is pretty simple to comprehend in that – Whatever the number is, let's say it's $350 or whatever you would put per account into the reinsurance fund, you would put that number over into the fund. It goes into a separate company. Yeah, it's a different company, so it's not staying on your dealership or RFC books. It's going into a different company. Yeah, and I'm 90% sure that in a three-month warranty, the dealer's going to take that entire premium and pay it. So when he says give it to the customer, you know, it's different. The difference between a warranty and a reinsurance or I'm sorry, a vehicle service contract is a warranty is something that is provided to the customer free of charges. Boom, everybody gets no additional charge. Everybody gets it. And so it's then the dealer simply funds it over into the reinsurance company. And after three months, if there's no claims against that money, then that income becomes income becomes realized and is Available. There are more caveats. We won't try to be reinsurance experts here, but I would just tell dealers who are new to it. Just imagine that now you put those funds over there and they didn't get, you know, whatever didn't have claims against it. Then those dollars, at least a portion of them become available to come back. into your business. So there's all kinds of ways that can be loaned from the one business to the other or other ways to utilize those funds back. But it creates a solution. It helps customers. I think the part that doesn't get talked about enough, and I don't recall that Taylor talked about here, but the actual matter of being able to take care of the customer quickly. Like there's a fund, right? So there's no question. It's clearly covered. I mean, how many dealers struggle with, Oh my gosh, can we get this? Their, their, their warranty. It's like, it just, it takes too long. It's like, they may say, Oh, it's not going to cover this or whatever. And it's as a dealer, you now were money that was just going away because you wanted to And they're not very expensive. A three-month warranty is not very expensive in the grants. For the dealer. For the dealer. So we just got to be careful to differentiate between a service contract that we typically buy. For the dealer, it's not very expensive. Correct. And so you're taking that money and it's just kind of sitting, it's sitting there and I believe they grow too, that there's, you know, it's kind of like a, it's if, as it grows, um, as you're putting money in it, that there's, it makes money too. I'm not, I'm not familiar with any kind of, you know, like a mutual fund. But I mean, how nice is it that it's like, it's money that you would have been spending anyway, because you know, it's a good idea to have something like that available to your, your customers, to our customers. And it's, it's really is, it's, it's like someone else isn't getting fat pockets off of this money. You now have this war chest that, You know, even just if it's from that three month warranty that that I mean, how many of us like the the the obviously the AC isn't part of that warranty. But if you've got this chest and something like that happens, you now have something that's not coming out. Right. of your regular um uh account for your dealership or for your rfc it's not coming out of there it's coming out of here and so it's not it's not draining resources from your business yeah well you have to pre-fund, I mean, obviously they're working the percentages, right? So we don't need to get that technical. It wasn't my goal here today to try to necessarily teach reinsurance, but it's like when you think about those pieces, I just, for our listeners who are new or to the idea of reinsurance, we just, as you hear Taylor talk about these things, I think it's important to understand. I think of it first and foremost as a Customer service matter, like a way to have a quick, predetermined solution for how we deal with repairs, which lets us in the operation from an operational standpoint, put the financial part aside for a minute, but from an operational standpoint, we can make customers happy quickly and get in there and solve the problem. And so that's step one. We can talk about the other pieces as we go here. develop better relationships I mean I don't know about you guys and I don't mean this in a in a bad way but if I'm if I personally am going to go buy a vehicle and you set two vehicles that are exactly the same next to each other I think I would rather purchase one that comes with a warranty versus one that's as is right so you know it really sets you apart from the competition as well Yeah. And so we've talked about, you know, you and I've had this conversation before we recognize and she'll touch on it, like there's the profitability piece, there's this accumulated incomes profit to the dealership, and there's ways that they can manage that profit in a reinsurance company. But then there's also kind of these operational benefits that they enjoy, they're able to Not only do they have a happy customer, as she mentioned, but they're able to solve problems quickly, move quickly to solve whatever the issue is of the day, because that product is there. And we just see so many benefits associated with that. And we, you know, I, I'm sure I've told you when dealers ask me, you know, when should I set up a reinsurance company? My, my answer is usually yesterday. You know, it's kind of what I tell them. And so many dealers that we talk to that have waited years and years and years after they get it done, they're like, Like I should have done this a long time ago. Every single one. Yeah. Yeah. So I think with your company, what we recognize is you guys provide a level of service on the front and obviously your partnership with ABP, they provide a lot of the administration, which is the claims handling, right? And some of those things. Financial statements, they have a portal where a lot of the reporting happens and just a very easy way to manage the policies. Because it's one thing to sell the policies, but then you have to manage them. And it's easy for administration, for your people that are in the office, If they can log into a portal and check where claims are at or look at invoices, which obviously is important, cancel policies if need be due to repo or trade. And so ABP does a lot of things. I'm selling them short by stopping there. But what we do on top of that is we're going to provide a level of customer service that is similar to Ritz-Carlton, I like to say. And I really hold our people to that standard. Because we want to not only just sign you up and say, good luck, but we want to set it up where you're going to be successful because, and we say this in our internal meetings all the time, and we say this to clients as well, but we're only successful if you're successful. And we really look at it as a long-term partnership. And so that's, you know, that, that is kind of our guiding light is a long-term partnership and helping people to be as successful as possible. Long-term partnership transitions into the idea that, you know, I've done some modeling with dealers lately, and I got to say that when he talks about the long-term side, something I did with a dealer just in the last couple of weeks that I hadn't done, last year I set up a reinsurance modeling tool, finally just kind of invested some time and built something. And Taylor was instrumental in helping me set the attrition rates and some of those kinds of things and plug in fees and so on so that we could calculate how much would be required to fund these different products you know we put each product on a separate kind of section so like upfront funding or all of it like it's basically yeah it's it's the dealers and some of the products with dealer re they're able to remit the dealer remits monthly like for example in a service contract you sell a service contract which might be a 1500 price tag but the dealer only remits you know their their part monthly so so we had to kind of model all those pieces out individually so I could show a dealer if you step into reinsurance and you chose these products this is how much at your volume and your attrition this is roughly what you can anticipate investing but what I did with a client in the last couple weeks I took that and I extended it to 10 years and wow I mean I just think the modeling I initially built was three years and it's interesting to help dealers figure out how much cash is going to require to move over to the reinsurance company But the wealth building aspect of this is tremendous. And I remember dealer Jack Carter told us, he said, I calculate that my reinsurance company is going to eclipse the profits and cash flows of my dealership. And based on what I see in these 10-year models, I would agree with him. Yeah, yeah, it's it's. And the thing about it is, is it's no more money coming out of your pocket than if you had a third party that you were doing that with. So like if you know, if you're doing a three month warranty through a third party. Well, it's a service contract. But it's like the warranty or the service contract, you can do those through a third party. It's the same kind of thing, except it's not going to a third party. Because the reason why there are third parties out there that do insurance and service contracts and all of that, they make a lot of money. Of course. And so it's like keeping all of that in your own. So it's just a cash management thing, right? We have to be able to budget the dollars to do it ourselves, you know, whereas other dealers are, you know, offering a service contract and they pay their cost, you know, and they have a certain price that they charge. And with companies like it's AVP. Yes. Maybe they manage it all. Yeah. So they have a lot of the administration. So they, they'll take care of all of that for you. And, and so it's not like it's putting a ton more on a plate of a dealer. It's just getting it set up and then, you know, teaching your team how to, how to use them. Right. Okay. Is a family sponsor with white hat way. And part of what we leave there is the same thing. This idea of, Dealer success, long term success, customer success, which obviously feeds the success of the dealer in this buy here, pay here world we live in. So I think, you know, what we have been able to say with the others, we've been fortunate to have the other founding sponsors here with us this evening. And we can say that one of the things we know about dealery is that you guys are very committed to the success of the dealer and the principles that are part of what we teach with White Hat Way. No, a hundred percent. And you know, I think that my dad, my father, Tim Bird, he's the CEO of our company founder, saw you guys' vision and how the principles of White Hat Way align so well with our principles at Deloree. And, you know, it was kind of a no brainer for us to, you know, be one of the founding sponsors of White Hat Way. And yeah, we just want, you know, just like you guys, we just want people to be successful do things the right way, take care of their, their customers. And you know what, if you, if you help other people get what they want, that's how you, that's how you can get what you want. So, so ultimately that, you know, think that the white hat way and dealery have very similar principles and values. And you know, we're happy to be a founding sponsor. yeah it's great we we really appreciate your support an awful lot yeah and together we're able to do a good thing as we were able to talk about with the others like one bit of evidence and you and I had just talked about it we went out on behalf of dealers very transparently open copied the dms providers in the space say you know if you guys would work with us we could create this report it would make dealers lives a little easier yeah and we've been thrilled to see the response I think it's we've got multiple dms's that have responded and said yep let's do it and how do we get access to your spreadsheet so that we can make this report happen so I think it's an indication of where you know it's not about jim and michelle it's about this thing that we call white hat way if we actually step out there we we it's one thing to say you're transparent it's another thing to be transparent asking this person we're not asking this person right right we're giving everybody the same opportunity and it's saying transparency doesn't mean you're transparent. Yeah, that's true. And we, we hear that. It's like, we, you know, we're transparent, we're transparent, but it's like, if you're, and I hear that. Yeah. So I'm just saying, just using the word isn't, it's actions. Actions always speak louder than words. Yeah. We, we, we have something else too. When we finished the, the thread with Taylor here, we got something else to talk about in the subject of transparency. Yeah. step forward. And I think it's an indication of the traction that we're seeing with that way. And so the support that we see from dealer re is, is part of that. And listen, I've known your dad for more years than either one of us is going to want to admit it, but he's been, my point really is he's been a solid part of this industry. People know him, trust him. And so it was a natural partnership for us to step in, in that way. We were so, we're so excited to have the opportunity to continue to work together to bring these opportunities educational opportunities to dealers and to work on their behalf because they got a difficult job about it you know they take a tough job but they're providing an important solution in this industry you know we look across the space and there's all these people out here you know doing what they do and they We see these used car dealers, especially the buyer payer space. These guys are hustling to provide a solution is much needed in this segment. And so we know that you guys support them in that. And we're happy to helping dealers be better. Absolutely. Well, I have a short story for you guys. It will be encouraging. One of the. actually the very first dealer that came to our booth tonight I was speaking with him and we were engaged and his gaze went down to the pins the white hat way pins on my on my desk over there and he smiled huge and I said oh yeah we're one of the founding sponsors of white hat way and I said do you do you know those guys do you listen to their podcasts and he said yeah I listen to them all the time and he took a pen oh that's wonderful that makes me so happy that makes me so happy yeah Cool. Well, we sent them. We actually slipped them. Thank you for sharing that. It really feels good when you get little stories about, yeah, it's working, that you're reaching. And when you see dealers asking for our permission to use the hashtag advertising in L.A., right? I mean, East L.A., they're out there talking about White Hat Way. That shows you that. Fantastic. That's awesome. That's really, really awesome. And it's, yeah. What? White Hat Way is, it's a philosophy. And submission. And it's a mission. And, um, and I just, you know, I, and it's, it's, it's interesting how we were talking yesterday a little bit about our, um, our avatar and, um, and it's just, it's, it's been really interesting to look at the people that this has resonated with. And it's like, that's our avatar, honey. That's our avatar. That's who, that's who it is that, that, um, that really, uh, embraces and gets and sees how white hat way can help. Yeah. And we can talk more specifically about it as we wrap up here, but I would say, you know, when Michelle talks about the avatar, that's terminology really from marketing where it's just kind of the, your typical customer, your ideal customer, the persona of the person who's most likely to, in this case, resonate with your way of doing business. And that's, you know, when we say avatar, anyone out there that has a customer, anyone out there that has a customer, it's really beneficial to pinpoint what does their avatar look like. Yeah. And I think before you start, I would just say that so much of what we're doing around the mission is while there certainly are tangible issues, Most of what we're doing in White Hat Way is intangible. It's not really measured in dollars and cents. You know, it's not, there's certainly going to be very real ROI for people to see in terms of utilizing these, the branding that is White Hat Way, et cetera. But I think really we're just trying to make sure people understand the folks who come to kind of join in this community with us in White Hat Way are really, it's not so much, it's long-term, right? It's playing along. Yep. It's just really about putting a name on it, right? It's a thing that, it's not that there aren't dealers out there doing it all the time. We meet dealers that we call white hat dealers all the time. It's just that we're trying to just put a name on it so people can identify it and that they can see the benefit. some financial benefit it's almost it's a brand that makes a difference yeah absolutely yeah yeah it's kind of like what I was talking about earlier with you put two cars side by side to each other yeah you have a warranty vehicle or an as-is view you know like I said I would like to purchase the warranty vehicle well if you put two dealers side by side and everything's equal sure but one has on their let's say on their wall that they're a white hat way dealer I would guess that it would have a similar effect yes I think you know people consumers will see that and say you know I'd like to do business with this dealer um and after asking what does that mean yeah yeah it's like I'd have to find out to lay it out a little bit like you know this is what we see exactly you know but eventually once they know that I think that you know it'd be kind of I, this white hat way is just beginning. Oh yeah. And, and as we continue to develop and continue to spread the word and can get, um, and more and more dealers, um, and businesses, uh, understand what it's about and adopt certain things. Yeah. It, it, it, it is, it is, it's, you know, traction, traction, traction. Yeah. And I can say we're, we're now framing out the white hat certification process. So you look for that too. Yeah. Certification. We'll be probably starting with a badge. Right. Clear. No brainer. Hey, you know, I'd like to do business. I agree. I think what it demonstrates in this context is just thinking about where we're going with that and how you guys are supporting where we're going. Is that what you say is absolutely right, we have one do it has a warranty that's likely to be the place that the customer will choose. Now imagine two dealers both have a warranty, but one of the dealers is signing an appendix w that goes with their warranty, which is basically a statement like we don't need to go into it here, but we create a w here. We currently put an appendix W with everything that we signed. It's like, it's just a statement. It's not a legal document. It's just us making a commitment in a very clear and written way that this is our commitment to operate from integrity and transparency and all those kind of things. And so this is part of what we anticipate will come. And with your support and the support of LHBH Capital in the past time, we know that this is where you'll see White Hat Way continue to go in a place where we can help consumers start to differentiate between the dealers in terms of who's really stepping up and prepared to you know, play that long game and make that commitment to be that kind of dealer in their community. I can't wait to see it grow. There's traction and it's doing it. It is. We're excited to see you guys grow. We know there's going to be more and more dealers stepping into reinsurance. It makes a ton of sense for those that are playing the long game. It makes financial sense. It makes customer service sense. And so there's lots of reasons to do that. And so again, we're for you making time to come over and chat with us for sorry we didn't see mr timber this trip we saw christy with your companies over there and happy to see you guys and so again glad we could connect here at the conference and hope you guys are enjoying your time have a great conference thanks so great to see you guys all right thanks again appreciate it all right so uh Oh, there it is. Something funky happened on the screen there for a second. But it's all good. I think, yeah, I didn't talk about that. I think the certification piece is coming into focus and exactly how we do at least step one of that. Yeah. You know that one of the things that... We're consistent. And it just, you know, we might introduce an idea, a concept or things like that, and then start, you know, bringing it into like our daily when, you know, we're on the podcast and all of that. But we spend a lot of time getting formulas right. Right. And, and, and it's, you know, it's, so it's, it's, you're always, it's tortoise approach. And so it's, it's like, let's make sure that this feels and, and just, it just is right. It's right for what it is that we're, what our vision is. And so it's really fun. Cause we, we, we talk by here, pay here. seven days a week you know um and so little elements like that just it's it's it's um you know they always say don't make rash decisions and you know don't and just spend some time sleep on it all of that well that's so much of what we do is it's not just boom let's just do it it's we may announce that we're gonna do the thing but it just takes some You know, it takes some time as we think through the whole process and we start just getting that momentum because by the time we get that momentum where it's in a full moving forward, it's unstoppable. Yeah, and that's about building a good foundation. I mean, that's really part of what I think about. And I don't say this often, but I can say that I'm much more deliberate in business than I once was. I've always been pretty patient, sometimes patient to a fault to the point that it hurts because we're not building a thing fast enough. But we're patient. We're definitely planning on it. That was directed at me. Was it? I don't think so. I mean. We sometimes, you know, we... It's like, come on, can we... Yeah, build a thing. Yeah, so obviously... I'm the hair. Yeah, she wants to move faster and that's cool. It's just I'm the stick in the mud and make sure we get it done right. Not the stick in the mud, but it is. I mean, there's so much wisdom in that. And we talked about... A lot of different things. When you react and do things too quickly, when you think about the racehorse and new dealers just want to run and do everything really quickly and you're going to run yourself right off a cliff. If you want to react to something and you do it really quickly, you're going to say something or do something that you're going to regret or that you won't be able to follow up on or whatever. And so give yourself... fully appreciate TARDIS approach. Yeah. I, you know, there's days, obviously it's, it's more uncomfortable than others, but it's, I feel comfortable in it. I know it's what we have to do, um, to build this thing. Well, it's about a legacy thing, right? It's about, we have, we have a chance with our collective experience and relationships and those things. And certainly the mission, like the, the, the heart element of this, like we really have, um, we really have a heart for this dealer and this consumer that they serve. And so, um, We have a chance to continue to build that and build it right and have a real positive impact on the industry. And we are, right? I mean, it is making a difference with some of the people that we work with. And so I think this is about just how do you create it in a way that it's lasting? And that it can serve, you know, folks in this industry for, you know, decades to come. And so it's just a matter of, you know, you got to get that formula right. And you got to get, and so for us, that's largely become about who. So you just met, you know, kind of a who, like the founding sponsors are, It's part of the who who support the machine. And so now we continue to move forward and build that out. So, you know, there's just so many elements. Sometimes I'll talk to people and they say, wow, you got a lot of irons in the fire. Well, there's a lot of opportunities. It's a question of what order you do that. And yes, absolutely. I was thinking about that this morning and I wanted to go back to transparency because there's something we want to talk about today. Absolutely. And, and it's about being transparent because transparency, Uh, you know, we, we just want, uh, dealers and vendors out there to know what it is we're up to and, um, and, you know, things that we've, we've felt strongly about and, and what we are moving forward with. And so, um, Yeah, and there's nobody that can't hear these things. I think, you know, when we talk about, and like last Friday, we went into the thing about taking people inside our sent email folder. Which is about DMS, and you're going to hear more about where we're at. I think we'll do a little update every Friday until this gets resolved, and we'll make it a bigger deal until it happens. until we start seeing those reports coming in. I had some conversations with some people that are moving on that. So hopefully Friday we'll have some news about where we're at with some of those. But yeah, that is an indication. And I think today we just wanted to share with our viewers that we had a proposal that we submitted to NIADIA prior to the conference. And of course they were very busy leading up the conference and they were kind enough to acknowledge that. We were like, hey, can we get this like maybe something around the conference and It's like, we'll try, but yeah, when we knew it was, you know, timing was difficult leading into the conference, but there's obviously no assurance that anything would ever be done. We just want to kind of want to share with everybody that, you know, there's nobody that can't hear this, whether it's a dealer, whether it's somebody at the industry level and the association level, if it's board of directors, there's nobody that can't know. A vendor at anybody. Yeah. And I think it's important, like it's really our proposal was around the V8 and kind of peer group services. So we, most folks know we have created a virtual peer group, which is sort of a, you know, you could call it a 20 group light. Yeah. And then that's, that's usually what, when a dealer is talking to another dealer about, you know, well, what is it? It's like, it's kind of like 20 groups, but it's not a 20 group. Yeah. I mean, it's the closest thing I know to compare it to. And it also, it's cause there's no travel. They meet monthly. The, the composites are, are a lot less, um, data. And so the, you know, and so it's, it's something, and I think that we were saying that about 30% of our dealers are members of a dealer 20 group too. And so V8, it's connect and compare. It's a light. Yeah. So the quick, quick history on that is we, we brought a handful of dealers, our clients mostly together and did a beta run on that back in the fourth quarter last year. And so once we got the formula kind of structured and verified that there was interest, then we, we set up an official group and then I notified Jeff Martin and Brent Carmichael at NCM, who's now on his way to NIDA come January 1st. we announced to them that just privately that we were starting this, that we were starting to advertise it. Because both of them are in the same kind of space. They have a 20 group solution. And so we were aware that it could be that, you know, this would start to potentially some dealers might choose that. And so we just want to say to the extent. Or feel like they have to choose. Yeah. That's an interesting part too. Yeah. It's like that, that, that it's, that somehow it's not, it's, Yeah, that they have to choose. It has to be one or the other. And that's not the case at all. So here we are tomorrow night. We start into July meetings. So we've now got six full months of data submission. And we're moved into three-month rolling averages with a lot of people. And so we've got enough traction there. And we've kind of confirmed the process and kind of confirmed the price point and gotten feedback. Obviously, we've actually done surveys with the dealers to compare it. And I think I shared a couple of times that we're seeing that about one in three of our dealers are also in a 20 group. And I'm not aware of anybody yet who has chosen to withdraw from their 20 group because of their V8 thing. I think it's... we just think they're different. Like I said to somebody recently, like it just scratches a different itch. It doesn't, it does not necessarily the same thing, but because it's, it's similar and that it's a virtual opportunity to have peer conversations and what have you, then we just, we just wanted to make sure that everybody who's listening can know that we submitted a proposal to do a revenue share is what we submitted. And so we are open to discussions around that. I've shared with Brent Carmichael recently by phone that, you know, um that we did with niada a revenue share with niada right and so so we just want to be able to do that in cooperation with them and look they got lots of initiatives over there and things they're working on I would just say that just we just want everybody to know we're we're open to that that's our expectation that that's where that will end up and uh so we're we're available so as it grows it will help niada yeah yes and we certainly want to you know kind of Anytime you can collaborate and cross market, that's going to be beneficial potentially to both sides. And so certainly we can see benefits for us in doing so. We mostly just want to not be operating apart from NIADA. That's kind of the biggest part of it for us. In a way, too, it's V8 investing in our national association, too. It's like there's a revenue share because we know that the National Association, all of the good that they do on Capitol Hill and helping the states and just creating better education and all of that for dealers. And so this is just a way for us to say, hey. too as you know where we we we uh want to support that and I think for them you know whatever wherever the um agreement would land in terms of the revenue split I think it's it's also for niada they create a solution for their members right that they don't currently have and they could build their own it's just that we've got a fair amount of traction and some structure in what we're doing so we just think it makes sense to to work in in cooperation with them so we've put that out there. We just want to make sure that's been, um, you know, kind of circulated privately up to now. And we just think there's no reason folks can't know. That's what we're, yeah, that's what we have done. That's what we're prepared to do. And, uh, and so that's, so you heard it here first. That's right. Yeah. Yeah, unless one of those people who had the email told you. Yeah, so it's all good. But yeah, I think it's fine for us. It's part of what transparency looks like. It's just being out there and letting people know this is what we're doing. There's no smoke-filled rooms that we're doing any deals behind the scenes. That's what transparency looks like. Well, and when you're working on behalf of dealers and you say that, people know that. They see that, that that's what we're doing. We're trying to make lives of dealers easier. Sure. Give them more resources. Give them better information so they can make better decisions in a difficult segment. And so, you know. Because we all know how there's a lot of dealers out there that just don't have the resources or they just haven't stepped into. Right. to, um, you know, their, their, their state or national. And it's interesting as we've, we've polled our V8 members and there are V8 members that are not members of their state association that they, you know, they heard about it and through social media or whatever. And it's like, no, we, this is a good option for us to be able to step into seeing what other dealers are doing. Cause there's a lot of dealers out there that, um, They figure it out as they go along. One of the things that we and White Hat Way and V8 as part of the parent company White Hat Way is how do we get good information in front of dealers that aren't tapped in? It's been really cool to see um to see that kind of uh engagement yeah that's starting to happen with people that are that are outside of what we call the golden 500. yeah yeah it's interesting we're definitely seeing some indication that we we hear from people that I've never seen their name on social media we don't know them never heard their name from anywhere And they're reaching out to us about, you know, whether it's some of our online content or sometimes podcasts or whatever. But yeah, that's always interesting to see that people are, you know, consuming that stuff. And you and I sit over here and we think there's nobody listening to this. This is just me and you talking in the studio. Which is fun. We do it anyway. We might as well have cameras on. That makes me get cleaned up for the day. Yeah. But then you go to a conference like NIEDA and you talk to the people and they express so much gratitude to us. Vendors, dealers, seasoned dealers, new dealers, like they're just grateful for what we do over here. And so we just think it's a way for us to reach people who... you know, are trying to find good information and trying to find the good people, you know, who are the people to do business with and how do I, so a lot of that for us is relationships and connections and let us help you to connect you to people who can help you solve that problem. Right. So it's part of what we enjoy doing. Yeah, and I just, I really, really love the equity that you seem to have and the, we not seem to, that you have in the space for like this V8 plus meeting on pricing and how it's like the people, it's one of the things I'm so excited about, Brent Carmichael joining NIADA because Brent has been, we have worked really closely with Brent on a lot of different projects and he's just such a delight to work with. and so willing to help dealers and teach. Super knowledgeable. Really, really excited about that. Boy, he's seen all the stuff. I just think it's wonderful that he's landing over there and we're thrilled to work with him and the entire team over there at any juncture. Well, I think that we've gone a little... Yeah, we've gone a little... That's our own rules, huh? Yeah. Hey, thank you for joining us on a Wednesday. And, you know, we're really, really grateful. I know Jim has said, you know, if we can, why wouldn't we? If we can help dealers to be able to have better education and be able to rally behind something that is about dealers being better, let's do it. And so we're grateful for the opportunity to do that. And we're grateful for your viewership. Yep. It's Wednesday. White Hat Wednesday. Thanks again to Taylor Bird and Deva Rhee. And before that, we had Tim Lawrence from LHB Capital. And next week will be Gordy. Gordy Tormolin, who's the former president and now chairman. Who's now the chairman of the board. So we'll have him on that recorded session. All right, everybody. Have a great day. And we will see you on Friday. We'll be talking a little bit about pricing. All right. Have a great day, everybody.
