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. Goodness gracious, having an extra day off, it's just like I forgot how to start this whole thing. She means we're not doing Monday podcasts anymore, so we got a little rusty. I just, you know, hey, I've got a lot on my mind today. So good morning. It's Wednesday, White Hat Wednesday, and... Weather has changed here. It is fall. We've got the patio heaters on, coffee in the morning underneath the patio heaters and fireplaces. Michelle and I had a fun laugh about the Saturday Night Live sweater weather. Sweater weather. Sweater weather. Sweater weather. We're starting to see some fall colors on the mountainside. So yeah, it's one of my favorite times of year. Yep. Which means I'm kind of that time of year where my fingernails will be purple now from, you know, this time. Jim does not like being cold. That's for sure. I guess. Yeah. Oh, well. Oh, well. Enough about me. um what do we got we got uh just some updates got uh another nice uh meeting last night with the v-eight groups and it's a big the bigger one yeah the big um five to two thousand yeah that's part of our conversation today there was some really um yeah important things that were discussed last night in the context of underwriting etc yeah so that'll be um an important element today and then Just got a couple more groups coming up still for the, I guess three more meetings before the close of the month, but it's not too late to get in there. If you're a dealer. It's never too late to get in there. Yeah. You may be too late for that month's meeting, but it's never too late. Let's talk quickly about one thing that happened with one of our members yesterday, because I think this is, One of those things that we see, I've seen it at least twice with dealers. This dealer had the courage to admit. Oh, yeah. They got signed up and then it came time to submit the data and they realized they were embarrassed. I mean, they actually said by email, I'm embarrassed to say, I don't, this looks like a daunting thing. And that just is very telling. And I think it's really, it's not uncommon. Yeah. But it's uncommon for a dealer to say, I'm embarrassed. I don't know how to get the, get to this. Yeah. Yeah. So it's like, but I think it's also an indication of how lots of dealers are out there managing their business. And I'm not saying it's wrong. They're doing the best they can with what they have, you know, to work with. But I think it's an example of where the disconnect is between software and, you know, we kind of had this conversation between software and management and these others, even though they're getting their numbers in, some of them quite early, they're way off. The numbers are not. clean and so there's quite a bit of work to be done to figure that out but I just think it's such a interesting example of you know first of all I would just say dealers be be prepared to just say you know put your ego aside for a minute and say I don't know how to do this and dealers have a hard time kind of expressing that sometimes and I'm saying That is the single biggest thing you can do to start to really help yourself. Oh, yeah. Absolutely. Absolutely. I predict within months, this dealer is going to say it's the best thing they've ever done. Yeah. Well, and from what you were talking about is that they were really super excited about getting involved. Yeah. then just felt so totally disheartened after trying to get in. And different DMSs are easier than others. So I should clarify. Yeah. This dealer didn't have a CRM. So one of the first things we ask for is how many leads from your CRM. They didn't have it. But really past that, you're really just talking about about five reports. They're going to need an inventory report. They're going to need a sales report, receivables, and collections. That's pretty much it. Yeah. So you're talking about being able to generate five reports, circles of numbers, put them in the spreadsheet. And we only request twenty four numbers across five or six reports. So it's not it's the kind of thing that is an indication of how people might be managing their business. And again, not saying it's wrong. It's just, it's a, it's a missed opportunity. And that's actually one of the reasons why we validate too, because, you know, uh, if someone doesn't quite know how to do it and they're fumbling and so they're just kind of like, well, it's about here. Sure. Sure. And that has been something that has come up too through conversations with different participants in V-Aid. It's like, why do we have to validate? And so it's like, yeah, we're gonna check your work. This is light turning into your work and we're gonna check your work. Show your work. And it's so that the conversation is accurate. And that's, that's important because, you know, when you don't check, it can be inflated or, or, or if they don't know how to pull the numbers, then it can be under what they actually are doing. So that's, It's just like, let's get to the actual numbers. And Jim's just, I think you're spending a little bit of time every week with someone that's new, just kind of walking them through how to do that. And I think then on the VH side, it's like last night's conversation was really important. And I hope I can express well enough the significance of what What came out of this conversation. So are we getting into the topic? Yeah, we are. Well, and the topic kind of got part of this topic got started from a post in success, correct? I think that's true. I mean, I didn't know about it at the time that we were having the conversation to be eight. And then I saw the thing after about. So there are a couple of different threads of this whole conversation around verification and honesty and trust and distrust and right. The whole thing. But the thread you're referring to or the post in success was by a dealer that we know that I won't mention the name because that's a private group. Yeah, but it was it was around. this idea of how do we approach things in underwriting and buy here pay here how do we approach things like face tattoos what do we what conclusions do we draw from face tattoos and does it it's just a very visible example of what kind of judgment do we place on that in our underwriting and approval process yeah conversation was active right about that and you know in the time that I've been actively involved in some of the uh the conversations we have with clients I've heard what radio station they're listening to so like when you when they're doing a trade-in and you turn on their car and if they're listening to rap music nope or I um and I've heard uh the age of the of the the buyer and um and you know what what I find really it's it's these are these are trying to think of the right word um these are gut things that it's about a dealer feeling uncomfortable um and and oh my gosh I could go down a rabbit hole about why do you feel uncomfortable Yeah, so you're getting ahead of me a little bit. This is a loose tie-in, but I've got a little video teed up that I want to play. Because I think when you hear this and you understand the theme of the message here, then I think it ties to something. And by the way, bonus points to anybody who can tell us where they first heard this reference on the Buy Your Fair Morning Show. Oh, on the Buy Your Fair Morning Show. Don't give away. Somebody pointed this out, this phrase. on our morning show and I'll tell after the thing, you know, where it came from. So you want to show that title. There's points? Oh yeah, yeah. You can award points. Add this to the stage. I think I hit the button same time you did. So, all right. So let's get it started and make sure the audio is there. So Rupert, y'all take your darts over here pretty seriously, huh? This and what's the billiard game y'all do that sounds like a brand of cookies? Snooker? That's it. That's the one. Yeah, boy, I'd love to curl up on a couch under a weighted blanket, watch You've Got Mail, and devour a box of Snookers. Let's see what we got here. Hey, there it is. Two light dots. Okay, I'm more of a cornhole man myself. Okay. How about a game? I mean, we could maybe wager, say, ten thousand pounds. Well, as my doctor told me when I got addicted to fettuccine Alfredo, that's a little rich for my blood. How about this? If you win, I'll let you pick the starting lineup of the last two games of the season. But if I win, you can't go anywhere near the owner's box, at least not while Rebecca's still in charge. I believe some folks call it white knight, but I don't know if it's for my gut here. It's okay. What do you think? You're wrong. Okay. Double in, double out. Whatever you say, Rookie Dukes. Yeah. Just let me know if I'm winning or losing, all right? Oh, I forgot I had these on me. Oh, wait a second. I forgot I'm left-handed. Oh! Yeah! One hundred, Andy! William Rupert, get in! Shut your stupid little twat mouth or I'll shut it for you. Shall I be giving you the line-up card now, Ted? I shall be putting your Bassania back on defence where he belongs. That's exactly what I said, didn't I? No, it's not all Ted's fault. My ex-wife's the one who brought the hillbilly to our shores. I know she's always been a bit roundy, but I never thought she would fuck over an entire team. Hey! Better manners when I'm holding a dart. Please. Hmm. Man, what do I need to do? Two triple twitties and a bullseye. Good luck. You know, Rupert, guys have underestimated me my entire life. And for years, I never understood why. I used to really bother them. then one day I was driving my little boy to school and I saw this quote by walt whitman it was painted on the wall there it said be curious not judgmental I like that so I get back in my car I'm driving to work and all of a sudden it hits me all them fellas that used to belittle me not a single one of them curious You know, they thought they had everything all figured out. And so they judged everything and they judged every one. And I realized that they're underestimating me. Who I was had nothing to do with it. Because if they were curious, they would ask questions. Questions like, have you played a lot of darts, Ted? Which I would have answered yes. Yes, sir. Every Sunday afternoon at a sports bar with my father from age ten to sixteen when he passed away. Barbecue sauce. Okay. That's one of my favorite scenes. It really, really is. And it, cause it just speaks so clearly about how we look at people. Yeah, and why we, what filter are we looking through when we choose to make a judgment? So for those bonus points, it was Chris Machika who pointed out that this was, he was on our podcast. See, I didn't even remember that. Maybe when we were introducing Pastime as our third founding sponsor for White Hat Way. Be curious, not judgmental. Yeah, I didn't remember that it was. he quoted Walt Whitman. That's where it came from, but it's interesting emotion. Yeah. Well, it's because it's so, it's so at the surface of how we interact with others. Right. And you know, if they drive the right car, if they listen to the right music, if they wear the right clothes, if they have the right haircut, and on and on and on and on and on and um you know it it might surprise you that someone that's not driving the right car doesn't have the right haircut that has face tattoos that whatever might be one of your best payers ever yeah and I think this kind of takes us to the thing that happened last night the conversation last night which was really around uh verification so let me let me put this on the screen it's like the question became you know do you really need verifications because so let me just say so maybe this this actually goes a lot deeper than just surface stuff oh sure um and it's it's about how do you it's about vetting Yeah, and it's also about how much vetting is appropriate. Is necessary. Yeah, yeah. And, you know, we obviously aren't, we are not advocating as we go through this. Some, we've heard some dealers, if they can fog a mirror, they get a car. That's not at all what we're saying that you should do. I want dealers to do business the way they want to do business. Let me just say it that way. So if they want to do fog a mirror, let's do what we can to support them in that. But I mean, that's not what we're talking about here. No, we're not necessarily advocating. I'm just saying that. So let's go to the conversation. So without naming any names or kind of, you know, about who it was, it's like the question came up about how do you guys verify income? All right, so everybody kind of went through their thing about what they do. I love the conversations you have. Oh, it's so good. And so these guys were talking about how do you verify? And when it came time for us to get to the dealer who has the most volume in the group. The most volume in the group, okay. In this group of eight, we only had seven dealers there last night, but it's like in that group, they do the most volume. And his answer was, I just ask them where they work you know or how much they make and I just believe them and I mean yeah it's like what yeah and so so the point became and the conversation continued we don't need to go through all of it but the conversation continued around I know somebody who Had somebody full time who did all the verification. That's all they ever did was just job, residence, references, all of that. All that kind of verification. Verification, verification. Verify, verify, verify. And this dealer pointed out their charge off rates were no better than ours. So this dealer that does the most volume, is their charge off rate different than I didn't look at that specifically this time. I don't want to say numbers without looking back at the reference material, but I would just say that they're similar. And it bears mentioning that their risk per contract is less. They have a more affordable car. That's their model. That's their strategy. They don't do the high-end cars. They do an affordable car, and they provide solutions. Their volume is good. It's excellent. And so it starts to beg the question of how much verification is really necessary and where does it come from? So here's the other thing I wanted to ask. To me, it smacks of fear. Because for us to have this filter, this judgment, we have to... we recoil and we're defensive and we're we're verifying because we think the customer is lying to us right and so that that means that the fear is impacting our decision making so on here I said is fear keeping you and then I put in parentheses a hundred and twenty two percent more so this dealer that said I don't verify i They're doing one hundred and twenty two percent more volume than anybody else in the group year to date. Or I'm sorry, than the than the average of the rest of the group or of those other six dealers that were there last night. So that says something, doesn't it? I mean, it says so. So we're not just saying. let's be curious, not judgmental, because just because it's a proper human thing to do. It's like good Christian values kind of thing. It's not just that, it's good humaning. What if that whole filter- is what's preventing us from doing the volume that is possible and do we overreact because we had a customer that lied to us and it was a messy repo and so that causes us to then be reactive and so the pendulum swings back the other way potentially. But I think you and I talk about in the context of White Hat Way, this idea that the fear factor to me is real. It's something I don't hear people talk about. But when I say fear. They don't like using the word fear. No, they don't think about it that way. People don't like to, you know, especially if I'm a big tough dude, I'm not afraid of anything. But it's like, isn't it fear that keeps us from being willing to do business with that customer? What are we afraid of? And then what is the math behind that? So this is the other thing. It's like, you know, if you look at what is doing business with those customers who lie, misrepresent, you know, what is that really costing us? Because I think we, I challenge users to do this anyway, irrespective of underwriting. Go back and look at your losses. your repos and say I made a decision to finance this customer it didn't work out they misrepresented their income whatever they couldn't handle the payments and we repossess what did that really cost us go back and look at what taking that chance with that customer who you know had a story to tell yes I'm not suggesting that we don't need to take some reasonable effort to to validate the story that's being told right that's not what I'm saying I'm simply saying that when we make those mistakes if we want to call it that we made a judgment call we approved a deal it didn't work out I would say go back and look at the hard math on what that really cost us include your servicing costs if you want to but I'm just saying look at Look at what risk you really took and what price you paid directly, direct cash loss that you experienced as a result of making that decision. And then ask yourself, is your own fear and judgment. Mm-hmm. preventing you from doing more business and helping folks who are in a tough spot now you know is am I advocating for a bleeding heart underwriting practice no I'm simply suggesting that when we over analyze and I'm I'm sorry some of it's fear-based when we're when we are Operating from fear, then we stunt our ability to do business. Well, and as we start to collect more and more and more and more and more and more data, you know, we can start to draw some really definitive conclusions from that. But from your twenty five years of coaching, you know, we've had the conversation, especially when we're bringing in a new dealer so that they understand they can put things into context. Um, you know, overall, you know, you look at the full pie and how many of the full pie are the troublemakers and, and of those that are troublemakers, you know, you just, it's quick, just get them out of the, out of the cycle quickly and, you know, as least amount of pain. And then you've got a slew or a chunk. And that's usually, from what I understand, and correct me if I'm wrong, that's around a thirty percent of your client base are ones that are going to repo and or that, you know, that's that's kind of the repo rate. But of those, it's not because they're irresponsible. Right. It's for a lot of other reasons that you might be able to mitigate that. You might be able to help. And then you've got that other seventy percent that they might need a reminding every once in a while and all of that. But they're not. They're not. I mean, they're going to pay. They're paying their bill and they're doing their stuff. And so, you know, we I think that I think that human nature is you have one or two experiences and now it's an entire, you know, it's a blanket business. these two people what is it correlation does not equate causation and so you know well they both had face tattoos it's like you know the the one example so both of these people that were troublemakers had that and so that is reason enough to I don't want anyone but I have met the most kind and loving and supportive and giving and humble and generous people that are covered with tattoos. Yeah, and it's also, just to kind of decide, that's also what we also hear about folks who are in addiction. Yeah, yeah. People fall into addiction, and you find, people will say, at those AA meetings, you're going to meet some of the sweetest, nicest people. Yeah, oh, and usually the addiction is because they've just got such a soft heart. But I've also met, on that other end of the spectrum, people that look like they are top-notch, clean-cut people, say all the right things, do all the right things that have ill intent. Yeah. And so. But when they ask the question, I mean, you, what you call ill intent, I have often called that, that sliver of the piece of pie is, is what I call troublemakers. And we've polled, we've asked dealers in the success group and some of these other words. And it's, it's usually like three percent. Yeah. It's usually single digits. Like it's usually below ten percent. Right. Yeah. And so most dealers say that's the case if we're really talking about a true troublemaker. But I think for today, I'm just really saying, what about the thirty, forty percent of the applicants? You know, couldn't we increase our business by a big chunk if those applicants that were turning away based on some form of judgment that may or may not be valid? So to this little scene from Ted Lasso, it's like in the Walt Whitman quote, it's like, couldn't we just ask questions? Couldn't we get to know the customer and ask the questions and get to another situation, which is, you know, obviously I've had recent conversations with some of our clients too, where, uh, the question is around screening applicants because years ago, you know, we didn't have the ability to do web apps online. Right. And so the ability to actually score and, and have people send in their steps and what have you. So there's all this kind of screening or, you know, what dealers. There's a lot of screening that you can purchase. Yeah. too yeah a lot of deep screening you can purchase and I always say and this is this is important kind of ties to what we're talking about I tell dealers sometimes what we call qualifying but should better be described as disqualifying because what we're really doing is we're eliminating people that would otherwise be candidates based on some set of rules that we created. And I think a lot of those rules are written around fear. And I think it ends up, it's ended up stunting our business. It stunts our volume and opportunity to do business because it's, It's maybe a little too constricted. And so for today, I think the main thing I would suggest is why don't we just ask questions and get to know the people and find out what's going on in their life. And we can make a better judgment instead of letting some computer spit out a score, you know, that says so that we never get to meet that customer. We don't know if they got face tattoos or not. We never get to talk to them, you know? And so this is the part that I think we, This is something we're working through with a lot of clients and it's a topic in our VH stuff. It's like, this is a line that we navigate in our buy here, pay here space all the time. Yes, it's high risk business. And I think when we go a step further and we analyze the losses that we experience when we do, when it goes wrong. Uh-huh. then I think it would have reduced some of our fear about how we react. Now, you know, I know some of our dealers out there have lines of credit and are being measured in their loss rates and this and that or whatever other elements are kind of in the periphery. There's a lot of factors to play that play, yeah. But I'm saying if I'm just looking at my own portfolio growth and my own risk analysis, threshold and my own desire to build a portfolio and create accounts and create cash flow, then I think I have to get better at this line. I have to find ways to you know, go beyond. And I think typically what I'm suggesting in underwriting is we need somebody in the underwriting seat who is, one has a desire to do business, has a, has a, we want to do the deal. We want to be creative and find ways to do the deal because if we, if, if we take a negative approach you can find a reason not to do business with every applicant you can find something negative in every applicant's profile so when we can find a way to be curious ask the questions get to the bottom of the thing and and of course sometimes the answer will still have to be no we can't we can't help today but I think when we just operate based on some level of fear It just puts us in a place where we stunt our volume. And it's like, this is where I think dealers can help themselves by just stepping in and recognizing that idea of being able to look beyond the numbers on the application page. Mm-hmm. And just kind of ask yourself, what does it look like? What does the math look like? If I just took the customer's word for it, one more quick thought, that same dealer, that same dealer, this is just a question because this dealer made this, he just posed it as a question. Go back and ask your repo agents. So I'm going to challenge all of our dealers to do this. Oh, yes. You mentioned this to me this morning. I was like, hmm. Ask your repo agents when they perform a repossession Where is the car usually located? Where do they find the collateral? And this dealer was suggesting that his conversations with their own repo agents in a pretty metropolitan type of environment, they're typically at the address that was given. Typically. Typically at the address that was given. So go ask your own repo agents if that's the case. And he doesn't verify. Yeah, but what we know, we know through social media, we hear that, oh, so-and-so, I need help with a repo that's five states away, right? We hear that. And it happens. Yeah, but that's definitely the exception. Yeah, it happens. For that one that you hear about on social media, there are five or six probably. And it feels like you see a lot of those, and this is, I'm not going to get on my soapbox, can of worms. Well, I could, but it's just when you're on a platform that you're looking at the experience of thousands of dealers... And it looks like, oh my gosh, there's a repo request three or four times a day. That's thousands of dealers that they're looking for someone in a specific area. And it's kind of like, to me, it's this whole thing like, people are so bad. It's because all they ever see on TV and all of that is a global people being bad. It's that thing. Ain't nobody got time for that. I love what you're talking about with the... I'm moving off of that. Fear... there's a really great opportunity to just learn how you to, to, to weed through your own biases and learn how to see others, your customer, all of that without biases, without judgments, without, and just to see someone as a person who had needs a car, And, um, and I'm a person that can help them get into a car. And so, you know, determining what are the things that make me feel the most comfortable because, you know, you hear the word I'm uncomfortable. Well, that's fear-based. If you're uncomfortable, it is fear-based. That doesn't mean that there are certain things that you're not justified in being uncomfortable about, but just recognize that when you're looking at those things is, is, is, trying to see beyond the judgment or the, the, the, the things that, you know, especially when you're, when you're looking at the things like what the, what radio station are they listening to? They, do they have face tattoos? Are they, are they, you know, what, what, what you're observing outside of the application, um, that, that, that's the gut thing. And that's usually gut things. I'm going to, I'm, I am a strong believer that gut things, most gut things are because we have ingrained biases and it's not because, um, it's accurate, but it's just, it's, it's not because you're, you're getting more, some kind of, of whatever, um, that says, um, yes you should not give this person a car it's our bias and it's it's our prejudice against um different things yeah that's definitely true and I think the the other interesting element to this and we did a conversation and I want to have him back we we have um uh Steve Levine coming to talk to us and we've got some things. That's tomorrow. I think that's Friday. Yeah. Yeah. That's this week. So we got, uh, Steve Levine here on Friday to talk about what was, but it's about bankruptcy. Okay. And, um, yeah, so that, cause there were some threads that were, so this is like a little plug for Friday. Um, there were threads that, that everyone was watching around, um, how you handle bankruptcy and, and, and, As Steve put, I mean, I don't know the numbers, but bankruptcies are up. And so how do you handle those? And he was like, holy tamole. There's a lot of misinformation out there about what you can and can't do. And part of that is gut stuff. Yeah, and that's the part I was trying to get to. Bankruptcy is not a gut matter. That's stuff that once they're in that, it's a pretty cut and dry thing. But the gut piece of underwriting. So let me kind of... express this as clearly as it can, because it's hard to get to it. You got, you got compliance over here that says dealers need to be consistent in their underwriting. They need to document their exceptions. So we still have the abilities to wiggle room to do some, but I think it, it puts dealers in a difficult place when it comes to using judgment and gut. So we've said, let's don't use, you know, false judgment. Right. But let's, I want dealers to have the ability to be able to use some judgment for lack of a better word, um, to be able to, to discern whether they want it because why, because it's their money. It's they're, they're different than a lender. They're, they're a merchant who's financing their own merchandise. And as a result, I want them to be able to be discerning. Yeah. They should operate from some sort of checklist and they should definitely be consistent for the sake of compliance. And I want them to be able to have, um, some latitude of being able to use some I'll call it gut but it's not in the interest of um, screening people away. It's in the interest of stretching to help people who otherwise are, you know, good applicants. We, they, they're in a tough spot. They need some help. I'd like to be the one to help them. And so that for, for me, it's about being able to be curious, get in there and ask the question, get to know them, find out what their situation is, and maybe you can stretch. So it's an interesting thing that it's an interesting line that we walk. Like I want dealers. If I were a dealer again, I would want to be I would want to be able to have that latitude to be able to, it's, it's my merchandise. It's my money. Why wouldn't I be able to have the latitude to decide how I want to do business? And so this is an area where we, we walk an interesting line and I just think, you know, it's, but, As an attorney, Steve does not say, sure, step away from compliance. You're going to have to stay compliant. So it's really in the interest of, okay, make the exception, do business with this person, document why. Because obviously the tricky thing is, and we can move away from that and wrap up, but I just think the tricky thing is, it's when you... when you start to apply that gut and you stretch to help this person and then you don't stretch to help this person or this person doesn't end up getting help and they have different skin color or they live in a different zip code or they happen to have you know one qualification or one characteristic from someone that was a troublemaker right and so it's like oh I see a parallel here and that one hurt and I don't want to go through that again Since it is White Hat Wednesday, one of the things that we are working on is a certification process for a customer for dealers that are certified in White Hat Way. I think the curriculum is about two-thirds done. Yeah. And so what that does is that when someone comes in and wants to purchase a car... Um, you know, they're in a tough spot that they can go through this, this course and it's about basic money management and about educating them. If you have a problem, dah, dah, dah, dah, dah. Oh, that's different for the consumer. Yeah. For the consumer prior to purchasing. And that what we're working towards is that if a customer comes in and does that, if they take the time and the effort that you can offer them a better option, a better, you know, that, that it's, whatever, better term, better whatever. And so what we're working to do is to be able to connect dealers that are White Hat certified, ethical. You know that you've got an extra layer of I can trust this person. They're not going to try to screw me over. And connecting customers that have like, I would like to get a better rate. And so, yes, I'm willing to go through this course and learn the stuff and connect them together in a platform that in a way where White Hat way is, if you got a problem, we're here to help. Better interest rate aside, I think consumers want to do business with somebody they deem as trustworthy. It goes both ways. It goes both ways completely. Yeah. I'm just saying, I think irrespective of preferential terms, I think the reality is the consumer wants to feel comfortable. It's a long relationship. They want to feel comfortable that they're doing business with somebody who has high integrity. And we are building in one of the things that Jim's been doing with some of our clients that have different underwriting software is like we're really tracking hard. Like when someone gets this kind of score, does that really overall with your entire portfolio, all of that, does that really translate into lower repos? Right. And we're watching and we're measuring that. And there's nothing definitive so far for us to do. Well, we're going to be adding that other layer of if they've taken the white hat course and you've got a white hat dealer, what happens with those customers that are willing to step in and say, okay, I'm going to learn a little bit about this because I promise you, for those of you that are out there listening, I've interviewed enough customers customers in our industry to know that when, when I asked them, what do you think creates the credit problems and where you have to go to a buy here, pay here? And predominantly the answer is we never learned. It was lack of education. Lack of education at home or in our educational system. But lack of education. So from that, from talking with customers, we are building education for them and also education for the dealer. And I think a big piece of education for us will be communication. Something that probably wouldn't be taught in a high school classroom in the way that we will be able to teach that. Because communication is what... is the difference when it comes to saving these deals. It's like I always used to say as a dealer, there's no problem that's going to come up, Mr. or Mrs. Customer, during the time that you have this car that we can't work out together as long as you'll communicate with us, right? And so there's nothing that's going to happen. So I'm prepared to step in and communicate and work it out. And so as long as you're prepared, this part I didn't necessarily say out loud, but it's like the idea is, When we communicate, we can work out most things. Yeah. And so, and it's trust though, because, you know, a consumer, if they're in a bad spot, they, it's being in a bad spot and not being able to pay your bills. Yeah. paralyzes some people and they stop talking to their creditors. They get scared because, oh my gosh, what's going to happen? I need this car. Well, I got to figure this out before I let them know what's going on. I have to have a different solution. If you're my creditor, I wouldn't be afraid to talk to you if I trusted you. Exactly. Really? And trust you to do what? To just be fair. And to like, can we work together? Yeah, communicate. Yeah, exactly. That doesn't mean the answer will always be yes, but it just is open communication. I trust that we can have open communication and that, you know, there's not going to be some severe backlash to me by opening and speaking. And you're going to be able to tell those troublemakers within the first two months because they haven't made their payment. Right, right. When they've gone MIA. But most of the others, it is a trust-based type thing. Yeah. I think we've talked this thing frontwards and backwards and a few sideways directions. Hey, all right. Well, it is... Wednesday. On Friday, we had Steve Levine going to be joining us and talking about bankruptcy. That is a, I would suggest highly that if you're going to watch one, watch that watch that one for right now there's just so many rules around bankruptcy for creditors and so just just tune in and let's you kind of give you yeah yeah because because he's he yes there are individual state laws but for the most part bankruptcy is a federal thing isn't it yeah and so before there's there's some local jurisdiction stuff even that comes in yeah so what's up let's wait now steve let's wait and ask steve hey everybody thank you so much for spending your wednesday with us um you'll be able to find this on uh youtube and all of our syndicated podcast stations and don't forget that when you go to youtube especially if we've got charts and graphs and all those kind of things like and subscribe um then you'll you'll know when the new content is coming out and be able to see this stuff so have a great day everybody thanks for joining us
