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, good morning, everybody. Hello. Happy Wednesday from Utah. Beautiful colors here. It is so nice. We spent a little bit of time over the weekend enjoying the fall colors. First time this season, we went golfing on Monday. And I haven't been golfing at all this season. Last year, I think I only went once or twice. Yeah. So it was so nice to get out and, and, um, and go golfing and, and enjoy the fall, the shift into fall. So it was a favorite course that is really scenic. And if you're, if you're in the, uh, the Salt Lake area down in Springville, it's called Hobble Creek. It's really, really pretty. Don't tell people. Oh, okay. Nevermind. That's right. So forget what she said. No, it's all good. We went on a Monday so that we could get it. Yeah. I mean, it was from where we live way north of Salt Lake. It was about, what, an hour and something drive to get down there. But it was really nice. It was good. Yep. It was good to get out. And so we've got a week of yard work this week. We've got a big project. We've already moved about a ton of rocks this morning. That may be encouraging. So it feels like it. Yeah. so it's a good time of the year to do that because it's cool and you know nice mornings and all that so yeah and we got plenty of ibuprofen so we have I already took a few before I even got started yeah yep so okay shall we uh yeah uh announcements uh well today is uh lhph capital that's kicking off and then I think um whatever the fifth is that friday would be um the the florida conference so At what, at one point thought it might be in Florida to participate in that, but it looks like we're not had to postpone. So, uh, so not there, but, uh, but excited for those folks having their gatherings and, uh, and then otherwise we've got, we got a reprieve this week from V eight dealers are, you know, pulling together their numbers. We're starting to see the numbers come in, um, you know, from the month of September, haven't, haven't looked at any of them yet, but, but that's starting to happen. So all good. All good. And if you've been hearing about V-Aid and you're interested in doing that, there is room. We also have a lot of bandwidth to be able to add more groups. And a virtual way to get together and compare your numbers. Very, very cost effective. And Jim was on some of the meetings this last month. that people are home, they've got kids on their laps, they're paying attention to what's happening. One was at a baseball game and then transferred it into the car to go home, but was there engaged in the conversation and there also to be able to engage with their family, which actually segues quite nicely into our topic today. So the topic is mustering the courage to pivot, um, in your buy here, pay here operation. So it's like pivot to, you know, from what and to what, right. So it would be the first thing. So for today on a white hat Wednesday, we're not going to talk so much about the specifics of why a person might pivot. I mean, in general, we would say if I'm, if I'm giving people an indication of when is it time to pivot and A real simple indication for me would be if you're looking at your equity on your balance sheet month over month and it's staying flat or decreasing, then it's time to make some changes. It's definitely time to make some changes. So then it begs the question, what is it that is keeping us from changing? Before we go into that, another scenario that could, if your trajectory of sales volume is not putting you in a place where you're going to attain positive cash flow, then that's a big problem. And that's one that needs fixing in my view. Yeah. So there's three big areas that you're like seeing this, that the, the being open to pivoting are really, it's a great idea is one is if you're not getting the sales volume, you need to be able to cover your overhead. Well, to get to even positive cash flow. Operational positive cash flow, we'll call it. Second is equity. If your equity is decreasing, that's just an indication that you're not profitable. You're losing money, and so it's the simplest place to go. Now, this assumes that your accounting is correct, so we've got to make sure our P&Ls and balance sheets are correct. Butler Sanchez is like, yes. Right, right. Cause there's a lot that that's a whole nother thing, but yeah, accounting, making sure your accounting's correct. I find that so few dealers manage their business from their financials. Um, and, and there's a lot to learn there. Heck I've got stuff to learn. Why is that important? Why should we manage from financials? Just for those two reasons I mentioned, really the one is really related to financials. The other is more cashflow, which is that direct cashflow statement that you hear me talk about. Like I would say, um, That there, there are things that you can, you can ride some waves. Like if your portfolio is your performance dipping a little bit, that's something that you can correct and you don't have to necessarily change your way of doing business or have a hard pivot anywhere. But with others, I would say that the financials, we need to know our profitability because one, it helps us project our own cashflow. But I would say if, and you gotta be careful about timing on this. When you talk about our profitability on the P&L, it's like we're on the, yeah, profitability on the P&L, which would translate into retained earnings or equity that's accumulated on the balance sheet. And I'm just saying if the balance sheet is shrinking, if the equity is shrinking, then it's definitely time to look at a plan B. Or if it's just not growing, like you're, you're, you, you're wanting to shift into growth and you're doing different things. And, and it's like, it's not growing the way you want it to grow. And that, that's kind of like comes into this topic of if that's happening, then there's, you know, we've, we've had different clients. We've watched different things where it's like you, you're continuing to do the same thing and it's not working. Right. It's just not working. It's you're, you're decreasing or you're not getting the growth or whatever, and it's just not working. So is it, I think what, what we're kind of boiling this down to is what, you know, there's a lot of things that we can do to change within the dealership, but we're getting down to what what shifts does a dealer need to make or, or having the courage to make shifts that change how you approach things? Maybe to answer that, we need to first talk about why did we choose the words courage? Why does it take courage to pivot? Because, well, can I give you my, um, it, it, You know, it kind of ties into a couple of things. Insanity is doing the same thing and expecting a different result. We get stuck in our ruts and we get stuck and this is the way we do it. We get stuck in and we have all of the reasons why it should work. And it might have worked in the past. Right. And, and so we just, we kind of like, this is the way we do it. This is the way we do it. This is our business model. This is the way we do it. This is how, you know, we hand our underwriting. This is the way we do it. And all of these things. And you, you, you know, when you see something changing and you've added, we've, you know, we've watched dealers where they're adding new software or their whatever. And so they're trying to find the magic bullet, right? And sometimes if you've added the things that can really help you streamline and help you be able to get the things done, it might be time to look inward. Yeah. And I think for today, what I want to do is I want to shift away from operational thinking. I want to shift away from the nuts and bolts, the X's and O's, the execution of day-to-day business. Mm-hmm. And ask her, because you're right. We meet people in my career. I've met so many people just, you know, the answer is, well, that's the way we've always done it. And that answer for you and me is never going to be good enough. Like that's not enough reason to stay on a track. And unfortunately, what we have seen way too many times is that a dealer gets backed into a corner with a lion in front of them before they're willing to look at it that way. That's unfortunately too true. It is too true. And, and it's like where you're like, Oh shit, Oh shit, Oh shit, Oh shit, Oh shit. And we've watched dealers do that because they, they get into their rhythm and, and this is just the way we do things. And, and they might be adding, you know, I've, we've, we've seen dealers where it's like, we're in really fat, fat cashflow. And so my mother-in-law needs a job to, And we want to be able to pay her to help her since she's had to retire, you know, all sorts of different things. And so you give her a little menial, you know, something to do and you're forking out money to help support other households. That's just one thing that we've we've we've witnessed to where it's like, I don't have the cash flow and there's way too much going out. And so what do I need to do to change this? So that's an example of where, you know, there's operational, which would be buying cars, financing cars, collecting car payments. And then there's all that money you're talking about that's flowing that's off of the operation, right? And so there's use of funds that is one of the areas that we see dealers get in trouble. But I think that's not really the... The object here today, for me at least, is like it's just to kind of help dealers think through, okay, let's say you're in that group of dealers who just recognize that you're not getting ahead. You thought by now you'd have four hundred accounts and you only have two hundred, whatever the number is. And so you realize you're just kind of spinning your wheels a little bit and you're not getting to where you want to be. And so this is the part where I think we want to break down. And I think on Wednesday, you're going to hear us talk a lot about going forward. And you've heard it plenty in the past is like, the squiggly lines of this, like forget for a minute, the black and white X's and O's. Like I said, as far as you should buy a different car, throw all that stuff out the window for just like ten minutes. And let's just think about... Or maybe twenty. Yeah, maybe. So the idea here is that for us to really start to solve the problems in our businesses, let's say get beyond buy here, pay here, beyond lease here, pay here, for us to be able to There's some, there's some ego involved. There's some fear and dealers do not want to admit fear. Right. And that's okay. You know, they just like, that's weakness. And I'm a, you know, big, I'm, I'm, I'm a strong business owner and I can, you know, all of this. So if I'm sitting here, I'm the, I'm the advisor, you're the dealer and you're sitting here saying, well, it's not working. My equity is decreasing and blah, blah, blah. And you're saying, but I'm not prepared to shift my pricing structure or not prepared to add another tier of financing or I'm not prepared to go a different direction. You have to ask yourself. So I'm sitting here hearing you say that. And I'm thinking, what are you afraid of? Right. What is it that you fear that is going to happen from you shifting to this other place? So I think that's the piece, regardless of what the action is, like what's what's preventing you from taking action? I think that just from my perspective, there's a couple of things that I've witnessed. One is fear that your team's going to get pissed. So it's because I've seen too often where the team really is the one that's calling the dealership or that they have a strong, strong influence on what decisions the dealer makes for their business. So I've seen that multiple times, that kind of thing. And I think, too... is um I think that sometimes when when things start going in a in a direction that you're not comfortable with it's you kind of get it's like a there's a paralyzation of some kind that um it's just it's and it's throwing the same thing at it it's like oh my gosh oh my god oh my gosh oh my gosh and you don't want to change anything Because, you know, you don't want to irritate your team or whatever. I mean, things that are really, really hard. And then, yeah, that it can turn into something where it might be, and we've witnessed this too, that it's not the team, but it's like, you have to change. You have to, you have to be willing to say, I can't do things myself the way that I've always done it. Like relying too heavily on a team member or, or. And I would change, I would ask dealers to contemplate in that phrase that you just said, I can't do this. I would ask dealers to invoke the language won't. I, yes. Oh yeah. That can't is what happens when you're in the corner and it's, oh shit, oh shit, oh shit. And if you can, if you can catch it before that, then it's, I won't not, I can't, I won't, I won't do it anymore. I won't do it anymore. I won't do it anymore. It's about having that sort of leadership. And sometimes, again, these dealers are backed into a corner. If we're thinking about our segment of buy here, pay here, lease here, pay here dealers, we meet a lot of them and some of them are doing great and some of them are struggling and what have you. And some of them are new and just haven't figured it out yet, whatever the case may be. But I think when we see that dealer who is whose business is struggling, okay? And regardless of how long they've been in business, when the business is struggling, we have to first as dealers have to take some leadership direction. Because when I ask the question, you know, what are the sources of the fear? Like what's causing the fear? Then I want to also, in the same phrase or in the same breath, ask, what are the voices that are you hearing? Whether they're outside your head or inside your head, what are the voices that are driving you to decide to stay on the same track? It's an interesting thing. You've talked to multiple dealers about this. It's an interesting thing to observe. It seems like the biggest fear is I'm not going to sell. Sell, but I'm not going to sell. And you have so many times talked to dealers and said, what is the worst that's going to happen to your business if you don't sell anything for the next two months and get whatever it is that needs to get taken care of internally? So that you can hit it running again. And that there's just like, I can't do that. I can't do that. That's getting into straight lines. That's getting into straight line stuff. And I think, you know, how do you go about moving from where you are to where you need to be? It's a temperature check on how much a dealer is willing to shift into something that's uncomfortable. Right. to make, um, make changes so that, uh, to, yeah, that takes a lot of courage to, to make changes like that. So, or, or decide that you're going to move forward in, in doing something big like that because it takes you completely out of your comfort zone. Yeah. You know, it's worth mentioning that when we wrap up here today, we've got a meeting after with some people that do estate planning and sort of financial planning beyond, you know, what we, the kind of work that we do. And we, we sometimes walk dealers right up to the edge of that conversation about life insurance and making plans for family and that sort of thing. But yeah, uh we're meeting with some people there so it's kind of for me it's it's the reason that's significant is when I think about these dealers that are sometimes on that hamster wheel right and they they're they're afraid to jump off because it's all they know right and so they're nervous about taking it familiar making a pivot right and so I'm simply saying that if you if you have identified that what you're doing is not working. Especially when I think about the voices, like for me as a business coach, I work with the principals. I work with the dealer principal, that's who I'm responsible for, that's who writes the checks, and that's who I'm trying to improve their life experience, their business experience. And so when I hear all these other voices of static on the perimeter, I don't have to respond to those. The dealer sometimes does. And I need to understand what those voices are that are in this case, in this context would be, what are those voices that are keeping you from being able to take this step? Because my feeling is, is a simple one. It's like my view of the whole thing. Yeah. It's like when, when we're, what we have is not working, then it's, I view making a decision to take a step in a certain direction, I don't view that as being much risk. What are we really risking? We're stepping away from something that's not working. Mm-hmm. we're stepping in a new direction. The new direction might not work any better, but we know that staying where we're at serves us not at all. Right. It's like, it doesn't serve us to stay where we are because we're, we're, we're not getting to where we meant to be. And so I think this is the part that I think dealers, you know, business owners too. It's like what we're talking about here is like, and I've been there, you know, as a business owner myself, we, and we have still have a business and we have to make difficult decisions sometimes. Right. Well, and that's thank you for adding that in there, because, I mean, there's been times where we're like trying to get to the next step. And, you know, we're we keep moving forward and we keep doing the same things. And it's like getting to the point where, oh, OK, doing it this way isn't working for us anymore and having the courage to say, OK, then we're going to shift and do something different. Right. Yeah, and I don't recall if we've done a podcast topic on this or if I wrote an article, but I've always talked about the high price of inaction, right? And so this is kind of this area where I think when we're in this place where we Or you use the word paralysis or whatever when we're paralyzed because we we don't know anything else and we we don't we're not ready to hear the grumbling voices of our team who, you know, have to adjust to something different and experience some change. Then, you know, it causes us to be paralyzed and not take action. And I think this is where I would just say we sometimes we put ourselves in a place where. we there's nothing really to be afraid of we we have this fear in our head but if from the outside looking in if I'm looking at the dealer in that situation I said I'd be afraid to stay where I am Yeah. And you know, I, yeah, I do. I, um, just in general, we're going to not really squirrel possum, which means it's related, um, is that, that we, you know, we move forward and we, we, um, how criminy I just, I lost it. Yes. I mean, yeah. I may have to have you get me some coffee. Cause you know, you'll think right when I'm in the middle of the next thought, I'll be like, what, what, what, what? Let me share what I wanted to say. No, I think we kind of covered the pieces that I wanted to cover in terms of helping dealers just first. When is it time to take some action? Oh, I remember what it was. Oh, good. I kind of go woo. You all know who woo-woo is. I'm not a little. I'm like straddling woo and not woo, straight lines and woo. And fear, or when we feel uncomfortable what I've observed and see is that that is our internal self is something's out of, something's not right. Something needs to shift because that's not our natural state. That's not how we are designed to live in fear or in apprehension or in a high level of like, The kind of stress that you experience when it's like things are not working right. And so those emotions and those feelings are yourself saying, danger, Will Robinson, danger, Will Robinson, something is off track. Something is not right. Something is not right. Right. And, you know, when you when you layer on doing the same thing and expecting a different result, it's like you're you're being called to do something different. You're being called because what you're doing is not in alignment with who you are and how you want to to to to show up and how you want to feel in your business, in your home life, in your whatever. So it's like when you start feeling those things, it's a really good time to go in and And to like, why am I feeling this way? Why? What is the root cause of the fear? And, you know, from experience with the things that I've been working on myself with, you know, I've had a lot of health problems and things. And I believe that health problems are also a direct relationship to what we've, how our guidance systems, our operating system is offline, right? it's not we're not doing it the way that we're intended way we were designed to do it and so taking that and going inward and asking yourself why am I afraid and then make the choice as you peel one layer off after another is like go deeper what am I afraid of what what why why is this thing that I'm afraid of true is it true Is it not true? And then deeper and deeper and deeper, because when we can look at those things that make us uncomfortable and just stop and be quiet for a second and start to ask ourselves, because our internal guidance system, which sometimes we get so many different static operating systems that are just... creating so much havoc to what it's like a virus you know when you and so when we have all these different um belief systems and things like it has to be this way it's holding us back from from how we um yeah being fearless being um you know having a sense of peace because being fearless and having peace is really what we're designed to to be Sure. I mean, regardless of what business we're in, I mean, that should be the case. So I think, you know, when you and I talk with new dealers, you know, earlier stage dealers, we often take them through an exercise of Cameron and Harold's Vivid Vision. And when we do that, we ask them to take a break and find some time away from the dealership. So essential. Yeah. And so if I bring that to this conversation and I say, if I'm a dealer who's just looking at my business and I'm I'm facing some realities in the quiet moments. Everybody's gone home and I'm looking at our financials and looking at our updated stuff, or maybe it's over the weekend. And I'm just saying, if I'm in a place where I recognize that what I'm doing is not working, then I would ask, I would challenge dealers to find themselves in that place to make some time to get away from the building, take a notepad, take a tape recorder, you know, whatever. Your phone is a pretty good tape recorder these days. Take Otter, otter.ai. You can get the app and record and transcribe at the same time. But the main thing I'm trying to get to is, I'm going to ask dealers to go and take a notebook and go find some quiet time and ask them, what's keeping me from fixing this thing? Because you have the capability. Yeah. That's the thing. Forget the nuts and bolts, the X's and O's. I'm not talking about that part. I'm saying, really, there are three elements that I would ask you to examine. How much is ego a factor in what is going on? Is it my own ego and my own resistance to change because I can't accept and I can't publicly accept to my team that my strategy was wrong? That would be ego that would sometimes be preventing us from being able to step forward and say, I was wrong. What will people think? Yeah, so we have to ask ourselves, is that a limitation? That is a strong virus in our programming. That's a strong virus. What will people think? Yeah, for sure. And feeling like I'll be shamed, I'll be embarrassed, I will look like a failure, whatever. So that's ego. That's ego. That's kind of limiting our ability to navigate these important decisions. The other piece that I would ask you to look at is just the fear factor that we talked about. Like, where's the fear coming from? What am I afraid of in my business? If I go, I know I need to go in a new direction because I know that where I'm at is not working. What is it that I fear is going to happen? What are the voices that I'm hearing? And then all of this is really, and then the last piece would be, what's keeping you from trusting others? the people that can drive the piece sometimes it's really kind of in the context of this hamster wheel thing we talk about dealers have a hard time stepping off the hamster wheel why they feel like they have to be the one in the building driving the thing why what are we afraid of what keeps us because that often what you and I see across the industry and this is not just true buy here pay your lease your pay your dealers like what when businesses have growth stunted it's often because they're trying to do everything themselves So there's a trust element there. What can I do myself internally? This is all about taking some time quietly, looking inward and saying, what do I need to do to be able to start to trust my team and allow them to execute on the thing? If I got the wrong team members, I got the wrong team members. And understanding that the answer to that question might be a little bit of work. Yeah. But having the courage to, okay, I need to change this and I'm willing to do the thing even if it ruffles feathers or whatever. And I would challenge dealers that in business, a team wants an effective leader, right? They want someone who is sure of themselves and that the team can see things improve too. And you might, and I've experienced this in my whole career, is you might have an initial ruffle. And that might be a weeding of those that can't handle not having their way. But if, if you, if you make a change and you just like, Hey team, let's, you know, stick with me for the next three months. Let's see how this shifts out or whatever, you know, what, if it's a big change and then. I would challenge dealers to have the courage to do it because frequently your team will have more faith and have more trust in you as a leader when you make the hard choices and they may not understand why. Mm-hmm. but you know, that just, yeah. And watch it and watch it start to, to, to initiate change within the business. Positive change. I think it was Simon Sinek who told the story about, um, Steve jobs and Apple having to make a really hard pivot. And the team was like, we can't do that. They had lots of reasons that it shouldn't work. And he did it and it worked out and, and it changed their company. So I think that's, this is an example of really specific pivots that you have to make and have to have the courage and the leadership was part of it. Vision obviously was part of it in that story. But I guess where I'm going here is that the, when dealers find themselves in this place, um, it's important to find some time alone and and that time is about you it's not about your team it's not about your real estate it's it's about it's about you like what do you want this business to be and how can this business serve you not the other way around not so we talk about being tethered to business and I've stood in front of audiences dealers and said you know do you own your business or does your business own you So it's like, if I, if I could ask dealers to say, if we're about to pivot, if we know that what we're doing is not working and we need to step in a new direction, then I would say, let's look inward first. Let's take some time and look inward and say, what would serve me? What, what would help me to produce a creative business that is going to, you know, have more is going to serve me better. Some that might be financial, it might be other elements. Right. But it's like, it's going to serve this. And then, and then you bring the team in, you know, we, we meet a lot of dealers who are. they're really, they defer to their team and this and that. And they really are, they're very sensitive to the, you know, the, the, their team members and payroll and all this stuff. And I think while, while it's admirable, if the thing is not working, it's not working. Well, and there's a difference. I, you know, I've, I've worked in start, I love startups and, and I look at buy here, pay here dealerships. It's like startups that just are continuing to start up. It's cause there's, And when you with a startup, as you watch it develop into like a strong business, that you're like the leader of your business is always held in a level of respect within the business that if they came in and said, we're going to shift something that everyone would be like, tell me how, what do I need to do? And, and it's, it's, it's, it's, and in big businesses, if they want to shift something and people, it's like, Oh, okay, would you feel better somewhere else? Oh, okay. And keeping the idea or the belief that this is your business. And the equity that you have with your team is fantastic, but they're not the drivers, right? They're not the one whose signature is on the line of credit or on the mortgage on the building. Exactly. And so a business leader listens to his team and is like, give me ideas. But they get to make the decision because it's their business. And so sometimes you can get to a point where you've got a CEO or a general manager or whatever that is that it's like, I feel good about stepping back. But if things start to go off rail, you... and step in with that CEO and say, we need to make a shift because this isn't working. And having, having that, you know, dealers having a finger on the pulse and it's, and having that, uh, courage to be able to make hard decisions and do shifts creates a level of trust within your team and, and people will, they'll, they'll, They'll shift with you if they can see that you're making business choices that are actually helping the business. You're going to weed through those that just want their way, but you're going to have even more loyal employees. Yeah. And I would just say the one thing I would add to the phrasing, like when you said we need to make a change. I think the phrasing that I would choose instead is we're I'm making this change. And the management might come back and say, but we need to do this, this, and this. And my phrasing will be, I won't do that anymore. I'm making this change, and here's why. It's not that I'm not involved. Okay, but you're going to say why. Yeah. It's not that I'm not involved. There will come a time when I'm – I'm looking out for the business and I appreciate your input. I've made the decision. You know, I typically when I'm having this, I would have already received the input from the team. Right. And so it's not that I'm shutting them out, but there comes a time when it's my signature on the debt. It's I'm doing what I think is best for this business. And, you know, you obviously as a leader, you have to be able to convey the vision and get people behind the vision. But it's like, you know, as I said, if what we're doing is not working, it's not working. We don't have much of a risk that we're taking when we take a step in a new direction. Now, measure it. We're going to measure the results and verify that what we've taken a step to do is producing results. And we can always take another step. We can always choose to go in another direction if the new step doesn't work. But we're taking almost no risk by stepping in a new direction if where we're at today is not working. That's the part that I think is so important to get people comfortable with the idea that, what am I afraid of? I'm stepping away from something that's not working. Right? I'm stepping in a new direction. You know, a really great example, and it's interesting that they're starting their conference today, that I've seen in the industry, Terry Baudler, who is the... owner of LHPH capital, I've been able to sit back and watch he and Tim Lawrence and their relationship. And there is, um, there it is. That to me is goal. That's, that is for every dealer to be able to have a relationship like what I observed from Terry Bowdler and, and Tim Lawrence, where there is such a high level of respect. LHPH capital. Yeah. Well, But, you know, we've sat in meetings with both of them and Terry is the he he he isn't there every day. I mean, he's he's there and people are aware and people know him and people respect him. He's built up one hell of a business. and he has a lot of respect for tim lawrence and to see them sitting next to each other and and uh you know it's terry's the first one to give his input and then he will ask tim what do you do you see challenges what do you see and and be able to watch those two where you know tim is kind of the face of the business right now but it's like watch them and there is such an incredible amount of respect from Tim to Terry. And it's just, it's the most beautiful thing to watch because I know that if Terry came in and said, Tim, we need to shift, Tim would say, tell me what we need to shift and I'll make it happen. That's the kind of, that's the kind of general manager. That's the kind of partner, a dealer as being a business owner. You know, when you've got your CEO and you've, you it's like that kind of level of respect and part of that is is that terry is willing to make the hard choices he is someone that we have watched him throughout his career and from the stories he's not afraid to pivot he's not afraid to do the things that are hard to be able to to make the next thing happen Well, maybe it's appropriate on Wednesday to wrap up by saying, you know, I've always believed that respect and trust have to be earned, you know? So the fact that that relationship looks the way it does, it means that that respect and level of trust has been earned between the two of them. And I think back to our conversation here with the dealers is like, if that level of trust is there, wonderful. if but I'm simply saying I have to put out all the noise I have to I have to do what's right for me and my business and I'm going to come back and I'm going to share with the team this is why we're going this direction and it's up to me to sell the new vision and it's up to me to be a leader and drive the team to achieve the thing If I don't succeed in that, I must not have earned the trust and respect. Right. And so that's if I have to own that, if that's my position in the situation, then I have to own that and deal with the consequences. But I think for today, it was just about helping dealers recognize it. If what we're doing is not working and we gave you two reasons in a buy here, pay here, lease here, pay here model, that I would say that these are indications that it's not working. If you're going backwards on your equity, then I would say that's a pretty good indication that it's time to look at something different or additional. Okay. It doesn't have to be that you shift a whole model, but you may have need to add some other pieces to your business. And then, you know, the other pieces would be just if we see that we're not producing enough volume to reach our target. We need a trajectory to reach positive cash flow in my way of coaching and thinking about the business growth, whatever growth. So it's not about profitability in that stage as much as it is about positive cash flow. So there's going to be a balance right here. CPAs can help you figure that piece out. But most dealers who are doing enough volume to reach that positive cash flow are going to not have a profitability problem. But if we find ourselves in that situation where we're just not getting there, we're not creating the volume, then we, we, here's the reality. We have to quit being married to our business model. We might have to divorce our business model. Absolutely. A hundred percent. And this is like general business. And we use cashflow and all of that as terminology within our industry, but this is business. This is not just buy here, pay here. This is like... this is do we have a job that we've created for ourselves or do we have a business that we've created and this is running a business this is running a business right putting aside the figuring out where's the fear coming from what's what's what are we afraid of taking the business in a new direction are we are we navigating from ego and can we can we in a little quiet moment allow ourselves to get past that and put our ego aside and and look at what we're afraid of yeah And do what's best for ourselves and our family and our business, right? Pretty much in that order, right? And so obviously people can look at the family element and make sure that they're, so there's time involved here, not just dollars, right? That the value of time with families is going to be important. and then the last piece is just trust I mean do I trust my team to be able to execute on this new plan and um and do I trust myself to you know in a way to to execute on this new plan and so these are all pieces that I think it just takes a little quiet time we gotta hop off the hamster wheel maybe you know skip a saturday football game or whatever and so yeah just find some time you know going back to that like operating system and and that fear is a way to say we're not in alignment we're not and and that fear is not to say you're doing the wrong thing um if if you're afraid of like moving forward and it's like that scares me to death it's looking at the barriers to you being able to make good solid business decisions what are you afraid of because those fears that is the stuff that needs to be addressed it's like let's Let's get rid of that fear and move forward in a positive way because those fears are it could it fears can be that I am moving in the wrong direction, but fears can also be what is holding me back and that and that can be a belief. or a belief structure that is no longer serving you. And it might not even be true. Most of the time, it's not even true. We've created this thing in our head. Oh my gosh, how often do we get all worked up? It's like someone's going to be mad at me or we're holding this thing with a person or whatever and you run into them six months later and it's just like, hey, Jim, how you doing? And you're like, crap, I thought you were mad at me. Or you should be ashamed of yourself. Don't make it about me. Well, I'm just using names because you're the first person I looked at. So it's like, look at those beliefs that are holding you back from making the hard and the right decisions for your business. Good. So- Yeah. And I just, it's White Hat Wednesday. You know, I brought in Terry and Tim from LHPH Capital. They are one of our founding sponsors to White Hat Way as well as Pastime and Dealer Reef. And so we just want to give them a huge shout out and a thank you for being here. Yeah, being supportive of the mission. Yeah, being supportive of the mission. And so it's just, you know, one of the reasons why we did choose them as founding sponsors, especially when I look at that Terry and Tim, is because internally they have great pieces. And they work really well as a team. And it's just fun to watch them as a team. They like each other. They have a high level of respect for each other and also for their leadership. It's pretty awesome. So, hey, everybody. Thank you for joining us on this White Hat Wednesday. We hope you guys have a great rest of your day. We'll be back on Friday with a straight line topic. And, yeah, we've got lots of stuff that we're on our way out to go take care of. Lots of yard work projects. And don't forget to take your ibuprofen, Tylenol. If I'm not back here Friday, I know I didn't survive the yard project. Well, you know, I'm glad that I did the... to have yourself in early. All right. Thanks for everybody.
