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. Oh my goodness. Happy Friday. Yeah. It's just like, ah, it feels good. A little bit of a, ah, it's Friday. I feel like you're just waking up and getting going over here. I really kind of feel like I am as well. Yeah. But that's okay. Okay. Yeah. Well, glad you're here. I'm looking forward to a great weekend. Got a lot of yard projects. I mean, you know, I know that no one out there in listener land is probably interested in the stuff that I'm doing outside, but I'm pretty darn, you know, between The work that we've done to create some really cool outdoor living spaces. Because we honestly would spend half our day outside. It's one of the beautiful things about Utah. I personally love the dry air. And so being able to be outside on a cool morning is just fantastic. Oh, absolutely. We do enjoy the outdoor space. Anna Marie Beck. Thank you. Anna Marie Beck. Yeah, shut up. She sent us some nice fun mugs a while back. Yeah. Yep. Okay. Announcements. Announcements. Yep. We've got next Wednesday, the sixteenth, we're going to do a White Hat Portfolio Summary Report. That thing, we're going to revisit that and kind of give updates on that. We got emails this morning on some of that. Oh, yeah. Yeah. So you remember, everybody, it's the report that you can pull so that you, beginning of the month, every dealer should have it on their desk. Right. To be able to reconcile principal across their operations. Yep. We're pleased to be able to say that some of the providers are working. Many of them are, and we just sent in contact with some of them recently. It's not something that it's like moving. The difference between moving a speedboat and moving the Titanic is, well, yeah. Some just take longer because there's other things on their roadmap or whatever, but there's a lot of wheels in play. And it's really been awesome to see the response and to watch that. And Jim's been in enough DMSs to know that you can't get to this in any of them in this way. And I also understand what the challenge is, why that's difficult. But as we talked about, you know, it's been a part of a conversation with our VA dealers and some of our clients around this, because they're all working to try to get their numbers reconciled to some reasonable deviation and get them turned in. So that's part of what we're working with. Yeah, we're making progress. That's awesome. Yeah, it's been good. And then the following, that Friday of next week, we're going to, cover the thing about turning outsourced repairs faster. Everybody's fighting the challenge about getting cars reconditioned. A lot of dealers say the only way they can get, the only barrier to more sales is getting them through recon. So we're going to offer some very concrete tips about how to use outsourced repairs and get some cars around faster. done faster. That might be the difference in boosts and sales. Other than that, I think we've got to announce our... We have a special guest. I'm going to bring him in. Good morning, Jeff. Good morning, Michelle and Jim. We really love having Jeff come and visit with us. First off, he's a pretty cool guy. I've always enjoyed having... One of the most positive people that I've... And also one of the busiest people. We were just talking before the show started about what Jeff's schedule has been like. And you've just like, you're just always going, always going. And, you know, that's probably part of the job description. It is. Yeah. And I enjoy it. And, you know, we were talking earlier before I hopped on here, you know, for me, it's it's such a unique opportunity to get a chance to go spend time with dealers that I don't always get a chance to spend time with. And I'll tell you every time. whether I go to a twin group meeting or I go to a state convention or we go to one of our events, I loan something every single time, just kind of sitting down and visiting with the dealers. And I think that's part of our responsibility as an association, you know, is to know what it is that they're going through to kind of, I always say, celebrate their victories and feel their pains. I mean, if we're going to represent their interest, we have to better understand what they're going through. Yeah. And so for those that are listening, you know, we get a lot of listeners that aren't part of what we call the golden five hundred, you know, the five hundred people that almost always show up to conferences. So Jeff is the CEO of the national organization. So N.I.A.D.A. And so, Jeff, you you came from Texas as their executive director and then you moved you moved to N.I.A.D.A. Love that decision. We did the math. Seventeen months ago. Eighteen months actually now. So it's been a year and a half. What a ride. It has been. It's awesome. I mean, obviously, you guys know, loved my time there in Texas and the dealers in Texas. I always say they kind of took a chance, you know, on a thirty six year old kid that had been working at a teacher's association and knew absolutely nothing about the automobile industry. And some would argue I still know very little about the automobile industry. Do you have to run an association? Do you really have to? Well, you have to know a lot about associations. Yeah, exactly. No, it's all good. I just was looking forward to getting a recap about the policy conference that happened in September in D.C. We've talked about that before. We've had you on the broadcast to talk about it last year. And so for those who might be listening who aren't even aware of what the policy conference is about, I mean, I think my quick explanation was, That it's an opportunity for dealers and people from the association and lobbyists from the used car industry to be able to sit with lawmakers in Washington, D.C. and talk about whatever the issues are at hand for dealers. So you just came off of that event. We've talked to a number of dealers that were there. So it must have been a successful event. Yeah, absolutely. And let me I'm going to I'll touch on that real quick, Jim, if you don't mind. I do want to mention that real quick, just just to, you know, on behalf of the association and all of our dealers out there. I just want to mention that our hearts and thoughts and prayers go out to all of the dealers that are affected out on the southeast in Florida and all the way up to South Carolina. Certainly just know that we're thinking about you. I will tell you that our foundation has had conversations about how we can help those dealers who are in that situation. So anyway, just wanted to mention that real quick. Thank you. And we've talked to dealers that are helping dealers. I talked to somebody yesterday, Jeff, and you probably know them, but they're in Texas and they expect to have five trailer loads go to North Carolina on Wednesday. And wanted to know dealers there that we could connect them with so that they could have a place. Right. So it's fantastic. And I shared the link just before we started the broadcast of the post that went out about the foundation. And so, yeah, I need the opportunity for dealers to help dealers. Yeah. And for dealers to help the foundation, then we definitely want to support that effort because we've got, we've spoke to dealers, you know, in our VA meeting last night that we're, they're in central Florida and we're, you know, power outages and all these kinds of things. A lot of people directly affected for sure. So we're, yeah, our hearts go out as well. Yeah, very, very good. So, yeah, let's talk about policy conference. So, you know, kind of to answer your question, Jim, and I say this all the time, one of the responsibilities that we have as an association, and I really think it's our primary responsibility, is to grow the influence of the association. Right. Make sure that we have relationships, that we're talking to the appropriate people so that when an issue comes up or when a situation comes up, they the the policymakers, as you had mentioned, the lawmakers themselves, they want to make sure that they get input from the association. And that's primarily our response. I love that you even have that communication track. And I've been really impressed with how much has been fostered in that in the last few years. Yeah. And so I think when it comes to Washington, D.C., you know, there's at least two sides to this and there's probably many more than two sides. You have your actual your actual elected officials. Right. And so you want to go out there representing the constituents in their district. And we want to make sure that we're putting the constituents in front of them, that they understand. You know, a lot of what we're doing is kind of education about the used car industry when there's a particular situation. bill or a particular idea that's being floated around we want to make sure that we're in a position to help educate uh those those legislators and a big part of that is making sure that you have a relationship with them so um part of the policy conference is going out and talking about issues but a big part of the policy conference is going out and building relationships and we'll talk a little bit about that here in a second and then and then once a piece of legislation passes a lot of times then it goes to the federal agencies right and I think it's important, and some may even argue more important, to have those relationships as well. So for us, primarily it's the FTC and the CFPB, and we need to make sure that we're out there, again, educating them on our industry, educating them on the service that we provide. Jim, I've seen you've done a lot of writing about, and you guys talk about the white hat way. Sometimes when you get over in that regulatory side, you kind of always end up dealing with... with dealers who might have some have some issues. And sometimes I think my view is skewed because I usually deal with the best of the best. And the truth is probably somewhere in the middle. And so we've got to make sure that we have a relationship with the lawmakers. And then we also need to make sure that we have a relationship with the policymakers. And and I've actually in this particular with the policy conference, I've been very, very fortunate. I kind of inherited a really good foundation that Steve Jordan and Sean Peterson had built this years ago. I think it was probably back in two thousand and maybe thirteen or fourteen was the first policy conference that we had, maybe even before that. And so our responsibility as an association is to take the good foundation that they put in place and to continue and to continue to build on that. But to me, that's that's really what the policy conference is about. And also, I'll say just sharing ideas with the states. One of the things that we did in our legislative committee this year is as opposed to going to the legislative committee and talking about what's going on at the federal level. We talked about some really positive laws that had been passed from the good work that was done in Mississippi and Texas and Virginia. And there were some other states that are going to pick that ball up and run with it and see if they can pass similar legislation in their states that would be advantageous, not just to the dealers, but also advantageous to the consumers. Awesome. And so does this something, you know, some of these, we've witnessed some of the different legislations that have gone on that have been passed in different states that benefit those, the dealers in those states. By having those kind of conversations and this is what's happening, do you think it really helps just the national, on the national level? Because some of those things that have been passed in states, couldn't they be passed on a national level? Yeah. The vast majority of the rules and regulations that are going to affect you as an automobile dealer are going to be passed at the state level. Okay, good to know. So, I mean, obviously, you know... the FTC has become much more aggressive in their regulation of the industry, much more than we've seen probably in the last fifteen years. So I think that's probably a good argument, Michelle. We're seeing more and more and certainly once the CFPB came into place with our buy here, pay here dealers, they started seeing more regulation in that area. But I would still say to this day, when it comes to you know insurance um when it comes to um you know licensing when it comes to your dmv uh the state is still the place where you're going to see the majority of the regulation that's going to kind of affect you on a day-to-day basis and then obviously you know that's where the attorney generals all live in the states I recognize certainly in your role at the independent auto dealers, your constituents include both independent retail dealers and also some buy here, pay here folks. And of course, we're on the buy here, pay here morning show. So when I think about the CFPB, one of the things that I would do if I had five minutes with those folks, I would just say, Just make sure as you do your daily job, recognize the losses and the risk that these folks in buy here, pay here take. Every day. We talk a lot about what they charge consumers. And yes, they're unscrupulous dealers. You're going to find them. Of course, they're out there. I just think it's important to also recognize that these dealers are in a segment where they're... And it's front of mind for me, Jeff, because we just happened to see something yesterday where... You know, car comes back in awful condition. It's like the risk that these folks take is just it doesn't it's not seen as much. And so I think that we would say, let's just be mindful of that as we as we legislate. Yeah. So this is where we become from, I think, and thinking that way and trying to, you know. Yeah, you were going to talk about. Yeah, go ahead. Well, and so I'll touch on that for just a second, because one of the things that we did at this year's policy conference, you know, previously we would have the CFPB and FTC come to to our group and address our group. And I think that was unbelievably valuable as we started building that relationship. Now we have the FTC and the CFPB and the IRS there at our convention. Constantly, I think having that relationship is invaluable. Sure. This year, we did something a little bit different. We took about ten dealers to the CFPB and to the FTC. And we sat down with their actual policymakers. We sat down with their attorneys. And, Jim, I'll tell you that this is – we showed them a deal jacket. We talked to them about the amount of paperwork. We talked to them about some of the rules that they are implementing. We talked to them about – some of the litigation that they're in. And I think sometimes when you're in that position, I mentioned earlier, that you start to believe that all car dealers are kind of built that way. The primary message that we had for the FTC and the CFPB is like, we kind of want the same thing, right? Like we want the consumer to be successful. Like the regulator wants to protect the consumer. We want the consumer to come back and buy more vehicles for us. So at the end of the day, if we can sit down and talk about how we, and what the consumer wants to be successful. So it seems like, you know, this is a lot of we spend a lot of time in Texas having these conversations with the OCCC and with the DMV. And like, how can we get to a place where you can do your job as a regulator? Because we think that's important. Right. You have to have regulations out there. You're going to have to create an even playing field for kind of some of those potentially unscrupulous dealers that you were talking about, Jim. But but recognize and understand the risk that we're taking. I know our listeners are buy here, pay here dealers. um and the buy here pay here dealer you know the message that we shared with the ftc is if if we're not lending or loaning money to those individuals, where do they go? I mean, they've already gone to the traditional lines of credit and they weren't able to get financing there. And so I think to your point, Jimmy, if you can appreciate the risk that the dealer is taking, but then also if we kind of start from the point that we kind of want the same thing, right? We want the consumer to be successful. And if we start from there, I think that sometimes when it comes to writing those rules, it makes it a little bit easier and it doesn't feel like it's as confrontational. So we spent... we spent about a little over an hour and a half with the CFPB and FTC. It was just a very casual sit down across the table and love each other. Tell us what you're feeling. Tell us what you're seeing. You know, I say all the time, You'll hear big numbers, you know, like, well, we had a hundred thousand complaints. Well, a hundred thousand of just about anything is a lie. But what we asked the FTC is if they have any statistics on how many total transactions happen in the automotive space a year. And if you look at the total number of transactions, and I'm not talking about just purchasing a car, I'm talking about servicing a car. I'm talking about taking a payment, like total transactions. It's a drop. A hundred thousand. And I'm not saying that they said it was a hundred thousand, but we had the that's where we really started those conversations. I know in Texas is let's look at that number compared to the total number of transactions. And you know what? Maybe we end up patting ourselves on the back and saying we're doing a pretty dang good job for the total number of transactions. And so anyway, those are conversations that I just think are invaluable to have with the with the federal agencies and the state agencies for that matter, too. Good. Yeah, I love it. It's like the thing about, you know, we're actually sitting on the same side of the table. Oh, yeah. We're reviewing the same thing. And I love that you're bringing math because you can't, like, math is math. And so this is, you want to compare, like, this is how many complaints. Well, this is how many transactions. And so, yeah. And it's not just about the feels and the emotion or the whatever. It's about the math. And I love that, you know, we... we teach all the time with white hat way it's customer success customer success you're sitting on the same side of the table you know let's let's set them up for success do what we can but we still recognize that a dealer is going to make a living and they need to make a living and they can't you know it's so it's yeah yeah capitalistic market no one begrudges that at all yeah exactly Yeah. So we should probably move on to talk about the dealer forum, shall we? Or was there anything else you wanted to talk about with the policy conference? You know, the only, the one thing I will say, um, so, you know, we had a reception on Monday night. We had over um, dealers and, and industry partners and state executives. And, and, you know, it was a good full pack room. It looked, it looked fantastic. Uh, when we went to Capitol Hill, we, uh, we talked to, um, we had over a hundred meetings scheduled with, uh, with legislators or their staff members. We talked about a number of issues. Uh, one of the issues that we talked about, um, is the, the redo act, um, which is tied up with this vehicle shopping rule or the cars rule. And you guys know that the Oral arguments just started on that. This thing's kind of tied up in the courts, but there's also a piece of legislation out there. So the one thing I'll mention about that is we got back home after the visits and Congressman Guest from Mississippi is one of the visits that a group of dealers went to. Uh, and so two days after our visit, um, the Congressman sent a letter to the state executive director, um, in, in Mississippi and told her that he was signing on to the redo act as a co-sponsor. And so it's when you go and you do something like that and, you know, look, we have, we have businessmen and women here and they, when they make, when they make their mind up to do something, they want it done yesterday. Right. And Congress just doesn't move that way. And so sometimes it can be frustrating when you go to Capitol Hill and you're like, Pally, we just spent a whole day down there talking with everybody about these different pieces of legislation, like what happened, what happened. And, and as you guys know, at this point, they're all at home kind of running their reelection campaign and they're not going to come back probably until January. Um, So getting those small victories when you have a congressman say, I heard you. I was listening. I didn't make the decision that day. But two or three days later, they follow up. Diane Perry is the executive director in Mississippi. She's doing a fantastic job out there to have that congressman call and say it. I mean, I'm going to sign it. I think you guys are right. Those are small victories that we celebrate because it's you get enough of those small victories and eventually you're going to you're going to have some positive legislation come out. So anyway, if you have someone like that, that is that has like I'm on board, they're going to talk to others. And yeah. Yep. That's good. That's great. Awesome. OK, so you had a couple other anything else from the policy conference? Yeah, I mean, we thought we've talked about catalytic converter theft for quite some time. We're going to continue to talk about that. That bill's been around for a while. It's a little frustrating because it's a bipartisan bill. We haven't been able to get that one over the finish line. Lots of support behind that bill. I'd like to share a funny story about that particular piece of legislation. When it was originally introduced, it was introduced by Senator Amy Klobuchar. which most people know Senator Amy Klobuchar ran for on the Democratic side anyway in the primary, ran for the nomination of her party to do the first co-sponsor of that bipartisan piece of legislation was J.D. Vance. Oh, wow. So Amy Klobuchar and J.D. Vance were the original co-sponsors or sponsors of the catalytic converter bill. Now, it's kind of frustrating that that hasn't passed yet. That would essentially create a blueprint for states to be able to adopt. It does a lot of different things in that original bill. We anticipate that we'll see another one coming up in twenty twenty five and certainly we'll be behind that. We talked a little bit about the Redo Act. The Redo Act would essentially take down the vehicle shopping rule or the cars rule and have the FTC do a little bit more studying before they implement that rule. That's essentially what the Redo Act would do, among other things. And then the Right to Repair Act, that one is another piece of legislation that kind of gives consumers access to information to help them for diagnostics on their car and things of that nature. And we supported that piece of legislation as well. So anyway, it was very exciting. And our members, you know, I say all the time, like the association can go have that conversation all day long and legislators know that we're hired to go have that conversation. Right. But when a dealer takes time away from his or her dealership, when an industry partner of ours takes time away to go have that conversation, it's just more impactful. And I do real quick, if you guys don't mind, I do want to thank the sponsors because we would not have an opportunity to This event wouldn't happen if it weren't for the sponsors. It's an expensive event to put on for an association. And I'll just go through them real quick. But Pastime GPS, Buckeye, Empire, Cox Automotive, Advantage, All Data, Auction Access, and Dealer Center. Can't thank them enough for their sponsorship and help us make sure that we can get the dealers there and get them in front of those legislators. I heard pastime in there. I know. And they're one of our sponsors for White Hat Way, our founding sponsor. They're awesome. They really, really are. I really appreciate all of those that I've gotten to know. Just one funny thing, kind of. Catalytic converters. Oh, yeah. So we were... Have you watched Tulsa King? No. I do not. Sorry. I'm assuming that's TV. It's not regular primetime, but I think it's Netflix or something. I'm not sure. But it's called Tulsa King, and it has Sylvester Stallone in it, and he's a gangster mobster that goes to Tulsa. And there was a big scene in season two about them going in and cutting all the catalytic converters out of underneath the car. And we're sitting there watching. And we're going like, don't show people. Yeah, sure. I'm going to I'm going to share with you a little bit of an indictment of our our society. I was in Philadelphia the other day and there's two statues that are across the street from each other. And one of them is Rocky. So Sylvester Stone, a larger than life. A lot of people, you know, where you ran up the stairs and you've got the giant Rocky statue on the other side of the street. There is a statue of George Washington on a horse. There was a line of at least, no exaggeration, eighty five to one hundred and twenty people in line to take pictures of a statue of Rocky, a movie character. There was not one person taking a picture of George Washington. I told my wife, that's all you have to know about our society right now. We've got a hundred people that want to take a picture of a statue of a movie character. And we've got not one person even looking at the Washington statue. In fairness, George Washington was around before he had a chance to have a social media following. That's true. Good point. So let's move on to the dealer event. Yeah, the dealer forum. That's a really fun thing coming up. And I think the dates are November, ten through twelve in New Orleans. Is that right? Correct. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, November ten through twelve in New Orleans can be at the JW Marriott. Very excited about it. And, you know, we talked a little bit about this last year. It's really a unique and different education format than what you normally see. You know, so many of the national events and there's a lot of great ones out there. So many of the national education events, they're kind of the forty five minutes sit and get, you know, you've got a presenter up there. They'll have panel discussions from time to time. But it's really more about like a presenter that that is up there talking at you. This event is very, very different. It's kind of meant to be a sharing of ideas. It's meant to be much more inclusive. For you to get the most out of the buy here, pay here, do it form, you really need to come with the mentality that you're going to participate. This year, we've actually added three what we're calling workshops. uh they're they're three hour workshops one is um developing a business plan uh one is is focusing on uh collections um and underwriting and then there's one that is focusing on kind of building your brand um and kind of your sales pipeline They're three-hour workshops. They'll have booklets that are included where you're kind of filling in your information along the way or you're filling in the information that you're getting. But the idea behind it is that the presenter is really going to encourage the audience to participate. Again, as I mentioned, when we send out the confirmation emails, we're going to encourage people to bring your laptop, bring your numbers, be prepared to sit down and kind of talk about a lot of what you guys do, very similar to what you guys do in the events that you all have. So that's how we're going to kick things off on Sunday evening. And then on Tuesday morning, we have some of the the the forty five minute presentations, what we call the breakout sessions. All of those, except for one, are going to be led by dealers. um they're going to be either panel discussions or it's going to be a dealer putting the presentation on and again the thought being it's going to be more collaborative it's going to be a lot more about kind of sharing ideas very very unique than you know we did something similar to this in Texas and it was really successful and then on Monday afternoon that's really the that's the hallmark of the the event when you register for the event we ask you to give us some information about your dealership how big the dealership is how many employees you have how long you've been in business where you're located And we take that information and we put you in a group. And so you'll be in what we call do a round tables. The last year, I think our smallest round table was fourteen and our largest round table had twenty two. And then each group has an agenda. It's led by a dealer moderator. The dealer walks through the agenda. They go around the room, give people an opportunity to share ideas about what they're doing at their dealership, talk about things that have worked, talk about things that didn't work. We've got really an all-star lineup of the quality of the dealer that we have attending and that are going to be presenting. It's probably what I'm maybe most excited about. I think you guys have had... You know, Chad Randash and Rhonda's Cavender, Tyler Simmons, who I know is someone that you guys have had on the show. Tyler and his family, they do a fantastic job. Blake Ingram is going to be out there. Jennifer Harlow, Russell Moore, Jeff Watson, Rich Bernard, Alan Lindsay, Ben Libby. It's kind of a who's who of the buy here, pay here industry. All right. um, that are going to be out there sharing ideas. And so obviously something that we're very excited about. And I think what we're most excited about is that it's just very, very unique. And it is, it is not an independent, it's a buy here, pay here event, correct? Yeah, it really is focused. It is focused on buy here, pay here. I mean, it originated, um, from the NABD event. Um, Um, you know, the previous administration really brought NAPD into the fold. And so, um, you know, Ken Shilson and Ingram Walters did a fantastic job with really helping to educate and focus on buy here, pay here. Um, gosh, this was probably back in two thousand and six or maybe even before two thousand and six. Um, and then in I don't know exactly what the date was, but I'm going to say it was probably around two thousand and eighteen, nineteen, um, uh, Steve Jordan and Sean Peterson and the administration that was in place then at NIEDA was really focused on growing the tent and bringing people into the association. And so it came from NABD. So to your point, Michelle, it is still focused on buy here, pay here. We're going to talk a lot about collections and underwriting and customer retention and You know, the things that you really do focus on, you know, we always say we want to collect the cash, not the car. And that's kind of our focus. Yeah. Yeah, that's good. Isn't that a tagline of Brent Carmichael? I've heard that with Brent Carmichael. He's done a lot of, yeah, a lot of presentations all over the country. That's the only reason that we're interested in bringing Brent on board is because of his taglines. Right. Of course. We're going to get to inherit all of Brent's taglines. And now you get to freely use and throw them away. That's right. Beyond that, he's just a troublemaker all day long. Most of the time. Yeah, yeah. No, we obviously have a ton of respect for Brent, and he's still unscheduled to join the association January. I asked before we started, is there a chance he's going to get there sooner? But it sounds like you're still unscheduled for January. You know, knowing Brent, he's got a lot of... irons to put away or to to you know a lot of irons in the fire just through any ncm well and I'll just mention it's been great working with ncm uh all lips have been fantastic uh and I i But part of the conversation that we had with Brent and with NCM is, you know, we have a number of members of our association and then certainly people that were part of the NCM program that are going to be coming over to NIEDA, a number of dealers. I think there are four different buy here, pay here groups. And and we want to do right by them. You know, I mean, I think at the end of the day, like, I mean, we would have loved to have had Brent yesterday. But we need to sometimes take a step back and say what's best for the members of the association. And and so that's why, you know, look, we're building this thing for the long for the long haul tomorrow morning. So, yeah, I'm excited about bringing him on when he gets here and. Yeah. So the chairman of the board for NIADA, Mr. Gordy Tormel, piped in. We're really excited. We love Gordy. Really looking forward to the Buy Here, Pay Here Forum in New Orleans this year. Great event, great location. So thanks for listening. And I don't want to breeze over the fact that you mentioned Ingram Walters in there about the forum. He's going to be part of this event, I understand. Yeah, he is. He's actually going to close the event on Tuesday. And man, for anybody who's ever seen Ingram, you know you're in for a treat. And if you haven't seen Ingram, I will tell you it's worth the price of admission. So knowledgeable about the buy here, pay here industry, kind of grew up in the buy here, pay here industry, that ended up purchasing a franchise dealership. But just his insight, and Ingram would be the first to tell you, I can tell you a little bit what to do, but I can tell you a whole lot of what not to do. but his delivery and his ability to be able to relate to buy here, pay here dealers. I can assure you, you will get a nugget or two from Ingram at that closing reception. That really is worth the price of admission, just an opportunity. And Ingram hasn't been out speaking for, Wow, gosh, for a number of years. And so we couldn't be more excited. I'll tell you, we tried to get Ken and Ingram both. And unfortunately, the scheduling didn't work out with Ken. But we look forward to having him join us in the near future. But yeah, we're very, very excited about it. That's awesome. Well, you mentioned his experience. I particularly enjoy his wit. He's just a funny kind of guy. Just you won't pay close attention when he's up there because there's always going to be something surprising and something funny. He said one time we had a reception and and he showed up a little bit late. And so Ingram came up and of course, he's always on the offensive. Right. And so immediately came up and he was like, hey, Jeff, because I want to start real quick by telling you that my wife told me a long time ago, you can either have a wife with pretty hair or you can be on time. He goes, is my wife's hair pretty? Yes, sir. It's very pretty. That's a good one. I'm going to borrow that. He's going to borrow that. Anytime we are late to something, I think that Jim is going to some rendition. He's fantastic. Anything else to share before we wrap up? I know we want to put another mention about the foundation and the work that's happening to support those dealers in Florida and the Southeast. They continue to recover. A lot of them sustain damage. A lot of them will have in our buyer payer space, there'd be a lot of customers who, you know, sustained damage as well. And so there'd be a lot of ripple effects on that. Yeah, that could use help. Yeah, no, I totally agree with you. Just echo all those things that you said. I'm working through the foundation board. I'll give a shout out real quick. The Colorado Independent Automobile Dealers Association made a ten thousand dollar donation to the NIBA Foundation to help the other day. Can't say enough good things about all the positive work that David and the team out in Colorado do. They do a fantastic job and have a great association out there. We've got a number of people who are making contributions. That's unbelievable. On the forum, I will tell you that the early bird registration ends next Wednesday. I think that's the sixteenth. Yeah. Yeah. And so registration goes up two hundred dollars after that. So that is that's for members of the association. So four hundred ninety five dollars. Make sure that you get out there, you get registered. And it also helps us because then we can put you in the appropriate roundtable so that you're talking with dealers that are similar in size. If you have a service department, we'll put you in a group that has a service department. But yeah, registration ends. And the hotel registration, we'll end up selling out of that room lot, but that ends on the the sixteenth as well. So just make sure you get registered. You can go to the website and register for that today. Before we let you go, Kathy posted on Facebook, thank you, Jeff and team for coordinating the NIADA policy conference and the Buy Here, Pay Here conference. Great resources and connections for us to continue to build on. Kathy's out of Pennsylvania. They did our Mid-Atlantic. I guess they represent more than just Pennsylvania. Kathy, it was her first time to attend. She did a phenomenal job. They did a great job getting the message across to their legislators. And yeah, glad to have her there. She did a great job. Well, thank you so much for joining. It's always such a pleasure. It really is to have you here. You're just lots of very articulate, lots of great information. And you're just a fun guy to talk to. So we really appreciate all your work. You should catch me later in the evening. I'm a lot of fun. I'm just kidding. Yeah. Jim and Michelle, thank you for not only for having me. Thank you for having NIDA. Thank you for having us be a part of the morning show. And certainly thank you for what you're doing in the industry, you know, helping to get the message out. And, you know, I get a chance to hear you guys quite often and and, you know, hear the. the, the, when you have like a really good guest, you know, not me, but when you have a really good guest, it always brings a lot of value to the industry. And we certainly appreciate you guys playing that role there. So thank you. You're very, very welcome. And we're, you know, we're open to suggestions about things to talk about too. So we're going to say goodbye. And if you want to stay backstage for just a minute, so we can say a proper goodbye after we've closed out the show, we'd love that. Okay, thanks, guys. Thank you. Okay. Great conversation. It always is whenever we've got Jeff here. Well, it's good to get caught up because he's in there. And I'm going to be interested at the end of the year to find out whether Brent Carmichael or Jeff Martin has more airline points. That's what I want to find out when we get back to it. You know, we'll have to pose that to them, like have them both on the show after Jeff or after Brent comes on. Yeah, yeah. Hey, everybody. Thank you so much for joining us on this Friday. It's Friday. Hope you guys have a great weekend. There's still a lot of cleanup on the East Coast, and it seems like the weather is improving and starting to cooperate a little bit for people to be able to do the things that they need to do. So, again, our hearts and our support goes out to all of those that were affected by the recent hurricanes. Sure. Have a great rest of your week. We will see you on Wednesday. Again, we don't do the Monday morning broadcast, so we'll have a great white highway topic then. And so we'll just see you then. Thanks so much, everybody.
