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. Hello! Good morning. Happy Friday. It's Friday again. Yeah. Weeks just go by. You know, like, I remember as a kid, you'd just like, it drags on. Yeah. You're waiting for something. And I remember my parents saying things like, the older you get, the faster it goes. That is true. It's been a busy week. It has been a busy week. I had some extra working on our business meetings. Yeah, some really great meetings. Yeah, very productive. So that's kind of helping to move us toward what's next. And we've got some... that's just on the horizon for us. There's some announcements we should be able to make quite soon. And what else do you have for news of the day? News of the day. Our friend Steve Levine and the Ignite have... Richard Hudson. They have... officially joined the the buyer payer united conference as clients with their compliance unleashed. So that makes a lot of sense. Well, and you know, we've, I, I always have this. So Steve, if you're watching, There's, you know, the winning the fight and about compliance and and, you know, compliance isn't very sexy. And I love that that it's becoming something because they've been doing their own conference on their own. And I'm excited that they're doing something that's in conjunction because it will be. it will make it easier for dealers to be able to really dive into some of those things. And I've been watching as Steve's been taking that compliance unleashed to different state conferences too. And I'm like, Bravo. I mean, that's, yeah. It's like, I love when I see deep collaboration that is for the benefit of the dealer. Yeah, it does look like they're just outwardly looks like their attendance participation had been growing. It just, you know, the challenge with compliance is one of those things that dealers and their team need to know, but they don't want to know. And they probably haven't traditionally wanted to make a separate trip. It's like, if I don't know that no one can hold me accountable. Yeah, yeah. to this stuff. Which is true about so many things. You hear the thing, it's like, are you sure you want to know? Because once you know, you can't unknow. It's like once you've seen something, you can't unsee it. So that was a pretty cool thing to observe. And then The Dealer Forum is happening this week. And, yep. So for all of you that will be there, hope you have a great conference. Jim and I, you know, we've talked before that we, we don't do a lot of conferences anymore. And, um, that's partially because, you know, our, our, um, track is, is virtual and, you know, we're, we're, um, we are, uh, happy to forge a path for others to, to, um, to join, you know, and on, on bringing things to dealers more. So, yeah. You know, it bears mentioning like, We wouldn't be out there particularly to drum up business. We're working on foundational pieces to allow us to scale our business. So until then, you know, it's kind of that balance between working in the business and working on the business, bringing on new clients. I mean, obviously you're always going to, you know, help those who come forward. But as far as going out and actively creating campaign and outreach, we just have kind of backed off of that because we're building. We're building. Yeah, absolutely. There were a couple of things that we had talked about, some October dealer data. I think we've covered industry news and then we'll save that. the, um, election stuff. Yeah. And I'm going to have to bring back more on the October data. I barely got a chance to look inside some of that. And the, the data is kind of in pieces, like not every group's members have submitted. So if you're in a VA group and haven't sent in your data yet. Yeah. I know, um, Jim's been working really, um, uh, a lot of earlier on data because we have a funeral this weekend and you know he's got meetings starting next week and so he's like already been digging in and and uh so yeah yeah next week will be interesting be the first time I've done back to back to back meetings um you know with v-eight and it'll be fine because we get the data out to everybody. That's usually the pressurized part is getting the data delivered to everybody. Yeah, and we really... It's been... You posted something earlier this week that... The numbers. The numbers. And it's pretty... I mean... That's pretty awesome. Because the more data that we start to be able to string together with data that we have access to, it's stuff that will just be on a very often basis be able to bring things to the show. And we don't have to... We don't have to wait until we have a conference or we don't have to wait to be able to like, this is what's happening in the industry or a monthly newsletter or whatever. We can talk about it as we go. And so it's been really beautiful to watch you just get excited about being able to share that. the things that dealers that we're working with are experiencing and perspectives and what the numbers are showing and all of that so I just you know shout out to to I I don't take much if any uh credit for v-eight v-eight's been just like something that you're you've been you've done and you put together and I'm like really really proud of you yeah I created a monster now I'm just trying to stay in the saddle it's uh no it's been fun it has been enjoyable it has but the numbers on that were just um you know amazing um yeah how many how many uh contracts what dollar amounts are and And so, you know, sharing that was like fourteen thousand contracts, you know, of our of the dealers that I had data available. I just did some quick math on what kind of. Portfolios collectively, they kind of represent, I think the number was like fourteen thousand accounts and one hundred and seventy, almost one hundred and seventy million in receivables. And I just think people that are outside the industry, it kind of gives a feel. But mostly my point in sharing that was this is the kind of collective experience that are in these meetings. You know, people have experience and they're managing sizable portfolios. And so I've just enjoyed you bringing pieces of the conversations with these experienced dealers to our audience on the, on the podcast. Yeah. And I can say one big thread that's been, it started in our October V eight meetings and it's carried on into some of our client meetings in the month of November already. And that is this thing about, cause I, I introduced as a case study that, it's interesting the timing of this stuff, but I introduced a case study in our V eight meeting and that's sparked good interest. And we moved it to the same case study to the other meetings. And then I had somebody reach out that saw an episode of ours from last year when we did our four square, when we did that kind of interactive four square, or I think we called it playing with blocks. And it's all kind of in the same context because we, What we set out to really examine was the affordability factor. Like it started out as a study with a dealer because we were looking at their aged inventory and said, okay, why is this stuff not moving? And when we did the math, like it's out of reach financially for most of our applicants. Right. And so when we started learning that, we started, OK, well, let's go back and figure out what is within reach. Let's take our typical applicant, typical income, and let's kind of work those blocks and figure out, you know, what kind of down payment are we looking for? What's been our average? Where do we like to be on term? And it just kind of, you know, that stuff is starting to help dealers say, oh, I'm a little overpriced or, oh, I should have a little more gross. And, oh, if I bumped my customers payments on average a little bit because they could afford it, then this would be the result. You know, it's just, it's been really good, rich studies that we've done. Great conversations with the dealers and folks are great. folks are kind of getting it well what's kind of fun that I've observed is that it's a dialogue it's not just you saying this is what the numbers show is that they there's a dialogue and so there's questions back and forth between dealers it's like what did you do how did that work what's going on and and that it's it's as within the v-eight because it's it is your home group is eight dealers And you get to know these eight dealers. It's kind of it's like a it's similar to and that, you know, in a in a twenty group that you have specific dealers that you get to know and you get to know their operation and you get to, you know, you you kind of dive behind the curtain. Um, and so this is a little bit more intimate and, um, and it's, you know, happening frequently. And so it's been really fun to watch. And so, um, yeah, interesting thing that happened out of just a meeting just last night. And I think it's just, it's kind of helpful to take folks inside what consulting for us coaching looks like, and especially for me and my approach to it. I'm working with a dealer last night. We're working through some of the case studies and playing with blocks, so to speak, and figuring out what really fits. And when we got to the square about term, I asked them, I said, where do you guys like to be on term? And the dealer is very, I mean, he's actually partners in one of them. They're very smart. And the one guy says, well, I don't know if that's the right question. He's like, where should we be? Like, we want to ask you, where should we be on term? And I think it's just an interesting reflection on, I come to that kind of thing as you guys, it's your business. Like, I'm not, it's that thing that we walk around. I make recommendations. I don't really tell people this is how you should do business. Obviously, we're guiding them based on what other people do. But it was just an interesting thing. But I'll tell you what I see from that, that I love. There's humaning. Yeah. You know, with White Hat Way and things, we're always talking about humaning. And the humility... of a successful dealership to say, we don't know. We're, you know, that it's, it's, we're, we're willing to say that what we're doing could be better. Right. And, and we, we don't know. And so let's talk about it. You know, and that's part of why the dealer form that starts on Monday or on Sunday, rather dealers will be able to sit at a table with other dealers. Oh yeah. I love that. Dealers at the same table on a certain topic. then there's an opportunity to learn. But as with a twenty group, as with a V eight, you know, peer group is like, you're right, the humility to be able to speak up. And the thing I can tie that back to is when I wrote articles in the past about the people who attend the conferences, it's like it's been my observation over the years. You see kind of the same people that are very successful. and they're often on the front row taking lots of notes. It's like they have the humility to know. They don't know everything. There's still more to learn. And I think when you feel like you know it all, then you close your mind, and then you don't really – nothing really changes. And we've all observed that on social and everything. Well, it's like this is the way you should do it. This is the idea that their model is – the right model or the only model. And, and so I love, you know, it's when one of the things that we wanted to do with V eight is this is a place to be, to learn from each other and not a place to teach others. Right. It's a place to learn from each other. And so when you bring that energy, humaning, when you bring the energy of humility and I'm here to learn instead of I'm here to tell everyone how to do it is a very different thing. So I'm really looking forward to getting the feedback. I love that the NIADA has created this structure. Because it's just so – it's beautiful and it's impactful and it really allows dealers to teach each other instead of listen to a lecture. Sure. I got to throw something on the screen here that is a – uh it's something that I'm working with a business coach we've got a coach that I've known for years and reached out yeah we have we've had a business coach in the past and we still have her as one of our advisors and we've just recently engaged a new business coach and this is really in this context of business planning and kind of dialing in the sequencing and some of that stuff but um the coach said to me something that I hadn't heard and and he said he adopted it years ago after he heard it somewhere And I think in this context of coaching and the reason you're hearing me say, especially in this independent dealer space, like I feel like dealers, they're independent for a reason. They kind of want to be those mavericks and carve out their own thing and create a business model that works for them. But I think in my way of coaching, like I don't go in and prescribe and say kind of the way you said it on Facebook is like, I don't say this is what you should do. In fact, you know, I try to not use the words need to do, should do. I'm really careful. How many times have you corrected me when I first stepped into the business? Yes, gently and lovingly. It's just a recommendation. We don't say need or should. It's like we strongly advise. We can talk about that because I think it's something that, why do we say that? Because I believe dealers, their name is on the building. It's their business to run. I'm going to make suggestions. Certainly we'll answer their question and provide them information based on what we think would be helpful based on their question. But what the coach said, I'm going to put it on the screen. This was the statement. Prescription without diagnosis is malpractice. So I'm gonna read that again. Prescription, like prescribing, if you want to turn it into a medical context, you're out there prescribing medication without have a full, full diagnosis. That's malpractice. Yeah. And so I bring that to coaching. I mean, I think that's the thing where you, you, We want to understand the purpose. And so that's why when the dealer says to me, you know, we want to hear from you what we should do. Well, there's a lot of things to understand about your business approach and what you're looking to accomplish here. And it goes back to cash flow versus equity. And there's a ton of stuff to know. But I think this is all why, you know, we have to diagnose. And a lot of that is just. interviewing them and find out what's what's the mission well you know I love how you kind of pull that into like medicine because we go to the doctor and we tell them all the things and they write a prescription they tell us what to do and then there's there's like there's Did it work? Are there other things I didn't talk about last time? Is this really the right thing that I should do? And the blindly following, they may not know all of the things and understand. And so how many times have we had something big happening in our health that it takes going back and going back and going back until, you know, because, well, you know, doctors, it's a practice. It's, it's not a perfect, it's a practice. So, and I love that because, you know, we, we are asked at times to come and do a two or three day on site, whatever. And, And there's an awful lot that we can glean from that because we've done it enough that we know the questions to ask and where to go. But you still, you know, once you're finished with that and you step into an engagement, there is always... There's always so many more layers of the onion that you can't even scratch when you go and spend three days with someone. So it takes, it takes, yeah, there's a lot. It's that discovery part. It's like, you know, for us to go in there and say, this is what you should do. This is, you know, because you really need back. information and you really, it's about the old business strategy. Like, what are we, what are we looking to create? What are you personally, Mr. or Mrs. Dealer looking to create? Right. It's like, what's the, what's the goal? And there's just to know there's sorry to all you cat lovers. There's more than one way to skin a cat. Oh, yeah. Yeah. And everybody, everybody's fine with all those different ideas, except the cat. Yes, I find you so delightful. Thank you so much. And then I was there anything else on that front that you wanted? I don't. I don't think so. The little bit of data that I looked at did suggest that volume was up for dealers in October versus September and versus we're currently tracking it versus a six month like their prior six month average and then over the prior month. And so at a glance, volume was up for, you know, the select dealers I was able to get through this morning. And so we'll bring more back. I'll bring more data back from from the results as they get because this weekend, a lot of stuff will be coming together. Yeah. Yeah. So the last thing that we have on the agenda is to talk about the impact of the election. And I remember we did a show back in June where we kind of talked about predictions for the election, something like that. I mean, it was a pretty... sensational kind of title. I think you said who dealers should vote for. Or something like that. And we proceeded to have a conversation about... about character, about understanding that people have different perspectives and being willing. It's kind of ties into this thing where a dealer will say, I don't know. And, and being humble and being willing to be able to listen and sit down and try to fully understand, you know, the, the, other people's perspectives. Um, and because we, we sometimes get really, really entrenched in I'm right, you're wrong. Um, you know, the whole black and white, the whole good. And so it's, we, our take, I don't think was what people expected when we, when we brought that. Um, and it was right around the national conference and it was, uh, you know, just like, let's just be kind. And we didn't say, you know, this is, this is, this is. And so we, we were talking last night and, and it was like, it's, it seems, it seems appropriate to just remind um everybody that that there there is there's new stuff on the horizon and that we give each other the grace to to navigate that and and um and uh I've been fascinated by, and of course Michelle and I don't see a lot of news, but I think that I've been fascinated by, at least across social media and the places where we might otherwise intersect with news, the pause, like the post-election kind of hiatus that we're seeing where it's just gotten quiet. We don't have the same... Facebook friends, apparently. Well, it's interesting because I was raised very right-wing Christian conservative. And so my loved ones still hold very, very true to that. And when I left my religion, I kind of threw politics out with everything too. And it's just like, it's all just... I was too much. Too much. And so the journey since then over the last fifteen years hasn't been one or another, but just watching what's happening to people and the divisiveness of much. And I remember the last election and I said something, I think we said something on the podcast that Um, the previous one, previous election, I was just, I was bombarded from both sides because I've got very dear friends that, that, that are very firmly implanted in belief structures from either camp. And so I would watch this and it was just, I mean, vile, uh, both sides um and not not an ounce of compassion from both sides not an ounce of wanting to really fully deeply understand where the other was coming from from both sides yeah a lot of shouting it was a lot of shouting and so there was a lot of um you know silence for thirty days silence for thirty days and so I kind of had to clean it up because because I was just like Yeah, Facebook has the snooze for thirty days feature, but I think they need one that says snooze till November tenth. So I think I mentioned about three or four weeks ago, it's like I was surprised that, you know, all of my friends and family were from both sides were much more civil. Yeah. Much more civil. It was kind of like, oh, I don't think that I had to silence anybody. And then the election happened. And I'm feeling like I want to silence people. And it's frustrating because there's a lot of emotions out there that are around me. Yeah, there's just a lot of really heavy emotions out there. And some of them might be on this end of the spectrum. Some of them might be on this end of the spectrum. But I just, you know, when I watch all of this, it's like I love and I feel like I understand. And, you know, we've had conversations where I understand where people... Because I have conversations and try to understand all the different things. And I just love and being loving to each other, regardless of where you are. Yeah. is holy humaning. That's, that's like, that's good stuff. And so my take on on that, and you know, Jim's like, let's not go all woo woo, whatever. But my take on that is to lean into love, to have a desire to understand why people feel the way they feel and to find a path that everyone is, um, able to be heard. And, um, and, uh, is important. Well, there are two words you said in that last little bit. One was understand and the other was to be heard. And both of those require listening. And so I think there's just a lot of speaking and shouting. And I think, you know, the first thing is kind of back to our thing about diagnosis. It's like, do you really fully understand like the thing? It's like, cause I'm not, I'm not seeing you. open your ears and hear the other side and have a real dialogue I see a lot of shouting you know and everybody seems to feel strongly and a lot of people have their own their own issue or their hot button thing that they're focused on that's really important to them and I get it I think for me that this election cycle like always I mean I've heard since I could first vote I've always voted character in that episode we did back before that's basically what I said As car dealers or anybody, business owners, we really ought to vote character. And of course, you know, for me, we've talked about enough. My feeling about that is that when I choose a president, I'm really choosing a commander in chief. And I want to, I want to choose somebody who's going to represent me as an American in a summit or in a, in a meeting with other world powers, that's who I'm choosing. So it's not about the social issues. The social issues to me really fall more to the bodies of the legislators. And so I think that's really more decided over there. Yes, my president can veto it, whatever. I'm just kind of leaning on. And I think the other piece for me is what allows me to be, you might watch me and say, I'm, I'm disengaged, so I don't care. And that would be a mistake to think that, that because I don't step in and choose a side or add my voice. Yeah. But I don't care. I just, I trust this nation. I think we have a good system. Is it perfect? It's far from perfect. I do too. But I think our system of government is good. I trust. And I kind of recognize, look, the reality is our president has limited powers by design. And so I think it's... Well, and it's also in – one person can look at something in one way, and all they see is misery, and another person sees nothing but joy. And so it's the same thing. And so part of – it's something that I get – I don't know, whatever – um is that we choose the energy in it we choose we choose the people choose whether or not we want to buy into hate decisive language unkind things um I mean I just I I um it just it saddens me when I see the unkind things being said and where people are being objectified based on their party. And, and it's just like, I know wonderful people, wonderful people that I just love breaking bread with and having the important conversations with that, are very strong have very strong feelings around these things and and it's like you know it's so I just love and just being able to listen and and to to hope for the best and yeah that's I I expect the best I think you know I trust in this nation I think um the the consensus has kind of been one of relief like thankfully that's finally over and now we can all kind of live with what what is and we can move forward and and make the most of it like I said I I trust this nation I think is that we relate it back to the car business and car dealers thank you I think yeah I think it um my sense is that it will be stabilizing it's always um there's always sort of this angst around the changing of the guard but now that it's happened the the markets respond based on you know now we now we see what the future looks like right and so we can we can start to um act and and but I my sense is that it will be stabilizing you know will it go and we have two people listening will they both get out of the thing what they want probably not you know what I mean it's like uh Probably not everybody's going to end up happy. But I think the nation's going to do well. Well, and it's been interesting, too. I was telling Jim I was out running some errands and was waiting in line for something. And I was listening to conversations around me. And it was the day after the election. And listening to conversations. And I just... I was... surprised at some of the, some of the things that, that I, I heard and, and, um, and not, not like unpleasantly surprised, but I was just kind of surprised about some of the things that I heard and, and the, the, um, I'm just, you know, it's like, if we, if we can lean into love and hope that we're going to be okay, I think that, uh, I think that there's a lot of things that we can just rest easy on as far as when buy here, pay here, will it change the price of a card and auction? Hmm. I don't know. Can't say. Can't say. Will it make our customers make our customers more successful? I don't... You know. Will we have less repos? I don't know. Can't say. So... the stumping and the platform suggests better economy more money in people's pockets so you know that was what the conversation was that I and it's people that were like really limited income I mean like our customer yeah um was who I was listening to and to listen to their hope oh okay was like okay all right hope is good hope is good can't can't buy groceries with it but but uh but having positivity around the future is good for consumer confidence which is typically you know people buying and feeling comfortable about tomorrow that's obviously a yeah a solid thing but we'll just have to see where the numbers land. But I think we're not going to try to predict what that looks like. But it does feel like it'll be at least stabilizing. We can at least now know where we're at and kind of know what kind of policies are likely to be in play and just go back to doing business. Yep. Because we tend to pause an awful lot when there's a big election that comes up. And so I'm excited for the next election. moving into the next years and, you know, the opportunities and, and, um, yeah. For sure. Yep. Shall we wrap up there? Love and humility. Shall we close on that? Yeah. I'm going to close with this reminder about the, uh, dealer forum. This is where you go to register. Folks are probably already headed to the airport to, to get to new Orleans for the weekend. But, uh, but that's how you, uh, get yourself, uh, enrolled for that. And, uh, hope, a lot of people just take that. yes so it is friday um we've got a good weekend coming up um we've got an interesting weekend coming up uh and just hope you all have a beautiful time in the fall with your family and loved ones and we will see you on wednesday with the white hat wednesday and thank you so much for for joining us and and being a part of our our journey and our family on the air so Have a great day, everybody. Talk to y'all later.
