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 goodness good morning everyone hey y'all welcome happy friday happy friday friday yeah tgif yeah all of the things um wednesday for some reason I think it's because it was just such a nice day and I was planning on doing some stuff outside it was I kept thinking it's friday it's friday it's It's like, no, it's only Wednesday. It's Friday. It's Friday. As folks know, you know, a lot of our listeners are car dealers or whatever, self-employed. And so it's like the weekends aren't exactly the same when you're self-employed. We work on the weekends or we don't work. Yeah. And it's yeah. Sometimes. I mean, it obviously varies based on the demands of what's happening. But that's about just having discipline and managing your schedule. Yeah. And it's nice. It's really one of the big perks of that. Of course. Yeah. So any big announcements from your side? Any news? I mean, obviously we're here to talk about the new podcast, but any other things going on with you? No. You know, I might just kind of give an update. We had rescheduled one of our V-Eight meetings because of an internet challenge. Oh, yeah. One of the things about virtual is that we're fortunate. I mean, we haven't had that happen. I think that's the only time we've had to because of that. Yeah, I mean, it was like an area-wide outage, which is just kind of screwy because they came through, a different provider came through and put in new lines. And just like sidewalks are lifted weird and all because they were using that stuff that drills under the ground. And yeah, so I don't know if that has anything to do with it, but we'll see. Yeah. Yeah. But yeah, so last meeting, though, was our V eight group with our newcomer group. Yes. And we always try to put that one toward the end of the month so we can see data from the other dealers that are coming in. And last night was interesting. I hadn't told you about this part yet. Like we the conversation was kind of an agenda around and keep in mind in those meetings, we, we spend more time sort of coaching and, and, and, and it's kind of like a group coaching session in a way around the numbers, the numbers are smaller. They're not as relevant, you know, as far as comparison and when they're new. And so we do tend to bring more, they get more value out of the numbers of what's happening with the other groups and kind of establish to work toward, et cetera. But last night was the first time I presented to them the data from the larger groups, which are, you know, right now in V-Aid, the larger groups are running between five hundred and two thousand accounts is how those are grouped. And you've got some dealers in there with eighteen hundred and two thousand accounts. And so when they see numbers like twenty five million in the portfolio, they're like, oh, Yeah. I mean, this is literally we had dealers snapping photos of the screen, you know, during the session so that they don't get to see numbers like that very often. Right. And so I just thought it was kind of telling our conversation last night was really around. Data, software, capital, and kind of all the connection, you know, all the connecting threads between those things. Go ahead. It's, you know, the fact that they were snapping pictures, it just really, it goes to show, there's so many dealers out there that feel like they're on a lone island. And it's just, they are not aware of, what's happening elsewhere and what's possible sure and so I bet you because um uh many of those dealers are newer have very small yeah um portfolios and they're just like oh my gosh I'm sure I can just hear it in my head it's like oh my gosh that's what I can do that's where I can go some of these dealers don't have three hundred thousand dollar portfolios and what they were able to see on the screen is there are dealers in there that are collecting three hundred grand a month in interest interest and so just an interest right yeah and so it's like that that just kind of gives you a feel now they may not aspire to have that but in the context of our conversation last night about capital like this is just a capital intensive business right I mean how much money would that be like everyone's always interested how can I get capital where can I get it So last night's conversations were around capital and cash flow and sort of key metrics. And really, it was a kind of a zoomed out view about why software and data become so important in our industry, because our ability to get to capital, you know, more affordable capital to attract capital, you know, in this segment at all is really around how good is the data? Like, what can we really lean on in terms of, you know, the value of that data? Yeah, I remember we did an all-day-long event on enterprise value. And data was one of the things that was like... one of the pillars of the strength of your business to anyone outside of your business, that can be capital, that can be someone that's going to buy the business, that can be an investment partner, whatever, is that data... data and being able to string data together in a easily presentable fashion, especially for a bank. If you're going to talk to a bank, you know, or whatever, to have that data. And that's why we talked about some of the metrics last night were around this idea that And you're right. I would say so I made the point of what kind of data, like what would be the best kind of data scenario. Right. And then we talked about this idea that, you know, when you have the ability to run some projections, right, have enough history to be able to extrapolate the next twelve, twenty four months, whatever it looks like. Think about what that means for. Us as dealers, right, to be able to say, OK, this is what I can anticipate that the customers will repay me. And now taking that to the lender or investor side is now I can see what the cash flows are that would repay me if I were to invest. So but the data needs to be validated. It's one thing to just run a report. I've got this much in receivables and, you know, you need more. Yeah. And when you can string it together over years, and especially if a bank or someone, they know that there was a dip in the economy or they know there was a whatever. And if they can see over time how you fared during that. One of the things that Jim has said so many times is that... There's a level of predictability when you start to string those things. As long as you've got your money coming in and your deal within a certain framework of structure, it's like there becomes a predictability, which is what a bank wants to see, which is what an investor wants to see or someone that's going to purchase your business. Okay. Of course. And so remember, we're here to talk about the upcoming podcast. And let me kind of connect the dots between that conversation last night and the conversations that I'd had in the weeks leading up to that. Of course, capital is always a hot topic in our sector, right? Because again, we're in a capital intensive business. So the conversations are often around capital. And In light of the things that we have seen in recent weeks in particular, I personally have witnessed either through clients or through V-Ape members or just dealers in social media, people where we have other relationships. We have seen some shifting in the capital markets. We've seen evidence of shifting. We've seen evidence of lenders changing. reworking you know terms at renewal right we've seen a foreclosure we've seen um some stuff happen that is uh an indication that you know think the the ground is is shifting a little bit and that doesn't have to that's not it's happened in the past right and it's always yeah it's just it's the nature of money ebbs and flows again for someone that's new they wouldn't know that this is part of a pattern The different things that happen. So we're just letting you know, it's a pattern. These things, people come in, in and out. Capital providers come in and out, you know. And I'm the last guy who's going to bring these conversations around. We chose MarketWatch partly because we went out social media and they said MarketWatch. We also market watch was makes sense to me because we, we have in that, uh, label the opportunity to watch markets that are not just capital. We can watch inventory market side, right. As well. And kind of keep, uh, dealers of Brest and what we're seeing there. And so this is what you can expect to see us do. And I'm the farthest thing from an alarmist. I'm kind of on the record over the years of saying, I think buy here, pay here pretty much is going to remain the same as long as our employment and our local market stays the same. These are local dealers servicing their own paper and servicing local customers. I think that market's pretty much going to stay the same. I think the demand for automobiles is It's going to be the same. We'll eventually shift into electric or, you know, there'll be more ride sharing stuff, of course. But as long as we have people who need and want a personal vehicle to get back and forth, you're going to have people who provide that kind of financing in a tough credit situation as a result. it's always going to require some capital and it's important for us to keep an eye on that and we've got dealers the other things happen we've got dealers who are looking to improve their rates right they're looking to find more affordable money and so that we you start to look at what what has to happen what are the challenges what are the barriers to be able to prevent us from being able to help a dealer get refinanced at a better rate. And so these are all things that we are just kind of watching and it's going to be fun with this special track. And so we already recorded this earlier in the week, we recorded with Alan Keat. And for those that are not familiar with Alan, I'll let you meet him through that pilot uh, podcasts, but I can just share with you. Alan is somebody who started out in his career in the investment sector. He was a guy who is funny. I kind of had to stop him because he's sitting, we're talking through that. He's talking all these acronyms that he's used to from the financial sector. And I'm over here to buy here, pay your guy with little exposure to that, but it's fun because Alan will be a returning recurring guest with us, kind of a featured guest. And I love that because he does have his experience with capital kind of picks up where mine leaves off. I'm down here in operations with some understanding of the financial and accounting aspect of buy here, pay here, and working some with business planning, right, for helping dealers capitalize. And now Alan comes in here with understanding the capital markets. And we've had really, that first conversation was really rich around this thing about barriers. Like why, why doesn't, he said, you know, it's a legitimate asset class, buy here, pay here. But what keeps capital from coming into this sector is a number of things. And so we went through that in that conversation. And, you know, I would say people can tune in to catch that. And people who know Alan know he's super bright. Our intention is that that will be released sometime in April. Yeah, it will be. It just needs a little editing, and we've got to kind of get some graphics together. But you do have some clips, or you do have a clip. I just have a photo. I just have an image of what that is. Oh, just a photo. Okay. I was thinking that you had a clip. So anyway, Alan is just somebody who understands that sector a little bit more. He just kind of lives in that world and has more of his career has been over there. And so I think he's somebody that, you know, as the host of the show, my intention is just to sort of be the voice of dealers and ask the questions that I think dealers would want to know if they were, you know, in the conversation. And I would just put the call out here today, like, If you know people that really can speak to these sectors, especially the actual movement of money above, I'll call it above buy here, pay here, and how that's going to affect movement and dollars in the buy here, pay here sector, have them reach out to me. I would love to talk to them. I know, too, from we had an opportunity. Alan was just amazing. A few years ago when we were doing our RV thing across the country, we were in the Austin area. That's where his office was for RVing. Like a few months. It was probably about three or four months. Yeah. There was an awful lot that happened during that period of time. But he let us use a spare office to do a lot of educational recording and was just so gracious. And his entire team, so gracious. But it was fun to talk to Alan because even back then, that was like four years ago. Was it? I don't know. I lost track. I think it was. I mean, yeah, it was like four years ago. We talked to him about a lot of the stuff that we were doing, and he was just like on it, on it, on it. But it was fun to see. He's also a numbers nerd. Mm-hmm. You mean that lovingly, right? Of course you do. Well, it's because my husband is one. She's not insulting, Carolyn. She means it lovingly. No, it's actually, oh, look, another numbers nerd. But it was fun to see him get really excited about tracking things and numbers. And that's something that really jazzes him. And so to have him on as a, um, a reoccurring guest in market watch, it's because you know that Alan is, he's not siloing himself in specific. He's just watching and, and he's got a, a higher, uh, understanding of, of, like you said, those higher level market pieces that are feeding down into by your payer. But it was just fun to sit with them in his office and have him like, you guys have to see this. Do you remember? And it was just, he was so excited. He was like, show and tell, you got to see this thing that I'm, I've been watching and, and what this data is, is whatever. And, and, uh, yeah, I just, I have a lot of respect and, and all that Well, Alan just knows what a lot of numbers people know. These numbers don't lie. There's a question of the validity, right? How much you can trust the numbers that come in because it's that old thing about garbage in, garbage out. You got to make sure that you're working from clean numbers, which is part of our conversation last night in our V-A group. But it's like we got to figure out how to get clean numbers. And I think when I zoom out and think about the remainder of my career and the work that we're going to be doing in White Hat Way, I'm just thinking we have an opportunity. And that as we have AI that's come on the scene, we have the opportunity, we have more sophisticated technology available to us in the sector than we've had. And I just want to make sure that we utilize that skillfully and for the benefit of the larger community that is the buy-here-pay-here industry. And I'm not talking about any one group. I'm not talking about somebody profiteering off of data. I'm talking about... being able to harvest data in a way that helps dealers be more successful, helps their consumers be more successful. Of course, there will be benefit for the vendors and all the providers are related to that ecosystem. And so I just think this is where Alan used the word fragmented when he talked about this sector, and I think most people would know what he means by that. Yeah, you've used a different term. I say it's just kind of disjointed. Disjointed. Unconnected. Yeah, you have different DMSs. They don't play nice together. Integrations are limited, and they're kind of clunky in a lot of cases. And we just have an opportunity in this sector to – do what we can to make data more, what I used last time, contiguous, like it just needs to be strung together better so that you can draw more conclusions from it. So we're working on that and we just see some real progress. And so this is part of what... The market watch thing is part of like, let's just dig into the numbers and let's figure out what would make it attractive, you know, for the capital space to come. And, you know, I would probably not Warren Buffett, our sector is too small. But when you think about that kind of investor, institutional type, you know, whatever, then what makes it make sense for them? And let's identify those barriers and let's start, you know, kind of eliminating those barriers so that, So dealers will have a chance to get access to more affordable money and to be able to build their business. And for us, it means serving more customers and being able to reach and provide solutions for more folks. But it's going to be decided in the numbers and the data is going to be really pivotal in all this. And this is why we basically took the opportunity last night. I took the opportunity to share with our dealers. look, we got to work together, get this data cleaned up. We got to make sure we've got tight data that is comparable and, you know, comparative and aggregate what we can and learn from it. And that's, you know, that's, that's been something that you've, since I met you, it's been the frustration around, you know, DMS is having such different ways of calculating things or that they're not getting to a number or you can't find the number or you can't, you know, and things that are important for, for someone, Jim, as a dealer, as a numbers nerd, as a coach, as you know, all that there are, there are very specific things that, that, um, that you have have been like, these are things that we should be watching and seeing and, And, and it's been, it has been something that you've, you've had it on your, you know, front of mind is how do we validate um for one because there are some big pools of numbers out there um they just aren't validated right right um and and so you know when when and it's it's been an interesting thing that when we've with our v-eight groups that we've had I've never been asked to validate a single um whatever and it's like why do we have to do this here it's like because because of that that same reason it's just like so that we are comparing the same things. Yeah. And people have to contribute. Right. So I said in the group last night that my attitude, I don't use this phrase very often, but I said, you know, in a V eight environment, and I'm sure it's the same for twenty groups. Right. Like in a V-Aid environment, I just said, I'm taking the position that you have to give to get. You have to contribute your data in order to be able to get data from your neighbor or from the people in your group, right? And hopefully we'll be able to expand. That's one of the other points of conversation last night is we expand that so that dealers can have data from... more than just their group right we're going to start to open it up to the whole v-eight system so that dealers like last night you know sitting there with thirty contracts you know and pretty new and buy here pair to be able to look at and see dealers from five hundred to two thousand accounts and be able to see what their operating expenses per car sold and all these kind of things start to uh really you know be valuable information for them to be able to see but but as of more than that for me is that I want those numbers to be validated. Yes. And we'll indicate which ones are validated. Like we don't, we don't input the, you know, it doesn't come directly from the, accounting for the expenses for us, we're letting the dealer input. So we mark things that are dealer input, but there are a lot of numbers that are validated and sort of soft reconciliation, if you will, because dealers are busy and there's a certain amount of time you can justify giving some of these things to validate. But I just, my feeling is if dealers are going to make important business decisions around these numbers, let's make sure they're clean numbers. Yeah. And so, I mean, what I see is just a beautiful marrying of BHBH MarketWatch, the data that's coming in. Because the MarketWatch, like you said, and I love this. I love this concept. And Jim... What? I love you. I really, really do. Um, uh, that it's, it's, it's a place to go to hear about all of the things that are outside your dealership. Um, like that affects your dealership directly. And we're not, you know, we, we, Um, uh, and it's just things that, that the price tag fluctuates and, and changes. So, you know, that, that's why I love that you said like inventory is something that you just don't know. And that's, that affected a lot of dealers during COVID big time. I mean, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Everyone knows. And then that directly affected the the the capital. And, you know, there had to be a lot of adjustments there because they to be able to work with the dealer. So I really I love this. So, you know, I'm thinking just to give folks a feel like I'm only just thinking about it just now, because obviously the whole market watch thing is new. But it's easy to think about the things that affect dealers in terms of. dollars, which you could argue that inventory can be overcome by dollars. However, even if you have dollars, you don't want to pay this price for inventory if you can get it for this price, right? So there's that, but then there's also the human element of kind of the, when you think about human capital market like what's the what's the market price you know for um employment and different markets like we can talk about some of those kind of things as well just because I want to be able to watch like recession read you know that kind of thing what is it costing people more Whatever departments that the dealers have where certain markets might affect this different things, which also the economy side of things, which I'm no economist, but we can certainly bring people who understand that thing as it relates to the struggles of our consumer that we all finance, right? So this is just... this will be part of what we can do through that podcast. And we just, again, today I would say, if, if you know folks who can, who can speak to this sector, you know, as an expert in any of those, you know, kind of arenas. Without it, like the only way you can get to this is through this. Yeah. And we're not pitching anything. We're not pre-recording on this one. We're not going to do live. We will though be taking sponsors. Eventually, yeah. Eventually. So we will be doing that. That's, you know, with the morning show, we've been like, we're not taking outside sponsors. And that's, you know, because it's, yeah. I would say we're taking advertisers. I mean, sponsors can advertise. Sponsors, advertisers, yes. Right. So we're going to be, but that will come once we kind of get it out and get a chance to. Yeah. verify the audience. And we, you know, we don't know yet at this point, um, what kind of a cadence, a schedule, that kind of thing that we're that. So there's no promises yet. Um, and, and there's, there is the possibility, um, as we're, uh, you know, we're, we're on the prefaces prep precipice of, thank you. I know words, um, of, of like really shifting into, um, a solid corporate structure to what it is that we're doing. And so this may be only available on our website, this MarketWatch. But we'll let you know. We'll be doing some advertising. Actually, it's most likely will only be available on our website, but we will market that a new one has come out. And so you can just head there and watch it. And I'm not sure, and I don't think that we're going to syndicate it. I don't know. I, well, yeah, I don't, I don't know if we're going to syndicate it. Listen, you're going to hear the decisions being made. I know. Yeah. Yeah. But it really, those kinds of details, like I'm just, we just want to get the information to people like, so that we can help them keep apprised of what's happening in the industry. And so we'll be monitoring the news. I think as far as cadence, what I expect is that we'll have a, at least a monthly drop on those. And then we'll probably have pop-ups as there are, is there news items that warrant some sort of. Oh, Oh yeah. Things happen. Yeah. And it's just like, Ooh, we should probably talk about that. That's timely. Yeah. Yeah. We'll probably have pop-ups like that. That's easy enough for us to pull off. But I think, um, otherwise just kind of, I would look for a monthly kind of regimen on this because it just, you know, especially when you think capital market, it doesn't move very quickly. Like it's a slow sort of, well, yes. And, um, in our current, uh, ecosystem for money and governments and all of that it is shifting yeah it's shifting a lot faster than it does because it's just it's you know when everything's really level it just does a little bit here but there's just a lot that is there a lot of moving pieces right now so you know there may be more that that um as as we go you know things yeah there's there's a lot of stuff like the stuff that came down um just recently uh executive order um if you buy a u.s made car that there's um you can uh claim all of your interest on your taxes that's probably not immediate. That probably takes a little while. I don't know. And then the other one was that, and I need to do some more research on it, but it was, if you buy an American made car, there will be no sales tax from the federal government. And I was just like, those are market things. That's, that's like, so how does that change it for us? So, you know, we'll have to see if that's something that we once, once we know that it's enacted, what does that mean? Sure. for us, because it may, it may really shift the type of car that dealers are buying, if that filters down to not used franchise, whatever, but filters down to the, you know, the independent and used car market. Yeah, we'll find out. And George, love you, George. Looking forward to your market watch data because on Facebook, as we all know, seventy eight point eight nine percent of all statistics. Well, and that's George, you're absolute that that's that's why there's just Jim has always been. I remember you were saying you years ago you were in a in a peer group and were just like. where are they coming up with these numbers? Cause yeah. And, and we've talked to other dealers. It's like, where, where are we coming up with these numbers? Cause you'll see people that will, will show these massive inflated and they're the best or the cream of the crop. And then they just burn out and die crash. And we've seen that happen a few times. Maybe the numbers weren't real. Maybe the numbers were real. Yeah. And, and so it's just, it's also, what can we learn from that? But yeah. Yeah. So, yeah, we're we're we're excited about that. Be looking for that. Some announcements on that come April. We're almost in April. Yeah. And it won't be an April Fool's thing. So, yeah. So we're almost in April. And and that's going to be something that I think will be really, really helpful. And, you know, one of the tracks that Jim and I. are just really comfortable in is this kind of multimedia type thing, the podcasts and the recordings and all of that. And eventually we'll learn to push the right button. Well, eventually we'll have someone that can do the thing. So it's not like, because I tell you, sometimes I'm like, I forgot how to do this. How do I do this? Because I'm thinking about other things. And I think, you know, for us, it's just, it's about having the conversation. Let's get the important conversations out there where people can participate in them. And let's just, you know, let's just not leave these to kind of back rooms and, you know, especially. So we just want to get it out there where all dealers can have access to the information. So it's like, again, to kind of come circle, we're doing the podcast. It will be released in April is our intent. uh um alan keats going to be a frequent guest and um and that you know you talked about it in the in the newcomers group for v-eight which usually the last one that we do for the month and you talked about some of the things that alan talked about and why those things are important Yeah. I didn't use Alan's name. I just, you know, we just talked about there are, we've been having recent conversations around the industry and the opportunities that exist and kind of what the barriers are. So it was more of that kind of conversation. So a little bit of a plug, you know, we talk about V eight all the time. We do have a V eight newcomers group. And so that is one that is more coaching and, and you know, that, that as they grow, they will grow. um graduate into a different group and the conversation is going to be a bit different in in some of these bigger groups so if you are um someone that's new to learning a lot of these things you don't have to be new to the industry but new to learning um uh because A lot of dealers out there, you think you're a lone island and it's like, what? And we actually got an email about that last week from someone that said, I thought it was just me. And then I found the podcast and then I was just like, whoa. Yeah, there's a lot. So if you're looking for some way of doing some group learning and of things that are relevant right now in the industry, um, reach out to us. Uh, it's a V eight newcomers group and it's, it's the same pricing as a, um, as a home group. Yeah. Maybe you'll be one of the ones snapping photos of the screen, you know, coming up. But, uh, uh, so I just had one other, when you said shout out, it made me think we need to, uh, put it in a mention that, uh, pastime has stepped in. They are one of our founding sponsors along with dealery and, uh, LHBH capital. And now pastime has also stepped into, uh, be a sponsor and advertise like our marquee sponsor for V eight dealer group. So that's just, you know, one more indication that, you know, people are supporting that solution. And so we're grateful to them for stepping in and, and becoming an advertiser over there. Yeah. And so there will be some level of advertising and like the VA plus meetings and things like that. So, you know, guys, so many great things on the horizon. I think for everybody, it's, it's just, there's a lot of just. cool moving pieces in our world right now that, you know, I'm a Pollyanna and I love to look at things as, you know, what can we find that's positive in these things? Right. And I, you know, I had a lot of, my aunt came over to hang out with, with me on the patio and we were talking about all the things and it's just like, that's kind of just where I love to live is like, how, how can these things work for us? How can they make our lives better? And so it's just, there's a lot of stuff that's, that's really good in the world right now. And, and yeah, so excited about that. Yeah. We're trying to do some good. A lot of people joining us in that effort. Yeah. Yeah. Marching ahead. Absolutely. Hey, everybody. Thanks so much for joining us. Happy Friday. We know that you have a lot of choices for your Friday or your drive time or whatever. Thank you for making us a part of that. Hope you guys have a great weekend and we will see you on Wednesday with another White Hat Wednesday topic. All right. Have a great day.
