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. Good morning, everybody. Hi, happy Wednesday. Happy Wednesday. It's happier for some of us. Oh, it's okay. Yeah. Rough day. Yeah. Rough night. Rough start. Okay. Well, we're being champions and showing up and doing the thing. Oh, yeah. Sorry. It's a pretty full thing. We got a lot of stuff going on in our home and our family, and so there's some extra stuff. Yeah. I'm trying to get myself... Get myself together this morning to get going on the stuff. So, yeah. So, let me kind of get it kicked off here. I've got a couple things. First of all, I've got observance of nine-eleven today. Oh, yeah. That's the thing. Yeah. Yeah. I remember that. You know, it's funny because there are certain points in history that people remember where they were. Mm-hmm. and what they were doing um those that were alive with uh jfk's assassinations one of them um first man on the moon another one nine eleven's another yeah for sure and I actually have something teed up I want to do a moment of silence here before we get into our actual topic but Uh, for the moment, I just wanted to, uh, you know, give a couple of, uh, mentions. We've got, uh, the Mariota event starts this Sunday. That'll be a Sunday through Tuesday, I believe in, uh, Atlantic city. So for those of you in the Northeast or from anywhere who want to hop on a plane, um, Tommy Brandes, who's the executive director of Mariota told us that, uh, you know, all dealers could attend. So they, so just be aware that that's happening and it's not too late to get out there and join those folks in Atlantic city. Yes. And then we have LHBH conference coming up on October second through the fourth. That'll be in San Diego. So for those who are in LHBH, lhph or um are contemplating lease your pay here that would be a good opportunity um policy conference coming up to have those dates uh it's an it's the end of the uh it's pretty soon is it here yeah it might be yeah okay um so policy conference for those of you guys that are going it's you get to hobnob and rub shoulders with your senators and congressmen um or Some of them. Right. Yeah. I doubt that they can get all fifty states worth of stuff. Obviously, your your your directors are there. You know, a lot of your a lot of your leadership with NIDA and of course, the lobbyists who are engaged by NIDA are there. So an opportunity to meet directly with them. And as you said, the legislature. Yeah, it's a it's an uncommon opportunity. Yeah, absolutely. So what else we got? And then the, uh, those of you who want to do the, not the super forum, what are they calling it? Uh, the dealer forum dealer forum. Um, that's coming up in November. So I don't have those dates either, but yeah, that's a big one. I think that's new Orleans this time. So yeah. So, yeah, that's happening as well. So how about we do our moment of silence before we go forward? Can we put that out? Yeah. And when I do this, I have a kind of a special request for those who are sitting in. If you view in the screen, we've got an image there of the Twin Towers, you know, in flames. And so I think as we contemplate that, I just wanted to ask our viewers to take a moment to, as we pause, I would ask you to, first of all, reflect on... that somber occasion but also remind yourself of the the kind of collective patriotism that we all felt right yeah and so I think you know this is an opportunity to kind of challenge folks in this moment of silence to think back to what that patriotism felt like and ask you know what it is that that keeps us from you know being able to experience that obviously traumatic things bring us together. It's something everyone is experiencing at the same time. And it does, unfortunately, but it does, it unites people because they have something in common. And so there were a lot of, it was like a time of patriotism, a time of more compassion for each other. So the question really, as you take this moment of silence, is ask yourself, what makes that evaporate? Why do we go back? Granted, it's, it's a, you know, it's a traumatic thing, but, but just ask yourself what, what keeps us from returning from some, to some level of patriotism, you know, and kind of that collective understanding that we're, you know, we're kind of all in this together. So as we observe this, let's not think about all the things that happened after that created more division, but just remember what it felt like to be united. Right, right. Let's start our moment of silence now. Thank you. Thanks for indulging us on that. So just wanted to observe that thing. You know, each year it seemed like it becomes less and less real. Yeah. Yeah. Right. Yeah, it does. It's not been twenty three years. It does. And, you know, I think that one of the things that I reflect on is how fortunate we are that war does not land on our borders. That's the, that's the first time since the civil war, um, or the, uh, actually I think it's the, the Mexican American war that, that war, cause it wasn't the Mexican American. Yep. That war has been on our borders. Okay. And, um, that's an aggressor has been on our borders. And, um, We're really, really fortunate because that, you know, there's a lot of, right now, there's a lot of conflict out there and people, their homes are not safe. I remember one of my closest friends, her name is Nyree, and she... She is Armenian and lived in Iraq because it's just, and I wish I understood it more. They were Christian Armenian, were pushed out of Armenia, lived in Iraq in Baghdad when the war started. And she was over at the house the other day, and we were sitting downstairs on the patio, and there was a loud boom. And I was like, oh, my goodness, did that frighten you or whatever? And she's like, Michelle, I was a teenager, and all we ever heard was boom. And you just get used to it, and you tone it out. Yeah. Um, you know, I can just imagine those that are in Ukraine and in, um, Israel and Palestine and, and other places where they are experiencing war. Right. Um, that, that is that no one should have to go through that. Yeah. No one should have to live through that. No one should have to be so, so, um... numb yeah that they don't right they don't notice so the unfortunate realities there always be conflicts and misunderstandings oh absolutely okay so so enough about all that somber yeah on to our topic of the day and this is something that you know we've talked about this uh in the past our subject for today is you know solving the problems with uh education and buy here pay here and of course that extends to lease your pay here in a similar way but it's like the um the buy here, pay here side, I think what prompted me to kind of bring this back around is we've talked about this in various ways in the past, okay, is this idea of, you know, how do you get education into the hands of more people and I think first you have to stop and just define I think one of the problems becomes sometimes what is education I mean what are we calling education yeah yeah and you know what it's funny um as as I stepped in to help you and we started going to conferences and meeting with people and talking to people um the the Primarily, vendors are the ones giving education. And when we would talk to vendors about that, they didn't want to touch the newbies at all. It's like, no, that is not something that we want to start coaching, consulting, whatever, the newbies, the people that are brand... spanking new in the industry. It's like they didn't want to go there. It's like, give him a year. Give him a whatever. Then we can talk to him. It's the avatar for Jim when I met him. It's shifted a little bit, but was primarily brand new dealers. Dealers that didn't know what... questions to even ask. And that was a topic that all the national associations, they're having a hard time getting to them and finding them. And so it's like, go to the conference, go to the conference, go to the conference. But not everyone can go to the conference. And so people have not been able to get education. Right. that that's convenient for them. But yes, I'm. Yeah. I think when you think about education, I'm just trying to figure out, and I've had conversation and listen, it's hard to talk about this stuff without thinking about people who might feel, you know, like this is some sort of accusation or, you know, I mean, it's really just, it's kind of a thing where people have different views on this. And I think the reason that I think Michelle and I, I know that Michelle and I are entitled to a voice on this that we have an opinion on it yeah we have the right to speak up on this I looked before we hopped on this morning michelle we've done three hundred and fifty five episodes of the buy here and it's free and there's no sponsor and there's there's no sponsor and it's accessible to everyone sure and there's within that is much of what you teach brand new dealers Yeah, that's true. And I think, but if you don't make it even about us and you don't, if you just think about the segment that is buy here, pay here, and you think about this kind of this idea that there may maybe, and let me just tell you, I'm, I'm bringing the subject around and traditionally when we've done these kinds of topics, we get almost nobody tunes into these, these particular subjects and that's okay. I mean, if it, if it turns out that dealers, cause what I'm really today speaking to dealers and if dealers say they're okay with it the way it is and they don't see a need to change anything, then, Then we can move on and leave it alone. But that's not what I'm hearing from dealers in our own circles. Well, first off, shout out to Butler Sanchez because they have education out there that's free. It's just, you know, you just pop in there. And so there's pieces of education that are free. And also a shout out to, there are vendors that have like, we really want to see education get to where it needs to go. I mean, I totally get that. What has made me question whether or not vendors are the only ones that can give good quality education is how many people have reached out to us to want to be mentors. And so it's like there are really great operators. There are really great experts. There are really great that want to be able to teach and want to be able to mentor and want to be there for dealers of smaller sizes or whatever and be able to give some of, which is very much the same energy that you have and that you've brought to this where it's like, I've been a dealer. I know the stuff that is hard. Yeah, well, yeah. And it doesn't mean that I have all the answers. I just often know where to find the people. And I certainly know a lot of the stuff that dealers wrestle with early, right? Trying to figure out, you know, where do I find this information? So I just think in the description for the broadcast this morning, I talked about that there's so much to learn in this industry and the price of not knowing those things, the mistakes that we can make in the buy here, pay here space can be so expensive that that, you know, I'd love to obviously help dealers avoid that. And so part of my work is always trying to help mitigate risk and help dealers identify the hazards. And you do it every Monday, Wednesday, Friday. We do it on the podcast, and we obviously do it directly with dealers. But I think if you take it outside the moment, because I think it's not to say that the model – that we have had for decades, all the time I've been around the automotive segment, the model that has been in place, it's not to say that it doesn't deliver some useful education. That's not what I'm saying. I'm more saying that, couldn't we do more and reach more people with an education platform or what? And obviously you and I have our own kind of solutions, but the bigger thing for me is just kind of, if we think about, take it out of Jim and Michelle, take it out of any one vendor in our industry and just say, how should we get education to dealers? Because traditionally the model has been, you kind of, you go to these conferences, that's the primary place that you go to, to get education, but we know you and I have been to conferences. I was going to conferences way back when I first started and participation in those tends to run, I would guess in the two to three percent range of dealers are going to be in attendance. And we've talked about that's like it's the golden five hundred for the most part. It's those that have been able to be reached through the other conferences, dealers talking to dealers. I mean, it's just like there's been really very little ability until social media really started up, but very little ability for a vendor to find a dealer or for a dealer to yeah so and there will there will always be a place for in-person interaction and education and you know like the upcoming dealer forum is outstanding I think when you look at the whole sort of generally it's often referred to as pay to play, right? It's like this idea that you're paying for a spot. And if you look at the roster of speakers, you have to ask yourself how many of those speakers that are presenting information are also in the exhibit hall as a vendor now or sponsor. So it doesn't, I'm not saying that's wrong. I'm simply saying it's, It's incomplete in terms of who it's going to reach. And I think, you know, as a dealer myself, you know, back going to the end as a manager before that, sitting in the workshops, they're often presented by, you know, some vendor who has a product for sale. It doesn't mean that there's not good education in there, but you kind of have to pluck the education. One of the things that I see is that the solution to the problem they're talking about is them. often that's what happens yeah that's that's very frequently what um um you know these let's it's it's uh education through here's all the problems right and here's your solution and that they're on the top of the list of solutions well or the only solution and let's Let's go through the math like this. Just go through the business that is, you know, an organization, an association of trying to put on event. These events, these hotels are expensive to spend a ton of money to get there. And they're counting on a certain amount of participation from dealers. Now, the vendor support is critical. Right? They, without the vendor support currently, because the alternative is to charge dealers and they already have a low participation, right? And so it's like, it's, it makes sense that you're going to have to support that sort of machine through vendor support. But does, but does having a booth in an exhibit hall or being a higher level sponsor buy you the right to be the presenter traditionally that's been the model I mean you know people would say because it really skews what what people are seeing then it does the dealers know that dealers not naive right they know when they go in a room that you know so and so is you know the ceo or whatever business development for so and so whatever again it doesn't mean that the education is not valid yeah okay that's not what we're saying I'm simply saying that when, when that's the education that is presented, it's, it's incomplete. Okay. And, and this is not about Jim. It's not just pick other coaches, educators across the industry. Like where would you go find the best people to speak to that particular subject period? Like even if they retire dealer who has no products to sell, like who would, who would be, you know, the people who could provide and deliver the best education. So that's one element is like the actual workshops that are presented and what kind of information we put in front of dealers. I think generally speaking, the dealers that I talked to, it's, it's hit and miss. It's like, sometimes you talk to a dealer and they say, yeah, it was, it was money well spent. I'm glad I came, you know, learned a few things I'm going to take back to my dealership. Wonderful. Well, it says an awful lot when, um, like I remember TIADA, um, a couple of years back that they had signs in the hallways that said, if your, if your teacher is pitching their product, call this number because it's, they, I think that a lot of the associations recognize that that is a problem. Yeah. yeah and look again and dealers complained about it too yeah yeah I'm saying though that I also see that if I'm if I'm a state association it takes it costs money to put on these events and I'm simply saying okay so you stay with that model and you keep having you know vendors maybe do your education I just think that still doesn't address the thing that at best, even if all those dealers that we talked to as they exited the conference, they said, yes, it was great. I got good value, got good education, something actionable. You're still only talking about three percent of the dealers at best. And so now how do you reach the others? Do you care to reach the others? I'm saying we just want to try to find solutions. Now, you got to monetize it. You can't. You and I, you got to get something for your time. I mean, you and I obviously. with all the time that we give to education. We give that freely with nothing. We don't expect anything in return. People get to know us. Well, I mean, heck, you've even spoken, most conferences that you speak at, it was just a more recent thing that you even put your phone number up there. It was like, I'm not here. I don't have, I don't have a booth. I haven't paid to be here. I'm here to teach. I do have a product, but I don't, I, yeah, I'm here to teach. We pay our own way. We pay our expense. We pay, we pay our own. And that's why we, that's one of the reasons why we don't go to conferences because it's time and money that comes out of our own pocket. And it's just like, we want to teach. And this is a great platform for us to be able to do that. We get to, you know, people can find us and, and the audience continues to grow. But yeah, And, you know, it's obviously in this environment, you're going to have to be kind of generic. You're not going to be specific to somebody's situation. But on that subject, I do have kind of a little aside. I heard from a dealer in Arkansas Monday after our broadcast asking some very specific questions. Oh, yeah. This is happening more and more and more and more, isn't it? And so the reason I bring that up is because I've asked for his permission to share his name. I want to bring the follow-up to that monday I recorded the answers to him specifically because I knew that others were going to have the same questions so I recorded that yesterday and I look forward to bringing that to the podcast in the future because it's an example of when we When we give specific education and there's no, there's no ask to buy anything. There's no, you know, we're not, we're not selling anything in that way. So we're just educating freely because we, so let's talk about why for a minute. Why, why do you and I, give this time to the education so you know as I said we become known of course we have a coaching company and so of course we become known through this channel right and we hope we build credibility in that um we also it helps us to be known in terms of that one of the areas was pretty evident about credibility that we've gained here that we can now utilize on behalf of dealers is the White Hat Way portfolio summary report that we've requested of all DMS providers. The response has been incredible, and we continue to work through that. You're going to see some of those dealers. You're going to see some of the DMS providers coming through and finishing that. Some of them are back and forth with us now and putting the finishing touches on it. But you will have that. So it's an example of where we can utilize our – collective, whatever you want to call it, uh, collective, um, sort of credibility that, uh, and we're trusted by many dealers. That's just clear. I mean, you haven't seen the survey results coming back from our V eight dealers, but the level of trust is high, high. So that's wonderful. That's what we've been working to do is to earn trust and just One of the ways you do that is make deposits, make deposits, make deposits. So we talk about that often in terms of a dealer earning the trust of their community. One of the ways we're doing is earning the trust of our community is by just making deposits and just educating and offering this stuff freely. But even this, our YouTube channel, we don't promote it. There's no SEO. We haven't paid for any SEO. Oh my gosh. Every time someone, we start talking to someone, we get... And it's like people go nuts. It's like you really, you haven't done any of the stuff. It's like, we know we're, we're busy. And, and yeah, we're just busy. It's what you would do. You would spend money to create SEO if your real objective was to monetize, right? Well, of course, we need to pay the bills. And of course, all of that. But our real objective is to help dealers be better. And I have one additional motivation on my side and we're sitting here on a white hat Wednesday talking about, if you think about what white hat ways meant to be and has become is it's, it's helping to create solutions first through education to be able to allow dealers and their customers to be more successful. You know, we talk about reducing the friction between, um, uh buyers and sellers in this case buy here pay here dealers and their consumers who finance with them but there's also just this idea that we're going to sort of infuse some level of trust between sellers and buyers so that's what white hat way is now you know working to achieve and so this is another example of when we come here and talk about how do we get education into the hands of more dealers now Vendors are welcome to support that effort. We're not saying vendors shouldn't be a part of it. They obviously have a lot of their own expertise and they have things that they can contribute. What we have to be mindful of is that the trust that has been established can be diluted. And we see it, Michelle, when we do surveys, we see the dealers say, yeah, I don't want vendors in the meetings. Well, and that's, and we're asked a lot. Yeah, to, to, and it's with the morning show, we, we had multiple vendors approach us and say, we want to sponsor, we want to sponsor, we want to sponsor. And we were like, no, not going to do it. And it's, you know, we're trying to figure out, because I will, and I think I have two comments here. And I think they might be from the same person, but one from YouTube, Rudy E. Yeah. Issue is that they have salespeople who do not know the products that well, in my opinion. Okay. Okay. And then the other, this Rudy. Probably the same Rudy. Yeah. There's nothing wrong with helping people and making money. That's true. And I think the other thing that comes to mind, you know, in that context is like when we're out there educating, one of the problems that we have in the buy here, pay here space, unlike sitting up here and doing a podcast for Ford dealers, is that not everybody does business the same in the buy here, pay here space. Like these strategies vary, right? right so the best we can do in educating especially through a channel like this is to provide fundamental foundational education that would be relevant to any dealer but also what I try to do is aim at Regardless of how the dealer chooses to do business pricing, you know, underwriting, regardless of how they choose to do any of those things, I'm trying to provide them the key pieces of information I think that would be helpful for them in making those decisions about how they want to do business. Right. So this is part of what and this thing I did with this dealer in Arkansas yesterday is an example that it's like I'm just trying to bring information. That is, I think, relevant and helps dealers make judgments for themselves because I want them to remain fiercely independent. Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. Absolutely. And, you know, one of the things that we've those of you who have been following us for a while, the morning show is basically something on the track of Buy Here, Pay Your Nation television. And we've had, we've had multiple events on that buyer pair nation television track. And that's where it's like, instead of an expo hall that we asked to ask vendors, put together a commercial. Right. And we will show your commercial to people, but you know, it's like, it's so if, if, if, and that's been something that we've been like, how do we, how do we make this work? Because we want to keep, products like the v-eight clean and so it's not it's not where you're going to come and you're spending your time getting pitched it's like getting pitched should be optional here's what I can tell you our v-eight dealers have nothing to be concerned about because we're gonna we're gonna do we're gonna follow their wishes yeah we're gonna do whatever it is that they would wish to do and so far what they're telling us is they don't want vendors they don't want to be pitched during uh yeah yeah And I don't, you know, it's a, it's an intimate setting. It's, it's a great place to be able to introduce somebody to, but that's not, that's not what we're doing. Those dealers are paying for that service. And so when they're in that room, they're there to, and so let's go back to the definition of education. So I've said this in the past, and I think this is probably an unpopular view, but you know what, Michelle, the older I get, the less I concern myself with being popular. So it's like, you know, it's like, so the unpopular view part of this is that, I think you have to define what is education. And I personally don't think of a V eight peer format is not education. I don't think of it as education. And I think that's some of where this problem comes from. It's just, it's like, this is a service and cause you're not educating. Well, there is the one, there is the newbies and that's kind of, you know, that one is education. Um, but they pay the same price. We just told them when they stepped in, look, it's this particular format because you guys don't have numbers to really compare to in the same way. You don't have, enough data to really be meaningful. So we do more coaching over there. But I think the point is with a peer service, you're putting dealers together. And is there learning that happens? Of course, they're learning from one another. But that's not the way I would define education. To me, education would be kind of in the context of training someone, standing in front of a room, standing in front of a camera, delivering education, delivering training that is going to be relevant. Coaching is, you consider that education. It's another service, but the problem you have with, the reason I wouldn't, You can put under that umbrella, but coaching is never going to reach the numbers of dealers that I'm talking about. And I kind of think that it's something that you've said many times before, that education is different than peer groups. It's a product. It's not an education. It's not teaching. it's a product of dealers learning from one another. But I think my own definition of education as somebody who's been an educator for a long time and I've done, you know, we've done all this stuff before I was ever doing podcasts. We were going to events and be asked to come in and do presentations. And so, you know, we're just out there coaching and teaching right in that scenario because that's what we're asked to do. But the, um, I think that's the part that is interesting and look this doesn't have to be jim delivering the education dealers can decide and they can certainly they can take surveys and decide what education is valid and useful to them that's up to them but I think what I'm really saying is just what's the mechanism So this is why I say when you – because today it wasn't about the problem. I mean, you can keep rehashing. It's the whole thing about – I love the thing from a management perspective is when you're just pointing out problems without offering solutions, you're just complaining. And this is not meant to be a complaint. This is meant to begin to identify the problem in a way that allows us to – carve out the best possible solutions. I think what I'm suggesting to you today is we've got to find, and obviously for us, that's going to be virtual delivery. That's going to be online education in order to reach these folks who are outside that golden five hundred. That's something that we are seeing because we have, and this is just, you know, call the vendors too out there. We talk to and our audience is much larger than the golden five hundred it's and so you know we we survey dealers that are coming into v-aid or questions and it's like are you a member of your state association and that number is growing of people that are not right um and and so if they're not then they found us as education and are like I'm thirsty for education and The second part to that is that most dealers that we talk to don't have the time or the resources to To go to a conference. And then the next part of that is many dealers that go to a conference, it's like fresh blood in the water. Yeah. And it's very, very off-putting. Mm-hmm. Right. Um, and so, you know, you can, you, you do one or two, but it's like, I don't know about you, but when I go to this, the people try to reach and it's like, just looking, just looking, just looking, just looking because it's just, it's, it's, it's fresh blood in the water. And so, um, you know, I mean, I, I, I don't know what the, what the, uh, the, um, what the, um, the answer is for conferences. I don't, I, I, I can see that, that conference attendance, um, you know, may, may go up, but there's a lot of people out there that we're still not reaching. And, and that there are, is a, is a massive percentage of those, a massive person. Cause you were saying the five golden five hundred, that's how many percentage, um, There's a massive percentage of dealers out there that don't have the time or the resources to go to a conference. And so that's, that's what, you know, that's let's, let's get people education, get things in front of them. It also bears mentioning that there's a massive percentage of those dealers who really aren't seeking education, right? They just kind of think they got it figured out and they're brave entrepreneurs and they're just marching ahead and, kind of figured it out and they're willing to make those mistakes and pay those prices. And that's okay. You'll never, you'll never reach all of them. I'm simply saying that when you, um, when you get to the place where you've got, um, the ability to get that stuff in front of more people, because the other problem that you and I see in social media is, Look, especially the younger generation, they're going to go to YouTube and Facebook and ask questions and they get some good answers. It's just the problem becomes, and this is where, you know, what is the definition of education? Like who really is qualified to offer the best, most comprehensive education and most useful, like verifiable, you know, education. Because you go to social media and you'll see a dealer ask a question, young dealer. Oh, this is why we've got Steve Levine coming on the show next Friday. Not this Friday, but next Friday. And Jim and Steve, Steve, those of you guys who know, Steve is, I've got his book right here. Winning the fight. And it's from Ignite. He does Compliance Unleashed where he's an attorney. And so go ahead. Yeah, so a week from Friday. This coming Friday, we have Ben Clifford come and talk about counsel. The following Friday, we have Steve Levine. And by the way, we need to make sure our viewers who are tuning in know that we're dropping Mondays. Oh, yeah. We're just doing two podcasts a week until further notice. Okay, so back to... Back to the thing about... The thing is, you're not going to reach all the dealers. And when you go to social media, there are a lot of dealers in there, but they'll ask a question and they'll get answers from both sides. It's like as many responses there are is almost as many different answers as there are. And everybody loves their own answer. But what you don't know is the rest of the story about how they do business and how much experience they've got in the business and a lot of those kind of things. So sometimes people are getting, there's no shortage of information over there. The problem is knowing which advice to follow. Yeah. Right? Yeah. And so this is why when you talk about education, and obviously all of this is being said in September of twenty twenty four when you've got Brent Carmichael is going to. Oh, yeah. Over education and just really have a lot of respect for him. There was one another comment, Rudy, and I get this. I get this. And this is something that we talk about frequently. Mm hmm. Value of those conferences isn't really the classes as much as it is meeting dealers who are in the trenches trying to get better. Nowhere in that sentence do they say vendors. Yeah. And so meeting other dealers. And that's generally true that dealers, you know, you'll sit at a lunch table and meet another dealer and talk about this and that, which is part of the value of the event that's coming up in New Orleans. I think people generally had great things to say about that. And we love it. That's a wonderful format. that particular event will have one or two percent of the dealers at best that will attend and it's the same dealers it's not so often yeah it's not that it's not valuable that's not what I'm saying at all it's just that it's not reaching well and and those dealers that come that that attend these frequently they um you know they do gain they there's new stuff and they get better because there are some dealers that understand that when you go and you learn and you get new things and And the connection, because I, in no way are we saying don't ever go to a live conference at all, because there is, there is education. And there is that, that one piece of connecting with other dealers, meeting new dealers, you know, having the, the, the lunchroom table conversations when you just go find a seat somewhere with people that you don't know. And then the conversations is, you know, as you get going, it's just that so stinking value, stinking value. Yeah. Yeah. And then let's talk about the expo hall just for a minute, just to make sure people know the other reason I would say go to the expo hall. And in addition to the thing that Rudy mentioned, you know, networking and chatting with other dealers and learning a little bit that way is useful. Going to the vendor hall and the expo hall is highly useful if you're a dealer who's ready to make a software switch and you want to go meet the software people and look at the demos. There's no place else you can really go that you're going to have a chance to sit and view those people. meet the, you know, view the demos, meet the people in person and, and that kind of thing. And then you may discover a solution in the expo hall that you had no idea existed. You know, there's just so many things, so many tools and technology and things out there now that if dealers don't get there and stay on the cutting edge, then you run the risk of being behind. Now, if you're in that golden five hundred, then maybe you're saying, I like being in the golden five hundred. I like being only the one percent that goes over there and gets the education and You know, it gives me a tremendous competitive advantage. No doubt. No doubt. You get, you, you learn and you stay up to date and you stay compliant and that gives a tremendous competitive advantage. We certainly get that. I'm simply saying one of the things that I want to do for the remainder of my career is continue to work. to get education in the hands of more people who will never set foot in a conference hall. That's our, that's one of our driving goals is to be able to do that. And we are, yeah, we are doing it. We are doing it. And then, and then finding new, you know, as we develop new ways to for that education to reach the masses. And it doesn't have to just be our education. No, not at all. Yeah. It's just, there's so much good stuff out there, but, and sorry, I don't, but negates everything. I just, there's so much good education out there and there's a huge need for people to be able to access it on their own time and at their own pace, at their own need. It's not just going to this and this and this, the conferences or whatever, or going to a live webinar or that kind of stuff. Dealers, we recognize that dealers are busy and we recognize that dealers don't have, especially when you're newer, that it feels like... even though we know that it's, you know, it's a, it's a worthwhile investment to invest in your education, but it feels like I'm barely making ends meet. And so, you know, cause you're on that hamster wheel. So we're just, we are working really hard and we invite. that are educators to, it's like how let's, let's collaborate, let's create, let's, let's find a way that we don't have to create Island and Island and Island and Island. And that we're saying that we're the best or whatever is just like, let's do this thing. And, and that's one of the things that we're working on creating. We, and we talked about it bazillion years ago and we, And we can only do so much at a time, but it's still there is the platforms and the whatever for dealers to be able to find the stuff and be able to easily access the answers to their questions from people that are credible mentors or educators. Yeah, so let me hit folks with a couple of adjectives. I think as we move forward, then I think what people can expect to see out of us is, first of all, let me just say that Michelle is very smart. She's learned a ton about buy here, pay here in the few years we've been working together in this industry. I have twenty-plus years of going all over the country and working with buy-here-pair dealers. But guess what? Michelle and I don't know it all when it comes to buy-here-pair. There's more stuff to know. There's more stuff to learn. And we continue to work to do that. And we're learning stuff every day. And we can bring stuff. We can bring experts. We never have to know it all. We just have to know the people. And it's the more dealers you talk to and the more dealers you work with, you learn something new. It's like, well, there's another way to do it that works. And there's another way to do it that works. Yeah. In fact, Rudy, who's sitting in today, he's one of our V-Ape members, and he has the best questions. He's been in an independent retail business, and we've got a couple of dealers that remind me of Rudy where they're smart, and they have their own business experience, and now they're asking the right questions, I think, when it comes to buyer-payer. So back to the adjective. Going forward, I think what you can expect to see is that we're going to be collaborative. Oh, yeah. We're going to be creative. Uh-huh. We're going to be generous. We're going to be generous with the education that we bring. Right. And so this is I always pride myself in being creative and and we're going to continue to be trustworthy that you can trust that we have dealer's interests in mind. We are. And just, you know, for all of those out there in listener land, we are like always looking for people to collaborate with because there is so little sense. it's nonsensical to try to recreate a wheel. Yeah. It just, it makes no sense at all. It's very inefficient and it's, yeah. And, and time, money, all of the things. And so we are in, we are in a very collaborative, you know, open to that. The, the one, the one is, it's kind of like a, um uh yeah I was just thinking about when we found this house that the the the landlord um because we weren't planning on being here for more than nine months he's like there's two rules no pets, no smoking. And it's like, okay, okay. Well, there are, you know, we collaborate, but again, we, we ask that your solution not be the only solution too. And that, that, that through collaboration that people are able to choose and, you know, make, make educated choices on where they want to go and how they want to do things. And so we, We're not going to be creating things that have one end road. And so there's different pieces that it's like, well, we do this, but this is what we need. And we do this, but this is what we need. And it has to lead to our product. And that's a problem for us. That's not really education. That's not, that's, well, that's, that's, and, and, and that's what, that's, that kind of like full circle back to what we're talking about is when education becomes a sales funnel, that's a problem. Yeah. And can it still deliver some value? It can, but it's just, it's diluted. Okay. And let me say though, that we have this podcast and yes, we, I guess you could call it a sales funnel. So let's be honest. I mean, the podcast, I guess could be called a sales funnel. we're educating, we're educating, but it's, but it's, it's like, yeah, you can go and talk to this person or you can go and talk to this person. You can engage this person or this person. But I mean, yeah, it does. Listen, listen to our podcast for more than twenty minutes and then come back and answer the question whether we've created a sale. Yeah. Yeah. So it's like, so you got to really pay. I just, it's just, you know, to me, it's one of those things that I, I, I watch. I, I, it's, it's like, okay, When we go to conferences, that's to me like, you know, we think frequently about our government and lobbyists and how that makes things dirty or kind of crunchy or just murky. Michelle's got a new word, crunchy. Crunchy, crunchy. It's like, oh, when you move, it's like crack, crack, crack, crack, crack. It's not right. There's something not smooth about it. And, um, I would, I, I would say that there is a similarity between lobbyists and government and vendors and conferences education so that there's, there is something that's kind of crunchy about it sometimes. Okay. And, and, um, so. I think your perspective is relevant. Somebody who's been outside the space. Yeah. Yeah. And you have a kind of a different dog in the fight, so to speak, but. you know, it's like, like Michelle says, of course we're, we make our living in coaching. That's, you know, obviously how we pay the bills. I think what, what we're really just saying is going forward. Take it away from Jim and Michelle for a minute. Don't make it about Jim and Michelle. The question is, how do you get education into the hands of more dealers? Useful, credible, trustable education. And this is what we're really just trying to do because I think it also serves the consumer when we do that. When dealers can learn to get more efficient in their business, potentially charge the consumer less, the consumer becomes more successful. This is part of the math that we're bringing forward and trying to help dealers see that maybe we can get more efficient in these areas and we can when we perform better, we're going to serve more people. You know, we're going to, we're going to have more successful customers who repeat, you know, and send referrals and all the kind of stuff. So this is the part that, you know, where my work is I'm, I want to move past opinions, folks. I just want to move past opinions. And what you get in social media is a lot of opinions that aren't tied to anything factual and, And if you want to make your business decisions based on that, then you kind of get what you deserve there. So I think we ought to just put facts in front of people and let them make their own decision. And so that's kind of what we're working on. And then the other element in that is facts, and it's also funnels. And so recognizing as you're, as you're being educated by vendors and you know, that can be us as well is that is the education leading only to one solution. And is it validated? And is it validated? Yeah. Is it, is somebody standing up spouting opinions and suggestions? And the whole thing that Rudy was talking about with salespeople and stuff, and I get salespeople get, I, oh my goodness, when I worked in the tech space, I, we had to like keep things a secret from the salespeople because it was just like they were off selling the thing and it's like it's not even out of out of framing and so they're promising this and they're promising that and they're promising the other and it's just like stop we shouldn't even talk about these things but they want to see something shiny and and all that kind of stuff but But that, you know, I, and I forgot where I was going, because I was just like remembering what that felt like. It was so, so frustrating with, oh, and it's that where I was going was, you know, what we have seen is that sometimes salespeople get a little too um, aggressive and just make shit up. It's like we, we, we got a, there was a conference a little while ago that it was, we got a message from a vendor and then the competitor that was at the conference was saying that vendor was going out of business. And that's what they were telling everybody is they're going out of business in the room, the salespeople were danger. Will Robinson, right? It's like, is it credible? That's how people get sued. And that the, you know, the other, the vendor that was said they're going out of business immediately reached out to us and they were like, this is not true. And we weren't at the conference. So, you know, we, we couldn't hear that. But the problem was, is that vendor was not represented. right right and so it was this word against this thing and you know and it's just it's like and not every vendor wants to attend every conference and that doesn't mean that they you know that yeah so I think most folks are going to see through negative selling when you're when we're standing in front of a and bashing a competitor I think most people are going to see through that so I think I hope so yeah I think you know credibility suffers as a result and people tend to pay the price for that sort of thing so It kind of works itself out, but we don't want to see anybody get sued. We don't want to see false information being thrown around. That's absolutely true. I think that we've pontificated enough. I think it's time for a nap. It's time for my Wednesday nap. Oh, my goodness. It's a fun idea. I would love a nap. I didn't sleep well last night. All right, everybody. Thanks so much for joining us on Wednesday. It's our White Hat Wednesday. And, you know, listening to us chat about the things that matter to us. And on Friday. Benjamin Flippard is going to come and talk about cash closures. And specifically. how to measure and manage from cashflow and balance sheets. Right on. All right. So everybody have a great Wednesday and we will see you back on Friday and talk some more about cashflow. Thanks again so much for joining. Thanks.
