Wake up, Buy Here, Pay Here people. It's a beautiful day. Go grab yourself another cup of joe and say hello to Jim and Michelle Rhodes on the Buy Here, Pay Here morning show. Take it away, you two. Hey, good morning. Hey, welcome. Happy... Friday. Friday, thank you. And it's like the thirteenth, fourteenth, fifteenth, sixteenth, seventeenth, yeah. Yep, welcome y'all. It is so hard to believe that we're like so close to the end of January, already stepping into February. There's an awful lot going on. Um, we have a inauguration coming up on Monday and, um, just, there's just, it just seems like there's just an awful lot. And it's also Martin Luther King jr. Day on inauguration day. Does that normal? So Monday's the inauguration. Are we annexing Canada on Tuesday? The Gulf of Mexico. We don't see much news, but the news streams across social media. I saw something from Jack Carter and he's like, it's turn and burn Gulf. I was like, there you go. Um, yeah, I mean, maybe it's up for the highest bidder. I don't know. Maybe Mexico who owns it. And you know, how can you, how can you, uh, that's, that's, I'm a big fan of their bacon, but I can get that anyway. Canada or Mexico. Oh, Canadian bacon. Oh, okay. I was like on the golf and there is no golf of Mexico up in Canada. Exactly. A couple of quick announcements. We've got a V eight mastermind coming up on the thirtieth. There is still time for those of you out there looking at a V eight group. We've got still some meetings to happen in January. So there's still time depending on your group. Yeah. And masterminds are only available available to V eight plus. right right so um that's our v eight plus membership but that's uh but you can do either choose a home group or do v eight plus which is extra content like masterminds and and other things like that and I socialized last night the idea of doing v eight focus groups and at least among our members the interest is strong and we're going to take it to the vendor world and yeah yeah we'll see how that how that works out and it's uh it's basically a focus group for a vendor or a product and only people that do not currently have the product would be part of the focus group so that they can show their demo and then get good feedback and questions about what it is that they're bringing to market. We'll be introducing that opportunity. And that will also be a V-A-T Plus opportunity, too. Okay. Shall we? Yeah, I think that we shall. We've got with us today Mr. Jeff Martin from NIA. Good morning, Jeff. Good morning. Thanks for having me. You're so welcome. We did a recording earlier this week with him for something that we broadcast later. And so, you know, we're like getting to be regulars. So, yeah, we were discussing like backgrounds and all of those kind of fun things from, you know, the last time we met. And it's just like, oh, we all kind of look like we're in the same studio just about. So, yeah. We have the same interior designer, I can tell. Yeah. So, uh, yeah, unfortunately we had a technical snag in trying to bring in, uh, Paul Folletti. We were recording a conversation around the, the transfer of, uh, first of all, Brent Carmichael coming over as executive director from NCM. So we look forward to having Paul join and record his part of that same conversation. And we'll bring that to our audience. That will be recorded content that we'll just drop on one, on one of the Fridays for, uh, the morning show. Yeah. So. That'll be coming up. So I look forward to getting that rescheduled and find the time to bring that half the conversation. But yeah, Jeff, we wanted to have you on and get an update, of course, from NIADA. A lot of stuff. We're into the new year and our first chance to really chat with you in that way since the new year started. So why don't we just start with kind of you can give us an idea of what kind of the top initiatives are going into the year. Sure, yeah. Well, first of all, again, thanks for having me. And before we talk about the beginning of And I heard you earlier say it's the seventeenth. It's crazy. We're halfway through January already. One of the things that I do want to touch on is we just closed out twenty twenty four and very excited about the way twenty twenty four went. As you guys know, we've talked about this in the past. We kind of had some some housekeeping that we needed to do with the association. I'm happy to report that the association is is financially healthy. So we're in a position where we can really start focusing on growth. And hopefully continuing to build on some of the things that the past administration have done but really start focusing on taking care of our members. And so that kind of leads us into twenty twenty five. Certainly our focus this year is going to be to you had mentioned earlier, Brent Carmichael coming on board. We've been looking at kind of growing and expanding our education footprint in this space. Obviously, we've had the twenty groups for quite some time now. We're really going to be in growth mode with our twenty group program. We're also going to be bringing back the Certified Master Dealer program, which is something that NIEDA has kind of held as a hallmark for a long period of time. And then it kind of went into a hiatus for a couple of years. We're going to bring that this year to the current Certified Master Dealers. And then certainly we'll be looking to bring on some new dealers as well. I think that program is going to launch in August. And then we have the boot camps that we're very excited about. We're working with our state affiliates to introduce different training sessions that will probably be day long training sessions where we'll partner with the states. or bring more education out to the dealer members of the association. So that's probably our initiative in Q one is to really start growing those areas along with that. And we've talked about this before is making sure that we continue to be the voice. And I would kind of say the responsible thing that the association has is being the voice for the industry and So we'll be bringing on some, uh, some talent to help us with, um, our, uh, governmental relations, our lobbying. Last year we brought on Hans Scarborough, uh, a lobby firm out of Washington, DC. They've been doing a phenomenal job in making connections and helping us, uh, There's a lot of new faces in Washington, D.C. after the election. So we've been spending some time getting to know some of those faces, certainly spending some time with, you know, the now that they have the Speaker of the House in place, we're starting to see who some of the leadership is going to be in some of those committees. And so our lobby team has been helping us there. And we're going to build that out a little bit more as well. And then the other thing that I'd mentioned, it's going to be, it's going to kind of be new for us, but it's not really new for NIEDA is we're going to bring NIEDA TV back. We're going to be launching that actually this month. We're going to have a little bit different perspective. What, what we're looking for is NIEDA TV to, Tell what's going on in the industry, but through the eyes of the members of the association or through the eyes of dealers. A lot of industry experts out there and they play an unbelievably important role. But a lot of times when we talk about different issues and how they impact the industry, dealers a lot want to hear from other dealers. And you guys know that very well. That's why they're dealers. And we're going to do something similar to that within IEDATV, where a lot of it will be focused on what's going on in the industry. How can we help you? But more importantly, what are other dealers doing to face or, you know, to overcome these challenges? And so we're excited about that. Those are a couple of the initiatives that we have coming out in twenty twenty five. So the NIA TV, that's exciting. You know, we we started by BHPH Nation TV and it's kind of like the platform that everything kind of runs on. Are you guys looking at like more podcast form or are you looking at just interview form? And is there like going to be a cadence to it? Or is it just something that people get on the website and they can see different things that that has been recorded? Yeah, it's a good question. So it will definitely be prerecorded. Think of it more like your nightly news in about a ten to fifteen minute segment. So it really is another platform for us to get a message out that we're already pushing out there through, whether it's our dashboard, which is our weekly email that we send out every Wednesday, or it's our magazine that we send out every month. We have a lot of really good content in there. And what we're finding is that people just digest or take in that content in different ways. And some people, in fact, a lot of young people, I have two young daughters and they like to view videos. all of their content in video. And so it's, it's, it's going to be in video format, but it's going to be a lot of the content that we're already producing as far as like the headlines. And then the interview section of the interview style will be very similar to what you guys are doing here, except that it'll be exclusively through the eyes of not exclusively, but primarily through the eyes of dealers. Awesome. So we the thing about people viewing it on demand and what we learned about our podcast, Jeff is you know, Certainly many times more here as a recording because people are on the go. These are busy car dealers. But also some told us recently that they play it back on like one and a half or two times speed. I guess because I speak too slowly. I'm not sure what that's about. That's kind of that's kind of the way people consume media. It's kind of on the go and, you know, in the car and got a short drive or whatever. And so they're trying to educate and right to stay connected. So I think I love this. I do. We got a hello from Robbie Case. I believe Robbie's in Alabama. Right, Jeff? Yes. Love Robbie Case. Yeah. Yeah. well that's exciting news I like you know for for the things that you were talking about that's like the new thing um really because I don't think that I've I don't think I've been in the industry since niada tv was active it's probably been around it's just not anything they didn't promote it in the same way so you haven't seen it but uh but Yeah, that's good news. That's, you know, obviously the virtual platform and on-demand kind of content is what we're seeing dealers respond to. And so I just think it helps. And we're always amazed when people find the stuff from way back, you know, stuff that we put out there on a platform from some time ago. But I think for you guys, it's really it's about membership, membership. And we're always trying to encourage dealers to get find your state association, get plugged in over there. Some of our listeners don't realize that a state membership includes in every state. Right, Jeff, if you are a member of your state association, that includes your national membership. Yes. Yeah. So it's a dual membership. And so once you join your state association, if the state association is affiliated with NIDA, you're automatically a member of NIDA. You know, kind of to your point, Jim, you know, we have a number of states who will be going into their legislative session. Really, gosh, some of them will be starting this week and some have already started. You know, that's really the state associations play such a critical and important role for the industry. But primarily, it's making sure that they're watching the legislation, what's going on at their state capitals, obviously introducing new legislation that will be advantageous. to the industry, there couldn't be a better time. And I don't mean like a better time ever. I mean, like a better time right now to be a part of that state association, because the strength that you have when you go down to the Capitol to be able to say we have X number of members that are supporting this association just gives credibility to anything that you're working on at the legislative session. And so couldn't encourage their dealers out there. You're not a part of your state association anymore. I would encourage you not only to join the State Association for the benefits and services that they give, but just to help that voice. And if you care about the industry, you've got to be a member of your state association. Yeah, absolutely. Real quick, Corinne, good morning. This is from pastime. Corinne, she's up early. Very exciting news for NIAID. Great job, Jeff. I, you know, we are advocates for NIADA. And it's interesting, you know, we've pulled like our membership in V-AID. And there are still a lot of people that are active and that are plugged in that have not joined yet. And it's interesting. It is, as advocates of joining your state association, it is probably the best money that you can spend for what it gives you in access to education, access to legal, access to the new things that are happening, and also adding your voice to what happens on your Capitol Hill, like you said, and nationally. I think that reputation just by adding your members dollars for that membership supports that representation out there at the national level which is so important because there's some big stuff happening you know there's always something going on that affects the used car industry but you know there's just a ton of stuff ton of dialogue with cfpb and there's just a you know it's a it's a time that we we want to be part of an association that has collective strength to be able to to go and represent us well and jeff you guys are doing a great job and I got to circle back to the thing about The financial health of the association last year, that hasn't always been true in recent years. So we just know that that's a nice step because you can certainly serve a lot more people when you're financially healthy yourself, right? And so I think that's a really positive thing and you're to be commended for getting that in place. Absolutely. Well, I appreciate that, but you guys know it's a team effort. We've got a great board that is focused on making sure that we're financially responsible. We've got fantastic vendors and sponsors who support the association and then the dealer members as well. We just have to make sure that when those dollars come to us, we're being responsible with those dollars so that we can provide the service that we should be providing out there for all of our members, our dealer members, our associate members. I saw Corinne's name pop up there earlier. She's an unbelievable advocate for the industry and has done yeoman's work in a number of states in helping state executives understand legislation that is out there that would be detrimental to the industry. And we've talked about this numerous times. I mean, that kind of big tent mentality, the more people that we have pulling the wagon in the same direction, the more effective we're going to be. So I appreciate those comments, but it is a team effort, and I can't thank all the people that are part of the association. Well, it is a team effort, but it also takes great leadership to get those things taken care of. And it's not that the leader has to know all the things, but the leader just knows how to pull the right people together and to get the right answers. So it's okay. We expect you to be modest, Jeff. That's right. You hire a bunch of really smart, talented people People and then you get out of their way. And that's that's what I'm good at. I'm good at getting out of their way. That's awesome. So any other initiatives that we talk about? I told you before we started, I thought it'd be fun to have our listeners get to know Jeff Martin a little bit more today. So so I want to go there. But before I do, I just if there's any other initiatives or things going on at any idea that you want to talk about. Well, I mean, the thing that I'm probably, you know, what's kind of front and center for us right now, obviously, is we opened up the registration for our convention on Wednesday. Very excited about that. June twenty third through the twenty fifth out in Las Vegas. You changed the dates because it's the same time every year. It's always been on my birthday. And this year it's not. Well, we used to do that just to celebrate your birthday. I know. I know. Even though I got thrown out with a cake. Well, I'll tell you, we try really hard to stay off of Father's Day, and it's not always possible. Next year, we're going to be in Colorado or in Denver, and it is going to be back on Father's Day. But we're trying really hard to stay off of that. We're going to keep that footprint in June. And this year, we're going to have five tracks again. We're going to have over one hundred and seventy exhibitors in the exhibit hall. We're going to we're going to focus again on that retail management. compliance, buy here, pay here. I think those are all very important. You'll see this year, last year, we really transitioned to a lot more um dealers presenting and dealers on panels and you'll see even more of that this year our surveys just continue to come back and tell us that dealers learning from dealers is uh is something that has just been been received very well from our attendees so you'll see more of that we anticipate eight hundred dealers out there this year that'll be about twelve hundred members of course we'll crown our national quality dealer of the year a lot of exciting things going on if you're an independent space as a dealer, as a vendor, if you're just anywhere in that kind of ecosystem, you should definitely mark your calendar and plan on being out in Vegas June, June, June, June, June, June, June, June, June, That's correct. We're moving away from Vegas and we're going to be in Denver. We are. Yeah. One of the things we're looking at is is, you know, we've got members all over the country. Vegas is a fantastic place and it's a great place to have a convention. But we're looking at kind of rotating the the convention from kind of the West Coast to, you know, in the middle of America and then somewhere maybe out more on the East coast. I've got to be careful because when I say East coast, sometimes I'll say like Nashville and people like that is not the East coast, but just kind of rotate it so that, you know, we're, we're, um, giving all of our members an opportunity to attend and not always having to fly to the same location. I love that because, I mean, you know, when we talk to dealers, the time away and the cost of travel and the cost of, that is a factor for a lot of them. So I love that, you know, finding ways to be able to bring it to the dealers or closer to the dealers is fantastic. And that time zone adjustment for our East Coast folks is tough, you know. Yeah. Four or five days is convenient. Well, I know when we do the podcast, when we're there, it's just like crap. Right. Yeah. No, I totally agree with you. You're coming from the East Coast. I mean, it's really an extra day either on the front end or the back end and sometimes both. And we tried to be very respectful of that time as well. You'll see on this year on Thursday, it ends a little bit sooner. And the idea there is to allow people to be able to fly out that afternoon if they need to and not make the event quite as long as it's been in the past. That was one of the things we've heard from a lot of dealers anyway, is that it's just hard to be away from their dealership that long. I mean, we have day passes. We have things that we're trying to do to accommodate that. But some of it is just to make sure that we're listening to our members. I do want to mention one thing that's really fun. So we have probably ten or fifteen people who have already registered since Wednesday. We have something that's new for us this year. We partnered with AutoZone and AllData to offer a supercar driving experience. So we're going to draw ten names every month. We're going to draw ten names from the people who have registered or anybody who is a paid registrant. And you're going to have an opportunity to go and experience the supercar driving experience, which is to drive some souped up, you know, fancy car for ten or fifteen laps at a closed course there in Las Vegas. So we're excited about that. Also, it helps us to encourage people to register for the event sooner. So the sooner you get registered, you're in the drawing. Every time we do a drawing, you'll be in there. Yeah. This isn't on the track that the NASCAR track, is it? It's not at the NASCAR track. It's at a closed track that the company that we've partnered with. The reason I'm asking is we introduced Brent last year to someone that we know very well. Well, he works with us that is an exec at Allegiant Air, and they got talking about NASCAR, and it was just like we had to sit back and just let them go. Brent's like, hey, this is really cool. He says, anytime you want to come. When you said race cars, I was like, I wonder if. That's fantastic. We're going to get to know Jeff Martin, but now we get to know a little something about Brent Carmichael. He's an avid NASCAR guy. He's an avid NASCAR guy. That's something he definitely gets excited about. That all sounds really exciting. That's great. I would guess. I've never sat at the registration desk or been a part of enrolling these folks, but I would guess A lot of the dealers wait, and you have probably a lot of enrollment right there at the end, which means you're going to have less chance of drawing one of those seats. So probably I'd get in early. I'd get in there early, get registered early. You want to anyway for hotel discounts and all this stuff. Well, yeah. And I mean, look, so we have early bird registration. I think it cuts off May twenty third. So it's five hundred and forty five dollars to join before that. After that, it's seven hundred and forty five dollars. And if you wait, you join on site. It's eight hundred and forty five dollars for members. So it's a pretty easy formula. Be a member of your association. Register early. Yeah, absolutely. Well, for a lot of folks that that three hundred dollars they could save by registering early, that could be, you know, slot machine money. So, you know, I mean, you say that, Jim, but in reality, that's that is your dues. Right. Like most state associations, there's three hundred dollars. If you register early for convention, you pay for your dues in your state association. good point yeah and the value is always there I mean hearing from dealers on stage is one thing chatting with dealers at lunch and you know just fellow members you're doing what you do I always say that you know as a former dealer myself I just know a lot of times those nuggets and connections that you make you know in the hallways and at the breaks is just uh is also high value that's hard to explain but yeah we definitely encourage people to be there and get registered early get out there Absolutely. Absolutely. That's all sounds. I perused the website yesterday and was just like, oh, you know, the lineup for education is, and I was like, how the heck did you get Darla to teach? It wasn't cheap. He's our highest paid speaker. I bet. I bet. I bet. I was excited about that. Well, I will tell you, Michelle, so she did this exact same presentation at our Buy Here, Pay Here dealer forum. And it... It had so many attendees that we actually had to ask people to go to a different room. And then the remarks that we got back from our survey afterwards, we almost had no choice except to have Darla do this presentation again because it was so positive. That's awesome. Adrian, good morning. Buenos dias. Michelle and Jim. Jeff Martin is the man. I don't know about that. He was a buy-your-pay-here dealer. He is, yeah. So that makes a nice segue, you know, St. George and that area where they are, that's big golf country. So I want to ask you, Jeff, are you a golfer? Do you enjoy the game of golf? I have lost a lot of golf balls. If that qualifies. See, now success in golf does not equate to enjoyment unless you're someone that's like, I have to win or I have to. So do you enjoy golf? Oh, absolutely. I mean, look, I would say it's almost with anything in life. You know, it's the people that you're with that really makes the difference. And I'm so fortunate. I've got a number of really, I've got some great golf buddies. That's awesome. Yeah. So who's the worst golfer? I'm kidding. Don't answer that. He looks like he wants to. I actually could answer that. I won't use the name, but I'll tell you that I went golfing one time with a state representative. And he, on the very first, and he told us he hadn't golfed in a long time. On the very first tee, he hit the ball, but the head of the golf club came off. And actually went further than the ball. Oh, boy. But he was awesome. It was a great time. Yeah, that's really fun. We love golf, and neither one of us are good. And I feel like it's a successful game if I don't lose a ball. Yeah. So, and I, and I just say about the game, I just, I refuse to take it seriously. Like that's just kind of my motto going into it. Right. We've golfed with people that are like, no, no, that's out of bounds. It's like by whose rule. And by whose scorecard. I don't even have a card. If you ever get to a point and you think you're good, you go play with someone like Paxton, right. Yeah. And he'll play in flip-flops and, you know, beat you by a fourteen or, you know, Jeff Baker. I mean, so anytime you think you're doing okay, go play with one of those guys. It's like you've got too much time on your hands. You must be practicing a lot. Right. There's some very good golfers out there in our group. I think that to me is a sign that they're not working hard enough. If they're really good at golf. We've only gone like once or twice a year for the last few years. Cause it's just like, there's no time. We're such bad golfers. Yeah. Uh, so I'm guessing somebody does what you do and have, you were Texas for many years. So you've probably played some really fantastic golf courses. Got a favorite. Anything come to mind? So Spanish Oaks is a private course here in Austin. I've had the privilege of having an opportunity to play that a couple of times with, uh, um, Bob Lankenship, who's a great member of the association. That's probably the, it's certainly the most challenging course I've ever done. That's probably the nicest course I've ever played. I didn't get to play when Texas had their convention at the JW Marriott. Yeah, that's one that was touted as a PGA course. It's supposedly pretty popular. And I haven't played that one. I thought that might be on your list. If you can hit them straight, that course is not that difficult. Okay. I hit one straight once. That's the problem. Yeah, I could have done that. um I have a question what is your first concert you ever went to wow first concert I ever went to I was uh probably george straight and I think it was probably because my parents probably couldn't find a babysitter I'm not exactly sure yeah yeah yeah I think I would say george straight so you're a country fan I well I kind of like all genres I'm probably country but maybe a little bit more blues and jazz yeah he's in that area of texas where there's a lot of great music all has been over the years and uh so yeah austin is it austin um city lights that city limits yeah yeah so great venue yeah so where'd you grow up jeff where's where'd you go to high school So I went to high school. I grew up in Franklin, Texas, and that's where I went to high school. It was a little to a school at the time, about fourteen hundred people in my town. I graduated with forty four. There you go. Yep. So he's, he knows. Wow. Yeah. Wow. I, yeah. Now my school sounds big because mine's like a hundred and thirty in my class. Mine was like five hundred and something. Yeah. I grew up in Seattle. Yeah. So, yeah. But they were probably serious about football when you were in school. Yes. Any, yes. If you're from Texas, you're serious about football. I've learned this. Yeah. It's, yeah. It's good stuff. So when I was young, my dad told me that I could either when you're a kid, you can either work or you can play sports. And then the only other option is to get in trouble. And so I either had to be working or playing sports. And so I played every sport I could play because like working where I grew up meant that you're either hauling hay or pitching watermelon or fixing fence. And my senior year, I lettered in six different varsity sports. And it was and I tell people all the time that was primarily to stay out of working. Yeah. Yep. I still, my brother and I still complain to my dad, like we played every sport there was until the alfalfa was ready to harvest. And then on the farm, on a tractor, we used to watch the lights of the baseball fields in town when the kids were playing baseball and we were out there working on the farm. So we still complain about it. In reality, it was a great way to grow. They're still bitter after all of these years. Oh, we just pretend to be bitter. We pretend to be bitter to complain. Yeah. It's a great learning opportunity, whether it's sports or working, either one, actually. Absolutely. We learned the value of hard work and all those things back there. So, yeah, it's all good stuff. I learned a lot about losing. Oh, yeah? And athletics. Yeah. He had some of that. And you still show up. Yeah. Right. Right. Hard to be good at that. Well, I mean, that is, that is probably one of the better life lessons is to give it your all, still lose and, you know, be graceful about it. But, um, I'm sticking. Yeah. Yeah. And then your attitude on Monday is really the weekend. How, how, how do we feel at practice on Monday? That's a, that's always a shift. Yeah. Yeah. Good stuff, Jeff. Thanks for making time to chat. I like a lot of really positive developments in the IADA and we're, we're excited to support that. And you'll see us at the conference, I'm sure. And we're going to continue to encourage people to get there. We know it's a high value. And especially those new folks never been, if you're not sure, call me, I'll tell you. Oh yeah. Yeah. And it was fun to get to know you a little bit better. And we always enjoy chatting. Jim and Michelle, appreciate it. Thank you for what you do for the industry as well. You're welcome. Thank you. All right. I'm going to put you backstage. If you need to get to work, great. If you're still there, we'll talk, chat with you for just a second after we're done closing out. All right. Thanks. okay well you know I always enjoy when when we have um jeff here he's just always such a positive person absolutely and all of that so widely uh widely loved and respected uh just quickly before you uh roll the thing I got um we got allison harrison coming up we've got some other um allison harrison for those that knows and turning out of ohio she just joined marietta too Yes. Yeah. As legal counsel. And we'll have it. She was awarded on Lincoln. I forget the award now, but we'll, we'll make sure and find out before she comes on. But yeah, she's she's a very gifted attorney is very focused on the auto industry. And so we will have her here talking about what happens if I get sued and it happens. So we'll have her on coming soon. I forget the exact date. I think it's the last Wednesday of the month. Yeah. We've got Kristen Acosta coming back. Kristen Acosta is a speaker at NIEDA. She's a panelist. She's going to be on a panelist, a panel, yeah. And so we've got those kind of things coming up. I've reached out to Hugo Sanchez about bringing him back for that conversation around EBITDA. Yeah. And so there's some stuff coming up. Lots of good stuff. We're just gathering up education. Hey everybody, thanks for joining us today. I hope you guys have a great weekend and we will see you on Wednesday.
