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, welcome to Friday. Good morning. Yeah, Friday, Friday. Yeah, all that stuff. You know, it feels early for us. We're mountain time, so it's nine a.m. One of our guests is actually Pacific, so it's earlier for him. Yeah, for sure. But yeah, it always feels funny to me when you say, grab another cup of Joe, but it's like eleven a.m. on the East Coast, you know. But it's OK, because I know a lot of people that are like heavy coffee drinkers. They're probably on their eleventh cup for the day. So, yeah. Yeah. Anyway, glad you folks are with us. We've got something kind of interesting and fun to talk about. You got any announcements? There were some folks who probably expected to find Brent Carmichael. We verbally mentioned that Brent Carmichael would be here today. Something unforeseen prevented him from appearing today. But we will have him again sometime soon. Brent's a favorite. I just really enjoy that guy. Of course. And then we are going to be at the NIADA convention this year. Jim will be speaking on a couple of tools for success tools for knowing your numbers. And we also have a booth. So those of you who are going, look for us. We'll be doing a bit of social media around that to let you all know the booth number. I want to see our V-Eight folks. Exactly. We had a really great meeting yesterday with our sponsor of V-Eight, Pastime. And they're also a founding sponsor as well and talking about doing some stuff. making sure that we've got all of the updated logos and everything, because they will be represented in our booth as well, because as being founding sponsors of White Hat Way. I've got something fun to share today on that subject. We've got some visuals for a while. Oh, right on. Excellent. We've got an agenda to get to. Shall we jump in? So this is our way of being incredibly transparent. Right. Maybe foolishly transparent. Some people would say so, wouldn't they? But this is, you know, we've talked all along the principles of White Hat Way. One of the big principles is transparency. And, you know, we really believe that that is super valuable. And it's important to walk the talk. It absolutely is. So we do have with us two guests, and I'm going to go ahead and bring them on. Paul Hoyt, who is our CFO for White Hat Way. Welcome, Paul. Some of our partners in the industry have met Paul already via email and perhaps virtual media. And Paul's the one on the West Coast. Yeah, that's right. So he's in California. Glad to have you here, Paul. Paul is our fractional CFO. He's somebody I met through a professional organization. And I've had a lot of wonderful connections over the years. And Paul is among them. So we're glad to have his expertise on our team. He brings a lot of experience. Yeah, he and I have been like diving deep into forecasting and all of that kind of stuff. And he actually gave me a B plus in it. So apparently I did well. Oh, nice. All right. And then our other guest today, Meg Jones. And Meg is our good morning, Meg. Meg is coming from Alabama and and she is our director of marketing. She's also a dealer, Ace Auto Sales. Yes, ma'am. And then she also has her own marketing company. So she, she does an awful lot, wears a lot of hats. But Meg joined us, Jim put out in the, the, the World Wide Web. That we were looking for people interested in helping us moderate V-Aid groups. And she was one of the first ones to raise their hand. Jim had a meeting with her and she's like, Jim comes to me afterwards and he's like, she's really impressive. She's got a lot of experience. She knows her stuff. And since then, Meg and her husband, Ryan, have come and done, they were here for the certification course. Meg as one of our team members, but also Meg and Ryan as dealers. So they are one of our first White Hat Way certified dealers. So welcome. Yeah. Glad to have you here, Meg. Thanks. So I think one of the things I said after that meeting, Michelle, was that we will find a way to work together when it comes to Meg and team. And we have. So glad to have you part of the team as well, Meg. And just a little side note, too, about Paul. Paul is the one that we went through some very, very deep business planning with him. And so... really really skilled many of our dealers will come to know paul in that capacity in the coming months because that's certainly his uh his particular um kind of strength and superpower. He's quite good at going through the planning and keep you on task about, you know, what has to be figured out. So before we get started in our agenda, I'm going to ask both of you, like, why? What's your why about why you've joined us? I'm going to let Paul go first. Paul, I'm putting you in the hot seat. Sorry. That's all right. I'm happy to be in the hot seat. The why, you know, I have two passions in life. One of them is consistent with my fractional CFO role here with White Hat Dealer Services, and that is making sure all the I's are dotted and the T's are crossed and the auditors are happy with everything that they see with the way that the company is being run. I really love to put things in order. I come from this perspective of having a of being a programmer, a computer programmer, a project manager, and an auditor of just making sure that everything is buttoned up and the way that it really should be. But the other perspective I bring is one of a person who has been doing his inner work for nearly sixty years. doing everything I can every day to be the best person that I can be, to treat other people fairly, honestly, to understand and respect them with compassion and empathy, and the list goes on and on. And that's one of the things that really attracted me to Jim and Michelle and their programs was their focus on helping people, was their focus on being fair, being honest, transparent and doing what they could you know through the white hat code of ethics and the certification program to help good people when they really needed to be helped when they need somebody to give them a break to give them that car loan so that they can take advantage of a new job opportunity or recover from you know something in life that really caused them to you know to have some bumps in the road and that's what really really uh attracted me to the opportunity was the opportunity not only to help them do business in the way that they want to do business but help them but to help them help other people in the way that they want to help other people. Thank you. Thank you. And there has been a feeling of like incredible alignment on a lot of that. Paul just launched something that's called the Good People Project. Good Power Project. Good Power Project, sorry. And it's, you know, just trying to, well, the purpose is to give people a framework and to moving forward to being a better human all around. So thank you. Meg, same question. Sure. Gosh, I love, I guess, Diane. uh in with people that are like he said they're doing the right thing and being involved in that and you know just allowing our dealers to be aware that there is more good people out there for those good dealers I feel like you guys know too often sometimes us as a dealer are grouped together as not as good people and I love that about the white hat way and different things that we were doing that helps us be represented correctly for the good old guys, as Jill wants to say. Too often, it's like people hate buying cars. People hate that they hate buying cars. They should want to go buy a car. That's a big purchase for people. So I love being involved with you guys for those and making an impact in our industry. You know, it's got to start somewhere. And, you know, it can only start with us. You know, we have to be the change when nobody else will be. And so I love, you know, like Michelle said, we started in one direction and we've kind of flip flopped, I guess, my role with you guys in a different direction as we've learned each other. And that's OK. You got to be flexible in this business. And I love that. And I love that you guys see the value there. And just again, I just love helping. I know Michelle and Jim know that I love teaching. I love doing anything that I can to help you guys. And so it's just been a blessing also to get to learn and know more about you and that you're your background and what y'all believe in and, and what we're representing with our white hat way that we're bringing in. Um, because we need that. Our dealers need that. Our good dealers need that. Our customers need to know that they're good dealers out there that they can trust. And, um, and yeah. Thank you. Thank you very much. And, you know, we'll still probably, you'll, you'll likely be doing some V eight group moderating too. So if you still, yeah, So, uh, she gave me an idea. She's talking about that. We going forward, Maggie, you can have some fun with the marketing. We'll be the white hat sheriff and his posse of stigma fighters. So, you know, we're, we're working to overcome that stigma. So no, it's all good. We're the. the adventure, what do they call them? Anyway, I digress. But we're here to really talk about the agenda and kind of to provide our founding sponsors an update. So we're into a new quarter and it just struck us as an opportunity to update them. We might sometimes record it by video and send out to them. In this case, we'll just share it with everybody because You know, this thing about transparency, Michelle, is like I say, we've got to walk the talk. We've got to, you know, it's one thing to say it. It's another thing to show it and to live it. And so what we want to do is just, you know, there's not much of anything we do that can't be shared because we're working on a grand mission. We're very much a mission-driven company. And what we're doing is for the benefit of lots of folks. And they might as well know and help us do the thing, right? And they can't help if they don't know. Right, right. So it's kind of, you know, to me, it's centralizing the message, I think, to hear what Paul and Meg shared. It's like, I think what we did is, and to really follow up with what Meg shared, of course, there are plenty of dealers out there that are operating with principles and, you know, taking the long game approach to business and customer relations. And what we're trying to do with White Hat Way, and I feel like we are succeeding. Yeah, we've kind of adopted that. Like, no more try. Yeah, yeah. That's out of our vocabulary. Yeah. And so what we're helping dealers do is to put an identity around the thing, right? It's just put a brand associated with it so we can all know for sure what we're talking about, right? And the understanding that there are plenty of dealers out there that are what we would call classify, I guess, as white hat dealers. Not all of them will carry a badge, but this is just a way for those that, that, that want, that are looking for helping their identity, their brand, being trustworthy and being, being someone that is, is very interested in the, the, the success of their customers. Yeah. And to me, the big tie in on that, I always talk about long game because I think we want dealers to not just be successful, but we want to be sustainable. We want to be successful for the long term. And that just means, you know, building a business that has these kind of foundational principles and core principles are going to really serve in that way. So, again, I think for today, it's like just make sure let's always try to be clear about what our real mission is here and what our opportunity is. And so that's what you're going to hear me spend a lot of time talking about. Let me get our agenda shared, Michelle. I'm gonna throw this up instead of the white hat way. The morning show is I'm I've threw up our actual new logo we we went through. So for our founding sponsors. This is our new logo. So yeah, Yeah. And so they'll see that in the founding sponsors as well. So let me get over here to the actual agenda so we can move through that and kind of we'll move through it quickly. I think we'll give our sponsors more detail in the areas that are most important. But, you know, we've already covered this thing about transparency and why that's so important and to to just show it and not just talk about it, just be open with what's happening and kind of where we're going and. And, you know, what's happening. And in this case, what's happened, you know, for the benefit of the industry and so on. I put on there that the bootstrapping period is coming to a close. We have been bootstrapping this thing for a while. We've had our... We've been bootstrapping this thing since I joined. And it's... So it's been... It's been a wild rollercoaster. It has, but what's really cool is that we, you know, we've been able to create as we go and have a lot of... of love for what has been created thus far. So, yeah. And listen, you know, there are a lot of entrepreneurs out there, you know, following a passion. And certainly that's been the case for us. And so that just comes into more and more focus all the time, which keeps you energized, keeps you moving forward. I think we're starting to see capitalization come together in a way that it's not just the capital, it's the team. It's the human resources that are also coming together. A couple of quick master repository updates for our founding sponsors. We established with our founding sponsors a cloud storage vault. some time ago we call ours a repository and it's just a place for us to put all of the material that is sort of white hat way um you know digital content yeah yeah and that's and that's a lot of pieces um so it's all the podcast is all you know we're we're we're dropping material in there I want to just kind of give them a quick update the most recent most substantial uh elements to that were with the addition of this um certification course we hosted that first uh pilot certification course videographer there and yeah so we've got audio and video recorded from that obviously it's in raw form now there'll be a lot of editing work to be done on that as it moves forward but it's obviously a way to move us toward being able to deliver more and more of this stuff through online tracks. And so, so that we have six full sessions recorded. And so that's, that's important. And then the, the digital badge, which I'm happy to show on the screen here is the new version of the digital badge that is available now to our founding sponsors. We haven't sent that. That will be sent today. new release but that's something that'll be included in your email with the information about this uh broadcast yeah and so the access to all those things so now you can start to see you know founding sponsors wear that badge on their website and wherever else they choose to display that but I just have to make a mention that you know for the folks who don't know that's LHPH Capital out of San Diego. You've got Dealer Re from the East Coast. That's Tim and Taylor Bird are primary ones we work with over there. And that's the reinsurance company. And then you've got Pastime, the longtime GPS. And all of these companies are decades in business. And why are they supporting White Hat Way? Because they see the need. They see the opportunity. They're not in this for ROI. They're in this for support of the broad mission. Mm-hmm. And we're so aligned on the success of the consumer, transparency, kindness, love, all of those things. And just so you all know is that we will be making it available for other businesses that that want to be able to be a part of being a sponsor of white hat way that is a program that will be um released in the in the coming months um it will require certification sure um but that that will be something that will be an annual uh an annual sponsorship too right We also have, by the way, that white hat on its own as a separate. So you'll start to see that drop into our various locations. So we're super, super excited about this. Just have an updated logo and a brand. So something that's more representative. But one of the things I really loved about it, it almost looks like a badge. badge to me. So, um, yeah, it's like the posse, the, you know, this is, this is what we're doing. Okay. So foundation of white hat dealer services. So this is a new LLC for us and it's really just meant to, um, Give us a place to bring in a team that is going to be driving all the services, coaching and a number of other services that V-A will, you know, live under the umbrella of the White Hat Dealer Services. And Paul, we're grateful to you for helping to get that, you know, filed, the LLC set up and all that. We had a lot of fun doing that. I don't remember the fun. Well, you weren't there. That's why. Yeah. No, Paul, we do appreciate your efforts on that. And so that is as an LLC that has, you know, Paul was instrumental in helping get the cap table put together. And each of our coaches has an equity piece in that entity. We don't have to get too specific about that. We've also got two dealer investors. in uh in that company and so we're grateful to them as well we don't need to say names today but uh but we're grateful for that and this is all under the umbrella of white hat way it's all part of the grand mission and just it's just the way that we serve things and kind of put different um you know elements of what we do in these different buckets if you will and then um So I need to introduce the rest of our team. We've met Paul and Meg here today. We've also got Ken Yang, who's a retiring dealer out of North Carolina. He's really... has broad experience. He really does. And you just posted something the other day about why he is making the moves in his career that he is. And, and it just so beautifully aligns with, with a lot of, of the White Hat principles. He had a major health scare and then realized that, you know, I want to give. I want to be able to spend more time with my family and give and love those around me. So really, really just an outstanding dealer. And so he's in the process of winding down his business after kind of recalibrating. You know where he wants to go. So we feel really fortunate to have Ken joining us as a coach. And he comes from Lease Here, Pay Here and Buy Here, Pay Here and a lot of entrepreneurship. Well, and, you know, we've like Jim, CEO, Michelle, COO, and then Paul, CFO. And so Ken is the director of dealer services. Right. So he will be the director of a lot of these services that are coming out through the V-Eight track and through just the dealer services. So V-Eight, he'll be directing that and other pieces like that. And I think it's, to me, it feels like a... the tremendous validation of the white hat way mission to have such talented people, you know, contributing their, their talents to this undertaking. So, uh, we're grateful for them. And then the last one on the list, there's a, uh, well, there's Meg. Yeah. Marketing director. And then George Montemayor is our sales director. And many, um, Folks, I know George is an independent agent from our space. He has a long history with credit acceptance as well. So for those of you who are interested in V-A, be watching for a V-A credit acceptance group. What's around outside financing, which will include credit acceptance. Yep. And then the other recent news is that Pastime became, we signed and funded a V-H sponsorship advertising agreement with them that'll run twelve months. So our V-H folks will start to see ads from Pastime. And we will be opening up a few other slots for that. Some of them Uh, most of them will be quarterly or monthly, um, depending on, uh, yeah, we just, we haven't quite flushed all of that out, but, um, pastime is our, um, annual sponsor. Right. So now to talk about the term sheet, we won't say where that came from, but we do have a strategic partner who has, um, uh, presented us with a term sheet. It's a six-figure term sheet, and it's really smartly written. It calls for us to get matching contributions, which I think really makes a lot of sense. That serves a couple of things in my mind. It helps to balance the risk for them when we bring other uh parties but it also means we double the the resources you know or the the total capitalization in the end for you know what is uh you know what is bound to uh you know require some dollars in terms of working capital to turn an important corner as we uh kind of look to scale um various parts of this and v-eight is very much in a position to scale we're solving some of the important uh kind of barriers to scale on that and, and namely that's data. So let me kind of get into it. And we're working really closely with, with Paul on different pieces that will be involved in, in, in finishing that process up. And I will stop to say for Paul's benefit and Meg's benefit and anyone who's listening on YouTube across, everybody can hear this. It's like one of the things I'm reminding everybody as we move forward with this is, is that so many of the things that White Hat Way will accomplish in the coming years will not be reflected on the balance sheet. It's just important for everybody to understand. It doesn't mean there won't be assets, there won't be earnings and ROI, right? But it's important to understand that in addition to the things that would traditionally appear on a traditional balance sheet, we will have created a lot of digital value that will not be reflected. Well, and Paul... it will be profitable. You and Michelle will make sure. I mean, it's like, we've already been running the numbers. It's like, Oh yeah. Yeah. It's, it's, it's, uh, it's going to be profitable. It's the end of the day. It's a, it's a business, you know, we're moving toward and we're, we're still crossing T's on the benefit corporation element. And for those who haven't heard that a benefit corporation is, uh, a for-profit entity that basically makes a renewing statement of intention to do public good, that they make all their corporate decisions and management decisions through a lens of corporate or a social benefit. Right. And that is something we're still working on when I, in a meeting with Polly is like, Oh, did you know about this? And I was like, no. So let's get that done too. Yeah. But I think the idea there is that we just think it's important for folks to know that we're a mission-driven enterprise over here. And it's important for folks to, if they take the time to read the taglines and read the page that explains the why, they can see that profit's not our primary motive, right? And I realize we're saying that to folks who are going to be our investors. And I keep saying it. We're... The folks who are going to align with us are the folks who are going to play this longer game with us. And there's going to be ROI and there's going to be some real impact. That's why it's a benefit. Because it really is. The higher purpose of this is to help a customer base that has been very... disadvantaged. Yeah. Yeah. And I think that's part of why, Paul, I'll say for your benefit, that that's part of why we established that repository. And it sounds a little bit morbid, but the idea is that in the event that something should happen to Michelle and me, we want to make sure that all the material and all the effort that's been put into creating this brand is able to survive and to continue to you know, that all the content is there, that we can continue to advance this brand, this mission, this movement, if you will. And so this is all part of, you know, why we think it's important to just, and it's also kind of reminds me, I had a conversation yesterday with somebody who looks like they will be part of our kind of resource in terms of financial planning for our clients and others. And talking to them, I was reminded about the analogy that I use about the extension ladder. We all know how an extension ladder works. You slide it up and the little things slide in and kind of as a safety catch and keep it from sliding backwards. And I often think about that as a metaphor for the way I want to build our business in terms of when we Work hard that we we block in the thing so that we don't lose the ground that we've created and that we're able to continue to build on what's been established. And so that's part of what that's about for me. And then the exploration of strategic partnerships continues. We're in discussions now, pretty serious discussions around an important solution. around data and, and, you know, data for us is such, it's all of it. And so it's, it's, it's all the data management and the opportunity that exists around data. So let me take a minute to talk about that for the sake of our founding sponsors. We recognize more than perhaps some, because we live so deeply in the weeds with our dealers in terms of the the data element that is their daily life, the access to software from the DMS and how it communicates with accounting or doesn't communicate with accounting and all this stuff about analytics and everything that happens over there. And here we are running a really complex business, right? We have a lot of moving parts in our business and profits don't correlate with cash flows and performance metrics are tricky because there's just lots of different layers to what we do. So it's very important that we get really good with data that we are, you know, others have used. And I'm coming up to the conversation that I recorded with Alan Keat about the pH market watch podcast. Right. So as we talk about those things, You know, Alan's a guy who obviously has lived in deep analytics, and so he recognizes sort of the fragmentation element with our particular industry. And what I mean by that is it's just not contiguous. There's a bucket of data over here, and there's a bucket of data over there, and there's DMS that's got a solution, and there's different places that it's just fragmented. It doesn't communicate well. and I would just say that this is an area that you're going to expect to see white hat way continue to forge ahead to create solutions where all these things communicate better with one another because the data element is so important. That's why I say we're going to do this under the umbrella of solving an important problem. Will we be paid in the course of doing that? Of course, there will be revenue streams associated with many of the things that will happen around that. and the overarching opportunity there is to march ahead to make lives easier simpler for dealers and ultimately that extends to the customers they serve in different ways we don't have to get too deep into that today but but just data management at so many different levels and the ability to tie things together yeah uh is going to be a really important opportunity so that you're you're looking at the right numbers compared to the right numbers Yeah, and it just ties. And tying it to financials and tying it to just a lot of different pieces. You've got analytics, which is day-to-day management for the dealers. Then you've got banking. You've got accounting. You've got all these things that need to really speak together or speak better. Yeah, and this is – Jim is a data – Nerd. He's awfully cute and I like him a lot. But as a data nerd, it's not necessarily improving the relationship with your consumer kind of data nerd type thing with this, but this is about dealers being smarter and making more informed decisions and being able to really drill down to what Um, what things are holding them back from growing or holding them back from having better success or holding them back from reducing their repo rates or their charge off rates, all of these things, which are really, you know, it's yes, we want dealers to, to, um, to be known, liked and trusted in their communities. We also want them to get better at retaining their profits. Mm-hmm. and to be very successful as entrepreneurs. And I can say that one of the things you will also see as part of the mission story that you'll hear me tell in the coming months and years is that we recognize that data is one element, artificial intelligence is another, where we have this opportunity. And I didn't put on the agenda here, but I'll remind our family sponsors that we have the domain whitehatway.ai. you will see us move on some efforts to drive AI for the benefit of the industry, both dealers and consumers. So we invite people to come and contribute to that effort. But whitehapway.ai is going to be mining data. And it's going to be working to create efficiencies for dealers and create solutions. It's also going to be skinned as a search engine for our White Hat Way certified dealers. So this will be like all of the things that, that has, that have been recorded in any way for White Hat Way for, you know, all the coaching, all of the, that it will become a, part of that repository, it will be accessible to the search engine. So, yeah. And, Meg, I'm sure, you know, we've been in the same room, but you see the gray hair here? This old guy is learning some AI over here. Oh, my gosh, it's amazing. We're kind of figuring out how to do some of that and having so much fun. Well, I know it's like when you were working with Paul, uh around the uh the all of our business planning paul jim was like yeah and he just went over to ai and he was like oh I can build that right now I happen to know somebody who can build that for me in about Yeah, and it's like I experienced that an awful lot with Meg as well. Both of these individuals that are sitting with us today highly leverage the use of artificial intelligence because it is just such a beautiful tool. And you'll hear more from us on, we actually had someone ask us, hey, can you put out a training on how to do X? Shameless plug, it's happening on April seventeenth. Meg and I are going to host a a v eight plus session on how to leverage ai yeah so those of you who are in v eight um you know uh yeah and if you're not and you want access to it but I think the other element to that and paul you've heard us talk about this I'm sure but the uh I think the reason this is also significant and I'm glad to have a chance to talk about this in this format is we recognize that Artificial intelligence is one of those areas that some view as this wild West, right? Is this wild frontier? Where's it going to go? Can we harness it? Is it going to run away from us? I mean, and this is why I think white hat way belongs in this conversation is it feels right to me to have white hat way.ai have a little white hat, you know, on the logo because when we bring white hat approach and principled and old team of people who are going to make certain that, Well, this hits home. So, yeah. Yeah. Let's make it certain that there's a white hat wearing sheriff of some kind as a team that. drive these things for the benefit of dealers and consumers in our space, eventually beyond that, right? I mean, the work that will be done there when we're thoughtful about the way we construct that, the work that will be able to extend beyond our industry. But this is where White Highway belongs as, you know, that kind of the sheriff, if you will, around AI, data management, and there's more. I mean, we don't have to get into all the pieces today, but I would just say that's part of where you can expect to see White Hat Way show up for this industry, okay? So capitalization, we talked about that a little bit. Just a little bit. But the main thing I want to say about that, same thing I've touched on. This is, you know, we actually are starting to shift my schedule. We just let go of a client that we've had for some time. It's kind of a hiatus. They may come back. But it's it's my point is it's an effort for me to be able to focus. Everybody says when you're in capital raise mode is going to take a lot of your time and we're going to be very much in capital raise mode and, you know, building that part of our business. And so I'm freeing up my schedule to be able to go and do that. And I've told people I will I will go do presentations in any room anyway. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, right. Launch of V-A-W, the other developments? So that is a V-A-W product, which is actually going to be in the form of a podcast. We've already done a few recordings on that with our director of dealer services, Ken. And so that will be something that will be first released. released to v-eight members and then it will parts of that will be available to the general public on our website right so this is not a podcast that will be syndicated this is a piece that will be on our website but anyone is welcome to to to be able to get in there and and enjoy that yeah and for those founding sponsor just quickly the way that format is going to work is that we're going to record ken and I will record sessions around v-eight um white hat way I should say then we will schedule a live session a reaction episode to that material where we will have members of the v-eight community able to sit in and react and join that conversation and add their own two cents we've had white certified people already in the v-eight ecosystem and so they'll be able to sit there and then that episode will get released uh to the public yeah So that's the part that we look forward to. Yeah, and so it's the same thing, too, with the BHPH Market Watch. We've already recorded one episode. We'll be recording more. We won't be releasing that yet because we still have artwork and all of that kind of stuff to do with it. But that will also not be syndicated. That will go into the website. So, you know, and it will be available to the public. You just need to go to the website and be able to watch those there. Jim Collison, Right. And the BHBH MarketWatch is, you know, Alan Keat will be a recurring, returning guest on that, because he is, his experience in the capital markets picks up where mine kind of leaves off. I'm operations and financial, and he kind of... Carol Anne McGuire- Well, Jim's like, well, you're a data nerd. Jim Collison, Yeah. He's a data nerd in capital. His career started in working with derivatives and stock trades and that whole side of the financial world. Jim was having to say like, okay, so you just threw out like seventeen thousand different acronyms. And I don't even know what those are. So my job here will be to interpret for everybody. Yeah, exactly. We already and we already know that. I wish that we had like a glossary of terms, which is, you know, something that we can put together for buy your pay your because there are so many terms that are people are new. They have no idea. So we're getting into markets as well. So Alan's a as a data guy, he's a guy who found his way to the buy your pay your space and kind of deep subprime auto finance by way of the the capital side of the business. So I look forward to these ongoing conversations with Alan will bring experts to that conversation and look forward to having, you know, folks kind of join that topic. And then you mentioned the speaking at NIEDA. That's on a Wednesday morning. We'll get the word out on that. We're working on the tools right now. Jim's been building them. So those tools will be available on our website. I'm just beautifying them. Just beautifying them. They've been available. Yeah. So the open items, there was one thing that you did not talk about that I was like, oh, is it? And that is focus groups. Oh, that's true. So there's another piece that is we are we are in the process of hammering out details with a vendor that this is a new thing that we're doing through. Is this a white hat way? It's a kind of umbrella. But yes, it's a V eight. It's a VH solution. And these are, yeah, it is VH. These are focus groups where a vendor that has a new product and wants to be able to get some insight from dealers that we, we will be putting together a group of, of dealers where, Um, first choice will be for those that are members of V eight to be able to participate. Um, and they, the, the vendor is, is putting together a presentation without their logos and all of that about this new product that, um, that Ken will be, we will be doing, um, hosting most of those. Um, they will, the, the vendor will not be at V eight. the focus group, but the vendor will be getting access to all of the recordings from the focus group. And only those dealers that wish to have more information will they have, they will be given access to contact information. So this is for vendors out there, the ability to be able to say, hey, this is a new thing that we have created. and we want to know you know what you think about it what what things we can do to improve what we what we like bullseye and then pricing and those kind of things so that that because it's when you mentioned this to the vendor that we're working with for the beta they were like I'm on this is awesome so I think it'll be really really valuable for dealers and vendors alike because why are we doing this there's a couple of reasons one not everyone gets to a conference and the only way for a dealer to be able to have access to vendors in a space where they can go and look and have a conversation you know and just be become aware of the things that are out there this is a virtual platform. This is something that, and it will, those recordings or that they will be sent to the vendor. And we haven't quite decided what we're going to do with, with those recordings afterwards, but there may become part of a, like a data, a database or something. I don't know. So, but we're really excited about this, this, this launching of this, Yeah, so I know we'll wrap up. I'm going to come back to Paul and Meg to see if we left anything out of, you know, that they feel like belongs on the talking points today. But I would say, Paul, one of the big things that I'm aware of is these kind of initiatives move forward. And White Hat Way is to step into that. You guys forgive the kind of the... the word sheriff, but to help understand the role of White Hat Way in this context is I think we recognize that we're fortunate to have earned the trust of a number of dealers and other folks around the industry. We intend to preserve that trust. And part of what will be very important is as we move into a role of being stewards of data, it's gonna be especially important that we're cognizant of privacy and compliance and that we preserve those things for those folks who do place their trust in us Trust is what we're about. I mean, we've got to make sure that we preserve as stewards, you know, that trust that's placed in us. And so I think this is where you can expect to see. And I think, Meg, when you think about the branding side of what we do, this is why you'll hear me emphasize again and again. At the end of the day, I feel like what we're selling as much as anything over here is trust. It's like we bring that solution. There are other coaching firms out there. There are other people over there who do data. There are other people. do this and that. I think the thing that was going to make us unique in the marketplace is the role that White Hat Way will play as a sheriff. And this really has very little to do with Jim and Michelle. We just kind of created the identity and the structure. And now this thing can go to work on behalf of dealers and entire industry. And we're also being mindful to build it in a way that can go beyond. So Paul, anything to add or contribute to what I've shared there? I'll just add back to the whole theme of transparency and openness. One of the things that we want to do when it comes to the data and all of the activities of White Hat Way is making sure that we have all of the i's dotted the t's crossed and we have an open kimono that people can come in and take a look at what it is that we are doing and the plans that we have going forward because it really is um you know we're a team here on this call together but You know, the bigger picture is teaming with the other fourteen thousand dealers across the United States to help good people, you know, take that next step in their life to do good relationships, to have great, great contracts and great agreements between people and do what we can to embody and embrace this spirit of transparency and honesty and fairness in this entire industry. yeah got it thank you what about you meg anything to add to what's been expressed I agree and just simply putting creating that new standard that should already be in place yeah yeah absolutely um there I there is one piece so those of you who are listening um again we're going to be at uh at the conference national conference and and it'll be a white hat way booth uh focus on v-eight why a focus on v-eight um that we the the decision has been made that you know that we understand that as this grows the dealers will be like oh you know I love this and I would like to be a part of it and we understand that to our through our podcast track there's a lot of people that are very familiar with what it is that's happening what is but we're not familiar with them and and to wear the badge of white hat way it's essential that we're familiar with them. And when we did our first certification course in February, that we asked, you know, when we were completed and we were just kind of getting some feedback, it's like, how would you suggest that we make sure that we know someone? Because that was a concern. It's like, you know, do we want someone who is a bad operator or someone who is... mistreats customers to to wear the badge of white hat way and so how do we do that and so as as a as the beta group it was decided that in order for someone to to become certified in white hat way they need to be in v-eight for six months That way we have the opportunity to get to know their numbers, get to know them, get to know a lot of their philosophies. And just, it's like, and, and you know, you just, you just, it's like, it's like bringing home your fiance to get to know the family. Yeah. Before you actually get married. And, and so this is, this is, um, why, um, uh, as we go forward with the, with the national convention, V eight will be the focus because V eight is the pathway. Mm-hmm. And there are a lot more things that are coming that are really going to be profound tools for dealers. And we didn't even talk about one of them that Jim and I last night were mapping out. It's like, we got everything we need to do this. Profound tools that will drastically move the needle for dealers. Yeah. um to be more successful and to be able to focus on the things that that becoming known liked and trusted and and not be focused on all of these other things that are that are having having um yeah tools that will help them in their ability to have a profitable and efficient and all of those things dealerships so that they can focus on the things that are most important right Yeah, so it's all important. I think, you know, dealers, I would say, can rest assured. I feel confident that Michelle and I can say, we see the struggles. We see the disconnect. We see the opportunities around making dealers' lives easier, putting better information in front of them so that they can make, you know, informed decisions. And so the work continues. Yeah, and just one, you know, we've teased this before. One of the things that's coming is White Hat Capital. Yeah. And it's only through V-A and Y certification that you get access to this capital program. Initially. And I just wanted to do, George, love the logo. Thank you. Thank you. It's a long time coming to get this, to get that. And it was a fun process. And it was, Jim actually mentioned that we went through an organization called Freelancer and put it out there for bid. And got that was three thousand yeah it was make suggestion yes it was like three thousand or so submissions meg imagine me on saturday sitting going he was like I hate this but you know I was like honey this is you get to be the one to do this because you know this is like this is this is your this was my vision right I got a vision all I was really doing was to make it a little more two-dimensional and modern so he he showed me like six this is which one do you like it was like that one that that's that's the one so so yeah we're really good partners but I made him do all the work yeah some part pardon That's what AI does for you, too. Yeah, for sure. To three thousand real fast. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Any closing anything from either of you, Meg, before we. No, I appreciate you, and I'm excited to see where we're going and where we've been. I'm excited, and I hate for someone to miss this train. Yeah. It's going to be awesome. You know what? Everyone's welcome. So it's just, you know, you might get onto it a little bit later or whatever. One of the things I also appreciate about Meg is, and Paul's got some intersection with Oklahoma. I'm originally from Oklahoma, so Meg and Alabama, we speak at the same speed. I love it. I can, I can, I can, I love it. We just, it's, it's, it's important. I come from Seattle. And so it's like, I'm like, it's yeah. The home of home of. Yeah. Yeah. When I first moved to Utah, I used to tell people out here, I said, look, I just moved here from Texas. Please speak slowly. And it was kind of a fun way to meet people. Before we let you go, Paul, any closing thoughts? Great job today. Great to be a part of this energy, to be a part of this passion project, to create a good business for ourselves, but to create thousands of good businesses, helping hundreds of thousands of people with one of the most important purchases in their life. giving them places where they can go that they know they know that they are being treated fairly and transparently and honestly seems like seems like a really good project to me thank you thank you and it isn't like we we did a thing a while back as this is how many billions of dollars a year oh it's estimated that um our industry originates like twenty five to thirty billion dollars annually so there's there's no shortage of opportunity Yeah. Yeah. Yep. Yep. And very, very needed. All right. I'm going to put you guys backstage. If you can hold on for just a second. Great. If you got to go, hi, Ryan. He's like, I wanted to get on camera. All right. So I'll put you guys backstage. Thank you very much for joining. I think what she meant was, um, It was good to see white hat certified Ryan Jones. It was great to see white hat certified Ryan Jones. Really, really enjoyed getting to know him better when we did our certification course. We will be doing another certification course, just trying to lock up the wear. And we're hoping that it will be right around the National Convention. That will be by invitation only. So when we, when we step into, we're going to try to do two more this year. After that one, we're going to try. I mean, I, I'm hoping to be invited. I got my fingers crossed. Yeah, you're invited to that? I'm hoping I will be. Oh, well, I mean, play your cards right. You just might be. So we will, we will be doing that. Yep. I'm coming up. So, and this, and the certification courses are not just for dealers. They are for vendors and business people alike. So, Corinne from Pastime was one of our, our vendors that was certified. So was Karen Barnett. As an affiliate. As an affiliate. So they both are now officially White Hat certified. So, okay. What else? I think that's it. We should let folks go back to their stuff. That was, that was a long one. Sorry for, sorry for how, yeah. Now we're long on one of these things. Hey everybody. Thanks so much for joining us. It's Friday. We know you have a lot of other places to go and things to do, but you make a choice to listen. We really, really appreciate it. Those of you who are listening on the syndicated podcast stations, if you want to be able to look at the agenda, please go to YouTube and like and subscribe. Jim and Michelle Rhodes. And what's the tagline now? I just look up Jim and Michelle. Just look up Jim and Michelle. Just don't put an E in Rose. Yeah, right. All right, everybody. Have a great day. And thanks again. We'll talk to you guys on Wednesday.
