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 hello happy wednesday from oklahoma yep still here yep and uh Uh, my mother's home in Western Oklahoma on the back patio. We'll see if, uh, we get any noisy trains or, uh, bark dogs in the neighborhood. It's okay. It's a really, yeah, it's a nice, nice place to do this from. Yeah. You may hear the dove cooing in the background. That's something that comes from your background. Um, uh, something you remember growing up. Do you have any announcements? Um, no, just kind of quick update. You know, I spent the first part of this week, I went down Sunday to Dallas and was able to, uh, connect with the cousin on the way down. I was able to meet with two established and successful dealers on Monday and then have a nice dinner with my daughter on Monday night and back to here yesterday. And I really, I got to tell you, I had a really wonderful time talking to my aunt on the way back through. I was able to stop at that barbecue place. So kind of significance of that. Where was that at? It's in a little town of Bridgeport, Texas. So it's kind of in between here and Dallas. And I was near Decatur. And I was able to get off the highway and meet them for a barbecue lunch at a... at a restaurant that the son-in-law, uh, owns. And, uh, so it was just really nice to be there again. And this is the same one where my great grandparents photos are on the bathroom. Yeah. And so my, my, my aunt actually did the framing of a lot of that stuff. And so they put it in that. So it just, my, my family history, you know, is tied to that area. And so it's just kind of fun. It was wonderful to see them and, yeah and get a little time with them and you know when you said you met with some dealers uh uh drove down to texas to do that one of them actually flew in from out of state so the three of you guys real interesting testament to V eight and the connections that are made through, through V eight and, um, and being able to pull dealers together that, that want to learn from each other. And it's just really, um, just. It's something that, that, uh, is a huge benefit to, any dealer to be able to to connect like that deeply so yeah I was able to get to know one of the new dealers in in a v-eight group and was also able to share with them kind of the direction of v-eight and why that way and and help them kind of understand what it can look like for them and uh the reception was excellent the feedback was excellent and uh and they got corn and yeah I took some sweet corn from uh oklahoma cookies I made cookies I mean you know that's just it's like we're in the kind of middle of America, where all the farmers are, and it's just what you do. And I'm loving it. It's kind of a shame to have to tell you this, but the cookies didn't make it all the way to Dallas. I sent you with like four dozen cookies. Dang, that breaks down to about one an hour or less. Actually, most of them ended up with Aaron. Okay, very good. I also got to visit his daughter, too, on the way down. All good. No other announcements from here. We're just back in Oklahoma, going to be here for a few more weeks resolving some business. But what prompted today's conversation, unless you have anything else, we'll dive in. No. Yeah, it's... Yes. We had the opportunity last week to empty out his mom's storage unit. And it's funny because most people are like, she had a storage unit. Yes, she did. And, and the things in there, it's Oklahoma and they get dust storms and it's just like, it's super, super dusty, super dusty. And so everything in there had a thick layer of dust of like dirt, the wind blowing hurricane kind of weather dust. Yeah. And for those who don't see the podcast regularly, who will be seeing this episode, my mother passed away last month. So we're here kind of dealing with the state matters and the storage unit was among them. But one of the things that happened to me in going through the storage unit, we came across this old tube. It's a hard plastic tube. It's long. It's big. Yeah. Initially the question was, do we, do we just toss it? You know, it was just an old map. And then I said, no, let me take it to dad and see if it means anything to him. My dad is in a resort, which by the way. We call it an all inclusive resort. It's actually a nursing home. My cousins really got a kick out of that yesterday. I told them that that's what we decided. I never know whether to call it a care facility, nursing home. He and I kind of came up with that. He's like, I'm going back to the resort. And yeah. So anyway, we just, we call it an all inclusive resort. But anyway, I took it to dad. And I was able to get him out of the facility for a day and take him to lunch. And we talked about that map and kind of what it represented. And as I heard him tell his stories, I became aware. And I'm going to do the best I can to get through this without a lot of emotion, because it's a really rich and important thing. Because as I hear him tell the stories, it's just it's it's a legacy story. It's like this goes back probably fifteen years. And the map is actually of ranches across eastern New Mexico, West Texas. And this is an area where my dad in this context, he was meeting with ranchers and identifying places to do antelope hunts. Folks who don't know my, my brother and my dad for many years after I left this area, they had an outfitting business and my dad just always enjoyed the antelope hunts in particular. So he went to this country and of course, you know, having lived here, it's probably that area where he hunted is probably about. Seventy-five to a hundred miles from here, but He knows. He knew a lot of ranchers and farmers from this area. This story actually also applies to this area here as well. This whole thing is about a way of being with your neighbors and those that you do business with. I'm going to ask our dealer listeners and others to beg some patience because There is very much a tie in to our work with White Hat Wednesday and certainly our work in the car dealership world and customer relations and all these kind of things. But I'm reminded sort of the background of my growing up here and then later going downstate to go to college and going out and trying to meet with landowners about finding a place to hunt in that case. But everything we're talking about here with my dad also was he would negotiate leases for cattle grazing and all these kind of things. It's back to this thing about a handshake, like the value of a handshake and doing business without an attorney doing business. In a lot of cases, those were done without a contract. Uh, the men have been a simple handwritten thing. I remember my dad drawing up contracts on a, you know, loosely paper and, you know, just, yeah, just a simple little understanding to put something, you know, a little more clear. But I think the real significance of all that is, you know, how does one get in the foot in the door, um, and then, and then keep it, maintain those relationships over the years with, uh, these ranches who are very protective about, their property. Yeah. Oh, absolutely. I mean, we drive around town where, and there are fences where there used to not be fences too. And, um, lots of, of, uh, no trespassing. And so, you know, I kind of like, I look at this and you use the word bygone era of integrity and human connection. And I, it just makes me, I think there's a lot of lessons and I don't think it has to be gone. I think it can be rebirthed or it can be, uh, uh, rejuvenated. Well, it's there. It's, it's, you know, trust and integrity haven't gone away. The way that it shows up and the way we sometimes conduct business can, can vary. And obviously, you know, we do, we do have a lot more contracts and litigation maybe than we did before, but I'm simply saying I watched it. I've talked about this in the podcast before. I've watched my dad do handshake deals over the years and, and I've certainly done a few of them in my career and my work as well. I just know that that's part of what, you know, in this country, and this is where kind of my whole basis of White Hat Way was sort of formed and growing up in this country and kind of seeing what a white hat cowboy is, what we chose to represent, you know, this integrity, but obviously farmers, ranchers, you know, other folks in this country, there's a fiber, a fabric to this area. And my dad in particular, I just kind of thought this was an opportunity to kind of, you know, pay a little respect to his legacy, you know, as he sits in that resort, that all inclusive resort and in his golden years, I just think it's important to think about, you know, how his own integrity shapes the lessons for me, what I witnessed in business and kind of the best way to know that Michelle is not, you hear his stories, but to hear others talk about him and what they witnessed him do and observations about him as a neighbor and as a farmer. And you know, Those things are earned and they were even earned back then. They need to be earned today, that level of trust. Because people are, they're guarded and you just don't let anyone into your property, into something that you have you're a steward of. It's been really amazing to hear the stories of what those business relationships were like. They had ups and they had downs. They had hard things that came across and they still left as friends because they had a huge trust deposit bank. Yeah. And I think one of those stories, and again, you can hear in this story how you could apply this in your own work and in your own business and the buy here, pay here, lease here, pay here space. You know, dad relayed a story about, and think about this compared to the other, like you've had ranchers who allowed somebody on their property for whatever reason, allowed them to come in and camp or, or maybe it was a hunting thing and they, leave behind trash or they leave a gate open and then causes a big problem or, you know, these kinds of things where they just don't appreciate and respect the space and compare that to a story that my dad told. about how he, keep in mind, this is my dad's years where he was already aged. He was, you know, seven years old plus. And so he was in this country doing, you know, these deals with these ranchers. And he went out on a ranch, I remember he was telling a story about, he noticed that one of the windmills and one of the pastures wasn't working. A lot of these- So the windmill is, it just naturally pumps water to the surface, usually for cattle troughs. Right. So there's usually a tank. And so the wind, you know, charges the thing and puts water in the thing. There's a little safety there to keep it from just overflowing. But, but bottom line is dad passed by and noticed that one of the tanks was dry and he was able to reach out to the rancher and say, cause you know, there are hired hands that are responsible for those kinds of things. It wouldn't be something dad would be, but because he was aware, he was familiar with that sort of thing. He was able to call the rancher and say, you know, that windmill is not working in the east pasture, as an example. I don't remember if it was east pasture, but your east pasture, and those cattle are having to walk about two miles to get to water. And so, you don't have to be a cattle person to know that that's not a way to get your cattle fat. You know, that's not the way to have your cattle do well on pasture. And so he was able to say, I can tell you what's wrong with it. He told the rancher, he said, oh, but I'm too, I can't climb up there myself. But he was able to tell the rancher, And the next day, dad said, when he went out the next day, they were the hired hands were out there working immediately. You know, and we in our day to day is like these these kind of way of interacting with people are their foundation to White Hat Way. And and and I when I think about this is I think about. dealers in a neighborhood or in a city and they have um they have and your dad even when he was farming and had a farm right next door to him that was competing in the same market as he did um they help each other right and they look out after each other and they want the success of both sure And that is really transferable into this industry. And I see sometimes where it's like, I don't want to share. It's like, oh, look, this thing is happening. Well, that just means less competition or whatever. That's not being a good neighbor. And it doesn't matter if the dealership, like a farm, is right next door and you're both growing wheat and you both need to whatever. they always looked out after each other is that and and they both can be successful because there are buyers for all of the wheat just like there are buyers for all of the cars right right that's a good way to think about it I think one of the other examples I remember as a as a young guy teenager um I remember in this country when there were blizzards right you'd have these big snow storms and in this country that often the snow storms are accompanied with wind and so you'd have these big drifts and folks who haven't grown up in this kind of thing. Don't know that that is, that is frightening to the cattle and the cattle just end up going through fences. And, and so it's really a disruptive event when that happens. And it's one of the things I remember is just watching how people rallied like To help each other out. They came from everywhere to help one another. And it was just such a thing to observe. And I'm not saying that this exactly happens in a car dealership world, but it's like this idea that we got to be neighbors. We think about our customers as neighbors in a community. And when we think about how can we... use our own resources to help others. This is the part that I think is the thing that I recognize about this country and that's the idea of being neighborly. It sounds corny sometimes to some, in reality, it's an important thing that we need to think about in terms of a community in our business, in any business. Yeah. You know, um, we, we spoke years ago, um, at Buy Here, Pay Here United on, um, on the idea that, um, Are we going to drop? I'm hoping that we're not. Our battery's failing. So stand by, folks. We'll make sure we don't lose the connection. But I think we'll probably be fine. But just in case, we'll make sure that we have both devices powered. But we spoke on how buyer payers like a chicken sandwich. And it was... talking about Chick-fil-A. Now, Chick-fil-A, one of the reasons why they have such a good reputation in middle America and most of America is they show up for their neighbors. They show up as a business when there is some kind of catastrophe. I have heard so many stories of there was a major... catastrophe, the fire, the police, the floods, whatever it was, and they bring in food and they just, they do what they can do. They volunteer, they help. That's what being a good neighbor, even in a city, looks like. It's like being there, showing up, being aware of what's happening at your neighbors. We we walk around our our lives in cities like this and we don't look up and look at people. And so and so we don't we don't pay much attention to what's happening around. um around us and with our neighbors and it's not about being nosy but it's just about being aware and and that's you know one thing that I've I've watched and really have a lot of respect for here is that people are aware of their neighbors they care about their neighbors and and it's as a business owner we have anywhere. You can be in the middle of Atlanta, Georgia, and you can still care about your neighbors and, and be, you know, looking out for them. And it's not about, it's not about, I'm going to do this because I'm going to get something. It, you do this because this is what being a good neighbor and you want your, your business's neighborhood to be a place that, everyone succeeds and that you know and that and that that people feel some level of safe or whatever and yeah yeah I think this is you know in what way we talk a lot about having a business that is one successful and sustainable right you want we want to have a business that obviously has to stick around and so that means we have to make sure that we we have a good bond with our community we have a good connection And and that's how we really stick around and last and how we do business tomorrow. And and so these things, when you think about in this context of, you know, what happened with my dad and these these business relationships is like just making sure that you are true to your word, that you you you you. Do what you say you're going to do. You follow through. You do the right thing by people. And you take in this case, you take great care with, you know, the property and the relationship to really honor the relationship and make sure that, you know, it's that we're follow through on those things. So this is part of what, you know, with White Hat Way is part of what we teach. And we want to encourage folks to recognize the value of playing a long game. and going beyond transactional and being able to just conduct business in a way that we have a chance to earn not only the payment that's due today, but a good relationship with that customer and the referrals that could come next week and the repeat business and all this kind of thing is really where you start to measure the benefit that can happen in our business when we conduct ourselves in this way. And one of the closing thoughts as you were writing some things down was a challenge. And all of you that are listening to kind of think about this as you go throughout the rest of this day and see is like, what kind of legacy are you building? And are we conducting ourselves in a way that earns and keeps other people's trust? You know, we, even in big cities, there are always business owners that have been great philanthropy, that great in philanthropy and helping their neighbors and helping their communities and in small and big, small and large ways. And when, when you, A funeral is, unfortunately, the time that people come out of the woodwork. And I have, through this experience of being here and seeing all of the people that Jim's mom touched their lives in business or as a neighbor or whatever, and I think to myself, what kind of legacy am I leaving? Am I stepping in to help? am I um am I being a good neighbor and um and watching out for for my neighbors and um whether they be businesses or where I live and you know what kind of what kind of legacy are we leaving and so my personal challenge is take the blinders off and see and be aware of what's going on around you and and You know, anyone, if you looked for one way in your business's neighborhood, one way a day that you can help someone or something that's not on your business, but one of your neighbors or someone that's in the area, I think most of us could find one thing that they could do. It doesn't have to be once a day. It's like once a week or whatever, but that you're looking for ways we get so tied up and so busy in keeping our bills paid and, and inventory in and how is the, how is, um, how is everything flowing? And are we getting the people come showing up at work that we forget that we are a community. And that we're not meant, humans are not meant to be isolated. And that's even as a business, is that businesses are part of a community as well. And so my challenge to you is take the blinders off and see what it is that you can do to be an asset to your community. And my challenge to dealers in particular would be to think about when you think about a winning strategy in marketing. Think about how to get better at selling trust, how to, how to demonstrate and transparency and how to, um, how this idea of one of the things that was talked about in my meeting with the dealers was this idea of the golden rule, you know, do unto others as you'd have them do unto you. And I think the key word in that, what I've seen about that on the drive home is it's the word do it's like actions, right? It's like show and do, The things that will show you as trustworthy. And when you can win on trust, that's a great way to separate yourself in a marketplace and to not only win customers today, but to win year after year and establish a legacy, not just in your community and with your customers, but also with your team. So that would be my challenge for this Wednesday. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. What else you got? This is like a super heartfelt. Yeah. It just comes as a dusty tube in a storage unit. It all comes from a dusty tube in a storage unit. But it's significant. It's like it represents something important. And it's one of those intangible things that can be hard to articulate. But we accept the challenge. of the community we just want to make sure we stay in touch and that as we build on the white hat story uh that that many of you can join us and tell your own version of that story and vic good morning good afternoon um and thank you thank you very much yeah absolutely all right everybody we know you're busy thanks so much for joining us we appreciate you being part of our community And we just will continue to give. Jim is going to be posting a blog post kind of along this story. So please be watching for it. It will be on our website probably later today. And we just really appreciate you all and are grateful for our Buy Here, Pay Here, Lease Here, Pay Here community. Have a great day, everybody. Thanks. See you Friday.
