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. Oh, hey. Is it time to do the podcast? It's time. Okay. Okay. Here I'm here. Yes, it is. Yep. Welcome, folks. Happy Wednesday. Yeah. It's been a busy morning here. Yeah. A lot of stuff going on. Jim was trying to rewire a light fixture. Yeah. And I'm not sure what I did. Every time you started to run the dishwasher, the garage door opened. I don't know what I did. So we had an electrician at this party. And it was, you know, for someone who knows what they're doing. Yeah. um it's an easy fix yeah because the minute you told him what was wrong he was like i bet you i can tell you what happened yeah his facial expression said i can fix this yeah absolutely and you know we're um it the tie-in to what we're talking about today because uh there's a tie-in of you know loving what you do oh yeah and um and you know i there's got to be a sense of just accomplishment and satisfaction, satisfaction that comes from someone who can solve a problem. The everyday person just can't. So, and you know, I'll do a side little, I know we're talking about buy her, pay her dealers, but I'll just do a quick plug. This world is in need of electricians. And it's a great profession to, yeah. So, um, I've been watching different reports that say that there's like electricians and plumbers and welders and the, the, um, those kinds of service industry are, um, it doesn't matter how your customers, everybody. Yeah. Yeah. Good point. Absolutely. Everybody. Yeah. I got one quick announcement. If you'll indulge me a moment, let me get this image shared. Cause I just realized I never got it into the broadcast, but our friends in Iowa, Kristen and the dealer, Brad are celebrating. Yeah. So she's actually, I reached out to her about being on the podcast today and she has a chamber event there. They're making a big deal out of it in their community. As they should. As they should. And you also know that Sorenson is, you know, they're pretty active. They help out an awful lot. They have a really great, Kristen is, we've had her on the show numerous times and different, like, event things that we've done. Right. And just really has great numbers. She's part of E-Aid as well. And so her numbers look really good. She was part of the meeting we had last night. And our conversation was, we actually wrapped up the meeting by asking about how much you guys love what you do. Not with the thought that we were doing this, but because I have, for those who haven't seen it, we've got a... a post out there what for dealers who want to come and record if we pick six questions i've got currently thirteen questions to choose from you pick six of them come and and uh do a recording session with us and so we started those this week yeah and there was a bonus question There's a bonus question, but also one of the questions was, how much do you love what you do? And so far, the dealers that have come have chosen to answer that. And the results have been high. But I think the thing I want to share about Kristen is Kristen is the general manager, been there for thirteen years, and they have a really great culture. And I think they love what they do i also while i have it on the screen give these folks a follow on social if you really want to get a feel for what we would recommend for organic uh social interaction and just getting to know uh they're kind of starting to fire up a tiktok page but certainly uh they have facebook pages well established and they have some fun over there yeah check them out you know i've really like i said i've enjoyed um hearing what kristin has to say and and you know she works really hard on that culture piece yeah in there and and that kind of ties in a little bit i would say we're doing as well today our our topic um i i would say about that michelle i think they put in effort but i think they have fun i don't think it's well it's but but there's a difference those kind of things flow downstream They flow down. And so when you're given the, the bandwidth, I mean, as a general manager, obviously the owner is like, go for it, do. And, and she creates an environment where they can have fun and they can do the things because a lot of times, you know, the, those wanting to do fun things and having an enjoyable environment to work in does not start with the low man on the totem pole. yeah and you can't fake it like you can't you know you can't show up if you don't love what you do and you're not happy to be there it's going to show up i mean you can't be authentic and being enthusiastic if um if you don't really love what you do so that's kind of also ties into you know what we had in mind to talk about today so you know when we asked the question i think this is something we don't really talk about a lot it's like you know most of our conversations with dealers as coaches around cost of car and collections and delinquency and all that kind of stuff. We don't talk enough about this part about how much do you love it? And for some, it's been a challenging stretch, Michelle. This business has gotten more challenging, more difficult in the last year or two. Yeah. And so I think it's a time to do a little bit of a gut check and just kind of check in with dealers and how much do we love it? Do we want to continue to do it is obviously the unasked question in that, but it's like, Do we? Do we love what we do? And I can say as a former dealer, I really enjoyed it. Like before I was ever a dealer, I was an entrepreneur. I was a partner in a business when I was twenty four years old. And so I came from a real strong desire to be involved in entrepreneurship. And then buy here, pay here in particular as a way to be an entrepreneur was really interesting. intriguing especially coming out of the new car space you know i had been a salesperson and sales manager new cars before i got into buy your payer and when you when you step away from that environment where you're depending on a lot of other people to be able to do business in a buy here pay your environment especially as a dealer principal i mean you get to decide you you get to to write the rules so to speak i mean obviously we have compliance and things to uh you know regulations to live within but as far as how we do business and uh the way we portray ourselves in business and how we set ourselves up and and who we agree to underwrite you know that's a beautiful flexible part of that you were to say like what were your top three reasons why you loved what what was attractive and why you loved it it was the independence element that i mentioned like yes autonomy right um the other is just the idea of just helping people like the idea that you're you're able to have an impact on lives practically every day like if it's not on the you know the customer who needs a car today it's the customer who needs a little help on a payment or order the case is going to be so your opportunity to really make a difference and to have a positive impact on lives was was there and then i would say versus other businesses there was a comfort level associated with And I have a quote here I want to share from one of the dealers who answered our poll this morning. But I would say the other thing was this comfort level. And we saw it in COVID. It could be a quick example. It was the idea that you have cash flow as a buy-your-pay-your-dealer. You enjoy cash flow off of the contracts from last month and last year and all those active contracts that are paying. you know, five hundred a month or whatever the number is, then you have that cash flow. Even if you stop selling for a week or a month or three months like you did in COVID, you still are enjoying the cash flow off of those contracts. And so it's that's that's an appealing part of the business is once you make that investment and commitment and take the risk to grow that and the investment to grow the portfolio, then you enjoy that cash flow. You know, it's one of the things, the second thing you mentioned about being able to help people sure it's an interesting thing to observe how you know a lot of straight line businesses and those of you who are newer to the podcast we speak in things of straight lines and squiggly lines squiggly lines are the intangibles the emotion the you know the the things you can't put a dollar sign typically to and then the straight lines are you know like all of the policies, procedures, the administrative, all of that. And it's an interesting thing how, as we have talked to colleagues and friends and all of that that are business owners, how impact, cultural impact, community impact is becoming something that's important to people. And buy here, pay here dealers have been in that business since the birth of buy here, pay here. It's it's an impact business. That's it really is. It's it's you have the ability to just really impact your communities if they choose to. I mean, we've met dealers who are concerned about themselves first and they don't really put a lot of effort into, you know, into the community aspect. But yeah, I mean, with a lot of the dealers that we've talked to, I especially love when we when we speak to those that um are in this business to make a difference um and are in this business because they've experienced being on the other side of this coin or uh you know they that they and they it's interesting too because on those stories it's either i had such a great experience or I had such a negative experience and I just, I don't want that to happen to others kind of thing. Most of the time it's a positive experience, which is, which is awesome. But so we're, we're here to talk about why, you know, why, Do you love what you do and why? Yeah, let me show a poll before we get into all that. Let me show the poll. And I just posted it this morning, so there are barely a limited number of answers coming in so far. But if you can see on the screen there that the question I wrote was, on a scale of one to ten, how much do you love being a buy-here-pay-here or a lease-here-pay-here dealer? Write-ins are allowed and comments are encouraged. So we got some comments I'm also going to share. But you can see that we had a couple of votes, it looks like, eight eight out of ten had more votes for seven out of ten and then the rest were in the nine and ten yeah so there's just barely you know one or two but yeah yeah but it's um so you so much everybody is a seven or above the majority are uh a ten and a nine and you know the it's hard to love something every day like you just said it's been it's been a hard um for a lot of dealers it's been a hard stretch uh and i'm sure that there are there are things that they they you know and hold their love they love the business and in individual parts it's like gosh well yeah Listen, as a former dealer, I know that even the dealers who would say, I love it. It's a ten out of ten, right? Then even those people would say, there are days that are frustrating. There are days that are stressful. You have that. But you're going to have that in lots. If you're the boss, if you're the check writer and the person on the business, then that's going to be probably true with any business. So you would like to be having those challenges and frustrations and stresses in a business that you love. Yes. And it's the kind of work that you love. So I think just because you say it's a ten out of ten doesn't mean there aren't days that are, you know, you have challenges and frustrations and irritations. And obviously, you know, those who are outside this business who might hear us don't know that dealers have been having a rough stretch in terms of charge offs. You alluded to that. It's like they're they're experiencing high repos. The economy circumstances seem to be driving some of that. But, you know, we're monitoring that pretty closely. And I would say overall, it looks like our dealers are still tracking in a very consistent way it's kind of that old thing i talk about it's not going to change a lot for us in our business if dealers are experiencing higher charge off the question becomes how are they how well are they doing with their recoveries against those charge-offs and so how much does it really affect them financially and overall i can say that what we're seeing our v-eight numbers is that most dealers are pretty flat they're they're not there's nothing dramatic There are exceptions. We have people in there who, who that would be the case, but more of them by far are pretty stable. Right. And so this is part of what, you know, can be loved about this business. Let me share a quote from some of our members who are dealers rather of that, that group who, who commented, I only showed a photo first of John Devachi. Some will know John. John gave me permission to share his quote this morning. I didn't ask him about permission to share his photo. Just helpful sometimes to put a face. Let me tell a fun story about John. When I met him finally, I knew him through social media like a lot of people. I finally met him at the conference in Vegas. last June. And when I met him, he said, I've been looking forward to showing you that my business card is transparent. So the Wednesday thing. So this is, this is John DeBocci. Like he's, he lives and breathes transparency and integrity in business. And so let me share his quote. You want to read it, Michelle? Let me get it on there. Yeah, absolutely. It says best way to be in business. It's where the rubber meets the road and truly helping people. If I were a salesman at a franchise store, I wouldn't hit it. It just wouldn't hit the same. You'd have to make them walk the plank to the outside finance company, be at the mercy of the warranty and service contract company, and wouldn't be able to call the shots to help them through a tough time. As a buyer, payer, dealer, we have strong resilience in market turbulence. Not only we are held steady financially by a book of established customers, but we also get to have a higher level of satisfaction with the debt. of the relationships we build with them. Amen and hallelujah. So thanks for that comment. And thanks for permission to share it with others. In the church of by here and there, that receives an amen. That's like our friend Karen Barnett say, preach, preach. So yeah, I love it, John. That's the way I feel about the business. And obviously he alluded to the same thing I talked about where you you enjoy the the cash flow off of the current book of business it's already there so retail dealers didn't have that and that's why i say it was they felt that like really which felt that more in coven when they had to be closed like they were shut down for a period of some weeks and imagine still got rent still got utilities and what have you you could shut things down and you were cash yeah a lot of dealers accumulated a lot of cash during that time paid down debt you know so it's just an example one of the things that is to love about this business but I think that's more straight lines element you know what I really wanted to find out is how much do you get excited about you know getting out of bed and getting to the dealership and doing the work and and working with your team and we've seen people make comments about how they were away and they oh um She won't mind if I share that Melanie Goldman, I saw a comment about that. She was away on vacation and she returned and she couldn't wait to get back to her team. She just loves her team. I love it. Our folks at Dealer Gems, love you guys out there in Florida. We need the darkness to appreciate the light. Amen. Yeah, for sure. I'm going to church on a Wednesday. You're going to church on a Wednesday. Did you have another quote that you wanted to share? I do, yeah. So this one, actually, I didn't get Adrian's permission, but he won't mind if I share this. I'll just look and make sure. Adrian, our friend's down in southern Utah. Yeah. So Adrian said, I'd say solid. He's the general manager? I believe so, yeah. And he said, I'm solid. I'd say a solid nine out of ten. After twenty years in the business, it isn't always easy. So, again, that's, yeah, it's not to say that this business is easy. It's got its, it's, you've got a lot of balls to keep in the air, right, with this business. And so it's got its challenges, but it can be quite rewarding. He said, I love the challenge, the relationships we build with our customers and the impact we get to make in our community. Every day is different, and there's always something new to learn. The only reason it's not a ten is that there's always room to improve, grow, and refine the process, but that's what keeps it exciting. Buenos dias, he says. So, yeah, this is – you know these are examples of how people you know think about this business and i think for for people that are outside the business and one of the things i look forward to bringing back michelle is we we started to record these you know the sessions with these dealers where they pick six questions and i haven't had anybody select a question yet but one of the questions i wrote was you know when you when you meet somebody at dinner party who's not from your business or just somebody from around town or whatever how do you describe to them what you do because I always found that was interesting. Like, you know, you and I have that as coaches to just explain about the buy here, pay your business. And for dealers, when they meet somebody, how do they tell them what they do without sounding like they're, you know, cause there's a, there's a stigma, you know? And so we, we have to be mindful of that stigma. Sometimes we meet new people. Oh my gosh. I could wordsmith the hell out of that. And it's like, you know, I help disadvantage a credit disadvantaged people and be able to get their feet back underneath them and help solve problems yeah and they're like oh tell me more and it's like i help them get into a vehicle so they can get into you know get to work and sure i think there's an awful lot that you could have some fun with like your elevator pitch yeah and you know we work with a lot of friends and things that are in the um the entrepreneur and business and they're always, you know, tell me what you do. And, and it's just, it's a continual refining because yeah, it's, it's, it's a continual refining of that elevator pitch about what it is you do and why it matters. Yeah. So let's talk about one of the things that, why it matters, I feel like for us to, love what we do is the natural. And look, we didn't go looking for any real science here. We just said in our experience as coaches and people who work with a lot of dealers in a lot of places, one of the reasons it matters to love what you do and one of the ways it shows up is with team attitude and culture. So back to the Melanie Goldman things. When you love what you do, your team will feel that. They will feed off of that from you. And they... they won't really fit in with the culture if they don't also love being a part of it, right? If they enjoy the daily work and this is, but it's not to say that's not naive. It's not that they don't have days that are hard and they don't have to deal with things that are frustrating, but to get excited about showing up for work and being willing to stay and do what's necessary and whatever else, then if you as the dealer owner love what you do, then that's going to spill over to your team which is going to spill over to your customers and and even those people that you do business with in your community it's um it just it's it's a natural extension it's it's not again it's something we can't fake so if you genuinely love what you do then people are going to see that and i think i could go one step further If I'm a dealer and I show up every day and people see that I mean what I say when I enjoy helping customers solve problems, if they see that I don't just say that, I live it, I expect it, right? And so this starts to show up with the team when they can say, they know that I've got their back and that that means something to me. And so this is part of what, what I think it it's inevitable that the team is going to, um, pick, pick that up from the leader. Right. Yeah. I, I, I also think, you know, there there's, this is a great opportunity to kind of chat a little bit about like what it is you love and, um, because helping others, is something that White Hat Wave really, really encourages that to be like a cornerstone. And that's the important thing. There are those out there that just love the money. And so if what you love about the business is the money, that doesn't trickle down the same way to your team. And the money's great. But what I'm trying to express is that you know, having having a spirit of of loving your neighbor and helping your neighbor, helping the disadvantaged, that really helps create an environment where a team feels part of something bigger than themselves. Now, in contrast, if what you love is making money. Right. And there's, you know, there may not be the trickle down and the, you know, or the celebration and just, there's just an awful lot about how you're allowing your team to participate in the things that you love about the business. Because when you do, I mean, it could be like, I love that we that we get to make cars look amazing or whatever. And it's just, it just is so, so, you know, you, you add your team into that and then they're like, we've got the best looking cars in the whole city or, you know, so it's, it's, um, when we, when we open up opportunities for our teams to join us in the things that we love, um, that, that, really creates just a beautiful culture. And, you know, no one likes to work somewhere that they don't love what they do. Yeah, I think. And I think, you know, my my one of the things about culture, I think, is that we get to say that. So you mentioned cleaning up the cars, like if I'm a detailer or whatever, my position is in the dealership. I get to understand this is who we are in the community. So the cars are the cars, right? It's the relationship with the customers and kind of that stuff is more culture. I've just got a cord sitting on my leg and when I move, I can hear it. Go ahead. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. So anyway, the, the idea is that we, we just, we get to all, everybody on the team gets to understand who we are, which to me is part of the culture element. And when we love what we do, then again, that's going to show up. It's going to spill out and we can't really hide it. It's going to spill out with the team and everywhere else that we go. Another reason that it matters to love what you do is that it's going to affect stress levels. This business, as I said, this is something that I think we see that with dealers, it can be a challenging business. And we see a lot of dealers, we see in social media in particular, a lot of dealers expressing frustration and even anger. And it's like, man, maybe this business is not for you. Like it's just, if you're not in it for the long game and you're really straight lines about it, it's a pretty tough business. And if you don't have the same kind of underlying benefits to being in the business, then maybe it's not the right business. I would just say, we've got to monitor stress levels there and see, is there, is it affecting our wellbeing? Is there someplace else we should try to make our living? You know, that would be a little less frustrating because I think if you're, if you're, I've talked about this in the past where I worked with dealers who were just like, I think the customer should just make their payment. I make my payments. Why don't they just make their payment? And I think if you're going to be in this business with the expectation of the customer's going to make their payments on time, every time, just because you do, you're just setting yourself up for a lot of this. You would never have a credit score below seven hundred. Yeah. And you would have, as a dealer owner, you're going to have a lot of frustration. You're just setting yourself up for frustration, disappointment day after day after day. And it's just going to, it's going to wear on you. Yeah. Yeah. I did a search on, you know, why it's important to the science behind why it's important. And one of the things that talked about was improves mental and physical health, which is part of the stress levels. People who are satisfied with their work experience, less stress are less preoccupied with physical symptoms and have better psychological well-being. I don't know about you. I'm talking to everybody out there and to my sweetheart. Um, when there is something that you just don't like, um, and you have to, oh my gosh, it's just, it's, for me, my physical, my physical reaction is just like, it is procrastinated to the ends of the earth. And that just sits there like this thing creates, creates more stress. And then when I finally get it done, usually it was, you know, not as big of a deal, but at least it's gone. So, you know, uh, But if it feels like drudgery. If it feels like drudgery. Then you procrastinate. You put it off. You put it off or you hire someone. yeah yeah maybe yeah maybe but yeah this is um it's another reason to obviously want to enjoy what you do and then the last one for me would be just the resilience and longevity which kind of all tied to everything else we've already talked about it's like you're this business is really not for for folks who if you don't really enjoy it you know and especially the piece that we would say and by the way when you talked about that thing about you know there's if you're focused on making money there when we say that white hat dealers are interested in the success of the customer. It doesn't mean that the white hat dealers aren't also making a great living profit cashflow. And what's more is to me, the white hat element, the reason we promote that as much as we do is because it's been our experience. that that translates into longevity and sustainability. And so this is why we don't just want our dealers to be profitable. We want them to enjoy positive cashflow. We want them to be profitable. We want them to have low stress levels. We want them to be available to go and spend time with their family. And we want them to be an asset to their community for a very long time. The end. It's like, that's what we want. And so it's not about less profit. it's about staying power you know um i was uh man in my working years done a ton of different jobs and i remember um i i've waited tables done that an awful lot it's interesting because all of my kids have to at one time or another it's just so it's one of those things we can like oh my gosh do you remember and we talk about how things are different today but i remember um a seasoned Waitress. Do we even use that word anymore? Server. A seasoned server. When I first started, I was like counting my tips in the middle of the day. And she's like, stop doing that. I'm like, why? She says, the money will come. Just focus on the work and focus on the people and focus on helping people and focus on serving and focus on having a good time and all of that. And the money will come. Right. And she was, she was right about that. That when I focused on the money, I got more stressed. Yeah. I could have, if I didn't know you were going to tell that story, I could have found the article. I saw something where a waitress was arrested because she, she went out to the car and threw something at a customer in the parking lot because they gave a lousy tip. So that's the other end of the thing. Exactly. So if you don't pay any attention and you just scoop it and put it and scoop it and put it. And at the end of the day, know but when you focus on the wrong thing when you focus on how people are behaving badly that might have just been one table an entire slew and it changed her attitude enough that she would Leave the premises and go throw something at someone. Yeah, and how could it not affect the next customer? The next customer is going to get lousy service because the server went to jail. So, you know, it's like it's going to affect your day. But anyway, I think we covered the parts, Michelle, that I wanted to cover today. I appreciate you folks tuning in. One quick word. By the time we convene for the next White Hat Wednesday, there's a possibility I'll be able to show folks the new white hat. that has been ordered finally after all this time. I have not. Are we going? Yeah, yeah. It's coming. It is coming, but maybe not next week because we're going to Utah for Thanksgiving. We land Tuesday night. No, we land Monday night. Wait, oh, that's right. Oh, I'm like totally screwed up. She made, Michelle needs a vacation. I, yes. Yeah, yeah. It's been a, I know we went to New Hampshire, but that was kind of just a relax. It was just a few weeks ago. It didn't last you very long. I think Michelle needs to do a vacation about every four weeks, it sounds like. That's a great idea. Yeah, yeah. I love that idea. All right. Well, let me see here. Let me pull up some stuff. We're going to do this. As we close up the show. We're going to close up the show. We hear from some of our dealer friends that it's like, yeah, in between or when I'm out, I'll take a listen. So thanks so much for joining us. And, you know, if there's something that you would like to have us have a conversation about or would like to be part of the conversation and come on the show. Or just also stay tuned and find out when I finally get around to decorating my wall. We did hers, so I get to see it. All right, everybody. Have a great rest of your week. We will see you on Friday. Yeah. And then the following Wednesday, we will be in Utah. All right, everybody. Have a great day. Thanks again for joining. Thank you.
