Good morning, everybody. I know. Such a dramatic opening. I know. The Sunday afternoon episode of BHBH Nation TV. Welcome. We're doing a Sunday afternoon because... It was a holiday Saturday. And we missed Friday morning for various reasons. So this is sort of replacing... Friday's podcast. And so we're happy to have you here on an unusual Sunday afternoon. It was a quick recap of the holiday weekend. You want to give any updates? We did a lot of projects. Around the house. Around the house. We got out for some yard work. Yeah, we got out for the local fireworks. Oh, it was really wonderful. You know, I've seen fireworks all over the place and I really quite enjoyed it. And my favorite part was at the very end, they did like a whole bunch of just those white ones that are all sparkly. So the whole sky was just white and sparkly. And I lost my, I mean, I was like, oh. Yeah, that's true. That caught my breath because it was so pretty. I'd never seen fireworks display and with that, without color, but just this like sparkle. It was nice. It was really pretty. And the whole city was, we had wonderful weather here for the weekend. Yeah, it was really great. So anyway, welcome to a Sunday afternoon. We just wanted to talk about data. You know, data is not a new conversation for us. But real quick, did we say, I hope everybody had a great Fourth of July? Oh, yeah, of course. Because it was, you know, at two hundred and fifty years is not a small deal. Yeah. So, you know, we got to see the fireworks for that. So. Before we get into it, sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt you, but happy Fourth of July belated to everybody out there. Now, go. Hope you folks aren't having to nurse a sunburn today from your time at the lake or whatever. Yeah, it was quite a celebration everywhere. So yeah, I think this data conversation is, it's not a new thing. I think what's new is kind of the way that it's kind of intersecting with our world and some of the people that we're working with and some of the dealers that we're working with and our VA community. And so it just kind of comes back to the forefront in terms of this challenge that is an opportunity that is buy here, pay here data. And, you know, we have a distinguished listener today. I have somebody I sent the link to that is tuned in. Not just me. I mean, I'm listening and participating, but yes. So it's somebody that we think will be part of a solution where we're we're working with them to, you know, as an analyst and and data person. So we think they can be part of a solution. This is. You know, there's just there's some stories that we need to tell that will kind of help illustrate why this even continues to be a thing. And I just realized, I mean, I wrote a whole bunch about this yesterday and I left all of my sheets of paper of everything that I wrote in the other room. Oh, yeah. That's all right. You know the story. You know the whole thing. I do, but there were a couple of quotes from our conversation that I wrote down that were really quite impactful. If I find them or remember them, I will share them in the comments. Yeah, that sounds good. And I also did some work on that even again this morning. We're obviously working a lot with cloud and AI lately and the work that we do. So, you know, one of the things I do remember very much so from that is that, you know, this idea that it's going to matter tomorrow is, which, you know, tomorrow, everyone is in the future, I'm going to, all of that. It matters right now, too. And so it's kind of one of those things that... That it can help you in the future, but it can just, you know, for capital for all the things that we're going to talk about, too. But it really, you know, it matters this moment. And it's something, it's one of those things that, you know, we talk about. um short-term fixes or long-term fixes and you know they uh the native americans have this thing where it's like you're you're looking at a solution that is like it will still serve ten years out or generations or generations out yeah and so you know this this um this topic that we're talking about today is something that i just it has woven in to so many different conversations that we've had um over the years one's podcasts um special events the uh the uh the one we did about blue sky yeah live stream The live stream, which you can find on the Institute. But it just, it really, it was an important thing that people said, if we could do this, which is part of making it matter, if we could do this, Then it would help us be able to accomplish these bigger goals that are. Yeah. Let me just say we've there are solutions taking shape. And so I think, you know, we would urge people to kind of stay plugged in because there we're going to ask people to come add their voice to, you know, the work that is being done here. I think, you know, we've talked about the AI is, is creating answers that really weren't there before. And then we, between the partners were added and, and, and I'm very much aimed at the long game here. Right. I mean, we want to solve this thing in a way that I don't like band-aids. So we're talking about solve this thing. Let's define the thing. Yeah, so that's best done with stories. Like I've got a dealer now that's an example, somebody who is a new member to VA. They just enrolled last month, so we're getting their data and trying to get them in meetings in July. And in working through their data, it's clear that the dealer doesn't really know which report. They're on a software they've been on for six months to a year maybe. They don't know exactly which reports to run. They granted us access. We got in and pulled some reports. The reports don't tie together. So what I mean is when I ran, for example, March, April, May, the months individually, they didn't... Beginning endings are different. They didn't tie together month over month. And so it's like, where do we start? That in itself is... basic one Oh one budget and accounting. Yeah. Yeah. It's like balancing your checkbook. You, you know, you know where it ended and it's starting on that same place. And, and so, you know, obviously it did end on day last day of the month with the exact same amounts of money and all of that as it did when you opened up your doors the next month. Right. but it's because of how you're structuring your data, how you're entering things. If you're going back and you're changing stuff, that's probably one of the bigger ones. That's what we see. I mean, you see dealers in some systems, there's a difference between the date that we contract and the date that you post a deal. And we're seeing some dealers that have a discrepancy. I looked at one dealer's data recently where they had, I think I looked at like seventy five to one hundred deals and there might have been one that was that was posted the same day it was contracted. So anytime you've got that kind of a lag, right, because we don't know when we're running a sales report, we can run in some software. I should say in some software you can choose to run a sales report. For example, do you want sales that were posted or sales that are unposted or don't see all of them, whatever? So that's an example of something can happen with this particular dealer. we don't know we're not inside their operation and know what they're doing about what they're contracting and so one of the things you alluded to that I think is when we reverse a deal which this is something that as a former dealer myself and somebody's worked with data for many years I think if if I were a dealer if I were advising a dealer who's setting up and the software could allow me to turn this on or off like can I reverse a deal from a prior calendar month the answer would be no And it's just because it makes things messy. It's such a mess. It makes things so messy. It makes it difficult to reconcile. When we've already closed, in this case, we're having this conversation early July. If we've already run our closing inventory and receivables report kind of asset, you know, snapshots for balance sheet, then if something happens, transaction in July that changes our June after we've already run, you know, our close of the month, then you're just chasing our tail and we don't ever get clean. Well, and you mentioned too before, like the, you know, you're booking a deal and posting. Is it possible to do it on the same day? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So there would be operational internal reasons for not doing so. Okay. But I mean, it's possible. So just the idea that, well, I couldn't because of X, Y, or Z is- It's really internal decision. It's just for whatever the reasons are, but it's not about I couldn't because I just couldn't. It's because it's just you've made a decision not to. And we've created a practice where that happens. And so it becomes a little persistent with some, but instead of a rare case where we've got some reason to hold over a deal for a few days before we finalize it or post it in the system. So this is all kind of minutia that the average dealer or the average vendor might not get interested in. But I think what here's, let me just kind of jump to the end and then we can work our way back. Cause what we just did is we gave examples of what the problem is. Yeah. And so it's in this whole body of, you know, of not having things match and, and not, um, not, There are some things like, I don't know if it's standardized or whatever, that just making sure that we're able to compare apples to apples. Yeah. So I think when we get to the end, I can tell you that one of the ways that I think this matters, because if you look at who cares if the data is clean? Well, I would say the dealers ought to care. The dealers management team, they're the ones trying to manage the business. They ought to be wanting to work from data that's reliable and accurate. Yeah. And then after that, it starts to pass on to the CPA and lenders. And there's all these parties out there that are interested in the data coming through from the dealer. Right. So I would just say that my solution to this is to work with the DMS and the, and the capital folks. And the reason this works for me, I think is going to ultimately work for dealers is that when we can get to the place where dealers have, let's call it white hat verified data. Okay. So they've got data that has been swept. It's been validated. It's been verified. It's, it's, it's been mapped toward accounting chart of accounts. It's got all these elements. Yeah. Now, when you have that white hat certified data, you'll see the day that lenders are able to offer those dealers better terms on financing. You actually had a conversation with someone who was a former banker that is a dealer that basically said, yeah, if you could solve that, you would be able to get a better deal. yeah but that once once if it could read a little you know ten bullets or a one pager that says here's what white hat verification means on this data pool yeah right and so now again cpas can we're not trying to be accountants but we're just trying to make sure that the data that we that comes across our i call it threshold it comes across the white hat threshold and when it lands on the other side it's verified at these points right so they can spot check but at least at that point if you're a cpa you've got a third party here who has validated the data passing across that platform and it comes out the other side with some verification so you know earlier we talked about the examples of what it is that we're talking about um the you know If a dealer is doing some of those things, it would likely be a headache with the CPA and that they would just either have to turn a blind eye. Good enough. good enough. I'm not going to argue the point with you, you know? All right. So you said, well, it happens because of this. And so I'm going to take your, your reason and your, all of that. It does. And it still causes an accountant, a level of friction, right? Yeah, and before you get to the accountants, I think one of the things that's happening for us, and by the way, when we close the month of June, that means we're now going to have thirty months of data for a lot of our members that either started that early or built their data back to January twenty twenty four. So you're talking about thirty months of continuous data. Well, this this week I had a conversation with a dealer who's probably going to be exiting a VA deal. And there's still a chance we can find a way to, but it's around data. And it's around if we can't get the data to work, then it becomes a question, and it becomes a question for us as the host of the V-Ape platform, getting to data that is reliable. Okay. So this is why it came into question this week is that we've got a dealer who's probably going to leave our, our ecosystem because we can't get on the same page about data. We've been working on it for quite some time. And, and okay. So this is important. And I want to say this part really for this distinguished listener that I'm talking about, who may be joining us in this data kind of extraction and validation process is that This dealer's been, I mean, this is a pretty sizable dealer, collecting half a million dollars a month or a pretty significant amount of money. I don't look at the exact numbers, but they've got a substantial amount of portfolio and cash flow. I'm in a place where I probably can't include all those years of data. in our historicals going backwards because it just doesn't tie together. It simply is not a reliable pool of data. And so in fairness to the other members, we have to exclude that because, and that's unfortunate, like for me, Is that, is that something that can be fixed? Well, you would need cooperation with the DMS providers probably to get there. You know, the answer would seem to be yes. You know that every transaction in the software probably has a footprint. It's a question of what would you have to pay somebody to really go in there and do something forensic and rebuild all the stuff and tie it all back together. The software clearly is going to make some sort of a stamp of a footprint of a transaction. which is kind of how they weave into this whole conversation as well yeah yeah so i think when i look at that situation it's unfortunate will we be able to find a way to clean that up and keep them as a member i hope so i kind of expect that we will but um but if we lose them it's like i think the big thing for me is it's just so unfortunate that That all that history of that dealer working and their management team working to get their data turned in and be a member in the VA thing. And it's not that they didn't contribute to the meetings in other ways. Right. But the actual data just never got in a flow that was reliable. And so this is and of course, for us, we're over here with V.A. trying to keep it affordable for dealers. And there's another thread to this thing that I think we've touched on before. People can go back and find the prior conversation that we had around this. But it really intersects with everything we're talking about and it leads into conversation. I'm going to be having this coming week. I've got meetings lined up with DMS providers and dealers for this coming week. And this will be very much a focal point of these conversations is here's my vision for how we solve this. Okay. And I can show them. enough of the mapping that they can get a better understanding for what it looks like when data passes across our threshold, right? And this is where it becomes a thing where when you look at the software, there are folks out there working with API integrations. Right. We haven't we haven't gone down that path. We chose to not. Yeah. Yeah. And so, you know, the different providers approach that differently. Some will charge, some will cooperate, whatever. But either way, it's like we we chose not to go down the path of APIs. Now, I had a conversation with somebody who's like, you know, well, it's it's twenty twenty six and, you know, we've got it. We got to get automated. And I told him, I said, you're not wrong. And automation just moves data faster. Okay. And I know where you're going with this. It's not just about moving it faster. It's about this whole... There's like a side conversation. AI is fantastic, but when it helps you to stop thinking... it is no longer fantastic. So if you have AI doing all of the thinking for you, so as a dealer, if AI is doing that, then you're not in the numbers to know what it is that's happening. It doesn't have to be AI. It could simply be an API integration between the DMS and the dealer's platform. It might be pushing to accounting. It might be whatever. but here's the thing and i i learned this way back in my early days of you know we had computers and and i told somebody recently i was i was they stepped into the finance side buy here pay here back when there was doll space systems and they moved to windows i mean i'm showing my age here right yeah but i've been through a lot of iterations of software so this thing is not new around you could automate things and make it spit out numbers more quickly But when a dealer comes to a V eight meeting and they sit in a room with seven other dealers and they don't know their own numbers, they don't know if their own numbers are right. They haven't participated in the collection of those numbers. Well, exactly. You know, we've, we've, A lot of dealers, I mean, it takes them less than thirty minutes. So it's not like it's a lot that has to happen. Unless you have a mess. And that's when it takes extra time. Because if you're clean and you're not doing the thing, I mean, if you're able to... carry over month over month and all of those things, it's not nearly the headache to put together your numbers. Yeah, and I'm really just thinking about, and this is, look, and I told the same person, I said, yeah, of course, we're all moving, you know, we're using AI and clearly we're moving toward automation and API integrations, right? That's really... I'd say it's the future. It's yesterday for a lot of industries. For us, we're a little behind the curve in buyer-payer, which is common. But what you miss when you automate that, and the machine spits the data across from one place to the other, You can't have dealers in a meeting saying, oh, that doesn't look right. My average recon, that doesn't look right. Like that's the wrong time to find out that the data may not be coming through, that we've got some sort of glitch in the process that pushes data or whatever. Obviously, it'll be cleaner than human. When you take out the human error part of it, we get that. But there's also value to remember to have your dealers touch and get familiar with their own data, recognize anything that's irregular. So that's currently still our process. We'll be moving toward automated solutions, of course. But it's there's value in having our members submit the data. And being involved in the process. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And so sometimes we have human error. It's a typo. And I'll have a dealer when the report goes out, they'll say, hey, would you look at my inventory numbers? I think I put the wrong number in the wrong place. So that's human error can happen. Right. So our work is to validate those things and make sure everything looks legit. And then, of course, we can check with the dealer to make sure everything looks right before it actually goes into the final report. But I think that the big thing here is that unless we get software providers to cooperate, then you're just having the same old tired conversations and you're really not getting anywhere. And so what I'm really saying is let's rally, let's work together to solve this thing. This is... There's enough automation out there to make pretty short work of some of the things that we're talking about. So now it's a question of how do we get folks to do this? And my answer will be that when people start to see what the white hat verified data looks like coming out the other side. And so let me kind of illustrate that there's more than just there's more than just the software connection to, in my case, a V eight dealer group. Let's say the dealer turns on the flip flips a switch in their software because the software has now got a push to the V eight thing. Beautiful. That's a nice thing. What it doesn't solve is the thing that dealer one on software one is in a member, a member of a group with another dealer who's, you know, dealer three on software, you know, X and, and if those things don't correlate, they don't line up because of operational differences in the way that they conduct business, then we still haven't solved a piece of it. And this is the other part that I'm digging in on. We're already working on that and working with dealers now to make sure that we can also address these operational differences. And we only have to really do it once and update it periodically. But we now have the ability to sweep that information and make sure that it matches like it that it's going to match with the way the other dealers are are reporting their data and operating their business what do i mean by that like well some dealers have service contracts on there so it's in their note it's in their add-ons and other dealers don't have that well You can maybe pick some of that up from APIs, and then there will be better examples of things that you don't really pick up in an API. So I think the way the description for today's podcast read is about when you, instead of operating on solid foundation, you can do all this stuff and you can move data fast, but you're still operating on sand. It's like it's not stable, right? And so this is why the thing about we don't have integrity of the data until we get some sort of foundational thing that we can work from. And this is the part that White Hat Way is doing. This is our solution. Yeah. So I threw up there a minute ago and let you finish and it came off and then I put it back up. Whitehatway.com. uh for those that are listening if you head there and um click on the tab for v-eight that it gives you a lot more information about just you know what this whole what the whole pros program or whatever works looks like and yeah and just so you know um a little bit of a plug we are changing pricing uh august first and so if you want to get in even thinking about it that now really is the time to do it before prices go up so that all that information about that is on the website so if you go to whitehatway.com and then click on the V eight tab that there's all that information. And, and, you know, if you want to get more information, the links lead to an email to Jim. So, yeah. And I would just say to kind of wrap it up as like, I, I I'm doubling down on data integrity. You know, it has been like your thing since I met you, and it's data integrity. It's data integrity. And it still matters, and it's going to continue to matter until we fix it, right? Yeah. I mean, I, I, I, yes. And I, I'm surprised that you don't have an ulcer or something from, because it is something that you, that you have felt a level of frustration around since we met. And I keep showing up for work. Well, I mean, and like that, it's like, well, we happen to think it matters. Yeah. And, you know, let us know if if you think it matters, because sometimes it just makes no sense to fight a fight that no one thinks is worth fighting. Yeah. Except for the person fighting. So here's when it'll start to matter to some folks is when the lender asks, is your is this data white hat certified? Or is it validated, verified? That's going to be the thing that's going to start to tip the thing and make people realize this stuff matters. It's going to make a difference with the lenders and access to capital, which is pretty scarce at the moment. There's not a lot of capital out there. So I think we want to make sure that we've got... And anything you can do to help your... um interest rate on capital yeah and that's like i said you know talking to a former banker is like yeah if you could do that right string data together and have it all have it all validate yeah that that is that is something that's that has that has value and we can do that and our v-eight members are contributing in that way they're working with us but i would say anybody who joins a v-eight group with us going forward can expect that we're going to, we're going to ask you to work with us to, to make sure the data has integrity. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. White hat way.com. Uh, check on the, the V eight. Uh, you can also, if you want to just reach out to Jim directly and it's Jim at white hat way.com. Right. Um, and you know, he can, he can, answer whatever questions you have and send you some information, whatever. There are solutions, friends. We just, uh, we're going to need folks to add their voices to this conversation and we're going to step forward and solving some of them. Yeah. Um, All right, everybody. Thanks so much for joining our special broadcast from Buy Here, Pay Here Nation TV. We will be launching a brand new look, feel, style, and integrate platform where all of the things in Buy Here, Pay Here Nation TV and everything in Buy Here, Pay Here Institute, which is the industry's premier virtual video education platform so i'm literally looking forward to we will be doing that launch um uh everyone's going to be seeing about the first of september so um be watching for that and be looking for some of the marketing on that so again thanks everybody for joining us we really appreciate you including us on this holiday weekend and we will see you on the other side
