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. Hello, all. Good morning. Welcome to Utah. Mm-hmm. We're going to old school, old school set up this morning. Yeah. Got Michelle back in the podcast this morning. So welcome back to see everybody or glad for everybody to see us, I guess would be the better way to put it. We don't see anybody from over here, but I'm glad to be here. Glad to have a chance to talk a little about your pay here and fourth quarter preparation for a successful, got a lot of stuff on our mind around that and Michelle, thoughts from you, anything you want to share before we kind of dive into our big subject? Not very much. Just a great time of the year. And we're really enjoying the cooler weather and the family and all of that. And it's you know, this is a this is a good time of the year, slowing down of the seasons to really look at what you want to have happen next year. Yeah, for sure. And so far our visit has included one professional stop. I mean, it's mostly a family visit. We did make a run down to Salt Lake to meet with somebody who's somebody that I met in my years of kind of being part of a tribe here that's entrepreneurship and some technology. So I was able to meet with somebody around our AI technology and it was a good, good visit and learned a lot. Well, uh, of reassured after that meeting that we're on a very good track yeah absolutely absolutely it's it's um and that coming from someone who is very uh well versed in ai and ai how ai can layer into things about how valuable what it is that we're building right now um that how valuable that is. Sure. Yeah. So that's we're in we're in demo mode now and some work remains, but certainly looks very promising where we're going and what's been created so far. So all good. So we should dive into our big subject, which is it really is a big subject. We make it bigger. And when it comes to this subject KPIs and I've got a little short video that I prepared last night. and um so we'll roll that in a moment i just think it's the nature of the way that michelle and i coach and people that have worked with us over the years can say that you know we we do the best we can to get dealers to step away from their busy rat race that is operation of the dealership and think about, you know, what are the things that are important to me individually? Yeah. Yeah. Um, I'm, those of you know, that kind of stepped away a little bit from a lot that's happening in the buyer fear world, but I'm doing my own thing on, uh, and one of the things that I'm working on, which just fits so nicely. And with what we're going to be talking about today, is getting prepared for next year. And I'm right now taking a group of fifteen people through this exercise of what do you want for next year? And then we're right now in the process of saying, okay, what is underneath the things that you wrote down? It's like, I want X, I want X, I want X. It's like, why do you want X? What will it bring you? Because understanding that, and this is one of the things we were talking about for today, but understanding the why you want something can help you to achieve it in a really nice, beautiful way. And also, if you understand why you want to sell ten more cars, what will it bring you? All of that. that it may happen in a way that you aren't expecting, but you get that, you get your why out of the whole process. Yeah, I think, and of course, I sat in on your first session in that group, and it's really a great start. It's an important conversation that you started and a kind of great framework that you put together. And I think it kind of ties into what we're talking about here in that, again, we'll play a short video because I think this video of a couple of minutes will kind of, give a little background on the whole thing and kind of the wide view on how we could approach this. And maybe one way to think about it is in the work that Michelle and I do, I feel like we coach, and of course she's not as involved in the Buy Here, Pay Here side of it now, but I certainly have coached and we've coached in the past dealers, not dealerships, right? Of course, we're working with them to improve their business, but- Business owners. Business owners. And so what you're really trying to get to is you have to ask dealers to make time occasionally to stop thinking about the business and let's think about you and your family. And so that's part of what today is about is as we move towards setting intentions, setting goals for whatever targets we're going to have for KPIs. And we've got some of the stuff we'll talk about. We'll go more into KPIs in terms of actual numbers and formulas and that sort of thing going into next week. But I think it happens with you and I, when we work with coaches is like, That whole thing about why. Why that target? Why is that the objective? Well, and that's the whole thing with we've always taught based on straight lines and squiggly lines. And KPIs are very straight lined. These are very numbers driven, very it's you either met the goal or you didn't meet the goal kind of bits. And they're very, very tangible. And what we're asking next week, you said you were going to be talking more about those straight line things. What we're asking is that why? Because when you can get clear about what that will bring you, like how it will make you feel, how it will change your experience for next year in your day to day and how you are relating to your team and how you are relating to your customer. and how you are relating to your family and how you're able to participate as a family differently. So it's that question of why is it goes beyond the dealership because we recognize, like you said, this isn't about the dealership as much as it is about the dealer. What experiences does the dealer want? And that does spill over into what experience he or she has within the dealership. That's right. Um, why don't we go ahead and play the video? For a walk friends. I'm, uh, at my Airbnb in Utah with Michelle. We're doing a family visit and I'm just out this evening and kind of thoughtful jaunt, you know, as I contemplate tomorrow's podcast, we're stepping into number three of five in, uh, this series on how to prepare in Q four for a successful twenty twenty seven. And we covered a couple of things. Now we talked about some some ways to set targets. We talked about tax refund season and now tomorrow I want to talk about setting KPIs. for, um, I'm going to turn around a little bit and you'll be able to see the mountain view that I'm enjoying on my little stroll. But, um, you know, as I step into this, I just am aware that it's, it's hard to talk about for me as a coach, it's hard for me to talk about the straight lines of business without incorporating some of these squiggly lines that Michelle and I talked about with White Hat Way. And now's the perfect time to really stop and think about why that's important. I'm going to pause for a minute and give you a look at the view. Certainly things Michelle and I miss about Utah. I mean, the air temperature tonight is nice. It's cool. It's just it's really fantastic here this time of year. And but, you know, so is Texas. So is Oklahoma. It just it's got different things that are to appreciate. It's late enough in the evening now. I probably won't hear him, but. Earlier on my time outside, I was hearing the F-Thirty-Fives, which is common. We're not far right here from Hill Air Force Base. And so mornings and afternoons, you'll often hear those F-Thirty-Fives, you know, circling. They're sometimes in twos and threes. I've seen as many as six doing touch and goes around here. So anyway, back to the thing about the squiggly lines. I think, you know, as we talk about setting targets for twenty, twenty seven and really it's going to be true of any business, but definitely in our business of buy here, pay here. We want to think about what is it that we want to achieve? Like, you know, as we start setting targets, yeah, we can maybe set our sights on more sales and we can set our sights on cutting down on repos and all the things that probably everybody else in your town is going to do for planning. But I'm really saying if we took a minute to really ask ourselves, what is it we want our business to become? And as it relates to how we live our lives, how we spend our time with our family and all those kinds of things, like, you know, what is it we're looking to create? Because once you get clear about that, it's so much easier to set your... intentions around that your kpi targets around that it's just it's all serving the desired end result that's just really serves you it's like what kind of business are we looking to create here so i think this is the right time to do that october dealers are out there buying and you know getting ready for a tax refund season and It's the right time to stop and ask yourself, what would make my life better? How can I make my business make my life better next year? So I think it's a good time to really break that down for yourself and take a little time off and just ask yourself, what do I want to create? What's this business need to look like in order for me to feel like I own my business instead of my business owning me, right? So, I'm just inviting you this evening as I think about it myself for my own business going into the next year, I would just say, you know, it's not just going to be moving more numbers in all likelihood. There's other things to contemplate here besides the actual KPIs and the gross profit margins and all those numbers. It's not that they don't matter in business. Of course they do. It's just that when we are also clear in our intentions around what it is that we're looking to create, then you'd be able to move those numbers more. You know, if it fits with your grand mission, it fits with your own plan for yourself and your family, then you'll be much more likely to achieve them. That's it. you know, there's a lot of kind of covers much of what we've already talked about. I would just say that one thing that's uncomfortable sometimes for dealers is this idea of talking about things that might be emotional. They might be, you know, certainly in the context of squiggly lines, it's just not something dealers make time to talk about. And look, it's understandable. I'm a dude. I've been around dudes, you know, in my work. And it's sometimes something that, you know, it's easier to just stay in a lane that we're familiar with. I want to sell more cars. I want to, you know, build my business, blah, blah, blah. That's an easy conversation to have. I think what you're hearing me try to bring forth there is this idea that to what end? Like, if you tell me if your answer is, you know, I kind of prepared a couple of banners over here. Let me put them on the screen so that we can. of um have those as a you know foundation of a conversation i would say that um this one here like what are your um if you tell me my target is uh more profitability i want to be more profitable because you know we're starting into a new period we're starting into a new fiscal year for most dealers our fiscal year will end december thirty first we step into a new fiscal period why does that matter because that's how the irs measures us right so that's kind of why That's why that becomes a thing. So you want to be more profitable. Okay, so why? What is that going to do for you? So I can ask this thing of all dealers here today and ask, as you step into targets, you want to improve your collections, you want to cut down on repos, some of the things I mentioned. What is that going to do for you? Not for your business. We understand what it's going to do for your business. The question is, what is that going to do for you? And if your business could stay the same, it could generate the same cash flow and same profitability next year as it did this year, but it meant more time for you, because that's the thing we don't talk about. That's not measured in our KPIs, it's time, right? Time for you as the dealer, time with your family, time away from the business. What is that worth? What will it do for you? Yeah. Well, and that's where it's so important to look at what is your life look like outside of the dealership and are, do you know, do you, do you have, um, do you have what you need coming into your household, coming into whatever that, that you are comfortable and you're able to have the experiences that you want and that you're able to enjoy, you know, uh, we've, we have a nice car, we have a nice home. We were able to do these different things, but let's say you're not moving that needle of, of I'm making more money. Um, and so you're able to maintain those things that you, those levels of things that you're experiencing right now without the stress with more time to your, to your, um, to your family, more time for personal development, more time for hobbies, more time for other things that help us to be really more rounded out humans. Yeah. So we don't feel like we're a slave to our business. You know, this is the part that, you know, it obviously can take away our time. And while we certainly see dealers making time for t-ball games and all this stuff, it's in reality, it can be challenging. Our businesses can be demanding and we have an opportunity here. It's October. We can catch our breath. We can think about as we head into the refund season in the first quarter, we can think about what is it that we really want to implement in our business this year that is going to make a difference. And let me even widen it up just a little bit longer for just a minute or wider. If you're a dealer listening to this this morning, if you're a vendor in this space if you're a state association i think as we step into the new year i know i speak for michelle when i say we want you to be successful we we have no reason to want anything except your success and we want to know for sure what that success looks like for you so going back to the dealer side is if i want to have more accounts than my my competitor across town. I want to close twenty twenty seven with more accounts and more cash flow than my competitor across town. Okay. What did that get for you? What did that do for you? I'm just breaking it down in terms of what did it really mean for you as an individual and for you and your family? If that's really the goal, we just got to be careful about setting targets that don't really serve us personally. Yeah. Because your worth as a husband, your worth as a dad, your worth as a son, your worth as a community member, your worth in all of those things has nothing to do with crushing the competition. Yeah. And you know, it's that old thing about, it's kind of a joke, but around, you know, you don't, you never see a U-Haul trailer behind a purse because you don't take any of this stuff with you. And so It's really, you know, in order to really get into quantity of business, for me, it's hard to talk about those things and really set targets without thinking about the quality of life that we want to create as we conduct business. So this is why we wanted to have this conversation leading into Discussions about KPIs, because it helps whether it's you or it's your CPA or it's you and your management team that are setting KPIs going into next year. It's like, think about what what is that going to mean for you when we do achieve those things, when we do hit those targets that we're establishing? What's it going to mean for you as the business owner? Okay. So this is the part that I think is just so important for us to think about and it's squiggly lines. And it's just thinking we want you to hit those things. We want you to be successful and we want you to be able to improve your own quality of life and enjoy the things that, um, you know, that, that are out there to be enjoyed. And so this is part of what I think is appropriate. And then when we get that stuff clear, You heard me say in the video, it's like now when we were super clear about that stuff, I feel like it also helps us to have a higher likelihood of achieving those targets. When they align with the life that we see for ourselves and our family life and everything else, then our ability to hit those targets, I think it just becomes much higher. And just kind of consider, we see the drive, drive, drive. If we want to sell more, then we have to hit it harder, hit it harder, hit it harder. what part of what this this is a preface to those actually actual kpr kpis is like how will that what will it bring you how will it affect how will it affect you how will it affect your children how will it affect your family how will it affect what what will it bring those people that are central to your experience i mean you know your day-to-day because Because it's about creating something that, making a Tuesday something that you really look forward to. And that's not just, you know, that we sold ten cars, but it's like, are you able to, Tuesday's when we have T-ball. Have you not been able to attend those because you're busy doing this or this or this? And, you know, looking at, again, the challenge is, before we head into, the actual KPIs of next week is what experience do you want to create? What, how do you want your this? That's been a really big question. When we, when we go and we have coached dealers, we always want to meet with their partner. And, and because that conversation with their partner is a pretty important conversation. And, and it's been really, It's been more often than not that a partner says, I wish they could be more present with the family. And so it's like, what matters? Because Because we want to be successful. We want to be able to create the experiences. A lot of those things take money. We want to be able to provide for our families in a way that it's like there is no want. And what we're asking you to consider is what kind of, how do you want to show up in those things that are outside of of the dealership as well as how do you want to show up within the dealership and that you you kind of figure out what how what kind of experience i want to have next year and then let's layer on all right here are some hard straight line things that i can do to help create that experience for myself my partner my family my you know my hobbies Just your overall experience. Yeah. And I think when we do this kind of thing, I'm always mindful of the dealers who are newer. You know, that's a little big part of our audience anyway, people that are newer to the business. And I think, as I think about a dealer who's new and some of you will hear this and you know, a dealer who's new, share the podcast with them, share the conversation, make sure they get started thinking this way, because one of the beautiful things about this buy here, pay here segment is we have the ability, this business has the ability to produce wealth, to produce positive cashflow. it can create a lot of things. We just have to make sure we know what direction we want to go with it. And sometimes that's about timing. Like I'm prepared to make certain sacrifices for a two year period in order to end up here. You know, those are things that we have to understand in order to advise somebody on where to go, then that becomes important. And I think next week we'll go deep into KPIs and I'm going to be mindful again of those dealers that are new, but we're going to choose KPIs that are, that will work that are simple to calculate sort of back to our napkin dashboard thing where you just have you know these are numbers you can calculate on the first day of the month how was our month and be able to run these numbers that are simple and this will be as relevant for a dealer who's been in business six months as somebody who's been in business six years. It's like the idea is to be able to give numbers that are relevant, that are meaningful, and that suggest that you're hitting the targets that you said were important to you. And so we'll talk about some in collections, some in sales and profitability, et cetera, and be able to help dealers kind of have some simple calculations they can do as they move towards setting targets for the year, because We touched on a little bit, and I still have a tool that needs a few more little tweaks before we bring it back to the podcast. But in our first session of the month, we talked about this idea of how much buying do we want to do. And a lot of dealers get serious about buying October, November, December, preparing for tax refund season. And so I prepared a tool that helps to kind of do the math on how much inventory is too much, what do we want to buy, and so on. So I've got that. We can certainly bring that back around. And there's some other tools that will help drive these KPI calculations that we're talking about. So I think we'll just save that for next time until we'll get into the actual numbers in our session number four of five next week. And so I would encourage people to come back for that. And again, if you know a dealer who's new. And, you know, newer in the business, maybe share this podcast with them, make sure they know kind of the way we would ask them to think about going into the new year, because you do have the opportunity in this business to really create whatever it is you're looking to create. Just got to pull the right levers and decide, you know, what's going to be important. Yeah. And, you know, I threw it up there just a second ago. If You're feeling a little bit lost about how to even start that process before you get to those very specific KPIs about getting serious about what exactly you want and your experience in your dealership, all of those things. Please don't hesitate to reach out because we can be helpful in that and helping you boil down to the things that are the most important for you. Or if you just want to help with the straight lines, too, because we do that as well. Call or text. This is Jim's cell phone number, nine oh three eight one six zero two one six nine oh three eight one six zero two one six. And yeah, I'm just I this is just a really good time. It's a good season of the year, even where we are. We are bringing in. and accounting for all that we've created throughout the year and doing an assessment and storing up, stocking up for the winter and for the winter is typically even in our business or at least through December and then some through January till we hit that tax refund season. This is a time of preparation. This is a time of reflection. This is a time kind of of rest, um, where it's like, we're getting ready. And, you know, we talk to dealers all the time and they're like, it's a busy time. And so this is the calm before the storm and it's a good storm. And it's, uh, you know, it can be a very, a lot of people that like that, that, that, um, adrenaline hit of, you know, we did this, we did this. It's, it's, you know, you're getting ready. You're getting, it's like, you're about ready to do your marathon and you're in your, your, uh, your, uh, uh, carving up you know i'm i'm i'm doing the things to get ready for this this uh this big push which is an awful lot of fun for a lot of dealers yeah um but it's it's a it's the perfect time to to look at how this last year's made you feel um you know we we've never been huge fans of the of the the feeling of crush or be crushed that's just you know of like that that extreme competition with our neighbor or all of that because it really is possible for everyone to win and have what they want um in the experience that they're having as a dealer and all of that but um it's just it's a really good time to what down to your core what do you want what do you want to happen next year do you you know yeah what do you want and um and that means kind of sometimes putting ego aside checking at the door for a bit and just kind of deciding, you know, what's what's right for you. So this is this kind of obviously the theme of the day. And, you know, we talked about just to recap on the first episode, the month we talked about inventory strategies going to close the year last week this lakeside in new mexico and talked about tax refund season and how to leverage tax max as one example of how to do that yeah and so now as we move into the remainder of october then we'll we'll continue with this theme and there's still opportunity by the way to close out the fourth quarter very strongly like you can definitely still do some volume and close out the year here but you've got to decide yeah you know what what that looks like and what's important to you as you close out and why. Why would you want to try to put a lot of extra business on the fourth quarter? It's part of what happens in our business. Our business is fascinating in that our profit tail is long and all these things. So we'll get into the numbers this next time around. But I just think it's really an appropriate time to think about what is next? What do we really want to create? And maybe get real about what what can happen when we really get the right focus and set our intentions and have the right purpose around what we're doing, then I think our ability to have success in driving those straight line numbers are much higher. Absolutely. Anything else? Yeah, just a quick mention about the BHPH Forum. that's coming up in uh austin that's november first through third so we're barely a couple of weeks away i won't be there but a dear friend of mine and ours who has joined our team cami will be there with jim and cami's awesome yeah just i just love her looking forward to introducing cami in person she's met a lot of our dealers And I just, it's like, I enjoy a good conversation with her because she's just, she's, she's pretty outstanding. She's got another commitment. She will not be participating, but Kami and I will be there to talk to vendors and dealers. And so we look forward to being there and hope that many of you can also join us. I know that they were getting quite close to, the cap in terms of number of attendees. Yeah, they do have, unlike other conferences, we were talking to Brett Carmichael a couple weeks ago, and because they're doing on-site dealership, they're taking dealers to dealerships to do some on-site parts of this conference, that they are limited to how many people they can bring. Now, you know, the national is like anyone, everyone, everyone come. This does... have a cap. So if you have been thinking about going, I really would suggest, I just, I really enjoy after conversations with Brent, like what the agenda is and how it's been laid out and really what great opportunity for a dealer to come. And this is, they're creating an experience where you are, you're working with other dealers and it's not just someone on a stage telling you, this is how you should do it is you're, you're talking to dealers that are seasoned that, you know, This is something we tried. This is something that was successful. This didn't work for us. And there's a lot of value in that. Yeah, they do a roundtable format. They're dealer-led roundtables that are the dealers that we know that have been there. So it's a wonderful format. And so it's something we encourage people to be a part of and we expect to be there and look forward to seeing our friends from the buyer-payer industry out there. All right. Anything else? No. Yeah. We'll, we'll see you back here next Friday and we'll get a little deeper into numbers. Oh, nice. We like Jim's a numbers nerd. He loves, he loves getting into the numbers. All right. See you next Friday. I may or may not.
