good morning good morning, good morning, good morning, everybody, this is lou ramirez, the car guy.
This is frelin arts, the subprime hero and you are brewing solutions on the car guy coffee podcast.
We are excited to have an incredible car guy inside of the cafe, ruin solutions with you, and you got to make sure that some of the best get in here with you to do that.
So do us a favor, yes, tag a car guy.
Do it tag a car? Do it and share share share, share, share, share, don’t be scared, hey if you care share, that’s what we do.
I’m gon na make sure you guys get a great show.
Today we have it set up, tracy, myers folks, frank meyer, auto center.
Folks, you guys don’t understand.
We got a wrestler promoter, we got an emmy award-winning.
Oh you kidding me.
This is gon na be a lot of fun.
He has a great credential, but the biggest thing is he’s a great person and that’s what we’re all about we’re trying to bring great people onto our show to talk about their lives to bring out the best in all of us.
Let’s keep growing.
Let’s go everybody get your friends in here: get them bring a cup of coffee with you and let’s have a great cup of coffee and a conversation.
Let’s brew, let’s brew, we uh want to get this message out from our sponsors.
Real quick.
Just thank you.
So much for helping make sure that this message gets out there we’ll be right back, get your friends in here: , wow, , , [ Applause, ], , hello, car guys and car gals.
Welcome back to the cafe.
We got a whole lot to say: we got a whole lot of fun that we got to get to.
So.
Do us a quick, favor and uh make sure that you are ready, you’re tuned in to get a great conversation, a good cup of coffee and be brewing solutions, man, fred, i’m pumped up.
I know how pumped up you are.
You know i am man.
This is a guest that i’m super excited about.
Um.
You know when i reached out to him he he was so gracious.
He said yeah man, let’s do it and i’m so pumped up.
I didn’t realize it was going to be that easy, or i would have asked him like a year ago right, but no, he he’s one he’s the kind of guy that has that type of heart when he sees something that he has an opportunity to help.
Somebody he’s gon na do it so i’m so excited to have tracy meyer here this morning.
Folks hope you guys are too be ready for this five-liner we’re gon na have a lot of fun man, man, we got, i mean i feel like.
We really need to build this up.
I mean i mean build it up, bro build it up.
I know how you do this.
This is a wrestling promoter.
You understand when somebody comes through inside of a wrestling stadium, where there’s all of these fans all over the place.
My favorite was the ultimate warrior.
I don’t know who yours was.
I love some ultimate.
You guys are watching right now, all you car guys and car guys if you loved wrestling as a kid or still do who’s your favorite wrestler go ahead and drop them inside of the comments, but seriously this guy knows how to put it on.
I feel i don’t know if we should play.
I am a real american, get that hulk hogan going dude.
Why not bro? If you got it put it on understand that we do not own the rights to that.
You do not all the rights, but any of those that are in this cafe right now, except just our tunes but uh.
There are so many great wrestlers that have out that have been out there, but i mean there’s so many great car, guys too, and so many of them have their own characters.
So i like to look at myself as a car guy or car gal promoter right.
We like to sit here and pump up our guests.
We like to get them ready for the ring and get out there pumping up the thing, get it going doing what they’re supposed to do, but man, i tell you this morning – is going to be a lot of fun.
Tracy’s all the way out north carolina right outside fayetteville, great great dealer, great great person, but it’s just more he’s more than a dealer folks.
You know we all know.
Dealers we’ve met dealers, we’ve met dealers who are very uninvolved.
They kind of just they’re.
The name of the dealership: they don’t really really have a process, they hire people and they have them.
Do everything? Well, here’s the difference.
Tracy does a lot more than that tracy.
Not only does he get involved, but he’s also about his culture, he’s about his family tradition, he’s about making sure that the culture gets pushed out through his whole dealership he’s also talking about bringing it through.
The world he’s put some stuff out there.
Folks, that’s amazing.
There’s that music going right there, so i’m excited he’s he’s an author he’s everything he’s put out.
Some shows me folks, emmy award winning come on now.
How many of us can say that we know anybody? That’s won an emmy award seriously.
I know somebody he’s on my show right now come on speaking of coming on the show right now here he is car guys and car gals and all you solutionary’s out there welcome to the cafe tracy meyer good morning, good morning, good morning.
What’s going on guys? Oh dude living the dream man so excited to have you here this morning.
We appreciate you, i know you’re a busy man.
So time is money and money is time, but man we’re gon na have some fun.
This morning i think you’re gon na enjoy yourself, but, most importantly, everybody out.
There is gon na get an opportunity to hear what you’re all about and hear how you got to where you’re at today, because i know you have a great story: i’ve read a little bit about it and man, the story’s wonderful.
He has a great tradition of a lot of folks.
I don’t want to give away.
I want him to answer this, so i’m going to leave it at that, i’m going to spill too many beans.
That being said before, we go too much further folks, i want to throw a quick shout out yes to a good friend of mine, he’s drinking one of the cups that he sent us michael landis, all the way out in california he’s with ink centric folks ink Centric is a great company out there.
They do a lot a little bit.
Everything he’s got that cup he’s got this.
They got that they do anything that you can imagine that you need printed or made banners whatever.
They did.
Look at this.
How cool that’s it says, fred on that card? Guy coffee logo? I don’t know if you guys see that, but he made that personally for one for me and one for lou thanks man, that’s so nice, he sent us out a sweet.
A sweet, swag pack he’s got a lot of samples reach out to him.
L-A-N-D-I-S, michael landis, incentric i-n-k-c-e-n-t-r-i-c, folks, amazing people, great people, real people, that’s what it’s all about.
So let’s get this thing going man.
How are you this morning tracy and i’m pumped up ready to go like always how about you guys exactly yeah we’re pretty.
We we kind of caffeinate ourselves before we get going not too deep into the cup.
Yet this is that car guy coffee, that’s right, but uh.
One thing that we do to make sure that we stay pumped up and we keep growing, is to apply three f’s before we get into any sort of a session with solutionaries.
And that’s me to make sure that we together forgive focus and fly so that we can keep growing and it does come with a few movements.
So i mean again, i can’t think of a wrestler’s moves that they actually would do before they would do their move.
But this is kind of our move.
We got there.
Oh check that out.
That’s right, yeah, sorry, all right! I just throw it over my shoulder.
Yeah he’s a classic that is, that is ultimate og wrestler right there.
I love him.
So much! That’s awesome right here.
This is the uh.
The forgive focus fly mantra: that’s right: we’re going to wipe off the weight of unforgiveness we’re going to focus and then we’re going to fly so that we can keep growing so tracy help us out real quick cross the arms one time.
Let us forgive focus and fly together.
One two: three wipe it forgive focus fly and keep growing, keep growing, keep broken.
Yeah! That’s right! Thank you.
Now you are part of the car guy coffee club, so we appreciate you for joining it.
You were initiated.
That is the official secret handshake right there.
So let’s get this thing going man, so we have this thing called the five liner and for all our guests out there that watch the show they know what that’s about the five liners five questions.
We love to ask our guests to be able to get to know how they got from where they were years ago to where they at today and what motivates them.
So my number one question for you today is my favorite question at all the questions.
What is your, why? What is your purpose? What gets you motivated every single day to be tracy, myers, yeah man, great question, and, first of all, thanks for having me here, it’s uh, it’s awesome, especially uh uh.
Well, it’s not early in the morning! For me man.
I wake up at 5 30, but you look without the generic answer of family, which um i mean it is family, but uh, it’s more than my immediate family, it’s my wife and two kids.
It’s about my great-grandfather who started the first frank meyer store 103 years ago this year, so it’s legacy for me.
It’s all about legacy come on come on man.
Legacy is a big deal.
We we absolutely love that, because legacy is right up our alley, we’re all about leaving a legacy of growth for people.
You know it’s not just for your family, but it’s through people.
You touch every one of your employees, your your friends, i mean it doesn’t matter.
You always want to leave something for them that you can pass on whether it’s your energy.
It’s your mind, it’s your business! It’s your whatever it is! You want to leave that legacy and you’re doing you’re doing it really.
Well, my friend you’ve left a legacy.
That’s i think, that’s going to be going on for generations and generations.
You know i tell my team members all the time i hate to see them go.
But if i don’t do my job as a leader and i don’t develop them to where they can grow and go, then i’ve not done my job so um and it’s tough to see them leave.
But you know they’re bigger, bigger things in the world than staying here and – and i love to have them here forever.
But we’ve got to have them grow so they can go.
And i love that and that’s great that you have that type of heart mentality, because a lot of times when somebody leaves for now don’t get me wrong.
Lateral moves are not what we want to see right.
You never make a lateral move.
When i see somebody leave me for a lateral position, i’m like what are you thinking you know, but who knows right? But that being said when they’re going up like people you we look at you.
Somebody like tracy who owns this.
He owns his own story, he’s doing his thing.
He’s done multitude of things, but eventually you want your people to be you one day you want your people to grow, not necessarily exactly you, but to have that opportunity to be an owner one day, maybe be to run their own store.
Do all those things and obviously you own your store, so they can’t own it so what they got to do.
They have to go reach out and start growing other places, but that’s what part of that legacy? Is you left that legacy it’s what’s beautiful is.
I can tell you almost 20 years – i know you’ve been doing it.
Your whole life but 20 years for us in the business each one of us real close to 20.
Now so almost 40 years combined, we have seen people that work for us we’ve trained up and we’ve seen them move on and we’ve seen them do.
Amazing stuff.
I have i’ve seen: managers and i’ve been i’ve had managers who would just talk crap about that person when they’re left right right, i’m the opposite.
I’m excited, i want to call them and ask them how they’re doing is there anything? I could ever do to help you you.
Let me know, you know if there’s something that you can, that you need help with in that department or something that you need some advice on, i’m here for you and that’s what that whole thing is about.
It’s no hate, it’s all love, i you know, i believe, there’s competition, but i think it’s friendly competition and it’s a good thing to have.
You know i don’t think competition is a bad thing, because that’s what keeps us accountable? What keeps us moving forward keeps us growing, keeps us growing yeah.
So man great answer on that, i love that you’re leaving a legacy and that’s what you’re focusing on because that’s what is that is family family is legacy they’re, also your levels, so many things.
So you can tie that into a multitude of stuff, so i absolutely think that’s great well, there’s the idea of you laying the seeds for a tree that you’ll never get the chance to enjoy the shade of right, and you do that with your your business.
You do that, first and foremost with your family, with your actual seeds with what is the good fruit of you, so uh.
The the word says that we’re not to judge a man lest we be judged, but if you are to judge one, you judge them by their fruit right.
So the way that i tell that it’s an apple tree is, i test the seed or the the fruit from the apple from the actual tree right, i taste the apple, that’s how i identify that when you have good fruit, it bears good seed and the the Important thing is, is not to hoard that seed, not to just be the only one growing it’s to pour out and to allow that to spread.
So, what’s locked up inside of one piece of fruit is many many generations worth of seeds and that’s what’s inside of our business, we need to remember that as people do grow and we go out car guys, car gals, uh people that are developing people uh on The showroom floor, whether you’re a leader on the floor, make sure that you are giving time to make sure that something that you’ve learned, that is of great value for you, that’s made you successful something you pass to somebody else to say here, use this tool use This too, because too many times in this business, we pass around some bad habits and it’s important that we do sow seeds that you do see good fruit from, but we honor you for being the man that you are.
That’s that’s leaving that legacy and you can tell that it’s an intentional thing.
It’s the very first thing you point to right right, so that’s that’s very, very important.
A lot to take from that um.
I want to kind of shift real, quick on the car guys side to make sure that we do understand what really was the path that got you into the automotive industry if it was legacy, how did all of that tie together to get you where it is That you are today yeah, so it’s a strange story, but it’s one.
I’ve told um several times, but my dad actually never pushed me to get into the business, and i think that was very important for me, because we see uh phd guys and girls all the time.
Bob had a dealership right and a lot of times.
They failed miserably because they felt like they were obligated to get into the business uh and it wasn’t their passion wasn’t their desire because i think deep down.
We all want to make our parents proud of us.
So we we choose the path that they want, that they’ve chosen for us uh.
He never chose that path.
For me he never pushed me into it.
He never even asked me if that’s what i wanted to do.
As a matter of fact, when i was a teenager, i said then that’s not what i want to do, because i saw how uh often he was away from from us as a family, uh and subconsciously.
I made that connection that you know what he did for a living took him away from his family, so i didn’t want to do that um.
So i went to school to do something entirely different, moved out of state, and i worked a couple: retail jobs at the mall and being a single 18 year old kid.
I couldn’t make the money that i wanted to make uh work in retail, so i opened the paper which, for those younger folks, that’s what we used to do to look for a job.
We opened the help on this section and the big hand.
The big ad that already was ran at the time was make up to thirty five thousand dollars a year.
The numbers arbitrary, but it’s more that i was making uh selling cars no experience necessary.
So i walked into a toyota store in atlanta yep uh.
They hired me in about seven seconds um and i told them i was still in school.
They asked me what my schedule was.
I said to go to school from eight to one and they said we can work the three to midnight shift.
So i worked three to midnight and even that’s not what i wanted to do.
I knew i could do it because my family did it right.
That’s just the connection i made my brand uh and, of course you get.
The first commission check and i quit school two weeks later: oh man, what i’m in school for what reason so the fun part of the story is the ironic part of the story.
Rather, is that i still sold cars here for a year.
I didn’t tell my parents, i quit school and i don’t know how i thought that they wouldn’t find out that i wasn’t in school right we’re paying for it uh.
I didn’t think my dad would find out that i was selling cars at another dealership because i was pretty sure he would.
He would absolutely kill me right um, but after about a year and a half i was to, i was selling 35 cars a month.
I said you know what i think, it’s time to go home.
I’ve accepted that this is my legacy.
This is what i was destined to do and i came home and i told my dad i said: hey uh, here’s what i’ve been doing uh, he said yeah.
I know i’ve known this for over a year, [ Laughter ].
You know – and i didn’t even question at the time how he knew right.
We reflect that.
I don’t reflect back on those things.
I’m like oh yeah.
I can see totally now, but i said: do you have a spot for me? He said yeah.
I got a spot for you, so it came in on that was a friday.
I came in on a monday, uh shirt and time.
He said you’re a little overdressed.
I’m like overdressed for what man i’m selling cars he said: you’re, not selling cars you’re going to the detail shop, i’m like dude.
What the heck are you talking about the detail shop? I’ve been making like you know, i’m making a hundred thousand dollars a year.
I’m not going to the detail shop, making minimum wage, you said.
Well, you will, if you want a job with with family business, so i actually stayed in the detail shop for almost two years: um and uh.
It was uh uh.
I hated it at the time and i hated my father at the time right uh, i hate the strong word, but you get centered right.
I was.
I was very unhappy with my father at the time.
Looking back, that was the best thing he could have done for me and absolutely man.
Why you like me in the detail shop for two years.
He said because if i don’t start you at the bottom, as my son, people will never respect you as you work.
Your way up, so this is the greatest lesson i learned so many i fell in love with the business.
You know, and i’ve done every position in the store uh, some of them fantastic, some of them not so well um my 80d kicks in.
So i’m not that great with finance, because you got to sit there too long and you know look uh.
I can do it, but um man.
I got ta get up, i’m bouncing in this chair because i’m like you know i got to go but uh.
I’ve done every position and and and i worked my way up and i bought the store it wasn’t given to me and no six.
My dad came to me.
Oh five.
Rather he said you know, i think it’s.
I think it’s time for you.
I said time to what he said.
Well, i think it’s time that you bought the store and we had never had a discussion about it.
I said you think, i’m ready, he said you’re past ready man you’ve been running it.
You know, i’m basically a you know, not a silent owner, but he wasn’t present right.
I was around the store for three years at that point, um and, and here all the time and working 18 hour days and and and the whole deal so uh i bought it.
It wasn’t given to me so i respect it that way.
I appreciate it that way: uh we’ve done everything from traditional retail we’ve had new car stores by here pay here and, and my heart is subprimed so man, i love subprime business, special finance and and that customer because i like to see them my dad always called It down the road motors, so i called down the road motors.
It’s like here’s, where they are.
Here’s where we help them get right, yeah, they do do their part right.
We we watch.
I love that man, i love it too.
I i don’t know if you caught my nickname subprime hero, i’m absolutely passionate about suffering.
I love it so much, i’m more passionate about my clients.
It’s it’s! It’s, like you said down the road.
What you can, what how the path that you could teach them and how they could become one day.
You know and that’s the thing like a lot of people.
They come to you and they’re scared.
They’ve already been rejected, they’ve been treated wrong, they’ve they’ve been told.
No they’ve they’ve been told yes and then got the car taken back from them.
You know they’ve had so many things that have happened to them, that they hate car dealers they’re like they keep telling me they’re, so angry they’re, so angry they’re, angry about life, they’re angry about what’s happened to them.
They’re angry about car dealerships, they’re angry about their rent, they’re angry at them or they’re angry at their ex-spouse or ex-spouses they’re angry at their kids, and they come in with you angry.
If you don’t have a heart of being a servant, uh they’re going to be angry at you too, and that’s what i have to teach my team members from the beginning: they’re, not angry at you, they’re angry at the situation.
We need to listen and and a lot of times.
They just need that and a lot of us can’t empathize with where they’re at, because we’ve never been there by the way.
But we have to listen and have that sympathy and show them how to get where they want to be now they have to take on that role.
At that point right, we can’t give it to that.
We they have to take it uh if they don’t take it that’s on them, but we’ve done our part right, and that makes me you know as as excited as i get to see those customers actually take that and grow.
It makes me equally as sad to see the folks who have that opportunity now.
I know you guys have seen it right where you get that blessing from a from a lender.
Yes, gift is what we call it right, that’s what it is and the the buyer’s asleep or whatever, and it’s like man, you just got a twenty thousand dollar car after two repos.
This is your blessing right, yeah and you know we educate we’re like look make your payments on time.
Uh um uh try to keep the rest, your bills, where they’re at man you stay in this pocket and grow, and if you will, you know, you’ll be better in two or three years and then then you get the cancellation letter from your.
You know from your lender that that the car was repossessed and you know that you got to cancel the product and say: oh man just got you, so that’s me right, it’s just me.
No, it does me too.
You know i find it’s in my store, so i’m the one who has to do all the cancellations and it does especially when you see the names and you know who they were right.
That was their good people.
What happened you know? Sometimes you wish they reached out to you.
Maybe there was something you could have done because you i do because you do you become, like you said you, you really care about your clients and when you start to sympathize for them and like you said not, we can’t empathize with everything, but we could definitely Sympathize with everything and well yeah, look when i was in college um and i i really have lived several life uh lives in my in my 49 years uh and been in so many different places, because i grew up poor.
Even though we have had a business and i’ve seen, people that were poor than we were right, we had a roof and my dad worked three and four jobs: uh even selling cars.
He still worked three and four jobs right just to pay the bills and that’s where my work ethic comes from hands down, even though i don’t have to work like that now and my dad asked me so you know why do you work the way that you Work, you don’t have to spend time with your kids.
You’ll regret it later and of course, my kids aren’t kids anymore.
I do regret it right, they’re 19 and you know 19 and 16.
, but that was for better or worse.
That was put into me by my father, the work ethic because he he was committed uh not to stay in that place that we were in, which was was poor, and you know we would go to grocery grocery store with my mom and she would go to The i don’t know if this is in every every town, every city, but the grocery cart at the front that had the cans without the labels.
The dented cans right have labels, but you knew it was soup or you know it was a vegetable that they wrote.
It with a sharpie at the discount, uh grocery store, and you know she would open that we would hope it was uh chicken noodle we’re like man, you know, but you know we ate what what what we had.
But that’s that’s, that’s the way we live, but my dad was determined not to stay in that situation because he said look being poor is not it’s not permanent unless you choose for it to be permanent right, um and it’s funny, because when i went to college Um and i got the job selling cars, i was making a ton of money um.
You know before that.
If you want to rewind just a little bit, i mean i was homeless for for two months before i accepted that job, uh and um.
You know i refuse to ask my parents for help uh.
It was more from being stubborn than anything right um, because i said i’m not gon na ask them for anything because they didn’t want me to come here to begin with, this isn’t on them.
I’m gon na do this myself, so uh, it’s funny how that stuff comes full circle and makes us who we are you know, so i can’t empathize with a lot of our customers uh, and i know that a lot of them if they’ll put the work in And keep their mind right that they can overcome.
All of that.
That’s not the case for everyone, and we know those customers as well, but there’s so many uh that can and choose not to it’s really sad and sometimes they don’t have the direction to right.
Sometimes we don’t, we don’t have a process in place that helps to make sure that we do give way.
For that honest conversation where they get the chance to be deposited into the direction that they need to go in order to get where they’re going, and we get so caught up thinking that they understand our our jargon and our metrics and our and our goals right.
They don’t care about any of that right.
The problem, the reason why a lot of times they’re so mad is that most people have conveyed to them that they don’t care about their problem right, so they’re, mad, so they’re upset and they they don’t want to go.
Um to the next level, or trust anybody and that’s how how life is right.
That’s how we we can get these calluses, where we don’t want anybody to help us uh, just because everybody looked at our situation and said you’re beyond help, and sometimes we looked at our situation and said: no, i’m not going to accept help right i’ll, be homeless.
Before i accept help from somebody else, if i can’t figure this out on my own – and sometimes we find ourselves inside of that spot, what’s important is that we do have the the humility to be able to sit there and say okay, i need help.
Help me to be better, and let me point you in the right direction and that the biggest thing that we run inside of this crazy fast-paced business is is stopping long enough to.
Let them tell us what it’s going to take for us to help them.
Where we’re so pinpointed on going over our scripts going over everything that we know right, we want to make sure the customer knows everything that we know.
You know, here’s all the things.
I know, here’s the listen.
I know everything buy from me because i know things: yeah, that’s cool, but you don’t know what i just told you, sir.
You don’t know why.
I said i that repo happened.
I was trying to explain it to you and you didn’t listen, oh yeah, but man tell me again what happened.
You know what i mean.
That’s one of the most embarrassing questions for me.
I don’t know about the rest of you.
Car guys is like is the.
Can you tell me your name again, you know what i mean it can and and all of those little details that you know they poured out for you for you to be able to pick up and utilize, uh and and to be able to.
Let them know hey you’re a human, and i accept you and i’m pulling you in and i’m going to show you the right way.
Um, that’s something that i believe that we, because again we are 80d.
Most great car guys are are so boom boom boom.
I’m you know whatever direction it is that that something awesome is awesome is happening.
I’m going to go to the awesomer thing right and that’s that’s how we are – and i know i’m i’m definitely that way, but right yeah, i’m throwing words.
We make up our own words right, because we know things right inside of this business, but uh it’s it’s so important that we do go with intention, but at heart, knowing why we’re doing it at heart.
You know why you want to help these people, so it helps you to focus and be intentional and okay.
So here’s our process and here’s the culture that we have to be able to help this person that’s inside of a a weakened, buying state right.
We can help to give them the muscle, the rehabilitation to get them where they want to be, and, at the same time, not pull the punches and know that you’ve spent enough time to leverage that time into depositing truth.
That might be a little scathing.
That might be a hey.
You didn’t need these credit cards.
You don’t say yes to everybody.
That says yes to you, okay, you don’t do that and one great thing that that we enjoy doing with our stores, letting our people come back.
Hey you’re about to get a whole lot of offers in the mail once you get three or four good payments underneath your belt.
You know once everybody sees that you got a new car and your new line of credit.
So this credit card, this line of credit, all these things are gon na, come to your house.
Most of that is garbage, but i can help you know what to do with it, and i’ve had some customers that would come through yes say what do i do with this this this and this and throw this out chuck this chuck this this right here? This is zero percent for this much time.
This is what you know and then give them the tips on how to use that you’re approved, for that.
This is how you could leverage it because you’re a three line.
700.
That’s never really done anything right.
Let me show you how to really build that credit muscle and – and i’m just i’m thankful, that we do have that culture.
You have that culture there literally a few of our guys uh taking those tips that they taught customers just how to buy cars.
They saw them transform their whole life, they run credit repair agencies and help educate people on their credit, because that’s the biggest thing, if the people aren’t taught they don’t know you don’t work, you’re, not educated in high school or, and they don’t have like formal education.
For that you have to go, seek that parents and most parents, they try to teach their kids, but they don’t even know because they were never educated right.
So it’s just an endless cycle.
It keeps going and going so when you’re in the subprime business – and you have passion just like you know, like tracy.
Here’s.
A sad thing folks is that most people in most dealers across the nation do not care about subprime.
They don’t even they don’t even dabble.
In it, if they do it’s a whole different department, they’re they’re treated like second-class citizens, they don’t they get put on cars that don’t mat that they don’t want.
They don’t like, and i’m not saying that you always can put a person with subprime credit in the car they want, but you could put them in something reliable, nice that has a warranty that could ride out for a while.
So this way they could be happy to own for at least three to four years right up to six years, depending on how long the loan is.
But you know at least three to four years before their credit gets reestablished and they can come back and buy something that’s going to be at a better rate, maybe exactly what they want.
But you have to educate them and explain why a lot of problems is that people like, oh, you, can’t buy that you can only buy this and they don’t tell them why they don’t explain.
They don’t give them the paint the picture of the future.
You know and that’s it you have to paint a picture for them.
You have to show them hey.
Let me show you this beautiful art that i could do for you.
If you do this, this is what it’s going to look like in the future.
For you, you know it’s going to be so much better.
You got to make these payments on time.
I’m going to help you.
I could even set you up automatically even bi-weekly.
If you want.
I have companies that do that.
For you, you know, there’s so many things that you can do to make the process better for them easier for them.
So in the future that picture that you painted it actually becomes, they can come back and see you and then you change your life as sad as it is to see like tracy talked about earlier somebody and you get the repo letter saying you need to cancel Their product and you’re, like man, that’s horrible, what’s even better.
What’s the best thing is the opposite.
Three years later they come back, their credits are 700 now or a high six.
They could buy whatever they want.
They’ve been on their job for three more years now they have more stability, they’ve been at their residence for three more years.
Now they have way more.
Everything is a better picture to give to the bank.
Now, all of a sudden, they go from a twenty percent rate down to like a seven percent rate.
Do you know the difference in that folks say nobody tells them the difference in that seven percent that twenty minutes, twenty nine percent north carolina is the max right.
Yes, since we’ve been a full spectrum and what we don’t have new car stores now don’t want a new car store, nothing against them.
It’s just not me right, you’re, not an entrepreneur, anymore, you’re working with someone else, but we have been there and going from buy here pay here.
We have to buy your payer stores, we see those customers and that’s learned behavior for the most part from their parents, because their parents didn’t know just like you said right, they weren’t taught by their parents, so they are accustomed to um, disposable transportation, meaning the next Tax check they’re going to get another car right every year, disposal i’m stealing that track from you, disposable, yeah, disposable transportation, every tax time right, and you see that on their if you, if they go to buy your payer, that reports you’ll see that, on the credit Bureau, one year, one year, one year, one year what the heck.
Well, you know it, the the radio stopped working, that’s not why they gave the car back.
They gave the car back because that’s what they were taught.
They were taught that every year when they get the tax check back, that’s free money.
So let’s take that free money and get another car yep.
So we need to re-educate them the right way and they have to accept that uh and the best is going from buy here, pay here, teaching them moving up to special finance, subprime teaching them, and then man, then they get that credit union rate.
You know that that two point nine three point nine over you know and it takes eight nine ten years sometimes, but it that’s.
It’s only three cars right in the in the cycle.
Yeah, you see them come back, it’s awesome.
It is the best and it’s and and they thank you – thank you for showing me this.
Thank you.
You know, i appreciate that and it’s such a warm feeling, you know and that’s a beautiful thing, and i love that you have that culture, because you i mean yours you’re.
I would fit right into your culture just like you would fit right into ours, because that’s exactly what we are at the store, i’m at we’re.
Pre-Owned we deal with that.
We deal with 80 subprime.
You know we.
We definitely love to help people.
We love to be what we call transportation problem solvers, because we don’t sell cars, we’re solutions, providers, yeah automotive, talking about you, know the deal.
You have that culture and that’s that’s crazy.
Some people laugh when you tell them that especially a car guy, that’s been at other dealerships, but when they, when we, when i’ve been there, even i did when i first started working for this group.
I laughed i was like.
Oh, i got you gotcha, but then i started working there and then i felt the culture.
Then i understood it and then i became that culture and i love it and that’s subprime here all day and i just want to bring light to this.
Here’s the thing guys and i’ve talked about it all year.
Long since corona happened.
Subprime is a bigger market.
Now ever there’s a lot of people who were near prime prime, all of a sudden, now they’re subprime, a lot of things happened this past year, people lost jobs, couldn’t work, they were on furlough for six seven months.
You know some people made more money during furlough, but the majority of people that were doing decent.
They did not.
They they had to take pay cuts.
They had to not be able to pay certain bills, they had to make decisions that they never made before right.
So it was a unique time in the world, but subprime became a bigger market.
So folks, if you’re not out there doing what tracy’s doing at his store like we’re doing our store or a lot of stores that i do know out there, if you’re not doing that, you’re missing a big part of the market share and that’s okay, if you Don’t want to do it i’ll, take it all, but at the same time there’s plenty of it for everybody out there, because it got so big.
It’s plenty.
There’s plentiful treat everybody like a millionaire when they walk in your store.
Make them all feel good.
Make them feel like you truly care that you’re listening to the story that you’re going to do everything you can in your power to help them get to the next level in the next level, whether it’s leaving in a nicer, newer vehicle or giving them a path To purchase to show them how to get their credit right because sometimes people just say no, i can’t help you and they kick them out.
Well, that’s crappy too.
They just spent their time gave you trust, gave you their credit information said all this stuff and at the end, all you do say.
I can’t help you well.
Why can’t you help them, explain and then tell them what they need to do if they did this.
This and this what they can do to make themselves get to that opportunity to be able to purchase a vehicle, and they may not all listen right.
They may not all listen.
No, it works.
You got ta at least give them some value.
You got ta.
Do it, and if you do it every time consistently, i promise you, your numbers, go up.
Your customer uh appreciation goes way to heck up you’ll get referrals from those customers, even if they don’t buy it’s crazy.
But it’s true and you’ll be surprised how many people stop and say nobody’s ever told me this [ Laughter, ] and then you sit there like.
I bet – and i know and it’s unfortunate, but i’m the one doing it just want to make sure that you remember.
I’m the one that’s telling you right now, you know what i mean.
Remember me uh man, that’s that’s.
Such great value is what’s needed inside of any communication anytime, that you’re building a relationship.
You have to be able to see the value of the person and be able to deliver value back to them and and understand that person still took their time.
Their money is just as green right and it’s all digitized now right, so it transfers the same.
It go your numbers go up if you fund this many deals.
Is it a little bit more to deal with? Yes, but it’s worth it, it’s worth helping these people, it’s worth, building your clientele, the thing that we were so blessed with and inside of being in in a store for so long is well as as people we were when we first started our career, we were Inside of the store for about a year before we were to another spot and then on the road, and then we were, you know doing marketing all over the country.
Then we had the chance to be inside of a dealership for some time.
To then see these faces really come back, yes, see them, making those upgrades to see their kids now buying cars.
That is the stuff that makes you say wow.
I am so glad that i firmly planted my roots, my root system, and i can see the fruit of it now and but with that, i’ve given pointers to them when dad was you know, was in a subprime status, now dad’s a mid 700s co-signing for his Son that could not have been possible had we not had an honest conversation six seven years ago.
You know what i mean.
What’s what’s even funny, is they even walk different? They have a different swag about him.
They come in they’re, all like hey.
What’s going on, you know still do whatever he says, whatever he says, listen to fred.
He knows what he’s talking about and that’s the thing like you know it that is, and that all starts with the very first question we asked you it’s a legacy that you’re leaving, even that is part of your legacy.
Folks, the people that you touch the people that come back if you educate them and they come back and the things that you said happen, that’s your legacy.
They will remember you for that.
They’ll, probably they’ll.
Remember you the rest of their lives and that’s crazy as it seems a car buying purchase is very emotional.
A car buying purchase is a very big deal.
It’s most in most people’s cases, it’s the number one biggest purchase they make but it’ll.
You know.
Maybe the second ins – and you know in a lot of cases, a home and then a car.
But there’s a lot of people don’t buy homes, they just buy cars right so remember that that is a big deal to them.
This isn’t like going in and buying a pair of new nikes.
This is literally the biggest decision that most people make, or the very first big decision they make in their lives, so make sure that you guys treat them right and do the right things you know, and that all starts with being trained the right way.
You know, and i’m going to ask that it’s my i know we’ve been going for a minute, i’m going to go for the third question.
On that we can tend to rim.
We could we can handle a little bit.
Yes, i’m trying man, i i just want to keep interrupting, but i you guys you know please do so.
Please do so.
You can interrupt anytime.
Just put your hand like that, and we know just one more thing.
I think i know we’ll come back to it at some point um, but you know i hear from car guys and car girls all the time and they ask you know well look if it’s not a commodity based business which the commodity has to happen right.
The transaction has to happen because that’s how we get paid right but they’re like if it’s not a commodity based business, then how do you make money? You know like look? If, if you provide the solutions and you’re a servant, then the money happens.
That’s right! Every time right, if it’s only commodity based, then you never build a relationship with a customer.
They rarely come back to you, the referrals, don’t happen, you don’t get their kids, their grandkids, their aunts, uncles cousins, nothing happens, except that one transactional item is like walmart, and this is what we we use in training all the time and there’s nothing wrong with walmart Biggest retail in america right, brick and mortar, but people go to walmart for one reason: it’s a commodity based business and they have the lowest price.
If you look at their um their stars on google, their their rating is like one and a half stars here in north carolina, i’m sure it’s probably the same everywhere.
You don’t go to walmart for the experience for the relationships you go for the price and that’s a perfect correlation to prove to car people right that uh people will pay more for an experience.
They’ll pay more for solutions.
Uh and it’s not always about the commodity, is there a place for that in our business absolutely, and there are prove that as well, but that’s not the business.
I want to be right and commodities in that.
It’s always a transaction.
That’s going to happen, correct happening.
So you either put yourself in the path of it and make sure that people have have designed their pathway to getting that commodity.
Only through you, right and or it’ll go the other way like.
I know that we’ll do all that we can to kind of dodge walmart itself because of the relationship inside of that experience right because of the way things feel because of the experience, we will pay a little bit more.
You know we’ll pay 50 cents more.
A dollar more for that little thing to not have to go through the walmart experience, if you will, where some others uh would actually i’m always going to shop for that price, and me i don’t mind it so much, but sometimes it’s it’s different when you do See that hey this is actually is less, but i prefer the relationship it is actually better over there, but i prefer the relationship with this person.
I prefer to do business with this person and like saying earlier, like if i was the that guy with the kids that are now doing it, and i walk in and fred’s my guy.
This is the hero.
Listen to him, because you’re gon na buy cars.
The rest of your life buy it from this guy.
You know this is the relationship you want to have, instead of it all just blending into the uh the ocean of where the transactions can happen, because ultimately, there’s one you and there’s one product that you’re gon na really buy today.
So, let’s make that connection, we can make that work right yeah.
I love it.
Man absolutely love it.
You know and that’s the thing we all get trained on this type of stuff and some people take the training and they go with it and then there’s people that have really influenced us, and that leads me into my next question.
Um, when you’ve been coming up in this business, you know you’ve seen things maybe life when you’ve been coming up in this business of life.
You know you’ve done a lot of amazing stuff man.
You’ve written books, you’ve put out, shows – and i you know, carmen i’ve watched it amazing, there’s a lot of stuff that you’ve done, that are that are really it’s really unique to the business and you try to bring what you bring to the business.
Is you bring light all right, but there was somebody who influenced you.
You know i’m sure somebody that gave you a great mentorship said: hey, you know gave me some great tips.
Who would that person be yeah, look um as odd as it may sound uh.
I think most people expect me to say my dad right and make no mistake about.
It.
He’s taught me most of what i knew about the car business and continues to be my mentor.
Absolutely.
We didn’t have much of a relationship until i came into the business because i never saw it right.
I spent more time with my father when i started working for him at 20, uh 23, 24 years old, then i i saw every song as kid and that’s not necessarily a bad thing right.
We build on those experiences uh in our mind, but the first person put their arms around me to answer your question and say: look you you have greatness inside of you was tom hopkins, uh and, and tom uh.
You know to a lot of people that don’t know that generation uh of sales trainers, which was probably tom, hopkins joe verde – you know jim rohn, some of those guys.
I went to a success seminar and they used to travel quite often right.
I came to every uh, every city it was free to get in and it was usually tom and joe and jim was on some of those.
You had a couple celebrities, christopher reeve uh after he had his accent within a couple right.
He said like four words and everybody stood up and it was a pretty cool thing right: yeah tom was there and man tom absolutely blew my mind when i saw tom.
So, of course, you get them free, but they sell you your their books and and vhs tapes at the time cassette tapes out of the table, i’m assuming that’s the way they made money so once tom’s table man and i’m like fighting through those people, i’m like Man, you just changed my life and you know he said: hey just move to the side, so of course tom’s still a salesperson right, tom’s guy this guy right here.
So when the crowd had cleared some time, man you need, you need my whole deal right.
It’s like normally, 39.
95 9.
You get all these books and all these tapes and all the and uh i said brother.
I don’t have you know i’m 24 years old.
I don’t have 2 000 in 1999.
I’ll, never forget he said well.
Who can you call? So i said i called my father on the pay phone at the coliseum.
I said dude.
I just need your credit card number.
He said for what i said.
Well, i’m gon na buy this man.
You don’t need that stuff.
You know you don’t need any of that stuff.
Just listen to me.
You’ll, learn everything you need because my father really didn’t.
Until later.
He saw it worked right because i, i really believe in you know, in training and informing yourself and getting better and my dad was like look.
You learn from experience.
He’s old school he’s military guy right, yeah um, i said: look i’ll pay you back just just! Okay gave me his credit card number.
I went and got the deal tom actually invited me to his uh uh.
His boot camp, three-day boot camp deal changed my life again right.
Then tom invited me to his house in phoenix right, uh for a academy, master closures and when i say invite, i paid for all this stuff.
Tom was awesome and i still keep in touch with tom and and full circle later and, and you can say us a mentor and then but i was, i wrote tom this free email right uh.
I was writing tom letters and sending tom cards and tom would write back and then tom got my number and then tom would call me, and i would call tom and we wrote end up – writing a book together, wow um so and tom still, my my the Guy that put his arm around me and he’d say: look man you’re destined for greatness.
You know people need to hear what you have to say and whether that was for and i’m gon na be 50 cynical here right, whether that was for his monetary gain or not doesn’t matter is how i chose to accept it.
That’s right, it mattered and i accepted that tom hopkins who to me was the greatest salesperson that i’d ever met never talked to told me.
I had greatness and i could be as great as he was.
I believe that i chose to believe that and i don’t care how much money i’ve spent with them or how much money you made that’s irrelevant to me.
Well, i just believe it.
I chose to accept it and i chose to act on it so uh it.
You know long answer, but the short of it’s tom hopkins.
I don’t think that’s a long answer at all.
I think that was a very perfect answer and what i really love about that and speaking of the monitor, you know him making money on that that that, like you say it doesn’t matter yeah um, because here’s the thing, if you didn’t pay, would you have gone That hard on it right and that’s that’s! That’s caught accountability, a lot of times! Folks, when you really want something you have to show how you want it and when you’re a trainer and you’re something like that when somebody brings like he knew hey, you need this.
