Bonus conversation with Jason March

Hey, guys. So excited to share this behind the scenes conversation we had with Jason March with you. If you listened to his episode on Thursday, it was a great, great insight into what he's got going on and some of the things he's going to share with us at Buy here, Pay here, United. So hopefully today you are en route to Las Vegas. If it is still mid April 2022, if you're listening to this in the future, then you definitely missed the boat and you are not here United in Vegas. But if you are, you're on a plane, you're on a train, you're on automobile, you're heading to Vegas right now. This was just a fun kind of. After we stopped recording, we just kept talking and I think this might give some value for you.

I didn't curse any, did I, Jeff?

You know, I didn't. We're going to edit out a lot of the, you know, very sensitive information for the gentle ears in the group, but good information. Just kind of fun.

So hope you enjoyed this, Jason's up and coming guy. And a lot to listen to. Well, let's get going. Let's try to sell some cars. Let's. Let's go swim in some blue ocean.

And yeah, we're going to see you guys April 11th at 1:30pm for Jason's session on what makes a good deal.

Awesome.

Thank you, Jason.

Thanks, guys. Have a good day. Perfect.

Thanks, man.

Yeah, that was fun. Thanks. I appreciate you guys always like having a good conversation.

That's what it's all about. Everybody loves hearing the others just talk.

Did you guys. Did you guys get the yellow. Did I send you a little yellow book a couple months back? No, I was gonna do that when you did the podcast. All right, I'm gonna send you guys something.

Okay.

But I really like. I got two things I'm gonna send you. I'm gonna send this to you. A passion for success.

Okay.

This is by the guy that. This is by the guy that started Kyocera, the copier company. They were a lot bigger in other parts of the world than they were in the United States, but still huge. And then a little funny book just to have in your office, but.

Cool.

Thank you, brother. Yeah. Any. Any recommendations for me before we get off? Any good stuff you've heard lately from anybody?

I have a book. I just finished reading it.

You should read.

Drive.

That's original Drive.

It's less about cars, more about motivation.

It's. It's by Daniel Pink. He talks about how. What motivates people. Stupidly good book.

You should read. Yeah, it'll really mess you up though, because then you start thinking that people are intrinsically motivated and they're not.

That's a good book.

Do you use the EOS system, Jason, Entrepreneurial operating system to run your business?

Yeah, I was introduced to the book Traction years ago. I think I. You and I had talked about a couple years ago, Jeff, but that guy, Nick Marcosian.

Yeah, I just sat down with Nick the other day and he was, he's like, dude, game changer. And we talked to Jim Ramsey in our group, Game Changer. And we talked to. Dude, everyone that does it believes it's a game changer. It's like, I just got to do it. I just got to implement it fully.

Steve Greg.

Steve Greg.

Dan Grossler.

I mean, yeah, all these high performing guys that are growing and being ambitious and adding locations and people and freeing up their life and having free time are using it.

Gotta keep, gotta keep getting better, you know, I just feel like sometimes we push so hard and sometimes you just want to take your foot off the gas because it takes a lot. But yeah, you guys talked to Brandon Cavalier from Car Pay.

Was his name.

Brandon Cavalier? Dude, sharpest guy in the room. He was like 28. I'll forward you his podcast. He did, yeah, he's. You've heard of Car Pay? Yeah, I think so. I have loan management software. They basically integrate with Wayne Reeves and they text people when their payments due, they text them on the day that it's due, they text them the day after it's due. And they give you an opportunity to be able to pay through the text message so you can like text your card number through. But the owner, the guy that started this thing has been valued at like $150 million. Company some silliness and software companies get these big valuations, so they want to. So now they're offering capital to dealers and the guy thinks that they're going to revolutionize this business by providing, providing more capital to dealers that have never had access to capital like this. Similar to Agora, but closer to 9%. Whereas Agora is probably like low teens.

So I assume what Carpe is doing what they are, they are actually a payment processor and they're holding. So they know how much these people have coming in every month. So what they can do is lend on that future revenue of that. So they're going to do it for less money. I get that.

His thought is like, if you think about a hotel room, how often if the hotel room isn't occupied that night. How much is the hotel making? Nothing. So the same idea with your car when you repossess it. The idea is get it going as quickly as you can when you buy it, get it going as quickly as you can and stop mechanical trade outs. Just make it happen, you know, don't. Don't go sink more money into the. Basically, they're looking at the VIN number and talking about how much money can we generate off of that VIN number for the life of the VIN number and never lose that VIN number generating that income.

You know, I think Jeff. Jeff thinks about that a lot with.

Recycling cars and, well, it's an asset, right? They look at it like that. That VIN number is an asset that makes you X amount a month forever, hopefully.

Right? It's definitely not a.

Just kind of a leasing person, it's.

Not a car person thought process. Anyway, I think there's a lot to it. I think Chuck told me one thing years ago that I was complaining about a car that was sitting for a while or something, and he's like, why is it sitting? I said, well, nobody's come up with $3,500 down. He said, well, while that car has been sitting for six months, you know, you're losing $400 a month. So that's $2,400. So could you have taken two grand down on that car six months ago? I said, well, probably. So he said, well, you're an idiot. And, you know, I mean, that's the truth of it. And today with car payments getting almost ours is averaging about $500 a month. Well, shit, if it sits for six months, that's $3,000. So once you get that in your head and get it swimming, if someone does have a little bit less money down, you just roll it. Just get them paying.

So I'd be interested too, to think about your turn time, Luke. This ties into your passion of, like, everyone's so worried about getting parts cheaper or paying a mechanic less or doing these things. Like, how does that reconcile with the fact that, like, I just needed to get it to the front line? So if I pay an extra 20 bucks a flat rate hour, an extra 30 bucks a flat rate hour, is it a big deal if my recon costs have creeped up a little bit? We're so worried. Oh, my recon has gone up and it's like, well, my turn times also gone up too. And my cash and inventory has gone down because I'm so much tighter. You know, I'm not stocking a hundred cars. In the back that are waiting to get ready.

Stepping over dollars to pick up pennies in that. You're so right.

But what is the math on that? I want to know the specifics. Like if I'm selling X amount a month, you know, depends if you're.

What? Depends if you're. If you're paying for the money. What you're paying for the money. If you're paying for floor plan, you know, if you're.

Yeah.

What you're paying tax.

And all this about some variables, right?

Yeah, and it's. I mean, you can run those calculations pretty easy, but I would assume that the amount of money it cost you for floor plan and for borrowing money, you. If you paid 20 bucks more an hour to get that car done and out of there, you'd probably make it back like that.

There should be calculator. There should be an Excel calculator where you punch those numbers in based on your sales, your inventory, your average cost of car, and then you punch in your labor rates and it'll say, okay, if you can get your, Your recon time down to this, you can pay this much more for labor rate or that much more for a car or vice versa. Yeah. It would kind of have these inverse numbers that would tell you how's. Here's to optimize.

I did the math. I figured mine was about $12 a day. The new car dealers are closer to 30 to 40 a day, the holding time. But, you know, people are bitching about mechanics. If you paid a mechanic $50 an hour, what's the cheapest shop that's nearby that's going to do that same work for you at $50 an hour and be your Johnny on the spot?

You won't find one.

Right. It's going to be 75 and up, or it was 75. I don't, you know, so it took.

Me a long time to get to that. That thought process, but I agree.

Oh, well.

All right. I gotta go eat some lunch. Okay. See you.

Thanks, Jason.

Thanks, buddy.

Bye. Later.