Yigal Adato: 00:03 Hey everyone, my name is Yigal Adato and this is the Pawn Leaders Podcast, a podcast to help you make more money, stress less, and live an epic life all while working at the pawn shop.

Yigal Adato: 00:24 Hey everyone, welcome back to the episode of five minuteFriday. And today I want to give you a quick rundown of my time at the Dixie convention. Now I know this is five minute Friday and I apologize if it goes a little bit over, but it's a very important conversation, the one we're about to have. So I want to talk about three things that I saw at the Dixie convention and what I came back with what I learned. And the first thing is that we all have the same struggles. It doesn't matter if you're in Alabama, if you're in Mississippi, if you're in California, if you're in Washington, Oregon, Florida, if you're even in a different country, we all have the same issues. And those issues are getting more customers into our store, retaining great employees, government interfering with our business or wanting more regulation in our business. And we all have those same struggles and we're all trying to fight it in different ways, but if we join together, if you join your state and really bind together to fight for the pawn industry, they can really help you out in your business.

Yigal Adato: 01:35 If you get together and learn about marketing, if you get together and learn about culture, it will really help your business. And the one thing I learned about being at all these conventions is that the people who go to these are thirsty for knowledge. And those of you listening, I know that you're thirsty for knowledge as well. And just like Jamie Smith said on the last podcast, he learned everything by reading, he learned everything by watching videos, by learning from mentors. So don't be afraid to ask, stick together and of course know that we all have the same struggles. The second thing I learned from the Dixie Convention is that we need to change the image of the industry. And a lot of you have been doing an incredible job of that. You know Doug Braswell from Braswell and son we walked into a store and it was stunning, a stunning operation. And I know that the guys over at National Pawn with Bob Moulton incredible stores and those of you who are around this nation making a difference. I thank you and I thank you for spending the money to improve your locations, to improve the image of the industry and to make sure that your employees know that they're part of the team and that they are pawnbrokers, that they're a part of something greater than just them, but they're helping their communities out.

Yigal Adato: 03:05 And so how do you change the image? You have to make sure that your stores are clean. We've talked about this before, that we're not ripping people off and there we're working with integrity and honesty in that your employees know that this is a long, it's about the long game, not the short game. So, how much money you make in one transaction. It's how do you grow that customer to be a loyal customer for a long time. And the third thing is that we need to stick together. Now hear about stores closing left and right. About the young generation not wanting to be pawnbrokers, their fathers or the mothers having successful operations. And then nothing wanting nothing to do with it. And the reason for this, I believe so, we haven't shown the young generation that you can leave a legacy by being a pawnbroker. You can leave a legacy and become a leader by owning a pawnshop. You can be a leader in your family, you can be a leader in your company, and you can be a leader in your community. And can you imagine the impact that the young generation wants to make, that they believe that pawnbrokers don't make an impact.

Yigal Adato: 04:29 When you see the truth is that we are impacting the community. We lend people $5 to get gas to go to work. We lend mother's $10 to get pampers to put on their babies. We lend entrepreneurs money to have their startup business. We lend business owners to be able to cover payroll.

Yigal Adato: 04:50 That's not an impact. I don't know what it is, but every time we come home and we just talk about making money and we just talk about how we made more pawns today, we don't talk about making more of an impact. How can we stick together? How can we get government officials to be behind us in what we do? How do we get our employees to be behind us in our mission and our vision? You see, if we stick together in knowing that we make a difference in our communities, that we're making a difference in this world, I believe the pawn business will flourish. I know it will, but you have to become a pawn leader and that's my five minute Friday. Come join me in the Facebook group at pawn leaders podcast community and reach out to me. I love to talk to you guys anytime. Feel free. And for those of you who don't go to conventions consider it. You'll learn so much. I know it's an investment. That's exactly what it is. It's an investment. It's not spending money.

Tune in to find out about my week at the Dixie Convention and the things I learned.

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