Presenter’s Outline for the International Pawn Symposium in Atlantis

PCG International Pawn Symposium

Ladies and Gentleman in Pawn Land!

There have been many developments since our announcement for the return of the Pawnshop Consulting Group’s International Pawn Symposium.

2025 Theme – In search of lost knowledge and treasure, in the ancient city of Atlantis!

Dates are October 12^th – 17^th and will be hosted at the World Class Atlantis Resort in the Bahamas.

 

THIS Blog starts the process of featuring each of our presenters on a case basis.

 

First up will be Justin Whitehead – yes, my son and here is what we have coming from him this year in Atlantis.

 

Justin will be providing one of our openers for this year’s event followed by one of the closers of the event as well.

 

This year’s theme is centered around “In Search of Lost Knowledge in the Lost City of Atlantis

As a Prelude to the opener, here is a little taster coming up from the masterful Philosopher, my son, who is a 3^rd generation Pawnbroker who has grown up in and around a lifetime of the Pawn Business, Pawn Brokers, and for the last 25 years, Pawn Shop Consulting Group.

A little background on this presenter:

• Grew up in a pawn family
• Worked in family shops as a kid @ Pawn Max, and the Original Uncle Joe’s Pawn out of Ft. Worth Texas. Many road trips checking out stores on the way, some as an adult “Gold n Pawn” (Bobby Whitehead Jr’s Store), attending conventions growing up, attended many workshops led by my father, spoke on Social Media at the 1^st symposium in Naples, endless lunch and dinner table conversations (charged as business expenses) and musings on back porches with good cigars and good friends
• Undergrad in Philosophy from FAU, minor in anthropology, classical studies certification, emphasis in computer science
• Masters in Liberal Arts from TCU all of which while maintaining a 4.0 GPA
• I’ve been a tutor at a college. Now I work in student affairs at TCU, hobbies include programming video games, D&D, travel when I can afford it (I met my wife on a voyage to Sweden), and navel-gazing (a joke about philosophers and the coining of the term and how I’m done navel-gazing and ready to report my findings to the pawn world that is my direct and extended family with you all at the Symposium)

 

For those of you who may have attended our 1^st International Pawn Symposium at the Ritz Carlton in Naples Florida, Justin did speak at that event back in 2011.

 

ALL OF THIS INFORMATION WILL DOVETAIL INTO PRACTICAL TERMS OF MAXIMIZING KNOWLEDGE TO BENEFIT YOU AND YOUR PAWN BUSINESS FOREVER!

 

From Justin’s research and background, here are a few tasty morsels for us to chew on that will be expanded upon as we set the stage for the world class presentations and social functions that will happen this year in Atlantis as we search for lost knowledge and treasure

 

PHILOSOPHICAL TREASURE HUNTING 101

 

• The myth of Atlantis
  • According to the ancient philosopher Plato. Once upon a time, there was a mighty power based on an island in the Atlantic Ocean. This empire was called Atlantis, and it ruled over several other islands and parts of the continents of Africa and Europe
  • Atlantis was arranged in concentric rings of alternating water and land. The soil was rich, the engineers technically accomplished, the architecture extravagant with baths, harbor installations, and barracks. The central plain outside the city had canals and a magnificent irrigation system. Atlantis had kings and a civil administration, as well as an organized military
  • Plato used it as a parable, but we’ll get into that as the presentation takes shape
• Here are some bullet points for us to examine in anticipation of my son’s presentation and setting the stage for us so to speak in Atlantis this coming October!

 

What is philosophy?

 

• Philosophy is the study of the nature of reality, knowledge, and morality, or a system of beliefs and values (Cambridge Dictionary)
  • Logic via a syllogism. We all know that there can easily be a relation of wealth to power. In this sense, wealth can be a tool for power, we also all have heard the old adage that knowledge is power, therefore knowledge is a tool for wealth. Treasure: accumulated or stored wealth (what do we try to do in Pawn and most businesses in general)
  • Along this form of deductive reasoning, we can posit that the pursuit of knowledge is the pursuit for a type of treasure (wisdom)
• An inspection into our humanity, from where do we derive meaning and what resonates with us on a personal and professional level – a desire for universal understanding leading to becoming a more powerful leader in business

 

Why is philosophy important?

 

• “To be fully awake (not woke) and fully alive” – Heraclitus (a precursor to Plato)
• “The unexamined life is not worth living” – Socrates (the teacher of Plato)
• The responsibility that we have as social creatures to be reflective of ourselves and our relation to others, how to improve society through ourselves (joke – anyone who wants to discuss other facets of philosophy, such as metaphysics, can meet me at the bar after my third (non-alcoholic) beer)
• A philosopher, if they are a good one, will not want for money because they can use their capacity for deriving wisdom from their experiential knowledge to predict trends and analyze future possibilities – Thales (the first recorded philosopher) got rich from predicting a drought and buying as many olives as he could in the seasons before it hit, thus capitalizing on the drought when it eventually, thankfully, for him, came
• Aim is to help you here with developing a cognitive toolkit with which to be able to better derive wisdom (treasure) from your experiences in order to maximize personal and therefore professional growth. One of the ways to do that is through being able to have perspective on situations. Hopefully, something offered here (Atlantis) can help to facilitate nuances and potential shifts in perception to assist with your business evaluations and strategies – “the worst enemy you can meet will always be yourself” (Nietzsche). Let us try to master ourselves via this treasure
• Transition – “Experience without theory is blind, theory without experience is mere intellectual play” – Kant. You all have amassed vast quantities of experience; I have been in school for 7 years studying theory. Let’s combine our forces. We start with a tale of battle

 

• Myth of Atlantis – Socratic dialogues of the Timaeus and CritiaS
  • Rather than give exact reporting of past events, Plato’s Atlantis story describes an impossible set of circumstances, which were designed by Plato to represent how a miniature utopia failed and became a lesson to us defining the proper behavior of a state (how many seemingly impossible circumstances do we incur in our Pawn Businesses?)
  • It waged an unprovoked imperialistic war on the remainder of Asia and Europe. When Atlantis attacked, Athens showed its excellence as the leader of the Greeks, the much smaller city-state the only power to stand against Atlantis. Alone, Athens triumphed over the invading Atlantean forces, defeating the enemy, preventing the free from being enslaved, and freeing those who had been enslaved
  • After the battle there were violent earthquakes and floods, Atlantis sank into the sea, and all the Athenian warriors were swallowed up by the earth.
  • A parable: between wealth and modesty; a mighty aggressor vs a small but just city. A cultural war between maritime and agrarian society, between engineering science and spiritual/philosophical forces

 

Aristotle

• Eudaimonia – our ultimate aim, a sense of flourishing in life and thus in business
• Virtue ethics – how we achieve eudaimonia
  • Virtue lies at the median between two extremes (deficiency – excess)
• Akrasia – knowing something is wrong and doing it anyway (vices can enslave us)
• Habitual formation of virtue leads to a proper disposition toward the good via practical wisdom in the application of our knowledge into our actions over a period of time

 

St. Augustine

• The idea of proper love – money is only good for something else, not an end in and of itself
• Why do we run pawn shops, etc.? Does it lead to my flourishing? Sad tales of money ruining families and businesses – what is worth – worth?
• Aristotle said that we could have all the riches in the world but they would matter naught without someone to share them with

 

Kierkegaard

• Spheres of existence
  • Aesthetic (pleasure) – living in finite moments, striving for that next moment, reliving moments of attainment in the past. The search for more pleasure: hedonism. Don Juan. Not really existing because these are fleeting moments. Life, to Kierkegaard, isn’t just about that next sale, bonus, or numbers that may appear in the revenue bracket on a spreadsheet
  • Ethical – commitment to something. Social relations. A married person, their commitment to their partner. Every moment shared enriches past and future moments, expounding throughout a whole life, thus existing in a greater facet not tied to finite momentary pleasures. We can extrapolate this to commitment to one’s business. Comes with pain, but in the existential tradition, that can enrich the pleasure
  • Transition – speaking of pain, Nietzsche was a glutton for it but had perspective on how to potentially use it to our advantage

 

Nietzsche

• Übermensch
  • “The greater the obstacle the more glory in overcoming it. – What does not destroy makes me stronger”
  • Overcoming builds character – you yourself are something to overcome
• Parable
  • The Camel – education. Bears the weight of the knowledge of what current business standards say is the correct way to operate, eventually becoming a burden when realizing that there is no one true be-all, end-all, way to operate (everyone’s path towards eudaimonia can be different)
  • The Lion – To rule over the desert the lion must overthrow the existing lord, a Dragon. The Dragon represents the institutions and societal conventions which determine the current paradigm of business (or anything, really) – imposes rules. The true individual builds their own business (or life) on their own terms for their own purpose. Wills its own will
  • The Child – unburdened by rules and conventions, new fresh beginning free to discover the meaning of things for itself
    • Joke – speaking of children, my dad (I kid) and the development of PCG and the symposium series
  • The will to power – “He who has the why to live can bear almost any how” (self-determination (a defining trait of any entrepreneur, I’m sure you would all agree)
    • Seeing competitors and downturns in business as something to overcome, opportunities to learn from and gain more power

 

• Marcus Aurelius – the Pax Romana: peace, calm and stability (long may you reign with your respective businesses with the aid of a stoic disposition)
• Internalizing the value of things dear to us and experiencing the joy they can bring in life which helps to abate their leaving us when they are gone
• There are many things in life that we cannot control, but one thing we can control is how we feel about it, and thus the choices we then make in response
• Covid-19, economic downturns, unforeseen circumstances of disaster and upheaval. Developing a sense of being resolute in your business endeavors creates a steadfast persona that can weather the storm (how was this event for our beloved Pawn Industry?)

 

• In my anthropology minor studying Asia, and then again in Social and Political Philosophy, I studied the book it was from, the Tao Te Ching, and found out about the concept of wu wei
  • Working at Gold-N-Pawn under my Uncle, Bobby Whitehead Jr., my father’s brother, I gleaned some insight into wu wei from him in relation to sales. He said, “A customer does not want to be sold something, they want to buy something.” It reminded me of that kind of Karate-Zen that is a lesson from nature: “the frog lets the fly come to it.” No need to be pushy, “I am here if you need me or have any questions.” Perhaps you’ve experienced this yourself in a store, or say a car lot, the pressure is unattractive and has an opposite effect than what the salesperson desires

 

Immanuel Kant

• Categorical imperative – basically just imagining do unto others as you would have done unto you – any decision you make, think – would I be ok with someone doing this to me, if yes, ethical (goodwill)
• People are ends unto themselves, not means to an end. We can work to remind ourselves of this with our employees and our customers: respect can lead to motivation via finding the search for flourishing within them – what is going to make you happy here? Money – a means to an end to fulfill their search perhaps
• Respecting the rationality of the person who takes out a loan or pawn on something – especially given that in the economic environment for a lot of people where there can increasingly often be little, or no, recourse of alternatives. In this light, it is a moral principle routed in goodwill to provide this service
• We provide a service to society, there is pride (and profit) that can be found in this understanding
• Story from dad about the guy with the $30 loan on a bracelet he paid off on for years, leading to them wanting to gift it back to him for being such a repeat customer, and their statement about their rationale in pawning it to prevent it from being stolen in the first place, and the ensuing watching of them go down the street to the next pawn shop to re-pawn it – it is about respecting the rationality of the customer
• That said, every situation is unique and so moral actions cannot be absolute, but we also have Aristotelian virtue ethics in our toolkits. Our wisdom from experience and habits from acting reasonably can infer ways in which we are ought to proceed. Perhaps it is evident that someone is on drugs, or if the goods appear stolen, if your intuition (wisdom) is piqued, it would then be a categorical imperative, and your right as a business owner, to refuse service and such

 

Closing

• My gift, as it were, to you here is all of this information on how philosophy can potentially help you to run not just your business, but yourself. Hopefully, this understanding can correlate towards effective management styles and adaptability to forces within and without the pawn world that will help. If you are looking for where to go next, perhaps try a humanities perspective to seeing things in the world like Thales did and you can capitalize on it – view it from various angles, watch movies, read books, listen to music, watch the news (but try not to let it cloud your reason when it appeals to your emotions), monitor the markets, go to church if that’s your thing, talk to each other and see if you can put yourself in other peoples’ shoes to gain their insight, take time to reflect, go on a vacation – enjoy Atlantis!!!

 

 

ABOUT THE INTERNATIONAL PAWN SYMPOSIUM 

 

This event is limited to 100 attendees and is only $1495 per head – which includes all meals, social functions and the seminars being presented at this world class resort.

We are currently accepting paid participation to guarantee slots on the roster. We have about 80+ participants on the list currently and paid reservations are coming in now.

We have also procured a room-block at this EPIC resort of only $149 a night plus their resort fees.

This year’s PRESENTERS provide a wide-range of expertise and subject matter, once again making the International Pawn Symposium THE event to attend for Pawn Professionals seeking to advance their business acumen and more.

VENDOR – SPONSORS – PRESENTERS

Pawnshop Consulting Group is proud to be participating with Surreal Diamond as the largest grower of Lab Diamonds on the Planet. Together we have created a brand specifically for the Pawn industry and it is call “SmartGrown”! They are one of our topline sponsors, providing high-level knowledge, skills, unlimited quantities and information on the lab diamond business from the worlds’ largest lab grower today. Their participation will be coupled with a range of show specials and some treasure hunting on top of hearing it up-close and upfront from the largest producer on the planet of LGD goods!

Bravo Systems – Steve and Tally Mack will be both presenting on a number of high-level topics — future of the industry as we know it, the next generations of technology and the benefits thereof. These two are without a double two of in the industry’s leading technology guru’s operating the largest technology platform for pawn on planet earth.

Pawnshop Consulting Group – Jerry Whitehead will be providing a range of input, support, and education throughout the entire event. Starting with a grand overlook as to how the industry is trending currently and where we see it heading today and whole bunch more!

Mid-States Recycling – Jack Brown will be providing some high level introspect into the metals business, the trade itself, along with all the processes related to maximizing your returns and insuring your investments in metals and beyond. Jack is also a long-term Industry supporter! Jack will be doing a one-off presentation for this year’s Symposium as one of our high line sponsors and long term supporter of PCG.

2a.com – Sean Makovsky – High level educational and fully interactive seminar of current status, future, and how to make more business and money in the high-end luxury handbag business and more. Sean is also a highly skilled, long-term multi-unit Pawn Management specialist who can provide high perspective and results driven data on how these programs can be integrated to also maximize results and returns for your Pawn business.

PawnLeads – Jeff Trimble will provide introspect into high-level web technology, digital marketing, ad campaigns, text marketing, and so much more. Another interactive session and input on how to maximize benefits from utilization of text technology, email marketing, direct marketing and maximizing customer contact through constant contact and social media marketing and more on steroids.

Sam Read (pawnbroker, engineer, software designer, Marine, gold maven & more) – Sam will be providing a one-off multi-part Comprehensive Bullion Trading & Training program on steroids presented over several seminars at our event, worth every cent to show up for just this one!

Special Guest – EZ Corp – Nick Cohen – Director of Acquisitions (Special Projects) – This year’s symposium will be blessed to have Nick Cohen presenting at our event as well. He will be providing a high-level seminar on perspectives, projects, challenges, and related subject matter of the public company side of our business as well as engaging our participants in a wide range of open dialogue and subject matter. Another do not miss opportunity to hear it from one of the worlds’ largest pawn operations and what they see today in their multi-national business and then some.

Simple Pawn / LA Familia – John Thedford – John will be providing very successful and high-level views from the executive standpoint of ALL of the components they have successfully developed and implemented on building winning cultures in numerous organizations. John has successfully built numerous large scale multi-unit pawn operations in his career from Value Pawn, LaFamilia, Smart Financial, and now the Simple Pawn organization operating with more than 120 stores in multiple countries. John out of accounting school started out with Cash America and was involved in the pre-IPO for Cash America with Coopers & Lybrand back in the day and EZ Corp as well.

Eyeson – Roberto Doering – Eyeson has developed some of the most comprehensive surveillance and fully interactive POS system integrations technology on the market today. Hear it from the global leader of the next generation of surveillance technology and much more. These systems have the ability to fully integrate into POS systems, provide valuable store traffic data, flow, and manage comprehensive view and analysis of the physical store assets.

Jeff Wilhelm – Entrepreneur / Consultant – Providing a wide range of perspective from a long-term multi-store operator and his perspectives on team building, culture, compensation, and multi-unit management and more as one of the industry’s leading consultants today. Jeff is another multi-decade well-seasoned pawn professional who will be providing some introspect into some of the most successful pawn operations on the planet today. Hear it from the professional and meet and greet up close and up front.

Justin Whitehead – Recent Graduate from TCU with his straight A – Masters, my son, and a long-term 3^rd generation pawnbroker inside, having grown up around our various family pawn operations and the Pawnshop Consulting Group. Justin will be providing a philosophical look at our industry from a historical point, sighting input from numerous philosophers and pointing in on our real mission in Atlantis – seeking knowledge and lost treasure in the lost city of Atlantis. Justin will be providing a deep reflection of all that it is we do as an industry and the human race today.

SPECIAL PRESENTATION – TO BE ANNOUNCED FROM ANOTHER LONG-TERM HIGHLY RECOGNIZED PAWN PROFESSIONAL AND ENTREPRENEUR, STAY TUNED FOR MORE INFORMATION!

Jerry Whitehead – Pawnshop Consulting Group – International Pawn Symposium