minds in the same field together, and the relationships that members make with other members give them an advantage over everybody else. In addition to CFADA, I’m also a board member for the Chamber of Commerce in Leesburg, Lake County. What is your biggest career accomplishment so far? I don’t know that I’ve done it yet. I’m 52. I hope my biggest accomplishment is still ahead. What are the three most valuable career suggestions you would tell someone you wanted to mentor? 1. Learn from other people’s mistakes. 2. Stay in one place. Don’t jump from place to place. 3. You’ve got to balance your workto-home-life ratio because you’ll lose personal relationships that are important to you if you don’t. I’ve been there and done that. Supply chain issues have been a huge challenge for everyone. How are you solving them at your dealerships? New car volume is down, grosses are up, and we’ve switched our focus to CPOs (Certified Pre-Owned) and used cars. I think the problems will get worse by the end of the year. Last year, we had supplies on the ground; this year, we don’t have what we had last year. However, the supply chain should start ramping up by the middle of 2023, going into 2024. What is the biggest challenge facing dealerships in the next three to five years? How can dealers successfully deal with it? We’re making record gross profits, and some managers think they created all their success. But it’s not always them creating it; it’s the market. Dealerships need to be training the sales staff. Dealers who don’t will have a hard time continuing to succeed when things get back to normal because their sales staff will have forgotten how to sell cars. We train our staff the same way we did two to three years ago. What do you enjoy doing when you aren’t working? I work six days a week, so I don’t have much free time, but I play golf and spend time with the family. There’s a huge lake in Florida where we like to go, and we just got back from visiting my wife’s family in Pennsylvania. Tell us about your family. My mother is living with her husband in South Carolina. She is a retired nurse in her 80s and is doing well. My dad was living near me, but he is 83, has Alzheimer’s and has been in the hospital. I have two siblings. My half-brother lives in Australia, and my half-sister lives in Texas. My wife is Amy, and she is awesome. She’s very creative. It’s hard to buy her gifts because she prefers gifts from the heart. She sells Pampered Chef and loves it. We’re going to need a bigger kitchen because we’ve bought so many of their products for ourselves. We have five children combined, ages 13-28. One daughter is about to turn 16, and I also have three older boys. Do you think any of your children will follow in your footsteps? None of the older ones have asked about it, but I wouldn’t oppose it. The way things are now, you can’t be in this industry if you aren’t a good operator. Do you have any last words for those reading your article? What a wonderful time this is to be in the car business! Pub Yr 2 | Issue 4 35 CFADA.ORG
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