Where are you from in Mississippi, and what’s your background? What interested you as a child and young man?
I grew up in the central part of the state, in Neshoba County, about 10 miles from Philadelphia, Mississippi. We were country folk living primarily off the land, and my family had all the agricultural accompaniments, like pigs, cows, chickens and a lot of red clay. As a child and young adult, I constantly came up with ways to get away from the red dirt.
I enjoyed math and science in high school, played all sports, and loved being outside to hunt and fish. I was very active in school, and as I progressed, I joined clubs and attended state conventions for different organizations. The state conventions meant traveling to cities I had never been to, and I liked them. They had different foods and nice restaurants and hotels.
As a child, I earned money by selling greeting cards, newspapers, and seeds up and down the highway. That continued until the last two summers of high school. Then I lived at a local hotel in Philadelphia and worked there as a waiter and cook.
Tell us about your experience earning a bachelor’s degree in Transport and Marketing from the College of Business and Industry at Mississippi State University. Why there, and why that degree?
The guy who ran the hotel pushed me to go to college at Mississippi State, but I blew my first year of school there. In the next couple of years, I got married, did my active duty time in the Army National Guard, and attended a junior college.
While attending junior college, I worked for the local newspaper until I got a night job as a billing clerk for a trucking company. The business interested me, and the job paid me more money than I had ever made. I tried to learn as much about it as I could.
The inspiration for my career in the trucking industry came when executives from other parts of the country visited the terminal where I worked. They were from places such as Chicago, Milwaukee, Indianapolis. They were always very nice to me, worked with the local manager, then went out entertaining customers. I thought, “Why not me?” and began to study transportation.
Your career has taken you to many different industries and places, including Asia, Europe, the Middle East and the Americas (North, Central and South). Which ones did you enjoy the most?
My favorite was Hong Kong. London is in second place.
I have been exposed to many concepts, philosophies, products, people and situations. One of my early mentors taught me to reduce all operations to the lowest common denominator.
How has your career benefited you as a general manager?
I have been exposed to many concepts, philosophies, products, people and situations. One of my early mentors taught me to reduce all operations to the lowest common denominator.
When did you become interested in the dealership industry?
I met R. Bruce Deardoff socially. He asked me what I did and said he had a project he would like me to do. I did it, he asked me to do another project, and I did that one, too. Then he asked me if I would be interested in managing the Central Florida Lincoln store in Orlando. Travel wasn’t glamorous anymore, so I said yes. That was seven years ago.
Working at the dealership has been wonderful and rewarding in many ways. I enjoy the people, there is always some kind of action in the dealership, and Bruce is a great guy to work for.
Please tell us about your mentors.
Bruce has been my mentor at the dealership. In the trucking industry, my mentors were Ed Randolph and Al Labinger. In the container business, I learned from Malcolm McLean. He is the father of the containerization industry because he was the first guy to load a truck trailer on a ship. Malcolm was faster with a pencil on numbers than anyone else with a calculator, and his mind seemingly never slept.
As you look back on your life, have you experienced an “Aha” moment? What was it?
My “aha” moment was when I was a trucking company billing clerk and met the traveling business executives.
What are the three most valuable career suggestions you would tell someone you wanted to mentor?
I have four:
- Dream. Have a life goal that makes you happy while you are working on it.
- Choose significant challenges that have the potential for home-run success. If something fails, one must remember that anything worth doing is worth doing wrong, so learn to accept failure. Failure allows you to experiment and see what works. If you don’t fail, you don’t gain any experience.
- You’ve got to work hard and be persistent.
- It is very important how you treat people at work. If you aspire to grow, you will need to be incredibly considerate of other people. People want to do what is expected of them, they want feedback about their performance, and they want to be respected. I tell those I work with every day that I want our customers and other employees to be treated the way I want to be treated, and I want to be treated damn well.
The pandemic has been a huge challenge for everyone. Do you think it will have a permanent effect on the industry? If yes, what?
Yes. The biggest effect is on customer dynamics and how we sell products, especially to younger buyers. Amazon is showing everyone how commerce can be implemented, and other industries are adopting the same ideas.
All of the auto manufacturing companies are taking orders now. People tell us what they want, and we place an order. Soon they will be able to order a car at the breakfast table, wire in a down-payment, and wait for the car to show up.
What is the biggest challenge currently facing dealerships in the next three to five years? How can dealers successfully deal with it?
Adapting to the market and still making money. There’s an old saying that individual dealers have to adapt to market changes or die, but if you watch the market, it will tell you what you have to do to survive. Dealerships can’t compete with the depth and breadth of Amazon, but we can select a segment and strive to be the best in that segment that we can.
What do you enjoy doing when you aren’t working?
I love to cook, eat, and cook what I want to eat. I like trying new things, and I learn from my failures. On Saturday, I get some inspiration from the store and decide what I’m going to make. On Sunday, I start cooking after church. Close friends bring their drinks and come over at 4 p.m. to my experimental kitchen.
I also enjoy hunting and shooting, but I don’t kill for sport. I eat what I hunt, and I don’t kill unless I can eat it or it’s a threat.
Do you have a favorite car? Also, what are you currently driving?
My favorite is the Navigator that we sell. I started driving them in 2005 or 2006 before I became associated with the Lincoln store.
I drive something out of the used car lot, usually for less than a week. That shows me how well my team is preparing the car for sale, and I also learn about the cars themselves.
Tell us about your family.
I have a great wife. We’ve been married for 20 years now. She is a professional financial officer, and she has a CPA.
We have two children from a previous marriage and three German shorthair pointers. My son and my daughter each have two children, and we have one great-grandchild. Everyone lives in different parts of Tennessee, and we see them several times a year
Any last words?
I like what I do. I’ve been incredibly fortunate in my life, and I’m grateful for that. I’ve had many experiences that I absolutely never thought possible.
