A third Generation Blue Collar Entrepreneur who hails from the automotive industry and excels at transforming field techs into a dominate front-line sales force that provide world class customer service. An advocate for the Blue-Collar Trades who is looking to pay it forward to the next generation of fellow trades men and women. Husband, Dad, Business Owner, Motivational Speaker, and Coach.
My story starts three generations back with my grandfather taking his last check he received from the Army and buying a used air compressor to start his auto repair shop. He grew that into a used car lot, body shop, auto recycling yard and eventually a Lincoln Mercury Dealership he ran for over 50 years. His success was based in the trades and the mechanical ability to repair cars. Over a lifetime he grew that into an empire of wealth and success. My father who started wrenching on lawn mowers and mini bikes in early elementary school found his calling in the auto body industry and ran a very successful body shop and towing company for nearly 40 years. As I child I was raised around men who built their wealth and success starting with their hands. Growing that skill into owners of their own businesses and eventually leaders in their respected industries.
As a child I never really envisioned myself taking the path of college and a four-year degree. School never resonated with me as a path to success and really during my high school years became more of something I had to do before I got to go to work. Now work was something I grew to love and look forward to. Every time there was a break in the school schedule for summer or holidays you could find me doing some sort of labor job. For the better part of Jr high and high school I worked most days after school as well. During these years I had the opportunity to work on a ranch cutting wood, repairing tractors, changing irrigation lines and mending fences, worked at a golf course driving the range cart picking up balls, junk yard parts salesman, wooden boat restoration shop, CNC machine shop, auto detailer, light line mechanic, auto glass warehouse and deliver guy. Of course, the whole time I also did side jobs to make money, fixing up and selling everything from bikes to cars. So, the entrepreneurial spirit runs deep with me.
In my early 20’s I got a taste of being a number among many at a large corporate auto dealership as a parts counterman and quickly realized big business is not where I wanted to stake my career. Small business was more of my liking and the close personal relationships small business affords you resonated with me. So, I took a temporary position at my father’s body shop as a collision estimator that eventually turned into a partnership that bought my father out so he was able to retire. After nearly a decade in a three-way partnership owning a body shop and two towing companies I have since sold my shares of the body shop and now own the two towing companies located in Sacramento,CA.
