With 35 years in automotive sales, I’ve done the job at every level — on the floor, at the desk, and leading and coaching the people who do it. I know what it takes to walk onto a lot green and scared and turn into someone who closes deals and builds a career that lasts. I also know how many good people wash out in the first ninety days simply because nobody ever showed them how.

I started as a green salesperson at a Dodge-only dealership — no training manual, no CRM, just a box of index cards and a manager willing to give a total newcomer a shot. I stayed at that same store for 25 years, through it growing into a Chrysler, then Jeep, then Ram franchise, eventually running full-service commercial fleet and upfitting alongside one of the largest parts operations in the Pacific Northwest.

Nobody handed me the next step. When a sales manager promotion I wanted went to someone else, I built my own path instead — taught myself leasing on my own dime after the dealership wouldn’t support it. The first vehicle I ever leased was a Dodge Viper. A guy walked in wearing grease-stained work clothes, mentioned offhand he’d buy a Viper if he could get one at MSRP. Everyone else laughed it off. I didn’t. Turned out he and his brother owned a manufacturing company — his office was the penthouse suite of a nine-story building downtown. He leased the car. It proved the market was there; it just needed someone willing to go find it.

Then I spent a year apprenticing at auctions across seven states, learning to buy and price used inventory. That path took me from the floor to Leasing Manager, to Fleet Manager, to Used Car Manager, and eventually to General Sales Manager, running the entire sales operation.

That’s why I started Life Guidance Consulting and wrote the Car Sales Survival Series — to put the whole playbook in one place: the 7-step process, the scripts, the mindset, and the hundreds of small things that separate the reps who make it from the ones who quit.

My approach is shaped by a strong work ethic my grandfather instilled in me — that growth comes from effort, heart, and perseverance. I bring that same straight-talking, no-fluff approach to everyone I work with, whether it’s a new salesperson, a whole sales floor, a manager, or someone chasing a goal outside the car business entirely.