TimTalks: Automotive Leadership and Beyond

Luxury, Leadership, and Legacy with Adam Merlin

• CarNow • Season 2 • Episode 12

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In this episode of “TimTalks: Automotive Leadership and Beyond,” Tim sits down with Adam Merlin, founder and president of Merlin Auto Group, to discuss his inspiring journey from a childhood passion for Ferraris to building one of the most respected independent luxury car dealerships in the country.

Starting with a 400-square-foot office during the 2008 financial crisis, Adam reveals how creativity, risk-taking, and a focus on client experience helped him navigate challenges and achieve success in the niche market of pre-owned Ferraris and Porsches. He highlights the importance of leadership, treating employees with respect, and creating a positive work-life balance to attract top talent. By focusing on quality of life rather than solely financial incentives, Adam has attracted top talent, including some of the best Ferrari and Porsche technicians in the industry.

Packed with insights on entrepreneurship and leadership, this episode is a must-watch for automotive enthusiasts and business leaders alike.

Connect with Adam on LinkedIn.

[00:00 – 2:31] Introduction & Guest Background

Tim introduces Adam Merlin, founder and CEO of Merlin Auto Group.

[02:32 – 05:20] Adam’s Early Career Story

Adam shares his childhood passion for Ferraris and journey from an Indiana University graduate, to starting in car sales, and founding Merlin Auto Group in 2008.

[05:21 – 07:12] Making Smart Decisions in Challenging Times

Tim reflects on Adam’s approach to creating Merlin Auto Group amid the 2008 financial crisis, highlighting the smart decisions he made.

[07:13 – 10:19] Creating Merlin Auto Group

Adam reflects on his original business model, acquiring an airport office, and what it took to create a market.

[10:20 – 12:11] Transitioning to High-Line Luxury

Tim shifts the conversation to leadership, asking Adam how he built his team and made the transition to high-line luxury vehicles.

[12:12 – 16:54] Building the Merlin Auto Group Culture

Adam shares his thoughts on shifting his business model, establishing relationships, and taking the pain points out of luxury car sales by focusing on quality of life.

[16:55 – 18:35] How Important Quality of Life Is

The conversation on improving quality of life for employees continues. Adam stresses understanding bandwidth and dialing in on ethical alignment.

[18:36 – 22:05] Acquiring Top Service Technicians

Adam reflects on the challenges he faced while outsourcing service and the realization that he needed in-house Ferrari and Porsche techs.

[22:06 – 23:50] Finding What Motivates People

Adam reflects on the lessons he learned early in his career on finding people’s motivations and applying them to leading his team today.

[23:51 – 28:15] Taking Leadership to New Levels

Tim reflects on Adam’s leadership style, personal integrity, and the brand he’s built, highlighting how important Adam’s kind of leadership is to the automotive industry.

[28:16 – 30:15] Closing Thoughts

Tim and Adam close the episode with final thoughts on leadership, culture, and the power of treating people well.

00;00;00;25 - 00;00;31;18
Speaker 1
In over three decades, I've learned that truly great car dealerships are only great because of one thing leadership. So I'm sitting down with the great men and women. Inspiring Automotive on Tim Talks automotive Leadership and beyond. So welcome to yet another episode of Tim Talks. And this one's a little special. This guest that we have on today, I have known for, gosh, I think coming up on two decades, a very long time.

00;00;31;21 - 00;00;49;21
Speaker 1
And, it's very exciting to have him. He's he's truly one of my closest friends. And I watch not only him as a, as a, as a, as a human being, but obviously as a leader and what he's been able to do in the automotive space. Had the chance to work with him briefly, and he is just, for now.

00;00;49;21 - 00;01;12;23
Speaker 1
In fact, if you listen to an episode a couple weeks ago, I even referenced what Adam was doing. And the whole buying SUVs when gas was $4 like that, that for. So. So without further ado, I want to introduce my dear friend. One of the best car guys I know and one of the best operators that I know, my dear friend Adam Merlin.

00;01;12;24 - 00;01;17;12
Speaker 1
Adam, welcome to Tim Talks Leadership and beyond. Welcome, sir.

00;01;17;15 - 00;01;25;04
Speaker 2
Yeah. Very cool. Thank you. Thanks for having me. I was flattered to think that I qualified for this show, so I appreciate it.

00;01;25;06 - 00;01;40;05
Speaker 1
I think you qualify. In fact, everybody has seen the mister, the the great, the great philosopher Ron Burgundy. As he would quote, he's kind of a big deal. I actually bought Adam at one time and.

00;01;40;07 - 00;01;41;10
Speaker 2
I still wear it.

00;01;41;12 - 00;01;42;14
Speaker 1
T shirt. Yes, it.

00;01;42;14 - 00;01;43;20
Speaker 2
Was still wear.

00;01;43;22 - 00;02;09;24
Speaker 1
Me. So, I gave it to Adam, and it's, now, Adam's been working out, so it's probably too small for him. It does say that he's a big deal, but. Adam, listen, Adam is the founder owner, CEO operator of Merlin Auto Group. Which I would argue is one of the largest, most efficient. Well, well thought of Ferrari, among other things, pre-owned sales and service, dealers in the country.

00;02;09;24 - 00;02;30;07
Speaker 1
And very a unique business. But but, Adam, kind of take us through, how of your story. I think a lot of times it's good to know a little bit of the background. Obviously, even starting at Indiana, when you graduated in four years with, you know, 19 degrees or whatever you had, and, and then you taught, you went and you told your parents that you were fascinated by the car business.

00;02;30;07 - 00;02;31;22
Speaker 1
Let's start there.

00;02;31;25 - 00;02;52;09
Speaker 2
Yeah. So, yeah, we'll do the quotes. And actually, his favorite line of all time, the Reader's Digest version of my life story, when I was five years old, I told my mom, if the only way I could afford a Ferrari was to not buy a house and live in a live with her for the rest of my life, that I would forgo having a home in order to have a Ferrari.

00;02;52;09 - 00;02;58;11
Speaker 2
So I've kind of been a car guy. Graduate Indiana University, triple major. Tim, three majors.

00;02;58;13 - 00;03;02;26
Speaker 1
Three, three majors in four years. Ladies and gentlemen. Hey, Marcelo. Yeah, sorry, sorry.

00;03;02;26 - 00;03;27;09
Speaker 2
I graduated Indiana University, and I want to get into the car business, and, I got an opportunity to go sell cars for Hank Aaron, the Hall of Fame baseball player and homerun champ. In my opinion, still, but anyway, so, went down there, learned a little bit about new cars very quickly. Went to another opportunity that gave me more exposure.

00;03;27;11 - 00;03;48;12
Speaker 2
And, you know, about two and a half years out of college, I got my first opportunity to be the general sales manager of a Chrysler Jeep and Hyundai store. And, the owner of that store looked me in the eye and said, you know, I can tell you anything you wanna know about the car business. But the reality is, if you want to get in the car business, you need to understand used cars.

00;03;48;24 - 00;04;11;15
Speaker 2
And he started taking me to auctions, taught me how to buy and sell used cars. Became the general manager of a Chrysler Jeep and Hyundai store under their flag as well, and ultimately decided it's hard to work for somebody and work for yourself at the same time. When I was a kid, I used to drag my dad to car dealerships to take a to to go test drive or whatever cool car.

00;04;11;17 - 00;04;44;26
Speaker 2
And he used to always tell me, like how, like he didn't want to go and it wasn't to let me down. It was because it's such a miserable experience. You go to the car dealership, you know, you pull up, there's all the dudes outside smoking cigarets, blah, blah, blah. And you know, when I, when I, I was on a very accelerated path, not because I was qualified or capable, but, you know, it was almost as though, you know, I was I worked the hardest, I cared the most, I tried the hardest and, you know, to the owner of these dealerships, like, that's what they want, you know, and it really lacks that.

00;04;44;28 - 00;05;10;10
Speaker 2
And so, you know, I wanted to build a business that we could capitalize on taking care of clients and taking the pain points out of automobiles. And, in November 2008, gas goes to $5 a gallon. You know, Hummers that were worth, you know, Hummer H2. Tim. Remember those? They were worth, like 40 grand overnight became worth ten grand.

00;05;10;12 - 00;05;21;20
Speaker 2
And, you know, it seemed like a crazy time to to leave. But I just got married the month before, and I left and I started what is now Merlin Auto Group.

00;05;21;22 - 00;05;53;11
Speaker 1
The fascinating story, because I, I was there and I and I not obviously in the same, location but I, I remember those stories and I remember, you were even smart enough to. Well, number one, I even, talked about this, on on an episode we had a couple weeks ago with Todd Caputo and, when he went out and had the forethought to buy these big SUVs when gas was, you know, $5 a gallon, and and, quite frankly, ladies and gentlemen, I wasn't that guy.

00;05;53;11 - 00;06;21;24
Speaker 1
I was a Prius manager at the time. And I was scared to death and nervous and and guys like, Todd, or smarter than me and Adam were smarter than me, and they absolutely killed it. It's just like, you know, we talk about, you know, coming from the pantheon, and I'm sick of talking about the pandemic, but, you know, whether it's, you know, Heather at Fletcher Jones, who tripled her marketing during the pandemic and make it made, market share, Adam, did the exact same thing.

00;06;22;06 - 00;06;38;01
Speaker 1
I can remember, you know, the humble beginnings when you came and you told me you're like, look, if I can just wholesale to ten cars at two grand a copy, I'm good. And it is turned into much, much more than that. In fact, your first office was really cool, and I was fascinated. You were smart enough because you're a pilot, right?

00;06;38;01 - 00;06;58;06
Speaker 1
You learn to fly. You're passionate about cars and airplanes. And you got an office, at the PDQ airport, which a lot of, you know, here in Atlanta. And he parked a he bought his first Ferrari, and he parked it outside, to where these pilots who obviously, if they're pilot, you know, and they're have their own plane, they got a little jingle.

00;06;58;06 - 00;07;13;06
Speaker 1
Would see this Ferrari kind of tell us that a story. That's kind of a cool story. On getting your name out there is just being so bold to have this office literally almost on the runway where these obviously affluent people would come in and then parking a Ferrari out front, that's a pretty cool story.

00;07;13;08 - 00;07;33;13
Speaker 2
Yeah. Look, I mean, I, I when I quit my job, and decided I was going to start something, you know, the world, I mean, the economy really was going downhill. Real estate was in shambles. And I figured these huge airplane hangars at these airports like nobody. Yeah, they're going to be empty. And so my bright ideas, like, I'm going to fill it with cars and I'm going to change the experience of how you buy cars.

00;07;33;13 - 00;07;51;08
Speaker 2
Right. You go back in 2008 like, you know, today there's independent car dealerships that have respect. I mean there's some that trade for multiples. They build brands back then. Right. The only people that had independent car dealerships were like the ones that were convicted felons and could never get a franchise store or, you know, they just didn't have the money to get a French store.

00;07;51;10 - 00;08;10;09
Speaker 2
You know, it was it was a different stigma, right? So I thought with private jets and all that, you know, and what I thought would be cheap, real estate, that I could get this thing going at this, you know, it's the second largest airport in Georgia. And I went there and the guy literally laughed in my face when I was like, I want to rent a hangar.

00;08;10;09 - 00;08;28;07
Speaker 2
And he was like, you know, it's 10,000 a spot. We put X number in there and you have to buy a minimum amount of jet fuel. And I was like, okay, I'm out of my league here, you know? But through a connection, I was able to to lease a 400 square foot office, without standing air conditioning, by the way.

00;08;28;10 - 00;08;46;28
Speaker 2
And, and that's, you know, that's what I started to do and, you know, through buddies like you, I mean, you know, I had a decent reputation from going to all the auctions and buying cars and buying a lot of cars and volume. We were a high volume store when I was at the franchise store. I knew a lot of people, and I realized you could buy cars and sell them dealer to dealer.

00;08;47;00 - 00;09;04;25
Speaker 2
You know, I didn't want to be a wholesaler. I didn't want to call myself a wholesaler. But I was like, you know, I can buy all items, let's just trades and go sell them to other dealers and make a living doing it and have some flexibility until I figure out what I want to do. And 16 years later, it's ultimately Cumberland Auto Group.

00;09;04;25 - 00;09;22;13
Speaker 2
I missed that, that wholesale business. That's how I built the business. Like that was how I generated the cash flow to build the business. I mean, at our peak, we were wholesaling 150 to 200 cars a month. I was buying every single one of them. So, you know, and I was loving it. I mean, I'm a deal junkie, you know, you say I was smart when cars, you know, when SUVs went cheap.

00;09;22;19 - 00;09;50;24
Speaker 2
Now I just, I had to create a market. I had to I had to do something different. I had to take a risk. Right. Like that's all. Like I have a tolerance for risk that perhaps, you know, people that are, well, smarter than me don't. And, you know, sometimes it pays off. A lot of times it doesn't. You know, we could sit here and talk for two years about all the stupid ass ideas that I had that, you know, that crashed and burned, you know, I mean, I'll never forget to try to get people to buy cars from us.

00;09;50;24 - 00;10;16;16
Speaker 2
When I started this business, I self insured a three month, 3000 mile bumper to bumper warranty on regular used cars. You know, I call our a boutique CarMax right. And people would come in here and I started getting two, three, four, $5,000 after sale bills. And people are literally like rebuilding their cars. And because I was so worried about my reputation, yeah, I was writing the checks.

00;10;16;16 - 00;10;19;00
Speaker 2
I mean, it was a disaster. I should I should have gone out of business.

00;10;19;05 - 00;10;43;08
Speaker 1
And that was the transition. And folks, we are going to get to leadership. There's a point to this. And that's the transition of going to the ultra high line. You know, you started buying, you always had 1 or 2, you know, BMW, Porsches, Mercedes, and then you then you, you know, and maybe 1 or 2 Ferraris and then it became, you know, that type of clientele, obviously, you know, you know, I'm not picking on a maximo, but you told the story about somebody.

00;10;43;08 - 00;11;09;26
Speaker 1
The bottom Nissan Maxima dumped it, dropped a transmission, and you paid for the transmission because you didn't want the the bad review online. So you so you went into, you know, the ultra luxury business and and take us through that. Because what I want listeners to know is obviously, Adam is doesn't have, you know, hundreds of millions of dollars behind him and VC money or you know, private equity money or anything like that.

00;11;09;26 - 00;11;34;17
Speaker 1
He's built everything, you know, by his bootstraps and, and help from some friends. But, you know, transitioning, I think it's fascinating, your leadership and the way let's transition that now as we talk about leadership and beyond that, that you have arguably, you started with one, then another than another. And, and we talk about John Maxwell, the 21 Irrefutable laws of Leadership, the law of Attraction.

00;11;34;18 - 00;12;02;27
Speaker 1
Hey, there's something going on here, i.e. Merlin Auto Group and a lot of duplication duplicating. But it's very, you know, especially people with Ferraris, they only allow one person to work on the car and nobody touches their car. But you have four of the top Ferrari technicians in the country that are at your shop. Take us through that leadership and how you treat your people and why they leave Ferrari of Atlanta or wherever they leave to come to work for an independent shop.

00;12;03;00 - 00;12;11;27
Speaker 1
And how your leadership and your company, you know, provides that platform for them to do so and enjoy what they do and thrive.

00;12;12;00 - 00;12;28;01
Speaker 2
Yeah. Look, I mean, part of being an entrepreneur and a little crazy is, you know, when things don't work, you have to make changes. And you're right. So the week of my 30th birthday, I bought my first Ferrari. I kept it three years, spent $30,000 servicing it, and I still was able to get out of it without losing any money.

00;12;28;01 - 00;12;45;00
Speaker 2
Right. And I was like, wait a minute. Like these cars go up in value and like the, you know, the two year old Mercedes off lease car that I had out back was going down in value. I was selling more cars in volume, losing money. I couldn't compete with pay for placement on AutoTrader and all that stuff. The dealership down the road and your dealership.

00;12;45;00 - 00;13;07;13
Speaker 2
Tim, we're spending ten, 20, 40, $100,000 a month to make sure your certified pre-owned Lexus were on the first page. I was on the last page and we were offering a better car. We were, you know, I mean, no offense, we were buying frontline cars from you that were old age that were certified, bringing them down here, spending $3,500 in recon to put new tires on them, to do the 30 K properly, to put both keys.

00;13;07;18 - 00;13;27;14
Speaker 2
No offense. I mean, it's just, you know, it's what happens in these big stores. High volume. Yeah. And we realized our differentiator was to take the pain point out of cars. And in order to do that, you couldn't sell $25,000 cars. And with my first Ferrari, I realized that's a different clientele. The people are looking for something different, and we wanted to try to appeal to that.

00;13;27;20 - 00;13;52;09
Speaker 2
Not to mention the fact I could take my 200 car inventory, shrink it down to 40 cars and post it on AutoTrader for $1,000 a month. And because there's only one page of certain Ferrari models, I'm on the first page, right. And, you know, and and so establishing that relationship and finding that niche that we could then become I don't wanna say dominant, but we could become known.

00;13;52;13 - 00;14;11;02
Speaker 2
Right? I was never going to become known with the Car Maxes and the Sonics and the as Barry's. And it was important to me to build a scalable business. Wholesaling is a great business, but it's a job. You know, if I'm at the beach, unless I have 40 buyers and you know that, you know, so, you know, a used car dealership just buying and selling cars, going to the auction, trying to buy cars.

00;14;11;07 - 00;14;24;27
Speaker 2
It's a job. I mean, it can be a great living, but it's still just, you know, kind of a job. So I wanted to build something that was scalable. I then realized that it was very important as the leader to, you know, my frustration was if I had a Ferrari here, I was the only person that could sell it.

00;14;25;03 - 00;14;41;16
Speaker 2
Right. I regular car salesman here, if I had a Bentley here, like I was the only person that could deal with the clients. And it was very important for me to go out and try and try and find people that had experience selling luxury items and doing it independently, because I didn't have the bandwidth to do it all right.

00;14;41;16 - 00;15;05;21
Speaker 2
And I needed people to help. And, you know, through luck and connections, I hired who was arguably probably the best salesman I've ever had working with me, ever, who was into luxury goods. He lived in one of the luxury hotels here that had residences, and we started appealing to clients like Chanel appears to their clients in their boutiques.

00;15;05;21 - 00;15;26;17
Speaker 2
Like, you know, we were modeling after the Four Seasons type experience and realized that it was, you know, not only because of the supply and demand of the cars we started carrying, but because, you know, the if you're buying $150,000 car, you don't really care if it's 140 or 160. You want the best car, the best experience, and you don't want to get screwed.

00;15;26;20 - 00;15;47;12
Speaker 2
And we were trying to do that with $20,000 cars, and we were only losing a little money per car, and doing 100 cars turned into losing a lot of money. You know, we figured if there was a way to actually make margin and still deliver the product, it was a much better idea. So for us, it was very, you know, for me, you know, back that that was me, right?

00;15;47;12 - 00;16;02;00
Speaker 2
I couldn't get people to come work here. Like I would joke with Tim, you need to come work here and help me. Right. And he's the, you know, the pre-owned manager of a fancy Lexus store. Big office. I remember when he got his couch and it was all big deal, right? And like, you know, we were like, an independent, you know?

00;16;02;00 - 00;16;22;08
Speaker 2
Who are these guys? And I it it dawned on me that taking this, you know, same thing I was doing to attract clients was what I needed to start doing to attract people, and that was to improve their quality of life. Right? Whether it was a five day workweek, no weekends. You know, Johnny, play soccer on Saturdays. You never want to work on Saturday again.

00;16;22;08 - 00;16;48;18
Speaker 2
Tim. Great. Come work here. You know, you want me to protect your downside. Great. I can't pay you $250,000, but you know I can pay you five grand a month, guaranteed. And help me build this thing right? And found ways to find, you know, people that were morally and ethically aligned, that understood the value proposition and the vision at the time, which has changed 14 times.

00;16;48;21 - 00;17;08;10
Speaker 2
And to come and help me do that and realize that changing their quality of life was more important than money. And unfortunately, just like I talked about your front line CPO Lexus, and in a dealership, the magnitude and size of some of these stores details get missed, right? It has nothing to do with you were not an effective CPO manager.

00;17;08;12 - 00;17;25;15
Speaker 2
It has to do with things get missed. There's you know, it's bandwidth, right. And as leaders, we only have limited bandwidth. If I delivered every single car, if I was the one wash and get waxed and get whatever it is. You know, I'd like to think that I would never miss a detail, but I'm a terrible detail guy, so I, you know, like, I would miss the little details, you know?

00;17;25;18 - 00;17;51;12
Speaker 2
So, you know, it's important to understand that. Well, I want to scale a business I was not willing to scale beyond our ability to offer an incomparable value proposition to our client. Right. And I had to find people that could help me do that. And the way to do that was to improve their quality of life. And you would be shocked how in this business, right, everybody's motivated by money.

00;17;51;12 - 00;18;11;19
Speaker 2
It's all about money. What was your net check? What was your bonus check? You know, what's your guarantee? How many demos do you get right. And the reality is it's a very challenging business. The clients, by and large, don't trust us, don't like us. You know, they come in with their guard up. We work 60, 70, 80 hours a week, right?

00;18;11;22 - 00;18;31;08
Speaker 2
That is not a quality of life. Like, who cares if you make $500,000 doing that? You know, all you do is sit at home, online or at your computer when you have downtime buying stuff to make you feel better. I mean, I remember when I was doing that, so 250 cars a month, I mean, every day I'd go home, there'd be three packages at my house and all this money and no time.

00;18;31;12 - 00;18;49;29
Speaker 2
Right? Yeah, yeah. And so I realized that, you know, quality of life was really what was important. And then to, you know, we started doing all these exotics. I was outsourcing all of my service. I was standing behind the cars. Right. You know, a client calls from California. I want to buy that Ferrari 360. It was just serviced at the Ferrari dealer.

00;18;49;29 - 00;19;16;13
Speaker 2
Here's the invoice. It was 15,000. Blah, blah, blah. Gets to him. Has a problem, right. Takes it to the Ferrari store out there. I get a call. Yeah. It needs $21,000 worth of work. And I'm like, okay, great, do it right. And I'm like, good lord. So when you're looking at our financials and we had spent a lot of money, seven figures plus multiple seven figures on outside services, fixing these cars up and then aftersales stuff.

00;19;16;15 - 00;19;32;22
Speaker 2
And I was like, I got to get a technician, you know, and it's, you know, it isn't like you can go to Jiffy Lube and start recruiting Ferrari technicians. And yeah, the the Ferraris we specialize in were the, you know, with the older things, I wasn't buying the newer stuff. I didn't have the money to go out and buy 20 400,000 of Ferrari.

00;19;32;22 - 00;19;53;14
Speaker 2
So I was buying $100,000 and less Ferraris. Right. And I knew if we weren't going to go down in value, my money was somewhat protected. And, you know, ultimately they would go up in value like my first Ferrari did. And I was told by multiple people, mentors, I mean, you know, there's no way you're going to get a Ferrari technician, Ferrari technicians, they'll never come to a place like yours, blah, blah, blah.

00;19;53;16 - 00;20;11;25
Speaker 2
Right up until I started talking to one of the best Ferrari technicians at a local Ferrari dealership, and I was telling him kind of what I was doing, and he was a very cool guy with a great personality, and he was telling me some of his frustrations at the Ferrari dealership. He's like, the cars are great, but, you know, it's, you know, it's about turning hours.

00;20;11;25 - 00;20;32;29
Speaker 2
It's about getting work out of the shop. It's about profitability, you know? And what I heard the most him was not about compensation. What I heard the most was like, I feel like, you know, I feel like I'm a, like a, like a horse just getting whipped, right? Like I'm a number. You know, I make x, I have to produce Y, right?

00;20;33;05 - 00;21;02;25
Speaker 2
When I give feedback, no one listens to me. Right. And so we hired him. And that was the beginning of building, you know, what is now the largest independent Ferrari shop? Very recently, about a year ago, we hired arguably the best Porsche technician in the country. So we service more Carrera GT's and GT3. Rs is in GT twos, of late, you know, it's it's, Porsche is an incredible brand that, you know.

00;21;02;25 - 00;21;03;08
Speaker 2
What are you.

00;21;03;09 - 00;21;05;07
Speaker 1
On the Porsche racing team at one time.

00;21;05;10 - 00;21;22;27
Speaker 2
So he used he can. So he was with Porsche for 20 years. He opened the Classic and Restoration center here at the Experience Center in Atlanta. He was recruited out of Ohio by Porsche North America. He was working at a Porsche franchised store. He consults with the race team in Germany back when he worked with them. And look, another example.

00;21;22;27 - 00;21;39;24
Speaker 2
He got tired of the quality of life. He got tired of the bureaucracy and big corporate environment. He left to go be a professor at the local vocational school, up here to the technical college, applied to a LinkedIn job posting and look at his resume. And I was like I said to my gym, I was like, he has to be a serial killer.

00;21;39;24 - 00;21;54;22
Speaker 2
Like, how does how does this guy ever leave Porsche? Like, this can't be real. He comes in and he's like, look, I have a son. My wife works. If he's sick, I need to be able to go get my son. You know, if he's out of school, I might need to bring my son to work, you know? And I'm like, dude, I got three kids.

00;21;54;23 - 00;22;15;19
Speaker 2
Like, I love it when my kids come to work, you know? Like, it's just not that serious. We're not curing cancer, you know? Like, it just doesn't have to be that serious. And so when I first started selling Hyundais in Riverdale, Georgia, the salesman that had been there the longest time when they, you know, I came in as a manager and everybody thought I was related to the owner, and that's how a young guy could do it.

00;22;15;21 - 00;22;31;01
Speaker 2
And he said, Adam, the only advice I will give you is talk to your people and find out what motivates them. A lot of them, it's going to be money. Some of them it's going to be cocaine, some of them it's going to be prostitutes, some of them it's going to be, you know, leopard skin shoes, whatever it is.

00;22;31;02 - 00;22;57;26
Speaker 2
Right? Find out what makes them tick and then use it to motivate them. Right. Like I wasn't interested in the cocaine and hooker ones, but, you know, I mean, I can't tell you how many times, you know, buying somebody a pair of shoes was better than giving them $1,000 bonus. And, you know, I took that lesson when I was trying to attract the top talent to a little warehouse off of an industrial road that nobody knew about.

00;22;57;29 - 00;23;17;27
Speaker 2
And it was to figure out, you know, like what motivated them. And, you know, with my people, if you come through here, the people on our team, they will say the most resounding thing I hear is, is they say, there's not a day that I don't leave here, that somebody doesn't thank me for something. He's like, I never used to get thanked.

00;23;18;00 - 00;23;20;11
Speaker 2
Yeah, you know how much that cost us?

00;23;20;13 - 00;23;21;07
Speaker 1
Nothing.

00;23;21;09 - 00;23;47;24
Speaker 2
Zero. You know, but look, I mean, it's, you know, it's not like a secret sauce. It's not a, you know, it's not it's not any any, you know, revelation or any brilliance. It's just, you know, I've always, you know, I learned you treat people how you want to be treated. That's how we treat our clients. And more importantly, that's how we treat our employees, because then our employees will do the same for our clients.

00;23;47;26 - 00;23;49;16
Speaker 2
You know, that's the Richard Branson.

00;23;49;18 - 00;24;21;12
Speaker 1
Yeah. That. Yeah, that, you know, we talked about that before. We we've had that conversation before and it was a his, his quote. And you can, you can say it again for us that, that really what you modeled your business by, I mean, look for, for a guy that that went from, you know, running a couple of dealerships to I'm going to do this on my own in a 400 square foot office to having again, you know, arguably the the best Ferrari technicians in the country and one of the, if not the best Porsche technicians in the country.

00;24;21;14 - 00;24;41;11
Speaker 1
And, if you guys, by the way, you probably want it, most of you listening are car guy and gals. Go to Merlin Auto group.com and check out the facility. One of the most beautiful independent fact. I would even say independent, one of the most beautiful facilities, that I've had the privilege to, to, to walk through.

00;24;41;29 - 00;25;08;29
Speaker 1
Let's park the. I really think that, most people and we've said this over and over again, but you've again said, it said it so, so. Well, you know, finding out what the it is or the why in, in individuals, you know, somebody that was on on a couple episodes ago said, you know, you've got your Dennis rod, you know, you've got the people like Dennis Rodman that have all this talent, but they have to be coached and mentored a separate way.

00;25;08;29 - 00;25;34;24
Speaker 1
Then you coach a Jordan, right? Or you coach, a Pippen, right? They're all different. But there is a common denominator. People want to be appreciated. People want to be, as I say, loved on. I really believe that, like you've been in a bunch of stores just like me because you were all over Atlanta, even all different states buying cars, and you see a lot of great operations, but unfortunately, you see a lot of not so great operations.

00;25;34;24 - 00;25;54;29
Speaker 1
And there's one common denominator, which is why we started this. And we got some emails and I got some text. I can't crank Tim talk back up, but we changed the genre because, leadership is the key. It's truly the key. Look, love our, you know, car. Now we built it. Our software is great. You know, it doesn't matter.

00;25;54;29 - 00;26;08;13
Speaker 1
The car now is not going to change your culture, right? It's the leadership in the dealership. It's leadership and beyond. But I really believe for somebody to have that epiphany or that mindset, they have to get over the ego of themselves, right?

00;26;08;13 - 00;26;27;21
Speaker 2
The ego and you have to truly care, right? But you truly have to care like you cannot. You cannot fake that. And unfortunately, like the reason the experience is so terrible at most of these dealerships is because the only thing people care about are themselves, and they're financially compensated to do what's not in the best interest of their client.

00;26;27;23 - 00;26;47;18
Speaker 2
I mean, it's it's a it's a fundamentally incorrect way to compensate people to, to deliver the best product to their client. It's the best way to do it for profitability. My profitability suffers all the time because some of my people's base compensation isn't tied to their production. So they get paid a lot of money, whether they're doing anything or not, you know?

00;26;47;18 - 00;27;02;12
Speaker 2
But I say they get paid more by treating the client right because they treat the client right. The client is going to come back. Our average client has ten cars. They we deal with all of them. We buy the cars for their nannies. We help them do whatever. They never ask us about price because they don't have to work.

00;27;02;13 - 00;27;18;09
Speaker 1
And I think one of the most interesting things, I mean, most of his clients never come in. They trust Adam has built such a brand with Merlin Auto Group that they just trust him because they know if there's an issue that he's going to fix it or he's going to take it back or give them options, it's that type of service.

00;27;18;09 - 00;27;35;23
Speaker 1
And the bridge. Richard Branson, comment that I want to kind of land the plane as we as we close this out, we're definitely going to have to schedule a. And episode two is if you take care and correct me if I don't say it correctly, but if you the first thing in business, if you take care of your people, then they'll take care, take care of your people first.

00;27;35;23 - 00;27;54;23
Speaker 1
Then they take care of your clients. They take care of your guests. And you've really taken that to, because I've seen it, ladies and gentlemen, I've seen it. I've been there. Adam's been a dear friend. In fact, just this morning, as we were talking. Hey, man, because things get busy in the car business, you know, make sure there's no fires that he's not putting out and make sure that we're good to to do this.

00;27;54;23 - 00;28;10;19
Speaker 1
And and we were talking about a lot of the entrepreneurial, you know, things that we have that a lot of people don't see. Right. So Adam has been such a dear friend for so many years, even though he bust me up even more than my wife. But that that that's why I love him even more. But, just an incredible job, dude.

00;28;10;27 - 00;28;37;13
Speaker 1
Just an incredible job. And and you know, another thing I'm going to I'm going to point out and this isn't an Adam love fest. Maybe it is, but, you know, the things that you don't talk about that I just think you just you're blessed by God because he sees it is all the entrepreneur. I mean, all the all the, philanthropy that you do, you know, the the time that you bought the van for the for the, the, the kid and all that type of stuff that nobody knows about.

00;28;37;13 - 00;28;55;07
Speaker 1
It's not in any papers. Guys, there's a common denominator there. I really believe that that that that you've been blessed in some ways, even though the stress of being an entrepreneur, even though we look at PNL sheets and all that other stuff is gone because quite frankly, dadgum it, you're you're a great human being.

00;28;55;09 - 00;29;12;12
Speaker 2
Well, I appreciate you saying that. And you know, like I said, I mean, it's lucky for me that it, you know, it's easy to do the right thing because I want people to do the right thing to me. And, you know, you attract other people that are like minded and, you know, take the risks and, you know, it's miserable.

00;29;12;12 - 00;29;22;26
Speaker 2
Some days there ain't no doubt. Yep. But but I appreciate you having me on. I appreciate you saying all the nice things every now and again. It's good to hear from somebody that they think you're doing a good job. So yeah.

00;29;22;28 - 00;29;47;16
Speaker 1
I appreciate your brother. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for taking just a hopefully and a lot of you guys, I get the texts, I get the emails. You know, I'm your commute, wear your commute. As you try to get pumped up or wind down from a day. Thank you for, for for giving us a shout as, as we continue to gain, momentum, truly grateful as we just, you know, I'm on the back nine, but I want to make a difference in this business that's been so good.

00;29;48;01 - 00;30;06;26
Speaker 1
To me. And that difference is leadership. Let's think differently. Let's continue to treat our people in such a way that there's no question on how they take care of our guest. As we always say, no one is smarter than everyone, y'all. We're just going to keep getting better together. This is Tim. We'll see you next time.

00;30;07;13 - 00;30;13;12
Unknown
And I.

00;30;13;15 - 00;30;14;26
Unknown
Give you.