How I got around to doing this . . .

What we do finds us . . . so that’s what I’ve been told.

So, starting off, I’m into using the internet for promotion like crazy, but mainly for my own interests. I don’t care to hock Viagra or sell other people’s stuff.

I’ve been toying with putting together a marketing company focusing on SEO and Design to some degree . . . but my main interest is photography and cars . . .

I’ve been into cars since high school and it’s been a passion since . . . and it’s also how I pay the bills.

I started selling cars when I first moved to Austin because my student loans did not go through for law school . . . apparently, although broke as anything, I came from a family that was too wealthy to get approved.

Since I needed cash right away, I found an add for getting a guaranteed $3000 for selling cars at Maxwell Dodge for four weeks . . . so I hopped on that opportunity right away.

I hated working there more than anything . . .

Side fact: I was an odd child so my school once had me tested . . . . Apparently, my IQ is nearly as high as Albert Einstein’s or Plato’s (which totally sucks, because now look where the bar is?).

Anyhow, I think this makes my tolerance for stupid short and there was lots of stupid everywhere.

I was up to my eyeballs in stupid . . . I learned quickly on how NOT to run a company there and I left rejoice fully after 3 months.

So since I could not get financial aid for Law School, I decided to enroll into the Air Force and become an officer . . . the process was long though so I had to find work again.

So I started selling Toyotas . . . they drew a better client base, but they were miserable people. . . Seemed mainly people concerned with money and the saving of it.

These are the same people who have missionary sex once a week at best and use calculators during foreplay . . . passionless and vapid at best.

I realized that each brand seemed to draw a certain type of personality with it (in general) . . .

So far Dodges brought idiots and Toyotas drew CPAs . . .

I stored that gem of knowledge for later . . .

I tired quickly of selling cars and walked away from my Toyota gig to find something else . . .

A week later I was at Dell.

I learned a shitload from Dell . . . mainly; time IS money and saving time makes money.

I also learned how to narrow down options for customers and how to lock down deals quickly and cleanly without issue . . . because it’s always easier to tie up all of the loose ends while the bull is still in the shoot

The last thing I learned is that people need guidance because they are clueless in the end and a confident and caring voice will almost always win their favor.

I was Dells #1 sales rep . . . so one year after I was hired; I was rewarded by getting fired . . .

I accidentally gave an old lady free shipping . . .

A year later the guy who fired me was fired (go figure).

Three days later I was selling Toyotas (and hating it!) . . . The next month I got a job working with the Austin Chamber of Commerce pushing add space for a directory for commercial real estate . . .

I got to hobnob with some bigger players, but I just used it as a way to get in with the heads of other companies so I could bypass the standard hiring procedures . . . via this route, I set up an “appointment” to meet the owner of “BMW of Austin” and a month later I was hired.

In the first two weeks I was their top sales person ( I used all of my contacts from my commercial real estate gig) and the following year I led the store in profit, sales, customer satisfaction, and I started a whole new department just for eBay . . .

By my second year I had my own department with my own staff and my own building dedicated to eBay and in my second year I started selling exotic cars — starting with a whopper $30,000.00 profit on a Porsche Turbo that was traded in.

Normally, our store just wholesaled these cars out to their respective dealers, but with my eBay department we had a way of finding buyers who would not typically come to our store.

Cars are sold all of the time now on eBay, but I actually was one of the first and in 2004 my eBay store was the second highest grossing store next to The Sharper Image.

Anyhow, cutting to where I am now…. I’m starting all over again.

There were some issues within my company involving egos and people who were jealous of me and what I was doing and the amount of freedom and power I was trusted with over anyone else there.

In the end, the only authority who had any bearing over me was the owner.

I saw what was happening and instead of letting this growing animosity tear away at the owner (who is my friend); I offered to buy out the eBay department and move it off site.

The owner agreed and sold me the rights and all of the equipment for pennies on the dollar.

I decided to completely redo how an auto dealership works and as I was doing this, I was chosen to be eBay and Google’s government liaison for auto dealers on the internet and I helped write a bill that legitimized auto sales via the internet solely (before, customers HAD to sign at a building, but with this law passed, it freed up that requirement and the last road block to my store was out of the way).

I started Motorphilia 6 weeks later.

In this business plan I decided to do away with all of the over head of maintaining an inventory and lot space and decided to use the internet to allow me to turn cars quickly and distribute them worldwide.

There is a second phase in place for my company, but as of right now we’ve hit some growing pains . . . one, my accounting sucks; and two, this financial crisis hit the same time we were renewing our credit lines for buying inventory . . . this made buying new inventory difficult for about 6 weeks (and right now we are feeling the fallout of this and it hurts).

The outlook is good and the business model is solid . . . I’m still learning a lot, but in the end, I do love it and believe it is the future of how cars will be bought and sold.

Anyhow, this is a long answer . . . . So this is how I got involved with cars.

(And indirectly became a professional studio photographer and a pretty skilled web sleuth.)

The Philosophy of John Wayne

“Tomorrow is the most important thing in life. Comes into us at midnight very
clean. It’s perfect when it arrives and it puts itself in our hands. It hopes
we’ve learned something from yesterday.”

“Women have the right to work wherever they want, as long as they have the
dinner ready when you get home”

“Life is tough, but it’s tougher when you’re stupid.”
“If you’ve got them by the balls their hearts and minds will follow.”
“A man ought to do what he thinks is right”
“If everything isn’t black and white, I say, "Why the hell not?"”
“Talk low, talk slow and don’t say too much.”
“A horse is a horse,it ain´t make a difference what color it is.”
“Healthy, lusty sex is wonderful”

“Never say sorry – it’s a sign of weakness”

“I’m the stuff men are made of”
“I stick to simple themes. Love. Hate. No nuances. I stay away from
psychoanalyst’s couch scenes. Couches are good for one thing.”

“I’ve had three wives, six children and six grandchildren and I still don’t
understand women”

“Tomorrow hopes we have learned something from yesterday.”