Shakin' Hands

They sold 1,200 Cars in One Month

• Jack Moran • Season 2 • Episode 87

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Jamie McKay, a Massachusetts self-made car dealer who climbed from lot kid to owner by outworking everyone in the building. Jamie shares the moments that forged him, childhood adversity, getting thrown onto the sales floor at 18, and the painful lessons that came with rapid success. He breaks down his non-compete war and why he believes respect matters, but doing what’s right for you matters more. His biggest lessons are tactical: negotiate your pay plan, stop confusing loyalty with stagnation, and structure partnerships so you never hand over control of your future to someone else. 

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Host: Jack Moran

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Jamie McKay:

You want to hear the real stories where we do the dirt?

Jack Moran:

Yeah, go in deep.

Jamie McKay:

So we're gonna bother working in the cleanup, working in the cleanup department, right? And I was 18, and the the I just I hated my job. I was meaning, so I'm emptying the trash one day. And this technician, he and I didn't get along. I said, buddy, use the oil in the car, not in the barrel. This barrel's so heavy from you throwing oil cans in here that aren't finished. I can't pick it up anymore. So he says, Fuck you. I said, fuck me, fuck you. So I'm walking towards the truck and he hums this muffler at me, right? Hits me in the ankle. I see red. I go over boom. We're on top of a customer's car. I'm pounding this guy, right? So the dealership I worked at, the owner pulls me in and he's like, I said, I know you're gonna fire me. I understand. You know, your father worked there. You know what I mean? So I go, I know, I understand. He's like, fire you. I'm gonna make you a salesman. Do you have any clothes? You know, you got a uniform? I was like, my grandfather's got some suits, I can go get those. He's like five, nine. So they put me on the floor as a salesman at 18 years old because I beat up the kid.

Jack Moran:

Welcome to Shaking Hands, where we provide the platform for entrepreneurs and thought leaders to share their stories in order to hopefully influence others to get out of the rat race and chase their own dreams. If you have any recommendations for guests or questions that you want to be asked, please don't hesitate to reach out. Anyways, if you enjoy the podcast, please like, comment, subscribe, and share in order to keep the podcast growing. Otherwise, I'm your host, Jack Morandon, and this is Shaking Hands. What's the craziest thing about all of this is it's 100% ego. Wow. This old business guy, when I first came down to Florida, um, I was so just got a long backstory, but essentially this guy Brian Fisher, I came down because I met him at this conference and he had this product, and I thought it would be a good product to start using for the for the company. And then he introduced me to this guy that he brought on to be the CEO of his company, who's the motherfucker. Right. Um and I started doing deals with the guy Brian and got him to introduce me to one of his companies that he was trying to get as a client. And I started doing subcontract, yeah, subcontracting for him. And the guy Ryan, who had who was the CEO of the company, had also implanted one of his friends in that same company. And Brian asked me, he's like, see what Ryan's buddy's doing. Like, is this guy any good or not? And this was like my first week with the guy, and I had no loyalty to Ryan. Right. But Brian had brought me down, so I was like, dude, this guy sucks. Like he sits in his truck doing time.

Jamie McKay:

If you're trying to build a business, you should have no loyalty to anybody. Yeah. No, I mean, I'll tell you why. When you're building your business, like be a man of your word.

Jack Moran:

Yeah.

Jamie McKay:

Always be a man of your word. If you tell somebody you're gonna do something, you fucking do it, right? Yeah, but you know, other than that, like they're not paying your bills, you know. You know, loyalty for me was I stayed on the job, I never took another job that was a lateral move, right? Yeah, but that that's the only loyalty I believe in. You know what I mean? Like, Ernie Bach did a lot for me. Yeah, I did a lot for him. It's over now. I get come on down, I'm using the come on down. It's like that's what we're doing. You know what I mean? Then she calls. Are you using this? Oh, yeah, he called me up the other day. He's like, Jamie. He literally calls me. You have a funny story. He calls me, he goes, Yeah, yeah. He calls the main office. He's looking for Jamie. And she's like, uh, he's not here. Can I take a message? He's like, This is his friend Ernie. Tell him I'll I'll can you find him? Does he have a secretary? I'm listening to the fucking call on him, like, so they give me the message. I call him back. I'm like, all right, what are you doing? I go call me. He goes, Yeah, I didn't have your cell phone number. I'm like, yeah, it's your secretary. Like, what are you doing? He goes, Yeah, yeah, all right, listen. Uh and he tells me a crazy story about Trump first. He goes, Yeah, so I don't have a plane because you know, Trump needed a plane and mine was getting serviced. So I long story short, I send it a blue up. I was like, Oh, that's this is a great story, Ernie. You know what I mean? And then he goes, All right, here's what I'm gonna need you to do. I need you to take the come on down down. I was like, Ernie, uh, why? You're not in retail. You know, I'm sure if I go to a lawsuit back with with um, there was a huge lawsuit back in the street. He's not in retail anymore? He's got a Ferrari dealership. He doesn't sell cars really, you know. So he sold it to a company called New Car. So I said, why would I, you know, give this up? I'm sure the lawsuit, it was against him and um Phil's, one of those companies, furniture store. Bernie and Phil's to you, yeah, to use come on down. So he won, but I was probably the GM in the lawsuit back then. And I'm like, you're not even in business. I'm I'm this is me now. So do me a favor, take it down. I said, Ernie, I respect you, you're a good man. Done, I'll take it down. Uh my son was in his training, so he's in London. I I called him up. I said, Let's do me a favor. My son's in the training. I took the thing down, go see my son. He doesn't go see my son. So I put it back up. He calls me, I got nothing I can do for you. So there's loyalty and this long story, right? Loyalty and respect, but you do what's right for you. Yeah, don't worry about the rest of these people. And he's one that everyone's telling me don't mess with. I don't give up. You have to.

Jack Moran:

Yeah. So how would you get that respect back with him?

Jamie McKay:

Like, how do you uh uh Well, you have to respect me for having the the cojones to go up against you.

Jack Moran:

Yeah.

Jamie McKay:

I would hope.

Jack Moran:

Yeah, you know?

Jamie McKay:

You're not afraid of litter getting against him? So what yeah, what happened was when um when I worked for him, I don't know if you know, I had a non-compete. So I fought the non-compete in Massachusetts and I won. So only time Ernie's ever lost in court. So um what ended up happening is he uh we settled the non-compete and I went off and was working elsewhere. So uh, you know, when I won that suit, when this thing came up, he's got the same uh lawyer. I was like, tell Kathleen, give me a call. I beat her last time, I'll beat her again. You know, like we've I've fought with him before, it's no big deal.

Jack Moran:

Yeah, and he's not cold about it.

Jamie McKay:

He's scary. He's scary because of the amount of money he has. But you know, if you're on the right side of a non-compete, you fight him.

Jack Moran:

Does uh do you think he's removed pretty emotionally from it? Like he doesn't hold you personally, it's just business is business.

Jamie McKay:

It's all business. These big guys that have all the money, it's all business. Like, you know, Herb Chambers and guys like that, I know all them, but it's just business. They I'm their best friend when I can do something for them, and then when I can't, they they just move on, you know?

Jack Moran:

Right, that's right. Doesn't bother me. Yeah, so and we're already rolling, but you can tell you can tell me whether or not you know there's stuff that you don't you want to cut it out or whatever.

Jamie McKay:

Whatever you want, okay.

Jack Moran:

Yeah, so I want to go to um basically like the like the beginning. So, like just kind of walk me through like early days, like where your head was at, how you start like getting into the industry, then like you know, how you start doing things on your own, how you're wheeling and dealing, where your mind's at. Kind of walk me through the consciousness of like sure.

Jamie McKay:

So, yeah, so I guess my my competitive advantage is you know, my father died when I was young, and you kind of raised myself a little bit. So, you know, because of everything that I I I had as a as a child, uh I was really good in the sports, and I was recruited by all the schools to play hockey. And then uh I was born with spina bifida, it's a hole in two of my vertebrae. So my career was taken from me after, you know, really raising myself, getting to this point where I and that was the first time I learned that people are rough. So I used to get a call from the hockey coach, you know, who was trying to recruit me. I won't say the name of the school, but once a month. And then when he found out I couldn't play anymore, he wouldn't take my phone calls. So, you know, I I graduated from high school, I thought I was gonna go to this great college. I was all torn away, and I started working as a lot kid in the car dealership. Put my head down, had a uniform on, said Pontiac, you know, it was embarrassing. But I put my head down.

Jack Moran:

What's a lot kid?

Jamie McKay:

Uh I moved the cars around for minimum wage, empty the trash for the technicians. So, you want to hear the real stories? What we do the dirt?

Jack Moran:

Yeah, go in, deep. So we're gonna talk about time.

Jamie McKay:

We're gonna work in the cleanup department, right? And I was 18, and the the I just I hated my job. I was mean. So I'm emptying the trash one day, and this technician, he and I didn't get along. I said, buddy, use the oil in the car, not in the barrel. This barrel is so heavy from you throwing oil cans in here that aren't finished. I can't pick it up anymore. So he says, Fuck you. I said, Fuck me, fuck you. So I'm walking towards the truck and he hums this muffler at me, right? Hits me in the ankle. I see red. I go over. We're on top of a customer's car. I'm pounding this guy, right? So the dealership I worked at, the owner pulls me in and he's like, I said, I know you're gonna fire me. I understand, you know, your father worked there, you know what I mean? So I go, I know, I understand. He's like, fire you. I'm gonna make you a salesman. Do you have any clothes? You know, you got a uniform. I was like, my grandfather's got some suits, I can go get those. He's like five, nine. So they put me on the floor as a salesman at 18 years old because I beat up the kid. And then I swear to God, so I'm why my first weekend is Washington's birthday weekend. And they're like, You're gonna do this, you got this, and I'm all nervous, I can close it, don't fit me. And Jackie's, you know, telling me I got this. So all of a sudden, my second customer just wants a test drive. I'm like, I might not be able to do this. This sucks. Like, I this guy just wants a test drive. And the and the the manager wasn't he wasn't a closer, he wouldn't go out and talk to anybody, so he's like, Oh, you'll get the next one. So I'm like, ah, this ain't for me, this ain't for me. And I I go out and I'm like, let me try one more time. So I go out, this customer walks up, I'm like, Oh, I gotta get a test drive. And I'm like, how Jamie, they called me. I go, how'd you know my name? There was a salesman giving business cards out, calling me the test drive manager. So his name was his name was Malcolm, I'll tell you right now, Malcolm Porter, right? So I go in the showroom and I said, You be giving my cards out to people? I thought I couldn't do this. Pick them up in the air and I dump them on his head, right? Right back in the office. Right back in the office. He's like, What did I tell you about? Touch him. I said, Do you know what he did to me? So this is a true story. They took him and they moved him to the used car place, and then and right? They kicked him out, and then I killed it. I was a manager within six months. I was GSM of that place within a short time. And then I went to bar uh to quirk. And you know how I did it in business is I was very loyal to the job I had. I never left the job because I thought there was a better job unless it was a uh promotion. So if I'm a general sales manager and I can get a GM job, I would, I would do that. But if you're not offering me a better opportunity, I'm not going, regardless of how bad my circumstances were. So I guess when I hire people, I always tell them, like, you know, you you change your situation, you don't change your location. Unless the product you're selling or the business you're in is is not going forward in business. Does that make sense? Yeah. When I was with Ford, I saw the cop product was going bad, went to Nissan. Then, you know, I saw that that these Toyotas were the hardest thing in the world and Bach was looking to hire me. So, you know, I moved there. But I never quit a job because I was aggravated. I just took the opportunity, that was a better opportunity.

Jack Moran:

So, how are you leveling up through those positions so quickly? What do you think were the keys to that?

Jamie McKay:

I I think I probably worked harder than everyone else. You know, I performed better than everyone else. You know, my passion that I brought to work every day was probably, you know, if you ask those people, way higher than most people. So it's all it takes. Hard work, passion, and belief in yourself. That's all it takes.

Jack Moran:

Was there like charisma and relationships involved? Or were you even cognizant of that at the time?

Jamie McKay:

I think um, I think one of my gifts from God is that, you know, because I didn't have these parents constantly telling me stuff and putting their demons on me and all these things that happen, I kind of just said, okay, that guy's a good parent. I want to be a parent like him. This guy's a good businessman. I want to be a businessman like him.

Jack Moran:

You know, so you're able to be selective.

Jamie McKay:

Instead of having the someone or demon in my head telling me what to do, I kind of just said, I'd rather do what I see as fit and it's worked.

Jack Moran:

What do you think are like the pieces of your environment as a child that like shaped you into being that successful person?

Jamie McKay:

I think um mentally, I put myself in a place that I believed I could do whatever I want to do as long as I stay mentally focused on what's right and wrong, if that makes sense to you.

Jack Moran:

How were you able to do that? Getting dealt like maybe not the best hand of you know, best cards, because there's a lot of people that would maybe be dealt the same cards that you had.

Jamie McKay:

And we want to hear a crazy one, I'll tell you. So we'll talk a little politics, right? I've shut up for the last eight, ten years, you know, I've kept quiet. Uh, I thought everything that was going on was totally wrong, but it's not my position to decide what's best for this country. My position is to do the best I can in the environment that I'm given. That's my job. I don't complain about how things go. You know, uh Massachusetts just raised taxes two years ago, 4% on the rich. Nobody knows. So they can't come to me anymore. And you're in a fiscal problem. My point is, you know, when you when you talk politics, I didn't say a word. I kept quiet. I didn't think it was the right thing. I thought Obama was not the greatest president, I thought there was a lot of theft. Now that it's obvious what happened, people are out there angry that they were wrong and they're fighting the system. It's like, I'm not mad at you because I was right all along. Why are you mad because you were wrong? Does that make sense to you?

Jack Moran:

Yeah. So you're not really like focused on things outside of your control? I can't control that.

Jamie McKay:

You know, all I can do is this is the environment I'm in. I'm gonna do the best I can in it. And if you sit around complaining about the environment, you're gonna lose.

Jack Moran:

So now going, you said you jumped, you know, up those levels pretty quickly within the first dealership you were in, and then going into Quirk, I think was the next stage, like kind of just keep walking me through that journey like that.

Jamie McKay:

Yeah, so what happened? So, yeah, so I I was with Quirk Ford, and we were the I was a finance manager. We were the largest dealership in New England at the time, largest ever in New England at the time. And uh that that um rollover happened. I was the tires, it was a Ford Explorer and a good year of tire. They weren't sure it was the tires, was it the truck, and like Ford just went bad. It was a problem. And Quark bought uh Tom O'Brien Nissan from this Quincy area, and they flipped image they flipped uh products. He got Kia and uh we got an Eisson. So Quirk uh he put me as general manager of that dealership. I think I was like 24. Quirk taught me everything. He sat in an office, he taught me how to advertise, he taught me, he like literally sat with me. Like he took me to the auction once a month. So we were 13 in the country, first year in business. They sold 50 cars a month down the street in Quincy. I sold 434 cars that August.

Jack Moran:

Wow. How old are you at this time? 24. And so what kind of exposure are you getting at this time? Like, it's obviously completely different than being a quirk bot guy.

Jamie McKay:

You know, what happens is so Quirk got it, and then Quirk became this great man. And then, you know, uh what exposure I got was I was at the Nissan store, I think I was 25, and I'd worked every day. I didn't take a day off for five years. So I said I need I need some time off. I'm gonna take a month off. And he wasn't happy about it, but you know, he let me. And when I I said I'm ready to come back to work, you know, let's go. And he said, You're going to Chevy? I said, No, no, I'm going to Nissan. That's the one I built. You know what I mean? You remember the store used to sell 30 cars, it sells 400 now? That's the one I'm going to. He's like, nah, nah, you work for me. So he's like, Why would I hire you back? I'm like, Am I interviewing right now? Like, this is what we're doing. And he I said, Why wouldn't you hire me back? Yeah, here's what we're gonna do. You're gonna go to Chevy. And at the time, the Chevy dealership had about a new general manager every year. Like, it just Ford was number one. Nissan was killing it, Volkswagen was killing it. The Chevy was the worst. So this is the truth. So he sends me there. I take the job. First thing I do is I fix, I repair his relationship with a manufacturer because General Motors and him just they treated him bad and Ford treated him great. So he sold a ton of Fords. So I fixed that. We were uh after eight years or ten years of not being number one in New England, I was number one within the first month. And I was number one after that. Killed it. That's when I got the recognition. That's when um Quirk came to me and said, I got Oldsmobile. Can you get me number one in Oldsmobile? Uh you know, 30 years, Bach's been number one in Oldsmobile. I said, sure, how much? 10 grand. No problem. So boom, I hit number one in Oldsmobile. That's when the phone call started coming from Bach, uh, from Quirk. Uh Bach when I was at Quirk, because I'd beat after 30 years, I'd beat him one time in Oldsmobile.

Jack Moran:

So to fill in the blanks here a little bit, like, you know, you're remending these deals between the manufacturer and uh they're a distributor, would they be considered? Well, it's General Motors, yeah.

Jamie McKay:

Right? And and their CSI was important, and Dan Quirk had a old customer that was taken advantage of and was in court, and he had a bad reputation because of that, and nobody ever fixed it.

Jack Moran:

But where are you the question I was gonna ask is like, where are you learning how to do all these deals?

Jamie McKay:

Like same as you, you know, you you you're figured out as you go along. No, you you talk to people, right? You're always out there, you're always paying attention, and you ask good questions. You know, you have to ask good questions. You gotta, and you have to be around people that are doing better than you. That's the best advice I can give to anybody. If you want to do well, hang around people that are doing better than you. You'll level up. If you hang around people that are struggling, you're gonna struggle with them.

Jack Moran:

And so now these guys are starting to reach out to you and solicit you because they see you got game and you're getting you know exposure now to these new circles that have you know even more skills that you're able to obtain. Walk me through that, keep keep going.

Jamie McKay:

So when I go to so uh Bach had called me a bunch of times and they recruited me. So I said, no problem. I'll I'll you know it was a matter of money and product. And I knew the Japanese product was the product to be with, not Nissan, but Toyota Honda. And I knew that Bach was the next company. So they offered me a deal. I went there. What I did different than everyone else is I took a step down from general manager to general sales manager, and I set the dealership up. I built it as in everything in small pieces. So if when I first started there, they had a new car department and a truck department and a used car department. That was good business. That was how you're supposed to run it. I broke it down even smaller. So I was like, okay, now I want to uh I want to sell Toyota's cameras, I want to sell Corolla, like the easy stuff, and then I wanted to sell Highlanders and the Matrix and all the hard stuff with with a separate guy who could focus just on that.

Jack Moran:

What makes it hard?

Jamie McKay:

They just don't have not as much of a market. Camry Corolla is your number one in selling cars, you know, RAV4. The Matrix, they didn't sell a ton, you know. I mean, it was product, Scion was out at the time. It was product that you had to advertise and sell separately and differently than the easy stuff. So I put a separate department in to do it.

unknown:

Gotcha.

Jamie McKay:

Everything was a little, and then the salespeople. I had uh I had 60 salespeople. I had eight managers that managed eight, you know, uh seven to eight salespeople. That was their team, that's what they got paid on. Like everything got broken down into tiny little pieces. So you could manage it like a hundred-car store, and we sold 1200.

Jack Moran:

So during this kind of like rapid growth period, uh, you know, it seems like it was crazy. What if you look back, like what were the biggest lessons that you were like that you still remember to this day?

Jamie McKay:

This is advice for you. I made every mistake there was to make. Like you can't get down on yourself. Like, I literally I never quit a job. That was the only mistake I never made. But I made every mistake. My first building I bought, I got I got taken advantage of. I got screwed out of it. Like the first deal I did on buying the dealership, I uh, you know, it was a lot. I paid a lot. Everything I did the first time, I learned the hard way. And then I I never got down on myself. I just keep going. That's what whatever, you know, lawsuits, all those things. I minimize my lawsuits. I say, all right, here's what I can afford, fighting the system. And I put a number, I think it's like two grand a month. And that includes my you know stuff that I do. I just put a number to it. And once I go over that, I'm fighting too much. I gotta back off and and not do it.

Jack Moran:

So when as you're bridging through these, like these so let me back up a little bit. You said you you made every mistake in the book. Like, go into the actual like detail of those mistakes and how you overcame them.

Jamie McKay:

Like, yeah, so like you know, you get your first um commission job and they give you a pay plan and you just take it, right? So then you get taken advantage of for a while. Uh or you know, you go into another job and and everybody's paid the same and you get a lower percentage because you came in late and you just take it. Well, you know, as time went on, I didn't let that happen. I made sure whatever the competitive deal was, I got the competitive deal. I didn't just get taken advantage of and then move their business and make it look like they were the genius. Does that make sense to you? Yeah. I made my money. Yeah. I went from 200 to 300 to 500 to 800 to 900 grand, you know?

Jack Moran:

So when you're you're okay, so this is good advice for someone who is entering into like a commission sales position. Like, how should they be thinking? And like, it's obviously different for you now when you're on the other side of the table. Right, no. But what advice would you be giving to that person?

Jamie McKay:

This is what you do. You follow an owner that you know is gonna be there in the future. You don't follow like these guys that are just popping up, right? You believe in the person and and you know, you fight for that business like it's yours and you make it yours. That's what you should do until you look at the the owner or the product, which I'll give you a product right now, Nissan's terrible. If you're working at a Nissan store, you should leave. It's terrible. When your product goes bad, you then you move. That's the only way to do it.

Jack Moran:

Yeah, so when you're giving like advice to someone let me give you a going.

Jamie McKay:

Let me give you a going.

Jack Moran:

All right, that's all.

Jamie McKay:

Here's another thing that I don't do. I used this is the biggest mistake I made, right? So you get married, right? You have family, you start talking to your family about business. This is the biggest mistake you could ever make as an entrepreneur trying to make it in this world. Do not tell anybody that loves you anything about business. They have emotional decisions, they don't have business decisions. You cannot have them in your head every day, you can't have them talking to you. You don't want that. I'm fighting a non-compete with Ernie Bach, I'm making $800,000 a year. And the my my ex-wife now, but wife at the time is like, you can't let them treat you that way, you can't do this, you can't do that. I'm like, you have to understand. I can't have you in my ear. I should have never told you anything. And now, how I run my business, I don't I don't share with people who care about me anything that would be like they'd get upset or care about me or make emotional decisions. I just don't do that.

Jack Moran:

How do you keep that break, like keep that riff? Because that's a very put it in your head.

Jamie McKay:

You run it through and you go, Oh my god, are they gonna get emotional over this? And if they do, you just keep it away from them.

Jack Moran:

Well, it's like difficult because if you're you're there, because they're obviously gonna especially hardest part of life. Especially a woman, they're gonna intuitively perceive an energy shift in you. 100%. You know, and it's difficult to have you.

Jamie McKay:

That's a challenge for me.

Jack Moran:

You know, and then they're gonna become insecure because they feel that every rich entrepreneur, this is a challenge that we have.

Jamie McKay:

But but you cannot involve them in your business because I'm telling you right now, it's not because they don't care, it's because they care too much. They see you hurt and they're in your ear giving you bad information. So you got to keep it away.

Jack Moran:

So how have you like bridged that? How have you found that common ground where you can communicate and not cause that insecurity with them? Because they want to know everything.

Jamie McKay:

I'll tell you right now. What I've done is I've I've dated a little bit, right? And I've looked around to find the person that you can have conversations with business-wise, right? Maybe in my business, that understands me, understands what we do in the business. It doesn't give you just like emotional decisions. So that's what I'm doing. Finding trying to find an avenue of a future, you know, uh competition. Someone that's congruent with Yeah, that understands it a little bit more. You can't put a square peg in a round hole. It doesn't work.

Jack Moran:

That makes sense. So now walk me through the transition into owning your own business.

Jamie McKay:

Okay. So yeah, so Ernie, you know, we were at the time, like we we sold 1,200 cars in one month. You know, I've told you these stories. We sold 1,000 in June, so 1100 in July, 1,200 in August, and then, you know, just because like why not 1,000 in September? You know, it's just the craziest thing any things ever happened in New England. That store sells 300 cars a month now. So the place was on fire, the business was on fire, and then 08 came. And 08 was a huge crash, it was a big problem. I started coming, Ernie started coming, so he wanted to wrap me up in a non-compete because he knew I wasn't gonna make 800 grand anymore. I would have been fine. Just can't, you're not getting a non-compete on me. That's not gonna happen. So he went to sue me. He uh he fired me. So I I I'll tell you this, I forgot to tell you. So I got a non-compete. Did I tell you this? I had a non-compete with him. Wasn't gonna sign it. He's told me to sign it if I give you, I wanted my a year's salary. I said, give me a year's salary, and I'll be no problem. I don't care, right? I don't have to work, you don't have to worry about your business. I signed his salary. My salary is only 100 grand a year, so he screwed me. Then he fires me two weeks later. So now I'm out looking for a job.

Jack Moran:

It's a paper fucker, right?

Jamie McKay:

Everybody's coming after me, right? Everyone. They all want to hire me, but nobody will touch me because it does non-compete. They all hear about it. So Chambers offers me two million bucks a year, you're gonna work with me, and introduces me to everybody, goes, like, I got this lawyer, he's gonna call us today. If he says fight it, I'm gonna fight it. If he says no, I'm not gonna fight it. And cause rep says, I'm not gonna fight it. So I met this guy, Rob McGee, and he's a good, he's a good guy. And he had a Chevy store. He took me on as a partner in the Chevy store. And, you know, Chevy was on it going through bankruptcy and all this stuff was happening. So I'll tell you a story about that though. The big, the big smartest move I ever made was he wanted to take me on as a 49-51 partner. I said I would never do anything with anybody unless it was 50-50 or 51 my way. You want to go 50-50? I'll do it other than I'm not doing it. It was the smartest thing I've ever done because when I bought a building with this guy, took advantage of me on the building. I ended up losing the building and having to buy it again at more money. Every decision I made was I learned the hard way. The only one I didn't make uh a poor decision was the 50-50.

Jack Moran:

Why is that so important?

Jamie McKay:

Because, you know, if he has 51% ownership, he has control. Whatever he says goes. So a 50-50, you go through arbitration. We're both in charge. And it's really whoever's working the hardest gets to make the decision on a 50-50. Because if I'm there working and you're not, we're gonna do what I want to go, right? Right. 5149 control. I I was doing all the work. He could walk in and change everything. Would never let that happen.

Jack Moran:

Uh, you didn't ever get into like a stalemate situation? Yeah, a couple. Yeah.

Jamie McKay:

Yeah. We we we got into it, and you know, those are sleepless nights. You those that's the hardest part about the job is like the lawsuits and stuff you're going through, and the pressure and the money and all that stuff. And you just gotta believe it's gonna happen and keep going. It always does.

Jack Moran:

Do you think it's better to, in those situations, when you get into a fight with like a partner or something, what do you think is the best approach to default to? Is it to, you know.

Jamie McKay:

I gotta I gotta be honest with you, you asked me about those those guys. I would never get into a lawsuit other than Ernie trying to control me with those guys. It just wouldn't happen because those guys are are people like me. If I tell you I'm gonna do something, I do it. And if I don't do it, I'm gonna tell you the reason I didn't do it. And then, you know, we generally don't go to court. You know, you generally don't go to court with those people.

Jack Moran:

Gotcha. So going back a little bit, you're saying like your salary's leveling up. What was that like? Because I, you know, I don't think it came from money originally, but what's that like big shift like? Now you're getting this big influx of cash and screened in porch when I was 18.

Jamie McKay:

I was a lot kid, yeah. And all of a sudden it's it's 2006, and I bought a house in Newton for a million seven. You know, I was like, who does I think I am? You know?

Jack Moran:

Yeah.

Jamie McKay:

Yeah, it was tough. It was had a $10,000 mortgage in the car business, you know, kid on the way. And, you know, I put my my heels in the ground and said, I'm not signing an uncompetition. It's not happening. Could have lost everything.

Jack Moran:

So, how did you start to like develop those habits? Because you know, there's a lot of people that go the other way once they start getting that money.

Jamie McKay:

So my advice to everybody is uh you have to so how I run my business is 50% of everything I make goes to the government. That's the way it is. Taxes are 50%. So if I make four or five million, then half goes to the government. Then after that, I take 20% of that and live on that. That's it. Rest goes into building your business, you know, goes into the future. I accrue for for legal, you know what I mean? I prepare for the future. That's that's how I do it.

Jack Moran:

So how do you structure your business like culturally to grow it and keep like everyone in it pushing that fire?

Jamie McKay:

Yeah, that's the hardest part. Um I think so, I guess what I do different is I I still do Christmas parties, I still do bonuses for the guys at the end of the year. I do cash batches, like, you know, I still do the things that like motivate people all the time. And and I don't know why dealers get out of it, and probably because they're big dealer groups and their own, you know, their hedge funds. But those little things make a huge difference. My guys have all been with me a long time. Nobody ever leaves.

Jack Moran:

Why do you think that is?

Jamie McKay:

Uh, I think they may I think everyone stays in a job if they're respected, if they make good money, and they see a future.

Jack Moran:

Why are you like training them? And is that why they're making more money at yours opposed to you know getting some or are you cultivating that truth loyalty?

Jamie McKay:

You know, you know, it's I don't I don't do really all talking about myself, but the truth is I'm humble, right? I walk in the dealership, I say hello to everyone in there. If you work for uh McGovern, they don't walk in the deal, they don't even know who McGovern is. You know what I mean? They don't even know what he looks like. I come in like this, say hello to everybody. I know everyone's kids. I do a Christmas party every year. Their kids come to my house. I do a Christmas party for the families. You know, I meet the families on Saturday night and Sunday, the kids come to my house. Buy them all gifts, that's what I do. You have to, you know, respect them and make them part of the team and the family, you know.

Jack Moran:

So, what does your day-to-day look like now as like the owner?

Jamie McKay:

It's good, it's a great day, you know. Yeah, I just, you know, I I literally look for opportunities. You know, I'm getting a Toyota deal. I'm actively looking for it, and there's a couple available in in uh this state right now, and that's that's what I do. I actively look for opportunities.

Jack Moran:

And so, how do you keep yourself from getting churned up in operations?

Jamie McKay:

So Ernie Bach said to me one time, he said, if I'm the smartest guy in the room, I'm not doing my job, right? So if I'm hiring people and training people, if they're not as smart as me, if not better, because this market changed so much in the last five years, they are better because they're more dug into it, then then I'm not doing my job right.

Jack Moran:

How has it changed? Like, how is the car business different from like the stories that my dad tells me? Yeah.

Jamie McKay:

AI is you know, changing everything. It's changing the car business the same way.

Jack Moran:

How so?

Jamie McKay:

Uh, I think when you buy a car, the frustration is, or um the power is taken away because you can't buy like a Tesla at midnight when you when you're drinking. You know what I mean? Like you don't do that. So uh Tesla somehow gets away with it, and the people bought into it, and they just I don't know how they do it, but we that would never work for us. You know what I mean? You can't if we bought a car, you bought a car online at midnight, I had it in your driveway, you know, uh two days later, like you'd be freaking out, you know? This is an Amazon. We're not buying cars on, you know, at midnight. So our business has changed to the point where we have AI answering our phones, we have AI doing our BBC, we have AI doing our follow-up, and it's evolving around what customers want rather than what we want.

Jack Moran:

What about that like outbound sales system? Is that still existent or important or less important?

Jamie McKay:

Yeah, I touched on it. You know, it's tough, it's tough. It's like, you know, I have a I have a guy that that uh owns uh owns a restaurant down the street from me that I go into sushi place and he loves the Teslas. I said, Why do you keep buying these? He says, Because it's so easy. I just go on my phone, I press a button, and the things in my driveway, you know, 45 days later, maybe quicker. And I said, How do you get rid of it? And he's like, Well, that's a problem. You hadn't thought of that yet?

Jack Moran:

That's hilarious. That's an opportunity for someone. And I was like, I don't want them. Do you think that that's gonna change? Um, do you think it's gonna become like direct-to-consumer at some point?

unknown:

No.

Jack Moran:

No, no, why is that? Uh I think if you the manufacturers just aren't gonna fuck their distributors, or I believe that uh brick and mortar is very expensive.

Jamie McKay:

Uh the car business can afford brick and mortar. You know what I mean? They need a boutique, the place has to look good, they have to feel comfortable about the product and where it's going. That's never changing. So we'll will direct to consumer graze from 2% to 10%, probably. You know, I think the biggest um direct to consumer is gonna be the manufacturer. So the manufacturers are trying to sneak out letting us know maybe there might be direct to consumer, because why wouldn't they? Right? Why wouldn't you? Why would you uh you know keep us in it? So I believe that'll change a little, but it won't be my business to change, it'll be how it gets the customer.

Jack Moran:

So what about these companies like Carvana or anything? Is that Carvana's doing better? You know, um the used car business is tough. How does their model work? Is is it it's not direct to consumer, yeah? It's similar, similar. Kind of, yeah.

Jamie McKay:

Yeah, so uh, I mean they they lose money like you've never seen before. So, you know, they're kind of they're hanging on like Tesla did. You know, no nobody blew more money than Tesla, but it's a different deal. Used cars appreciate and depreciate. Tesla's just a brand. They're not worried about the used car later. Do you follow me? Right now, I'm losing so much money on used cars because the market shifted. There was no rebate on a new truck. Now there's a $10,000 rebate on a new truck. Do you know what that does with the used car market?

Jack Moran:

No, I don't even know what the rebate is. It's like $10,000. So I was selling trucks.

Jamie McKay:

What does that even mean, though? Specifically, I was selling trucks for $65,000 average, right? With with no uh manufacturer's incentive on them. Now it's a year later, and there's a $10,000 incentive. So that's a lot. You know what I mean? So everybody who bought a truck for full price that's probably paid off $10,000, they're only at full price still. And that's something that's going on in the business now. And if you're selling used cars, you I could buy a car today for $30,000, it could be worth $25,000 two weeks from now. That's how quickly this market's adjusting.

Jack Moran:

Do um do like the tariffs or anything affect it?

Jamie McKay:

Tariffs have have affected GM stock. So GM stock was $42,000 to $48 for years, and in the last six months, it's now it's eighty dollars.

Jack Moran:

Wow.

Jamie McKay:

$80.

Jack Moran:

So I've I was just watching a podcast with um I think his name Howard Lud Ludnik, or I forget the guy's name. Okay. He's a politician. He's the um uh secretary of um commerce um in the US, but he was talking about how China has basically as their way of destabilizing the United States is they're subsidizing all their car manufacturers. Um so the car manufacturers in Asia are not worried as much about profits and losses because they're being subsidized by the government. So they're able to create a product that's far less trick, you know, far cheaper, but doesn't really make business sense, and they're undercut like it's putting all the I wish I was on that podcast.

Jamie McKay:

I wish I was there. Why is that? Because I would explain to what we're doing is we're gonna start selling cars in China. Because when you have a system that's a socialist system, you have no growth. You don't, you don't get out forward thinkers. That's why our system works, because we have the smartest, most intelligent people out there, like Elon Musk, who knows nothing about a car, building cars and building businesses. When you're when you control, for example, Toyota's a great company, right? But the way their government controls their car sales is they move the yen for car sales. So we we throw a tariff on a Toyota, they move the yen. So it doesn't cost them the total amount. Do you understand? That's how it works. The the yen is is controlled by the government, and that's how they control their profitability in their in their cars. That system never works, okay? Free enterprise, free capitalism, that always works. That's why Toyota stock is like one, it was $240. It's like $190 now. General Motors has doubled in six months.

Jack Moran:

Yeah, wow. That's interesting.

Jamie McKay:

There's another reason electric cars. Everybody, nobody would go. You know, we're doing electric cars, we're doing gas cars. The government government didn't make a decision quick enough. So General Motors took a $1.5 billion write down on you on electric cars this year. They're out of the electric car business.

Jack Moran:

What do you mean a write down? Like they took it as an expense on the tax write down, yeah. Yeah, gotcha.

Jamie McKay:

They're never gonna blow that kind of money. But you know, they they they took all this profit, they they pivoted off of what the government did, and and they use the tax laws to to write down a billion five. Good for them.

Jack Moran:

Wow.

Jamie McKay:

That's interesting.

Jack Moran:

We're out of the electric business, we're moving on. Do you have to play in those spheres at all, like in lobbying, or does that affect you in the state?

Jamie McKay:

We have a like a dealer council, you know, uh for for General Motors in this area or Toyota. We always have a representative that that handles that for us.

Jack Moran:

Gotcha. So next little path I want to go into is litigation. So, like, what is your approach with litigation or you know, nuisance lawsuits and like, you know. Settle. Always settle. Settle. Like that's interesting because I've heard you know, different whoever says that's crazy.

Jamie McKay:

Settle.

Jack Moran:

Settle. Yeah, because it's quick and fast.

Jamie McKay:

Yeah, I mean, you know, every time I get into a generally this is how it works. All right, someone sends me a 93A letter, I I make a small offer, right? A 93A demand letter. I just make a small offer, 500, whatever it is, even though I know I'm not wrong, because that's just the right thing to do, right? You want to keep your customers doing business. If they don't go for that and they're dead wrong, then I'm prepared to go to court. I will not just back down and let them do whatever they want to do. But if they say give me another 500, I'm giving it to them. I'm moving on.

Jack Moran:

Gotcha.

Jamie McKay:

Makes sense.

Jack Moran:

Yeah, it's right. You'd rather have the peace of mind and go make the money somewhere else.

Jamie McKay:

I spend $50,000 a month advertising, that's just a little bit more.

Jack Moran:

Well, so what if it's like business to business or even like with an employee? Because, you know, what I get afraid of with just settling so easy is you start creating that standard that like anyone can take from you or mooch off of you because they know you'll just settle so they can get a quick check. Are are you in your are you in the opinion that it's just still better off to just pay it off and then get back to, you know, building the business?

Jamie McKay:

Um, so there's two different schools have thought on that. So when it comes to insurance, I protect my insurance company. I have cameras all over the dealership. Specifically, I had a woman six months ago, she's on her phone and she literally walks into a door, right? She walked into the door, like every kid, it's the most embarrassing thing you ever seen in your life. She comes and she says she got to go to the hospital because she hurt herself. And well, I'm like, literally, this is the craziest thing I've ever seen, right? So she goes and she gets a lawyer, right? And she goes to the hospital, and then uh I take the video, documentation, everything I have, and I ship it to my insurance company. They have lawyers, they this is what they do. So they sent it to her lawyer. Her lawyer's like, You got nothing here. She comes back to me a week later and she's like, Can you pay my deductibles? I said, ma'am. First of all, no. But second of all, why would I pay your deductibles when you were trying to do the wrong thing by me? And if I did, it would it would mean that I admitted that we did something wrong, and unfortunately, I can't beat it. Yeah. But that's the type of thing that when it comes to taking advantage of me, I put the systems in place. You will never take advantage of me. But if something happens and it it leaks out and you it you're like it's a small, just just get take the focus off it and energy off that and just settle it.

Jack Moran:

What is like how do you what is the path to scale in the car business? Um, you know, how do capital? Capital. It's capital intensive. So you can't just do it, bootstrap it and and like perpetuate it off cash flow. No. Why is that? Uh I mean just not enough cash flow or well, um how how do you get to so it's pretty asset heavy, so couldn't you like borrow against the asset pretty easy?

Jamie McKay:

Well, you can't, you can't. So specifically if you want to sell used cars, you can only only borrow about 90%. So like I have six million and in uh or seven million dollars in used car inventory. I only finance like three million. So you have to have three million bucks there to be keep it moving, right?

Jack Moran:

Gotcha.

Jamie McKay:

And then you know the dealership was a $30 million purchase. That that was uh, you know, nine million bucks I had to come up with cash. And if you don't have that, like you just you know, you can't scale. Make sense to you? Yeah. So if you have 20 workers today and you want to get to 40 workers, you need twice the capital to get to the 40 workers. Does that make sense?

Jack Moran:

Yeah.

Jamie McKay:

So in order to do it, generally people take on a partner or they humble themselves down, they buy their stuff later.

Jack Moran:

So in entrepreneurship or owning your business, like it's a lot about like risk, your tolerance to taking risk. And obviously, the risks that you take would probably crumble me. And you look at the or you're looking at the risks that I'm taking, and you're probably like, that's small fish. But my question is like, what are those next risks for you that you look at that cause you stress as opposed to like, you know, so I pay I pay it's $200,000 a month and a loan back every month.

Jamie McKay:

I got a mortgage is like 40 grand. So it's like 250 grand when you wake up in the morning, it's a little stressful. You know what I mean? It's not, it's not my like, and then if I get this Toyota deal, that's gonna be double that. You know what I mean?

Jack Moran:

So does that cause you stress, or have you gotten to the point where you're kind of emotionally removed from it?

Jamie McKay:

It causes everyone stress. Anyone who tells you it doesn't is lying to you. But the best guys keep keep looking forward and not looking back. They don't worry about making the payment, they worry about what am I gonna uh do next, you know?

Jack Moran:

Mm-hmm. Do you is there anything that you like any methodologies that you utilize to keep that like mental state level headed?

Jamie McKay:

Uh I wish I wish I had the um I wish I had the responsibility or the or the I I wish I had the uh word I'm looking for. Discipline. I wish I had the discipline when I was younger to only spend up to keep 30% of what I make. I wish that that was a from day one, you know, when I started making money, I was like, all right, 30% has to go away. 30% has to go away. And if I did that, I'd be in a huge different place now.

Jack Moran:

Wow, so what would that have changed?

Jamie McKay:

It gives you the capital to grow.

Jack Moran:

Gotcha.

Jamie McKay:

So if you run your business like that, say if if I was you, I'd be running 20%, right? If you run your business, okay, I made this on this job, 20% is future purchases, future equipment, future whatever I do, that's that's how I would run it.

Jack Moran:

Well, so I mean, you can put that cash in for growth now. What would be the advantage of waiting to just build that piggy bank up and not grow, put that cash back in and grow it now?

Jamie McKay:

Uh well, I keep the cash in, yeah. Gotcha. I do keep the cash and I don't take it out. But mentally, you know, if you're if you're keeping all your cash in and living off a small salary, that's ideal. That's ideal. But in your life, purchases, things you do as you start doing better, just keep that percentage in line and you'll be fine.

Jack Moran:

What do you think is the craziest or most yeah, most insane story or situation that you've been in in this business journey? That you look back at just like, holy shit.

Jamie McKay:

Um, I'll tell you my non-compete story. You want to hear that one? Yeah. I might have an NDA on it, but fuck it. I don't give a shit. You're gonna fight me for this one, fuck it. Let's get it going. Come on down. Let's go. All right. Let's go. You know what I'm fighting? I'm a Quincy. All right, so I'm working for Ernie, right? And he and I I know this thing's going bad. He had a gentleman, he had a guy running his all his stores and everything, and he was just he was just a fucking asshole. Fucking asshole. I hated him, right? So he would he every you he would ask me to give him an employee. I'd call someone up, I'd get him a great employee. He'd keep him six months and fire him. Like he was just that much of an asshole, right? Yeah. So um I wouldn't sign the non-compete. Ernie called, Ernie says to me, he goes, Brings me to his office, he says, and he already fired me once, right? Because I wouldn't do it. And he brought me back and he goes, brings me to the office, he says, Hey, I'm gonna let you go because you won't sign the non-compete. Everyone in the company has, and there's nothing I can do about it. It's a business thing. What are you gonna do? I said, give me a ride. So his brother-in-law, and I didn't think he was gonna do it, his brother-in-law is sitting outside the place, right? With a car warmed up waiting for me. I'm like, oh shit. This is I done pushed this one too far. This time I butt around and I'm in trouble, right? So I'm sitting there and I go, Jesus Christ. I pull up, my kids won. The house is a million six, my mortgage payments 10 grand. I don't have a lot in the bank. You know what I mean? And I'm like, I had some, you know, and I go, I'm in, I'm in, I'm in big trouble with this thing. So he he says, call me if if you want to tell me the reason why you want to quit, because I know you want to buy a dealership. I said, All right, I so I call him up. He goes, Come to my house. I drive to his house in a Corvette. Because when you have a when you work at a dealership, you have a demo, right? When they fire you, they drive your ass home with nothing. You're literally carless. So so I take this Corvette that I own in a snowstorm to Ernie's house, and he's like, All right, tell me what's going on. I'll make a long story short. I go, Ernie, I can't tell you what's going on. He says, Tell me what's going on. I said, All right, guys a fucking asshole. All he does is torture people. He puts all his expense on me. He wants me out because I I look good and he looks bad. And he's like, all right, all right, come to my office at noontime. I'm gonna fix this. I go, what do you mean? He goes, just show up my office at noontime, I'll fix it. I said, All right. So I go home in my vet in the snowstorm and I drive to his house in the fucking snowstorm. I get into his office and he goes, like, this is a true story. He goes, All right, guys, sit down. He goes, All right, Jamie, tell Mike what you were telling me at the house. Ernie, like you can't stop. No, what is wrong with you? He's like, All right, let me get the conversation going. He goes, His name is Michael Shaffin. This is who the asshole is. I don't mind saying his name. Fuck him. He can sue me too. So he goes, Michael says, you quit your job every seven or eight years because you have demons in your head. I said, I have one. Let me tell you the problem with this fucking asshole. I go in on him. Like, he's a piece of shit. He treats people like God, but he's no good. He can't make 10 cents. And then this guy, Mike, goes, That's why you don't work anymore. And Ernie goes, I decide who works there, Michael, not you. And he says, I need to see you outside right now, Ernie. And Ernie goes, You don't need to see me anywhere. Jamie works for the company. You work for the company. You're both good for the company. Nobody's going anywhere. And that's what we're doing. And I look at him like he's fucking crazy, right? Mike looks at him like he's crazy. And he goes, Come on over to my desk. I get this new CD out I want you to see. Sword of that. I look at him, he looked at him, I go, This is the craziest fucking thing that's ever happened to me. And I went back to work. No way. That's what happened. No way. The craziest thing. He like hypnotized you guys. No, no, and then Mike fired me two weeks later. That's why I was all looking for a job. I told him that shit wasn't gonna work. No way. That is hilarious. That's probably the craziest one.

Jack Moran:

What would you say is the biggest regret you have through all the years?

Jamie McKay:

I know that's a hard one always, but uh I'll be honest with you, I have no regrets. I am the luckiest guy in New England, right? In the car business, in our our business, what I do, for someone to start as a lot kid and then get his own like real dealership. I was I was I was five in New England last month. I was the number one truck dealer in New England last month. You know, we really are doing a great job. So to come from there to where I am, I don't think, other than do you know who Bernie Marino is? Bernie Marino is a U.S. state senator in Ohio. He was one of the only other guys that did really well at the time I was doing it, was able to get his own franchise. The owner Mercedes did really well. And then he sold all that, and now he's a U.S. senator.

Jack Moran:

Wow. Have you ever thought about doing something like that? Going to politics? Couldn't pass the background. I'll enough to do it. Ex-wives and stuff, you know what I mean? That's hilarious. What about what is wife won? What is your biggest success that you know are proud of? And like what's you know, that legacy that you want to pass on?

Jamie McKay:

You know, uh, so so the dealership was always McGee, right? Bach was always Bach, Quirk was always Quirk, and it was never McKay. And I never wanted to be McKay because I saw how messed up Ernie Jr. would get, you know, by being Ernie Jr., you know, just because everybody knew him and everything. So I didn't want my kid to have to go through that. When I went through the sale, my partner forced me to get rid of the McGee and to take McKay. And I gotta be honest with you, when I saw my name up in that building, it was like the one of the private songs. Yeah, dude. You know what I mean? I looked at it and I was like, wow, I did that.

Jack Moran:

So when you say that's you know a good segue, when you say you saw like Ernie Jr. and and how that affected him, what did what did you see about him getting that dealership passed on from his dad that you have tried to or has changed the way that you teach your own son so that he isn't that same or doesn't hold those same faults that you you've pushed.

Jamie McKay:

That's great. Thank you for you know, even bringing it. So my son works there, you know. He's 18. I brought him in and I hear he's hustling from my dad. He says he's he took ups with everyone else. He was never treated differently. He was actually treated worse. He really was. He was the top two or three salesperson for over a year when he when he worked there. Never got any help from me, never nothing. And we put moved him into finance. Now he's a finance manager. You know, he's been doing that about four months now, five months. And he's going to do, he wants to do. He was a lot kid first. He wants to be just like his father, I think. And he's taking all the steps that I took to get to where I got to. He's not just jumping to where dad got to.

Jack Moran:

And you think that's important, is and I think it's important. Have to, yeah. Yeah, you're gonna appreciate it, you know? Exactly, exactly. And you don't when you don't get that experience, and I see it all the time in the marketplace, especially in Charleston, like you get a lot of trust fund kids that have these businesses and they haven't like worked their way up through that system. Right. And so they have this entitlement and it's not really good for deal making. You know, you don't get a lot of deals done because you're bringing ego into the deal.

Jamie McKay:

You're 100% right, because they want to prove that they're like their parent or that they have you know some weight or something, and it's it's tough to deal with those people. And that's the biggest problem with those people. When they have demons in their head, you can't talk to them, you know. I have zero, I have no father, nobody like you know. I like, I like because I work for Querka Chevy, I like seeing my name up next to them. It makes me feel good. That's my ego thing, you know. I didn't think I'd want that, but it feels pretty good.

Jack Moran:

Yeah, what would you? And this is my last question: what is the biggest thing that you know now that you wish you knew when you first started?

Jamie McKay:

I wish I had a me. So uh my advice to to everyone is if there's someone around you that that you know of or that will talk to you that has been through what I've been through or is is a business owner or can give you advice, listen to anything they'll tell you. And always ask those people questions.

Jack Moran:

So, how do you that's another question that I'll I'll follow up with is how what does somebody like you want to look for to give someone like that mentorship?

Jamie McKay:

You so when you, you know, when you were in school, I heard you were, you know, into this environmental thing, I heard you had a passion, and then when you want to go to Miami, I I didn't I wouldn't give my condo to anybody, you know what I mean? But I liked you, you were full focused, right? You went out on by boat with me. My parents, my mother, and my aunt thought you were the greatest person ever. So you just have a nice way about you. You know, you know that you're not gonna do any more on. You brought up right, right?

Jack Moran:

I didn't make the best decisions in Miami, but no, you know what I'm saying. You did great for your age? Can I tell you? I was trying to be.

Jamie McKay:

For your age, like Jesus Christ, all alone on hibiscus island? Yeah, I think you did amazing. Yeah, yeah.

Jack Moran:

I mean, it's crazy because like really it's come full circle, and and you know, I definitely remember that. Like, it's so huge having a mentor. Um, that you know, you know what it was big.

Jamie McKay:

So you saw that life, you know what I mean? Like the the greatest thing you can do is like try to be around people doing well, listen to everything they say, and then soak up as much as you can. Living on that island, I guarantee you change your focus because those people got a lot, it's crazy.

Jack Moran:

It's nuts, yeah. And I, you know, with my dad's pros and his faults or whatever, I can give to him that he always like gave me that exposure at a young age, whether that was a good thing or by defense. That's what your father does best.

Jamie McKay:

He he he he networks with people better than anybody I've ever seen in my whole entire life. He's really good at it, you know?

Jack Moran:

Yeah, because he's a good guy, he's a good yeah, and that's like really what it comes down to is like I've learned that in this game is like if you just do right by people, like it all comes out in the wash.

Jamie McKay:

But the people that fuck people and screw people over and you don't step on people to get to where you're getting to, you know, but you also don't carry people that you know need to be carried.

Jack Moran:

And I think people see like there's a lot of people in the light that have stepped on people to get where they are, but I don't think that I think that comes at a major price and they're carrying weight, they're carrying energy that is negative from burning those people. And it's like, although they may have all these things that you think are great, um, carrying that weight is not worth those material things.

Jamie McKay:

Keep that in mind when you think about your lawsuits. You understand? Lawsuits are negative energy that you know it wears on you. If you can just not, you don't you don't settle when you're not wrong. You settle when you're like, it would cost me more money mentally and and physically to fight this thing. But if if I have this problem again, I'm gonna fight it next time because it's not gonna be a pattern here. We're not doing this, but if I can just let this one go and it goes, and all that mental energy and the negative stuff that goes along with it, it's important.

Jack Moran:

Some great advice.

Jamie McKay:

You gotta keep your positive energy, right? For sure. All right, brother.

Jack Moran:

All right, my man. All right, thank you very much. Yeah, dude, that was awesome.

Jamie McKay:

Oh, I appreciate it.

Head Shot

Jack Moran

Host