SaaS Interviews with CEOs, Startups, Founders
Does This Ford Dealership Sell The Most Cars Ever? with Cameron Johnson Ep 9
26 Feb 2016
Chapter 1: What is the main focus of this episode?
This is The Top, where I interview entrepreneurs who are number one or number two in their industry in terms of revenue or customer base. You'll learn how much revenue they're making, what their marketing funnel looks like, and how many customers they have. I'm now at $20,000 per top. Five and six million. He is hell-bent on global domination. We just broke our 100,000-unit soul mark.
And I'm your host, Nathan Latka. In the last episode, number eight, you met the strategist behind GoPro that took them from $300,000 to $300 million in annual sales using a trick called REM time to get $500 ad time during the Super Bowl.
Chapter 2: How did Cameron Johnson start his entrepreneurial journey?
Our guest today is Cameron Johnson. Now, Cameron built 12 businesses before the age of 21. He grew one of them to $15,000 a day in daily sales, and he's just 15 years old, which is amazing. And he did it via a toy that all of you guys recognized. Also, at 16, he served on the board of a prominent Japanese company and now runs Magic City Ford in Roanoke, Virginia.
He's also networked his way onto Oprah Winfrey's reality show, The Big Give, and has appeared across top media outlets like ABC, NBC, and Time Magazine, along with being a best-selling author.
Chapter 3: What strategies did Cameron use to achieve $15,000 in daily sales at 15 years old?
Cameron, are you ready to take us to the top? Thanks, let's do it. Cool. First off, anything about your bio that I missed that you think the audience really needs to know?
Well, the real thing was I got started in business really when I was nine years old. And I started a printing business, printing greeting cards, stationery, that sort of thing. And the way I got interested in business was I actually, at the age of eight, I wrote a letter to Donald Trump because I had seen the movie Home Alone 2, Lost in New York. And Donald Trump has a cameo in the film.
So Donald Trump, I said to my parents after the movie, does he really own that hotel, the plaza in New York City where it was filmed? And my parents said, yes, yes, that's Donald Trump.
Chapter 4: What lessons did Cameron learn from networking with high-profile individuals?
He's a very successful real estate guy. So I said, well, I want to go to New York City. I've never been in New York City. And my parents said, you know, after enough asking, if you get straight A's, we'll go next summer. I got straight A's. I knew we were going to go to New York. I said, can we stay at the Plaza?
I said, you know, I also learned at an early age, if you don't ask for it, you're not going to get it.
Love that.
So, and also later on in life, I learned that it's easier to ask forgiveness than permission.
Yeah.
in starting these different businesses. So I found out that we were gonna be staying at the Plaza. I decided to write a letter to Donald Trump. So I just said, my name's Cameron Johnson. I'm eight years old. I'm from Roanoke, Virginia. You've probably never heard of me, obviously. Who knows? But I'm staying in the hotel. I really want to see the suite where the movie was filmed.
Never knew if I'd hear back from him. That was basically it. Did not ever hear back from him in the form of a letter. Get on a plane, take a taxi to the hotel. My mom checks in and the receptionist immediately leans over and she says, you must be Cameron. And my mom's thinking, how does the receptionist know that? And she went on to say, Mr. Trump received your letter.
He understands you want to see the suite where Home Alone 2 was filmed. My parents are laughing at this point because I never told him I wrote the letter.
I love it.
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Chapter 5: How does Cameron drive sales at Magic City Ford?
You know, I really like Direct from Dell. It really follows Dell's entire story of starting by selling one computer out of his dorm room, and then he was moving office space every two months into something bigger. And the thing, though, too, about most of these entrepreneurs is that they couldn't do the same thing today.
You're not going to, I mean, technically, you're not going to go create a new operating system that's going to compete with Microsoft and Apple today. You just wouldn't even try the same way you wouldn't start selling computers in your dorm room today. So it's just amazing how much things have changed.
Yep. Look, here's what we're going to do, actually. We are going to buy, so we've got a copy of Call Your Shots. Okay, cool. Awesome. We've got a copy of Direct from Dell. Awesome. So for the Top Tribe folks that are listening right now, we'd love to give away both of these books to one of you guys. Just text TOP T-O-P, the number one, no spaces, two, three, one, three, one, three, one.
And we'll pick a winner on the next episode. Again, that's top one to three, one, three, one, three, one. Okay, number two, Cameron, the famous five. Yeah. Which CEO are you following or studying right now?
Right this second. Again, I follow a lot. I start with three hours of CNBC every morning and just knowing what's going on or trying to know what's going on. One CEO that I'm following, you know what? I am following Elon Musk. I'm still a fan. So you want to go to Mars one day? No, I would rather stay in a car. You'd rather be safe with four wheels on the ground, right? Yeah, exactly.
Cool, good. Okay, number three.
What is your favorite online tool, like Evernote? Yeah, so I keep everything virtual. So I'm kind of a Google guy. I do have an iPhone, but I use Gmail for all my email. All my different addresses go in there. Then I use Google Drive for all my files. So I've got 40 gig plus of all my files, excluding music, because I can access them from any device.
And then I use Outlook for iPhone, which is a great email tool. You can swipe left. And, you know, I also use Boomerang. Boomerang is great because you can install it on Gmail and you can say, send this email tomorrow morning at 6 a.m. And then it looks like I was awake at 6 a.m. So Boomerang is great.
Well, he's hustling at 6 a.m. He's smart. These are the ninja tactics that TopTribe wants. I love it. Yeah. Okay. Okay, great. That was great. Yes or no, do you get eight hours of sleep each night? So if you added it all together, I might.
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Chapter 6: What challenges does Cameron face in the competitive car dealership market?
I mean, look at any teenage programmer. They're all self-taught. So I think you can get the best education possible. You don't get to print out a degree or maybe for $35, you can print out a degree somewhere. But online, you can learn anything. I mean, you need to embrace all the tools that you have that even I didn't have 10 years ago.
Well, and some people would call that diploma like a framed receipt or something like that, right? Yeah, exactly, which is fine. Your internet bill. Your internet bill, exactly. So what an important message for the top tribe. Again, stay debt-free so you have the freedom you need to take big risks like Cameron did. So Cameron, if people want to follow you online, where can they follow you?
CameronJohnson.com, Twitter.com, CameronJohnson's my handle. You can find me on Facebook. You can find me on Instagram, all those great places.
Awesome. Well, look, from $15,000 a day in Beanie Babies to a Japanese board to a best-selling author and now $80 million annually in sales at Magic City Ford. Cameron, thanks for joining us today. Hey, thanks so much. All right, take care.
In the next episode, number 10, you'll meet a creative who is using a $250,000 real estate investment to generate a $1.5 million return using not common, but hyper creative strategies. All you creatives and designers out there will love this one.
This podcast is produced by Oration Recording and is sponsored by Eddy Communications and Roanoke, Virginia's Grandin CoLab, the premier workspace for entrepreneurs and growing companies.
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