We were lucky to catch up with Sean V. Bradley, CSP recently and have shared our conversation below.
Sean V., appreciate you joining us today. Often the greatest growth and the biggest wins come right after a defeat. Other times the failure serves as a lesson that’s helpful later in your journey. We’d appreciate if you could open up about a time you’ve failed
I was born into failure. I had one of the most horrific child hoods you can imagine, violence, torture, poverty, fear, pain, neglect, abandonment are just a few words to describe my early reality. I was sent to a violent juvenile facility as a kid from 12-15 years old. when I came home I got into even worse situation with hustling, gangs, raves, drugs, you name it I was enveloped into it. I got arrested 4 times in less than two years by the United States Secret Service, DEA, Bayshore Task Force and the Woodbridge Police at the age of 18 years old and was sentenced to 10 years in prison and wound up doing 3 straight years from ages 19-22. So when I got out of Federal Prison at age 22 years old I had already lost 6 years of my life. I was an ex convict, ex gang member, I was over $50,000 in debt from College Loans and other defaulted loans and credit cards for being in prison for so long and not paying any of my bills. My credit score was around a 530. I was a “loser” with no options, no opportunities and no hope. I personified the word “Failure”. At 22 years old I don’t think anyone could have failed more than I had at that time. But I had a choice… I could continue down the path of self destruction and despair or I can make a change in my life and make something of myself. I decided I was not going to merely survive prison and the streets. I wanted to thrive, I wanted to become successful, wealthy and happy. And that is exactly what I did. When I left Prison almost 25 years ago, I never looked back. I never violated parole, I never got into the situations that I used to. I never was in trouble again. On the contrary, I went from that crazy life to building multiple multi-million dollar companies, becoming an International best selling Author of “Win the Game of Googleopoly”, becoming a “CSP” in the National Speakers Association and generating over $50 Million Dollars in personal income. Vice TV actually signed me to their Hit TV Show “I Was A Teenage Felon”, Season 2, Episode 10. I was the Series Finale “King of Clubs”. They did an entire hour episode of my Life Story, including reenactments etc…
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
When I came home from Prison I did not have many options. I did not know what to do or how to begin my life as a civilian. Thank God, my close friend Billy V. suggested I sell cars! I applied to two car dealerships and got hired at both but I decided to take the job at Weisleder Lincoln Mercury Mazda in Brick, New Jersey and it was on the second I hit the Showroom Sales Floor. I was salesman of the month the very first month on the floor. I was salesman of the year the first year in the business and was promoted to manager less than a year in the business. I was a pioneer in Automotive Internet Sales and Business Development. Part of it was timing. I got into the Auto industry literally when the Internet and Internet Sales just started. No one knew what was going on or how to sell cars from the Internet so I figured it out and quickly became one of the top Internet Sales Managers in the Unites States and at age 23-24 I was selling over 100 units per month online and making my Dealership Millions of Dollars. After 5+ years on the front lines I left the Dealership world making $160,000 in income as a “BDC Director” at a Nissan Dealership in NJ. I started my first company Dealer Synergy on April 13th 2004 and became a Millionaire my 2nd year in business and a multi-millionaire my 3rd year in business. Fast forward to today and Dealer Synergy has over 3,700+ Car Dealership clients in 6 countries: New Zealand, Guam, Canada, Russia, Dominican Republic and Brazil. All of my clients are multi million and multi billion dollar businesses. I have personally helped my clients generate an $2 Billion Dollars of ADDITIONAL Revenue! Dealer Synergy is a Training, Consulting, Digital Marketing, CRM, Recruiting / Staffing and Accountability Firm. We help our clients make more money by selling more cars, more often and more profitably.
In total my Wife and I own 9 companies and 1/2 are in the Automtoive Sales Industry. In addition to the International Training and Consulting company we own the largest Online University in the World for the Automtoive Sales Industry called www.BradleyOnDemand.com, we have a Conference Company called “Internet Sales 20 Group” that has been hosting massive 3 day national conferences for the last 16 years. Each event brings about 200+ car dealerships together for a 3 day training conference with 26 speakers and the most elite sponsors in the industry. We have a software development company called “SynTech” and an advanced software product called “The Money Mind Mapp”, which is a projecting and forecasting and daily activity tracker”
We have created the #1 Facebook Group in the Auto Industry called the “Millionaire Car Salesman” FB Group with approximately 27,000 elite mastermind members (Private Group). We also have the #1 Podcast in the Automotive Sales industry, “The Millionaire Car Salesman Podcast” with almost 1 Million Downloads and views.
I had a nationally syndicated Broadcast Radio Show called “Against All Odds Radio Show” that was in Los Angeles, Rochester, Atlanta, Cleveland and Washington D.C. on FM and iHeart Radio that broadcasted to 1.1 Million Americans every weekend from 2021 -2022. Then I got signed to Vice TV for the TV Show.
Do you have any stories of times when you almost missed payroll or any other near death experiences for your business?
LOL! There have been some crazy situations over the years but for sure in the beginning there were PLENTY of times that I did NOT make payroll and instead of my people going without I did not take a paycheck. That happened a lot more than once or twice and my Wife also gave up her paycheck so we can make payroll. And I am proud to say that in 19.5 years we have NEVER missed payroll. We have never been late with paying someone and we have never not payed anyone that was owed money.
About 12 years ago I was vacationing in Puerto Rico with my family and I had a near fatal jet ski accident and it was bad as you can imagine. I was in the Trauma Center in the Caribbean for over a month, another month in Puerto Rico with my Wife’s family recovering and one more month in the United States Recovering. That is 3 months out of commission and on top of dealing with the medical emergency, someone told the industry that I died or was about to die so a lot of my clients at the time (I was a new business) waited to see if I survived or not before they paid their bills. That was crazy and a little bit of a shock to me. But at the time I had no idea because I was fighting for my life. My amazing Wife was flying back and forth to Philadelphia and Puerto Rico trying to help me recover and keep the business a float.
In 2008 during the recession was a little difficult and tight and then recently the Pandemic that was CRAZY, not just for me but for the world but I survived ALL of it just like I survived my childhood, like I survived the streets, like I survived Prison. Whatever does not kill you will make you stronger.
How’d you meet your business partner?
How I met my business partner(s)… this is interesting. My Wife is the CEO of the company that I founded LOL! I met my Wife 3 years after I started my company. We hit it off immediately once we met and it got serious just as quick. Karina was intrigued by my company and asked me if she could join the company and I said hell no. She persisted and told me she would work for free… and I was like sure, thinking that I could break her desire quickly. Nope, she wound up working for me for FREE for a MONTH. I gave up trying to change her mind and felt bad, I didn’t want to take advantage of her and she was AWESOME! So, she literally started at the bottom and worked every single position and helped me build the company with me. She became Vice President and then she semi retired to go back into modeling and I can not make this up, from modeling she became a singer and blew up. “Karina Bradley” has approximately 70 Million Views, 11 Music Videos and records with Meek Mill, Papoose, Remy Ma, Young Chris, Larry Tee, TF Mafia and more! (That is how I got my book deal). She was crushing it in the Music Industry for 3 years and then we got pregnant with our youngest son, Xander and she retired from music (10+ years ago) and went back to work full time with our companies. She was promoted to CEO 6 or 7 years ago. And she is the BEST thing that has happened to Dealer Synergy. We are an AMAZING team. Whats even wilder is one of Karina’s main Music Producers is LA Williams aka “The Blind Master”. He is the only Blind Protools Operator in the World. He has Produced Tracks for Beyonce, Nas, LL Cool Jay, Dr. Dre, Little Wayne, Katy Perry and Karina Bradley. When Karina retired we brought LA into Dealer Synergy and he went into Customer Service then into Training and has been with us for over a decade and just made partner 2 years ago. We are the “Trifecta”.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.DealerSynergy.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/seanvbradley/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/seanvbradley/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/seanvbradley/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/seanvbradley
- Youtube: Youtube.com/SeanVBradleyTV
- Other: https://dealersynergy.com/help-because-you-can/ This is our Charity we founded called “Help Because You Can”. We have donated Millions of Dollars to over 52+ Organizations and dozens of individuals that needed help.