Faith, Ferraris & the American Dream: Helder Rosa’s Remarkable Journey 🇺🇸🔥

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Robert DiLella (00:00):
Which one of these is best for you?
Which one goes the best withespresso?
This one?
Or is it this one?
Maybe this one's better foryou.
Could it be this one?
I think this is the one youreally may want.
This is the famous F40.

(00:21):
Our guest

Helder Rosa (00:27):
today is Helder Rosa, the general manager of
Ferrari Naples.
And whether or not you're a

car enthusiast or a business leader or someone
who's just interested in thepsychology of luxury and the art
of service, you're going tolove what's under the hood
today.
Let's dive in.
All right, good.
Welcome back to another episodeand a special guest today.
Of course, Helder Rosa, who's abrilliant business mind, But

(00:54):
also a really awesome familyguy, too.
You know, I saw something thatI'll tell about in just a minute
because I also want to pointout that He's a really
good-looking guy.
He's got a great haircut.
He's one of our special guestshere at the salon.
And we also have the honor andthe privilege of doing your
beautiful wife, too, who's aspecial person.
And I know you're a real familyguy.

(01:15):
I watched a video you did withyour kids for Father's Day.
And one of the things yourdaughter said was that you
instilled in her was always putGod first and do the right thing
when nobody's watching.
I thought that touched my heartthat you're— a true father in a
special way.

(01:35):
Yeah, the foundation'simportant.
You know, the foundation, whenit's built and it's rock solid,
you never got to look at it,right?

Yeah.

It'll keep things upright.
And that's what my wife, andI'll attest, beautiful wife
indeed.
Yeah.
Very fortunate to be married toLaura.
But yeah, the foundation, ourfaith is...
is our north star so that'sthat's the most important thing
yeah that was cool i like thatwell welcome thanks for coming

(02:07):
thanks for giving up your timeespecially at season now it's uh
you drive

from the south side to the north side i know it
takes a little while for you toget up there so i appreciate you
taking some time my pleasurethanks

honored to be on the show thanks um so a boston
guy originally how how um whatwas your upbringing like what
like How'd you be who you are?
What was it like for yougrowing up?
Yeah, so I grew up in Boston, asuburb just north of the city.
My parents are immigrants froman island of Madera.

(02:40):
Most people don't, never heardMadera Island, but Madera is off
the coast of Lisbon by theCanary Islands and the Atlantic,
so I'm parents of immigrantsfrom Madera.
I have two brothers, one ofthree siblings, the middle
child.
Hmm.
Is the middle child usually thetroubled one?

(03:01):
No, I say the middle child'sthe golden child.
I'm not sure about that.
Yeah, so I grew up and endedup, after college, just kind of
got into the car business.
Just by accident.
Always had a passion for cars?

(03:21):
No, my passion, I would say,comes from serving people.
I worked...
Various jobs.
Growing up, one at McDonald's,my first job.
Is

that right?
Yeah.

Working at McDonald's, serving people,
right?

Yeah.
How old were you?

My first job was at 16.
Yeah.
And we had a family friend whoran several franchises, and I
had the ability to get to work,and that was my first job.
And from there, I worked in thesupermarkets.
And again, customer facing,customer service.

(03:59):
And then when I got out ofschool, it was just kind of
like, what am I going to do now?
I was a business major, butjust had a passion for dealing
with people.
So I actually applied for ajob.
The company was called NewEngland Copy Specialists.
So I was an outside sales repselling copiers and fax

(04:22):
machines.
in and around the Boston area.
And my territory that wasassigned to me had this giant
Mercedes dealership on theoutskirts of the city.
And I went in and was lookingto establish that account.
And the general manager at thetime, it's hilarious, I walk in

(04:44):
there with my black velvet suit,thinking I'm a hot shot in my
briefcase.
So I...
They asked who was in charge ofthe copiers and fax machines
and that sort of thing.
So they put me in touch withhim.
Long story short, that day Iwas offered a job.
I think I was there for severalhours, offered a job to sell

(05:06):
cars.
You went in to pitch them oncopiers and fax machines.
Yep.
And you interviewed them.
They interviewed you.
Yeah, this guy totally put metogether.
Great salesman.
That's awesome.
He says, look at that showroom.
Look at those beautiful cars.
Do you want to do that or doyou want to come knocking on
doors trying to sell boring faxmachines

and coffee

machines?
I said, well, he's got a point.
I said, well, I have noexperience.
He goes, you don't need anyexperience.
So that was the start of myjourney in automotive.

Wow, that's cool.

I worked for that company, if I remember, I
think it was less than twoweeks.
I resigned and they're like,where are you going?
I'm like, I'm going to get inthe car business.
And the rest was history.
Wow, that's awesome.
So where, and this is outsideof Boston.
Yeah, it's a suburb north ofthe city, Linfield,
Massachusetts.

(05:59):
Linfield, okay.
Where's that from Wellesley?
That's the only part I knowbecause I had a cousin who lived
there and we used to go up toWellesley.
Is it near?
Wellesley, yeah.
Wellesley was more centrallylocated in the city.
Okay.
Linfield, which is where Iworked, was more of the north
end.
Okay, okay.
Tell me about that region,because the north end is where

(06:21):
the good stuff is?
All the Italians, of course.
The good stuff.
The great food.

Great food, okay.

Those that have last names that end in a vowel
and drink a lot of espresso.
So where is the area where thebakery is?
Michael's Bakery?
Yes.
That's in the north end.
That's in the north end, okay.
Yeah, so the north end is allthe Italians.
Okay.
South end, all the Irish.

Oh, okay, okay.

And then the Portuguese, like me, we're all
out in Fall River, New Bedford.
New Bedford?
New Bedford.
Every once in a while, theBoston accent comes out.
So Fall River is where inrelation to that?
So Fall River is more north, orsouth rather, closer to Rhode

(07:11):
Island.
So like right there on theRhode Island border, you got
Fall River, New Bedford.
You got some big...
Portuguese population out therestill today.

Okay.

All the fishermen.

Oh yeah.
Okay.
Do you ever go back?

To Madeira?
Yeah.
Where are your family from?
Yeah.
My parents now spend, I sayunfortunately, love to see them
more often, but they now spendabout eight months out of the
year.
So in fact, we're working onhopefully going to Europe in
June to visit my folks.
Oh, nice.
It's been a couple of yearssince we were there the last
time.
The kids love it.
They love and enjoy going outthere.

(07:46):
Do they?
Yeah.
So we can get out there onceevery couple years, and then in
the interim, my parents willcome to Naples.
Do they come here now whenthey're not there, or do they go
back to Boston?
They'll go to Boston because Istill have two of my brothers in
Massachusetts, so they try tosplit up the time.
Okay.
And then when you go overthere, you stay in that area,

(08:07):
Madeira?
Yeah.
Yeah.
We stay in the city, and theirhouse is more up in the northern
part.
of the island.
Madeira's an island.
They're more up in the middleof the island and the city's
down in the marina area.
Some big commercial hotels.
The Ritz-Carlton is there.

(08:27):
So they have some really niceproperties there in Madeira
Island.
All the big cruise liners comein.
It's a little fun fact foranyone listening is Google, or I
should say YouTube, FireworkDisplay in Madeira Island.
They've won the Guinness WorldRecord of, I think, the longest

(08:50):
or the best firework display inNew Year's.
It's pretty impressive.
Oh, is that right?
Yeah, yeah.
I didn't know that.
And what else are they knownfor there?
Shellfish?
Is shellfish a big deal there,or is that a different part of
Portugal?
Yeah, it's the wine, Madeirawine.
Most people are pretty familiarwith Madeira wine, which is an
after-dinner wine, more of adessert wine.

(09:11):
It's like a port?
It's like a port wine, exactly.
Okay.
Yeah, real sweet.
And bananas, believe it or not.
Really?
Yeah.
It's tropical looking there?
Very tropical.
Really?
Okay.
Yeah, tropical islands.
You know, winters get around60s and summer in the 80s.
So what are the months yourparents are there?
They usually leave right afterChristmas time and come back

(09:34):
around June, June, July.
Okay.
They spend the summers here andthen they're back there during
the holidays.
And so you, let's go back tothat first job.
That was a Mercedes dealer, thefirst one?
Yeah, that was a Mercedesdealer.
I was selling cars.
So what was the experience likefor you to sell your first car?

(09:57):
That's funny.
I think most dealerships stillhave this tradition when you
first, you know, your shirt andtie.
You know, that's your uniform,so to speak.

Mm-hmm.

And when you sell, after you sell your first
car, they cut your tie off.

Oh, is that right?

So I remember that day.
And, you know, back then we'reusing flashcards.
So just when I think about, youknow, we're going back now 20
years, you know, you didn't haveall the technology that you
have today.
You had a little Rolodex offlashcards.
That's how you manage yourclient base.

Oh, okay.

But yeah, it's been a great, great business for
me.

Yeah, so you started at the top tier.
You started in the luxury,Mercedes being, you know, one of
the nice brands.
Yeah, I

was very fortunate, like I said, just
kind of walked into thatopportunity, being able to
represent a brand like Mercedes.
And I worked, you know, I soldMercedes from, that was back in
early 2000s, and we made thetrip out to Cleveland, which...

(11:05):
You know, we discussed and thatwas Mercedes up until 2019.
So, you know, three quarters ofmy career have been
representing the Mercedes brand.
So what was, was it the sameowner that you moved to?
So you were working for, Marinoopened in Cleveland.

(11:27):
Right.
Yeah.
Bernie, Bernie opened up theMercedes dealership.
In Cleveland in May of 2005.
And that's when you moved?
That's when I moved.
Okay, because you were workingwith him.
I was working with Bernie inBoston for a former dealer.
And that was about four years.
I think I was hired sometime inlike 2000, 2001.

Okay.

And Bernie at that time was running about a
dozen dealerships for thecompany we worked for.
And he spent a lot of time atthe dealership that I worked at.

Unknown (11:59):
Okay.

Did a lot of training with me and the team.
He was very present.

Yeah.

And then he just one day decided to resign from
the company.
Which was a big deal.
Which was a big deal for manypeople.

Yeah.

He was very influential in the company.
And we all were just like, whathappened?
And then it was several monthslater when everything came back
full circle that he bought adealership in Cleveland, Ohio.
A Mercedes dealership.
Yeah.
And that's kind of famous withhis story because he leveraged
everything that he had in hislife, right?
He just put all he had intobeing able to buy this

(12:36):
dealership.
It's all about taking risks.
He took a big risk.
Yeah.
And yeah, he left a companythat was paying him really,
really well.
It was very successful.
But found out about thatopportunity in Cleveland that
was up for grabs and he went allin.
And then he was choosingThoroughbreds to work for him

(12:57):
and he...
Yeah, he never actuallyapproached me directly.
This was through anotheracquaintance that had reached
out to me.
Okay.
Probably saw me as a youngBoston guy.
No kids, other than my family,right?
Yeah, yeah.
Pretty easy pickings, I guess.

Yeah.

I was honored.
And I thought about it andspent a whole lot of time
thinking about it, to be honest.
You know, as I said to you,when I thought risk and reward,
risk is...
I go out there, it doesn't workout.
I can jump back in the U-Haulwith my furniture and drive
back.
And it's not gonna change mylife.
The reward, in my eyes, wasendless.

(13:41):
And I would never look back.
It worked out well.
What was it like making thetransition from the Northeast to
the Midwest?
I mean, two different markets.
Two different markets.
It's funny, as I sit here and Ilook back and I think about
when we first got there, as itwasn't only me, it was Bernie,

(14:02):
and there was actually in totalfive or six of us that moved
from Boston to go work underBernie's leadership.
So here we are, the five or sixof us from Boston, Northeast,
Midwest, never stepped foot inOhio.
I remember at that time, mybrothers are like, where are you
going?
I'm like, Cleveland.
They're like, oh, yeah, theland of LeBron James.

(14:24):
Which at that point, I...
Was never really kind of intune with, you know, LeBron
James, I guess.
Yeah.
But that was a big deal.
Yeah.
And so anyway, here we are inCleveland.
And what's funny is it's muchmore laid back and passive.
Mm-hmm.
You know, and you're from theNortheast.

(14:45):
Yeah.
Folks from the Northeast, alittle bit more vocal,

move at a

faster pace with a sense of urgency.
Yeah.
And when we first got there,and here we are interacting with
clients, they're like, wait,guys, slow down, slow down.
One, you're talking too fast.
Two, what's your agenda?
You guys, you're trying to pullsomething off?
It's like, all right.
It took us a while to reallyjust take two steps back, slow
it down.

(15:11):
So that was an adjustment.
And not pronounce my ahs likethat.
It's funny, when I listen toYou know, someone from Boston.
I'm like, man, is that reallywhat I sounded like?
So I had to refine my speech.
To fit the Midwest culture,right?

(15:33):
Yeah, I had to slow down.
Don't pronounce my ahs likethat.
And everything worked out.
Does it come back when you goup north, when you go back to
New Jersey?
Yeah, because you feel likeyou've got to be part of the
circle, right?
Right, right.
They'll pick on you.
They'll pick on you.

Unknown (15:48):
Right.

Yeah, I remember hearing stories from my father
because when we moved here fromPhilly, this area was
predominantly from the Midwestbecause I-75 came from the
Midwest, 95 came down from theNortheast, so they were on the
East Coast, the Northeasterners,and Midwesterners were on this
coast, which now it's a biggermix, a better mix of Northeast

(16:09):
and Midwest.
But he would say the differencewas in the Northeast area, or
people from the Northeast, ifthey didn't like their haircut,
they would tell them, I don'tlike it.
Fix it.
This is not what I like.
And in the Midwest, they mightsay, oh, it's fine.
It's very nice.
And then they never go back.
It's fine.
Yeah, it's not so fine.

(16:31):
Yeah, so that was it.
Something to get used to forsure.
But yeah, you know, you knowwhere you stand with someone
from the Northeast, right?
A hundred percent.
Yeah.
Some can appreciate that.

Yeah.
I'd be one of them.
Let you know.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Just, you just, no, noquestions asked.
This is where we are.

Yeah.
So that was a big adjustment tomake.
Weather-wise, not, not so much.
Was it colder in, in Boston?
It's pretty cold too.
I mean, Cleveland.
Yeah.
The difference, Cleveland, youhave this, this term that they,
they, they call the lake effect.
So when that weather, the snowcomes in because of the lake, we

(17:10):
were northeast Ohio.
So when the weather, that snowbelt comes in, it sticks around
for a while.
It just goes in circles.
So when the snow comes, it'llsit and linger for days.
As opposed to in the northeast,you know, the nor'easters, as
they used to call them, theywould move in.

(17:31):
drop a pile of snow and thenmove on.
Okay.
Yeah.
And, um, in Ohio, thedifference in Cleveland anyway
is again, the snow just sits andlingers for days.
Yeah.
The other thing is very littlesunshine during the winter
months.
Yeah.
Which is brutal.
Yeah.
In the Northeast, it was again,climate similar, but more sun

(17:56):
in the Northeast.
Yeah.
Right.
And who doesn't love the sun?
You need that every once in awhile.
Oh, you do, after living downhere.
That's why we live in Naples,right?
I know, yeah.
So, but yeah, so weather waspredominantly, you know, very
similar outside of the grayskies and, you know, snow that
would just sit and linger.
And what's that like for adealership with snow when you
have cars that are outside?

(18:17):
It's the worst.
Yeah.
It's, you know, you talk toanybody up in the Northeast or,
you know, the climate wherethere's snow.

Yeah.

Cold weather.
it's tough.
So we're very lucky to be herein sunny Naples, Florida.

Yeah.
And when you get dumped on withsnow, I mean, you gotta go out
and clean them.
Gotta clean them all, right?

Yeah, maybe it'll melt after, again, there's
no sun.
The sun isn't melting the snow.
It takes a while.
Then you get ice.
That's even worse.
The windshields are all coveredin ice.
So I remember when I had tobreak the news to my three
children that We're moving fromOhio to Florida.

(18:59):
And the first thing I said tohim is, guys, there's tears and
they're crying.
I said, you never got to put ona winter jacket anymore.
Not that they were shovelingsnow anyway, but you will see.
You'll never have to deal withthe snow anymore.
And for them, of course, theylove it.
Building snowmen, goingsledding.
Yeah, that's all fun, but younever got to put on a winter
jacket.

(19:19):
And you're going to have apool.
Yeah.
You can use the pool all year.
It was the tears were months.
Tears were gone.
Moving near Mickey.
Moving near.
Yeah.
So that was an easy sale then.
It was an easy sale.
Yeah.
And that was COVID year.
Yeah.
That was during COVID.

(19:41):
And the dealership, the Ferraristore was at that time.
So we sold everything.
the company in 2019, late 2019.
And I had worked under the newownership who bought us, who
bought the dealership in Ohio.
And then I had found out aboutthe opportunity here in Naples.

(20:05):
So in 2019 when we sold, I wantto say late 2019, I think COVID
was just kind of starting tomake its way.
Hmm.
And then in 2020, early 2020 isreally when it hit full force.
It was very unfortunate.
We had a furlough, lots ofpeople, and let people go.
So here I am working for thisnew company.

(20:30):
And then we had to deal withCOVID.
And it was different there thanFlorida in terms of being able
to be open, right?
Yeah, I hadn't been to Florida.
The dealership down here wasn'teven...
At that time, in early 2020,which we're talking January,

(20:51):
February of 2020, that'sactually when I had just found
out about the Ferrari'sdealership opening here in
Naples.
I mean, I had been to Naplespreviously, but this was all
pre-COVID.
Yeah.
So I wasn't really sure whatwas happening in Naples during
the COVID or Florida in general.
And then it wasn't until...

(21:13):
April, May of 2020, when I wastold about the opportunity to
come to Naples.
I couldn't fly down.
My wife and I couldn't flydown, but we had been here
previously and we knew we lovedthe area.
So we just, we made a decision.
We didn't really think too muchabout it.

(21:33):
We said, one, it's COVID.
Nobody was leaving the house.
And quite frankly, theopportunity was just too good to
pass up.
to move down here.
So we bought our house sightunseen, enrolled our children
into still two at St.

(21:54):
Anne's.
Great parish, great school.
In fact, at that time, allthree of my children went to St.
Anne's.
So yeah, we did everything fromafar and it all worked out
perfect.
And the dealership here didn'topen up when you first moved
here?
Were they already open when youmoved here?
No, they weren't open.
So we were under construction.

(22:14):
So when I decided to join thecompany, they had said that
there was an opportunity to goand operate the Ferrari
dealership in West Palm Beach.
So under our rooftop, we haveanother sister store, a Ferrari
Maserati dealership in West PalmBeach.
So at that time, they had askedme to go and operate that

(22:37):
dealership while the Naplesdealership was under
construction.

Okay.

So we actually moved from Cleveland.
to West Palm Beach.
And we're very grateful.
We had a friend of ours who hada condo in Juneau Beach, which
was just kind of north of WestPalm area, right on the water.
It was beautiful.
So we made the trip.
We went from Cleveland to WestPalm.
We were living in Juneau.
I was operating dealership inWest Palm Beach.

(23:03):
Meanwhile, the Naplesdealership was under
construction.
Our home was underconstruction.
So I actually worked in WestPalm from May through the end of
the year, right aroundDecember.
And the dealership was able tobe open.
We opened in, yeah, we actuallyofficially opened in January of
2021.
Okay.
Yeah.
And when you were working inWest Palm, the dealership during

(23:26):
that COVID year could be open.
You were allowed to be open.
Yeah.
Right.
They didn't close down becausehair salons closed in May.
We were closed for 56 days.
I remember that.
And I don't remember how theother businesses opened.
In 2020.
In 2020.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So the Naples location hadn'tbeen open.
I was worried that the, youknow, construction was going to
pause and that.
Right.
You know, we had workers fromall over the country here

(23:47):
working.

Yeah, it's a beautiful deal.
I mean, they did a phenomenaljob.
It's a beautiful building.
Yeah, thank you.
First class.
They did a very,

very nice job.
It doesn't look like a typicalcar dealership.
Not at all.
More of like a museum.
Yeah.
And that was the intent.
So, yeah, so we were open.
West Palm, everything was wideopen while everybody else was
under lockdown.
Yeah.
And I think that's whattriggered most of that migration
during that time, right?
Absolutely, yeah.
Yeah, I was so grateful.
to Ron DeSantis.

(24:14):
I remember the day that heannounced we had been closed for
54 days and he announced on aFriday, it was my wife's
birthday, May 8th.
He said, on Monday, the

10th, you can open back up again as hair salons.
And there were no

restrictions.
You know, it was up to eachindividual.
It was up to us to decide howwe wanted to do it our way
rather than saying you have todo it this way.
And so it was, you know, wewere blessed to be here as
everybody was, you know, that'swhat, caused everybody to come
here because we could we couldmake our own minds up and
determine whether how it wasgoing to go and how we were

(24:49):
going to operate so forevergrateful for that because i
still know so many salon ownersaround the country that were
stuck in states that kept themclosed for so long that they had
they ended up closing losingall their staff and you know we
had we were closed just justenough time we got a ppp loan
and we were closed for just thenumber of weeks that the ppp
loan covered everybody so wedidn't have to lay anybody off

(25:10):
we were Lucky to have that andjust to be in beautiful Florida.
So that worked out good for ustoo,

you know, as well as the people coming here and
getting a lot more from theNortheast and people saying
they've had enough of it upthere and they're between the
taxes and the lack of sunshineand the cold and the, you know,
all those things.
Yeah.
Yeah.
We're

very, very, very grateful and very lucky to be
down here.
Yeah.
Yeah, so it was a gift for ourarea to get your family down
here too.
So we were blessed to have youguys come here.
Yeah, the community's been armswide open and we do love it.
We do love it down here.
When I look back, the firstyear and a half, I remember I'm

(25:51):
working and my wife and my threelittle children, we just
literally uprooted them andbrought them down here.
Yeah.
My life really hadn't changedmuch.
I was still working and she'sat home with the kids.
Yeah.
So, you know, there was sometime there within, you know,
within that first year and ahalf is very touch and go.

(26:12):
I thought at one point we weregoing back to Ohio because my
wife was a little homesick.

Yeah.

But that didn't last long.
We've met some great families.
You know, we have some great,great friends, you know, and
that's what life's all about.
Yeah.
It's all about, you can be in abeautiful place here like
Naples, Florida, but withoutyour, the proper surroundings,
you know, your connections andthings like that.
Um, you know, a beautiful placecould, you know, that, that

(26:38):
could wear on you after a whilewhen you don't have anybody
around you.
So, yeah.
So we're, we're very, verygrateful for the friends and,
and for the community at large.
And your wife's family's Ohioor?
My wife's family's from Ohio.
Okay.
So she's born and raised inOhio.
Yep.
Okay.
We met there and, um, we raisedour three children and so five,

(27:00):
so they, we moved them downhere at, We had eight, eight,
nine-year-olds.

Did you say you have twins, younger twins?
Twins,

yeah.
I got a boy-girl twin, and thenI have a daughter.
Is that running the family?
No, no, it doesn't run in thefamily.
It's just kind of a surprise.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So my oldest daughter, Gianna,she's freshman at St.
John Newman, and then our twinsare middle schoolers at St.
Ann's.
Oh, wow.
So I feel like we moved themdown at the right age.

(27:27):
Yeah.
We were right on the cusp thereof, you know, maybe they
were...
felt left out or, you know,they were leaving all their
friends and, you know, it'sgreat to see here we are almost
five years later, they're stillin contact with their friends.
When we go to Cleveland, theyreunite with their friends.

Nice.

Yeah.
So they're great, great kids.
And your wife's family there.
So they have, do they havecousins there too from that?
Yes.
My wife's entire family,they're all in Cleveland.
Okay.
And then quite frankly, thatwas the hardest part.
Yeah.
It wasn't leaving, you know,the doom and gloom of Ohio.

Yeah.

The snow.
It was, again, it's all aboutpeople.

Yeah.

You know, it's all about people.
So leaving her family behind,that was tough.
But here we are.
And we can hop on a plane.
You fly direct frontier out ofFort Myers.
The easiest, I think theeasiest airport to fly in and
out of Fort Myers.
Easier than Cleveland.
I think Cleveland's out in thetumbleweeds, but it's actually a

(28:23):
busier airport than Fort Myers.
So hop on a flight.
You're there in three hours.

Yeah.
You just don't want to go thistime of year, I guess, right?
You just want to stay away fromthere in February or March.
It's cold there.
Yeah.

Yeah.
It's kind of the spring,although.
Oh, okay.
I think they're.
They call it spring.
They're getting hit.
The Midwest is getting hittoday with a snowstorm.
Are they really?
Yeah.
So you never know.
That's the thing.
It's like, you know, overthere, your summers are, they're
short lived.
Oh yeah.
Spring is, you know, lateMarch, but they're still getting
hit with a snowstorm.
Yeah.
Maybe even in April, if notMay.

That lake effect, right?
That lake effect.
It's brutal.
Brutal,

brutal.
So what was it like making thetransition from...
So always a luxury high-endbrand, but making the transition
from Mercedes to Ferrari.
Did you work in some otherbrands other than Mercedes when
you were with...
Yeah, we had all Highlandbrands.
We had Aston Martin, Porsche,Rolls-Royce, Maserati.

(29:23):
And...
So making the transition toFerrari, learning the brand was
probably the biggest challenge.

Because it's a whole culture.

Yeah.
They operate very differentthan the brands that I
represented previously.
But the transition was easybecause, pardon me, you know, we
built our business aroundpeople and teams, winning teams.
Yeah.
pardon me, may sound cliche,but having a vision, a mission

(29:55):
statement.
And so going back to how westarted the conversation about
having a foundation and beingfaith-based and building a
business, it should be nodifferent.
How do you build a foundation?
You got to have a vision andthen you build your team around
that.
And so my, as much as it was,yes, a huge transition from Most

(30:20):
of my time in Ohio was spentrunning a Mercedes, a large
Mercedes dealership, to now amuch smaller, more boutique-like
brand, Ferrari.
But I took the same principles,which is we're going to build a
team, we're going to set amission, a vision, and that's
what we're going to do.
And regardless of what brandyou represent, that's the core.

(30:45):
Because to me, The brand'ssecondary, the cars are
secondary, probably no differentthan what you do really, really
well here.
I can say, it's your people.
I can feel it when I walk inthe door.
The end result is I'm going towalk out with a nice haircut.
That I know.
Dave does a great job.
But it's from the earlyinteraction with your kind young

(31:07):
lady who offered me an espressothis morning.
So again, to me, those are theimportant things, and that's
what makes businessessuccessful.

are

the people.
So the transition, I guess, waseasy because I was sticking to
the recipe that I know that madeus successful in Ohio.
And I'm going to just basicallydo the exact same thing.
It doesn't need to be that.
It's not that complicated.
I think people justovercomplicate it.
But not everybody's into peopleand serving people and really

(31:41):
building a business around ateam.

Yeah.
Yeah, I get that.
Yeah, it's,

well, from what I see, it's more of a, from what
you've built and what thatbrand builds and maybe other
brands too, but what I see, it'smore of like an experience for
somebody.
I was watching you interactwith, I don't know if he's a
current customer or possible.
Yeah, he's a customer of ours.
Is that right?
Just kind of by coincidence,bumped into him this morning.
Yeah.
And it was...

(32:12):
there was a genuinerelationship there, uh, that I
could see that was differentthan just, uh, you sold him a
car, but there was a, it waslike community, like neighbors.
I don't know.
You just, you know, a differentkind of relationship than just
a customer.
It was, it was interesting tosee cause who would have
thought, you know, nine o'clockthis morning that you would run

(32:34):
into somebody here and you guysare talking about his car, what
he's looking for.
I don't even know what theconversation was, but I heard
you saw the relationship.
Yeah, it's funny.
When I think about myself, mykids ask me, dad, what do you do
for work?
I'm like, I'm a car salesman.
How much lower does it get thanthat?
But, you know, as I instill,hopefully these things that

(32:54):
they'll carry on is about beingkind to people.
Again, listening to people,being a great communicator.
In serving people.
Yeah.
That's a really awesome thing.
I mean, that's at the end ofthe day what I do.
Yeah.
We have an actual visionstatement.

(33:15):
I have these little visionstatements that I've made up for
my team.
Any new hire that comes in,they need to know that vision
statement by heart before theywalk in the door.
So early interviews.
And in short, at the very endof our mission statement is, to
build and forge lifelongrelationships.

(33:39):
That's the end of my visionstatement.
And so everything we do in thedealership is all about forging
or building and forgingrelationships.
So we have an actual visionstatement, and then we actually
have, I took, think of the 10commandments.
So I took the concept, whichhas a negative connotation to

(34:02):
it, right?
Thou shall not steal.
So reverse that, reverse thatinto a positive.
Our first is thou shall havefun.
That's our very firstcommandment.
Thou shall love thy product.
We have actually 12.
I added two more, but anyway,without getting into all the

(34:27):
details, that's, Essentially,that's the culture at Ferrari of
peoples.
That's the culture we built inCleveland.
We took an underperforming...
The dealership that we acquiredback in Ohio was actually on
the verge of shutdown.
In May of 2005, when I made thetrip with Bernie and four or

(34:49):
five others, we took over adealership that was literally
going to shut the doors down.

Wow.

And Bernie...
bought it, and we said, we'regoing to make this the best car
dealership in the world.
Right?
It's about just setting amassive expectation.
And that dealership today, I'venow been gone for 20 years, and
it's actually not in Cleveland.
It's in a suburb of Clevelandcalled North Homestead, Ohio,

(35:22):
which is 15 miles west of thecity in a small little town.
that dealership today is thelargest selling luxury retailer
in the Midwest.

Wow.

Wow.
And so when I look back and Isay, there was nothing, there
was no silver lining.
Yeah.
It was about, again, going backto having a North Star, having
a foundation, and then buildingeverything around that.

Yeah.

Right?
So, and that's what I broughthere to Naples.
And here we are four yearslater, soon to be five.
And we actually, last year in2024, Ferrari of Naples was
recognized as the, so they havewhat they call Testarossa.

(36:11):
I think anybody that's familiarwith Ferraris knows the
Testarossa as the iconic modelwithin a Ferrari.
So the manufacturer awardsdealerships with Testarossa
awards.
And those Testarossa Awards,there's different categories.
One being the pre-owned, as aTestarossa pre-owned manager.

(36:38):
So it's a global recognitionTestarossa Award for the
pre-owned manager.
And there's many variables thatgo into becoming the Testarossa
Award winner.
We won that in 2024.
So we were awarded for Eye ofNaples the...
pre-owned Tessa Rose Award in2024, which is a global

(37:02):
recognition.

Oh, wow.
Not just U.S.
Not just

U.S.
So worldwide.
Wow.
So we were recognized and myteam just has embraced all the
ingredients that I've put outthere.
The ingredients team.
Yeah.
Let's go build.
Let's go build it.
This is how we're going tobuild it.
And they made it happen.

(37:25):
So it's a pretty impressivevictory.
Yeah.
That's a testament to somethingbecause I think what you were
saying, it's, I find it reallyinteresting because your team
went into Ohio and you had this,you represented the same brand
that was almost out of businessin the area.
And it was the same brand, butturned it in, turned it

(37:50):
completely around into beingnumber one in the region with
the same brand.
So that's the, that's, Clearlya testament to the operations in
the team that took what wasalready there and not doing well
and took the same thing andturned it into that.
Yeah, it's about building avision and just, you know, the
old, it's not what you say, it'show you do it.

(38:11):
Yeah.
Yeah, that's cool because Ithought this conversation would
be more about the car.
And I get now, I completely getnow who you are and what's
different about you and the wayyou work is that it's kind of
like what we say here.

(38:32):
And it reminds me a lot of thatbecause, yeah, we do haircuts.
Yeah, that's what we do.
We cut hair.
But we're more than that.
We have to be more than that.
We have to give people anexperience that has them want to
be cut.
As I'm walking in here, I lookover and I look to my right.
as I'm across the street, andthere's a salon two, three doors

(38:52):
down.
And I'm like, wow, there's asalon there, and then there's
Rob's right next door.
So when you think about that,and you're sitting there, you've
never stepped foot into eitherone.
You're going to go to the rightor to the left?
Right?
And then it's, okay, I'm goingto the left.
How did they make me feel whenI went in there?

(39:14):
And then maybe, perhaps, thatperson leaves and says, Three
weeks or four weeks.
You got to get a haircut everyfour weeks, right?
Yeah.
So four weeks later, I'm goingto go to the right.
Maybe I didn't have such agreat experience.
Sure.
Or I did.
And you know what?
Sometimes people just want toshop, right?
Yeah.
So now I got to go that way.
How do they make me feel?

Yeah.

The end result, I would think most stylists are
going to cut their hair thesame.
Yeah.
I'm sure there's somevariances.

Of course.
You

know, when I think about my wife who, you
know, Dave cuts

her hair.

You know, she always talks about her
interactions with Dave and shehas a connection with him.

Yeah.

Yeah.
So I'm sure for the listeners,you know, you, you hear this all
the time.
It's not about, it's about theconnections.
It's about the people, but itneeds to be real and it needs to
be genuine.
Yeah.
And I think that's the biggestthing because you can walk into
a place and yeah, they say it,but do you really feel it?
Yeah.
A hundred percent.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It can be a moniker on a walland you know, like we always

(40:15):
talk about, like, uh, Do youwant fries with that?
That comment that they give youat McDonald's all the time or
whatever, it's not an authenticstatement.

It's something they have to say.

It doesn't come from their heart.
You probably already orderedfries, but they have

to say it anyway.
They have to say it likerobots.
Right, right.
There's no authenticity to it.
And people

who appreciate that genuine relationship can
see right through that kind ofstuff.
Yes, yes.
So I pride myself on, and Igive all this credit to my
parents who raised me the waythey did, about integrity,
respect.
you know, transparency.
And so it's in my core.
And so I make sure that I buildmy team with those that are

(40:57):
like me.
Yeah.
And you know, and I'm sure as abusiness owner, you realize
you, you think people, they kindof feed you the line that
they're, yeah, that's me.
I'm ready.
And then you realize, no, no,you're not really, you're really
not like that.

Yeah.

Yeah.
So the old actions speak louderthan words.
And I think that is reallywhat, our team is all about at
Ferrari.

And there's a

line I like to use where I say, take ordinary
and make everything that isordinary extraordinary.
The littlest things, right?
Someone's coming to pick uptheir car.
You can hand them the keys,hand them the manuals, show them
how things go or operate, andthen see you later.

(41:42):
Versus, let's make it an event.
Let's make it special.

Yeah, like there was a

video of a...
I forget what the color wascalled, but it was like a blue,
but it was called somethingdifferent.
You had a cover on it, and youpulled the cover off for the new
owner.
It was a beautiful car.
But it was...
It was an experience that thatperson was getting.
It wasn't just, you're comingto pick up a car.
It's the little things too,right?
Yeah.
It's the littlest things.
Yeah.
And I always say in luxury andit should be quite frankly in

(42:15):
any business.
Yeah.
It's all about how well you canmanage all the millions and
millions of details that go intothe execution of whatever it is
that you're doing.

Sure.
Yeah.

Yes.
And so, yeah.
Yeah.
Down to the littlest thinglike, uh, We can cheat.
We know when somebody's comingin.
We know that there's a 10o'clock appointment coming in.
Instead of sitting back in theback room waiting for somebody
to come back and say, hey, your10 o'clock is here.
Why can't we be out frontwaiting for them at the front

(42:49):
door with their cappuccinoespresso?
It was brilliant what you did.
As I was talking to thatgentleman waiting for my
espresso, the young lady thereoffered me an espresso.
She was going to get the cup,the standard cup by the espresso
machine.
You said, no.
Now, whether or not you had aspecial cup for me, I don't

(43:12):
know, but I'll tell you, itsounded really good.
He goes, no, I actually have aspecial cup for him.
And she came and brought me thespecial espresso cup.
And then here we are, I'mhaving a conversation with,
coincidentally, happened to be aclient of ours.
You had never met him.
You knew he wanted espresso andyou just, you were quick and

(43:34):
you said, nope.
I actually have a special cupfor him as well.
And it's, those are the thingsthat, hey, look, as little as it
may seem, or I would say himleaving, I certainly felt good
that I had my own special cup.
So kudos to you.
Well, thanks.

(43:54):
I know that's what's made yousuccessful.
Well, thank you.
You know, you pointed tosomething earlier too, and, you
know, in your upbringing and inour Italian heritage, you know,
everybody, My father, whostarted this company many years
ago, and my mother worked hereas well, it was like a cocktail
party.
It was no different than whenthey had a party at the house,

(44:14):
because we always had people atthe house.
And in the Italian family, itwas just...
everything was an event aroundfood and they were always
serving people.
We always had random people atevery holiday who I had no clue
who they were, but they alwaysinvited people who didn't have a
family or a place to go to.
You had no idea who thesepeople were, right?
Random strangers.
Different people.
My parents did the same thing.
Like, who is this person?

(44:36):
I just met him last week, butwe're going to feed him and
serve him some alcohol.
That's right.
It was always that way everyyear.
I just never knew who was goingto be there and there was
always somebody different and itwas our job to make sure they
had a great time and theyenjoyed themselves.
And let me tell you, thosepeople keep coming back, don't
they?
Oh, 100%.
In business, it should be nodifferent.

(44:56):
Yeah, that was it completely.
It was just like, you know,we're just, we're serving.
And, you know, you talked aboutthat was who you were and, you
know, who you are and what gotyou into that.
And it wasn't ever about Thecars was secondary, the first
part.
Yeah, and I love the cars.
I mean, look, there's somethingto be said for someone who's
never driven a Ferrari.
You just got to get in it.
You can't even explain it.

(45:17):
You just got to get in it andlisten to it and the feeling you
get and everything else.
But leading up to that, it'sall these little things that we
just talked about.
Because the one phone call thatcomes through, you don't answer
it right away.
The young lady or young man onthe phone isn't pleasant.
What's sad is when you thinkabout it is these manufacturers,
in my case, you have a brandlike Ferrari who makes

(45:40):
incredible vehicles.
And all it takes is one personto fumble the littlest thing.
And you think about all thetime and energy, R&D that goes
into making this car.
And all it takes is one personto fumble something.
And everything else, nothingelse matters.

(46:02):
Yeah.
Destroys everything.
Destroys everything.
Or throws it all out thewindow, yeah.
Yeah, I see that on, I catchmyself reading those Facebook
food groups, restaurant groups,and there's always somebody on
there blasting a restaurant, agood restaurant, because some
girl at the front wasinappropriate or said something
that was not nice to somebody.

(46:23):
You know, they were just, theyweren't thinking.
Yeah.
And it ruins the wholeexperience for the people.
And then they write this bookabout, about everything else
because it, because it, ittaints the rest of the visit.
Right.
And think about everybody elsethat reads that same

review.
Yeah.
Yeah.

You know, I'm, I'm a big proponent of that.
I, you know, I love eating.
I love going to restaurants,trying out different
restaurants.
The first thing, like my wife,anytime she talks about, or
anyone talks about wanting to goto a restaurant or where's the
pizza spot, I'm like, you knowwhat?
I got it.
I will find the spot.
And what I do, I just go on aGoogle, right?
And you look at the reviews.
Sure.
You just start reading thereviews.

(46:57):
The first thing you do is youwant to look for somebody that's
five or upper fours and thenhow many reviews, right?
Yeah.
Is it just one or two people?
Yeah.
Or is it, is there, you know, afollowing there of good or bad?
Yeah.
Right?
And you're going to get, you'regoing to get some bad.
You're going to get somenegative feedback.
And I'm open to it, by the way.
Yeah.
I love negative feedback.

(47:18):
100%.
Bring it.
Give it to me.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Please tell me.
Please tell me.
We're so fortunate to have theclients that we have, especially
our clientele, business ownersthemselves.
They're successful.
And quite frankly, most ofthem, in fact, I would say all

(47:39):
of them, they are so willing to,one, share their success
stories, and two, share theirfaults and critique you.
I actually ask them.
I jump on the phone withcustomers and I say, I don't
want to know about the goodthings.
Give me the bad and the ugly.
And we train on that.
Yeah.

(47:59):
So many are afraid to hearthat.
They're just trying to avoidit.
They just don't want to look atit.
It's like, oh, they write itoff so quickly as, oh, they're
just X, Y, Z.
Or they're just, you know.
Always find an excuse.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And you can't please everyone.
But you know what?
You want those people that arevery difficult.
Those are the folks that keepyou on your A game.

(48:21):
Sure.
Sure.
They, they, they make youbetter complacent.
Yeah.
A hundred percent.
They make you better.
They, uh, yeah, there's those,um, ones that make you a little
nervous sometimes, but at thesame time, they, they keep you
on your toes, like you say, andthey keep it, keep it.
Um, some of our biggestbreakthroughs come from some of
our biggest breakdowns, ourbiggest failures, you know,
these things that we have thatgo wrong that, you know, where

(48:44):
we messed up.
Um, and we figure out, um, wegot to make some changes, you
know, we always got to continueto evolve and change and COVID
and hurricane, you know, we havehurricanes and recessions and,
you know, all the things that wehave to deal with here that,
uh, over time that, oh, we haveto be willing to make changes

(49:04):
and, and be different.
And, um, I don't know ever, youknow, just because we've been
in it a while for our business.
I know that today we're notgoing to be the same as we were
yesterday.
And tomorrow we're not going tobe the same as we were.
And you don't want to be right.
You want to be able to feellike you're growing.
Yeah, we have to.
Yeah.
And evolve just as, as a, as ahuman being and, and, and do the

(49:25):
team around me.
I mean, they, I know thatthey'll stick around longer if,
if I make sure that they growfinancially, spiritually,
emotionally, physically,professionally, if I keep them
growing and stretching and, Inall ways, they won't want to go
anywhere else.
They'll want to be here as longas they can continue to grow
here.
People work for a purpose.
When I sit and talk to my teamand I ask them, let's be honest

(49:46):
with ourselves.
What do we love the most aboutour business?
Unanimously, it's about thepeople.
It's the customers.
Yes, I think there's no doubtthere's a level of cachet that
comes with saying, I work forFerrari, right?

(50:06):
But after a while, that couldwear off.
Yeah.
Right?
Sure.
And when you really ask and youget in their hearts and you
say, tell me what you love themost about working here, it's my
team and the customers that weserve.
So, you know, we've spent a lotof time talking about that, but

(50:30):
if there's anything that...
No, that's what it all is.
I mean, I think that really...
And even outside of work,right?
Sure, yeah.
Just in general, just life.
You know, you get to the end,it's like, who are you
surrounded with?
Who's next to you?
Yeah.
Yeah, and it's one of thethings, how you and I met
through Stephan, that he'salways got this great circle of

(50:57):
people around him.
Everybody I've ever met thathe's introduced me to is just
good human, good soul.
And, you know, when you havethat circle of people
positivity, good energy, goodpeople, the right people doing
the right things.
I mean, that's, that's thewhole, that's why we do the
podcast.
Genesis behind the podcast,right?
A hundred percent spotlight ongood people, good humans in our

(51:20):
community, good, good people.
And, uh, and that's, you know,that's the gift when I, when I,
uh, get to spend time withsomebody like yourself who, who
has the value structure, thebelief system, the, uh,
integrity, um, to be who you areand to do life the way you do
life.
I mean, that fills my life up.
It fills Zach's life up.

(51:41):
Zach's the man, by

the way.
He is, right?
He is.
He's Johnny on the spot.
Yeah, man.

Free what?
Free stories.
Free stories, yeah.
Yeah.
Hold on.
We're blessed to have him, buthe's another good soul.
But just, you know, havingthese good—and David and, you
know, we just—having the rightpeople.
And Stephan, I will alwayshonor and love because he has
introduced me to some great,great people, and he continues

(52:12):
to do that, too.
But I remember the first timewe met, I thought, well, there's
somebody who's going to giveStephan a little bit of
competition with how he dresses,because he's a impeccable
dresser.
Like, yeah, you got, you got togo.
You know, I envy this attirethough, yours, because I got to
do this every day.
It's like, I'm on stage everyday.
You see me on the weekends.
No, there's no, I am dresseddown.

(52:33):
Yeah.
But, but you do it well.
You got the, you got it goingon well.
Cause I was like, oh, he's gota little competition there.
I'm going good.
What is the, not being a, So Iwas talking to a friend of mine
last night, a really good friendof mine, who we had dinner at
Gumbo Limbo last night, whichwas beautiful.
Great spot.
Yeah, it was beautiful.
It's funny you say Gumbo Limbo.
When I look back, my wife andI, this is before we moved down

(52:56):
there.
Sorry to be story beater here.
I'm just going to love it.

That's what it is.

But for those listening, maybe never been to
Naples and you're just lookingfor maybe the hook.
Yeah.
You're contemplating, you wantto move to Naples or you're not
really sure.
Go to Gumbo Limbo.
Yeah.
Not only are you on a beautifulRitz property, but you
literally have great food.
You're sitting on the beach.
Yes,

so beautiful.

Looking out of the bay, enjoying great food.
And I just remember my wife andI, when we came down here, and
we're sitting there.
This was many years ago.
And we're sitting at GumboLimbo, just looking out and
eating.
And I think I picked up thephone and called a friend of
mine who I'd worked with.
And I said, why do we work inCleveland?

(53:41):
Naples is absolutely beautiful.
Anyway, it's probably a littlelong overdue, that story.
But nonetheless, great spot, bythe way.
And it's still there.
It is, yeah.
No, it is.
It reminded me, you know, Ilive here.
And we were there last nightsaying, we live here.
This is where we live.
You know, it was so beautiful.

(54:02):
I mean, last night, it was justthe right temperature.
The sun, the people there, itwas beautiful.
The food was great.
The company was great.
It was awesome.
And then I knew I was coming totalk to you today and he's a
car enthusiast.
And I said, he said, well,Ferrari's out of my league, but
I've always had this intrigueabout- But they're really not,

(54:23):
for those listening.
Yeah, is that right?
Oh, we have some crafty littleacquisition proposals we can put
together.

Is that right?

Sorry to interject.
No, no, no, no.
I got to make sure.
I got to drop that hint.
No, because I, you know, who isthat car for?
You know, is it for?
Now, he's an enthusiast.
He's a passion.
I mean, he invests in his cars,but for some reason he had
this.
The one car he told me aboutthat he's been in love with
since he was a child was theF40.
Is that the one that everybody,is that one of the big ones?

(54:54):
Yeah, it's one of thequintessential.
There's the F40.
There's the F50.
Yeah.
And what is the process?
Because there was only, what,1,300 of those made, right?

Unknown (55:03):
Yeah.

Yeah, I don't know if there's ever true, the
production numbers that aretruly accurate.
Okay.
But those are not readilyavailable anymore other than on
the secondary market.
There's now what they call theF80, which is the, that was just
actually introduced late lastyear.
And so you have, you know,40th, 40th anniversary, 50.

(55:26):
Oh, okay.
Yeah.
Okay.
So then you have the F80.
Okay.
So what is the...
process like

to buy a Ferrari different?
Because it's not the same asbuying a

car off the street, right?
It's different.
No, actually, you know, mostpeople, there is this, you know,
misconception that not, youcan't just get a Ferrari, a new
one.
And that's actually not true.
There are certain models, ourrange models, that anyone off
the street can get one.
Where it gets a little trickyis that you only get so many.

So

the dealership might see seven or eight new
Ferraris a month coming in.
They're all pre-ordered.
They take anywhere from two tothree years to come in.
So we only get allocated acertain amount of cars.
So that becomes part of thechallenge, where when somebody

(56:23):
might come in, they're notreadily available.
So...
For the most part, those areall new Ferraris for the
exception of, like I mentioned,the F80.
So there are certain limitedseries cars.
So we're talking limitedproduction cars that are only
given to those true Ferrariambassadors.

(56:45):
So what defines the ambassador?
The ambassador is someonethat's been with the brand for
long periods of time.
Mm-hmm.
Not only are they collectors,they might be into racing.
Ferrari actually has their ownracing circuit.
We're not talking Formula One,we're talking ladies and
gentlemen racing against ladiesand gentlemen.
So there's many different, it'snot just cars, there's the

(57:09):
Ferrari lifestyle that clientscan get involved in.
And so those that have beenaround the brand that
participate in all those variousactivities in the cars
generally get those limitedseries cars.
So there is that componentwhere not just anyone can get a
limited series Ferrari.
Now there's, and we're goingback to the earlier

(57:31):
conversation, we're very activein the pre-owned world.
So there are many sought aftercars like an F40 or an F50 or a
LaFerrari, for example, thatthey no longer make new ones,
but we have the ability to findpre-owned vehicles.
We scour all over the world.
So for anyone looking for avery unique Ferrari, like those

(57:57):
that I mentioned, we do have theability to source those.
A friend of mine who I work outwith at the gym was going
through this, well, he's alwayshad it in his heart to have a
Ferrari, and he started lookinga couple years ago.
I think he met you.
He talked to me about it at thegym, and when his wife, or

(58:20):
soon-to-be wife, found out, thathe was looking at that car.
She, she put the squash on it.
She wasn't too happy about himand his abilities in a car like
that.
She was worried about himwandering off because he looks
too good in a Ferrari and, uh,um, his, uh, experience.
So he, he didn't end up buying,but he, he, he met you.

(58:42):
Spiros is his name, Greek guy.
And, uh, you know, he just hada great, time with you, had a
great time meeting you, talkingto you, the whole experience.
He knew you right away.
He didn't end up

getting one yet.
He

had one, right?
I think in his lifetime he hashad one.
Whatever one he was looking atwasn't available right away.
But you had offered him, Ithink there was something he
said, you had offered himsomething else in the meantime
until the car he wanted wasavailable.
Which I thought was interestingbecause it was like you had a
backup plan for him and to gethim into the car that he wanted,

(59:20):
but you had something else forhim.
You know, it's funny when Ithink about this.
Who needs a Ferrari?
No one needs.
Needs.
No one needs a Ferrari, right?
You wake up one day and there'sthis emotion that there's one
guy on the right side tellingyou, I just need one because I
want one.
Yeah, right.
Then there's a guy on theleft-hand side saying, you don't

(59:40):
need one.
You need one like a whole net.
So it's funny when we thinkabout these clients that come in
and they're willing to wait.
those that are the truepassionistas, as we call them,
are willing to wait for newones.
But it's just natural to say,hey, how about let's look for
one now, or as we like to usethe bridge car, find a bridge

(01:00:03):
car.
Because you want to satisfythose emotions that are coming
at you today, saying, I wantone, I need one.
Okay, how about this right now?
Because very easy, the guy onthe left could talk you out of
it.

Helder Rosa (01:00:16):
Yeah.
You wait three years, who wantsto wait for one?
Nobody wants to wait for one.
Especially when it's in theheart right there, you're ready.
So it's

Robert DiLella (01:00:22):
like, yeah, we offer, we have very diverse
selection of pre-owned, veryhand-selected pre-owned
Ferraris.
Quite frankly, any kind of car.
We sell Porsches, Lamborghinis,McLarens, anything within the
exotic circle we sell.

Okay.

So yeah, of course, we always want to offer
up the now.

Yeah.

Well, the, I, you know, I was thinking this
morning, I was like, gosh, youknow, this, because there's so
much emotion behind hearing andseeing a Ferrari on the road.
I mean, just, just the sound ofone and just seeing one, it's
just such an eye catcher always,you know, just immediately, um,
I was like, oh, we're going togo talk in the laundry room at
the salon instead of beingsitting.

(01:01:07):
It would be so cool

to do this inside of a Ferrari or inside the
dealership because yourdealership

is so beautiful.
Our next one.
Next episode.
Yeah, yeah.
Zach, you got to do some greatB-roll up there.
Come on, Zach.
You got to step up your game.
Yeah.
So you got to put somebeautiful cars in the, on the B
roll in this and some, somefootage from up there, which
will be really neat.
But I just, I think of theemotional experience it's gotta

(01:01:31):
be when somebody sits in one ofthose, it just feels that the
vibration of that car.
I have a Tesla and I'm, youknow, I'm not, I'm a, My wife
calls me a turtle.
I'm not a fast driver.
I think Stefan, Stefan rubbedoff on you, didn't he?
I had, he got rid of it.
He had one.
Yeah, he did.
I know.
He got rid of it.
He ended up with, what's he gotnow?
Well, he actually came to us.
He came to us.
He traded in his Tesla.

(01:01:51):
Oh, is that right?
He bought a Bentley.

That's where, oh, that's his car.
That's right.

Yeah, I was surprised he, because I saw he
had a Tesla.
I haven't seen him in a while.
So, Stefan, if you'relistening, I hope you're doing
well, man.
Yeah, right.
But, you know, our brand isactually more of a, It's a
luxury product.
Yes, there's cars, but we havepeople that come from all over
the world that come into ourdealership that just want to buy

(01:02:16):
a hat.
They want to buy a Ferrari pin.
Oh, yeah.
They want to buy something withthe Ferrari insignia on it.

Yeah, yeah,

yeah, yeah.
So our brand is much more justthe cars.
We are a luxury brand.

Yeah.

So whether you're driving the car, you're
wearing a Ferrari cap, Ferrarishirt, it's just...
the feeling right sure i feelgood wearing my shirt my hat

yeah

certainly driving in the car

yeah

yeah i always kind of think of like a harley
davidson you know how many guyswear harley shirts or the chaps
yeah they may not even drive amotorcycle they just love being
associated with the brand yeahand that's what ferrari is all
about yes that luxury italianbrand and way yeah We have much
more history.
Oh, is that right?

(01:03:01):
When you think of Ferrari, mostpeople associate the brand with
F1 racing.

Yes.

And the passion comes from racing.

Okay.

If you go on and you watch a Formula 1 race,
just look at all the Italianflags.
The whole country shuts down,right?
It's a big to-do.
Yeah.
You don't see that.
no disrespect to Lamborghini,but you don't see that with
Lamborghini.

Yeah.

So, um, yeah.
So Ferrari just has thehistory, a lot of it coming from
their racing history.
That's their DNA.

Yeah.
My, um,

and for those that haven't watched really the,
the Ferrari, the latest Ferrarimovie is a great one.
Although that's more about Enzostory.
Um, then there's also formulaone, the series, uh, Every once
in a while, yeah, depending ontime, you know, where the races
are, we'll play them.
But the best movie probably isFord versus Ferrari, if you want

(01:04:04):
to get a real sense of thehistory of Ferrari.
But there's the Formula Oneseries are great to watch, too,
because you really get...
You know, I was never really aFormula One guy until I, quite
frankly, joined Ferrari.
And it is pretty remarkable.
You know, again, I representedluxury brands, but...
there really isn't anythinglike driving a Ferrari.

(01:04:25):
And again, it has nothing todo, now the looks, they are
pieces of art.
It's just the feeling you getwhen you drive one of these
things.
Like you said, the sound, thespeed is just absolutely
incredible.
The way the car handles atthose speeds.
And you just, you smile ear toear.

(01:04:45):
Like there's just like whatpeople say.
That's why like I can'tdescribe it.
And anybody that comes inthat's really interested in
driving, you just got to get inthe car.
Yeah.
That's cool.
It makes me want to, it's likea, it reminds me of going to
Disney World as a kid.
Like, you know, get excitedabout, I mean, what it must be
like for somebody to own one,like when they get to drive it

(01:05:06):
for the week, on whatever daysthey drive it.
Like it's gotta be like it.
Yeah, Enzo Ferrari reallyevolved.
You know, Enzo Ferrari, ourfounder, who was an engineer by
trade, who was building racecars and to, in order for him to
actually run his, his racingteam, he needed money.

(01:05:26):
So he built road cars andthat's really how Ferrari
evolved.

Oh wow.

Oh wow.
You know, he was big intoracing and was a mastermind with
building high powered enginesand putting them on the track
and was super successful.
But then there came a pointwhere he needed a, He needed
more money.
And so he started building roadcars.

Oh, okay.

And here we are today.
Wow.
Our cars on the road are racecars.
Wow.
The DNA behind the nuts andbolts of a Ferrari road car is
all the technology, the passionthat comes from Formula One is
now infused in a road car.
Oh, okay.
So from sitting inside the car,the steering wheel and watching

(01:06:11):
how the revs, We have all therevs on the steering wheel.
There's different settings, andI guess I'll end there.
So for those that areinterested, you've got to just
come experience.
You don't want to hear me talkanymore.
I think I've been talking forabout an hour and a half now.
No, I love it.
I love it.
I saw even on the website theyhave coaching for driving,
right?
Yeah, we have classes.
So part of, again, the Ferrarilifestyle of the cars, there's

(01:06:35):
all the events.
When you're a client, you'reinvited to some very, very
exclusive events all over theworld.
Then there's the element ofracing.
Of course, that's our DNA.
So Ferrari has a certainprograms like the Ferrari race
classes that one can pay.
You would pay to join or take aclass.

(01:06:57):
There's several classes.
They're held all over thecountry.
And rather than use your car,you would pay to use one of
Ferrari North America's cars.
Wow.
So they set up at varioustracks all over the country.

Hmm.

And you would go and sign up for one of these
classes and you get to drive aFerrari road car on a racetrack
with a professional instructor.

Wow.

Wow.
And we have a lot of ourclients that are new to brand
that have never stepped foot ina Ferrari will actually go and
race, or race, I should say,sign up for one of the race
classes.
And then that's how they getthe bug.
They get hooked.

Yeah.
It hits them, right?
Yeah.
Yeah.

Cause it's one thing to drive him on interstate
41.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And then there's another thingto actually put her on a
racetrack.
You have a whole nother levelof appreciation for what these
cars are capable of doing.

That's so cool.

Wow.
Love it.
Well, I'm looking forward to, Imight have to go with you when
you go up there.
I'm trading that Tesla.
The pendulum will swing in thecomplete opposite direction.
Well, it's my father-in-law.
Although we make hybrids andsoon to be electric.
Ferrari will announce theirfirst ever electric car later

(01:08:14):
this year, but over the pastseveral years we do have a mild
hybrid that we offer, which isjust absolutely extraordinary.
The amount of power that thoseelectric motors put out.
It's incredible.
Well, my father-in-law wouldsay one of the things that was
missing, though, was the rumble.
You know, that's what he didn'tlike about my Tesla.
He's like, well, yeah, it'sfast, but it's missing that.

(01:08:34):
The emotion.
The emotion, right?
Yeah, Tesla, you don't hearanything.
It's just like a catapult thatjust throws you forward.
You know, the Ferrari does theexact same thing, but you feel
it, hear it, and it just runsright through your body.

Yeah, that's the missing.
That's what's different aboutit.
Yeah, it's not the same.
That's how he always talkedabout it, too.
Well, I have some rapid fire.

Oh, here we go.
So we talked about food some,too.
And you've lived in some greatfood areas.
So in terms of favoriterestaurants, start with Naples.
Oh, that's a tough one.
Favorite restaurant in Naples.
I would say if somebody askedme, I love Italian food.

(01:09:21):
And by the way, I don't know,you're Italian, so I don't know
if you call it sauce.
Or if you call it...

From the gravy

family.
The gravy, Philly they call it.
But Laura, if you're listening,your sauce is the best.
Second choice would be...
She makes the original sauce.
She's got the original sauceprobably passed down from her...
Certainly I know hergrandmother, but...
No kidding.
Oh, wow.
But my...

(01:09:48):
And meatballs?
Does she do meatballs?
Not meatballs, chicken cutlets.
She does actually meatballs,but her sauce has actually, she
infuses some sausage and ribs inthere.

Oh, yeah.
Oh, yeah.
Oh, gosh.
I didn't know that.
Her sauce is

legit.

So we have to talk about...
We're not going to take hermoney anymore.
We're just going to take sauce.
Yeah, instead of paying for ahaircut, she'll just bring you a
tub of sauce.
That's it.
It's done deal.
Done

deal.
But no, I guess just my lovefor Italian food, just red sauce
and pasta.
You know, the first restaurantthat comes to mind for me would
be Molto.
And what's your favorite there?
What do you like to orderthere?
You know, start with a littlepizza.
I love pizza.
That's my cheat meal.
You know, I eat pretty healthythroughout the week, but my
clutch...
Yeah, your comfort food.

(01:10:34):
Yeah, my comfort food, I'd saymaybe some pizza.
But any of their...
It's just their pastas.
I love seafood.
So I think they have one that'slike a spicy sauce with some...
probably some shrimp or someshellfish of some sort, but that
would be my go-to.

Okay.
Uh, how about in Boston?

Ooh, I, you know, I haven't been home
recently, but if I were to go tothe North end, I'm sure.
And by name, just notregistering right now, but I'd
say, uh, Hard to go wrong in alot of places.
Hard to go wrong and go to theNorth End.
Yeah.
I mean, there's so many greatrestaurants.
Yeah.
And we're talking Bostonproper, but there's restaurants,

(01:11:15):
great restaurants all over.
But I would go to the NorthEnd.
And quite frankly, I don't knowthat there's many spots that
are not going to make someonehappy.
Yeah.
They're going to deliver.
Yeah.
All of them.
Yeah.
So.
And when you went to Cleveland,obviously it was your family's,
your wife's family was thenumber one, but.
Was there a restaurant?

(01:11:36):
There's Johnny's.
There's Johnny's, Laura's.
My bride's good friends, familyfriends started two Italian
restaurants.
There's two actually locationsin Cleveland called Johnny's.

Okay.

And so I'd say Johnny's would be my go-to spot
in Cleveland.

I haven't ever been, but when I go,

I'll be there.
A lot of history.
Yeah.
They've been around for years.
Okay.
Johnny's.
Johnny's.
Okay.
There's Johnny's on Fulton andJohnny's on 9th Street.

Those are in the city or outside?
Yeah,

one's in downtown and the other one's
just kind of on the outskirts.
Favorite part of being a dad?
Just being their go-to and justloving them.
That's a tough one.
I love being their role model.

(01:12:28):
I just want to...
be the one that sets theexample for them

and

just provide them with unconditional love and
support, you know, and just,you know, you gotta be tough on
them and discipline them.
But just trying to, mysatisfaction is molding these
kids to just be great members ofsociety.
And we're having so much fun attheir age right now.

(01:12:55):
You know, we got middleschoolers and a freshman, you
know, growing up, And theirbabies and toddlers, like you
don't really, it's hard to, moreso I think for a dad to relate
because they're so attached totheir mom.
Of course.
But if I think back the lastfew years and the impact that I
think I'm having on them justmakes me feel great.

(01:13:17):
And that's just, just again,just molding them to be good
humans.
Yeah, it shows.
I appreciate that.
Yeah, definitely.
You know, and I hear peoplethat, you know, they're little,
hellions when they're around thetwo of us at home but there's
you know when they're out withfriends or they're with their

(01:13:40):
you know parents friends parentsand then just getting that
feedback that your kids are sopolite and they're so they're
just great kids like that's justmusic to my ears what was your
first car my first car was ahonda civic hatchback with a

(01:14:00):
rolled-back odometer that Ithink I bought at the auction
for $1,500.

And

here we are in Naples, and my daughter, who now
has her permits, is like, yeah,well, I want my first car to be
a G-Wagon.
Of course, in Naples, right?
Nah, nah, you got a lot.
Let me show you a picture of myblue Honda Civic that had a
rolled-back odometer.
What would be playing in yourcar?

(01:14:28):
Uh, music podcast or silencewhen you, you know, I, I, I'm a
big, uh, big listener topodcasts and just the law of
attraction.
So I'd say you're probablygoing to find a podcast and, um,
there's quite a few, you know,Ed, my lights at my let is, is

(01:14:48):
one.
I love listening to him.
Yeah.

Yeah.
He's a, he's

a, uh, Stefan turned me on him.
Actually went to see him inFort Myers.
Oh, in Fort Myers.
Yeah.
I had a ticket with him.
It was, it was awesome.
Yeah.
He's a good human being.
Really good.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And, uh, I actually listenedto, there's another one.
It's called all in.
This is more of, it's abusiness.
Oh yeah.

Yeah.
Yeah.
Listen to that too.
All in podcast.
Yeah.
Dave Friedberg and those guys,you know, that's a great.
And the one Sachs who just wentto be on the administration.
He's over in DC with

Marino.

Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.

And otherwise, I do, you know, I've grown to
love, and I think maybe it'sthat Midwestern thing in Ohio,
when I used to listen to, inBoston, right, as a kid, you
listen to techno music, going toclubs.
I moved to Ohio, slows me downa little bit.
You know, I do love countrymusic.

Yeah.

You know, who doesn't love on a Sunday when
it's my day to chill, just puton a little Morgan Wallen or...
Yeah.
I've grown to appreciatecountry.
I didn't early in life, but...
Later in life, I appreciate it.
On Sundays, we do this workoutat the CrossFit gym, and the guy
who creates the wads willsometimes put it on a country

(01:15:56):
playlist, and it fits.
Something about it, yeah.
And let's face it, I mean, Idon't know if you have younger
kids like I do, but my kids takehostage of my phone.
that's connected to my AppleCarPlay and they're rolling
through Spotify.
So they won't listen topodcasts.
You know, I think I'm old andit's boring.
So, you know, they're puttingon, they're putting on their

(01:16:19):
stuff.
But they actually, they likethe Morgan Wall.
You know, my daughter, who Idrive every morning to school,
she's good with that.
Yeah.
So anyway.
So you drive her to schoolevery morning.
It's just the two of you.
Yeah.
So my wife, who takes on abrunt of, you know, the duties
at home.
Yeah.
And she's a saint.
Rock.
She's the best.

Yeah.

But, I do what I can.
And so we have two coming toSt.
Anne's in the morning, onegoing to St.
John Newman.
So I take the St.
John Newman route since that'son my way to work.
And Laura takes the twins toSt.
Anne's.
So John is my, she's mypassenger every single morning.

So yeah, no, that's nice.
Cause you get one-on-one

time and you know, she can't escape you.
She's you're, you're together.
That's good.
It's good time together.
That's awesome.
What's a hidden talent mostpeople don't know about you?
I don't know, man, you stumpedme there.
I'm big into fitness.
I actually competed.
I was a bodybuilder many yearsago.

(01:17:17):
Is that right?
Probably don't look at it.
I lost a lot of weight.
But I would say just nutritionand working out is something I
really want to enjoy.
And I guess if you want to viewthat as a talent.
Yeah,

for sure.
Yeah, cool.

But yeah, I competed regularly.
competitively years

ago

and won some contests.

Yeah, and that takes a lot because you've got
to deal with diet.
You've got to deal withdiscipline.
Yeah, it's the discipline

part that I love and structure.
So I would say if there's atalent, I'm very disciplined and
regimented.
Yeah.
Cool.
How would your kids describeyou?
I would say they would say I'ma hard worker.
I'm never around.
They know I'm working.

(01:18:07):
You know, I'm not out screwingaround, hanging out, drinking at
bars.
I do enjoy golf, but I don't,like on my time off, I'm with
them.
Or I try to be with them.
As they get older now, theywant to drift away with their
friends.
But I would say my dad's a hardworker.
Because I do this for them.
And they know that.

(01:18:28):
And what do you do?
Well, you go to Europe.
What else do you do with yourfamily that...
Family time, you would say.
In Naples.
Naples?
Yeah.
Yeah, we like to, you know,again, faith being a big thing,
we take them to church, youknow, on the weekends.
I, you know, cherish myweekends with them.

(01:18:48):
So typically it's church.
My son, who's playing footballright now, plays basketball.
In fact, all three of them arevery active in sports.
Awesome, yeah.
So, you know, you might find meout in the street throwing a
football to my son.
Nice.
Or...
Patriots fan or Browns?
You know, yes.
The Roots is still there.

(01:19:08):
The Boston Roots is stillthere.
Although I will say Cleveland'sa big sports town.
So although we don't catch theBrowns games here in Florida, we
do find ways to, you know,access the Browns games.
So we still have some ClevelandBrowns in us as well.
But, you know, and then here inFlorida, we're either...
My son, who's a pretty avidfootball fan, we're making trips

(01:19:28):
to Miami or to Tampa.
So we go watch both.
But yeah, we love just...
Again, them playing a littleone-on-one basketball with the
girls or with my son, throwingthe football.

He plays football?
He plays for the Gators, yeah.
Oh, he's a Gator.
Okay, awesome.
At Fleischman.
At Fleischman, exactly.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Okay, awesome.

If you weren't in the automotive

world, what would you do?

Unknown (01:19:55):
Wow.

You know, I love what I do.

And as we spoke for the last hour and a half
about serving people.
So if I wasn't in sayautomotive, it would be some
other line of business of justserving people.
And what that is, I'm notreally sure because I love what
I do.
So I've never really eventhought about what would be,

(01:20:25):
what's my alternative.
because I'm so committed towhat I'm doing right now.
But again, I would say it wouldbe some line of work that just
serves others, whatever that maybe.

That's

beautiful.
What a perfect way to end.
I love it.
Really, this has been so coolfor me.
I appreciate you having me.
Likewise.
From the first time I met you,just know that you're a good
man, good soul, and Andeverybody you surround yourself
with around here I know has thesame beliefs.
So keep up the good work.
Hey, likewise.

(01:21:00):
And I'm going to make sure Ifill that special cup that you
gave me on the way in one moretime.
Every time I come in, I'm goingto hit up Dave and say, where's
my cup?
That's right.
It's got your name on it.
I appreciate it, brother.
But yeah, thank you again.
My pleasure.
And I really do appreciate youhaving me on the pod.
Yeah, gosh, it's super cool forus and really nice to...
get to know another great soulin our community.

(01:21:22):
We're blessed to have you inNaples and especially raising
the family you're

raising to see who's going to be a part of our
community because you've done adamn good job on your family.
So

appreciate it.
Thank you.
Thanks again, buddy.
All right.

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Stuff You Should Know

Dateline NBC

All Episodes

Faith, Ferraris & the American Dream: Helder Rosa’s Remarkable Journey 🇺🇸🔥

24/7 News: The Latest