Success Story with Scott D. Clary

Episode: Lessons – Why 99% of Leaders Fail Before 9AM | Glenn Lundy

Air Date: October 14, 2025
Guest: Glenn Lundy (Host of #RiseAndGrind)
Host: Scott D. Clary

Episode Overview

This Lessons episode dives into how Glenn Lundy transformed a struggling car dealership into one of America's top performers through people-first leadership, culture change, and a redefinition of traditional sales roles. Instead of focusing on numbers and profits, Glenn implemented the "LEADD" framework—a daily, servant-leadership-based approach that empowered employees, created raving fans, and shattered industry norms. Glenn and Scott unpack why empathy, development, and putting people first consistently outperform hard sales tactics in any industry.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Traditional vs. Transformative Leadership in Car Sales

• Traditional model:
  • Emphasized profit over people; relied heavily on exhausting hours, regional monopolies, and high-pressure sales (00:53).
  • “The hiring process was filled with many underhanded, seedy people... the industry was built where like we need you there from 7am till 8pm, seven days a week.” — Glenn Lundy [00:53]
• Glenn’s approach:
  • Focus on eradicating negative car business stigmas.
  • Prioritized employees first, customers second, profits third.
  • Mission statement: "I am on a mission to eradicate the negative stigmas associated with the car business. I can do this by making people feel special, feel important and feel like they're the only ones. I will offer an experience that will exceed my customers' expectations today, tomorrow and in the future." [01:49]

2. Building a People-First Culture

• Hiring philosophy:

  • Recruited people with zero or little industry experience to avoid bad habits (02:43).
  • Created an inclusive environment where new hires were shaped by the company’s values.
  • “I wouldn't hire anyone with more than two years' experience. I wanted people that were brand new into the business.” — Glenn Lundy [02:43]

• Culture principles:

  • Employees always trusted and backed before customers—even if the customer was dissatisfied.
  • All decisions filtered through: people > customers > profit.

3. The LEADD Framework

Breakdown of LEADD (Listen, Encourage, Advise, Develop, Daily) [03:37]

• L: Listen

  • “You have two ears and one mouth for a reason...we were always going to listen twice as much as we spoke." — Glenn Lundy [04:03]
  • Listening helped understand employees’ motivations and personal challenges.

• E: Encourage

  • Meetings began with praise and celebrating wins—no matter how small (e.g., picking up trash, good reviews) [05:00].
  • "We would celebrate. Anytime they sold a car...picked up trash in the parking lot, we would celebrate.” [05:19]

• A: Advise

  • Only after listening and encouraging was advice given; earned trust before instructing.
  • “I'll take advice from someone who listens to me and encourages me.” [06:00]

• D: Develop

  • Leaders must actively help employees grow through real training and support—not just directions.
  • “Telling someone what to do and then taking time to actually show them how—two different things.” [06:37]

• D: Daily

  • Consistency is critical; these steps are repeated every day with everyone, in every context.
  • “We listen, encourage, advise, and develop... and we do it daily.” [07:20]

• Notable Insight: The framework isn’t just for car sales but is universally applicable: “This works with your spouse, your children, employees, prospects...every situation.” [07:39]

4. Where the Strategy Came From

• Glenn attributes success to the support and partnership with Josh Cummins (forward-thinking, “servant leader”) (09:52).
• Defining servant leadership:
  • "A servant leader is not someone who says, 'I'll do anything if people ask me.' A servant leader is someone who seeks opportunities to serve.” — Glenn Lundy [10:08]
• Glenn and Josh listed everything that was hated about being an employee and a customer at car dealerships, and systematically did the opposite.
  • “Once we had that list...it really was as easy as doing 180 degrees opposite.” [11:15]

5. Measurable Results & Industry Disruption

• Sales soared from 120 cars to 240, then 300/month, then thousands per year.
• "In 2016 we sold 6,000 cars that year...your average dealership will sell roughly between 1,200 and 1,500 cars a year." — Glenn Lundy [13:05]
• At the peak, sold 1,043 cars in 27 business days in a town of only 9,600 people (13:09–13:21).
• Every salesperson expected and enabled to sell at least one car per day (compared to industry average of one every three days) (13:30).
  • “You’re going to make them work two out of every three days for free...in my culture, that's called slavery, bro.” [13:09]

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On changing the industry:

  • “We didn’t just sell cars, we created fans.” — Glenn Lundy [02:01]

• On leadership philosophy:

  • “If you make that your mantra and that's what you do, you will go incredibly far, you'll have incredible success, and you'll help develop everyone that comes behind you.” — Glenn Lundy [07:56]

• On servant leadership:

  • "A servant leader is someone who seeks opportunities to serve." — Glenn Lundy [10:08]

• On measuring up to industry standards:

  • “We created a culture. Every salesperson on the floor sold at least one car a day, every day...the national average is one car every three days...that's nonsense.” — Glenn Lundy [13:30]

Important Timestamps

• 00:53 — Breakdown of the traditional car dealership culture and why it was failing.
• 01:49 — Lundy shares the company mission statement.
• 02:43 — The hiring strategy: avoid experience, hire for values.
• 03:37–07:56 — Introduction and detailed explanation of the LEADD framework.
• 09:52–11:15 — How Glenn partnered with Josh Cummins to transform leadership through servant leadership and “do the opposite” lists.
• 13:05–13:30 — Sales results: comparing dealership performance to industry averages and the transformative outcomes.

Summary

This episode illustrates how genuine, people-focused leadership can revolutionize old-school industries. Glenn Lundy’s story demonstrates that success doesn’t require ruthless competition or “hard sell” tactics; rather, investing in employees, listening, encouraging, and consistently developing a team leads to dramatic, measurable growth. The LEADD framework provides a blueprint anyone can use to foster winning, resilient, and human-centered workplaces.