Name: Kerry Cepero

Title: Vice President of Market Development & Strategic Accounts

Organisation: Cenntro Automotive Corporation

With over 20 years’ experience in Automotive, Kerry Cepero has worked all the way from the repair shop to the role of Vice President of Market Development and Strategic Accounts for CENNTRO, a leading global manufacturer of electric vehicle products.

He brings a robust skillset to build, manage, and expand business relationships, open up new markets for Cenntro’s unique line-up of zero-emissions vehicles, and partner with initiatives to help increase EV Fleet adoption in the commercial space.

Thank you to the 2,000 leaders who’ve generously done the 7 Questions on Leadership!

I hope Kerry's answers will encourage you in your leadership journey. Enjoy!

Cheers,

Jonno White

1. What have you found most challenging as a leader?

I have always found it challenging when I am thrown in the middle of a pool of different personalities, viewpoints, and mind-sets trying to win in the market space as a team. The passions involved in trying to be the best in class always causes clashes internally as different minds create different paths to win. How do I create a game-plan to win using everyone's input without harming team moral if I have to make changes in how we implement them?

2. How did you become a leader? Can you please briefly tell the story?

The best leaders begin at the bottom doing the things no one wants to do. I felt that if I want to be the best leader, I had to be the best front-line soldier. Saying yes to the projects everyone else passes on. When I first started working in Auto, I learned early that no one likes putting tires away on tire delivery day.

It was sweaty work, back breaking, and it was time consuming. As a Service Advisor, I was supposed to have the techs get it done. Since I was a tech at first, I knew that after having worked hard on cars, that it was demoralizing to be ordered to head into the tire room to offload 150 tires from a truck while your hands ache, your back is sore, and your elbows hurt from wrenching.

So instead of having the techs do it, I did it myself. I took off my service advisor uniform and did the work. Soon, the techs picked up what I was doing and had offered me a new level of respect as they accepted me as one of their own, and in an Automotive shop, that is the most important thing to have.

When I became General Manager, I still threw tires on tire day, twice a week, as well as sell, manage, recruit & train, work on cars and build a business. My stores became #1 in Commercial Fleet sales, and it was due to having my team subscribe to the idea that we fight this fight together, and we all contribute to the effort.

3. How do you structure your work days from waking up to going to sleep?

I wake up around 7 am and for the first two hours, I stretch and work out, walk our two Dachshunds Princess & Puck, and then watch content that motivates me to be the man I am expected to be, to stay humble, and fight for those that depend on me.

After that, as Vice President, I organize my days with a mix of virtual meetings, client calls, email tasks, and internal projects on my Outlook calendar.

I take an hour every day to have lunch with my wife Monica, and then I'll go deep into the evening with West Coast or international calls and meetings. Normally until 7 pm, but at times I have been known to jump on calls at 9 pm my time.

Once I am done, dinner with my wife, call my kids, and then hit the couch to watch the news, Law & Order, and Formula E racing content, whilst still answering text messages or responding to DMs on LinkedIn. As a VP, I never really shut it down, I just slow it down. Walk the dogs and hit the sack anywhere between 12 am and 1 am to do it again the next day!

4. What's a recent leadership lesson you've learned for the first time or been reminded of?

The most successful leaders are not sharks, but individuals that rely on empathy and being a good human being to those that sit across the table from them.

5. What's one book that has had a profound impact on your leadership so far? Can you please briefly tell the story of how that book impacted your leadership?

Sell or Be Sold by Grant Cardone. No book creates and tunes a mindset for sales and life in general quite like this one. Everything in life is a sale, everything attained in life is a commission.

6. If you could only give one piece of advice to a young leader, what would you say to them?

Crush your competition, see them driven before you, and enjoy the success of your sales. ;)