About

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For the last 14 years, I sit in the General Manager’s chair and lived everything you’re living right now.

I started in parts, moved to the service drive, sold cars, ran sales teams, and eventually became President/Executive Manager of Pine Belt Motors – one of the few founding members who built an entire dealership group from the ground up. Together we grew a startup store into the largest automotive group in the Pine Belt with annual sales of $450+ million.

Along the way we:

• Took new-car sales from almost nothing to a 900% increase
• Turned around struggling fixed-ops and sales departments
• Managed 250+ people across multiple rooftops
• Navigated every challenge that comes with family ownership (because yes – the owner is my father-in-law)
• Went through 10 buy-sells, multiple DMS and CRM changes.
• Dealt with giant egos, generational drama, turnover nightmares, and every communication breakdown you can imagine

… and somehow kept the stores profitable, the customers happy, and most of the team sane.

The last couple of years, the only part of the job that really made me happy was teaching leadership, coaching younger managers, and helping good people become great leaders that can actually move the needle.

So at the end of 2025, I’m starting something new.

From the GM Chair, focuses on, what I was already doing: helping GMs, fixed-ops directors, sales managers, and owners build stronger teams, fix broken cultures, and lead in a way that doesn’t cost them their health or their family.

If you’re tired of the same recycled corporate training and want straight talk from someone who’s actually run stores for the last decade and a half – you’re in the right place.

Let’s build the kind of dealership people want to work at (and buy from) for the long haul.

Jared Waldrop, 14-Year General Manager → Now Leadership Coach & Trainer for the Automotive Industry in Hattiesburg, Mississippi

Jared Waldrop is the founder of From the GM Chair. After 14 years as President/Executive Manager of Pine Belt Motors, he also coaches dealership leaders and their teams full-time. A current Commissioner on the Mississippi Motor Vehicle Commission, Board Member for the Mississippi Automobile Dealers Association and lifelong student of leadership, Jared delivers real-world training that actually works because he’s lived every bit of it.