World-Renowned Dealer: “I was In A Refugee Camp!” Now I Sell MILLIONS to Irelands Elite! Nadia Adan

Who taught you sex cells?

Kim Kardashian, Dolly Parton.

It does sell. Sex does sell.

A little bit of cleavage.

Like, come on, guys.

Do you know what I mean?

They're just boobs, sir.

Nadia, I don't think there is another person on the planet

with a story quite like yours.

Talk us through how you came from Somalia.

When the war happened, we lost everything.

It was a couple of years of refugee camps in Europe.

We were in London homeless for a while

till eventually we ended up in Ireland.

I used to be a stockbroker.

I quit my job before the pandemic,

saved up enough money to have a couple of cars

and I rented a yard and I built it up from there.

A Lamborghini Huracan came up in the trade.

I knew it was a huge risk.

I pretty much had all my money in this one Lamborghini.

I did a TikTok video with it that got 30 million views.

So January 2020, I opened up Ashford Motors.

March 2020, lockdown.

The time has now come, you must stay at home

to stop the disease spreading.

I was like, how the hell am I going to sell cars?

What's been the toughest day in the last five years

doing your job?

Oh, there's been so many,

that honestly, there really has, and I think...

Nadia, some guests that sit in that seat

have similar stories to others that have been there,

but with you, I don't think there is another person

on the planet with a story quite like yours.

So in your own words, who are you and what do you do?

Yeah, first of all, thank you so much for having me on.

This is the first UK podcast I've done, believe it or not.

So I'm super excited and the fact that we're sitting in a van

in the middle of a manor here in the UK,

we couldn't have picked a better place for it.

So my name is Nadia.

I own a supercar dealership or a high-end premium dealership.

I actually have two, I've just opened up my second one

in the last couple of months.

So yeah, previous to that, I used to be a stockbroker.

I quit my job before the pandemic because I just hated it

and I saved up enough money to have a couple of cars

and I rented a yard and I built it up from there.

And I just really built up the social media on the early days.

We've got about 500,000 followers across social media.

And I suppose I used all my assets, everything that I have

to sort of push the cars out there,

but then deliver on the business side of things behind the scenes.

So yeah, it's been a crazy journey.

It's not easy to deliver on the business side of things

while trading clearly with the accent in Ireland.

Because doesn't a Lamborghini or any supercar

cost twice the amount of money than it does on kind of English soil?

Yeah, and you know what?

A lot of people don't know this because when I put it out there,

it's like, people are like, really?

Is it that expensive?

I'm like, yeah, that's what we're dealing with.

So it's called, you know, VRT, vehicle registration tax.

So when you buy a car from the UK and you put it onto Irish plates,

you have to pay the VRT, you have to pay VAT, you have to pay import duties.

And that pretty much brings it to double the price.

So I always use the example because it's the one I was always

the most public about and I did videos on it.

Lamborghini Aventador, 2012 beautiful car.

I think it only had 14,000 miles of source for a client mine.

And to put it on Irish plates, it cost us 113,000 euro.

So the point of it is, is that if I want to drive a similar car

to somebody in the UK, I need to be on double the money.

So not only does that just make it a very tiny market in Ireland,

like even Gulf War, let's take a Gulf War, which like, you see,

you pretty much see anyone driving a Gulf War.

Whereas in Ireland, it's kind of rare enough to see a Gulf War.

You're looking at me going, Gulf War, like, what's so what's so rare about that?

But it is because say it costs 20,000 sterling.

By the time you get it to Irish plates, it could be 40,000, 50,000.

So like who in the right mind is going to pay 50 grand for a Gulf War?

Because somebody who's earning 50 grand, they've moved on a Gulf War.

They're maybe into their M3s or into their M2s.

They're gone up a price bracket.

So it's just, it's so annoying.

And it just makes the market really hard to sell a car.

So you have to really hold on to your prices and hold on to cars.

Sometimes I sat on cars for eight months for a year and you just have to have big balls.

And I hate saying that, but you do because you're like, oh, please sell,

please sell, please sell.

And then one day it sells.

And I suppose the beauty of just doing that is that it elevates your brand.

So you just have to go through it.

So I always make sure I have flash stuff on the forecourt,

whether it's my own personal collection, whether it's cars on buying in.

And then I opened up a second garage a couple of months ago and actually happened by accident.

I didn't mean for it to happen.

I kind of the trade ins I was getting that wasn't really like, you know,

with the brand in Ashford, because I've spent so long now building that brand

and going through the stress that I was like, you throw up a Toyota up there.

You've already diluted your brand.

You know, people are like, well, I'm not going to buy an Aston offer.

She has a couple of Toyota's up as well.

So to try and differentiate that, I opened up Ashford approved

and it kind of funnels the trade ins as well.

So it's like cash flow in the background.

If I have those quiet stressful weeks, if they come and go,

then there's a couple of Toyota's moving in the background and that's paying the bills.

And then the other side of it, my followers, you know, so many young followers now

and they want to buy a car from Ashford.

So we actually do very well with golfers.

We put up a golf or it's gone like that from Instagram, which is amazing.

Now, as much as it's difficult to do that business in Ireland

and you've only just scratched the surface on why that's the case,

I still think it's probably easier than doing business in Somalia.

Oh, yeah, I don't think there's buying Lambos in Somalia.

And that's really relevant because you are yet that's where your story began.

So, I mean, talk us through how you came from Somalia

and where you lived in Somalia and the more age you came over to Ireland.

And why like, how did that happen?

Yeah, so it's it's me, my mom left Somalia.

I was quite young, so I don't remember a lot of it.

I was probably about three or four when we left.

It was just after the Somalian war.

So everyone remembers Mogadishu, Black Hawk Down, all those types of things.

So it was it was when the war started and we actually had a very good life in Somalia.

I, you know, I've told stories of my mom having her own businesses and stuff like that.

So we had a good life and when the war happened, we lost everything.

So like a lot of people did and kind of the mind frame at the time was get out, out.

So we did, we got out.

Now, it wasn't an easy journey.

We didn't just end up in Ireland.

There was a couple of years of refugee camps in Europe, displacement.

We were in London homeless for a while till eventually we ended up in Ireland.

And back then you sort of had family members that went to different places

and some would say, I'll come here, you know, come to this place.

So it was at a time where a lot of Somalis fled, Somalis fled, sorry.

And I think it's something like 7000000 people at the time got displaced.

And actually it's one of the biggest wars that it hasn't people have never recovered.

It's lost generations because they lost 30 years and they've never recovered since.

Now half of the state is peaceful now.

So like Somaliland is peaceful and they're doing a lot of amazing things.

They've really come up, but I've never been back because we lost all my mom's family

and it's just been me and my mom.

So I didn't really have, we didn't really have anything to go back to.

And, you know, sometimes you say, oh, go home, go back to where you're from.

And I say, well, I don't know where I could go or where I wouldn't fit in there.

I'm Irish. I don't think I would fit in there if I went back and I was who I was, you know.

So, but apart from that, when we got to Ireland, the Irish people were, you know,

and I talk about this very publicly because I think it's so important,

especially in today's narrative, to hear how good Ireland was to me

because I wouldn't be, I wouldn't be where I am.

I wouldn't have been able to have the education, be able to run the business,

all these things and have the platform and have Irish businesses support me,

have the media have me on.

You know, some people say, oh, Irish people are racist.

You're always going to get a very small percentage of people who you can convince them.

They're just going to be whatever you're doing or whatever you're saying or what colour you are.

If you're gay, if you're whatever, they're always going to say something.

But the majority of Irish people, I always say, they know what it's like.

You know, you remember, you know, no blacks, no dogs, no Irish, they're on that list.

They know exactly what it's like to be treated like that.

So as long as I think you're meeting them halfway and you want to integrate and you want to kind

of put in the work and graft, like me and my mum did, then they're so welcoming, you know.

And they really did welcome us.

We started off and we asked for asylum.

We, mum, when we got her papers, she could work, she worked three jobs.

She put me through school.

I really didn't get on in school because I think it was the few years of displacement

and just her working a lot.

So I didn't have like, you know, the sort of disciplined home life that I think she just

thought I'd pick up, but I went the opposite way.

I was a big messer with my friends.

I was out drinking in the fields.

I was running around.

I, she was dragging me back and, you know, fighting with me all the time.

You're smiling because you probably, you went through the same thing as well, did you?

And, and especially her being a Somali and being Muslim and all this.

And, you know, I was having my friends and I grew up in a kind of a very normal estate in Tallah.

And, you know, my friends became my family, you know, because I didn't have brothers and

sisters, no aunties, no uncles.

So you didn't really have a family to kind of go to the weekends and have that.

So my friends became my family really.

And then went through school.

That was tough.

I didn't really, you know, enjoy, I liked English.

I got on with my teachers.

They always said I was the bit of the Joker, but I got on with them.

And I think I was able to sort of fit in anywhere.

And I got the accent quite young, the Irish accent.

And I was able just to be a social, social comedian, I think, and get into situations

and just survive.

Maybe it was a survival thing.

And then went to college, did my degree in finance and my mum at the time really pushed me.

And it was just after the recession.

So it was all about getting a very, you know, comfortable job at nine to five.

And my mum really pushed me to finance.

I didn't really want to do it, but I didn't have a choice.

So if you met my mum.

Why did she, what do you know about what your mum did in Somalia?

You said that she was a successful businesswoman.

I think it's probably just valid to say that most UK, especially British white males,

opinion on what goes on in Somalia, they probably think pirates straight away.

Then they think dodgy business.

We know some pirates.

Or we, that's all we kind of probably see on the surface level.

I'd love you to tell us about, like, what was that background in business?

Because clearly it means that it's so strong, whatever's flowing, that you can come to Ireland

with nothing and get to where you are now.

So what was the story?

Yeah, we were supposed to have the business ethic to start with nothing and start something.

So she had her own airline leasing business, believe it or not.

So in the 80s, she used to go to Moscow and she used to lease Antoinoffs and Cessnas.

And she worked with the UN to deliver medical supplies, medical goods into Mogadishu at the

time. So that was sort of her business she got into.

And then when the war happened, the airspace shut down.

So they weren't allowing anyone flying in and out and she lost her business overnight.

And she had a few other things going on as well.

So that was what she was into.

She says the same thing when she was 15.

She sold her mother's goats and got money and got a ticket, went to Germany.

And she was staying in Germany for like three months when she was in her teens.

And she was in the hotels and running around and living this life.

So that's who she was.

And if you saw her back then, pictures of her in the 80s of sitting in an Antoinoff cockpit.

And it's funny because anytime I've said this publicly, there's always one little troll going,

oh, that never happened.

And then I do a call out where I produce the picture of her sitting in the Antoinoff

with a firm mink coat in the 80s in her big afro.

And it's like, I come with receipts.

I don't, I don't bullshit.

And so, yeah, you know, that's where I'm coming from.

I suppose that's my mum.

Yeah.

I wanted to figure out which bits were still from your Somalian roots inside

what everything that you do on a day to day.

Because the first thing I ever heard you say when I was around you was,

right, guys, are we going for a Guinness later?

So clearly Ireland and quite the effect on you quite quickly.

Oh, yes.

But when you were being pushed to go into finance, your mother,

did you still feel that you wanted to start your own business, that that wasn't quite the

right thing for you?

And why did you kind of feel that way?

So I always felt like it wasn't right for me, but I just kept pushing and pushing and saying,

no, I have to make this right for me.

Because what other choice do I have?

I've done the degree mum pushed me to do a Masters in Trinity, which is like a huge thing.

And she didn't even have the money at the time to do it.

She had to do a payment plan.

And she dragged me to the Dean's office and she said,

you're taking my daughter in this year.

And so she did all these things because she was like, no, I know her.

If she goes out there, she's going to taste money.

And then that's it.

She'll never go to school again or whatever.

She just knew I had that personality.

So yeah, it kind of takes a village, I suppose, to help and support someone like that as me.

And I think that's why these days with kids and the way the school system is set up,

it's not set up perfectly for everyone to go through it.

And it's important, I think, for people to realize that and realize that everyone has

a different way to be successful, whatever that is.

You know, it's not clear.

It's not black and white.

So yeah, went into my first job, which was an equity analyst.

And it was a very privileged job.

I was on a small team of portfolio managers and buyers.

And I was the only graduate that they hired in like 20 years.

So it was an opportunity that I could have gone anywhere with it if I stuck to it.

So it was a very privileged position.

I was on really good money.

I was traveling to London for analyst days.

I was going to New York.

I was doing this.

Anyone who wanted that job would have loved it.

But I wasn't happy.

I loved.

I used to basically analyze companies to invest in.

And my sector was the consumer sector.

But so what I loved was looking at different businesses and looking at the different brands

and how they did their marketing differently.

That's kind of what I loved about it.

And what I hated was having to sit on an Excel all day

and put in numbers into models and do all of that.

So I was really, it was like, you know, ying and yang.

I was really fighting with myself every day.

And through all this, I had to do different exams.

So I was doing my CFA exams.

I was doing my stockbroking exams.

I was like, are these exams ever stop?

Had you already sold a car by that point?

I'm coming up yet.

I was just about to sell my first car.

So I left that job, went into stockbroking.

I thought I'd like stockbroking more because there's more sales

and took me out of doing the analyst bit.

So went into stockbroking, did my stockbroking.

So I was working with all these traders in what they call a shark tank.

So it's basically this big glass room and all these traders,

and they're all really high energy on loads of money.

They all have M5s, port turbos, Range Rover sports.

Like they're on, you know, they love their cars,

even though they're driving their car for five minutes every day.

It makes no sense why they have these big cars, but they do.

They have lots of, lots of speakers.

Why wouldn't you?

And in Ireland as well, like if you have a really rare car,

you're really noticed.

You know, it's like here, I hate saying it here

because it's normal here to see a Lamborghini drive down the road.

You see a Lambo on Irish roads.

It's like, you might not see one, you might see two in a year or one,

you know, they don't come out that often.

So, yeah, so basically got my first loan, bought my first car at the time,

and it was a 08 320 M Sport BMW White Coupe, the E92 shape.

You, I know, you know what, don't you?

The nicest shape in, I actually had an M3, that shape as well,

manual as well, and absolutely loved it.

So I thought it was the shit.

My first loan, my first car, I'm in the trading room, I'm great.

So I ended up selling it myself as well,

because I didn't get the best experience in a dealership at the time.

It wasn't the main reason, but I just decided to throw it up privately anyway.

But I remember getting a really crap offer in a dealership.

And were you analyzing that experience in the dealership?

I was, and I, you know what?

It's something I really, I still hear about now, you know,

and it's not all dealerships, it's some really amazing dealerships,

but there is a general consensus of women when they walk into a dealership,

that they feel looked down upon, that they feel like they're being swindled,

that there's that like dodgy car salesman vibe, that they, you know,

they talk to the husband, they don't talk to the wife,

they throw out the technical terms, then they don't know what they're saying.

And they're like, oh, sorry, love, you're only gonna get like a fiver for your car.

And they're like, but why?

And then they throw out all these terms, right?

And confuse girls.

So that's kind of, that was kind of my feeling.

And I didn't have a, you know, dad or like brother,

or like someone to go to go with me, you know?

And we really like concentrate on that kind of side of things at my dealership

because it's female rants.

So like when women come into us and I have a client list of females,

whether they're all top CEOs or founders or own salons or, you know,

they don't have dads, husbands,

they really feel like they can just pick up both.

Yeah, they pick up the phone.

This is what I want.

This is my budget.

Can you sort it out for me?

And you kind of realize they just don't want the bullshit.

They don't want the fat, they just want a good deal.

And they want to know that if something goes wrong in the warranty,

that they'll be looked after.

So I just decided to stick up the car myself on the advertising platform at the time.

And on my lunch break, Tesco met the customer,

sold the car, actually made profit on it to what I paid.

And I remember it was at that point I said, Jesus, that was fun.

That was a good crack.

And I knew nothing about cars.

Like, you know, I knew I liked a nice looking car.

And it just goes to show you don't have to be a mechanic to sell cars.

You don't have to get oil underneath your nails.

I always say you just have to know what a good product is

and always buy at a good price.

It really is just comes down to watch a buy it out.

Because then you'll always sell it at a profit, you know, if you get a good deal.

So cars didn't run through your vase in your earliest years or anything like that.

It was that moment, not necessarily spot.

Yeah, I think it was the more the deal and the meeting someone

and the bit of the haggling and just the bit of crack talking to someone.

And then I found out that, like, you know, when you're selling a car,

it's really about the interaction you're having with someone

and then meeting at a common ground, like finding out something

that they might know someone or they might have a hobby that you have

or just getting that common ground with them and then striking a deal.

You know, people buy from people and I really even believe that like privately, you know.

But maybe I think the guy thought he was getting the better of me

and I was just pretending and I've done it lots of times.

I've pretended to be the silly little girl.

I do it all the time.

I remember I was on a TV debate about EVs and I'm going to let out a secret here.

But I was on with these kind of green agenda type against they wanted EVs.

And I was like before against EVs.

And just before I went on to the TV, I was like, what are these cameras?

Like I pretend to be really, really, really dumb before I went on.

And I was really like prepped well.

And I just remember looking back and they were completely like,

they didn't know what to say because I just came across as so stupid just before I went.

And they were like, she's just not what she's talking about.

This will be an easy one.

So you're using the things that you know

who people are thinking like where you were talking about the car dealer sees the woman

come into the dealership and you're flipping that basically on its head and going,

how can I use this to my advantage?

Nail on the head, boobs, female.

You know, I always say like when I did my first, so I can go on to the sort of social media

aspect, sold the car, made a profit, loved it, did it a few more times,

my own personal collection and really enjoyed it has changed cars.

And then I was kind of thinking to myself, maybe this is something I could actually do.

So I was kind of doing a side hustling on the side for a bit.

And then just before the pandemic hit, I sort of made the decision in my head

that I had enough money to have a couple of cars and I had enough money to rent a yard for a year

and that I would give it a go.

And if it doesn't work out, boo, I'll go back to it.

And I won't tell my mom anything.

She was thought I was still like working.

What? Oh yeah.

Why?

Because oh, she was like, it took her ages to actually accept the fact

that I left this high flying job in finance,

which is crazy considering that she's really entrepreneurial.

But the thing was in her mind, she's been through the bottom

and how tough it is to start from scratch when you've lost everything with no education

or nothing behind you.

And she worked so hard to put me through school that she like that was the path.

Me saying like screw that all those years that you've really struggled to put me through

school and pay for everything and blah, blah.

And I'm just going to go sell cars on the side of the road.

Do you know what I mean?

And she was telling everyone, oh, my daughter's going to become a CEO of a Bank of America.

You know, it was like, that was my path, you know?

And she was so heavily invested in that, like very heavily invested in that.

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So give us a snapshot because we're going to go back,

but just give the audience a snapshot of where you are now.

Like because you've just built your second dealership, right?

You're out of that yard. Yeah.

It's insane. Yeah.

It looks amazing. Yeah.

You've sold, God knows how many supercars. Yeah.

You've got how many people working for you?

So we're six in total. Yeah. Yeah.

And we're small, we could have a lot more, but I'm very much, it's about the team, you know.

And how many years on from that moment that we're talking about is this picture?

Five years. So, sorry, six, so 2020.

So just before the pandemic, I quit my job.

It was January and I remember it because the pandemic happened in March.

So January 2020, I opened up Ashford Motors in literally,

I won't say dingy because it's actually, it's a nice little yard.

It's a nice little yard in the middle of an industrial estate, no road frontage,

no one knows you're there. And March 2020 lockdown.

Everything's closed and I was like, how the hell am I going to sell cars?

So that's when I went on Instagram.

That's when I went on TikTok and I started doing my videos and they started going viral.

And do you ever put your face on camera before?

Just on my personal pages. I think I kind of grew up in the ear of the Kardashians.

And I sort of use a little bit of like Kim's, not to her extent of what she did,

but like a little bit of her kind of marketing, personal branding and also like using, you know,

what you have, you know, my great tips and all that.

It's just become a household name thing now. So I just say it.

I just go with it to kind of, and then the controversy of that

because people went crazy. My first video I did, so any guesses,

I don't know how much you've gone back, but it's been a journey.

So my first video I was doing, they're called any guesses.

So anytime I'd get like a car with cool exhausting, I'd lean and I go on my hunkers,

I get the camera and like obviously a bit of cleavage, a little bit of cleavage,

like, come on guys, do you know what I mean? They're just boobs.

And I said that on national TV as well. And everyone went mental.

But I go any guesses and I get people to guess the car.

So a couple of things were happening was the videos were,

I got like 5000000 views on that video and I actually sold,

it was an 0808 Audi or HN1, sold it from that TikTok,

which I actually bought a few years back later and I own it now.

And that was a big moment for me that I, because I remember at the time wishing

I could have had enough money to keep it because I absolutely loved it.

Video and viral, 2000000 views that sold the car from the video.

But then the controversy of it, that's when it all kicked off.

Everybody was like, they're bringing women back, you know, nothing about cars.

You know, you can't do that. Then I had people like from the industry

kind of saying, this is shocking behavior. I was going for a massive accreditation at the time,

which is the society of the Irish motor industry. I'm sure you guys have one in the UK.

So this is the biggest one in Ireland. I was going to try and get in as a member.

And at the time, you know, you go through the committee and then you decide whether they'll

let you be a member. And at the time, somebody mentioned in the comments, oh, I was at a Simi

meeting and she's then giving the whole motor trade such a bad name, blah, blah, blah. And I

believed all of that at the time. And I remember crying in my office one night saying, am I after

doing maybe, maybe I've got this all wrong. I've totally got this all wrong. And then two days

later, I got a call from Simi to say, oh, you've been accepted in. And I remember saying to myself,

I'm never going to listen to a troll again, because this is complete.

Do you think they were just threatened? I think it was something new. I think it was, you know,

a woman. You don't see there's a lot of females that are like in the garages in, you know,

they're part of the family and they maybe run at the business side of things and stuff like that.

But you don't see the women putting their face out there as like, I am the brand. dealership.

It's my super car dealership. I'm going to run things my way. I'm going to do it. I'm going to

do a bloody good job. And I can stand next to you toe to toe. And I've earned my position here.

And I have stories of like over the years, over those next coming years of certain dealers,

very close to me, they know who they are, that I had deals done, deposits paid, and then those

dealers would convince that customer not to buy the car off me. And obviously very early on.

And there's a lot of that in Ireland. There's a lot of begrudgery. And I don't know, because

you don't see it in England in UK and America. And it's very different. And I think Bono said

it years ago that in America, if you look at somebody with the big Hollywood house, you look

at them and say, wow, I want that one day. How do I get that? I'm going to work hard to get that.

In Ireland, it's kind of the opposite. They say, how did they get that? Or they must be doing

something wrong to get that. They kind of put you down. So there is a little bit of that going on

in Ireland. I don't know what it is. But then on the flip side of it, I had a lot of amazing

male dealers that gave me credit at the beginning, because you need a bit of credit when you're

starting. You don't just get it from nowhere. They would give me stock to sell for them. They

would give me a hand. They would show me the ropes. They would give me advice on how to do

things. So I was very, very lucky because I wouldn't be where I was without the help of my

colleagues that were good to me. But then there were ones that really tried to really destroy me

as well. Where did you get, if you still were right on the precipice of telling your mum about

what you were doing? Where did you get the self-confidence from not to fold when you had all

those initial comments? Who would give you that? Because you talk about growing up without a father

at a brunt. I'm going, okay, I can see that a mum's clearly entrepreneurial, which is not pushing her

in that direction. Where's that bit coming from? Has there been a figure in your life? Or do you

think it was just the rooms that you were in quite literally? Yeah, I think it was all the

experiences I picked up along the way. I think definitely, and I look back and I don't regress

doing the degree or the masters. I'm really happy she pushed me to do them because that all gave

me little skills along the way that's really helped me now. And even those jobs I did,

I was able to stand in a room and speak to a CEO about a company that I wanted to invest in.

Or I could speak to a homeless man on the street because I've been there as well.

So I really feel like, and I get emotional because I really do feel like I've seen it,

like I've been there, I know exactly how it feels. And I think I always push to be positive

in everything I do. And even now when I do different videos, I do my charities and stuff

like that, I'm always pushing out positivity because I think it wins in the end, genuinely it does.

So when did you tell your mum what you were doing?

When did I tell her? I think it's when I started, I think it was after a year or so or close to

doing it. A year. Because that context on its own is absolutely insane. The fact that you can do

something for a year without telling your mum who really is your everything. My family, yeah,

my only family, yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh yeah, because I was like, she's going to kill me. Like I remember

I got a tattoo and I was quite young and I didn't tell her for like 10 years. She used to think it

was like one of those stick on tattoos. There's a guy and he does these videos and I'm picturing

it now. I think it was, was it Jeremy Lynch who did the African dad series? Oh, I love that. I just

can't, yeah. And he, he basically, for anyone that hasn't seen it, played out a stereotypical,

maybe to what sort of white British people think African dad would treat their child, which would

be different to what we've grown up with. My, my, my, my mate growing up is very subdued accountant

dad wouldn't say, go to your room now. There'll be none of that. And this, this series that Jeremy

Lynch did was absolutely fabulous. It was, is that almost, I'm getting the tones of that,

that you had that kind of fear and fright. Otherwise you'd have told her. Absolutely.

Like it's African moms, there's nothing wrong with it. That's exactly what they're like, you know

what I mean? And so here's me. I've been brought up in Ireland since I was very young. So I'm Irish

and all my friends are Irish and my day to day experience Irish and I'm literally, I feel like

I'm Irish through and through. You drink Guinness. And I drink Guinness and yeah, that's not the

only thing I drink, but not as much as I used to know. But like, you know, and then you go home

and you have a different culture. Now mom was always very open with stuff as well. Like she

wouldn't have been quite extremist in one way either because she had, she lived a worldly life

herself when she was young. So she was very open in some ways, but she was still very strict in

other ways. And if she was her way or no way, so she's that very like, she's gotten better over

the years, obviously as I've grown up and stuff, she's had to kind of let me do my own thing.

And that's fair enough. And she sees where it's all going now. And she's, when she sees people

like, like recognizing me or coming up to her, going, are you Nadia's mom? That happens to her

a lot now. And she's, she's really proud now. And it's amazing. And, you know, she'll always be

looked after by me now. So it doesn't, it doesn't matter. Like, do you know what I mean? So yeah,

it's just, I couldn't tell her at the time because I didn't have anything to show for it.

And she would have just baited me around the place.

It doesn't matter how old she would have chased me down the street with that slipper and threw the

slipper at me. Is the memory of you telling her? Oh God, I think I told her on the phone when she

wasn't in the country. Yeah, I think she was like back because like her family had ties with Kenya.

So she's like, she would have gone back and visited Kenya quite a bit. And we still do.

And I think she was over there for like a long while, holiday, like a couple of

months or something. And then that's when I told her on the phone, because I was like,

she's not going to be back for a few months. That's the perfect time.

Did you just refer to her as her family? Yeah.

Rather than your family, because that life's almost completely separate from what you've

done. Yeah, there you go. It's weird because I've never met them. I've never really spent

time with them. So like her, they'd be like, you know, just relatives and stuff like that.

It's like, you know about them and you might have talked to them on the phone or maybe you've

met them once in my life. So yeah, it's very much you do. You're right. It's psychologically,

it's crazy, isn't it? You feel like it's kind of like, oh, it's her family. It's not mine.

It's weird even though it is mine. Have you ever had the desire then or do you have that burning

desire to go back to Somalia? I do. I don't know. It's weird. I don't know if I have the

burning desire to go back to Somalia, but I have been back to Kenya a couple of times.

And we have a few friends there and ties there and stuff and I have gone back. And I would love

my long term dream is to build a safari lodge. Yeah, in Kenya. Like it's something that I've

kind of been working on slowly over the years. And that would be my dream to have that because

whenever I do go back to the likes of Kenya and I'm around the animals and I'm doing safari and

it's just a completely, I love it. I really feel calm. Like even in Ireland now, you know,

where I'm after buying the second garage, built the showrooms in the middle of the countryside.

It's kind of like the Cotsworlds. It's in a place called Wicklow, which is the Garden

County of Ireland. It's really green and mountainous. It's beautiful. And that's where I live and

that's where my garage is in Ashford and Ashford Motors. I know there's an Ashford in the UK as

well. So who knows there might be Ashford Motors in the UK one day. So yeah, I just love the countryside.

So that's kind of and when I built the showroom, I did it with actually Tom Harkley,

a stage was a big inspiration to me. And I was just on stage with Tom Harkley at the weekend.

And this was at a time where I didn't even know who like Tom didn't know me. We never spoken,

but he was an inspiration to me when I built my showroom because I wanted it to look like an

estate. I can see that. And then it hears me like a year or two on stage with them. So I just think

like you manifest stuff and it actually happens. You're pulling apart the vision of what he built

in the same way that you'd pull it apart as a company you were looking into a few years prior.

Yeah. It's also fascinating. And I love the lake and like I'm going to build my own lake one day as

well. I love like pulling apart people's brains because if you took you clearly Irish like Irish

roots, Irish and every one, but I can't imagine someone necessarily born in Ireland being that

comfortable going to Kenya, feeling like it's a home, feeling like they're rooted in there,

feeling like they belong. And it's amazing that even just being born somewhere or having those

roots or having three years somewhere else still has that impact on you and you go somewhere.

Yeah. I think it's like, you know, when some people go and move to Spain and they retire in

Spain or something because they went a few times in their life and they love it and they're like,

oh, when I retire, I'm going to go, I think it's a bit like that. It's like my day to day life is

Ireland and I love it, but I'd love to get to a point one day where I could maybe retire and like

go to Kenya and live on my lodge on the farm for like three months a year when it's cold,

especially when it's cold in Ireland because it's very cold. It's like here, same weather.

So I think it's more so that that you just find a place because like when I'm here,

it's so busy. Like, I mean, I don't get a break. I really don't. And people, I do,

I work seven days a week and I'm not an early bird. So I don't really work early, but I'll work like

the weekends, the Saturdays, the Sundays. And when I started the business in the early days,

I was open. Listen to this from 9am till 11pm. And that was on my website and that was on the car

zone. And people, I remember the phone used to ring at like 10 and people used to test me to

be like, is this a joke? And I'm like, no, no, I'm open. What car are you inquiring about?

And it just meant that in the early days, I got those extra little sales

that the garages would be closed at five wouldn't get.

Is that something you got from Tom Artley?

I think he does the same, doesn't he? Yeah, then yeah, must have been. Yeah, absolutely.

Or to be honest, which I think was more so desperation at the beginning because in the

pandemic, so I was like open on a Saturday and a Sunday. So I did Sunday appointments as well

from and we still do Sunday appointments. So we facilitate them. We're just a little bit more now

sort of stricter with them in the sense that we'll say to the customer, look,

are you really serious about the car? Because we're going to come in just for you and open

up and stuff like that. And I think that's fair. And someone like, yes, I just I'm very serious

about it. I just want to come and see it. I only have a Sunday off because most truckers work six

days a week. So, you know, most people only like work, they have only a Sunday off to see cars.

And I used to look back at like a traditional showrooms, traditional dealers, traditional

men and women in suits. And I used to say, well, what's not working here? Okay, why don't I close

on a Monday when Mondays are kind of dead and open up on a Sunday when families are out and about.

And that's their day off. So I never understood why garages close on a Sunday because it makes

sense. And the amount of deals I used to get on a Sunday, like that really gave me that extra boost

in my cash that year, or the extra revenue I needed to push me into the following year, you know?

What other than the R8, obviously, which came very quickly? What other significant deal was a

big milestone for you in the beginning? So I say, I think in the first year or two, I was just doing

like normal cars. So like 2012 Passat, 2013 Golf VW Golf 1.6 TDI, Suzuki Jimneys were like my little,

like you buy them for two grand, sell them for four. That's a Safari car. car,

exactly. Well, if you want to go proper Safari, I take a Defender, Defender 90 to the Safari.

Then a Lamborghini Huracan came up in the trade. And it was a trader, I was sort of dealing with

the time and he said, I'll give you the car and I'll give you three months' credit to pay for it.

So I knew it was a huge risk. I knew, A, I could actually sell the car and make money.

B, if it didn't sell, I'd just throw it back to the UK because what happens is if you buy

a car on Irish plates and you sell it back to the UK, you could actually export and get the

VRT back. So a lot of people do that as well. If they can't sell the car in Ireland, they'll just

find a dealer. He'll buy it over in the UK. They'll get the VRT back. The guy in the UK will get a

good deal on a car, hopefully, and be done with it. And it'll be a better market you'll have.

You have people buying Lambos every day of the week here. So it's easier. Or I would get the best

marketing out of it ever. I would literally use that car as a marketing tool to get as much marketing

as I could out of it to boost all my social medias and that hopefully get me to the next level.

But obviously, I'm looking at all of this with hindsight now and very confidently. But back

then, I was like, if I can do it, you know, this is crazy. What are you doing? So I pretty much had

all my money in this one Lamborghini or I was about to. I did the deal and I said, yeah, I'll

take it. And did a TikTok video with it that got 30 million views. What I sort of realized there was,

okay, emotion is what drives the views and drives people. So it's not me going, oh, I'm here. We're

in it. And then that's kind of what pushed my content from there. And it still does to this

day. Like I don't do the whole like, oh, we have a car and stuff. Well, I do sometimes, but like

mostly it's emotion, you know, whether it makes you cry, make you laugh, make you shocked. But then

the car is in the background and you know, I'm trying to sell the car and people are smart. They

can make that draw that line themselves and they can go on your website and see the car. And if

they want it, they want it. So yeah, that. So anyway, back to the Lamborghini story. So

actually had it sold, believe it or not. And it's really hard, especially when you don't have that

like reputation behind you have like years of trading and the brand behind you, you know, I

still just this girl in a yard, who does she think she is in the early days, like selling a car. She's

never going to sell Lamborghini. So actually had it sold to a guy. And it was like a deal that took

like weeks and weeks, you know, I was like showing him the car. He was thinking about it. He was

coming back. Like it was really long drawn. I think fine. He's like, yeah, love it. I want to

do the deal. I just want to like wrap to different color. It's a great no problem. I'll wrap it for

you. Like I didn't even care if I lost money at this stage. I was just like delighted to get this

thing out of my life, you know, because the Lamborghini is equivalent of like 30 bassats.

And it's your cash flow like title for so long. Now I was kind of driving it myself as well,

even though I hate driving it because I was you're just afraid something's going to happen to it.

You're afraid like it'd be parked somewhere. Someone's sitting on it when you come out taking

a picture and you're just really, really. Is that amplified in Ireland as well?

It's huge. Yeah. Yeah. Because there's not any of it. Yeah. Like where you park, like, you know,

you're afraid someone's going to park beside you like ding you. So I used to just keep it inside.

I just never drove the thing. And I was afraid as well. I was like, I just want this soul. Like,

do you know what I mean? And so I had a deal doing blah, blah. And he just he said to me,

look, there's a dealer that I go to for all my cars. And he goes, look, I just have to,

I'm just going to say to him, I'm going to run it by him. And he just me thinking,

why you run it by anyone? Like, do you know what I mean? This guy was a multimillionaire.

And he's like, look, I'm just going to let him know, you know, out of just

niceness, because I buy all my cars off him, blah, blah, blah. And I was like, okay, fair enough.

Oh, God, how's that going to go? So anyway, he rings me back anyway, long story short,

I transpired that they were out for like dinner together or something. And he rings me later

on that evening. And he just says, look, I can't go through with the deal. And I remember it was

raining. And I was like, like, I was so like, because I stayed with this car, I really wanted

it gone like so I really wanted that deal. You knew in your heart of hearts, it wasn't going to

happen. No, I thought it was going to happen. I know I did. I was just like, I just hope it

still happens. But I thought it was going to happen. I really was convinced when he rang me,

because it had gone on for weeks. And it was a lot of him and thrown and whatever. And I'd gone

through the hymn and thrown and now he was saying, no, I'm going to take it like deals done, you know.

And anyway, here I mean, he's like, look, can't do the deal. Your man's going mental. You must have

really shaken things up or you've really ruffled his feathers as his quote unquote. And he goes,

he's just freaking out. And I said, does he have a Lamborghini for sale? He goes, no, he doesn't.

I said, then why does he care? And he goes, he just and that's kind of the dealer toxicity that can

happen in Ireland. It's very much so they're my customer, no one else can have them. Whereas

my thing would be like, look, you could come to me this time. Does it happen here?

here? Yeah, it does happen here. There's a name that springs to mind straight away. Fair enough

when it comes to dealer toxicity that's been very blatant exposed to the UK, I'd say is the word.

Fair enough. Where some are not like that at all. I know that Carl Hart is like, well,

I have to buy a car from Romans and buy a car from Romans. But yeah, you do get them. It is crazy.

Yeah, it's like, okay, they can come to me this time. But the next time they might go to someone

else because it might be a good deal for them that day, they might get a better deal that day.

Well, there's a spec there's a Lamborghini can't get elsewhere there.

Like it's absolutely blows my mind. And I don't know. And then I just it's crazy. So anyway,

he sort of said, look, can't do the deal. He's going crazy. I was like, right, okay,

what am I going to do here? So I was like, right, I'm going to go into this dealer tomorrow.

I'm going to talk to him in person and see if I can swing this in around about somehow.

So the following day, I snuck into his dealership. And I'd say he's having a good laugh if he's

watching this now because he remembers. And I literally snuck in and I was like, here,

I want to talk to blah, blah, blah. Where is he? And somebody said, oh, he's in there.

So I went into him. I said, look, can I talk to you? I went into the room, close the door behind

me. I said, look, I said, I'm 32. So 32 at the time. I said, I've left my career behind.

I said, I've put all my eggs into this basket. So I'm down the road from here. I said,

I love you what you've done with your place. I would aspire to be like you one day.

You know, I tried to sweet talk and it wasn't really happening though, because I could just

seize, you know, no emotions there anyway. But I tried to plead to his ego a little bit first.

It wasn't working. And I said, look, is there anything we can do here? Like, can you sell him

the Lambo and take your cut out of it? I was like, I don't really care at this stage. I just want

this yoke gone, you know? And he was just like, I don't know what you're talking about. You're

completely misinformed, blah, blah, blah. And I was like, no, I'm not. I know exactly what happened.

Like, come on, let's just, you know, sort this out like you sell him the Lambo. And he's like,

no, we're not really in the same like field here. Like we sell different. We're not really in the

same league. You know, he was kind of talking like, look, I was only around like a year and a bit,

two years at the stage. So nothing like I am now, you know, not that I think I'm great now, but

I'd be more, I think I would like to think I'm a bit more respected now in the industry. Exactly.

They, oh, the amount of dealers now, we ring each other and it's great. It's like, oh, come here,

I have a customer for your, your sport there, would you give us a discount, whatever? And I'll

sell it. And they're like, yeah, great, because it just means they're moving, they're moving stock,

as we say in Ireland, they're moving stock. And I'm selling the car. And then when I have a car,

and it's, it's amazing to have that openness, you know, and I just don't know why you wouldn't

want to be able to have those opportunities. So anyway, long story short, he wasn't having it.

And I just said to him, I said, listen, I tell you what, I said, we're not going to fall out,

let's leave it at this, let's move on. But I said, if I hear one more thing coming back from you,

back to my, back to my place, I said, I'll absolutely destroy you on social media. And to be fair,

I don't think I've heard anything back since now, not publicly anyway, maybe behind closed doors.

But I just, it was sort of the stance I decided to take very early on, which was face things head

on, which I still do to this day. So if there's like an issue, or like, you know, when someone

rings you with something, there's people out there that don't pick up the phone. I would be,

I would try and be the opposite, even if I don't want to have that conversation,

even if it's not a nice conversation, I always think if you pick up the phone,

if you owe someone money, and you're just trying to get them paid off or whatever,

you always pick up the phone and even just let them know, look, I type this week,

don't have it on the next two weeks, I'll have just little, it's the people that run away from

all the little problems that they have, you know what I mean? And it's the people that stand up and

face them head on, even if it's not nice, it's a horrible feeling, your stomach, the gut wrenching,

you don't want to pick up, you see that customer ringing, or you see that person ringing, you're

like, I'll just let it ring out, I'll just, I just always go, no, just pick up the phone

and have the conversation. And somehow it always feels better, better.

So that's how I sort of went head on with that situation. And I, till this day now,

there's been a couple of dealers along the way that I've kind of called out publicly that have

done things to me and done really nasty things to me. And I think I've just like put a little

motion around me that my social media was a bit of protection as well, that like if somebody did

nasty, I could stand up for myself and protect myself a little bit. Yeah, you're not getting away

with that. You're not getting away with this yet. Yeah. So how did you end up selling the Lambo?

I actually ended up trading it back to the trader. I got it off for like three or four cars,

you know, different cars, and that's what you do in the trade. And then it took me probably another

year and a half to get out of those cars. And it was like the worst thing ever, but the best thing

ever. Like it literally, if it wasn't for that blue Lamborghini, I wouldn't be where I am today

in terms of the social media video I got out of it, people actually taking notice going,

who is this crazy, crazy bitch driving with the Lambo for sale. So I got like a kind, it's like

any company that has a marketing budget, just my budget was that Lambo that year. And it paid off

like now it took a good few years to pay off, but it paid off. If you're listening to this

and enjoying it and enjoying what you're seeing, then don't forget to subscribe to The Road to

Success. And yeah, I'll hopefully see you soon.

And that could have very easily been with a negative mindset, the last Lamborghini you ever

saw. Absolutely. Or it could have closed me down or you could look at it, you could look at it any

number, number of ways. But it wasn't right. No, no, it wasn't. Yeah.

It's taught me about one of the most incredible cars you've ever managed to sell and what that felt

like. This pin, I've had Mustangs, Dodges, the Ventador was an amazing one. I think,

yeah, I think it was a 2012 Ventador. And I know it's, it's normal for you guys in the UK,

but like, you know, Aston, Aston Martin Vantage I sold, oreates, a couple oreates.

Yeah. And then a really cool Ortior Mustang that was done up by Dave Drift Games. I don't

do know. Yeah, he's been in the van. He's been in the van.

He's been in that very seat. So then I'm not the only Irish person.

No, not so. I thought I was. So yeah, Dave Drift, I sold Dave Drift Games car. So yeah,

and then there's been some older ones, like older porches, 911s, Aston Martin stuff like that.

There's been loads, but I suppose the one I do remember is that one, the white Lamborghini

Ventador, because that was a big thing because we put that on Irish plates. So for an Irish dealer

to sell an Irish regged car, it just shows that like your customer was so serious that they paid

so much to put on our on Irish plates because it's very rare. Some people try and get away with

the UK plates for a while. So even if you see like a UK plate of Lamborghini driving around

Ireland, there's a little bit of a sense of like, oh, should they're driving around without paying

the VRT? They're not really like, you know, serious, you know, but they're, you know, whereas

you see an Irish regged car, it's like, oh, wow, somebody went out there and paid double

to put it on Irish. Like they, they made business like it's cool to see it on Irish plates. So

it was actually a customer that I, and he's a lovely man, Finn Bar. Oh my God. Just a down to

earth. He did. He left that Lamborghini with me for like a month. And he was like, I did my

calendar for men's aid. I don't know if you saw that. So two years in a row, I did it. Actually,

I wish I had one for you. I'll have to send you an idea calendar. I'll send it to you when I get

back. But basically, I did a calendar and I 12 super cars in it. And it was 12 shoots,

12 Nadias. And the second one was Nadi at the movies. So we had movie cars. So we had General

Lee. We had Eleanor and I was dressed up as Angelina Jolie. We had like an Aston and it was a James

Bond. We had an event, your Finn Bar's event during it was supposed to be Batman, even though it

wasn't the right event or everyone's going mad. But still, it was the best I could come up with.

So I did a men's aid calendar. He let me put that into my calendar. And he's just such a decent

fella. And he's just so unassuming, that type of a person that you wouldn't even think would go out

by Lambo because he buys it for other people to enjoy. He doesn't even, he's like, you enjoy it.

Like, I don't even want to drive. Like, that's the type of person he is. He's just amazing.

So anyway, I met him at a car on him and his son got on really well with him. And he had a

Gen 2 Audi A8 gorgeous red V10. And he's like, my dream is to get an Aventador. And for this guy,

it is a dream. It wasn't something easy for him to do. Like financially, a lot of things had to

make sense for him to get the Lamborghini. And he's like, this is the one I want. Can you get it

for me? And he goes, the only thing is I need to sell the A8 and I need to hit this target

on the money. And he wanted good, like strong money. But I was like, I'll take the opportunity

because I'll just like, yeah, I was like, yeah, no problem. We'll somehow make that work. Because I

was just thinking to myself, no, get the deal. Hopefully he'll sell it for what you get it for.

And then you'll be able to source him the Aventador. And it'll be huge for the brand, huge

for everything. And people will take notice and blah, blah, blah. So took the A8 and sold it.

Took in another trading that I had to sell as well, which I did. But all along these three deals,

there was another dealer as well down the road. And he tried to come into all the three people

and tell them all not to not to do the deal with me. And then I had to again,

do the Minadia, like call him out, be like, no, this has to stop, blah, blah, blah. So

that was a really stressful deal because I thought it was going to get taken away from me again.

And I was like, no, I worked so hard to get this deal. Like, I, you know, did extra videos,

I hired a videographer, I did all my videos, I like didn't after our viewings, I did everything

I possibly could. Anyway, long story short, sold the A8, sold the training that came on it,

was able to go source the Aventador for Finbar, put on an Irish plates. He let me have it for

like a month before he even took it, let me do all my videos with it, put it in my calendar.

And I was actually delighted to get ready to get, I was like, no, get that car away from me,

go take it. Because like, you just don't want to have such an expensive car. This car now is like

worth over three, way over 300 grand, because it's on Irish plates, way over 300 grand, you know?

So yeah, that was probably the most special story. And because it was so bittersweet,

it was like nearly got taken away, nearly didn't happen. But we got through it in the end. And

we've become such good friends now. So anytime I have like a show on or my launch, he like,

I had the launch of my new garage and he couldn't make it because he was working nights. And he's

like, I can't make it. But he goes, I'm going to drive the Lamborghini and he's like four hours

away from me. So what does he do? I think now he gets wrong. I think he does some sort of concrete

or like tarmac and he works for a big big company like he does very well for himself to be fair.

But he's a really, he's a grafter as well. But he's like, look, I won't be able to be there,

but I'll drop the car down to you. But I'm like, Fimbar, you can because you're going to be back

and work in like two hours. And he's like, no, you need to have that Lambo there on your on your

launch night. So he like dropped the Lambo down that night, and then did a turnaround and went

back to work. That's the type of person he is. Why do you think he connected so well?

I don't know. remember him on the run. And he was such a, he's just never

meet these people and they just like, they flow through life and there's just something about

them. They're just like not in there like above the world or something. I don't know. I just feel

like he has an aura that's like, not like the rest of us or something. He's just a special person.

Like, I don't know if that sounds weird, but there's people like earth angels. That's actually

what I think he is an earth angel. Does it make you feel fulfilled the way that you are

meeting customers like that though? Because as you said, Ireland can be a really challenging

place. Like you're kind of bringing the people through the door that make you tick, right?

Yeah. Yeah. Oh yeah. Absolutely. So has it been difficult building a team and hiring people

that maybe aren't necessarily willing to take a phone call at 11 o'clock at night or open on a

Sunday? What was that like for you? Yeah. So luckily enough, my team are kind of like that.

They take the phones home and stuff. Now, I don't put them under pressure to answer the phones,

but they seem to do it anyway themselves. Like I'll see like my sales girl Sasha,

like at nine o'clock, she'll be answering emails because I'll see the emails coming in.

And I'd be telling Sasha, you don't have to do that. But she sort of does it herself. So

I think, yeah, I have a really good team now. So one of them comes from hospitality.

And then I was very lucky with Sasha. She actually used to be the service manager in

Porsche for a couple of years. So she comes in very technical, which actually helps me

when it comes to the technical side of things. And she's just picked up sales

amazingly. She's sales all around her now. I don't even have to do the selling anymore.

And what I found was is when people ring and they get Sasha's voice,

they feel like they're getting Nadia. Whereas I had male sales guys before,

and even though they did well, I just think she does so much better because they kind of think

it's me or something. You know what I mean? They feel like they have female voice and they,

oh, it's not, oh, it's kind of like Nadia, you know, experience. It's the experience. Yeah.

And she really gives that experience. Like she'll spend two hours with you,

she could spend three hours, she could spend half an hour, whatever it is. It doesn't matter

when you come to Asford Motors. It's all about the customer experience. And just

you get a good deal. That's fine. You get looked after under warranty, but it's the

little things like you get elderflower, sparking water, we do special elderflower,

you get lovely little present. Sometimes you get a video on my platform and they go viral

and people love I do a lot of live deals now. So really like always changing up the content.

It's never the same, you know, and we would do a lot of live deals that like people might not

be comfortable doing in other dealerships because Irish people have a thing about money.

They don't like telling people how much they're spending and they don't like, whereas I find

with us, we get away with it. They love coming on the camera and doing a deal. And, you know,

it's amazing because it just, I think inspires others to work hard and say, God, you know,

that young guy is a spark, sparky or plumber and he's working hard. He got a nice RS3 for

himself. Maybe I'm going to do the same. So is the goal for you to now get a Lambo?

Actually, it is. So I knew it would be. How did I know that?

So yeah, so I had the hurricane. That traumatized me.

Yeah. I had the Venzador, not nearly traumatized.

Traumatized me as well. So I was actually, I nearly did a deal there a couple of weeks ago

on a 2018, a Venzador S, a grey one, beautiful gun barrel grey, but I just lost us in time.

I just had other things going on and I have a 488 there, GTB. So I was going to trade it in

to that. So yeah, so look, who knows.

When did you get your first Ferrari?

A while ago, actually, believe it or not, it was actually sourced first for a customer.

And then in the end, he just, he wasn't feeling it. So I did a deal and got it back. So I,

like, it's kind of there for stock as well. And I'm like, well, I keep it. I really don't

like it. I hate it if I've been honest with you.

Does a personal car ever feel like yours?

Yes.

When you've got the mind of a dealer?

Yes, it does. And not in the fresher sports cars, but in the older, older ones. So I have an E39

M5 manual and that one I'll never sell ever because I was so broke by in it. And I remember

even the customer, I was like, have you paid next week? I don't have the money right now.

It was so hard for me to get that car. People have been so good to me. They really have.

They really, really have. So yeah, I got E39 and then that one I would keep till I really,

like unless I was really broke and I really, really needed the money. That's the last one

to go, I always say. And then the second last one is the 08 or 8 that I was able to keep after

not being able to keep it the first time it came through my doors. That's a manual as well,

40,000 miles. It's black with red interior. It's absolutely gorgeous. It's got a Acroprovic exhaust

on it as well. It sends the V8. It sends absolutely insane like a shatter windows.

So that's my second one to go if I really had to go. Then my third one is I have a 2019 Dodge

Hellcat SRT manual. So rare. It's left hand drive, but I'm thinking about bringing it over to the

UK to getting a conversion to right hand drive because they do it and it's not that expensive

apparently. So that's that one I had for sale last year and it was such good value, but no one

actually saw the value in it in the country and no one would buy it because it's really hard to

get insurance on it in Ireland. And also it was left hand drive. So I ended up doing a deal with

the customer and saying, again, a good deal on it and say, look, I want to keep it because I just

think when do you ever see a Hellcat? Like it's just insane. And it's got the two keys, the red key,

the 717 brake key. It's just amazing. And I took it to the bear run I did a few weeks ago for

the Children's Ambulance Charity and everyone loved it. Like it gets a different reaction to

say Lambo, Ferrari, like anyone can buy Ferrari, Lambo. Do you know what I mean?

Dodge Hellcat is just like... You've got to have a different mindset to do it. You've got to have a

different mindset, yeah. And you're not bothered by the Ferraris. You've got a Ferrari 488. Yeah,

I've got a Ferrari in the showroom. Yeah, you're having the showroom, but I don't drive it because

I hate driving it. I think it's a horrible car to drive. I drove it once and no, sorry, I drove

three or four times and I was like, you know what, park that yoke back into the showroom and

I know. I don't, I sound probably, oh God, she's so good, but it's just not for me. I think it's

too tight of a drive, the suspension, everything. I think it's probably made for like little Italian

men if I'm being honest with you. Whereas I think I'm more of a German girl. I love German. That's

why I really, I want an Aventador now next rather than the Huracan. And I've always had Aston's.

I love Aston Martin's though. I just got an Aston last week. Oh, did you, what did you get? A

Vantage? Yeah, yeah. New shape. New shape. Yes. It's called, it's called Uzi Gold or something.

Bronze, I really got bits of green and flak in the paint and all the rest of it. What year is it?

2021. That's own, like that car in Ireland would be like, what would it be? 160. What was it here?

80. Oh yeah, it would be close to 200. Yeah. If you add like, so your VRT on it. So I sold a 2019

Vantage and I think I sold for 140. And the VRT on it was 60 something. Yeah. And an Aura 6 as well,

I sourced, it was a 20, 21 Aura 6. So just Aura 6, four liter. And the VRT initially, when I put

it into the calculator online, it was coming up 40. And then when I went to present it, it was 57.

So where does the money come from in Ireland? Where are like the little, the hub spots,

where are the little heat spots of money in Ireland like to sell these cars to? Is there

anywhere they always go? A good question actually. A lot of tech is big, like people that work in

Google and stuff like that, they like their cars. And then a lot of builders love their cars. They

love diesel, petrol. So like even farmers, but they more so like, you know, Land Cruisers, Defenders,

BMWs. And then, yeah, the Porsche client is always a certain type of a client, you know,

maybe he owns a tech company or something like that. And then yeah, mostly I think

grafters, business people, you know, who've like built themselves up, they usually always seem to

be the ones that come in. You're starting to get the woman in a salon that wants to have a

SVR Range Rover or something. And she's like, I'm going to buy a car from Nadia. Yeah. In the

same way you hear that so many people obviously aspire just like you're watching Tom Hartley to

buy a car from those guys. Are you starting to get that? Yeah, absolutely. Especially from females,

like I have females mess with me going, can't wait. Like when I save up and I get the money,

I'm going to come to you for my first Porsche or my first Merc, you know, and I think as well,

like I'm making it more accessible to like understand and learn about like sports cars for

women without making it too daunting for them. Because I've been very open to the fact that

like I don't know everything, I'm still learning. So like they learn with me. And you know, when

I get into like a V8, I'm like, Oh, it's a V8. And this is what that means. And but it's really

cute. And I love it in this color. And so like I do try and connect with my female audience.

Like I did a really funny video about Range Rover moms, you know, going up to collect the kids from

school and then going to yoga and parking at the bus, the bus stop, you know what I mean,

as their car park. So like I try and find little things that are like the Volvo mom or whatever.

And then, you know, I always kind of say to women, you know what, you don't always have to drive the

boring car, the family car, you can drive a nice, you know, sq seven or something like that. And

kind of just introducing them to like higher specs and cars and what that means. So yeah,

no definitely seeing a huge amount of females now, like I started off with being like 90% male

following because my content was very geared towards men, you know, boobs and cars and that

type of thing. That's a good name for a podcast that boobs and cars. Yeah, it is what it is. Do

you know what I mean? Like it is what it is. It got the views, but then you you're not going to

last if that's all you have. Who taught you sex cells? Kim Kardashian, Dolly Parton.

It does sell sex does sell. But then you have to have smarts behind it as well. You have to have

a product behind it. It's like influencing now, right? You see all these influencers and they've

nothing behind them. That's not going to last forever. If you are not an influencer that has

captured an audience, but you you have to bring out a product, find a problem that your audience

has, get a product, find a solution, and then you gear your content to that audience. That's how

you'll make your money eventually, you know, from the audience and influencing. But you see a lot

of influencers now and they're just going around and doing videos and entertaining, but they've

nothing behind them. Like I do a lot of influencing stuff, but I don't depend on influencing. I do

very well at my own job at selling cars. So the influencing then I have a bit more that I can

pick and choose what I like and what matches Ashford brand, what doesn't dilute me, what makes

me look good and match my brands then really well because I don't depend on it financially and I'm

not saying yes to everything because the worst people, the worst thing people hate is seeing ads

all day long from content creators, TikTok shop. It's like people get so sick of it.

What's been the toughest day in the last five years doing your job?

Oh, there's been so many. Honestly, there really has and I think the only thing I'm learning now

as I go on is that you're always going to hit new ceilings that like the problems never stop.

And I feel like it's always money problems because a lot of my money has been my own capital

that I've been working with and then you get to a point where you go to the banks

because you've built something yourself and you're showing them growth and track record,

then you go to the banks and ask them for money and then they give you money and then you ask for

more and more. So I've always kind of been dealing with my own money and that

has always been really tough at times because there could be stock there that you need to move

and it's not moving quick enough and bills still need to be paid and my priority is that my staff

are paid, they're always paid so then they can look after themselves and their families and that

I can pay my bills and that I can grow the business and do all the lovely things that I love doing

which is just having the crack with people and do my charities and stuff like that.

So yeah, I just think there's been so many tough times if I could pick a couple,

probably that hurricane, that event or time, opening up the new showroom as well

because it took a year to build. So in one way it was really tough but then another way to

introduce something into the business that actually made a flourish so I'll explain a bit. So when I

built the showroom I used my own capital from the business to build it so I didn't take out a mortgage

on the actual showroom and my thinking of that was if recession happened, if this happened because

people love throwing out the word recession and they love saying oh you've, there's so many

mental cars in your four quart, you're going to be out of business if there's a recession,

like the people love saying that. So my thinking was if things change, if the market changes,

I'll pretty much have a very little mortgage on my showroom, keep my overheads really tight

which I've done from the very beginning which I think goes back to the finance side of things so

that's why I'm happy I did that because I can look at those things and I could go back to selling

one car a week and still cover all my overheads. So my staff expenses aren't crazy, my overheads,

I'm a real margin business, I like selling a few a week and doing well and reinvesting and growing

and doing different things and actually in the process at the moment of hopefully getting a deal

done on a third place. I can't say too much about it but it's not too far away from where I'm now

and I'm really hoping I'm going to bring like a completely different experience to this next place

of what we've even done so you know that's kind of what I'm working on so sorry where was I going

there? Oh totally sidetracked. Tough tough tough tough building the dealership. Sorry that was a

really tough time yet because it was a year of like me having to come up with money every week

for the builder while trying to keep the stock at a certain level and still sell cars

the odd crazy car that might not move and go through that so that was really really stressful

and also it brought in a thing called consignments so do you guys do consignments in the UK?

It's a big enough thing isn't it? So in Ireland people do consignments but they don't talk about

they don't actually sorry advertise it because the dealers think it's like

kind of not wrong but they feel like people will look down on them that they can't afford not that

they can't afford but they can't buy but these buy their own stock. Seller return it's called

Seller return yeah so these some of these cars are the price of houses right and so who if you

have a chance an opportunity to advertise a Lamborghini for someone or actually use your own

capital to buy a car and it could sit there for six months what are you going to choose?

Estate agents don't buy their own houses on their books they advertise for them they take a fee

that's exactly what consignments are so when I was sort of building the showroom and my capital

was getting sucked into the showroom so much I started hugely doing consignments because I built

this platform 500,000 followers across social media the best automotive platform in Ireland

is is our page and it is because we put up on cars on Instagram and they go so I sort of think to

myself the consignments kind of brought in kept me going basically while I was building the showroom

but you still need a level of capital because you still have to buy out the trade ins so

you know you can't just like consign a car and not take in a trade and we we do really well

with consignments so we sort of packaged it in a way and I always have a level of about 30%

of consignments now which probably bring in like a couple of million euro worth of revenue a year

anyway so it's a no-brainer and everyone wants to advertise their car with me because a they'll get

a little bit stronger money close to retail than I would if I bought it in because I can give them

a better deal because I'm not actually buying it into stock two it's no risk for me but I always

try and sell the car I don't just say give me the car and we'll hope for the best I just want

nice flash stock on my website I never do that I think out of last year out of 150 consignments

I didn't sell too and that was just not pricing wrong from the beginning which can happen so

the consignments really really boosted me when I needed them and I sort of packaged it and I

promoted it whereas every other dealer hides away from us they still do it but they don't talk about

and it's not it's not that easy to do either and a lot of dealers that maybe do it it's stress

because they don't know how to manage the customer the customer's expectations whereas I would manage

them very well from the beginning I would be like this is a worse case scenario give them

terrible news and then always try and come in a little bit better who do you lean on when that

showroom build is going sideways I don't just I suppose my team like we've become like a little

family to be honest with you like you know we've Eddie there who's 62 he's a retired farmer he works

for me he started out as a customer and now he's the fleet manager and we've a dog Charlie as well

he's security we've Matt check who's the office manager he started out as a customer as well he

bought a car off me and I just he's been with me nearly three years and then Sasha's the new sedition

then Owen as well he's the MD and Owen comes from policing background he was a detective for 21 years

and he's just done amazing things for the business as well brought it to different

kind of levels and that's what everyone has done has has brought the business into different

levels and they kind of allowed me to then step back and just you know at the beginning I was

running around going NCT go mechanic doing the social media meeting the customers doing the warranty

work doing everything yourself doing the marketing and but then you can't grow a business if you're

stuck doing the nitty gritty every day whereas they allow me to sort of step back now and go for

funding do all the business a woman of the year awards we won semi independent a year after four

or five years being slated here and there by the public and they finally believed in us which was

an amazing so we won that award this year so just allows me to do all that and then keep the business

profile going and do good investment decisions can't always lean on your team because you're

you're the sailor of the ship so who who do you lean on or have you just built this

complete concrete wall I don't know I see I see I'm quite emotional I like people know that about

me like I don't come across as this like I'm a tough woman and I can take everything like I wear

my heart my sleeve but I just think that like there's always an angle to things as well like what

you see is and what you always get as well when you look online and you're seeing different things

happening in the world I always I'm faced with a problem I think one thing I learned and is that

there's always a solution it might not be there in front of you there but there's an always an

angle to it and actually an angle that you might do better out of it whether it's the social media

hook a video that car has done this to me there's always something you can kind of turn around and

do so I think I always wait I don't react straight away and I'll kind of sit back and go right well

how can we make this work for us how can we make get Asher motor some free publicity

out of this where do you go when you've already built showrooms it to a

certain degree you've already sold event stores how do you set yourself those new goals who are

you looking at yeah I think I'm still there I haven't made it in my eyes I and I think comes

down I'm very comfortable and all that don't get me wrong I do very well but I think comes down to

fact that when you've had nothing and you've gone like you're homeless you're this you're that

you've had very little you kind of always feel a little bit broke even if you have a lot in the

bank account or you have this you have that you just never feel like it's enough you haven't left

that skin I don't think yeah I think you just that's why you're like no well what's the next thing

like okay I've done and every time I agree to do something I put my heart in it and then I'm like

why did I agree to do that but I'm not going to do it half arsed and then I'll get through it and

I'm like nope that's it now I'm not agreeing to do anything for the next three months I'm just

going to focus on one thing and do the business and do this and something will come my way and

I'll just jump straight into so I don't know you are now helping other dealers across Ireland right

yeah and you're doing a charity yeah round that involves basically all of them yeah

were some of those dealers the ones that were attacking you when you first started

no they've never uh they've never wanted to break bread with me and if they did I'd be delighted

to say look come on how can we work together do you know what I mean like I'd be the big I'd be

a bigger person that way no but there were other dealers that I would have admired you know when

I started there around a lot longer than me and they sell high-end stock and yeah amazing and so

basically Emer is a local girl to me she's 30 years of age and she needs heart surgery

she's a teacher and basically if she doesn't get it she's going to die like there's no

sugarcoat in it or there's no nice way to say it she should have had the surgery last October

they've been on to the government they've done all these things the government aren't helping

they've done a lot a lot of local fundraising but they need 600 000 which is yeah it's a crazy

figure now from today they're actually up to 400 000 so basically they contacted me a while ago

and the thing is a lot of people contact me every day for charities and I'm still a small business

I still I can't say yes to everybody but I do my bit and I do my best and I was thinking about

Emer for a few weeks and I was like if I just take up a go for me link no one's going to look at it

no one's going to even blink because people are sick of go for me and everyone needs to go for me

these days so I was like look leave with me for a few weeks let me have a think about it so I came

up with the idea that if I attacked the motor trade and asked all the dealers to give me between

500 euro to 1000 euro I would go out buy a car raffle it and in return I would go to all those

dealers and advertise them on my platform so they were getting something in return so I hate having

the hand out I hate asking for money it's not my style and never has been but at least they're

getting something in return is that because you never had to oh no I have lots of people have

helped me but I don't do it I always try and give something in return so if I'm getting something

off someone then at least I'm getting them back something do you know what I mean like I always

try and what connects you to her story honestly when I met her and I saw her in person and I saw

how she is really in desperation and the fact that she has to depend on everyone to help her

like there's no one else that can help her now you know what I mean she has to depend on the

public and that's it if she doesn't get it she's gonna die and she's no she's like you do whatever

you I don't care what you have to do and I said to her I said look I'm gonna do a video

it's gonna be harsh because the video was very harsh but it went viral then that's what you needed

it to to happen unfortunately I couldn't be like oh my friend blah blah I just had to be

straight with people I was like listen she's brown bread that's what I said in the video like

that's all it is so this is what I propose and it's amazing and since we did the GoFundMe

she started at 220 and since we've been doing it the last kind of two weeks it's up to 400 now

on the GoFundMe and I've raised around €40,000 from the dealers so a load of dealers got on

a load of smaller businesses they weren't even dealers they were just like oh we would love a

shout out from you so can we donate and I was like yeah absolutely so then I was like right

on then I was like oh my god I'm gonna spend the next year going around to all these garages

advertising them and people said Nadia like are you not mad like advertising another garage and

I was like no but I think it actually shows that like you know I'm happy to to go these lengths to

raise money free or by going around to all these garages and advertising them on my platform so

I think it's amazing and I think it shows that we're not all bad in the motor trade you know

I was a bit disappointed that some of the big bigger guys didn't get on to me

because firstly and a video from Nadia for 500 quid is like the cheapest marketing expense

they're ever gonna get but also it was the smaller guys the independence they're always

the ones to put their hand in their pocket quicker do you have to be careful in Ireland

what customer walks through the door in what sense is there any dodgy business dealings that

go on with certain types of guns people wanting to pay in cash oh yeah yeah you get the odd person

is there a reason you've got a security dog yeah Charlie just lick you to death

Charlie's Charlie's a fake fake security we call him our security dog but if someone comes in

they just lick some oh yeah look you'd get the odd person the very odd person might ring go

I want to pay pay the 50 grand in cash and you're like no sorry tags can't like that's crazy

but like you'd have all your signs around and stuff like that and I think it's gone very finance

now anyway like I would say 80 percent of my deals now are finance because that's the way Ireland

has gone we've gone like the UK we've learned now that we're okay financing our cars and we pay by

the month whereas years ago there's very traditional sense Irish people wanted to own everything

I think goes back to like wanting to own their land do you know what I mean you cheeky little

I have to yeah I'm not gonna laugh do you know what I mean so I think that whereas now we're

becoming more like the Brits like we're happy we want the nice house we want the nice Range Rover

Finance Range Rover parked outside so that's all that's all changing now you know so yeah

well I think it's been absolutely incredible to hear how someone that doesn't really remember

their first couple of years because it was so far from home yet it still runs through your veins

has managed to come and from nothing gets away you've got to in a land that loves Guinness

and chaos and craziness but you're so articulate and straight cut especially in the experiences

in finance that it's enabled you to do what you've done and done it so well so Nadia I hope it's for

you to sit back in the van again in the future and talk about all of the rest of the things that

you would have achieved by then because there's certainly no stopping you thank you so much

for coming on Road to Success thank you so much for having me thank you

World-Renowned Dealer: “I was In A Refugee Camp!” Now I Sell MILLIONS to Irelands Elite! Nadia Adan

About this episode

Lamborghini Huracan

golfers

port turbos

Acroprovic exhaust

Dodge Hellcat SRT manual

Dodge Hellcat

717 brake key

seller return

Car BMW 320

Car Ferrari 488 GTB

Car Lamborghini Huracan

Term VRT, vehicle registration tax

Term VAT

Term import duties

Car M3

Car M2

Concept hold on to your prices and hold on to cars

Concept flash stuff on the forecourt

Concept trade ins

Brand Toyota

Brand Aston

Concept Ashford approved

Brand golfers

Brand Lambos

Term port turbos

Car Land Rover Range Rover

Car Audi R8

Car Volkswagen Passat

Car Volkswagen Golf 1.6 TDI

Car Suzuki Jimny

Car Land Rover Defender 90

Term TikTok video

Concept reputation behind you

Concept wrap to different color

Concept cash flow

Concept trading it back to the trader

Car Ford Mustang

Car Porsche 911

Car Audi A8

Car Lamborghini Aventador

Term Irish plates

Term warranty

Car Audi Rs3

Car BMW E39

Car BMW E39 M5 manual

Part Acroprovic exhaust

Car Dodge Hellcat SRT manual

Car Challenger Hellcat

Car Dodge Hellcat

Term red key

Term 717 brake key

Car Aston Martin Vantage

Car Toyota Land Cruiser

Concept consignments

Term seller return

Concept inventory

Request an Explanation

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