When it comes to day to day operations, Tint World® location owners aren’t on their own. The corporate leadership team helps support our automotive franchise owners on a daily basis. In Headquarters Q&A, we spoke with John Marsh, vice president of store operations, about his experiences with the brand.

Question: Tell us about your background. What did you do before joining Tint World®?

I started playing the trumpet when I was in fourth grade. So, for me, all of this revolved around music. And then, in high school, I took woodshop. So, you put music and woodshop together, and then you start making speaker boxes. When you’re in high school, you get a car. Then, when I was in college, I started competing in car audio competitions.

When I finished college, I moved to Atlanta and got a job with a manufacturer in the car audio industry in their marketing department, and I was still competing and judging car stereo events at the same time. Then I moved to a different manufacturer. Then from there I opened up my own manufacturer’s rep firm for the Southeast. We represented Tennessee, Georgia, Mississippi, Alabama, and North and South Carolina for several audio brands. After that I worked at a couple of different stores here in Atlanta, managing different car stereo shops.

I got out of car audio for a little while when my son was born and went into the restaurant business. At a certain point I actually ended up co-owning my own franchise pizza restaurant for a while. So that leads me to a little bit of the franchise experience as a franchisee as well. When I left there, I had known (Chief Strategy Office) Paul Pirro through car audio 15 years prior to his affiliation with Tint World, and he posted on Facebook that they were looking for an operations manager. I called Paul and we went forward from there. As of April, of this year, it’s been six years for me.

Q: Why did you decide to join the Tint World® headquarters team?

Originally it was a job, right. I needed to make money. I love car audio, and I hated when I got out of the industry to go into restaurants. I didn’t like it. I mean, I made good money, don’t get me wrong, but it wasn’t where my heart was and where my head was, so when the opportunity came along with Paul, I jumped on it. It was an opportunity. And then at that point meeting (CEO) Charles Bonfiglio — I mean he’s just so dynamic that you have to fall in love with his passion and his vision, and I did. So, the initial reason was because it was the job in an industry that I love. And then I just fell in love with it because of Charles.

Q: What does a typical day include for you?

Every day is different, which is the most awesome thing about it. I have a general realm that I work in, but every day is different because every store is different. We help the stores with everything from sales, marketing, human resources, P&L, accounting, inventory management and everything in between. So instead of one of us owning our own store, we get to help 75-plus other folks run and manage theirs. So the best part of it for me is that it’s rewarding in that I get to help other people become successful and stay successful. A day may be just digging around on social media that helps us find employees and maybe talking about how to save an extra half percent in profit. It changes every day.

I travel, but COVID is kind of a huge monkey wrench in this whole traveling thing but, on average, I travel about one week a month, 12 weeks a year. It’s essentially three to four weeks in my home office and then one week on the road visiting the stores and then three or four weeks back. That’s average for me.

Q: How does your job and expertise build value for Tint World® franchisees?

I have had experience at every cycle or spot within the industry. I’ve been a consumer/enthusiast. I’ve been a retailer, I’ve been a distributor, I’ve been a manufacturer and I’ve been a franchisee. I have a unique perspective from everybody’s point of view along the chain from top to bottom or left to right I guess would be a better way to put it. I’ve been that person on every level, and I’ve also managed car audio stores, as well, so I’ve been in every possible position along the food chain.

Q: What is your favorite thing about your job?

Just helping people, right? I mean, part of this has to be a little bit selfless in that I get more excitement out of helping companies grow, whether that be sales or profit or whatever the case may be. Whatever their goal is, I like helping the franchisees achieve their goals, and to reach higher than what they thought they could.

Q: What is a Tint World® experience that really stands out for you? Do you have a favorite moment?

I don’t work out of the corporate office. So, when I do visit it a few times a year, I love the fact that I can walk in that door, not having been there for four or five months, and still feel like I’m part of it every day. And almost every time I’m there, I get greeted with “welcome home”. One of my favorite things about my job is that it has a family feeling, and we help each other that way. Company-wise, one of my favorite things is just traveling to the stores. Just those in-store, face-to-face visits.

Q: What are your goals in your career with Tint World®?

Global domination! Nothing short of that will be acceptable!

I’m really happy where I am but, as we grow, I would like to move up the ladder as well, but I think that’s just going to come naturally with the increased number of stores. My immediate goal is to hit 100 stores. And then after that, it’s 250 stores. Then my personal growth that comes with that will just come naturally. But I want to help the company grow to be able to achieve those numbers.

Q: Tell us about your dream car. If you could drive anything, what would it be and why?

Porsche 911 GT3. I have two different answers to this question, as well, because that one is out of reach, but it could, in theory, come to fruition someday. There’re always the Bugatti type things that just would never happen unless you win the lottery, right, but realistically it’d be a Porsche GT3 RS, just because it’s a driver’s car. When I was a young kid, I had all the posters on my wall and all that stuff, and it was always Porsches. One year, I got to drive one when we were in Vegas for SEMA at the track, and it was just really cool. I mean Paul and Charles would drive Ferraris and Lambos and stuff, but I every year we go I drive the Porsche.