Chase Channell was the owner and operator of his own paint store in West Virginia when he happened to bump into a man at a downtown restaurant who was involved in automotive marketing.

Channell, who opened the Elkins, W.Va., paint store at age 18, chatted with the man, who was in town for a tent event car sale.

A business owner himself, Channell decided to try his hand in the auto market.

Initially, he just wanted to learn the car business and buy a store.

“I thought it’d be real simple,” said Channell, one of the honorees in the inaugural Remarketing and Used-Car Industry's 40 Under 40. “So, the passion was to own my own dealership. And then when I got in the car business, I realized, ‘Wow, this isn’t like the paint business.’“

While he noticed similarities between the two retail worlds — like working with manufacturers, for instance — the car business had a lot more complexities than Channell imagined.

“In the paint business, you order a can of paint, they come in (and say), ‘I want it this color,’ and you sell it to them,” he said. “In the car business, there’s a lot more between fixed operations and understanding variable (operations), and finance and the insurance side of it.”

But it didn’t take long for Channell to excel.

At age 21, he started as a salesperson at a Honda store in Alpharetta, Ga. Within 45 days, Channell said, he was the top salesperson, so the store moved him into a finance manager role.

After a year in finance, Channell went to work for the Rick Case Automotive Group, starting out as a finance manager at Rick Case Kia in Georgia. He held that role for three years before becoming the lead finance manager at that store.

Channell then earned a promotion and became the used-car director for Rick Case’s Hyundai store in Atlanta, which is the flagship store for the Atlanta platform and a “proving ground” for future general managers and general sales managers.

After six months and used-car records there, Channell said, he got his shot. Rick Case’s director of operations for Georgia, Channell said, asked him to be general sales manager at the Hyundai Roswell store, which Channell described as a rather challenging store to turn around.

“And that was really the turning point for me,” Channell said. “I remember starting there on a Saturday, and Day 1 we sold 22 cars, which was an all-time record for most cars they’ve ever sold in a day. And that was with the same eight sales guys.

“We didn’t change anything. We didn’t do more advertising; we didn’t do anything,” he said. “It was just a little passion, a little enthusiasm and a little know-how, and we were able to turn that store around, and we took it to break an all-time, anytime record in new and used cars for Hyundai Roswell. And the store reached sales-efficiency with the manufacturer for the first time in the 10 years we’d owned it.”

After 13 months as the GSM, Channell got the chance to become GM at Rick Case Kia, which is where he started with the organization. Channell, who said he enjoys being a “turnaround king,” has held that role since October.

“I like a challenge. This store had a lot of challenges. Our CSI was under, the store wasn’t profitable. They looked at me the day they offered me the deal and said, ‘Chase, I don’t want you to make any mistake: this store is not doing well … you don’t need to tip-toe around and be afraid of making any changes. You know how to do it, you know the deal. Be aggressive, make the changes, and let’s get this thing going in the right direction,’“ Channell said, “and that’s what I did.”

What Channell also did, from Day 1, was to jump feet first into the business.

When he first started selling cars, Channell said he was selling cars seven days a week, from open to close. Then he would go home, conduct online research and watch YouTube videos to learn the best practices for selling cars.

Or as he put it, it was “immersion in the business.”

Channell also lauds the mentors he has had — leaders like Kevin Kolb in the Rick Case organization and its president and chief operating officer Jack Jackintelle.

“Those guys really wrapped their arms around me,” Channell said. “I think they saw something special in me, and said, ‘This guy reminds me of myself,’ and they really helped me out in many, many ways.”

Editor's Note: This is one of several spotlight features included in Auto Remarketing's inaugural 40 Under 40. Stay tuned for more.