by Joel Rubin
Photos courtesy of Leland Jones
Here's a true “rags to riches” story, courtesy of Leland Jones of Virginia Beach, father of three, author of four books and owner of a million-dollar business that he started as a side gig just seven years ago. Did I mention he’s just 25?
Leland and his two siblings were raised by a strict Naval Academy graduate who chose a career in Naval Aviation and retired as a Captain. He served in multiple combat operations, including the 2003 rescue of Jessica Lynch in Iraq, the first rescue of an American prisoner of war since World War II and the first ever of a woman. “I wanted to be like my dad,” says Leland, “go to the Academy, but become an Admiral.”
But when his father, post service, took a civilian defense job in Singapore, it meant Leland leaving America at age 14 to attend a high pressure, high end high school attended by wealthy kids of US ex-Pats and Singaporeans. “I hated it at first,” he says, before deciding to rebel a bit. “Something switched in me.” At 16, he started T-Quotes, screen printing memorable sayings on t-shirts (like Wayne Gretzky’s “you miss 100% of the shots you don’t take,” clearly Leland’s motto). It was a success, spawning his first book, A Journey With a Purpose, which Leland describes as “a manifesto on what I had learned in business through age 18."
Having lived in Hawaii (grade and middle school), and southeast Asia, Leland headed north for college, to the University of Alaska Anchorage, where business bug number two hit. “A friend of mine and I saw a lot of dirty cars around so we went to Walmart, spent $300 on buckets, sponges and rags and then went up to people and said for up to a hundred dollars, we would fully detail their cars. In three days, we earned about $3,000,” Leland explains. Word spread, thanks to a popular local DJ. They worked day and night (because the sun doesn’t set that time of year in Alaska), found a brilliant marketing buddy, and in 2019 flush with some dough, Leland, an Eagle Scout, dropped out of college.
“My Dad was upset that I was ‘throwing away my future’ because I wasn’t following the traditional path,” says Leland who recalls some very challenging conversations between Father and son. But Morgan Jones clearly didn’t know his youngest, who had skipped an entire semester of a business class at UAA, earning a zero in attendance (40% of the grade) but acing all the tests and papers. “I negotiated an A- with the teacher.”
Then came COVID, and by this time, Leland’s dad was working at Commander, Naval Region Mid-Atlantic in Norfolk. “I moved to Virginia Beach and started selling cars at Priority Ford,” Leland shares. “I became their top salesman and made $100,000 my first year during the pandemic.” It’s also where he met manager Joel Bartley Barefoot, who became his fast friend and eventually his partner in—you guessed it—a car detailing operation that Leland set up on the side.
And just as in Alaska, it took off, prompting him to leave the Ford lot. “By this time I had met and married Alannah (they now have three kids under age four), and we opened Ceramic King Coatings, now located off Central Drive near Lynnhaven Mall.” Leland says his coating system lasts twenty times longer than wax, produces a high shine and protects against road grime, bird droppings and the sun. “Then I discovered Icon Rocklear, which manufactures a coating that is 75 times stronger, 35 times thicker than your traditional ceramic one and adds a brilliance of deep gloss enhancement to the exterior with a 30% increase in color depth.”

It's all about the details
That addition to his offerings has led Leland to customers from around the country. “We went to California to install Icon Rocklear on some of the famous ‘Ketchup & Mustard’ collection of Ferraris owned by David Lee, a regular on Jay Leno’s show Garage.” Leland also has polished a real museum piece, a $325 million dollar Air Force One. He now has the distribution rights to Icon Rocklear in Virginia, Illinois and Tennessee where there are 30 independent dealers. Leland’s brother runs one of them.

Mustard Ferrari
The Ceramic King Coatings name has been the subject of national profiles in such publications as Men’s Journal and The Good Men Project where Leland shared: “Nothing is work if you love it like I love this. My passion has always been the automotive scene, but entrepreneurship, starting something and being able to put blood, sweat, and tears into it to grow it into something that helps the community, is the biggest gift.”
Oh, and Morgan Jones, who grew up in small-town Arkansas and unlike his risk-taking son would never stray from a secure, conservative life path? “He’s very proud of me today and has been a paid business consultant for the company for two years.” Relationship, like a bleached-out Beamer, now restored.