Members of our Southwestern family Patrick and Julie (Cate) Kelly need our prayers this Christmas.  Patrick & Julie both sold with the Winning Tradition organization.  Patrick sold in 1998 & 2000 with James Madison University and Julie sold in with the Wheaton College group in 1998-1999.  Patrick and Julie were married in 2007 and have an adorable 2 year old daughter, Cecilia.

We ask for your prayers as Patrick is battling his 2nd brain tumor in the past 7 years.  After 3 rounds of chemo his tumor seemed to be gone, but Patrick’s neurological health has been declining very quickly for unknown reasons.  He was put into a coma 2 weeks ago as he was having seizures.  He was taken out of the coma and seemed to be making progress, only to start declining again.  After yesterday’s test results they believe his lymphoma is spreading throughout his brain.  They are also still trying to determine the source of his neurological decline.  While the cause is unknown, they believe it is most likely not reversible.

Julie has been writing a blog to keep everyone up to date on Patrick at http://getwellpk.blogspot.com/.  You can also sign up for the virtual prayer vigil for their family on the blog.   Julie, Patrick, and the rest of the Kelly family are so grateful for your prayers.

Last week a group of SW student managers were attending a Leadership Retreat in Des Moines, IA.   Lee McCroskey was helping run the retreat and as they wrapped up lunch and were heading into the conference room, one of the managers remarked, “Rick Perry is in the restaurant.”   Lee was busy getting the projector ready, messing with the PowerPoint and then he got a text: “Rick Perry in restaurant.”  Lee said, “It dawned on me that this was no joke, since there was a debate that night in town!  We suspended the meeting and I headed over to meet one of our alums, now Republican presidential candidate.”  He talked about their time with Gov. Perry in his blog.

A cluster of student managers encircled Gov. Perry.  It was a nice encounter–the restaurant had emptied–and there were a couple bodyguards on the periphery.  Perry seemed interested in the Southwestern students, and his body language gave no indication he was in a hurry to exit.  We chatted about Southwestern, who we knew, and asked him about that night’s debate.  His “Gold Seal Gold” election schedule sounded daunting, and we were glad to be able to spend a few minutes with him.

Overall, Perry made a good impression (would you expect any less?).  He was warm, friendly, interested in us and what we were doing.  Obviously, photos were in order so we fell in and took a few shots.  As we broke up, we asked him if he would mind saying a few words about his Southwestern experience on video.  Perry told us that he could not endorse a product or company, but he did say we could quote him: “Southwestern’s the best thing I ever did.”

Gov. Perry’s roommate from the bookfield, Judge John Brieden, recalled their Southwestern summer in an article on mysanantonio.com.   They sold with Al Godwin’s Texas A&M group in Festus, MO in Southwestern’s library division.

The book set included a biblical encyclopedia, commentary and two others lost to Brieden’s memory. What he remembers are the qualities that later served Perry well in his state campaigns and will come into play if he leaps into the presidential race: a sharp focus both on the job before him and on his overarching goals.

A bookman running for President?  Most of us that have carried a SW samplecase would tell you it was inevitable.  Many of the skills gained from the bookfield are a great base for a Presidential candidate.   No matter what occupation we pursue, selling books with Southwestern is an experience I would not trade for anything.  A sentiment Gov. Perry echoed in a  Nashville Post article written after the passing of Southwestern’s former president, Dortch Oldham.

“I count my time working for Dortch Oldham as one of the most important formative experiences of my life,” commented Texas Governor Rick Perry…  ”There is nothing that tests your commitment to a goal like getting a few doors closed in your face” Perry said. “Mr. Oldham taught legions of young people to communicate quickly, clearly and with passion, a lesson that has served me well in my life since then. Mr. Oldham will be missed.”

Southwestern Company

The Ferré family has three generations of family members living with type 1 (or “juvenile”) diabetes, the most severe form of diabetes which is caused by an autoimmune attack of the pancreas. David Ferré was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at age 28 in 1963. At that time, the tools available to manage diabetes were extremely limited. David and Virginia Ferré had three boys that they raised in Summit, New Jersey, just outside New York City. In 1974, at age 13, the eldest brother, Paul Ferré, was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes, followed by Peter’s diagnosis just four years later at age 15. In 2000, Paul’s youngest daughter, Brittany, was also diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at age seven.

Peter worked with Southwestern for 12 summers.  He was a District Sales Manager for 6 years and is responsible for going to Europe and developing our International Division.  In 1987 Peter recruited a 47 person personal team from two continents that sold 49,000 units.  Whitney sold books for four summers, recruiting two 20 person, Wall of Greats teams.  You might say both Peter and Whitney were triple threats at Southwestern – top salesmen, top recruiters and top managers.  Peter’s son, Dane, is carrying on the family legacy; he had a spectacular first summer in Southwestern’s summer program in 2010.

Whitney and Peter Ferré have lived in Nashville for over 16 years with their four children (Dane, Jordan, Riley & Mason). Peter is the President of Legacy Financial Services a division of Family Heritage – part of the Southwestern family of companies.  Family Heritage is a national provider and expert in the field of supplemental health insurance. Whitney is the founder of Creativelyfit.com and author of “The Artist Within” and “33 Things to Know About Raising Creative Kids.” The Ferrés have been perennial supporters of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation’s Middle Tennessee Chapter and its annual Promise Gala.

The Middle Tennessee Chapter of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) is proud to be honoring the Ferré family at their 11th Annual JDRF Promise Gala. The black-tie event, being chaired by Judy & Stephen Price and Joanie & Karey Witty, will be held at the Loews Vanderbilt Hotel on Saturday, April 16, 2011 and is expected to draw 500 guests. All proceeds from the event will benefit the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, which is leading the way in funding research to find a cure for type 1 diabetes.

You can make a donation to “Fund A Cure” in the Ferré’s name or purchase tickets online at www.jdrfpromisegala.org.

I always loved how my summers selling with Southwestern Company renewed my faith in the goodness of people.  My summers are filled with stories of kind-hearted people that extended their generosity to a stranger.  No one is a better example of this than a Southwestern host family.  While there is a concentrated effort to have host families set up before students head to the bookfield, it still amazes me that you can meet a family in the morning and be moving into their spare room a few hours later.

For all of us who have traversed the bookfield, we know how wonderful it is to end each day returning to somewhere that feels like home.  Last summer, over 900 families opened their hearts and homes by housing Southwestern students.  While each of these families should be celebrated for their kindness, Southwestern Company students nominated the best of the best of the 2011 host families for the Host Family of the Year contest.  We received eighty worthy nominations in the two categories of Alumni & Regular Host Family.

I guess I would expect the co-author of the bookman song to be a positive guy, but Barry Morris and his wife Gayle truly go above and beyond every summer helping Southwestern dealers.  This year’s alumni winner, Barry & Gayle have housed many bookpeople over the years, and were nominated as the Alumni Host Family of the Year by Janar Saviir.

Southwestern Company Family Nationwide

Barry and Gayle live in San Antonio, TX where Barry has been a State Farm insurance agent since 1976.  He sold books in 1966 & 1967 in the Bible division with Jim White & J.Fred Landers.  They will celebrate their 40th Anniversary this year and both of their sons, David & Kyle, also sold books with Southwestern.  Barry went beyond host family role and become a mentor for Janar’s whole organization.

Janar said “I’ve sold books for seven summers and he was the best I’ve met so far, by far.”  Barry & Gayle not only agreed to host students, but sent letters to their contacts to help find additional HQ’s.  Their efforts yielded 3 more really good host families.  You can tell that Barry really believes in giving back.  “In the summer he visited all the breakfast places, paid for the breakfast and motivated the first years and student managers to give their best that day.”  Barry helped out with Sunday meetings and even helped them plan how to work the city as it was the Estonian group’s first time selling in the San Antonio area.

Janar credits Barry with “showing me how to really care about students who work with Southwestern.  One small thing for him was a big thing to a First Year.  He really motivated me to help other students to get their goals in life.”

As this year’s alumni winner, Barry and Gayle were treated to an all-expense paid weekend in Nashville and were Southwestern Company honored guests at the 2011 J. Fred Landers Awards Banquet.

many of my readers know that i sold books door-to-door for the southwestern company for 3 years while in college.  anyone that knows me personally is also aware that i considered this experience to be one of the most challenging of my life.  it was also remarkably gratifying, humbling, and immensely educating.

ironically, all these years later, i now work at southwestern again.  only this time - in a different capacity.

last week i attended their great recruiters seminar in nashville, tennessee.  since my days on the bookfield, i’ve met many successful businesspeople, physicians, entrepreneurs,  musicians,  lawyers, professors.  you name it… 

but i must say, that spending time with these tenacious and hard-working young book sales men and women … had me exceptionally inspired.

one of 2010′s top salespeople, jenny nut, said the following:   “success is not easy; but it is simple.  keep a positive attitude, believe in yourself, believe in others… find a purpose …  you will never go anywhere if you don’t move your feet.”

this is a 21-year old girl who spent the summer slinging books door-to-door.  getting told “no” more than 40 times a day.  working tirelessly toward a goal which she adamantly considered to be well worth the effort.  this is a person who has the gut and the determination to go after what she wants.  this is also a person who made over $20,000 in 90 days. 

and no, the business is not only about money.  money is not the sole measure of success, here or anywhere for that matter.  but i can testify (based on experience), that if one person makes this much of it through the program – they had an undeniably strong work ethic, a positive and resiliant mental attitude, and a mission to succeed.

so here’s to you, bookpeople.  here’s to  the grit, the gumption, the humility, the fortitude – and all other great things it takes to do this job well. 

you inspire me.

The two summers before I sold books with Southwestern Company I helped run a grant funded program in small Nebraska towns.  Basically, we brought educational and fun activities to towns with less than 500 people.  As you might imagine, there are not many constructive summer activities for kids in small towns.  It was a great experience!

The service aspect of working with Southwestern Company was also one of the main engaging advantages that attracted me to selling books.  Whether or not the people I talked with bought, I always knew I was doing a good thing just talking with a family about the importance of education.  The lessons of taking the focus off yourself and serving others radiates through many of our SW alumni.

Five year Southwestern Company alum Ella (King) Herlihy was a Top First Year, a Wall of Greats Winner and is now married to one of the top all-time booksellers in our history, Steve Herlihy who sold for nine summers.  Steve and Ella are great at giving back to Southwestern Company by housing students, hosting SW gatherings and speaking at Sunday meetings.  They have five children (or “booklets” if you’d like to call them that) and live in Atlanta.  

When reflecting on her Southwestern experience Ella states, “Those principles we learned selling books DO help us in our daily lives – it is not a myth – even at age 41 and 46, we still have to make a conscious decision to get up with a great attitude and an “I Love My Job” mentality.  Being a homeschooling mom to five children under age 11 (yes, we already have ALL of the books) requires more patience than is humanly possible and some major attitude management.  We explain to our children over and over again ‘your sister did not MAKE you do that – you and you alone are in control of your attitude.’  We also have been both showing them and telling them that ‘anything worth having is worth working hard for.’  They don’t get it so much yet, but just you wait until they hit the bookfield!  Only 7 more years until Massie is old enough!”

Ella and Steve are involved with a wonderful ministry that brings hope and healing to families with a child stricken with cancer.  Blue Skies, is a a ministry that takes families who are facing life-threatening childhood illnesses for a week-long beach retreat in Florida.  It is free for the families who have a child being treated and the volunteers raise support to fund the retreats.

Blue Skies is in the running for a $250,000 grant from the Pepsi Challenge.  If Blue Skies receives the most votes in December, they will be able to use the $250,000 to take 120 families to the beach for a week of rest and recuperation and reconnecting with one another while they are in the midst of fighting for their child’s life.  You can vote daily in December and help Blue Skies go from #42 to #1 and put Pepsi’s grant to great use.  Vote at www.refresheverything.com/whereskiesareblue.

For each new morning with its light,

For rest and shelter of the night,

For health and food, for love and friends,

For everything Thy goodness sends.

~Ralph Waldo Emerson

That is why I was a bit surprised when an alum called in last week asking about something I had never heard of.  John Gosch, who sold books in 1976 & 1977, wanted to know if we still had any “Round Tuits” we could sell him.   I was completely unfamiliar with the Round Tuit.  John explained that his sales manager Steve “the rabbit”  Babbitt had given everyone in their organization a Round Tuit to carry in their pockets on the bookfield. 

All of us have replied that we will get a task done when we get around to it.  Well, if you have a round tuit in your pocket — you don’t have to wait.  According to the wiktionary a round tuit is 

“a circular object giving its owner the ability to get done everything that would have otherwise been put off to a later date”. 

I further inquired about round tuits with one of Southwestern’s pillars of knowledge, Dan Moore.  Dan recalled his student manager, Marty Fridson, asking if he had memorized his sales talk yet.  Dan replied to Marty that he would do it when he got a round to it.  Marty took out a sheet of paper drew a circle with the word tuit on it, tore it out and handed it to Dan.   I love how Southwestern lessons from the 1970′s still apply today, on the bookfield and off.

I will always treasure my Southwestern Success Coin and what it symbolizes, but I think having a round tuit in my pocket may be another good reminder of Southwestern principles.

Despite having trained hard in Sales School and practicing my demo more times that I can recall, that morning on Finch Street I was going to have to learn again – by doing. It seems the bookfield isn’t the only place where you can test run something many times, but you cannot predict what will happen when it is live.

A “webinar hosted by Dan Moore” is enough said when it comes to describing the degree of excellence of the webinar.   Everything went smoothly, except for one glitch.  At the last moment, there was a snafu with our capacity limits and many alumni who pre-registered were unable to access the webinar.  

Luckily the webinar was recorded.  Although it is not live, you can still brush the dust off of those SW success principles.  All Southwestern alumni can view the webinar at http://www.wesoldbooks.com/webinarvideo_2010-10.

Please share your feedback and thoughts on the alumni webinar below.