,-Whitney-2008.jpg "Whittney Ferre, Southwestern Company")
Pounding the pavement as a door-to-door salesman definitely comes with more than its share of rejection. However, if you stick with it long enough you learn how to put that aside and enjoy the rewards. Through my years of selling books with the Southwestern Company I was commonly asked: Does that still work? Even in the computer age? I am proud to say, “Yes It Does!” Even in today’s fast paced information age, a salesman with a good product, that works hard and treats people right will find success. The Los Angeles Times recently ran a story on possibly the oldest Fuller Brush man, “Fuller Brush Man: A 90-year old foot in the door”. It is the story of Art Pearson, who as has been selling Fuller products for 71 years throughout Washington. Art is well versed in what many of us learned from the Southwestern bookfield.
Reading Art’s story gave me a sense of pride in how I chose to make my living for those eight years I worked with Southwestern. Door-to-door selling is most often viewed with the perception of the shady magazine crew operating out of a white van that quickly moves from town to town. I know that many of us that carried the Southwestern samplecase can go back to those communities we worked in and, as we drive down those familiar streets, recall the names of the many people that touched our lives. When you treat people right your sales area becomes your community filled with people you consider family. Former Mississippi Governor Ronnie Musgrove once told me that twenty-five years after he had sold with Southwestern he happened to be going by the town he had sold in his fourth summer. He decided to visit his host family from that summer. The little old lady he had stayed with was now quite elderly, but fondly remembered Ronnie and the summer he spent there. Having no idea he was at the time the Governor of Mississippi, she looked him dead in the eye and asked what he had done with his life. I am so thankful for the people I met on the bookfield. From my amazing and generous host families, to my customers and even those who simply shut their doors–they all served a purpose in the lessons I learned. I am also thankful there are salesman like Art that allow me to say with pride that I was a door-to-door salesman. Click here to read the full LA times article on Art Pearson. You’ll be glad you did. |
Southwestern Company Alumni Blog
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One of the challenges that I encountered when recruiting college students for the Southwestern Company summer program, was conveying to a non-business major how sales experience would benefit them. Most of us quickly learn once we leave academia that everything is some form of sales. That statement has been validated every time I talk to a Southwestern alumnus that is not in sales.
“In my current roles as author, artist, restaurateur, and mother, not a day goes by that I do not draw on the skills I learned both selling books and recruiting a team. I am constantly having to convince someone about something. It is ALL sales and it is ALL about how well I can communicate with people.” Whitney sold books with Southwestern for four summers (1992-95). She was a top salesman, top recruiter, and a top manager–a triple threat. Fourteen years after leaving the bookfield, Whitney came back to share how tapping into your right brain can positively impact your success. “The right brain voice is completely present, while the left brain is thinking past or future. The left brain gets frustrated with specific details, while the right brain looks at the big picture. I think you have to be in your right brain to be open to ‘coincidences’ or trusting that even though you’re not in your comfort zone, that things will be provided for you.” After leaving Southwestern, Whitney began helping hundreds of people find their creativity as founder of the Creative Fitness Center. The Center first gained national recognition on HGTV. Today she continues her outreach leading corporate seminars, teaching art classes, and as a creativity expert on television & radio. Whitney is also an artist, a wife, a mother, and a co-owner of Rumours Wine Bar that builds communities around food, wine, and art. Whitney recently published her first book, The Artist Within: A Guide to Becoming Creatively Fit (Turner). In Whitney’s book she discusses the principle of tapping into your right brain in order to use all of your resources in everyday decision-making. “I had a blast speaking at GRS because I know what it takes to be successful as a recruiter and I have had 14 years since my Southwestern career to gain valuable hindsight that I was excited to share. I feel all of my experience has led to this moment when I am busy selling and promoting my book. The message in my book is so important because it proves that our right brains have a powerful voice that we are not hearing, a powerful perspective that we are not seeing and that it has access to valuable mental skills that we are simply not using if we do not access this voice! My last summer on the bookfield was my “right brain summer”. I went from 5000 units to 8900 units and from a 35 person team that sold ZILCH to a #3 team. How? I accessed the RIGHT side of my mind that did not get caught up in the details or frustrated at individual results. I was completely tapped in to my vision of selling a TON of books and having a top team. Because of the strength of my vision and the right brain voice inside my head, I trained my team more effectively and I hit steak EVERY single day on the field. It did not matter what temporary circumstances tried to trip me up, I knew it was all going to work out and it did! That is a ‘right brain performance’.” It seems that the sales experience can benefit the artist and the artist can also positively impact the sales experience. Learn more about tapping in to your right brain at creativelyfit.com.
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| In my years with the Southwestern Company I have heard, as well as told, many tales of some of the famous alumni that have traversed the bookfield. After becoming Southwestern’s alumni specialist, I quickly learned that this is an often requested list of people. Unfortunately, my database of alumni did not come with a “Rich and Famous” button; so I created one. It is a subjective list of course, but is filled with the names of many bookpeople, recognizable and not. Sales people all know the importance of a golden name.
In fact, I’d like to thank Mr. Neville, the fourth grade teacher at Bow Elementary in New Hampshire, for being my golden name my third summer on the bookfield. His testimonial and recommendation of the Volume Library boosted my sales tremendously. A recognizable name has always been a great way to build trust.
Recently The Tennessean published a slideshow of photos of the Southwestern Company and several of the locally famous alumni who have worked in the summer program. It includes local Tennessee alumni: Former Metro Councilman George Armistead III; Tennessee entrepreneur Jim Ayers; US Representative Marsha Blackburn; Retired Southwestern CEO, Ralph Mosley; Tennessee entrepreneur Ted Welch; Tennessee entrepreneur Sam Kirk; and current Southwestern CEO and Chairman, Henry Bedford. National alumni included: Former Federal Prosecutor, Ken Starr; Texas Governor, Rick Perry; and Evangelist and Best-Selling Author Max Lucado. Also included in the slideshow are various photos of Southwestern headquarters on Atrium Way in Nashville and student dealers in training at “Sales School.” In seeking out our “Rich and Famous” alumni, it has been the bookpeople whose names may not jump out at you that intrigue me the most. Many of our alumni who have created successful businesses and lives do not live in the public eye. They have taken the skills they learned at Southwestern and have become the “Millionaires Next Door”. Check out some of our Alumni Spotlights and look for more success stories of Southwestern alumni in the coming weeks. Who do you know that sold books that should be on our “Rich and Famous” list? |
On Thursday morning, February 26, 2009, one of the greatest pillars in the history of Southwestern, Dortch Oldham, passed away. He was 89 years old. Dortch grew up on a farm north of Nashville, and heard about selling books from a friend. As he said in an interview here several years ago, “He told me you could make as much as $200. That was during the Depression, and I was on the farm – that was real money to me.” He began selling while still a teenager. At the recommendation of J.B. and W.E. Henderson, his sales managers, he attended the University of Richmond, graduating in 1941. Dortch and his wife, Sis, later endowed Richmond with scholarships for deserving young people, who became known as Oldham Scholars. They did the same for U.T. Knoxville in 1999.
 After serving in active duty in the Asian theatre during World War II, Dortch joined with Fred Landers to rebuild Southwestern, which J.B. Henderson had held together during the war. With Fred taking the area West of the Mississippi, and Dortch taking what was East, they recruited both new and former dealers, sold books again themselves, and sowed the seeds for the modern-day Southwestern (of which Dortch later bought the majority share.)
Dortch influenced thousands of young people, and through them, thousands more. He believed strongly in advising students to do what was in their best interest, and was a living example of the truth behind Edwin Markham’s great quotation that what we put into the lives of others comes back into our own. One of the young people he mentored throughout his early career later donated $500,000 to the University of Tennessee-Martin to help establish the Dortch Oldham Center for Economic Education and Entrepreneurial Studies. Dortch’s influence, represented by countless acts of generosity and kindness, will continue to multiply to the
 benefit of all society. Dortch once said, with characteristic humility and grace, “We don’t make them great people; they are great people when they come to us. They just never had the chance to prove themselves.” Those of us who were touched by Dortch’s spirit, care, and influence feel otherwise: we became greater because of Dortch Oldham.
Click here to view Dortch’s obituary.
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Dick & Becky at SW 150th Reunion
Working in the Southwestern alumni department I thoroughly enjoy amassing stories from alumni, whether the stories are from the bookfield or what alumni have been up to since. I believe this is because I consider Southwestern alumni as my family. That indescribable bond of a summer on the bookfield ties us together. That connection was clearly evident at the Southwestern 150th Reunion. A gathering of 700 bookpeople created an electricity and a bridge between generations that I’m not sure can be duplicated. One of the members of our SW family that I had the opportunity to get to know through that reunion was Dick Henderson.
Earlier this month, at the age of 91, Dick Henderson passed away. Dick came from an incredible tradition of outstanding bookmen. Dick’s father, JB Henderson, was with Southwestern for 55 years, 40 of which he was the sole owner. Sixteen members of the Henderson family carried a SW samplecase, including Dick’s cousin, Martha Henderson, who was the first woman to sell. As Dick once told me, “in my family you weren’t a man unless you sold books.”
Glenn "Dick" Henderson
Dick sold for five summers, from 1935-1939. I enjoyed his stories of hitchhiking to his turf and Sunday meetings, canvassing the country on foot, and how on occasion he would have to ask his last call for a place to sleep for the night. Despite the differences in some of the processes we currently follow, the principles of character, integrity and trust that Dick attributed to his father and his Southwestern experience remain a common thread.
After his five summers on the bookfield Dick began a successful 40 year career with Bell Telephone. Several years ago Dick spoke to the Southwestern sales managers, sharing a bit of Southwestern history with them. He described watching his father go from being a millionaire in the roaring 1920’s, to being buried in debt a mere ten years later during the Great Depression. However, with the right principles and lots of hard work, Southwestern found a way to survive, rebuild and prosper. As Dick closed his speech, he had these profound words to say about his father, JB Henderson:
“As a child I looked up to my father and wanted to be just like him. I’m 86 years old, and I have yet to change my mind.”
I have a feeling that those that had the privilege of knowing Dick might say the same thing about him.
For the past 13 years my family and friends have been utterly confused trying to figure out what I do. I have spent nearly half of my life working with the Southwestern Company (no, not the airline). I spent eight of those years selling books and software door-to-door in the summer, as well as, recruiting and training students to work in the program during the school year. Currently, I am going on my fifth year as the Southwestern Company’s alumni specialist. How’s that for a title? You see why they are confused. Why would a company have an alumni department?
As you might imagine door-to-door book sales attracts a unique caliber of individual. The Southwestern Company summer program is not for everyone. However, for those students who thrive on challenges, are looking to set themselves apart and aspire to grow personally & professionally it can be an experience beyond comparison. When I left for that first summer on the “bookfield” I had no concept of the bonds that I would form by going through such an intense experience. I am thankful to include many of the students whom I shared my summers within the circle of my closest friends.
This unique connection to other “bookpeople” is the primary basis for my position. I have a daily opportunity to reconnect bookpeople to Southwestern and each other. One of my favorite parts of my job is getting to share stories from the bookfield and how that experience has impacted alumnus’ lives.
The purpose of this blog is to share a glimpse into many of the wonderful stories and successes of Southwestern Company alumni. As an added bonus, maybe my parents will finally understand a bit more about what I do and why Southwestern has been such a big part of my life.
