The Southwestern Company Alumni Blog » Sales School

The meaning of success

Becky Bauman — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 20:51:04 +0000

Most Thursdays during Southwestern’s sales school weeks I have the privilege of taking photos at Southwestern’s President’s Club dinner. The students who earn the right to attend the dinner have met either the sales or the recruiting requirements and are the top of the top of Southwestern students. On their last night of sales school, after training the first year students and preparing themselves for a summer on the bookfield, they are treated to an amazing dinner at Nashville’s City Club on the 20th floor of the Sun Trust building.

It is not the great food that makes you take a step back when you enter the room, it is the incredible caliber of student that fills it. Each week as Dan Moore announces the winners I am inspired by their accomplishments off of the bookfield. I recall telling the students I worked with as a Sales Manager that they were most likely going to be successful with or without Southwestern. Southwestern is merely a catalyst to get you where you want to go faster with better preparation. These students have learned to overcome challenges and live by Spencer Hays’ motto, “There are two kinds of people in the world: Some find an excuse, and others find a way.”

Last Thursday we were honored to have Southwestern alumni Sam & Cynthia (Dishman) Kirk join us at the President’s Club dinner. Their son Eugune is going on his second summer with Southwestern and was enjoying some well earned steak. As the dinner was winding down, Sam recalled how he was with Southwestern for seventeen years and built a tremendous organization. Sam and Cynthia started Youth About Business, a non profit organization, ten years ago to provide entrepreneurial training to young people in America’s cities.

Sam mentioned to the students headed to the bookfield that one of the greatest lessons he learned at Southwestern was the meaning of success. So many of us have trouble feeling successful even when we accomplish amazing things. Sam reminded us that success is doing your best every day. There are so few things in life we can control, but when we lay our heads down at night we know if we did our best – and that is how we should measure success. I am so blessed to still work at Southwestern where I have wonderful mentors that surround me and remind me of these lessons. For those of you who are not so lucky I thought I would include a poem that I think you will recall from your years on the bookfield.

The One in the Glass
by Dale Wimbrow, ©1934

When you get what you want in your struggle for pelf
And the world makes you King for a day,
Then go to the mirror and look at yourself
And see what that one has to say.

For it isn’t your Father, or Mother, or Wife
Who judgment upon you must pass.
The person whose verdict counts most in your life
Is the one staring back from the glass.

He’s the person to please, never mind all the rest,
The one with you clear up to the end.
And you’ve passed your most dangerous and difficult test
If the one in the glass is your friend.

He may be like Jack Horner and “chisel” a plum
And think you’re a wonderful guy,
But the man in the glass says you’re only a bum
If you can’t look him straight in the eye.

You can fool the whole world down the pathway of years
And get pats on the back as you pass,
But your final reward will be heartache and tears,
If you’ve cheated the one in the glass.

[1] “Pelf” is an archaic term for money, usually used in a derogatory sense

(Slightly edited to make it more genderless – this is all about doing one’s very best – and no one knows what that is except ourselves!)

Remember the Pony

Becky Bauman — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 21:30:13 +0000

In January 2009 CNBC started a ”Pony Blog“. “The Pony blog’s intent is to find the lighter side of the economic crisis and distract you with humor long enough for the seeds of hope to spring forth from the rubble.” It is quite refreshing to see the media finding the positive in the current ecomonic situation. Now most people may pause and ask themselves, what do ponies have to do with the ecomony or positive thinking. However, if you have attended a Southwestern Company Sales School since 1956, you remember the pony. I attended eight Sales Schools and I ALWAYS looked forward to hearing Mort Utley tell The Pony Story. In fact, until now I didn’t realize that anyone but Mort told the story. Well the truth is no one can tell it quite like Mort.

Many days during my Southwestern summers I would be going into that last gravy goal period sitting on zero. (Translation: zero sales for the day with 2.5 hours left) At that point, my affirmation would switch to “there’s gotta be a pony somewhere”.

I learned so many life lessons selling books. I would have said I was a postive thinker before my Southwestern experience, but the bookfield taught me how to harness my thoughts. At first it amazed me that, by continually telling myself outloud good things were going to happen, they did. We really do believe what we tell ourselves; so why do we tell ourselves such bad things? By focusing on finding the yes’s and getting the no’s off my list I could make my attitude do a complete 180.

I would like to say that I am an expert at applying this lesson off the bookfield, but I’m not…yet. Guarding our self-talk can be difficult in a world filled with so many outside negative influences. The ponies are all around us; we just need to remember to look for them.

Until now the video of Mort has been only shown in the Southwestern Sales School. Today I would like to share with you “The Pony Story”.

Remember the Pony

The Tennessean – Slideshow of Famous Southwestern Alumni

Becky Bauman — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 00:47:27 +0000

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.

Click to view the slideshow in The Tennessean

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?