April 2, 2025 • 28 mins
After graduating college, I navigated a series of unexpected career turns that took me from a lucrative accountant sales representative role to multiple jobs with broken promises and ethical challenges. This journey highlights how early career paths often involve setbacks, difficult choices, and learning experiences that shape your professional future.
Please start with Episode 1. Go to my site BrandonHeld.com
• Landed a job selling accounting services with $500 weekly base plus 50% commission on first-year client payments
• Earned approximately $70,000 in six months before working myself out of the position by reaching client capacity
• Took an assistant manager position at Finish Line with promises of promotion to general manager
• Successfully improved store performance and reduced theft at a struggling location, but promotion never materialized
• Moved to Circuit City road shop management with more promises that weren't fulfilled
• Briefly worked in insurance sales until discovering my trainer was defrauding elderly clients
• Reported unethical practices to my boss who showed indifference to the situation
• Found myself unemployed at 29, still searching for the right career path
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Episode Transcript
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SPEAKER_00 (00:01):
Welcome back to Brandon Held, Life is Crazy.
We're on episode 11, and thisepisode I plan on picking up
where I left off at the end ofthe last episode, which is life
after college, essentially.
I was trying to get out of therestaurant business, and like I
(00:25):
said, I was applying fordifferent things, and one of the
things that I was, believe it ornot, a job where I saw an ad in
a newspaper.
Because still back in the early2000s, job postings on the
internet were not exactly athing quite just yet.
(00:48):
So I looked in the newspaper andone of the jobs that I applied
to was to be an accountant salesrepresentative job.
And it was$500 a week pluscommission.
And I was like, oh, that'spretty good money.
(01:09):
You already get the base of$500a week plus the commission.
So I wanted to give that a try.
And I spoke to my boss and heset up an interview with me and
I went to the interview and wehit it off and he offered me the
job.
(01:29):
I guess he just liked mypersonality, believed in me.
I had no experience in thisarena, but really nobody did.
And I had to learn the job.
I had to learn the role.
And so basically what it was ishe hired me out of Florida to
(01:50):
work for an accountant inCincinnati, Ohio, who did was an
older gentleman and he had soldhis accounting firm he had built
up a big firm and he had sold itand one of the provisions when
he sold it was he could not takeany clients with him so he had
(02:13):
to start from scratch now he wasold enough to retire and I'm
sure he had the finances toretire but for whatever reason
he didn't want to and he wantedto start his own business.
Now he was a grumpy little oldman.
And I say little cause I'm sixfoot one and he was probably
(02:35):
like maybe five foot six chubbyolder.
Oh, it wasn't the easiest personto get along with in the world.
And here I had to go sell thisguy to customers specifically to
businesses.
So what the job entailed wasthey had hired an appointment
(02:58):
setter for me, which frankly, Ifelt like she had the hardest
job of all.
And she got paid like 10 bucksan hour, I would say.
And she would cold callbusinesses in the Cincinnati
area and see if they were happywith their accountant.
And if they were not and theywanted to look elsewhere, she
(03:21):
would set an appointment forthem to talk to me.
And so she did all the happy,heavy upfront lifting.
And then all I had to do was,you know, call them at the
appointed time and sell.
The idea of what the accountanthas to offer and the opportunity
(03:43):
to meet with them, becausethat's where the real sale took
place.
This was just preliminary, thephone call.
And and set up an appointment.
So I would set up anappointment.
I would go out and see thebusiness owner.
And one thing my accountantoffered that made him really
(04:07):
easy to sell, because I believewithout this feature.
I wouldn't have been able tosell him.
And this wasn't his idea.
It was my boss's idea.
And I know this grumpy littleold man, he didn't care for this
part of the agreement, but heknew he had to grow his business
and he had to do what he had todo.
(04:27):
So one of the things that heoffered was going to the
business once a month to pick uptheir tax records and just get
face to face with them for up toan hour.
and discuss taxes if they neededhis time.
If they didn't, then he wouldjust go pick up any tax papers
(04:49):
and call it a day.
And so that was, that was apretty easy pitch to sell.
They never met the accountant.
They didn't know anything abouthim.
I was the face.
I was the person that they knew.
And so I was friendly,easygoing, easy to get along
(05:09):
with, could really talk toanybody, just put anyone in
front of me, grumpy old man tothe happiest hippie in the
world.
It didn't matter.
I could talk to anyone.
And that really worked well forme.
It was a calculation on how muchtheir business did annually.
(05:32):
And then they would get chargeda percentage of that for the
accountant's business andannually.
And for the first year, I wouldget 50%.
My commission would be, let'sjust say, for example, I went
out to a business and I sold theaccountant to them.
(05:54):
They, let's just say their costwas$10,000 a year to have the
accountant's services.
My upfront commissionimmediately was going to be
$5,000.
So they had to write the firstyear's check to me,$10,000.
(06:16):
Mind you, they never met theaccountant.
Don't know anything about him.
I'm completely selling him.
And I walk out of there with thecheck of$10,000.
And when the check clears in mynext check, I get$5,000 of that
$10,000.
Now that was just for fun.
signing up that sale, right?
(06:37):
After that, for however manyyears the accountant had them as
a client, he was able to get thefull$10,000.
After that, it was just thefirst year.
And this proved to be a verylucrative job for me.
I did really well.
(06:57):
And my boss told me straight upwhen he hired me, this guy is
He's a single man accountant.
He's not planning on hiring anyother accountants.
And he may, you may only bedoing this for a year because he
can only take so many clients.
And there was a number, I don'tremember the number now, but we
(07:17):
had a number at the time whereit was like, he could take this
many clients and that's it.
Once he gets to this amount withthe travel and tax season and
everything else, he can't takeanymore.
So.
I agreed I could use theexperience.
It sure beat the heck out ofworking at a restaurant.
(07:40):
And so I did it.
And in within six months, Ireached that number.
I worked myself out of a job andI was doing so well.
I'd gotten the projected amountof clients needed that I did
that within six months and Itwas rewarding and upsetting at
(08:07):
the same time because in sixmonths I probably made, I don't
know, 65, 70 grand straight outof college.
Someone who was used to barelyscraping by off bartending money
on the weekends and just gettingthe bare minimum to get by to
now all of a sudden have allthis money.
(08:31):
And I felt rich at the time.
So I did that.
And once the job ended, I nowfound myself looking for a new
position in a new role.
And so I was out there for alittle while and I couldn't get
anything going.
(08:52):
So I had to basically lower mystandards.
Right.
So I had to start applying forthings.
I didn't really want to do, butI needed a job.
We all need a job.
We can't just live off of otherpeople or we shouldn't.
I ended up getting this job asan assistant manager at a finish
(09:16):
line shoe store.
And the reason that I took thejob was because the job was like
a training program.
A management and training rolewhere the point was to
eventually become a generalmanager of the finish line.
(09:37):
And then they said, oh, youwould get paid this much a year.
Plus we offer bonuses andincentives for however well your
store does.
But all you have to do is getthrough this training period and
you have an opportunity to getthe store.
get a store.
And I, and so I signed on withthat.
(09:57):
Wasn't exactly what I wanted todo for a living, but it was
something to do at the time.
And so I worked there learningthe management and training role
and I was doing really well.
And I started at one place, thePark Place Mall in Beaver Creek,
(10:18):
Ohio.
And then the Regional managercame to me one day and she said,
hey, I really need help down atthe Dayton Mall location.
We sell a lot more in volume,but we also have a theft
problem.
We believe our employees arestealing and our general manager
(10:39):
isn't doing anything to stop it.
And if you can go there and turnit around, we'd like to give you
the general manager role there.
And I thought, perfect.
I didn't want to move anywhereat that time.
I had a son in Dayton, Ohio.
I wanted to stay there with him.
And the other management traineethat I had been working with, he
(11:01):
had to move to New England,Massachusetts, somewhere over
there to get a store.
So he had to move pretty faraway.
And I wasn't willing to do thatyet at this point in my life.
I still had my relationship.
I had my son.
And I wanted to stay there.
So I thought, all right, perfectsituation.
(11:21):
So I go down to the Dayton malland I start working there and I
get with the general manager tolet him know, Hey, I want to
help get, make this storebetter.
I want to help with a theftproblem.
And he's not having it.
He like immediately feelsthreatened by me.
(11:45):
And he was just difficult to getalong with, but I still tried to
bypass him because there weremany times I was there and in
charge and he wasn't, you know,I told all the employees that
there was going to be a, like abag check or whatever you bring
(12:06):
in to the off to work is subjectto being checked on your way out
the door.
And.
They didn't like that, ofcourse.
Who does?
So some people quit.
And some people, I just, I don'tknow, maybe stopped stealing or
(12:26):
whatever.
So what happened was, is I hadthe authority to hire and fire.
Even though I wasn't the generalmanager, I was in a high enough
position to do that.
So I would interview people.
And I would fire people if theydidn't follow the rules.
Finish Line had a standard ofhow they wanted their employees
(12:48):
to behave.
They wanted people greetedwithin 30 seconds of entering
the store, for example.
And I noticed when I firstarrived, none of this was
happening.
People weren't getting greetedwhen they walked in.
People were on the floor juststanding around watching people
while no one was being helped.
(13:08):
It was just really poorly run.
And so I did everything I couldto turn this around, which
included letting people go.
I hired a bunch of new people.
And it's just easier sometimesto just start people off on the
right foot because they just getthere and they know the rules
(13:29):
and they know the standards andthey know what's expected right
away.
What's really hard is for peopleto have been doing things one
way and And for you to come in,this new guy, and try to get
them to change how they weredoing business, how they were
working.
And so some of them just flatout just didn't want to do it.
(13:51):
So they either left on their ownor I let them go.
And so what happened was, is Iended up successfully making
this happen.
The regional manager would cometo me, of course, only see me in
a one-on-one situation.
And she would acknowledge that,The employee turnover was great
(14:12):
that I was apparently lettingthe right people go and bringing
in the right people.
Sales were up and theft was downand everything was on the right
path that she was hoping.
But now she wanted to renege onher agreement to make me the
general manager.
(14:33):
And I, I didn't understand whyshe didn't have a good excuse.
And so I felt used.
And so one day I was just thereworking, normal day working.
And all of a sudden this guycomes in to me, he introduces
himself and he says, Hey, I seethe stores run really well.
(14:56):
I'm the general manager atCircuit City.
I'm looking to hire a newgeneral manager for the road
shop, which is our radio salesand installation department.
And I'd love to interview youfor it.
And so I took his card and Ithought, what the heck, why not?
(15:17):
Nothing to lose.
I can talk to him if it worksout great.
If it doesn't, nothing lost.
I'll just end up still beinghere.
So I meet with him and he alsosells me a very similar related
dream.
Hey.
(15:37):
I got a road shop manager here.
He's not getting the job done.
Sales aren't great.
He's too friendly with thestaff.
I don't really care for the wayhe's doing business and I want
to replace him.
And I said, oh, that's great.
That sounds good.
But just got promised the samething.
(15:59):
And at the end of the day, itdidn't happen.
And I said, I don't want to gothrough that again.
And he said, look, here's thesalary for you to come train.
This will be the salary when youbecome the general manager.
He's guaranteed this is going tohappen.
I want to get rid of this guy.
You're the guy.
(16:20):
You're my next guy.
And so I agreed.
I took the job.
So I left Finish Line and I wentto Circuit City to be the road
shop manager.
I was excited.
It was a new adventure.
It was something new to learn,selling radios, selling
speakers, selling everythinginvolved.
Back then, DVDs in the car,screens for the car, amplifiers.
(16:46):
And then also I got to learn howto install all those things.
And so the reason behind melearning was not that I needed
to do it as the manager.
But it was that in case mytechnicians weren't there to do
it and I needed to fill in, Icould do it, right?
(17:08):
But it wasn't going to be myday-to-day job and day-to-day
role.
And so I didn't think aboutthis, but you could probably
hear hindsight being 2020, someissues with what was just
pitched to me, right?
He wants me to replace a generalmanager that he's not happy with
(17:30):
production of sales.
And also he is too close withhis employees.
Now that sentence right thereshould have been a huge red flag
for me.
Should have just happened.
completely threw me off.
But I didn't think anything ofthat at the time because I
thought the same thing I thoughtabout finish line.
(17:53):
If it doesn't work out, I'llreplace them.
I'll get new people.
Except we're talking aboutpeople with experience in
installation, in stereos andspeakers and amplifiers and DVD
players and TV screens andTaking apart different types of
cars and SUVs and minivans andsome of these installers there
(18:19):
just had a wealth of experience.
And they were pretty wellgrounded in being there and what
they were doing because theywere hard to replace.
You can't replace those yearsand years of experience that
easily.
And then, oh, by the way, theyhappen to be really good friends
with this general manager.
(18:40):
They all hang out together.
They go out drinking together.
They are all buddies outside ofwork.
And here comes this new guy.
I don't drink.
I don't smoke.
I'm like the complete oppositeof them.
I'm college educated.
I'm squeaky clean.
Someone who's trying to do theright thing and do things by the
(19:02):
book and by the rules, whereasthe other general manager was
more lenient.
And they didn't want to help meor support me.
They didn't want to teach me theropes or get me to learn.
They understood that I was cooland everything was cool, but
they also, it seemed like theyknew that I would replace me.
(19:26):
their general manager that theyliked and they enjoyed.
And it was very much clearly ofthey were a group and then I was
one.
And so it was a struggle andthey were instigating being
difficult with me and nottraining me and telling me to
figure things out.
And I would go back to theregional manager and I would
(19:48):
tell him this stuff washappening.
And he would just look at me andsay, all right, I'll talk to
him, but you got to figure itout.
You got to make it work.
Putting all the onus back on me.
And it was just an unwinnablesituation.
And then one day I got in anargument with one of the
(20:08):
employees there.
And I didn't feel like thegeneral manager supported me in
that argument like he shouldhave.
And so that's when I leftCircuit City.
I left.
So I went from...
potentially having careers as ageneral manager, both at Finish
(20:30):
Line and at Circuit City to nowbeing unemployed again.
And I was trying to figure outwhere do I go next?
What do I do next?
And so just out of, I justreally couldn't find anything
for me in Dayton, Ohio at thattime.
(20:50):
I tried to get into insurancesales.
I thought, What the heck?
Why not?
Sales did well for me before.
So why don't I give insurancesales a try?
And so I went through the weekof school and training and it
(21:11):
was a 40 hour class that you hadto pass the end to become
certified to sell insurance inthe state of Ohio.
And I passed it.
And then I went to go work forthis insurance company.
Pennsylvania Life was thesubsidiary of the company, but
(21:33):
I, you know, they were, I don'tknow if subsidiary is the right
word.
I don't think that's the word Ilook up.
They were the parents of thiscompany and the company I was
working for was a subsidiary.
They weren't called PennsylvaniaLife.
It was just who they ended upgetting their insurance from
ultimately.
And it was annuities and it wasterm life insurance.
(21:57):
And they had a huge list ofpotential clients.
And that wasn't the hard part.
There was a lot of driving.
We went to people's houses andmet them face to face in their
home.
You know, which again was okaywhen you're young, right?
You don't really care aboutthat.
(22:18):
But I was still me.
I was still myself.
Like, if I'm going to do this,I'm going to give it 110% and I
want to be successful.
I want to be the best I can be.
And the boss happened to be agraduate of Ohio State.
And so we had that connection.
I was an Ohio State fan.
(22:38):
He was an Ohio State fan.
He had gone to the 2002 NationalChampionship game against Miami
and said, I don't need to evergo to another Ohio State game
again because that'll be thegreatest Ohio State game I ever
saw.
And we just really connected onall those levels.
And he asked me how I wanted todo it.
(22:59):
And I said, I want to be thebest.
Whoever is your best right now,I want to be paired up with
them.
I want to train from them.
I want to learn from them.
And I want to be the best.
And he's okay.
I got my guy.
So he sets me up with this guywho was doing the most sales
with the company on a regularbasis.
(23:20):
And this dude, he was like fivefoot five, little small guy,
claimed to be super religious.
Bishop in his church, went tochurch three or four times a
week.
Was a wrestler at Iowa, like onpaper, just sold himself as this
golden choir boy.
(23:41):
But he was older, he was in hisfifties.
And so we went out together andI would see at every visit, I
was learning the ropes andseeing what, how to do this job.
But I was also, I had someintelligence to me.
I had some street smarts to meand I would notice that every
(24:02):
place we were going, he wasgetting the people to sign a
piece of paper.
Just sign this piece of paper.
And he was selling it to them asif, hey, we just had this
conversation and okay, you don'twant to upgrade your insurance.
So just sign this piece of paperthat you're happy where you are
(24:24):
and we're not going to upgradeyour insurance.
He would try to sell them theupgrade while he was there, and
most of the people would turn itdown.
And most of these people werealso elderly, by the way, and he
would spend a lot of timebuilding a relationship, talking
about Jesus Christ and God andreligion, and maybe just a few
(24:49):
minutes talking about the actualinsurance sales.
We went to one of those placesand the person had said, Hey, I
noticed last time you came tovisit me and then left, like my
premium went up.
I ended up paying a little bitmore and I didn't really
(25:10):
understand why.
And he said, Oh, that was just,that was a price increase that
everyone got it.
It's just inflation.
That was just standard.
That's the way it goes.
And I knew that wasn't true.
So I heard that.
And then I started really payingattention to what he was doing.
(25:32):
And what I realized he was doingwas he was trying to sell these
elderly people, mostly, I wouldsay 90 plus percent, upgraded
annuities and where they wouldcommit more money to the annuity
and then they would get moremoney back and most of them are
(25:56):
on fixed income or whatevertheir situation was and they
would say no they didn't want todo it they couldn't afford it
whatever so I realized he wasscamming these people he was
having them sign a piece ofpaper at the end upgrading their
insurance even though he wasjust telling them that they were
(26:17):
just signing that they didn'twant to upgrade that they just
had a conversation about it andthey said no And so I figured
out this was going on and I wentback to my boss and I said, Hey
boss, I was working with so, andI saw this situation.
I explained the situation to himand I said, he's scamming
(26:41):
people.
He's stealing money from people.
And my boss either knew what washappening or.
Just wanted to turn a blind eye.
And he was just basically, Idon't care.
He's getting the job done andhe's making great sales and he's
(27:01):
making good money.
I'm making good money.
Basically, I don't care.
He didn't use those exact words.
I'm paraphrasing, but that'spretty much what happened.
And right then and there, I waslike, this is, this isn't the
business for me.
I'm not here to scam people.
I don't want to scam people.
That's not what I'm trying todo.
And so I had to also quit thatjob.
(27:26):
And so now here I was, 29 yearsold, couple years out of
college, no career going, and Iwas lost.
I didn't know what to do.
And so I will pick up from thereon my next episode.
So thank you again for joiningme and I'll see you next episode
(27:49):
12.
Welcome back to Brandon Held, Life is Crazy.
We're on episode 11, and thisepisode I plan on picking up
where I left off at the end ofthe last episode, which is life
after college, essentially.
I was trying to get out of therestaurant business, and like I
(00:25):
said, I was applying fordifferent things, and one of the
things that I was, believe it ornot, a job where I saw an ad in
a newspaper.
Because still back in the early2000s, job postings on the
internet were not exactly athing quite just yet.
(00:48):
So I looked in the newspaper andone of the jobs that I applied
to was to be an accountant salesrepresentative job.
And it was$500 a week pluscommission.
And I was like, oh, that'spretty good money.
(01:09):
You already get the base of$500a week plus the commission.
So I wanted to give that a try.
And I spoke to my boss and heset up an interview with me and
I went to the interview and wehit it off and he offered me the
job.
(01:29):
I guess he just liked mypersonality, believed in me.
I had no experience in thisarena, but really nobody did.
And I had to learn the job.
I had to learn the role.
And so basically what it was ishe hired me out of Florida to
(01:50):
work for an accountant inCincinnati, Ohio, who did was an
older gentleman and he had soldhis accounting firm he had built
up a big firm and he had sold itand one of the provisions when
he sold it was he could not takeany clients with him so he had
(02:13):
to start from scratch now he wasold enough to retire and I'm
sure he had the finances toretire but for whatever reason
he didn't want to and he wantedto start his own business.
Now he was a grumpy little oldman.
And I say little cause I'm sixfoot one and he was probably
(02:35):
like maybe five foot six chubbyolder.
Oh, it wasn't the easiest personto get along with in the world.
And here I had to go sell thisguy to customers specifically to
businesses.
So what the job entailed wasthey had hired an appointment
(02:58):
setter for me, which frankly, Ifelt like she had the hardest
job of all.
And she got paid like 10 bucksan hour, I would say.
And she would cold callbusinesses in the Cincinnati
area and see if they were happywith their accountant.
And if they were not and theywanted to look elsewhere, she
(03:21):
would set an appointment forthem to talk to me.
And so she did all the happy,heavy upfront lifting.
And then all I had to do was,you know, call them at the
appointed time and sell.
The idea of what the accountanthas to offer and the opportunity
(03:43):
to meet with them, becausethat's where the real sale took
place.
This was just preliminary, thephone call.
And and set up an appointment.
So I would set up anappointment.
I would go out and see thebusiness owner.
And one thing my accountantoffered that made him really
(04:07):
easy to sell, because I believewithout this feature.
I wouldn't have been able tosell him.
And this wasn't his idea.
It was my boss's idea.
And I know this grumpy littleold man, he didn't care for this
part of the agreement, but heknew he had to grow his business
and he had to do what he had todo.
(04:27):
So one of the things that heoffered was going to the
business once a month to pick uptheir tax records and just get
face to face with them for up toan hour.
and discuss taxes if they neededhis time.
If they didn't, then he wouldjust go pick up any tax papers
(04:49):
and call it a day.
And so that was, that was apretty easy pitch to sell.
They never met the accountant.
They didn't know anything abouthim.
I was the face.
I was the person that they knew.
And so I was friendly,easygoing, easy to get along
(05:09):
with, could really talk toanybody, just put anyone in
front of me, grumpy old man tothe happiest hippie in the
world.
It didn't matter.
I could talk to anyone.
And that really worked well forme.
It was a calculation on how muchtheir business did annually.
(05:32):
And then they would get chargeda percentage of that for the
accountant's business andannually.
And for the first year, I wouldget 50%.
My commission would be, let'sjust say, for example, I went
out to a business and I sold theaccountant to them.
(05:54):
They, let's just say their costwas$10,000 a year to have the
accountant's services.
My upfront commissionimmediately was going to be
$5,000.
So they had to write the firstyear's check to me,$10,000.
(06:16):
Mind you, they never met theaccountant.
Don't know anything about him.
I'm completely selling him.
And I walk out of there with thecheck of$10,000.
And when the check clears in mynext check, I get$5,000 of that
$10,000.
Now that was just for fun.
signing up that sale, right?
(06:37):
After that, for however manyyears the accountant had them as
a client, he was able to get thefull$10,000.
After that, it was just thefirst year.
And this proved to be a verylucrative job for me.
I did really well.
(06:57):
And my boss told me straight upwhen he hired me, this guy is
He's a single man accountant.
He's not planning on hiring anyother accountants.
And he may, you may only bedoing this for a year because he
can only take so many clients.
And there was a number, I don'tremember the number now, but we
(07:17):
had a number at the time whereit was like, he could take this
many clients and that's it.
Once he gets to this amount withthe travel and tax season and
everything else, he can't takeanymore.
So.
I agreed I could use theexperience.
It sure beat the heck out ofworking at a restaurant.
(07:40):
And so I did it.
And in within six months, Ireached that number.
I worked myself out of a job andI was doing so well.
I'd gotten the projected amountof clients needed that I did
that within six months and Itwas rewarding and upsetting at
(08:07):
the same time because in sixmonths I probably made, I don't
know, 65, 70 grand straight outof college.
Someone who was used to barelyscraping by off bartending money
on the weekends and just gettingthe bare minimum to get by to
now all of a sudden have allthis money.
(08:31):
And I felt rich at the time.
So I did that.
And once the job ended, I nowfound myself looking for a new
position in a new role.
And so I was out there for alittle while and I couldn't get
anything going.
(08:52):
So I had to basically lower mystandards.
Right.
So I had to start applying forthings.
I didn't really want to do, butI needed a job.
We all need a job.
We can't just live off of otherpeople or we shouldn't.
I ended up getting this job asan assistant manager at a finish
(09:16):
line shoe store.
And the reason that I took thejob was because the job was like
a training program.
A management and training rolewhere the point was to
eventually become a generalmanager of the finish line.
(09:37):
And then they said, oh, youwould get paid this much a year.
Plus we offer bonuses andincentives for however well your
store does.
But all you have to do is getthrough this training period and
you have an opportunity to getthe store.
get a store.
And I, and so I signed on withthat.
(09:57):
Wasn't exactly what I wanted todo for a living, but it was
something to do at the time.
And so I worked there learningthe management and training role
and I was doing really well.
And I started at one place, thePark Place Mall in Beaver Creek,
(10:18):
Ohio.
And then the Regional managercame to me one day and she said,
hey, I really need help down atthe Dayton Mall location.
We sell a lot more in volume,but we also have a theft
problem.
We believe our employees arestealing and our general manager
(10:39):
isn't doing anything to stop it.
And if you can go there and turnit around, we'd like to give you
the general manager role there.
And I thought, perfect.
I didn't want to move anywhereat that time.
I had a son in Dayton, Ohio.
I wanted to stay there with him.
And the other management traineethat I had been working with, he
(11:01):
had to move to New England,Massachusetts, somewhere over
there to get a store.
So he had to move pretty faraway.
And I wasn't willing to do thatyet at this point in my life.
I still had my relationship.
I had my son.
And I wanted to stay there.
So I thought, all right, perfectsituation.
(11:21):
So I go down to the Dayton malland I start working there and I
get with the general manager tolet him know, Hey, I want to
help get, make this storebetter.
I want to help with a theftproblem.
And he's not having it.
He like immediately feelsthreatened by me.
(11:45):
And he was just difficult to getalong with, but I still tried to
bypass him because there weremany times I was there and in
charge and he wasn't, you know,I told all the employees that
there was going to be a, like abag check or whatever you bring
(12:06):
in to the off to work is subjectto being checked on your way out
the door.
And.
They didn't like that, ofcourse.
Who does?
So some people quit.
And some people, I just, I don'tknow, maybe stopped stealing or
(12:26):
whatever.
So what happened was, is I hadthe authority to hire and fire.
Even though I wasn't the generalmanager, I was in a high enough
position to do that.
So I would interview people.
And I would fire people if theydidn't follow the rules.
Finish Line had a standard ofhow they wanted their employees
(12:48):
to behave.
They wanted people greetedwithin 30 seconds of entering
the store, for example.
And I noticed when I firstarrived, none of this was
happening.
People weren't getting greetedwhen they walked in.
People were on the floor juststanding around watching people
while no one was being helped.
(13:08):
It was just really poorly run.
And so I did everything I couldto turn this around, which
included letting people go.
I hired a bunch of new people.
And it's just easier sometimesto just start people off on the
right foot because they just getthere and they know the rules
(13:29):
and they know the standards andthey know what's expected right
away.
What's really hard is for peopleto have been doing things one
way and And for you to come in,this new guy, and try to get
them to change how they weredoing business, how they were
working.
And so some of them just flatout just didn't want to do it.
(13:51):
So they either left on their ownor I let them go.
And so what happened was, is Iended up successfully making
this happen.
The regional manager would cometo me, of course, only see me in
a one-on-one situation.
And she would acknowledge that,The employee turnover was great
(14:12):
that I was apparently lettingthe right people go and bringing
in the right people.
Sales were up and theft was downand everything was on the right
path that she was hoping.
But now she wanted to renege onher agreement to make me the
general manager.
(14:33):
And I, I didn't understand whyshe didn't have a good excuse.
And so I felt used.
And so one day I was just thereworking, normal day working.
And all of a sudden this guycomes in to me, he introduces
himself and he says, Hey, I seethe stores run really well.
(14:56):
I'm the general manager atCircuit City.
I'm looking to hire a newgeneral manager for the road
shop, which is our radio salesand installation department.
And I'd love to interview youfor it.
And so I took his card and Ithought, what the heck, why not?
(15:17):
Nothing to lose.
I can talk to him if it worksout great.
If it doesn't, nothing lost.
I'll just end up still beinghere.
So I meet with him and he alsosells me a very similar related
dream.
Hey.
(15:37):
I got a road shop manager here.
He's not getting the job done.
Sales aren't great.
He's too friendly with thestaff.
I don't really care for the wayhe's doing business and I want
to replace him.
And I said, oh, that's great.
That sounds good.
But just got promised the samething.
(15:59):
And at the end of the day, itdidn't happen.
And I said, I don't want to gothrough that again.
And he said, look, here's thesalary for you to come train.
This will be the salary when youbecome the general manager.
He's guaranteed this is going tohappen.
I want to get rid of this guy.
You're the guy.
(16:20):
You're my next guy.
And so I agreed.
I took the job.
So I left Finish Line and I wentto Circuit City to be the road
shop manager.
I was excited.
It was a new adventure.
It was something new to learn,selling radios, selling
speakers, selling everythinginvolved.
Back then, DVDs in the car,screens for the car, amplifiers.
(16:46):
And then also I got to learn howto install all those things.
And so the reason behind melearning was not that I needed
to do it as the manager.
But it was that in case mytechnicians weren't there to do
it and I needed to fill in, Icould do it, right?
(17:08):
But it wasn't going to be myday-to-day job and day-to-day
role.
And so I didn't think aboutthis, but you could probably
hear hindsight being 2020, someissues with what was just
pitched to me, right?
He wants me to replace a generalmanager that he's not happy with
(17:30):
production of sales.
And also he is too close withhis employees.
Now that sentence right thereshould have been a huge red flag
for me.
Should have just happened.
completely threw me off.
But I didn't think anything ofthat at the time because I
thought the same thing I thoughtabout finish line.
(17:53):
If it doesn't work out, I'llreplace them.
I'll get new people.
Except we're talking aboutpeople with experience in
installation, in stereos andspeakers and amplifiers and DVD
players and TV screens andTaking apart different types of
cars and SUVs and minivans andsome of these installers there
(18:19):
just had a wealth of experience.
And they were pretty wellgrounded in being there and what
they were doing because theywere hard to replace.
You can't replace those yearsand years of experience that
easily.
And then, oh, by the way, theyhappen to be really good friends
with this general manager.
(18:40):
They all hang out together.
They go out drinking together.
They are all buddies outside ofwork.
And here comes this new guy.
I don't drink.
I don't smoke.
I'm like the complete oppositeof them.
I'm college educated.
I'm squeaky clean.
Someone who's trying to do theright thing and do things by the
(19:02):
book and by the rules, whereasthe other general manager was
more lenient.
And they didn't want to help meor support me.
They didn't want to teach me theropes or get me to learn.
They understood that I was cooland everything was cool, but
they also, it seemed like theyknew that I would replace me.
(19:26):
their general manager that theyliked and they enjoyed.
And it was very much clearly ofthey were a group and then I was
one.
And so it was a struggle andthey were instigating being
difficult with me and nottraining me and telling me to
figure things out.
And I would go back to theregional manager and I would
(19:48):
tell him this stuff washappening.
And he would just look at me andsay, all right, I'll talk to
him, but you got to figure itout.
You got to make it work.
Putting all the onus back on me.
And it was just an unwinnablesituation.
And then one day I got in anargument with one of the
(20:08):
employees there.
And I didn't feel like thegeneral manager supported me in
that argument like he shouldhave.
And so that's when I leftCircuit City.
I left.
So I went from...
potentially having careers as ageneral manager, both at Finish
(20:30):
Line and at Circuit City to nowbeing unemployed again.
And I was trying to figure outwhere do I go next?
What do I do next?
And so just out of, I justreally couldn't find anything
for me in Dayton, Ohio at thattime.
(20:50):
I tried to get into insurancesales.
I thought, What the heck?
Why not?
Sales did well for me before.
So why don't I give insurancesales a try?
And so I went through the weekof school and training and it
(21:11):
was a 40 hour class that you hadto pass the end to become
certified to sell insurance inthe state of Ohio.
And I passed it.
And then I went to go work forthis insurance company.
Pennsylvania Life was thesubsidiary of the company, but
(21:33):
I, you know, they were, I don'tknow if subsidiary is the right
word.
I don't think that's the word Ilook up.
They were the parents of thiscompany and the company I was
working for was a subsidiary.
They weren't called PennsylvaniaLife.
It was just who they ended upgetting their insurance from
ultimately.
And it was annuities and it wasterm life insurance.
(21:57):
And they had a huge list ofpotential clients.
And that wasn't the hard part.
There was a lot of driving.
We went to people's houses andmet them face to face in their
home.
You know, which again was okaywhen you're young, right?
You don't really care aboutthat.
(22:18):
But I was still me.
I was still myself.
Like, if I'm going to do this,I'm going to give it 110% and I
want to be successful.
I want to be the best I can be.
And the boss happened to be agraduate of Ohio State.
And so we had that connection.
I was an Ohio State fan.
(22:38):
He was an Ohio State fan.
He had gone to the 2002 NationalChampionship game against Miami
and said, I don't need to evergo to another Ohio State game
again because that'll be thegreatest Ohio State game I ever
saw.
And we just really connected onall those levels.
And he asked me how I wanted todo it.
(22:59):
And I said, I want to be thebest.
Whoever is your best right now,I want to be paired up with
them.
I want to train from them.
I want to learn from them.
And I want to be the best.
And he's okay.
I got my guy.
So he sets me up with this guywho was doing the most sales
with the company on a regularbasis.
(23:20):
And this dude, he was like fivefoot five, little small guy,
claimed to be super religious.
Bishop in his church, went tochurch three or four times a
week.
Was a wrestler at Iowa, like onpaper, just sold himself as this
golden choir boy.
(23:41):
But he was older, he was in hisfifties.
And so we went out together andI would see at every visit, I
was learning the ropes andseeing what, how to do this job.
But I was also, I had someintelligence to me.
I had some street smarts to meand I would notice that every
(24:02):
place we were going, he wasgetting the people to sign a
piece of paper.
Just sign this piece of paper.
And he was selling it to them asif, hey, we just had this
conversation and okay, you don'twant to upgrade your insurance.
So just sign this piece of paperthat you're happy where you are
(24:24):
and we're not going to upgradeyour insurance.
He would try to sell them theupgrade while he was there, and
most of the people would turn itdown.
And most of these people werealso elderly, by the way, and he
would spend a lot of timebuilding a relationship, talking
about Jesus Christ and God andreligion, and maybe just a few
(24:49):
minutes talking about the actualinsurance sales.
We went to one of those placesand the person had said, Hey, I
noticed last time you came tovisit me and then left, like my
premium went up.
I ended up paying a little bitmore and I didn't really
(25:10):
understand why.
And he said, Oh, that was just,that was a price increase that
everyone got it.
It's just inflation.
That was just standard.
That's the way it goes.
And I knew that wasn't true.
So I heard that.
And then I started really payingattention to what he was doing.
(25:32):
And what I realized he was doingwas he was trying to sell these
elderly people, mostly, I wouldsay 90 plus percent, upgraded
annuities and where they wouldcommit more money to the annuity
and then they would get moremoney back and most of them are
(25:56):
on fixed income or whatevertheir situation was and they
would say no they didn't want todo it they couldn't afford it
whatever so I realized he wasscamming these people he was
having them sign a piece ofpaper at the end upgrading their
insurance even though he wasjust telling them that they were
(26:17):
just signing that they didn'twant to upgrade that they just
had a conversation about it andthey said no And so I figured
out this was going on and I wentback to my boss and I said, Hey
boss, I was working with so, andI saw this situation.
I explained the situation to himand I said, he's scamming
(26:41):
people.
He's stealing money from people.
And my boss either knew what washappening or.
Just wanted to turn a blind eye.
And he was just basically, Idon't care.
He's getting the job done andhe's making great sales and he's
(27:01):
making good money.
I'm making good money.
Basically, I don't care.
He didn't use those exact words.
I'm paraphrasing, but that'spretty much what happened.
And right then and there, I waslike, this is, this isn't the
business for me.
I'm not here to scam people.
I don't want to scam people.
That's not what I'm trying todo.
And so I had to also quit thatjob.
(27:26):
And so now here I was, 29 yearsold, couple years out of
college, no career going, and Iwas lost.
I didn't know what to do.
And so I will pick up from thereon my next episode.
So thank you again for joiningme and I'll see you next episode
(27:49):
12.
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