Unpacking the Suitcase One Last Time...

I always wondered when this day would come.  The day when I would not be packing up my suitcase to go back out on the road.  

If you're a regular reader of Road Tips, you've probably noticed a dearth of entries over the past few weeks.  That's because I lost my job in late September of last year.  

I had worked for my company for 19 years.  About 3 years ago, the man who hired me in 2002 retired and sold the company to a French investment firm who was the parent company of the two biggest audio companies I represented.  The first year was a rough one for many of my colleagues.  Well over half of the North American sales staff was gone within 9 months of the new ownership taking over.   Worried about my job that I really liked, I kept my head down and forged forward.  

By the start of 2020, I was the only one in the U.S. who the new ownership group hadn't replaced with an independent representative company.  Of course, COVID hit in March of 2020 and I didn't travel for months on end.  Then in the summer of 2020, the guy who had been hired to be the sales manager for North America - and a very nice guy who I got along with very well - was fired.  

I had been considered "management" up to that point, being part of Zoom meetings and helping with strategy and forecasting.  Suddenly, the French owners hired two guys who were basically put above me.  I found myself slowly sliding down the corporate totem pole.  I was suddenly not included in calls and memos from the new upper sales management team.  

By last summer, I saw the handwriting on the wall.  The new sales management team wanted to take away 3/4's of my territory.  I didn't like it, I expressed my heartfelt disappointment with it, but I went along with it.  

Finally, things came to a head in September of last year.  On September 30th, I was blindsided on a Zoom call that I was expecting to just be a routine end-of-month sales meeting.  Sitting in a hotel room in Omaha getting ready to go out and call on accounts that day, I was told in the video conference that my services would no longer be required.  I knew deep down inside that day was coming, but I sort of expected it toward the end of 2021 or in early 2022.  I just didn't expect it to be at the end of September of last year.  

And it wasn't that I wasn't doing my job or hitting my numbers, I was.  The hoops the new sales management team were making me jump through became more numerous and much smaller as last year went on.  And some of the smaller hoops had razor blades attached.  They were trying to force me out, but I wouldn't go.  They finally made the decision to bring their own guys in.  

It turns out that I'm pretty well-known in my industry and the phone calls and e-mails of support I received in the first two or three weeks after getting terminated were welcomed and heartfelt.  I heard from a number of people from audio companies who reached out to me not long after I became a free agent who basically said, "Hey, man!  We know you, you have a great reputation in the industry.  We'd hire you in a moment's notice if we had a position open.  Keep in touch!"  

But follow-ups with some of those companies yielded similar responses three or four months later.  It was pretty disheartening.  

A friend of mine called me a couple weeks after I had been let go to offer his best wishes and told me that he was down-sized from his dream job a number of years ago.  In the conversation he told me, "I'm sure you're getting a lot of phone calls from friends, dealers and colleagues.  But let me warn you.  The phone calls will stop, then you'll be wondering where your friends are."

That's exactly what happened. 

I did have a couple offers to work for some companies in the audio field, but they would have been "pioneering" jobs - i.e., a position where I would have had to work my ass off to market new or obscure products to a small (and shrinking) dealer base for high-end audio products.  I didn't want to do that.  

I had a chance to buy a firm that represented some pretty good audio companies from a friend of mine who was retiring.  However, after a couple three weeks of negotiations and conversations, I determined - and my friend agreed - that the companies he represented wouldn't necessarily follow me because I bought his company.  It was with a bit of anguish that I decided to not buy my friend's company. 

I had been talking with a company that represented both home audio and car audio/accessory products.  But the last thing I wanted to do is having to call on stores that sell anything to do with car audio or accessories.  I was almost relieved when they told me that they had gone in a different direction in terms of hiring someone else.  

And it's not that I didn't get a lot of other offers - I did.  But they weren't for jobs I felt comfortable doing.  

There were a handful of jobs that came up through the social recruiting sites such as Linkedin, Indeed, and Zip Recruiter.  I could have been an insurance salesman 8 times over by now.  But I don't want to sell insurance.  Financial planners have come calling trying to recruit me to work for them.  But I'm bad at taking care of my own money, let alone someone else's money.  

I had a couple very positive interviews with a local ad agency looking to hire someone to take the place of a retiring salesperson.  I was told that the money that I needed would be there based on the revenues the salesperson generated.  Then in what turned out to be the final interview, I found out that the key accounts the salesperson was in charge of had been divvied up among other salespeople in the agency.  The money I had been told would be there suddenly wasn't.  

I didn't take the job.  

By that time I really needed to find a job as my severance was up.  Having to start dipping into savings, I reached out to companies outside the audio industry.  I had some interviews here and there, but nothing concrete.  

There were a number of jobs that popped up on the various social employment sites that fit me to a tee.  They were all travel oriented, all sales and marketing jobs, and something that I would have excelled at.  (After all, I have spent nearly 20 years selling stuff that absolutely no one needs.  If I can sell products like that, I can sell anything.)  After applying and getting preliminary meetings, nothing happened. 

Same thing happened with some headhunters I had been in contact with.  I probably talked with five or six different headhunting companies.  Some were enthusiastic of my skill set, as well as my experience of working in business-to-business situations.  But after awhile, many of the headhunters completely ghosted me.  

And I suddenly figured out why.  They're all doing a deep background check and finding that I'm at an age where I should be thinking of retiring rather than trying to find a job.  

I have friends who are retired and seem to be enjoying life.  I'm not that kind of person.  I think it would drive me nuts to be retired.  The last six months have been tough enough hanging around the house and not getting in the car and going to call on accounts like I've been doing since 1993.  Traveling was in my bones, it was part of my life.  Even my wife - who has been with me since 1993 - has known me to do nothing but travel while we've been together.  I used to joke that if I was home for more than two weeks at a time that my wife would be wondering when I was going to be leaving again.  

I have to admit - I had a great job.  I got to travel and go and do and see.  I was able to go to Paris, London, New York City, Seattle, Los Angeles and Montreal.  Of course, my regular travels took me to the great cities of the Midwest - Chicago, St. Louis, the Twin Cities, and even Fargo!  (I loved Fargo!)  I ate in some great (and not-so-great) restaurants as well as some really unique places.  The perks of traveling sent my wife and me to Hawaii a couple times.  We loved our vacations to places such as Southern California, the Gulf Coast, out to Colorado (especially Steamboat Springs), and to the Southeastern seaboard thanks to airline and hotel points that I had accrued.  

But that's pretty much over now.  

I've come to the realization that I probably won't be able to find a job where I'll be able to travel.  While I do have something in the works, it won't involve travel.  

It will basically be an 8-to-5 job, 5 days a week, working in an office looking at a computer screen.  I haven't worked in an office setting outside my home since - well, forever.  I've had to recalibrate my brain over the past couple three weeks to say that it's OK to take this job even if it's not exactly what I want to do.  But the guy who is interested in hiring me is a good guy with a well-established business and I know I can help him out in the capacity that he's looking to fill.  And like anything in life, it will take some time to get used to.  

Even though I won't be adding much to Road Tips, I'm going to keep it going for the time being.  I've invested over 16 years of this where I can't just let it go away.  And I don't want to just write about the restaurants in the Quad Cities.  That sort of narrows my reader base.  But, if my wife and I take off on a weekend trip and find someplace that's interesting, I may make an entry. 

It's sort of funny - Road Tips was once recognized by a popular (at the time) on-line travel site for the popularity of this blog and was getting well over 100,000 hits on their site from readers all over the world.  I've also been threatened by people for giving bad reviews, I've been asked (and even pressured) by some restaurants to visit their establishments, I've been asked to allow people to do their own entries on the blog, and I've been approached by companies to put advertisements on my blog.  But I stayed true to myself and didn't want to monetize my hobby.  

While I'm going to miss writing about the places I've eaten at or have experienced in my travels, there's a couple things I'm not going to miss.  I'm not going to miss eating alone the vast majority of the time.  Dining as a single is awkward enough, especially when you want to try a nice restaurant.  And I'm not going to miss the loneliness of the hotel room - wherever that hotel room is.  (I have to tell you - spending a birthday alone in a hotel room is not fun.  And being sick on the road - also not fun.)  

I've had a great run and I have to thank those of you who have indulged my little hobby and encouraged me over the years.

My little hobby that took on a life of its own.  

As I told many of my accounts when I was let go that this doesn't mean good-bye, but I'll see you next time.  

And if someone out there is looking for a seasoned sales professional who is willing to travel, drop me a line. 

Until then, thanks for looking in to Road Tips!   

Comments

[Jeni]

I'm sorry to hear about your job and hope that you find something that allows you to travel and meets your salary desires, too!

If you want to continue to write, hope that you do, whatever that may be about.

[Joe Revell]

I've always enjoyed your writing and going down memory lane when you reviewed a place I have visited. I retired this month and I am looking for my next adventure. When you create your next perfect business and need a partner give me a call. jr

[Scott Grunder]

Oh no. I have read this blog once a week since I came across it.Looked forward to each entry. I downsized my paycheck by over half last year to have a normal life. That said entries to my blog have tapered off quite a bit too.

Hopefully you will post about places around the QC every now and then.

[S]

Oh no. I will miss your posts. I am sorry to hear this happened to you. There is no loyalty or compassion any longer in the work place.

[Chris]

I understand your comments about travel. It is a blessing and a curse at the same time. You have such strong skills (writing, connecting with new people and learning their story, etc.). I hope you find a fit down the road that lets you keep up with your passion. You are prolific and monetizing your work is not a bad thing if that helps get you doing what is in your flow. Life is a journey and you certainly are a seasoned traveler. All the best!

[Steph's Mom]

I have to admit that its been a few weeks since I last checked in to Road Tips and I have to say that I am shocked and sad to see this entry. I hope that you'll find something, or maybe found something now. I saw that the Tastee Freeze on Rockingham closed for good this past week and I immediately thought of you. I hope you keep doing the reviews if you get a chance. I promise to check back more often!

[Tim Lake]

It was Klipsch, wasn't it? I never liked that company since Paul Klipsch sold the company to Fred Klipsch.