Get To Know Your Mainline Rep: Steven Harger

Unlike many who get into this business, Steven never considered himself to be a musician. He enjoys singing and has been known to partake in karaoke every once in a while, but that’s it. He wasn’t even particularly into the AV gear until college. Steven’s first job in the industry happened right around that time when he went to a concert. After the show, he started talking to the grip and asked if he could help break the equipment down.

It turns out, if you can wrap a cable, then you can get a job in this industry!

Steven soon started to pursue his Bachelor of Arts in Theater, which allowed him to experience a little bit of everything, from the creative performance side to the AV tech behind the scenes. Steven also began working with his church, setting up their AV services. It’s this perspective as an end user that gives Steven an edge in helping our clients and customers here at Mainline Marketing.

About Steven Harger

Steven Harger, Mainline Marketing’s very own South Florida Business Development Manager based in West Palm Beach, is a multifaceted individual. With a Bachelor of Arts in Theater Technology and experience as a Technical Director for HOW, Steven brings a unique perspective to his role. Outside of work, Steven's passions include his family, church, theater, and musicals. He also serves on the board of directors of his HOA, enjoys firearms collecting, and teaches a sound and lighting production course at a local university. Steven is most proud of his personal health journey, including significant weight loss, and has received 5 Bulldog Awards for his achievements. Connect with Steven on Instagram @stevenharger, Facebook @stevenharger, and LinkedIn @stevenharger.

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Clinton

Welcome to another episode of Sound Connections podcast. Today we've got Stephen Harger with us who works with us at Mainline Marketing. And this series, which won't be all together, but we're going to insert these throughout throughout the rest of the year is the ‘getting to know your reps series.’ So for those of you that work with Mainline, you know you'll learn a little bit more about the reps and the people that work here. And then for those of you that don't—that are just listening—you know he's still got a story. A Sound Connection story about being in industry. So welcome Steven.

Steven

Thank you.

Clinton

Thanks for joining us and probably it was mandatory so… Thanks for answering the call. So let's start with what you do today. Just, you know, not like detail but just what your job is and what you're doing for us. For Mainline.

Steven

I'm the South Florida territory so that covers everything from you know like Port St. Lucie area over to the West Coast Port Charlotte area and then everything down till you hit the water right Miami. So [I’ve] been down to the Keys once, I think, to visit some production companies that were down there. But so what I typically do is make phone calls and set up appointments and we do brand recognition and that kind of stuff for the manufacturers represent. So I cover all the vertical markets, production companies, retail stores, contractors, installers, and basically make sure that their relationship with each of the manufacturers is going smoothly, or if it's not, you know, try to mitigate some of those issues that they have. But the cool thing about that is every day with different customers that have a different problem or a different solution that needs to be found or had. So that's one of the things I like most about it: you’re never going into the same office to the same cubicle to the same type of thing. It's always something different so [it] keeps me on my toes, you know, makes me be creative with the way we have to solve problems—but that's what I like most about it. It’s the fact that it's always something different.

Clinton

So, you know to have—to work as a rep in this industry you know typically…I shouldn't say always but probably almost always…but you have to have some sort of AV background right? Like you know, you know a passion for you know gear or AV or you know or any of those things that you know music so what where did that when did that start for you?

Steven

That's interesting…so I'm probably atypical to a lot of people in that I don't I don't play any instruments. I've always kind of had a love for music but just from the tone beat you know that kind of thing. One of the big things I’ve realized about myself now is I listen to a lot of different genres of music, a lot of different music, but didn't always necessarily listen to the words. I could care less really what the words were. So I'd be listening to a song and and whoever was sitting next to me like do you know what they're even talking about, I'm like ‘no it doesn't matter like it sounds great you know.’ So I think it was just something about that because a lot of times when I'm working or you know doing stuff it's—I usually have to have music playing because it's just something to keep my mind going, and it doesn't necessarily have to be stuffed with words in it. So, growing up I was always involved with some kind of choir…whether it was church choir as a kid, I was involved with chorus and middle school.

Clinton

So do you sing?

Steven

I can't sing yeah I mean I'm not I don't—

Clinton

Did you sing, I guess?

Steven

Yeah okay I had a couple solos and stuff like that through…through the church choirs, so I've always kind of enjoyed that, and I can't sight read music. I know notes and stuff like that but I never learned to play any instruments or anything like that, so but through some of the music classes through school and then just through, through the choruses, I've kind of always been around music. So that's kind of where it started, I guess. I didn’t follow a traditional path through AV through high school or anything like that. I was a jock, I played football, I played baseball through most of my childhood career, so I kind of was nowhere near the AV or theater or any kind of arts. So I kind of just came out of that really in college.

Clinton

So as a chorus member were you like a tenor?

Steven

Yeah, yeah, yeah, so I could hit a few high notes—things have changed—but so I don't know if I would still be considered a tenor or…but I like to sing when I'm in my car by myself. Nobody can judge me, so it's really nice when I have those long drives.

Clinton

So you're not going out to the karaoke bars?

Steven

I have been known to do a couple karaoke nights with people and typically I try to keep good company that actually can carry a tune as well so sometimes we make a good duo.

Clinton

That's cool yeah, yeah I would not be one of those people. Yeah. So you mentioned college is where the technology came in so you weren't a gear geek as a young person?

Steven

No, no I mean, I did model airplanes and stuff with my dad.

Clinton

Yeah.

Steven

I was in the Boy Scouts when I was in, you know, elementary, middle and high school, so we played with stuff. I was camping all that kind of stuff, but as far as gear and AV equipment it really didn't come till college. And the way it kind of came about was we were going to a concert, and after the concert I was just kind of hanging out. We were hanging out at the venue, and was looking at, you know, the gear that was on stage, and was just ‘hey do you need any help tearing stuff down’ and that's kind of how it came into, turned into a job. ‘Hey you, you actually know what you're doing,’ and I guess it just kind of came naturally, it wasn't like… there's wrapping cables. You know, so it's one of the things I tell people now when I'm working with them, ‘hey if you can wrap a cable you could pretty much get a job anywhere in this industry.’ But that's really how it started. I, you know, was able to help tear down some equipment after a concert, and then from there it turned into a job which then turned into an interview which turned into this job.

Clinton

What'd you do in college, I guess? So you went from wrapping cables after a show; like what drove you to like…is that is it the job then that drove you to your education or was the education first?

Steven

So actually, when I started in college it was a career track in teaching. I was gonna teach math or something like that at a high school level, and then after a couple years of the education courses [I] just decided, you know, figured it wasn't the right career path for me and then moved into the theater. So then in college I was able to get into the theater program, and they had a track for technology. So it was a Bachelor of Arts, so you kind of did a little bit of everything, so they had sound and lighting design, set design, costume design, makeup and then acting. So as a BA, you did everything so you kind of got well rounded on the theater side. So you could put together a flat and put up some set pieces but I could also sew a costume or put a button on a you know a broken vest if I had it too and then did some stuff in lighting and in sound design.

Clinton

So what made you want to change your major? I mean other than maybe realizing that education wasn't wasn't something you wanted to do but what made you choose theater? Is it because you were doing those shows or?

Steven

I think part of it was that…watching the shows. I've kind of always liked that. One of the things on my bucket list is to hit all the Cirque du Soleil shows. So I just always had an interest in that, of watching the entertainment side that came from that. And then obviously knowing that in order to put on those types of productions, it does take a lot of equipment and staff and all that kind of stuff to do it. So I think for me kind of understanding why those things are important to what they do kind of made me go, ‘Okay I think I could see myself doing this long term.’ In that time I was also working for a local church doing audio video production. So I was doing the weekly setups with classrooms or they had you know their church meetings, Sunday morning services and weekday events and things like that. So whether they were funerals and weddings to you know they had meetings and things like that that had to be set up with AV equipment. So I was working in that field on a daily basis and then was able to supplement that and more on the artistic side with the theater program to do the acting and then also some other design elements.

Clinton

So you went from that to, you know, so you're in college you're also working for the church, and then what…so was the church gig—was it a paid gig? Was it a job or were you volunteering?

Steven

Yeah no it was a part-time gig because I was in school, so I would go to classes and then when I was done with classes I'd come over to the church and help set up whatever needed to be done. Sometimes reorganizing things, sometimes it was set up for events and then obviously Sunday mornings you weren't doing classwork so I was able to work those Sundays and be there pretty consistently. So that's what kind of helped me go throughout the week, and then what I was able to do was take some of the techniques and things I was learning in the classroom and apply those to some of the services and things we were doing there.

Clinton

So what'd you do after college? So where'd you end up going?

Steven

So right after college I stayed on for maybe a year, year and a half after that working at the church and then was given an opportunity to go to another church to be their technical director. So I kind of moved over to that side, so still working in the same type of area but just for another organization.

Clinton

So you went from being a you know—I don't know—one of the assistants, now you're running the show. How big was the church?

Steven

I think they probably had at the time, you know, two or three thousand in their congregation. So it was kind of a lateral move as far as the size of the church but more responsibilities and a different just a different look at the position.

Clinton

So what kind of things do you have to do?

Steven

It was a lot of administrative stuff. So it got more into the planning of the services, the planning of the events as opposed to being told, ‘Hey just help us do this.’ There was more on that side saying, ‘Hey what should we do? We need the ideas.’ So and then working with vendors, the other thing—from that side as an end user right—I got to go to different trade shows but with the side of, “Hey I'm buying this stuff. I need to figure out what works best for the organization.” So it was nice to kind of have that perspective on attending LDI or InfoComm or some of the regional trade shows that are here in Florida.

Clinton

Yeah so you think that that perspective helped you with your gig you know at Mainline?

Steven

Absolutely.

Clinton

Just seeing it from an end user perspective?

Steven

Yeah yeah because I get, you know, the position that we're in at Mainline is we have certain manufacturers that we represent. But as the end user, you know that the table’s a lot more open, right? There's a lot more choices out there which sometimes makes it more difficult. So I think for me to have the perspective of knowing what it's like to go, “Okay I've got all of these manufacturers to choose from; what do I look for when I'm choosing a particular piece of equipment or manufacturer or what,” you know?

Clinton

I think that's where we met right well, so I think I met you through so the church that you worked at before your TD job we had a mutual friend there right yeah so, Doug—

Steven

Yep

Clinton

So I think when we were looking for somebody, I'd reached out to Doug and he might have mentioned you but by that time you had already left his church and you were working at the other church.

Steven

And I think we had actually probably originally met through that explosion conference, yeah that I had attended as a church guy so we went to that thing and you guys had a booth there so whoever at the time was working with you at Mainline.

Clinton

Well that would have been me back then so I was doing that show—yeah, back then.

Steven

So we probably met there, kind of. That was my first introduction to Mainline, and then that little seed was there that this is kind of what these guys do, and then we kind of went back on our merry way. And then fast forward you know a couple years and you're looking for somebody for the position.

Clinton

Yeah, yeah so technical directing, you know, so you're doing some planning and admin work… you know probably getting your hands dirty too I would imagine.

Steven

Oh yeah, oh yea. I mean in that position you you know a lot of the church world is heavily volunteer based but you've you've got to have somebody who can—who's gonna be there, who understands kind of the whole global picture of either where the department needs to go as a technical department or be able to manage the volunteers. So a lot of times it's you know, knowing what you have so that you can train your volunteers on it or being able to run it yourself when a volunteer goes, ‘Sorry I can't make it.’ What are you gonna do, tell them… you know.

Clinton

So somebody maybe that's you know in college getting a degree in theater or or you know audio engineering or live sound or whatever they might be doing, if they wanted to if they wanted to work in that world right because it's definitely a common track right. We know lots of people that work in the house of worship, yeah, area and we know lots of people that used to work there that now do different things. So, for somebody that's interested in doing that where, you know, I mean obviously I would imagine they first look at their own church. But yeah if they're…you know you know, I grew up Catholic, so there's not much technology right yeah yeah they've gotten into it a little bit now but yeah but still it's pretty…. So if I wanted to work in that field I'd have to look at a you know non-denominational church or just a church that has bigger, you know, productions. So, yeah, you know, is it easy to get in, you know, do you just volunteer, I guess, or but if you want to have a paid position…yeah how do you get that?

Steven

Yeah it's so the way I kind of got into it was I mean this was 10, 12 years ago so at that time, that church happened to be doing a lot of they would do an annual Christmas program that was pretty big a high production values on that. So there's a lot that went into that, but as far as the day-to-day stuff it's just a matter of what that church what organization kind of has as far as events going. So a lot of times to get in a paid position they'd have to require somebody that needs to be there all the time with it, so that's really hard to say you know find a church that's that's really active in doing events. So someone that's either partnered with other community groups or events, you know other community type organizations that maybe use their facilities so they need to have somebody that can manage the equipment on a daily basis as opposed to just coming in and doing a weekend service. So something like that would probably be more affordable to have somebody come in and be paid to do that as opposed to a church that maybe still has AV equipment has projectors and lights and and and all that stuff but only does the weekend service—they're probably on more on a volunteer basis, right, they may have the guy that manages it all but they don't do anything during the week so they really don't have anything.

Clinton

There's no need to have…right yeah more so.

Steven

I would say if you're looking for that type of position, you know, or something paid that you find somebody who's actively doing events right regularly.

Clinton

Right, that makes sense.

Steven

Yeah.

Clinton

That makes sense. So, we all have stories where things went wrong, so as a technical director was there anything—and we haven't named any names or anything, we haven’t named any churches or anything. Right other than Doug, but Doug's a very generic name—

Steven

Yeah there's a lot of Dougs.

Clinton

Yeah. Any funny stories or just anything that like I don't know just something to entertain us here?

Steven

So yeah, we I mean you always hear the typical one that you would hear as maybe a sound engineer for a church is who left the microphone on when the pastor or whoever's wearing it goes to the bathroom. I've never actually been a part of that or had to experience that—

Clinton

That's good, that's good!

Steven

Yeah I've never been the guy to forget the mute button at least not in the bathroom, yeah no.

Clinton

When he's in his office swearing at somebody.

Steven

Yeah, no, but I've had a couple where a couple pastors that are challenged when it comes to the musical side—and obviously they're not on stage during the music time during the church—that I've left a microphone unmuted and so you're like…. Hey, what's that other sound that doesn't really sound on key? Yeah, yeah, it's not in the right pitch or anything like that, and I'm like “oh click the mute button!”

Clinton

Anybody notice though?

Steven

I don't know that's that's the thing. You know I think for sound engineers, they typically have a little bit more of a keen ear to pick up on stuff before the general audience would. So I'm not sure. I never got any feedback like, “oh did you hear that,” but that's happened a few times. Or the other thing is you get to solo and listen to them and kind of find out, “Hey there's actually that guy who can actually sing,” you know. If he ever needed to fill in for the worship guy, he could. He could jump up on stage and carry a tune so. Yeah, no crazy stories that sound stand out, but in the theater, there's a lot of times where you're doing the same show over and over and over again, it gets to be mundane. So you always try to find a little bit of things that never really are evident to the audience because you don't want their experience to change on the show. They're seeing it for the first time, and you want that to always be the same, but you always find things to do internally that are funny within maybe the cast or something like that. So one of the big productions that they would do—one of the cast members had a script. You know it's a fake script, there's nothing really in it, but they're saying their lines like they're reading something, and so we'd insert like funny pictures of ourselves or, you know. So it's a watch them—

Clinton

To try to crack them up?

Steven

Exactly! Try to watch them not break character while we put—you know. One of them had a camel, right? It was a Christmas program so you put a funny picture of a camel's face in it so they go to flip the page expecting nothing to be there, and there's this big camel face in front of them.

Clinton

That's quite fun.

Steven

At one point we did this—this is actually a really funny one. So back in the day, all the wireless microphones took nine volt batteries. So we would take the nine volt batteries that were used but still had some juice in them. They were negative to positive and positive to negative. Well, then when you connect the positive on one side and the negative on the other side with a piece of metal aluminum tape…. When somebody happens to maybe step on that metal tape, it makes that connection give them a little jolt. We happen to hook one of those up to one of the steps as they were kind of getting up on stage, and so everybody that walked on stage had this extra little pep in their step because they were getting a little bit of—I think was 240 volts—by the time you put all the nine volts together, but it was just enough to give them a quick quick jump. It was kind of interesting to watch them all kind of have the same reaction walking up the stairs. So pretty little things like that kind of are entertaining if you know about them but it wouldn't be if you were an audience member.

Clinton

Gotcha yeah so yeah I've been listening to a podcast called Smartless, and it's Jason Bateman and this guy Sean—I forget his name he is from Will and Grace. And it's quite funny, but Sean is a theater guy—like he was in Will and Grace but he's really a theater guy—

Steven

Yeah.

Clinton

And anytime they're interviewing somebody there it's usually comedians, actors and things like that, and he's asked them about funny theater stories. So he's got quite a few of his own, and of course it's funny to hear those like things like that.

Steven

Yeah, because again as an audience member you're never gonna—you shouldn't be able to see.

Clinton

Yeah exactly.

Steven

But when you know about him it's really funny to be like, “hey I got away with this right or the character didn't break even though—” Yeah you know it's kind of like The Office and you know some of those other those kind of comedy sketches where they they tried to make them break character but but they do really well SNL that kind.

Clinton

Yeah, yeah, what while you're working at that church as a TD is where we met and connected and we talked, and then we you know we hired you to work and cover South Florida right. So you know I remember a couple of funny stories. I mean one wasn't funny at the time….

Steven

The first of a couple funny stories.

Clinton

Yeah, so yeah, like when you know, and I guess you know as being a being that I was already a rep for a long time, and well-traveled as well, growing up in Europe. you know when we went to our first trade show and you missed your flight yeah because—and this is pre-COVID and pre-9/11, and where you just thought you could show up like minutes before and just jump on this airplane—and come to find out that no….

Steven

No, that's not the way it works, especially when you have to check a bag.

Clinton

Yes.

Steven

Yeah prior to that I mean travel I probably had traveled five or six times, maybe on an airplane and you know it's to go see family or something like that. So I was traveling with a couple other people, so it's really one of my first solo flights if you will, and now I was, you know, in my late 20s, mid 20s at that point. So, yeah it was just kind of one of those things where I didn't really know what I didn't know until I got there and realized, “oh this isn't normal,” and I'm like you know in yeah maybe this is my first and only flight.

Clinton

So yeah that was a good start because I want to say that we hired you, and then we immediately had a trade show. What month did you start?

Steven

So I started in May.

Clinton

Yeah so that would have been—

Steven

And in June.

Clinton

That was June, that was Infocomm, yeah, yeah, that's exactly what it was.

Steven

Yep yep.

Clinton

And it would have been Las Vegas.

Steven

So you got the phone call from a colleague that said, “Hey I'm about ready to walk into this meeting, and I haven't seen Stephen yet. Is he okay?”

Clinton

So the other one that I hear that we hear over and over, which might have been—maybe it wasn't the same—I mean it might have been the same show. But [it] is the console falling down the escalators.

Steven

Yeah

Clinton

You can tell that story, so what was going on?

Steven

So that was…I don't remember what month it was. It was in the first probably three or four months of me working there. We had done a GC summit, so where they brought all the people in from around the country to and—

Clinton

For those who don’t know, GC is guitar center. For those listeners who might not know.

Steven

So they brought a bunch of associates in from there to do a summit. I think it was in Tampa. So I was traveling over there with another colleague, and we had bought a bunch of equipment to kind of showcase, and at the time, we were representing personas. Right, so I had the console. It was on one of those hand truck dolly cart things, and he had a flatbed with other boxes of equipment. And we're walking into the hotel, and he's been around a couple more years than I have, so he's, you know, knows the lay of the land. And he starts walking by the escalator, going to the elevator, you know, where you go in the door, and it's a flat surface. And that whole thing to take it up to the second level where we had to set up our equipment, when I thought, “well it's right up the escalator, why not just take it there.” So I walk in front of the escalator, and it wasn't one of those like ADA compliant ones the four foot wide ones. No, it was the inch one—the single person one, so I literally can fit in there with the hand truck right behind me, and I've got the mixer sitting on the hand truck. So I get on the first step, start going up the escalator, pulling the hand truck behind me, and once the hand truck gets on the step, I kind of set it up so that we're gonna ride the escalator up…well the mixer is not really tied down to the hand truck, so it falls over, and then it just, you know, being the escalator’s going up and gravity works the opposite direction. It literally just end-to-end over and rolled down the escalator like in a cartoon and there's nothing I can do about it because I'm literally riding the escalator up so, as I'm watching this [mixer] topple over and over and over again all I can do is wait at the top of the steps to watch it hopefully it's getting caught so that it rides the escalator all the way up and by the time it got to the top it had probably end over end fifty or sixty. or times. It bent a couple knobs, some of them were popped off.

Clinton

Was it in a box?

Steven

No, oh no, it wasn't in a box, it was just literally one of those, “hey let's put it on the cart and get in there.” And that some of the knobs had actually kind of started rolling on the top step because they were—they caught the top like teeth thing right on the escalator steps. So, yeah I literally just stood up there and watched it as it kind of toppled over and over and eventually climbed up the escalator, picked it up, put it on there. And then, by that time, he had gotten to the same level that I was on, and kind of looked at me like, “Whoa now what do we do?” So we plugged it in, and you know to its credit, it worked. You know, it worked, it was dinged up and and and damaged, but it did what it needed to do for the event. But yeah so that was the story of the mixer down the escalator.

Clinton

Yeah so that's uh that's not even B stock that's like no stock. So I wonder whatever happened to that mixer I'm sure we had it repaired.

Steven

After, after that we definitely put things in cases yeah and we took elevators instead of escalators.

Clinton

Yeah, so that's new guy stuff.

Steven

Yeah yeah.

Clinton

New guy stuff.

Steven

But post that, I don't think there was too many other new guy stories. I think I kind of got my wits about me pretty quick yeah so.

Clinton

So, now so yeah here we are it's ten years—

Steven

Yup.

Clinton

Right ten years of Mainline like last month

Steven

I think this month.

Clinton

This month, this month so, so yeah, so you, so you've been here a long time. Tons of trade shows, managing South Florida, you know like you mentioned all three verticals that we service, working with consultants and integrators and retailers. You know, what do you like most about—I mean you kind of already mentioned a little bit—but what's the best thing about the job?

Steven

Somebody's told me you know the the position of like a technical director somebody that's you know a gearhead or something like that they're not typically people, people—

Clinton

People, people right.

Steven

They're more like introverted or just do their job and don't really like to interact with people. I feel like that's one of the things that's different about me to is I'm very much a people person, I like to be interactive with people and be social. So what what I like about being able to go out and see customers is is having that face-to-face. COVID was one of the hardest you know yeah, transitions because nobody was able to go see face-to-face in there. You couldn't read social cues, there's a lot of things with not seeing somebody's face when you're talking to them, that's just. It's disenchanting, right, there's nothing. It's just that it's more just business, right, as opposed to relational. I'm very like, [a] type of a relational person, so when I'm able to build a relationship with somebody, it makes talking about the gear just kind of second nature. I get to, like, to know them as a person, what their interests are, and then the other part of that is obviously, they're usually having some kind of problem or solution that they need.

Clinton

Don't always have a problem but maybe they just have a project, right, and they—and they're there so you build trust, right? So you're building trust and then they ask you, you know, or you might see an opportunity where a product would be a really great fit for something they're working on.

Steven

Yeah, or that's the other part of being—you know outside of working with Mainline, there's a couple other organizations that I work with. In the theater and universities and then churches, so that I'm still kind of in the world of the end user, right. I'm still using the gear and having to work through problems or experiencing issues in the field if you will right right and so I am able to take that experience and and apply it to the the person who maybe is asking for advice

Clinton

Yeah, yeah so what kind of freelance gigs are you doing? Is it mostly theater?

Steven

Yeah, it's typically in the theater whether it's a straight play. Sometimes they're musicals. Not too much on the corporate side where it's just a talking head or that kind of thing, but yeah mainly in the theater world, being able to run sound or put together a microphone plot, something like that. Where I don't do too much super technical like RF coordination or anything like that, but it's a little part of the gig when you're putting together the sound effects and microphones and that kind of thing, making sure that it all works together. And then some of the churches I work with, it's kind of an overall position where it's like, hey you got to know why the projectors are doing what they do, how the lights work, that kind of thing. So I feel like the whole Bachelor of Arts position or tracked with back in college was kind of well-rounded, it's the same thing. It's like I am kind of the catch-all to to that position making sure that the service runs smoothly whether it's video issues, lighting issues, sound issues, being able to make sure that those go off without a hitch or if there is an issue being able to fix it quickly, so.

Clinton

How's it been so, you know, as a young man when you started in the business, I don't think you had any kids yet, did you?

Steven

I had just one.

Clinton

Yeah, so um you know, we do a lot of travel.

Steven

Mm-hmm.

Clinton

You know, has that been a challenge? Or you know or is it just a nice—and maybe your wife will listen to us, maybe she won't—

Steven

Yeah she might.

Clinton

Has it been a nice break?

Steven

She asked me, “So where's this podcast gonna be at, I might want to check it out.” No, it's definitely a nice break I think in what we do that's not like a monthly travel. It's not overdone, so and she's been able to come on a couple of the trips. The kids I think are, are young enough, my oldest is twelve, so they're in an age where it's cool that daddy goes to, you know, these different places, or I think one of the last places we went it was like, “Hey take pictures of this so, I can show the kids in my class what what the city looks like.” Yeah so it was one of those things where they're still really interested and with FaceTime and the technology being able to call them when we're in a way at different places, it's fun. I think it's at that point where it's not it's not so much, “Oh you're gone and you're not here to tuck us in or you know eat dinner with us,” it's more of a hey I'm over here in in California where it's still light out and it's dark where you guys are going to bed so there's still some fun things like that. I've never done the across the pond trips, so we haven't really done with a ton of time change other than you know a couple hours. I haven't really gotten into souvenirs or anything like that because I have four kids right yeah I could get expensive but yeah.

Clinton

I was buying Colin a snow globe yeah of every city I visited, but on our last family trip we bought one and he was there so we have a new rule now that we're only gonna get snow globes for places he's been. Yeah from now on so he's got quite a few—but with four kids that would get pretty…

Steven

Pretty shirts were okay for a little while

Clinton

Right the small trinkets.

Steven

You know but again they're kids—

Clinton

Right.

Steven

It's one of those things where you know something they can wear, something they can use but it's not like something that's just gonna sit on a shelf somewhere yeah, you know.

Clinton

Like a snow globe.

Steven

Well I mean that has memories and stuff you know.

Clinton

Well he broke his Detroit one.

Clinton

Yeah, yeah.

Steven

So now you got to go back to Detroit just well.

Clinton

Actually I had Amy pick one up when she was in Detroit, so because, you know, I had been there but yeah I don't know if I'm gonna be back there anytime soon right. So yeah, so well what advice would you have for—you know let's just say there's somebody listening, somebody, they don’t even have to be young, they could be somebody old—but somebody that might want to be a rep. What do you think you know, like what skills do you think they would need to have? Or who you know, like how do you get into it, right? I mean, I think in your case I don't know that you ever thought to be a rep, right? It's not like when you saw us at these shows, well when you saw these factory people—

Steven

Yeah

Clinton

You know we would fall into that category, yeah. When you saw these shows, did that ever cross your mind?

Steven

No I don't think so, not at the time, it was you know it was more about the, the you know, the experience of what you were doing, but not necessarily like, “Oh that's a job I could I could do that.” Yeah you know.

Clinton

So because that's how I got into it, yeah, I met somebody, and I'm like “Oh that would be a cool job,” and that's what I got. So it wasn't until we approached you, that you thought—that you realize, “All that's a job, right.” Yeah that's so, so knowing you know, ten years in, what would you tell people? Like you know, if they don't get that call from some dude that works at a rep firm, yeah.

Steven

You know, well I think it's one of the biggest things I've learned about this in this position with this job is networking is huge like in the in the adulting world, right? As an adult being in the business world, networking is huge because you never know whose path you're gonna cross and what they may have, you know, what you guys may have in common or you know opportunities down them down the road. So I think having the ability to just be open to different ideas, different people, different marketplaces…for me, I think it's pretty easy. I'm a pretty easygoing guy where something comes at me I'm able to, you know, figure it out. And I'm not usually stuck in a rut where I'm like, “Oh this is all I'm doing and I'm never moving from this position,” but being able to be open-minded towards that and then. And then, not be afraid of challenges because I think that's the other thing. If you're if you're set on, “hey this is all I can ever do,” then, then maybe you're setting yourself up to get that next whatever it is. But it may be more difficult than where you're currently at, so being able to say, “hey you know if this is a little bit challenging, it's good for me, could be a growth opportunity it could be something that's going to open up into another opportunity to to work or to be able to help another organization out,” within the current position you're in. You know there's a lot of things there. So I think just being open, which means, you know, attending shows or seeing people or going to mixers and all these kinds of things where you're just able to not be a recluse back in your hole that type of thing.

Clinton

Yeah, so basically people person.

Steven

Yeah.

Clinton

So I would agree that if you're not a people person you shouldn't be a rep. Of course, the technical background helps a lot, and drive, and self motivation because a lot of the work is done independently, yeah, right. So yeah and I think we've got a great team here we've built over the years and and you know we've had great success because of it.

Steven

Yeah, I think the biggest thing with being a people person is also the service. I think the way that Mainline is organized and set up is that we're responsive to our customers quickly, and the level of service is there to make sure that you know, we're mitigating a lot of people's expectations right from the end user to the integrator in the middle to the manufacturer. There's a lot of people to have to deal with, so being responsive to that quickly a lot of people, especially this day and age with everything's going on in the world. Information is key so being able to have accurate information and give that to the people that need it helps to the situations.

Clinton

What's next for you? I mean you see yourself doing this for…five years, ten years….

Steven

Yeah, I you know I guess it's a little bit contradictory to what I just said, but I don't see myself moving for a while.

Clinton

Well the job has enough variety.

Steven

Right I don't see I'm comfortable in a negative way but I'm comfortable you know with the variety that's here. You know where I can see myself doing this for ten more years. At least I mean in our job, you know, things change—could change pretty rapidly but as long as things are moving in the right direction, you know, I don't see myself necessarily moving on to anything else. But again you know the doors are always open, but I'm not out there actively looking either. I'm pretty happy with the setup we've got and the people we interact with.

Clinton

I think you know some great things about the job you know, not that we're here to sell people on being a rep, but I think you know is you know in our in our case and it may not be the case for every firm but, you know, our territories are relatively compact where you can be home almost almost every night, unless we've got trade shows or events, and, you know, these customers become your friends right. And if so I just think it kind of becomes like a fun gig, and of course you got a ten-year investment. And to do something different is sort of like, it's not really going away, but you got these relationships you built so if you're going to do something different that didn't include those relationships, mm-hmm you know it's…

Steven

It's something to consider, and that's the thing. So we've had you know recent changes with what I'm doing, and some of the people that I maybe haven't spoken to in a few years, and I was able to just pick back up with them like it was next week. You know, which is kind of nice. That five years of building a lot of relationships together, and then having some different changes over the last five years. We're able to kind of pick back up again, and the business world has changed so there's been conversations about, “hey what's new in your business, yeah, what have you guys done post all the world changes?” But relationally it's been really easy to kind of jump back in and keep going down that same path, which is good.

Clinton

I think we've just about covered it, you know, I don't know unless you got anything else you want to add. Like you know any dad jokes or anything?

Steven

No, my son does love dad dad jokes so he's one of those ones that definitely likes to, yeah, keep things lively with that.

Clinton

I don't know any like. I mean people tell them to me and when they tell them I think they're funny I'm like oh I gotta remember that yeah.

Steven

Typically I write them down because yeah because I'll be the same ways you got so much information coming in it's like oh that's a good one I need to remember.

Clinton

So no dad jokes today on this podcast.

Steven

Well I'll give you one so the one that I used most recently was what's the difference between Iron Man and Aluminum Man?

Clinton

Iron Man, I don’t know.

Steven

So Iron Man I'm gonna now I'm gonna mess it up—Iron Man gets the bad guy aluminum man just foils them. Clinton. Hahaha.

Steven

Pull that on that bad dad joke.

Clinton

So thank you all again for listening to another episode of Sound Connections, look forward to seeing, seeing you or you guys hearing us next time.