89 / 112
manufacturer’s rep in the apparel
industry for the first 18 years of
my career. I had a friend who had
also been a rep in the Apparel
Mart who went to work in [the
promotional products] industry
[as a distributor]. I went to work
for him and it wasn’t a good fit.
So I wound up going out on my
own. He was the one who told
me about PPAI and the Expo
coming up in January and it was
all right here in Dallas, easy and
accessible. Once I got registered,
I started taking classes and that’s
really how I learned the industry.
What do you enjoy
doing when you’re
not working?
I love to entertain. I like to have
dinner parties and invite people to
come tomy house. I amalso a car
girl. At one time I had four cars. My
first fun car was a ’56Thunderbird.
I bought it as an investment inmy
early 20s.Then I bought a 1960
Chevy Impala convertible and a ’61
ChryslerWindsor. I think that’s why
my ex-husband fell in lovewithme.
He came tomy house on our first
date and I had four cars! I sold the
T-bird and I got one of the retro 2003
Thunderbirds because I can drive it
any time I want! My ’56was always
in need of repair.The 2003 is the fun
car I drive all the time now, when
I’mnot inmywork car—a Cadillac.
Whoorwhat has had the
greatest influence on
your career andwhy?
The people who have
influenced me the most have
been Paul Kiewiet and Cliff
Quicksell [both former industry
distributors who now consult].
They’re probably the two people
who have given me the vision
and the mentoring to become
what I am in the industry. Paul
was one of the very first people
I met in the industry. I just
happened to be standing there
at the first Expo in Dallas and we
were watching a fashion show.
I was brand new in the industry
after starting my own company
by myself. We just started talking.
Cliff really helped me elevate
my game substantially in
2009‑2010. He’s hard to work
with in that he’s tough on you.
He doesn’t baby you. I consulted
with him for a year and a half.
Coming out of the apparel
industry, I had done product
development, been to Hong Kong
and China, and seen factories.
I knew a lot about apparel and
I think I sold differently than
most people do. I always sell
by samples. I’m not a catalog
person. I like to sit down and talk
to somebody and find out what
they’re trying to accomplish, and
I’m very product specific. If I see
something I like, I get a sample
of it. In 2009 when the economy
crashed and the internet began
to come on strong, that level of
sales lost its value.
Somebody said in a seminar
—it may have been Cliff—if they
can buy it on the internet, they
don’t need you. So if all you’re
doing is delivering a catalog
and taking an order, they can
do it cheaper on the internet …
you have no value proposition,
you’re just an order taker. So I
began to try to determine, what
is value? How do I bring true
value to the table in working
with clients? I had attended a
couple of Cliff’s classes and liked
what he preached. I reached out
to him and we started working
together. It was a brutal process.
There’s a saying that if you
don’t mess up every once in a
while, you’re not trying hard
enough, and I did my fair share
of messing up. It was a lot of trial
and error. But by 2012, I had
won two PPAI Pyramid Awards.
I also have to acknowledge
PPAI. This organization has
provided education, resources and
networking that has influencedmy
career in this industry.
What is your
greatest professional
accomplishment?
I started doing a safety program
in 2010 and wemoved the
needle [as far as ROI]. I won a
Pyramid Award for that program.
This company had had some
accidents—it was a fast-food
franchise. In the first ninemonths
of their programwe reduced
the number of accidents by 50
percent and the dollar value of
their claims by 90 percent.Their
insurance dropped bymore in
the first year than what they were
paying for the program.They
have been able to sustain those
reductions and that programhas
been running for six years. Last
fall, based on the success of that
Tia Walker (right) celebrates with her mother, Joy Walker, on her 80th
birthday in August.
I always sell by
samples. I’m
not a catalog
person. I like to
sit down and talk
to somebody and
find out what
they’re trying to
accomplish, and
I’m very product
specific. If I see
something I like, I
get a sample of it.
|
OCTOBER 2016
|
87
CONNECT