“The education opportunities are out there. The best investment you canmake is in yourself. ” Steve Flaughers S t eve F l aughe r s now, this is our biggest year ever in business. In the middle of everything that’s going on, you can’t even find a black t-shirt. But because we have this relentless drive, we are doing it. I can promise this is a lot easier than farmwork and it’s a lot less painful. Luckily, I’ve got that fortitude to find the black shirt or help clients pivot to get what they want.” In 2015, Flaughers became a member of Proforma’s Multi Million Dollar Club. “I was sitting in training, pretty much square one, and I remember looking at the wall and seeing a navy jacket. It had a really cool gold patch on it that said, ‘Million Dollar Club,’” he says. “Where I come from, you don’t even say the word ‘million’ because nobody has a million of anything. That word doesn’t really exist in our vocabulary.” Proforma owners who achieve $1 million in sales receive this honor. “Downstairs, all the people in the Million Dollar Club have a picture with their jacket on,” he explains. “All their photos are lined along the wall. I walk down this hall every day and I’m thinking, ‘There’s absolutely no reason for me not to be up there. What’s it going to take? Why settle for second when first is available?’” The year before Flaughers and his teammade the Million Dollar Club, they came up $20,000 short. “I was sick to my stomach,” he says. “We go to Proforma’s national convention, and they have the awards ceremony and the first thing they do when the ceremony starts is everyone in the Million Dollar Club marches in. Everyone’s clapping, music is playing and lights are going off—it was like a rock concert. They all walk on the stage and people are high-fiving them, which is good. But honestly, I felt like I was going to cry. I wanted it so bad.” Flaughers says he had a tough night, but he got back to work immediately. “I said, ‘Next year starts right now.’ But the cool thing is Proforma has the Million Dollar Club, and the next level is Multi-Million Dollar Club which is $2-million plus. I just got absolutely obsessed and went hard. Day, night, weekend, I am getting my jacket. So, I never made the Million Dollar Club; I went straight to Multi-Million Dollar Club the following year.” While Flaughers has achieved so many of his goals, he still has one more to reach. “When this whole game is over, I’m going back to the farm. It’s what I know, it’s what I love and it’s home. Even now, I can’t wait to go back.” PPB spoke with Flaughers to learn more about the mindset of a million-dollar mascot farmer. PPB Where do you start when you have no experience? Flaughers Go get your trifold brochure and your business card, but you don’t need that stuff to sell. It’s a crutch. Just talk to people. Don’t over-complicate it. With that being said, I am a huge advocate for education. There’s no substitute for education, but that’s textbook education. Also, if you don’t have a network, you’ve got to find one. You’ve got to find a mastermind group of your industry peers. I don’t care if you are by yourself; get a board of advisors. Find somebody, frankly, better than you, and meet with them once a month. You don’t want to go at this alone. It’s going to be a long, lonely road. It’s good to have a trusted group of friends and advisors to talk to. PPB What’s something you wish you’d known when you first got started in this industry? Flaughers I wish I would have known about PPAI’s TAS and CAS certifications. When I got into this, you just jumped right into the fire and figured it out. The education opportunities could have advanced me by two years. Right now, I am finishing up a course with Goldman Sachs called “10,000 Small Businesses,” and even though I’ve been doing this for 14 years, I am taking notes and learning a lot. The education opportunities are out there. The best investment you can make is in yourself. Kristina Valdez is associate editor of PPB. 70 | JANUARY 2022 | CONNECT
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