Noob School - Episode 33: Sales is the Gateway to a Happy Life with Eddie Terrell

Episode Date: January 28, 2022

Eddie Terrell and John go back to college days. The Citadel grads met up for lunch shortly after graduation while they were in the early stages of their careers—with Eddie picking up the tab. If you're keeping track, that's the best way to get into John's good graces. Eddie's journey through telecommunications sales is similar to most Noob School guests in that it wasn't a direct path. He actually took a drastic salary cut of 50% to chase a happier life in sales! He shares what he's learned in his several decades on top of his game. Follow John on social media: Instagram: instagram.com/johnsterling_ Facebook: facebook.com/johnsterlingsales Twitter: twitter.com/johnsterling_ TikTok: tiktok.com/@johnsterling_

All right, noob schoolers, welcome back to the noob. Today I've got, well, you know what noob school is. We're finding folks that have made become very successful in business that started out as salespeople. And we're taking them back to when they started and saying, how did you start? You know, what could you do better? What kind of lessons could you pass on? And so today I've got a super good friend of mine named Eddie Terrell. and Eddie did something

I want you to all remember I know other people who've talked about networking before but I knew Eddie a little bit at the Citadel we both went to school at the Citadel we're about the same age but a couple years after the Citadel

he was working at a tel-man a telecom place and I was working somewhere else and he calls me out of the blue and says hey I'd like to take you lunch I was thinking what's up his sleeve you know what's going on here

anyway I agreed to do it. We went to lunch. He paid for the whole thing. And when you're 25, that's a good deal. But he said, he said it's just part of my deal and part of kind of what we're doing at our company is we want to reach out to one person a week and take him to lunch and just network because you never know. I'm my able to help you one day or you can help me one day or you never know. So it's a wonderful idea, wonderful idea. So since then, this never know has grown into, I bought telcom stuff from his telecom company. I got loans from his bank. And what do you got? Oh, I've got life insurance from his insurance company. And we have grandchildren together.

My son, Taylor, married his daughter, Lindsay. So, that's right. When he said you never know, I mean, I wouldn't think that wasn't possible, all that. I don't even remember that story, John, but I'm I'm glad you told it. It was up there. I don't know where it was, but it was a legit lunch. It wasn't like, you know,

chilies or something. It was a sit-down lunch. Yep. But, you know. Probably in places. So you can no longer here. I'll say this. I'll say this about never know.

I'm pretty sure that if you don't have that lunch with somebody, you probably know, it's probably not going to be any business. Right. You know? That's right. So anyway, it was pretty darn cool.

So welcome aboard. Thanks to being on the podcast. Thank you. excited. Love following you on Instagram, especially when you play the saxophone. Yeah, man. Love it. Love it. Well, that was pretty cool. Tell us, when you left the Citadel, tell us how you decided to get into sales and if you thought of anything else. I did. I was an English major because they offered more outside electives than any major at that time. I knew it wasn't going to be engineering or anything like that. So I took a lot of business classes.

law, counting, a lot of different things, psychology. I wouldn't go to law school or so I thought because we had started an end of court. We had a English guy, Ernest Tucker, who was the head of English department, and he was British, and we started this end of court. So I thought, hey, I was getting a law school. And I talked to my dad. He said, you got four years and I'm not paying for law school. So I got a job from an American hospital supply corporation, thankfully, huge.

It was like a $2 billion company even back then in 84. And so I looked at the job and the offer letter, and I said, well, okay, I guess I'm going to be in sales. So that's how I got in sales. Are they on-campus recruiter? They were initially. And then spring break senior year, I went to Atlanta to interview and then on my way down to Florida to hang out with some classmates for spring break. Okay. Yep.

So I think there was one of the last. that's one of those companies back then anyway that was hiring big batches of brand new salespeople every year. Got it. Sink or swim method. And good training. Not really. No.

Not really. Sink or swim, like I said, they put you in a territory. And what I discovered is they were taking these guys that had Rolexes, white hair, and drove Mercedes. And they were laying them off. And they'd hire four guys like us right out of school. Split their six-figure income by four. We thought we hung the moon. You know, we were making, I actually made 32 grand.

my first year out of school, which was incredible. But I didn't know what I was doing. And I saw what was happening at some of these meetings. I said, hmm, that's me. I'm driving that Mercedes, wearing that Rolex getting cut back. So fortunately, another. I don't see you with the Rolex and the Mercedes hit.

No, I'm pretty much, I got a Garmin now, but I was an Iron Man forever. Okay. So the kids gave me this one anyway. That was the beginning of the quote-unquote sales career. But what I did, John, I actually went around what they called kicking boxes. I called on the purchasing agents at all the hospitals and the ambulatory centers. I was in Wilmington, North Carolina.

I drove about 800 miles a week. And I just go around kicking boxes and you need anything. And that was pretty much, you know. We had product training, but our catalog was a hard back book like that thick. Do you restocking or getting restocked and see if they were low on something? Yeah, trying to get them to try new products. Sometimes you go in and do, you know, in service where you'd actually, I never went in surgery, but I'd be with the doctors and nurses on different shifts.

So how did you transition from that, which I would say is a very legit start, you know, in a bigger company hired a bunch of salespeople, kind of a way in the door of sales. How did you transition to tell men? It's another Citadel connection, David Hudson. We were in the same company, Delta, senior year together. And he met Layton Coverage. And, you know, he said, you got to meet Cuff. David. I mean, he's just Mr. Excitment still to this day. And I said, well, I hate what I'm doing.

I mean, I really do. I mean, got no leadership. My closest manager was in Charlotte. And back then, Wilmington to Charlotte, there wasn't any Michael Jordan Expressway. So it was a long drive on 74. So he got me an interview. I'll never forget calling my dad. My salary with the hospital company, supply company, was 24 grand. My annual salary, the first year, year with Hellman, nine grand. First, my dad said, are you crazy? You out of your mind? Second, he said, you're doing what? Is this illegal? Does AT&T know you're doing this? And I had, you know, what I would tell you, I think throughout my career and if I was given a newbie advice, you got to have faith, got to have trust. Some would call it, you know, immaturity, you're naive. Doesn't matter.

I knew and loved and trusted HUD, and he said that Cub was the best thing he'd ever seen to work with. And so I said, okay, let's go for it. So I moved to Columbia, South Carolina, got a roommate. The guy I grew up with who still lives in Columbia because I had to, had to, you know, got my salary more than half. And that started the sales career. That's when the training really happened. Okay. Well, I think it's a good point to stop and make is that.

And we've heard this more than once, is you found the right leader, the right leaders, and the right company. And you thought there was a good opportunity that a company could do well because they were doing something new, but you're drawn to leadership. And you said, I'll take a leap of faith. It didn't matter whether it was 25 or 9. It does seem kind of low. But, I mean, nine. Plus commission. Okay, plus commission.

Strong incentive. But, yeah, I mean, and it worked out. great. I think your life would be, I think you would, if you just had that first company, I would say you'd still be very successful, but you wouldn't be near as happy. No, not at all. You know, to jump into the thing that you did so well at, the whole Telcom thing. I realize I'm not a big company guy early. And I just, I credit God for that for let me know really early. And I also realized, you know, we were marching to meals three times a day with 120 guys in college. And I just got dropped out there in my. And,

Wilmington literally. I mean, I didn't know how to run an apartment. I didn't have a credit card, nothing. And I knew I needed to be a team player. And I've just thrived on being part of teams, especially teams that, you know, challenge you. And plus, I mean, being on the cusp, really, of a brand new industry, I mean, the telecom act, as we memorized years ago of 91, I think it was, that's what really opened the doors. And we're kind of recreating, you know, the wheel from the beginning. Yeah. And it was, I couldn't wait to see what was going to happen the next day, no matter how much

money I made or didn't make at the time. Yeah. That's good. I mean, just a quick segue, but I remember interviewing at about the same age you're talking about with Michelin, you know, through my dad or something, had a way to go right to the head of hiring for Michelin. And after asking him all these questions and talking to him for about a half an hour, he goes, it doesn't sound like you want to work in Michigan.

I'm like, no. I mean, I literally, I was going to move to. Dubuque, Iowa and sell tires not on commission. I'm like, what kind of sales job is this? Yeah, that's right. Order-taker. So, yeah, so anyway, I did the same thing. I said, I'm going to find getting the software business,

which at the time was burgeoning also, industrial software. So, yeah. It's good timing. Yeah, find something that's cool, that's for sure. And then take us through, jump, jump through from there, from your first sales job at Tellman. I know you did some other cool stuff and opened up and bought some other companies. How did that go for you in the telecom world?

Well, companies were being acquired pretty quickly in our industry. And Layton and Charlie Hauser, who was our president, it literally was like this, John. I never forget. Cove would show up like on a Friday. He'd say, hey, I went and we're going to Augusta or Columbus, Georgia, just name a southern, you know, town, mid-sized town. He said, we fired everybody.

except one, get a U-Haul, you need to be there Monday, and figure out who we should keep, and rock and roll. And you're like, okay, you know, we're single, early 20s. You go take over the new company. Well, you had a bunch of guys in their mid, you know, 24, 25 running these offices around the south and with his leadership. And it's just, it was fun. Yeah.

It was unknown. I've told my children, I've told a lot of people in business. I've said, when you're younger, you don't know any better. You don't have all these things to make you stop and think. And the best decisions I made in business were usually gut. And some of the worst decisions I made that had terrible consequences were when I really, really thought it out. And that sounds weird.

Yeah. But you know. Yeah. You know, and it doesn't mean everything works, even the ones you go with your gut. But we started acquiring companies. I was actually with Cub. I'll never forget when the company was actually acquired, we were expanding across the country and this big company bought the whole thing.

for over a billion dollars actually in 1991. I had about that much share, you know, a couple of shares. I was so scared of it. I think I sold it as soon as it went public or something. I didn't know any better at the time. But tremendous experience. And then CUB and some others, what I would call, got the band back together and started another company that was here in Greenville.

And that was probably the greatest experience of my business career up to that point. Because we really didn't know what we were doing. We always had fun. And I just think you remember being in a parking lot in some dark days when we weren't sure if we're going to get paid, literally, with David Hudson. And he going, hey, HUD, are you going in today? I don't know if we're getting paid. He's like, ah, man, let's go see what Cubs going to do. I'm sure it's going to be good.

So that's a true story. That's pretty cool. Yeah. I was really, really fortunate to be in sales. And then I got off the road. Got into operations because, again, it was a great. situation. We said, I got to get off the road. I was the first one married of all the guys. I was the first one to have a child, Lindsay. And he said, hey, we can't get these lines turned

up. We can't get the customers activated. Come inside and kind of figure it out. I'm like, I don't know anything about that. He goes, ah, you'll figure it out. And see, that's an example of, and to the newbie audience is if you find a mentor or a leader that trusts you and gives you opportunities, maybe just enough to, you know, rope to hang yourself but knows when to pull it back also. Again, I just didn't know any better. And I had a very well-rounded career, nine years in sales and nine years in operations. And that just kind of is a real blessing.

Yeah. And then when that sold, so you've gotten some operations experience and then that business sold again or merged or something, you eventually transitioned to a very good opportunity with a burgeoning bank, which LATN also had a lot to do with. It did. Just before that, we started a CLEC, competitive local exchange carrier in 97, New South, and that was really the money and the leadership from the sale of CTG in 95. And that was a tremendous experience, sales, operations, private equity, venture capital.

It was a crazy six years. We raised $500 million in private equity in like five and a half years. And I'm looking in the mirror going, you're a redneck from Spartanburg County. And what are you doing? But it was a great experience. I learned a ton. I learned a lot of things to do. And I learned more things not to do.

We're a little ahead of the curve there. And there were no dramatic financial success stories out of that. However, we hired some fantastic people. We had incredible culture. We tried to replicate it, you know, from CTG. I think we did a pretty good job. And then it merged with some other guys in town later that were also in telecom that we'd all kind of come from that same family. The bank, though, if you want to talk about that.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. How did you transition to that? Because it's not just going to work for a bank. I mean, this was a startup bank. Yeah, I was employee number 30, actually, I believe. So in 2002, I turned 40 in June. My dad died of prostate cancer in September. He had it for about six years.

And then my mother had breast cancer, of all things, like a couple months later. So I was like, tell my wife, I said, I don't think it's a blonde or a Corvette, but I'm pretty sure it's a midlife crisis. And I just decided after 18 years, I was like, it's time for me to do something else. My mother's great. She just turned to 86.

She's tough as nails. And that was a little blip for her health-wise. And I'll never forget, John. I was at a family weekend conference that we've done for 10 years called Homeward Bound. It was up in the mountains at a boy. summer camp in the fall. And Arch Siever, who started Greenville First Bank, now called Southern First, he said, hey, the board and I want somebody to come in and do marketing and everything except

banking, but they don't have a banking background. I'm like, oh, awesome. Let me see that I can help you fine. He goes, nah, we want you to do it. And again, I'm like, I've never done that. Why would you want me to do that? Well, we just, we believe you'd be great at it. We think you can do it. And at the time, you know, personally with, you know, my dad passing and my mother, you know, being a widow. And then really getting off the road. Yeah. We were on the road a lot in telecom. Yeah.

And I had three young kids. Yeah. And it just... It's a good time. Change. I got to tell you, though, I really didn't want to do it. I was kind of too big for my breaches. I was an entrepreneur.

And, you know, it was time for me to find something else. I'd invest in a couple of local companies and thought I was, you know, thought I was a tight or something. And my wife and seven good friends, you know, the Bible tells us to seek many counselors. And I did. And every one of them said, you'd be great at that. I'm like, what are you talking about? I've never even thought about banking. Tremendous experience. Yeah. Tremendous. Not just the culture because you know about art and the leadership there and Cub and the board and Dave Ellison and others. But you really, really learn a lot. And this is a good newbie comment. You can learn a lot working in a bank.

Maybe you don't do it forever, but man, the training, and here's the deal. You're sitting out with a business owner, and they need to borrow money for a line of credit, commercial building, whatever it is. And they open their kimono. I mean, they're going to show you everything. And you learn a whole lot more about business than I ever learned in any other businesses, if you would. I guess it's a great point.

I've read Buffett suggested that. They said, what should a noob do if they want to do? if they want to be really great business people. He says, well, get your MBA. You need to understand the language of business and then go work for a bank for seven or eight years. And you'll know what every business in town does, for the most part.

And you might be able to figure out where the soft spots are where you can go buy a business or get into, this one looks really good, golf courses are bad, whatever it is. Accounting works the same way. Counting. A lot of times CPAs are hired away by clients. Yeah.

So anyway, that's cool. I'll give you another lesson from your story for the Nobs is, you know, when the board members of this particular bank here in Greenville, they're some of the most, you know, successful people in Greenville, late in Coverage among them, and Dave Ellison and T. Hill Burr and a bunch of others, very successful people. And they just saw Eddie. They saw Eddie's like attitude and work ethic and his success. And so they, he was interviewing. for that job years before it even came up, right?

Because they saw the way he operated and so when they thought about, I want to get a business development person for a bank, they're like, Eddie Terrell would be perfect and you didn't even have the interview for it. Sounds pretty good when you put it that way. You are. I think it's true. I think you're always, you're always interviewing, you know, for your next opportunity. That's an excellent point for babies.

So that's good. That's good. The bank led me to Northwestern Mutual, too, by the way. Oh yeah. Talk just about that. So the bank, you had a great run there, and then when you turn 50. Yeah, turn 50. You're in the Northwestern.

Dave Ellison, who's on the bank board, opened the office here back in the 80s. And one of the things he always emphasized was, hey, we need to have a banker for our financial advisors because, you know, you have the ups and downs of commissions and you need some studies to make payroll for your staff. And, you know, they needed a banker. And so he introduced me and I started doing some joint work. I do the banking and mortgages and things and a bunch of my work the last probably six months of the bank literally came from that office in Northwestern. I had a lot of clients asking me at the bank, hey, I got this old 401k. I got this old IRA. Can you help me with that?

I'd send it to them and I started thinking like, I bet I can make money doing that. And by the way, they're my client to start with. I should learn how to do that. Yeah. We actually looked at it briefly, you know, at the bank and we realized that the assets under management had to be so high to make an impact on the bottom line because the bank was already so successful, profitability-wise. So crazy, you said it. I mean, I was 50. I've never really looked at age.

I think, you know, you can let that deter you, you can let it slow you down. It can be some of the head trash you talked about, you know. And I just said, Hamill go for it. I wanted to own my own business. I wanted to work with people that I knew, like, and trusted just like I had at the bank. And when you've had that entrepreneur spirit once or twice, you really want to own your own business again. You got your own business. So just real quick, you know, when I was in A Noob, okay, a young, 20-something-year-old salesperson, I had a good insurance agent.

I had Dave Ellison, probably the best guy in town. That's right. But believe me, I did not want to go see him. Right. Okay. I would cancel. I would have a stomachache. You know, whatever. I just didn't want to go talk about life after John. Like, what if I die kind of situation? Or even what if he's 60? I didn't want to talk about that. That's too old. So I didn't do, I didn't really take as much advantage of Dave as I should have. So give us, give the noobs your pitch on why they should take some time now to spend time with you or whoever they're financial planners, insurance guy is, to talk about life at 30. 30. What does life look like 40, 50, 60? And look at those things. Tell us why. That's a great point. I think one of the best things a noob could do is have someone appear to be their representative, their advisor, their agent that works jointly with someone like me or you

in our age level. And the main reason is I do, I have some tremendous cases that I work right now with Dave. You know, he's about 10, 11 years older than I am. He's a role model for me about where I want to be in my business in the next 10, 11 years. Everybody needs a foundation, and I tell people it's like this, you know, you got to build a foundation for your house or it's not going to stand up. You need a blueprint, just like you need blueprints. You know, you need a plan. You want to peer so they can grow with you because you're young and they're young, but one of the things that I share with younger advisors is if you've got somebody in their 50s that is thinking about, or even their 40s,

paying for college, did that with three kids, getting their kids married, two dollars in the sun, and four years, by the way. Thinking about downsizing, did it, 2018, still looking where to buy because the market's so high. Just life experiences. And then I actually went through power of attorney with my older brother, you know,

who had been single this whole life and diagnosed with dementia in 2019. I mean, all these experiences, I've had in less than 10 years are valuable from an education standpoint. Insurance isn't sexy. Nobody wants to talk about it. Everybody hates to talk about insurance. People want to talk about investments.

It's on their phone. It's on their – I mean, it's everywhere around us. Everybody wants to talk about that. But it did now. I mean, when I was the noob, it was just insurance, and I did not want to talk about it. But now you talk about the whole holistic plan, right? The investments and all that stuff together. Yeah, we come a long, long way.

not at our company, but in the industry. Planning is so critical because of taxes for one thing. I mean, every time we have a new president, tax long is going to change. It's just historical. It is. And there's so many you just can't keep up with you. I have a CPA to help you.

That's the advice I'd give. And take their advice. They know what they're doing. Of course, you've got to buy something. But I can tell you this. I've had six death claims in nine years. And nobody ever asked me, you know, they never said,

That's too much. We don't need that much. They always want to know. Is there more? Is there enough? Is there enough? Are we going to be okay? We'll put your contact information on the screen if anybody wants to talk to you about it. Sure.

We're happy to help them. We've got like 10,000 viewers now. So hopefully you'll send it out to your folks too and we'll get more. So we talked to, I know you read the book. We talked about head trash. Do you have any head trash that you thought about over the years? You thought there was some of this thing in your head that was. true and it turns out not to be true.

Yeah, I think there's several things from a newbie standpoint. I tell you from my standpoint. From a newbie standpoint is, you know, I guess, am I good enough? Am I experienced enough? How do you get experience? I couldn't get that job. I don't have experience when I need a job to get experience. I'm a huge believer in positive mental attitude.

Not to the point of wearing polyana glasses or rose-colored glasses, excuse me, But there's just so much negative in the world, John. You've got to find it. It's not just I want to be positive. I have to combat all the negativity. I don't watch the news, for example. I don't even like much of network TV except a couple of shows that my wife and I like. I just, if you want to know the news, all I got to do is walk around.

I mean, everybody's going to tell you what's going on. You don't have to watch it. And I think head trash for me, one has been like too late. 50, that's too late. you know, 60, it would be 60 in June. It was too late to do this, this, this, and that. And so I use, I keep a gratitude journal almost every morning. Three things I'm thankful for.

Sounds real simple. But psychologists and others have told us that just the physical act of writing it down, digital's fine, but if you physically write it down, which is a piece of advice, I'd give newbies. I went through some journals from prior years before doing this today. Yeah. And it is incredible to see where I was mentally, emotionally, financially, just in my life at that time. I'm talking 20 years ago, 12 years ago.

So you got to fight against it because the world will beat the hell out of you. I agree. You got to fight. You got to fight. You got a fight. And I just heard yesterday, some guy was, I was listening to some guy on a podcast or something, and he said, you know, if some negative thing flops in my head, I stop and I talk to my out of it.

Yeah. I just start telling myself these other things that are going to make me say, no, that's not true. So I must say, Eddie, you've been one of the most positive people and positive influences of anyone have ever met since college. Well, I appreciate it. I've had some really good mentors and examples. Yeah.

I mean, I don't know any other way to be. My mom told me one time that my dad, who wasn't a man of many words, she said, I think you got your optimism from him. I said, what are you mean? She said, if he was in a room full of, of, of, horse manure, he'd be slinging away going like, there's a pony in here somewhere. And that's an oldie, but it's a giddy. Well, one last question. What's your favorite word? I spent some time on this and it won't surprise you, I guess, but my favorite word,

and it changes over the years, but right now is gratitude. Nice. It is just, I mean, I look at our grandkids, John, and I look at, you know, being married 35 years to the same woman, thank God. And the opportunities in Greenville right now, if you think you, if you can't make it here, I mean, like, okay, I'm not sure where you're going to go. And one of the mentors we talked about a lot on this podcast, Leighton, he used to say, you know, if somebody says, no, go next door. And he also said, don't go across town until you've been, you know, across the street.

And it's incredible. You grew up here. Can you believe it? Yeah, it's a great spot. It just gets better and better and better. It does. It's unbelievable. And I think that encourages me, but I'm incredibly grateful for the life God's given me

and the people I get to meet and be related to, man. Hell yeah. Well, thanks for being here today. We appreciate you. Thank you, man. Okay. Hey, is John here? Thanks for listening today.

Please check out noobeschool.org. That's my website. That's where we have other videos and content that can help you Get started in sales.