Thanks for taking the time today, Tom. As a start, can you take us back to when you joined Walsworth and how that came about?

I joined the company in 2012, about 11 months after the acquisition of IPC, which is now Walsworth – Saint Joseph. At the time, Dave Grisa, former Executive Vice President of Commercial Sales, was looking for a new sales manager for the eastern region.

So I came on in 2012 as the Eastern Region Commercial Sales Manager. At that time, there were only two of us managers – Dave Sutch and me. Now we have four.

Had you previously worked with or known Dave?

Not directly but I was one of four new Vice Presidents hired to replace the existing four at Banta Direct Marketing Solutions. In that revolving door, he headed out as I headed in, so even though we didn’t know each other well, we knew a lot of the same people. From direct reports to bosses, and everything in between, we had a significant overlap.

While we’re on the topic of your time before Walsworth, tell us about the highlights and stops along the way in your career before you came here.

I actually started my career selling investment real estate when I was in college. Then when I graduated, my first job was selling corporate health insurance (HMOs) for Blue Cross/Blue Shield of New Jersey.

From there, I moved to pharmaceutical products for a start-up dermatology division of E. R. Squibb & Sons. Within a year, we were acquired by Bristol-Myers, and I changed to ostomy and wound care products for the ConvaTec division. With so much upheaval, I decided to go back to school. I received my MBA from Wake Forest University and was selected by the American Marketing Association as a Top 5 graduate nationwide.

My first job following my Masters was at a startup consulting firm doing process analysis and process engineering work. It was 70 hours a week, six days a week, just a beating of a job. I soon started looking for a job closer to where my then girlfriend, soon to be fiancée, was located in Pennsylvania. I met a gentleman who worked for Henry Wurst, Inc., a commercial printer out of North Kansas City. He described print sales as a role where you could learn about different industries, different companies, all in pursuit of shared success.  I loved the idea of variety in my role and of learning about so many different industries. 

And you were hooked on a career in print?

You know, the neat thing about selling commercial print is you’re not going to the office doing the same thing every day. You’re not selling the same product every day. You’re actually trying to help develop solutions for people around their business and their industry, and that was really appealing to me. So I joined Henry Wurst, and I was there for almost 10 years.

Following a restructuring at HWI, I was recruited and joined Banta.  Think long-run personalized mail, like Dish Network, Victoria’s Secret and credit card offers. I relocated to Chicago, built a new team, survived another corporate restructure and then lasted a few weeks into RR Donnelley’s acquisition of Banta.

By the time you made it to Walsworth, were you looking for some stability?

Without a doubt. With so much change in the late 2000s I really wanted a stable, dependable employer with a strong sense of integrity and a culture built on solid values.

When I got to Walsworth, I was in my mid-40s and knew this was going to be my last stop. So far, so good! It’s a great organization.

What does the company need to do going forward, in order to continue to grow and be successful?

We need to continue to stay true to our roots, which is to always act ethically and take responsibility for the outcome of our actions, while also remaining adaptable and embracing change.  We can’t stand in one place, or the clients will pass us by.

We hear all the time that print is dead. Print isn’t dead. It is in decline in some pockets, and it’s on the rise in others. In order to embrace those opportunities, you need to adapt and build your platform. You need to listen to the clients so you can stay relevant. Our acquisitions, our strategic plan and our commitment to getting better demonstrate we are here to stay.

You worked in other fields earlier in your career. Why do you think it ultimately ended up being print for you?

Well, it wasn’t my first love. (laughs) I didn’t come out of school planning to do this. 

But developing new solutions for clients to help them come up with a different answer is a lot of fun. You’re doing something different all the time.

For example, when I worked for Henry Wurst, one of my accounts was Weight Watchers International. I helped them redesign their daily tracker to make it a press-delivered product. The new design, with stair-stepped pages like a checkbook, was way more efficient. At the peak, this title alone printed almost 30 million pieces. Seeing the impact I could have on a business, and their bottom line – that was fun.

As a manager now, are there specific personality traits or types that you look for or you think make someone a better salesperson?

I need somebody who can be engaging, welcoming, honest and inquisitive in their interaction with potential clients.  There isn’t a single type I look for, but there are certainly types I try to steer away from.

I look for good listening skills. I appreciate people who are quick on their feet, able to adapt to unforeseen questions.  It’s important for reps to follow the process.

Last but not least, you need somebody who’s not easily discouraged. Sales is a lot of rejection, and if you’re going to take it personally or you can’t move past it, it’s difficult for you to win. Our Sandler training really helps reps get people to admit if they aren’t unhappy enough to make a change, and if they can’t see themselves moving to a new partner, then it’s time for the rep to move on.

Let’s talk life outside of work. Where are you originally from?

Although I was born in Easton, Pennsylvania, I grew up on the Jersey Shore. Yeah, that Jersey Shore. About a mile from where they taped the MTV show. A huge tourist area.  In some ways it was like St. Joe, but with far fewer year-round locals.

Went to high school there and everything?

Yeah. We were originally from Easton. My family had been there for more than a century, with my father, grandfather and great grandfather as morticians. Every funeral home in the Easton area is connected with the Ashton family. My dad entered local politics, and eventually we moved to the Jersey Shore when I was in 4th grade.

It’s an interesting place. I grew up on the ocean block, about seven houses away from the ocean. During the winter, there were only two other houses that had people in them on my block. Everything else was empty. It can be really desolate; in the town I lived in, there weren’t enough kids my age to have both sides for a baseball game. As soon as summer arrived, you had bumper to bumper traffic, and couldn’t find a parking space! It went from 3,000 people to 350,000 just after Memorial Day.

Is your wife from that area too?

My wife Kathy is originally from Pennsylvania. We met in college. I went to Lafayette College in Easton, as did she. We graduated the same year, but we were just friends, didn’t date. We didn’t start dating until a couple years later.

Kathy got her law degree from George Mason University in Virginia.  She still has her Pennsylvania law license but it is not active. And we have three kids, all grown.

Are the kids spread out, or near you guys?

My oldest daughter, Mary Jean, is a high school English teacher in Peoria, Illinois. She is 26. My other daughter, Anna, just received her Master’s degree from the University of Illinois Champaign Urbana.  Her degree is in early childhood education. She’s working as a preschool teacher near where we live.

My youngest son, Thomas, is 21, and was a former Marceline summer intern for Walsworth!  Like Mary Jean, he graduated from Bradley University. He is working in Madison, Wisconsin, for Epic Software, on their troubleshooting and help desk. You know them for their MyChart healthcare program.

Any hobbies outside of work?

I lived in Kansas City for a while, and each October, I would go to the American Royal BBQ. I had a couple friends who would compete in the Royal, so I picked up smoking. I love to barbecue. I have too many grills. I am smoking all the time. I like cooking in general.

Do you have a specialty?

I love to smoke a brisket. I don’t always find time to do it, because it can be a 15-20 hour cook, and I don’t like the options to rush the process. I make my own rub for ribs, chicken. And, my go to sauce is Show Me Barbecue Sauce, which was created by a former University of Missouri grad out of Columbia.  Same sauce I’ve been buying and doctoring up for over 30 years.

Before you ask, I do not have a favorite movie. I don’t sit well, so most movies take me a few nights to get through!

But I love music. My wife and I try to hit a bunch of concerts each year.

Ok, do you have a favorite concert that you’ve ever been to?

That’s an interesting question. We’ve seen the (Rolling) Stones twice, and even in a nosebleed seat, they were excellent. Couldn’t beat it.  Last year I went to Riot Fest in Chicago, and was front row for Spoon, my current heavy rotation band, and Manchester Orchestra, in addition to 40 other bands.

We like the Head and the Heart, George Thorogood, David Gray, Counting Crows. I’m always kicking myself for not having caught a Tom Petty concert before he passed away.

What’s an interesting thing about you most people don’t know?

I didn’t get my high school diploma until my sophomore year of college.

How did that happen?

So, we moved a couple times when I was in high school. I went from a really large school system, where I was in advanced placement, to a very small school in Point Pleasant Beach with only about 75 kids in my class. 

By the end of my third year, we ran out of classes for me to take. They said I could take advanced shop, home economics II, a couple art classes, and then head to community college in the afternoons. Felt like it would be putting in a year without a goal, so I left Point Pleasant Beach and enrolled at Lafayette College.

Well, Point Pleasant Beach wouldn’t give me my diploma because the state of New Jersey required four years of gym and I only had three years. So I had to go back to summer school to take a gym class. The Superintendent felt like I cheated the system, and I had to go to the School Board to be allowed to walk at graduation. The school slow rolled the diploma. I didn’t get it until about a year and a half later.

Do you have a favorite vacation your family ever took?

Right after we got married, and before we had kids, we took a big last hurrah vacation to San Francisco and explored Northern California. That was a blast. And we knew kids would change everything.

This year, Kathy and I are celebrating our 30^th anniversary; we are going on a river cruise in Europe in November. I’m pretty confident this will be the standout vacation in our time together!

If you had a personalized coffee mug, what would it say?

Speak with confidence.

I try to do this with my reps and I know I do this with my friends. It’s about deductive reasoning. Think about what the right answer should be, given the facts and the clues, and then own that answer. Speak with confidence.

As you reflect back on your career, do you have a favorite memory? Or maybe an accomplishment that you’re most proud of?

I think about the fact that I have reps who no longer report to me, some who haven’t reported to me for 20 years, who still come back and will reconnect. To either ask me my thoughts on something, or just to bounce an idea off me for a different take.

When I left Henry Wurst, I refused to go to a directly competitive company; I thought doing so would betray the people I worked alongside for a decade. So when I went from HWI to Banta, the COO, Jim Herbst, flew me to the different plants to say goodbye to my co-workers. I’ve always thought it was important we each do our best to have a positive impact on the people you work with and work for. It’s a shared effort and a shared success.

As a sales manager, I recognize at the end of the day, my actions as a manager impact hundreds of people who work for the company because they’re depending on my team to deliver. I don’t think any of us can be as successful as we can be unless we realize it’s all connected.