Toilet Paper Can Be Glamorous

Welcome to the Toilet Paper Salesman Podcast. My name is Mike Mirarchi and I want to welcome you to the second anniversary podcast. That's right. We've been on the air for two years doing podcasts once a month.

It's amazing how fast time flies. And that said, if you're thinking about doing a podcast or a book or anything, do it today. Get started. Take a step towards it because look at how fast time flies.

Here we are, two years into our podcast, and I can't even believe that it's gone that quickly. I want to take a moment to dedicate this podcast to my father, Frank, who, when I launched the podcast, was on his birthday, which is July 3rd. And so I just want to take a moment and thank him for everything that he's done for me, even though he's passed, and how he was dedicated to our family, and how he raised us, all of who he is or who he was as a great, great man. Uh, not successful as we would describe success in our society.

Uh he didn't have a lot of wealth, but man, he gave everything he had, always. He gave himself. He was one of the greatest generation, completely selfless, and I am who I am today, largely because of him. I have a saying, who says selling toilet paper isn't glamorous?

I've been using that saying for a long time, and I get a lot of people who come to me and it's like, that's a great saying, you know. I I really like that saying. And I thought I'd take a moment to give an explanation of what that statement means. Who says selling toilet paper isn't glamorous?

You know, our industry, being in the Jan San food service industry, isn't exactly what you would call glamorous, right? But it's a really cool business and for a number of reasons. Number one, it's not typical. It's not something that people normally grow up and say, hey, I'm gonna be a toilet paper salesman, or I'm gonna sell food, or I'm gonna sell Jan San.

It's a nuts and bolts business. It's a business that's here, it's a business that is steady, it's a business that's viable no matter what the economy is. People still have to eat, they still need sanitation, they still go to the bathroom. No matter what's going on in the economy, there's always a place for the Jan San industry.

And so the reason why I came up with this statement, who says selling toilet paper isn't glamorous, is to attract and to get young people to realize that this business is among the best businesses that you could be in, to help them to maybe get a vision of them stepping into this business or allowing themselves to think that this could be a career for them, because anybody who wants to get into the food service and Jansan business, it is a serious career path for you. First of all, because most of the people in our industry, a majority of the people, are getting closer to retirement.

And so coming in as a young person, if you work really hard, if you're dedicated, you have a wide path for success here in our industry. There's a lot of movement upwards to grow into the industry and to become whatever you want to be. That's what makes it great. The fact that it's recession proof, the fact it's SETI, the fact that there's plots of room to move, the fact that it's family-oriented still, there's a lot of family-owned, independently owned companies in our industry.

So you're not in the corporate world as much. There are certainly corporate companies within our industry, but there's plenty of mom and pops, there's plenty of independents. So you could take a choice, whatever you would want to do. You'd want to go to corporate, you can go to corporate.

If you want to go independent, you have plenty of opportunities to do that as well. You have plenty of opportunities to own businesses. There's a lot of businesses in our industry, there's a lot of owners who don't have secession plans, and you may be able to step into one of those opportunities, go to work for an independent distributor, and maybe become an owner one day. So there's all kinds of paths and opportunities within our industry, and that's what I'm promoting.

Who says selling toilet paper isn't glamorous is not just a saying to be funny or cute. It's a saying to help people, especially young people, recognize the opportunity that we have in our industry. I put an ad in for a salesperson, and I had a professional soccer player apply for a sales job. And when I looked at his resume, I was like, wow, professional soccer player and the attributes of a professional sports player or a professional in anything, if somebody is at that level and they're a professional, and this guy was a professional soccer player in Europe.

So you know if he's a professional soccer player in Europe, he's got to be really, really good. I wanted to interview him for the sales position as he applied for it. And it's funny because I let our HR department know that I wanted to interview this guy, and their response back was, for what position? Because if you purely just look at his resume, there was no qualifications to be a salesperson for our company or for any other company for that matter.

But to me, I felt like the attributes of a professional sports person could apply to our business. And so I set up an interview with them and had a really about a half an hour conversation. And we talked about his goals and what he's doing. And right now he's playing professionally, he's coaching, he's doing all kinds of different jobs, but he wants to get into sales and he's trying to understand how to make the transition.

He said he reached out to a number of people, and most people really didn't reply or respond. As we're having the conversation, his mindset was, well, I'll get a nine to five job and then I'll be able to still do my soccer and coaching. And once I heard that, I realized and knew that he wasn't ready to make the move. And I was able to help him to understand.

I said, what would happen if you'd go to Europe and tell your soccer team in Europe that you're gonna do soccer from nine to five? He goes, Well, they'd probably have me on the next plane out of there, which is true. And I said, That's right. I said, being a professional salesperson in our industry is like being a professional soccer player.

It takes the same dedication, it takes the same time, it takes the same commitment, it takes the same skills that as a professional soccer player, the same effort, the same dedication, it's the same hours. I don't work nine to five, I work six to six. And guess what? That's what it takes.

If you want to be at the top of your game, it takes a serious commitment. It takes a professional commitment to be great in our business. If you really want to stay at the top of your game, it does take a lot of effort. It takes hours and it takes the commitment to be a professional in our industry, not just in the skills, but also in learning, in developing, working towards getting yourself to be better at this profession.

And so he walked away grateful that I was straight up with him, that I told him he's not ready to be in our industry, that I gave him some practical steps what to do in order to transition himself from a professional soccer player to a serious business person to be taken seriously. In that he was grateful. And you know, 30 minutes later we had a great conversation. And I believe that at some point in the future, this person will be in our industry, and that's a victory for us.

So, who says selling toilet paper isn't glamorous? Be proud of our industry. It's one of the best industries in the world. Thanks a lot and have a great day.