It’s bad enough having me at the Pima County Fairgrounds RV park, but yesterday things got worse when Russell and Debbie Davis arrived in their truck conversion. Dealing with me is a challenge for anyone to have to contend with, but when you throw that other Russell into the mix things can only turn out bad.
We’ve known Russ and Debbie for a long time and they have been loyal supporters of the Gypsy Journal and our rallies, but usually when we cross paths we’ve been busy at a rally and have not had much time to just sit and visit. We made up for that yesterday.
Right after they arrived Terry and I had to run some errands which took us a couple of hours. When we got back to the fairgrounds the four of us went to dinner at Hotrods, a car themed restaurant a couple of miles from the fairgrounds. We have passed it many times and several people recommended it, and for car guys like Russ and me it was a good choice.
We didn’t even have to get inside to get a feel for the place. This pickup truck decorated with Christmas lights pulled into the parking lot right behind us!
They have a race car on display in the lobby and the dining area looks down on a garage where there were several old cars and a truck in various states of restoration and customization. All that, and the food was good, too!
After dinner we sat in the restaurant and talked for a while, then went back to our motorhome to continue the conversation. I’m not sure if Russ had his eyes closed because he was tired, or if I was just so darned handsome it hurt to look at me. Yeah, let’s go with that one.
Russ and Debbie have been working for Southeast Publications selling advertising for campground maps, and since I give seminars on working on the road and wrote a book called Work Your Way Across The USA, I’m always interested in how RVers make money as they travel. Russ and Debbie let me pick their brains about how they do it.
For people who want to be free to travel around the country and enjoy sales, it sounds like it could be a great gig. Southeast Publications is a well-established company with a great track record and has been serving the campground industry for many years. Russ and Debbie said that they can go wherever they want to work, and as part of the contract, they stay at a campground free for two weeks while they sell advertising to local businesses. They are paid on a commission basis and told us it has worked out really well for them. Sometimes they stay in the same town and sell ads for maps for two or three different campgrounds in that area, and many of the same businesses buy ads in all of them.
They said the company provides training and outstanding support, and does whatever it takes to help them succeed. Of course, like any kind of sales job, one has to be able to handle rejection and Russ said they get plenty of no thank you’s for every sale they close. That’s normal for the business; I used to tell the advertising salespeople who worked for my newspapers not to think of a no as a bad thing, you have to work your way through X number of customers to get to the one who buys. So if you sell one out of every 5 customers you call on, every time you get a no, it means you’re one step closer to the guy who says yes.
If I were looking for a way to make money on the road and wasn’t running my own business, I would seriously consider a position with Southeast Publications. If you’d like to learn more about how it all works, I’m sure Russ and Debbie would be happy to answer any questions you have. Russ said anyone interested can e-mail him at RuDavis@SEpub.com.
We’re supposed to have rain and wind here for the next few days, with heavy snow predicted for the higher elevations in Arizona. There is no place we have to be so we’ll just set tight and wait for the storms to pass while we relax in our cozy home on wheels.
This week’s Free Drawing for an audiobook of Big Lake, the first book in my Big Lake mystery series, is going well, with about 150 entries so far. If you have not entered yet, come join in the fun. All you have to do is click this Free Drawing link and enter your name in the comments section below. Only one entry per person per drawing please! The winner will be chosen at random on Sunday evening.
Thought For The Day – There’s a great, big, beautiful tomorrow just a dream away.
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Nick Russell
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Thanks for the information on SE Publications Nick. We saw their booth at an RV rally someplace and were going to stop and talk to them but something got in the way and we never did. We are looking for a way to work as we travel without cleaning toilets in RV parks. Hubby and I both worked in sales in our pre-RV life and were good at it.