My first Florida Auctioneers Association experience was amazing! On the first day I was greeted by what seemed like every member of the association with a hand shake or even a hug.
I’ve never been surround by complete strangers and felt so much at home. I’d met several past presidents and also learned a little history behind the association, which I thought was really cool beings that it was my first time.
The classes I took were educational, I attended each and every one. The speakers were all well-known auctioneers. Joseph Mast who is the chef auctioneer of the Barrett Jackson Car Auctions thought me how important it is to keep your ego in check. “Leave your ego in the car.” Is what he said. You don’t want to be the one always bragging about what you have going on or how much money your making. He also told us we should never lose sight of our goals. “Think about where you want to be. Write it down, set a goal and have a plan, so every now and then you can look at it and ask yourself, am I working toward my goal? What am I doing to achieve my goal? It’s something that I’ve thought long and hard about. If you don’t have goals and plan on achieving them then how to you expect to get better or improve?
Mike Brandly the Executive Director of the Ohio Auction School gave us several handouts I thought were extremely helpful and I could follow along as he talked. What interested me the most was the auction verdicts. I learned about running bids and why it’s illegal, selling things “As-is”, And how fiduciary duty only goes so far. I could have sat in his class all day! He helped me understand the differences between absolute and reserve auctions.
Then there was Scott King who sponsored my membership to the National Auctioneer Association. He talked about some lessons he was taught from his Granddad, and how auctions have changed over the past 100 years. He’d also mentioned a few roles of the bid assistant and what they were responsible for doing before the auction started. With me wanting to be a ring man this is where I took most of my notes. All in all, it was a privilege to get to meet and learn from the speakers. I’d taken a ton of notes in every class. I didn’t want to just sit threw them I wanted to learn and take away from what I thought was useful which was most everything. Everyone was so engaged; we were all able to have open dissociation. Not one question went unanswered.
To know I have all these new mentors just from this one convention is such a huge honor and I am so grateful I cannot thank them enough for this amazing experience. I want to thank Scott King again for the sponsorship. I’m so excited for the next conference and can’t wait to attended my first Nation Auctioneer Association Conference and Show.
Emily James,
MEMBER: Florida Auctioneers Association
MEMBER: National Auctioneers Association
Fun Auction Committee
Membership Committee