Now President of AMS, Gary Waldhart, 57, fondly recalls working as a carnival barker with Skerbeck Brothers, the oldest traveling circus/carnival in Michigan. “[The customer would] scream and yell and attract attention” after spending a few bucks to win a $1.50 (cost to carnival) stuffed animal — attracting even more customers. Waldhart took that lesson about customer satisfaction to heart as he rose to the top of the ranks of barkers. And there were other benefits, too: Roaming throughout Michigan made him “feel like a world traveler,” he laughed.
Hailing from tiny Stetsonville, Wis. (pop. 300), near Medford, Waldhart was the third oldest of 10 children. His brothers also joined the troupe: “We made games fun! We weren’t ‘carnies,’ we were entertainers,” Waldhart said, and the distinction was clear in his tone. His nomadic summer experience began at age 15 and continued into early adulthood.
He was good at it, he said, and earned a surprisingly lucrative living, making up to 33% commission on his game intake. At one point, he said he earned more per week than his father, a mechanic and auto dealership foreman, admitting, “My father should have owned his own business because he was so successful at what he did, but at the time he was too busy — with 10 kids.”
Waldhart moved to Madison during the turbulent Vietnam war years, and after graduating with a UW education degree, he returned to northern Wisconsin, where he taught math and coached for Greenwood High School near his hometown — a decision that left him nearly destitute. In 1974, Waldhart’s income was $7,000 plus a small coaching fee. “I’d never been broke until I became a teacher,” he said, which explained his return to the more lucrative carnival job each summer.
He lobbied at the teacher’s union level in the local school district to increase teacher wages. “I had a temper,” he admitted, “and felt I could speak up without having to worry about repercussions because frankly, I could earn more money anywhere else.”
He did, in fact, leave teaching in 1977, and in 1982 returned to Madison and landed a job as a Madison sales representative at Auto Radio Station (ARS) selling optional auto accessory packages. Auto dealers would buy more basic, trim-level autos, then have ARS install customized radio equipment, sunroofs, rear-window defoggers, and other options.
Waldhart recalls closing eight deals before the company suddenly went out of business. Realizing the concept’s potential, he took $10,000 of his carnival savings and borrowed another $10,000 from his parents to start his own company. “I got to invest in myself,” he beamed. “It’s the ultimate commission!”
In the midst of an auto recession, Auto Marketing Services (AMS) opened in 1982 in a basement, with two installers and one sales rep. A year later, the company expanded into retail sales, relocating to an office on Stewart Street in Madison.
In 1987, cellular service hit the market, and today the business-to-business cellular division accounts for 70% of AMS’ business, while electronic “wish list” items, such as home theater or A/V equipment, have taken a slight hit in the current economy. Still, Waldhart said AMS has been gaining market share, spurred by an annual advertising budget of $250,000 and other retail closings (i.e. Circuit City).
AMS now has six locations — one in Illinois — and employs 36 full-time staff. After 27 years, Waldhart marvels at the technological changes he’s witnessed, admitting he personally enjoys those that simplify his life, such as a phone with a directory and calendar. “That’s where technology should be,” he stated.
Waldhart admires the work ethic of the late Vince Lombardi: “His goal was to reach perfection, which is unattainable. But in that pursuit, you reach excellence,” he explained. Waldhart’s pursuit of excellence begins with a simple, seven-word mission statement: “Be the best. Have fun. Make money.”
For fun, Waldhart has played two-hand touch football with the same group of friends for longer than he’s been married to Sherry, his wife of 26 years. While he isn’t quite as limber these days (he has blown out both knees), he hopes to play to the age of 60, at which point he’d also like to scale back his work schedule: “My goal is to leave [AMS] so it will run by itself, knowing all the work we’ve put into it stays afloat.”
Waldhart has a successor in mind, though not one of his three children, as currently they are not involved in AMS. Still, the proud dad secretly hopes each will own their own businesses one day.
“It is such a leap of faith,” he said. “I want them to feel that — and appreciate it.”
