Growing Destinations

Finding Your Voice: Lessons from Hall of Fame Auctioneer Mike Jones

• Experience Rochester • Episode 94

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Mike Jones is a Hall of Fame Auctioneer, educator and owner of America's Auction Academy and co-owner of the World Wide College of Auctioneering. Over the course of his career, he's done it all. He won the International Auctioneer Championship in 1998 and went on to serve as President of the National Auctioneers Association in 2004 and 2005. Through his leadership, mentorship and passion for the craft, Mike has helped shape the future of auctioneering both on the auction block and in the classroom. 

Bill Von Bank:

The Growing Destinations Podcast is brought to you by Experience Rochester. Learn more about Minnesota's third largest city, which is home to Mayo Clinic and features wonderful recreational and entertainment opportunities by visiting Experienced Rochester MN.com.

Mike Jones:

As much as I would love to tell everybody that every auctioneer is in is on the same footing, the reality is it it's based on your effort. You have to work hard.

Bill Von Bank:

Welcome to the Growing Destinations Podcast, where we take a deep dive into destination development and focus on a wide range of topics from tourism and entertainment to economic development and entrepreneurism and much more. I'm your host, Bill Von Bank. We're on location in Des Moines, Iowa, at the Worldwide College of Auctioneering School. And I'm really excited to welcome one of the true legends in the auction world, Mike Jones. Mike's a Hall of Fame auctioneer, educator, and owner of America's Auction Academy, and co-owner of the Worldwide College of Auctioneering, where I just completed my auctioneer training. Over the course of his career, he's done it all. He won the International Auctioneer Championship in 1998 and went on to serve as president of the National Auctioneers Association in 2004 and 2005. Through his leadership, mentorship, and passion for the craft, Mike has helped shape the future of auctioneering, both on the auction block and in the classroom. Mike Jones, welcome to the Growing Destinations Podcast. Well, you've had an extraordinary career in the auction industry. For those who might not know your story, how did you first get your start as an auctioneer?

Mike Jones:

You know, as a young man, uh uh just as a youngster, I grew up on a farm in North Texas, and we were always going to the cattle sales. And we the world champion livestock auctioneer actually owned our local sale barn. So we, you know, I was at introduced to good auctioneers or great auctioneers very early on. My parents went to a lot of uh estate auctions and farm sales, and then they got it into collecting antiques, and so they were always going to antique auctions, and that they would drag me along, and and I got to buying and selling stuff, and then in time, uh I ended up in Houston, Texas, and uh went to work for an auction house, an auction gallery, and which was a very prestigious uh company, and uh worked there for a couple of years, my final years of high school, and then uh went off to college, and then but every week, uh weekend or so I'd come back and work for the auction house. And so uh after my first year of college, I decided I would go to auction school because I thought that would be very intriguing and I knew a lot about it, and uh started my own auction company in uh uh January of 1979, and then uh started having auctions, and that my first sale was in April of of '79, and then I really never slowed down after that.

Bill Von Bank:

Was there a defining moment for you that you knew this was your career path for life?

Mike Jones:

I had other things I enjoyed doing because I was in radio and I really enjoyed radio. I thought I I might have a future in that, and I did that for several years, but I was in the auction business the whole time. And so it actually helped promote my uh auction in my my auction company. And I would talk to the crowd and I'd say, Hey, uh, this is Mike Jones. Not talking to you as a uh disc jockey, but I'm talking to you as an auctioneer. Next thing you know, I'm getting more phone calls to become an auctioneer. And it just it just seemed automatic. I tell you what happened is I I nailed down a relationship with Western Auto Store, which is now called Advanced Automotive. And uh Western Auto was out of Kansas City. I had gone to auction school in Kansas City, so I had a lot of connections there, and I ended up selling about three or four hundred uh Western Auto stores. And when I got that gig, I I was selling a Western Auto store somewhere in the United States every week for 20 years. Oh my gosh. Well, you know, and then that led to other things like Montgomery Ward. We sold all the Montgomery Ward stores, and then uh continued to do retail businesses. But once the business started, it was almost like we were just on a roller coaster. There was no getting off. This was a roller coaster you could not get off of.

Bill Von Bank:

And there's so many different opportunities within auctioneering, whether it's estates or benefit charity auctions. Can you talk us through a little bit of that?

Mike Jones:

Yeah. Well, and you know, that kind of fed into my life too, because I started out doing little consignment sales, which led one week later into doing estate sales and then retail stores, and then shortly thereafter I started getting the real estate business. And you know, it seemed like about every five to ten years I would get into another uh vertical. And uh then I got into doing industrial facilities and industrial plants and really heavy into real estate. And really that's the great thing about the auction industry, depending on what you enjoy doing, what you like. You know, if you enjoy estate sales and you enjoy uh all kinds of collectibles, there that's a natural opportunity. Then there's a lot of opportunity in that, especially in buying and selling collectibles and antiques. And then conversely, if you are into retail businesses, there's a lot of retail businesses. You know, they're everywhere. Consignments, that's a totally different uh opportunity because with with consignment auctions, you're dealing with different sellers and lots of them. Uh, you know, I've done auctions where as a consignment auction had eighty to a hundred different sellers. Well, when you have eighty to a hundred different sellers, eventually they're going to have an auction. Just them, and it could be their whole uh operation. And so I think uh that's a that's a really neat thing. The real estate piece is very intriguing because I think that's the future growth. Really the growth uh in the future is going to be doing all types of real estate, whether it's commercial, whether it's land, whether it's residential homes. And whenever the foreclosure market comes back, which it will, uh that's just the nature of the United States, about every 10 to 15 years we have a downward turn. And uh those are huge opportunities to do foreclosures and bank auctions and things of that nature, which I've lived through about three of those. And uh the the door w gets pretty wide when you have that kind of business going on. And then uh we don't even know what the future is, you know, because of the way the world is today, we don't know what the next big thing's gonna be. There was a period about 10 years ago, 15 years ago, where domains were a big deal. And there were my partner, Craig, he traveled all over the world selling domains and uh bringing millions of dollars for domains. And that market's cooled down and that's kind of gone away. And but the fundraising uh area, the benefit fundraising auction business, I think is probably the hottest right now. Because because there's so many 501 C threes all over the United States. There's a never-ending demand for groups that need to make money.

Bill Von Bank:

What do you think are the most important traits that make an auctioneer truly successful beyond just having a great chant?

Mike Jones:

I think you need to be a people person. I think uh someone that can have conversations, someone that is genuine, honest, believable, someone that has knowledge about product, uh where they can speak intelligently about whatever they are selling, uh someone that uh is just a natural person that can sit down with you and have a cup of coffee and and you just you ha you feel that genuine nature. And I think that's the probably the biggest, you know, th it sounds a little trite, but it's really not. You need to be a a person that people trust. And because they are trusting the auctioneer with their their uh their everything they have, you know, whether it's their personal estate, uh, whether it's their uh their assets, their business assets. You know, when you trust someone like that, uh that's a huge responsibility. And you want to go with an auctioneer that or an auction company that has a reputation for fair dealings and honesty, because at the end of the day, it's about reputation.

Bill Von Bank:

And they heard from many of your instructors during training also helping to be a problem solver.

Mike Jones:

Well, that's ultimately what we are, because you know, whether it's an individual that just wants to liquidate uh a certain type of asset, maybe it could be uh this sounds crazy, but you know, there's there's people that collect millions and millions of baseball cards. Well, I I did all that autograph memorabilia, sports memorabilia, celebrity memorabilia, guitars, rock memorabilia, all types of music. There's so many collectible items related to that. And uh I think there's that that kind of thing is very expensive. It can really add up. I'm a collector. Uh, you know, I buy antique uh oil and gas signs, things from the 40s and 50s and 60s, and I think uh people of my generation in my age, a lot of us yearn for the past. And so we buy things that remind us of the good times back in the 60s and 70s and 50s, and and uh so we embrace it, and then we buy all this stuff, and like collector cars, perfect example. You know, for about the last 10 or 15 years, the big market has been the uh Camaros and the Mustangs and the Shelby's because the muscle cars have been really hot. You know, 30, 40 years ago, people were collecting Model A's and Model Ts. Well, that generation is pretty much all gone. They've they're deceased and and that stuff, the the value of the 1920s, 30s, and 40s cars has dramatically dropped compared to what it was the growth that we had uh 30, 40 years ago. Now the big growth is the the baby boomers and the next generation with the muscle cars. Now I don't know what's going to be next because vehicles are not as collectible. You know, people aren't gonna be yearning for a Tesla. So, you know, those engines just don't roar the same. So I see a big change coming in collector cars.

Bill Von Bank:

Is there a particular auction or professional moment that stands out for you?

Mike Jones:

There's been a few. I I definitely would have to say working with the GSA, General Services Administration for the United States government, I did the the very last live auction that they did of any major consequence, and that was in the mid to late 90s. Uh I it was an $18 million auction, and it was FEMA trailers or FEMA manufactured housing. But as far as fun, I grew up going to Six Flags Over Texas. That's a theme park that was in Texas, and then they have one in St. Louis and have one in in Georgia and in uh various locations, but I got to do uh their surplus that they had accumulated from the time they opened the park. So I doing Six Flags Over Texas, we had a lot of television uh network people there, a lot of stations. And then uh I think another one that was a real defining moment that was back in 1982. Uh I get to uh sell a town in Texas, and it was the town of Tyoga, Texas, near where I grew up. And uh it's the the birthplace of Gene Autry, the singing cowboy, and Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer and all that. And um, and then 30 years later I ended up auctioning off his birthplace in Tyoga, Texas. So I think that connection because my it c was connected to my grandparents. He was uh he played guitar with my grandmother when they were kids, and and uh yeah, so we had some cool history, yeah.

Bill Von Bank:

You're a co-owner of the Worldwide College of Auctioneering and the owner of America's Auction Academy. What's your favorite part of that teaching experience?

Mike Jones:

Back in the early 90s and the late 80s, I had wanted to teach at auction school. And the opportunity, I went to auction school in in Kansas City, and the opportunity just was never made available to me to become an an instructor. And around 1992, I just decided, you know what? I knew everybody in the auction business. I was very active with the State Association in Texas and also the national, and I was getting, you know, I'd been uh a member since 1979. And I thought, you know what, people are always calling me saying, hey, where can I go to auction school? And I just decided to open up a school. And so when we opened up in 92, 93, that was founded that school and started it from scratch and brought in some really great instructors, and and it hit, and uh it was very successful. And so I have been running that school now for about 32 or 33 years, and that's been very enjoyable, and I have enjoyed it. It's been great. And then uh Paul C. Bear, uh, who grew up here in Iowa, that this school here in Iowa started in 1933 by a gentleman named Colonel Joe Rice, and Joe Rice started it in 33 and ran it for many, many years. And uh Paul C. Bear, uh, another auctioneer that's been a friend of mine for gosh, I don't know, probably 35 or 40 years. He was our very first international auctioneer champion. And he he had bought the school about 25 years ago. And then uh he and his partner, Vicky Ginder, just decided that you know what, uh, it's time to pass it on to somebody else. And he called me and he asked me what I thought a school was worth. And I said, Well, I don't know what it's worth, but I can tell you if you ever decide to sell it, let me know because I might be interested. And it really I bought it because it because of its history, the legacy, and the fact that they had graduated over 40,000 auctioneers in the since 33. Yeah, almost a hundred years of it. And uh I thought, you know what, it's kind of cool. We got the one that we started in Texas, and we've been running it for almost 35 years, and and then if we have worldwide, then that's another opportunity. And and I think I just love education and I love the fact the fact that I've gotten to do every single thing I've really ever wanted to do in the auction industry. It's been gifted to me because uh we worked hard and and um and the networks that we have, and I thought, what a great way to to be in the business is to own two auction schools and and influence others. And so so you know, we're closing in on probably 50,000 uh students that have graduated from the two schools, and who knows what's next.

Bill Von Bank:

The auction school experience is intense but life-changing. What kind of transformations do you see in students from day one to graduation?

Mike Jones:

I I remember one particular female in Texas, she literally was scared to death. She scared herself to death. She would get up in front of the group and she'd never been in front of a group before, and she didn't have the confidence to do anything, and she literally fainted in my arms on the first day of auction school. And then she puts in her eight days, and at the end, she is a strong uh public speaker, she had self-confidence. She walked uh up to that microphone like she'd been doing it for 25 years, and I think that I tell people all the time, auction school in my view, is not auction school. It's a life school. I care about the auction industry, and that is the platform that I have, but at the end of the day, it's more about what we're training like the people in your class. You know, you have a lot of young people. We hope that we influence the young people to be good people, to be community-minded, to give back, to give to to give uh to children's charities and and other charities, just all kinds of things. We want people to be good people. That's why we open and close with a prayer, and uh that that is a uh symbolic way to wrap the school up, and that tomorrow we'll see that because uh we'll we'll close everything up with a prayer and send everybody along the way, and that we we just pray that everybody got what they wanted out of it.

Bill Von Bank:

Between worldwide and America's auction academy, how do you keep the curriculum fresh and relevant with so many changes happening in the industry with live events to online and hybrid auctions?

Mike Jones:

I think we taught the same way for many, many years. But here's the deal this is how you need to look at things. In 1995, that was the advent of eBay. eBay changed the game. And eBay changed the game because people were selling collectible items at auctions and estate sales. These were items that were mass produced, but they were collectible. After eBay came online and we started having these online opportunities, it pretty well killed all those markets, whether it was Beanie Babies or any of those collectible items. They're mass-produced. And then once it became an online feature, you could get all you wanted anytime, all day long, 24-7. There's no more collectible to it. Nobody's going to drive from Iowa to Illinois or Iowa to Ohio to sit and bid on beanie babies, but they would before 1995. So now you wake up, here we are in 2025, and I think the the uh the thing that's great for us is we have great instructors. So you have these great instructors who sell for in different uh areas. So we've got, you know, Kurt Johnson was here to, you know, he was here and taught fundraising and benefit auctions. Well, he's on the cutting edge of everything happening with benefit auctions. We had uh Matt Moravec, who is the lead auctioneer for Meekum, Collector Car Auctions, and he was here, and he's on the cutting edge of that. So when you have great instructors, they bring great knowledge that keeps everything current. Now I will tell you this the big change that's gonna happen in 2026, and it's coming, you haven't been a part of it yet, but you're gonna hear about it, and uh the public will hear about it. We have already pre-recorded all of our classroom classes, and we'll be rolling out a hybrid this next year. So students will be able to take half of their classes, which were all the classroom lectures, they'll be able to do do that remotely, and then they will come to our locations, either in Texas or or here in uh Iowa, to take their the chant class and learn how to become an auctioneer to actually stand up and be an auctioneer. So you'll get about 35 to 40 hours of the chant, and but that's all it's gonna be when they come to school. They're going to literally get an overdose of that, which I think is great because it'll it it'll give people the opportunity to take all the pre-classes. They'll have a couple of months to take those classes, everything from bankruptcy to any of the any of the classes, the real estate classes, and they're presented by the same instructors and some others. They'll have multiple choices of instructors. So I think that's going to be the big change, and it's technology. We spent hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars to do this. So the game's changed, the technologies, the various auction platforms, the online platforms, will be uh more defined. We're already presenting them, but we'll be able to present them even better in the next few years.

Bill Von Bank:

As someone who shaped so many auctioneers' careers, what's the single piece of advice you find yourself giving new graduates most often?

Mike Jones:

Practice. You gotta practice. It's not gonna come to you. I hear that. You you know, uh as much as I would love to tell everybody that every auctioneer is in is on the same footing, the reality is it it's based on your effort. You have to work hard. It it it's no different than selling real estate. If you're gonna sell real estate, I would say anybody can sell real estate, but you know what? It's like professional golf. Selling real estate and auctioneering are very similar in that there's five percent, maybe six percent or if you're lucky ten, that make the bulk of the money. And why? Because they work harder, they put in more hours, and they practice more, and then they also know more because they're they're they're learning uh while the other people are talking about being an auctioneer and they're sitting at home or they're sitting in their office and they're not doing anything to make it better. Uh, I really think that's the number one advice that I would give anybody that comes out of auction school is you become the best student and you become the best practitioner, because that that'll make the difference.

Bill Von Bank:

Mike, this has been such a great conversation. I've really enjoyed hearing your story. And as a student at Worldwide College of Auctioneering, it's been especially meaningful to learn from you both in the classroom and here today. Thank you for being our guest on the Growing Destinations Podcast.

Mike Jones:

I certainly did enjoy it, and uh I I I enjoyed your show, and I look forward to listening to episodes myself. When I'm going down the road, I'll be listening to you.

Bill Von Bank:

Thank you. Yeah, thank you. Thank you for tuning in to the Growing Destinations Podcast. And don't forget to subscribe. This podcast is brought to you by Experience Rochester. Find out more about Rochester, Minnesota, and its growing arts and culture scene, its international culinary flavors, and award-winning craft beer by visiting Experience Rochester Mn.com.

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