Reconnecting Through a Sweatshirt

What if a simple piece of clothing could reconnect you with a long-lost mentor? In Episode 4 of the Toilet Paper Salesman Podcast, I share the touching story of how an old sweatshirt bearing the Huff Paper Company logo reignited memories and helped me find my way back to my incredible mentor, Phil Sullivan. Listen as I recount the years under Phil’s leadership, where I managed to increase sales by 30% annually for over a decade and open hundreds of new distribution accounts. Phil’s guidance was instrumental in shaping my career, and the journey to reconcile with him is filled with heartfelt moments and valuable lessons on the importance of mentorship and human connections.

This episode also takes you on an unexpected culinary adventure at the Pizza and Pasta Expo, where I stumbled upon Sopra Cheese’s mouth-watering ricotta. Rediscovering this fine ingredient rekindled my passion for exceptional cuisine and led to serendipitous encounters with old friends. From the unique story behind the Huff logo to the delicious world of ricotta cheese, tune in for an episode packed with personal growth, reconnections, and inspiring stories that resonate both personally and professionally.

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Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.

Link to my website: The Toilet Paper Salesman ™ – Who Says Selling Toilet Paper isn’t Glamorous? ™

Link to my book: Wisdom from a Toilet Paper Salesman | BookBaby Bookshop

Link to buy Toilet Paper Salesman swag: My Store

Link to David Mirarchi's website: David Mirarchi

Link to RJ Schinner Co, Inc: RJ Schinner | Home

Transcript

Speaker 0 0:19

Welcome to Episode 4 of the Toilet Paper Salesman Podcast. I'm your host, mike Merarky, and I'm thrilled that you're with us today. If you get value out of this podcast, I would ask that you like and subscribe so you can get the latest updates and you can help spread the word. This podcast has a really important message today and I would ask that you listen to the end because there's some great advice. In my first podcast, I told a story about working for Huff Paper Company.

Speaker 0 0:46

I was hired by them in 1988 under a gentleman named Phil Sullivan, who was an incredible human being and a great mentor for me. Like I said in my leadership podcast, leadership Matters, phil was a great leader and much of what I learned and what I use today I learned from Phil. I had great success under Phil at Huff. I increased sales 30% a year for 12 years straight. I opened hundreds of new distribution accounts. I opened up five greenfielded territories. Frankly, a lot of it has to do with Phil's leadership and his guidance in helping me to grow as a human being and to become the best person that I could possibly be.

Speaker 0 1:23

Seven years ago, I left Huff in 2017. Unfortunately, I didn't get to speak to Phil when I left, we hadn't been in touch for almost five years. I always had a desire to get back in touch with him. I didn't have his contact information because I lost all of that when I left. It was just awkward. When you have a situation like this, it's not comfortable to reach out to this person and to reconcile, but it was a desire of mine to do so. This is how the story unfolded on how I actually reconciled with Phil. We bought Huff Philly in 2020.

Speaker 0 1:56

Right around that time, I found an old sweatshirt that had the old Huff logo on it. You may or may not know it. It was an interesting script design with this dot above the U. We always used to wonder what that dot meant, and my theory is the dot meant the focus is on you. Some people said it meant a roll of toilet paper, but anyway, it was a cool logo. We ended up changing it after we brought the two companies together, so I happened to have this sweatshirt. It was probably from 1990 and it was in great condition.

Speaker 0 2:28

When we purchased Huff, my thought was I'm going to take this sweatshirt and I'm going to hang it. I'm going to frame it and hang it down in Chad's Ford PA and that's her customer service office as kind of a memento to remember the company by my wife actually thought that wasn't a great idea. She felt like that. It was more like a trophy. I thought it was great. I talked to some of the old Huff employees. They thought it was a great idea. So that's what I was going to do. In the meantime, I go to get the sweatshirt and take it down to Chatford and I can't find it. I scoured my house for weeks and I could not find a sweatshirt.

Speaker 0 3:02

Two years ago we exhibited in the Pizza and Pasta Expo down in New Jersey. I was next to a cheese company called Sopra Cheese who makes the most incredible ricotta cheese. They are not endorsing me, by the way. The Russo family I know for years. They're great people and they make some really great ricotta cheese as well as other cheeses. I'm a side of their booth and we're testing samples all day. I love this ricotta cheese so much and my daughter is a really good Italian cook. We always talk about different types of ingredients, and so I wanted to see if I could get my hands on this cheese. So the owner said well, there's a couple of places that you can get this cheese at. And he named them, and one of them was a customer that I did business with for a long time. It so happened the next day I was down in West Palm Beach for a buying group conference. I went out to dinner with the buyer of one of the companies that Tony mentioned, from Sopra Cheese. So I'm out with the purchasing manager and I brought up the cheese and he said sure, I'm happy to get you a sample. Come on by when we get back and I'll have a sample for you the next day, which would have been Wednesday.

Speaker 0 4:07

I was talking with an old friend of mine who was affiliated with Phil, and I asked his name is Mark. And I asked Mark how Phil was doing and he said great, he was 80 years old and he was doing well. And I said boy, I'd really like to get in touch with him. And he said you should get in touch with him. As a matter of fact, you need to get in touch with him. And he told me a story about a mentor of his who he was able to contact just months before he passed, and so he gave me all of his contact information. I got home and on Thursday morning I decided to call Phil. I rang up his phone. He answered the phone and I said hey, phil, it's Mike Meraki calling, and Phil's response was Mike, how are you doing? I hope you're doing well. And we had this incredible conversation. He had just gotten back from the doctors with a good report and so he was having himself a bagel to celebrate. We just had a great conversation.

Speaker 0 4:55

Later that day I went over to my customers to pick up the cheese, and I'm sitting there in the purchasing office and I noticed an old business card that I had and it was so old it didn't have an email address on it with my old logo. And back then I took my business cards and stuck them onto a magnet and it was sticking up on the filing cabinet. So I took a picture of the business card and I sent it over to Phil and said hey, remember our old logo. I said this card is so old it doesn't even have an email address on it. And so he got back and had a chuckle from it.

Speaker 0 5:27

So that night, while I was in bed, I was dreaming about this, and the dream was that I needed to send Phil this sweatshirt. The sweatshirt came to my mind and I just felt like I needed to send it to him. So next day I woke up, scoured the house looking for this sweatshirt. I could not find this sweatshirt. I was looking everywhere. Finally, I'm standing in my closet, I look up and there's this clear plastic bag hanging over the end. I grab it off the shelf and, lo and behold, it's the sweatshirt.

Speaker 0 5:58

So my plan was then to meet with him, because when we talked he said hey, if you're ever down in the Philly area, let's get together for lunch or breakfast or something and let's spend some time together. And that just made me so happy. I was so excited to see Phil again and to talk with him and just share with what I've experienced since I came to RJ, and a couple of weeks later I'm ready to go to Chatsford. I had a meeting down there and so I reached out to Phil and I didn't hear back from him and I thought it was kind of strange I didn't. I tried to contact him a couple of more times and then finally he called me back and he said Mike, I just want to let you know I got some bad news from my doctor and I start chemotherapy on Monday, so I'm not going to be able to meet with you.

Speaker 0 6:40

At that point I knew I needed to send him the sweatshirt and mail it to him. So Chris and I my wife both wrote a letter individually expressing how much Phil meant to us, how important he was to our lives. We packed up the sweatshirt actually in the Sopra cheese box, and part of the letter that I wrote explained the story on how the sweatshirt came about. I mailed it off to Phil. A couple of weeks later. Phil acknowledged he received it. He thought it was great and that he was going to give it to his grandson. He was very appreciative of the sweatshirt.

Speaker 0 7:10

I didn't hear anything for a couple of months and then I heard that Phil passed. So they had a service which was really more of a celebration of Phil's life. I felt comfortable enough to go and of course all my former colleagues were there. The owners of Huff were there, of course my old former bosses were there, chris, and I felt, like you know, this would be a great opportunity for us to go and pay our final respects for Phil. So we go down to Celebration. It was very comfortable. We met everyone. They're very nice. We were able to talk to everyone. There was no animosity, there was no bad feelings whatsoever. It was really a special day. The most special thing is when I talked to Phil's good friend, who's also one of the owners. He said to us Mike, phil called me on a Saturday and I went over to his house and he showed me the sweatshirt and read me the letters and he said he was so touched by the thought that it meant so much to him For me that meant, and, chris, that meant so much to us that we knew that receiving that sweatshirt, receiving the letters, made all the difference in the world to Phil. It's a very sad thing that we lost him, but I don't feel terrible because I was able to reconcile Right now. This podcast is being released in October. We're heading into the holiday season.

Speaker 0 8:25

If you have anyone that you're not reconciled with, I would say to please do it today. If it's your mother, your father, your sister, your brother, a friend, a spouse or an ex-spouse, it's not worth it to hold a grudge. The weight is on you and the weight is on the other person. Somebody's got to reach out and take the first step. So I'm asking to do that and if you do and you're able to reconcile, it will be a burden lifted off of your shoulders. You never know how long that other person is going to be around. It could be tomorrow. They're gone, and then you'll be filled with regret on top of everything else. That would be a terrible thing. Reconcile today. You will not regret it and you will feel lighter and better about your life. I hope you enjoyed the podcast. That's all I have today. If this was valuable, remember to like and subscribe to the podcast Until next time. Who says selling toilet paper isn't glamorous? We sell toilet paper. That's what we do. Thanks a lot and have a great day.