Commercial Integrator’s #AVLivingLegends series is back! For this week, we honor Dave Taylor of Mizzen Marketing as a true industry legend.
Dave Taylor is the retired founder of Mizzen Marketing and has been involved in one aspect of the commercial AV business or another since 1979. His range of personal experience encompasses end user, AV rental technician, integrated systems sales rep, business owner, factory rep and — since 1991 — independent manufacturers’ representative.
As an independent rep for nearly two decades, Taylor played an integral part in the growth and success of some of the most recognized manufacturers in the pro AV industry, including AMX, AutoPatch, Chief Manufacturing, DWI lecterns, Liberty Wire and Cable, Magenta Research, Samsung Pro AV, Stewart Filmscreen and tvONE.
In this interview, Taylor reflects on the mentors who have shaped his pro AV journey while recollecting his penchant for corny jokes that have stuck around the industry. Read on to learn more about Dave Taylor!
And if you’d like to read even more coverage relating to our #AVLivingLegends, check out our hub page. It includes direct links to every living legend!
Commercial Integrator: What motivated you to join the commercial AV industry?
Dave Taylor: It pretty much happened by accident — I managed to get fired from my first job out of college (as a Radio/TV/Film major) after only a year as a copywriter and marketing assistant at a major health insurance company, so I talked my dad — a small-town doctor — into letting me produce some video tape programs for his patient education efforts. In the process of purchasing the video gear from Hoover Brothers in Kansas City, I kept having problems with their Wichita-based sales rep, to the point that I wrote a letter (this happened around 1979) complaining to Al Hancock, the president of the company, closing with a random comment about how even a guy like me could do a better job.
Well, I got a call from him about a week later asking if I was serious. He invited me to Kansas City, and by the beginning of the following month, I was in training to take over the AV sales and rental department in the Hoover’s Wichita office. I was off and running in AV and never looked back!
Commercial Integrator: What has kept you motivated and engaged in the decades that followed?
Dave Taylor: 1) The continuing challenge of helping people communicate, whether they are end users, dealers/integrators, consultants, or manufacturers. The opportunity to build relationships with people, learn what they like and what problems they are dealing with and understanding how I can help them.
2) Keeping up with dramatically changing technologies from filmstrip, overhead and slide projectors to DVLED displays, from Shure SM-58’s to AI-driven AV systems serving performance venues, life-safety in airports and schools, conferencing applications and more, and trying to anticipate “The Next Big Thing.”
Commercial Integrator: Reflect on your role as both a mentee early in your career and as a mentor later in your career. Who helped shape the trajectory of your professional life? How have you tried to help shape others’ careers?
Dave Taylor: 1) Monroe Jost, former boss at Hoover Brothers: Monroe saved me from getting fired after a year or so as AV rental manager in their Wichita office — turns out I was, and remain, a bad manager — by forcing me into a sales position and moving me to Dallas. I fought him, but it turned out to be the best single thing that ever happened to me in business. For the rest of his life, Monroe always watched out for me no matter what either of us were doing.
2) Ron DeVoe, founder of T.O.T.A.L. Marketing, friendly competitor, employer, friend and mentor: Ron taught me that walking the fine line of serving the often-conflicting interests of AV dealers/integrators and manufacturers can be challenging but also extremely personally fulfilling. And he patiently taught me the best practices in how to do that, gave me a job for 14 years, and eventually financially supported the founding of Mizzen Marketing in early 2005. Ron is the person most singularly responsible for how I view what my job has been and remains a dear friend and advisor of 40-plus years.
3) Lisa Peveler, president and managing member of Mizzen Marketing: Lisa has been with Mizzen for more than 15 years, and I tried to do for her some of the things Ron DeVoe did for me. She was a better student than I was, however, and over the last few years has become my mentor, in the sense of “That might be how you used to do it, Dave, but it’s a new day!” And she has been right time after time. Having Lisa at the helm of Mizzen is what makes me comfortable stepping away from the business with a sense of accomplishment and the knowledge that the best is yet to come from the Mizzen team.
4) Judy Taylor, my wife: While not exactly a “mentor,” she’s the one who has been by my side through the best parts of the journey. She helped with the calculation of “What’s the worst thing that could happen?” as we contemplated me leaving a job I enjoyed and was pretty good at, working for a boss I loved, all for the opportunity to start again from nothing besides a bunch of industry friends, at 53 years old, with kids aged 15 and 13. She is my conscience, sounding board and devil’s advocate, always ready with a firm reprimand, quiet consolation or gentle hug — as required.
Commercial Integrator: What’s the most memorable story/anecdote of your career in commercial AV?
Dave Taylor: There have been so many, so I choose the following, as an example of the stories I live and re-live on a nearly daily basis. Throughout my 35-plus year career of presenting products and/or people to an audience of dealers/integrators or consultants, it has been my habit to start the meeting off with a really bad (corny) joke. This sets a very low bar, which makes almost anything that comes after seem good, or even great, by comparison.
So, a couple years ago at InfoComm, I was waiting in the hotel for an elevator. When the doors opened, there stood a former dealer sales guy who had since moved to a high-level sales executive position with a manufacturer. As soon as he saw me, he pointed and announced to an elevator full of people, “The lesser of two weevils,” the punch line of a very bad joke I’d told at a sales meeting with him at least a decade before. It absolutely made my day!
What makes this story memorable to me is that he remembered a moment from a meeting 10 years before, and many others have shared similar memories. How rewarding!!
Commercial Integrator: What has been your greatest professional accomplishment to date?
Dave Taylor: Without question, the hundreds of great and lifelong personal relationships I’ve been privileged to build and maintain. They transcend employers and positions and are what has been the most fulfilling part of doing my job.
Commercial Integrator: What has been your biggest professional regret to date?
Dave Taylor: My shortcomings as a manager. As a result, Mizzen has been a stepping stone for a number of very talented people as they moved on from us to find their next successes. The upside is that Mizzen’s current team consists of highly talented, high-performing individuals who don’t need to be managed!
Commercial Integrator: What’s the best advice or pearl of wisdom you either received during your career or came to realize on your own?
Dave Taylor: Always try to do the right thing, do what you say you’re going to do, when you say you’re going to do it. Not complicated, but also not easy! One of the many things Ron DeVoe taught me!
Would you like to nominate a peer or colleague — or perhaps yourself! — to be part of this #AVLivingLegends series? If so, just email Dan Ferrisi, [email protected].
