Meet Steve Whittington | Writer & Marketeer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Steve Whittington and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Steve, why did you pursue a creative career?
I started in the printing business with my sister, she got me in to the printing business. I started as a pressman later on I got into the pre-press as a Layout artist. I work for the largest publication house in the world. We never shut down the plant. We had multiple deadlines everyday. I start as an apprentice for two years and I became a journeyman for about 18 years and then a master printer for eight years. I retired after 28 years and soon after that started working for the Los Angeles Times doing sales and promotions. I had the number one sales team in Los Angeles. After four years, I was recruited by The New York Times to set up sales and promotion teams in Los Angeles, San Diego and San Francisco West Coast operations sales and promotions. After a four year run The Wall Street Journal recruited me I set up operations in San Francisco. I did all the festivals in the Bay Area all the professional sports teams and colleges. Soon after that The Wall Street Journal signed a contract with the Staples center which is the only venue with three professional sports teams. I had sales teams at every game plus the colleges. I also did all the festivals in the Los Angeles area. Four years later, I was recruited by the San Francisco Chronicle. Had the number one sales and promotion team in the Bay Area we worked all the professional teams all the college campuses plus their sports. I also worked all the festivals in San Francisco and the Bay Area we were everywhere. I was also an art dealer for 20 years. I did art shows I was representing about seven different artists selling their art to galleries. I also sold their art to US auction. They recruited me and they wanted me to be an auctioneer so I did that part time. In 2018 I started writing poetry and had my first poem published since then my poetry has been published every year. in different books.. I’m still writing poetry, I have just finished my poetry book”Passions Of Life” Poetic Story Poems. I’ve started two more books one is called “Seven Summers” This book is about seven summers on a farm with my grandfather. I learned how to work not only how to farm but how to sell he was a great salesman. The other book I’ve started writing is called “The Day Elvis Presley Died” Based on a true story. This book is about me and my sister. My sister owned a print shop so we created 5 bumper sticks the day Elvis died. The first bumper sticker was call “Elvis Lives”and the second one was created by my brother Bruce “I Been To Graceland Have You” that particular bumper sticker became our number one seller. I started selling them the next day. There were thousands of people flying in coming to Graceland to pay tribute to his death. We were young entrepreneurs at that time in the 70s. Then we bought all the newspapers and started selling newspapers, plus his birth certificate, his marriage license his death certificate over the next two years we made a deal with 7-Eleven and every 7-Eleven had our bumper stickers sitting on their check out counter as their customer base checked out. They were also gift shops that we made deals with that sold our Elvis merchandise. Two years later I got a letter from Elvis Presley’s law firm Boxers Enterprises. The law firm threaten to sue us so we had to stop selling Elvis merchandise. In 2020 I decided to retire. I moved back to Memphis to take care of my 91-year-old mother. I have a lake house now. It’s very quite very private. Nobody disturbs me I live with mother nature.. The sound of birds is all I really wanna hear in the morning when I wake up.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I started drawing when I was a young kid. I won a few art contest in School that encourage me. Working on the farm really encourage me how to give a honest days work. Once I got out of the printing business, I started selling art, dealing with people.
I was also inspired when I train people in sales. It’s all about selling yourself first then it starts with the eye contact , body language and then the verbal delivery very important in sales. No hesitation always looking at your customer direct never look down never look away and always have an answer and if you don’t have the answer, get the customer the answer and make sure you’re totally honest with whatever you do in life and people will come back to you because of the way you conducted yourself in front of them and the people around you. I never yelled or embarrassed any of my sales team. I always would set an example. I would tell them a story about the way I did it and maybe it’ll work with you so I let them realize that I was just there to help and give them direction in a meaningful way.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
The first thing I would do is take them to a nice restaurant like Yamashiro in Hollywood or El Compadres on Sunset Boulevard. Spend a day in Santa Monica at the Santa Monica pier let them walk down the beach so they could breathe in the salt air and hear the sounds of the waves. Take them down Hollywood Boulevard to the Roosevelt hotel. On the way to downtown stop at Griffin Obervatory so they could see the beautiful sites of the city take a hike up Runyan Canyon early in the morning and get a view of the beautiful sunrise looking across Hollywood to downtown and on a clear day you could probably see the ocean. Once we made it downtown, I would take them to the Art District and if they want to catch a Dodgers game or Lakers maybe a LA Kings game.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
Vincent Brown
Pam Simmons
Bruce Whittington
Stefan Diamond
Kaleina Cordova

Instagram: whittingtonsteve

Linkedin: Steve Whittington

Facebook: Steve Whittington

Other: Please use this email
vincentwhittpoetry@gmail.com

Image Credits
Bruce Whittington