Radio merges with love of fishing
Passion the key ingredient in strong sales
BY JOHN ECKBERG | JECKBERG@ENQUIRER.COM
Some people go fishing for a career.

Joe Foley of Maineville stands next to a brand new 2007 Toyota Tundra, used for promotions for Reel in the Outdoors Radio, a venture with professional bass fisherman Joe Thomas that sells sponsorships and advertising in return for exposure among Joe Thomas fans and outdoor enthusiasts.

     Some people go fishing for a career.
Maineville's Joe Foley, 41, turned fishing into a career.
    Nearly a decade ago, Foley, a former radio advertising account executive and son of the founder of a chain of local restaurants called Foleys, hatched a big idea: If the average Midwesterner's interest in fishing and hunting was as big as all outdoors, why not a radio show on the topic?
   Foley's hunch was a good one.
    While the show's first-year revenues barely hit $10,000, over the next eight years, Foley's plan to merge hunting and fishing with sponsorships and mid-winter events at convention centers has exploded.
     He started with five sponsors. Today there are more than 200. By 2012, he expects annual revenues to top $750,000.
    Last week Foley was bound for Knoxville, Tenn., for the latest incarnation of his brainstorm - the Tracy Byrd's Hunting and Fishing Expo, a fishing and hunting show sponsored by Toyota Trucks and featuring country singer-songwriter Tracy Byrd.
     Formerly held in Cincinnati and then in Northern Kentucky, the show was shifted south this year to the Knoxville Convention and Exhibition Center, where it runs through Sunday.
     Foley's hunch about radio evolved into Reel in the Outdoors Television and Reel in the Outdoors Radio, a venture with professional bass fisherman Joe Thomas that sells sponsorships and advertising in return for exposure among Joe Thomas fans and outdoor enthusiasts.
     The secret?
     "Passion sells," said Foley. "You have to be passionate about your business.
      "Lots of guys go out and sell, but if you're not passionate, you're not going to get any revenues. That's the reality."
       After the Knoxville event, Foley next directs his attention to the Texas Bass Classic at Lake Fork near Dallas April 9-15, where he is the regional sales director in charge of sponsorships and event sales.
        That bass fishing tournament has a $1 million prize purse.
       He is currently in the third year of a five-year plan developed with the help of Ernie Nordquist and Ken Knox, volunteers for the local arm of SCORE, the Service Corps of Retired Executives.
         So far, everything has panned out. Toyota remains his prime sponsor - specifically Toyota trucks. But even that initiative is evolving.
        Foley's latest idea puts three plasma TVs into a Toyota Tundra truck bed with a trio of hunting and fishing video games, and suddenly every boat, truck or car showroom becomes a Toyota mobile marketing center.
        "I try to tell people what I do and that's when it hits me," Foley said. "I really do have a strange job."

For small-business advice or to become a volunteer, contact the local chapter of SCORE, which provides free consulting in a 19-county area, at 513-684-2812 or visit www.scorechapter34.org.