ISAA president turned challenges into success

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. — After harvesting 8-bushel soybeans and corn just as bad, Wayne Mollett made a decision that changed his life.

It was 1983, Midwest farmers were already struggling economically in the midst of the farm crisis, then, like a right hook, a drought hit.

“It was not a very good year in Illinois if you were farming. At that time, I was farming 450 acres, cutting 8-bushel soybeans and 8-bushel corn,” Mollett said.

“That’s when I met up with my mentor, Alva McDowell, in Mulberry Grove, and I said if you ever need help, let me know. He called me that fall, and I started working the ring for him.”

Mollett worked at McDowell Auction Service until about 2000, when he opened Mollett Auction Service in Greenville in south-central Illinois.

“We then started our real estate company, Seven Oaks Realty, in 2014. We have a partnership now in the real estate company with me and my wife, Myra, my son, Adam, and his wife, Heather,” he said.

“We are a full-service auction company. We sell everything from farms to estates to equipment, heavy equipment, coins, guns, jewelry, whatever. We do about 120 auctions a year, 20% to 25% of them are live and the rest are online.”

Auctioneers Association

Mollett is in the second year of a two-year term as president of the Illinois State Auctioneers Association and served on the ISAA board for six years prior to being elected president.

He noted the countless benefits the group provides in an interview during the ISAA’s annual conference and trade show.

The four-day conference provided opportunities to learn from some of the best in the auction industry, with keynote speakers discussing artificial intelligence technology, marketing, cybersecurity, Google and business profile management. It also offered continuing education credits and ringman and bid calling competitions.

“We had a real good conference. It’s probably one of our biggest ones in the last three years. We had a lot of people registered,” Mollett said.

He has been an ISAA member for about 15 years.

“Becoming a member of ISAA is one of the best things I ever did,” he said. “It’s the camaraderie when you come to a conference like this. You have people that are mentors here. We have a lot of young auctioneers coming into the business. Some of them never will sell a live auction and don’t plan to. They’re strictly online.

“The industry has changed a lot. That’s why we like a good mix of the older generation and newer generations because they can mentor them, they can help them along those lines.

“The association also has a really good lobbyist group. We keep track of things that are coming down the pike that affects all auctioneers in Illinois, not just our members.”

Brotherhood

Like all businesses, auctioneering is competitive, yet members work with each other, share experiences and ideas and provide help when needed.

“Auctioneers are like a brotherhood. It isn’t any different whether it’s a lineman brotherhood or a police brotherhood — if somebody needs help, all you have to do is make one phone call and you’ll have two or three people there to help you,” Mollett said.

“It’s the same way with the information. Everybody runs into something different. Everything is new every day. That’s the intriguing part about the auctioneering business. You’re not doing the same thing every day. Some people are selling livestock, they’re selling cars, but they also have the ability to do other things.”