WA Billboards was founded in 1991 by Steve Robinson, and has grown to be the largest domestic operator of outdoor media in Western Australia.  Steve started in the business in 1984.  I wanted to find out a little about Steve’s background and how he got started in the business. Steve is a fun interview and here is his story.

Steve, tell me about your background and how you got started in the billboard business?

It was a job I didn’t want.

I started out in life wanting to be a pilot. Applied to fly in the RAF but didn’t get in cause I was too dumb. But I learned to fly and became a commissioned pilot. I ending up working for an American company, A. W. Chesterton,  a large U.S engineering company who focused on selling equipment to the mining industry. I would fly around the WA visiting mine sites to sell seals and pumps. Eventually I left that job and went started looking at other options.

I had a call from a headhunter who told me he needed a favor.  He had a company that was looking for a representative to develop new property sites. The headhunter had sent three brilliant applicants and the company didn’t like any of them.  He told me, “to be honest, you are the wrong fit for the position, but I want to throw in someone who is a bit of a maverick just to see what kind of response we get.”   So I agreed to do the interview.  It ended up it was Australian Posters who was looking for a rep to find new sites they could develop in Perth, but I decided, nah it’s not for me.

As soon as I got out of the interview the headhunter called me and said “mate, they loved you and they want you to start”. I told him I wasn’t interested.  I didn’t like the salary or commission structure and I didn’t like the company car they wanted me to use. Then he said he had already scheduled another interview for me in the morning and asked if I would go.  I told him no, but he asked me to think about it and talk to your wife about it. I even tried to cancel the meeting but my contact wasn’t available, so I ended up honor bound to go and see him the next day.

The second meeting was in the company board room. I had just sat down and this great big guy walks in, introduces himself  as the state manager and says, “I hear you don’t want the job?” I was 27 years old, just got married and realized I had just been snookered. So I told him, the salary is no good as well as the commission structure and I hate the company car. And he says, if I fix all those, what’s the problem. I said uhhhh… he said “good, I’ll see you next week” and he turned around and walked out.

So I show up for my first day working for Australian Posters and discovered I really took to the job and I was really good at it.

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