The Path Less Traveled
One rep’s unique experiences make him a better salesperson.

Brett Mistak thinks outside the box. Which explains why the path he followed for many years took some unusual twists and turns. “When I graduated from college, my parents were 53 and 55 years old,” he says. “They told me, ‘You have a long time before you reach this age. Find a job that’s fun, and then you can make money!’” Today, the NLS Animal Health (Owings Mills, Md., division of Henry Schein) sales rep is confident his experiences have made him a stronger and wiser salesperson.

Football and fine arts
Mistak was recruited to play football at Carson-Newman (Jefferson City, Tenn.) in 1995. He started out as a center and played left tackle his next three years. Like his team members, he was hardworking and earned a scholarship his sophomore year. Unlike his teammates, he was a fine arts illustration major. “I heard a lot about that,” he recalls.

In the 1980s, the Carson-Newman Eagles were a five-time national champion at the NAIA level, notes Mistak. In 1992, the team moved up to Division II, and the competition became much more intense. Nevertheless, the Eagles continued to play outstandingly, and in 1996, Carson-Newman made it to the national championship. Unfortunately, it lost. The next year, the Eagles made it to the national semifinals. Again, the team lost. In 1998 and 1999, the Eagles returned to the championship, losing both years to the same team. “We lost to Northwest Missouri both years,” says Mistak. “In the 1999 game, we had four overtimes, so it was an infamous championship game.

“A football team begins training every summer with the goal of reaching the national championship,” he continues. “Once you make it, you realize it’s a long shot to get there again, but it’s attainable.”  And, the Eagles never dropped their morale. “We had a great coach named Ken Sparks,” he says. “Our motivation was to get to the championship in the first place.”

In the spring of his senior year, Mistak began to consider his career options. Of course, he could pursue work in illustration. As for football, however, he didn’t see a future nor expect to be scouted for professional-level playing. “When you are starting for a college team, you do think about taking it to the next level,” he says. “But, once I played that last game, I knew it was time to start a new chapter.” And, then his parents suggested that it was possible to be a productive member of the workforce and have fun.

From sea to shining sea
“In college, I was occupied with football,” says Mistak. But, once his final season concluded, it was time to consider his options. For years, he and his family had vacationed in the Cayman Islands, where he and his father enjoyed scuba diving. In fact, the summer before Mistak’s senior year, he began working toward becoming a scuba instructor. “I received my dive master card in the spring of my senior year,” he says. “Over spring break, I returned with my mom to the Caymans and interviewed with Don Foster,” the scuba diving outfit where he was a student.

After completing the necessary paperwork for a six-month visa, Mistak moved to Grand Cayman. “That six-month stay turned into 2 ½ years,” he says. “In the Caymans, it was all about scuba diving and water, water, water. If we weren’t teaching people to dive, we were taking them diving [from the boat]. We would take tourists to Stingray City, a big sandbar where they could bring buckets of squid and feed the stingrays,” he adds.

Meanwhile, Mistak’s dad was busy exploring another corner of the earth – Bettles, Alaska. “In the early 1990s, my dad visited the Brooks Range,” he recalls.  The Brooks Range stretches across the northern part of the state and into Canada’s Yukon Territory. “At one point, my dad went camping and fishing in Bettles, where he signed up for a dog sled trip,” he says. His dad liked the outfitter he worked with and asked Mistak to accompany him on a return trip in 2002.

“We took an 11-day dog sled trip all around the Brooks Range and into Arctic National Park,” says Mistak. “At the end of the trip, the owner of Sourdough Outfitters asked me if I’d like to work for him.” The timing couldn’t have been better, recalls Mistak. As fate would have it, his Caymans permit was expiring. He returned to his parents’ home in Tennessee, readied his jeep for a two-week drive and pursued the job in Bettles.

“It wasn’t difficult to adapt to the Alaskan climate,” he continues. “The weather there is dry-cold, not bitter cold. My job was outside. It got to the point where I was used to 10 degrees below zero.” The job was a seasonal gig, which lasted only seven months. Nevertheless, those seven months left a lasting impression on him. “Alaska is a vast, beautiful state,” he points out.  “I was responsible for training and caring for 42 dogs at the outfitter, and that kept me very busy. I would wake up and feed them, clean them and make repairs on the doghouses and sleds. After a pre-run snack for the dogs, I would take them out for two or three training runs.” These averaged five to 10 miles, but could stretch to 20 miles toward the end of the season.

That particular winter was mild by Alaskan standards, and more often than not, the snow was too slushy for sledding. Furthermore, there is no daylight in that part of the state for the entire month of January, says Mistak. “Daylight returns the second week in February, but that winter, the snow turned to slush and we had to cancel several trips.” Nevertheless, Mistak managed to take clients on a handful of runs. “I made a few of trips,” he says. “The first was with a group of six clients and the next two were with individual clients.”

The number of sleds per trip varies, depending on the number of clients, notes Mistak. The first sled is actually a snowmobile laden with tents and supplies. A guide drives the snowmobile a mile or two ahead of the group to “break the trail.” Mistak was responsible for the second sled. As head musher, he was responsible for a team of eight dogs. The clients followed Mistak, each with their own sled and a five-dog team. “Many outfitters don’t allow clients to [guide] their own dog team,” he says. Rather, a client typically rides as a passenger in a guide-driven sled. “That’s what made Sourdough Outfitters unique,” he points out. The final sled is a backup snowmobile carrying extra supplies. “I learned a lot about dog psychology!” he says. “It was important to know which dogs would fight, and separate them, [in order] to ensure a happy group of dogs on runs. This was especially important, since clients [managed] their own dog teams.”

Mistak would take clients 20 miles out of Bettles to a cabin, where they would set up camp. “I remember my last job,” he says. “It was just me and my eight-dog team, one client and his six dogs, and my one buddy who ran the snowmobile. It was such an easy, stress-free trip, and I could really take in the uniqueness of Alaska – especially when the Northern Lights came out.”

When it was time to leave Alaska that May, Mistak was determined not to leave empty-handed. “The dogs didn’t have any puppies that season,” he says. So, he drove back to Tennessee via Anchorage (“It took a while,” he recalls.) and picked up an Alaskan Husky puppy. “Driving home with a puppy was interesting!” he says. “But, I negotiated my way down to the West Coast, picked up Interstate 40 and headed home to Tennessee.”

Settling down
Upon arriving back home that June, Mistak considered his next venture. He decided it was time to put his fine arts degree to use, and attempted a career as a full-time artist. “I was commissioned to do pet portraits, portraits of children and several minor illustration jobs for one publishing company,” he says. But, there was no money in it, he points out. “Basically, I did it because I enjoyed the work.”

Around that same time, he was becoming more serious in a relationship, and believed it was time to rethink his career. “I was 26 years old, and I knew it was time to settle down,” he says. With wedding plans in the works, Mistak made his next move. Following in his sales rep dad’s footsteps, he called Henry Schein. “I started at NLS Animal Health with a zero-territory,” he says. “Henry Schein hired me to see if I could develop it. I’ve been here for over four years now, and I love it. This territory has some great customers to call on.”

Indeed, his past experiences prepared him well for a sales rep position. “Whether I was playing football under stress, or on a boat that broke down or dealing with misbehaving dogs and total chaos, I always had to remain level-headed and focused,” he says. “I also learned how to be a team player. [As a sales rep], I must be able to ask the right questions in order to provide answers for my customers. In the Caymans, I would take about 100 people out on a boat each time, or as many as 12 people diving. Working with 300 people a day, you develop some good people skills.”

Today, Mistak and his wife, Alison, have a 1 ½-year-old son, Wyatt, which has made it difficult to pursue new travel adventures. “I’ve never been back to the Caymans or Alaska,” he says. “But, I’d like for my wife to get certified to scuba dive and then return to the Cayman Islands.” And, given his experience driving a husky puppy through the Alaskan wilderness, taking a toddler to the Cayman Islands should be a piece of cake.