Letter to the Editor: 'Favorite franchise director' remembers SBJ columnist

Thank you for including the Destination Success columns by Sinara Stull O’Donnell in the Springfield Business Journal.

I always enjoyed what she had to say, and during the past few years, she had become a personal friend. In fact, Sinara had that way about her of getting to know people very quickly and then developing long-lasting relationships.

I first met Sinara in 2002, when she spoke at the Nixa Area Chamber of Commerce. I was intrigued by her use of impressions, jokes, stories and humor. I had been thinking that week of bringing in a speaker to Aire-Master of America’s 2003 National Franchise Conference.

As Aire-Master franchise director, I asked Sinara to be our keynote presenter. She was very interested in the word “national,” because she was thinking about expanding her speaking to the national level.

During the next few months, we met and she began preparing to motivate, teach and entertain Aire-Master franchisees from across North America.

At 8:30 a.m., Sinara had them eating out of her hand. As I looked around the room, everyone was on the edge of their seats during her entire 75-minute performance. I had never seen anyone talk about customer service while donning a Mae West impression. But Sinara was magnificent and the audience loved her. The conference surveys were overwhelming: “Bring Sinara back next year!”

So we did it again in 2004. It started with monthly franchise newsletter articles that led up to Sinara taking the stage in Denver. She was the hit of the conference again that year.

After speaking, you would always find Sinara talking to someone in the hallway, in the back of the room, during a break time or meal. She was truly interested in people and spoke with authority.

Member of the family

From those beginnings, Sinara and I became real friends. She adopted my phrase, “How is my favorite franchise?” which I use when greeting a franchisee. Each time Sinara called me she would say, “How is my favorite franchise director?” She had become part of the Aire-Master franchise family.

During the past few years, I received calls from companies considering Sinara for speaking engagements. Each time as our conversations concluded, they thanked me for taking the time to help them make a decision to contract for Sinara’s services. I always informed them that Sinara won’t look at this as a hired speaking engagement. She will get to know you and your business, and you will not be the same after getting to know her.

Countless times I have received little “goodie baskets” from Sinara, which let me know that she had traveled somewhere else in the United States and a whole new group of people got to see Mae West in action. She constantly sent me e-mails and always made it a point to see me at various gatherings.

Support

Behind every great woman is a great man. John O’Donnell was that special man, who quietly stood in the shadows and let his leading lady perform. John left a very special message about Sinara’s passing, on my work phone, while I was traveling. I returned home just in time to receive the message and attend Sinara’s memorial service the following day. What an honor it was to be greeted by John, “How is my favorite franchise director?”

Many times in life we take things and people for granted. We are all blessed to have SBJ and its staff for helping the business community. We need to tell them more often how much we appreciate their efforts on our behalf. We also are blessed to have known Sinara, who motivated us in her articles and speaking and became a friend to everyone she met.

—Jim M. Roudenis, franchise director, Aire-Master of America[[In-content Ad]]