After graduating college in 1979, Mike Shuford was selling forklifts and other equipment when he decided it was time to make a career change.
“The economy in 1980 and 1981 just kind of bottomed out, so there weren’t a whole lot of people buying equipment,” Shuford recalled in an interview.
At that time, the facility that would become the Chattanooga Convention Center was under construction, and Shuford made a habit of visiting the new director, Mack Stone, at the city hall annex.
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“He talked to me for probably 30 minutes on the first visit, and so I would stop by there probably once a month just to keep my face in front of him,” Shuford said. “And then he laid out his timeline for when he was bringing on a salesperson.”