Medart Spotlight with Our Amazing St. Louis Territory Manager Himself, Brad Hefferon!
August 22nd marks my 7th Anniversary with Medart Marine as a Territory Manager! Hi, my name is Brad Hefferon from St Charles, MO. My wife, Leslie, and I have been married for almost 5 years and we have one gorgeous daughter, Olivia. Olivia turned 2 on July 24th!
For those who may not know me, I have an absolute love for the boating industry and my job but my passion is my family & my little girl. When Olivia is not teaching me all about Disney, Dolls or Princess' (I knew it would come but I wasn't expecting it at 2 years old), we spend our free time at our family lake place at The Lake of the Ozarks. Ironically, Leslie & I met there 10 years ago this month.
My three major hobbies are boating, hockey and cooking. I'm blessed that my girls share the same level of passion for them as I do. I started playing Hockey in the 4th Grade and played
through college. I was fortunate to win a National Championship at Lindenwood University, and now spend my winter free time helping coach a U14 hockey team The Mid Missouri Tigers.
My passion for boating started very young. My family always had a place at The Lake of the Ozarks so I was surrounded by boats. It started with my parent's first boat, a Celebrity 21' Cuddy but really took off years later with their 3rd boat, a Sea Ray 240 Sundancer, which was the first boat my dad allowed me to drive on my own. My entry into the industry and what would become a dream career happened by accident.
It was between my senior year of high school and my freshman year at college when I was working at a retail hockey store selling hockey equipment. Since it was summer, it was a slow time so my hours were limited at the store. My dad took note of the limited hours & told me
to ask for more hours or get a new job. Being a teenage boy, I was quick to tell my dad I got more hours but really would go tool around at the river with friends & be teenagers. One day it wasn’t nice enough to be at the river, my buddy & I popped into St Charles Boat & Motor (a current customer of mine today) to check out wave runners.
Jerry, one of the owners, met me and for whatever reason after our conversation of me quizzing him on the latest models felt that this "know it all kid” could sell some wave runners and offered me a summer job! I learned a lot that summer but I think the most important was I wasn't doing myself or the customers any favors trying to do sales part time and not around for the proper follow up so I moved on. During college, I worked at Port Arrowhead as a porter and delivery captain. It was during this experience that inspired me to get my USCG Captains license. The spring of 08' really changed my path. I had been working full time in sales & as their yacht specialist at a dealer for a little over a year when the dealer closed their doors unexpectedly on the Friday of Memorial Day weekend with no warning to any employees. I took that as a sign to try something different and I left the marine industry for 2-1/2 years but my heart was never gone.
Knowing Medart as a customer I reached out to Michael when the dealership closed but the timing was not right for either side. Thankfully I was blessed to get a call from Medart in July of 2011 and since then I can say I’ve been part of an organization that is more a family than a workforce, lead by someone who puts each one of us and our families best interest first.