Rod Helped Boost My Career Early On

'The State' Reports About Life/Death of Rod Shealy
South Carolina lost one of its most interesting sons today. Well known political consultant and businessman, Rod Shealy, passed away at MUSC according to The State, et al.

In the political arena, Rod's name was a hefty one to say the least. It's often said that Rod is one of the "Big 3" political consultants in South Carolina.

Although my personal relationship with Rod certainly involved political discussions, and a few recruitment sessions, we struck up a friendship outside of politics.

About five years ago, as a new Realtor, I was constantly looking for good advertising opportunities. At the time there was a new newspaper-style publication called "20/20 Magazine." I happened to like the style of 20/20 and emailed a salesperson.

After a few weeks of e-mail banter and missed phone calls, I found myself at Mr. Friendly's chomping on burgers with the owner of "20/20", Rod Shealy. Of course he proposed that I take out a real estate ad in his monthly magazine. As we got to know each other that day, Rod took a fancy to my mailbox flag business that Kinsey and I started while she was in the hospital.

Within 3 hours of that lunch meeting we were at a mailbox that sported the product (in front of Jennifer Sparks' house, mind you) with Rod snapping pictures of me holding a bunch of fanned mailbox flags as if they were a deck of cards. The very next week I was on the cover of his magazine, which at the time enjoyed nice rack exposure all over the Midlands. There's no telling what this meant to my career, but to me, it was a big deal.

Politically, Rod was pretty well known for many things including being the man behind the Andre Bauer machine, and Nathan Ballentine's upset win over Rep. Rick Quinn (R - Lexington).

Tonight I planned to post about The State Newspaper's article about falling real estate sales. However, when I heard about Rod's death I felt compelled to type about my buddy instead.

If I could talk to Rod right now, I'd thank him for being a friend and for throwing me on the cover of his magazine. Knowing him he would probably laugh at me a little and pat me on the back.

Godspeed, Rod Shealy.