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Wayne
and Katy Olsta Wheat at the Water Night
fundraising party held at the January 2016 NamesCon
conference in Las Vegas. Wayne called
the conference's successful live domain auction.
(Photo courtesy of NamesCon).
Wayne
told us, "Katy is a shining jewel in a
tough industry. She never stresses about the
size or importance of the event. Katy just says,
“you’re going to do great”. And then she
walks through the crowd looking for
million-dollar bids as if they were twenty
dollar bids. Nothing a bidder does knocks her
off her game. She’s always just Katy. The
problem with having her at the benefit auctions
is that she wants to leave behind more money
than we earn," Wayne laughed, "But,
we always have a good time!"
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Wayne
Wheat's father during his time
in
the military before becoming Chief of
Police
in their hometown. |
There
was a time that Wayne, who spent nearly 15
years in the military as a U.S.
Army officer, would never have guessed
he was destined to be a globe trotting
auctioneer rather than a career soldier.
After being born in a small west Texas
town of 5,000 where his dad was the Chief
of Police, hard work and discipline were
bedrock principles he was raised on - you
only got what you went out and earned for
yourself.
"In
a family of five there wasn't a lot of
spare change laying around so I decided to
find my own,' Wheat recalls. "I saw
an ad for the Grit newspaper
and, at age 12, signed up to be the sole
distributor of their publication. It
came out every week or two all I remember
is pedaling my bicycle all over that
little town delivering those newspapers
for two years. In the summer, I would work
in the cotton fields "chopping"
cotton, but I found out pretty quickly
that you’re not supposed to chop the
cotton! You chop the weeds popping up
between the rows of cotton! I got up at 5am
every day in the summer and would get home
after dark. I saved all of my money and
bought my first car for $2,000 cash
in 1974 at age 14. But - because my
dad was the Chief, I didn’t get to drive
that car for a year," Wayne smiled. |
Soon
after entering high school - the military
appeared on Wayne's radar. "I was a decent
athlete and did well academically, so in my
sophomore year I began to look around at
secondary education opportunities that offered
scholarships," Wayne said. "My high
school counselor recommended the military
academies, so I applied to the U.S. Military
Academy at West Point. The following
year, I was appointed to the academy by Senator
Lloyd Bensen. However, following graduation,
I chose to go to ROTC basic camp in Fort Knox
Kentucky, thinking that I would instead
attend an affordable in-state school - Texas
A&M University"
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"I
did not like the idea of spending four
years on the Hudson River in New York.
Following the 10-week basic training, I
received a letter from a General that
stated I had won a fully paid Army
scholarship to any school that
offered Army ROTC. Not only
was tuition, room and board paid for, I
was to receive one-half of the pay of a
Second Lieutenant until graduation and
then I would owe the United States six
years of active duty. I chose New
Mexico Military Institute for many
reasons, but proximity to west Texas was
high on the list. I graduated NMMI as a
DMG (distinguished military graduate) in
1980 and received my commission as an infantry
officer. I went active duty to train
in the Infantry Officer Course in
Fort Benning, Georgia and also
graduated from jump school as a paratrooper."
Once
he fulfilled his military obligation
Wheat, then a captain, had to decide
whether to continue in the Army or try
his hand in the private sector. His love
of cars helped him decide. As he
described in his book, he paid a visit
to one of the biggest dealer car
auctions in Texas looking for a bargain.
Wheat recalled the hectic pace looked
like |
Wayne
Wheat's uniform after nearly 15
years as
an officer in the U.S. Army's
Airborne Infantry. |
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the floor of the New York Stock
Exchange. "I was immediately
hooked and I was absolutely certain I
knew what I wanted to do as a full-time
career," he recalled. |
So,
Wheat immediately dove into researching the
field and in the process discovered the Missouri
Auction School in Kansas City -
regarded by many in the field as "the
Harvard of auction schools." Three months
later he was in a classroom there and a few
months after that he was on the job as a
professional auctioneer. In his book Wayne
shares a lot of great stories about his
experiences in the business over the years and
also told us about one that is not in the
book.
"I
was conducting a high end art and jewelry
auction in Providence, Rhode Island and
one of the bidders was none other than Jerry
Seinfeld," Wayne said. "I had a
chance to visit with him prior to the auction.
He had never attended one before but happened to
be there because he had a show in Providence
that evening. In my opening statement I plugged
Jerry’s show and said that it was originally
scheduled for noon, but he didn’t want
to go up against our auction. That got a decent
laugh!" Wayne smiled.
Wayne
Wheat running the live domain auction at
the
2010 DOMAINfest Global conference in Los
Angeles.
A
whole chapter of Wheat's book is about his
experiences in the domain industry and, of
course, those are the ones our readers will be
especially interested in. We all know how confused
people tend to be when we try to explain to them
what it is we do but Wheat proved to be a quick
study. Monte Cahn, who first crossed paths with
Wheat in 2007, said "He was great!
He got it immediately due to his
real-estate and asset sale knowledge. Our
chemistry was perfect as well as him working
together with my staff. We ended up doing
auctions all over the world together after
that."
Monte
also recalled the event that brought them
together. "Around 2006- 2007 I sold Auction.com to
REDC Group, who was and I think still is
the largest foreclosed home auction house in the
world. I needed a new auctioneer for DomainFest
in LA in 2008, right after our merger of Moniker
and Oversee.net.
A colleague of Wayne's who was working at
REDC agreed to do our DomainFest auction that
year. I found Wayne through that connection when
that person was not available. Since that
time, Wayne has been my auctioneer.
He was the right guy and got it
immediately having been the top auctioneer of
physical property and homes for REDC/Auction.com. When
explaining how domains were virtual real-estate
to Wayne, he was on board mentally and became passionate
about helping us continue to grow this industry
segment that I originally created in
1999."
Wayne
Wheat and Monte Cahn working together for
the first time
at the 2008 T.R.A.F.F.I.C. New York
conference.
Monte
added, "Its been a real pleasure working
with both Wayne and Katy. We have become
friends and both are well known in our industry
as a result. I have extended our live and online
auction exclusive arrangement with Namescon
through 2019 so I am sure everyone will have
the joy of seeing Wayne, Katy, and myself on the
stage over the next 3 years!"
While
Wayne and Monte hit it off right away, so did
Wayne and the domain industry at large. Thinking
back to his first domain auction in 2008 Wheat
said, "I was surprised by how friendly
and open everyone at the domain conferences
seemed to be. I sat in on many workshops and
keynote addresses and was impressed by the
amount of information that is shared freely.
The auctions had the feel of benefit auctions,
where things were sold without a lot of high
pressure tactics. In fact, Monte can be pretty
funny on the microphone. I’ve accidentally had
to cut him off a time or two (from expanding too
much on the many possible uses of a domain
name)," Wheat laughed.
"As
far as prices, I think that we are all surprised
a little bit at every auction by some names
selling for much higher than expected and high
valued premium names falling short for whatever
reason. It’s a finicky
marketplace!"
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Wayne
& Katy Wheat
(the year they were married - 2010) |
While
his business takes up a lot of his time,
Wheat tries to maintain a life away from
the gavel as well. "The past few
years, I’ve had less free time for my
hobbies, but when I do have the time and
there’s a big poker room nearby, I
play Texas Hold-em," Wheat
said, adding, "I try to golf a few
times a year too. When I lived on a
course I was a 6 handicap. Now, it’s
probably 25."
Until
just a few years ago I ran a pole
vault club on my property for young
athletes. Many of my students earned
college scholarships. In fact, one young
man that I coached - Reese Watson
- not only received a full scholarship
to the University of Texas, he
recently won the Big 12 Championship
and is trying to qualify for the U.S.
Olympic Team."
In
closing Wheat noted, "Even though
my travel schedule and career is very
tough and time consuming, there is
not another career that I would have
chosen. I love that I get to
actually see friends from many walks of
life and work with great people. I am
very blessed to be married to a woman
with a heart as big as Texas and
to have a supportive family and
children. My favorite word in the
English language besides “God”
is “SOLD!" Spoken like a
true auctioneer, Wayne! |
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