Visiting student makes way through Randolph and life with door-to-door sales

ASHEBORO — Dakota Rickey drives his red Honda in a steady rain through Randolph County’s most rural quadrant, looking for people he’s never met. 

He’s 1,000 miles from his adopted home in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and about that many from where he grew up in Grove on the banks of the Grand Lake O the Cherokees, just a few miles from the Missouri state line.

Rickey is an intern for Southwestern Advantage, “the oldest entrepreneurial and direct selling program for college and university students in the world,” according to Southwestern’s website. Rickey has spent five summers selling books and educational materials to families.

In past summers, Rickey was assigned to Tennessee, twice to Virginia and to southern Alamance County just up the road. This summer he was assigned to Randolph County, first in the Trinity area and more recently in the Southwestern Randolph school district.

He said when he received this summer’s assignment, “I was excited. I like the more rural areas. It’s like where I grew up.”

Referring to his digital tablet which showed a map of southwestern Randolph County, Rickey looked for a driveway with parked vehicles. He pulled into one, parked the Honda and grabbed his bag from the rear seat.

A dog approached and Rickey made friends with the canine before knocking on the door of the house. No one answered and Rickey was about to get back in the car when a man came out.

Rickey told him he had been on Facebook to let folks know what he was doing — selling educational materials, from learning to read to preparing for college.

The man politely said that all his children were grown but that Rickey might want to try some other neighbors down the road. So it was back in the car and studying the map, on which he had charted homes as “empty nesters” or “with children.”

Rickey continued on roads such as Volunteer Rescue, Charles Mountain and Surrett Country. Then he drove down a long driveway to a mobile home with a swing on the front porch.

A woman answered his knock on the door and soon let him know that she had no children at home. When he asked for help in finding young families, she could think of mostly “empty nesters” nearby. “We don’t have many kids around now.”

After a few more fruitless inquiries, Rickey found a modern farmhouse with a mother and two daughters, who were homeschooled. The woman at first thought Rickey was a man her husband was expecting.

However, she looked at some of the Southwestern Advantage books but explained that she buys books at cheaper prices. “I don’t think that book is worth the price but I think you are,” she said. “Can I give you a donation?”

Rickey said that wasn’t possible but thanked her for her candor.

Recently graduated from the University of Tulsa with an accounting degree, Rickey brought his girlfriend, Camryn, and their 6-month-old daughter, Athena, to Randolph County with him. He and Camryn plan to wed back in Tulsa in September. 

During their 12 or 13 weeks in Randolph County, 

the three are staying in an apartment below an office in Asheboro. He said they recently visited the North Carolina Zoo.

So what are Rickey’s plans now that he’s finished college? 

“I have a lot of options but I like working at Southwestern Advantage,” he said. “It has several divisions and I’d love to stay with the company. We’ll stay in Tulsa, at least for a while.”

Rickey specifically pointed to Southwestern’s Career Service, which helps place people in jobs. “I like the people there. They help people like myself. And there’s an opportunity to work from home.”

With his accounting degree, Rickey said that’s a possibility but didn’t know if he would enjoy working with numbers all day.

In fact, the ability he showed in working with people, making them feel at ease and becoming friends with total strangers was noticeable. That’s one of the skill sets he said he has developed in his five summers at Southwestern Advantage.

One way he did that is by naming people he’s dealt with in the community. He showed a proclivity to name people he’s met in the neighborhoods he visits. “Oh, that’s my cousin,” was one response.

Another skill, he said, is “being able to push through difficult things. When you get in the habit of doing difficult things, you’ll be able to do lots of things well.”

Looking at his Facebook posts at Dakota “The Education Man” Rickey, it’s easy to see that he’s made plenty of friends in Randolph County. 

And that often turns into sales. He said in his first 10 weeks, he made 150 sales.