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JIM POWER: I bring a friendly empathy to the table. I know how frustrating it is to have a problem bad enough to warrant making a phone call. It is a terribly helpless feeling. When people call me or leave a voice message, I try to very quickly assure them that the problem, whatever it is, will be solved. I know the frustration of calling a corporate robot and knowing that until you get a human on line, that there is no way you are going to make headway at solving your problem. I try to offer some relief from that experience.

JP: I am very proud of doing things very well. I am also very proud to work for a company with such an incredible product and I'm happy to be part of that good reputation. It is easy to do things right. Quite frankly, with each and every customer interaction I can make the decision to either make it end well or frustrate the heck out of someone. It is a whole lot more fun to make people happy. I don't have to give away the world, just treat people with respect and help them solve their problem. They like that.

JP: I don't know. I guess I have seen an awful lot of good, bad, and ugly in my years. Many of us have. We can find peace by focusing on the good and fixing the bad. Maybe we can forget the ugly.

JP: We always do what we can to make things right. It is just the way it should be.

JP: One of my favorite memories is a call I took from a woman who had a bit of a party while her husband who was out of town. She had blown the woofers on his Monoliths and was mortified. I overnight shipped two replacement woofers and stayed on the phone while she replaced them herself, mostly for moral support. It worked. He never knew. I received a dozen roses the next day.

JP: Truly the most difficult ones are when I am dealing with someone with emotional issues. I am a little hesitant to go into specifics... patient/service guy confidentiality.

I once had a fellow I kept on the phone for a couple of hours. He was certain that much of his stereo equipment was trying to do bad things to his brain. He had his very expensive amps riddled with bullet holes in the driveway. He seemed to calm down when we talked about his MartinLogan's, so I tried to be a friend and he responded to that. It was really exhausting and sad. That is one of the more extreme cases.

I have had other absolutely inconsolable people who were not open to reason. I think in twenty years, I have had only two or three people that I actually had to hang up on. As I recall, all of them were worked out later when they realized that I genuinely was there to help them.

Born in McAlester, Oklahoma, the youngest son of a chemistry/physics teacher and English teacher, Jim had an early penchant for taking things apart and watching his dad reassemble them. He studied pre-med and art with hopes of becoming a medical illustrator. Graduating from Oklahoma University in 1972 he went on to the University of Nebraska Medical Center for a masters degree in Biomedical Communications. While the focus of the program was much broader than medical illustration, he mostly just learned that Nebraska was colder than hell. After graduation, he opted to move closer to the sun and compromised with Kansas. Lawrence seemed like pleasant place. Not exactly the Mecca for medical illustration, but certainly an extremely pleasant town to live in. He stumbled into a job as CATV systems maintenance supervisor where he honed a combination of interpersonal communication skills and working with complex electronic systems.

After moving to Lawrence Jim went to buy stereo gear at the local Hi-Fi shop he met the manager, Gayle Sanders, who was "a good salesman and really nice guy." During conversation they acknowledged common acquaintances and stayed in touch. Years later, Jim's good friend, Jeff Dearinger*, went to work for a new company called MartinLogan, run by this Sanders guy that they both knew and liked. Jim and Jeff chatted a lot over the next year about this fascinating company and Jim stopped by a time or two to talk about technical issues they were having. It was a fun and exciting place.

Fast forward two years. Jim was at a crossroad with his job and made a hard decision to move on. Serendipity on his side, MartinLogan happened to be looking for a full time service manager. Jim was immediately hired with the understanding that he would begin work doing electronics assembly to become familiar with the product. At the time Joe Vojtko** and Jim were the entire electronics department. They hand-built and repaired everything. "Gayle Sanders was a good mentor on the image that he wanted to present. I paid attention and kept doing my job. Twenty years later, I'm still here," notes Jim.

Jim served as the sole Service person for Martin Logan until recently when he was lucky enough to grow his staff with several very competent characters: Jeff Dearinger, Melodie Brouhard, and Mark Hurla. Today Jim's 4-person service department boasts over 55 years of combined experience at Martin Logan.

Throughout his life, Jim has pursued many hobbies. He has worked on the restoration of many folk art sites throughout the Midwest and is currently co-owner of the famous artistic Kansas landmark, the Garden of Eden in Lucas, Kansas. Jim has also worked to restore many old homes and other historical structures in Lawrence and the surrounding area.

For many years, Jim has been an avid bee-keeper. "There is a lot you can learn about life and excellent quality service by being in the middle of 10,000 angry bees. Like don't piss ‘em off in the first place." When he is not in the seat of his 1951 Farmall tractor, he is wishing he was. His Motto is, "All it needs is a little..." or, "You should have seen it before!"

Being the son of depression era parents, Jim has always appreciated the fine qualities of being a packrat. This plays out favorably to MartinLogan owners who have lost that little thingy that fell off the back of their vintage 1987 whatever.

While MartinLogan has grown over the years, Jim's goal has always remained to maintain a personal touch in MartinLogan's service department. "I want anyone who calls Martin Logan to be treated the way I want to be treated... with genuine, down-to-earth respect."

* Jeff Dearinger has been with MartinLogan for over 20 years and currently serves as Operational Engineer and Service Technician.

** Joe Vojtko (of Vojtko™ Crossover fame) has been with MartinLogan for over 20 years and currently serves as Chief Audio Technology Engineer.

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