|
|
|
True StoriesTim Tingle,
Entrepreneur,
For twenty years,
Tingle owned and operated New Canaan Farms, a gourmet food manufacturer begun with a
partner, Doc Moore of San Marcos, Texas, in 1979. They
began in “a small twenty-by-twenty foot kitchen in Dripping Springs, Texas, twenty
miles west of Austin, using Texas-grown fruits such as blackberries, blueberries,
strawberries, and peaches” to manufacture jams preserves and a spicy Southwestern
salsa. Focusing on the gift and gourmet
market, New Canaan Farms built a strong regional presence.
The company maintained a permanent showroom at the Dallas Market Center, but
did most of its business direct-to-the-customer, through a toll-free number. An avid follower of
Tom (In Search of Excellence) Peter’s philosophy, Tingle steadfastly
structured New Canaan Farms into a people-friendly company.
Stories were one of his tools. “At every company gathering, I told hero
stories of employees or company ‘family’ members, who had gone far beyond what
was expected of them. These stories were my
first awakening to the power of stories to motivate and bring out the hero in us
all. ” In 1990, Tingle was
approached by the Texas Department Of Agriculture to present a series of workshops on
marketing strategies for small agricultural-based Texas companies. As he prepared
for these talks, he realized that storytelling was “what distinguished New Canaan
Farms from other similar companies, for employees and customers. This was the true beginning of my second career
as a storyteller.” One of Tingle’s
favorite hero tales is that of Jay Spillar, an elderly cowboy who worked part-time for New
Canaan during its busy holiday season. “When the great freeze of 1988 hit the
Rio Grande Valley, we were asked by our major customer -- a grapefruit grower -- to speed
up his order of marmalade. The grapefruits had to be picked immediately,
around-the-clock, to save the crop. They shipped a jar of our grapefruit marmalade
with every bushel of grapefruit, and they needed the jars right away. More recently, Tingle
has become adept at telling stories in English and Spanish.
“Our employee base at New Canaan Farms was made up of sixty percent
Spanish-speakers, families who had lived in the Dripping Springs area for hundreds of
years.” Although he had taken some
courses in the language in school, “I decided I would show the most respect for the
people that made our company go if I would learn their language, although they spoke
perfect English.” Tingle began taking
his vacations in Mexico and attending intensive language schools, twice a year. He
lived with Mexican families who spoke only Spanish, and followed the "total
immersion" method. Within three years, he was writing and delivering speeches
and stories in Spanish. “I joined a Bilingual Toastmasters Club in Austin, and
after a few months of telling stories I had learned in Cuernavaca, San Miguel De Allende,
and Morelia, Mexico, I was asked to tell stories of my own Choctaw heritage,” he
said. “We always feel
that nobody would be interested in the stories we learned growing up. How wrong this
is! I first told family stories, and then began traveling to Oklahoma and
Mississippi, to learn stories from traditional Choctaw people. Soon I received
invitations to tell the stories at schools in Austin and San Antonio. Always looking
for a new interest, I became a regular at storytelling events across Texas.” These days, Tim Tingle
performs annually at hundreds of schools, festivals, and universities throughout the
United States. Under the sponsorship of the United States Department of Defense,
Tingle has toured Germany five times, and in May 2000 was the keynote speaker at the
Heidelberg Young Author's Conference. In March 2001, he was a featured performer at
the Texas Storytelling Festival, which featured four of the top storytellers in America.
Tingle’s stories
have also been featured in numerous publications. His story about his Choctaw
father, Archie D. Tingle, was featured in the March/April 2001 issue of Storytelling World
Magazine. His collection of Native American stories for grades K-5, Grandma
Spider Brings The Fire, has been nominated for a 2001 Storytelling World Award.
His most popular work, The Choctaw Way, features traditional and historical Choctaw
stories, as well as chants recorded from the Mississippi Choctaw. Tingle is a
graduate of the University of Texas and is currently working towards completion of a
master’s degree in Native American Studies at the University of Oklahoma. His
thesis, Choctaw Oral Literature, documents his experiences collecting oral histories from
Choctaw tribal elders. He is also the founder
of StoryTribe Publishing and lives in Canyon Lake, Texas. “I sold New Canaan Farms in 1997, and have never been happier in my life. I am fifty-three years old and doing what I was put on earth to do, find stories, write stories, and tell stories.” Next
Steps For more about Tim
Tingle or his StoryTribe Publishing venture Home | True
Stories | Your True Story Copyright 2005 2Young2Retire.com, All Rights Reserved
|
Member of the Oklahoma Choctaw tribe, Tim Tingle
is a born storyteller who, after a long, successful business career, has circled back to
what he loves best.