Dane Simmons came to Idaho State University from southern California in 2002 on a football scholarship with less than $100 in his pocket. Today, he resides in Chubbuck with his family, owns his own business and said he has created his own success with his ambition and drive that started at ISU.
Simmons attended ISU as a student-athlete from 2002 to 2006 and received an undergraduate degree in mass communication with an emphasis in advertising, and a minor in marketing. He then got his master’s degree in sport science in athletic administration.
Simmons is the owner and CEO of Simmons Surgical. He continues to stay networked with ISU Athletics, and from time to time he presents motivational speeches to the athletes.
“I just let them know my story to kind of motivate the athletes and let them know that it is a difficult road they will be taking, being student athletes, but if they are able to progress on the field and in the classroom, they will be able to outperform the average student in their competitive nature and that is very important in the workplace,” said Simmons.
Simmons said his undergraduate degree from ISU prepared him for creative thinking, which has helped him in designing and building a business.
“The courses at ISU really helped me focus and kind of fine-tune my thoughts so that I was able to create what I was thinking,” said Simmons.
After getting quotes that ranged from $7,000 to $10,000 to build a website for Simmons Surgical the way that Simmons wanted it in terms of functionality and aesthetics, Simmons utilized his background in advertising and marketing to design all of the graphics involved with his business from the logo to website development.
“ISU prepared me very well academically, and prepared me for my jobs for the future,” said Simmons. “But what I’m finding out is that it is up to the individual to figure out how their life is going to turn out.”
Simmons said his ambition has gotten him where he is today and wants to stress that it is ambition that will allow you to achieve your dreams, whatever they may be.
“Your degree is going to give you opportunity, but your ambition is going to take you where you want to go,” said Simmons.
Simmons explained that he has friends with the same degree, but they are at very different places in their lives career-wise.
“Even though you have a specific degree and you are trained for specific fields, your degree allows you to do whatever you would like. It is what you make of it,” said Simmons. “And for me, I wanted to be able to provide for my family and so I took a different route, [and because of the degrees I received from ISU,] I was granted the opportunity to show what I can do in the workplace.”
Of his success, Simmons said he just decided to take a risk to try to solve some problems, “and it all started with thought, which started at ISU.”
Simmons’ original goal was to work in sports marketing but his career path changed quickly when he found out “how [little] they were paying.”
Growing up with a single mom, Simmons said his family always struggled in terms of money. He said he didn’t want to relive that struggle with his own children, so he decided that money was going to be a big factor when he chose his profession.
“I was kind of at a loss for what I was going to do with my life,” explained Simmons.
While in graduate school at ISU, Simmons heard about a friend-of-a-friend who was making good money selling medical equipment, which led him to a position with a company called Praxair in 2007.
Simmons’ ultimate goal then became getting into surgical sales, where he is now.
“I literally, for five years, applied for every job within a 100 mile radius of Pocatello, Idaho,” Simmons said.
Simmons explained that at the time he had four years of experience from Praxair and his degree on his resume, which he considered impressive, but never got a single interview.
“I was getting very frustrated and discouraged because I felt like I was qualified for these jobs and still was not getting the opportunity,” said Simmons.
He then took matters into his own hands by writing CEOs’ direct emails, as well as writing the Human Resource departments of smaller surgical companies.
“I stopped looking for jobs that were posted and started looking just to talk to somebody, because I knew that if I could just get in front of somebody I could sell myself,” explained Simmons.
The first company to get back with Simmons was Microline Surgical. After doing a phone interview, the regional manager flew out the following week and offered to contract the State of Idaho to Simmons for surgical sales.
Five months later, Simmons was leading the region in sales and Microline expanded his reach to Salt Lake City. After closing a deal with Intermountain Healthcare that opened Simmons up to 25 hospitals, he gained sales opportunities throughout Utah, then Southern California.
Simmons added, “Then the company basically said, ‘Dane, why don’t you open up your own surgical distributorship?’”
The manufacturers of the surgical products Simmons sells provided training for the products, and Simmons sells the products and trains surgeons to use them.
The main product Simmons is selling right now are called ENT-Ceps, which are used for tonsillectomies. Simmons said they have them at about 90 percent of the facilities in southeastern Idaho.
Simmons Surgical has now been running for about six months and has 10 representatives on board between Idaho, Utah and southern California.
Simmons feels that our society needs to encourage innovators and dreamers again.
“We are always worried about who is gonna hire us,” said Simmons, “but what I’m worried about is who is going to innovate, you know, who is going to be the next Steve Jobs? Who is going to create? Those are the problems we need to solve.”