With over 30 years of experience in the tool industry, Mac Tools distributor Robert Tolbert has driven more roads and routes than most people can imagine. His career has brought him across the country under a number of different flags, but he’s happy to call both Louisiana and Mac Tools his home.
His route takes him to a variety of stops across the southern states. “I’ve got farmers, I’ve got local independents, I’ve got dealerships, I’ve got your traditional mom and pops,” Tolbert says. “And I get way out in the cornfields and all the way into traditional truck stops, so I see a little bit of everything.
"It's a wonderful life, and it's not a business, it's not a job, it's a lifestyle," he says. "And with how I've chosen to do it, I'm always loud about anything I do."
All the buzz
True to his word, he’s never hard to spot. When he’s at one of his stops, his truck can be seen lit up and blaring music – he once broke the ice with a new technician on his truck by dancing to 2000s hitmaker Usher. He’s never been shy with giveaways and promotions either, giving everyone who steps on the truck a raffle ticket.
"I've got customers bringing their wives and their children getting free tickets," he explains. "I said, 'Well, that's just more chances to win!' So a lot of them have picked up on it, and heck, they're bringing the supervisors and managers and owners of these companies that I service that have never been to my truck [before], but they're coming to get a ticket because it's all the buzz."
Still, Tolbert might be even easier to see than his truck. He’s been wearing pink – socks, shoes, wigs, jerseys, suits, you name it, he’s worn a pink version of it – every day of the year. Each day brings a new piece of pink and a new post on his Facebook page celebrating it.
It all started a few years ago in October, which is Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
“In 2020, I did 31 interviews where I had pink bar stools at the front at the front of my truck, right behind the opening of the door, and then I would have a survivor come on and tell their story about surviving breast cancer,” Tolbert explains, adding that the interviewees would also get to pick a fellow survivor to receive the money raised that month. “I got an education, a fast one ... so that started my fire to keep doing something with breast cancer.”
While trying to figure out what he wanted to do for breast cancer awareness this year, he was struck by a simple epiphany: “I’m just going to wear something pink.” He threw on a pink jacket he had in his car, took a photo, and shared it as the first of many posts promoting pink. His rationale was that since the people who deal with breast cancer are dealing with it every day, he’d wear pink every day to send them a message of support and recognize their journey.
Stopping the storm
By now, his customers have come to expect his unique uniform every time he stops by the shop. Anything less than loud would have them legitimately worried about him. As silly as his outfits may seem to newcomers, they’re proof of how genuine a connection he feels with his customers and colleagues.
“It's just having relationships like that that go far and beyond your regular technicians,” he explains. “Heck, I've got more women right now owing me money on my tool truck because of this pink thing because they feel just as important now because I don't leave them out.”
That’s also the reason why the more outrageous the outfit, the more at home Tolbert feels in it in public.
"This is why I do all these different outfits,” he says, listing off the costumes he has for holidays and special occasions. “Everybody's got a storm in their life, and if I can get two minutes of that person's time ... and [what I’m wearing] makes him stop and think and laugh or smile or come up to me and say something, I stopped that storm in their life for a minimum of two minutes while we're talking.
“And if I can do that every day of my life, I can go to bed just absolutely loving life,” he says, noting that he’s got a freedom a lot of folks don’t. “It's something that this job and this franchise and being in this business for yourself allows me to do."
