Sidner is flying high at Cabela's
By Charles Brown
J Alumni News staff
He had dreams of flying in jets moving at supersonic speeds.
But after he went to the U.S. Naval Academy in 1983, Sam Sidner was told his eyesight would keep him grounded.
"I was going to have to fly a desk," said Sidner, Internet marketing manager at Cabela's, the outdoor outfitter based in Sidney.
But as the flying dream was fading, a new vision was being fostered in an English class.
It seemed harmless enough, just a class that was required for graduation. But Sidner's teacher pulled him aside after class one day and told him he should seriously consider pursuing writing as a career. The recommendation floored Sidner.
"I thought I was a math and science guy," Sidner said.
It seemed as if someone had uncovered a hidden part of Sidner he didn't know existed.
The idea of writing for a living festered as his junior year approached. It became a pressing issue because it is during junior year at the academy that cadets choose what career field they will pursue.
Sidner said as the deadline neared, he realized that the life of a desk-bound naval officer wasn't very appealing.
When the moment of truth came, he packed his bags and transferred to UNL.
Leaving was scary, Sidner said, but something inside him assured him it was the right thing. But in hindsight, he said, he is proud to have made the choice to leave Annapolis, Md., and go after what he really wanted.
"That might be the single most important decision I ever made," Sidner said.
Important because it allowed him to pursue a career as a copywriter that he would find to be rewarding and fun.
Important because after transferring to UNL, he met Ann, a student at the Teacher's College who would become his wife.
Important because it taught him good things could happen when a person approached life with an open mind.
The open mind came in handy again after graduation in 1988 when he and Ann decided to move to Portland, Ore., after struggling to find work in Lincoln.
"The job market was over saturated," he said.
When Ann approached Sidner about moving to the Pacific Northwest he said he was ready for just about anything.
"She said, 'What about this?'" he said," and I said, 'That sounds great.'"
In Portland Sidner began work as a copywriter for the department store Meier & Frank. Sidner called living in Portland a "valuable" experience.
"I got to see the way things get done in other places," Sidner said.
Sidner said the move to Portland also helped to solidify the bond between him and Ann. In 1990 they took a trip to her hometown of Mitchell, S.D., and got married.
The couple returned to Lincoln in 1991 with no intention of leaving. For the next nine years Sidner worked at a series of Lincoln advertising agencies and occasionally taught as an adjunct advertising professor at UNL.
Nancy Mitchell, chair of the journalism college's advertising department said Sidner's experience and calm demeanor made him an effective teacher.
"He's kind of soft-spoken," Mitchell said. "But he knows what he is talking about, and students can see that."
"So when he says something, they listen."
Mitchell said it was these traits that led the college's alumni association to recognize Sidner as this year's Distinguished Advertising Alumnus.
In addition to putting down career roots in Lincoln, Sidner and his wife had also put down family roots; their daughter, Claire, was born in 1995 and son, Ben, in 1997.
In 2000, while working for Swanson Russell Associates in Lincoln, Sidner got a call from Ralph Castner, a college friend who was working at Cabela's. Castner told Sidner the company was looking for someone to run its Internet marketing operation. Castner initially called to ask about the qualifications of another candidate. But shortly after the first phone call, Castner called back and asked Sidner if he would like the job himself.
Sidner said no. He was happy in Lincoln. But then his wife told him it wouldn't hurt to go interview for the job.
"Next thing you know," Sidner said, "we're moving out there."
Tom Rosdail is Sidner's boss at Cabela's and was one of the two people involved with hiring him. Rosdail said he first heard of Sidner through Castner, who said, "Sam Sidner is one of the smartest guys I have ever met."
In the two year's he's worked with Sidner, Rosdail said, nothing has happened to disprove Castner's statement.
"He is super," Rosdail said. "Very artistic, very detailed and always trying to make sure the big picture is covered."
Sidner started at Cabela's in October of 2000. At that time the company was in the infant stages of setting up an online store.
Sidner said the site the company had when he arrived would not be adequate for handling the kind of business Cabela's wanted to do.
"They needed to kind of step it up a bit," Sidner said.
In his time at Cabela's, Sidner said he and his colleagues have turned the Web site into a viable selling device for the company.
Sidner said customers could now purchase online anything the company sells. That wasn't possible with the old site, nor with the catalog or the storefront locations.
Rosdail said one of the biggest changes Sidner instigated was the idea to make the site an online extension of the store so that the customer would get a consistent image whether they were in the store, looking at the catalog or viewing the Web site.
"He kind of said, 'Hey, this is Cabela's and we need to make sure that's known across the board,'" Rosdail said.
Rosdail said that idea required that the company understand its customer.
It's something Sidner could identify with. A hunter and fisherman himself, Sidner said he understands the people he is trying to attract because he is one of those people.
But in case Sidner needs refreshers, the company frequently sends its employees out on fishing and hunting trips in an effort to "better understand" the customer.
"I force them to go out," Rosdail said of the hunting and fishing trips.
Sidner told of a recent Saturday where he got a phone call from a co-worker who wanted to go fishing.
"Within a couple of hours we're fly-fishing in a stream in Poudre Canyon, Colo.," Sidner said.
Sure beats flying a desk.
