“At the end of it, we handed him a check and Ron said, ‘John, you’ve given me such a peace of mind, you have no idea.’ That peace of mind was because it took the burden of selling them off his daughters and allowed him to use the money to help them with their mortgages and finance his grandchildren’s education. There was a sense of closure and relief.”

The Hackenberger story was not only a huge business success for Froelich, but it highlights what he considers to be the most important parts of the auctioneering world: “The biggest attraction of auction to me is the ability to help people alleviate pain,” he said. “Hackenberger is a perfect example of that.”

“A big part of my success in this business is the ability to listen to someone’s heart,” Froelich added. “People normally have something to sell because of a pain in their life. I’m there to help ease that pain. I listen to their problems and, most important, I listen to their pain. I help them see that I can make their life easier and take away some of that pain. It could be as simple as being assigned to be the executor of your brother’s estate, for example. You didn’t ask for it, then suddenly you’re six months into probate and your life is consumed and you’re exhausted.”

“If you put a house up for sale with a real estate agent, months may go by,” Froelich said. “With a JF Marketing/Auction & Real Estate auctioneer, you set a date and after that date you get a check and the headache and pain are gone.”

“For smaller items, such as a deceased parent’s home furnishings and collectibles, selling things little by little on Ebay would take months or longer, and each and every item require a mental decision.” Froelich said. “How much time do you want to spend selling grandma’s things on Ebay? Within a few days an auction company can come in and take care of everything and by the end of the day the house is empty. The seller gets one big check without having to lift a finger.

We come in and help people move on with their lives and restore normalcy after a tragedy or the anticipated loss of a loved one. Our job is to convert assets to cash at fair market value so that people can move on with their lives.”

Many of Froelich’s clients also have private businesses to liquidate upon retiring, the desire for a partner to cash out or the death of a principal in the business. Businesses come and go, and in order to best address helping these clients, Froelich and his team have recently launched Max Asset Liquidation Services (www.max-asset.com) an online auction platform with an international audience.

“Many times the remaining family members or employees are drowning in complications and have no idea who to turn to in order to convert remaining assets to cash. We step in and handle the entire process, start to finish, so they can focus on other important issues.”

Froelich’s friendly, approachable, and genuine desire to build relationships with clients has sparked a few client-turned long-lasting-friend instances. Hackenberger and his wife, Eunice, have become dear friends of Froelich and his family, even taking vacations together in the wake of the enormous auction.

To date, the vast majority of Froelich’s business has been built upon the personal relationships and the care he shows for people.

While Froelich shows a special care for all of his relationships, he has a special skill at observation and noticing when people have a need for his services. “About 80 percent of my work comes from cold calls,” he said. “I’ve done five auctions for a client because I saw a gas station with a “For Sale By Owner” sign on it and I called them. That location had been vacant for a long time, and I sold that station for $65,000 and went on to do four more real estate auctions for them.”

Observation finds him the leads, but his genuine concern and belief that auctions can help alleviate pain are what builds those relationships and keeps people coming back to him time after time.

Froelich and his company are involved as members of the Ohio Auctioneer Association and the National Auctioneer Association. “Participation at the state and national levels is so vitally important to an auction company. We receive advanced training from premier auctioneers around the country and learn state-of-the-art techniques for bringing bigger and better crowds to our auctions. Maybe most important are the friendships and connections made at functions and gatherings, knowing we can count on these same friends to step up and help make our auctions the very best they can be.”

Among the charity auctions they support, Froelich has a special place in his heart. For the past five years, he has conducted a live charity auction for his alma mater, the Black Tiger Gridiron Alumni Club. The club supports the Cuyahoga Falls High School football program and provides college scholarship assistance for senior football players, band members and cheerleaders.

“One of the reasons the club fundraiser has grown so much over the last five years is the excitement that a live auction brings to the table,” Froelich said.

Froelich has stepped up in his own community of Westlake, Ohio, to support the Youth Challenge program as the auctioneer for their newly established “Brackets, Beers and Brats” fundraiser. YC supports physically challenged children in the community to stretch beyond their personal limitations through participation in a wide variety of sports and hobby activities, like basketball, bowling and even fishing on Lake Erie.

“Witnessing the value this program brings to the lives of its children and their parents is life changing” says Froelich. “To me, it proves God has a plan for each and every one of us, regardless of perceived limitations. We could all learn a lesson from these glorious and brave participants.”

Froelich is a U.S. Air Force veteran and celebrated four years of marriage on Valentine’s Day. He and his wife, Michelle, each have two children and and Michelle’s daughter and son-in-law, Kaitlin and Michael, have blessed them with two grandchildren. All of the family lives close by so they are able to spend plenty of time together. Froelich has fallen in love with travel and recently took his wife to Austin, Texas, where the two spent a weekend with his college roommate. “We haven’t seen each other in 36 years,” Froelich said. “It was a blast catching up!”

Travel gives the Froelich’s a chance to spend time both with friends and family and has so far included a trip with his son, nephew and a close friend fishing for king salmon and lake trout on the Niagra River in New York in the snow. He is now planning a trip with his son fishing in Canada and recently bought a new rifle for Elk hunting out west.

“I owe my wife Michelle a trip to Italy,” he adds. “We love traveling together, and since we crossed Paris off the bucket list by going there, Rome is the next obvious place for us.”

Froelich also has a rather ambitious item on his bucket-list: a cross country bicycle ride from Florida to San Diego. “I guess I better get on that one soon!” he said.