White knuckles, sinking stomach, heart pounding out of control. The nerves were astronomical and he was not sure what was going to happen. He had only learned five days prior that he would stand in front of millions for the first time in his life to talk about something he had known his whole life. Somehow all that cultivated knowledge was not showing any signs of comfort as he stood in front of a camera on April 7, 2014.
“My uncle (David) told me on a Wednesday at 5 pm that I was going on air on Monday evening,” Andy said. “This job was never even on my radar. I was working five days a week at our front retail counter, buying collections and attending shows. This was the time during 2011-2012-2013 when silver was at nearly $50 an ounce. I was constantly booked up with appointments to buy collections from people. Television was never an option for me or even a thought in my mind.”
Flashback to that first night when sleeping and eating wasn’t in the cards. This was not a dream or a joke, but a massive reality. The red light came on in a studio in Franklin, Tennessee, and just like that, he was a television host for The Coin Vault.
“It took everything I had in me not to come back here and tell my uncle that I couldn’t do it,” he remarked. “Four months in and I was nothing but a ball of nerves. I couldn’t eat, I couldn’t sleep. I felt sick to my stomach constantly. It affected every aspect of my life. I just had this extreme fear of looking like an idiot. Public speaking was something I was never good at or liked to do, so going on TV was incredibly debilitating.”
But as all life’s challenges tend to do, they slowly but surely, get a little easier. Six months in and something finally clicked.
“I got to the point where I looked at the camera and the fear started to go away,” he remembered. “You know, I’m human and that means I’m going to make mistakes. I realized that it was going to happen and I was going to be okay with it. Some people like that sort of human aspect when watching a show like this. Not everything has to be so automated or perfect, you know?”
Six months in and it finally seemed as if Andy was on his way, but those first months were the perfect example of a “rocky start.” That first week, Andy would make his way to see Robert Chambers, then the current beloved show host of The Coin Vault, on Tuesday morning. By Saturday morning in Indiana, he learned of Robert’s passing.
“So it’s my second week and on Monday I have to witness Scott tell everyone of Robert’s passing,” he explained. “It was incredibly hard to watch. I don’t know how Scott did it, because then after all that, we had to sell coins. We had to talk about coins. Under normal circumstances that wouldn’t be difficult, but that week it seemed impossible.”
The following week would not let up as Andy received the call on Monday, April 21, that his dad was in the hospital and they were not sure he would make it. He headed to Indianapolis from Franklin on that Monday night. Fortunately, Andy’s father, Tony, would pull through and you can still find him buying and selling collections at the retail shop Monday through Friday here in Winchester, Indiana.
Still enduring, Andy would make the trek to and from Franklin, Tennessee, every Sunday night from Indiana for the next year or so until The Coin Vault would finally come home in June of 2015.
“I was excited about it coming here,” Andy declared. “I had three kids in school and I was commuting back and forth six hours away. So the move was something I was definitely happy about.”
But with the move came some changes.
“In Franklin, all I had to worry about was finding a coin, learning about it, and then showing it on air,” he recalled. “Moving here, I was in the thick of it. I saw everything on the backend as far as fulfillment needing help, issues with our system occurring, or shipping being buried. You know, things you don’t think about when all you do is sell coins. Everything else was never something I had to worry about. And even now, we have a PCD department that we have to handle questions and product acquirement for in addition to everything else I just mentioned.”
As more than just the TV show host you see on air, Andy explains that all the noise around him during the day does not excuse him from the nighttime job he has every Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday.
“I’d be lying if I said I didn’t sometimes miss the simplicity of the Franklin days but you know, it’s part of the job. At the end of the day, after all that stuff, the reality of it all is when it hits 7 pm EST, that light comes on and I have a show to do. No excuses. No exceptions.”
Five years in now, Andy reveals that they have been the fastest years of his life.
“My schedule doesn’t allow me to plan ahead,” he explained. “My new normal is what is going to happen at 7 pm tonight. I can’t tell you anything about tomorrow or next week or a year from now. Every Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday, I can only think about what will happen when the camera starts rolling.”
Although committed to his show host job and making himself the best he can be at it, he admits that being born into this business has allowed him to be successful more than anything.
“I didn’t have to go to college or study to get this job,” he said. “The fact that I was born in this business was my “schooling.” I started at a very young age and coins were a part of my life every day. I lived it.”
Being involved in the business on a day-to-day basis, Andy admits that his favorite part of his job involves what he describes as the “thrill of the sell.”
“When a coin comes in and it is delivered to me, the minute we put it on air and that feeling takes hold when I know we can sell as many as we can get our hands on, that’s the best part,” he gushed. “The sell is the most exciting part of the job.”
But like anyone who stays humbled enough with their craft, the thought of getting better and better never leaves his mind.
“I’m really lucky,” he said. “I get to sell coins and generate money for the business every week, but I also look at it as practice when I do a show. It’s a continuous practice session for me. There are times after the show when I tell myself, “you are not good at this job.” Then there are other times when I get this feeling that I really did a good job. It’s a constant turning wheel for me.”
Another constant turning wheel for him? What the future of The Coin Vault holds.
“I’m excited to grow our audience and hopefully increase the number of collectors who decide to jump on board with us,” he explained. “We have some really great opportunities coming our way for that to happen.”
As for the next five years?
“That’s a good question,” he replied laughing, “because I can’t get past tonight at 7 pm.”