One Way to Fire Up, Jump-Start Sales

Mike Dochterman sets himself on fire and jumps three stories off a platform and into less than three feet of water.

No, he's not a nut case. He's a daredevil.

And while hosting such attention-grabbing stunts may not be for every dealer, some find that bringing Dochterman in to do his thrilling thing increases dealership traffic.

“We had a media frenzy, great publicity that I hear about all of the time from customers,” says Ray Voyda of Freedom Chevrolet in Virden, IL.

Marc Fernandez of Marc Fernandez Auto Group says, “We were on the front page of the newspaper.”

Dochterman ties his daredevil dives to a good cause. He helps raise money for cancer research. He lost his wife to cancer.

“I want to show the kids and everyone I know what it's like to suffer, and I can still give entertainment to help raise money,“ he says.

A world-record holder for the highest fire dive into shallow water, he has performed his act in movies, including Back Draft and The Towering Inferno.

Booking agency Image Events, Springfield, IL, promises only one sponsor per media market. The firm also handles press releases and media notifications and supplies the jump platform and pool.