​Early Education

 

I was raised by an art teacher/sculptor/craftsman father and marketing/PR/Pianist mother. My great grand father was an inventor, whose tools and inventions influenced the build-it-yourself mentality growing up. My father built our first home, an imaginative octagon home with open layout, spiral staircase, sea wall, balcony and backyard of sand overlooking the Tittabawassee River decorated with his own art and sculptures. At four, we moved to a home with an acre-and-a-half backyard that included two ponds and a garden connecting to a baseball diamond and additional woods to explore. There was never a shortage of things to be amazed by, wonder about, explore, be curious of. My childhood utilized my imagination with adventures, forts, stories, things to build in a garage filled with endless tools and scrap wood and metal.

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Having been drawing, painting and molding clay since I was 3, I was one of 8 students accepted out of hundreds that applied to studio art in middle school. But at age 12, I dreamed of starting my own business and began spending 2 to 4 hours per day to writing and playing songs on the piano. I did this consistently until age 22. My life plan as a 7th grader was to go into business first, and then flip over to music and use what I learned. Today, I realize that supply surpasses demand in music, especially for someone who hasn't dedicated their entire life to it.

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I was often selling candy, cards, pads of paper in class when I was very young, and then after many long hours working for a landscaper since age 15, I started a lawn care business at age 17 that grew to 45 weekly accounts and employed two seasonal full-time employees, operating this until age 22. I also experimented with several mail order businesses and read dozens of books on business, as well as trading stocks and commodities in this time.

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While writing songs in high school, I was inspired by the feeling that I had the power to create anything  and that it could possibly influence the world in some way. My goal was to create a new genre of music and write the greatest album ever written. I was also inspired by films by Lucas and Spielberg and wanted to create a world that would succeed Star Wars.

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As kids, we were given a lot of freedom to explore and do whatever we wanted. My only younger sister said later in life that she wished she had more structure. I felt just the opposite! Excessive freedom was my ticket to exploration and imagination. Colleagues at UMA would laugh at me hysterically as I held my fingers up in a cross whenever some mentioned the word "structure". Since then I have focused on bringing more balance to my obsessively long work hours I used to call the "college cram schedule".

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College

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​​I felt like I kind of "woke up" and really began to more proactively explore when I was in college. Instead of just trudging through the projects the teachers assigned, I started spending a little extra time in the beginning reading the instructions for clues, asking to see past "A" projects, asking the professors questions and brainstorming ways I could produce a project that would wow the professor. I was determined to prove to myself I could graduate summa cum laude, and did. I found it easiest to work 3-4 days straight, compulsively on school work while I was in the mental zone (strike while the iron was hot), and then decompress and have fun on the other days.

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Sales Experience

 

In 1995, while working as the manager of a home improvement chain's millwork department, I began experimenting with sales. I began trying to imagine how the customer was receiving me as I was speaking to them. I developed a unique skill of being able to visualize the two things happening at once. I used my overactive imagination to develop a skill that enabled me to answer questions by the customer before they asked. Questions would pop into my head as if I was the customer while I was talking. By 2002, I had mastered outside sales while working for ABC Home Improvement. When I began working for the more ethical Windows, Doors and More, I had closed 67% of my assigned leads amidst an industry average of about 20%. I won top salesman in my first month. One of the other dozen salesmen joked "There is a new sheriff in town".

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​I learned that selling by phone (for CareerBuilder and BusBank in 2002 to 2003) was completely different than selling in person. Instead of a slow, relaxed pace, callers expected a faster, more electric pace. It took a couple of years of my own experimentation to realize how  poorly constructed the sales presentations used by my past employers were. It is no wonder they had such high turnover. People tend to think sales involves a "presentation" to the customer. Psychologically, this is highly ineffective as any act of "selling" creates a natural resistance in the buyer's mind. Let the customer ask the questions. The salesman should ask questions if necessary when the customer is done asking theirs. If they don't have a genuine need, you abandon your efforts. Once they have signaled they have a need, you recommend your solution. During a cold call, the moment the customer begins asking you questions, I am confident I have made the sale. Be respectful and let the customer ask when they are ready rather than you volunteer information wherever possible. It is also far easier to close a customer that calls in as opposed to one you call out to. The sales process became shorter and shorter, the more I learned. By the time I left BusRates, I was closing nearly 100% of the bus owners I cold called unless they told me they could not handle additional work. In comparison, most salespeople we hired struggled to make his one sale before quitting. Even after listening to 30 example closes over the phone, new hires fail. It's not as easy as it looks.

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​Character and Approach:

 

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• I believe there is a solution to every problem if you look deep enough or from new perspectives

• I believe concept evolution is infinite whereas the typical thinking is that you are done when the project is finished

• I believe the greatest wisdom is often the most counter-intuitive: Whisper to get more people listen; lower your price to increase profit; lower taxes to increase national revenue, reduce pressure and effort to sell to more people.

• Management styles are so different and few are able to spot great decisions among mediocrity. Being a stellar manager comes down to how well you make decisions on the fly and in the moment

• ​I am anti-red tape, anti-nationalism, anti-culture as a barrier to change, pro-change; Most people are influenced by the world instead of influencing the world

• I let my actions speak, not words in marketing; Desired partners come to us out of excitement for what we're doing, not because I pushed it on them; Your first impression in marketing is important.

• I understand the incredible amount of work required to start a business, or project where most people consistently underestimate

• I use cash-basis accounting to enure money isn't counted until it is received, where most people prefer to inflate revenue now and worry about writing off uncollected funds later

• ​My best subjects are: science, art/design, marketing, economics, psychology

• My worst subjects are event planning, human resources, social studies, medical

• I was raised in the family environment of the German technical mind; great visualization; Understand that innovation starts from the customer's eyes, not the designer's eyes

• I quantify things not normally quantified; Seek to understand things on a fundamental level whereas most people mistakenly approach work baptism by fire

• I understand that honesty is the secret to success whereas most people exaggerate and manipulate their customer

• I feel naturally talented at usability since I was raised by an art teacher and was always inventing games, but have learned to incorporate not just ease of use, but also sales and game design as well; I ethically put the customer first, not short term profit

• I send marketing and PR messages to my customers only in as a selfless, personal message, and only when I have something truly important to say, whereas others tend to send high-volume, self-congratulating, commercial spam, lowering the brand's perceived value​

• I only pursue customers that have a genuine need whereas others typically invest too much energy trying to push, and twist the arms of customers that would only cancel eventually anyway

• I only sell products and services I truly believe in and are priced fairly whereas most salespeople will accept any job, then struggle to justify the product they sell

• ​Focused on developing good vision, and my ability to discover and test and confirm winning ideas

 

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​Influences

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Steve Jobs. I believe Jobs was successful because he possesses a rare cross-discipline mix of artist and salesman. He was able to visualize the customer's thought process when innovating. He saw the big picture, thought outside the box, and knew that a product is what you make of it, and this is how I aspire to view the world. Many claim Jobs was ruthless toward employees, but I believe Jobs saw it as the company's duty to sacrifice to achieve something great. Like a movie director, you demand another take from your actors in order to deliver the world an experience they will never forget.

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George Lucas, James Cameron. Since I was a child, I've always loved the idea of becoming a film maker. I feel I identify with George Lucas as he had a vivid imagination for creating amazing new worlds, but like most sci-fi filmmakers, struggled with dialogue for certain types of interaction. I admire the integrity of James Cameron, whose decisions are based strongly on principle. James' seems to me to have an excellent cross-discipline mix of sales and art.

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Neil deGrasse Tyson, Richard Dawkins, Lawrence Krauss. Since I was a child I've always wondered "Why are we here?". I did not buy the answer I was given by adults that the Earth was created in 7 days by a god. It took many years before I realized that science, specifically astrophysics and biology are the best places to find real answers to this question. Tyson, has an amazingly embraceable demeanor while contradicting popular belief with real evidence.

 

Warren Buffet, Jack Dorsey, Elon Musk, Larry Fink. Warren's success comes from investing from the perspective of the entrepreneur who understands business on a fundamental level, and then executes with the utmost ethics and principle. Larry Fink is one of the very few financial leaders who gets that the economy is more influenced by confidence than stimulus.

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Political Affiliation

 

 

Moderate, independent. (Mostly economically conservative and socially liberal) Politics is not just philosophy, it is also execution. A dictatorship could be more efficient than a democracy if it was run by someone brilliant. I try to avoid overgeneralizing any issue. There are too many details and unseen pitfalls, same as marketing. I would love to see politicians better adapt on the fly, and admit when they do not know. How can conservatives confidently deny climate science? How can liberals be so inefficient and unfair with economics? Left versus right is often a disagreement between an economic point of view and a science-minded point of view. Both are correct from their point of view, but the ideal leader needs to understand both. Bill Clinton is the closest leader that fit this profile.

 

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Where My Head Is​

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​I am looking for a project (corporate, or start up) that is the best use of my experience. From fall of 2003 to April of 2010, I worked as many hours as physically possible. At this point, I feel my experience would be best utilized in a project, consulting, training, or managerial capacity as opposed to performing daily operational work. As a project person, I embrace unorthodox schedules of months of intense effort, but seek a decompression period upon completion.