What does a typical day look like for you and what are you currently working on?
No day is ever typical! From a business standpoint, my activities are different depending on where I am in the product cycle. One phase consists of a high level of concentration on generating leads for new business. During that time, I am doing a lot of client meetings and attending conferences, so travel and appointment setting is a focus. Once deals start flowing in then the focus shifts to LOI generation, deal negotiation and harvesting the business from the LOI’s generated. Finally, once there are multiple deals in the closing process a decent amount of my focus turns to monitoring the progress of those deals and helping where necessary while turning back to generating new business so the cycle can start again! Currently I am in this last part of the cycle where I have several deals closing and I am ramping up my effort to find new deals!
What is on your wish list for your next five years at CREA?Â
As strange as it is to me, I am now one of the oldest and most experienced members of the CREA team, so over the next five years I am excited to see how the company evolves and the younger generation of the CREA team grows into leadership positions. I would like to be able to see and play a role in that transition by passing on my experience and knowledge to this upcoming group. Of course, I also want to help CREA continue to grow and prosper and for me, that means being able to successfully generate business in California and Arizona and conduct my business in such a way that it reflects positively on CREA and is respected by those I work with.
What do you like most about your job?Â
I love knowing that I am representing a company that is led by a dynamic and client centric Senior Management Team. That gives me the confidence to entrust my clients to CREA knowing that they will be treated the way I would want them to be treated and that is very important to me. I also love the thrill of the chase (although that can be a double-edged sword if you run into a dry spell of success), being able to establish meaningful relationships with clients and the ability to in effect self-manage my day to day activities.
What is the most unusual or interesting job you’ve had?Â
I worked for a company that raised money to finance prints and ads for movies from major film studios such as Warner Brothers, Fox and MGM. I was involved in both raising the funds for the Partnerships and structuring the deals themselves.
What is your biggest achievement to date – personal or professional?
That would have to be my family. My wife Lisa and I have been blessed with three wonderful children that bring us great happiness. We made a very deliberate decision before we had children that they would be our number one priority and while that is easy to say, putting it into practice took a lot of effort, sacrifice and luck and the result of that has brought us great pride and joy!
What gets you out of bed in the morning?
My wife. Oops, I thought you asked who gets me out of bed. Seriously though, it is the unknown excitement of the day ahead. I enjoy all facets of my life and the challenges and joy they bring.
What is your motto or personal mantra?Â
Being positive or negative is a self-fulfilling prophesy. If you are negative, things will turn out negative but if you are positive things will almost always turn out positive!
Any hidden talents?
I am very good at organizing things and fitting things into very compact spaces (like packing a car, organizing a garage or cleaning out drawers)! I also play trumpet although not very much anymore (was first chair trumpet in every band in high school but they wouldn’t let me play in college because I had to be a music major so I lost it somewhat but would love to take it up again and play Earth Wind and Fire or KC and the Sunshine band songs!
What is your guilty pleasure?Â
The Doobie Brothers. I love music in general, 70’s and 80’s music to be specific, and I love to go to concerts. A close second would be the Caribbean and third would be following San Diego State athletics – Go Aztecs!!
What’s something that few people know about you?
I am a Star Trek junkie and was a power lifter, bench pressed 345 lbs and squatted 625 lbs my freshman year in college.
