Cliff Notes:

• 1 amazing wife, 1 silly & brilliant daughter
• Lover of all things active
• 8 Ultra Events on deck between Sept, 12 2020 and Dec 2021
• Avid student of life, marketing, and self improvement
• Introduced to personal development at 19
• Created moderate success in networking marketing from 20-24
• Did some motivational speaking at schools and networking groups & conferences 21-24
• Developed the largest networking groups in Tampa Bay at 22
• Started a events directory blog and affiliate marketing in 2008
• Accidentally become an “industry expert” and was asked to host website and social media training events 2008-2010
• Learned how to be a consultant 2010-2014
• Took a food delivery company from $30k/mo to over $170k/mo in 2013
• Launched Tampa Bay is Awesome in 2014
• Sidelined consulting and broke 6-Figures with Tampa Bay is Awesome 2017
• Launched Pursuing Awesomeness June 2020 with my first digital course and excited to share the journey

I was fortunate to be introduced to the world of self analyzation and improvement when I was 19 (2008) by the book “Become Who You Were Born To Be,” by Brain Souza. I couldn’t tell you any specific takeaways, but I distinctly remember feeling like my whole way of being was not serving me or the people around me.

The quest for awesomeness was on! (Pretty much running around excited with my eyes closed, lol)

At that point I was going to USF and a friend introduced me to Quixtar (Amway), which blew my mind. I was like “holy shit, so I just buy stuff and get other people to buy stuff and we all get rich? On it!” Aaaaand within a year I talked with hundreds of people and did the whole dog and pony show only to be just as broke as I was when I began.

BUT! As David Goggins would say, “I was collecting cookies for the cookie jar.”

Lessons Learned:
1) Personal development is crucial and never ending. We must continue to strive to get better if we want to change our world and the world around us.
2) There were a TON more of these network marketing companies out there than just this one.
3) I became able to talk to anyone, anywhere, for any reason.

From this point I got recruited into Pre-Paid Legal, another networking marketing group now called Legal Shield. I hit the ground running with a suit and tie on walking around malls and anywhere I could find people to spark random conversations and handed out Success from Home magazines.

…Typing that out even sounds ridiculous, lol

But, I was able to make more in the first month than I had in the past year with Quixtar.

After the first month my warm market dried up and the checks stopped, apparently after all the effort the first 30 days I was not yet rich.

This is where I discovered networking events, within 2 weeks I learned nobody cares about what I am selling. :-/ People want ideas, they want to get connected with people I had met in other events, so I just began connecting everyone I could.
By 22 I was hosting multiple events, and attending 6-10 events per week.

In 2008 I set up a website to be a directory for all the networking events going on in Tampa Bay to avoid the print cost of all the fliers I was handing out each week.

TURNING POINT…

Little did I know that setting up the wordpress site would completely change the trajectory of my life.

“In the land of the blind the one eyed man is king.” -English Proverb

After launching the site everyone at my events wanted to know what I did and how I did it. From there we launched training classes. My 1st one had 15 people, I charged $35 a person and made $100 on their hosting. So basically $2,050 for 3 hours which was incredible! Now, it took us probably 2 hours just to get everyone on Wifi, but everyone knew what they were getting into and each person left happy.

Training turned into dabbling in affiliate marketing, and half assed consulting. People would see what I was doing and invite me to lunch to pick my brain for ideas. After a few months I figured I should probably start charging for all this time.

I was fortunate to get connected with a highly recommended business consultant, Mark Katz, from some friends. Mark is a brilliant guy with immense knowledge and helped me hone the craft of consulting over the next few years as he and I worked together.

In 2013 I had my first considerable client win, I helped a paleo food delivery company grow from $30k per month to over $170k per month in just over a year. Feeling pretty confident I had the idea to start a local promo project which started as a food blog then morphed into a community promotion Facebook page.

I started feeling like, if my ideas are so great why the hell am I not working on my own project?

Tampa Bay is Awesome was officially born in 2014 and I was able to sideline consulting in 2017 to focus all energy on growing this brand. It grew from 1 Facebook page to 7 pages and 4 Instagram pages now over 410,000 followers with hundreds of sponsors, thousands of real estate leads, and massive community support.

In the midst of all this in 2008 I met my now wife (whom I met at the first networking group I ever went to and was now running), had an incredible little girl in 2018 who is a dance machine, ice cream lover, and my biggest accountability partner.

Now, here I am, in my mid 30’s and fueled with the same excitement as my 20 year old self to continue Pursuing Awesomeness. Only now with a cookie jar with considerably more cookies.

I am a lover of all things active, and have found myself participating in self organized Ultra events. Check out the plans for 2020/2021 here.

We are living in a constant state of change, no maybe more so than ever. In June 2020 I finally took the step out and began pursuing the development of a concept that shares my story, has a digital product (How to be a profitable local influencer-check it out here), and perhaps inspires and motivates some of you out there.

I find that everything in the personal development space has already been said, but it is up to us to find the people who translate it into the language that relates to us and our situation the best.

Thanks for reading all this! I hope all the content getting pushed out through our social channels is supporting you in your journey.

Feel free to hit me up anytime 🤙