What brings you joy?
Seeing my family happy, my wife and two kids. I will do anything for them to help them succeed and, sometimes I may seem like an overboard dad, but it is my goal in life to make sure they are successful and happy.
What would you like to learn?
To play the drums. I hear we have a drum expert on the team, Nick is a drummer, and he has volunteered, but I have always wanted to learn how to play. When I was in school, I even got in line to learn how to play drums but somehow, I got bumped over to the trombone section. I ended up playing the trombone for seven (7) or eight (8) years.
Who or what inspires you?
My mom definitely inspires me a lot, she has always been our rock. She always made sure we were all happy and did the best she could for us, and I try to do the same for my family. She definitely inspires me to do my best, and again so does my family, because I want to set a good example. They inspire me every day, and I try to do the best I can to provide for them.
What is your proudest work moment at netlogx?
I have only been here since February, but I try to help the new folks. I have been doing this for a long time and folks that come on that are new or interns, I really enjoy trying to help them learn and just doing whatever I can to help them along the way. I try to give back because I had a lot of great mentors in my day and so I guess to give back to some of our new folks, or even people that have been here, if I can help just make their day better or make their work better that is mine. I have done that a couple of times I think with a couple of the new folks. I just try to do that each day that I can.
If you could talk to your teenage self, what would you say?
I’d tell my teenage self to go and have a lot of fun. I grew up back when, and I hate to say it, there were no cellphones, and it was a good thing. We actually had more fun, and you see all of these memes today about people who don’t know what it was like to grow up without them, but I’d tell my teenage self to really enjoy life, have fun, go out there and do the things you like to do. Maybe just try to be more prepared because there is so much stuff going on in the world, not knowing from the ‘80s and ‘70s to today, it has changed so much. Learn to be adaptable and again continue to do the right thing no matter where you are at. There is that saying, “if there is no one around do the ethical thing” and I would still tell myself that because I do that today. I would just tell myself to keep working hard.
What is your favorite book or movie and why?
To be honest, I do not like to read, I have never been a reader, but my favorite movie is Hoosiers. I am from Indiana and there is an old movie called Hoosiers that is a true story about a town from Milan, Indiana and I actually played against that team in the ‘80s. It is just a great movie that talks about the hometown and people working hard again and just shows that even though they were a small little town they were able to compete, and I just like that movie. My son plays D-3 basketball out in Iowa so every year at about this time we pull that movie out and take a listen to it.
What would you write on the netlogx Before I Die wall?
The funny answer is I want to win the lottery. I want to win the lottery so badly because I want to take care of a lot of people. But also, before I die, I want to see my kids achieve their goals.
What does change management mean to you?
There is an old saying that change causes fear and when you have change, a lot of people are not good at it, do not want to go through it, and to me, it is really helping people through that process. I have done that a lot in some of my former jobs. I have this story of an older gentleman that was having to use an iPhone for the first time and what a change for him because he always used paper. He was this maintenance guy at the hospital, and we were changing them over, so I had to stay with him after work and get him texting and calling his wife and sending pictures and he did not know how to do that. Through that process, I helped him get comfortable and we started talking about his grandkids. I told him, someday when you get comfortable, I want you to send me a picture of those grandkids of yours on that phone and a couple of months later while I was sitting at home I get a text. I pull it up and there they were. So, to me, that is change management. It is just helping people and understanding it is okay to have change, it is difficult sometimes, but you know in the end we are all trying to make things better.
What does wellness at netlogx mean to you?
I do the step challenge with the team. This is something I want to get better at.
How would you describe netlogx’ culture?
Family. I do not know how many times they have sent a card to say thanks, and you do not get that these days from companies big or small. It is definitely a family culture, and they really care about their teams, and they are fair. It makes you want to be able to do the right things for them because you feel like you are being supported as well.
What is a fun fact about you? Or the most exciting thing you’ve ever done or place you’ve ever been?
Fun fact is that I am color blind. I always tell people that if I come to a meeting looking really bad, I picked out the clothes and if I come looking really good then my wife probably picked them out. I have got to be careful with that. When I was single, I always had to wear a white shirt with black or blue pants because I really did not want to mess up, but that is something about me. I have learned to deal with it, one thing you learn is you go top down on traffic lights, or you go right to left. That is probably a fun fact about me.
