Far too often business owners are told what they want to hear from advisors and salespersons. When they do, they perpetuate the problems you’re experiencing in business, including your marketing plans and strategies.
During my tenure in the United States Air Force, I learned things don’t get better unless you are constantly taking a hard truthful look at what and how you are doing things.
It also gave me a solid core of leadership and management skills as I worked in such fields as security, command and control, plans and programs, transportation and logistics, and as a technical instructor.
Over the years since leaving the military I have worked and developed skills in nearly every aspect of marketing, retailing and manufacturing. Working up from clerk to store manager, technician to service manager, local retail level to product specialist/trainer for a major manufacturer, I can tell where breakdowns are occurring and I know how to address them.
I’ve created my own niche product paint line, taken it to market, and continue to market it now that it’s a successful business. In October 2007 while exhibiting, I spoke up at the iHobby Expo trade show in Chicago, Illinois, introduced some new ideas and added a fresh voice to the mix. I served two terms as a member of both the General Division Counsel and the Marketing Committee for the Hobby Manufacturers Association, using my knowledge and experience to make our industry’s promotional efforts more effective.
In early 2011 I had an idea to help promote scale modeling, both as a hobby and an industry, to further its worldwide reach. In late November I became the first ever host of a radio program dedicated to plastic scale modelers … The Plastic Scale Modeling Hour, airing Thursday nights on Warbird Radio.
I serve as a Park Commissioner on our town’s Park and Recreation Commission, which oversees the administration of our community parks and trails. At the present time I am working with other volunteers to create a new organization, Neenah-Menasha Park Corps which will support three local communities and their parks & trail systems.
On a personal note, photography, nature, and scale modeling are my three favorite hobbies. I’m a private pilot (an aviation nut, actually), and have been flying since the age of 16.