The winter of 1972-1973 was significantly improved for my parents when I was officially born on a cold day in February. The second son to a GM worker and Health Care Nurse, I was raised in the town of Thorold along with my brother Ray and sister Cathy.
Growing up in Thorold in the 70s and 80s was a lot of fun. All day adventures on our BMX bikes were par for the course as we roamed the roads and trails in throughout the city. Fast forward a bit and I graduated Thorold Secondary School in 1991 ready to take on the world. Throughout these years I was active in many different sports and activities including several teams that won Ontario Championships in both hockey and baseball.
I finished up my schooling at Niagara College where I received a diploma in Sales and Marketing. Fortunately for me I knew exactly what field I wanted to spend my working career in. Right from College, I was hired into my field, and spent the better part of 3 educational years working for Maple Leaf Food in the Customer Service Department.
Working for such a large company was an eye-opening experience to say the least. What I remember most though, was how salespeople treated their customers. Many companies employ the “spent 80% of your time with 20% of your clients” strategy, and that’s fine for the 20%, but what about the other 80% of clients who are getting virtually no attention from the Salespeople.
In sales, employees or companies often make the mistake of only focussing on the big customers however there were loyal customers who had been using Maple Leaf products for years and because of a new sales strategy were finding themselves pushed to the side and ignored. This really “irked me”.
Maybe it was because I wasn’t experienced enough in the ways of big business, or possibly just plain naive, but at that moment I decided that in my sales world no customer would be too small, or a purchase too insignificant for me to deal with. That is a philosophy that I live by to this day.
I have now been in Real Estate since 1999 with all of my years spent working for the same “locally owned and operated” company. With over 20 years of full-time Realtor experience, I have survived and thrived through countless market changes.
Truth be told, that variety and change is what fuels my drive to thrill my clients outstanding results.
My family life has kept me busy as well. Married in 2001 to my lovely wife Therese (a Nurse from Sarnia), we have 2 beautiful children, Hannah & Daniel.
