My Journey Thus Far
My journey begun in a blue collar family. My mom, who is English, stayed home to raise me and my three siblings. As the youngest of four, I was good natured and always made jokes, kind of the mascot of the family. We all were taught great business principles from my Dad, an Italian, General Contractor, and entrepreneur who took over my grandfather’s construction business. My work ethic comes from my dad. My mom’s no nonsense attitude for life serves me well. I have parents who are still married and both exhibit strong work ethics and self-discipline.
I was the first one to get straight As in my family, mostly because my parents said they would give us $100 dollars if we would! I was athletic, energetic, excited for life, and finally learned I was also smart enough for straight As, and loved the financial motivation for hard work and discipline. My real love in school was wrestling where my journey with fitness blossomed. I would go to school at 5am to train. My biggest takeaway in wrestling was that it is you against yourself, not you against your opponent. Others believed in my athletic ability, but once I believed in myself, I dominated the mat. This concept of believing in myself as a victor carried over to my career.
My “summer camps” were spent working manual labor, the grunt work, for my dad’s construction company. I watched my dad work, manage people, and bring houses out of the ground. I learned to appreciate the whole construction industry because my dad was so great at what he did. I also observed the dynamics of work relationships and watching family run a business together successfully. Construction is in our blood and I knew I would be part of it one day.
Throughout college, I was personal training or working for my dad. We worked on many mansions in Maryland, and I always noted these clients were entrepreneurs. After college, I began to sell siding and roofs for my brother’s storm restoration company. After my brother separated from his business partner, he asked me to take his place. I grew in the knowledge of the insurance industry pertaining to storm damage. I became increasingly concerned for people with legitimate storm damage who were being shortchanged by their carriers. After a ten year run, my brother and I amicably parted ways.
Here’s where my entrepreneurial journey began properly. I incorporated Choice Remodeling and Restoration in 2007, as it seemed logical to move in this direction after my years of experience from grunt work, to carpentry, to partner of a company. I wanted to take risks, expand, and break through to new heights using all I learned as a foundation for Choice. I quickly and continually surround myself with elevated people, as I knew I couldn’t achieve my vision alone. I soon met Steve Dietz and saw his energy, enthusiasm, knowledge, and great networking skills. After he rocked sales for Choice, we began to have conversations of partnering to take Choice to new heights. We amassed a team of people that this year I am most excited about. With Steve now at the helm of President-Partner, we expect and know the best is yet to come.
