Contest for May - Getting to Know Me!

The getting to know you challenge was great - it allowed me to dust off my keyboard and get back to posting

1. What was your first job and what did you learn from it?

I was 13, my brother and I spent the summer working on my grandparents farm - we made $1.25 an hour and worked 10-12 hour days, experienced farmhands made $2.50 an hour - What I learned was how hard farmers work for such little pay and that I wanted to find a job that was not manual labor in a hot and humid state!

2. How long have you been in the real estate or related service industry?

I just hit the 23 year mark in March of this year.

3. What is your biggest fear and what have you done to try to conquer it?

I think my biggest fear was fear of success. I started studying successful people and seeing how they did things differently. I realized that it is all about belief, believing in yourself and your abilities, surrounding yourself with positive people and dreaming BIG!

4. What would you do if you knew you would not fail?

I would like to buy some property on a lake and design a golf course on it, build my dream home and ride off into the sunset!

5. What is a habit you would love to eliminate or change?

I don't know if this is a habit (I cant really think of any habits I want to get rid of or change), but I get easily distracted and run down rabbit holes which often puts off important things for a later time.

6. What is your favorite meal (forget about calories or what you shouldn’t eat) I am not much of a foodie, I do prefer chicken over steak and breakfast is my favorite meal. I make a mean breakfast burrito using my wife's homemade green chili, so I am going with that!

7. What is something you wish you’d done?

Skydiving, I had planned on doing so in my 20's with a friend, but the day my friend booked for us, I was not available, and then afterwards I just could not bring myself to schedule it again.

8. Who has been most influential in your life?

My father, he worked his ass off for my mother, brother, sister and I to have a good home and college educations. When I was struggling with what I should do with my life he said, find a job you enjoy, because you will be spending the next 30-40 years doing that and you might as well make money and have fun!

9. What are your favorite business-related books?

I am an avid reader, I tried to read a book a week for several years - I personally like the Go-Giver series and Jennifer Allan-Hagedorn SWS series (the best real estate books out there IMHO). I like to read books on marketing, Purple Cow etc., I actually rated books for several years right here in the Rain giving them $-$$$$$ depending on how valuable I thought they would be for agents to own.

10. Other than business books what are your favorite things to read?

I enjoy autobiographies and specifically enjoyed books on Richard Branson. I don't read a whole lot of fiction.

11. What are your top 5 favorite movies?

I don't really have any favorites, I do enjoy movies based on real life people, like The Green Book and BlacKKKlansman, Miracle on Ice, Apollo 13 etc., real life always trumps fiction for me and the stories are always better than fiction.

12. If I came to visit your city for one day what is the one thing I must do or see?

Come to Denver June 4th and we will go see Michael Franti and Spearhead at Red Rocks amphitheater, unbelievable venue and fantastic show! Red Rocks is great anytime! (This pic is my youngest Luke Marshall and his girlfriend at Red Rocks) >>>>

13. If I came to your city to visit for one day what is the one restaurant you would recommend?

I am not much of a foodie as I mentioned earlier, I might go out to eat 3-4 times a year and my adult children select the spot, it would really depend on what you like, if you want authentic Colorado it would be The Fort restaurant

14. If I was going to relocate to your area what advice would you give me that is unique to the area?

High altitude affects a lot, from cooking and baking to drinking alcohol (yep it takes about half as much here to get them same effect as it does at sea level, so take it easy) plan on drinking twice as much water as you are used to, lots of lotion as this is a very dry climate, always bring a jacket, because the temperature can change quickly (this screenshot >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> is from Thursday May 19th, 2022, read the whole image) and we have very nice cool evenings here that are 10-15 degrees cooler in the mountains

15. Do you have any special talents?

Years ago I was trained to custom club fit golfers, so I do understand what being custom fit for golf can do to your game, but I have not done that in a while, I can regrip or re-shaft a golf club and used to love to tinker with them. I really understand the physics of golf, how the ball reacts to different angles of approach etc., and because of that I also enjoy and am pretty good at helping others play better golf, giving them tips and advice, but only if they ask.

16 Do you have any quirks?

I am sure I do, I enjoy my quiet time, running a brokerage of 230 agents can be non-stop from the time I get up to the time I go to bed, I actually really enjoy it when I am the only one in the office.

17. What is your best character trait?

I have been told by more than one person that I should be a Stephen minister, (I had to look that up) but I suppose it is fitting, I am a very good listener and apparently good at helping people solve their problems, basically being someone they can rely on and go to for help and advice.

18. Have you ever done anything you would never do again because it was too hard or too dangerous?

I have always leaned toward safer activities, not putting myself into difficult or dangerous situations, however when I was younger I definitely did some things that I look back on and realize I could have or should have died from. One in particular was when I was much younger, drinking too much with friends then jumping into the ocean, I got caught in a riptide and ended up being sucked out quite a ways.

19. What is your favorite thing to do in your spare time?

I really enjoy playing golf and could spend hours out on the course, no phones, no technology, just me and a couple buddies, or a random threesome, it does not matter to me, I just love being on the course. Golf is my weekly respite from the busyness of running a large real estate brokerage.

20. If you could live anywhere in the world where would you want to live?

I have never been to Reynolds Plantation in Georgia, but that looks like paradise to me, boating, fishing and golfing 10-11 months out of the year.

21. What is something that we don’t know about you that would surprise us?

I love to meditate, practice Qigong and go on long road trips! Just hop in my car a take off for a few days - my little breaks from the day to day to reset.