Ladie’s and Gentlemen… - April 21, 2008
Welcome and thank you for visiting my site. First, please be patient while I get everything sorted out. Unfortunately, I have very little time on my hands these days. I am a Michigan native residing in Panama City, FL with my wife and two year old daughter. Besides working on my blog in my free time, I am a veteran salesman and avid sports guru. I love my Detroit sports, and have a very deep passion for NASCAR and Baseball. I also love spending as much time with my daughter as possible. She’s the apple of my eye, and my number one attention grabber. Please note that because of her, all of my updates will be after 9pm central time. From the time I get home from work until her bedtime, I make every moment count.
I have been in sales for as long as I can remember. Starting out, I worked at a recreation vehicle dealership in Michigan. I was just out of high school, and was what I call a charity hire. Thanks to my uncle having the detailing contract with the dealership, I was given a chance to prove myself. I started off on the bottom of a twenty three man totem pole and began working my up. Between have a natural ability with people, reading and listening to all the advice I could, and trial and error, I became assistant sales manager shortly after a year of service. Right around that time, we obtained an incredible offer from Michigan International Speedway to sponsor all of their races.
Talk about mixing work with pleasure, I dove in head first and learned everything I could about the program. I was given the responsibility of handling the contract from top to bottom. I had to create an advertising campaign, create layouts for the on site campgrounds, secure corporate contracts for the camping sites, and oversee all of the day to day operations during the race weekends. Unfortunately the addition pay was minimal, but the perks during race weekend were well worth it.
As of 2005, Michigan’s economy fell into a huge slump. Actually, the financial experts say Michigan is in its own recession. The first thing that goes out the window when money is tight is luxury. That meant recreation vehicle sales fell drastically. Being that my income was 90% commission, I had to move on from the dealership.
From fall 2005 to fall 2006, I relied on another passion of mine for income. Poker! I began to frequent the casinos and local bar and house games almost nightly. The money was great, but it put a strain on my home life. That gave me the idea to form a “free poker league” for even more money. These were popular in other parts of the country, but not in MI. The way it works is, people play at various bars for free. The higher they place, the more points they earn, and at the end of the 16 week season they play in a championship tournament. The winner of the tournament got a free trip to Vegas to play in a “real money” tournament. I made my money by bringing the bars business they otherwise wouldn’t have. This was going well until the MLC “Michigan Liqueur Commission” told me I had to end my operation. I tried to fight it in court, but when I wasn’t allowed to operate until a verdict was reached, I gave up.
Shortly after that, we moved to Panama City, FL to be closer to my wife’s family. As of now, I am a full time salesman, full time father and husband, part time student, and part time blogger. I will try to update this blog at least three times per week, but I cannot promise that. I’m sorry, but my family has top priority. My objective is to turn this into a full time job and work from home. When I accomplish that, I will have more time for Kelsyn (my daughter), and more time for you (my readers).
Please feel free to comment on my site. I encourage all feedback, positive or negative.
Joe
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