My oldest son, Thunder, during a business trip he took with me to Arizona in 2021.

2021 was an exciting year for me as me and my family settled into our Florida home. Here is my review of my 2021.

One of my proudest accomplishments of 2021 was making the commitment to myself to send out a monthly newsletter. I sent it every 2nd weekend throughout the year. I wrote 22 articles, 12 newsletters, and generated 667 website visitors to my website.

At the beginning of 2021, we were new to Florida from Chicago and saw Florida as the launching point of “our next adventure”. We intentionally chose to live in a smaller city (Gainesville, FL) with less external noise from traffic, activities, and events (but brimming with natural beauty). We hoped this would allow us to focus on what we see as the most important: being strong parents, spiritual health, and doing excellent work. 

There was immediate refreshment from limiting external noise that created a sort of buffer from the normal pressures of life, especially with young children. This buffer gave us more of the confidence to lean further into our adventure that is life. Corazon got pregnant with another baby and I took a management role to lead an enterprise sales organization within Oracle.  

The slowness and intentionality that comes with moving to a smaller city was the best thing for me. Some other activities were: 1:1 coaching with a corporate coach to hone in on my goals and sales performance, Learning Leader retreat to help me build out my values which I attended with my oldest son Thunder, going through part of the 12 steps with the help of a sponsor to dig into my habits of resentment and defensiveness, leading a small group in our religious community, and coaching my three oldest kids on their own mindset. 

Small Group from our church meeting in our home, Summer 2021.

As I look to 2022, I want to focus not only on my own development but also on helping others in their careers and mindset. I’ll never forget a few pivotal moments in my life and career when someone snapped me out of a negative mindset and helped me see the truth that drove incredible new performance, healing, or joy in me. 

2022 is a year to unlock the power of helping others through first, honing my own skills of salesmanship and management, then helping others through management, small group discipleship, recovery groups, and parenting. 

2022 is a year of 35. I want to step into what it means to be “on a great adventure”. That is how I began in 2021, and after writing for 12 months, I have a much stronger view of what that great adventure is.

I drove 667 people to my website in 2021 from my emails and writing. The biggest attention came from a LinkedIn post I did summarizing a podcast interview with Chief Revenue Officer, Mike Clayville. There is clearly an appetite for folks who want to work on their salesmanship, so I will continue to provide resources to both improve my own salesmanship and help others with theirs.

I’ll also be focused on improving my skills as a “manager” and way the upmarket financial services enterprises sales team for Oracle Marketing Cloud goes to market. I’ll be increasing my headcount and looking to bring a positive new culture. This year, I’d like to have a few more one on one trips with my kids and limit distractions to focus on the important things.

First in-person client meeting after COVID in Manhattan, New York. September 2021.

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