My Professional Story

My story of how I became the professional I am today

We are all asked, What do you want to be when you grow up?
That is a tough question for any teenager. The reality is, very few of us know what they want to be. I really wanted to be a middle linebacker for the Chicago Bears or drive a race car. Unfortunately, I did not grow big enough to play football and I did not have the funding to start a driving career. What I did have was the drive to become the professional that I am today.

This is my professional story….

Upon graduation from High School I went onto to get a BS in Psychology from the University of Illinois, Chicago figuring it was a good starting point. During college, I was teaching at a religious school and I decided that I wanted to be a High School teacher, so I went on to get a Masters of Education at Loyola University of Chicago.

Sometimes things do not work out the way you plan, so as my Mom says when you get lemons, make lemonade. After being unable to obtain a full time teaching job, I
transitioned from teaching kids to working at a help desk and doing corporate training.

As my skills grew my career grew, from help desk and training a proprietary software I moved to a consulting firm where I trained the Microsoft Office suite. With time, I learned how to do Quality Assurance and was soon leading Quality assurance teams and was now not only doing QA but training project managers on how to use Microsoft Project which included project management skills.

This was during the dot com era and I moved from the consulting firm to a dot com as the IT Projects Director, where I went back to school and earned my Project Management certificate from DePaul University, Chicago. But as Regine Schlesinger from WBBM 780 put it, I became a dot-come refugee. After being unemployed for several months and then working in a Municipal Government for a few years, I realized it was time to manage my own destiny.

Everyone says you should follow your passion, and my passion after my wife and kids is food. So when the candy store that my wife worked at in high school came onto
the market, we saw a sweet opportunity.

For almost two decades, I methodically transformed the local candy store into a national brand. I am proud that part of the turnaround included increasing retail street traffic 100% within four years, but more importantly, building a brand. When I speak to people and tell them that I owned a candy store, the immediate response was always wow that is a fun business. I liked to say it was a nutty business that had its sweet moments.

While I ran the business I learned that besides the ability to work on little sleep for days at a time and still smile, I have honed my skills to
become an expert in the following areas:

This website is my professional story. How I built a brand, and through my project management skills, took a store that was known for subpar customer service and turned it around. How I created raving fans who sent unsolicited emails about the great customer service and products that we offered. All my years of experience culminate into my latest endeavor, I am Your Virtual Professional. Where I will take my experience and expertise and put it to work for your business.

I look forward to talking with you.