MY STORY
My life has taken many twists and turns that I never would have predicted. I had always planned to pursue law and then an opportunity to play professional baseball came unexpectedly. I signed as an undrafted player with the Atlanta Braves and then pretty quickly made it to the Major Leagues. From an unheard-of afterthought, I quickly had success at the highest level. Not long after I had my first elbow surgery. Then another. And another. Before I knew it my once promising career was over.
What I didn’t realize at the time was that I was really scared when I asked myself, “What’s Next?” I ended up rehabilitating and pursuing minor league comebacks due to this fear. Ultimately, when it was clear I needed to move on I was left with an adulthood of being an athlete and blank resume.
Eventually I decided that being an entrepreneur was the route I wanted to pursue. It checked the boxes that my wife and I wanted our lives to look like. There didn’t seem to be another route that would provide the freedom of time we desired. Without a business idea I turned to franchising. I realized quickly that while my resume may be blank, I had a laundry list of intangibles that would translate to business ownership. Inner motivation and drive, hard work, resilience, willingness to learn, teamwork and leadership.
After evaluating and investigating several franchises, I found one that I believed would serve as a great vehicle for my traits and skills. I bet on myself and partnered as a franchisee with a Franchise 500 brand that ranked highly among growing and emerging brands. I was quickly the top performer in the system of 100+ locations and named Franchisee of the year in 2022. On top of those achievements, I have built a talented, reliable team that has afforded me the time to turn to other opportunities. I will be a serial entrepreneur for the rest of my life. I started another business that ultimately wasn’t producing and pulled the plug on that. I learned as much from the failure as I have from the success and am always looking ahead to the next venture.
That leads me to what I’m doing now. I knew quickly after transitioning from baseball that I wanted to help others that were moving on to the next phase of their careers as well. This was difficult, dark, isolating and scary for me, so the ability to help educate others on what’s possible through franchising is extremely fulfilling. One thing I’ve learn doing this is that those of us transitioning out of sports and people looking to leave the corporate world share way more commonalities than I expected. No matter what path has led you to asking "What's Next?", I'm happy and proud to be able to offer some direction.
