Out with the New, In with the Old

Greetings everyone! This has been a long time coming, an update to my spectacular blog. My life long blogging goal would be to try to hold a single tiny birthday cake candle to my former co-worker, Aimee Heffernan's Blog. Well, back around April, I stopped by Granite Bakery to purchase some cookies for Cynthia, another former co-workers birthday. Little did I know that would change my employment and career a few months later. Here I was, happily employed at ADA Intelligent Dental Marketing. This is a new cutting edge marketing company that only markets practices in the dental industry. I started out there as a customer service manager, which evolved to being called "Marketing Coach". At first, I was the only person in that position, and now there is 4 people doing that same job. After about a year and a half of marketing coaching, I bounced into a sales position with ADAidm, working closely with Dentists and their teams in identifying strategies to actively market their practices. Our company's relationship with dental practices go together like peanut butter and jelly. I was with ADAidm almost 2 years, and was there long enough to know pretty much all of the ins and outs of the everyday operations of the office. From updating our own on-hold message machine to networking the printer, and from setting up webinars to calling the right building maintenance personnel which allowed me to aid in playing one of the best practical jokes in the office EVER! Needless to say, I loved my job. So, that was the "Out with the New".

Now, on to "In with the Old". Way back in the early nineties, I was a kid who learned from an early age from my dad that a great work ethic is important. One of my biggest frustrations of being preteen to young teenager, was that No One will hire you because you are just a kid! Not that I needed money for dates (yet) but I did have my first pair of Lightning Rollerblades , which cost me a whopping $125. I actually modeled for 2.5 hours with my buddy Spencer when we were like 12 or so by sitting in front of a huge bowl of Idahoan Potatoes and made that money. It was the easiest $125 I'd ever earned. I've beat that since. Anywho, I finally found a Job when I was 14, working at the Heritage Dry Cleaners on 905 East 2700 South, cleaning up all of the lint on the floors and getting burned on all of the hot clothing presses. After about 9 months of cleaning, and like 5 third degree burns, I decided that I needed a change. So one day, while taking out the trash, I looked across the street and saw another school friend of mine, Andy Peterson, in the parking lot of Granite Bakery. Over the next few weeks, I hounded him at school everyday to get me a job there as anything! Finally, I got my wish and started as a floor scraper and dish washer. I worked really really hard, constantly asking the owner if I could do anything more before I left each day, I went the extra mile. I would have never guessed that this little extra effort that I put in would have consequences that would significantly bless my life later on.

I started working at Granite Bakery on September 16, 1994. Nine months later, I became a baker for the first time and worked from 12:00 am midnight to 8:00 am or so in the morning. I worked closely with the baking team, and my job was to put the chocolate on all of the donuts. We cranked out 2,000 donuts and cookies each night so people like you could have them fresh in the morning to eat. I worked graveyards that summer, and back to afternoons after school started. That fall, I washed dishes again and also aided in the initial stages of a company called Pasta Perfect, which later became Pasta Partners. I used this huge funnel machine and stepped on a peddle that put 42 grams of pasta seasoning into a little bag. I worked with other kids that I went to Highland with as we sealed, labeled, and boxed the packages for shipping. Also at about this time, I hired a great person to help me with washing dishes. He worked there for 3 weeks, and then one day in the middle of his shift, he took his time card, wrote a note to the owner stating that it wasn't for him. He left a $5 bill stapled to it for the person who finished his shift (me!). We still joke about it to this day.

Up to this point in history, there had NEVER been a male behind the front counter of the bakery to wait on customers. That all changed as I worked hard, and nagged the owner to allow me to do so. The girls behind the counter could flirt with all of the old men that came into the bakery. So I took the approach of being every one's favorite grand child. I would refer to the elderly ladies that came in as "young women" and they just loved it! I even got a $1 tip every now and then. It was great. Well, more graveyard shifts during the summers and holidays came and went, and before I knew it, I had been graduated from High School for a year and it was time to serve my mission to Utica, New York. The owner of the bakery had a great impact on some of the things that prepared me for my mission. I served my mission from August 1998 to August 2000, and came right back home, to the bakery.

I stared school in 2001 at LDS Business College, thanks to the little push from my wife Karla. I worked at the bakery until March of 2002 when, it seemed like it was time for me to explore other career opportunities. I first went to RC Willey, where I was trained by one of the best in the industry, the legend, Mr. Ed Teal. As Stephen R. Covey's neighbor, he was practically Stephen R. Covey. I sold electronics at the 300 West 2300 South location for a year. It was there that I met a great co-worker, whom became my next "Dad", Mr. Mark Damron. He had worked outside sales for Car Concepts years and years before, and went back. He later called me up and I left the Willey to work closely with him. As we did outside sales to car dealers, the sales men would always ask if I was Mark's "Son". What a great compliment to me and how young I looked, because as most of you know, I'm pretty old!

Mark's dentist started up a company that marketed dental practices. That's how it all came to be, and Mark was hired by them to be their VP of Sales while I continued to work outside sales at Car Concepts for another year. I was there almost 3 years all together when out of no where, Mark called me up and offered me a job working with him at ADAidm. Coincidently, it was at about this exact same time that I had just graduated from the University of Utah with my Bachelors of Science in Business Management. Are you still with me? So, when I say "In with the Old", I've left the new way of marketing dental practices to got back to my roots, temporarily. Only this time, I'm the General Manager of Granite Bakery. My goal is to build from what it already is and really grow it even more by serving the needs of small business to Corporate America for a while, just to get things rolling in that direction.

Making this decision was no easy feat. It actually took Karla and I over 3 months to decide. However, I feel very fortunate to be in this position and look forward to the challenge. Now, for any of your baking needs, just let me know how my baking team and I can help.