Creative Strategist | Creator | Consultant | Coach
How did I get here?
I was born and grew up in New Jersey, the son of two great parents - German immigrants. I speak German fluently.
At the age of 16, my Dad gave me a great gift - a 12-week immersion course from Dale Carnegie Public Speaking and Human Effectiveness. I read How To Win Friends and Influence People. That and a bunch of success tapes shaped my early career and mindset.
I tinkered on the piano a bunch when I was a teenager. I wrote lots of instrumental music and some very poorly, but heartfeltly written love songs. Influenced by Yanni and Jim Brickman, I would end up releasing and selling over 100,000 units worldwide of nine instrumental albums titled Quietime. You can still listen to them today.
I moved to Nashville after graduating from Ithaca College in New York with a major in TV/Radio and an emphasis on Broadcast Journalism. Interesting fact: I could never win anchor jobs because David Muir would always get them.
I spent the other half of my time playing piano in the music building in college. I decided to pursue a career in music and moved to Nashville.
I worked at a jingle production house at first, then Warner Bros. Records, Provident Music Group, and finally Word Entertainment where I headed up the International Sales Dept. See my LinkedIn profile if you’d like to learn more and connect with me.
I met Jesus at 23. I met and married my wife, Krissy, at 26. Krissy is a Grammy-nominated, Dove Award-winning songwriter. Together we have 3 children. Our two oldest boys are in college and our youngest daughter sings, writes songs, and plays with makeup and slime like a normal “tweenager”.
My entrepreneurial leanings led me to found Go Global Entertainment - a successful international licensing and distribution company of Christian music and entertainment products - in 2004.
By late 2008, the economy crashed and digital downloads/streaming were killing the CD industry. One of the distributors I partnered with in the United Kingdom would eventually become bankrupt and couldn’t pay me tens of thousands of dollars I had already shipped to them. Very quickly, I founded a third-party merchant company selling media products through Amazon, eBay and Alibaba. This started a new income stream and helped me to pay off debts owed to vendors.
During my long hours shipping and handling packages daily to customers in my garage, I began listening to podcasts. One of the first podcasts I was drawn to was Internet Business Mastery. This opened my eyes to the world of online business. Later, I would listen to more podcasts - one of them being Pat Flynn’s Smart Passive Income. Little did I know I would eventually be a guest on Pat’s show!
It was through those podcasts that I found the courage to start my own online business coaching Christian music artists, together with my wife, how to “make it in the music business”. That didn’t last long for a number of reasons, but it was a great confidence builder that I could actually attract people to my expertise at the time.
Enter 2012. I finally decided to start podcasting. This decision changed my life. The first one I started was with my friend in the neighborhood - The Walker Stalkers podcast - a fan podcast for The Walking Dead TV show. This ended up becoming the #2 podcast in the News/Entertainment category on iTunes (at the time). We went from a podcast in my basement to hosting a small meetup to hosting our first ever Walker Stalker Convention in under a year! It was a whirlwind of a ride. Walker Stalker Con (and Fan Fest) would eventually become an Inc. 5000 ranked company. For personal reasons, I needed to step down from the company in 2015. If you ever have me on as a guest for your podcast, ask me about this. I love to talk about it. Here’s an episode I dedicated to it on my current podcast.
In the same year, I started a second podcast with my wife, called Faithful Wellness. My wife struggled with an auto-immune issue for quite a while. It was around this time she found natural remedies to help relieve her symptoms and improve her health 1000%. We couldn’t help but share about it on this podcast. We would end up creating a network marketing organization of 6000+ customers. Our business is still going strong today and it’s one of our passive income streams that provides for us to pursue other creative efforts and passions in our lives.
At the same time, Krissy won a Dove Award for her worship song “Your Great Name” released by Natalie Grant. She became in high demand. Today, she writes over 200 songs a year and was recently nominated for a Grammy as a songwriter for the song “Famous For (I Believe)” by Tauren Wells (feat. Jenn Johnson)! It’s that Western Michigan farm girl work ethic of hers!
Phew…life was busy…especially with 2 young teenagers and a vibrant daughter in the mix.
When building our network marketing team, I found a desire to teach and train business leaders about the importance of mindset and all that I have learned over the years in business and entrepreneurship. That’s how The Courage Cast podcast began. After 520+ episodes, it’s still going strong - although it’s changed in focus over the years from a 5-day per week podcast to a weekly podcast about the things I’m learning, people I’m meeting, and lessons I’m learning in the cross-section of online business, marketing, and my faith.
Today, I spend my time building a resource for a community of Christian songwriters together with my wife, called WritingWorship.co. I also consult for corporate clients who want to get started in podcasting. And, I lead coaching calls and masterminds for my network marketing team and songwriters. Read what I’m doing NOW.
My life is full. I’m always learning and growing. You’ll find me to be full of enthusiasm (usually), positive, and encouraging to talk to. I love to see the potential and build belief in others. I don’t have it all figured out and I’ve made tons of mistakes (and still do).
If I can help you gain clarity about your dreams and pursuits, please reach out and schedule a call with me at the button below.