{"id":12168,"date":"2022-09-13T21:14:56","date_gmt":"2022-09-14T02:14:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/therealjtodd.com\/?page_id=12168"},"modified":"2023-05-18T14:24:05","modified_gmt":"2023-05-18T19:24:05","slug":"about","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/therealjtodd.com\/about\/","title":{"rendered":"About Me"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t<div data-elementor-type=\"wp-page\" data-elementor-id=\"12168\" class=\"elementor elementor-12168\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<section class=\"elementor-section elementor-top-section elementor-element elementor-element-d59c4ac elementor-section-height-min-height elementor-section-stretched elementor-section-boxed elementor-section-height-default elementor-section-items-middle\" data-id=\"d59c4ac\" data-element_type=\"section\" data-settings=\"{&quot;stretch_section&quot;:&quot;section-stretched&quot;,&quot;background_background&quot;:&quot;classic&quot;}\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-container elementor-column-gap-default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-column elementor-col-100 elementor-top-column elementor-element elementor-element-2e0d4f8\" data-id=\"2e0d4f8\" data-element_type=\"column\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-wrap elementor-element-populated\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-0890256 elementor-widget elementor-widget-writing-effect-headline\" data-id=\"0890256\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"writing-effect-headline.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"a13ree-written-headline\" data-speed=\"10\" data-loop=\"0\">\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"before-written\">Expert advice for founders & Teams<\/span>\r\n\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/h3>\r\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<section class=\"elementor-section elementor-top-section elementor-element elementor-element-3286cc3 elementor-section-boxed elementor-section-height-default elementor-section-height-default\" data-id=\"3286cc3\" data-element_type=\"section\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-container elementor-column-gap-default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-column elementor-col-100 elementor-top-column elementor-element elementor-element-c4ecd06\" data-id=\"c4ecd06\" data-element_type=\"column\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-wrap elementor-element-populated\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<section class=\"elementor-section elementor-inner-section elementor-element elementor-element-9ead268 elementor-section-boxed elementor-section-height-default elementor-section-height-default\" data-id=\"9ead268\" data-element_type=\"section\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-container elementor-column-gap-default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-column elementor-col-66 elementor-inner-column elementor-element elementor-element-c00ea48\" data-id=\"c00ea48\" data-element_type=\"column\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-wrap elementor-element-populated\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-939ce04 elementor-widget elementor-widget-heading\" data-id=\"939ce04\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"heading.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t<style>\/*! elementor - v3.7.4 - 31-08-2022 *\/\n.elementor-heading-title{padding:0;margin:0;line-height:1}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title[class*=elementor-size-]>a{color:inherit;font-size:inherit;line-height:inherit}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-small{font-size:15px}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-medium{font-size:19px}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-large{font-size:29px}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-xl{font-size:39px}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-xxl{font-size:59px}<\/style><h2 class=\"elementor-heading-title elementor-size-default\">I help people see opportunity instead of obstacle.<\/h2>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-84e9714 elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"84e9714\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t<style>\/*! elementor - v3.7.4 - 31-08-2022 *\/\n.elementor-widget-text-editor.elementor-drop-cap-view-stacked .elementor-drop-cap{background-color:#818a91;color:#fff}.elementor-widget-text-editor.elementor-drop-cap-view-framed .elementor-drop-cap{color:#818a91;border:3px solid;background-color:transparent}.elementor-widget-text-editor:not(.elementor-drop-cap-view-default) .elementor-drop-cap{margin-top:8px}.elementor-widget-text-editor:not(.elementor-drop-cap-view-default) .elementor-drop-cap-letter{width:1em;height:1em}.elementor-widget-text-editor .elementor-drop-cap{float:left;text-align:center;line-height:1;font-size:50px}.elementor-widget-text-editor .elementor-drop-cap-letter{display:inline-block}<\/style>\t\t\t\t<p>I help founders see what&#8217;s possible, create a plan to get there using mindset, technology, marketing, and more, while helping them protect their life and well-being.<\/p><p>Some of the things I&#8217;ve done in my three decades experience:<\/p><p><b>Entrepreneurship &amp; Business Ownership<\/b><\/p><ul><li>Founder, CEO Thinker Ventures, a business development company<\/li><li>Founder, CEO, e-commerce: Pioneered the industry of online HVAC direct-to-consumer e-commerce sales<\/li><li>Co-founder, CEO\/CTO\/CIO an HVAC distributorship<\/li><li>Founder, CrossFit gym<\/li><li>Co-founder, CEO, electrical contracting company<\/li><\/ul><p><b>Business Advisory<\/b><\/p><ul><li>Advisor,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/myeea.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Entrepreneurship Educators Association<\/a><\/li><li>Advisor, COO\/CTO,\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/shareapy.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Shareapy<\/a><\/li><li>Advisor &amp; Past Board Member,\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/selfesteemproject.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The Self-Esteem Project<\/a><\/li><li>Worked with the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ice.it\/en\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Italian Trade Agency <\/a>to facilitate entrepreneur opportunities in the U.S.<\/li><li>Advised hundreds of entrepreneurs and business owners<\/li><li>Managed negotiations with billion-dollar companies<\/li><li>Brand advisor &amp; brand developer for regional &amp; multi-national organizations<\/li><\/ul><div>\u00a0<\/div><div><b>Writing, Speaking, Content<\/b><\/div><ul><li>Author,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3dZMjkg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">What Could Be: Creating a Life of Meaning and Purpose<\/a><\/li><li>Hosted over 200 live streams &#8211;\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/therealjtodd.com\/media-appearances\/\">see more of my appearances<\/a>.<\/li><li>Produced over 300 podcast episodes across two podcasts (<a href=\"https:\/\/thinkerventures.com\/podcast\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">What Works<\/a>\u00a0&amp;\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/coffeewithhumans.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Coffee With Humans<\/a>)<\/li><\/ul><p><b>Software Development<\/b><\/p><ul><li>Experienced SQL developer (Microsoft &amp; MySQL)<\/li><li>Experienced Coldfusion \/ Railo developer (CFML)<\/li><li>Experienced AWS (Amazon Web Services), Machine Learning, Big Data Analysis<\/li><li>CTO, FishWithMe.net<\/li><li>CTO, Shareapy<\/li><li>Written over 1 million lines of app &amp; web code<\/li><li>Integrated NetSuite, Pervasive Data Integrator, and my in-house e-commerce ERP<\/li><li>Created an integrated Asterisk VoIP, call recording, and a salesperson scoring system with performance pay<\/li><li>Created a &#8220;big data&#8221; prediction system for customer service staffing, order processing, and multi-location inventory management<\/li><li>Programmed robots, managed marketing, and IT consulting<\/li><li>Created a Shipping Logistics system to calculate optimal shipping cost &amp; time between over 30 distribution center &amp; shipping carrier combinations<\/li><li>Created a sales opportunity management system to determine &#8220;next best&#8221; sales opportunities<\/li><li>Created a fully integrated e-commerce management system that has run well over $100M through it across seven distribution centers<\/li><li>Created a system to automatically optimize product fulfillment based on landed cost and speed to customer using hundreds of cost\/speed combinations of carriers, delivery speeds, stock statuses, DCs, and more<\/li><li>Created a system to fulfill next-day services and products from tens of thousands of location nationwide while tracking relative price indexes and optimizing profitability<\/li><li>Created a technical stock trading application that tweeted buy\/sell signals every 30 minutes by back-testing and scoring 75,000 combinations of technical indicators across 3,000 equities and ETFs<\/li><li>Created an online multiplayer word game with a unique algorithm<\/li><\/ul><p><b>Presentations, Workshops, Facilitation<\/b><\/p><ul><li><a href=\"https:\/\/therealjtodd.com\/media-appearances\/\">Keynotes and presentations<\/a> for cities and high-profile business groups<b><br \/><\/b><\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.1millioncups.com\/s\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">One Million Cups<\/a> Rockford\u00a0 &#8211; livestreams and facilitation<\/li><li>Facilitated and Hosted\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.techstars.com\/communities\/startup-weekend\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Startup Weekends<\/a>\u00a0at Purdue University, Madison, WI, Rockford, IL<\/li><li>Facilitated team-building experiences and group &amp; individual rock climbing outings<\/li><\/ul><p><b>Certifications &amp; Training<\/b><\/p><ul><li>Certified John Maxwell Speaker, Trainer, Coach<\/li><li>Certified high ropes guide<\/li><li>Google Adwords Certification<\/li><li>Google Analytics Certification<\/li><li>SEO, Machine Learning, AWS, Excel, Google Workspaces skills assessments\u00a0<\/li><\/ul><p><b>Volunteering, Community, Awards, Musician, Producer<\/b><\/p><ul><li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rrstar.com\/story\/business\/2018\/11\/02\/rockford-chamber-commerce-names-20\/9354602007\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">&#8220;20 People You Should Know 2018&#8221; Award Recipient<\/a>\u00a0&#8211; Chamber of Commerce<\/li><\/ul><ul><li>Rotary Club Facilitator &amp; Mentor<\/li><li>Taught media and storytelling in Albania<\/li><li>Led over 500 hours of music in three churches<\/li><li>Co-pastored &amp; preached in churches<\/li><li>Voiceovers for commercials<\/li><li>Extra in a movie about D.L. Moody (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=JOybC3f_fVQ\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=JOybC3f_fVQ<\/a>)<\/li><li>Written\/produced\/sold original songs on Apple, Google Play<\/li><\/ul><div>\u00a0<\/div>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-column elementor-col-33 elementor-inner-column elementor-element elementor-element-df3e3c9\" data-id=\"df3e3c9\" data-element_type=\"column\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-wrap elementor-element-populated\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-bc47a56 elementor-widget elementor-widget-image\" data-id=\"bc47a56\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"image.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t<style>\/*! elementor - v3.7.4 - 31-08-2022 *\/\n.elementor-widget-image{text-align:center}.elementor-widget-image a{display:inline-block}.elementor-widget-image a img[src$=\".svg\"]{width:48px}.elementor-widget-image img{vertical-align:middle;display:inline-block}<\/style>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"800\" height=\"678\" src=\"https:\/\/therealjtodd.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/speakingengagement3.jpg\" class=\"attachment-large size-large\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/therealjtodd.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/speakingengagement3.jpg 1002w, https:\/\/therealjtodd.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/speakingengagement3-300x254.jpg 300w, https:\/\/therealjtodd.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/speakingengagement3-768x651.jpg 768w, https:\/\/therealjtodd.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/speakingengagement3-172x146.jpg 172w, https:\/\/therealjtodd.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/speakingengagement3-50x42.jpg 50w, https:\/\/therealjtodd.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/speakingengagement3-89x75.jpg 89w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-94de971 elementor-widget elementor-widget-heading\" data-id=\"94de971\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"heading.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t<h2 class=\"elementor-heading-title elementor-size-default\">extraordinary skills, passion, experience, influence.<\/h2>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-6edf47d elementor-align-center elementor-widget elementor-widget-button\" data-id=\"6edf47d\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"button.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-button-wrapper\">\n\t\t\t<a href=\"#\" class=\"elementor-button-link elementor-button elementor-size-sm\" role=\"button\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"elementor-button-content-wrapper\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"elementor-button-text\">How can I help you?<\/span>\n\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-d3f30f9 elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"d3f30f9\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p>By nature and nurture, I&#8217;ve done a lot. More experience than most across multiple disciplines in multiple industries, I bring that together in an uncommon way to help people see opportunity where others see obstacle.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Expert advice for founders &#038; Teams I help people see&hellip;<\/p>\n<p> <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/therealjtodd.com\/about\/\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":12346,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/therealjtodd.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/12168"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/therealjtodd.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/therealjtodd.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therealjtodd.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therealjtodd.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12168"}],"version-history":[{"count":33,"href":"https:\/\/therealjtodd.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/12168\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12462,"href":"https:\/\/therealjtodd.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/12168\/revisions\/12462"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therealjtodd.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12346"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/therealjtodd.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12168"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}