My Story

I was born and raised in my family’s country store, Hickory Market. My crib sat on the other side of the counter, and from my earliest memories, service wasn’t a strategy or a value statement. It was simply how we lived.

I grew up watching my family greet people by name, remember what mattered to them, and build relationships that stretched far beyond a simple transaction. Hickory Market wasn’t just a place to buy groceries. It was a gathering place. A community hub. A place where people felt welcome.

Long before I understood leadership, I was learning something important: every person has a story.

Curiosity led me to study psychology at the University of Michigan, learn the science of comedy and improvisation at The Second City, and eventually build businesses, lead teams, and help organizations navigate growth and change.

Along the way, I discovered that great organizations aren’t built on products, budgets, or strategies alone. They’re built on people. Not just the people bringing in revenue, but the people showing up every day to do the work. When people feel valued, they perform differently. They lead differently. They treat others differently. And that ripple effect? That’s what builds cultures worth belonging to.

When my dad passed suddenly in 2004, I left my life in Chicago and came home to run Hickory Market for my mom while she grieved. That year deepened everything I already believed. I watched our community show up in the most human ways, not because they were obligated to, but because my parents had spent thirty-five years truly seeing them. Not as customers. As people.

When I eventually moved back to Ann Arbor, I called my mom every morning and every evening to check in. She would tell me about people who pumped her gas, picked up her groceries, checked on her without being asked. And I would think, thank you for seeing my mom the way I see her, even without knowing her story. That’s when it clicked. We are all somebody’s most important person in the world. And when we start to treat each other like that, it changes every interaction and every relationship we have. That became the foundation for everything I teach, what I call the Most Important Person Principle.

When my mom retired and closed the store, I came back to Ann Arbor not entirely sure what came next. I took a part-time job at Caribou Coffee, making minimum wage, figuring out life again. It was one of the most humbling and quietly rewarding experiences of my life. It was also where I met Chris, my future wife, another U of M grad working through her own grief, figuring out what she wanted to build.

In the fall of 2008, right as the economy was beginning to collapse, we opened Balance Massage Therapy. Eighteen years later it’s being passed to one of our own teammates, someone who came up inside the culture we built.

What I learned through all of it, I didn’t learn in a boardroom. I learned it in conversations with teammates and community, asking how we can be of service and then doing the good work to actually live it. Building the foundations that make the values show up consistently, in the good seasons and the hard ones.

It is my privilege and joy to speak to, train, and coach leaders, teams, and organizations who want service to be more than a value on the wall. Who want to understand what it actually looks like when people come first, when systems support that promise, and when everyone who walks through the door, client or teammate, feels like the most important person in the room. When people feel genuinely seen, heard, and valued, organizations don’t just perform better. They become places people are proud to work, proud to lead, and proud to be part of.