I am a middle-aged guy that has retired after 21 years of honorable service to this great country of ours.

Obviously, there is more to me than that. Where do I begin?

I was born in a small city in Louisiana, but I consider Mobile, Alabama as my hometown. After graduating high school, I decided to take a year off of school before making my decision to enlist in the US Navy in 2002. I spent about 21 years in the Navy and, as you can imagine, there are countless stories that I could tell you. However, here are the Cliff’s Notes:

• Stationed in Hampton Roads from 2004 to 2010. In that time, I was stationed on an Aircraft Carrier and at a satellite relay station. In 2008, I met the love of my life, Brandy. I asked her to marry me in 2010 and she said yes!!

• Next, I was stationed in Hawaii and I had the pleasure of working with Navy Seals. While in Hawaii, my family and I had many wonderful adventures.

• After Hawaii, I got stationed in Great Lakes, Illinois, where I did a tour as a Recruit Division Commander (Navy Drill Sergeant). This was the tour that I was most proud of, because I had a lot of professional growth there.

• Next up, Japan! My wife and I spent 3 and a half years in southern Japan. I will always appreciate the Japanese culture.

• Last, but not least, we came back to Norfolk and made the decision that this would be where I ended my Naval career.

This brings me to the current chapter in my life. In the Summer of 2021, I made the decision to obtain my real estate salesperson license for the state of Virginia. This decision came after much deliberation as to what I’d like to do after I retired from the military. I wanted to be in a profession that had the potential for allowing me the freedom to live life for me for the first time in my adult life. I wanted to be able to do a job that I liked doing, rather than for just money. I also wanted to leverage my experience as a leader and educator to guide clients through one of the largest financial decisions they’d make in their lifetime. I promise I don’t take this responsibility lightly!

Being a Realtor allows me to set my own hours, work remotely, and have more control of my off-time. It also challenges me in ways that the Navy did not because, as an entrepreneur, I only get paid when I successfully close a transaction. This causes me to reassess my business goals on a weekly basis and constantly look for ways to improve my business.

I believe that my goals are a bit different than the average college student. In some ways, I feel like I have already lived a life. In other ways, I have just now started living life. That’s what makes life so great for me, because I have perspective on life, but also have the opportunity to build something I can be proud of.

My short term goals are to travel to new places with my wife and continue building my real estate business to reach a goal of a six-figure income. I also want to rekindle relationships with my family that I allowed to lessen throughout my Naval career.

My long term goal is to finish my degree in Business Administration by the end of 2026. Within the next 5 years, I’d like to have at least two other real estate properties in my portfolio.