Well my professional values stem from being prepared, process driven, I value data and information, I’m huge on aesthetics and branding, I always establish a colorful vision for projects trying to break the mold of what we’ve been doing and take risks for something bigger and better …  and I just love what I do, I think the outlook for distance education and eLearning as a whole is bullish – not you to adopt a mobile mentality though. The landscape of the world is changing and I look so forward to it at this point in time. It’s a healthy challenge for sure. And I’m extremely motivated by it.

I’ve been in the training & education field since I was 16 training soccer teams all around the states of NJ and PA. I’ve always, always, always preached preparation first and foremost to players of all ages. Come prepared, make sure you’re in shape, make sure you can run a mile in 5 minutes, prepare yourself for a 100 minute game even though games are only 90 minutes. Prepare by following a diet. etc. etc. etc.

That’s the foundation for what I do every single day in our field – preparation.

I’ve found out over the years preparing well and asking yourself (and others) questions along the way allows you to uncover gaps you may not have seen before.

With proper preparation, in any field, you need to decipher a vision for the project at hand, establish concise business goals you need to meet, gaps you need to fill, you need to always consuming data and new information to use, (I love data. I love digging and finding numbers to become further informed), you need to assemble the right team, and you must communicate clearly. That’s a little about me and what I value the most. There’s no such thing as over-preparing in my mind.

• Trying hard to please EVERYONE! I’ve unfortunately adopted a ‘YES MAN’ mentality in my current role due to my widespread professional skillset (and everyone knowing it). My approach to improving that perspective is to find a company with structure. If the company doesn’t have structure, planning and proper information flow, then it’s a free-for-all.
• Knowing my workload limits. I’m always first to raise my hand if a work assignment, or project comes in … it looks good you know? But I need to remember as I’m growing and moving up the ladder, that my work becomes more and more important to an organization, and there’s certainly a threshold of spreading myself thin.

• Being detailed and colorful. Which allows me to extract a plethora of information and processes before a project ever begins, and providing elaborate detail to team members and stakeholders before a major project begins.
• Assessing Risks & Being Forward-Looking.
  • In terms of risk – seeing far down the road enough to identify roadblocks, whether it be technological barriers, cultural barriers, informational gaps, lack of clarity in content, instruction that is not clear and/or doesn’t meet the business goals, and so on. Basically uncovering them before we get to them and knowing how to approach when and if that time comes.
  • Now in terms of being forward-looking … I can’t tell you how many times just looking ahead to, for example, new releases in software that saved myself and the company time and resources, just by being aware of industry trends & changing landscapes.
• Being A Team Player.
• Breaking the mold. The thing about the industry of eLearning & ID it’s a lot of cookie cutter stuff I’ve noticed and a lot of the industry is content. I’m not talking about everyone but people I interact with at conferences and other walks of life, seems to be following the same playbook. So I’ve made it somewhat a personal goal to always challenge the industry status quo. Using new technologies is a big one. Like how many times can you deliver something using Storyline or Captivate.

Well as it says on the Mars website, the company values 5 things: QUALITY – RESPONSIBILITY – MUTUALITY – EFFICIENCY – FREEDOM.

• The quality is show through my work.
• I always take responsibility, for positives and negatives.
• Being in a global learning environment I can’t think of anything being more mutually beneficial to the company than internal learning and training.
• Doing your job with clarity, under proposed budgets, and ahead of schedule – essentially total efficiency.
• And maintaining a sense of freedom in not fearing risk or failure. And of course a work-life balance and that seems to run deep in the veins of Mars.

• First, starting Red Card Cancer in grad-school. That immediately gave me credibility and confidence knowing the top medical institution in the world for the last 21 of 22 years then, wanted in on my creation. Since inception the organization raised over $1.5m, has an active BoD, and has interns running the company under the leadership of Hopkins. I was also honored as an honorary captain at the NY RedBulls vs. DC United MLS game in 2012. It directly relates to what I do every day because it was a daunting challenge of raising a clear awareness, educating a community, and having that community take action online. We incorporated gamification that was and still is very infectious.
• Second, being chosen for a MasterCard commercial for their Simplify Commerce payment platform. It was a testament to my planning and how to plan for interactions with mobile checkout processes.
• Third, winning Best Design for a self-paced Level 1 course at the 2015 TechEd conference for my U.S. Navy eLearning course.

• Well, first 90 days I will certainly be assessing the ease-of-use of the learning platforms and how materials are published. I’ll also be offering new authoring programs if they are not being used already. One of my strengths (if you remember) is breaking the mold and creating something better and more effective.
• Bringing enthusiasm for our industry, and energy of course.
• Endorse my skills & industry values to team members so they know my strengths.

Oh, there’s no doubt about that. Let me use an analogy if I may that pertains directly to the success and motivation in my life thus far.

• With the game of soccer, when on the field, you need to take into the account a person receiving a pass from you: Where to pass, the velocity, the timing, providing verbal or body gestures to signal what’s coming, etc. You don’t want to put them in a position to get the ball stolen in a crucial area that makes them look bad, or even get hurt with a careless pass. It relates to the workforce because clients, peers and vendors will be counting on you to deliver with quality and on time. Their job depends on you also.
• Another example from soccer is dealing with pressure. I was standout player growing up and through college – I was the goal scorer. A lot was riding on my shoulders every single game, and I was motivated by it. Having your peers  look you’re in the eyes, people you work with, or play with knowing their counting on you to deliver something exceptional … that’s pressure I love taking on and then sharing credit for successes. That’s how you keep breeding motivation within a team.