EDUCATION

Walla Walla High School | Wa-Hi

YEAR RANGE · 1998-2002

Ahhh high school, what a good time. I didn’t find high school to be particularly demanding from a scholarly perspective. I excelled in a number of areas, frequently taking advanced courses and posting decent grades despite leaning into skateboarding, punk/rock music, and an alternative lifestyle my Freshman Sophomore years. I say decent because up until that point I had been a standout student, but the aforementioned skate punk culture I had been resonating with wasn’t something that was motivating me to apply myself at a high level, ha.

I’d been deep into traditional sports up until I discovered Skateboarding in 1996, for the next few years I’d lean into my anarchist, punk, skater side, a side that still resonates with me today. I dropped basketball which I had played a ton of. You would have thought I had murdered a pack of puppies with how devastated and upset my mom was. I did however, hang on to golf. I played a ton of that growing up as well and was decently good. It was fun as fuck (still is) so golf was the only organized sport I chose to subscribe to at the time. I was suspended from the team my Sophomore year after a verbal altercation with country club staff during practice (fuck authority). But when door closes another opens they say, so I told the golf team to kick rocks and joined the track team after being encouraged to do so by my P.E. teacher. Turned out to be the move. I ended up at State in multiple events both Junior and Senior years (placing 5th in Triple Jump one of those years), locked in the team MVP award Senior year, and grossed one of the highest single season points in Wa-Hi history at the time. All while having some of the whitest, most pale legs on the field. For real, I wore long-legged tights for the remainder of my track career after being laughed at during a meet. Fuck those girls 😎.

I doubled down on my success in track by walking on to the football team my Junior year. I ended up starting as a wide out on Varsity that year and carried that into my senior year. I finished high school as a scholar athlete with 3.6 gpa, all while having a massively fun fucking time. I loved high school.

Western Washington University

YEAR RANGE · 2002-2003

I had zero intentions of carrying on with organized sports after high school. I wasn’t quite legit enough to have any meaningful football opportunity and I declined any scholarship opportunities for track and field. I knew what the commitment looked like and I wasn’t into it. My interest in snowboarding, free time, and fun was too overwhelming to commit myself to the demands of college athletics. I’d visited Western a year prior to visit a buddy of mine who was going to school there and kind of instantly fell in love with the area. It was on the opposite side of the state from where I grew up, it was pretty as fuck, close to Mt Baker and Canada, and close to Seattle city vibes and a sound music scene. It easily checked every box I was looking for at the time. What sounded like a dream turned into an educational hell camp nightmare. I’ll be real, Freshman year of college was a scholarly maiming for yo boy! Coming off the high of senior year high school, which was more about half days, cold beers, sports, hanging with friends, and breezy schedules (think P.E. teachers assistant and pottery), I got lit up by one of the more rigorous and intellectually demanding schools in the state. I mean, these educators wanted me to read, interpret, and intelligently articulate a baffling amount of knowledge. Between my academic score and my room mate barfing out our 7th story window after a savage night of good ol fashioned under age drinking, I ended up on the deans least wanted list. To make matters worse, I had drifted from skater punk to emo pussy punk, so feeling like life is unfair and stacked against you made the black outfit, lip ring, and black nail polish seem massively appropriate. I needed a change, and it wasn’t me (Good Charlotte emo cool af at the time). Western fell victim to the same treatment the Wa-Hi golf team received when they doubled down on me, rocks kicked and I was out.

Whatcom CC

YEAR RANGE · 2003-2004

I was still jazzed on the Bellingham area so the CC made perfect sense. Nothing noteworthy about this stretch of education, I blew into CC and pumped that gpa back up with the quickness. It felt like high school all over again, the education expectations were for sure more on par with what I was used to. It was a nice break from the educational hell I went through at Western.

Washington State University

YEAR RANGE · 2004-2006

After rolling through CC and getting an associates degree I needed to figure out where to finish out this educational expedition I was on. My buddy was encouraging me to move to Chico with him and continue university at Chico State, which I’m quite confident was ranked number one party school in the nation at the time. Chase Fun would have sent me that way, however, I’m quite confident I never would have Escaped Average had I ended up there. I ended up in Vancouver, WA at a satellite WSU campus. I had always wanted to be a Cougar, there was a heritage of Cougars in our family, my mom, sister, extended family. The prospect of moving to Pullman after high school, a few hours from home, back into more wheat fields wasn’t singing to me though. So having the opportunity to be a Cougar in a city environment made rad sense.

My intentions were to get a degree in International Business, which was mostly an ego driven decision combined with not knowing what the fuck I actually wanted or who I even was. It sounded fancy and I thought I was going to learn Cantonese and broker deals for cheap Chinese goods or some shit like that. To my chagrin the campus didn’t offer that degree, so the counselor pointed me towards a Social Sciences degree with a Certificate in Personnel Psychology and Human Resource Management. I subscribed without putting too much thought into. Had I understood that HR is just babysitting constantly complaining adults I’m confident I would have declined that horse shit counselor suggestion. Either way, I committed to that direction, applied myself, and graduated with Cum Laude honors. I was now equipped for a career in Human Resources, Social Sciences or Psychology………none of which I’d ever go into. After four years of college I just got served my first actual real world lesson, ROI.

WORK

Paradise Valley Country Club

YEAR RANGE · 2006-2007

After college I moved to Phoenix, AZ. With no network and a brand new environment I struggled to find entry level work in the HR field. It was my first stab at marketing myself for work and I’ll be honest, I’m still motivated to this day to avoid explaining to others why I’m a value add. My girlfriend at the time, whom I moved to AZ with, was working at Paradise Valley Country Club while dabbling in acting + modeling so I jumped on board there as a banquet server. I loved golf and PVCC is one of the bougier country clubs in the Phoenix Valley. With employees getting access to the course on Mondays it was a no brainer for me. During my short tenure I learned how to sharpen my communication skills with higher net worth individuals and most importantly, learned to never say “your welcome”, it’s always “my pleasure.”

Abercrombie and Fitch

YEAR RANGE · 2007-2009

While working at Paradise Valley CC I worked with a guy who’s girl was managing stores for Abercrombie and Fitch. And I know what you’re thinking, A&F? Not too rock n roll Jonny! But hear me out, I worked part time at A&F in college and it was pretty much after hours debauchery and partying in offensive tees and the sickest cargo shorts the fashion world has ever seen. So yeah dudes, it was kinda rock n roll. Anyways, knowing that I as looking for something a bit more career oriented he encouraged me to apply, most likely cause his girl got a bonus if I turned out to be worth a shit. A&F was a thing at that time, part of their glory years if you will, and they were hiring managers just as fast as they were quitting or getting fired for incompetence. At that time, you were required to have a four year degree to qualify for their management program, a requirement that still baffles me. Most of the people I worked with would have been outpaced by the brightest middle schoolers. I excelled pretty quickly as an Assistant Manager and was offered my own store to operate in short order. During my time with A&F I basically learned how to operate a business, following my super cool corporate provided program of course. Learned how to handle doing annual sales in the multi-millions. I also learned that recruiting and staffing a retail store is massively challenging when candidate aesthetics is the most important factor. Combine that with the fact that it was a disposable job for many of the kids who subscribed to the A&F cult and you’ve got a pretty miserable scenario. It was a “career” I was massively motivated to get out of, thankfully I did.

Dectron USA

YEAR RANGE · 2009-2021

During the time I spent working at A&F my father had been actively searching for a business to acquire. He’d been in and out of work and just couldn’t shake controlling his own destiny anymore. It was a massive risk and gamble at his age and still a decision to this day I admire tremendously. If you want an example of escaping average I’d say investing most of your retirement savings into a small business in your fifties qualifies. It also kinda qualifies as fuck it, what do I got to lose, ha. At any rate, he was interested in me joining and I was interested in getting the fuck out of retail. I moved back to Portland, OR Fall of 2009 after the business closed. I joined in a Sales and Marketing capacity but quickly realized what a small business environment actually entails, wearing 20 fucking hats. We manufactured a niche, legacy product and the business was in dire need of updating in almost every department. It was during my tenure with Dectron, on a limited budget, that I acquired my broadest and most applicable experience to date. I taught myself Adobe Work Suite to improve the marketing and learned Solidworks to update the engineering database from 2D to 3D. I handled all sales related functions and eventually drifted into operations by implementing new software systems to help run the organization. I assisted with recruiting, staffing, and employee programs, learned the fundamentals of small business financials, and gained a fairly intimate knowledge of manufacturing in general. I also learned how to work in close proximity to my family on a daily basis, no small task, ha. In short, it was one of the most educational, challenging, and rewarding work activities I’ve participated in. We eventually exited the company in 2019 with a roughly 4x return. I’d work with the new owners for the next two years before eventually moving on to new endeavors.

Glo Fenestration Studio

YEAR RANGE · 2021-Current

In 2021 I was in the midst of designing a custom, contemporary home on the riverfront in Montana, or what would be become Project #1 of Far Better Build Club. When considering what windows and doors to use my then architect suggested I connect with a local outfit to see if they could be a fit. I had always been interested in what set apart most luxury residences from your average builder grade, craftsman, Ikea luxury bullshit. Outside of architectural design, much of it is the use of real quality materials. Real wood, real stone, concrete, steel…..in short, materials that age gloriously. Large format, high quality windows and doors with narrow sight lines is also part of the magic and that’s what Glo was doing. When I got word that Glo was keen to grow their team and company I was interested. I knew I had run course with Dectron, I was ready to move on and apply my skill set to a new challenge and opportunity. Glo was looking to launch US fabrication as well and with my manufacturing / small business background I thought I could certainly add some value across the board. Fast forward to today and I’m still in it. In true small business fashion I’ve been through a number of roles and have provided value across the organization in a variety of ways. I’ve helped launch fabrication, provided operational support, implemented software improvements, and put my experience with recruiting and staffing to good use. I’ve been a driving force in how the brand is presented to our clients, helped with recruiting and staffing endeavors, aid with business development and client relations, and continue to provide strategic high level insight to help shape company direction. As with any small business, it’s a perpetual challenge that seemingly never ends, and I’m here for it until my insatiable curiosity gets the best of me.