Born in Miami, Dave’s a Florida native and a Florida Gator twice over. He earned his bachelor's in journalism and communications at the University of Florida in 1985 and his masters in business administration in the inaugural MBA for Managers program at UF in 1995.
Dave started his career working for several newspapers in the New York Times Regional Newspapers chain. Actually, he did a stint at the Florida Alligator while he was in journalism school, did some work as a stringer for the Gainesville Sun, did an internship at the Sarasota Herald-Tribune and was hired by the Ocala Star-Banner after he graduated with honors. Dave wore a lot of hats over 14 years at the Star-Banner, from police beat reporter to education reporter to entertainment editor to features editor, among others. He also served as the Times chain’s liaison to the New Century Network, a partnership of several major newspaper chains on the Internet that proved to be before its time. But it was fun, cutting edge stuff, and it sparked his interest in the Internet, which was just starting to blossom and gain popularity then. Toward the end of his stint at the Star-Banner, Dave was the business editor as he worked on his MBA on weekends and evenings. It was during this period that Dave really realized the power and potential of the Internet and began to focus on it and how newspapers might leverage and benefit from the Internet boom. He taught himself HTML in the process of building one of the first newspaper sites on the World Wide Web.
In mid-1998, Dave got a call out of the blue from a recruiter for Time Warner’s Road Runner High-Speed Online, one of the first high-speed cable modem Internet Service Providers. He was excited about the possibility of working for Road Runner, on the bleeding edge of the Internet. Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, this came at a time when Time Warner was seeking to spin off its Road Runner unit as a separate company, and Dave ended up in limbo. Several months after interviewing for a position at Road Runner in Herndon, Va., Dave hadn’t heard anything and had pretty much written off what he had seen as a promising opportunity. Then, in late 1998, he got another call, this time from Time Warner’s Central Florida division in Orlando. They were looking for someone to develop a local content portal Internet site in conjunction with their pending launch of Road Runner in Central Florida, and everything fell into place.
Dave accepted a manager position as online editor and single-handedly built a robust and popular local news and entertainment site for Time Warner Central Florida’s Road Runner customers. Time Warner’s Central Florida division launched Road Runner in June of 1999, and Dave hasn’t looked back since. He’s continued to grow personally, as has Central Florida’s Internet development team. Dave was promoted to director and then senior director, and he currently leads a team of 20 Internet developers and security experts for Bright House Networks, a privately held company that was formed in 2002 when Advance/Newhouse decided to change its partnership with Time Warner and spin off a half a dozen Time Warner divisions into a new cable company they managed directly.
About the same time, Dave became involved in a prominent network marketing company. Working part time on evenings and weekends, he advanced to sales manager and earned his bonus car – a 2003 Mercedes E320 – in his first six months in the business. Dave became a personal development junky in the process. “I literally devoured books, tapes, CDS, DVDs and seminars from Brian Tracy, Jim Rohn, Zig Ziglar, John Maxwell, Robert Kiosaki, Anthony Robbins, and the list goes on,” he says. Then one of his mentors in the network marketing company introduced him to TSI.
During TSI’s 101 basic coaching course, Dave refined and refocused on his priorities and made a conscious decision to create more balance in his life, and to grow in all five areas. Although TSI doesn’t focus on developing a personal mission statement until the intermediate 201 course, Dave developed his personal mission statement during the 101 class: “To live in and make the most of every moment and every experience, doing my best to constantly explore, learn, grow and contribute. To live full on and strive to bring all my skills, creativity and ability to bear on adding value, being a positive influence and encouraging growth in others wherever I am and whatever I'm doing. To live with passion, playfulness and compassion and respect for others, always trying to see, understand and appreciate the other person's perspective. To take pleasure in the simple things and see the world always with the curious eyes of a child experiencing something for the first time.”
“I started looking at everything I was doing with my mission statement in mind, and it really helped me prioritize what was really important to me and focus on DOING those things that were congruent with my mission,” Dave says. “At that point, it became crystal clear to me that there was a lot of synergy between TSI’s mission and mine, and I set out to become a coach with TSI.”
TSI’s intermediate 201 coaching class only solidified Dave’s path. He made some painful but profound discoveries and decisions that led him to value himself and end what had been a very negative long-term relationship that had been sapping his potential. He earned a promotion to senior director at Bright House Networks and a significant increase in salary and bonuses. He encouraged members of his team at work to explore the TSI experience and watched them grow, as a result.
“That really solidified my commitment to TSI,” he says. “In all the personal development materials and programs I’ve been through, I haven’t found anything that compares to TSI. Personal development is great, but most of these programs are focused on discovery and awareness. TSI is all about applying what you learn, getting results and creating experiences.
“Then there’s the money, the hard sell,” Dave says. “Too many of these programs seem more interested in signing you up for the next seminar and selling you more. TSI is focused on getting results, not just for the company, but for the clients and the coaches, too. And there are no gurus here. We’re all in this together, for the growth and good of all parties involved. That’s something different.”
Dave’s solidly on a new path now, living his mission, getting uncomfortable, practicing TSI’s success habits and growing in leaps and bounds. He is an intermediate 101 coach for TSI, with lead coach just around the corner, and from there, who knows. And between his career at Bright House Networks, his network marketing business and his work as a coach for TSI, Dave earns a comfortable six-figure income.
Dave’s found his place with TSI, and being in the TSI environment, he continues to live his mission and help TSI’s clients to learn and grow in the service of others.
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