Born in Roseville, California, my parents once had the opportunity to buy a McDonald’s franchise for just $10,000. However, opting for a simpler life, they decided to pack up the family and move to Ponca City, Oklahoma, (Go Wildcats!) where they could raise their kids under the fumes of a Conoco refinery. Today, instead of enjoying a two-all-beef-patties-special-sauce-lettuce-cheese trust fund, I am a real estate agent and an advertising creative director when who spends his days either showing houses or waxing poetically about things like hotel amenities, vulcanized rubber, and the technological advancements in food distribution. I've been in real estate since 2013 and advertising since 1997. I've worked at agencies big and small, shared cubicles and boardrooms with wildly talented people, and had my work honored by the prestigious folks at The One Show, The Webbys, Communication Arts, The National Addys, Graphis, and more. Once on a shoot, I even got to answer Shaquille O’Neal’s cellphone. And that’s almost as good as a Big Mac fortune, right?