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Work Experience

In lieu of a traditional resume or curriculum vitae, I have preferred to provide this general timeline and overview of my work experience and history as it allows me to present a larger picture view of how I was led to start Current Dynamic Consulting.

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For a "Too Long, Didn't Read" version of the below information, check this link.

Best Buy, Magnolia Audio/Video

I have been around electronics from an early age, and officially one might say my “career” in consumer electronics began when I took a part-time job at Kay-Bee toys selling video game consoles at the age of seventeen. By eighteen, in 2001, I had landed a full-time position in merchandising at Best Buy, and for the next three years had my hands on all sorts of electronics products. I became one of the primary points of contact for store functionality at the Southern California location I worked out of, as well as later having a key role as a member of the newly-acquired Geek Squad project Best Buy had purchased.

 

I eventually relocated from Southern California to the Seattle, Washington area where I took a role at Magnolia Audio/Video’s flagship Bellevue location as a Digital Products Specialist, in January of 2005. It was there that I began to learn more about performance audio and video equipment as well as custom installation and integration, and after being promoted to an Audio/Video Specialist at Magnolia’s Everett, Washington location, I eventually excelled enough within the organization to earn a Sales Manager position.

 

Unfortunately at the time, Magnolia was going through a lot of changes due to Best Buy’s ongoing absorption of the company. Best Buy decided to close the Everett location, along with a number of other stand-alone retail Magnolias. While I had actually already secured a promotion at Magnolia's Bellevue location, I saw the potential working for a local competitor which I had a lot of respect for, Definitive Audio. With the direction Best Buy was taking Magnolia, I decided to change gears and joined up with Definitive Audio at their Seattle retail store as a Sales Consultant in April of 2007.

Definitive Audio

While at Definitive Audio I gained a lot more insight into the inner workings of audio and video, as well as automation and networking equipment over the years. I also learned a lot about entrepreneurship and running my own business. And, for a large portion of my time at Definitive, I not only optimized and configured systems for my own clients, I also supported the sales and installations of many of the other sales people there. I spent eight and a half years at Definitive’s Seattle store, and eventually moved on because I wanted to gain some experience from the vendor and manufacturer side, among other reasons.

Freelance Audio Engineering - The Crocodile, Nectar, Etc.

Never one to shy away from learning something new, my passion for music and audio systems led me to wanting to work with live music and recording. For a number of years, while working at Definitive as well as in the years after that, I ran many local live performances at The Crocodile Cafe, a somewhat iconic Seattle venue known for it's association with the early grunge rock scene, as a live audio engineer. I also assisted at a number of other similar venues and clubs on a case-by-case basis and as time allowed, such as Club Nectar in Seattle's Fremont neighborhood, and have sat in on a number of different recording sessions in a number of different professional studios. I therefore have a grasp of professional audio best practices and general concepts and theory in audio engineering, including analog and digital signal processing. I have mixed nearly every genre of music imaginable in a live setting including world, folk, acoustic, neo-classical, electronic/dance, rock, funk, soul, hip-hop, heavy metal, punk, jazz, experimental, and so on. I also have an extensive amount of hours listening to live music performances in numerous arenas, theaters, clubs, venues, etc. I also managed production for a majority of the shows which I ran, which requires the ability to adapt to many different types of people, as I was the person who not only ensured the music sounded good, but also that the band or artist needs were handled, including divvying out the cash between performers at the end of the night. And while it's not a proficiency by any means, I do have a good grasp of lighting design for live performances which I picked up while mixing. 

Aurender and REL Acoustics

In mid 2016 I landed a position as Technical Support Manager with Aurender, a company based out of Korea which manufactures music servers for the high end audio market. I learned a lot during this period, in particular about paying close attention to red flags as well as setting boundaries with employers. And I also gained a lot of knowledge of particular software platforms as well as digital audio products, and high end audio products in general. I also served for a short time as Western Regional Sales Manager for REL Acoustics, though due to a number of factors I decided to stick with Aurender at that time, a decision I later regretted making. While it may be considered “unprofessional” to mention, I eventually was more or less forced to leave Aurender as they chose to cross some boundaries within our business dealings which I simply could not go along with. It changed my perspective on the entire audio industry, in many ways in fact. While I enjoyed many aspects of my time with both Aurender and REL, at the end of the day I became a bit disillusioned with the entire category of high performance audio products and the result of my experience was to strike out on my own.

Zetetic Consulting LLC and Linn Products

I left Aurender in December of 2017, and started my own consulting business, Zetetic Consulting LLC, in March of 2018. In comparison to now, I was less certain about the direction I wanted to take with the business and more or less started it as a way to continue to help clients I had worked with for the better part of the previous ten years. After leaving Definitive I still had quite a handful of contacts who preferred my services and what I could provide to what Definitive was able to offer, and were willing to pay for it. I also anticipated a potential role with Linn Products out of Glasgow, UK, and they could only hire me in the US as an independent contractor. So I began Zetetic Consulting, while also doing things like driving Uber and Lyft and taking odd jobs here and there to help pay the bills while slowly building the business and anticipating the position with Linn.

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I did eventually take on a role as Business Development Manager for the Custom Integration channel in North America with Linn, which was an amazing as well as challenging experience. I had always wanted to work for Linn, and I enjoyed supporting their products while at Definitive Audio. It was like a dream come true to be helping them grow their business in a new market.

A Hiatus, and Accurate Electronic Interiors

I was actually just beginning to really get in the groove with Linn (no pun intended), as well as growing my own personal business with clients and such when things like the travel ban from Europe were announced and the lockdown measures began. I relocated from Seattle to Southern Oregon without much of a plan, other than restarting my consulting business here. I lost my contract with Linn due to the lockdowns, and it became difficult for me to think about trying to help support clients in Seattle.

 

While I stayed busy with a number of different projects and distractions, ultimately I wanted to get back into audio/video, integration, and working with all those various things. So I approached a local integrator, Accurate Electronic Interiors, where I took a position as an installation technician.

 

I picked up a ton of experience working with AEI, and I value the time spent there learning about the highly practical, as well as often highly unpredictable nature of the custom integration business. I gained a lot of applicable skills and also had the opportunity to learn a lot more about tools, just in general, than I had been able to up to that point. Ultimately, my experience there led me to the conclusion that I think I can be of better service to businesses like AEI by offering what I can do for them on a case-by-case basis, which is what led me in a roundabout way to getting back on track with starting Current Dynamic Consulting.

Current Dynamic Consulting

Given my work experience, one can gather that Current Dynamic Consulting is a company born out of passion. I am a self-motivated, entrepreneurial individual who wishes to work and interact with various aspects of technology in order to achieve goals for clients of all types. I also think that the way manufacturers, integrators, retailers, and end users do business with each other Is changing quite rapidly and as such my company is an effort to be proactive within the dynamic landscape of business.

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