Program - Sean Green - New Member Talk Robin introduced Sean, saying he had a chance to get better acquainted with him when the had the opportunity to sit near him at President Elect Training Seminar (PETS). He is a young who has an incredible desire to be successful. He also wants to be successful in the right way. He loves his family. He wants to raise a strong family. He has a lot of energy and a lot of intellectual ability. Robin said that at this point in Sean's life, we know he is really busy. When Sean can be at Mesa West meetings, we are glad to have him. When other priorities keep Sean away from our meetings, Robin said our other members would support him in that. Sean began by saying he was an Arizona native, born and raised in Sunnyslope on 3rd and Hatcher. Sean said he was actually born into a punch bowl in Section 8 housing on a bed pallet his dad had brought home from a construction site. He said they moved every 2-3 years at the end of a lease into a different apartment. He said his mom gradually moved them up and out into better neighborhoods. By the time Sean was nine, his mother married. That was when he first lived in a house with his own front and back yard. About the same time, his grandmother moved to Arizona from Fort Lauderdale, Florida. That changed a lot of things for Sean. To tell a bit more about his parents. Both were born and raised in Des Moines Iowa. His dad was one of eight, and his mom was one of five - the other four were brothers. His dad was big in music and art. His dad dropped out of school at 15 and had hitchhiked to both oceans by the time he was sixteen. He was a vagabond for many years. He was in construction and concrete. He currently is retired and lives in a cabin in Flagstaff. Sean's mom graduated early from high school. She has two bachelors degrees - one in Criminal Justice, and the other in Psychology. She holds a masters in Clinical Psychology. She was previously the Psych Associate for death row for legal injection in Arizona. She is currently still working for DOC, looking to retire in a year and a half. Sean was a single child. He travelled a lot for vacations with his mom. His dad was gone by the time Sean was about four. They travelled about every six months back to Iowa. His mom would stash away bartending and server money to save up for them to travel to Iowa to stay with family. Sean and his mom were the only members of his family residing in Arizona at all. During those visits to Iowa, Sean got a taste of what the midwestern culture was like. He said if you are from the Midwest, East Coast, or the South, you have an idea what Arizona lacks when it comes to hospitality. There is a very different personality around the Mississippi than there is around the Pacific Coast or Atlantic Coast. After they moved Sean's grandmother to Arizona, her home was just down the street from the first house Sean lived in with his mom's eventual ex-husband. Sean was back and forth between the two houses "running the neighborhood." At age 12, Sean built his first computer. He was very actively and competitively involved in video gaming from the time he was about age 12 to 15. His mom graduated and allowed Sean to choose one friend to go with them and enjoy park-hopper passes in Disneyland California Adventure. That was where Sean was exposed to his first concert at the House of Blues in Anaheim California at the downtown Disney District. It was a rock show with three different. That sparked his interest in concerts. Sean started working painting and construction when he was about 15. From where he was coming from, there wasn't much opportunity to think about going to college. His mom couldn't afford it. A profession requiring a college degree wasn't on the horizon for him. Sean wasn't sad about that. He has a lot of vocational grade skills. Sean started working painting and construction when he was about 15. He got involved with concerts and started doing festival promotions and ticket sales when he was about 16. He did that until he was 23. At 23, Sean went on a national music tour of 16 or 18 cities over 5 weeks. He was in an apprentice to management position on that tour. He supplemented his income with bartending and serving. He worked as many hours as he could stashing as much money as he could hoping to stay out of trouble with all the hours committed to work, and eventually work his way into a place where the neighborhood wasn't as conducive to trouble for young people who were idle. At 18, Sean moved to Chicago for a month to stay with a complete stranger he had meant in video gaming. Sean was friends with two of the stranger's sons. His mom caught him walking out the door with a duffle bag large enough to hold a body the day after his 18th birthday. He had told her nothing of his plans. When she got up to have coffee, she caught him as he was laying down a note explaining his plans with details about where he would be, how he could be contacted, a complete itinerary, etc. They had an "unfortunate" conversation. During his stay in Chicago, Sean learned about real estate from the inside out in a crash course observing someone taking advantage of the chaos in that industry following the 2008 recession. During his first month as an adult, Sean learned that a crack dealer from Chicago to do video games, meet a random white kid out of Phoenix and teach him for a month how to do real estate and really change his stars. From age 16 thru 24. He was doing concerts. He had some money stashed away when his daughter was born in 2013. Sean wanted to be present in her life. For a year and a half he was a stay at home dad. After he had exhausted his savings, and realized that he and the mother didn't really get along, and was much too energetic to spend all his time changing diapers and staying home, Sean successfully represented himself when he petitioned for 50/50 custody of his daughter. He then became a serial entrepreneur. He started a motor sports performance in 2014. He started a heating element touch screen business in 2015. He continued working construction as a superintendent. In 2016, officer Reed was murdered at the hotel where he was staying with his construction crew in Show Low. They became witnesses to a crime they were completely unaware of. Because their trucks, tools, etc. were at a crime scene, they were not allowed to leave. They were stuck in a cafe at the hotel while the news crews were coming in and out. He shifted out of construction because of a question he had asked about permits. He thought it was the right question, but he found out it was the wrong question, because the permits didn't exist. While they were holed up at the hotel, inspectors were inspecting job sites in Tucson, Show Low and Pine Top. The job sites in all three cities were shut down by the cities. Sean left construction. He liquidated the partnership with the motor sports business business he had started. He put the heating element touch screen business on ice because the cost of making the product much more expensive than he thought. From there, he started a video marketing business in 2016. His son Grayson was born in 2017. Sean's primary care physician started his first medical concierge business in Arizona partnering with Sean's video marketing business. Sean had never been involved in a degree-driven field. It was interesting but it wasn't for Sean. It was a lot of detail, computer input, jargon, and paperwork and Sean realized he was not that type of guy. While Sean is capable of dealing with all that, it gives him a headache worse than changing diapers and trying to converse with small children who can't talk straight. When Grayson was about 18 months old, Sean successfully represented himself petitioning for 50/50 custody with Grayson's mother. He explored getting back into construction knowing he had a lot of skills and background in all parts of construction that do not involve climbing a ladder. Sean likes his feet firmly planted on the ground. During all of this soul searching, Sean found an app called Clubhouse. He described it as a "combination of a radio and walkie-talkie." Though the app, he had the chance to listen to a conversations and are able to chime in on the conversation. Sean met Scott Rippey from North Carolina through through Club House. Scott was successfully operating a video production business much like what Sean started in 2021. Scott invited Sean to visit him in North Carolina, taking him under his wing as a mentor. Scott is a Rotarian and that visit is the way Sean found Rotary. Through Rotary, Sean has found a sense of belonging. He was honest enough to say that a year earlier, he might not have understood what a blessing that sense of belonging truly is.
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