Professional & Sales Background
My name is Tom Hughes and I am BlastAhead. As coach, consultant and founder BlastAhead is a reflection and manifestation of my experience, expertise, philosophies and values. When you hire BlastAhead, I'm who you get so here is my story.
A long time ago I went into sales because I couldn't get any other job. I almost starved then figured out I needed to invest in myself and my career if I was to survive. I read, listened to tapes (this was before CDs or DVDs), went to seminars and enrolled in every sales training and personal development course I could find. It took time but an interesting thing happened. Not only did I survive, I thrived!
I kept getting better and better at my craft and progressed to more professional and more sophisticated sales organizations. Eventually I was selling for a billion dollar international computer reseller and doing well. I earned a position in their prestigious 100% Club each year and was making more money than I could have dreamed of only a few years earlier. Life was good.
But we all know that good things come to an end and the computer reseller I was employed by started to make some very poor strategic business decisions. A coworker, who is a brilliant engineer, came to me with the idea of starting a new Technology Company. I needed a new challenge, the time was right and soon we were entrepreneurs founding Trivalent Lan Concepts in 1991.
Starting Trivalent (Now Trivalent Group) was quite a challenge! In the beginning not only did I make all of the sales I helped run the business, even doing the bookkeeping. Trivalent did well. Revenues grew from zero to over $1 Million Dollars in less than two years then to over $7 Million Dollars in just over 8 years.
As Trivalent grew in addition to managing major accounts and helping to run the business I also built and managed a sales team. This too went well. The sales team met or exceeded corporate and personal sales goals every year for 8 straight years! This type of consistent success is a rare accomplishment and one of which I am very proud.
But remember all good things come to an end. Trivalent grew and as it grew I was doing less selling, less sales management, less staff development and more other stuff. Acknowledging and respecting our limitations my partner and I knew it was time to bring in additional expertise and capital. The time was right and we sold the business. I stayed for 2 years helping transition major accounts then went out on my own to form BlastAhead.
If you look at my record you'll find sales skills, proven sales success, successful sales management expertise, good business sense and proven business skills. It's this record that qualifies me to offer advice to people like you.
Personal Background
On the personal side I'm a self professed “Health Nut”. I eat well, exercise, read and meditate almost every day. I love the out-of-doors, outdoor sports and some team sports. Michigan State University basketball (I'm writing this during football season with a big game against Ohio State just ahead), Red Wings hockey and the Tour De France are my favorites. I enjoy cycling, swimming, and running and have been running competitively for, (it hurts to say this), over 38 years! I think I'm what you'd call durable. I've recently taken up triathlons as my current competitive athletic challenge.
I'm married to a wonderful woman, Val, who also is a business professional. She helps to keep me grounded. I’m blessed with two sons and three grandsons, the youngest grandson will be 2 soon. “The Boys” are an absolute blast to spend time with and I learn something each and every time I'm with them. I'm grateful they are close and that I can spend time with them on a regular basis. I love dogs and we've recently added two rescue dogs to our home; Rocket the beagle and Miss Ginger the brittany.
I crave learning new things so you'll often find me reading, listening to pod casts or audio books, attending sales and personal development training or learning some new activity. Currently I'm working on learning how to play the harmonica. For someone with no demonstrable musical talent this is going about as well as you would expect. But that’s the point. One doesn't’t expand their horizons doing only what they are comfortable with and good at. Update: The harmonica thing didn't go so well so I'm now reading Shakespeare, something I somehow missed in school.
One thing I should warn you about is that I tend to do things to excess. I love what I call "adventure" which has led me to jump out of perfectly good airplanes, scuba dive, drive motorcycles – fast, walk across beds of 1800 degree coals (twice), hike up (short) mountains, jump off of telephone poles, participate in weekend race car driving schools, compete in triathlons and run Ultraruns (I'll let you look that one up). Know what you are getting into as I'm not much for excuses and will do my best to hold you accountable.
Finally BlastAhead and I make a practice of supporting our community and our world. A small percentage of BlastAhead’s annual profits supports locally the Children’s Assessment Center www.cac-kent.org, and internationally Hefier International http://www.heifer.org/. I recommend finding a cause or two that moves you and throwing your weight behind it. It feels outstanding.