To the many who have never met me this site is dedicated to you. I've had an opportunity to be a stay home dad for the past 15+ years while mentoring my wife in her career. This time allowed me to expand my knowledge base dramatically and I find myself in a position of consulting or supporting more than ever before.
Chris learned mechanics from working on cars at a very young age. As a child, he had two great loves - taking things apart to figure out how they worked and riding bicycles - which included of course, taking them apart. His next great love was inspired from watching the U.S. Grand Prix on TV. This led to his motorcycle road racing, where he spent 10 years racing semi-professionally. During this time, he went from crasher of the year in 1992, to Superbike Champion the very next year, in 1993 and continued on with multiple Superbike Championships, SuperSport Champion, and multiple Formula Ultra runner up in this ten-year racing period.
While his spare time was spent racing, Chris gained a CEF of AESF from NASF in metal finishing. As a journeyman metal finisher, he racked up over 10 years of experience in electro and electro-less plating, metallurgy, and quality control in the Boeing Aerospace industry. An inventor at heart, Chris found a way to mesh this with his motorcycle racing passion, creating motorcycle parts as well as processes for motorcycle components to reduce friction and heat. These, along with other ideas from Chris were implemented by Zlock Racing. Looking to make a switch that had less of a toll on his body than coming off a bike at 150 mph, Chris began to teach himself web scripting which was to become the cornerstone of his next career move.
Chris's first taste of running his own business came when he left metal finishing and began his own online Ebay selling company in 2000. During this time, Chris learned a variety of web programming languages, in turn learning the ins and outs of how to build multifaceted web sites. By 2004 Chris held a contracting role at Microsoft focused on web publishing, before becoming a full-time employee two years later, where he continued to develop his web knowledge, project management, and people skills.
While Chris had played billiards off and on the over years, it rapidly became the focus of his free time. It started with a few books and cues, and quickly progressed to an investment in a 9' table with Gorina cloth – the new center piece of his front room. Just like his racing days, it was only a matter of time before Chris created his first tool for billiards. In 2010, having played competition pool for the last four years, Chris decided to make the leap, leaving Microsoft to devote himself full-time to not only becoming a professional billiard player, but inventing a variety of revolutionary tools to help billiard players perfect their game and forward the sport of billiards.
Outside of work, Chris builds personal products, projects and websites that showcase his dedication to; simple designs, clean-minimal coding, modern and continuous learning. Chris is driven by curiosity, innovation, and the desire to create experiences that make a real impact.
All types of creative ideas and products
Strong core values enable leadership and mentoring
Mild to wild designs are typical
I am a product creator that built a strong foundation, especially during my time at Microsoft, where I worked in a fast-paced, high-standards engineering environment which developed a discipline for a clean, scalable, light-weight code approach. That experience shaped how I think about problem-solving, collaboration, and building technology that is reliable and user-focused.
Below is part of my Insights profile which fits me very accurately.
Below are key strengths which Chris brings to any organization. Chris has abilities, skills and attributes in other areas, but the statements below are likely to be some of the fundamental gifts he has to offer.
Each person brings a unique set of gifts, attributes and expectations to the environment in which they operate. Add to this list any other experiences, skills or other attributes which Chris brings, and make the most important items on the list available to other team members.
Communication can only be effective if it is received and understood by the recipient. For each person certain communication strategies are more effective than others. This section identifies some of the key strategies which will lead to effective communication with Chris. Identify the most important statements and make them available to colleagues.
There are many different approaches to management, most of which have different situational applications. This section identifies Chris's natural management approach and offers clues to his management style, highlighting both gifts and possible hindrances that can be further explored.
My last role was with Microsoft was with the Office 365 Live team, which use to be called Office Online. There we're a handful of brands that flew by; Work Essentials, Office Live, Business Productivity Online Services, then it all wrapped up into Office 365 and that was my exit time. I loved and still do enjoy Microsoft. I was part of 11 product release and almost constantly moved onto a startup team for years. I never received a RIFT and was always sucked into another branch of the organization.
While growing up I've constantly created no matter what industry I was in. Rather than being industry driven I found I have a passion for bring ideas to reality. Some of the greatest fullfilments have been after a product ship date. This can be as simple as me creating a teflon button with an inconel support, or shipping a large scale product such as Microsoft Office.
Below I've outlined some of the products and articles I've created, and use for my continued growth with very day life.
Learning to communicate with others is one of the most benefiting things one can do to improve their working dynamics with all conversations and tasks. These articles reduce misunderstandings and strengthen professional relationships.
5 Carl Jung quotes to value in the workplace
Words have meaning in the workplace
Project delivery while working with a narcissists
Energy hogs bog your work environment
The benefits of using empathy in the workplace
Who didn't like art class as a kid. Creating products is the same as art class to me. Here are some more articles for thoughts.
Text styles for headlines and content
Choosing the right font colors
An easy-to-use grid system that can be implemented from the spectrum of everyday business to testing.
Introduction to Fluid Fixed Grid wireframe
Started ComputersFinishing mechanical products and transitioning into computers
Started at MicrosoftI landed a role in Microsoft Office without any professional experience
Became an
EntreprenuerI started focusing on my code base, mentoring, and intensive personal development
Racing & EngineeringAdvanced level of racing & Mechanical Engineering.
Superbike Champion
eBay PowersellerStarted an eBay store and my coding career by building more than a dozen websites with a reliable process
Billiards, U.S. PatentsI started playing pool and created multiple U.S. Patents
I'm an experienced professional with a strong mechanical and technical foundation which developed naturally while doing. Because I've taught myself along the way I've discovered my observable boundary for creating is much further out than other individuals. This allows me to break barriers that naturally exist for most people.
The experience of being in a high-performance engineering environment that emphasized on quality, scalability, and disciplined development practices provided me with a rigorous approach to creativity, problem analysis, and creating solutions. I discovered I already had an approach when I respoked my bike wheels on my own as a young boy. I just looked at it and told myself I can see how that works so I tore them apart and put them back together. That may have been the start of the end because I knew I can do anything I visualize.
I have remained actively engaged in developing and designing, even non-technical products, since I've left Microsoft. I continue to design and write code which has led me to writing Fluid Fixed Grid system which is similar to the 960 Grid, Skeleton, almost any responsive grid system.
As a leader, decision making is the most important thing I can do. It's the logic, it's science in leading that continues to teach me while being engaged. The more knowledgeable I become while making decisions, greatly improves my probability of making the right decision. Naturally if we make the right decisions, we'll be saving time and be more productive by doing less.
Employees are encouraged to aspire to grow and develop. If they are not being realistic, I will provide a perspective based on my own experience. I can help an employee to avoid setting themself up for failure in career goals or stretch assignments when career goals are kept in alignment.
Regularly scheduled 1:1s ensure you take time out on a regular basis to check in on what your direct reports are doing. I review their career interests, provide feedback about their; progress, performance, and feedback. I ensure my direct reports communicate and check-in on expectations of goals.
This is a time to recommend aligned goals, development opportunities, training and assignments. Meeting documentation is important. I think the meeting documentation may be driven by the manager or employee. This is a forcing function that can help to clarify gaps in understandings and ensure goals are aligned.
Real time documentation and feedback is important for those experiencing difficulties. This ensures they are aware of issues and can accurately correct those difficulties immediately if possible.
I provide feedback on a regular and ongoing basis with specific examples when giving feedback. Giving feedback regularly so one can help prevent problems from escalating down the road is the best approach to resolving difficulties. Employees appreciate getting regular feedback about what they are doing well and what they could be doing differently. If I'm leading properly my direct reports should never be any surprised by a task or expectation.
Leading by example requires consistent behavior. Show up and be consistant.
I didn't realize I was engineering when I would calculate air volume, air velocity, air directional changes, or determine the load being put on a certain type of steel, or determine the finish I need to use to protect a certain material over an amount of time for its environment. These are just basic things I did to finish the challenge I was being presented.
This type of mindset has allowed me to accomplish whatever I set out to do. There is always a solution to a problem. Fix it, test it, review it, and REPEAT.
I enjoy creating anything. My mind enjoys the challenge that is presented to me.
Transitioning out of racing and into my own business ventures was a wild ride as I've only been involved in the aircraft and motorcycle industry up to this point. At 30 years of age, I bought my first computer to learn how to manage the website opportunity I bought. I was so lost and robotic the first year I accomplished so much, yet I didn't understand most of what I was doing yet because I was moving so quickly. I designed a very complex code because I didn't know any better. I Just kept trying to do what I was thinking I didn't learn until later that my way of thinking was way out of the box and it's NOT what one would be taught.
I read anything I could get my hands on and tried to replicate everything I could. I threw away what didn't work and kept what did worked for me. There wasn't a concept of a roadblock, just the thought of what else do I need to learn.