What have you accomplished in your professional life/career since your 40 Under 40 selection?
Since be selected as a member of 40 Under 40 in 2015, I have been promoted twice, first to vice president of support services, and most recently in 2018, when I was named president.
I am the third generation of our family business, which also just celebrated its 70th anniversary in 2019. Our company has won numerous awards but the ones that stand out to me are Best Places to Work for call centers for the past four years and most recently we were named as a top 10 most innovated company in our industry. I personally was also named as a top 50 professional in the receivables industry.
I also served as president of the Great Lakes Credit and Collection Association in 2018, where I followed in my father and grandfather’s footsteps, as they both had previously served as president of the association back when it was called the Wisconsin Collectors Association.
What accomplishments, milestones, or endeavors have you attained in your personal life since your 40 Under 40 selection?
I married the love of my life, Kristen, in September 2018 right here in Madison. Shortly after, we finally found our dream house in McFarland after searching for 5-plus years. (Yes, you can say we were picky.)
We continue to have fun traveling and spending time on the Madison lakes in the summer.
If you were to “do it all over again,” what (if anything) would you do differently throughout your career?
The only thing I would change is I would’ve started working with a professional coach earlier on in my career. I have been working with a coach since the beginning of 2018 and it has helped me grow both personally and professionally. I am happy to say I am the happiest I’ve ever been and people notice this. I didn’t start it alone, I also got our family involved in it early on. As you can imagine, running a family business can have its challenges but utilizing a coach has not only improved our family, it also has helped the company have a record-breaking year. Our success led to getting our executive team involved this past year and they have all grown to appreciate the new skills that we have learned together. Now we have created the “Great State Team” which includes a separate vision and values for the executive team to follow. We created a circle of trust, if you will, and we are all working better than ever together.
How did your 40 Under 40 selection help your career?
It gave me the confidence to swing for the fences and see what else could I do or strive for. I didn’t slow down and I have no plans to do so anytime soon. There’s no doubt that it opened up my network in the Madison area, which is great as a young professional. It is important to have people your same age who are experiencing similar successes or struggles to talk with and take advice from.
What is something that you have a new passion for since the time of your induction — either professionally or personally?
I would say the professional coaching that I have done has opened me up to realizing your career isn’t everything in life. My No. 1 passion is now my wife and family. I have done a good job of managing my work-life balance, which again has led me to being the happiest Tim yet.
Based on your experience, do you have any advice for today’s young professionals (under 40)?
Find a career or work environment that you love. If you feel you just have a job, then it’s not for you. You need to find something that you’re passionate about so it doesn’t feel like a job, but rather something that you enjoy and is rewarding. I can still say there hasn’t been a day that I’ve woken up and didn’t feel like going to the office.
Also, strengthen your confidence, stay calm, and network as much as you can. I just talked to a young professional a week ago who told me how he landed a VP position at a local bank. He was at the golf course when he saw some executives from this particular bank. He proceeded to introduce himself and chatted with them for a few minutes, and a few days later he got a phone call asking to come in for an interview. They didn’t have a job opening but created one because they liked what they heard and saw in him. What a great success story, not just for him but for the bank, too.
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