Adam's current resume, last updated Jan 2010

Adam David Johnson
Eastern time zone ~ United States
adam_peace_harmony2006@yahoo.com
SALES AND BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT
High performing B2B sales specialist offering more than 8 years of stellar experience strategically utilizing acute business acumen to drive multi-million dollar sales efforts throughout multiple markets
Creative thinker and results-orientated professional with proven track record delivering consultative services and value-based solutions to improve processes, increase effectiveness, drive the growth of products and services and ensure the highest level of service
Innovative communicator who has interacted with major decision makers, melding operations to improve quality
Accomplished public speaker and facilitator of information
CORE COMPETENCIES
Driving Sales / Selling Features and Benefits Time Management
Account Management Creating Strategic Marketing Plans
Business Development Product Launches / Brand Awareness
Client Relationship Development / Networking Coordinating Promotions
Assessing Client Needs / Requirements Understanding Competition
Product Knowledge Creative Promotions
Developing Sales Proposals Analyzing Sales Data
Conducting Sales Presentations Writing Reports
Creating and Delivering Value Organizing and Conducting Meetings
Attaining Commitments Management of Special Projects
CAREER PATH
AIRLINES REPORTING CORPORATION (ARC) – Houston, Texas Nov 2005 – Jun 2008
(A $77 billion airline-owned company, ARC is the information hub and leading provider of a broad-based portfolio of services to the travel industry. Headquartered in Virginia, ARC was expanding and a new position was created in Houston in 2005.
Business Development Manager
Drove sales of customized data source, fraud and competitive reporting solutions for pilot data analysis product
Earned Top Sales out of 7 business development managers, achieving as high as 266% of annual plan in 2007
Negotiated contracts ranged $20,000 - $1.5 million, buying cycles averaged 9 – 12 months
Built a pipeline by expertly managing up to 21 major accounts, including American Airlines, Continental Airlines, Southwest Airlines, Aeromexico Airlines and Jet Airways
Laid the groundwork for a $10 million per year contract with one of the largest US carriers (2 years in negotiations and close to finalization with 95% of legwork completed for the sale – would have boosted year-to-date performance to 300% of plan
Communicated with directors of sales and sales development on the client level, and with international vendors
Assisted clients in managing the transition to new data sources (affecting between 15-20 departments including sales, reservations, revenue accounting and marketing) conducted hand-on training, providing a better degree of precision and improved forecasting abilities
CONTINENTAL AIRLINES – Houston, Texas Feb 1987 – Nov 2005
National Corporate Manager
Managed a portfolio of 13 major corporate accounts, generating $685 million in annual sales in 2005 (contracts ranged from $50,000 to $12 million)
Built a trust based relationship with largest client, Halliburton, securing $36 million 3-year contract
Communicated with procurement directors / managers and human resource directors
Hosted various social events to promote business
Held various positions throughout career including Regional Corporate Manager – coached 15 sales managers throughout the Southeast Region of the U.S. on how to sell a totally new product directly to corporations
SALES TRAINING
Power of Understanding Breakthrough Sales Strategies
7 Habits of Highly Effective People Marketing
Advanced Selling Skills Sales Negotiation Workshop
Effective Sales Presentations
EDUCATION
TRINITY WESTERN UNIVERSITY – Langley, British Columbia, Canada
Associate of Arts Degree
INTERNATIONAL AIR ACADEMY – Vancouver, Washington
Certification received
COMPUTER SKILLS
Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook)
In-house Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Applications
Other details about my life’s experiences
In addition to the jobs highlighted previously Adam also held multiple other positions with Continental Airlines including: Reservations and General Sales, OnePass Service Center; Agent, Domestic, International and Mailroom, OnePass Gold Elite Private Line agent, Telemarketing Sales Agent, Flight Attendant, Outside Sales and Service Specialist, Houston Area Manager, SE Regional Manager, Regional Corporate Manager and National Corporate Sales Manager
Adam has also lived in three countries, biked solo across the United States, flown hundreds of trips both domestically and internationally, spent time in 49 states, traveled to dozens of countries, raised four sons, created forms, business contracts and presentations from scratch, created replacement incentive programs with improved ROI over company issued plans, and had many other wide ranging jobs and experiences. Follows are highlights from some of the life experiences and jobs I’ve held that have each contributed to my skills, knowledge base and general aptitudes today.
From the age I could reach the family telephone I fielded calls for my father’s own business as a Farrier, learned how to properly talk with people over the phone
First formal job, picking strawberries age 12, learned about hot, hard work
Next job, picking acorns age 13, learned the value of streamlining movements
Age 14 and 15, working on a farm in Yacolt, Washington, clearing hay fields, pulling tansy ragwort, cleaning out stables, weeding and general labor, more general lessons about hard work
Age 16, had my own business doing landscaping, yard clearing, roof cleaning, pool cleaning, my want ad read…”Anything but babysitting.” I routinely was paid more than I asked for, learned value of how to get along with people and carefully understand a job
Worked in a jeans store, Mr. Rags, Ltd and Meryvns, both in Vancouver Mall, Vancouver, WA
Assistant Youth Pastor, Charter Oak Evangelical Free Church, Battleground, WA
Warehouseman and truck loader for Frito-Lay, Inc. For my own edification found method of loading many trucks in an 8-12 hour shift without ever turning off the conveyor belt, lessons on efficiency of motions and how to streamline work. This job, over multiple summers, paid for my college
Also worked briefly in a lumber mill pulling green lumber, working table saw, appreciation for hot, humid, sticky work
Spent a year in Venezuela during High School while my parents were missionaries. Attended school with other American expats
Hot tar roofer, late teens, stoking hot tar kettle, clearing high and steep roofs and repairing them and working a hot tar mop, value of careful work and attention to detail, if you slip on a 60’ roof it’s a long way down
Technician for Union Carbine harvesting silicone rods in a reactor, working with some of the most pristine and cleanest products our attention to detail insured that the harvested rods, bound for Japan for processing we uncontaminated to a fraction less than 0.00001%. Together with team reduced turnaround time from 6 hours to less than 3
After earning my Associate of Arts Degree from Christian Liberal Arts School, Trinity Western I took a sabbatical from working and after saving $3,000 rode a bicycle solo across the United States.
After the bike trip in 1986 I enrolled in an trade school; International Air Academy in Vancouver, Washington and parlayed this into a job with Continental Airlines
With Continental Airlines I progressed from an entry level job in 1987 paying $5.55/hr to an eventual job as a Global Business Development Manager in 2005 paying $62K/year. Between the two were nearly 15 various jobs as I progressed upward through the company
In 2005 I resigned from Continental and took a position with Airlines Reporting Corporation
After ARC I worked a variety of jobs from my home in Houston while assisting my wife in raising our newborn baby, my fifth son
These jobs included marketing and warm calling, home sales of water treatment systems
Working as an enumerator with the US Census Bureau, canvassing 5,000 homes in 5 weeks
Working as an overnight rescue driver for AAA helping stranded motorists with flat tires, dead batteries, lockouts and other minor emergencies
Working as an overnight stocker for HEB foods in Houston and ad hoc Stock Controller overseeing team of 8 – 12 stockers during overnight shifts when regular managers were absent
Drove a taxicab as an independent contractor in/around greater Houston
In summary, I have done a vast array of jobs, both blue and white collar, indoors, outdoors, worked solo and as part of a team, I’ve been an employee, an independent business operator, working in union and non-union shops and have found ways to streamline and improve processes everywhere I’ve worked. I get along with people well, I know how to work hard, how to sell and I’m both creative and diplomatic.

Currently I spend time as a concierge and FedEx delivery driver in Virginia.

Global Stimulus efforts ~ or ~ How I learned to stop worrying and keep spending...

Does anyone else think that the stimulus packages being pursued in the United States, Australia, Germany, etc. are something of a Global Economic Musical Chairs game? My impression is that in a macro sense we're all borrowing against future assumed prosperity to gain short term solutions.

Although I've personally made some bad economic decisions in my life, or maybe because I've made some bad $ decisions in my life, I'm trying to follow some simple rules like... Not spendng money I don't have to get things/results that I don't want. My thinking is that if all of the major economies in the world all follow this strategy then soon the music will stop and the world will clamor for a global government solution.

50 things about me

1. I believe in Valor, Kindness, Diplomacy and Passion and lament that all of these seem to be in short supply in our society today.
2. I prefer driving with the windows down, most of the time.
3. The panorama of changing seasons is rejuvenating to my soul.
4. I love to cook and to set a table before my family and friends.
5. My cross country (mostly, I missed the middle part) bicycle trip in 1986 was a seminal event in my life.
6. I'm grateful to have lived in multiple countries and moved so many times in my life.
7. Travel is fatal to pride, prejudice and bigotry is my favorite quote, Mark Twain.
8. I believe that a good motto for business is, "Make it easy for the customer to give you their money."
9. If you see me running, I'm being chased.
10. Given a spectrum from 0 to 100, with 0 being no debt and a complete absence of goods and 100 being bankrupt with every imaginable luxury item, I would prefer to be in the low single digits, debt to me is like a weight around my neck, it saddens me to also see our entire country being in such a rush to burden future generations with societal debt.
11. The changing of the leave in the Northeastern United States is a national treasure.
12. I believe I will visit the only state I haven't been to yet, with my wife someday, Alaska.
13. My nature is to be helpful, confrontation does not come easily for me, although I wish it were not quite so unfamiliar.
14. For as long as I can remember I've only had one Best Friend at a time.
15. Creativity, for me, ranks unusually high in my personal Pavlov's scale, generally just after food and shelter, sometimes trumping even them.
16. Atlas Shrugged was my favorite book, I've recommended it to many, a few have actually read it.
17. I believe that Canada, as a country, often lives up to some of the ideals of decency, tolerance, love of nature and fraternity that I wish were more in evidence in my own country.
18. I believe that some kind of devine providence orchestrated the collective wisdom of the founding fathers on my country and that our Constitution, as originally written, has been a guarantor of many liberties and that these liberties are being aggressively chipped away at by well meaning but naive and misguided persons.
19. I'm very proud of all of my sons, for different reasons.
20. I have taken hundreds of flights and trips in my life, and hope to take hundreds more.
21. It annoys me when people stand in front of scenery all rigid and take their pictures very stoically I almost always prefer unposed candid pictures.
22. I believe SPREZZATURA is a dying art.
23. I believe that graduating seniors in the US should at least be able to pass the same test that folks have to gain citizenship.
24. Civics and Geography are disciplines that are frequently bypassed in current curriculums.
25. It frustrates me that so little guidance is given to students about the perils of money management, or lack thereof.
26. I intend to make a giant sized Monopoly game for my family's amusement.
27. I'd like to sky dive someday.
28. I prefer Big Dogs over Little Dogs.
29. I believe that dogs have owners and that cats have staff.
30. I enjoy the iron sharpening iron dynamic of Hubdub.com.
31. Although I can be persuasive and have spent years in sales related jobs, I find more inner peace from creating things.
32. I believe in cheering for your team when they do something well and shutting up when the opponent fumbles or stumbles independent of anything your team did.
33. I believe that evil does exist in the world and some absolutes do exist.
34. I believe the definition of decency is doing the right thing, when no one is looking.
35. This is the best explanation of faith I know...A daughter asks her father, "Daddy, what is faith?" He takes her to the stairs leading to the cellar, leaves her on the top stoop, turns out the light overhead and tells her, jump into my arms." She does. That's faith.
36. I believe that there is little, if anything, truly random in our lives.
37. I believe that I've made many grave errors in judgement in my life and although plausible, I prefer to try instead to learn from them, rather than dwell in them.
38. It took me years to appreciate and understand two things my grandfather told me... Sincerity is the key, once you can fake that, you've got it made. And Pick your rut, you'll be in it for the next 20 years.
39. I like to visit restaurants I already enjoy, but dine on new dishes.
40. I appreciate that my parents gave me such a strong, biblical name.
41. I regret not having more of my original family closer in proximity to where I live.
42. I've collected sand from dozens of beaches around the world.
43. I can name over 500 different distinct colors.
44. Someday I will publish a deck of Travel Bingo Cards.
45. I believe that every generation believes THEY are in the end times, as do I, now.
46. I am skeptical of a large portion of reported news that I hear, I prefer to try and discern truth myself and to spot trends.
47. I believe that a woman sending a man to a paint store for a particular shade is a recipe for disaster.
48. I celebrate the differences between genders and I bristle at the tendency to try and blur these imbedded differences.
49. Although I don't believe that clothes make the man, per se, I also see the truth in the counsel from ZZ Top that, Every Girl's Crazy 'Bout a Sharp Dressed Man.
50. I'm surprised that I could bang out this list of 50 things without a lot of thought and I'd like to go on record as saying that it was done at random, late at night without any particular sense of ranking.