Justin began his career in June of 1998 when he was drafted by the Anaheim Angels. He spent parts of 3 seasons playing in the Angels minor league system, while also having the opportunity to play in Major League games during Spring Training of 1999. It was his time as a college baseball player at the University of Tennessee, professional player with the Angels, and his time as a coach at Arizona State University that Justin developed a passion to understand intangible components that make up a great team. He has been leading and developing training curriculum integrating that experience with principles in organizational/industrial psychology ever since. Justin has trained well over 10,000 individuals throughout his 20+ year career in areas such as leadership, personality preference, behavioral finance, emotional intelligence, decision making, conflict management, and business management.
Justin has always believed that trainers and consultants need to be doing, not just teaching. Over the past 10 years, Justin has spent his time in the financial services sector, starting as a planner opening a small income planning based business with his best friend in Fort Collins, Colorado. After that, Justin became the Vice-President of Training and Development for a new firm in Colorado Springs, Colorado. In January of 2017, Justin was named the President of Accelerated Wealth, LLC, overseeing business development, human resources, operations, and mergers & acquisitions. The AW family of companies has grown from an annual top-line revenue of $3 Million to now over $12 Million since Justin took over as President. AW has been named ”Best of Colorado Springs” financial planner in the Colorado Springs Gazette from 2014-2021 and is one of the fastest growing RIA’s in the state of Colorado.
Justin has also overseen 5 successful acquisitions in his first 3 years of involvement in the M&A space with client retainment over 95% in all 5 transitions.
Prior to his time in the financial industry, Justin had a thriving career in the healthcare industry with Abbott. He was hired by Abbott in March of 2005, and had roles in sales, sales management, operations, training, analytics, marketing, and brand development. He was named as one of 25 emerging leaders by the Fortune 70 company and won Abbott’s prestigious PACE award 2 years in a row for “Pioneering” through 2 training programs that he was instrumental in developing and rolling out to over 4,000 sales force employees. During his time at Abbott, Justin was part of the leadership team that managed an over $1 Billion book of business in the cardiovascular area, as well as 5 upper-level managers, 60 mid-level managers, and over 2,000 sales representatives.
Due to multiple life events, Justin decided to leave corporate America, and helped to form and start a Non-Profit Organization called Heartwork as the COO and Chairman. Heartwork has been responsible for conducting over 1,000 orphan projects around the globe with US based student groups. He has been married to his high school sweetheart Shannon, who is also a Canaanside partner for over 20 years, and has 4 children. He also coaches baseball in the Colorado Springs area for the local high school and his son’s club team.
Justin’s professional passion is to see a community of financial planners that operate on Biblical values create meaningful impact in our country both through the work they do with their families, clients, and employees, as well as the work they do in their cities.
