Who is this guy?
My name is Bryan and I was born and raised on the south side of Chicago.
Bryan BaileyI grew up in a very culturally diverse neighborhood and school, with an even mixture of White, Black, Hispanic and some Arabic. Graduated with honors in 1995 and spent the next four years in the U.S. Navy. The first two years were dedicated to weapons, electrical, and mechanical schools and other training. My third year I was stationed aboard a large ship, and the last year on a small Destroyer. (click the links to see the actual ships)
After the Navy I had many jobs and a wide range of college courses, including Cisco Networking, Firefighting, Welding, and others. I settled down for awhile at a paint manufacturing plant as a batch processor. Intense labor there combined with my new wife’s cooking bulked me up with a ton of muscle and strength. Unfortunately the fumes and chemicals destroyed my nasal passages to the point that I have very little sense of smell. (thank GOD!!)
Chucking paint got very old and boring, and I wanted something better. I saved a ton of cash at this point, and decided to open my own fish and reptile niche store. It did great for the first year, but a 3 day power outage killed off all my livestock. The wonderful power company called it an “act of God” and would not pay me for the damages, and my insurance would not cover live animals. Replacing them with my personal funds seemed like a great idea at the time, but I soon realized my error. Due to my fish and reptiles dying so fast, there was no way for me to hide it from my high-end clients. It was a small store and as they came in, they didn’t care what happened, only that $200 fish were upside down in the tanks. It took me months to purge all the dying fish, treat the new diseases, balance the water parameters, and finally start selling again. By this time it was too late, my ship had sailed. 
I was broke, the store was worse, no way to advertise, no way to borrow, nada. Luckily, just before I lost my house, a guy decided to buy it from me, although for a bit less than I had originally invested. I had to cut my losses and save my house (and probably marriage) so I sold out.
After that depressing adventure I was invited to sell cars for a Lincoln/Mercury dealer. They trained me very well and also sent me to Dale Carnegie for some Enthuuuusiastic motivation. (inside joke for fellow students) What a powerful trip that was. The job turned out to be temporary though, especially due to the fact that gas prices had risen to around $4 per gallon at the time. Great cars for sure, but they lack the gas mileage, and sales dropped. The car industry took a nose dive, and noobies were cut first. (me)
Next I spent four years as the Sales Manager for a major pet retailer, in charge of all hiring, firing, training, workshops, motivation, and merchandising. Turning unfocused, unguided people into positively motivated workers was an absolute pleasure. The money wasn’t exactly what I would wish for, but at least I had a job. Complications with sales strategies, combined with a majority of the grade A sales staff and managers suddenly quitting, sent our numbers plummeting down out of control. Fingers were pointing everywhere except in the right direction, so I decided to get out of the kitchen while it was hot.
Currently I work as a service adviser for a local tire company. Pay is better, I work probably 20 less hours per week, it is 3 miles from my house, they are closed Sunday’s, and I am home no latter than 6:30 most days. What a big change from my last job!
I also happen to be a self taught Master hypnotist, going on about 5 years now. I do not choose to use my skills for money, only for freely helping friends, family and those in need.
There were other jobs in between those, but most are not worth mentioning. The only exception is the circuit board factory that I spent a year with… happens to be the place where I met my awesome wife Cecilia. (besos)
So what is my point?? My point is that I have a wide array of experience, ups AND downs, pains and pleasure, to offer and assist you as needed. Ask, and you shall receive, that’s the whole point of this blog.
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bryan j bailey
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Hey Bryan. Never knew you were into Cisco. You probably have stuff you could teach me about networking servers?
-Joe
Well, I haven’t done anything with it for 8 years…