Christopher Gilliam, GRI

I was born in Alaska. As my dad was in the military, I lived in New Jersey, Florida, Georga, New York, Arizona and Delaware before I was 11 years old. Dad retired to Homer, Alaska where I attended Jr and Sr High School. My family lived very "Robinson Crusoe-ish" for the first 4-years... 5 of us in a one-room cabin with only a wood-burning stove and "running water" that "ran" from town out to our place in 5-gallon jugs. Growing up like that is where I obtained my work ethic (one of my chores was keeping the fire going... if/when I failed, I actually got to SEE my mom and sister freezing!)
I earned my way thru college (at North Texas State) by being an entrepreneur. My most successful enterprise was a carpet recycling business which I expanded to Penn State (PA) and Brown University (RI) after graduation. I then spend a couple of years "living life"... doing such crazy things as working in an underground coal mine and traveling the country setting up opera sets.
Eventually I decided it was time to get a "real job", and got into Human Resources. The "Summary of Qualifications" tab picks my story up from there.

Prior to getting into real estate, I spent 17 years as a Human Resource professional; responsible for hiring/firing, training, payroll, safety, benefits administration and retirement plans, employee relations, employment law, DOT compliance, etc. This career honed my communication and interpersonal skills, both of which were very transferable to my current career in Real Estate.
I took the required real estate classes in the Spring and Summer of '06, and earned my license in August of that same year. I then jumped right into the advanced coursework (in real estate law, finance, taxation, investments, specialization, etc.) to earn my GRI (Graduate, Realtor Institute) in less than 4 months! [The significance of this might be better appreciated if you knew that only Realtors can pursue the GRI (not all licensed agents are Realtors), and then, only about 20% of the Realtors ever bother to earn the GRI, and those that do generally take 4-6 YEARS to get it. I got it in less than 4 months! Why did I pursue it so aggresively? Because I didn't want to be "practicing" real estate on my first few clients... I wanted to know what I was doing and how best to serve them!]
I then began doing it part-time while continuing in my "day job" as Director of Human Resources for Commercial Tire (it was a really good job, and I'd been there for 5 years. They have 38 locations across 5 states, and are a 60 million dollar company). However, I found that I was enjoying my part-time gig a whole lot more than my full-time one, so in May I gave 4-weeks notice, and have been a full-time Realtor since April 7th of this year.
Why should you use me, or refer others to me? Because I understand the importance of delivering professional service... I spent 17 years doing it in corporate America. I strive for perfection, and settle for excellence.
Thank you so much for your time and consideration. Please call if you have any questions.

P.S. Didn't know where else to put this, so decided to mention here in the Post Scrpt: I was a radio DJ for 4-years; I'm a published author (the Job Search Advisor); I was once in a movie with Kathy Ireland, Scott Bakula & Sinbad; and I have applied several times to be on the TV reality show "Survivor"! [All I can say is that if you're still reading this, you've got to either be my mother (hi mom) or you've got insomnia!, whichever it is... thank you for your time!]