From Babies "R" Us to Director
Raised by an immigrant single mom who had to get her GED after his parents divorced when he was in elementary school. Perk remembers helping her study. That's where the work ethic was born — watching his mother refuse to quit.
By 10, he was a second-degree black belt in Taekwondo. By middle school, he saved up to buy a CD burner in the late '90s and started selling mixtapes — "Hot Shit" Volume 1, Volume 2, multiple versions — hustling copies to classmates to make his own money. The entrepreneur was already there.
At 16, the grind went legit — working the floor at Babies "R" Us for three years. Then he became a bellman at the headquarters hotel for the NFL during the Super Bowl in Jacksonville — where he got to see and meet the athletes he'd only watched on TV. That proximity to greatness lit a fire that never went out.
He enrolled at the University of North Florida — a school people joked stood for "U Never Finish." His first semester was a rude awakening. He slacked off and got a warning that he was about to lose his scholarship. Reality clicked. He locked in, hustled, worked part-time, and graduated on time in four years. UNF didn't stand for "U Never Finish" — not for Perk.
In 2007, he walked into the back office of a major wealth management firm. No connections. No pedigree. Just a relentless drive to outwork everyone in the room. Then the market crashed. They were going to lay everyone off within a year. Instead of waiting for his fate, Perk got his investment licenses, worked extra hours, and prepared for whatever came next. He was one of the few they kept — because of his ambition.
Nobody handed him anything. That was his advantage.
By 24, he found himself making six figures — still living at home, stacking every dollar, and in 2009 he bought his first house. From annuity operations to the advisor desk. From individual contributor to nationally recognized top producer. He didn't just hit monthly goals of $400K in new money — he crushed them consistently, earning recognition as a top performer among 120+ advisors nationwide. Then he did what most wouldn't: he stopped performing and started building leaders.
As a manager, he led a prospecting team to the #1 spot in new money acquisition — over $400M in a single year — earning Pinnacle Club honors reserved for the top 5% in sales performance. He built the sales strategy for 100 registered advisors delivering $2.1B in new assets. He helped lead his division to its first-ever $1B in managed sales.
Then he bet on himself — walking away from the corporate ladder to launch Ruthie's Card Collection, a sports card and memorabilia business born from passion and hustle. He was off to a hot start during COVID, riding the boom. But ego got in the way. He got greedy, overbought inventory, and when the market crashed, he fell behind. The business collapsed. He went bankrupt. Lost everything he built.
Most people would have stayed down. Most people would have let the failure define them. Perk is not most people.
Instead of drowning in defeat, he blocked the noise — the doubt, the whispers, the shame that comes with bankruptcy. He leaned into resilience, experience, and a positive attitude that no financial loss could take from him. Eighteen years of outperforming, leading teams, and building strategies didn't disappear because a business failed. That knowledge, that grit, that relentless work ethic — it was still there.
He rose back into the corporate world as a Director of Wealth Services — not despite the failure, but because of it. The bankruptcy taught him what success never could: who you are when you lose everything is who you really are. And Perk? He chose to get back up. 10 toes down. Confident. Unbroken.
Running, pull-ups, and leg day aren't just exercise — they're medicine. Zone 2 heart rate training isn't a fad — it's a lifeline. Discipline equals freedom of mind, body, and soul. Each morning is a battle between courage and cowardice. Perk chooses courage. Every. Single. Day.