I spent years on site in property management, leasing apartments, running a team, and figuring out what actually helps a new hire succeed in their first month. Then I moved into learning and development full time, where I build the courses, manuals, and simulations that people across twenty five states use to get better at their jobs.
Everything on this site comes out of that same instinct: take something complicated, understand who needs it, and make it clear enough to be useful. That is the training. That is the books. That is the websites.
A five book series on leasing, residents, teams, and marketing. Written from the training floor.
Read the seriesTen years, four companies, and the roles that turned a leasing agent into a course builder.
Open the timelineThe side of me that builds websites for local businesses at prices they can actually say yes to.
See the studioI am a West Michigan native, and I have spent my whole career in rooms where somebody needed something explained well. I have never been able to leave a thing at good enough. If a project only asks for the plain version, I will build the memorable one anyway, on my own time, because that is the part I actually enjoy.
Underneath all of that, there are six values I hold to. Open any of them.
Do the right thing when it costs you something and when nobody would ever find out. I would rather lose the sale, the argument, or the shortcut than be someone whose word has to be checked. If I tell you something, you can build on it.
Be a genuinely good person to the people around you. Most people you meet are carrying something you cannot see, and a little patience costs you almost nothing. I would rather be remembered as kind than as impressive.
I take real pride in everything I put my name on. It is not finished when it works, it is finished when the person receiving it is actually satisfied with the quality. Good enough has never sat right with me.
I am driven. I want to keep getting better, keep earning more, and keep reaching further than the version of me from last year. Every role I have held, I outgrew on purpose, by learning the next thing before anyone handed it to me.
The best work happens when people actually listen to each other. I ask before I assume, I take the answer seriously, and I would rather adjust my idea than defend it. A team that hears each other beats a room full of individually smart people.
Keep your footing on the loud days. Setbacks and pressure are going to come, and the thing that matters is staying the same person through them. Reset, take the next thing on, and do not let a hard week change how you treat people.
Five books for the people who actually run apartment communities. Not the investors, not the executives. The leasing agent taking their first tour, the assistant manager buried in delinquency, the team trying to figure out why nobody is renewing.
Every book stands on its own. Fair housing leads each one. Integrity runs through all of them. And every chapter ends with something you can practice tomorrow morning.
Leasing agent, senior leasing agent, leasing professional, assistant community manager. Ten years across three property management companies, including the largest apartment community in my market at 1,764 units. Nothing in these books is theory I read somewhere.
As a learning content developer I build courses, manuals, and simulations for teams in twenty five states. I spend my working life making complicated processes land the first time. That is the difference between industry knowledge and industry knowledge you can use.
The full architecture of all five books is finished. Chapters are mapped, learning objectives are written, and drafting is underway. Covers and release dates land here first.
Meanwhile, see the studioLearning content developer. I build training programs, e-learning courses, and process documentation for a national multifamily portfolio.
Open any role to see the context and what I was responsible for.
Monarch is one of the largest multifamily property management companies in the country. I joined as a national leasing trainer, traveling to support on site teams across the portfolio. After identifying gaps the training department was not yet covering, I worked with the Director of Training to shape a new learning content developer role and moved into it. The job shifted from delivering training to designing it: courses, manuals, visual resources, and process documentation used across multiple departments.
Instead of having trainees watch a screen recording of someone else using our CRM, I rebuilt the entire system as an interactive simulation from scratch in Articulate Storyline. Learners got hands on reps in a safe environment before ever touching a real resident record.
Trilogy is a multifamily operator focused on resident experience and community engagement. I started in leasing and was promoted to assistant community manager, where the job widened from leasing and resident relations into team support, operations oversight, accounting, staff training, and marketing. This is where leadership started to feel like the thing I actually wanted to do.
Land & Co. operated the largest apartment community in the local market at 1,764 units, which meant constant traffic and no room for a sloppy process. I started as a leasing agent guiding prospects through floor plans, tours, and applications. I was later selected for a newly created senior leasing agent role supporting the rest of the team and helping train new consultants.
A locally operated Subway franchise, and the first place I found out I liked teaching people how to do things. I moved from sandwich artist to opening manager to training and hiring manager, taking on onboarding, procedure writing, and team leadership along the way.
Earning credits to transfer to University of Michigan-Dearborn. Long term plan is a master's in instructional design.
Certificate of completion. Excelled in the marketing and management program.
High school diploma with a focus on business electives. Dual enrolled at Davenport University.
Presentation Management (3), Spreadsheets (2), Administrative Support Procedures (2), Website Design (1), Publishing Applications (1).
Proficient in Excel and Publisher as well.
Awarded in late 2019, with the Fair Housing Annual Update completed in mid 2020.
Select a skill above and the story behind it shows up here.
I am a foodie who loves trying new food, and I do my best experimenting in my own kitchen. Building my own recipes and putting a personal twist on a dish is half the fun.
I love experiencing the world and other cultures. Sometimes that is a planned trip, and sometimes it is backpacking solo and figuring it out as I go.
Trail and mountain hiking at parks across the country. Nothing clears my head the way a few hours outside does.
I feel a real connection to the animal kingdom, dogs especially. A golden retriever puppy is in my very near future.
Board games and video games both, and almost always better with friends in the room or on a headset.
I am an extrovert who loves making the people around me laugh. Time with friends is where I recharge, not where I spend energy.
Sunburst Studio is mine. It started because I kept meeting local business owners stuck in the same place: quoted thousands of dollars by an agency, or told to build it themselves in time they do not have. So they stay invisible online, and the work they do never reaches the people looking for it.
That gap is the whole reason the studio exists. Fair prices, published openly, no hidden fees, and a site the owner can actually keep up with after I hand it over.
Every price is published on the site. Same number for everyone, no quote games, no charge for being a bigger company.
I set clients up so they can update their own menu, hours, or photos without waiting on me. Independence is the point.
No dark patterns, no misleading copy, no maintenance fee that buys nothing. It is written into the studio's integrity statement.
The in house build. Custom coded, fast, and made specifically for the business it belongs to. One time setup plus a flat monthly that covers hosting, maintenance, and unlimited changes while the subscription is active.
For owners who want to drive it themselves later. Built on a platform they can log into and edit forever, priced per page, with no ongoing commitment to me at all.
Pricing, portfolio, integrity statement, and the full menu of what I offer. Designed with love in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
sunburst-studio.com