Founder and Chairman, The Aspire Institute

Ken Brookings was born with a wrench in one hand and paint brush in the other. His father was at once a painting contractor and an auto shop owner. Ken became a Vice President with a Fortune 500 company by age 27. After that company was acquired Ken founded and sold two other successful businesses before beginning his consulting career. Focusing on high level strategic and operational business consulting Ken worked with the senior management teams at clients including Apple Computer, Texas Instruments, Goodyear, British Petroleum, Firestone, SPX and other major corporations.

Ken then changed up everything, “The high-level corporate consulting business was interesting and financially rewarding but something important was missing. The work, no matter how important didn’t really change anybody’s life. It just didn’t seem to matter. My head and maybe my ego led me to this kind of glamorous work – but it was my heart that brought me back to the kind of work that matters.”

Ken repurposed the successful business that he had built to focus entirely on helping small businesses. According to Ken, “The heroes of the business world are the small business owners and managers. They do the real work and produce the most jobs in this country. Sadly, they seldom get the rewards that their honest work deserves. My focus became, and remains, to change that.”

Ken has been a featured speaker at countless industry events to tens of thousands of business owners. He has written for and been featured on the cover of trade publications and holds four industry related patents.

For over 20 years now Ken’s company, The Aspire Institute, has focused on the two business segments in which Ken grew up; the Automotive Service Industry and Construction Contractors. Thousands of business owners and their families are more prosperous today through Aspire’s work. Ken is proud to still have a paint brush in one hand and a wrench in the other.

CEO, The Aspire Institute

Fred grew up in the independent service industry. He acquired a small, struggling service company and promptly partnered with Aspire to help turn it around. Fred turned a near-failing business into one of the most successful of it’s kind in the country in record time. He sold that business and joined Aspire as an instructor before being promoted to Senior VP and eventually CEO of The Aspire Institute. Fred has taught hundreds of service businesses on a one-to-one basis and has presented to thousands of business owners in groups large and small all over the United States.

Fred’s passion is to help small business owners achieve work-life balance and build real wealth.

When not contributing to positive changes for Aspire clients and staff, Fred enjoys flying his personal plane and spending time with his wife and family in his home town of Ridgecrest, CA.

President, The Aspire Institute

Linda has been with Aspire for over 20 years. Linda brings a unique capacity for analysis and financial management. Linda has provided financial management for many small companies, helping them grow and optimize their cash flow.

Over her years with Aspire she developed into a very effective senior manager, eventually becoming Aspire’s president. Linda’s management style is a rare blend of no-nonsense business efficiency with a fun and healthy work environment.

Vice President, The Aspire Institute

Anthony is the son of small business owners making him no stranger to the stress and burden that comes with business ownership. From a very young age, he’s demonstrated an extraordinary drive to succeed. As a young athlete, Anthony competed in high school sports which led to a collegiate football career in California. After college, he worked in the fitness industry spending 14 years developing training programs, sales processes, and providing business coaching for small business owners in the San Francisco Bay Area. His career in fitness culminated in a Regional Management role overseeing a corporate division covering California, Utah, and Nevada.

Missing the small town Sandpoint Idaho lifestyle, Anthony moved back to his hometown and joined the Aspire Institute, where he provides expertise in employee development, sales, management, and operations. His tenacious desire for winning drives him to help Aspire staff and clients alike, become the very best version of themselves they can achieve. This same drive and dedication for helping others propelled him through the ranks to become Vice President of Aspire in under two years.

As our Vice President, he contributes leadership, clarity of vision and a winning attitude to every department.  It’s not uncommon for Anthony to jump from a marketing meeting to a coach’s production meeting and then go on the road to help facilitate an Aspire field workshop.  His well-deserved nickname here is “VP of Winning.”

When away from work, Anthony enjoys spending time with his wife Kayley and his dog Tay Tay, along with maintaining a rigorous workout regimen, cooking and competing to win at just about anything!

Ken Brookings was born with a wrench in one hand and paintbrush in the other. His father was at once a painting contractor and an auto shop owner. Ken became a Vice President with a Fortune 500 company by age 27. After that company was acquired Ken founded and sold two other successful businesses before beginning his consulting career. Focusing on high level strategic and operational business consulting Ken worked with the senior management teams at clients including Apple Computer, Texas Instruments, Goodyear, British Petroleum, Firestone, SPX and other major corporations.

Ken then changed up everything, “The high-level corporate consulting business was interesting and financially rewarding but something important was missing. The work, no matter how important didn’t really change anybody’s life. It just didn’t seem to matter. My head and maybe my ego led me to this kind of glamorous work – but it was my heart that brought me back to the kind of work that matters.”

Ken repurposed the successful business that he had built to focus entirely on helping small businesses. According to Ken, “The heroes of the business world are the small business owners and managers. They do the real work and produce the most jobs in this country. Sadly, they seldom get the rewards that their honest work deserves. My focus became, and remains, to change that.”

Ken has been a featured speaker at countless industry events to tens of thousands of business owners. He has written for and been featured on the cover of trade publications and holds four industry related patents.

For over 20 years now Ken’s company, The Aspire Institute, has focused on the two business segments in which Ken grew up; the Automotive Service Industry and Construction Contractors. Thousands of business owners and their families are more prosperous today through Aspire’s work. Ken is proud to still have a paintbrush in one hand and a wrench in the other.

Rory is a builder, an athlete, a coach and a teacher. The son of a highly-skilled mason, he had become very familiar with construction sites by the time he was eight years old.

From an early age, he developed an extraordinary drive to succeed. As a young athlete, Rory was highly competitive in high school sports. His success on the gridiron led to a collegiate football career at the University of Idaho, where he graduated with a Master’s in Education and Undergraduate endorsements in Business and Exercise Science.

After college, Rory took a position with ARI roofing, where he managed several labor crews across the state of Idaho. With ARI, he gained valuable experience in management, developing and implementing sales processes, and creating long-term client relations. Ultimately he was promoted to Vice President, overseeing and managing company-wide day to day operations. During this time, Rory was also a high school football coach, a position he held for eight years, culminating in winning a state championship in the Idaho 5A classification.

In 2018, Rory was recruited by Norcraft Companies and relocated to Michigan. He worked in the sales department for Norcraft’s custom cabinet division, where he managed the company’s client relations for several large building contractors serving the Grand Rapids and Lansing markets.

Missing the small town Idaho lifestyle, Rory moved back to North Idaho to join the Aspire

Institute’s Contractor Business coaching team. At Aspire, he brings to bear an unstoppable winning attitude in service to Aspire Contractor Clients. He demonstrates a daily passion for helping contractors around the country reach their full business and personal potential.

When away from work, Rory enjoys spending time with his wife Sheila and raising his children Zade, Remi, and Reiss, while enjoying the outdoors and soaking up all that life has to offer.

Mitchell is the Marketing Coach at Aspire, and also serves as the Marketing Director, with responsibility for marketing programs, brand management, and corporate sponsorships.  Before joining Aspire, Mitchell served as the Executive Director & President of Northwest Film Institute, a non-profit film production and education organization.

As a creative sales and marketing professional with an entrepreneurial focus, Mitchell has been involved in numerous successful business start-ups including two radio stations, three magazines, a video production company and a jingle house.  He’s also owned and operated his own commercial recording studio, a full-service marketing, advertising, and public relations firm, and the motion picture marketing company, Movietime Entertainment, which Mitchell founded, grew to a national presence and took public through a reverse merger with MagicWorks Entertainment, illusionist David Copperfield’s production company.

When not furthering the Aspire mission to help residential builders create a prosperous work-life balance, Mitchell spends his time making independent films, composing music and enjoying the backwoods of North Idaho with his family. He currently resides in Sandpoint, Idaho with his wife and kids.

Jake got his first taste of the construction business in high school when he took his first job taping and texturing drywall. He has remained in construction ever since, becoming involved in many different aspects of the business. Jake’s passion is for systems and processes.

Jake has spent the last decade helping contractors grow their businesses in the Sacramento area. He has generated leads, sold jobs, managed projects, taped, textured, and everything in between. The companies he has worked with have experienced tremendous growth and success. His leadership helped to produce a profitable margin focused 500% increase in annual sales over 5 years in his last position before Aspire. Jake’s passion for systems and processes has allowed the businesses he has previously worked with to continue to flourish.

In 2020, Jake was recruited by the Aspire Institute as a business coach. After researching the company and meeting with the team, he decided to move his family to Sandpoint to join Aspire. He loves the North Idaho lifestyle and spends his free time enjoying the outdoors with his wife and three children.

Staci is Aspire’s AI Specialist.  Using her Master’s in Business Management, Staci’s passion at Aspire is to help clients turn their book keeping records into business management tools. Originally from Colorado, she and her family settled on Sandpoint, Idaho in the fall of 2015 after traveling for 9 months across the western United States in an RV. Of the 19 states they visited in their journey, Staci and her family are certain they picked the best possible place to live!

Staci has owned several small businesses. Currently, she and her husband own an automotive/diesel repair business, and it is through this lens that Staci has become all too familiar with the struggles of entrepreneurship. After settling in Sandpoint, she became a Service Administrator with a local equipment dealership and eventually took a position within the company in sales as a Territory Manager. It is because of that experience that she came to us here at Aspire. Staci brought with her such unique sales and small business experience that she makes the perfect person for working with our clients and coaching them on how to better their business with our AI system.

When Staci isn’t working, she’s enjoys spending time with her husband, Joe, and their kids (two teenagers and two adult children.) She enjoys pursing two of North Idaho’s outdoor activities –  hunting and fishing – as well as gardening and raising livestock.