Building things teaches you more about business than studying them.

The Story

From Houston to the Boardroom Table

I grew up in Houston. I finished high school as valedictorian of the Contemporary Learning Center in 2006 — an experience that reinforced something I’ve carried ever since: results come from consistency, discipline, and not making excuses for your circumstances.

I went on to earn a Bachelor of Science in Business Management from New England College of Business and Finance. But the education I remember most didn’t happen in a classroom.

Around 2011, I co-founded Trash N Dash LLC alongside Raymond Pryor. We started with a cargo van and a simple observation: the waste-removal industry in Houston was either too expensive or too unprofessional. We thought we could do it better. We were right — and spending the next 13+ years proving it taught me more about business than any curriculum could.

We built Trash N Dash from the ground up — not just as a junk removal company, but as a real business with systems, pricing discipline, service standards, and a team. We expanded from doorstep trash removal to junk removal, dumpster rentals, portable sanitation, and more. We sustained consistent annual growth of 25%. We maintained 30%+ profit margins. We managed 2,000+ projects a year and earned 4.8+ stars on Google — 123% of the industry average.

What that experience gave me was something no job title ever could: a genuine understanding of what it costs to deliver on a promise, what it means to lose a customer, and what separates a business that grows from one that just stays busy.

In 2022, a serious accident brought an unexpected halt to that momentum. The recovery period that followed was significant — the kind of interruption that forces a genuine reassessment of priorities, direction, and how you want to apply what you’ve spent years building.

What became clear during that time was that the skills developed across 14 years of entrepreneurship — generating revenue, acquiring customers, building commercial relationships, solving operational problems, managing margins — were portable in ways I hadn’t fully considered. Business development gave me an opportunity to apply the most transferable of those skills more deliberately, in a more focused environment, without the full weight of ownership pulling in every direction simultaneously.

The transition wasn’t a departure from entrepreneurship. It was a more concentrated application of what entrepreneurship had already taught me. And the perspective that came from owning a business — understanding what happens after a deal is signed, what it costs to deliver, and what it takes to keep a customer — turned out to be a meaningful advantage in commercial sales environments where most people are only trained to close.

I transitioned that perspective into commercial sales and business development — selling into property management companies, commercial real estate firms, and facilities organizations. The difference between me and a traditional salesperson is that I’ve sat on the other side of the table. I know what a vendor relationship looks like from the client’s operations, not just from the sales cycle.

Through Dirden Consulting LLC, I’ve worked with business owners on sales growth strategies, pricing frameworks, and revenue planning. Through Howard–Dirden Holdings, I’ve brought that same analytical perspective to real estate investment decisions.

Today, I work in commercial business development, continuing to build strategic accounts, develop relationships, and apply everything I’ve learned about what makes revenue sustainable — not just the next deal, but the systems that compound into a real book of business.

I’m also the husband of Anastacia and a father of four — which has a way of clarifying your priorities and sharpening your long-term thinking in ways that a career alone never does.