Welcome!
I'm
Tom Atkins, founder of Quarry House. People and organizations that work
with me, succeed.
A History of Success
With over thirty years in high technology work in Broadcast, AV and Media Centric IT, I have been blessed to be associated with many "first of their kind" technical facilities, and have been part of the start up team for three start ups that became industry giants.
In 1991, I was one of the first four employees of The Whitlock Group, helping them grow from a start up to one of the top five companies in the Systems Integration industry. In 1998, I was offered an opportunity to be a partner and VP of Sales and Marketing at TGS. For the next five years we grew over 200% a year, and were eventually bought out by industry giant Ascent Media.
In 2005 I went to work at Diversified Systems, starting their Mid-Atlantic division in Washington DC from scratch. Overseeing sales, engineering, project management and administration, we went from a start up to over $16M/year in sales. While at Diversified, I also oversaw the company's marketing both nationally and internationally. During this same time, I was a partner in the Kingma Agency, doing marketing and advertising for national and international clients.
In 2011, I began Quarry House, focusing on taking the lessons learned in a life of success, and helping others reach their own success. I joined the John Maxwell Team and underwent the most intensive and highly respected training available to become a certified coach, consultant, trainer and speaker, adding those skills to my arsenal of tools to help people and companies get from where they are to where they want to be.
From Having Success, to helping others gain it
When I started Quarry House, I spent a lot of my time looking back and asking myself what was the most satisfying part of what I had done so far in life. The answer came easily - in everything I have done, from technology to business building to ministry, the one common theme has been helping people get from where they were to where they wanted to be.
My greatest satisfaction came from just that. When I was able to help employees grow and reach their dreams, help companies grow and reach their goals, help people become better leaders, help them develop processes and ways of living and working that build on their strengths - those were the most satisfying part of everything I did, and so that became the central focus on my work.
I took what I had learned from a varied career, and added to it the formal training from The John Maxwell Team to understand the dynamics and science of coaching and leading, adding that to my arsenal of skills. I immersed myself in changing the model of consulting from one of me telling people what to do, to me helping my clients find their own best paths in a highly collaborative process.
Even in my a-la-cart work like photography and copywriting, I studied and put in place a far more collaborative process, making what I did well technically even more client-focused.
Today, my work is 100% focused on helping clients get from where they are to where they want to be. 100%. And as a result, I am more effective, and can help a wider variety of clients than ever before. I coach. I consult. I do speaking engagements. I help clients manage technology projects. TI help clients market, build businesses and solve problems. The range can be breathtaking, but the focus is always "What Can I do for you?". My Mission Statement has remained unchanged in ten years, and still holds as does my remarkably simple philosophy of doing business.
High Tech, High Touch
Here at Quarry House, I work with the best collaborative tools, allowing me to work with clients and partners throughout the world. At the same time, I limit the number of clients and projects I take on. to make sure each and every client gets personal attention.
On the surface, Quarry House is just me. But in reality it is something of a consortium. You see, in over 30 years of technical and creative work, I've gained the friendship and trust of many highly trained professionals in all sorts of fields. And depending on the project or need, I can bring these people and companies to the table.
My clients don't pay for overhead or services they don't need, yet they still have the advantage of a nationwide network or experts and professionals. I can choose just the right partner for the task. It's a collaborative way of working that gets a lot of press as "the new way to work" these days, but I've been doing it for over two decades.
What can I do for you?
So that's me and that's the Reader's Digest run-down on Quarry House. I hope this answers a bit of what you hoped to find when you clicked the "about" link. Take some time to look over the rest of our site, learn what we do, how we do it, and what sets us apart. Then then contact us. Let's talk about what you want to do or become, and see where I can help. Everything great starts with a conversation.