What makes Kim Popella capable of writing for a Website on Training, Customer Service, Management, and Business? Well it started in a small town called Cranesville, Pennsylvania. There were only about 800 people but it was a great place to grow up. My father and mother were both teachers in our school district and my father was extremely active in politics within our community. My parents were always my mentors and heroes and one of the best lessons they taught me was that education was essential. Now having two parents as teachers you would think that they meant formal education and I better bring home A’s at all costs. This was not their lesson but rather learn from every experience you are given. That would be learning from life experience, peers, people, and circumstances.
High School for me involved theater, class treasurer, and National Honor Society. My family also owned a small ice cream store that we ran for four years. That was a great learning experience for me. I was twelve when we started and within two years my father had turned over many of the operations responsibilities to me. I created the inventory tracking and started doing much of the ordering. I had been bitten by the restaurant bug. My greatest accomplishment in High School was the motivation to skip my senior year of high school and enter college. I knew what I wanted and one month after I turned seventeen I left home and went to Johnson and WalesCollege which was 600 miles from home. This was probably one of the best decisions I made. Get on with my education and learn a little bit about life. I remember it as if it were yesterday my dad hugs me good bye and tells me “if you get a 4.0 I’ll be disappointed, go have fun and enjoy life.”
I received my Associate Degree in Hotel/Restaurant Management and returned to Erie to attend MercyhurstCollege and receive my Bachelor Degree in Hotel/Restaurant Management. Before finishing college I started my management training with Hoss’s Steak and Sea House. What a great company. Not only did it teach me the ropes of management but it also stressed the continued importance of customer service and how it effects the growth of your business. My first General Manager position with Hoss’s came to me in Meadville where I worked with one of the best management teams I have ever worked with. I was completely customer focused and my right hand man was a money manager. He taught me the importance of being profitable. This manager was Mike Popella, not only did he help turn Meadville into an extremely profitable location but he became my best friend and partner for life. I worked with Hoss’s for 10 years in four locations.
I moved to Sears as a District Manager in the repair business. I spent six years there. My biggest accomplishment at Sears was that I was able to complete my MBA with focus on Human Resource Management from WaynesburgCollege. The second greatest lesson my Sears was the power of networking. I met some of the best people while working with Sears that I am still in contact with.
After Sears I moved on to Service Experts. At Service Experts I was a General Manager of a Heating and Cooling Company. Many of the great people I worked with at Sears where at this company. I left Service Experts for a year and did Sales Management at Home Depot, but happily rejoined Lennox who is the parent company of Service Experts and joined their training department. I believe my biggest contribution to the training department is my desire for excellent customer service and the fact that I have been in the trenches and I know what happens in the real world. In the Fall of 2008, I've taken on a new challenge as Manager of Training and Development for Famous Enterprises in Akron, OH. It has been all the experience I've had throughout my career that have awarded me this opportunity.
My goal with this Webpage is to share my knowledge and the knowledge of the great people who have touched my life. I hope you enjoy the tidbits my husband and I share with you. And I hope that we don’t drive you crazy with the puppy references but I am the proud mom of 3 four legged angels that teach me so much everyday.
