I've had the pleasure of working with and getting to know a lot of you over the years but for those of you don't know me, my name is Adam Ruud I'm 34 years old and originally from the Suburbs of Chicago. I have an amazing wife Christina and 3 beautiful children, the oldest is my daughter Adalina and then two boys Grayson and Landon. I earned by bachelors degree from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte Belk College of Business, I was a Division 1 All-American collegiate athlete, and was fortunate enough to pursue my dream of playing professional soccer while traveling all over the world. During my time playing soccer I was lucky enough to join a couple of organizations called Ambassador in Sport and Missionary Athletics International where we used the common platform of soccer to reach people all over the world where we ministered large groups of people while teaching them the tools of soccer. For us it was much more than a sport but rather an opportunity to positively influence the lives of others. It was honestly some of the best experiences of my life and the relationships we made are something I'll never forget. After I decided to hang up the boots back in 2008 is when I came to SW Florida initially to visit but as fate would have it I never left. I immediately got my real estate license and began practicing the profession of real estate, a business that every agent was running from at the time given the current landscape of a crashing market and economy. Over the course of the next 9 years I built a mostly referral based business that I am extremely proud of today while consistently being amongst the top sales agents at both Downing Frye Realty and Domain Realty over the years. I am a faith based, blue collar, core value oriented kind of guy who prides himself upon his work ethic and discipline. I've always been one of the hardest working guys in the room and I know a thing or two about dealing with adversity. It hasn't always been easy but sticking to the foundation of my character, I've always been able to clear whatever hurdle I was challenged by. Most of the time at least! Perseverance is something I know well. As an agent my priorities were first and foremost to take care of the client. Be an asset to them. Go above and beyond with customer service and have more product knowledge than anybody else. In my mind nobody was going to outwork me. A saying that I first heard early in my career that has stuck with me still today is, "always take care of your relationships and the rest will fall into place". For me, that's exactly what I did and I can say first hand, that simple phrase changed my life. If you focus on the money or prestige of this business, you're doing it for the wrong reasons and that eventually catches up to you. I feel when you focus on the client at all times the right decisions are made and in the long run, things work out much better. As in life, doors open and sometimes you have to walk through them which is how I got to where we are today. Now those same principals, focus, and drive will now be geared toward helping all of Domain Realty. For those of you who know me, I really appreciate the support and excitement I've felt thus far. I look forward to having more of an impact and positive influence on what I feel is the best brokerage in SW Florida. I believe in this company and the people are without a doubt the heart and soul of it all. Let's get better together, help each other, enhance our market/product knowledge, expand the tools we have at your disposal, and ultimately become the best versions of ourselves we can possibly be. To me if we're not taking steps forward we're only going backwards. Let's be better together!