Meet Updater: Jonathan Stancel, Director of Strategic Partnerships
Meet Jonathan Stancel, Director of Strategic Partnerships at Updater Home Services. Below, he shares his best piece of moving advice, what he loves about working at Updater, and his special talent (should he land a gig in the circus).
Where did you grow up?
50/50 Athens, GA, and a rural town called Dacula, GA (yes, it’s Dracula without the “r”). The name Dacula comes from combining the names of two prominent Georgia cities–Decatur and Atlanta.
How many times have you moved?
I have moved 11 times, and used the Updater app once.
Do you have a moving horror story?
During due diligence, my home inspector flooded the crawl space. The shower drain was not plumbing to anything. That was enough of a sign to not buy the house.
What is your best piece of moving advice?
If you’ve moved items more than once and haven’t used them, it’s time to part ways. I once took 30 pairs of shoes to Goodwill.
How did you come to work at Updater?
I’ve been in the lead gen / real estate space my entire adult life. I had a friend here and she gave the company glowing reviews!
What’s your favorite thing about working at Updater?
Can it be a tie? The people and the technology. We have a great group of folks to be around, who work to build solutions to make moving easier.
What do you love about your job?
I love the challenge and having a voice that matters. As a whole, we team up to move the ball forward with initiatives and input is welcomed from top to bottom in the organization. Bagels on Mondays and a keg of cold brew coffee helps too.
What’s the best part of working with a small team?
Everyone understands the goals we have as a team. Teamwork is the #1 way we work.
What’s your favorite Updater feature?
The guide to setting up Utilities of course! This is like that contest where you vote for yourself (not sorry).
It’s the zombie apocalypse. Where do you hide?
Dude! This is a question that I could write way too much about. I’m not a prepper, but I do have an active imagination. This depends, am I working from home or the office? For this exercise, let’s stick with the office. I would pick the supply closet. Why the supply closet? It is generally locked and has all of the snacks. I’d use my tall cubicle wall to get up into the dropped ceiling area. From there, I’d crawl over to the supply closet and gracefully fall into a bed of Goldfish and potato chips.
What’s your favorite fast food restaurant?
In-N-Out (please come to the east coast)
If you were a food, what kind would you be? Why?
Pizza! The options are limitless. I’m not even talking about New York style pizza vs. Chicago style pizza. Pizza has morphed into the vehicle to deliver almost any ingredient in a handheld package.
What’s your favorite quote?
“60% of the time, it works every time.” – Anchorman
You have a time machine, but you can only make one trip. Where do you go?
I would go back to yesterday, to tell myself to think of a better time to visit with the time machine. I need time to think about this since I only get one shot.
You can only eat one food for the rest of your life. What is it?
Pizza again, because “breakfast pizza” is a thing. Most diets have cheat days, so how about the occasional Taco Tuesday?
If you could travel to work every day on a vehicle without wheels (think: hovercraft, broom), what would you choose?
Jet Ski. It has rained so much in Atlanta…it’s only a matter of time LOL.
What’s your favorite Saturday Night Live skit?
Land Shark
What do you do to unwind?
Photography (cars, nature, and architecture).
What’s your favorite book?
As a kid, I memorized “The Berenstain Bears and the Spooky Old Tree” to pretend that I could read. It fooled my parents but not my brother–he handed me a different book to read…
What four things can you not live without?
I could not live without Holidays (a reason to gather with family and friends), a camera, pizza (see previous questions), and YouTube DIY videos.
You just joined the circus, what’s your talent?
I have no sense of smell in real life (not sure if that would be a good carnival attraction). “Gather around to see the man with a broken sniffer!” Probably a short lived career.
Have you ever gotten really lost? What happened?
I once got lost in the department store. I was somewhat of a wild child. While lost, I put on sunglasses to hide the fact that I was afraid and crying. This was last week…
If you could only listen to one song for the rest of your life, what would it be?
Any Allman Brothers song. They are so long, I wouldn’t even notice when the same track restarts.
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