Dennis Geelen

Coaching and mentoring to help you start and scale your one-person business.

Founder

Zero In

The mission of Zero In is to help as many businesses and leaders build a brand customers love and a company people are passionate to work for.  

So where do you need to focus (or Zero In)?
Solve the problem of INDIFFERENCE!

Indifferent customers have no compelling reason to purchase your product or service rather than your competitors' product or service. 

Indifferent employees are complacent because they are not passionate about coming to work each day.

Utilize the resources, books, and courses from Zero In to increase your customer retention, improve your customer experience, and build a passionate culture of innovation giving your team the ability to find new and better ways to serve your customers.

"Customers DO NOT buy your product or service, they buy what it can DO FOR THEM"
Customer-centricity means knowing your customers and giving them what they crave.  This helps you to build trust and loyalty, but also a solid reputation.  Loyal customers become fans of your brand and refer other customers to you.

"If you don't find new and better ways to serve your customers, SOMEONE ELSE WILL!"
Being Innovative brings new ideas, which is crucial to a business being able to find new and better ways to add value for your customers.  With innovation comes creative new products and services, increases in efficiency and, as a result, improved profitability.

BE THE BRAND CUSTOMERS LOVE AND THE COMPANY PEOPLE ARE PASSIONATE TO WORK FOR

Founder and Chief Difference Maker

The Commonwell Mutual Insurance Group

About the Commonwell
We are committed to profitable growth, team development, ingenuity, while having fun at work.  We offer a complete range of insurance products including residential, automobile, commercial, farm and watercraft. We encourage a work-life balance and we are serious about what we do!

About my Role
As Manager of the PMO, I lead a group project managers and business analysts to implement the project management office from the ground up.

About the PMO
Projects at the Commonwell are measured against timelines, budget, delivery of scope, but most importantly the realization of the intended benefits of each project.  Over 85% of projects at the Commonwell were consistantly green throughout 2018.

Manager, Project and Portfolio Management Office

As Manager of Application Services, I am responsible for planning, coordinating and managing the activities of the Application Services team within the Information Systems (IS) Department. This includes leadership and development of the IS team members, as well as providing direction and support for IS solutions to meet the present and future needs of the organization.

Manager of Application Services

Kawartha Lakes Food Source

Kawartha Lakes Food Source is a community effort to reduce hunger in the City of Kawartha Lakes by:

1. Maintaining a central warehouse to supply food to organizations that provide food to individuals in need,
2. Raising public awareness, and
3. Working in concert with other local not-for-profit organizations.

Board Of Directors

Operitel Corporation (An OpenText Company) 

ABout OpenText
OpenText, The Information Company™, a market leader in Enterprise Information Management software and solutions, enables intelligent and connected enterprises by managing, leveraging, securing and gaining insight into enterprise information, on-premises or in the cloud. 

About my Role
Directed a team of PS and R&D resources to develop and implement the LearnFlex LMS platform for over 40 clients.

Director of R&D and Professional Services

TELUS

Manager - Payment Solutions Development and Support

Emergis - A Telus Company

Manager

Emergis Inc

Business Coach | Keynote Speaker | Author of The Happy Accidents newsletter and The Accidental Solopreneur book

What I Do
I help teams, organizations, and solopreneurs flourish by focusing on what really matters: people.

As a speaker, author, and consultant, I equip audiences with practical, human-centered strategies to thrive in uncertain times, build meaningful businesses, and create lasting impact.

Who I Work With
• Event organizers seeking keynote speakers on serendipity, growth, and personal transformation
• Businesses and nonprofits looking to create stronger cultures, customer experiences, and leadership teams
• Solopreneurs who want to design businesses that give them both income and freedom


What I’ve Created
• Author of The Zero In Formula and The Accidental Solopreneur (bestseller)
• Creator of top-rated online courses for solopreneurs and authors
• Host of the Happy Accidents podcast and newsletter
• Keynote talks including 'The Power of Serendipity', 'Start Before You’re Ready', and 'Rooted in Humans'


Want to Work Together?
Let’s talk if you’re looking for:
✅ A keynote speaker for your next event
✅ A workshop or webinar for your team
✅ A course to help you grow as a solopreneur or author


DM me if you’d like to connect about speaking, workshops, or collaborations.

Cruise

• Directed a team of 5 FTEs and managed over 1,500 offshore employees across three vendors to support autonomous vehicle machine learning model development.
• Owned the roadmap and development of advanced labeling tools for autonomous vehicle machine learning models, directly improving model performance.
• Led a cross-functional team of engineers, designers, and vendors to deliver scalable solutions that labeled billions of data points.
• Established and optimized a New Product Introduction (NPI) framework, accelerating time-to-market for labeling data products.
• Conducted user research and stakeholder alignment sessions to define product requirements and prioritize features.
• Reduced operational costs by $1M through streamlined workflows and capacity planning.
• Awarded the Operations Visionary Award for groundbreaking contributions to AV data labeling operations.

Staff Product Manager - Machine Learning Data Labeling / Ground Truth

Brunk Industries

• Transformed organizational culture by defining and implementing data analytics dashboards (Power BI, SQL), enabling informed decision-making across the organization.
• Partnered with cross functional product teams to optimize internal tools, reducing inefficiencies by 20%.
• Developed strategies to improve product reliability/uptime saving >1,000 hours annually.

Director of Operational Excellence

Amcor

• Managed operations at a $100M revenue medical packaging facility with ~200 employees.
• Directed end-to-end product lifecycle management by commercializing new products and programs and implementing operational roadmaps to ensure profitability. 
• Spearheaded $4MM in new product launches by collaborating with R&D, sales, and engineering teams to ensure on-time delivery and market success.
• Restructured operations to optimize talents, improve teamwork and communication, and increase throughput
• Identified and implemented cost-saving initiatives with customer feedback that reduced expenses by 10% for core products.

Sr. Operations Manager

• Oversaw engineering and EHS functions, managing a $4M budget and 20 direct reports.
• Introduced automation technologies, saving $500K annually.
• Established the facility’s first preventive maintenance program, defining requirements to enhance product quality and reliability.
• Led a team of customers, sales, product management, R&D for new product development

Technical Engineering Manager

Tier 1 Automotive Supplier
• Established first capacity model to better improve manpower and quote new business
• Led engineering and maintenance teams, managing a $1.5M annual expense budget.
• Managed a portfolio of capital projects totaling $1M, enhancing plant capacity by 12%.
• Designed and implemented a new plant layout, achieving improved efficiency and reduced overhead.

Engineering Manager

The Dow Chemical Company

Lead mechanical engineer for commissioning and startup of a world-scale polyethylene plant ($500MM + project), Lead engineer for Salt Mining and Hydrocarbon Distribution Plant
• Commissioned and started up a $500M+ polyethylene facility, collaborated with product teams to optimize operations and reduce costs.
• Leveraged advanced and predictive analytics to identify improvement opportunities and enhance product output and profitability.

Lead Manufacturing Engineer

Caterpillar Inc.

• Completed Leadership and Technical Development Program (LTDP) which included stints in software development, Cat Proving Grounds, and manufacturing engineer at the Cat I6 Engine plant.
• Home group in Mechatronics where I spent my time developing, modifying, and validating control strategies for CAT engines at the global tech center in Mossville IL.

Systems Engineer - Mechatronics

Engineering Leader Sharing Stories | Loves Complexity and Chaos | Real Estate Investor | Technical Program Manager | Addicted to Diet Coke

In my day job I lead amazing individuals building AI products for Machine Learning Engineers in the Autonomous Vehicle space. 

On the side, here on Linkydoink I love talking about Airbnb investing. I love helping others on their investing journey. 

Send me a DM if you ever have any questions I can help answer.

taplio

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Dennis Geelen

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