About Joel Gaslin

Learning about Joel Gaslin is easy. The content on this page will help you get to know about what makes me tick and the people who fill me with joy.

Why Create a Page About Joel Gaslin?

Good question. It feels awkward writing this because I don’t like to make the focus of my work about me. Helping others improve is my “why.”

My hope in creating this content is that you might read something here and think, “He’s a person like me, and if he can do it, so can I.” 

Also, I am grateful if you notice that I am blessed to have many wonderful people in my life. And they’re the focus of this page because writing about my personal connections to people important to me might make the about Joel Gaslin page interesting for you.

Growing Up

I was born in a small town in central Minnesota called, Little Falls. My Dad is a retired public school Superintendent and my Mom a nurse. I am grateful they’re both still healthy at 80 years old!

I have an older brother, Marty, who is a long-time high school math teacher in St. Paul. Marty is married to Tawni for more than 30 years and has two kids, Marty Jr. and Margaret

My sister Patty, is 14 years younger than me and is a successful Entrepreneur working to empower people with at-home medical testing and digital platforms. Patty is married to Andy, they have three kids, Will, Topher, Lilly, and they live in Fargo, North Dakota.

My Family - About Joel Gaslin

Soon my wife Jean and I will celebrate being married for 31 years. February 9^th to be exact. We met in high school, went to the University of Minnesota together, got married, have four wonderful grown kids, moved around the country for work a bunch of times, and she hasn’t kicked me to the curb yet.  Whew, am I grateful for that!

You can read about my work here. This is what the members of our family are up to:

Jean

Jean works at Central Middle School in our town, Eden Prairie, Minnesota. She works in the Planning Room where kids who struggle go to plan for success. She does a great job with this and loves doing it.

Walking with friends around the lake behind our house is always high on Jean’s list. During the summer when she’s off school, Jean leads a walking club each morning and has lots of fun with that.

Tending to her garden at the Eden Prairie Senior Center with her sister Denise is another of Jean's favorite pastimes. And we all get to enjoy the harvest from their labor all summer long with tasty radishes, beans, artichokes, and lots of other veggies.

Together, Jean and I like to cook, travel when we can, hike, and most of all spend time with our kids and their expanding families.

Grace

Grace works at Minnesota-based Target Corporation in Marketing. She’s doing great there, loves the culture of Target, lives in downtown Minneapolis, enjoys cooking, comes out to see us often and is always pleasant to be around. 

Also, Grace is wired like me, so she gets up early and likes to read daily motivations/devotions. As a result, we have some fun early morning text message exchanges. 

Anne

Anne works at a software company called Helpsystems here in Eden Prairie. She leads the sales development efforts for the company and has teams in the US, the UK, Australia, and Argentina. The COVID-19 pandemic scuttled a planned ExPat arrangement she was planning last July, so Anne’s been living with us for almost a year now and it’s been wonderful to have her around again.

Anne is very much a combo of Jean’s and my personalities. It’s fun to see from close up all of the success she’s having at work. Since she’s worked from home since the pandemic began, we see how hard she works.

Anne, Jean, and I have a running text communication group called, “Roomies.” It’s fun and how we keep track of what’s happening. Mostly, we use it to plan food because we all like to cook and eat.

Mike

Mike also works at Helpsystems. He works in sales and is doing great, too. Mike especially likes it when people at the company ask if Anne is his wife? 

Mike lives in St. Louis Park, Minnesota with his long-time girlfriend, Meredith Cannon, and their Australian Shepherd dog, Pepper. Normally, we see them a lot, but the work-from-home situation gave them the flexibility to work and live in Naples, Florida with Meredith’s parents the winter. 

We miss them but can’t blame them for their choice. Hmmm, live on the beach or slog through a Minnesota winter?

Ben

Our baby, Ben, works at New Wave Enviro in Aurora Colorado as a Marketing Representative. He’s doing great there and is enjoying his work and living the Colorado lifestyle.

The highlight of 2020 for us was Ben marrying his longtime girlfriend, Celine Harmon, over Labor Day weekend. Because of the pandemic, it was a parents only ceremony that he and Celine arranged to happen in a beautiful park setting in Denver. 

Jean and I are grateful to welcome Celine and her family into ours. We look forward to the days ahead when we are free to see each other more often and are hoping for a celebration of their marriage here in Minnesota in the Fall of 2021.

About Joel Gaslin - Friends and Hobbies

Friends

Mostly because of Jean, we gifted with lots of friends. Some local and others from places we’ve lived over the years.

We spend a lot of time with two other couples and we call ourselves “Team Social.” We love trying new restaurants, cooking for each other, traveling together, and just being together.

Team Social is Jean and me, Chris and Kim Heim, and Dave and Shelley Hawkins. For you Minnesotans, you might appreciate the banter we have a back-and-forth with Chris being a Tommie, Dave a Johnnie, and me a Gopher. 

Hobbies

I have a section on this site about cooking because that’s my primary hobby. Jean likes to tease me about how I like to make putzy, complicated recipes and test them out on our friends. She’s right. And sometimes they work and other times they don’t. A lot like life and business, eh?

Oh, and we love Food Trucks! We even had one at our house in a blizzard right before Christmas.

We used to play a lot of golf, but don’t do that much anymore. We like to hike, I run a lot and enjoy learning about all things related to marketing, selling, and strategy.

I serve on two volunteer boards: St. Hubert Catholic Community and The Franciscan Retreats and Spirituality Center. It’s not super easy being Catholic these days, and I am humbled to be a part of these wonderful organizations where I witness the grace of God on a regular basis.

Perhaps my favorite way to spend time is reading. If you look through this blog, on all pages and posts I link to books that I am ready or found interesting to read. Sure, they’re Affiliate Links, but what’s wrong with trying to make a buck or two? Haha!

If you want an interesting and timely read now, try “Work Disrupted” by Jeff Schwartz. It’s a great book about the future of work written by a really smart guy.

In Conclusion

Thanks for getting this far in reading my About Joel Gaslin page. A life-long struggle for me is pride. So please know that I write this page as a way to show that I am a real person, creating content based on experience, and wanting to help people build their confidence in marketing and selling their products.

If we’re connected in any way, please leave a comment below and tell me what you’re up to. And then let’s connect for a virtual cup of coffee or whatever.