Five Questions: Travis Miller

Travis Miller joined Alert 360—the new brand name for both Central Security Group and Guardian Security Systems—in October as the vice president of dealer development. “My role coming in is to really help them strengthen their dealer program and grow that channel, while also looking at acquisitions of companies, acquisition of accounts. The company is just aggressively looking to grow over the next three to five years,” Miller said. In late October, Security Systems News asked Miller five questions.

Where are you from originally?

I grew up in Los Angeles. My parents were born and raised there. When I was about 14 years old, my dad got the opportunity to transfer and had a few different locations to choose from and my parents chose to move to Park City, Utah. … I had some major culture shock, moving from LA to a small town in Utah, but it was really good. It was good for me to just to go into a smaller school, play multiple sports. I was able to meet a lot of great people and that's where I ended up going to high school and college.

What do you like about where you live now?

Dallas is different—it's unique. There are no mountains, there's no ocean, so you don't have a lot of recreational things you can do and it gets really hot. So, I've kind of found some new hobbies. … Through business and just being in Dallas, I've picked up golf. I've been an athlete my whole life, playing football and baseball, and I always found it really challenging going with clients or sales partners because I wasn't doing very good and I'm just competitive by nature. So, I've spent the last eight to 10 years or so really teaching myself and playing with people that are better skilled than me or had a lot of experience.

Are you married, do you have kids?

I am engaged to get married in June, and we have a baby together who's just turned six months and he's been wonderful. I have two other kids with a previous marriage who are 10 and four.

What's the best book you've read recently?

I try to read some business books, usually a new book once a month or once every other month, just to keep fresh. Any teams that I've had … [we] usually try to read together, so that way we're learning and growing, developing both personally and professionally. [There are] two books that really stuck with me. One is The 10x Rule by Grant Cardone. … On a personal level, I read Tuesday's with Morrie recently.

What's something your coworkers might not know about you?

I'm kind of a social media guru. I run a couple of different pages that have become pretty sizable and I've kept my name pretty much off of them. So, a lot of people don't know who runs the accounts, but they're in the golf industry and have over 150,000 followers, probably closer to 200,000 followers in all the platforms.