Welcome!

I'm Zach Stainback, the rural businessman. I've designed this website to be my virtual home on the internet—as well as a personal web development playground—where I can present myself professionally in greater detail. You won't find much about my work history here. Instead, I've chosent to present a holistic view of my professional life and interests. There is more to a person than their résumé. The places we visit, the activities we enjoy, the classes we take, the books we read, and viritually everything we do makes an impact on our professional capacities and aptitudes. It is my aim to demonstrate how the way I conduct myself outside of work positively affects my ability to lead in the workplace.

About Zach

I grew up in a small town in eastern North Carolina. This rural setting contributed so much to the way I now view the world, and ultimately, it was likely the tight‐knit community in which I grew up that enabled me to overcome the odds and create a successful life for myself and my family. My father passed away when I was young, and for the rest of my childhood, it was just my mom and me. My community, especially the community I found at church, was incredibly important to my social and cognitive development. I was homeschooled, and the friends I made at church, in Scouting, and in other extracurricular activities were instrumental in creating my worldview. The leaders I found in these activities and organizations were just as important, and many of them remain influential in my life to this day. None of this could make up for the loss of my father, but I retained sufficient memories of him to help me indepently set a direction for my life.

For many years, I was primarily interested in social science. Politics captivated me in high school, and after spending two-years as a volunteer missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, I began my university studies as a Political Science major at Brigham Young University in January of 2017. I quickly discovered that this was not where I wanted to be or what I wanted to be doing. After taking some time away to work, save money and “find myself,” I made the decision to transfer to Brigham Young University-Idaho as an online student majoring in Marriage and Family Studies. I felt this major offered an opportunity to channel my interest in social science into something meaningful. Societies problems, I believed, were better solved in the home than in the Capitol.

While pursuing this degree, I met and married my sweetheart, Rylee. Within about three years, we were the parents of two children and a spunky German Sheprador named Sadie. It was a busy, wonderful, chaotic, amazing time. I was coming to the end of my degree program, and I was still working in the same industry that I'd started in while studying at BYU: grocery. I'd been a grocery assistant manager for nearly seven years, and while my earnings were steadily increasing, the rapid inflation following the COVID‐19 pandemic and the relatively low wages available in the grocery business made it difficult to support my growing family.

In the summer before the final semester of my undergraduate program, I found myself facing a difficult decision about the future of my education. One option involved transfering again, losing two thirds of my credits, and beginning a course of study with a greater ROI. (It was during this time that I began to study coding and web devleopment.) For obvious reasons, this course was not ideal. Another option involved sticking to my original plan of becoming a counselor, finishing my undergraduate degree at BYU-Idaho, and seeking admittance to a graduate degree program in Marriage and Family Therapy. By this time, I was disillusioned with the field of marriage and family therapy, and while my education was a boon to my young family, I no longer had a passion for applying this knowledge to my professional pursuits. After much consideration and a lot of prayer, I made the decision to begin an agressive pursuit of a business career, beginning with a move back across the country to North Carolina. I knew there was opportunity to grow with my previous company there, so my family and I packed up and returned to my old hometown. I finished my four&hypehn;year degree in Marriage and Family Studies and prepared to seek admittance to an MBA program.

Hobbies and Interests

Music

I started taking piano lessons when I was just six years old. I've been privileged to use that ability throughout my life in various settings. Along the way, I also added proficiency in organ and guitar. A couple of the highlights of my musical experience are playing the famed organ in the Tabernacle of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Salt Lake City, Utah with part-time Tabernacle Choir organist Andrew Undsworth and sharing the stage with Eddy Long, who has played guitar for such acts as Blake Shelton and David Allan Coe.

Hiking/Fishing

I took up outdoor activities during one of my life's more turbulent times. I'd moved back to North Carolina after dropping out of college, leaving a job I really enjoyed, and a breakup that left my confidence shattered. Hiking and fishing became an outlet for me—a way to channel the frustration, anger, sadness I was experiencing after watching my plans fall apart. Being surrounded by nature was freeing, and even the long drives in my pickup to reach my chosen trails or fishing holes became almost therapeutic for me. I grew to love exploring new places or the challenge enticing fish to bite. After moving back to North Carolina, I set a goal to visit every North Carolina State Park before my thirtieth birthday. Since moving to southern Utah, I don't know that I'll reach that goal, but I'm still going to try!

Photography

My interest in photography grew out of my developing love of hiking. I wanted to document my adventures and have some way to remember the amazing places I'd visited and vistas I'd seen. All of the images you find on my website, with the exception of photos that include me, were taken by yours truly. I was fortunate to have some foundational knowledge of photography from experiences in Scouting and other activities in which I'd participated in my youth. While this will only ever be a hobby for me, it is a skillset that I plan to develop further as I continue to seek out new places to explore with my family.

Genealogy

My interest in genealogy comes in part from my religious beliefs, but while faith motivated me to begin researching my family, I was soon so enthralled with my family's history that I needed no incentive to keep going. My 5th great grandfather, for example, was a participant in the regulator rebellion of western North Carolina in the late 1760s, a predecessor to the American Revolution. Another ancestor and personal acquaintance of George Washington, Starling Gunn, was honored when soil from his grave was used to plant a tree near Washington's tomb at Mt. Vernon. Starling had been at the Battle of Yorktown and was eyewitness to the surrender of General Cornwallis to Washington. It is amazing what you can find, and even more amazing are the connections that come as you meet distant relatives who quickly become friends.