Joe Wedra – JMC

Glen West doesn’t need to work.

He’s been there, done that.

A long-time sales executive at Cintas and other business supply companies, West has done just about everything there is to do in the American business sector. He’s won national awards, led wide-reaching seminars and led the most successful sales staffs that his companies had ever seen.

Because of that, he’s retired – at 49 years old.

“Things got to the point where, financially, I really was in a good position to be able to retire from the working world and move my family to a more desirable location near a lot of our family,” said West, who now lives in Myrtle Beach with his four high-school and college-aged children.

“I was wise with my money from the start and I always knew I wanted to retire early. It happened a bit earlier than I thought it would, but everything just worked out.”

West’s retirement was a dream. He worked long hours for more than two decades, all while his children were young and working through their early school days. His wife, Ann, spent long days caring for their four children while Glen traveled the country to help lead the companies he was tasked with helping thrive.

When the time came to retire and move to Myrtle Beach – closer to their extended family – West was ready to sit back, take a break and unwind.

Until he got bored.

“Yeah, that didn’t last long,” he admitted with a smile. “I guess when work is all you know, it’s what you want to do. Granted, I enjoyed spending more time with my kids of course, but let’s be honest, they kind of got tired of me after a while. And they’ll tell you that, too. It was kind of a ‘Dad, you need to go find something to do,’ type of thing. So, yeah. It was time.”

And that’s exactly what West did.

Unsurprisingly, it didn’t take long for his next adventure to become a smashing success.

Ann remembers the first time she heard about real estate photography quite well.

“He rolled over and looked at me one night and told me he was going to start a real estate photography business. Completely out of the blue,” she remembered. “No plan. No past experience. Just an idea and his crazy brain.”

Since 2022, that idea and that “crazy brain” have, once again, struck business gold.

West has since built the company into a six-figure local powerhouse, creating a client list that is already in the hundreds. He self-taught photography basics, hired an editor overseas and now runs a well-oiled machine from his home office above his garage.

Attract Media Services in Myrtle Beach is now a smashing hit – all run by a guy who used to sell mops, work apparel and fire protection items to the country’s largest professional clients.

“Glen is a machine,” said Mia Bryans, a local realtor in the Myrtle Beach area. “He’s steady. He’s consistent. He’s reliable. His turnaround time is less than 24 hours, which is unheard of. I’ve never worked with someone better.”

As good as West’ ability to raise a business from the ground up is, his ability to be a servant-minded leader might be even better.

Because of his financial situation, he says he is free to give a large portion of his profits to a variety of national charities. And while his humility kept him from sharing the exact percentage of his proceeds, his wife was happy to brag on her husband.

“His giving heart is my favorite thing about him,” Ann West said. “I can tell you that over the past two years, over half of everything he has made has been donated to either a national charity or a few local organizations we support. That’s just who he is, and it’s always who he has been.

“He’s always been the most successful man in the room, but he’s also always been the most giving man in the room.”

As for how long West says he wants to keep rolling with residential photography services, that might depend on how long his family wants to keep him occupied from telling too many dad jokes around the house.

But, however long he does do it, West is keeping a servant-minded perspective in mind.

“The real reason I’m still working is because I’m bored, I admit that,” he said with a laugh. “But, I do know that this life has given me some cool skills and gifts that I know others might not have. As long as I can keep using it for good, I’m going to do it.”