Partner Spotlight: Edwin Arroyave

For Edwin Arroyave, the success he’s earned over the last 21 years in the smart home security business as Brinks Home™’s most successful authorized dealer has done more than change his life.

“It changed my entire family tree forever,” the founder and CEO of Skyline Security says.

The Colombian-born entrepreneur’s pursuit of the American Dream began when he came to the United States at the age of six. But the dream became a nightmare. “We ended up losing everything, so much so that at 15-years-old I had to become the man of the house, take care of the family, and take over all the bills.” Being the man of the house meant that Edwin needed a job. The job he got was in a call center.

“At the time, I thought it had to be the worst possible job for me, because I was such a shy and timid person. I had these huge, huge dreams.” Fueled by his dreams, he set his sights on becoming a call center manager by the time he turned 18.

“Everyone told me there’s no way that could happen.” But he pressed on despite the discouragement. “I knew that I could care like no one else and I could outwork everyone, and if I did those two things I would at least have a shot” he says, and by the time he turned 18 in 1996, his strategy proved fruitful: He became the youngest manager in that company’s history. “I started to make about one thousand dollars a week,” he says. “That was huge for me to build my identity because I'm a big believer that you can only achieve what your mind can accept.”

His success in management led to other opportunities, most notably a close working association with the company’s Vice President of Sales. It was that same Vice President three years later who would ask Edwin to leave behind his management role and start a home security company from the ground up. Faced with giving up his steady, reliable role for something uncertain, but which might triple or even quadruple his income in time, the young manager says three thoughts occurred to him.

“I thought to myself, ‘this guy is making $250,000 a year and he's resigning, so he must be pretty serious about the opportunity.’ The second thing I thought is ‘if this guy is willing to teach me how to start a company from the ground up, then this is the type of mentorship I've been looking for all my life.’

Third, I knew I was a big dreamer. I was the kid who would ditch high school to go to Rodeo Drive to window shop, and from there, I'd go to Hollywood Hills and Beverly Hills, and I'd spend hours there looking at homes and saying 'one day I'm going to be here.’”

But his ultimate dream, he concludes, was to look after his parents, and he’d have to make more than $70,000 a year if he wanted to do that.

The move was a good decision. But it paid off in spades when his business partner decided to get out of the home security industry and move into land development.

In 2009, Edwin Arroyave and Skyline Security Management began to search for a company that had a national footprint. As Edwin states, he was looking for a company “that could teach me some of the efficiencies that I needed in order to grow, a company that had scaled.”

That company was Brinks Home. “They've been around for a very long time. They have the systems, the resources, the training, and the proven track record. That was huge for me; scaling was a big deal and I wanted to choose a company that felt the same way.”

The partnership has yielded great results for both companies: in the years since signing on to become a dealer, Skyline Security has grown from about 300 accounts a month to over 2,000.

“Working with Brinks Home further solidified that this was what I wanted to do for the rest of my life, and this would be my career. And then I set out to build a company that would attract people that felt the same way.”

Building that company meant investing back into Skyline Security’s operations, and he credits his wife, ALL IN by Teddi founder and Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star Teddi Mellencamp Arroyave, for opening his eyes to the true potential Skyline held. She asked questions that helped the lightbulb go off.

“It hit me. I invested back into the operations that year. I invested into a CFO/COO, and he was a great blessing for me. He taught me how to scale. Our strengths really complemented each other, and actually it was someone at [Brinks Home] who referred me that person.”

Culture has also been a main driver for Skyline’s success. The company strives to recognize its top performers, which Edwin cites as a key point of differentiation between him and his competition. “I wanted to create an experience that nobody else was creating, especially in my industry … an environment where people were unleashed to fulfill their God-given potential. I decided we were going to be a personal development company that happens to be in the smart home industry. We're in the dream-making, sports business -- where we make people feel like sports athletes, like Academy Award winners, like Grammy Award winners,” he states.

Their values of faith and truth also differentiate Skyline from its competitors. “Faith is number one for us, and everybody knows in our company that faith is positive mental attitude … and truth is about authenticity. It's about making sure we put people's best interests first. It's about keeping your word no matter what.”

Like every other dealer, Edwin is not immune to the uncertainty of the times. However, he embraces it. “It's in uncertainty that I know I'm going to grow, it's in uncertainty where my need for God gets heightened and He always meets me, and it's in uncertainty that we [Skyline and Brinks Home] both met, and we've always accomplished some great things together.”

And together, Edwin expects Brinks Home and Skyline will continue to enable each other to do great things. “Brinks Home gave us the opportunity to get where we are, and I want to make sure that we do our best to give back to those who’ve invested in us. A big 'why' for me is seeing Brinks Home grow where we all know they have the potential to grow, and I think we're well on our way to achieving that goal.”

Above all else, Edwin says, for those who would want to emulate Skyline’s success, it all starts with positive mental attitude … it literally starts with your mindset. “The beauty of this product is that this is the vehicle. You can know all the principles of mindset all you want, but if you don't have the vehicle, you're never going to get there. The smart home security industry is that vehicle, and when you have a partner like Brinks Home, it makes that vehicle so much sweeter.”

August Stafford writes for Brinks Home. He enjoys hearing your #mybrinkshomestories and communicating them with others.