Welcome to BobSense
Helping others enjoy successful lives
(What) About Bob(?)
Bob Yanega is a writer, speaker, and entrepreneur. He has even 
been described
as a “serial entrepreneur” because of the number of new ventures he has successfully started in the past 26 years. But Bob also had his share of experience as an employee in the corporate world.
Bob started his first venture, a lawn-cutting/landscaping/handyman business when he was just 16 years old. Despite its quick success, and despite his father’s unexpected encouragement (or, perhaps, because of it!) he eventually set most of it aside to enter the world of “real” work with something more stable and fulfilling – washing dishes in a restaurant. Over the next 15 years he worked for small businesses, Fortune 500 companies, very large privately-owned firms, and regional mid-sized companies. He also found time to graduate from college with a degree in philosophy, experience a short stint with the U.S. Marine Corps, and further his education by means of various courses, seminars, and corporate training. been described as a “serial entrepreneur” because of the number of new ventures he has successfully started in the past 26 years. But Bob also had his share of experience as an employee in the corporate world.
During his time in the world of “traditional work”, Bob experienced being hired, promoted, fired, quitting, being downsized, transferred, laid off, and finally offered a buyout that he had never dreamed of and could not pass up. He permanently joined the ranks of the self-employed in 1993, and eventually discovered that he was still an employee, only he was also the employer who had to listen to his own complaints!
Furthermore, in 1995 he stopped to help a victim of an automobile accident and despite various precautions, was struck by another speeding vehicle. Actually, as Bob tells it, since the other vehicle struck his own vehicle which then struck him, he is the only person he knows who has been run over by his own car! This experience challenged his whole family since he initially could not walk and had his broken jaw wired shut for 6 weeks. This made speaking and eating (two of Bob’s favorite things!) extremely difficult. With the help of family, friends, and very skilled physical therapists the business survived, but Bob never forgot this lesson on the downside of being self-employed.
Today, after starting other companies and growing from self-employed to small business owner and then experiencing the various growth and contractions of small businesses (plus one colossal business failure) Bob still owns a few companies and is constantly exploring other business ideas. He uses the extra time generated by his slower paced, sustainable lifestyle to help others achieve success in life, not just in the world of business but preferring to help the “total person” to develop and reach their goals.
With that in mind, Bob is primarily focused on public speaking and writing projects. He does motivational speaking and also mentors newer speakers through Toastmasters International. As an award-winning speaker, Bob has many prepared speeches which he delivers, and is always writing new material. He also does small group facilitation and delivers speeches and teaching segments prepared by others. Bob has been a certified speaker for Monster.com's renowned national "Making It Count" program since 2009, and has spoken to thousands of students in dozens of cities from Detroit to Dallas, and in more than 50 schools in Northeast Ohio.
Bob has also recently increased his role as a philanthropist, both locally and abroad. He mentors inmates, and has done h
urricane relief
work in the U.S., but also spent two weeks assisting dental teams in
the remote mountains of southern Mexico. He recently returned from
central Asia, where he worked on rebuilding homes destroyed by the 2008
earthquake. While there he also enjoyed delivering a speech to several hundred schoolchildren, teachers, parents, and government officials. It was Bob's first time speaking to a large group through an interpreter.In 2012 Bob started a new nonprofit organization, The 1990 Project, which promotes scholarship, entrepreneurship, and workforce training in Northeast Ohio.
Bob enjoys reading, downhill skiing, ice skating, rollerblading, biking, climbing and scuba diving. He is increasingly happily married for 27 years to his first true love, Linda. Both actively serve in the
ir church and various civic organizations and nonprofit boards. They have two grown
daughters. They live in a house that Bob designed and 
built in suburban Cleveland.