Who Makes What: On the Job

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Greg Kellerman

Private Investigator, Kellerman Investigations

$15,000–$20,000 per month

(he invests a large portion of profits back into the company)

Lies, sex, and depravity—they’re all in a day’s work for Greg Kellerman, owner of Glen Carbon, Ill.–based Kellerman Investigations

(kellermaninvestigations.com). Over the years, he’s served papers to Nelly at a concert in Carbondale, Ill.; videotaped cheating husbands in the act; had angry attorneys jump on his car… “It’s too many to enumerate,” he says, rattling off a handful of memorable cases. But for Kellerman, it’s the job’s unpredictable nature that keeps him going: “Every day, we will receive five to seven phone calls that lead us off into new and interesting directions.”

Perk: “The diversity of investigations. You see the good and bad of people—it’s interesting to see the way people obfuscate their infidelities.”

Challenge: “The public doesn’t understand what we have to do to successfully complete one of these investigations. For infidelities, for example, you have to walk the client through what you’re doing. It’s not easy to go on a job and be able to get that shot they want in a matter of a few hours; sometimes it takes a day or two, or sometimes longer.”

First Job: “I was 15, and we had a ride-along program with the Bethalto Police Department,” he recalls. He’s since worked as a dispatcher, patrol officer, and firefighter, as well as for the Coast Guard: “I’ve always been in some kind of uniform.”

Marissa Paine

Executive Director, The Haven of Grace

$63,000

Before taking over as The Haven of Grace’s executive director in November 2008, Marissa Paine did public relations at a major firm. “I was billing 90 hours a week and traveling all over the country and not feeling very fulfilled at the end of the day,” she recalls. The aha! moment came when a mentor suggested social work. Paine made the leap, earning a master’s from Wash. U., and never looked back. “I’m very happy—and it suits me at the end of the day.”

Perk: The Haven of Grace provides a home and support for pregnant women and young mothers. “We’re literally helping moms get off the street who don’t have another alternative… You feel like your gift is being used—well, you know it, you see it, you touch it, you hug it—every day.”

Challenge: “Quite frankly, it’s not like my days are any shorter here, but obviously the reward and motive make it seem like four hours when it’s really 12.”

First Job: Party host at Chuck E. Cheese. “We had to do the birthday song, so there was a little routine that we did onstage. It was a fun job.”

Josh

Bacott

Blogger, JoeSportsFan.com

$10,700

For a website that pokes fun at the “absurdity of professional sports”—you know, things like worthless baseball cards and close-talking announcers—JoeSportsFan.com has done well. Since starting the site in 2003, founder Josh Bacott has watched it grow in popularity to more than 100,000 visitors per month. “This is just something I do on the side,” he says, noting that he pays the bills by working in commercial real estate. “Unfortunately, podcasting doesn’t result in a whole lot of money at this point, but hopefully one day,” he says.

Perk: “We write whatever we want to write—it really gives us an outlet, and to watch those things take off in different avenues around the Internet is pretty amazing… There are also no deadlines; if I have a trying day, then I don’t have to write.”

Challenge: “Lack of money. We have experienced a large degree of success in terms of traffic and getting our name out there. The real challenge is trying to monetize that when you don’t have the time to go out and sell it for 40 hours a week.”

First Job: Builders Square. “It was like a miniature Home Depot in North County. I loaded stuff on people’s cars for, like, $7.50 per hour. It was a lot of bags of concrete and that sorta thing, while guys sat in their trucks and watched me do it.”

Tammy Roussin

Pet Sitter, Absolutely Pampered Pets

$100,000

As you’d imagine, cold-calling locals about their salaries by thumbing through the Yellow Pages can result in some, er, interesting reactions. So imagine our surprise when we flipped to “Pet Sitting Services,” rang Absolutely Pampered Pets (pamperedpetsllc.com), and heard, “You called exactly the right person!” It turned out PARADE magazine had featured owner Tammy Roussin in its annual “What People Earn” article. After starting the Clayton-based biz seven years ago, her list of clients now spans more than 400 people—and earns her six digits.

Perk: “I love animals, so it’s very therapeutic to work with them every day.”

Challenge: “I don’t like going outside when it’s raining or snowing, but it’s part of the job. I’m like the mailman in that sense.”

First Job: “Hardee’s—for about three hours. I was covered in grease and couldn’t even pick my feet up from the floor because it was so sticky. After my first day, I was like, ‘I’m not going back.’”

Chrissy Wallace

Race Car Driver,

$100,000

Talk about a glass ceiling. When Chrissy Wallace throttles down a racetrack, the 21-year-old St. Louis native is vying for more than the checkered flag: She’s attempting to become the first successful female NASCAR driver in history. It’s a feat some believe can’t—or shouldn’t—be attempted. Still, Wallace certainly has the pedigree. Her family is known for racing. Her father, Mike, and uncles Rusty and Kenny are NASCAR household names. And her track record isn’t shabby, either. She became the first female to win at Hickory Motor Speedway at age 19, drove in six Craftsman Truck Series events in 2008, and bested her old man at Talladega in October 2009. Despite the odds, she knows the payoff of success: “It’s just gonna take one female to break the ice.”

Perk: “The adrenaline rush and competitiveness—it’s not a sport where you can half-ass it.”

Challenge: Finding sponsors. “Some people look at it like, ‘There’s never been a successful woman [NASCAR]racer before; why are you any different?’ Things like that are what motivate me.”

FIRST JOB: There was a stint at Chuck E. Cheese, followed by 50-hour weeks as a manager at a shoe store. “Things weren’t just handed to us growing up; I had a job as soon as I turned 16.”

Bill Chott

Founder, The Improv Trick

$80,000

                                                                                                                                   Of Bill Chott’s many labels—writer, actor, comedian—it’s another he embraces in St. Louis: “improv teacher.” The 40-year-old perfected his craft at Chicago’s Second City alongside Tina Fey, Stephen Colbert, and Amy Poehler before starting his own school of laughs, The Improv Trick, in his hometown four years ago. The business has since planted roots on Cherokee Street, added a full-time director of operations, and established regular gigs at The Stable and West End Grill & Pub. And while Chott still frequents L.A. for film and TV roles, he often returns to his hometown to inspire St. Louis’ budding comedy community.

“We like to think of ourselves as more of an organism,” he says, “and less of an organization.”

Perk: “For me, it’s seeing people enthused about the thing that I love most, which is improv. If it weren’t for the enthusiasm of my students, I probably would be spending all my time in L.A.”

Challenge: “We do a different kind of improv than on Whose Line Is It Anyway?; we do a long-form kind of improv that’s more like theater. Trying to get a theater critic out to an improv show is next to impossible.”

First (and Worst) Job: “I was a dishwasher at Erio’s Pizza on Woodson; I was fired two days later. That’s when I decided I was going to become an actor.”

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