Jim Kirlin

Jim Kirlin is a first-time author who spent years insisting he was not a writer.

He co-owns Beachin Bash with his wife, Erica — a full-service events, catering, and boat charter company on the Delaware coast that they built from nothing starting in 2020, and that's been named Best Event Planner in Sussex County three years running. Weddings, festivals, corporate takeovers, beach bonfires, boat charters, and the occasional event where nothing goes according to plan and nobody in attendance ever finds out. He currently works alongside Chef Ben Robinson of Below Deck, and has produced events with musicians and celebrities up and down the coast.

He also holds a 50-ton USCG Master Captain's license, which means he is legally permitted to drive a boat full of people he has just fed. And a Delaware real estate license, largely because he cannot sit still.

APPLES is not really his idea. His grandfather, James S. Bugg Sr., bought out his partner in a small interior design company called Decorating Den and built it into the largest interior design franchise in North America, earning a place in the International Franchise Association Hall of Fame. But the thing he built his life on wasn't the company. It was six principles he used to train his people for decades: Attitude, People Skills, Perseverance, Loyalty, Enthusiasm, and Stability. He called it APPLES. He never published a word of it.

Jim made him a promise that the world would get it.

This book is that promise kept — his own story wrapped around his grandfather's, written by a man who spent years being the guy who made everyone else's night while quietly not doing well at all. His grandfather's original manuscript is preserved in the back, word for word, exactly as he left it.

Jim lives in coastal Delaware with Erica and a yellow lab named Sunny, who has appeared in more photos than most of his event guests. He is an unapologetic Disney adult, an Eagles fan, and a firm believer that you take care of your people first and the rest sorts itself out.