Let’s roll back the clock to 1995…
An afternoon after high school, I was sitting down to watch some of my favorite anime (nerd at heart); my friends and I had finished what was available in the US from Dragon Ball Z. We had heard stories that there was more episode available in Japan. Yet, no one knew where or how to find them.
It wasn’t long before I found my way to that content online. However, it was a total pain to find anything, and not entirely straightforward where or how to watch it. Nevertheless, I figured I knew something and could share that with the world of DBZ nerds.
It took grit and effort to learn how to develop my first website. I was lucky enough to have a friend whose mom was in the software sales industry, and she had a copy of what was then the handbook to building websites, the HTML3 Bible.
Over that summer, I ended up making my first few websites dedicated to the anime I was following so closely, and its viewership grew, and my knowledge of how to get traffic to it expanded.
Once word in my small northern California town got out that I could help small businesses build their newfound web presence, I had more business than I could handle at 16. The newfound company kicked off my entrepreneurship traits in a big way. I was running a small web development agency, building out the websites of small to medium size businesses.
I tried the college route but quickly realized I had way more knowledge of web development than any of my professors or peers. So, I dropped out of college and moved to Southern California to seek bigger things and new experiences.
Through several failed ventures and bootstrapped companies, I decided to move to Germany and enlist in the Army.
Upon enlisting in the Army, I got word from the states that I was about to have a child. Having grown up an Army brat and proud of it, I wanted to change the trajectory of my new son’s life and be there full-time with him. But, if I wanted that life, it would require a drastic change.
Upon my discharge, I moved back to the states with no money, no job, and a vague plan to develop websites to create revenue streams to support my new family.
These things don’t work out quite as smoothly as you’d like… I had to fall back while developing several ideas to work at Home Depot.
By 2005 everything came together, and I was generating enough revenue to support my family.
I worked closely with a friend of mind, and we developed a network of blogs over the next seven years generating $30,000 a month.
After seven years of doing this, I decided to jump into the startup business with DNA Imprints. DNA Imprints would be my first business with an office and an entire production facility to produce DNA-based art for various celebrities and clients worldwide.
In 2010, we successfully acquired DNA Imprints, and I thought this would be a great time to chill with my family. Still, I’m forever an inventor and picked everyone up to move to the Bay Area to start working and leading Series-A and above startups in the technology space. My Linkedin has a series of events, so that I won’t dive into all the details.
However, I’ve been at companies that even bigger ones have acquired. I’ve built engineering and marketing teams from Zero to managing over 100 staff members. Been involved in business development and patented a few crazy ideas.
It has taken my skills to the next level in building businesses and teaching those skills to everyone around me.
And that’s why this blog exists. I want to take all I have learned and share it with everyone. I want us all to have the same opportunities and for you to learn from my 20-plus years of experience. Whether you are an in-house marketer, online course creator, engineer, or freelancer, I have vast experience in these areas, and my blog is a place to learn about strategies, tactics, and the tools you need to succeed online.