About Me
I grew up in Idaho. I have 7 siblings and 2 amazing parents. We enjoy camping, fishing, skiing, and exploring the outdoors. We grew up together, played games, attended church, and ate family dinners every night. Our parents helped us build bonds with each other that are strong to this day.
I took an interest in computers when I was young. I also enjoyed electronics and taking apart toys and machines as a child to see how they worked. My father was an electrical contractor, and had a garage full of wire and electrical parts, and I used to play in there a lot, and try to build robots and tinker with various tools and equipment. I remember watching my older brothers write computer programs in (q)Basic, and I would learn from them and read their code.
I’ve always been good with money. I did many small business ventures as a child, like selling snow cones, lemonade, fireworks, scones, mowing lawns, and teaching guitar lessons. For a few years, I would build spook alleys in the back yard, hang up posters all over town, and charge admission at the entrance. I love dreaming and building. Its one of the most enjoyable ways I choose to spent time, even to this day.
In High School, I invested a lot of time and practice into music. I played guitar in the jazz band and drums in the marching band. I also played with a drum line at a nearby university all 4 years of high school, and I really thought I was going to play drums as a profession. It was a big part of my teenage years. I studied abroad in Cairo, Egypt my junior year of high school, with an emphasis on Arabic studies. I loved it!
I worked in construction during summers. I learned more construction trades after buying a fixer upper house when I was 18. It had sat vacant for many decades, and was not livable. I spent the summer repairing it, and making it livable. I learned how to drywall, paint, plumb, frame, roof, pour concrete and more. When it was finished, I sold it and made a good amount of money.
After high school, I moved to Berlin, Germany for two years, to volunteer as a church missionary. I studied German and became fluent. I grew a lot over these two years. I had leadership opportunities and developed lasting friendships.
I was 21 years old when I returned home from Germany. I took a job as a welder fabricator and spent the money I earned on flight school to become a pilot. I also attended university, studying aircraft mechanics and aviation management for a little while, but ended up leaving to pursue entrepreneur endeavors instead.
I took a two week real estate course, passed an exam, and become a licensed Realtor! I bought more fixer upper houses, and became more efficient at repairing and selling them and making a profit. I also got pretty good at deal structuring and finance, especially creative finance. I remember buying one house entirely on credit cards on an 18 month zero percent interest promotion, giving me enough time to do repairs and get the whole thing refinanced!
I met the love of my life in my mid 20s. We make a great team, and would eventually marry and have 3 beautiful children. We kept doing the house flipping, even with the family, sometimes traveling across the country to fix up and live in a home before selling it. We would always make our way back to Idaho, and by my early 30s we had decided to settle down here.
I started a Youtube channel teaching people about free alternatives to paid software, on topics like video editing, music production, animation, and more. After several years, these videos had received a lot of views, and I decided to start making more videos. I made them at home, then later rented a commercial space to use for an office/studio. The previous tenant had ran a computer repair shop out of this space, and it still had their sign out front. While I was working, people would walk in with their computers and ask me to fix them. At first I told them that this was no longer a repair shop, but I realized that some of the ‘problems’ that people we’re having with their computers were things I could fix. I created a price sheet and started accepting peoples computers and fixing them. If I didn’t know how to fix it, I would watch a Youtube video and learn. I ran this computer repair business for several years, eventually hiring employees to run it, so I could return to making videos, which I did in the basement of the store in the early hours of each morning. It was awesome, and a very productive and fun time of my life!
I started an IT management company during this time, helping business with anything tech related. It was subscription based, and services were provided on site and remotely. It grew quickly and I enjoyed providing a service that people seemed to appreciate and place a high value on. I eventually sold both the computer store and the IT company, and used the money to purchase some acreage and homestead and exit the ‘rat race’.
I build a home here, and also built media production studio where I still do Youtube videos and other media production. I also raise some animals and have a small hobby farm. I try to live a simple life. I travel a few times per year, attending tech conferences and meetups, and I have a few hardware and software projects that I’m working on.
Thats all for now, :)...
