Chapter 01
I'm 21, born in Wichita, working out of Scottsdale. Run a marketing agency with my partner Adam. Building a separate AI company on the side. Training for an Ironman in between.
None of this is the result of a five-year plan. It's the result of a few specific decisions, multiple nights I almost quit, and the people I happened to be sitting next to when something clicked.
This is the long version.
25 to 30 yards a week through high school. LLC, equipment loans, the whole thing. First time pitching, first time getting told no, first time figuring out I didn't have to wait around for someone to hand me anything.
Pest control first, in Wichita. Learned more about humans in a summer than I did in four years of school. Sales is the only skill where rejection makes you better.
I wasn't running from anything. I was running toward something. The income was real and school wasn't moving fast enough. Outsold the entire team in the first two weeks as the youngest rep on the floor.
Ran the team out of my own house in Wichita. Pipeline collapsed. Had to tell my grandma I couldn't cover her rent. That's the moment that didn't leave me. Still hasn't.
Out of solar. Into roofing. The numbers worked fast. Around $450K in revenue in four months. First time the income looked like a career, not a gig.
In the best shape of my life. Started making content for Mike, my running coach, as a trade. Helped him land sponsorships. The work felt different than anything I'd done before it.
Walked away from roofing in December. January 2024, started Insight Media. The trade with Mike was the first deal. Grew him from 10K to 20K followers in a month and a half. That's when it stopped being a side thing.
My girlfriend at the time was in a car accident in August. We lived in the hospital for five months. I tried to work from there but couldn't really. Did almost nothing else for those five months. That's when I knew I needed a fresh start.
Moved to Scottsdale. Partnered with Adam. That's when Insight Media became a real agency. Got robbed in LA two weeks later, lost every frame of footage from the trip. Got back on the road and kept going.
Running Insight Media as a brand consulting agency. Cadence Leads is the ads side, started this February. Standing up a separate AI company on the side. Training for an Ironman. Documenting all of it.
My family climbed up. Now we're middle. And I don't think middle exists in five years. AI is going to wipe most of it out. That's not pessimism, that's the math I'm planning around.
I'm trying to be on the right side of that. And I'm trying to drag everyone I love over with me.
School isn't going to teach him what he needs to know. AI is changing the world too fast for that. When he's out, I need to be the person who can actually set him up.
My grandma is the other anchor. She's 70 and still works. Spent her whole life taking care of the people around her. Now I want to be the one who gives her experiences.
"The world is pivoting. You're either going to be super rich or super poor. There's going to be no in between."Observation, not lecture