Real story. Real demons. Real comeback.

A small town, and no father

I grew up in a small town without my dad. I went back and forth between my mother and my grandmother, and never really knew where home was. When you grow up like that, you learn to survive before you learn to plan.

Xanax. OxyContin. Alcohol.

I found things that made the noise stop for a while. Xanax, OxyContin and alcohol became how I coped, until they were running my life instead of me. I'm telling you this plainly because somebody reading it is where I was, and they need to hear that it isn't the end of the story.

A felony record at 19

By 19 I had a felony record. A lot of people looked at that and decided who I was going to be for the rest of my life.

Deciding I wasn't finished

There was no single magic moment. It was a decision I had to make over and over: show up, tell the truth, do the next right thing. The demons didn't disappear. I just stopped letting them drive.

My first startup: HomeTownHero Vapors

My first real business. It taught me what no class could: customers, cash flow, inventory, and what it feels like when everything rides on you.

24 Hr Car Unlocking: built on search

I didn't start with a referral network or investors. I started with Google. Search traffic built 24 Hr Car Unlocking into a licensed 24/7 lockout, car key and roadside company with technicians across multiple cities: $5.2M+ in sales, 60K+ customers, and 800+ Google reviews.

I learned marketing the expensive way. I've spent over $1.2 million of my own money on Google Ads, and I've hired more than 10 SEO agencies, including Neil Patel's. I know what agencies sell, and I know what actually makes the phone ring.

Becoming my own software team

I couldn't afford a dev team, so I learned to build with AI. I wrote the dispatch CRM that has dispatched 54K+ jobs, the technician and customer apps, an AI phone agent that answers 24/7 in English and Spanish, and the automations that post to Google and Facebook and answer every review. Every feature starts as a written spec. There are 140+ of them now.

2024: Texas said no. I won anyway.

Texas denied my locksmith license because of my record. I read the law, including House Bill 1342, built my own case, and represented myself at the State Office of Administrative Hearings. The judge recommended my license be granted, and it was.

Why I build, coach and speak now

That win turned into ProSeFiler, software for people in court without a lawyer, and into Project 1342, a path for people with records to get trained, licensed and working. The software I built for my own company is now what I build for other businesses. And the story is why I coach and speak: I'll help you do it faster than I did.

Off the clock

I'm a dad first. I grew up without a father, and my kids won't. You'll find us playing Lava Monster and hide and seek, firing up the BBQ, and watching the Spurs play. Biscuit, our dog, is head of morale: Biscuit doesn't care about my past or my revenue, just whether I remembered the treats.

I've turned my dreams into reality. I set goals, I cross them off, and I find my joy in helping other people do the same.