How I actually got here.

Before any of this, I managed a fraud investigations team at a credit union in Maryland. Steady job. Good pay. Not the plan.

In 2016 I walked away from it with no savings and no real backup plan, straight commission, selling insurance alongside my father. I had a couple good months. Then I fell flat on my face. Bills stacked up. There were calls about repossessing the car. My wife was staying home with our two kids, and I was the only income, not bringing any in.

She's the one who pushed me toward design. I gave her every excuse in the book. Never went to school for it. No real experience. I looked up the average salary and thought there was no way I could support a family on it. I tried anyway, because I didn't have anything left to lose.

The first real break came from a favor. I offered a guy in a community I was part of a free logo, just trying to build a portfolio. He posted it. People noticed. That one favor turned into paying clients, and those clients turned into a real business.

A few years in, I did a full rebrand for someone, no charge, just to prove what I could do at a higher level. That one decision changed who I got to work with for good.

Somewhere in there I also built and sold a coaching business teaching other designers how to do what I'd done. Good season. Different season.

Then I went quiet.

Stepped back from social media entirely for a few years. Kept working the whole time, kept getting booked, just stopped performing it publicly. Some of the best work I've ever made came out of that stretch, and none of it has been seen until now.

I'm back, focused on one thing: speakers who've outgrown how they look online. Same as it's always been. Just quieter about it.