Hello there and thank you for reading about me.
This is a rough draft right now and I will eventually write something a little more coherent.
Background Braindump:
I was born in 1978.
In the 80s my buddy and I would do what we could to make money. This included working for our or each others parents, stuffing envelopes, buying / selling / returning video games.
In the early 90’s I got my first computer. It ran windows 3.1 and had a modem. At some point I got online…
And I have been connected to the interwebs ever since.
Like most kids back then I created crappy little websites. I started to do this for other people to make a little bit of money. I had some weird little businesses such as making patches & flyers for punk bands.
I sold crap on ebay, and I of course kept making websites.
Somewhere in the middle of this, I finished high school. I never really wanted to go to college, but was sort of pressured into it by my parents. Although the pressure came well after I graduated HS.
In college I took a variety of courses not really knowing what I wanted to get in to. I started with welding and machine shop classes, a variety of jewelry making and art classes. I got into computer aided manufacturing and then finally settled on Graphic Arts & Desktop Publishing.
I finished up while freelancing, making patches, and working in the schools labs to make money.
I had some crappy part time graphic design jobs where I was told to slow down because the stuff was so repetitive and easy. I could finish my stack of work in about 2 hours, and needed it to last a day.
9-11 happened and people quit running job ads at the paper I worked at, so I worked in the back of a women’s clothing store unpacking trucks. The job was brainless and physically active. I was in good shape and did yoga & paint every day.
I decided to go back to school since this didn’t seem like a great path for me. This time I went for fine arts; Photography, Painting and Sculpture. I would work part time and be a full time student.
The job I was laid off at, rehired me part time. At that same graphic arts job they found out that I used to design websites and had some knowledge of the internet, so they had me start working on some of the other things that came into the office.
The company I was with somehow had customers sign up for something called Overture… I had to learn how to use that. I got really good with it. And we got more clients.
We had one little client who needed a new site. And I was assigned with figuring out how to get it to rank. And I rank it did.
At this point I was offered a full time job with sweet benefits, and decided to do that and quit school. I finished the semester.
In 2001 I started looking around online and became part of the WebmasterWorld community. I would spend hours here each day learning and researching how to do things on these sites.
At some point I switched to a better job. I did more work and got paid more. I ran the department. I gave away many good ideas. And I felt taken for granted and cheated.
The sites I was building on the side were doing pretty good, and I had a few people who wanted me to work with them. I decided to venture off on my own. Well of course the moment I did this I started to get some offers from other companies.
I got a director position at the shadiest company in the world. I had no idea how bad it was until after I started. I moved to Canada. I made a bunch of money. I made a the company TONS of money. I developed the systems they used to make insane money. My boss did not understand the internet nor the scalability of what we were doing. I felt held back, talked to the owner to see if we could make changes. No use. Put in my notice and started my own company.
I moved back to the US, and things were a little shaky at first, then those sweet affiliate dollars started to roll in. Somehow they still do. I was also doing consulting for a handful of customers.
I traveled quite a bit. I would say I grew as an individual.
I started another company selling direct to customers (online retail) it still exists and is sort of pointless.
I started buying domains many years ago and decided to finally do something with them. I created TastyBurgerNetworks to dump all of my domains, my affiliate sites and any consulting into. I have a few really good clients now.
A buddy threw me a bone and I won a pretty sweet domain.
A few months later I bought a pin company.
At some point I bought an old empty storefront in terrible condition. It is now a lovely home and I am working on growing the pin company. I am also trying to stay sane by doing hands on projects. Gardening, cooking, woodworking and other things like that. I have not really gotten back into the art world though.
I have also been dabbling with some start up type properties now.
Not really sure what the future holds for me, but I am guessing it will still involve the internet. At some point I think I would like the hands on aspect of a brick and mortar business / or B&M side to an online business. Sort of getting there now. Slowly and surely.