Don’t believe everything you read on the internet.
My story spans 40 years, and I would never consider myself a “Mega Influencer”.
Age 7: Started working with my father on evenings and weekends. Ten cents an hour - that's $0.19 adjusted for inflation.
Age 14: Got my first official job at a nursery, loading cars with soil and manure. Often skipped school to work full-time hours. Started experimenting with small businesses on the side.
Age 17: Dropped out of high school to become a mechanic. Academics were always a struggle for me. I come from a long line of physical laborers, so a career working with my hands felt natural - like the only path available.
Age 19: Launched a personal concierge firm, one of the first in the industry. Our slogan: "If it's legal, moral, and will save you time... we'll take care of it." I did everything from chauffeuring to personal shopping to breaking up with people's partners on their behalf. There wasn't much I wouldn't do for $50 an hour.
Age 21: Found my first mentor. After a three-page feature in a national magazine, I met James - a man who would transform my trajectory. He challenged me to think bigger and urged me to pivot from services to e-commerce. At the time, I was thrilled to be making $5,000 a month.
Age 24: First million-dollar month. After the pivot, I became the second-largest concert ticket wholesaler in Canada. Small team, retail store, rapid growth.
Age 25: Earning 22x the national average income. I was traveling the world and making money that far exceeded anything I thought possible for someone like me. But I was deeply unfulfilled. I'd built a business I hated, to buy things I didn't need, to impress people I didn't like.
Age 26: Decided to scale the business down. Committed to winding down over a year while keeping cash in the bank to start something new.
Age 27: Bankrupt on every level. Winding down became a death by a thousand cuts. Two events beyond my control left me $250,000+ in debt. This same year, I got married and had my daughter. When one door closes, another opens - but it's hell being stuck in the hallway. This was my darkest hallway.
Age 28: Borrowed money to buy 4,000 copies of Tim Ferriss's books. This decision became the inception of MMT. The full story is in the Meaningful Moments section of our website.
Age 29: Wrote my first book. To handle the influx of questions about the entrepreneur dinners I was hosting, I wrote "Mastermind Dinners" - now with 600+ reviews on Amazon.
Age 32: I launched two seasons of the CommunityMade Podcast. Downloads were small, but the impact was significant. One listener took all the concepts on relationships and put them into a fantastic book.
The podcast sits at a 4.9/5 on iTunes.
Age 34: My wife and I bought a farm. We started building our forever home. A 57-acre farm home to Scottish Highland Cattle, Babydoll Sheep and Heritage Chickens.
Age 35: The pandemic crushed MMT. With all revenue tied to annual events, being unable to execute live experiences for two years wiped out years of savings. With revenue down 92% over 18 months we were running on fumes. Juggling funds to make payroll, weeks from losing our house, credit cards declining at grocery stores. I never could have imagined that I would find myself back in that dark hallway.
Age 38: Celebrated MMT's 10th anniversary. One of our highest-rated gatherings (9.73/10). Then we made a surprising decision - no annual gathering in 2024. Instead, we made space for me to lean into the creative process.
The Journey Continues
There's more to the story. There always is…
A business partner who scammed me out of six figures, a brush with suicide, and navigating the addictions of loved ones.
By most standards, I'm very open about my life. You can find pieces scattered across the internet in podcasts, blogs, and magazine articles.
For more detail, check out the first few episodes of the Community Made Podcast on Spotify or iTunes.
But the question that drives everything:
Is today a
good day to die?
This question bubbles to the surface a few times throughout my day (and haunts me, if I'm being honest).
I've often shared that keeping death at the forefront of our minds can guide us through life's most important decisions, including: where do we want to direct our life force?
Our time, our energy, our creativity...
My deepest commitments over the years have included family, friends (specifically being a friend in times of need), our farm, and MMT.
Over the coming years, I'm adding a new focus:
Metabolizing my hard-earned lessons to support others on their journeys.
I've been drawn to more depth in all areas of my life for some time. Now that I have a better relationship with my brain (and ADHD), I yearn for deep work. To produce things that are not only valuable, but timeless.
Striving to master depth in a culture of distraction and perpetual pivoting is not easy.
It requires constantly keeping the main thing the main thing, holding boundaries, and exercising the muscle of saying 'no' (which has been one of my lifelong battles). I often say that all opportunities stem from relationships, and being blessed in this domain, saying 'no' to incredible opportunities is very tough.
But sometimes you need to…
Sacrifice today for a better tomorrow…
Minimize inputs to maximize outputs…
Cultivate empty space for the creative process…
There's a book called A Year to Live by Stephen Levine that challenges readers to dedicate their year as if it were their last. Over the last decade, I've lived a big and beautiful life. I feel like I am enough and I've done enough in almost every respect.
AND, I have a deeply-rooted belief: when you die, die on empty. Don't let anything die with you.
I hope that one day, in the not-so-distant future, the question "is today a good day to die?" will not haunt me because I can answer it with a full-body YES.
