Goodbye to my 30s and hello to my 40s :)

I am very glad to have made it this far.

And, here I am… turning 40 in a small town outside of Porto in Northern Portugal. It is amazing where life takes you!

This week I’ve been thinking about my 30s and what I want from my 40s.

My 30s…

I moved to DC at the end of 2010 when I was 29. I had been living in Denver and needed a change. Denver just didn’t feel like it was the place for me. I wanted to travel more and have some adventures while I was young and unattached. For my 30th birthday I was living in Washington DC and I had a chill night with Iris. We grilled some steaks on the porch, drank some really peaty scotch (thank you Chappy for that introduction), and talked all night. It was a great birthday!

Site5 was doing well by this point and we had owned it for a little over 2 years. We had cleaned out a lot of the financial/technical baggage and the previous year we had finally seen the results of all that work. And, I was feeling a bit more confident in my ability to run and grow the business. Not to say there were no bumps… but I had a better idea of what I was doing.

By the time of my 30th birthday, I knew I was going to spend 2012 and 2013 traveling and had some rough plans. I knew I was going to start in Central America and then move down to South America over the first 6 months of 2012. Then, I was going to meet my brother in Australia and live with him for a year. Beyond that, I didn’t have much figured out. The two years I traveled were some of the most amazing experiences of my life. I had so much fun with Rose and Steve as we crossed paths throughout Central and South America, with Joel and Laura in Chile (wonderful introduction to Havana Club), and living with my brother in Melbourne (my “life coach”). I celebrated my 31st birthday with my brother in Melbourne and my 32nd birthday on a boat off the waters of Croatia. My mental state was in such a great place by the end of those two years. I was a calmer and more confident person for many reasons. 

In October 2013 I flew back to Fayetteville for a quick 3-day trip to surprise Joel, Iris, and the Fayetteville crew (big ultimate tournament). I went to dinner with Lindsey that Friday and everything just clicked and I had this amazing feeling that I was going to marry her. After I left I wrote to her often and she visited me in Scotland a few months later.  We started dating when I got back to Fayetteville in late December, we got engaged in October of 2014, and we were married that December 😀. Not to imply that was an easy year, as 2014 was the hardest year of my life for a number of reasons (much longer story there mixed between work and health).

What is amazing to think about is that from 33 onward I’ve shared my life with Lindsey, from 34 onward we’ve been married, and from 35 onward Calico has been part of our little party. A lot of great adventures and hopefully many more to come :).

Looking back, what strikes me about my 30s?

1. There were massive changes with whom I spent time. My 20s were primarily spent with close friends and the ultimate community. But the majority of my 30s were spent with Lindsey and Calico. In my early 30s, some of my closest friendships faded away or were abruptly dropped. That was painful. I thought that was due to me and specifics in my life, but I watched my wife go through similar. I wonder if that is common and if there is a big shakeup as people settle down, get busier, and choose where they spend their limited time and energy.
2. I lost a ton of anxiety/fear and gained a ton of courage/confidence about who I wanted to be in this world. I credit that to a lot of solo travel, a lot of time alone to think, ayahuasca, and an intense job I had to grow into. The difference between me in my 20s and me by my early 30s is insane.
3. This might be a weird one… but over my 30s I gained such a better “understanding” of humans, and this helped me feel confident in interacting with them as my “full self”. This is a big change over my 20s when interacting with people was just confusing and frustrating and I was a much quieter person. In my early 30s, I attributed a lot of this to my job. I was interacting with a large and diverse group of people across the world and I learned so much from them. But, being married has taken that “understanding” from a kindergarten level to what feels like a Ph.D. That doesn’t mean I *really* understand humans better, as they continue to astound me, but in general, I understand motivations for why they say and do things better. This “understanding” has helped me become a calmer and more patient person… and weirdly… a bit more uncaring about people but in a positive way. Not sure if it makes sense but it is a big change over my 20s.
4. I have a much better handle on how to keep my body and energy levels healthy. They should make physical rehab and training a mandatory part of junior high and high school along with financial education (and practical real-world ethics, morality, and philosophy).

What do I want from my 40s?

• I want to work on a fun project that challenges me, uses my creativity, and helps people.
• I want to spend quality time with my family and not live an overly stressful life.
• I want to have a lot of fun adventures (solo and with Calico/Lindsey)
• I want to stay in good health, great physical shape, and maintain healthy levels of stress/energy.

I’ve got a long list of how that translates and I am looking forward to it :)

What a very cool day, I got to interview the man, the myth, the legend, Tommy Chong.

We got to talk for an hour and what a super cool human being. I love talking to people who have really lived their lives, through everything, mistakes, success, insanity, fun, grief, love, etc. Tommy is truly someone who made me think of the famous Hunter S. Thompson’s quote:

“Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming “Wow! What a Ride!”

I got to talk with him for an hour (as he agreed to do a book recommendation for Shepherd). I got so many great stories about the authors/books that really connected with him along with his life through now. The focus was on his spiritual side of things and a really powerful conversation. I made him laugh really hard which is always fun (let me have my moment). Cool day and going to pick up a book he recommended shortly.

This is one of my favorite shows on YouTube and I highly recommend taking a look! Like Stories Of Old explores stories, arch types, and life in general. If you like the below please sponsor their work.

I love Calvin and Hobbes :)

Click this for the full comic :)

I recently re-watched Conan the Barbarian and WOW! I forgot just how amazing the movie is, such great storytelling, minimal dialogue, great shots, etc. This is one of my favorite parts….

2018 is going to be a pretty cool year :).

I am very lucky in that I have some free time and the resources to play with a variety of ideas on what I want to do next. For the last couple years, I have been thinking about how to help entrepreneurs “entrepreneur” better and also looking at ways to encourage people to start a business. It is a huge and ambiguous area, but one I am really passionate about and I want to see what I can do.

I really love what Vistage and EO offer entrepreneurs in terms of a face to face meetings, and I want to see what I can create online to provide some of those same benefits to the entrepreneur and their business. Plus I want to create some content sites that provide quality instead of the “top 10 ways entrepreneurs put on their pants” bullshit posts. I love INC magazine and the rest of that industry, but a lot of their online articles are utter shit.

Big 3 for the year?

1. Figure out what is next for me. To do that I need to ensure I have enough wide open time to try a bunch of things and see what feels right.

2. I want to help entrepreneurs “entrepreneur”, but I am just not sure how I want to go about that. I’ve got a bunch of ideas and I am going to spend my time exploring & testing those options. By the end of the year, I want to see what is resonating with me and others.

3. I want to spend a ton of time pursuing a new sport… specifically, mountain biking plus bike touring. I need a new sport since I gave up long-distance trail running in 2014 in order to keep my back healthy.

Onward to 2018!

2017 was a good year, with a TON of life changes :). This year felt like I was finally exhaling after holding my breath for a very long time. Things also started to slow down compared to previous years.

Work-wise the end of 2016 brought the end of World Wide Web Hosting LLC and Bweeb INC which was a big weight off my mind in 2017. I exited Pressed in June 2017, and although it did not end the way I wanted, I am happy the team landed with a great company (Envato). I spent the rest of the year resting, spending time with my family, and a few small side projects. It has been a much-needed break after the craziness of the last few years (2004 through 2016).

The biggest change this year was the arrival of Calico Jack on December 30th, 2016. We are having such a blast with him! His mom loves to dress him up, and this is a spectacular family gif that represents why I love them so much :). It is fun to see his personality develop, and I love getting down on the floor to crawl and play!

The Amazing
Lindsey and I have been married for three years and it has been great :)! Marriage is crazy hard sometimes, and also super rewarding. It really does get better and better every year… and Lindsey is an awesome partner in crime!

Boulder is starting to feel more and more like home. We were both so nomadic for so long it is a good feeling to have. I am loving the sunshine, instant access to nature, and our house.

I sold my stake in Pressed to Envato in June, and I took the rest of the year off to relax and spend time with my family. This is the cumulation of all the chaos and hard work since 2014 and I am happy to have a break. I am also ready to be do something besides web hosting I think… I’ve been in that industry since 2001 (16+ years!).

What fun stuff did I do this year?
– Lindsey, Calico, and I went on an amazing month-long trip to Strasbourg France. We wanted to travel with him when he was a little and the timing was perfect. He was 5 months when we left, and 6 months when we got back. Just barely crawling, sleeping a lot, and a good travel baby. His nighttime schedule was chaos, but oh well. Rose & Steve visited which was a blast too. We had fun :).
– I had a two week solo vacation to St. Maartin to help decompress after selling the business. It is incredibly challenging to sell a business and then start disconnecting all the routine and energy you built to support that endeavor. I took this break in July/August and in hindsight, it would have been smarter to take it later in the year. It took at least 3 to 4 months to feel like my energy levels were reset.
– I took a 3-week trip with my dad to China. We visited my brother, who lives in Shanghai, and look around. The highlight was the Yellow Mountains and getting to spend time with my brother and dad (I wish I had more time with my brother as I had fun watching movies and hanging out). There are a ton of pictures from this trip here and a summary here.
– I started working out with a trainer on my annular disc tear and it feels so much better. I found that I enjoy the strength training and started doing that 3x a week. I feel a lot stronger and it has been super fun.
– I did a ton of hiking with Graham and Daniel this year, fun times! Daniel moved to Portland in June, but hopefully, I can make my way that way to visit and do some hiking there :).
– I bought a super fun truck!
– I launched a site for Entrepreneur Parents to crowdsource advice in that department. Check it out at EntrepreneurParents.org. It is just a fun project but it aligns with what I want to do next… which is to help entrepreneurs do amazing stuff. I’ve got another three sites coming down the pipeline in early 2018.
– April 23rd 2017 happened, it was magnificent.

The Challenges!

USA / Faith In Humanity:
Trump. I have found it is key to remember he did not win a majority of the vote, and that the people who did vote for him did not really vote for him, rather they voted against politicians and a system that they feel has failed them (especially economically). I also remind myself how blessed I am to be living in interesting times, I just hope the country survives it.

Health:
My health has been good. I’ve been doing a pretty strict diet, with some treats while on vacation. I just got a pill cam and the results were ok, the doctors think they further confirmed I have Crohn’s disease. The hardest part is the anxiety and I worked a lot this year to ease those worries. I plan to get back on my strict diet next week after Christmas (enjoying a little dairy, gf bread, and sugar right now).

Mojo:
After the sale of Pressed, I took the rest of the year off to be with my family and rest. That has been really good and I am looking forward to some more rest through mid-2018. I need some wide open space as I figure out what is next for me.

2018…
I am looking forward to 2018 :)! I am playing with some ideas on a new business that I have been kicking around for a few years.

The sky is the limit…

What am I hoping to do in 2017?

Theme Of The Year?
I want to get my mojo back! What does that mean? I want to refill my energy and passion. I’ve had a hard 3-year run and I want to get some of my energy/mojo back :).

Work Stuff…
1. Work to make Pressed a success.
2. Pursue some small fun projects around helping other entrepreneurs.
3. Keep focusing on how to execute to the best of your abilities.

My Stuff…
1. Find a new sport I am going to LOVE and will keep my back happy.
2. Plan out an adventure for late in the year.
3. Shed a lot of junk that is piling up in my closet.
4. Clear my desk and keep it clear.
5. Read at least 50 books.
6. Do more hikes with friends, and more lunches/coffee with people in my community.

Core…
1. Follow my current health and diet plan.
2. Keep my daily rehab and meditation habits.
3. Do my big workouts and FT 4x a week.

2014 was the toughest year of my life, and while 2015 was MUCH better and WAY more fun… so many of the things that caused stress in 2014 were still there and still had to be dealt with. I had high hopes for 2016 finally giving me a bit more space to find my mojo but that didn’t happen quite the way I wanted.

All in all, 2016 was a bit exhausting. I was working 2 CEO gigs for 85% of the year, one of those gigs was booting up a brand new tech startup which is a challenge, our family bought a house and moved 9+ times while getting it ready to be lived in, Lindsey got pregnant and we had a baby in December :), and I had to deal with a few health scares. There is a lot of good in there, but it was a pretty intense year.

2016 felt a bit like this…

I sat down a month ago and made a big timeline of everything going on in my life from 2014 to 2016 by month. It is pretty crazy how much shit went down over that 3 year period. Even after reading it I feel pretty amazed I am still standing. I am very confident that 2017 will be a bit more relaxed :).

The Amazing
Lindsey and I have been married for two years and it just keeps getting better and better :). I made a great choice and I hope she feels similar. We found out Lindsey was pregnant on April 20th and little Calico was born on December 30th 2016. This is a pretty momentous change to our lives, and we are pretty excited :). I am incredibly excited to be a dad!

In February we moved to Colorado and by March had bought a house in Boulder. Lindsey worked like crazy to get the house ready and by July we were moved in. We are loving our house and it is so nice to have a home/office and be less nomadic for a while. Between February to July we moved 9+ times as we scrambled to find new places whent he house work was delayed.

What other fun stuff did I do this year?
– Lindsey and I went on a 2 week baby moon to Maui Hawaii which was needed. We also spent a few weeks in Key West and Florida visiting friends & family. It was great to finally introduce Lindsey to my grandma, even if we have to do it everytime she wonders who is in the car with her :).
– Lots of amazing hikes in Colorado with Daniel and solo.
– I joined Vistage early in the year, and EO toward the end. Both those communities have been great, and I trying to learn how to better execute on ideas. This is a huge focus of mine for the rest of my life.
– I’ve managed to cement my morning ritual and I hit 380 consecutive days of morning rehab, and 310 days of meditation. I am pretty happy with keeping that up amidst a pretty choppy year.
– I am back to doing workouts 4x a week which feels great! They are light workouts but it feels great to sweat. I am slowly accepting that medical peoples have no clue about my back, and it is up to me to figure out what I can and can’t do.

The Challenges!

Health:
2016 was not a great year in the health department, but it did end on a positive note :). In January I got hit with some liver problems due to some preventative meds they had me taking. I stopped taking them and was back to normal by late March. Then in May they saw some signs inflammation might be back so I switched back to a super strict Paleo AIP diet and I’ve been on that ever since (7+ months). In August I got a colonoscopy and they didn’t see any sign of the disease now or historically so that was great to hear! Halfway through the year I also got some tests on my adrenal glands and the doctor discovered I am pretty zapped and at the end of a long stress cycle (duh!). So they gave me a mountain of hippie pills to help put humpty dumpty back together again :). I am feeling better now from an energy perspective and I am looking forward to getting my mojo back.

Komorebi:
Site5/WWWH was sold in June 2015 and for the 17 months following that I have been working two CEO gigs, one booting up my new startup Pressed, and one at WWWH to oversee the transition to the new owners. That was very stressful/tiring and I do not recommend doing it. Saying goodbye to Site5/WWWH after spending 7+ years building and running it was tough. I hope it finds a good home, as I haven’t been too impressed with what has happened under the new ownership. I was able to line up new homes for 75%+ of the team too which I feel good about. And, I think another 10% to 15% found positions through referrals a few weeks later.

Trump:
Somehow the country elected Trump to be the president of the USA. Trump is someone I wouldn’t hire to manage a McDonalds bathroom, let alone hand a pair of childproof scissors too. God help us all :). I am still working through what this means… it has caused a lot of reflection on what the American dream is for me, and what it is for other people. I am a globalist, I have friends all over the world, I am someone who thinks this country needs a strong social safety net in FDR style, and I am dumbfounded to see the very people who need help in the modern economy vote for someone who is going to screw them over. Hopefully, from the ashes the country emerges stronger (at least we might get a territorial tax system for people/companies finally).

2017
I am really excited about 2017! It is going to be a great year :). You can read my plans/goals here (COMING SOON).

Onward to 2017, ARRRRRGGGGGGG!!!!!!

“Someone once told me that time was a predator that stalked us all our lives. But I rather believe that time is a companion who goes with us on the journey and reminds us to cherish every moment because they’ll never come again. What we leave behind is not as important as how we’ve lived. After all, Number One, we’re only mortal.”
– Captain Picard

If you are a fan, this scene is a hard one to watch, the ending scene :). Picard is a huge hero of mine, as a kid he was a big influence, and continues to do so.

I love this article at Time.com asking what you want to achieve in life and work. And, why you need to keep an eye on it so you can make course corrections over your life. We all add more and more to our life, but we never seem to get rid of things. Or we get rid of the wrong things.

I especially loved this quote about time…

“Everything requires Time. Time is the only permanent and absolute ruler in the universe. But she is a scrupulously fair ruler. She treats every living person exactly alike every day. No matter how much of the world’s goods you have managed to accumulate, you cannot successfully plead for a single moment more than the pauper receives without ever asking for it. Time is the one great leveler. Everyone has the same amount to spend every day.”

Try this thought experiment:

“Suppose you woke up tomorrow and received two phone calls. The first phone call tells you that you have inherited $20 million, no strings attached. The second tells you that you have an incurable and terminal disease, and you have no more than 10 years to live. What would you do differently, and, in particular, what would you stop doing?”

And, here are 3 questions the famous author recommended to ask yourself personally.

1. What are you deeply passionate about?
2. What are you are genetically encoded for — what activities do you feel just “made to do”?
3. What makes economic sense — what can you make a living at?

If 50% of your daily activities are outside of these 3 things you might need to reassess what you are doing, and try for a course correction to get you back on track.

2014 has been a very interesting year… It was one of the most stressful/traumatic years of my life combined with one of the absolute best years of my life.

The Amazing!
I came home for a big college reunion ultimate tournament in October 2013 and met up with an old friend and everything just clicked. She ended up visiting me in Scotland in December and we’ve been together ever since :). We got engaged in October and married on December 21st :). I am incredibly happy and excited to have her in my life!

What other fun stuff did I do this year?
– Lindsey and I went on an amazing trip to Spain & Portugal in late spring. It was a great break and nice to have some time off. We also had a great trip out to California in the Fall. And, one to New Mexico in March that was fun (although I got a bad sinus infection and was conked out for most of it).
– I did a 30 day challenge to live as if I was only making $12 dollars an hour. It was a good experience and you can read more of my thoughts on it above.
– I had a fantastic time at work meetups in Prague, Scotland, Vegas, and Texas. I had such a blast visiting with everyone.
– I said goodbye to all my paper books which was tough, but it feels good to not cart those around.
– I learned so much this year about myself and so many other things. One nice things about big challenges is that you learn at a very accelerated rate. I was very fortuntuate that a friend referred me to Vistage as it has been a huge help, and I recommend it to any CEO/BizOwners.

The Challenges!
This year had also had some big challenges.

Health:
Health problems suck, I hate being limited in what I can do physically, or if anything makes me feel tired and slow. This year has been a doozy in that regard… Short summary: in April I started having some pain in my stomach area, along with being very tired. After many specialists and tests I was told it was either cancer, tumors, or possibly crohn’s disease (not fun to hear). After a bunch more tests I got surgery in late August to get a biopsy. The good news is it isn’t cancer (always nice to hear after such a stressful period). The bad news is the doctors think it is crohn’s disease or possibly IBUprofen damage. I recovered pretty quickly from the surgery and felt a lot better since they removed twelve inches of my small intestine that was inflamed. Unfortunately, I started having some symptoms in early December and tests backed up that I still have some problems. So, I am still working on figuring it out :) . The doctors think it is crohn’s disease which seems to be a pretty made up diagnosis for something they don’t know much about, and they want to start jamming a load of pills down me. I’ve started the paleo autoimmune protocol eating plan, as a lot of people have had great success with it. It’s tough but hopefully over the next 6 months it helps me heal naturally. And I’ve got an appointment with a doctor in a few weeks to learn more about how I can help the pharmaceutical industry financially… This health issue has taken so much time and energy this year.

Sports Injury:
In June, I finally got a proper diagnoses of a sport injury I’ve had for 2.5 years. It turns out I had a torn disc… and I’ve been working to rehab the muscles around it + give it time to heal. I haven’t been able to do anything but walk and a few other things. It was very difficult to eliminate running from my life as it is a major stress reliever. I’ve slowly found some new things, and I am now doing a Yoga more, and a lot of walking & stationary biking. I’ll get a read on how it is healing in a week or so from the MRI results.

Life:
This year has been a very tough year personally and professional. It has brought a lot of challenges, I am hopeful it will improve in 2015.

I pushed way too hard this year when so much other stuff was going on. I moved three times, got engaged, got married, traveled for work or pleasure for at least three months total this year, and many other things. Next time I will be better about cutting out the superfluous stuff to give myself time to breath when having such a challenging year. Live and learn :) !

Overall…
I am very ready for 2015, and glad that I am alive and surviving!

Then flourish.

This might be one of the most interesting year’s of my life :). An amazing amount of awesome, some rough, and a lot of challenging. So a little dance for still being alive:

I’ve been dealing with some unknown health issues since late May. And, at this point I am really hoping there is a parasite clinging to my small intestine :). I should find out in the next couple weeks, and if not that I’ll have to get a fun little biopsy to nail down the problem. Not knowing what is wrong is the worst part of having something wrong :).

On the way home from a doctor appointment today a vulture/buzzard landed on the roof of a nearby building as I waited on a light, and I almost ran into a pink hearse sitting in the front of a church. Hopefully I don’t see The Grim soon :). Hilarious drive home!!!

Scotland is an amazing country and I had such a blast ending my two years of travels there for the last ~6 weeks! I really want to go back when its summer, not that winter is bad, but definitely very dark, windy and cold (and maybe extra magical). I had a great time with Mom and Tony who visited right after I got there.

After they split I caught up on a lot of work, went down to London for a lot of work and a lil fun, then an in person management meetup for work, and then a great 10 day break before I headed back home to Arkansas for Christmas. The last 10 days were amazing as Lindsey, Joel, Laura, Lori, Rose, and Steve all visited!!!! Really amazing end to the year! Random pictures below!

Check out this great trailer for an upcoming movie! Really well done trailer (and i should know as I watch them all)!

And also check out this one, looks amazing too!