October 14, 2025

I've got something personal to share.

Hey.

I’ve been quiet lately. You haven’t seen me much in here. In the forums in my community, or in your inbox.

(And if you have seen me, it's because of the magic of automation, and my wonderful team that kept my content being published in my absence)

But I've been gone.

I know it. You’ve probably felt it. And I want to speak to it honestly.

It was a hard winter for my family. A couple months ago, our family experienced a tragedy. The kind that stops everything and reshapes how you see the world.

Our fourth child, a little baby girl, passed away. She was born still. She has a name, and a resting place where we visit her, grieve, and try to heal.

It pulled me away from all work and shook me.

That's all I can comfortably share right now.

I haven't wanted to talk about this publicly. It's just been too raw and personal. But I can only smile and pretend I'm not fundamentally a different man for so long.

There is healing in being authentic, honest, and open, while still safeguarding what's private and meant only for me and my family.

But what I share online isn't a character, or a facade — at least, I want to make certain that it's not. It's an extension, a piece of who I am. I want my kids when they're older to find these parts of me online and see me, not a character, or parody of their dad.

So I will say this: Spring is here, and coming out the other side, I’m not the same man.

I’m changed. A little tattered, sure. But also more grounded. More focused. With a clearer view of what actually matters. God. Family. Freedom. Purposeful work that serves your family, not the other way around.

The audience of I've built, Creative Crew as we currently call it, is now 3 years old. Truth be told, my community is much older than that. I've been doing this for 12 years. Since my first daughter was born.

This community was never meant to be a place to just talk shop. It’s not here so we can push pixels or moan about tools.

I think this space exists for something bigger. It’s for people who want to build a business that actually gives them life, instead of taking it from them.

I’m not talking about the type of business that requires you sacrifice your family at its altar.

I’m talking about a purposeful business. One that lets you take care of the bills, and then some. A business that lets you sit down at your desk in the morning and actually feel good about it.

One that gives you space to be there for your family. To provide. To pause. To live. To work on things that matter. To be present.

I’m under no illusion that there is a perfect job, perfect business, perfect client, perfect income, perfect life.

There’s unavoidable suffering to be found in all of it.

And instead of hiding – lean into it, embrace it. Let the suffering be a part of it.

There is no such thing as “once I achieve X, then I’ll relax” or “once I earn Y, then I’ll be happy.”

You won’t.

Because the happiness, the rest, the accomplishment, the purpose lies within the pursuit, not the milestone.

And you are in pursuit right now.

That can make you happy.

That can give you purpose.

But the pursuit is hard.

You’re hungry.

You’re scared.

You’re at risk.

But you’re alive.

You’re energized.

You’re nervous.

You’re in pursuit.

And I trust you’ll forgive me for veering off into a philosophical tangent. It’s just a part of how I attempt to understand the world and my place in it.

But I’ll bring it back to ground level here:

I care about helping others succeed at doing purposeful work that provides:

for their families

for their communities

a sense of accomplishment that the work they do matters.

This idea is even at the heart of my own agency – Creator Engines (formerly Done in 1 Day). Sure, on the surface what it looks like I’m doing is designing, building, and assembling email marketing automations and funnels…

but what I’m actually doing is working hard for my clients, serving them, and enabling them to earn what they worked so hard for – to make an income selling their products and services.

I feel I’m doing right by the talents, skills, and personality I’ve been given by THE Creator to create something that helps others.

I want to tell you a quick story that illustrates this. Stay with me – you’ll like this one:

I have a client who is very influential, a leader in the animal conservation and veterinary space. Think saving rhinos, shooting tranquilizers from helicopters in the African savannah, nursing apes back to health, running away from wild animals.

Pretty cool stuff.

Her goal is to help others – in particular, women – to transition from the veterinary profession into full-time conservation.

She knows how to do this. But her struggle was being able to earn enough from her coaching, products, community, ebooks – to put her full focus on serving this community.

So I pitched her on building an automated marketing funnel for her business. Top to bottom. Working my magic, you know?

I was confident that doing this would get her closer to her goal.

She was nervous. Uncertain that handing over a few thousand dollars (all of her budget) to some man she’d never actually met, other than seeing a few Instagram Reels, would be a wise move.

Fast forward to when we launched her funnel. As of today, she’s earned more than 51k in sales and 23k in annual recurring revenue from her launch. And it’s only been about 10 days.

A life-changing amount.

She

was

floored.

I don’t think she expected that to happen.

Now, I didn’t build her audience. Nor did I build the trust she’s earned with that audience.

But I saw that she made something that mattered. She has expertise that her audience desperately wanted. Needed.

And I knew that I had the key to connecting those two pieces together.

The experience and expertise I possessed was the very thing I could offer to get her closer to her dream.

And the rest would take care of itself.

And it did.

So not only did I serve one person and help her achieve her dream.

Arguably, I’ve helped hundreds of people get closer to theirs.

That is what gives me purpose when I have to carve hours out of my day to be away from my wife and my children. To lock myself in my studio. Stare at a screen. Type away. Sift through emails. Write content. Humble myself on sales calls. And work hard.

On the other side of that hard work is service to another person who desperately needs what I can provide.

The need to build a purposeful business. To make an income doing work that matters. Provides for your family. And at the end of the day, you can feel proud of.

And that’s what I care about. That’s what gets me fired up. That’s what I want for you.

That’s what Creative Crew is for.

Yes – Wix Studio sponsors this community.

And I chose to build it with them for a reason.

I actually use Wix Studio in my business.

My wife’s photography business runs on it.

My Creator Engines agency site is being built on it right now.

My clients use it. (The client I just mentioned earlier? Her site runs on the Wix platform.)

And I’ve built countless sites and experiments using it.

It’s the tool I reach for because it works.

And the team behind it is amazing.

Some of them have become my friends these past 3 years.

This isn’t just a Creator/Brand obligation.

It’s a partnership I believe in.

But this still isn’t a fan club.

This is a crew.

A group of people building something that matters.

So, what’s this mean? Here’s what’s coming next:

I’m hosting live events again, starting this month
We’re rolling out new content, challenges, resources – things you can actually use
You’ll see me. In here. Showing up. Not coasting. Leading.

But I don’t want this to be one-way.

This is an open line.

So help me to serve you:

what do you need?

What are you working on? What are you stuck on?

Where do you want to go?

And how can we help you get there?

Drop a comment in the community.

Or simply hit reply to this email.

Let me know you’re here.

Tell me what matters to you right now.

Let’s pick it up. Let’s go hard.