So back in 2012 I picked up a book called Head First Web Design and pretty much haven't stopped building since. I went through a coding bootcamp in Portland, freelanced on the side for a few years, and somewhere in there figured out that the businesses I liked working with the most were the ones who actually keep communities running. Plumbers. Electricians. Auto shops.
The turning point was watching my wife's grandfather, this master craftsman in flooring, do his thing for the better part of a year. That's when it kind of clicked. I wanted to bring that same craftsman energy to digital marketing. Not the cookie-cutter template, fire-and-forget stuff that gives agencies a bad name. Real work, done carefully, with the people you're working with.
These days my office is inside a European auto repair shop here in Southern Oregon. I see what makes the phone ring (and what doesn't) in real time, and I get to test everything I do for clients on a real business that's running every day. It's a pretty unfair advantage, honestly.